and their officers and crews. American ships continued in both the whaling and guano trades during the Civil War; these activities can be traced in the records of posts in the Pacific Ocean area. Visits by Confederate cruisers and their depredations on American ships were regularly reported to the Department of State, and pertinent documentary evidence was obtained and filed. From consuls in England came reports of the construction of Confederate vessels, the shipment of munitions, and the departure of blockade runners. Meredith B. Colket, Jr., "The Preservation of Consular and Diplomatic Post Records of the United States," American Archivist, 6:193205 (Oct. 1943); John P. Harrison, "The Archives of United States Diplomatic and Consular Posts in Latin America," Hispanic American Historical Review, 33:168-183 (Feb. 1953), which has been incorporated in the Guide to Materials on Latin America in the National Archives (Washington, 1961); Carl L. Lokke, "France in the National Archives, Institut français de Washington, Bulletin, n. s., No. 5-6, p. 16-27 (Dec. 1957); Hunter Miller, "Transfer to the Department of State of the Older Archives of Certain American Records of diplomatic posts consist of instructions from the Department and copies or duplicates of despatches to it; notes from the governments of the countries where the posts were located and copies of notes to them; copies of instructions and despatches to subordinate consulates, and despatches and reports from them; records of passports issued; correspondence with individuals, business firms, and organizations; records of births, marriages, and deaths of American citizens; records regarding the disposal of property, the settlement of estates, and the protection of American citizens; declarations of citizenship; journals and memoranda; financial records and property inventories of the posts; and registers and indexes of the various series of correspondence. The correspondence with the Department in the post records is duplicated in the Department's files, which are easier to use. But enclosures in the instructions from the Department are more easily available in the post records than in the Department's files, where they are scattered in the various series of outgoing correspondence. Other correspondence is available only in the post records, except when copies were transmitted to the Department with despatches. The records of consular posts consist of instructions from the Department and from the supervising consular office, and copies of despatches and reports to them; correspondence with individuals, business firms, and organizations; records of fees received for notarial, shipping, and miscellaneous services; records of passports issued; records of births, marriages, and deaths of American citizens; records regarding the disposal of property, the settlement of estates, and the protection of American citizens; certifi cations of merchandise shipped from or received in the district; journals and memoranda; financial records and property inventories of the posts; and various registers and indexes. For seaport consulates there are also records of the arrival and departure of American vessels and descriptions of their cargoes, ships' daily journals, registers of seamen, records of services performed for American ships and seamen, marine protests, and other maritime documents. For posts in the countries where ministers and consuls exercised judicial authority there are court records. Occasional private papers among the records include personal journals, ships' logs, and muster rolls. Parts of the records of some posts have been destroyed by fire, earthquake, volcanic eruptions, and revolutionary activities. The places affected by such catastrophes include Belize, Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez, Colón, Durango, Guayaquil, Managua, St. Pierre (Martinique), and Valparaiso. CLAIMS COMMISSION AND COURT RECORDS As a result of European emigration, which had been running strong for years, there were in the South in 1861 many foreigners who became victims of military operations. Among the 233, 650 persons of foreign birth in the South in 1860 English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, French, and Germans predominated. In smaller numbers there were also Italians, Scandinavians, Poles, Spaniards, and Mexicans. Some of these foreigners suffered loss of property including even vessels, personal injury, or imprisonment at the hands of U. S. military, naval, and civil authorities. The victims made application to the representatives of their countries in the United States for the procurement of compensation. During and after the Civil War the representatives of foreign countries presented to the U. S. Government claims of their subjects resident in the United States for wartime damages. Such claims were presented particularly on behalf of citizens of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. The historic method of adjudicating such claims had been through diplomatic channels or through joint commissions consisting of representatives of the United States, of the foreign nation involved, and of neutral nations. Such commissions were eventually provided for by conventions signed with Great Britain and France. As the number of Italian claims was small, no claims convention was negotiated, and the claims were settled over a period of years through ordinary diplomatic channels. Documentation regarding these claims is in the diplomatic correspondence described above and in claims files of the War Department. A similar procedure was evidently followed in regard to the claims of German subjects. As shown by the investigation made by Sister Mary Philip Trauth and