The Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe, or, How the Confederate cruisers were equipped

Chapter I. Page

English Political Parties and the Civil War. — Pertinacity of Mr. Secretary Seward. — Vacillation of the Liberal Government. — Present Position of the Liberal Party. — The French Proclamation of Neutrality. — Arrangements for building > cruisers at Bordeaux. of £2,000,000 for Ironclads by Congress. — Financial difficulties. — Propositions to purchase vessels from the French Navy. — Correspondence " concerning the vessels building in France. — Deceptive attitude of the French Government. — The vessels sold by their imperative orders. — Panic at Boston and New York regarding the Confederate cruisers .... 1-67

Chapter II

Misconception by the United States of the attitude of the English and French Governments. — Repurchase of the Sphinx : from Denmark. — Precarious condition of the Confederate Cause at that period. — Correspondence concerning the x despatch of the Stoneicall (Sphinx) from Copenhagen in conjunction with the City of Richmond from London. — The Stonewall's challenge to the United States ships Niagara and Sacramento. — Surrender of the Stonewall to the Cuban Government at the end of the War.— Her subsequent delivery to the United States ...... 68-105 CONTENTS. IV PAGE 189 > I 276

Chapter III

Jubilation in the United States at the loss of the Alabama. — Admiral Farragut's criticism on the action. — The moral laAV inoperative in time of Avar. — The United States and privateering. — United States precedents favourable to the Confederates. — Difficulty of settling the affairs of the Alabama and supplying her place. — The Sea King, afterwards the Shenandoah. — Correspondence respecting the Shenandoah and the Laurel, with the instructions to the officers concerned. — Smallness of the creAv of the Shenandoah. — Volunteers from her prizes. — Her cruise amongst the Avhalers. — Means taken to stop her proceedings at the end of the Civil War. — Her return to Liverpool and delivery to the United States representatives. — Loyalty of the creAvs of the Confederate cruisers. — Inactivity of the United States Navy. — Summary of the injury done to American commerce by the cruisers . 106-

Chapter IV

Admiral Farragut and his achievements. — The Federal and Confederate naval forces compared. — Abortive attempts at shipbuilding in Confederate ports. — The Ordnance Service of the Confederate Navy Department. — Financial arrangements at Richmond and in Europe. — English ironworkers sent out to the Confederate Government. — The Confederate States Representatives at Bermuda, Nassau, and Havana. — The purchase and despatch of the Coquette. — Vessels bought for the commercial purposes of the Confederate Government. — Embarrassments arising from speculative contractors and from friendly offers of vessels. — Commander M. F. Maury. — The Georgia and the Rappahannock. — The Pampero. — Total cost of the Alabama, Florida, and Shenandoah . . .190

Chapter V

Official dispositions of Holland, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, France and Great Britain to the Confederate States. — The position assumed by Mr. Seward at the beginning of the Civil War. The policy of the British Government. — English feeling in CONTENTS. V PAGR favour of the North. — Facts about slavery in America. — English sympathy transferred to the South. — Lack of courtesy and dignity in United States representatives. — -The Alabama Claims. — Synopsis of the negotiations respecting those claims. — Position of the British Government in regard to them. — The three rules of the Treaty of Washington. — A possible application of them to the United States . . 277-411

Chapter VI

Position of the Confederate Agents at the end of the War. — Financial difficulties. — The United States and the property of the Confederate Government. — Proceedings against Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm and Co. by the United States Government. — Presidents Lincoln and Johnson. — -The 'reconstruction' of the Southern States. — Political condition of the United States at the present day .... 412-438 THE SECEET SERVICE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES IN EUROPE

Chapter I

English Political Parties and the Civil War. — Pertinacity of Mr. Secretary Seward. — Vacillation of the Liberal Government. — Present Position of the Liberal Party. — The French Proclamation of Neutrality. — Arrangements for building cruisers at Bordeaux. — Appropriation of £2,000,000 for Ironclads by Congress. — Financial difficulties. — Propositions to purchase vessels from the French Navy. — Correspondence concerning the vessels building in France. — Deceptive attitude of the French Government. — The vessels sold by their imperative orders. — Panic at Boston and New York regarding the Confederate cruisers. The compilers of the ' Case ' which was laid before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Geneva on behalf of the United States, asserted that England was the ' arsenal and treasury ' of the Confederate States.

