Surrender of Fort Sumter.

The insurgents to issue letters of marque.

and Great Britain, but also in consequence of the voluntary promise of Lord Russell, that an opportunity would be afforded them to explain their views and purposes through their newly selected and specially trusted representative; and least of all had they cause to anticipate that a government which they supposed to be in sympathy with their policy as to African slavery, would precipitate a decision as to the insurgents, which was so obviously injurious to the United States, as to almost appear to have been designedly so.

The delay upon which the Government of the United States relied to firmly secure the loyalty of the Border States, and their aid in inducing the peaceable return of the Gulf States, was interrupted by the attack upon Fort Sumter, made by order of the Government at Montgomery. This attack ended in the surrender of the garrison on the 13th of April. This was followed on the 15th of April by a 'Proclamation of the President, calling out the militia, and convening an extra session of Congress on the 4th day of the next July.

On the 17th of April, Mr. 'Jefferson Davis gave notice that letters of marque would be granted by the persons who had attempted to establish a

1 Vol. I, page 16.

2 Appleton's Annual Cyclopædia, 1861, page 137.

Government at Montgomery, by usurping the authority of the United States.

Proclamation giving notice of

Objects of that proclamation.

On the 19th of April, President Lincoln issued a Proclamation, declaring that a blockade of the blockade. ports within the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas would be established for the purpose of collecting the revenue in the disturbed part of the country, and for the protection of the public peace, and of the lives and properties of quiet and orderly citizens, until Congress should assemble. That body was summoned to assemble on the fourth day of the following July.

The full text of this Proclamation will be found in Vol. I, page 21.

In the course of the discussion between the two Governments growing out of the war, it has been repeatedly asserted that Her Majesty's Government was induced to confer upon the insurgents in the South the status of belligerents, in consequence of the receipt of the news of the President's Proclamation of April 19. The United States are therefore forced to invite the patience of the Board of Arbitrators, while they establish, from conclusive proof, that Her Majesty's Government is mistaken in that respect.

The joint action of France invited

Before any armed collision had taken place, there existed an understanding between Her Majesty's by Great Britain.

of France invited

by Great Britain.

The joint action Government and the Government of the Emperor of the French, with a view to securing a simultaneous and identical course of action of the two Governments on American questions. It is within the power of the British Government to inform the Arbitrators when that understanding was reached. The fact that it had been agreed to by the two governments was communicated to Mr. Dallas, by Lord John Russell, on the 1st day of May, 1861.'

ich

There was nothing in the previous relations between Great Britain and the United States, made it necessary for Her Majesty's Government to seek the advice, or to invite the support of the Emperor of the French, in the crisis which was threatened. The United States are at a loss to conjecture what inducement could have prompted such an act, unless it may have been the perception on the part of Her Majesty's Government that it was in its nature not only unfriendly, but almost hostile to the United States.

When the news of the bloodless attack upon Fort Sumter became known in Europe, Her Majesty's Government apparently assumed that the time had come for the joint action which had been previously agreed upon; and, without waiting to learn the purposes of the United States, it

Mr. Dallas to Mr. Seward, May 2, 1861. Vol. I, p. 33-34.

announced its intention to take the first step by recognizing the insurgents as belligerents.

When the President's Proclama

in Great Britain.

The President's Proclamation, which has since been made the ostensible reason for this deter- tion was received mination, was issued on the 19th of April, and was made public in the Washington newspapers of the morning of the 20th. An imperfect copy of it was also telegraphed to New York, and from thence to Boston, in each of which cities it appeared in the newspapers of the morning of the 20th.

The New York papers of the 20th gave the substance of the Proclamation, without the official commencement and close, and with several errors of more or less importance.

The Boston papers of the same date, in addition to the errors in the New York copy, omitted the very important statement in regard to the collection of the revenue, which appears in the Proclamation as the main cause of its issue.

During the morning of the 19th of April, a riot took place in Baltimore, which ended in severing direct communication, by rail or telegraph, between Washington and New York. Telegraphic communication was not restored until the 30th of the month. The regular passage of the mails and trains was resumed about the same time. It appears by a dispatch from Lord Lyons to Lord

When the Pres- John Russell that the mails had not been resumed.

ident's Proclamation was received in Great Britain.

on the 27th.1

It is absolutely certain that no full copy of the text of the Proclamation could have left Washington by the mails of the 19th, and equally certain that no copy could have reached New York from Washington after the 19th for several days.

On the 20th the steamer Canadian sailed from Portland, taking the Boston papers of that day, with the imperfect copy of the Proclamation, in which the clause in regard to the collection of the revenue was suppressed. This steamer arrived at Londonderry on the 1st of May, and the "Daily News" of London, of the 2d of May, published the following telegraphic items of news: "President Lincoln has issued a Proclamation, declaring a blockade of all the ports in the seceded States. The Federal Government will condemn as pirates all privateer-vessels which may be seized by Federal ships." The Canadian arrived at Liverpool on the 2d of May, and the "Daily News," of the 3d, and the "Times," of the 4th of May, published the imperfect Boston copy of the Proclamation in the language as shown in the note below. No other than the Boston copy of the

1 Blue Book, North America, No. 1, 1862, page 26.

2 The following is the President's Proclamation of the blockade of the Southern ports:

"An insurrection against the Government of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,