Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part I

[Extract.]

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

No. 607.]

Legation of the United States. London, March 3, 1864.

Sir: I have to acknowledge the reception of despatches from the department numbered from 841 to 846, inclusive.

* * * * * * * *

In respect to No. 843, of the 13th of the same month, I transmit herewith a copy of the Times, of yesterday, containing a report of the debate in the House of Lords, in which the complaint about the Kearsarge was introduced by Lord Clanricarde. I infer from Lord Russell’s reply that the letter of Commander Winslow was construed as putting an end to it.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

[From the Times, of March 2, 1864.]

Federal recruiting in Ireland.

The Marquis of Clanricarde, in rising according to notice to move for copies of any reports which might have been received by her Majesty’s government on this subject, said the enlistment of soldiers on the part of a foreign state in this country involved a question of very considerable importance. It had, indeed, been always held that one power could scarcely commit a greater infraction of the rights of another, or a greater breach of comity and international law, than by attempting to recruit for its own service citizens who owed allegiance to that power. In Ireland, in former times, the law upon the subject was very strict, as the offence of enlisting in a foreign service was punished with death, and three men were, in point of fact, executed in that country in 1749 because they had enlisted in the French service, though we were then at peace with the French people. The severity with which the offence used to be visited was, however, very properly relaxed in 1819. The foreign enlistment act was passed, and a milder law, in accordance with the spirit of the present day, introduced. Having said thus much, he would shortly proceed to advert to the fact that recruiting for the federal States had notoriously been carried on in Ireland with very little check during the last two years, and without, so far as he was aware, any notice having been taken of those proceedings by her Majesty’s government. He should therefore like to know whether any remonstrances had been made on the subject to the United States, and whether any steps had been seriously taken to put an end to a state of things with which, as far as he could form an opinion, the common law ought to be found sufficient to deal. He was not, in order to prove the existence of that state of things, going to quote newspapers or letters, relying, as he did, so entirely on the notoriety of the facts that he should be surprised if any member of the government should rise in his place and contradict the assertion that agents of the federal government had been indirectly engaged in recruiting in Ireland. Now, he had no very high opinion of the efficiency of the Irish government in its present form as a machinery for executive administration, believing, as he did, the lord lieutenancy, with all its paraphernalia, to be a somewhat obsolete office. [Hear, hear.] But it was, he thought, impossible that the Irish constabulary, who were, as a body, honest and intelligent, and who endeavored to do their duty as well as they could, should not have made some reports on the subject to which he was adverting to the heads of the Irish government, and that they, in their turn, should not have made similar reports to the authorities at this side of the water. It was impossible, therefore, that the noble lord, the secretary for foreign affairs, could be in ignorance on the matter, especially when there was scarcely a newspaper published in Ireland or in London in which some allusion had not, within the last year or two, been frequently made to recruiting for the federal army as having been carried on in Louth, Tipperary, Cork, Carlow, Dublin, and other counties. Indeed, the noble lord himself had adverted to the subject casually in his communications with the American minister at the English court, in which he stated, as appeared from the papers which had been published, and most truly, that if a balance were struck of the assistance given by British subjects and by the supply of the munitions of war to the contending parties in America, that balance would be found to be greatly in favor of the federal States. If, he might add, he wanted further evidence as to the existence of recruiting in Ireland for those States, he might find it in the returns of the immigration commissioners, who had, he understood, ascertained it to be an undoubted fact that the emigration of single young men to the United States from that part of the kingdom had very much increased in the year 1863–’64 as compared with the previous year. Now, that was a very significant fact, particularly when it was borne in mind that that increased emigration reached, as he believed it did, to the extent of some thousands, and that the probability was it could only be due to the operation of the American war. He would, however, in the support of the case which he was endeavoring to make, mention one specific fact which had come under his own immediate observation. Not quite two months ago a man arrived at a central station in the county of Galway, and at once proceeded to make it known that he had come to engage some hundreds of men and to take them across the Atlantic, tempting them by the offer of good pay. He made known his business to the publicans in the town where he first stopped, and went on to another town and did the same thing, promising so much per head for every person whom they succeeded in engaging for him. He alleged that he was engaging laborers for the purpose of making two railways and a canal—the railways in the south, and southwest, and the canal in the west from New York. But it was perfectly well known that they were to be engaged as soldiers, and that the situation of the supposed works would enable him to send them in whatever direction he pleased. The police very properly interfered, and he was the magistrate before whom the man was brought. His whole history was perfectly well known. He was a native of a village not many miles from the town where he was stopped. He had been a soldier in the American army, and, having been wounded, was sent to Ireland. He produced papers authorizing him to enrol any number of laborers for these works, and was very anxious to assume the character of an American citizen. It was a remarkable thing that he had no more money about him than was sufficient for his