The Board of Trade returns demonstrate that both belligerents drew upon Great Britain for the ' sinews of war,' but that the United States obtained them in far greater quantities and with incomparably less difficulty than their adversary. However, the statement was in itself true, although the vol. ii. inference which it Avas the purpose of the ' Case ' to suggest was not true. It is hardly an exaggeration — it certainly is not a mere ' figure of speech ' — to say that Great Britain is the arsenal, treasury, and dockyard of the greater part of the world. There is scarcely a civilized country which is not a debtor to England, either for a direct loan, or for help to de\*elop her resources by the construction of Avhat are called ' internal improvements.' British guns and British powder do duty in every war.

British-built ironclads form a part of nearly every foreign navy, and the commercial flags of many countries cover hulls of the well-knoAvn British type. No one whose faculties are not dwarfed by prejudice, or whose poAvers of obser- A*ation are not contracted by national conceit, can or will deny that in the great mechanic arts, in building ships and manufacturing the heavy engines to propel them especially, Great Britain has outstripped all competitors. She actually owns about sixty per cent, of the Avorld's shipping, and has supplied to others a portion of the remaining forty per cent. France, in regard to ships, at least, has been excep tionally independent, and both Germany and Italy are diligently extending their dockyard capacities ; but I think a practical man who wanted a first-class ship and engines, or a large quantity of well-made arms for quick delivery, or a batch of great guns in which he could feel confidence, or any heavy iron or steel work, would almost instinctively come to England to supply his want ; and if a foreign company wished money for some great engineering enterprise, they would be more likely to carry the scheme to London than to any other capital, and would look for the money in Lombard Street before going anywhere else.

This was certainly the view taken by the Confederate Government at the beginning of the Civil War. It was to England that their agents were first sent, and it Avas to England that they looked for a quick supply of all necessities. Her Britannic Majesty's Proclamation of Neutrality was issued on May 13th, 1861. That document began with the usual preamble, then cited the clauses of the Foreign Enlistment Act (second, seventh, and eighth) which were most likely to be infringed, then expressed a kindly intimation that the primary object was to save British subjects from the danger of breaking the law through inadvertence, and finally warned all per sons that they would incur the penal consequences of the statute and of the law of nations if they offended them in any particular. The proclamation was eminently British, and therefore eminently constitutional.

There was, first, the royal acknowledgment of the supremacy of the laAV, then the loving solicitude for the subject, then the warning to all parties not to infringe the statute, then a plain straight - fonvard statement that those who did offend Avould be left to take the consequences, whether by due process of law within the kingdom, or by such penalties as a belligerent might inflict if the offender was caught Avith out the kingdom. There was no voluntary exposition of the laAV in the proclamation, no dogmatic prohibition against specified acts ; everyone was commanded not to infidnge the statute, but he A\ras left to discover precisely what was forbidden and Avhat was permissible through his OAvn instincts, or, if he was wise and prudent, by the help of those AArho were learned in the law.

To the representative of a belligerent the document at first blush seemed very plain and very satisfactory. He had only to consult two or more eminent gentlemen of 30—2 the ' wig and gown,' and to walk within the lines prescribed by them, in order to obtain all that it was admissible for him to buy with money, and to be sure of what he could do, without fear of penalty, or the feeling that he was oppressed by a load of obligation. It has been shown in a preAdous chapter that the Confederate agents took every practicable precaution, and made eA^ery possible effort to discover the intent, the scope, and the technical meaning of the law. They seem to have been correctly advised, because the opinion given them by counsel at the very beginning of the war was confirmed by the official statements of Ministers of the Crown, and afterwards settled beyond further dispute by the decision of a court of law.

