of carrying from her shores, for consumption by the people of the United States, more than half of her entire coffee crop, amounting in value to between fifteen and twenty millions of dollars. The United States, as one of the earliest friends of Brazil, most sedulously cultivates her friendship and buys from her and consumes more than half of her great staple, although Brazil takes from the United States in exchange less than two millions of her products; leaving a balance against the United States of nearly or quite fifteen millions of dollars annually, which is liquidated in gold; and if she were now promptly to refuse admission within her ports of every production of Brazil, both your excellency and all civilized communities would be compelled to concede that it would be no more than just, provided the government of Brazil were to indorse and approve of the gross breach of neutrality so openly and insultingly perpetrated by the governor of Maranham.

But the undersigned has no apprehensions on this subject. While feeling deeply, and prepared to resent warmly, this outrage upon the rights of his country, this attempt to exalt the traitors now in rebellion against his Government into the equals of that country, this insulting assumption that the piratical vessel of a band of rebels without a flag, a government, or a nationality, is in all things the peer of the United States of America, and entitled at the hands of Brazil to equal honor, consideration, and hospitality, he does not for a moment doubt that the government of Brazil will take an early occasion to disclaim the insult which has been offered to the United States of America by the conduct of the governor of Maranham, in giving material aid and protection to a piratical vessel, especially chartered to prey upon American commerce, and also for the language used in his reply to the consul of the United States. He is not only encouraged in this conclusion by his confidence in the friendly feelings of the government of Brazil toward the United States, but by the explicit

declaration of your excellency in the general assembly of Brazil in August last, [9] in relation to this very question, involving the treatment of rebel privateers

by the authorities of Brazil. And even if he could permit himself to doubt the friendly feelings and intentions of the Brazilian government toward the United States, which he certainly cannot and does not, he feels asssured that your excellency will concede that, even if our rebels were our equals and had been acknowledged by all the powers of the world as possessing a nationality and the right to issue letters of marque which nationality confers, the conduct of the governor of Maranham would have constituted a gross breach of neutrality, calling for rebuke and punishment. Vattel, than whom is no better authority in regard to the duties and rights of neutrals, thus simply and plainly discourses on the subject:

"Neutrals can give no assistance when there is no previous stipulations to give it, nor voluntarily furnish troops, arms, ammunition, or anything of direct use in war." Apply the language of Vattel," or anything of direct use in war," to the governor of Maranham's deliberate assertion that it was his right to give to the pirate Sumter the necessary "provisions and coals for the continuance of her voyage," and the absurdity and wickedness of that position becomes manifest. Without the coals (contraband of war) which the officer of the government of Brazil permitted the Sumter to receive in the port of Maranham, it is admitted by that officer himself that the pirate steamer could not have continued her voyage of extermination against the commerce of the United States on the coast of Brazil; and this isolated fact clearly characterizes the nature of the offense of which he has been guilty and the flagrant breach of neutrality involved in it, and in addition furnishes ground for conjecture in regard to the extent of mischief which it is too probable has arisen from it. It cannot be unknown to your excellency that in consequence of this piratical steamer having thus been supplied by an officer of the Brazilian government with the provisions and coals necessary to continue her voyage against the commerce of the United States, not less than thirty vessels sailing under the flag of our country are now lying idle in this harbor of Rio Janeiro, blockaded by a corsair virtually fitted out anew in a Brazilian port, and by an officer of the Brazilian government; and that American merchants, after having purchased cargoes of coffee, the great staple of Brazil, are compelled to permit their own ships to lie idle, at enormous expense, while they charter the vessels of other powers to transport their purchases of Brazilian products to the ports of the United States. And all this because an officer of the government of Brazil has violated his duty, and virtually armed a freebooter and pirate against American commerce.

