William L. Dayton to William H. Seward, June 17, 1864

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward

Sir: You will, doubtless, have received, before this, notice of the arrival of the Alabama in the port of Cherbourg, and my protest to this government against the extension of any accommodations to this vessel. M. Drouyn de l’Huys yesterday informed me that they had made up their minds to this course, and he gave me a copy of the written directions, given by the minister of marine to the vice-admiral, maritime prefect at Cherbourg, a translation of which accompanies this despatch. But he, at the same time, informed me that the United States ship-of-war the Kearsarge had appeared off the port of Cherbourg, and there was danger of an immediate fight between those vessels. That the Alabama professes its entire readiness to meet the Kearsarge, and he believed that each would attack the other as soon as they were three miles off the coast. That a sea fight would thus be got up in the face of France, and at a distance from their coast within reach of the guns used on shipboard in these days. That the distance to which the neutral right of an adjoining government extended itself from the coast was unsettled, and that the reason of the old rules, which assumed that three miles was the outermost reach of a cannon shot, no longer existed, and that, in a word, a fight on or about such a distance from their coast would be offensive to the dignity of France, and they would not permit it. I told him that no other rule than the three-mile rule was known or recognized as a principle of international law; but if a fight were to take place, and we would lose nothing and risk nothing by its being further off, I had, of course, no objection. I had no wish to wound the susceptibilities of France by getting up a fight within a distance which made the cannon shot liable to fall on her coast. I asked him if he would put his views and wishes on this question in writing, and he promised me to do so. I wrote to Captain Winslow this morning, and herewith enclose you a copy of my letter. I have carefully avoided in this communication anything which would tend to make the Kearsarge risk anything by yielding what seemed to me an admitted right.

To deliver this letter, and understand some other matters in respect to the alleged sale of the clipper ships at Bordeaux, I have sent my son to Cherbourg.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,