Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward
Sir: I saw Mr. Mercier again recently, and he requested me to assure you, in his name, that all was right here in reference to our government. I told him at once that such was the assurance given me, but that I was not at all satisfied with the action of this government in regard to the rebel ships in their ports, and more especially in reference to the Rappahannock; that I could see no principle of law by which it could be justified. He only said, that he was assured that they would permit nothing to be done except such repairs as might be placed on a ship of commerce. In a conversation had last evening with the Emperor at the palace, he referred to my recent communication on the subject of the Rappahannock to M. Drouyn de l’Huys. He assured me that they would carefully [Page 30] consider the subject, and were disposed to go no further than the principles of international law required. In reply I told him that I had been explicit in my statements about the aid given to these vessels, more especially to the Rappahannock, because it was a subject upon which my country was very sensitive. That our government and people could not but feel keenly when they saw their commerce swept from the seas by vessels thus equipped and manned in foreign and neutral ports.
Upon meeting M. Drouyn de l’Huys yesterday, he said, alluding to my despatch to him of the 2d instant as to the Rappahannock, (a copy of which was enclosed to you,) “You send me big words.” I answered, “I send you no unkind ones.” He said, “No, he did not so receive them.” I told him it was better, on certain occasions, to deal with entire frankness, and this was one of them, to which he assented. He then added that, as respects the Rappahannock, which had come into port in an unfinished condition, &c., and not from stress of weather, he agreed with me, in the general view I had taken, that she was not entitled to the privileges of vessels driven in from sea by distress, and he said that he had informed the minister of marine that such was his opinion; that he had sent him a copy of my last note as to the Rappahannock, and asked what answer he should give to it, but as yet had received no reply.
He then spoke again of adopting the restrictions in force in the English ports, with the single exception of that which applies to coal, which England, possessing it herself in great abundance, treated in her orders as contraband of war, but France, having little of it, did not wish to commit herself to that point. I endeavored, in this connexion, to induce him to reconsider the question of their grant to the rebels of belligerent rights, and to have their ports closed altogether against them. He again said, they could not do this; but the troubles growing out of this grant had been such that they would not again recognize any people as belligerents, without acknowledging them as a government. Referring again to the reception and aid given to the rebel vessels in the French ports, I asked his excellency if he had carefully examined the despatch which France and England sent to us at the beginning of the Crimean war, in which they express the hope “that the government of the United States will, in a spirit of just reciprocity give orders that no privateer under Russian colors shall be equipped or victualled,” &c., in our ports. He said he had, and added, with a smile, that that despatch went very far! In other words, it went further, as I understood him to imply, though he did not say so, than France was willing to go now. You will recollect that my despatch to M. Drouyn de l’Huys, dated November 6, 1863, enclosing to him a copy of the despatch to us from England and France, with certain comments of my own, which you have been pleased so heartily to approve, has never before been acknowledged, or answered, and the time that has now passed, in connexion with the above remark, (that it, meaning their despatch, went very far,) induce me to believe, that the French government does not mean to give any written reply to my communication. This is always the most convenient, and perhaps the most judicious mode of treating a point which one does not mean to yield, and yet cannot conveniently answer.
M. Drouyn de l’Huys told me yesterday, that Armn (the builder of those iron-clad rams for the confederates at Bordeaux) had just informed him that he had sold them to the Danish government, but before he, M. Drouyn de l’Huys, acted upon that assumption, this government would have the best and most satisfactory evidence of the correctness of this statement. At present he does not consider the statement of the fact to me as official, but says he will make it so as soon as he shall receive the necessary proof. In the mean time I shall write to Mr. Wood, our minister at Copenhagen, to get the facts in an authentic shape.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward Secretary of State, &c.