Hi JAMES MURRAY MASON THE PUBLIC LIFE AND DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF JAMES M. MASON WITH SOME PERSONAL HISTORY BY VIRGINIA MASON (His DAUGHTER) Second Thousand NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1906 To the Young Men of Virginia I dedi cate this book -with the earnest prayer that it may be instrumental in arous ing them to a full sense of personal responsibility for the public weal, and in stimulating them to provide for their State an incorruptible govern ment administered by statesmen who regard public office as a sacred trust. COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY VIRGINIA MASON . CO,PY.RIGHT, 1906 BY VIR GINIA MASON PRINTED AND BOUND BY THE STONE PRINTING AND MANUFACTURING Co, ROANOKE, VIRGINIA INDEX. CHAPTER I. Lineage George Mason of Gunston Gen. John Mason Mrs. John Mason Life of Matron at that Day Birth of James M. Mason Incidents During Waf of 1812 The Chew Family Early Life in. Winchester The Young Lawyer and His Compeers as Described by Hon. H. A. Wise Marries Eliza M. Chew Early Married Life Described in Mrs. Mason s Letters. CHAPTER II 20 Elected to Legislature Political Creed Different Ideas in Convention of 1787 Regarding Functions of Federal Government Voted for Resolu tions Protesting Against Internal Improvement by Federal Government Defeated in Next Election Because of This Vote Card Explaining and Justifying His Position Re-elected to Legislature Letter from John Randolph of Roanoke Speech in Legislature Letters from Mrs. Mason Candidate for House of Representatives, Defeated Extract from Win chester Newspaper Domestic Life Appointed Member of Board of Visitors of University of Virginia No Personal Interest in Contest for Rights of Slaveholders Elected to House of Representatives Life and Friends in Washington. CHAPTER III 50 Elected to Senate Chairman of Committee on Claims Regent of Smith sonian Institute Excitement Throughout the States Caused by Efforts to Exclude Slavery from Oregon Speech on Oregon Bill Speech Oppos ing Creation of Department of Interior House of Representatives Financial Condition of the Country Separated from Administration Dropped by Democratic Party in Next Election Extract from Speech Extract from President s Message Letter to a Constituent. CHAPTER IV 71 Compromise of 18^0 Mr. Calhoun s Prophecy Mr. Mason Member of Committee of Thirteen He Dissents from Report of Committee The Union Party and the Secessionists. Reply to Invitation to Address Mass- meeting at Newmarket. California Admitted into Union Protest of Southern Senators Fugitive Slave Law Extract from Diary Re-elected to Senate Chairman of Committee on Foreign Relations New England Fisheries. CHAPTER V 94 Kossuth Speech on Intervention and Monroe Doctrine Know-Nothing Party President Pierce and His Cabinet Kansas-Nebraska Act Kansas Aid Society Senator Sumner s Speech and Mr. Mason s Reply Mr. Sumner Punished by Mr. Brooks. 32499* VI CHAPTER VI 117 Letter to Mr. Davis Letter Declining Invitation to Dinner Given to Elec toral College Tribute to Memory of Hon. A P. Butler Extract from Richmond Enquirer Re-elected to Senate Visit to Bunker Hill and to Boston "Kansas Letter" Speech on Admission of Kansas Speech in Opposition to Pacific Railroad Protest Against Bill Donating Public Lands to States that Provide Colleges for Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanical Arts John Brown Raid. CHAPTER VII 150 Disintegration of Democratic Party in 1860 Extract from Speech Made in Senate Mr. Seward s Speech in Boston Letter to Richmond Enquirer Conference of States proposed by Virginia Extracts from President Buchanan s Message and from Mr. Sickles Speech Mr. Mason s Re marks on Mr. Powell s Resolutions Remarks on Withdrawal of Six Senators Letter to His Daughter Letter to the People of Virginia Remarks on Peace Conference Letters from Senators Chandler and Bingham Petitions to Congress from the People of Northern States Remarks on Resolution to Expel Senator Wigfall, of Texas. CHAPTER VIII , .... 191 Secession of Virginia Winchester a Military Camp Seizure of Harper s Ferry Summer of 1861 in Winchester Appointed Commissioner to Eng land Letters from Charleston, from the San Jacinto, and from Port War- . ren His Own Account of His Capture and Imprisonment Release from Fort Warren and Arrival in London. CHAPTER IX 247 ""Instruction from State Department Dispatch from Richmond About the British Vessels "Bruce" and "Napier," and Denying Report the Confede rate States Government Had Prohibited Export of Cotton to Neutrals Letter from Mr. Mason to Mr. Hunter -English Sympathy with South s of Members of Parliament on Blockade and Recognition Inter view with Earl Russell Mr. Lindsay s Interview with the Emperor Visit of M. Mercier to Richmond a Mystery Cotton Famine Educated Classes in England Favor the South Private Letters. CHAPTER X 282 Dispatch from Richmond Tells of Victory at Hampton Roads Inaugura tion of Permanent Government Cabinet Fall of Forts Fisher and Don- elson General Buckner Captured Reverses at Nashville, Columbus, Roanoke Island Capture of Newbern and Washington, in North Caro lina Feeling of Southern People Resolution of Congress Never to Re- enter Union Battle in Arkansas Generals McCulloh and Mclntosh Killed Inefficiency of Blockade Mr. De Leon s Mission Recognition Would End the War Victory at Shiloh General A. S. Johnston KilledFall of Island No. 10 New Orleans Taken General B. F. But ler Visit of M. Mercier to Richmond Loss of Fort Pillow, Memphis and Western Tennessee - General Bragg Lieutenant Commander Brown General Jackson in Valley of Virginia Battle of Seven Pines General J. E. Johnston Wounded General Lee in Command Battles at Rich mond and Manassas Lee Enters Maryland Takes Harper s Ferry Battle at Sharpsburg General Loring s Success in West Virginia Gen eral Pope s Orders Letters from Earl Shaftsbury. Vll CHAPTER XI 310 Mr. De Leon Arrives in London Emperor Ready and Anxious for Recog nition; Has Pressed It Upon England Mr. Slidell Makes Formal De mand for Recognition Mr. Mason Makes Similar Demand of Earl Rus sell, which is Refused Russell Declines Interview Correspondence with Earl Russell Russell s Position Based on Seward s Report of Disaffec tion in South-- Discourtesy of Earl Russell Protest Against England s Position on Blockade Views of President Davis on the Attitude of the British Ministry British Cabinet Not Considered a Fair Exponent of the Sentiments and Opinions of the British Nation President Deems it Proper Mr. Mason Should Remain at His Post but Should Refrain from Further Communication with Earl Russell Unless it Should be Invited. CHAPTER XII 335 Mr. G. N. Saunders Commander Sinclair Suggested that Money Could be Commanded by Use of Obligation for Delivery of Cotton by the Gov ernment Emperor Strong for Recognition England s Scant Courtesy and French Polished Civility Private Memoranda Tells of English Sym pathy and Interest, and also of Hospitality and Kindness Extended to Him Acting-Midshipman Andrews, in Command of the Sumter, Killed by Master s-Mate Hester English Scheme to Raise Money on Cotton French Proposal for Loan Line of Steamships Betvyeen Europe and Con federacy Agreement with Erlanger & Co. Emancipation Proclamation Met with General Contempt and Derision Cotton Famine Fearful The Cruiser "Sumter" Sold to a British House English Property Taken by the "Alabama" and Earl Russell s Position Thereon. CHAPTER XIII 359 Brilliant Success of Confederate Loan England Apprehends Trouble with United States Correspondence with Earl Russell About Blockade De partment Sends Design of the Confederate Flag Description of Seal for Confederate States, with Instructions to Have it Made in England Mr. McCrea has Management of Loan Extracts from Private Letters Fed eral Recruiting in Ireland Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Lindsay Visit the Em peror Minutes of Their Conversation. CHAPTER XIV 393 Dispatch Irom Richmond Speaks of Future Commerce with Confederate States t)f Correspondence Between France, England, and Russia Re- farding an Armistice Private Letter Favorable Effect in England of outhern Victories Politics in the North Parties in Parliament Private Letter Conversation with Lord Donoughmore Department Refute Northern Reports Regarding Re-opening the Slave Trade Cotton Cer tificates from the Treasury the True Mode of Raising Money List of U. S. Vessels Destroyed by Confederates Blockade Raised at Charleston, Galveston, and Sabine Pass England Determined to Run No Risk of Trouble with United States. CHAPTER XV 426 Statue of Stonewall Jackson Dismissal of Both Consul Moore and Mr. Cridland State of Alabama Pays Interest to English Creditors Prisoner Hester Reverses at Home Affect Loan Success of Blockade Runners Suggestion that Government Take Exclusive Control of Export of Cotton Recall from London ^Biivate Letter from Mr. Benjamin Note to Earl Russell Unofficial Letter to Mr. Davis Earl Russell s Reply to Mr. Mason s Note- Appointment of "Commissioner on the Continent" Let ter to Mrs. Mason. Vlll CHAPTER XVI 460 Makes Short Visit to London in Private Capacity Southern Independence Association of London Society for Promoting Cessation of Hostilities in America Anti-Slavery Sentiment in England Seizure of Tuscaloosa Seal to be Made of Silver Instructions for New Commission President gives Fuller Discretion as to Residence Maximilian Visits Emperor His Policy Towards Confederacy Changed after Reaching Paris -Release of Tuscaloosa Mr. Seward admits the "Mallory Report" was a Forgery. CHAPTER XVII , . . 491 Letter to Mrs. Mason Case of the " Gerrity " Additional Forgery by the United States Government Counsel Provided for Men of the " Gerrity" Court of Queen s Bench Decide "It was not Piracy" Men Released Mr. Lindsay s Motion Looking to Mediation Mr. Lindsay Proposes In terview with Lord Palmerston Mr. Mason Declines it Unless Invited by Lord Palmerston Lord Palmerston Expresses Opinion that South Could not be Subjugated Mr. M. Visits London as a "Private Gentleman" in Response to the Request of Friends of the Confederacy that He Would Come to Their Aid Lord Russell Expresses Opinion North Could not Overcome South, and People of North were Getting Alive to that Fact Mr. D Israeli says in Case of Success in Battles at Richmond, He Would Bring a Motion of Like Character With Mr. Lindsay s Popular Senti ment in England Strongly With South Letters to Mrs. Mason Seal sent by Lieutenant Chapman Fight Between the Alabama and the Kearsage Public Dinner Tendered Captain Semmes in London All Europe Filled with the Fame of Lee, Beauregard, and Johnston Interview with Lord Palmerston Lieutenant Chapman Delivers Seal of Secretary of State, but Boxes Containing Iroji-press, Wax, Etc., Lost Private Letters Bazaar In Liverpool, to Relieve Wants of Southern Prisoners Confined in the North. CHAPTER XVIII 516 Mission of Messrs. Jacques and Gilmore to Richmond St. Alban s Raid Letter from Bennet Young Criticism by "Historicus" of Instructions from Department to Cruisers In Regard to Neutral Property Morning Post Condemns Position Taken by "Historicus" " Historicus" Said to be Mr. Vernon Harcourt Post Said to be Lord Palmerston s Organ- Rumors of Purpose to Increase Southern Army by Arming the Slaves Attracts Favorable Attention in England Correspondence With Mr. Coolidge, of Boston, Relating to Treatment of Northern Soldiers in Southern Prisons. CHAPTER XIX 540 Expectation of Peace Aroused in England by Reports from North Dispatch from Department on " Our Foreign Relations" -Are the West ern Powers of Europe Determined Never to Recognize Confederate States Until United States Assents? Vindication of Right to S elf-Government is Sole Object of War Prisoners in St. Alban s Case Released Earl Rus sell s Communication to Commissioners, and their Reply Would Any Concessions Regarding Slavery Secure Recognition? Mr. Mason s Inter view With Lord Palmerston on this Subject His Conversation with Lord Donoughmore Letter to Col. Mann Dispatch of May ist Assassina tion of Lincoln Stanton s Dispatch to Adams Mason s Denial of Stan- ton s Charge of Confederate Complicity Proclamation of President John son. IX CHAPTER XX 568 Anxiety and Trouble About Richmond " No Fear or Doubt as to Result " Passage Engaged to Canada Departure Delayed by Political Considera tions" What is to be the Future of the South?" Visit to Sir Frederick Pollock Contributions to Baltimore Bazaar President Johnson s Policy Probable Emigration of Young Men from the South War Struck the Blow Which Must Eventually Sever North and South Arrival in Mon trealVisits from Mr. Davis and Others Return to Virginia Letter from Mr. Hunter Speaks of Condition of South Letters from Hunter and Davis Relate Hampton Roads Conference Lincoln s Account of It Failure of Mr. Mason s Health His Death. Life of James Murray Mason. CHAPTER I. Lineage George Mason of Gunston Gen. John Mason Mrs. John Mason Life of Matron at that Day Birth of James M. Mason Incidents During War of 1812 The Chew Family Early Life in Winchester The Young Lawyer and His Compeers as Described by Hon. H. A. Wise Marries Eliza M. Chew Early Married Life Described in Mrs. Mason s Letters. James Murray Mason, whose life and work this volume is intended to trace, was descended from the Masons of Strat- ford-Upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The first one of the family who came to America was Colonel George Mason, of Staffordshire, England, who had been a member of Parliament in the reign of Charles I., and who had been sternly opposed to the corrupt and arbitrary practices of the King, although he was a devoted adherent of the Crown as part of the English Government under the Con stitution. After the execution of Charles I., Colonel Mason com manded a regiment of cavalry in the Royal Army at the battle of Worcester, and being forced by that disastrous defeat to seek safety in disguise and concealment, he left England for the Colony of Virginia. In the same year, 1651, he landed at Norfolk, went up the Potomac River and established a plantation at Acohick Creek, near Pasbitancy, then in Westmoreland County, afterwards in Stafford County. In the year 1675, Stafford was carved out of Westmoreland, and was named by Colonel Mason in remembrance of his native shire in England. Tradition says he had possessed ample fortune in England, but lost everything when he came to Virginia ; be that as it may, * there is abundant evidence of his having obtained, in 1655, a patent for a considerable tract of land, and of his having been *See Miss Rowland s " Life of George Mason." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. selected to fill many offices of trust and responsibility in his new home ; among them that of a member of the House of Burgesses from Stafford County. Stafford Court House, with all of its records, was burned by the Federal troops during the War of 1861-65, and in numerous other places the records of the courts, as well as large numbers of old family papers, were destroyed or captured by the invading armies. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to fix with accuracy the dates of many events in the early history of Virginia, but Miss Rowland has given, in her " Life of George Mason of Gunston," the results of her thorough search for, and careful examination of, all possible sources of information concerning these old records. She states that Colonel George Mason, the first of his name in Virginia, held the offices of Sheriff of Stafford County, Clerk of the Court, and also that of Lieutenant of Staf ford County. Accounts differ as to whether he married in America, or whether his wife and family followed him from England. It is, however, certain that his eldest son was named George, and that he, the second of the name in Virginia, married Mary Fowke, daughter of Gerard Fowke, of Stafford County, Virginia, and granddaughter of Roger Fowke, of Gunston Hall, Stafford shire, England. It is said that Gerard Fowke came to Virginia about the same time with Colonel Mason, and from the same neighborhood in England; their families thus renewed in this country the intimacies that had united them at home. The name "George" was transmitted in a direct line through the eldest son for many generations, and the family home seems to have been inherited with the name. Miss Rowland s book quotes from several curious old papers to show that both the second and the third George Mason held, in their turn, all the offices that have been spoken of as having been filled by their predecessor, George Mason, the emigrant. The scope of the present volume does not admit of further detail regarding these bygone days, attractive though they may be. It must suffice to say there are original documents, still preserved, and now in the possession of the writer, that seem to confirm Miss Rowland s opinion that the chief positions of trust and responsibility in Stafford County were filled for LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. three successive generations by three George Masons, father, son, and grandson. One of these documents is the Commission given by Alexander Spottswood, " His Majesty s Lieutenant Governor and Vice-Admiral of his Colony of Virginia and Com- mander-in-Chief of the same Dominion, to Colonel George Mason/ appointing him to be Lieutenant of the County of Staf ford, and Chief Commander of all His Majesty s Militia, Horse and Foot, in the said County of Stafford." It is dated Williams- burgh, the second day of July, 1719. There is also preserved an old letter, which, with the Bur gess Ticket that accompanied it, is interesting in itself, apart from the testimony it bears to the estimation in which Mr. Mason was held abroad as well as at home. It is dated Glascow, March 3d, 1720, and reads as follows: "Having received certain Infor mation of the Many Extraordinary Favours You have done to our Merchants or their agents in Virginia, we thought ourselves obliged in the name of our City to acknowledge your goodness, in Testimony thereof we do send You the Compliments of the City, A Burgess Ticket by which You are entitled to all the Rights, Privileges and Immunities of a Burgess or Citizen of Glascow. Hitherto your Favors to our People have flowed from Meer Motives of Hospitality. In time to come you will if Possible Multiply your Goodness towards them, not only as Strangers, but also as Fellow-Citizens with yourself. We wish you all Happiness and Prosperity and do most Earnestly recom mend You to the Protection of the Almighty. " THOS. THOMSON, DN. GILD. in absence of J. A. Peady. " JOHN BOWMAN, PROVOST. " PETER MURDOCK, BAILLIE. " JOHN ORR, BAILLIE. " STEPHEN CROWFORD, BAILLIE. " To Honable. George Mason, Esqr. " Collonll. in Stafford County, " Pottomack River, Virginia." The George Mason referred to in these papers was the great-grandfather of James Murray Mason. He married a daughter of Stevens Thompson, Esqr., of Middle Temple, an LIFE* OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. English gentleman who came to Virginia as Attorney-General of the Colony in the reign of Queen Anne. The eldest son of this marriage was the Colonel George Mason who lived during the eventful period of the Revolution, and who took an impor tant share in the labors and responsibilities that devolved upon the men of that day. The Bill of Rights and the First Constitution of Virginia remain as legacies from him to succeeding generations. He inherited the home estate of " Doeg Neck," the name of which, after building a new mansion, he changed to Gunston Hall, in memory of the seat of his maternal ancestry in Staffordshire, England; there he lived from his birth to his death, and there he is buried. The following description of his home and of his mode of life is copied from an unfinished memoir begun by his grandson, James Murray Mason : " Gunston Hall in Doeg Neck embraced a tract of 6,000 acres of land on the Potomac River about 20 miles below Alex andria, Virginia. The Potomac, by a majestic curve, forms its boundary on the south and east for some five miles, while on the east