The undersigned desires to be distinctly understood that in quoting from Vattel the clearly defined rights and duties of neutrals, he does not, either for himself or in behalf of his Government, concede to the rebels any of the rights of belligerents, or to nations in amity with the United States the power to concede them such rights, and the further right of assuming for themselves the privileges and immunities of neutrals. Traitors in rebellion against the Government of the United States occupy temporarily a position which, in consequence of the climate by which they are surrounded, renders them inaccessible for a few months. In the mean time the Government of the United States organizes, equips, and calls into the field, for the purpose of putting down the rebellion, a larger army than is possessed by any other government on earth, whether

barbarian or civilized. This army is composed of material which a distinguished English writer says never has been equaled; it is furnished with all the arms and materials of war known to modern warfare; and it possesses a commissariat, quartermas ter's department, and wagon train which has never been surpassed in any European army. No statesman doubts the result. Not one moment of unnecessary delay has been permitted to suspend the right of our Government to put down the rebellion. We neither ask nor desire unusual time to punish the traitors and restore peace to the country, but stand pledged to the world-a pledge guaranteed by our actions-to bring this disturbance to an end at the earliest day that Providence, by the alternations of the seasons, will permit. And if it be the right of every sovereign nation to compel obedience to law and suppress rebellion, then most assuredly the nation thus called upon to discharge a great duty, not only to itself but to the cause of good order and legitimate government throughout the world, is entitled to a reasonable time within which to perform it; and every attempt on the part of other nations to abridge that time, or to claim for themselves the rights of neutrals as between the nation so situated and its rebels, is absolutely unfriendly, and calculated, if not intended, to embarrass her. We deny in toto the right of any friendly nation to degrade the United [10] States to the condition of our rebels, or to exalt them to our position, by de

nominating them" belligerents" until within reasonable time we shall have made an effort to put down the insurrection which now exists. When that attempt has been made without unnecessary delay and failed, then, and not till then, may they be termed "belligerents;" and then, and not till then, may other nations place themselves in the position of "neutrals" in regard to us and our rebels. The undersigned is aware that England hastened to take the position that our rebels are belligerents simply because she hoped thus to avoid the necessity of capturing the rebel privateers as pirates, and that her act has been followed by other powers. But the act was deemed hasty and ill-timed, even by the English public, and was far from being considered a friendly one by the American people; and time will demonstrate that it was as unwise as it was manifestly unfriendly and unneighborly. When a rebellion occurs in any wellregulated community and the government is proceeding with all haste to put it down, it is not a friendly act in other governments to interfere pending the measures resorted to to suppress such rebellion and declare such rebels belligerents, and assume to themselves the rights and the positions of neutrals. And the day will come in the history of the world when those who have inaugurated this practice for purely selfish purposes may have cause sincerely to regret it.

The undersigned is led into these remarks by the attempt on the part of the governor of Maranham to assume for the government of Brazil the simple and well-defined rights and duties of a neutral, which the undersigned insists is not her actual position in regard to the rebellion now existing in the United States, and which, even if such were the position of Brazil, has been grossly violated by the governor of Maranham. Brazil has other and higher duties to perform toward her friend, neighbor, and chief customer; and it will not be until after the United States, in the approaching winter months, has made the attempt and failed to put down the existing rebellion, that Brazil, or any other friendly power, will, in a moral point of view and by the universal standard of right and wrong, be at liberty to treat our rebels as belligerents, and thus indirectly acknowledge their independence. But as the undersigned has said in a previous dispatch, "while the United States appreciate the good wishes of all who love order and maintain obedience to authority, they solicit no sympathy and will tolerate no interference from any quarter with their sovereign and inalienable right to put down rebellion and to punish traitors in the mode and after the manner which to them may seem expedient." All that is asked, therefore, of your excellency is:

First. Whether the government of Brazil has been officially advised of the visit of the piratical privateer Sumter to the port of Maranham, and of the fact that she was there permitted, in the language of the governor, to lay in the necessary "provisions and coals to continue her voyage," which is well known to have for its sole object the capture of American vessels employed in peaceful commerce with Brazil ?

Second. Whether, as the undersigned hopes, and has some reason to believe, this gross violation of neutrality and most unfriendly act toward the United States has not already been disapproved by His Majesty's government; and if not, whether your excellency will not, at your earliest convenience, take the necessary measures to place this matter on a proper and friendly footing?

Third. Whether it is or is not the intention of the Brazilian government to permit the piratical letters of marque and privateers of the rebels of the United States to enter into the ports of Brazil, and there find succor and material aid-" provisions and coalto continue their voyages" against the commerce of the United States!

In conclusion, your excellency will perceive that in this dispatch the undersigned has intentionally avoided any consideration of the grave absurdity assumed by the governor of Maranham, that the piratical privateer Sumter is a "man-of-war." If the government of Brazil should ever fall into any such error, it will then become the duty of the undersigned to endeavor to correct the mistake; but until then it is passed by

as the vagary of one who, having knowingly done wrong, seeks to justify himself by an assumption created and adopted for the exigency.