personal expenses, and when asked to explain how, with such means, he was to pay the laborers and the publicans for their aid, he referred not to any great railway contractor or engineer, or other person generally found to be in connexion with such schemes, but to the American consul. The American consul at Liverpool gave him, he said, a letter to the American consul at Dublin, and if they were written to it would be found that he was solvent and well able to discharge all his engagements. The man was a little astonished when he told him that he should not admit his American pretensions; that he knew him to be an Irishman, and should treat him the same as any Irishman who had never left his native village, and that the reference to the American authorities would not avail him one jot. It was transparent that it was intended to infringe our law. But how did the Americans act towards us in 1855? The whole of the papers had been laid before Parliament, and it appeared that at that time our consul at New York reported that a number of laborers out of employment, who were British subjects, had applied for means to go home, with the view of enlisting in the army or navy of their own country. Sir John Crampton, then Mr. Crampton, thought it right to take the opinion of an American lawyer upon the words of the American law, making it an offence to hire or return any laborer for any employment or under any pretence to go beyond the jurisdiction of the States, in order that when there such person might possibly be enlisted. In the opinion obtained a case was quoted in which the Supreme Court had held that the words “hire or retain” were susceptible of a very broad interpretation, and the lawyer stated that he was inclined to think they would be held to reach every case of payment for the removal of a person from the States. The American government withdrew the exequaturs of the consuls, and insisted on the removal of Mr. Crampton, upon the ground of that law having been infringed. They would not allow us to send home our own men, because it might be inferred that when here, if they had no other employment, they would enlist; but now they were sending emissaries to Ireland to entrap not their own, but our countrymen in their service. [Hear, hear.] There was no analogy between the two cases. We wanted British subjects sent home who were anxious to enlist in our service. The Americans wanted to inveigle and enlist British subjects in Ireland for service in the United States. [Hear, hear.] Perhaps he should be told that the government knew nothing of the case, and that it had never been reported to the Irish government. He regretted that the wholesome practice of the Irish government communicating with men of position in the country had been abandoned, and that tbey depended entirely on the police for information. The police had acted in this case, and therefore it was for them to have reported it. [Hear.] But he came next to a case as to which he was surprised that no papers had been laid before Parliament, because action had actually been taken on it—the case of the American cruiser, the Kearsarge, which came into Cork harbor and began to enlist men under the very nose of our admiral and almost alongside of our flag-ship. That certainly was rather more than could be stood. From the information which had been taken on the subject, it was pretty well known what had happened. It was bruited about that the United States government were giving good bounties for men, and some of the idle seamen about Queenstown went on board. The vessel then sailed off for Brest, and on arriving there the men were put ashore and told that they might return if they liked and take service for three years. However, from some change in the policy of the United States government, the men were returned to Cork, and then the government prosecuted them under the foreign enlistment act, and six of them were now held to bail. He wished to know, however, what proceedings had been taken against the United States government in the matter. [Hear, hear.] It was a paltry thing to go merely against our own men. They were held to bail in 20l. each, with one surety of 20l. each, so that, if it suited the American government, for 240l. they could quash the whole transaction, and we should have ho redress for this outrage committed on the dignity of this country by a government which had insisted on the removal of Sir James Crampton, and had withdrawn the exequatur of our consuls on a much smaller pretext. [Hear, hear.] It was remarkable that these men were dismissed in the American uniform, and he had heard that American uniforms were to be seen in other parts of Ireland. He was not a believer in the existence of any disaffection in Ireland. Disaffection could not go to any great length without some cause for it, [hear, hear,] and Ireland was, without doubt, the freest country in the world—not even excepting Great Britain. A man was free to say or do there pretty much as he pleased, and the only persons who appeared to be under any restraint were the police. [Laughter.] All men of education and intelligence put a proper value on this freedom; but, unfortunately, among the lower orders there did prevail some mischievous old traditions. They were always delighted with the idea of secret societies, and many of these secret societies were productive of great harm. Some of them might be innocent and harmless, but it was neither innocent nor harmless to spread among the people the notion of a connexion with the United States or to permit the distribution of American uniforms. These things ought to be dealt with in a strong tone, not towards our own people so much as towards the government which ventured to take such liberties. [Hear, hear.] He had no hesitation in saying that if the confederates had done one-tenth of what the federals had done, it would have been put a stop to long ago. [Hear, hear.] But the neutrality of her Majesty’s government had been from the first a partial neutrality, and in that respect they had not properly maintained the honor of the country. [Hear, hear.] But what he wanted to know now was whether the house might be allowed to see the reports which, no doubt, the Irish government must have forwarded on the subject, and the remonstrances which he trusted the secretary of state bad addressed to the government of the United States on the subject. [Hear.] The noble marquis concluded by moving for copies of any reports that might have been received by her Majesty’s government respecting recruiting in Ireland for the North American army.