and west it is bounded respectively by the Pohick and Occo- quan rivers, confluents of the Potomac. It is thus peninsular in form and secluded in position. The mansion is in view from the river, from which it is distant about half a mile, and it may be seen on the highest land about six miles below Mount Vernon. " Of the early education of George Mason we are un informed. The condition in life, however, of his parents will warrant, what his subsequent career fully proves, that he was thoroughly educated and trained to habits of study and intellec tual pursuits. The distinguishing trait of his mind, as always ascribed to him by those associated with him in the trying scenes of the Revolution, was sagacity, attended by that solidity of thought and soundness of judgment which make up human wis dom. In the conduct of affairs he was looked to and relied upon as a wise man. Perhaps no condition in life was better fitted to strengthen and mature the mind in all the attributes of most value in times of trial, wisdom, self-reliance and resolution. " A tobacco planter whose crops were exported direct to Europe and his supplies imported direct from thence, ships out- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ward and homeward bound stopping for the purpose at the Gun- ston landing, he dwelt in seclusion, the lord of all he surveyed; with a large retinue of laborers obedient to his will, his estates, productive under his care, and yielding the most ample returns, gave him every resource that wealth could command. He knew none of the narrow and corroding cares of the working- day world ; and an ample library enabled him to draw at pleasure upon the treasures of past ages. " He married Anne Eilbeck, daughter of William Eilbeck, of Charles County, Maryland, and lived in quiet retirement, tak ing no part in public affairs, except in his own county, so far as there is any record, prior to the proceedings in Virginia and the other colonies to which the Stamp Act gave rise. After the right was asserted to legislate for the colonies in all cases whatsoever/ George Mason wrote, in 1773, a tract with the modest title: Extracts from the Virginia Charters, with some remarks on them/ This paper seems to have been intended as an exponent of Colonial Rights under the Charters, and it served as a rich mine of authority in the controversy then arising between the Crown and its colonial subjects. " As early as 1774 a meeting of the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the county of Fairfax, Virginia, was held in the town of Alexandria for the purpose of taking into consideration the state of the Colony, etc. The resolutions there adopted were drawn up by George Mason. They laid broadly the foundations on which the controversies rested between the colonies and the mother country, and indicated, in their recommendations, the course best to be pursued to vindicate the rights of the colo nies. It will be seen that the author of these resolutions recom mended that a congress should be appointed to consist of depu ties from all the colonies ; the beginning of that congress which brought the colonies together, and which carried them success fully through all the storms and trials of the Revolution. The resolutions adopted at this meeting were presented to the Vir ginia Convention, which, a few weeks later, assembled at Wil- liamsburgh, and their recommendations were adopted; deputies were appointed to the Continental Congress to be held at Phila delphia, and an association was formed to carry into effect throughout the State the resolutions of the Fairfax Meeting LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. relating to non-importation from Great Britain. Thus, from the determined and energetic councils of George Mason, a private citizen, and in the shades of private life, sprung the concerted organization in all the colonies, which, developing their strength and fully committing them to final resistance, paved the way to independence. " George Washington having been selected by the Virginia Convention as deputy to the Continental Congress, Colonel Mason was chosen by the people of Fairfax to take his place in the Virginia Convention, and this is the first time, so far as can be ascertained at this day, that he engaged in the public service, although he had frequently declined such service ; he continued, however, a member of the Convention at Williamsburgh, and of the subsequent General Assembly until the close of the war. As a member of the Convention at Williamsburgh he wrote the Bill of. Rights/ and the First Constitution of Virginia/ The original draft of the Bill of Rights is still preserved in the State Library at the Capitol in Richmond. On the margin of that draft is written, and also in the handwriting of its author: This declaration of rights was the first written in America ; it received few alterations or additions in the convention (some of them not for the better), and was afterwards closely imitated by the other States/ " As a member of the Convention of 1787, in Philadelphia, Colonel Mason voted against the Federal Constitution as it was there framed, and refused to sign it on the ground that the powers of the Federal Government were not sufficiently re stricted, nor the reserved rights of the respective States suffi ciently guarded, and on his return home he bent his whole strength to prevent its ratification by Virginia. " Like most of his contemporaries, he was careful and minute in the management of his private affairs. His books, all kept in his own hand, show detailed accounts with all who were in his employ, embracing overseers, agents, and others. " His domestic habits, as described by members of his imme diate family, were simple and unostentatious, though attended with all the abundance of large possessions, and supplied with the comforts and luxuries within the reach of an ample fortune. His mornings at Gunston were generally spent in reading or LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. writing in his library ; at midday he mounted his horse, and tak ing a gun, usually a rifle, and attended by a servant and his dog, visited his plantations, looking minutely and carefully into their operations. From these excursions he generally returned bring ing game he had shot. The afternoons and evenings were devoted to his family and to society. " In the year 1766, then about 40 years of age, he thus speaks of himself in a letter to The Public Ledger in London, published in that paper over the signature of a Virginia Planter : These are the sentiments of a man who spends most of his time in retirement, and who has seldom meddled in public affairs; who enjoys a modest but independent fortune, and who, content with the blessings of a private station, equally disregards the smiles and frowns of the great. " It would be a pleasant task to give fuller and more detailed accounts of these Virginians of the last century; but it is the purpose of the present volume to tell of more recent times. What has been said of the earlier generations has been told with the same idea with which an artist bestows special care on the background of a picture in order to bring out the portrait in clear and living color; or, with the idea so happily expressed by Doctor Wendell Holmes, who, when asked when the educa tion of a boy should commence, replied : "*I think about a hun dred years before the child is born." Colonel George Mason, of Gunston, had three daughters and five sons ; this narrative can, however, refer only to John, the fourth son, who was the father of James Murray Mason. Of the early associations of John Mason and of his birthplace, Gunston, some account has already been given. It must suf fice to say that, although he was so unfortunate as to lose his mother at the early age of five years, yet the devotion to the home of his childhood, and the reverential admiration and respect for his father, that frequently found expression during his life, as well as in the manuscripts discovered among his papers after his death, bear testimony to the character of the parent, and the home that exerted so strong an influence upon his own life, and, through him, upon his children. His education, begun under private tutors at home, and continued at schools in Virginia and in Maryland, was completed LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. in France, where he was sent soon after the close of the Revolu tion, and where he remained some years, actively engaged in business as a merchant, owning several vessels, and sending large cargoes to other ports, as well as to this country, in ex change for those received. After his return home, he married Miss Anna Maria Mur ray, daughter of Doctor James Murray, of Annapolis, Mary land, and continued for some years actively engaged in mercan tile pursuits, holding, at different times, positions of trust and responsibility ; among them, the office of " Superintendent of Indian Trade," to which he was appointed by President Jeffer son in the year 1807, and that of " Commissary General of Prisoners," which he held during the War of 1812. This office gave him the title of " General," and he was usually known as General Mason. A little incident connected with this time is of interest as evincing the kindly nature of the boy, James, who frequently accompanied his father on his visits to look after the welfare of the prisoners. The pale face and attenuated figure of a young British officer attracted the attention and excited the sympathy of young Mason, who reported to his mother the story of the sick prisoner and begged she would have some delicacies pre pared, such as might tempt the appetite of an invalid. The request was granted, and the British officer was kept well sup plied with tempting food and attractive books that were carried to him by the American schoolboy. Nearly fifty years after wards, when Mr. Mason was in London as the representative of the Confederate States, his acquaintance was sought by an Englishman of high position, who identified himself as having been visited, fed and comforted by him when he had been sick and in prison in America, and told the story to the guests assembled at the house of one of the nobility, where they had been invited to meet the Commissioner from the Confederate States. General John Mason inherited from his father a handsome estate in Fairfax County, Virginia, lying on the Potomac River, and including an island in the river, opposite Washing ton, known as Analostan Island, where he made his residence during a portion of every year, spending the summers on the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " Island," and the winters in Georgetown or Alexandria, and entertaining always and everywhere with the true Virginia hos pitality that made his home the centre of attraction for a widely extended circle. Not only was it a favorite resort for the young, the gay and the fashionable, but here the stranger, the poor and the orphan ever found a cordial welcome awaiting them ; and here, too, were to be found kind hearts ever as ready to soothe and sympathize in times of trouble, as to rejoice and make merry with the light-hearted and the happy. The domestic life of a matron of that day demanded a degree of self-discipline, self-reliance, and sound judgment far greater than is generally required of the women of to-day, whose house holds are on a much smaller scale than was possible, when the " modern improvements," designed to save labor, were all unknown; when the mistress presided over an establishment where her own servants prepared all that is now ordered from the caterer or the confectioner; where the sheep were raised and sheared, the wool spun and woven into the cloth required for the servants clothing, and often much of that used for the children; where the skins were tanned, and the shoes were made ; and when all this was done by the negroes who were her slaves, and consequently dependent upon her for care and kind ness in infancy, in old age, and in sickness. Verily, they took no care for themselves, but were as irresponsible as children. It was the mistress who was expected to control and train them in the various duties of domestic service, and it was to her they came for advice and sympathy when in trouble. Such cares and responsibilities, added to those always devolving upon the mother of a large family, were well calculated to call into exercise and to full development all the powers of head and heart. This was certainly the case with Mrs. Mason, and nobly did she discharge her many duties as wife, mother, mis tress, friend, and hostess. It was at his father s house in Georgetown that James Murray Mason was born on November 3d, 1798. Of his child hood there is little of interest to record, further than that it was spent amid the associations and under the circumstances above described. He was one of ten children, six sons and four daughters, all of whom lived to become men and women, and all I0 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of whom loved in later life to talk of the happy days spent in Georgetown and on the " Island." They must indeed have been as happy and as free from care as it was possible for indulgent parents possessed of large wealth to have made them ; but they were, at the same time, trained to habits of ready obedience and of never failing respect, so much so, that to the end of their lives, every one of the sons and daughters would quote the opinions of " My Father," or " My Mother," as might have been done in childhood when, as a matter of course, those opinions were admitted to be final and infallible. James M. Mason attended the school in Georgetown during his childhood, and was afterwards sent to Philadelphia, where, in 1815, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, taking his Bachelor s Degree in 1818. The next year he studied law at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia; and then spent one winter in Richmond, Virginia, reading law in the office of Mr. Benjamin Watkins Leigh. In the summer of 1820 he opened his office and offered for practice in the town of Winchester, Virginia. During the first few years spent in Philadelphia he lived in the family and under the care of Commodore Murray, to whom he was nearly related through his mother, and in whose house he enjoyed many social advantages that are not always within the reach of students at college. He afterwards boarded in a French family for the purpose of acquiring fluency in speak ing the French language. It was, however, in Commodore Murray s home that began the romance of his life, for it was there he first saw Miss Eliza Margaretta Chew; there he formed the attachment that grew with his growth, and strengthened with his strength, and there he acquired, in his boyhood, the habit, never afterwards lost, but continued to his last day, of confiding to Eliza Chew all of his hopes and aspirations, consulting her judgment in every question that arose, seeking her advice and sympathy in all the perplexities and troubles of his life, and claiming her congratulations and commendation in every success that he achieved. Here he must be left for a time while the reader is introduced to some of the ancestors of this Miss Chew, who exercised so strong an influence over the man to whom she afterwards gave herself, with all her powers of mind and heart, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and to whom she proved a helpmeet in the fullest and best sense of the term : *" The family of Chew, like that of the Masons, came from England. Their first American ancestor was, it is said, John Chew, who came from England to Virginia prior to 1624, settled at James Citie/ and was, subsequently, a member of the Assembly. The first one, however, of whom the writer has un questioned information was Samuel Chew, who was residing in Maryland, at Herring Bay, as early as 1656. There is reason to believe that he was the son of John Chew. It is known that he became Judge of the High Provincial Court and Court of Chancery, and was for some years a member of the Upper House of the Legislature. " He married Anne Ayres, only daughter of William Ayres, and had seven sons and two daughters. His fifth son, Benjamin, married Elizabeth Benson, and had three daughters and one son, to whom he gave the name of Samuel. This second Samuel Chew practiced medicine, and was known as Doctor Samuel Chew, of Maidstone, an estate near Annapolis. Afterwards he removed to the " Lower Counties on the Delaware," and, still later, was appointed Chief Justice of New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties. He had only one son, Benjamin. To this boy he gave every possible advantage of education, placing him, for a time, under the tuition of Andrew Hamilton, the Councillor, and after the death of Mr. Hamilton, sending him to England, where he concluded his studies at the Middle Temple. " After the death of Chief Justice Chew, young Benjamin Chew returned to America, and in September, 1746, was admitted an attorney of the Supreme Court of the Province of Penn sylvania. He removed to Philadelphia about 1754, and about the year 1761, he built his country seat, called Cliveden, on the out skirts of Germantown. " The year 1755 brought to him marked recognition of his ability; for, although he had so recently become a resident in Pennsylvania, he was made Attorney-General of the Province, Recorder of the city of Philadelphia, and a member of the Gov ernor s Council. In 1765 he was made Register-General of the ^Quoted from " Provincial Councillors of Pennsylvania," by J. P. Keith. I2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Province, and in 1774 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. This dignity imposed undeserved sufferings upon him during the Revolutionary War, which began so soon afterwards, sufferings which were merely the result of his political importance, and not designed as punishment for obnox ious acts. By the Declaration of Independence all Chew s official positions fell with the royal authority from which they were derived; and in August, 1777, he, with others who had held office under the Crown, was arrested, and during the next ten months was an exile from his home. " At the battle of Germantown his country home, Cliveden, was occupied by a detachment of British troops, who found it a sufficient stronghold to resist the cannonading of the Ameri cans ; but its doors and windows were shattered, its floors stained with blood, and the whole place made desolate. He was, however, soon given a position of trust and responsibility under the new government, for he was appointed, in October, 1791, Judge and President of the High Court of Errors and Appeals of the State of Pennsylvania/ He held this position until the abolition of the court in 1808." His first wife was Mary, daughter of John Galloway, ^who died in 1755, leaving five daughters, but no son. His second wife, Elizabeth Oswald, left six daughters and one son, Benjamin Chew, Jr., who graduated at the College of Philadelphia, studied law at the Middle Temple, London, and on his return home became a member of the Philadelphia Bar. He is described as having been a highly educated and unu sually handsome young man, of ample fortune, and about twenty-six or seven years of age when he visited Annapolis, and became a frequent visitor at the house of Doctor James Murray. There he probably met the John Mason, before men tioned, who, a few years later, wooed, won, and wedded Anna Maria Murray, one of the daughters of the hospitable doctor. There he certainly met Katharine Banning, the young cousin of Mrs. Murray, and the only child of Mr. Anthony Banning, of West River, Maryland. He was, at once, captivated by her beauty and by her unaffected, simple, and ingenuous manner. The story as told by him to his children might grace the pages of a novel. Suffice it to say here, Miss Banning became Mrs. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Benjamin Chew, of Philadelphia, and the mistress of Cliveden, the favorite summer resort of the Chew family during their early married life, and the home of Mr. and Mrs. Chew in their old age. Here their daughter, Elizabeth Margaretta Chew, was born on November i8th, 1798, just fifteen days after James Murray Mason first saw the light in his father s house in Georgetown, D. C, and in this same house was spent many of the Saturdays and other holidays of the Virginia schoolboy, who was glad to accept the frequent invitations of the Young Chews, his school mates; invitations made the more attractive by the fact that he was thus brought into constant intercourse with their sister. It i" true that she, being the eldest, and for some time the only daughter, had matured and ripened into womanhood at an early age, and was, at sixteen, accustomed to the society of men many years her seniors ; still it was evident that young Mason was preferred to all other suitors and, rejecting them, she remained true to him during the years that passed while he completed his course at the University of Pennsylvania, studied law at Wil liam and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia, spent a winter in the law office of Mr. Benjamin Watkins Leigh in Richmond, Virginia, gained admission to the Bar, established himself in the town of Winchester, Virginia, and provided there a home for his bride in the midst of friends who were ready to extend to her the warm-hearted hospitality and kindness always characteristic of that town. In later life, Mr. Mason was fond of recalling the circum stances attending his first arrival in Winchester on an afternoon in June, 1820, when, having made the journey on horseback, riding on his saddle-bags, according to the custom of the time, he came from Jiis father s house, on the Island, to the town he had chosen for his future home, but where he was then entirely a stranger. Stopping before the " Tavern," he found a group of young men sitting in chairs placed in the street around the door, discussing the news of the day. The landlord, minus his coat, was in their midst, joining freely in the talk with the air of one accustomed to lay down the law on all subjects for the benefit of his younger townsmen. The unusual appearance of a stranger caused a pause in the conversation, and brought "Mine LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Host " to the front. A short time sufficed to have both horse and rider kindly cared for and established in their new quarters, and the traveler, having been introduced by his landlord to the assembled party, was invited to join the group; and on this first afternoon, began more than one of the friendships that lasted throughout his life and grew warmer and stronger as years rolled by. The absence of all form and ceremony from the village life of Winchester, at that day, must have appeared in strong con trast to the usages that prevailed in Philadelphia and Wash ington, to which young Mason had been accustomed ; it is, how ever, evident that he had the good sense and good feeling rightly to appreciate the sterling worth of the people among whom he had come to make his home, and, to his last day, he never failed to acknowledge the marked kindness and consideration that was extended to him from the first moment of his arrival in Winchester. In old age his eyes filled and his voice faltered whenever allusion was made to those happy days, or to the dear friends of his early manhood in Winchester. These early days differed little from the usual experience of young lawyers. Governor Henry A. Wise, in an article that appeared in several of the newspapers soon after Mr. Mason s death, said, in speaking of him : " He aspired to political pre ferment from the first of his career. He was not, however, neglectful of his profession, was diligent in its practice, and the bench and bar of Winchester and surrounding circuits, then, even more than since, were distinguished for eminent lawyers, such as Henry St. George Tucker, Alfred H. Powell, and John R. Cooke, and a younger tier of professional devotees, such as the two Marshalls, the Conrads, and Moses Hunter, the best wit of them all. " Mr. Mason took a high rank among them at the Bar ; but always looked to politics for his field of distinction ; yet he was no demagogue, and spurned the ad captandum of the vulgar electioneerer. " His integrity was sterling exact to truth ; his firmness was rocklike; his sense of honor was of the highest tone, and his every word and action were guided by a discretion always- sound and always on guard. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " A man thus stamped with the seal of nobleness could not fail to attract the homage of those around him, or to be afforded the opportunities for the aspirations he indulged. Honest, he was trusted; discreet, he was relied on to do justice and judg ment ; and brave, all felt assured that he could make the sac rifice when called on. He did nobly make it at the last extremity, without a murmur and without soiling his escutcheon ; he made no palinode of his principles, and soiled not his faith." One of the letters written about this time to his father shows the young man s impatient longing for the consummation of the hopes he had cherished from boyhood; hopes that had proved an incentive to exertion, and had supplied the motive power to impel and sustain him in the patient industry essential to success. These hopes were realized on July 25th, 1822, when his marriage to Eliza M. Chew was celebrated at Cliveden, the much-loved home near Philadelphia, of which an account has already been given. Among the letters in the possession of the writer there are several written by Mrs. Mason, soon after her introduction to Virginia life, that are interesting as giving the experience of the young people in their first attempt at housekeeping. The fol lowing extract from a letter to her sister is evidently among the first sent from her new home. She says : " I believe I have mentioned in my several letters all that has occurred worthy of notice and have also related Mr. Mason s great effort in attend ing the market ; this task devolves entirely upon the gentlemen, as servants can not be trusted; the market begins at daylight and as there was some chance of our starving, if he did not make his appearance there in due time, the first day we commenced housekeeping, he determined not to lose his chance and sallied forth in the most dreadful snowstorm two hours too soon and this, after having looked at his watch every half hour after three o clock; his energy amused me exceedingly; however, he still goes twice a week, and we feast sumptuously every day upon tur keys at fifty cents, pheasants at one shilling, and partridges in abundance. My neighbors still send me all manner of good things, supposing that as a young beginner, I am not well sup plied. Mrs. Tucker has just sent me a profusion of cake and jelly, as I was not well enough to go to her tea party. You will LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. justly remark that I ought to be contented with the blessings that I now enjoy. " You also ask if the reality equals the expectations I have indulged for the last six years, and you seem to doubt the ful filment of my anticipations, but I am sure that the enjoyment I receive from my husband s devoted love far exceeds my most sanguine hopes. " He is pleased with everything I do because it is done by me ; he is proud of every sentiment I utter and always condemns those who disagree with me ; he is always in the parlour when not engaged with business, and is always ready to read, play, talk or walk as my inclination may dictate. His own home delights him and he has often said that he does not know why every other place appears inferior unless because his wife has more taste and neatness than anybody else. In truth, our establishment is by far the most comfortable I have seen in Win chester, although not so expensively furnished as some others. We have neither Brussels carpets nor mahogany chairs ; no lamps nor mirrors, but everything is new, neat and pretty: as I have before told you, our house is small ; that is, the rooms are small. " To comply with your request, I send you an inventory of our goods and chattels ; my beautiful Japanese desk is ex ceedingly admired and is very ornamental; the card tables are covered with very pretty green cloths, and look very knowing; the piano is a source of infinite delight to me and my guests, though terribly out of tune ; upon it are tastefully displayed some books, and my paint box; on one of the card tables there are placed some of my prettiest books and Mr. Mason s phrenolog ical skull; my chess men and tea-caddy, with the elegant stan- dish, grace the other. You must not observe the want of a sideboard and tea-table ; the card tables supply the place of both, and the chairs fill up the vacancies/ In this letter is given a diagram of the first floor of the house, showing four rooms ; one of the front rooms is marked " Office " ; another, " House-keeper s room " ; and on the margin is written: "Well supplied with closets, but alas! no house keeper." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. About the same time she writes : " Winchester is the place for the enjoyment of society without display. During the last few days we have dined constantly abroad in the pleasantest and most agreeable manner possible. Half a dozen families, who are closely connected and who like each other vastly, assemble at two o clock with some parlour work ; the gentlemen join us at three, when we dine upon most excellent dinners, but without any parade or ostentation. We are our own confectioners and indeed are obliged to superintend all the culinary preparations of course we are not supposed to encounter more than neces sary trouble. Yesterday we met a very nice party at Alex. Tid- ball s in compliment to the return of General Tucker and Mr. Mason from Richmond. To-morrow we shall spend with Mrs. Carr. Tuesday at Mrs. Lee s, etc., etc. I feel exceedingly gratified by finding myself always included in these family par ties, and sometimes enjoy them mightily (to use a Virginia word)." Some eighteen months later, in a letter to her mother, she says : " I agree with you perfectly that a cheerful, equable temper is one of the first of human blessings, and I always struggle most strenuously to obtain and preserve such a state of mind as may enable me to resist useless cares and to enjoy with gladness every pleasure, however transient or uncertain its source may prove, but anxiety about home is still my besetting sin, and when I do not hear frequently and minutely how you all are, my cheerfulness deserts rrie, and tis futile to disguise how much disquietude I feel. My husband is certainly peculiarly blessed in this respect, and he possesses the most cheerful, buoy ant, and excellent temper I have ever known. For instance, he left me on Monday for Romney; the road between this place and Romney is the very worst of the bad. On Monday morning it rained violently, and he did not reach his destination till 9 o clock, when he found the Judge was obliged to leave town and the Court adjourned without doing any business ; he remounted his horse arrived at home yesterday to dinner, having ridden nearly a hundred miles through a severe rain, was wet through and through, and has the prospect of making the same journey next Sunday; yet he came into the house as merry and contented as possible, and I have not heard a single complaint. You will say LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. such an example ought to have a proper effect on me, and I hope to prove its advantage. I often think if matches are made in heaven, Anne and James must have been intended for each other their dispositions are certainly similar, both possess warm and acute sensibilities, and both exercise equal self-com mand, and both are disposed to be happy." And in a later letter she says : " When you write, tell me what elicited your episode relative to servants. On this subject also, we fully agree. I have often heard Mr. Mason say that nothing seemed to him more cowardly and cruel than an un necessary and tyrannical exercise of power over servants; we always treat them with kindness. We have now kept slaves nearly eighteen months, and in no one instance has severity been used; to be sure they often test my patience, they are so much less capable, careful, or industrious than white servants, but they are obedient, faithful, and affectionate. Mr. Mason always speaks to them kindly but positively, and I have never had occasion to complain to him. As an instance of our experience ; poor Gusten (our dining-room servant) has one failing that I had thought absolutely incorrigible. When he sees liquor he can not resist it, but he had never appeared before his master when he was intoxicated, till a short time since when waiting upon the tea-table Mr. Mason saw him stagger, and instantly ordered him to go to his room, and not to dare to show himself until he had made atonement. He then determined that as the next day was market day he would not permit Gusten to attend him, but hired a man in our neighbourhood, on the plea that Gusten was in disposed. Gusten was mortified to the quick by his master s dis pleasure, and by finding that another was employed to fulfil his duty. When Mr. Mason returned from market, Gusten pre sented himself with the most penitent air asked forgiveness and assured his master that if he would trust him it would never happen again ; and that he knew his mistress would go his security/ Mr. Mason forgave him, and Gusten came in tears to tell me what a good master he had ; and he has conducted him self very well ever since. If his resolution does not fail, he will be an excellent servant, but I am fearful lest his propensity has been so long indulged that his good behaviour can not last long." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. Another letter written to her sister about the same time gives a lifelike picture of the home-scene. It says : " Mamma s letter, with your postscript, gave me infinite pleasure. It arrived most opportunely, for with it came a summons from General Mason to my husband to meet him in Fredericksburg, and intimating that the business that calls him there may require him to be absent ten days or a fortnight ; and I do miss him so grievously when he leaves me, that it demands no small sacrifice of my feelings to his interests to enable me to submit to our frequent separations. At this moment it is particularly annoying to have our pursuits and habits interrupted, as we have just resumed such as we enjoyed last winter, and which the intense heat of the summer has hitherto delayed. The evenings are now long enough to admit of much useful employment, and to com pensate, by the opportunity they afford of mutually amusing each other, for the dissimilarity of our avocations during the day. We generally commence the evening by playing two or three games of chess, as Mr. Mason is extravagantly fond of the game; then we practise together for a little while,* and after wards he reads to me, while I sew, till eleven o clock ; as we have tea very early, we thus accomplish a great deal before bedtime. Mr. Meadef recently brought me several excellent books, such as : The Philosophy of True Religion, by Knox ; The Power of Religion on the Mind/ and Sir Robert Boyle s Reflections, all of which we read together. We have also commenced Miss Aiken s Memoirs of the Reign of James the First, and find it very amusing and interesting, though not quite so good as her Reign of Queen Elizabeth. " *Mr. Mason was fond of the flute as an accompaniment to the piano, t Afterwards Bishop of Virginia. 2Q LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER II. Elected to Legislature Political Creed Different Ideas in Convention of 1787 Regarding Functions of Federal Government Voted for Resolu tions Protesting Against Internal Improvement by Federal Government Defeated in Next Election Because of This Vote Card Explaining and Justifying His Position Re-elected to Legislature Letter from John Randolph of Roanoke Speech in Legislature Letters from Mrs. Mason Candidate for House of Representatives, Defeated Extract from Win chester Newspaper Domestic Life Appointed Member of Board of Visitors of University of Virginia No Personal Interest in Contest for Rights of Slaveholders Elected to House of Representatives Life and Friends in Washington. In order to form a just estimate of a man, it is necessary to know him in all the various relations of life in which he may have been placed. A well-rounded character will be found ex cellent in every position he may hold. The foregoing must, however, suffice for the present as an introduction to Mr. Mason in the home life of his young manhood. The time soon came when he was entrusted with the public interests of the com munity around him; and the reader is asked to follow him into the wider field upon which he entered in April, 1826, when he was called to represent the people of Frederick County in the Legislature of his State, as a member of the House of Dele gates. In his political creed he was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian School, and upon all questions affecting the limitations of the Federal Government, he was ever with those who have been called " The Straightest Sect of the Strict Constructionists " ; in other words, he never lost sight of the clause in the Consti tution which says : " The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the State, are reserved to the States, or to the people." Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, in his " History of the United States," when speaking of the convention that met in Philadelphia, in 1787, for a revision of the Articles of Union between the States, says : " It was soon discovered that a considerable number were in favour of disregarding the specific objects for which the con vention had been called, and instead of revising the Articles of LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2I Union, were in favour of presenting an entirely new plan of government for public consideration. * * The controlling idea of this class was to do away with the Federative feature in the Constitution, and to merge the separate sovereignties of the several States into one Incorporate Union; and thus to form, of all the States, one single National Republic, " instead of a Federal Republic of distinct States." This idea of the functions of the Federal Government has continued in existence, and has exercised an important influence in shaping the destiny of the country. It may be recognized in what was called the American System, the authorship of which was attributed to Mr. Clay, and which advocated the policy of building up home manufactures by a protective tariff, and of carrying on internal improvements by the Federal Government. The sincerity and strength of Mr. Mason s convictions on these points were tested during the first term of his service in the Legislature. There were in 1826, and there had been for sev eral preceding years, marked divisions in the Democratic, or Republican Party (as it was then called), regarding these questions. Each year since 1821, the chief subjects dis cussed in Congress had been those of internal improve ments and a protective tariff. Again in the nineteenth Congress, then in session, the subject of internal improve ment gave rise to warm and angry debate. The Cumber land Road and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal were the two prominent objects discussed, although the design extended to a general system. In the Virginia House of Delegates, Mr. Giles offered resolutions protesting against all authority of the United States Government to make roads and canals within the State. Mr. Mason voted for and advocated these resolu tions ; and by so doing, incurred the displeasure of many of his constituents who thought the measures he had opposed would be advantageous to their own section of the country. Thus early in his career occurred the first instance of what was afterwards repeated, when he was, for a time, in advance of the popular sentiment of his district, and, consequently, was not supported by his constituents who having, perhaps, given less time and thought to the consideration of the measures pro posed, did not see as soon or as clearly, as their representative 22 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. saw, the true character and the future effects of the legislation that he had opposed. His reasons for the course he had pursued are clearly ex pressed, and fearlesssly maintained, in the following address to the " Freeholders of Frederick County," which he published in the early spring of 1827. "Fellow-Citizens: Finding upon my return from the Leg islature, that my vote upon certain resolutions, brought in by a select committee of the last House of Delegates upon motion of Mr. Giles, has subjected me to much animadversion, I deem it necessary, as well as for my own vindication as to correct misapprehension, that the subject of those resolutions should be exposed and canvassed before you are called to pass upon my conduct at the approaching election. " There is no man living who admits more fully than I do, the amenability of a representative to his constituents none who would seek less to conceal or disguise his sentiments upon any political question, with a view to the ephemeral popularity which such a course may sometimes procure; still less, who would endeavor, by any evasion, to retain a seat in the coun cils to which your voice has lately advanced him. " Having said this much, I have a right to ask that you would shut your ears against the many contemptible insinua tions and misrepresentations, which are circulated on the eve of every election, vague and uncertain fabrications, backed by no authority, and having no name to vouch them. Of such I will say nothing more than, that whenever they are presented in a tangible shape, I shall be found ready and willing to meet them; there being no part of my conduct to which I do not invite the freest investigation. " The resolutions passed by the last Legislature, involved matters of grave national concern, and of deep import to the States of our Confederacy. I assure you as far as I was com petent to pass upon their policy, they received from me no light consideration. " At any time, or as one of the frequent occasions, result ing from the nature of our government, where Federal power has been questioned on the one hand, and State-Right asserted on the other, it behooved a representative of the people, who is LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. to speak their voice, to deliberate well. But under the circum stances of the present case, when challenging the policy of an administration which came in against the immediate will of the people, and whose course has been during the two years of its existence, to sustain itself at every cost, whether of public good, or of constitutional limitation it behooved the repre sentative not only to deliberate well, but to act with decision. " The general question is not a new one. The construction of the Federal Government has been, since its adoption, the point upon which the two parties in our country have always divided. In practice it has been found, as well as foretold by our immortal Henry, that the extension of Federal power tends to consolidation, from which, when once established, there is no alternative between despotism or civil war. " If a Constitution be the limit which the people have assigned to those who have the government in charge, it is cer tainly the duty of a representative, made, if possible, still more imperative by the solemnity of an oath, faithfully to preserve its integrity, when, according to his honest convictions, those limits have been transgressed. This I have done, and no more. The law of Congress passed for the protection of domestic manufactures, by the imposition of new and heavy duties upon foreign importations, against which these resolutions in part protested, I believe in my best judgment, is as unwarranted by the Constitution as in practice it has been found oppressive and calamitous to our agricultural community. " To raise revenue, and, perhaps, to some purposes in regu lating commerce, the Federal Government is expressly author ized to lay imposts. But when, with other views, as in the case of the tariff law, this power is exercised with the intent of aiding the manufacturer, its necessary effect is, to tax the rest of the community for the benefit of a particular class, and it is found in the words of the resolution to be unjust, unequal, and oppressive/ In our State, too, whose interest is exclusively agricultural, the burthen is found particularly heavy. Because at the same time that his crop is rotting on his hands for want of a market, the farmer is forced to pay, as a premium to the manufacturer, the difference between the duties necessary for revenue, and those added to encourage manufactures. Deeply LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. impressed with these views on the constitutional point, apart from its ruinous policy, I sustained by my vote this protest against the tariff law of 1824. " Next as to the resolution which protests against the exercise of any power on the part of the Federal Government, to make roads and canals, within the limits of a State : " This power has been traced by its advocates, at some time or other, as incidental to almost every express grant in the Federal Constitution. It would far exceed the limits of this address to attempt a refutation of all; neither is it necessary, because I seek alone to vindicate my opinions. Yet, as the strongest ground assumed, is that to establish post roads/ I may select that for illustration of my views. " The purpose of the instrument there was to give to the Federal Government the exclusive control over the Post-Office Department, and the transmission of the mails ; and to give nothing else. The power to establish the post road, to my apprehension, means alone, the right to indicate or declare the route by which the mail is to be transmitted; and so far from being intended to confer a power to construct a road, was meant only to prevent the interference of State authority, in the pas sage of the mails over their roads, and through their limits. " But again the States are parties to the Constitution in their sovereign capacity. They have created a government by it, for the better management of those concerns, which, from their contiguity and intimate dependencies, they hold in com mon and we find, that intending to reserve to themselves all power not indispensably necessary for the management of these general concerns, they have measured out authority to their Federal rulers, with a slow and cautious hand. The power to make a road involves a right to come into our territory ; to con demn so much land as may be required for the purpose ; and to take as much materials of earth, timber, etc., as may be neces sary to construct it. Now I would ask, whether, had it been the intention of the framers of the Constitution to confer so im portant a power as this, they would have given it by the equivo cal phrase of power to establish post roads ? " Further This right involves in its legitimate conse quences the condemnation of the land through which the road LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 25 passes, and the transference of the jurisdiction over it, from the State to the Federal Government. So much territorial juris diction as is measured by its extent is to be cut off from the States, by this construction of the phrase above quoted; when by the same instrument (so jealous were they of their territorial jurisdiction), the Federal Government can not take from a State as much of its soil as is necessary to build an arsenal, or to erect a light-house on a barren sand beach, without first receiving from that. State, a solemn cession of the twenty feet square which such building may cover. " But again if further proof be wanted to show that this assumption is unwarranted, we have it in the fact, that in the very convention which framed the Constitution, a proposition to confer upon the Federal Government a power to make roads and canals was formally made, and as formally rejected. " Under these solemn and deliberate convictions, and sworn, too, to support the Constitution, I was called to record my vote for or against the resolutions. Upon the constitu tional point, I could not, and did not hesitate. When thus situated, a representative is bound, by every obligation, to dis card all personal considerations, and to express by his vote, the convictions of his best judgment. I have done this, and do not fear to avow it. " As to the general doctrine of these resolutions upon the points which they involve of constitutional law, they express nothing more than the uniform decisions of Virginia from the year 96, when her protest was entered against the celebrated Sedition Law of the elder Adams, to the present day. They express the uniform policy of the Democratic party, amongst whom I was born and bred, from whom my earliest impressions were received, and from whose doctrines, sanctioned by maturer years, I have never deviated, and never can. " If by my vote upon these resolutions, my political fate is to turn, let it be so. I have done my duty, according to the honest dictates of my best judgment, and I wish not to evade the test. There is no man who esteems your favour, or appre ciates your confidence, more than I do, but I should be unworthy of either, were I meanly to solicit its continuance, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. by the suppression of my opinion, or the sacrifice of my principles. " Your fellow-citizen, " TAMES M. MASON." He was, however, defeated in the next election in conse quence of this vote; and for the next year he devoted himself most assiduously and successfully to the practice of his profes sion. In the canvass of the year 1828, he again avowed and vin dicated the obnoxious vote, and it would appear as though the people were then convinced of the truth and justice of the posi tion he had maintained, for he was then returned to the House of Delegates by a triumphant majority. There is still extant a letter from Mr. John Randolph, of Roanoke, to Mr. Mason, dated Washington, April I2th, 1828, which says : " Let me congratulate you, my dear sir, as I do most cor dially, on your late signal and deserved triumph over prejudice and ignorance and political fanaticism not less blind than that of religion and not only you, my dear sir, but my country, but Virginia. I am now spitting blood and may not live to see the next meeting of the Assembly but Frederick County has re deemed nobly her errors and expatiated her offences. She has one representative, at least (I have not at all the honor to know your colleague), worthy of the largest, richest and most populous county in the State. " Most respectfully and truly yours, " JOHN RANDOLPH, of Roanoke. " To James M. Mason, Esquire, Winchester, Virginia" During the session of 1828 and 1829, resolutions of like character with those of 1826 and 1827 were again introduced. Again did Mr. Mason vote for, and advocate them in debate, yet in April, 1829, and again in 1830, was he returned to the House with the full approbation of his constituents of what he had done. The most important business before the Legislature in the session of 1828 and 1829 was the organization of the Convention called for the following year, " To amend the Constitution of Virginia." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. It may at first glance appear as if the entire change of circumstances since that date had destroyed interest in the dis cussions of questions long ago settled; closer observation will, however, discover that, as in many other instances, " The best principles of our government were endangered by the measures then proposed." The position taken by Mr. Mason in the debate on the Convention, January 3d, 1829, is strongly characteristic of the man. Omitting a few introductory remarks, he says : " The bill sought to be amended, provides, in the first section, for a representation from the present Congressional districts, which includes not the free whites alone, but with them three-fifths of the slaves. I contend, sir, that those only are to meet, through their representatives, in this Convention, in whom the political power resides. That it is an act of the people in their highest sovereignty an exercise of that political power, which resides only in the political community, and in which none but the members of that community can of right participate. What has been asked of the General Assembly? That it would, by legislative provision, enable the political community to meet in convention for the purpose of reforming their social compact. The bill in your hand does not comply with this demand; on the contrary, denouncing the true political community as rec ognized by every principle of our institutions, it requires, as a preliminary to their compliance, the admission of those who form no part of that community, and with whom there is not one common attribute. " Sir, the political community of which I speak is the free white people of this Commonwealth. The people of Virginia, and not the slaves of that people, are those who wield the polit ical power, and if gentlemen are not prepared to desert the true principles of our polity, they must unite with me in the endeavor to expunge this odious feature from the bill. How is it sought to be sustained? Is this extraordinary demand made for the representation of so much property? or so much population? On the one or the other the proposition must rest. If it be so much population, let the discussion there involved come from the other side. I will not invite or anticipate so delicate a ques tion. If it be made, I am not unprepared to meet it; but if it 2 $ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. must mingle in this debate, be the responsibility on those who advance it. " We are told, however, that representation and taxation ought to go together; and that slaves, being a peculiar subject of tax, regard should be had to them in representation. In other words, that property, nakedly as such, ought of right to be represented in convention. " I maintain, sir, that the reverse of this proposition is not only true in principle, but is demonstrable in argument. The Convention, sir, is called to revise and remodel our funda mental laws. A resumption by the people of their political power, for the purpose of a new distribution. What says your Bill of Rights? That all power is vested in and conse quently received from the people. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protec tion, and security of the people, nation, or community. And that, when any government shall be found inadequate, or con trary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be deemed most conducive to the public weal : In the enunciation of these great prin ciples the people alone are recognized as the depositaries of political power the will of that people is shown by the voice of their majority and that will is supreme. Why, sir, have the majority this right? it resides in their physical force, and in nothing else. There is not one word here said, in tracing the source of power, about the property of the community as containing any portion of this power. Will gentlemen tell us that these are mere political abstractions very true in theory, but not applicable in practice? Do gentlemen deny that all power is vested in the people ? or will they content them selves to admit it, as it is written, and then thrust it by as a mere abstraction? If gentlemen do this, they must be prepared to declare to the world, that the very substratum of popular gov ernment, as understood and practiced here for more than fifty years, is but a vain and unsubstantial shadow that the Bill of Rights of 76, that epoch of glorious memory, was a declaration of mere abstractions, intended to deceive a confiding people, and cajole them of their power. The great fathers of our Re- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2 g public have advised a frequent recurrence to fundamental prin ciples. Never was advice better founded frequent recur rences is necessary to their preservation nor could there be a stronger instance to illustrate its truth, if at this day we are to be told by Virginians, that our fundamental principles are mere political abstractions, which may keep the word of promise to the ear, but break it to the hope. " But fortunately for the people, this doctrine, that the majority have the right to reform, alter, or abolish/ does not rest alone in parchment authority; there is an inherent conservative right that will give it efficacy if put to the test. Why is it that the majority have the right? What sanction has the people s will? It resides, sir, in physical force, and it resides nowhere else. The power to execute their will makes that will supreme. The acknowledgment of this sanction brings the minority to submit. In popular government, then, the criterion of political power is physical force, and as in prop erty there can be none of this force, so it can carry with it none of this power. When I speak, Mr. Chairman, of physical force, let me not be understood in the language of threat or menace I mean, sir, nothing such. But the first section of this bill contains a provision directly at war with the best prin ciples of our government, and it is but to expose this hostility that I trace those principles to their true origin. " Property and power are divellent. The one belongs to the many, the other to the few. Property if not controlled will tyrannize over power though the proposition may seem paradoxical and the converse is equally true, that power if not restrained will lord it over property. Every wise government, then, will have these influences so adjusted as to render them nearly equipollent." It was during the year 1828 that Mr. Mason purchased the place known as Selma, and established for himself and his family the home where they lived until after the beginning of the war between the States, when, in 1862, the withdrawal of the Southern troops from Winchester made it necessary that his family should seek safety within the lines of the Confederacy. This place, which had been formerly the residence of Judge Dabney Carr, was situated about a mile west of Winchester, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and consisted of a small tract of land sufficient only to afford space for an agreeable residence. The house, built by Judge Carr, was an unpretending, though substantial and comfortable, stone dwelling, beautifully located upon such high ground that it commanded a fine view of the surrounding country, and looked down upon the town, which made a very pretty picture, as it seemed to nestle at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, shaded and sheltered by large trees, while the thickly wooded mountains, that were in reality some fifteen miles distant, made a rich and effective background, and greatly enhanced the beauty and the interest of the scene. Here Mr. and Mrs. Mason made a very happy home, not only for themselves and their eight children, but, following in the footsteps of their parents and their grandparents on both sides, and obeying the apostolic injunction to " use hospitality without grudging," they failed not to entertain strangers, when, by so doing, they were able to extend a kindness, and for a large circle of friends and relatives, they always kept an open house and a cordial welcome. A few extracts from some of Mrs. Mason s letters afford a glimpse of the home-life, and make the domestic scene appear very attractive. They also give evidence that Mr. Mason s frequent and long absences did not diminish his interest in all domestic matters, and they show that he thoroughly enjoyed his home and his children, and delighted in adding to the beauty and comfort of their resi dence. In a letter to her mother, Mrs. Mason