Chapter III: The Development of a Policy, May, 1861 (2)

Had in fact a "pledge to wait" been given to Dallas; and was the Proclamation hasty and premature? Russell always denied he had given any such pledge, and the text of Dallas' report of the interview of May 1 would seem to support that denial[190]. On that day Russell for the second time told Dallas that England would not commit herself, as yet, as regards Southern recognition, clearly meaning a recognition of _sovereignty_, not of belligerency, and immediately asked Dallas what the rumours of a blockade meant. Dallas replied that he had no information on this point, and Russell "acquiesced in the expediency of disregarding mere rumour, and waiting the full knowledge to be brought by my successor. The motion, therefore, of Mr. Gregory may be further postponed, at his lordship's suggestion."

The unprejudiced interpretation of this report is merely that Russell refrained from pressing Dallas about a matter--blockade--of which Dallas knew nothing, agreeing that this would be explained by Adams, and especially that he let Dallas understand that Gregory's motion, which was one for _recognizing the independence and sovereignty of the South_, would be postponed. If there was a pledge here it was a pledge not to recognize Southern sovereignty until after Adams' arrival.

But even if there was no promise of delay "there can be no question," writes the son of Adams in a brief biography of his father, "that the proclamation of the 13th was issued with unseemly haste.... The purpose was manifest. It was to have the status of the Confederacy as a belligerent an accomplished fact before the arrival of the newly accredited minister. This precipitate action was chiefly significant as indicating an animus; that animus being really based on ... the belief, already matured into a conviction, that the full recognition of the Confederacy as an independent power was merely a question of time, and probably of a very short time[191]." The author does not, however, support the contemporary American contention that _any_ Proclamation was contrary to international custom and that no recognition of belligerent status was permissible to neutrals until the "insurgents" had forced the mother country itself to recognize the division as fully accomplished, even while war still continued. Indeed American practice was flatly contradictory of the argument, as in the very pertinent example of the petty Canadian rebellion of 1837, when President Van Buren had promptly issued a proclamation of neutrality. It is curious that in his several replies to Seward's complaints Russell did not quote a letter from Stevenson, the American Minister to London, addressed to Palmerston, May 22, 1838. Stevenson was demanding disavowal and disapproval of the "Caroline" affair, and incidentally he asserted as an incontrovertible principle "that civil wars are not distinguished from other wars, as to belligerent and neutral rights; that they stand upon the same ground, and are governed by the same principles; that whenever a portion of a State seek by force of arms to overthrow the Government, and maintain independence, the contest becomes one _de facto_ of war[192]." This was as exact, and correct, a statement of the British view as could have been desired[193].

The American Minister, whatever his official representation, did not then hold, privately, the view of "unfriendly animus." On July 2, 1861, his secretary son wrote: "The English are really on our side; of that I have no doubt whatever. [Later he was less sure of this.] But they thought that as a dissolution seemed inevitable and as we seemed to have made up our minds to it, that their Proclamation was just the thing to keep them straight with both sides, and when it turned out otherwise they did their best to correct their mistake[194]." The modern historical judgment of the best American writers likewise exonerates the British Government of "unfriendly animus[195]," but is still apt to refer to the "premature" issue of the Proclamation.

This was also John Bright's view. But can Russell and the Government be criticized even as exercising an unwise (not unfriendly) haste? Henry Adams wrote that the British thought the "dissolution seemed inevitable" and "we seemed to have made up our minds to it." Certainly this was a justifiable conclusion from the events in America from Lincoln's election in November, 1860, to his inauguration in March, 1861--and even to a later date, almost in fact to the first week in April. During this period the British Ministry preserved a strictly "hands off" policy. Then, suddenly, actual conflict begins and at once each side in America issues declarations, Davis on privateering, Lincoln on blockade and piracy, indicative that _maritime_ war, the form of war at once most dangerous to British interests and most likely to draw in British citizens, was the method first to be tried by the contestants. Unless these declarations were mere bluff and bluster England could not dare wait their application. She must at once warn her citizens and make clear her position as a neutral. The Proclamation was no effort "to keep straight with both sides"; it was simply the natural, direct, and prompt notification to British subjects required in the presence of a _de facto_ war.

