Mr. Adams to Mr.
Seward.
No. 41.]
Legation of the United
States,
London,
September 9, 1861.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
reception at the hands of your messenger, Captain Schultz, of a bag
purporting to contain public despatches from Mr. Robert Bunch, the
consul at Charleston, to Lord Russell, the head of the foreign office in
London. In conformity with the instructions contained in your No. 63,
dated the 17th of August, I immediately addressed a note to Lord
Russull, explanatory of the reasons why such a bag was received through
this channel, a copy of which is herewith transmitted. In it you will
perceive that I have endeavored to adhere as closely as possible to
[Page 150]
the language of your
communication to me. At the same time, in obedience to the directions
contained in your No. 64, dated the 17th of August, I addressed another
note to his lordship stating the grounds of dissatisfaction felt by the
President with the conduct of Mr. Bunch, and requesting his removal. A
copy of this note is likewise appended to the present despatch. These
two notes, together with the bag in exactly the same condition in which
I received it from Captain Schultz, I directed my assistant secretary,
Mr. Benjamin Moran, to take with him to the foreign office, and there to
deliver into the hands of his lordship if present, or, if absent from
town, into those of one of her Majesty’s under secretaries of state for
foreign affairs. Accordingly, on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 4th
instant, at about quarter past three o’clock, as Mr. Moran reports to
me, he went to the foreign office, and finding Lord Russell to be absent
from town, he delivered the bag and the notes into the hands of Mr.
Layard, one of the under secretaries. Since that time I have had no
reply from his lordship, although I received on Saturday last two notes
from him on matters of minor consequence. I had hoped to send something
by Captain Schultz, who returns in the Great Eastern, and I shall yet do
so if it should come before the bag closes. I have consented to the
departure of Captain Schultz, mainly because Mr. Dayton has expressed a
great desire that he should take charge of his despatches as soon as
possible.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
P. S.—I have just learned from Mr. Davy that the Bermuda put into
Falmouth for coals. Her cargo in arms, ammunition, and clothing, is
valued at £80,000 sterling. The importance of intercepting her
cannot be overestimated.
Mr. Adams to
Earl Russell.
Legation of
the United States,
London,
September 3, 1861.
My Lord: I have the honor to inform your
lordship that I have received by the hands of a special messenger of
the government just arrived in the steamer Europa from the United
States a sealed bag marked Foreign Office, 3, with two labels, as
follows:
“On her Britannic Majesty’s service. The right honorable the Lord
John Russell, M. P., &c., &c., &c. Despatches in
charge of Robert Mure, esq.
“ROBERT BUNCH.”
“On her Britannic Majesty’s service. The right honorable the Lord
John Russell, M. P., her Britannic Majesty’s principal secretary
of state for foreign affairs, foreign office, London.
“R. BUNCH.”
Agreeably to instructions communicated by my government to me, to see
that this bag is delivered accordingly to its address in exactly the
condition in which I received it, I have the honor to transmit the
same by the hands of my assistant secretary, Mr. Benjamin Moran, who
is directed to deliver it into your own hands, if present, or, if
absent, into those of one of the under secretaries of state for
foreign affairs.
[Page 151]
It now becomes my duty to explain the circumstances under which this
bag has found its way from the possession of the person to whom it
was originally intrusted into that of the authorities of the United
States.
It appears that the Secretary of State of the United States, on the
15th of August last, received information deemed worthy of
confidence that Mr. Robert Mure, the bearer of this bag, was at the
same time acting as a bearer of despatches from the insurrectionary
authorities of Richmond to your lordship. Other information came
that he was a bearer of despatches from the same authorities to
their agents in London. And still other information from various
sources agreed in affirming that he was travelling under a passport
issued by her Majesty’s consul at Charleston. Upon this information,
instructions were sent forthwith to the police of New York to detain
Mr. Mure, and any papers which might be found in his possession. He
was accordingly detained, and is now in custody at Fort Layfette,
awaiting full disclosures. A large number of papers were found upon
him, an examination of which was found fully to sustain some
portions of the information which had been furnished, and to prove
that Mr. Mure was acting as the bearer of a treasonable
correspondence between persons acting in open arms against the
government of the United States and their friends and emissaries in
Great Britain. He had also with him several copies of a printed
pamphlet purporting to be a narrative of the events of the 21st of
July at Manassas Junction, addressed to persons in England, and
evidently intended to further the purposes of the conspirators in
South Carolina.
Robert Mure, the bearer of these papers, is represented to be a
naturalized citizen of the United States, where he has resided for
thirty years, and as actually holding a commission of colonel in the
insurgent forces of South Carolina.
It turned out to be true that in the hands of this gentleman were
found in an open envelope a paper purporting to be a passport, a
copy of which I have the honor to append to this note as paper
marked A; and a letter of instructions, signed by Robert Bunch, her
Majesty’s consul for the United States, residing at Charleston, a
copy of which is likewise appended, as paper marked B.