says : " Indeed, I have felt so delightfully free from care and trouble that I have seated myself at my desk with every disposition to impart to you, my dearly loved mother, all the satisfaction and all the happiness which I am myself experiencing. As I have already minutely described our new residence, you may have formed a correct idea of our rural felicity. In former times (even at the romantic age), I never thought that I had any taste for rustic pleasures, but I find that I am excessively amused by and in terested in, all our plans and pursuits for the improvement of our establishment ; in short, that I am peculiarly fitted for rural izing. Our house and grounds are very much in want of atten tion and of putting to rights; as we are obliged to proceed as LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. economically as possible, our progress must be very gradual; yet the operation supplies a constant source of pleasure, and I really believe will materially conduce to our health and happi ness; my husband (bless him) is already more robust and hearty than he has been for a long time; my children are as blessedly well and as merry as my heart can desire." In November, 1829, she writes to her sister: "To-mor row, my husband will commence his journey to Richmond, and I am already shrinking from the prospect of spending three months in solitude. How strangely inconsistent is the human heart! Now it is impossible for any wife in the world to delight more than I do in the distinction which her husband may command, and no woman on earth ever felt more ambition, or more ardently desired the honour and glory of public life; yet with all a woman s weakness at this moment I would sac rifice it all and willingly consent to live and die in obscurity could I only retain my husband s society and continue to enjoy all his domestic virtues. However, it is now too late to repine ; I must rather brace my mind and my nerves, that I may firmly encounter all the evils of our separation, and enable myself profitably to employ the leisure and the retirement of the winter." Some months later she writes of having been- suffering from some temporary indisposition, and says : " Last week I wrote an unusually long letter, but I found I had betrayed such a sombre mood I e en determined to suppress an epistle which could only excite gloomy feelings ; however, I flatter myself that after to-morrow I shall require much less of your sympathy than I have demanded during this long and dreary winter. On Friday my husband will return to me and I have no doubt that both mentally and physically I shall be benefitted by his society. I wish I could describe to you the eagerness with which my children are expecting their father." While in Richmond, during the winter of 1829 and 30, as a member of the Legislature, Mr. Mason was chosen to fill the vacancy in the Convention caused by the resignation of Mr. Hierome L. Opie, of Jefferson County, then in Virginia. Family tradition and old letters say that this winter of 1829 and 30 was the first one spent by Mrs. Mason at home LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. in Virginia without her husband. In preceding years she had passed the months of his absence at her father s home in Phila delphia, or at that of Mr. Mason s father in Georgetown. But now her family of three children, with their nurse, made too large a party to be easily carried on so long a journey, as that from Winchester to Philadelphia was then considered. The difficulties attending such an undertaking in those days, will be shown by a letter from Mr. Mason to his sister-in-law, Miss Chew, of Philadelphia, written in anticipation of a visit from her and her mother to Winchester, and dated March, 1830: " My Dear Sister: I regret much to find by your letter to Eliza that you could not afford me the pleasure of attending you from Georgetown to our tra montane retreat; yet it is mitigated in the hope held out that we shall before long welcome both your excellent mother and yourself. Eliza desires me to advise you of the different and test routes hither from Baltimore. The route direct from Baltimore is shorter than to come by Georgetown (tho don t understand me as advising it, because to deprive my good family on the Island of your visit en passant, would be unfair), this en parenthese. " If from Baltimore direct, you would come through Fred- ericktown and Hagerstown to Sharpsburg on the Potomac River, a good turnpike all the way, and distance about seventy- five miles. From Sharpsburg through Shepherdstown (Virginia), to Winchester, say thirty miles. The road none of the best, but still by no means one of the worst to be accomplished in a day s drive, by keeping good horses, and using diligence. The best stopping places on this route, or the most conven ient stages, I can not indicate, having but an imperfect knowl edge of the road. If you come to Georgetown, of the route thence, I may say, as McGregor in Scotland, My foot is on my native heath. I can mark it by the inch; you leave the Island at as early an hour as possible in the morning; thence, by the turnpike which leads from the Potomac Bridge (the Islanders will explain this to you), to Fairfax Court House (Shacklett s tavern) to dinner; say 15 miles. Thence to Aldie (Shacklett s tavern again), say 20 miles, where you will stay all night; thence another and earlier start, 17 miles, to Paris (Set- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. tie s tavern), to dinner; thence across the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah River, say 20 miles, to Winchester." In the following October, another letter speaks again of the home-life at Selma. It says : " I daresay if you were with me this morning you would think me the happiest of my sex, for this delightful weather has renovated mind and body, and all around me appears as bright and smiling as possible. The children are racing and chasing over the hill as merry as my heart could desire, and all of them are as well as they are merry, and their father is enjoying a quiet day of rest as much as either of the bairns. He has been continually at court for the last two weeks, and really looks jaded, though, as usual, he is in good spirits and says he feels perfectly well/* Unwilling to encounter another long absence from his family, and another interruption in the practice of his profes sion, Mr. Mason was reluctant to go again to the Legislature, but elected by his constituents and urged by his friends, he returned, in 1830, to the House of Delegates, to aid in organ izing and putting into operation the new Constitution, which he had, as a member of the Convention, helped to frame. During this winter of 1830, an incident occurred at Selma, that shows the warmth and strength of attachment felt for Mr. and Mrs. Mason in the community into which they had gone as strangers only a few years before. It also affords oppor tunity to record one of the many instances of disinterested friendship that seemed to be mere matters of course with that noble man, Dr. Robert Baldwin, of Winchester, the tried and trusted friend, as well as the family physician, at Selma. A negro woman, hired by Mrs. Mason for a day s work, became ill while in her house. Dr. Baldwin was summoned ; he at once recognized the symptoms as smallpox; there was no hospital to which she could be sent, and he and Mrs. Mason decided it was right and proper she should not be moved away, but that she should remain at Selma, and her mother should be brought to nurse her. The danger of contagion had already been in creased by the fact the woman had been that morning with the children in the nursery, and had held the baby in her arms for some time. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. True friend as he was, Dr. Baldwin took entire charge of the household, made suitable provision for the other servants, as well as for the sick woman, and took Mrs. Mason, with her children and their nurse, to his own house, nothwithstanding her earnest protest against the risk he was incurring of danger to himself and his wife (he had no children) ; his only reply was: " In Mason s absence his family must be taken care of by his friends." Mr. Mason was, of course, summoned from Richmond, but Dr. Baldwin would not agree to their leaving his house until all fear of smallpox had passed away. In the Spring of 1831, Mr. Mason was a candidate for the House of Representatives from the district of Frederick, Shen- andoah and Page counties, but he lost the election by a small vote. In writing to her sister of this defeat, Mrs. Mason says : " I have now only time to tell you that, notwithstanding the support which we received in Frederick, the County of Shen- andoah has effectually turned the scale, and changed my hus band s majority from 603 to 15, and as Page County will, on Monday, 22d, vote almost unanimously for Allen, Mr. Mason will have the pleasure of enjoying the delights of home for the next two years at least ; however, in this instance defeat is unat tended by mortification; indeed, we scarcely feel any disappoint ment. James has received such a vote as will at once prove his high standing; such is the fate of war, of political warfare, at any rate. I have been very sanguine of success, and, of course, very anxious that he should succeed, yet now I am per fectly satisfied, and I think he is himself almost as well con tented as he would have been if he had gained the day. He has this morning gone to Romney, and hereafter he will extend his practice to the Hardy and Jefferson County Courts, which, though it will add to his numerous absences from home, will, I trust, add materially to his means of making home agreeable and elegant, I will not say comfortable, for we have already enough for the comforts of life, if that sufficiency could only be managed with judgment and economy; yes, indeed; we have more, much more, than we deserve, and let me gratefully ac knowledge that I have learnt to appreciate and to enjoy all my blessings." In the same letter she tells her sister : " I have not paid for one stitch of work this season, excepting my black LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. dress. I have done, with my own fingers, every particle of sew ing which has been requisite for my husband, my children, or myself." His defeat in the election of 1831 for the House of Repre sentatives did not, at all, affect his keen interest in all the politi cal questions of the day, which were just then of an exciting character, and were, to an unusual degree, engrossing public attention. The same principles involving the powers and limi tations of the Federal Government continued to be the subject of constantly increasing agitation in both houses of Congress. The Tariff Bill of the session of 1831 and 32 increased, rather than diminished, the opposition to the Protective Policy, for though it reduced the duties on many imported articles, yet it was based on the principle of Federal protection to local inter ests in several States to the injury of the general interests of the country, as was maintained by its opponents, and led, as is well known, to the " Nullification Ordinance " of South Caro lina. An extract from one of the Winchester newspapers, dated January 2d, 1833, shows Mr. Mason s active participancy in the opposition to this policy, and gives a clear expression of his opinion regarding the points at issue. It says : " At a large and highly respectable meeting of the citizens of Win chester, without distinction of party, held on Monday, Decem ber 3 ist, 1832, to take into consideration the propriety of adopting resolutions approbatory of the course of the Presi dent of the United States in his recent proclamation relative to the proceedings in South Carolina, a committee was appointed to prepare and report a preamble and resolutions, etc., etc." The paper shows that * Colonel J. M. Mason was one of this com mittee, and that he was one of the three out of the com mittee of seven who brought in a " minority report," in which was more clearly expressed, than in the report of the majority, the principle of State Sovereignty and the Right of Secession, at the same time saying : " We venerate the Union of the States as the palladium of our liberty, the source of our dignity and influence abroad, and of our tranquility and prosperity at home." It also states that Colonel J. M. Mason offered, as a *Mr. Mason was, at this time, Colonel of a Regiment of Militia, and thus acquired the title by which he was always known in Winchester. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. substitute for one of the resolutions of the minority report, the following : " Resolved, That we hail with peculiar satisfaction the disposition evinced by Congress to reduce the duties upon imports to the standard of revenue alone. Viewing our taxes as nothing more than the contribution paid by the citizen for the support of the government, which protects him in the enjoyment of civil liberty, we regard the present tariff, avowedly imposed for other purposes, as a departure from the meaning of the Constitution and repugnant to the character of our insti tutions." The interval between his last term, 1830 and 31, in the Legislature of the State and his election to the House of Rep resentatives in 1837, was not marked by any event of special interest of which there is any record. It seems to have been spent in diligent attention to his profession, and in enjoyment of the domestic life for which he was peculiarly well fitted, and of which he was ever the center of attraction. A short extract from one of his letters, although written several years later, when he was in Washington, is appropriate here as expressing his feeling. It was addressed to his sister- in-law, Miss Chew, and in it he says : " I have sent by mail, to day, your letter to E., and on Friday, God willing, I shall send myself after it. I long to get back again to my own dear home, the only spot on earth where, when one enters, he knows that suspicion, distrust, and jealousy do not attend him." All who are familiar with the home at Selma agree in the testimony, that it was in the daily intercourse with his wife, children, servants, and neighbors that he appeared to the great est advantage. His uniformly cheerful, buoyant temperament and his fondness for social life, combined with his interest in the pursuits and pleasures of his children and their young com panions, made his presence essential to the full enjoyment of any amusement, and his approbation was considered full compen sation for any exertion or self-denial asked of them. The writer recalls with great vividness how eagerly the children looked forward to " Father s " coming home from his office in the afternoon ; how his bright, joyous voice and hearty laugh was heard as soon as he entered the house, and how it was thought great fun to go with him for a walk or a drive : LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. or how, when he took his exercise, as he was fond of doing, in working in the garden or in cutting wood for the fires (in those days, it will be remembered, open wood fires were invariably used in Virginia), how he was accompanied by all the children, who were fully persuaded they were giving valuable assistance ; how, when it became too late to be out of doors, they would crowd around him in the house to hear a story, while the youngest of the party was held in his arms; or how he would call his eldest daughter " To make music on the piano, so they could have a dance." Such merry-makings in their early child hood are always associated with their father s presence. Yet, while thus accustomed to companionship and familiar intercourse with him, his children were trained from earliest infancy to an obedience and respect which seemed to be instinctive or which was, perhaps, inspired by his way of looking fully into their eyes and speaking positively but without harshness and without ever raising his voice to a loud tone. The writer does not recall an instance of having seen him lose his patience with one of the children, or his having resorted to any kind of punishment. It never seemed necessary, for no one thought of disputing his authority, and he never seemed to arouse any spirit of resistance or opposition. This can prob ably be explained, partly by the constant training of their mother, who taught them to think that everything must be made comfortable and pleasant when " Father " was at home, because he was so often absent, and, doubtless, partly by the fact that he was himself blessed with an unusually amiable, happy temper, and that his habitual self-control was remarkable throughout his life. Added to this was his conviction that the common practice of whipping children and of controlling them by fear was injurious and directly opposed to the development of the best and highest character. He maintained, on the contrary, that the best results could be obtained by avoiding, so far as possible, the necessity for asserting or enforcing authority, by never making unnecessary points; by diverting the attention of a child, or, to quote his own words, by " changing the current of his thoughts," or by appealing to his better nature, comparatively few difficulties would, he said, then arise, and if the parent was always gentle, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and at the same time firm, a child could be trained to self- control and a self-respect which would elevate and strengthen the character far more than could be expected when the obe dience and good behavior during childhood had been secured by the fear of punishment. However theoretical and imprac ticable this doctrine may be considered by those who hold dif ferent views, it was nevertheless the opinion held and consist ently put in practice by both Mr. and Mrs. Mason. It is intro duced here as illustrative of the character and temperament of the man. In June, 1833, he was appointed, by the Governor of the State, one of the " Visitors of the University of Virginia " to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. James Brecken- ridge. The interest and pride that he had before felt in this in stitution was naturally increased by the responsibility then devolved upon him, and he made it a special point to be present at all the meetings of the Board. The term for which " Visi tors " were appointed was four years ; he continued to hold the position for eighteen years, his successor being appointed in 1851, after Mr. Mason s duties in the Senate made it impossible for him longer to attend these meetings. His interest in the institution continued, and was frequently expressed, during the last years of his life. It is much to be regretted that all of Mr. Mason s letters to his wife and children were burned (to avoid risk of their falling into the hands of the enemy), at the time of the evacuation of Richmond by the Confederate Army; they would have fur nished a valuable synopsis of all matters of either private or public interest connected with his career during the period from 1820, when he first went to Winchester, to the time of his departure for England in 1861. It was his habit, when absent from home to send his wife by every mail a running comment ary upon the people with whom he was associated, and upon all things that occupied his attention; while his constant reference to the smallest details of domestic interest proved that his home and his family were always borne in mind. He kept up also a separate correspondence with every one of his children, begin ning with each in turn as soon as the child could understand a letter, often before it could write a reply; and they were all en- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. couraged to write to him freely of their childish amusements, their friends and their pets. He constantly said to them, " Remem ber that whatever interests you is of interest to me." Not only were their school reports sent to him, but many of their compositions and exercises were sent to him for cor rection or approval, and this