public interest, which I consider you have sacrificed by the injudicious and unfair agreement you have made. Time or space will not permit me to comment upon this agreement as it deserves; it is unfair to the government both in its language as well as its substance or terms. I will only notice one matter: it gives them £150,000 which belonged to the government of the United States. They are to be paid this first out of the property in their hands. The surplus, if any, is to come to the United States. This sacrifice was unnecessary, and is just the same in practical effect as if you had given away out of the treasury of the United States this amount of money. If you answer that they would have been entitled, under Vice-Chancellor Wood's opinion, to their liens, I answer that this opinion was delivered in a preliminary stage of the case, and when the facts were not before him, and there is no good reason for saying that even he would have adhered to this opinion upon a final hearing, when all the facts and the whole case were before him; much less that our government would consent to such a ruling, when there was an appeal from him to the chancellor and then to the House of Lords. As the matter stands, even under Vice-Chancellor Wood's opinion, there is £20,000 secured to the government, and we have their securities for the payment of this sum. This much was certain. By your arrangement you give this up, release the securities, rely upon the individual liability of the firm for whatever, if anything, might be realized over and above £150,000. I have no right to anticipate the final result, or the amount that may ever find its way to the United States treasury from this source under your agreement, if carried into effect. I hope it may be a very large sum, but shall be disappointed in my expectations if it amounts to the sum now secured in the one suit which you now agree to abandon. As I was especially instructed by the State Department to institute the suit for an account against the firm of Fraser, Trenholm & Co., and that suit has been commenced and prosecuted under and by direction of the Secretary of State, of which fact you and Mr. Gibbs were both informed by me previous to your making the agreement, and the other suit, called the cotton case, has been conducted under and by direction of the State Department, I must decline for the present to discontinue them, especially when by so doing I shall release the securities which the government now has in one of the cases. I feel I have no authority or right to do so. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, F. H. MORSE, Esq., THOMAS H. DUDLEY. United States Consul, London. Mr. Morse to Mr. Dudley. UNITED STATES CONSULATE, London, November 19, 1866. SIR: Referring to your letter to me of the 15th instant, permit me to say that I very much regret that it was not in a tone and spirit that would permit me to reply to it. I had hoped you would see the great advantage, viewed in any light, in settling up all these perplexing matters, instead of rushing them into the courts of this country, perhaps to remain for years before the end is reached, without advantage to any one but the legal gentlemen engaged. Your cordial aid and co-operation would be far more agreeable to me than encountering your opposition at all points. In regard to the statements in my letter to you I will meet what you say in regard to them by simply declaring that they were all true. I did not know of your absence from your post until it was too late for you to reach Liverpool before Wednesday, and I did hasten to inform you of our arrangement with Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co. as soon as I knew where to reach you. My letter must have been in Liverpool when you arrived there on your return from the continent. In reply to your letter of the 17th, I have to inform you that I have nothing whatever to do with Messrs. Fawcett, Preston & Co. I have had no communication with them either directly or indirectly. While Mr. Gibbs and I were settling with Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co., Mr. Hull received a notice of your proceedings against Fawcett, Preston & Co., and made the remark that you were on the wrong track, and that we should get that property under the settlements we were making. This is substantially, if not precisely, what was said, and there the subject dropped, and I have heard nothing more of it until the receipt of your letter this morning. If we can have this property without expense and without resort to legal proceedings, what objection have you or what objection can be raised by any one? I hope we shall not be obliged to ask the courts to dismiss the suits against Fraser, Trenholm & Co. on the very full and complete authority I hold for making such settlements as I deem expedient and just with persons holding property once rebel. I shall avoid this course if possible, but must resort to it if you continue to decline to take the initiative. Why can't we act in harmony when it is permitted us by others on such matters? Such certainly is my wish. Your obedient servant, United States Consul at Liverpool. T. H. DUDLEY, Esq., F. H. MORSE. Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. [Telegram per cable.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 29, 1866. Disavow and reject, in the name of the United States, the whole arrangement made by Consul Morse and Montgomery Gibbs with Fraser, Trenholm & Co. Give notice of this to consuls at London and Liverpool, and to solicitors, and reply by telegraph. Also communicate the following to Mr. Consul Morse. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. F. H. MORSE, United States Consul at London: You will come home without delay, to make explanations. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. [Telegram per cable.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, December 1, 1866. Contract disavowed; no harm done. You will learn more by my letter due on Wednesday. If my plan be adopted Morse would be of use here. He will wait orders after you see my report. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. No. 1282.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: In reference to the subject of my despatch No. 1277, sent to the department last week, I have the honor to report that at the meeting of the court on Monday last the counsel for Mr. Prioleau, having received information from Mr. Morse of the position which had been taken by me, declined to proceed with their motion at that time, and obtained a continuance. Hence the whole business stood suspended until information could be had from the government. Yesterday I received your telegram of the 29th ultimo, and took the earliest opportunity to communicate the contents to Mr. Morse. I directed him at once to notify Mr. Prioleau that the arrangement made was disavowed by the government, which he promised to do. I have also notified the consul at Liverpool of the same fact, and have directed him to proceed with his solicitors just as if nothing of the kind had been attempted. Should you, however, deem the course advisable which I suggested in my despatch, it may admit of question, whether the absence of Mr. Morse might not prove an obstacle to the progress of an agent in making the desired settlement. Mr. Morse is possessed of much information, which would be of great value in directing his efforts, and difficult to be got from elsewhere. Although he has certainly been precipitate, and, perhaps, overreached by more cunning parties than himself in this transaction, that would not prevent his co-operation from being useful under a new chief. I do not entertain a doubt of his motives throughout. Hence I have hesitated to advise him at once to obey the requisition made upon him in your telegram. Should you, however, after a full exami nation of the whole case as presented by all the reports subsequently received from here, still deem it proper that he should come home, I have suggested to him the propriety of making such arrangements of his business in the interval as may enable him to embark at a moment's warning, through the telegraph or otherwise. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. No. 1284.] Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have to acknowledge the reception of despatches from the department numbered from 1874 to 1877 inclusive. Little has happened of material consequence during the past week. The great reform demonstration, in this place, which had been looked forward to with apprehension by many of the conservative class, lest it should be attended by some of the events of last summer, passed off in a most quiet and orderly manner. This was, no doubt, in part owing to the previous wet weather, which had made the streets very muddy, and to the heavy rain actually falling throughout the day. Nothing could be more unpropitious. Nevertheless, the lowest calculation estimates the number of the procession at 25,000. There is a prevailing tone of exultation in the press at this result, as if it in any way proved the want of interest of the working classes in the proposed extension of the franchise. It seems to me, on the contrary, rather to show the force of the demand when unaccompanied by the wholly extrinsic elements which go to the formation of a proper London mob. There can be no doubt that had the weather been fine, the multitude gathered together might have been ten times as great. But, in that contingency, it is not unlikely that excesses would have been committed by some of the worst classes, which would have cast a discredit upon the general proceedings that no effort of the more responsible portion could have entirely thrown off. As it is, the conviction grows more and more general that some attempt must be made at the next session of Parliament to satisfy this popular uneasiness. It is now believed that a measure may be brought forward by the present ministry, though no idea is yet formed of its nature or extent. Parliament will probably be summoned for the despatch of business on the 6th of February next. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. No. 1286.] Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: In conversation with Lord Stanley, at a private house, the other day, he gave me to understand that his answer to your despatch was prepared, and that, according to the forms customary in such cases, it would be sent through Sir F. Bruce, in the same manner that yours was sent through me. At the same time, he promised to send me a copy for my information. On Wednesday evening, accordingly, I received from his lordship, in a note marked private, two printed copies of the two despatches. They correspond in substance with what I had expected. Notwithstanding the reserves in the argument designed to save the honor of the preceding government, the substantial point of reopening negotiation seems to be conceded. I trust it may be the means of ultimately arriving at some form of settlement. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. No. 1287.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: The uneasiness in Ireland occasioned by the declarations made in America, and the announcement of the subsequent departure of Stephens, with the avowed intention of heading an insurrection, has increased to such a degree as to put a stop to many of the operations of business. Arrests are made of suspected individuals in all directions; new regiments of troops are sent over from this kingdom, and all the apparatus of war put into requisition in expectation of an outbreak. The true grounds for this alarm do not appear in any distinct form to the general public. Neither have the examinations of the arrested parties thus far elicited any material evidence to incriminate them. Yet the feelings of the army and the loyal classes are becoming so much excited, that if any rising should be attempted I much fear it will not be treated with the same lenity that has thus far prevailed. There is yet existing the old Orange hatred, which will need only some pretext to break out with its ancient fury. I trust that the precautions taken may be sufficient to prevent any feeble demonstration, that might only serve to develope this ferocity without doing. good to any one. As yet I do not learn that any of the persons arrested claim to be citizens of the United States, with one exception, that of James Donnelly, who has been liberated on a representation made in his favor by Mr. West. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. No. 1288.] Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Having received an intimation from Lord Stanley that he would like to see me, I called at the foreign office yesterday, and had an interview with him. His object he said was to make a statement to me in regard to the demand by you for copies of the record of the trial of Lynch and McMahon in the court of Canada, for participation in the attack on Fort Erie. Accordingly he read from a memorandum the statement herewith transmitted as copied from the paper left by him with me for the purpose. I remarked to his lordship that inasmuch as I had not been the medium of communication through which this demand was made, it might be perhaps advisable for me to endeavor to define to him my impression of the nature of the case as gathered from the documents supplied for my information, so that I might be corrected if I was wrong. I understood that your demand for the copies referred to had been made in the first place in a letter to Sir Frederick Bruce, and through him to the authorities in Canada; that the question thus made had been referred by the latter to her Majesty's government for consideration and a decision here; that the paper now read to me was that decision, which in substance was intended to grant the application, at the same time precluding any inferences that might be drawn from the concession as a matter of right; and lastly that this paper had been placed in my hands with a view to my transmission of a copy of it to my gov ernment. His lordship assented to this statement of the transaction, and the conversation on the subject dropped, with a remark on my part that I should at once transmit the paper as desired. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Substance of a statement made to Mr. Adams. We cannot admit that the United States government are entitled, as of right, to demand copies of the record of the trial and conviction of the prisoners Lynch and McMahon, but we see no objection to copies being furnished in this case; and though declining to give an absolute pledge, we shall, as a general rule, not object to supply them in future cases. Her Majesty's government will, undoubtedly, examine the judicial proceedings, as requested by Mr. Seward, with a careful regard to the rights of the United States, and to maintenance of good relations; but, in doing so, we must guard ourselves against the supposition that we regard the local tribunals as likely to deal with the cases before them otherwise than justly. As to the adoption, generally, of a policy of leniency, it is to be observed that such has been for many years past the custom of the British government in political cases, e. g., in 1848, when Smith O'Brien made his attempt at insurrection. We think that policy sound, and intend to follow it, but with this reservation, that, if leniency fails in its effect, and fresh disturbances are attempted, we may be compelled, with whatever reluctance, to adopt a different course. Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. No. 1885.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 10, 1866. SIR: Your despatch of the 23d of November, No. 1275, is received and approved. In regard to our claims on the ground of violations of neutrality, I think the President's message well expresses the sense and the feelings of Congress and the people of the United States. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHALES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. |