doubtful here whether the proposed unofficial intercourse has yet actually begun. Your own [present] antecedent instructions are deemed explicit enough, and it is hoped that you have 5 not misunderstood them. You will in any event desist from all intercourse whatever, unofficial as well as official with the British Government, so long as it shall continue intercourse of either kind with the domestic enemies of 10 this country, [confining yourself simply to a delivery of a copy of this paper to the Secretary of State. After doing this] When intercourse shall have been arrested for this cause you will communicate with this Department and receive 15 farther directions. Lord John Russell has informed us of an understanding between the British and French Governments that they will act together in regard to our affairs. This communication 20 however loses something of its value from the circumstance that the communication was withheld until after knowledge of the fact had been acquired by us from other sources. We know also another fact that has not yet been officially 25 communicated to us; namely, that other European States are apprized by France and England of their agreement and are expected to concur with or follow them in whatever measures they adopt on the subject of recognition. The 30 United States have been impartial and just in all their conduct towards the several nations of Europe. They will not complain however of the combination now announced by the two leading powers, although they think they had a 35 right to expect a more independent if not a more friendly course from each of them. You Leave out. will take no notice of that or any other alliance. Whenever the European Governments shall see fit to communicate directly with us we shall be as heretofore frank and explicit in our reply. As to the blockade, you will say that by [the] 5 our own laws [of nature] and the laws of nature and the laws of nations this government has a clear right to suppress insurrection. An exclusion of commerce from national ports which have been seized by the insurgents, in the equi- 10 table form of blockade, is the proper means to that end. You will [admit] not insist that our blockade is [not] to be respected if it be not maintained by a competent force — but passing by that question as not now a practical or at 15 least an urgent one you will add that [it] the blockade is now and it will continue to be so maintained, and therefore we expect it to be respected by Great Britain. You will add that we have already revoked the exequatur of a 20 Russian consul who had enlisted in the Military service of the insurgents, and we shall dismiss or demand the recall of every foreign agent, Consular or Diplomatic, who shall either disobey the Federal laws or disown the Federal 25 authority. As to the recognition of the so-called Southern Confederacy it is not to be made a subject of technical definition. It is of course [quasi] direct recognition to publish an acknowledg- 30 ment of the sovereignty and independence of a new power. It is [quasi] direct recognition to receive its ambassadors, ministers, agents, or commissioners officially. A concession of belligerent rights is liable to be construed as a recog- 35 nition of them. No one of these proceedings will [be borne] pass [unnoticed] unquestioned by the United States in this case. Hitherto recognition has been moved only on the assumption that the so-called Confederate 5 States are de facto a self-sustaining power. Now after long forbearance, designed to soothe discontent and avert the need of civil war, the land and naval forces of the United States have been put in motion to repress the insurrection. 10 The true character of the pretended new State is at once revealed. It is seen to be a Power existing in pronunciamento only. It has never won a field. It has obtained no forts that were not virtually betrayed into its hands or seized 15 in breach of trust. It commands not a single port on the coast nor any highway out from its pretended Capitol by land. Under these circumstances Great Britain is called upon to intervene and give it body and independence by 20 resisting our measures of suppression. British recognition would be British intervention to create within our own territory a hostile state by overthrowing this Republic itself. [When this act of intervention is distinctly performed we 25 from that hour shall cease to be friends and become once more, as we have twice before been forced to be, enemies of Great Britain.] As to the treatment of privateers in the insurgent service, you will say that this is a 30 question exclusively our own. We treat them citizens, or per as pirates. They are our own sons employed by our citizens, preying on the commerce of our country. If Great Britain shall choose to recognize them as lawful bellig35 erents, and give them shelter from our pursuit and punishment, the laws of nations afford an Leave out. Drop all from this line to the end, and in lieu of it adequate and proper remedy, [and we shall avail ourselves of it. And while you need not to say this in advance, be sure that you say nothing inconsistent with it]. Happily, however, Her Britannic Majesty's 5 Government can avoid all these difficulties. It invited us in 1856 to accede to the declaration of the Congress of Paris, of which body Great Britain was herself a member, abolishing privateering everywhere in all cases and forever. 10 You already have our authority to propose to her our accession to that declaration. If she refuse to receive it, it can only be because she is willing to become the patron of privateering when aimed at our devastation. These positions are not elaborately defended now, because to indicate them would imply a possibility of our waiving them. 15 We are not insensible of the grave importance of this occasion. We see how, upon the result 20 of the debate in which we are engaged, a war write, "This may ensue between the United States, and one, paper is for two, or even more European nations. War in your own any case is as exceptionable from the habits as it guidance is revolting from the sentiments of the American 25 only, and not people. But if it come it will be fully seen that it results from the action of Great Britain, not our own, that Great Britain will have decided to fraternize with our domestic enemy, either without waiting to hear from you our remonstrances, 30 and our warnings, or after having heard them. War in defense of national life is not immoral, and war in defense of independence is an inevitable part of the discipline of nations. [sic] to be read or shown to anyone." The dispute will be between the European 35 and the American branches of the British race. 15 All who belong to that race will especially deprecate it, as they ought. It may well be believed that men of every race and kindred will deplore it. A war not unlike it between 5 the same parties occurred at the close of the last century. Europe atoned by forty years of suffering for the error that Great Britain committed in provoking that contest. If that nation shall now repeat the same great error the social IO convulsions which will follow may not be so long but they will be more general. When they shall have ceased, it will, we think, be seen, whatever may have been the fortunes of other nations, that it is not the United States that will have come out of them with its precious Constitution altered or its honestly obtained dominion in any degree abridged. Great Britain has but to wait a few months and all her present inconveniences will cease with our own troubles. 20 If she take a different course she will calculate for herself the ultimate as well as the immediate consequences, and will consider what position she will hold when she shall have forever lost the sympathies and the affections of the only 25 nation on whose sympathies and affections she has a natural claim. In making that calculation she will do well to remember that in the controversy she proposes to open we shall be actuated by neither pride, nor passion, nor 30 cupidity, nor ambition; but we shall stand simply on the principle of self preservation, and that our cause will involve the independence of nations, and the rights of human nature. 35 I am, Sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., etc., etc., etc. |