Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/513

Rh correspondence was caused by the construction at British ship-yards of vessels reported to be designed for the use of the Confederacy. The steamers Alabama and Florida, first floated as harmless trade vessels, had soon appeared in the character of destructive battleships, and the fear was reasonable that an increase of the Confederate navy of that pattern might effectually ruin all commerce by vessels bearing the United States flag. Mr. Adams, the American minister at London, raised the question with Lord Russell during the latter part of 1862, submitting formally to him the views of the United States government on the rights and obligations of neutrals. The reply of Lord Russell sharply reminded Mr. Adams that the Queen’s neutrality proclamation of May 13, 1861, had been set at naught by the agents of the United States, who had bought and shipped from British ports to New York, &quot; vast supplies of arms and warlike stores.&quot; The Confederacy had likewise procured munitions of war in the same way, but his Lordship writes that &quot;the party which has profited by far the most by these unjustifiable practices has been the government of the United States.&quot; After which rebuke the British earl formally stated the history of the &quot;Alabama’s&quot; construction under the name of &quot;290&quot; and denied all liability for its operations on the high seas. Further correspondence contained the declaration of Lord Russell that &quot;it is notorious that large bounties have been offered and given to British subjects residing in the United States to engage in the war on the Federal side.&quot; The settlement of the &quot;Alabama&quot; question was postponed, and the subsequent actions of the British government do not appear to have given any considerable irritation to the United States.

The Confederacy had been disappointed also by the action of the French government, whose emperor had at first openly adopted the current opinion of European statesmen that secession would become successful. This early prejudgment caused the United States to make