Moreover, merely as a matter of historical speculation, it was fortunate that the Proclamation antedated the arrival of Adams. The theory of the Northern administration under which the Civil War was begun and concluded was that a portion of the people of the United States were striving as "insurgents" to throw off their allegiance, and that there could be no recognition of any Southern _Government_ in the conflict. In actual practice in war, the exchange of prisoners and like matters, this theory had soon to be discarded. Yet it was a far-seeing and wise theory nevertheless in looking forward to the purely domestic and constitutional problem of the return to the Union, when conquered, of the sections in rebellion. This, unfortunately, was not clear to foreign nations, and it necessarily complicated relations with them. Yet under that theory Adams had to act. Had he arrived before the Proclamation of Neutrality it is difficult to see how he could have proceeded otherwise than to protest, officially, against any British declaration of neutrality, declaring that his Government did not acknowledge a state of war as existing, and threatening to take his leave. It would have been his duty to _prevent_, if possible, the issue of the Proclamation. Dallas, fortunately, had been left uninformed and uninstructed. Adams, fortunately, arrived too late to prevent and had, therefore, merely to complain. The "premature" issue of the Proclamation averted an inevitable rupture of relations on a clash between the American theory of "no state of war" and the international fact that war existed. Had that rupture occurred, how long would the British Government and people have remained neutral, and what would have been the ultimate fate of the United States[196]?

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 127: Sir George Cornewall Lewis was better informed in the early stages of the American conflict than any of his ministerial colleagues. He was an occasional contributor to the reviews and his unsigned article in the _Edinburgh_, April, 1861, on "The Election of President Lincoln and its Consequences," was the first analysis of real merit in any of the reviews.]

[Footnote 128: In his _Memoirs of an Ex-Minister_, Malmesbury makes but three important references to the Civil War in America.]

[Footnote 129: Adams, _Charles Francis Adams_, p. 165.]

[Footnote 130: Dodd, _Jefferson Davis_, pp. 227-8.]

[Footnote 131: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 132: It was generally whispered in Southern political circles that Davis sent Yancey abroad to get rid of him, fearing his interference at home. If true, this is further evidence of Davis' neglect of foreign policy.]

[Footnote 133: Du Bose, _Yancey_, p. 604.]

[Footnote 134: Adams, _Charles Francis Adams_, pp. 149-51.]

[Footnote 135: Possibly the best concise statement of the effect on the North is given in Carl Schurz, _Reminiscences_, Vol. II, p. 223. Or see my citation of this in _The Power of Ideals in American History_, ch. I, "Nationality."]

[Footnote 136: Hansard, 3rd. Ser., Vol. CLXII, pp. 1207-9.]

[Footnote 137: See _ante_, p. 60.]

[Footnote 138: _U.S. Messages and Documents, 1861-62_, pp. 83-4. Dallas to Seward, May 2, 1862.]

[Footnote 139: An error. Mann did not arrive in London until May 15. Du Bose, _Yancey_, p. 604.]

[Footnote 140: Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the Confederacy_, Vol. II, p. 34. This report also shows that Mann was not present at the first interview with Russell.]

[Footnote 141: F.O., America, Vol. 755, No. 128, Russell to Lyons, May 11, 1861. This document is marked "Seen by Lord Palmerston and the Queen." The greater and essential part has been printed in _Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords_, Vol. XXV. "Correspondence on Civil War in United States." No. 33.]

[Footnote 142: Du Bose, _Yancey_, p. 604.]

[Footnote 143: Lyons Papers. The copy of the Memorandum sent to Lyons is undated, but from Russell's letter to Lyons of May 4, in which it was enclosed, it is presumable that the date of May 3 for the Memorandum is correct.]

[Footnote 144: _Ibid._, Russell to Lyons, May 4, 1861.]

[Footnote 145: F.O., Am., Vol. 755, No. 121, Russell to Lyons, May 6, 1861.]

[Footnote 146: It is to be remembered that the United States had given no notice of the existence of a state of war.]