Earl Russell. My noble friend will excuse me if I do not advert to many of the topics on which he has touched, and deal only with his tangible points. I don’t think it necessary to enter into the reasons why I was in favor of the repeal of the foreign nlistment act in 1823, nor shall I discuss whether the office of lord lieutenant of Ireland is useful or not, or whether the conduct of the American government in 1855 was proper or not. As far as I can understand the drift of my noble friend, he argues that because the American government acted improperly in 1855, therefore we ought to act improperly now. [“Oh, oh.”] The real question which my noble friend has brought forward is that of foreign enlistment in Ireland. I quite admit that it is an offence against the law and against the amity which the American government is bound to show towards her Majesty’s government. Wherever such an offence can be proved, it ought to be prosecuted by her Majesty’s government, and it certainly furnishes a subject of complaint against the United States government if it has authorized it. My noble friend has said truly enough that we have complained from time to time that there was a process of recruiting going on in Ireland on behalf of the American government. Last year I presented papers —correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself—on the subject of British subjects in the federal armies, and those who have read that correspondence may remember that our complaints were of a general nature, because we had not evidence of particular cases in which the offence was brought home to American agents. Mr. Adams on each occasion denied the truth of these allegations, and on one occasion he said that until I had brought it to his notice he did not think there was anybody in this country who could have believed it possible that agents of the United States government were employed in enlisting British subjects for the federal armies. With that general allegation, and with that general denial, I could only wait until there was a case in which particular evidence could be produced. In the month of January of this year a person named Pike stated that a person named Finney had gone about engaging men to enlist. It was stated that this Finney had invited men to go out and get good wages in the United States, and afterwards said that they would get much larger sums of money if they would enlist as soldiers in the United States army. The matter was investigated, and no evidence except that of this person named Pike could be had; and it was alleged that he had been engaged by Finney as an assistant, but had not received the reward which he thought sufficient, and that, being excited by that circumstance, he invented this story of the recruiting. It was further alleged that the real object of Finney was to engage men to be employed on railways in the United States. The law officers of the crown in Ireland investigated the matter, and they were of opinion that if there was no other evidence but that of Pike against this man, that evidence would not be believed, and that consequently there was no chance of a conviction in a court of law. When they gave that opinion, the Home Office here arrived at the conclusion that it was not desirable to institute a prosecution. [Hear, hear.] It must be borne in mind that the United States minister has said, and said with perfect truth, that owing to the great number of men employed in the federal army, and owing to the great progress which railway works are making in the United States, there are many railway companies in America which are anxious to obtain men, and ready to pay them high wages. The Chicago Railway Company is known to have hired men for the purpose of working on their lines; and we have information that this person, named Finney, hired a room in Dublin a few days ago, and there engaged young men who are going or are gone, to the United States. My noble friend must perceive that even although it could be proved that many of those young men are arriving in New York, tempted by the large bounty offered to them, many enter the army of the United States; yet if they go from this country without any contract to enter the army—if they go for the purpose of obtaining good employment and good wages, and wait till their arrival in New York to decide whether they will be railway laborers or soldiers, there can be no ground for a prosecution under the foreign enlistment act. [Hear, hear.] My noble friend has told us in the most circumstantial manner of a person known to have been engaged, according to his opinion, in the horrid plot of taking men in contravention of the foreign enlistment act, to be employed in the army of the United States. One would have expected that a person with the activity, the patriotism, and the knowledge of law possessed by my noble friend, would have been able to pursue this man to conviction; but there the story ended, my noble friend saying there was no evidence. [Hear, hear.] I have heard of a man in the county or the city of Cork, who was said to have engaged laborers on the promise of a large amount of wages or a large amount of pay; but it appears that he began by asking the persons who were to enter into the contract with him for threepence each, and when he had collected a sufficient number of threepences, he and his comrades went off. [A laugh.] That was not a transaction from which the United States gained much. Another case alluded to by my noble friend was that of a man-of-war at Queenstown. Undoubtedly there were a number of men found on board the Kearsarge, a United States man-of-war, who were said to have been engaged as seamen and to have been earned off. On hearing this report I at once wrote a complaint to the minister of the United States in London, telling him that I had heard the consul of the United States had been instrumental in enlisting these men, and expressing a hope that a thorough inquiry would be made. The minister of the United States wrote to say that, so far as the consul was concerned, he denied all knowledge of such transaction, and his excellency furnished me with a copy of a letter from the captain of the Kearsarge, which is as follows:

“United States Steamer Kearsarge, At sea, December 7.

“Sir: A party of men, either by connivance of the crew or otherwise, were concealed on board this vessel on the night of her departure from Queenstown, the 5th ult. These men, I learn, were in expectation of being enlisted in the service of the United States after the Kearsarge had proceeded to sea, but found their mistake. [An ironical laugh from the opposition.] To have turned them ashore at Brest would have been to open to them the temptation to enlist on board the Florida. I therefore determined to leave them at Queenstown as soon as it was practicable. You will please notify Admiral Jones that I informed him that no enlistments would be made at Queenstown. I have, therefore, sent on shore this party. that no charge of subterfuge may be alleged in the premises.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

“JNO. A. WINSLOW, Captain.

“E. G. Eastman, Esq., United States Consul, Queenstown”

I do not know that the captain could have behaved otherwise than he did. When we found that these men had been enlisted, her Majesty’s government consulted the law advisers of the crown, and they directed that a prosecution should be instituted, and, as far as I know, the prosecution is going on. [Hear, hear.] A suspicion may arise that the captain was aware that these persons had been enlisted before they went on board, [ironical laughter from the opposition,] but all I can say is that the captain gives the explanation which I have read for your lordships. These are the cases which have occurred in the present year. I quite agree with my noble friend that every case of this kind ought to be watched, and the police in Ireland and the government of Ireland are ready to watch them. [Hear, hear.] I also quite agree with my noble friend that no violation of the foreign enlistment act ought to be permitted without a prosecution, if there is evidence to sustain one; and on that principle her Majesty’s government have determined to act. [Hear, hear.] My noble friend has said what he has never been able to prove—that the neutrality of her Majesty’s government has not been an impartial neutrality. Well, the United States government are of opinion that from the very beginning her Majesty’s government have taken a side favorable to the Confederate States, and that allowing the latter belligerent rights—which they say induced other nations of Europe to allow them the same rights—was very partial conduct, because it was very favorable to the insurgents. I have always contended against that pretension. We considered that as the Confederate States comprised so many of the States of North America, were inhabited by so large a population, and contained so much of the wealth that had existed in the United States, our decision was not a partial but a perfectly impartial decision, founded on the fact that the Confederate States were entitled to belligerent rights. [Hear, hear.] No doubt it may be said, and it has been said, that this advantage has enabled them to derive very considerable supplies, and so enabled them to carry on the war against the federal States. On the other hand, the Confederate States made their complaint with respect to the conduct of her Majesty’s government, whom they have all along conceived to be partial as against them. I must say that though they are entitled to impartial conduct, they are not entitled to any other conduct at our hands, because, though recruiting for the Confederate States does not take place in this country as far we are aware, conscription does take place as regards British subjects residing in the southern States. When we have endeavored to obtain redress for this, we have found that the consuls, who were appointed when all the American States were united, have on a sudden been driven from the Confederate States, and there is no one there who can take up the case of British subjects, who are very frequently forced into the confederate ranks against their own will. This and other hardships are inflicted upon British subjects in the Confederate States, and from the loss of consuls they are not able to make complaints and obtain the redress to which they arc entitled. [Hear.] But, my lords, with regard to the whole matter of this war, it has been the determination of her Majesty’s government to pursue an impartial neutrality. That course has been steadily pursued. I see no reason, myself for our taking part either with the northern States or with the southern; and we are determined to continue to maintain a course of impartial neutrality. [Cheers.]

