Gross 19. Dec. 1862. unless I procured a regular formal document declaring the intentions of the No. 646. whole Government. With this view I wrote to Mr. Seward the letter of which britannien, a copy is inclosed. It was read and approved by M. Mercier on its way to the State Department. ¶ I am not sanguine as to the success of this or any other attempt to obtain practical facilities for the exportation of cotton. It is difficult, if not impossible, for the Government of the United States to devise any plan by which sales of cotton can be effected in the South without occasioning a very material addition to the resources of the so-called Confederate Government. This is to the United States a certain and immediate evil. Against it, they have only to set the remote and uncertain danger that the want of cotton may drive the European Powers to take part with the South in the war. To Earl Russell. Lyons. Anlage. Lord Lyons an Mr. Seward. Washington, December 16, 1862. Sir, Mr. Moore, our Consul at Richmond, brought me himself the last despatches from the other Consuls in the South, having been informed that only Consuls in person would be allowed to pass. He tells me that English and French merchants are afraid to buy cotton, and that people in the South are unwilling to sell it, because confidence is not felt that the property of neutrals will be respected by the Federal authorities. Is the Government of the United States willing to give an assurance, in a distinct and positive shape, that its officers will, without reservation, respect cotton, the property of neutrals? From my conversations with you I understand that this Government will not interfere with cotton which is (or which shall become) the property of neutrals, nor deprive its owners of the control of it, even in cases in which it would take military possession of cotton the property of loyal citizens. Neutrals will (if I have not mistaken you) be allowed to avail themselves of any facilities for exportation which are, or which may be, afforded to loyal citizens, but will not be deprived of their free choice in the matter. Will the Government of the United States record this in a regular official document? ¶ I should have mentioned this matter to you orally had I not been afraid of making some mistake in a matter which may involve so seriously the interests of British merchants. The communication being private no inconvenience can arise from its being in writing. I shall be very grateful for an early answer. ག Believe me, &c. To Mr. Seward,.etc. Lyons. No. 647. 26. Dec. 1862. No. 647. GROSSBRITANNIEN. - Gesandter in Washington an d. kön. Min. d. Ausw. My Lord, Staaten betr. Washington, December 26, 1862. (Received January 8, 1863.) with my despatch of the 19th instant, I had the honour britannien, to transmit to your Lordship a copy of a letter which I had written to Mr. Seward, with a view to ascertain whether the Government of the United States was willing to give definite assurances calculated to give confidence to Confederate sellers and neutral purchasers of cotton. I spoke to Mr. Seward about this letter yesterday, and endeavoured to obtain from him some definite answer to the questions put in it. Such an answer, however, he was evidently unprepared to give. I then inquired whether he could furnish me with any information respecting the intentions of the Government which would be calculated to allay disquiet in Europe, and to give a turn to public opinion favourable to the United States. Mr. Seward said that one of the impediments to the restoration of the cotton trade had been an impression that the possession of New Orleans by the Federal Government would be only temporary, but that there was proof that this impression was fast fading away from the Southern mind. I might, indeed, Mr. Seward added, confidently assure people in Europe that, in a very short time, General Banks' military talents and administrative ability would restore loyalty to the whole State of Louisiana; that by a vote of the loyal inhabitants that State would resume its normal position in the Union, and that this could not fail to revive the cotton trade. I observed to Mr. Seward that this prospect was distant and vague, and that my purpose would be much better answered by some distinct assurances as to matters at the present moment under the control of the Federal Government. If any English merchant should apply to me, might I advise him to make at once purchases of cotton in the so-called Confederate States, and send them to New Orleans? Might I tell him that he would be allowed to export his cotton without obstacle? In answer to this Mr. Seward reverted to the new regulations which it is proposed to establish, and in virtue of which cotton is to be taken possession of by the Federal officers, and sent by them to the Northern markets, no other mode of exportation being allowed. I observed to Mr. Seward, as I had done on more than one previous occasion, that I thought these regulations would cause alarm rather than satisfaction in Europe; that they would be regarded as placing neutrals in a worse position than they were already. Could not the United States' Government at least give some additional facilities to purchasers? If neutrals were sure of retaining control of their purchases they might be willing to buy, with a view to holding the cotton, in the hope that some contingency (such as that which he had mentioned of the restoration