Your excellency will perceive how desirable it is that the undersigned should be honored with a reply to this dispatch in time to be forwarded to his Government by the steamer of the 8th instant; because if this existing state of affairs is to be continued, clearing vessels from the ports of the United States to Brazil must be at once suspended by our Government, it being absolutely impossible to protect them against piratical cruisers, harbored and permitted to replenish their outfits in the numerous ports of this kingdom.

[11] *The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to his excellency his sincere personal respects and unfeigned regards, and desires to convey to him his most distinguished consideration.

His Excellency Senhor B. A. DE M. TAQUES,

Counselor and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

J. WATSON WEBB.

No. 4.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Webb.

[Extract.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, January 16, 1862.

SIR: Your dispatch of November 23, No. 5, has been received. The reasons why not only a good understanding but a cordial friendship should exist between Brazil and the United States are so many and so obvious, and the evidences of this conviction given by the Emperor on his part are so frank, that we should not willingly exaggerate the delay of the minister for foreign affairs to reply to your note on the subject of the proceedings of the governor of Maranham.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Rio Janeiro, December 23, 1861.

SIR: I forward herewith the reply of the secretary of state for foreign affairs to my dispatch of the 1st of November, on the subject of the pirate Sumter. My reply, marked No. 2, is the best commentary I can make upon this very extraordinary document.

The dispatch from the foreign office bears date December 9, and it reached me on the 13th. My reply, which bears date on the 17th, was not quite finished when the French steamer arrived, announcing the fact that one of the confederate cruisers had arrived at and was lying in the docks at Southampton. This fact will, of course, strengthen this government in its position, but it could not in any way affect or influence me in the course which my judgment and feelings had indicated as the one proper to adopt.

H. Ex. 324-47

The same steamer brought a telegram, said to have been received at Lisbon, announcing that one of our steamers-of-war had stopped, on the high seas, the British West India mail-packet from St. Thomas, and taken out of her the rebels and Ex-Senators Mason and Slidell. It, of course, produced great excitement here; and holding, as I do, that it is the imperative duty of a public minister to sustain, in every contingency, the action of his government, I could not resist a reference to our right to make such a seizure according to Lord Stowe, in consequence of our rebels having been recognized by England as belligerents. The reference will be found on page of my dispatch, and is based upon Wheaton, pp. 529 and 530.

I have made the necessary application for an exequatur in the case of Mr. Lindsay, which has issued accordingly.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. WATSON WEBB.

The undersigned, member of the council of His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, his minister and secretary of state for foreign affairs, has the honor to acknowledge the reception of the note which, under date of the 1st of November last, General J. W. Webb, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States of America, addressed to him, calling the attention of the undersigned to the procedures of the president of the province of Maranham in regard to the steamer Sumter, which made harbor there, carrying the flag of the States, so-called Confederate States of America, which find themselves in rebellion and at war against the United States.

By his note of the 6th of the same month, Mr. Webb transmitted to the undersigned copy of the protest which Commodore Porter, commanding the United States frigate Powhatan, presented to the president of Maranham, and as the grounds of that protest are the same as for the above-cited note of Mr. Webb, the undersigned, in responding to this, will have responded to the other.

Mr. Webb apprehends that the president of the province of Maranham, having allowed that steamer to remain for some days at the port of that capital, and permitted her to supply herself with coal, thereby grave offense was committed to his Government, and that neutrality broken which the imperial government declared it would strictly maintain during the strife which is prolonged in the United States. Mr. Webb entering into long disquisitions, in which the principles and rules of the law of nations are set forth in a mode which to the undersigned does not appear to be correct, concludes by asking three questions, to wit: first, whether the imperial government had received official notice of what occurred at Maranham in that emergency; second, whether the acts of the president of Maranham were not yet disapproved, and in such case if the undersigned would take the measures necessary to place this matter upon the footing of the proper relations of amity; third, whether it is the intention of the imperial government to permit the cruisers of the rebels in the United States to enter and procure in the ports succor and material aid for continuing their cruises against Amer

ican commerce.

