Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams
Sir: Mr. Ford has given me a copy of a letter which Lord Stanley wrote to him on the 16th of November, instant, concerning the question of arbitration upon the so-called Alabama claims. I have submitted Lord Stanley’s remarks to the President, and have received his directions thereupon.
The government of the United States adheres to the views concerning the proposed arbitration which I have heretofore had occasion to make known through your legation to Lord Stanley; We are now distinctly informed by Lord Stanley’s letter that the limited reference of the so-called Alabama claims, which Lord Stanly proposes, is tendered upon the condition that the United States shall waive before the arbitrator the position they have constantly maintained from the beginning, namely: that the Queen’s proclamation of 1861 [Page 180] which accorded belligerent rights to insurgents against the authority of the United States, was not justified on any grounds, either of necessity or moral right, and therefore was an act of wrongful intervention, a departure from the obligation of existing treaties, and without the sanction of the law of nations. The condition being inadmissible, the proposed limited reference is therefore declined.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.