A World on Fire_ Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War - Amanda Foreman [460]
41. Patrick Sowle, “A Reappraisal of Seward’s Memorandum of April 1, 1861, to Lincoln,” Journal of Southern History, 33/2 (May 1967), pp. 234–39.
42. Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 66, April 9, 1861.
43. Ibid., p. 77, April 15, 1861.
44. Martin Crawford (ed.), William Howard Russell’s Civil War: Private Diary and Letters, 1861–1862 (Athens, Ga., 1992), p. 43, William Howard Russell to Lord Lyons, April 19, 1861.
45. Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 92, April 18, 1861.
46. Ibid., p. 95, April 20, 1861.
47. There is still a lively debate as to whether the United States was right to have chosen a blockade over port closures. As Howard Jones has noted, the U.S. Constitution deemed that all ports must be treated on an equal basis. Lincoln did not have the legal power to close only the Southern ports and leave the Northern ones open. He would either have to shut every port in the country, or declare that Northern ports were exempt from closure since they were not part of the United States, which would have been absurd. Jones, Blue and Gray Diplomacy (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2009), p. 56.
48. A letter of marque (marque meaning “frontier”) was a cheap way for countries without a navy to wage war against an enemy’s shipping. By international law, any captain with a vessel could become a privateer if issued with one. Thus shielded by the law, he could roam the sea, seizing enemy ships and taking them before an admiralty court. There it would be decided whether or not the ship was a legal prize and not, for example, the property of a neutral state. If judged a legal prize, the ship would be condemned and captain and crew entitled to the profits. Roland R. Foulke, A Treatise on International Law, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1920), vol. 2, p. 244. The last country to offer letters of marque was Mexico in 1847.
49. The declaration had four salient points: 1. Privateering is, and remains, abolished; 2. The neutral flag covers enemy’s goods, with the exception of contraband of war; 3. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under enemy’s flag; 4. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective. Also, the declaration was only binding upon countries that had signed the treaty.
50. Adams, “The British Proclamation of May, 1861,” p. 218.
51. Ibid., p. 220, Lord Lyons to Lord John Russell, May 6, 1861.
52. In Lyons’s words, “It may be impossible to deter this Government from offering provocations to Great Britain, which neither our honour nor our interest will allow us to brook.” Ibid., Lord Lyons to Lord John Russell, May 20, 1861.
53. Ibid., Lord Lyons to Lord John Russell, May 6, 1861.
54. Adams, Charles Francis Adams, 1835–1915, p. 89.
55. Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 126, May 7, 1861.
56. Ibid., p. 104, April 27, 1861.
57. The Times, April 30, 1861.
58. Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 119, May 5, 1861.
59. The Times, May 7, 1861.
60. Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 124, May 7, 1861.
61. Adams, “The British Proclamation of May, 1861,” p. 207, Consul Bunch to Lord John Russell, February 28, 1861.
62. Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 128, May 7, 1861.
63. Crawford (ed.), William Howard Russell’s Civil War, p. 52, May 7, 1861.
64. Robert Douthat Meade, Judah P. Benjamin: Confederate Statesman (Baton Rouge, La., 2001), pp. 172, 175.
65. Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 128, May 7, 1861.
66. Meade, Judah P. Benjamin, p. 172.
67. Ibid., p. 166. During his long imprisonment after the war, Jefferson Davis allegedly told his doctor that he had wanted to send 3 million bales of cotton to Europe before the blockade took effect. It never happened because he “had not time to study and take the responsibility of directing until too late.” Prison Life of Jefferson Davis by