Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series 1, Volume 1. Page: 144
xvii, 890 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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OPERATIONS OF THE CRUI8ERe-UNION.
That they were commissioners, I had ample proof from their own avowal,
and bent on mischievous and traitorous errands against our country,
to overthrow its institutions and enter into treaties and alliances with
foreign states, expressly forbidden by the Constitution. They had been
presented to the captain-general of Cuba by Her Britannic Majesty's
consul-general, but the captain-general told me that he had not received
them in that capacity, but as distinguished gentlemen and strangers.
I then considered them as the embodiment of dispatches, and as
they had openly declared themselves as charged with all authority from
the Confederate Government to form treaties and alliances tending to
the establishment of their independence, I became satisfied that their
mission was adverse and criminal to the Union, and it therefore became
my duty to arrest their progress and capture them, if they had no
passports or papers from the Federal Government, as provided for
under the law of nations, viz, that foreign ministers of a belligerent
on board of neutral ships are required to possess papers from the other
belligerent to permit them to pass free.
Report and their assumption gave them the title of ministers to
France and England, but inasmuch as they had not been received by
either of these powers I did not conceive they had any immunity
attached to their persons, and were but escaped conspirators, plotting
and contriving to overthrow the Government of the United States, and
they were therefore not to be considered as having any claim to the
immunities attached to the character they thought fit to assume. As
respects the steamer in which they embarked, I ascertained in The
Havannah that she was a merchant vessel plying between Vera Cruz,
The Havannah, and St. Thomas, carrying the mail by contract.
The agent of the vessel, the son of the British consul at Havana, was
well aware of the character of these persons; that they engaged their
passage and did embark in the vessel; his father had visited and
introduced them as ministers of the Confederate States on their way to
England and France. They went in the steamer with the knowledge
and by the consent of the captain, who endeavored afterwards to conceal
them by refusing to exhibit the passenger list and the papers of the
vessel. There can be no doubt he knew they were carrying highly
important dispatches and were endowed with instructions inimical to
the United States; this rendered his vessel (a neutral) a good prize,
and I determined to take possession of her, and, as I mentioned in my
report, send her to Key West for adjudication, where I am well satis-
fied she would have been condemned for carrying these persons, and
for resisting to be searched; the cargo also was liable, as all the ship-
pers were knowing to the embarkation of these live dispatches, and
their traitorous motives and actions to the Union of the United States.
I forbore to seize her, however, in consequence of my being so reduced
in officers and crew and the derangement it would cause innocent per-
sons, there being a large number of passengers wbo would have been
put to great loss and inconvenience as well as disappointment from the
interruption it would have caused them in not being able to join the
steamer from St. Thomas to Europe. I therefore concluded to sacrifice
the interests of my officers and crew in the prize, and suffered the
steamer to proceed, after the necessary detention to effect the transfer
of these commissioners, considering I had obtained the important end
I had in view, and which affected the interests of our country and
interrupted the action of that of the Confederates.
I would add that the conduct of Her Britannic Majesty's subjects, both
official and others, showed but little regard or obedience to her procla-144
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Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: General Index (Book)
General index listing persons, naval units, ships, battles, and major subject headings mentioned in the "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion" volumes. Listings include the numbers for the series (Roman numerals) and volume (Arabic numbers) where the reference(s) can be found.
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United States. War Department. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series 1, Volume 1., book, 1894; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth192836/m1/167/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.