William L. Dayton to Winslow, United States Ship Kearsarge, June 15, 1864

Mr. Dayton to Captain Winslow

Sir: This will be delivered to you by my son and assistant secretary of legation. I have had a conversation this afternoon with M. Drouyn de l’Huys, minister of foreign affairs. He says they have given the Alabama notice that she must leave Cherbourg; but in the mean time you have come in and are watching the Alabama, and that this vessel is anxious to meet you, and he supposes you will attack her as soon as she gets three miles off the coast. That this will produce a fight which will be at best a fight in waters which may or may not be French waters, as accident may determine. That it would be offensive to the dignity of France to have a fight under such circumstances, and France will not permit it. That the Alabama shall not attack you, nor you her, within the three miles, or on or about that distance off. Under such circumstances I do not suppose that they would have, on principles of international law, the least right to interfere with you if three miles off the coast; but if you lose nothing by fighting six or seven miles off the coast instead of three, you had best do so. You know better than I (who have little or no knowledge of the relative strength of the two vessels) whether the pretence of the Alabama of a readiness to meet you is more than a pretence, and I do not wish you to sacrifice any advantage if you have it. I suggest only that you avoid all unnecessary trouble with France; but if the Alabama can be taken without violating any rules of international law, and may be lost if such a principle is yielded, you know what the government would expect of you. You will, of course, yield no real advantage to which you are entitled, while you are careful to so act as to make, uselessly, no unnecessary complications with the government. I ought to add that Mr. Seward’s despatch, dated May 20, 1864, was in the following words: “The Niagara will proceed with as much despatch as possible to cruise in European waters, and that the Dictator, so soon as she shall be ready for sea, (which is expected to be quite soon,) will follow her, unless, in the mean time, advices from yourself and Mr. Adams shall be deemed to furnish reasons for a change of purpose in that respect.” That you may understand exactly the condition of things here in regard to the Alabama, I send you herewith a copy of a communication from the minister of marine of the naval prefect at Cherbourg, furnished me by the minister of foreign affairs.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

The Minister of the Marine and the Colonies to Monsieur the Vice-Admiral, maritime prefect at Cherbourg.

We cannot permit the Alabama to enter into one of our basins of the arsenal, that not being indispensable to place it in a state to go again to sea. This vessel can address itself to commerce, (commercial accommodations,) for the urgent repairs it has need of to enable it to go out; but the principles of neutrality, recalled in my circular of the 5th of February, do not permit us to give to one of the belligerents the means to augment its forces, and in some sort to rebuild itself: in fine, it is not proper that one of the belligerents take, without ceasing, our ports, and especially our arsenals, as a base of their operations, and, so to say, as one of their own proper ports.

You will observe to the captain of the Alabama that he has not been forced to enter into Cherbourg by any accidents of the sea, and that he could altogether as well have touched at the ports of Spain or Portugal, of England, of Belgium, and of Holland.

As to the prisoners made by the Alabama, and who have been placed ashore, they are free from the time they have touched our soil; but they ought not to be delivered up to the Kearsarge, which is a federal ship-of-war. This would be for the Kearsarge an augmentation of military force, and we can no more permit this for one of the belligerents than for the other.