[Footnote 147: In diplomatic usage official notification of neutrality to a belligerent has varied, but Russell's letters show him to have appreciated a peculiar delicacy here.]

[Footnote 148: F.O., France, Vol. 1376, No. 553. Draft. Printed in _Parliamentary Papers_, 1862, _Lords_, Vol. XXV. "Correspondence on International Maritime Law." No. 1.]

[Footnote 149: It is interesting that on this same day Lyons was writing from Washington advocating, regretfully, because of his sympathy with the North, a strict British neutrality:

"The sympathies of an Englishman are naturally inclined
towards the North--but I am afraid we should find that
anything like a quasi alliance with the men in office here
would place us in a position which would soon become
untenable. There would be no end to the exactions which they
would make upon us, there would be no end to the disregard of
our neutral rights, which they would show if they once felt
sure of us. If I had the least hope of their being able to
reconstruct the Union, or even of their being able to reduce
the South to the condition of a tolerably contented or at all
events obedient dependency, my feeling against Slavery might
lead me to desire to co-operate with them. But I conceive all
chance of this to be gone for ever."

Russell Papers. Lyons to Russell, May 6, 1861.]

[Footnote 150: F.O., France, Vol. 1390. No. 677.]

[Footnote 151: _Ibid._, No. 684. Printed in part in _Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords_, Vol. XXV. "Correspondence on International Maritime Law." No. 3.]

[Footnote 152: _Times_, May 9, 1861.]

[Footnote 153: _Parliamentary Papers_, 1862, _Lords_, Vol. XXV. "Correspondence on Civil War in the United States." No. 31.]

[Footnote 154: So stated by the _Times_, May 9, 1861.]

[Footnote 155: Hansard, 3rd. Ser., Vol. CLXII, pp. 1378-9. This blunt expression of Great Britain's Foreign Secretary offers an interesting comparison with the words of the American President Wilson, in a parallel statement at the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. Wilson on August 3, 1914, gave a special audience to newspaper correspondents, begging them to maintain an attitude of calm impartiality. On August 4 he issued the first of several neutrality proclamations in which, following the customary language of such documents, the people were notified that neutrality did not restrict the "full and free expression of sympathies in public and in private." But on August 18 in an address to the people of the United States, this legal phraseology, required by traditional usage was negatived by Wilson's appeal that "we must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another." And three weeks later, on September 8, came the proclamation setting aside October 4 "as a day of prayer to Almighty God," informing Him that war existed and asking His intervention. Possibly Russell's more blunt and pithy expression was better suited to the forthrightness of the British public.]

[Footnote 156: Hansard, _ibid_., pp. 1564-7. Gregory, a "Liberal-Conservative," though never a "good party man" was then supporting Palmerston's ministry. He was very popular in Parliament, representing by his prominence in sport and society alike, the "gentleman ruling class" of the House of Commons, and was a valuable influence for the South.]

[Footnote 157: This subject is developed at length in Chapter V on "The Declaration of Paris Negotiation."]

[Footnote 158: See _ante, p_. 88. The chronology of these rapidly succeeding events is interesting:

April 29--Malmesbury states in the Lords that "news was received
this day."
May 1--Naval reinforcements sent to American waters.
May 1--Russell's interview with Dallas.
May 2--Russell's plea in Parliament, "For God's sake keep out of
it."
May 3--Russell's first interview with Yancey and Rost.
May 3--Attorney-General's memorandum.
May 4--Russell's note to Lyons that this is a "regular war."
May 6--Cowley instructed to ask France to recognize Southern
belligerency.
May 6--Lyons notified that England will recognize Southern belligerency.
May 6--Russell states in Parliament that privateers can not be
treated as pirates.
[Presumably, since parliamentary sittings begin in the late
afternoons, the instructions to diplomats were drawn before
the statement in Parliament.]
May 9--Russell's second interview with Yancey and Rost.
May 9--Sir George Lewis announces that a Proclamation of Neutrality
will be issued soon.
May 13--The Proclamation authorized.
May 13--Adams reaches Liverpool.
May 14--The Proclamation officially published in the _London Gazette_.
May 14--Adams in London "ready for business."