of loyalty in Louisiana), would enable the Government to remove all the restrictions on its exportation. This might, at least, save a great deal of cotton from destruction by the Confederates. Mr. Seward said that the great difficulty lay in the mode of payment for the purchases. What were neutrals to send once. Gross 26. Dec. to the insurgent States in return for cotton? Here a military question arose at No. 647. Could the Generals allow salt, or shoes, or clothing to pass? Could they britannien, not allow gold? I asked. And I added that in fact the only practical mode of 1862. facilitating purchases would be to bar all inquiries as to how the cotton was paid for; to let the buyers and sellers settle that matter as they best could. ¶ It became evident that there was no use in continuing the dicussion. Mr. Seward pas plainly not in a position to make any concessions at all to neutrals. Nor is this surprising; for the only mode in which the Federal Government can, under present circumstances, bring cotton to market without adding to the resources of the so-styled Confederate Government or diminishing the privations of the Southern people, must be by seizing it by force and confiscating it; and consequently, the only facility likely to be given to neutrals is that of buying from the Federal authorities cotton thus seized. This seems to be the meaning of the new Regulations. I have, &c. To Earl Russell, London. Lyons. No. 648. VEREINIGTE STAATEN von AMERIKA. Zweite Proclamation des Präsidenten, die Emancipation der Sclaven betr. - By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. Whereas, on the 22nd day of September, in the year of our Lord 1862, a Proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: - ,,That on the 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and for ever, free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. ,,That the Executive will, on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by Proclamation, designate the States, and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States." Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-chief of the army and No. 648. Vereinigte Staaten, 1. Januar 1863. 1. Januar 1863. No. 618. navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority Vereinigte Staaten, and Government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing the said rebellion, do, on this 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above-mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lourche, Ste. Marie, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this Proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power and for the purposes aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labour faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this Act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favour of Almighty God. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. Abraham Lincoln. By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State. No. 649. GROSSBRITANNIEN. Min. d. Ausw. an d. kön. Gesandten in Washington. Foreign Office, January 17, 1863. Gross britannien, 17. Januar 1863. My Lord, the Proclamation of the President of the United States, in- No. 649. closed in your Lordship's despatch of the 2nd instant, appears to be of a very strange nature. It professes to emancipate all slaves in places where the United States' authorities cannot exercise any jurisdiction nor make emancipation a reality, but it does not decree emancipation of slaves in any States or parts of States occupied by Federal troops, and subject to United States' jurisdiction, and where, therefore, emancipation, if decreed, might have been carried into effect. ¶ It would seem to follow that in the Border States, and also in New Orleans, a slave-owner may recover his fugitive slave by the ordinary process of law; but that in the ten States in which the Proclamation decrees emancipation, a fugitive slave arrested by legal warrant may resist, and his resistance, if successful, is to be upheld and aided by the United States' authorities and the United States' armed forces. The Proclamation, therefore, makes slavery at once legal and illegal, and makes slaves either punishable for running away from their masters, or entitled to be supported and encouraged in so doing, according to the locality of the plantation to which they belong, and the loyalty of the State in which they may happen to be. There seems to be no declaration of a principle adverse to slavery in this Proclamation. It is a measure of war, and As President Lincoln has a measure of war of a very questionable kind. Russell. To Lord Lyons, Washington. No. 650. GROSSBRITANNIEN. Gesandter in Washington an d. kön. Min. d. Ausw. Washington, January 13 (received January 29), 1863. Gross britannien, 13. Januar 1863. (Extract.) The terms of service of a very large portion of the pre- No. 650. sent army expire in the spring, or in the early summer. If the present state of feeling continues, very few of the men will re-enlist; fresh volunteers will not present themselves, and to enforce a large compulsory draft will be impossible. Already desertions are very frequent; they would, it is said, be much more so did not men remain in hopes of soon receiving the large arrears of pay due to them. It was stated the other day in Congress that more than one-fourth of the officers were absent from their regiments, some with, many without leave. The |