Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series 1, Volume 6. Page: 55
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ATLANTIC BLOCKADING SQUADRON. 55
violations and restrictions will be prolific of diplomatic conflicts, end-
ing finally in war.
Great Britain wants our cotton, and under a blockade can concentrate
her navy at a given point on the coast or in the Gulf to obtain it. Our
Navy must be extended along our whole coast of nearly 3,000 miles,
with necessarily but few ships at any given point. She will by her
admirals declare the blockade broken or ineffective whenever it is the
pleasure of these commanders to say so, or, in plain words, whenever
cotton is wanted and there is a port where it is accumulated. She will
have a force sufficient, and the aid of the insurgents to enforce the edicts
of her admirals in their expositions of the effectiveness of the blockade
when it is for her interest. But, if our ports are closed, these disputes
and strifes will be closed with them. Great Britain may make war to
get cotton; may deny our nationality or our right to make uniform and
necessary laws and enforce them in our own territory, but she will hesi-
tate long before she makes this aggression, provided we respect our-
selves and maintain our own rights. I hope we shall not, by a spirit of
compromise and evasion, such as has brought the present disasters upon
the country, yield up national honor, national integrity, and national
independence under foreign dictation, but close our ports pursuant to
the act of Congress. The recent enactment was prompted, I have no
doubt, by the considerations here presented, and makes clear our path-
way. At the commencement of our difficulties there were embarrass-
ments as to our procedure from the absence of statutory regulations as
to the course which should be pursued to meet and quell the great con-
spiracy that had been matured against the Government.
On the impulse of the occasion, proceedings in the nature of a block-
ade were instituted. But the obscurity and doubt which then existed
no longer remain. Congress, as soon as convened, furnished a remedy
in the law authorizing the President to close the ports where duties
can not be collected nor the revenue officers sustained. The repre-
sentatives of the people promptly met the exigency, and by legal enact-
ment have clearly, distinctly, and emphatically marked out a plain and
direct course of procedure. It is one strictly national and rightful,
attended with no doubts or difficulties except from foreign interference,
which should not be permitted to control our internal domestic affairs
for a moment. Until the assembling of Congress we did the best that
circumstances and the then existing laws would allow, and in interdict-
ing commerce with the insurgents, we, as a matter of comity but not of
right, gave foreigners fifteen days to leave the ports, and warned off
such as approached the harbors in revolt by armed sentinels peforming
coast guard, or, as we have unfortunately termed it, blockade duty.
We have no revenue officers at the insurgent por+s, but there is a class
of persons there, acting under the pretended authority of what they call
the Confederate States, who assume to perform revenue functions.
Shall we recognize them or shall we not? Are their acts legal or are
they destitute of all legality? The doctrine of blockade presupposes
and admits a distinct nationality to the party blockaded; and if so, the
officers and their acts are legal. Whenever a vessel runs the blockade,
her clearance from authorities blockaded is legal, for the reason that
they are a different nationality.or they could not be blockaded; but a
vessel with clearances from usurpers in a port closed by national author-
ity is to be seized anywhere for violating revenue laws, and is subject
to fine or confiscation.
Am I to instruct our naval commanders to seize vessels having what
is called Confederate clearances whenever they meet them, or am I to
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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 6., book, 1897; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth192841/m1/78/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.