Right Hon. Earl Russell to Charles Francis Adams, May 6, 1862

Lord John Russell to Mr. Adams.

Sir: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 30th ultimo.

I am quite willing to leave the case of the Labuan to the zealous exertions of Lord Lyons. It is a plain case of justice, and the representations of her Majesty’s government with regard to it ought to be successful.

With regard to the “systematic plan” which you say has been pursued by her Majesty’s subjects “to violate the blockade by steady efforts,” there are some reflections which I am surprised have not occurred to you.

The United States government, on the allegation of a rebellion pervading from nine to eleven States of the Union, have now for more than twelve months endeavored to maintain a blockade of three thousand miles of coast. This blockade, kept up irregularly, but when enforced, enforced severely, has seriously injured the trade and manufactures of the United Kingdom. Thousands of persons are now obliged to resort to the poor rate for subsistence, owing to this blockade. Yet her Majesty’s government have never sought to take advantage of the obvious imperfections of this blockade, in order to declare it ineffective. They have, to the loss and detriment of the British nation, scrupulously observed the duties of Great Britain towards a friendly state. But when her Majesty’s government are asked to go beyond this, and to overstep the existing powers given them by municipal and international law for the purpose of imposing arbitrary restrictions on the trade of her Majesty’s subjects, it is impossible to listen to such suggestions. The ingenuity of persons engaged in commerce will always, in some degree, defeat attempts to starve or debar from commercial intercourse an extensive coast inhabited by a large and industrious population.

If, therefore, the government of the United States consider it for their interest to inflict this great injury on other nations, the utmost they can expect is that European powers shall respect those acts of the United States which are within the limits of the law. The United States government cannot expect that Great Britain should frame new statutes to aid the federal blockade, and to carry into effect the restrictions on commerce which the United States, for their own purposes, have thought fit to institute, and the application of which it is their duty to confine within the legitimate limits of international law.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,