No. 21.
[Extract.]
Lord Lyons to Earl Russell.—(Received February 16.)
Washington,
February 1, 1864.
I have the honor to transmit to your lordship further papers relative
to the affair of the Chesapeake.
The first of them is a letter from Mr. Seward, stating the impression
produced by the papers which (as I had the honor to report to your
lordship in my despatch of the 18th ultimo) I placed in his hands on
the 16th instant. Your lordship will observe that Mr. Seward, while
acknowledging that the proceedings of Major General Doyle, the
administrator of the government of Nova Scotia, seem to have been
conducted in good faith, affirms that his excellency “ought to have
relinquished to the agents of this government the stolen vessel, and
the pirates found on board of her, subject to the express engagement
of this government to answer to the British government any claim
that it might have either upon the ship or the men.”
Mr. Seward seems to forget the flagrant violation of her Majesty’s
territorial jurisdiction committed by the United States officers,
and the necessity it imposed on the administrator of the government
to be more than usually careful to make it apparent that her
Majesty’s rights had been vindicated. It may be observed, also, that
there were no persons found on board the Chesapeake to whom the
[Page 531]
description of “pirates”
can well be applied. The two men who were on board and who were
seized and put in irons by the United States officers, when they
took possession of the vessel in the British harbor, appear to have
been British subjects who had gone on board the Chesapeake after her
arrival at Nova Scotia, and who had no connexion with the previous
seizure of that vessel by the passengers. The only man taken by the
United States officers who was implicated in that act of the
passengers was Wade, who was not taken on board the Chesapeake, but
was violently seized by those officers on board a British ship in a
British harbor.
I have thought it right to communicate a copy of Mr. Seward’s letter
to Major General Doyle.
I have to-day placed in Mr. Seward’s hands copies of the letter of
the attorney-general of Nova Scotia, and of the report of the
proceedings against the persons concerned in preventing the arrest
of Wade at Halifax, which form the fourth and fifth enclosures in
the present despatch.
The remaining enclosures relate principally to the demands on the
govern ments of Canada and New Brunswick for the extradition of men
concerned in the seizure of the Chesapeake at sea.
[Enclosure 1 in No. 21, Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons, dated January
18, 1864, printed elsewhere in this volume.]
[Enclosure 2 in No. 21.]
Lord Lyons to Major General Doyle.
Washington,
February 1,
1864.
My Dear General Doyle: I enclose a copy
of a semi-official letter, dated the 18th instant, which I have
received from Mr. Seward, and in which he com ments on the
papers concerning the affair of the Chesapeake, which, as I
informed you in my despatch of the 18th, I put into his own
hands a day or two before.
I do not object to your making the members of your government
acquainted with the contents of Mr. Seward’s letter, if you
consider it important to do so.
Yours faithfully,
LYONS.
[For enclosure 3 in No. 21, Major General Doyle to Lord Lyons,
January 20, 1864, see enclosure 2 in No. 20.]
[For enclosure 4 in No. 21, Mr. Johnston to Major General Doyle,
January 13, 1864, see enclosure 1 in No. 20.]
[For enclosure 5 in No. 21, supplement to the Halifax Reporter,
dated January 19, 1864, see enclosure 3 in No. 20.]
[Enclosure 6 in No. 21.]
Lord Lyons to Major General Doyle.
Washington,
February 1,
1864.
Sir: I had on the 28th ultimo the honor
to receive your excellency’s despatch of the 29th ultimo,
transmitting to me information respecting the proceedings
[Page 532]
against the persons
charged with obstructing the execution of the warrant for the
arrest of Wade.
I have put into the hands of the Secretary of State of the United
States copies of the letter addressed to your excellency by the
attorney general of Nova Scotia, and of the printed report of
the proceedings before the mayor of Halifax.
I have, &c.,
LYONS.
[Enclosure 7 in No. 21.]
Viscount Monck to Lord Lyons.
Government House,
Quebec,
January 20,
1864.
My Lord: I have the honor to
acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s despatch of the
13th, enclosing copy of a note from the Secretary of State of
the United States, demanding the extradition of John C. Braine,
H. A. Parr, John Parker Locke, alias
Vernon G. Locke, David Collins, George Robinson, and John Wade,
fugitives from the justice of the United States.
In reply I have the honor to inform your excellency that I have
referred this application to the law officers of the crown in
Canada for their report.
I have, &c.,
MONCK.
[See enclosure 8 in No. 21.]
Lord Lyons to Mr. Seward.
Washington,
January 30,
1864.
[Printed elsewhere in this correspondence.]
[Enclosure 9 in No. 21.]
Lieutenant Governor Gordon to
Lord Lyons.
[Extract.]
Government House,
Frederickton, New
Brunswick,
January 21,
1864.
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your lordship’s
despatch of the 5th instant, and am gratified to learn that the
cabinet of Washington appreciates the prompt action of this
government in reference to the alleged piratical seizure of the
United States steamship Chesapeake.
A determination to observe in the strictest manner the
requirements of international law, and to fulfil every
obligation of international courtesy, will, I trust, always be
found by the government of the United States to exist on the
part of this province.
In my despatch of the 28th ultimo I informed your lordship that I
had issued my warrant, authorizing the arrest of the parties
implicated in the transaction referred to. Since that date three
of those persons, David Collins, James McKinney, and Linus
Seeley, have been arrested at St. John.
The honorable J. H. Gray, of St. John, one of the counsel for the
accused, applied to me on the 31st ultimo on behalf of his
clients for copies of the requisition
[Page 533]
upon which my warrant authorizing the
arrest was founded, and of the depositions which accompanied
it.
I accordingly transmitted the required documents to Mr. Gray, at
the same time stating my reasons for declining to entertain his
application as a matter of right, whilst I acceded to it as an
act of courtesy for which persons in the position of the accused
might fairly look. At the same time I informed the United States
consul of my decision.
[Enclosure 10 in No. 21.]
Lord Lyons to Lieutenant Governor Gordon.
Washington,
February 1,
1864.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your excellency’s despatch of the 21st of this
month, informing me that three of the men implicated in the
affair of the Chesapeake had been arrested at St. John, and that
your excellency had communicated to their counsel copies of the
requisition upon which your warrant authorizing their arrest was
founded. I am very much obliged to your excellency for the
information you have been so good as to send to me with regard
to the communication of the requisition. The subject has not
hitherto been mentioned to me by the Secretary of State of the
United States, nor have I spoken to him about it.
I am, &c.,
