Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams, January 11, 1863

Mr. Seward to Mr.
Adams.

Sir: The investigation which has been made in
the case of the Chesapeake has yielded indisputably these results, viz:
that the crimes committed in her capture were contrived and prepared by
the actors within the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, by
persons some of whom were British subjects, and all of whom had asylum
there; that, in pursuance of the original plan, the vessel, with its
freight, was found within British jurisdiction, having been taken by
pirates into British waters, to save them from just and lawful pursuit
by the authorities of the United States; that the merchandise, chiefly
of flour, sugar, and iron, which constituted that freight, was openly
and boldly sold at wasteful prices by the pirates to British subjects,
resident in the aforesaid provinces, who had full knowledge that the
same had been obtained by piracy, and who, by such purchase, became
parties in that crime; that, although all the pirates took refuge within
British jurisdiction, no process has been issued for their arrest or
that of their accomplices, nor any pursuit of them instituted, except on
the application of this government, and that when three of them were
arrested within British jurisdiction and secured, by agents of the
United States, their arrest by the British authorities was prevented and
defeated by a mob of the citizens of Halifax. I have already, by the
President’s direction, instructed you to represent to her Majesty’s
government that the United States are aggrieved by the refusal of the
authorities of Nova Scotia to surrender the steamer Chesapeake to her
owners. I have now to add to that instruction a further one, under which
you will represent to Earl Russell the grievances especially set forth
in this despatch. The President does not allow himself to doubt that her
Majesty’s government will disapprove of these illegal proceedings, and
order restitution in the premises. He thinks that the occasion is a
fitting one for directing the notice of that government to the painful
fact that while it has proclaimed neu-notice of that government to the
painful facts that while it has proclaimed neutrality in regard to the
civil war in the United States, the insurgents are continually receiving
direct and and co-operation from British subjects in several seaports of
the realm, and hostilities are also carried on against the United States
by British subjects, under the cover of that neutrality, from British
provincial ports, throughout a line extending from the Bahamas through
the Atlantic ports of British North America, and reaching to the Cape of
Good Hope. I forbear from adding to what I have recently had occasion to
say concerning the cause of these proceedings, their tendency, and the
necessary remedy.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,