Mr. Webb dwells upon showing that the United States constitute one of the great powers of the earth, which have always maintained their nationality against foreiga aggression, which, having at this day to suppress a rebellion of some States, shows means and resources superior to those which the most powerful nations in the world civilized or barbarian, have brought into action in their wars; and that as soon as the season admits of convenient military operations, the rebels will end their career on the scaffold or the gallows; that the United States are ancient friends of Brazil, which has

with them the most advantageous and extensive commerce, and that the States which entitle themselves confederate do not form a nation recognized by any power.

The undersigned, acknowledging the verity of the assertions of Mr. Webb in relation to the power and resources of the United States, to its friendly relations with Brazil, and the advantages of its trade, assures Mr. Webb that the government of Brazil offers up sincere prayers that God will suggest to the rulers of both the sections of said United States honorable meaus for ending the effusion of blood and all the calamities of civil

war.

That war is more terrible the greater the resources and the more numerous the armies, and nothing can be more injurious to the prosperity of the United States, as well as to the commerce of the civilized world, and especially of Brazil.

As for the Confederate States, not an act of the Brazilian government, or of its agents, not a single official assertion, can be produced which involves a recognition of those States as a nation sovereign and independent. What has happened at Maranham is in proof of this truth. The frigate Powhatan was received with demonstrations of courtesy which were due to the flag of a friendly nation; no salute was given to the flag borne by the Sumter, and that the opinion of the president of the province might be understood, the salute from that steamer was not added on the 7th of September to those of the vessels of war which celebrated the anniversary of the national independence.

The government of Brazil admits purely and simply that which it derives from the fact-notorious and incontestable-that the States referred to were found to be [13] swayed by a government de facto, acting with permanency, having in the field

an army of many tens of thousands of armed soldiery, armed and equipped in a manner which might make, and, in fact, does make war; that is, it recognizes in those States the rights and duties of belligerents in conformity with the law of nations. The convenience of trade, the usage of nations, and even humanity, counsel, under such conditions, this recognition, so that the evils inseparable from a state of war may be restricted to those whom the law of nations of the Christian world consider authorized to recur to this terrible necessity.

This attitude is what, in relation to the said States, the great maritime powers of Europe have taken; and the same fact, as well as the rights and duties of belligerents, has been recognized in the decisions of courts of justice in the United States.

Impartiality in the manner of treating both the contending parties, and consequently the recognition of the rights of belligerents, at the same time the interests of commerce also, and the love of peace, in the absence of engagements to the contrary, counsel neutrality.

Mr. Webb confounds, if it be permitted to say so, the recognition of a fact and of the rights of belligerents as the recognition of independence and sovereignty in behalf of the territory in rebellion.

Foreign powers are not judges between rebellious subjects and their sovereign or government; so, also, they are not judges between two nations. To be respected by them, they respect and treat both contracting parties with exact impartiality.

In like manner as a sovereign or government respected as legitimate would have the right to treat as an enemy any power which should give aid to its rebellious subjects, and obstruct the exercise of its rights to procure their submission, so also would rebels have the right to treat as enemies any power which should aid the sovereign or the government with which they are at war, or impede the undertaking of the measures proper to put an end to what they may suppose to be an oppression.

In civil wars one of the belligerents may disappear through submission, as in international war he may disappear through conquest. The conqueror has not the slightest right to call upon the powers who maintained an effective neutrality to give an account of the relations which they held during the war with those who were reduced to subjection by him.

Long since the treaty of 1630 between Spain and England, that of the Pyrenees of 1659 between France and Spain, and that of 1662 between England and Holland, all cited by Hautefeuille, proved the recognition of the right of holding relations with the Low Countries and with Portugal, revolted against Spain, as well as with any of the English or Dutch possessions in revolt against their sovereignties.

The undersigned might cite the opinions of celebrated authors. It suffices, however, that he refer to facts, and recalls what has been the practice of the government of the United States.

In the position in which, at this time, the States called confederate find themselves, some time since in America the United States found themselves, and, after them, Brazil and all the republics which were colonies of Spain; in Europe, Greece and Belgium, and, a little while since, Hungary, Italy, and other countries. Mr. Webb knows what were the principles, what the steady action which the powers of Europe adopted, and his own government, also, in relation to all those peoples. He knows that intercourse with them, and even the recognition of their independence, was never consid