presented in the work cited below, the research involved in tracing the settlement of Italian and German claims is necessarily prolonged, since the pertinent documents are scattered among many volumes in the diplomatic correspondence. Proposals put forth over a period of years for the establishment of a special court to handle these claims were never embodied in legislation. Edwin M. Borchard, "International Responsibility of the State for Injuries Sustained by Aliens During Civil War," American Political Science Association, Proceedings, 10:117-124 (1913-14); Ella Lonn, George Perkins Marsh, First Against Governments, Including the Mode of Adjusting Them and the Procedure Adopted in Their Investigation (H. Rept. 134, 43 Cong., 2 sess., Serial 1658. Washington, 1875). Depredations on American merchant ships during the Civil War by Confederate cruisers constructed in England and allowed to depart over the protests of the American Minister resulted in claims for losses and damages against the British Government. Because most of the losses were inflicted by the C. S. S. Alabama, these claims became known as the Alabama claims. That vessel and others were not only built in England but also equipped at sea with armament supplied from England, largely manned by British seamen, and later fueled and provisioned in British colonial ports. The Alabama, the Florida, and the Shenandoah preyed on Union shipping in the North and South Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean, and on whaling vessels in the Pacific from 1862 to 1865. Other Confederate vessels, such as the Georgiana, the Georgia, and the Rappahannock, were also obtained from England, but only the Georgia became a raider for a short time. Since the ships and cargoes captured by these cruisers could not be taken through the Northern blockade of the Confederate coast or to neutral ports, most of them were burned at sea after being pillaged of materials useful to their attackers. Other vessels with too many passengers to be taken off or with neutral cargoes were allowed to proceed upon giving bond payable to the Confederacy 6 months after the end of the war. In all 260 merchant ships carrying cargo worth $20, 000, 000 were destroyed by Confederate raiders. Since marine insurance did not usually provide full coverage and since it was carried chiefly by American underwriters, much of the loss was merely transferred from the owner to the insurer. Sharp increases in insurance premiums caused American merchants to turn to neutral bottoms and caused shipowners to sell their vessels at sacrifice prices to foreign citizens, chiefly British. As a result, besides the 110, 000 tons that were burned, 800, 000 tons were transferred to foreign ownership. This loss of over 1,000 vessels reduced the American merchant fleet by more than half the tonnage of 1860. Yet, though American shipping suffered serious damage, the foreign commerce of the North prospered during the Civil War. Word of attacks by Confederate cruisers reached the State Department from all over the world. The masters, other officers, and crews of American ships were put ashore at many ports by the Confederate vessels or by other vessels to which they had been transferred by the raiders. The master of a sunken ship usually appeared before the U. S. consul at the foreign port and executed a master's or marine protest, in which he stated the circumstances of the attack. These and other documents the consuls forwarded to the Department of State. Other masters of ships who found their way to U. S. ports prepared depositions before notaries public. These were sent to the Department by shipowners who submitted claims for the destruction of their vessels and by masters who had lost professional instruments and personal effects. As the Secretary of State received reports of the destruction of American ships, he directed the American Minister in Great Britain, Charles Francis Adams, to present the claims to the British Government, with copies of documentary evidence that the Department provided. A proposal for arbitration of the claims, submitted by Adams in Oct. 1863, was rejected; but correspondence and negotiation on the claims continued. The claims papers accumulated by the Department of State became so voluminous that during 1865-66 E. Peshine Smith, an attorney, was engaged to examine and abstract them. On July 27, 1866, he was given the position of Examiner of Claims, authorized by an act of July 25 (14 Stat. 226). An abstract of claims arising from attacks by the Alabama, the Shenandoah, the Florida, and the Georgia, presumably prepared by Smith, was forwarded by Secretary Seward to Charles Francis Adams on Aug. 27, 1866 (Foreign Relations, 1866, pt. 1, p. 177-203). In accordance with an act of July 20, 1868 (15 Stat. 96), the office of Examiner of Claims was abolished on June 1869. Smith was appointed as a State Department clerk on the following day and probably continued his work on claims. He was again appointed, Examiner of Claims on June 7, 1870, after the office was reestablished by a joint resolution of May 27, 1870 (16 Stat. 378); but an act of June 22, 1870 (16 Stat. 162), provided for the transfer of the office to the newly created Department of Justice. More claims were filed after the ratification of the Treaty of Washington, and the receipt of these was followed by the preparation in 1871 and 1872 of enlarged lists of claims. 