It would appear that Russell's expressions in Parliament on May 2 indicated clearly the purpose of the Government. This was notified to Lyons on May 4, which may be taken as the date when the governmental position had become definitely fixed, even though official instructions were not sent Lyons until the 6th.]

[Footnote 159: F.O., Am., Vol. 780, No. 50. Bunch to Russell, April 19, 1861.]

[Footnote 160: F.O., Am., 789, Monson to Alston, received May 21.]

[Footnote 161: F.O., Am., 763, No. 197, Lyons to Russell, received May 26. The full statement is:

"To an Englishman, sincerely interested in the welfare of
this country, the present state of things is peculiarly
painful. Abhorrence of slavery, respect for law, more
complete community of race and language, enlist his
sympathies on the side of the North. On the other hand, he
cannot but reflect that any encouragement to the predominant
war feeling in the North cannot but be injurious to both
sections of the country. The prosecution of the war can lead
only to the exhaustion of the North by an expenditure of life
and money on an enterprise in which success and failure would
be alike disastrous. It must tend to the utter devastation of
the South. It would at all events occasion a suspension of
Southern cultivation which would be calamitous even more to
England than to the Northern States themselves."

[Footnote 162: Hansard, 3rd. Ser., CLXII, p. 1763.]

[Footnote 163: _Ibid._, pp. 1830-34. In the general discussion in the Lords there appeared disagreement as to the status of privateering. Granville, Derby, and Brougham, spoke of it as piracy. Earl Hardwicke thought privateering justifiable. The general tone of the debate, though only on this matter of international practice, was favourable to the North.]

[Footnote 164: For example see Hertslet, _Map of Europe by Treaty_, Vol. I, p. 698, for the Proclamation issued in 1813 during the Spanish-American colonial revolutions.]

[Footnote 165: Hansard, 3rd. Ser., CLXII, pp. 2077-2088.]

[Footnote 166: _Parliamentary Papers_, 1862, _Lords_, Vol. XXV, "Correspondence on Civil War in the United States." No. 35. Russell to Lyons, May 15, 1861. Another reason for Lyons' precaution was that while his French colleague, Mercier, had been instructed to support the British Proclamation, no official French Proclamation was issued until June 10, and Lyons, while he trusted Mercier, felt that this French delay needed some explanation. Mercier told Seward, unofficially, of his instructions and even left a copy of them, but at Seward's request made no official communication. Lyons, later, followed the same procedure. This method of dealing with Seward came to be a not unusual one, though it irritated both the British and French Ministers.]

[Footnote 167: _U.S. Messages and Documents, 1861-2_, p. 85. Adams to Seward, May 17, 1861.]

[Footnote 168: Bedford died that day.]

[Footnote 169: _U.S. Messages and Documents, 1861-2_, pp. 90-96. Adams to Seward, May 21, 1861.]

[Footnote 170: Bernard, _The Neutrality of Great Britain during the American Civil War_, p. 161. The author cites at length despatches and documents of the period.]

[Footnote 171: _Spectator_, May 18, 1861.]

[Footnote 172: _Spectator_, June 1, 1861.]

[Footnote 173: _Saturday Review_, June 1, 1861.]

[Footnote 174: _U.S. Messages and Documents, 1861-2_, p. 82.]

[Footnote 175: _Ibid._, p. 98. Adams to Seward, June 7, 1861. See also p. 96, Adams to Seward, May 31, 1861.]

[Footnote 176: Russell Papers. Lyons to Russell, June 10, 1861.]

[Footnote 177: _Ibid._, Lyons to Russell, June 14, 1861.]

[Footnote 178: F.O., Am., Vol. 766, No. 282. Lyons to Russell, June 17, 1861. Seward's account, in close agreement with that of Lyons, is in _U.S. Messages and Documents, 1861-2_, p. 106. Seward to Adams, June 19, 1861.]

[Footnote 179: Bancroft in his _Seward_ (II, p. 183) prints a portion of an unpublished despatch of Seward to Dayton in Paris, July 1, 1861, as "his clearest and most characteristic explanation of what the attitude of the government must be in regard to the action of the foreign nations that have recognized the belligerency of the 'insurgents.'"