However, the Confederate Govern ment soon found that even in constitutional England the declarations of Ministers do not always establish a policy Avith the rigid constancy of the Medes and Persians, and that a Secretary of State can enforce restraints upon trade, and can practically hinder a traffic which is not only guiltless in principle, according to his own previous show ing, but which the duly constituted courts have declared to be legal. It is neither my wish nor my purpose to impute unworthy motives or fears to any British Minister, and nothing would induce me to write a single sentence that could influence the people of the South to harbour an unkind thought against Great Britain. I have already expressed the opinion that a great majority of the people of England sympathized Avith the South, and I could name many eminent men in both Houses of Parliament who took the trouble to examine the questions at issue between the two sections of the Union, and who were satisfied that the South was right in principle and justified in law.

Some of the leading literary journals of the kingdom warmly espoused and ably defended the Southern cause during the whole of the contest, and have not been moved from their political opinions, or persuaded to shrink from expressing them on all suitable occasions, by the glamour which success has cast over the opposite and victorious side. The commissioners and the principal agents of the Confederate States in England had opportunities for learning the feelings of different members of the Govern ment, and of prominent men in both of the great parties, with a very near approach to certainty. I shall not be guilty of the indiscretion of classifying the Cabinet by name, but I may say that it was a common belief among the representatives of the Confederate States that two members of the Ministry, at least, were very favourable to the South, and that still another would have been disposed to give some support to certain members of the House of Commons who wished to bring in a motion for the recognition of the Government at Richmond, if he had not been impressed Avith the belief that the separation of the States was final, and that it would be both unnecessary and impolitic for the Government to give undue offence or encouragement to either of the com batants.

The Liberal Party was in power during the whole of the war, and the same Party, and a Cabinet composed of very nearly the same Ministers, were again in power at the time Avhen the Treaty of Washington was negotiated in 1871 — a treaty whose object it was to settle the Alabama claims,' and which resulted in the Geneva Arbitration, and the £3,000,000 damages. I have never thought that the leaning towards either side in the American Civil War was due to any AA*ell-defined Party tendencies in Great Britain. I have the strongest possible reasons for believing that if the Conservative Party had been in power, their policy Avould have been strictly neutral, and the Confederate Government Avould not have been recognised. But at the same time I belieA'e that the Advanced Liberals, or Radicals, as they are sometimes called, and who are generally supposed to have Repub lican tendencies, were favourable to the North.

The politicians and statesmen of that class are in general harmony with the Liberal Party, and most independent observers think they are gradually getting the control of it. Those AdATanced Liberals had persuaded themselves to regard the Government of the United States as ' a Government for the people by the people,' and they feared that a final dissolution of the Union would be con sidered a failure of the Republican form of GoATernment, and would check, if not destroy, the progress towards a more Democratic system in Europe. The temperament and type of mind which inclines a man to Radical and thorough changes, makes him also ardent, active, and aggressiAre. He rarely if ever convinces his open and avowed political adversary, who is altogether a person of different mould, but he as rarely fails to persuade, or to overcome by his restless untiring energy, the scruples of those who are bound to him by hereditary loyalty to a Party name, which has come to be associated in their minds with ideas of benevolent legislation and philanthropic progress, but who are nevertheless often startled by the suddenness and rapidity of the forward movement.

There were some strong men of the above type in the counsels of the Liberal Party, if not in the Cabinet, at the time of the Civil War, and the ardour with which they supported the Federal Government, and the vehemence with which they denounced the Southern leaders and the Southern people, are still fresh in the memory of those representatives of the Confederacy Avho survive. Even at this late date, when the best men at the North and at the South are trying to forget the injuries inflicted upon each other during the strife, when there seems to be a groAving desire on both sides of the Potomac to shun all references to the causes of the war, and to fix the memory and the hearts of the people upon subjects of past history which they can dwell upon with feelings of common sympathy, the English Radical, true to his unfailing instincts, and heedless of the fact that the lately dissevered States are again both in amity and in union, continues to arouse the bitter memories of one side, and to inflame the jealous suspicion of the other, Avith no other visible or imaginable purpose than to illustrate some favourite political crotchet.

