CHARLES TUPPER, Provincial Secretary to Commander Clarey, U. S. N, December 19, 1863
Mr. Tupper to Commander Clarey, U. S. N.
Sir: In reply to your letters of to-day, I have it in command from his honor the administrator of the government to inform you that J. J. Sawyer, esquire, high sheriff of the county of Halifax, has been commissioned to receive at the Queen’s wharf, at 1 o’clock p. m. to-morrow, George Wade and the two other men referred to in your first letter of to-day, with any other persons, if such there be now in your custody, who may have been taken within British jurisdiction, when the individuals so surrendered will be amenable to the action of any person desirous to proceed legally against them. I have it also in command to inform you that Captain O’Bryan. of the revenue schooner Daring, has been duly authorized to receive possession of the steamboat Chesapeake at the place where she is now at anchor at 2 o’clock p. m. to-morrow, to be adjudicated upon by proper authority. I am at the same time commanded to inform you that his honor Major General Doyle, the administrator of the government, is most anxious to preserve to the utmost of his power the friendly relations existing between the United States and Great Britain, but he cannot but feel that a grave infraction of international law has been committed by the men-of-war now in this harbor bearing the flag of the United States. Irrespective altogether of the taking of the Chesapeake in the harbor of Sambro, a forcible entry has been made on board a British schooner belonging to this port, and a man therein made prisoner and retained in your custody, together with two other men, citizens of this place, who were found on board the Chesapeake, and this without any report of such grave transactions having been made either in your personal interview with, or your first official report in writing to, his honor, professing to explain the object and circumstances of your visit to this port, nor until after a notification had been forwarded to you by his honor’s command that information to that effect had been given to this government.
It is unnecessary to state that the second note addressed to you to-day was written and forwarded before the receipt of any intimation from you that you had in your custody or intended to surrender any prisoners.
I have, &c.,