In the absence of all other evidence against Mr. Bunch to prove his
departure from the line of his legitimate duty, it is quite enough
to call the attention of your lordship to the fact that in issuing
such a paper as this passport he has acted in direct contravention
of a regulation issued by the proper department of the United States
of which he had received notice, which forbids all recognition of
any diplomatic or consular passport so far as to permit the bearer
to pass through the lines of the national forces or out of the
country unless it should be countersigned by the Secretary of State
and the commanding general of the army of the United States. Mr.
Mure attempted to do both with a paper bearing no such
signatures.
There is, however, other and still more serious cause of complaint
against Mr. Bunch, as disclosed by the papers of Mr. Mure, the
exposition of which I am compelled to reserve for a separate
communication. The present purpose is confined to an explanation of
the reasons which have actuated the government of the United States
in taking the extraordinary step which has had for one of its
consequences the effect of diverting, be it but for a moment, a part
of the official correspondence of her Majesty’s government from the
channel in which it was originally placed. I am directed to express
the regret the government feels that such a measure had become
imperative, and to assure your lordship of its earnest desire to
make any suitable amends which may justly be required. If in the
process there may have happened a slight interruption of the
correspondence of the British consul,
[Page 152]
it is their desire that the pressing nature of
the emergency may induce your lordship to excuse it.
It is needless to say that the bag passes into the hands of your
lordship in precisely the same condition it came from those of Mr.
Mure. Comity towards the government of a friendly nation, together
with a full confidence in its justice and honor, to say nothing of a
sense of propriety, would deter the government which I have the
honor to represent from entertaining the idea of breaking the seals
which protect it even were there ten times more reason than there is
to presume an intention under so sacred a sanction to perpetrate a
wrong certainly on one and perhaps on both governments. Still less
is it the intention of the American government to intimate the
smallest suspicion of any privity whatever on the part of the
authorities in Great Britain in aiding, assisting, or countenancing
a supposed design injurious to the United States and subversive of
their sovereignty. Much ground as there is for presuming that it
never was the intention of those who prepared the package to forward
it to its nominal address, but that it was rather the design, after
bringing bad matter under this sacred sanction safely through the
dangers of hostile scrutiny, to open the bag themselves and to
disseminate the contents far and wide among the evil-disposed
emissaries to be found scattered all over Europe; this consideration
has never weighed a single moment to change their views of this
trust when put in the balance with the strong reliance placed upon
the good faith of her Majesty’s constitutional advisers. Least of
all has it been in the thought of any one that your lordship would
consent in any way to receive the papers, if they are really illegal
in their character or dangerous or injurious to the United
States.
Should it, however, prove on inspection that any abuse has been
attempted in America of the confidence to which her Majesty’s
government is in every way entitled, I am directed to express to
your lordship the hope that any papers of a treasonable character
against the United States may be delivered up to me for the use of
my government, and that her Majesty’s consul at Charleston, if shown
to be privy to the transmission of them under such a form, may be
made promptly to feel the severe displeasure of the government whose
good faith he has sought to dishonor. For there can be no difference
of opinion as to the nature of an offence which involves the
perversion by the agent of one government of the hospitality
afforded to him by another to conspire against its safety, dignity,
and honor.
I pray your lordship to accept the assurances of the highest
consideration with which I have the honor to be your lordship’s most
obedient servant,
The Right Honorable Earl Russell, &c., &c., &c.
Mr. Adams to
Earl Russell.
Legation of
the United States,
London,
September 3, 1861.
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of
the United States, deeply regrets the painful necessity that compels
him to make a representation to the right honorable Lord Russell,
her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for foreign affairs,
touching the conduct of Mr. Robert Bunch, her Majesty’s consul for
the port of Charleston, in the United States. It appears from the
contents of one of the many letters found in the possession of Mr.
Robert Mure, bearer of despatches from Mr. Bunch to the
[Page 153]
government of Great
Britain, but detained as an agent of the enemies of the United
States, that the following statement is made of the action of Mr.
Bunch in Charleston.
“Mr. B., on oath of secrecy, communicated to me also that the first step to recognition was taken. He
and Mr. Belligny together sent Mr. Trescot to Richmond yesterday to,
ask Jeff. Davis, President to _______ the treaty of ______ to ______
the neutral flag covering neutral goods to be respected. This is the
first step of direct treating with our government. So prepare for
active business by 1st January.”
The undersigned is instructed to submit this information to her
Majesty’s government with a request that, if it be found to be
correct, Mr. Bunch may be at once removed from his office. The
undersigned is further instructed to add that the President will
cheerfully accord an exequatur to any person who maybe appointed to
succeed him, who will faithfully perform his functions without
injury to the rights and the interests of the United States.
The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to Lord
Russell the assurances of his highest consideration.
The Right Honorable Earl Russell, &c., &c., &c.