As recently as last year (May, 1882) a leader of the Radical Aving of the Liberal Party, and a member of the Cabinet, used the opportunity, while delivering a literary address, to taunt the South with reference to that ' institution ' AAdiich expired seventeen years ago, and chose for his illustration a poem which is none the less unfair in spirit because its statements may be borne out by exceptional facts. Is it possible that men filling* high and responsible positions can think it prudent and politic (I do not say friendly and Christian-like) thus to remind the six million Anglo-Americans of the Southern States that there are still among the leaders of that Party Avhich noAV goArerns England probable future Ministers who can thus ignore the duties of international comity, and who wilfully transgress those rules of cour tesy and respect for the feelings of others which are commonly thought to be essential marks of a AA*ell-bred man in private life ?

VOL. II.** Eve^one even moderately acquainted with American political history, and Avho knoAvs anything of the exi gencies of Parties in the United States, must be aware that it is possible for a comparatively small minority of the electors in that country, when impelled to act and vote together by some common feeling, to hold the balance between the tAvo principal Parties, and when such a contingency arises at the time of a Presidential election, they may have it in their power to determine the foreign policy of the Government. This may be seen now in the tampering of both Parties with the question of Chinese immigration, each wishing to con ciliate the trans-Rocky-Mountain States. Thoughtful and obser\rant men perceive a danger to England in the Irish American vote. If any con siderable portion of the Southern people should be im pelled by a feeling of irritation against England to cast their votes Avith that already embittered faction at the North, the complications of the Irish question might be increased so as to become a permanent menace and real danger to Great Britain.

Men at the South Avho read and reflect would regret such a course of events, and the alliance Avhich would tend to produce such consequences ; but A\diere universal suffrage prevails, it is the floating masses who turn the scale ; and they, as all experience has shoAvn, act from impulse, and not from con viction. I Avould like, so far as it is in my power, to convince the people of the South that a vast majority of both of the great English Parties, and of the people of Great Britain generally, have the most kindly feelings for the United States, without reference to geographical divi sions, or the partialities Avhich Avere manifested durino the Civil War. I confidently believe that the best men among Conservatives and Liberals alike have no other wish than for the happiness, prosperity, and perpetuity of the American Union.

I belieATe that sympathy for the South was more general among Conservatives than among Liberals ; but probably this difference was only apparent because the Radicals, who are a section of the Liberal Party, Avere to a man, so far as I know, for the North. The Conservative and the Moderate, or genuine Liberals, whatever Avere their opinions or sympathies during the war, have ceased to foster any ill-will towards either side, and they haATe the good sense and the good feeling to avoid all reference to irritating reminiscences when they have occasion to speak of the United States. The unadulterated Radical is, however, too thorough to be fettered by the dictates of prudence or the restraints of a politic reserve. To refrain from expressing an opinion because it might Avound his neighbour's feelings, or unnecessarily irrigate his opponent, seems to him very like the suppression of the truth.

He confounds bluntness AAdth honesty, and in the eagerness to enforce his views he adds denunciation to argument. His Liberalism consists in an unlimited license to all others to think and to act as he dictates. He is full of flattery, and practises even an appearance of subserviency, to those who will take the lead in measures that he ap proves, but becomes restive and e\*en dictatorial if there is any hesitation or sign of halting. The labouring man is his hobby, the peer and the landowner are his aversion ; but it is noticeable that his fondness for and interest in the artizan and the workman are not so much for the individual as the class, and are manifested rather in exciting their jealousy and ill-will against those who are above them than in stimulating their pride and arousing their energies with the laudable pur pose to elevate themsehTes.

