Judah P. Benjamin to Acting Consul Fullarton, October 8, 1863
Mr. Benjamin to Acting Consul Fullarton.
Sir: Your letters of the 1st and 3d instant have been received. You inform this government that “under your instructions you have felt it to be your duty to advise British subjects that, whilst they ought to acquiesce in the service required so long as it is restricted to the maintenance of internal peace and order, whenever they shall be brought into actual conflict with the forces of the United States, whether under the State or confederate governments, the service so required is such as they cannot be expected to perform.”
Your correspondence with the governor of Georgia, leaves no doubt of the meaning intended to be conveyed by this language.
In that correspondence you state that “under instructions you have felt your self compelled to advise those drafted to acquiesce until called from their homes, or to meet the United States forces in actual conflict, but in that event to throw down their arms, and refuse to enter a service directly in the teeth of her Majesty’s proclamation, and which would incur the severe penalties denounced in the neutrality act.”
In a communication from the acting British consul in Charleston to the military authorities, he also informed them that “he has advised the British subjects generally to acquiesce in the State militia organizations, but at the same time he informed them that in the event the militia should be brought into conflict with the forces of the United States, either before or after being turned over to the confederate government, the services required of them would be such as British subjects could not be expected to perform.”
It thus appears that the consular agents of the British government have been instructed not to confine themselves to an appeal for redress either to courts of justice or to this government whenever they may conceive that grounds exist for complaint against the confederate authorities in their treatment of British subjects, (an appeal which has in no case been made without receiving just consideration,) but that they assume the power of determining for themselves whether enlisted soldiers of the confederacy are properly bound to its service; that they even arrogate the right to interfere directly with the execution of confederate laws, and to advise soldiers of the confederate armies to throw down their arms in the face of the enemy.
This assumption of jurisdiction by foreign officials within the territory of the confederacy, and this encroachment on its sovereignty, cannot be tolerated for a moment; and the president has had no hesitation in directing that all consuls and consular agents of the British government be notified that they can no longer be permitted to exercise their functions, or even to reside, within the limits of the confederacy.
I am directed, therefore, by the president to communicate to you this order, that you promptly depart from the confederacy, and that in the mean time you cease to exercise any consular functions within its limits.
I am, &c.,