The Earl of Donoughmore said the fact that agents of the American government had for a considerable period been attempting to entice the Irish subjects of her Majesty into the military service of the United States was notorious and the noble earl had not repudiated the statement. Let their lordships compare the conduct of the government in this matter with the course taken by them in the matter of the Birkenhead rams. The noble earl said that in no case did there appear to be any prospect that the government would be able to prosecute these recruiters to conviction, and that, in the opinion of the Irish law officers, there was no evidence to go upon. But when, on the 3d of September, last the noble earl ordered the rams to be detained, had he the opinion of the law officers of the crown here that there was evidence sufficient to justify their detention? [Hear, hear.] If not, his course of action in the one case was founded on principles differing entirely from those he had adopted in the other. Yet this was what the noble earl called impartial neutrality! What his motives were he could not tell. He would not say that the noble earl refused to watch over and protect these poor people who were thus tempted from their native soil to fight in a quarrel not their own, out of partiality for the government of the north. The noble earl denied this imputation. Was it, then, because the government cared nothing for these poor Irish people, whereas, if the same attempt had been made to enlist Englishmen, the authority of the government would very quickly have been exercised to protect them? In Ireland there was a society called the Fenian Brotherhood, which had so often been mentioned in connexion with this subject that he wished to ask the government whether their attention had been directed to its proceedings. What “Fenian” meant he had not the least notion; but the object of the association had been distinctly published. That object was to recruit in Ireland for the American army, and to keep up a spirit of disaffection in Ireland, while the vague hope was expressed that when the American contest was at an end the troops now employed against the south would turn their victorious arms against England. These schemes were so contemptible that it might be absurd to discuss them seriously. No man of sense could apprehend any real danger from these proceedings. But the “let it alone” principle, on which the government had acted, was here a false principle. Their plan seemed to be to let sedition have its full swing until at last it became too inconvenient, and then they would have to put it down. Now, he agreed with the ministry in thinking that as long as sedition was confined to mere talk and to ridiculous articles in newspapers it had, perhaps, better be left alone. But when men were enlisted in the service of a foreign government, were drilled, and received a military education, then he thought, not so much in the interest of the state as in mercy to these deluded people, the government ought to interfere. [Hear.] He wished to know whether, within the last four or five months, the government had not received continual reports from the police respecting the proceedings of the Fenian Society in Ireland, especially in Dublin, Cork, and in the larger towns, and whether it did not appear from those reports that there had been an extensive enrolment and drilling of these persons by men, some of whom wore the American uniform. [Hear, hear.] If, as he believed, information of this kindhad reached the government, it was time to act in order to repress a movement which, though it was now ridiculous, and might be shivered to fragments by the smallest exertion of power, might one day require to be put down with a high hand. [Hear] “Let it alone” was the favorite expression of a former colleague of the noble earl; and in politics it was often a very good principle, which the foreign secretary would do well to study and adhere to. But when you had to deal with sedition taking the form of armed men, and with the organized enlistment of soldiers within the British dominions, it was time to act, and not rely on such a principle. [Hear, hear.]

