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VII.

THE ALABAMA.

As to this vessel, Her Majesty's Government admits, "that, at the time when she sailed from England in July,

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1862, she was, as regards the general character of her "construction, specially adapted for warlike use; that "the adaptation had been effected within British juris"diction;" and that "the general construction of the "vessel was such as to make it apparent that she was "intended for war and not for commerce." "2

The drawings found among the archives of the insurgents signed by the Messrs. Laird, as early as the 9th October, 1861, copies of which are part of the documents and evidence filed by the United States with their Counter Case, show conclusively that she never was intended for anything else than a vessel of war.

1 Brit. C.-Case, p. 80.

2 Brit. Case, p. 118.

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It is also admitted in the British Counter-Case that "the question for the Arbitrators is, whether the British Government had, according to the fair and just sense "of those words, reasonable grounds to believe that she "was intended to carry on war against the United States; "and having it, failed to use such diligence as any international obligation required to prevent her departure "from Great Britain, or to prevent her equipment within its jurisdiction." 1

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The United States will now proceed to consider the facts necessary to a decision of that question, and for that purpose will use almost exclusively the evidence presented to the Tribunal by Her Majesty's Government.

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As has been seen, the Florida sailed from Liverpool, without any attempt at her detention by the Government, on the 22d of March, 1862. The attention of Earl Russell had been called to her by Mr. Adams more than a month previous to her departure, and in so doing he declared that his opinion as to her destination for war against the United States was based upon the "evidence furnished "in the names of the persons stated to be concerned in her construction and outfit." These persons named were Fawcett, Preston and Co., and Frazer, Trenholm and Co. As late as the 9th of May, the Foreign Office appears to have been in correspondence with the officers of the Treasury in respect to her escape.' She arrived at Nassau on the 28th of April, and her arrival at that port became known in Liverpool, and was announced in the Liverpool Journal of Commerce on the 27th of May. must have been apparent, at that time, to the officers 1 Brit. C.-Case, p. 80.

Brit. App., vol. I, p. 9.

3 Dudley to Seward, Am. App., vol. VI, p. 233.

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of the Customs at Liverpool, that she had not been intended for the Italian Government, but for the insurgents, and that any pretence of Italian destination was false.

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Under these circumstances, on the 23d of June, Mr. Adams, in a note to Earl Russell, said: "Sometime since, it may be recollected by your Lordship, that I felt it my duty to make a represen"tation touching the equipment from the port of Liverpool of the gunboat Oreto, with the intent to "make war upon the United States. Notwithstanding the statements returned from the authorities of that place, with which your Lordship favored me in reply, touching a different destination of that vessel, I have "the strongest reason for believing that that vessel went directly to Nassau, and that she has been there engaged "in completing her armament, provisioning and crew, "for the object first indicated by me.

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"I am now under the painful necessity of apprising your Lordship, that a new and still more powerful war steamer is nearly ready for departure from the port of Liverpool on the same errand. This vessel has been built and launched from the dockyard of persons, one of whom is now sitting as a member of the

House of Commons, and is fitting out for the especi1 "and manifest object of carrying on hostilities by sea. . . "The parties engaged in the enterprise, are persons "well known at Liverpool to be agents and officers, of "the insurgents in the United States, the nature and "extent of whose labors are well explained in the copy "of an intercepted letter of one of them, which I re"ceived from my Government some days ago, and which I had the honor to place in your Lordship's hands on Thursday last. I now ask permission to

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"transmit, for your consideration, a letter addressed "to me by the Consul of the United States at Liverpool, "in confirmation of the statements here submitted, and "to solicit such action as may tend either to stop the projected expedition, or to establish the fact that its purpose is not inimical to the people of the United 66 States." 1

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The intercepted letter referred to was from Caleb Huse, Captain of Artillery," to Major J. Gorgas, "Confederate States Artillery, War Department." It is said in the Case presented by Her Majesty's Government,' that the copy of the intercepted letter referred to " was a paper purporting to be a copy of a letter or report from a Confederate officer of artillery, addressed to some per"son unknown," and what purports to be a copy of the letter itself is printed in British Appendix, vol. I, p. 178, without the name of the party to whom it was addressed. The same letter is printed by the United States in their Appendix, vol. I, p. 538, where the name of the person to whom it was addressed appears. It was transmitted by Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams with a despatch under date of June 2d, in which he says: 3

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There has just now fallen into our hands a very extraordinary document, being a report made by Caleb Huse, who calls himself a captain of artillery, and "who is an agent of the insurgents in Europe, to the "chief of the artillery of the war department of the insurgents."

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The letter was "placed in the hands" of Earl Russell by Mr. Adams on the Thursday which preceded the 23d

1 British Case, p. 81.

2 Page 81.

3 Am. App., vol. I, p. 537.

of June, and inasmuch as the dispatch of Mr. Seward transmitting it stated in terms to whom it was addressed, there can scarcely be a doubt, that, if the copy omitted his name, the proper explanation was made by Mr. Adams at the time. So that it is hardly to be supposed that the party addressed was unknown to Earl Russell, at the time he received Mr. Adams' letter of the 23d of June, although it may have been to the persons who prepared the British Case.

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The letter is found in the British Appendix, vol. I, p. 178, It bears date April 1st, 1862, at Liverpool, a few days after the sailing of the Oreto and does, as is stated in the British Case, relate to purchases of military supplies for the Confederate army, and to vessels employed in blockade running." It also states that" Messrs. Frazer, Trenholm "and Co., of this city, placed at my disposal a fine ship, "the Bahama, which I supposed would take all the "batteries." This is the same vessel, which, as has been seen, took out the armament of the Oreto, and which afterwards took that out of the Alabama.

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In the letter of the Consul of the United States at Liverpool, transmitted by Mr. Adams to Earl Russell, on the 23d, it was said: "The evidence I have is "entirely conclusive to my mind. I do not think there "is the least room for doubt about it... The strictest watch is kept over this vessel; no person except those immediately engaged upon her is admitted into the yard. On the occasion of the trial trip, made last Thursday week, no one was admitted without a pass, "and these passes were issued to but few persons, "and those who are known here as active secession

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1 Brit. Case, p. 81.

2 Page 81.

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