Charles Francis Adams to The Right Honorable Earl Russell, August 10, 1865

Mr. Adams to Earl Russell

My Lord: From information received officially by my government, there is reason to believe that the person named John G. Braine—heretofore doubtless known to your lordship in connexion with certain outrages on the steamers Chesapeake and Roanoke, from the consequences of which he took refuge in her Majesty’s colonial possessions—had once more made his appearance off the port of Kingston, in the island of Jamaica, some time in the month of June last in a schooner named the St. Mary’s, and belonging to certain parties in the United States, which had been seized by him and his coadjutors on the 1st of April previous, at the mouth of the Patuxent river, on the Chesapeake bay. It further appears that this vessel was ultimately carried into the port of Anotta bay, on the north side of the island, where she now remains abandoned by these parties. Braine is stated to have escaped to some point on this side of the Atlantic.

Moreover, it is stated that a claim for the restoration of this vessel has been made by the vice-consul of the United States upon the governor of the island, for the benefit of the true owners, who are citizens of the United States.

I have the honor to inform your lordship that I am instructed to solicit an investigation of these allegations so far as they relate to the attempt further to abuse the neutrality of her Majesty’s territory, after all pretence of an insurgent authority had disappeared in America. And should the facts prove to be as stated, I am directed, respectfully, to demand that the vessel be restored to its owners, as well as to suggest to your lordship the expediency of giving the necessary powers to the colonial authorities of that island to place her at the disposal of the vice-consul of the United States at Kingston, with a view to that end.

I pray your lordship to accept the assurances of the highest consideration with which I have the honor to be, my lord, your lordship’s most obedient servant,