Earl Granville. I have failed entirely to make out, from the speech of the noble earl, any case against my noble friend. Upon the question of neutrality, as your lordships are aware, both the north and the south were constantly bringing accusations against the government for being partial and showing favor to one side or the other. It is quite clear that any person who endeavors to remain neutral between two opponents will be open to such charges, and exactly the same attacks have been made against the government by those who in this country sympathize with one or other of the belligerents. But these accusations are, in fact, the best proof that the government have been actuated by a sincere wish to maintain a fair and impartial position between the two contending parties. [Hear, hear.] The noble lord taunted the government with want of courage in dealing with these enlistments, which he said were now quite notorious. Well, but if they are notorious, why does not the noble earl offer some specific proof of their existence? The government have given to the police instructions of the most positive nature to make inquiries on this subject. And yet the only cases of which we have knowledge are of the most trumpery character. In one case a man was said to have engaged a clerk and an office for this purpose, but he left without even paying the unfortunate clerk. [A laugh.] Another case attracted great attention on the part of the government. A factor engaged several hundreds of men to work upon an American railway. This was said to be merely a colorable pretext, and the men, we were told, were really recruits for the service of the United States. The government immediately made the most rigid inquiry, and the factor who was charged with this offence came to the office of the chief secretary, and proved there by incontestable documentary evidence that those persons were really engaged to work upon the railway; that the railway company were suffering from a dearth of labor; and that these supposed recruits were engaged bona fide to supply this want. Does the noble earl opposite think it would have been proper on the part of the government to have interposed obstacles in the way of a legitimate transaction of that kind? The noble earl alludes to persons who go about wearing the American uniform. I have seen persons wearing the French and Italian and many other different uniforms walking about the streets of the metropolis, but it would never occur to any of your lordships that this was a fact which required the action of the government. What sort of action, then, is it that the noble earl wants? There was only one case which appeared, on inquiry, to bear out the charge of enlistment for the military service of the United States. The government submitted the whole evidence to the law officers of the crown in Ireland, and their distinct advice was that the evidence was not sufficient to lead to a conviction. Now, would it have been courage, or would it have been simplicity, on the part of the government to have disregarded that advice and to have taken the law into their own hands? If the noble lords are of opinion that the government ought to have done more and to have gone further, I really think they ought to have produced some better information than the government possess to show that recruiting is really carried on in Ireland by the United States government. [Hear, hear.]

The Earl of Derby said his noble friend had failed to answer the question whether the government had received through the police any information that drilling and military exercises were at present taught to persons in Dublin, Cork, and elsewhere, and whether they had taken any steps in consequence of this information.

Earl Granville could say nothing as to the etymology of the word “Fenian,” but the attention of the police had been directed to the military drilling which was said to be going on in Ireland. He could not at that moment give any detailed information on the subject, but this he could say—that the police had come to the same conclusion as that which seemed to have been arrived at by many of their lordships—namely, that the organization was a perfectly contemptible one.

The Marquis of Clanricarde, in reply, said he should not press his motion, but he must take notice of a taunt that had been uttered against himself and the noble earl opposite, that, knowing of cases in which there had been breaches of the law, they had not prosecuted the offenders to conviction. Those who applied that taunt were ignorant of the position to which magistrates were reduced in Ireland. The magistrates were not allowed to seek out or to assist in detecting crime. All these functions were monopolized by the police and the stipendiary magistrates, who would afford no information to the unpaid magistrates. He believed that he could have proved that breaches of the foreign enlistment act had been committed, and he had been informed by a brother magistrate that, to his personal knowledge, men had been seduced from the ranks of the county militia and were now serving in the United States army. [Hear.]

The motion was withdrawn.

The house adjourned at 25 minutes to 7.