30, On Oct. 28, 1865, the State Department issued a circular telling claimants how claims were to be submitted. A sworn statement or memorial was required, setting forth minutely and particularly the facts and circumstances and requesting the interposition of the U. S. Government with the foreign government concerned. In claims for loss of a ship or cargo certified copies of the ship's registry, with originals or certified copies of clearances, cargo manifests, and other papers carried on the ship's last voyage, had to be submitted. Other documents required when appropriate were insurance policies and naturalization papers. Efforts to find a means to settle the claims and other controversial matters were continued. Conventions agreed upon between the two governments in 1868 and 1869 were not approved by the Senate. After informal discussions between Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and Sir John Rose, it was agreed by an exchange of notes that a joint commission should meet in Washington to negotiate a treaty for the adjustment of outstanding issues. Soon afterwards Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, Robert C. Schenck, Samuel Nelson, Ebenezer Hoar, and George H. Williams were appointed as the American commissioners. The Joint High Commission met on Feb. 27, 1871, and its deliberations resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Washington on May 8, 1871 (17 Stat. 863; Malloy, Treaties, 1:700-722), which provided for the arbitration of the Alabama claims, the adjudication by a mixed commission of the claims of citizens of the two countries for damages and injuries suffered during the war, and the settlement of other matters. The tribunal of arbitration met at Geneva, Switzerland, during 1871-1872. The arbitrator for the United States was Charles Francis Adams, for Great Britain Sir Alexander Cockburn, and the three neutral arbitrators were Justice Jacques Staempfli of Switzerland, Marcos Antonio D'Araujo of Brazil (Viscount d'Itajubá), and Count Frederic Sclopis of Italy. The American agent was J. C. Bancroft Davis, who was assisted as counsel by Caleb Cushing, William M. Evarts, and Morrison R. Waite. Lord Tenterden was the British Agent and the counsel were Sir Roundell Palmer, Mountague Bernard, and Arthur Cohen. The award made by the tribunal on Sept. 14, 1872, held Great Britain responsible for the destruction caused by the Alabama and her tender Tuscaloosa; by the Florida and her tenders Clar ence, Tacony, and Archer; and by the Shenandoah after her departure from Melbourne, Australia, where she enlisted men for her crew, on Feb. 18, 1865. But in connection with the Georgia, Sumter, Nashville, Tallahassee, and Chickamauga, it was decided that Great Britain had not failed in her responsibilities as a neutral and was therefore not responsible for the destruction they caused. Claims for Destruction by certain other vessels, including the Sallie, Jefferson Davis, Music, Boston, and V. H. Joy, were not considered because of lack of evidence. A total of $15, 500, 000 in gold was awarded to the United States as indemnity. Robert A. Albion and Jennie B. Pope, Sea Lanes in Wartime; the American Experience, 1775-1942 (New York, 1942); Samuel F. Bemis, A Diplomatic History of the United States (New York, 1936); George W. Dalzell, The Flight From the Flag; the Continuing Effect of the Civil War Upon the American Carrying Trade (Chapel Hill, N. C., 1940); R. L Lovell, "The Case for the Alabama, "Queen's Quarterly, 42:515522 (Winter 1935-36); Moore, History and Digest of International Arbitrations, 1:495-682; Goldwin A. Smith, The Treaty of Washington, 1871; a Study in Imperial History (Ithaca, N. Y., 1941); U. S. Department of State, Correspondence Concerning Claims Against Great Britain, Transmitted. . . in Answer to the Resolutions of December 4 and 10, 1867, and of May 27, 1868 (Washington, 1869-71. 7 vols.); U. S. Department of State, Papers Relating to the Treaty of Washington, also published as S. Ex. Doc. 11, 40 Cong., 1 sess., Serials 1394-1398 (Washington, 187274. 6 vols.); National Archives, Preliminary Inventory [No. 135] of Records Relating to Civil War Claims-United States and Great Britain, comp. by George S. Ulibarri and Daniel T. Goggin (Washington, 1962). Record Group 76.--The Alabama claims papers consist of documents relating to the claims of American citizens for damages sustained by them as owners, freighters, or insurers of American ships; or as owners, shippers, or insurers of the cargoes of such vessels; or as charter parties for the service of such ships. Besides claims of owners or insurers for the loss of the ships or their cargoes, the file includes papers relating to the claims of masters for the loss of instruments, charts, and personal effects, for salary during periods of unemployment, for subsistence, and for passage home; of seamen for most of the same expenses; and of passengers for personal effects, stores, expenses, and household furniture. The documentation of claims includes statements or memorials, marine protests, registers of ownership, cargo manifests, crew lists, agreements between masters and seamen, letters of administration, statements of damages, certificates of the value of vessels, statements of insurance companies on their payment of insurance, demands for indemnification, copies of insurance policies, assignment of claims, letters of attorney, depositions, affidavits, shipping articles, clearances, and correspondence. Since they contain lists of the papers for individual claims, the following volumes serve as inventories of the Alabama claims papers: U. S. Department of State, Revised List of Claims Filed With the Department of State, Growing Out of the Acts Committed by the Several Vessels, Which Have Given Rise to the Claims Generically Known as The Alabama Claims (Washington, 1872); and an earlier list published in 1871, both separately and as vol. 7 of U. S. Department of State, Correspondence Concerning Claims Against Great Britain. The replies of the |