"Neither Great Britain nor France, separately nor both
together, can, by any declaration they can make, impair the
sovereignty of the United States over the insurgents, nor
confer upon them any public rights whatever. From first to
last we have acted, and we shall continue to act, for the
whole people of the United States, and to make treaties for
disloyal as well as loyal citizens with foreign nations, and
shall expect, when the public welfare requires it, foreign
nations to respect and observe the treaties.

"We do not admit, and we never shall admit, even the
fundamental statement you assume--namely, that Great Britain
and France have recognized the insurgents as a belligerent
party. True, you say they have so declared. We reply: Yes,
but they have not declared so to us. You may rejoin: Their
public declaration concludes the fact. We, nevertheless,
reply: It must be not their declaration, but the fact, that
concludes the fact."

[Footnote 180: The _Times_, June 3, 1861.]

[Footnote 181: _Ibid._, June 11, 1861.]

[Footnote 182: _U.S. Messages and Documents, 1861-2_, p. 87.]

[Footnote 183: _Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords_, Vol. XXV. "Correspondence on Civil War in the United States." No. 56. Lyons to Russell, June 17, 1861, reporting conference with Seward on June 15.]

[Footnote 184: _U.S. Messages and Documents, 1861-62_, p. 104. Adams to Seward, June 14, 1861.]

[Footnote 185: Bancroft, the biographer of Seward, takes the view that the protests against the Queen's Proclamation, in regard to privateering and against interviews with the Southern commissioners were all unjustifiable. The first, he says, was based on "unsound reasoning" (II, 177). On the second he quotes with approval a letter from Russell to Edward Everett, July 12, 1861, showing the British dilemma: "Unless we meant to treat them as pirates and to hang them we could not deny them belligerent rights" (II, 178). And as to the Southern commissioners he asserts that Seward, later, ceased protest and writes: "Perhaps he remembered that he himself had recently communicated, through three different intermediaries, with the Confederate commissioners to Washington, and would have met them if the President had not forbidden it." Bancroft, _Seward_, II, 179.]

[Footnote 186: Du Bose, _Yancey_, p. 606.]

[Footnote 187: _A Cycle of Adams' Letters, 1861-1865_, Vol. I, p. 11. Adams to C.F. Adams, Jnr., June 14, 1861.]

[Footnote 188: See _ante_, p. 98. Russell's report to Lyons of this interview of June 12, lays special emphasis on Adams' complaint of haste. _Parliamentary Papers_, 1862, _Lords_, Vol. XXV, "Correspondence on Civil War in the United States," No. 52. Russell to Lyons, June 21, 1861.]

[Footnote 189: Hansard, 3rd. Ser., CLXXVII, pp. 1620-21, March 13, 1865.]

[Footnote 190: See _ante_, p. 85.]

[Footnote 191: C.F. Adams, _Charles Francis Adams_, p. 172. In preparing a larger life of his father, never printed, the son later came to a different opinion, crediting Russell with foresight in hastening the Proclamation to avoid possible embarrassment with Adams on his arrival. The quotation from the printed "Life" well summarizes, however, current American opinion.]

[Footnote 192: _U.S. Documents_, Ser. No. 347, Doc. 183, p. 6.]

[Footnote 193: The United States Supreme Court in 1862, decided that Lincoln's blockade proclamation of April 19, 1861, was "itself official and conclusive evidence ... that a state of war existed." (Moore, Int. Law Digest, I, p. 190.)]

[Footnote 194: _A Cycle of Adams' Letters_, I, p. 16. Henry Adams to C.F. Adams, Jnr.]

[Footnote 195: Rhodes, _History of the United States_, III, p. 420 (_note_) summarizes arguments on this point, but thinks that the Proclamation might have been delayed without harm to British interests. This is perhaps true as a matter of historical fact, but such fact in no way alters the compulsion to quick action felt by the Ministry in the presence of probable _immediate_ fact.]

[Footnote 196: This was the later view of C.F. Adams, Jnr. He came to regard the delay in his father's journey to England as the most fortunate single incident in American foreign relations during the Civil War.]