Charles Francis Adams to Right Hon. Earl Russell, April 30, 1862

Mr. Adams to Earl Russell.

My Lord: I have to ask pardon for delaying an acknowledgment of your note of the 19th instant, touching the case of the steamer Labuan lately seized by the United States frigate Portsmouth and conveyed to New York as a prize.

Not having received from the government of the United States any instructions on the subject, and knowing nothing from official sources of the precise facts attending the seizure of that vessel, I am in no situation to express more than my own opinion upon it. I shall do myself the honor to transmit your lordship’s note to the Department of State, where I am led to understand that the matter has already been brought to its attention by Lord Lyons. I do not entertain a doubt of the disposition of the President carefully to respect the just rights of every nation in amity with the United States, and to make the amplest reparation for any casual injury committed in the course of the present difficulties the moment that the justice of the claim shall have been established.

At the same time I deem it my duty to represent to your lordship the fact that the government of the United States finds itself involved in peculiar embarrassment in regard to its policy towards the vessels of Great Britain from the difficulty, to which I have repeatedly called your lordship’s attention, of distinguishing between the lawful and the unlawful trade carried on upon the coast of the United States in vessels bearing her Majesty’s flag. It comes presented to me in so many forms of evidence that I cannot avoid the painful conviction that a systematic plan, founded on the intent to annul her Majesty’s proclamation by steady efforts to violate the blockade through vessels either actually British, or else sailing under British colors, has been in operation in this island for many months, and becomes more rather than less extensive with the progress of time. If, therefore, it happens that a Spanish or a Danish ship when seized is more readily released than a British ship, the reason must be found, not in any disposition to be more partial to those nations, so much as in the fact that they have been incomparably less involved in the suspicion of attempting illegitimate methods of trade. The channels through which these enterprises serve so unfortunately to procrastinate the war, by encouraging the hopes of the insurgents, are too well known to admit of dispute. It is equally certain that her Majesty’s government, in reply to the representations and remonstrances heretofore made by me, under instructions from my government, have candidly admitted their inability to put any stop to them whatever. Hence, it must naturally occur to your lordship’s mind that, if in some cases the government, driven to the necessity of applying more stringent measures of prevention than it desires to this illicit commerce, should happen occasionally to involve an innocent party in the suspicion attached to so many guilty ones, it must seek its justification in the painful necessity consequent upon the inefficiency of the British law to give it that protection which, as a friendly nation, it would seem entitled to enjoy.

It may, then, be reasonably presumed, at first blush, that the mere fact of sending the steamer Labuan to be adjudicated upon by a prize court, will find its justification in the fact that that vessel had become involved in a suspicion not unfairly attaching itself to all vessels sailing under British colors in the neighborhood of the place where she was taken. But I regret to be compelled further to apprise your lordship that, in this particular instance, the intentions of the steamer Labuan, from the period of her first departure from Great Britain, have been understood to be such as justly to excite the strongest suspicion, and, taken in connexion with her appearance in the spot where she was seized, to constitute a fair question, at least, for the determination of a prize court. Disclaiming the right to enter into the merits of the case on this side of the Atlantic, where I am not in possession of the evidence, either of her innocence or her guilt, and disavowing all acquaintance with the views taken of the matter by the President, I have felt myself constrained, by the honor your lordship has done me in calling my attention to the subject, respectfully to submit my own views for your consideration.

Renewing to your lordship the assurances of my highest consideration, I have the honor to be, my lord, your most obedient servant,