It seems hardly possible for a ' Radical ' to defend a principle or to support a policy wholly upon the merits of the questions involved, and then to accept the result with patience if defeated, and wdth moderation if successful. During the American Civil War the English Radical took sides with the North. He defended the action of the Federal Government with ardour, and praised the patriotism of the Northern people with enthusiasm. He condemned the leaders of the South with harshness, and traduced the whole population south of the Potomac with heat and passion, embracing them in one general, sweeping, all-inclusive denunciation. He seized upon slavery as an effective ' cry ' by Avhich to prejudice the public mind, and persisted in asserting that the North Avas fighting to free the slave, in spite of the declaration of President Lincoln and a joint resolution of both Houses of Congress that the war was undertaken for the restoration of the Union, and not for the abolition of slavery.

So long as the world lasts there will be found in it men of hot temper and dogmatic will, and there fore an exhibition of vituperative passion and intolerance must be expected from them Avhenever the course of public events is contrary to their wishes or theories. But the ' Advanced Liberal ' had an undoubted right to his opinion, whether founded upon prejudice or calm conviction ; and the Southern people will, I am sure, be glad to forget the opprobrious epithets which were cast upon them during the heat of the struggle, now that ' grim-visaged war ' has gi\*en place to cheerful, smiling peace with its bounteous blessings, if they are not con stantly reminded of them by indiscreet references to the irritating subjects which disquieted their minds and aroused their resentment in the trying times between the attack upon Fort Sumter and the surrender of Lee at Appomatox Court-house.

It is not impossible — indeed, if the Liberal Party remains in power it is not improbable — that a Radical Minister of Foreign Affairs may have to treat upon some delicate and important question of international policy Avith an American Secretary of State, or a Presi dent of the United States, who followed Lee through the Virginian campaigns, or who Avas born and bred in the same part of the country as Jefferson DaAds and Stone wall Jackson ; and it would clear the negotiation of some embarrassment if the English representative could feel conscious that he had done nothing to perpetuate a family feud after the opposing parties had composed their differences and were again living in union and harmony. No public man could now Avin the favour of any respectable body of electors in NeAV York or Massa chusetts by speaking ill of the South or of the Southern people, and no man would be tolerated in Northern society who attempted to keep up the animosities of the war, and certainly no foreigner can hope to gratify either North or South by words or acts whose manifest tendency Avould be to irritate or offend either side.

If I mention Earl Russell's name in this connection, it is not Avith the purpose to class him among the Radicals, or to intimate that he ever did use language in respect to either North or South Avhich could be con strued into ridicule or reproach. WhateA*er may haAre been his lordship's private opinions as to the merits of the contest, or whatever may have been his sympathies, I have neArer seen in one of his numerous despatches, or in the published reports of his speeches, a single sentence or utterance AAdiich could arouse the personal hostility of any reasonable Southern man. Earl Russell, as the Foreign Secretary, was necessarily the active member of the Cabinet in carrying out its neutral policy, and is not to be held individually responsible for what either Federal or Confederate may have thought objectionable in that policy.

In saying that his sympathies were with the North, I merely give currency to the impres sion commonly held by the representatives of the Con federate States in England during the war, and I can give no other grounds for the impression than the opinion to the same effect which was often, and I may say unanimously, expressed by those politicians and other frequenters of the London clubs and London Society Avith Avhom we were brought in contact. But I do not now affirm that Earl Russell carried out the neutral policy of the Government with a deliberate pur pose to favour one belligerent ; all that I say is, that the course pursued by him was not in accordance Avith the principles laid clown by himself and his colleagues, and by the judgment of the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. It must be admitted that his lordship had a very trying and difficult office to fulfil.

The United States Minister gave him no peace and but little rest. The duty of replying to the long argumentative despatches of Mr. Adams, and the perusal of the numerous consular affidavits which accompanied them, must have been a very serious labour, and it is only fair to remember that there was no recognised Confederate agent who could address him officially and freely, and thus modify the effect of the statements on the other side, or set before him reasons for non-interference. The Radical element Avithin the Liberal Party, if not actually Avithin the Cabinet, Avas also a strong and active force, always exercised to check the GoA*ernment in any apparent con cession to the South, and ever striving to nullify the benefit which the Confederate States might obtain from their recognised position as belligerents.

The speeches of individual Ministers, and the official despatches of Earl Russell, laid doAvn certain rules of action, and clearly set out the principles of neutrality it was their purpose to enforce. They would have no enlistment of her Majesty's subjects to serve either belligerent, nor any arming of ships within any portion of the British dominions. Vessels -of- Avar should not lie in British ports to watch each other's movements, and they should not use British harbours as places of outfit and supply from Avhich they might issue to cruise against their enemy. But the British tradesman Avas to be as little hampered as possible, and was to be left free to sell and deliver arms and ammunition, and even ships suitable for warlike purposes, to either belligerent. There was no difference in principle, and no distinction in law, between the traffic in one or the other of the above articles, and her Majesty's Government could not strain the principles of neutrality to suit a particular case, or apply them especially and Avith discriminating rigour to the trade of shipbuilding alone, because that Avould tend to impede and embarrass a business in which great numbers of her Majesty's subjects found a source of honest livelihood.* These Avere the principles to which the British Govern ment clearly committed itself, and anyone who will take the trouble to read the Parliamentary debates on questions affecting the action of Great Britain as a neutral, or the despatches of Earl Russell, will perceive how strongly and repeatedly those principles Avere asserted, and their justice and fairness defended, by members of the Cabinet.

There is no doubt that the plainness AAdth * See Earl Russell's letter to Mr. Adams, Oct. 26th, 1863, 'North America,' No. 1 (1864), 'The Alabama,' continuation of correspondence presented to Parliament, March, 1863. which members of the Government spoke in reference to the equality of both belligerents before the law, and the repeated declarations that a British merchant might sell an unarmed ship to either North or South as laAvfully as he might sell a rifle or a sabre, gave dissatisfaction and offence to Mr. Seward, Avho, as was said in the ' British Case,' wanted her Majesty's Government to discover Avhat articles the Confederates most needed, and then to strike them off the list of goods which might be legally dealt in. The statements of Ministers in regard to neutral duties and the freedom of trade with belligerents AA^ere never withdrawn nor even modified by any counter declaration in Parliament, but the practice of the Government became, under the joint pressure of Mr. SeAvard's remonstrances and the influence of the ex treme Radicals, more and more restrictive with reference to the especial Avants of the Confederates, until at last they did practically enforce the very policy which it is alleged in the ' British Case ' that the United States wished them to agree to at the beginning.

Her Majesty's Government have realized the truth of a saying Avhich has almost obtained the force and currency of a proverb, namely, that a concession of principle, or the yielding of a point to strong and persistent pressure and persuasion, is never received in the spirit of a spontaneous offering, and is never remembered AAdth gratitude. The Southern people believed that a policy once clearly enunciated by a British Ministry would be con sistently followed, and they thought that it was only necessary to keep AAdthin the lines of that policy, in order to obtain all that their necessities required. They watched with interest, but at first Avithout misgivins-. the vigorous efforts by appeal, by argument, and even by threats, Avhich Avere made by the United States to pro cure a change in that policy.

They knew that those efforts were strongly supported by the extreme politicians who belonged to the Party then in power, but still the rules of action laid doAvn Avere plain and emphatic. They had been stated hy the Ministers chiefly responsible for the foreign relations of the country, and had been defended by the law officers of the Crown. They were afterwards confirmed in principle by judicial sentence. When the Government at Richmond contemplated the situation of affairs, there did not appear to be any cause to fear that the declarations of Ministers would prove to be mere figures of speech, or that a judicial decision would be made inoperative by the action of a Secretary of State. However, it is now a matter of history that the hopes of the Confederate Government and of the Southern people were ill-founded.