was continued while he was in the Senate, until the youngest child had outgrown the necessity for such supervision. These letters would also have given clearer and truer ideas than are now generally entertained of the customs and the mode of living in Virginia prior to 1861, and of the tone of thought and feeling in the days when the master and mistress recognised a responsibility in the care and training of their servants, second only to that devolving upon them as parents, and when the negroes were so entirely identified with the interests of their owners as to consider their own personal dignity and impor tance greatly enhanced by any distinction or honor achieved by their masters. There were many evidences of this feeling among the ser vants at Selma, and it extended to their friends among the other negroes in Winchester. Among many instances illustrative of this, one that should be recorded was the custom long continued by the negro band of Winchester of " giving Marster a sere nade," the night following his return after a long absence from home. Several of the members of the band belonged to gentlemen living in Winchester ; others were free negroes of the neighbor hood. The serenades were generally arranged by one of the Selma servants and were intended as a sort of welcome and as a mark of respect. On such occasions, Mr. Mason always thanked them for the kind feeling evinced, and a moderate drink of whiskey and water was given to all of the party. Doubtless the expectation of such refreshment added not a little to the interest of the occasion, and made the band willing and anxious to celebrate his home-coming. Still the story serves to show something of his intercourse with the negroes. Although always firm in maintaining the constitutional rights of slave-holders, he had little personal interest at stake, as he never owned more than a small number of slaves, not 40_ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. enough to supply the domestic service required in his family. There were, however, always one or two at Selma, as in all other Southern households, who had passed the age of active service, and were no longer expected to discharge any regular duties, and also a number of children, too young to be of any use, but for whom the same provision of food, clothing and shelter was necessary as for those doing full duty. Therefore, if the ques tion had been considered as one of personal aggrandizement, it is probable that his own fortune would have been increased rather than diminished if he could have liberated all of his ser vants, and by so doing, have emancipated himself from all obli gation or responsibility for the care of the helpless and the dependent. A manuscript in Mr. Mason s writing, found among his papers, says : " I have often had it in contemplation to keep a diary, in which events, as they transpired, should be recorded, in the belief that it would be interesting, at least, and possibly instructive to those who come after me." Unfortunately, the purpose here expressed was not carried into execution, and the entries are few and at long intervals. Of this particular period he says: "In April, 1831, I was a candidate for Congress to represent the district of Frederick, Shenandoah, and Page Counties, against Robert Allen, of Shenandoah, the incumbent, and lost the election by a small vote. " Continued in the successful practice of my profession until 1837. In the fall preceding, was nominated for the House of Representatives in Congress by a convention, for the district then composed of Frederick, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, Jefferson, and Clarke Counties, and elected by a large vote in April, 1837. " In May, 1837, all the banks in the United States sus pended specie payments, in consequence of which Mr. Van Buren, the President, summoned Congress to meet in Septem ber. At that special session, I separated, with others, from the administration on the measure of requiring specie to be paid in the existing state of the country, for all government dues ; for my reasons I refer to my speeches of that and the ensuing sessions of that Congress. This measure was defeated at the special session, and again pressed at the subsequent sessions. I con- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. * T tinued in firm opposition. At the close of this Congress, the Democratic Convention for the district treating me as heretic, refused to renominate me, and did nominate William Lucas, of Jefferson, who was elected, I voting for him. " After this, I resumed my practice with great diligence and success. My practice became very large, frequently embracing ten or twelve Superior Courts. Each spring and fall, I per emptorily declined all future overtures to return to the House of Delegates." Reference has already been made to Mr. Mason s fondness for domestic life ; he had not only no taste for hotel or club-life, but he always declared it to be intolerable. A short time, therefore, after going to Washington, he adopted a plan to which he adhered during the two winters that he was in the House of Representatives, and which he resumed when he returned to Washington after his election to the Senate, the plan of forming what he called " a mess," and, combining with two or three other gentlemen, taking a house and living together as one family. The first " mess " thus formed included several ladies, for one of his letters refers to Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun, and Colonel and Mrs. Pickens, of South Carolina; Mr. Mallory and Mr. R. M. T. Hunter, of Essex County, Virginia. The daily inter course thus established led to warm and lasting friendship with every one of those enumerated, including Mr. Calhoun, for whom Mr. Mason always felt great admiration, as well as warm personal regard, notwithstanding the criticism contained in one of the letters to be presently quoted. In connection with this criticism it is to be noted that Mr. Calhoun advocated the sub- treasury system which Mr. Mason was strenuously opposing. On most other questions they fully agreed, particularly on those affecting the rights of the States. With Mr. Hunter there was specially congenial intercourse, although there was marked contrast between them as regards their temperaments and their personal tastes. Mr. Mason, as it has before Been said, had an unusually cheerful, buoyant, hope ful disposition, and was fond of society, particularly of that of young people, and he mingled freely among the people around him, wherever he might be. He often said nothing interested LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. him more than the study of human nature, and that he thought, with Pope, " The proper study of mankind is man." Mr. Hunter was far more inclined to the quiet, secluded life of a student, had little disposition to mingle with the gay world of Washington, and was of a less sanguine nature, being more apt to dwell on the dark side of life. He had, however, a mind of the highest order, and was a man of pure, exalted char acter. He and Mr. Mason belonged to the same school of political thought; they seldom differed on any measure of im portance, as was shown by the frequency with which they were found voting together, and they felt entire confidence in and respect for each other. They were associated together thus in the House of Representatives, and again, after an interval of eight years, in the Senate, when they renewed the intimacy that continued without interruption until the end of Mr. Mason s life. Every winter from 1847 to 1861, they lived together. Sometimes the " mess " was larger, and included several other friends, the members of it changing from year to year, but these two remained together. There were many considerations, in addition to those con nected with the expense involved, that influenced both Mr. and Mrs. Mason in their decision not to bring their children to Washington, but to keep them, while young, in the quiet retire ment and the pure country air of their home at Selma. The winter of 1837 and 1838 was spent by Mrs. Mason, partly in Philadelphia at her father s house, and partly at the home of her husband s father, General John Mason, at Cler- mont, in Fairfax County, Virginia. The winter of 1838 and 1839 seems to have been spent at Selma. This being a short session of Congress, Mr. Mason s absence was only from the first Monday in December until the 4th of March following. The only letters written by either Mr. or Mrs. Mason dur ing this period that have been preserved, are those addressed to her sister, Miss Chew, several of which are now given, as they furnish a truer idea of the man and afford a better glimpse of the society in which he was mingling, than could be afforded by any description written by another after the lapse of so many years. The absence of any letters to his own family, whether to his parents, his brothers or sisters, or to his wife and children, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. *~ is explained by the fact, that at the close of the war between the States, there was not one home remaining of all those formerly belonging to the different members of his family, although they were scattered in many places. Two brothers and a sister had separate and comfortable homes on their respective estates in Fairfax County, Virginia; one brother had his home in Missis sippi; another, in Louisiana; a son, in Galveston, Texas; one son-in-law, in Maryland; and another, in Fauquier County, Virginia. Yet all were destroyed and the contents scattered and lost in the general desolation made by the invading armies. Mr. Mason s home at Selma was not an exception. Thus in this general destruction, all letters written by either Mr. or Mrs. Mason to the different members of the family were lost. This is, however, anticipating the record of events that occurred in later years, and that must be noticed in their proper places. To return to earlier days, and to the aforesaid letters to Miss Chew. The first reads thus : " WASHINGTON, May 24th, 1838. " My Dear Sister: As I know that Eliza has not written to you within a few days past, and that you will be a little < curious to know what she is about, I take my pen to indulge you. Well, I wrote you that I had accepted Mr. Secretary s invita tion for her to dine. She came up accordingly on Monday, or rather my good mother brought her up, leaving all the children at Clermont ; * her escort went back the same evening, leaving her on my hands. Tuesday she spent all the morning with Maria and Catharine,t looking about for finery, and in due time, that is to say, a little before 7 p. m., we went to the dinner. There we found all the diplomats assembled, with the elite of Congress, the Ministers from England, France, Russia, and Texas, and charges from the smaller powers of Spain, Holland, Prussia, etc., etc. Entirely a court circle wasn t that grand? Mons De Pontois attended Madam Mason to table, and a clever French chat they had of it, I have no doubt. What do *Mrs. Mason, with her six children, had spent the winter with her own family at " Cliveden," and they were now with Mr. Mason s parents at their country home at Clermont, in Fairfax County, Virginia, some eight or ten miles from Washington. tHis sister, Mrs. General Cooper, and his sister-in-law, Mrs. John Mason. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. you think was my only admonition to E - when we got into the carriage to go to dinner? " Now, said I, I have but one piece of counsel to give ; let the poor man, whoever he may be, with whom your lot is cast at dinner, put in a word now and then. But as it turned out, there was no need of the advice, for the representative of Le Grand Monarque was not easily defrauded of his proper share. We got back about n o clock. By the way, I could not toll my consort to Mrs. Peyton s, for Catharine took charge of her, and has kept her ever since, I plying between Washington and Georgetown with the regularity of an ordinary diligence. " At first Eliza was very sentimental indeed about the children left at Clermont, and last night insisted that she must go back to-day (by the way, it rained all day yesterday so inces santly that she could not get abroad). But with the bright sun this morning, together with letters from Anna and Ben,J telling her they were doing well, and the little children were perfectly satisfied and not crying, her confidence seemed to revive, and now I doubt whether I will get her off before the end of the week. " She was at the Capitol all this morning, and left there at half past two, with Catharine, to go to visit Mrs. Madison, Mrs. Poinsett, etc., etc. I think the result will be that she will stay here about until Saturday, when we will go back to Clermont together. " Now is not the old lady becoming enterprising? Think of her leaving the children for a week, to amuse herself in this dissipated metropolis. " I am happy in the opportunity, however, of telling you, and your excellent parents, of the well-being of those for whom I know they are so much interested, and of again subscribing myself always most Affectionately yours, " J. M. M." Again he writes to Miss Chew from Washington : "January ist, 1839. 1 My Very Dear Sister: I have to thank you on behalf of myself and household, for your kind letter addressed to me at JThe two elder children. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Winchester, and again for myself more especially for your last received last night, enclosing one to my far better half. I think my scolding letter, as you facetiously term it, has had the very happiest effect, as it has produced already two, in return, to your humble servant, and the same number to her for whom I am bound to provide. You should be forever obliged to me for striking the chord that has vibrated to such happy results. I am sure my excellent wife will applaud the act in all time to come. " I returned from Winchester on Sunday last, having spent a week dans le sein de ma famille. Eliza and our little ones were at first much chagrined at the abandonment of her proposed journey. But she was soon satisfied that the intense cold, with the tendency of the children to croup and catarrhal affections, would have rendered it impracticable even had all their prepara tions been made. As evidence at the threshold, on the night I reached home, we were more than five hours on the road from Harper s Ferry to Winchester, a distance generally run in two hours, exposed to an excessively cold night, by the freezing of the water in the tanks attached for supply to the locomotive. After I got warm enough by their bright Christmas fire, at home, to tell that story, she gave up. " I am glad to say that I left them all well ; the children shaking off their colds, and as to the gude wife, the best evi dence of her robust condition is, that an evening or two before I left home, we walked through a snowstorm after dark to our neighbor Tidball s, and back after it had fallen some inches deep. Our excellent friend and neighbor, Mrs. Tidball, is, I regret to say, in very declining health subject to frequent and violent attacks, which leave little hope of recovery to her wonted health. Her loss to my household would be irreparable. " And now for the news of this gay metropolis, which, like a country girl as you have become, I daresay you are dying to hear. We have had a grand levee at the Palace, where all the world, and I in the midst, went to enjoy the sunshine of the royal smile. I had the honor of attending Mrs. Pickens, the wife of one of my cleverest mess-mates, and a very good sample of the choice blood of South Carolina. 46, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " The President, very gracious, and trying all he knew to appear the gentleman, rather a difficult task, by the way, for one who has not caught the manner in the natural way connate. Well there were all the diplomats, and their valets striving each with the other to excel in the profusion of gold lace, and gold bands the most ridiculous figures were two strapping negroes on the box of the Russian s coach, with coats, etc., of Russian cut and make, manifestly, bedizened all over with gold cords and tassels, and each surmounted by an immense chapeau and feather I take it for granted that his excellency could get no white man to play the ape so broadly, and it suited Sambo s taste finely. " Then there were ladies in all sorts of dresses and colours. Next I took my South Carolina friends to pay our devoirs to Mrs. Madison, who you know is a particular pet of mine, being only some four-score years of this world. The old lady had quite as large an attendance as the President himself, and bore herself most queenly, receiving her guests at the rate of some half dozen a minute, and saying something kind and gracious to each. So much for New Year s day in Washington. " I have gotten this winter pretty well out of the world, having taken lodgings far off on Capitol Hill, remote from the court end of the city. But we have Mr. Calhoun in our mess, and that is no little treat wonderful man that he is nature has given him a mind of the very highest order, and it is cul tivated and improved to the uttermost extent of acquirement and profound study. But there is a vein of hallucination per vading, which unsettles the whole, and renders him worse than useless to the country he seems born to have controlled. I talk with him a great deal, for he has a passion for arguing every one into that belief which happens to be his own for the time being. His mind is like a crucible where the most perplexed theories are melted down at once, and resolved back into their elements. It is in the combination afterwards, that his great genius leads him astray. " I send to your father, by this mail, the first print of Mr. Rives s late speech. It will be a treat to you, I know, to read it to him. But it ain t very long, and there are some bold passages delivered in a fine manly tone. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA8ON. " Please tell him if he is plagued with the Intelligencer, that I send it to him every day by Eliza s orders. And now I will prose no longer, for I daresay you are tired of all this vapid gossip, further than to commend my best respects to your Cliveden circle, and to assure you, my dear sister, that I am always " Faithfully and affectionately yours, "J. M. MASON/ 1 A few weeks later, while still in Washington he writes to Miss Chew: "My Dear Sister: The best evidence one can give that a kindness is appreciated, is its early acknowledgment. I do so now in recognizing your brief page of the day before yesterday, enclosing one to my excellent wife. I have sent it to her, and with it the scrip from some hired letter-writer that was attached. " You 11 think it ungracious to speak thus of one who speaks well of me. But I have no tolerance for the wretched venal pack who haunt the purlieus of the Capitol, and are paid to praise or condemn, as may suit the vein of those for whom they pander. You 11 be amused to find how your hit at me for my late assault upon the Whigs is echoed in the enclosed from my wife. It is a good long one, and I hope will compensate you and the circle at Cliveden for its persual. " I must tell you of a very nice little wedding we had yester day in our own mess. A very clever girl from South Carolina, who sang most charmingly for us every night the sister of Mrs. Pickens of that State well, her lover came the other day from South Carolina to see her, and after staying some time protested that he must go home, and yet he could not go with out her. So after much demur, and dear me, and it will never do, and all that, why we sent for a parson, who married them at 2 o clock, dined them at three, and packed em off in the cars at 4 o clock the same evening. He was the brother of Mrs. Calhoun, and we had none except the mess present, Mr. and Mrs. C, Colonel and Mrs. Pickens, with my colleagues, Mallory and Hunter, and myself. And that s the way they marry in LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Washington. Well, there is all my gossip, which if it serves to amuse you, will have attained the purpose of " Your very affectionate brother, " J. M. MASON." Dropped by the Democratic party because of his opposi tion to the system of finance recommended by the Democratic administration, Mr. Mason s term of service in the House of Representatives was limited to one Congress, and after the 4th of March, 1839, he returned to his home in Virginia and to the practice of his profession. Several years then rolled by without making any marked change in his mode of life, or in the pursuits and pleasures that occupied and interested him. No personal anxiety or sorrow had yet entered into his experience, and the world continued for a time longer to be very bright and full of attractions for him. In 1844, however, the death of Mrs. Mason s father brought deep grief to her hus band as well as to her, not only from sympathy with her, but from his own sense of personal loss. From boyhood his asso ciation had been closely connected with Mr. Chew, and during the twenty-two years of his married life, he had held a position of as much unreserved intimacy and confidence with him as could have been accorded to a son. The home at Cliveden was now broken up, and the duties devolving upon him as one of Mr. Chew s executors, added not a little to the cares and re sponsibilities that were steadily increasing. Within a few years there followed a still greater sorrow, when his eldest son, who had, until then, been a source of unin terrupted joy to his parents, fell ill and died in his twenty-second year, just as he was reaching the time, so long and fondly antici pated, when the father and son would be associated in the practice of their profession, as they had been in their pleasures, pursuits and interests, each with the other. The loss of his son was a very heavy blow, and it made a deep mark in the life here traced. It was soon followed by another almost equally heavy; the death of his father and the consequent breaking up of his paternal home. This event added still more to the cares and responsibilities that were already LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. taxing both his physical and mental powers, for again the duties of executor devolved chiefly upon him, and from this time the thought for his mother s comfort and the care of her estate was never lost sight of. He had been, in fact, for many years, his father s chief reliance in all business matters, and thus he was looked to and relied upon by his mother, brothers, and sisters as the one in authority, although one of his brothers had been appointed by the will co-executor of the estate. Exactly the same state of affairs had existed in Philadel phia with regard to his wife s family for several years before her father s death, and he had become, practically, chiefly re sponsible for the management of Mr. Chew s estate. Add to these cares the necessity of providing for his large family of children by his own exertions at the bar, and it will be evident that his life was a full and busy one, with many anxieties pressing upon him, yet he was never known to be gloomy or depressed; on the contrary, his presence was re garded as the best tonic to encourage and strengthen the dif ferent members of the family circles at Clermont, at Cliveden, and at Selma. One of his daughters said, in a letter written from Selma during a time of trouble, " We are looking eagerly for father s return; he comes to-morrow and he always brings sunshine with him." She only expressed the general feeling of his family and friends. Again has this narrative seemed to anticipate events by recording these family afflictions before mention has been made of his election to the Senate, although this really came almost a year before the death of young Ben. Chew Mason. It has been done in order to make it possible to follow, for a time, his political career without interruption, and at the same time, to present to the reader the man as he was in all the relations of life. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER III. Elected to Senate Chairman of Committee on Claims Regent of Smith sonian Institute Excitement Throughout the States Caused by Efforts to Exclude Slavery from Oregon Speech on Oregon Bill Speech Oppos ing Creation of Department of Interior House of Representatives Financial Condition of the Country Separated from Administration Dropped by Democratic Party in Next Election Extract from Speech Extract from President s Message Letter to a Constituent. The manuscript found among his papers, which has been quoted before, gives this account of his election to the Senate: " In January, 1847, being in Richmond on private business, the death of Mr. Pennybacker was announced, who died at Wash ington after a brief illness. " My friends immediately spoke of me as his successor, and finding that I should be put in nomination, I left Richmond before I had completed the business which had called me there, to avoid all suspicion or intimation of soliciting the appoint ment. " My competitors were John W. Jones, Esq., of Chester field, a former and justly distinguished member of Congress, and then Speaker of the House of Delegates, and James McDowell, Esq., of Rockbridge, then a member of the House of Representatives. I had gone from Richmond to the house of my father in Fairfax County, where intelligence of my election to the Senate by a handsome majority reached me within a few days. " At the time of my election to the Senate, I was in the en joyment of an income of from my profession, was President of the Branch of the Farmers Bank of Virginia, at Winchester, and had, in addition, the office of Prosecutor in the Superior Courts for the counties of Frederick, Hampshire, and Morgan. These offices I at once resigned. Subsequent experience has shown that a country practice could not be maintained, along with a seat in the Senate. I have thus become a Senator at the cost of my income from the pursuits of private life." The following story has been told by one of Mr. Mason s friends who was in Richmond advocating his election to the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Senate : " Several members of the Legislature hesitated to vote for him on the ground that he was entirely a stranger, and they were not willing to give their support to a man of whom they knew so little. This objection was answered by the proposition that he should be invited to meet these gentlemen at dinner on the following day ; which, it was said, could easily be done, since he was then in the city, and an opportunity could thus be afforded them to make his acquaintance. Arrangements were accordingly made for the dinner; the invitation was carried ; and the value of such an opportunity for securing votes was earnestly pressed by the gentlemen to whom the writer is in debted for the story; but Mr. Mason at once replied, that he could not consent to appear at the dinner, as it were, on ex hibition, although he expressed his appreciation of the intended kind service." He left the city early the next morning. After being formally notified of his election, he returned to Richmond, attended to the business that had been interrupted by his sudden departure, and very soon afterwards, on the 25th of the same month, January, 1847, to k ms seat in the Senate. Here he was brought into constant contact with many of the men whose names are familiar to all readers of history; among them should be mentioned Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina, Mr. Jefferson Davis, Mr. George M. Dallas, of Philadelphia, then Vice-President of the United States, and John Y. Mason, of Virginia, who was at that time Secretary of the Navy. Many others might be enumerated of those who were both his political and his personal friends. It is not, however, possible to afford space in this volume for more than a passing allusion to them, although it may well be said that intellectual giants lived in those days, when Calhoun, Clay, and Webster were surrounded by a score of lesser lights, each one of whom would have been accounted brilliant, had they been compared with others of ordinary lustre. " "judge A. P. Butler, of South Carolina, had entered the /Senate only a few days before Mr. Mason s first appearance in \it, and a few weeks afterwards Mr. Robert M. T. Hunter s term of service began. These three gentlemen belonged to the same school of thought and feeling on all political questions of in terest to the South; and a warm personal friendship was soon LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. established between them, a friendship that grew warmer and stronger as years rolled by, and continued to the close of their respective lives. Reference has already been made to the plan adopted by Mr. Mason and Mr. Hunter, when they had been together in the House of Representatives, and had formed what they called the " Mess." Very soon after they became Senators, they returned to their former arrangement for keeping house, and invited Judge Butler to join them. The household was organized in all respects as for a family home. Each one in turn took the office of housekeeper, and for a^month gave all necessary orders, and kept account of all expenses, which were divided equally be tween them. The size of this family party varied, quite a num ber of the prominent Southern men having at different times belonged to it. Judge Butler, Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Mason kept up " The Mess," and continued to be thus closely associated in daily domestic life so long as they remained in Washington. It was Mr. Mason s habit to go home to Selma for short visits as frequently as could be done, without interfering with his public duties. He generally spent Saturday and Sunday at Selma, once in each month, and he often took with him one or more of the members of " The Mess." Judge Butler was his guest on several such occasions, and he thus became quite familiar with the home life at Selma. In talking to a friend in Washington of these visits, he said : " I have lived for years in the same house with Mason, and have been so intimately associated with him in many ways, that I really thought I knew him thoroughly, but I find I never fully appreciated the man until I saw him in his own house among his neighbors, his children, grandchildren, and servants." In order that Mr. Mason s political career may be appre ciated by those who have come upon the stage of life long since the curtain of time closed the drama in which he was one of the actors, it may be needful to recall the fact that the subject of slavery was continually made the topic of discussion in both houses of Congress, and that the whole country was in a state of agitation and anxiety concerning the results of the measures there proposed. The condition of public feeling resembled an LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. angry sea, lashed into fury by opposing storms brewed in dif ferent latitudes by the heated passions of opposing interests. The records of Congress show that his influence was soon acknowledged and a responsible place accorded him by the Senate. In December, 1847, ne was made Chairman of the Committee on Claims, and held the position until the end of that Congress in March, 1849, when a Whig administration came into power and, according to custom, the principal com mittees were put under the charge of the victorious party. In March, 1849, ne was appointed one of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institute; and his name appears in its reports as being at different times, on ten of its committees; good evidence of his active participation in the care and management of the Institute, then in its infancy, Mr. Smithson s bequest having been accepted in September, 1838, and the first Regents appointed in August, 1846. He retained, by successive reap- pointments, this position of Regent, so long as he remained in the Senate, and as the records show, was faithful in his attend ance at the meetings of the Board, was present (and in the chair) at the meeting on February I9th, 1861, only a few weeks before he left his seat in the Senate never to return to it. ^^-At the time he entered upon his duties as a Senator, both houses of Congress were occupied with bills providing a ter ritorial form of government for Oregon. In March, 1846, President Polk had, in his message, recommended prompt action in this matter as being necessary for the welfare of that territory, and in the discussion that ensued, Mr. David P. Wilmot, a member of the House of Representatives from Penn sylvania, had offered, as an amendment to one of the bills then introduced, what was afterwards known as the " Wilmot Pro viso." It " provided that neither slavery nor involuntary ser vitude shall ever exist in said Territory, except for crime whereof the party shall first be duly convicted." This amendment aroused much excitement, not only in the halls of legislation, but throughout the length and breadth of the land. On January i5th, 1847, only ten days before Mr. Mason took his seat in the Senate, a bill, that included the " Wilmot Proviso/ had been introduced in the House of Representatives, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON, and it had served as fuel for the flame that seemed then ready to burst out. In the Senate, too, a bill to establish a territorial govern ment for Oregon was pending, and although it differed greatly from the one under consideration in the House, the excitement was almost as great among the Senators as among the Repre sentatives. From the North came resolutions adopted by the State Legislatures, of which the following, sent by the Legislature of ^Vermont, may serve as a specimen : " Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives, That slavery is a crime against humanity, and a sore evil in the body politic, that was excused by the framers of the Federal Constitution as a crime entailed upon the country by their predecessors, and tolerated solely as a thing of inexorable necessity. " Resolved, That our Senators and Representatives in Con gress be requested to resist by all and every constitutional means the extension of slavery in any manner, whether by annexation to slave-holding Texas of territory now free, or by the admission to the Union of territory already acquired, or which may be hereafter acquired, without an express prohibi tion of slavery, either in the Constitution of each State asking admission, or in the act of Congress providing for such admis sion." Petitions innumerable, expressing similar sentiments, and urging corresponding action, came from the towns and villages of the " Free States " to their respective Representatives and Senators, to be presented to Congress, and to be taken by the newspapers into the homes of the South. From the South came the most earnest protests against such action by Congress : They came in every possible form to the Senators and Members of the House from the Southern States ; came in letters from their constituents, in reports of the public meetings held in the Southern towns and in instructions received from the Legislatures of their respective States. No attempt can be made to give here any connected account of the progress of events in the fourteen years from 1847 to 1861, during which time the subject of this memoir was LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. rr earnestly and persistently contending for the political rights of his State, and for the protection of the property of her people. Only occasional instances can be recorded, of the many that occurred, when he considered that the questions debated were such as involved the vital principles of the Constitution that he had sworn to uphold and defend. Prominent among such in stances, stood the question whether the Federal Government had the power to make laws by which the people of the South ern States would be excluded from the territories that they owned in common with the Northern States. On July 6th, 1848, a bill " to establish a territorial govern ment for Oregon " being under consideration, Mr. Mason said : " Mr. President, it seems that the people in Oregon, rinding themselves without other law, when the title to the territory was ascertained and established in the United States, assembled in convention and enacted laws for their temporary security. Amongst these laws, we have been duly informed, is one by which slavery, or, as it is termed, Involuntary servitude except for crime/ is forever prohibited. " Sir, whatever crude opinions may have been formed when the subject was first under consideration in this body or else where, I apprehend there are none, now, who will say that the people of a territory belonging to the United States have a right proprio jure to pass laws in derogation of the authority of the United States. If there were such opinions, they have been exploded, and I assume there is no Senator, and no Jurist, who will maintain that the people who may be found in a ter ritory belonging to the United States, undertaking, for their own safety, or for any other reason, to legislate for that ter ritory without the sanction of the Government, that such laws have any validity whatever against the owners of the country, that is to say, against the Government of the United States. " Well, sir, the Committee on Territories in this body, by instructions from the Senate, have reported a bill providing a government for the Territory of Oregon, under the sanction of what? Of the Government of the United States, whose prop erty it is: And by the I2th section of the bill, the laws ex isting within the limits of Oregon, be they what they may, are LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. adopted and declared to be in full force for the government of the people of that territory. One of these laws being, that in voluntary servitude, or slavery, shall be forever thereafter ex cluded from the territory, and that law being adopted by the bill on your table, if that bill be enacted into law, it follows of necessity that involuntary servitude will be excluded from that territory by the act of the Congress of the United States; and thus we are called on to treat this bill, so far as regards the I2th section of it, precisely as if there were spread out on its face a prohibition in terms against slavery in that territory. Sir, it is right it should be clearly understood, that it should be un covered, that we should expose it, so that we may defeat it if we can. " Gentlemen have said upon this floor, that the Southern States (where alone this institution is found) are here agitating this question ; that the Southern States have presented the ques tion before the National Councils; and that for all the conse quences that result from its agitation the South is responsible. Let then the truth be known, let the fact appear that a committee of this body have introduced a bill with this provision in it, and if there be offence in agitating the question, let the responsibility rest where of right it belongs. What we seek to do is simply to defeat it, w> _JWe^j&J^ J having stricken this clause from the bill, to leave it, as to that, \.. tabula rasa. " Mr. President, when the Constitution was adopted in 1788, the institution of slavery formed an important part of the social condition of all the Southern and many of the Northern States. Its existence and influence upon the future destiny of the South, where from climate and other causes, it was most likely to become permanent, was recognised and discussed with mature deliberation. The antagonist interests of the North and East were brought out in full array; and after months of con sideration and debate by the wise and patriotic men then assem bled; after great and mutual concessions on all sides for the common good, a representative weight in the Federal Councils was assigned to the slave population, and secured to the States interested, by perpetual guarantee of the Constitution. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 57 " Sir, there are four provisions in this instrument recognis ing slavery, and providing appropriate guarantees for the security of that institution : "First: In the second section of the first article, estab lishing a basis of representation on three-fifths of that popula tion. "Second: In the ninth section of the same article, prohib iting the passage of any laws by Congress, prior to the year 1808 (a period of twenty years), to prevent the further importa tion of slaves by any of the States. " Third: In the fifth article, providing that no amend ment of the Constitution shall affect the prohibitions of the ninth section of the first article, prior to the year 1808; and " Fourth: In the second clause, second section of the fourth article, providing for the surrender of fugitive slaves, on the claim of their owners, by the State where such fugitives may be found. " These, sir, are all full and distinct recognitions of a class held in bondage, and are guarantees provided by the consti tutional compact first, allowing their continued importation for twenty years ; second, providing for the security of their tenure as property; and third, and most important, admitting them in the scale of representation as an element of political power; and for each one of these guarantees, a full and ample equivalent was given to the Northern and Eastern States, in im munities and advantages secured to them. I will instance a very striking one, which has been rescued from oblivion by Mr. Jefferson, and left under his hand as a memorial for history. It is taken from his unpublished manuscripts and was communi cated to me many years since by the Honorable William C. Rives, of Virginia, my predecessor on this floor. " Mr. Jefferson was Minister in France whilst the Conven tion sat which framed the Constitution; and Mr. Mason, at whose relation he recorded this scrap of history, was a member of that Convention, and it is dated at the family seat of the re- lator, some four years only after the event. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " GUNSTON HALL, September 3Oth, 1792. " Ex relatione G. Mason. " The Constitution, as agreed to, till a fortnight before the Convention rose, was such an one as he would have set his hand and heart to : First The President was to be elected for seven years, then ineligible for seven years more. Second Rotation in the Senate. Third A vote of two-thirds in the legislation on particular subjects, and expressly on that of navigation. The three New England States were constantly with us in all ques tions. (Rhode Island not there, and New York seldom.) So that it was these three States, with the five Southern ones against Pennsylvania, Jersey, and Delaware. With respect to the importation of slaves, it was left to Congress. This dis turbed the two Southernmost States, who knew that Congress would immediately suppress the importation of slaves. These two States, therefore, struck up a bargain with the three New England States : if they would join to admit slaves for some years, the two Southernmost States would join in changing the clause which required two-thirds of the Legislature in any vote. It was done. These articles were changed accordingly, and from that moment the two Southern States and the three Northern ones joined Pennsylvania, Jersey, and Delaware, and made the majority eight to three against us, instead of eight to three for us, as it had been through the whole Convention. Under this coalition, the great principles of the Constitution were changed in the last days of the Convention/ " Now, sir, by reference to the journal of that Convention, it will be found that the votes of the States implicated were changed as are recorded in that memorial. And what is proved by it? Why, first, that the right to import slaves for twenty years was bartered away by three of the New England States; and, second, that in consideration of this immunity, the whole right of legislation on all matters affecting commerce and navi gation, which, up to that time, had been restricted to a majority of two-thirds, was committed to a bare numerical majority ; and a very bad bargain it was for the South. But ex hoc disce omnes. Let this one example illustrate the whole. Sir, the South has LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. been faithful and true to all their constitutional engagements. If there has been an instance where, however onerous, the South has failed both in spirit and letter, to fulfil those engage ments on her part, I pray gentlemen, to make it known. " Let us see, in reference to these guarantees respecting the institutions of slavery, how they have been fulfilled by the States now called Free States. I instance the obligation on the States for the surrender of fugitive slaves. How has that been fulfilled? The clause imposing it is part of the same section, and in pari materia with that requiring the surrender of those who shall flee from justice. Sound and good faith to the compact, requires that each class of fugitives should be de livered up as an act of State authority upon the demand of the Executive in the one case, and on the claim of the party entitled, in the other. I ask of Senators representing the so styled Free States/ how are these obligations discharged? Is it not due to the faith of the Constitution, that each should be regarded as equally obligatory? And yet what is the fact? Why, laws are enacted in all the States, requiring of the Executive authority to surrender fugitives from justice upon the demand of the State whence they flee, and providing for their arrest and detention until such demand is made. But in the case of fugitive slaves, in none of these States is the like constitutional duty regarded. In some, laws are even enacted denying the use of their jails for the custody of such fugitives, and denouncing penalties upon officers if they lend any aid in arresting them ; whilst in all, the citizens of the South who go there in pursuit are insulted and defied, and even hunted down and killed. I have no disposition to speak in terms of crimination, or to excite angry or bitter feeling. But our prop erty is insecure. The guarantees under which we hold it are habitually and wantonly disregarded, and I should be wanting in duty to those whose honor and interest are in part committed to my care, did I not make it known. Sir, all that the SoutheA States ask is, that the Constitution shall be observed in good faith. They have a right to demand, and they do demand, that the guarantees of the Constitution shall be observed and held sacred. $0 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. >ir, I have heard Senators on this floor declare that it is Ipe purpose of the Northern and Eastern States to do what? * ITo prevent the extension of what they call the Slave power/ II put it to those Senators, what do they mean by the Slave power 7 ? In the discussion of a question like this, we have a ."ight to expect that Senators should give us terms that are in telligible. What then is the Slave power to which the Senator says an end must be put? Why, sir, it is the representative weight which is assigned by the Constitution -to this specieT of population or property. " If there be any power lodged by the Constitution, in which it is supposed the Northern States do not share in com mon with their brethren in other States, it is referable to this clause of the Constitution which arranges and distributes the representation. And it is this power, for which an ample ^ equivalent has been given, which we are told now by Senators is. not to be extended. Mr. President, this representative weight, assigned to the States of this Union by the Constitu tion, must be preserved. If it is not preserved, I need not tell gentlemen what the consequences will be. It is not only neces sary for the security of their property, but it is indispensable to their political welfare. The question of abolition, heretofore, has been a mere brutum fulmen, but it now comes in a shape that is no longer to be despised. The institution was first assailed when a majority in Congress attempted, in 1820, to prevent the State of Missouri from coming into this Union, unless upon terms derogatory to her as a Sovereign State, and directly in violation of the Constitution. " Sir, I know not how it was felt at the North ; I know not how far Northern politicians may have believed that their ascend ency was involved in the curtailment of the slave representa tion; but I know this, that in the South, it required but the application of the torch to kindle the whole country. They looked upon it as not only vital to their safety, but they looked upon the attempt to assail it as an insult, an indignity, offered to them as sovereign members of this Confederacy. " Sir, Mr. Jefferson lived in those days. No man, I sup pose, will question his loyalty to the Constitution, and none his sagacity as a statesman. A letter was read on this floor, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the other day, by the honorable Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun), in which Mr. Jefferson spoke his alarm at the portentous consequences threatened by this movement against the South. His mind was filled with the portents of the occa sion, and his views, fully expressed in letters to his friends, show that in this parricidal attack he saw the days of the Con stitution numbered. " Mr. Jefferson s opinions on the occasion cited are entitled to great weight. A matured statesman and philosopher, pro foundly versed as well in the science of government as in the shoals and depths of party, he saw through the vista of years, this disturbing influence, ever on the alert when once aroused, until its wicked work was ended in the overthrow of the Con stitution of his country. In a letter dated on the I3th April, 1820, to Mr. -- , a gentleman now living, he says: The old schism of Federal and Republican threatened nothing, because it existed in every State, and united them together by the fra- ternism of party; but the coincidence of a marked principle, moral and political, with a geographical line once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind; that it would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing irrita tions until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred, as to render separation preferable to eternal discord. I have been amongst the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much ; and see the event at no great distance, and the direct consequence of this question/ " So thought and so wrote Jefferson, on the question which divided and threatened us then, as it divides and threat- . . ens us now. But, sir, the difficulty was then overcome. It was overcome by concession made by these very Southern States a great concession a concession not only of their con stitutional right, but of an expressed constitutional guarantee ,/V And it was made for the sake of peace the concession was \ made in the hope that, in so doing, the question was settled forever. By mutual agreement for the sake of peace, it was agreed to limit the right to introduce slaves in the country acquired from France, to a line extended west from the south ern boundary of the State of Missouri, being the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 minutes. Sir, this was conceded for the sake (J 2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of preser_ving_.this Union. It was a consideration as high even as that, and we fondly hoped that at no future day would it be in the power of agitators again to jeopard this Union, with all the consequences that must ensue, in order to drive a political bargain. But this has been done. The very first occasion, when new territory is acquired as the property of the Confed eracy, this disturbing question is brought up; and brought up how? Brought up by connecting it with territory lying so far north, that all must agree, it never can become the property of slaveholders. It is brought iqx, .sir, .as_- 2L-preeede.nt, because Senators well know what will follow. (There are two other ter^ N /ritories that have been recently obtained,^ California and New- V Mexico, and here the precedent is to apply A Sir, we must meet the question in limine, and if it be the judgment of the Senate, of a majority of the States here represented, that the settlement of this question in 1820 is to be disregarded, and the question is to be carried as a matter of absolute power, let them take the consequence when it comes, as come it will. " Mr. President, when a matter of political rule not of political right, but of political rule is once determined on, there is no great difficulty in finding arguments to sustain it. The Senator from New York (Mr. Dix), who has opened the debate on this question, has invoked the ordinance of 1787, for the government of the Northwestern Territory, and has relied upon it as what? As a precedent? I should presume not hardly as persuasive authority but as an example, that early as the year 1787, before the foundation of this Govern ment was laid, the American people, by a compact, excluded slavery from a large territory that belonged to the United States. Sir, the ordinance shows upon its face, that it was a matter of absolute compact between the States then confed erated and the State of Virginia, which made the cession. The claim by many of the States to a large and unoccupied territory in the West, was the subject of much jealousy and dissension with those States whose boundaries were more circumscribed. Virginia, whose chartered limits once extended to the Pacific (then called the South Sea), had yet an immense territory unoccupied, lying to the northwest of the Ohio River. New York claimed a part of the same territory, in opposition to the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. title of Virginia; while the States of Massachusetts and Con necticut, in the East, and Georgia and the two Carolinas, in the South, each held large bodies of waste and unappropriated land. " It was said by the other States, that it was unjust and inequitable that these vast territories, the enjoyment of which had been secured to their respective claimants by the blood and treasure of all, freely lavished in the Revolutionary struggle, should be thus separately held; that Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey had equally contributed to rescue them from the dominion of the British Crown, and it was oppressive and unjust to exclude them from the fruits of the conquest. This feeling, which grew as the Revolution progressed, manifested itself in a decided manner when the * Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union/ agreed to by Congress in 1777, were recommended to the several States for their ratification. The State of Maryland refused to ratify, and placed her refusal upon the express ground that she was excluded from participation in these unoccupied lands. " New Jersey did ratify, but under protest, in the firm reliance that the candor and justice of the several States will, in due time, remove, as far as possible, the inequality which now subsists/ The State of Delaware also came into that Confed eracy, but under like protest. Sir, it is useful to go back and contrast the spirit with which these States came originally together, in the days of the Revolution, with that which ani mates some of them now. Such was the state of things when the territory was ceded, which is now brought up in judgment against Virginia and other Southern States. And what was done? Why the State of New York set the example, and made the sacrifice required on the altar of the country, for the com mon good. And then followed a resolution of the Old Con gress accepting this territorial grant from the State of New York, and inviting the other States to do the like. Sir, the next State in order was Virginia. There had been a strong remon strance presented by Virginia to this claim of New York to the lands which she considered embraced within her territory of the Northwest, the whole of which was forgotten and laid aside; and that great State, in the year 1783, gave authority to her representatives in Congress to convey to the United States, in LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. absolute perpetuity, a territory that is covered by ten parallels of latitude, and thirteen degrees of longitude, out of which have been carved five of the States which are now in the Union, / and enjoying its protection. And she did it for what? Why, to meet in a spirit of conciliation the concessions of other States, to do everything for the common good, and to accom- \plish which, she has truly given up her birthright. .,,^"" Contrast the language held by New York in the Act of 1780, with the language held by her Senator on this floor now. Sir, who believes, when it required a spirit of such mutual for bearance and concession a spirit that was disposed to give up everything for the common good in order to prevail upon the States to bind themselves in Articles of Confederation, that you can keep those States under any federated government whatever, when that spirit is forgotten and disregarded? Who is there on this floor who believes that Virginia, the largest, most popu lous, and most wealthy of the Southern States, ever would have been a party to the Constitution, if there had been a provision ingrafted in it forbidding an extension of any part of her popu lation to any territory that might hereafter become the property of the United States? No one. And if she would not then, and believes now, that such extension is her constitutional right, who believes that she, or any of her Southern sister States, can remain in the Confederacy, when the barriers that had been erected for their protection have been ruthlessly broken down and disregarded? " Every movement that is made affecting the rights and power of the Southern States in reference to this population, is looked upon there as in derogation of their exclusive authority. They are sensitive on this subject. It forms a part of their most valuable property. It is a great element of their political power, and its proper management is essential to their safety. Yet honorable Senators here, as I understand them, looking upon the powers of this Government as unlimited, perfectly without con trol, approach this subject as they would approach an ordinary subject of legislation, and assert a right to control it, whether with or without the assent of the States where alone the insti tution is found. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " Is not all power that is not granted to the General Gov- y ernment reserved to the States? ;And do you find anything in the Constitution which authorizes any interference on the part of the General Government with the domestic institutions, and the regulation of the internal affairs of the State? " Suffer me now, sir, to sum up the argument I have advanced. This institution existed when the Constitution was formed. It was recognized, it was legislated upon, it was made the subject of concession on one side, and an equivalent on the other. There was assigned to it a representative weight, as an element of political power in the Southern States. It was guaranteed to those States by the Constitution, and it can never be tolerated that a power in Congress to legislate for the territories a power deduced from necessity only, and tempo rary in its exercise (for it ceases when the territory becomes a State), should be wrested from its legitimate ends, and made to unsettle the balances of the Constitution and to destroy its guar antees. To give it such direction would be an outrage of all just legal construction, and of every sense of political right in the States interested. " Power, Mr. President, is never appeased by concession ; and we are now reaping the bitter fruits of the concession then made by the South. How strikingly is illustrated, by this renewed struggle, the predictions of Mr. Jefferson in his letter of April, 1820, in which speaking of the Missouri question, he says : The coincidence of a marked principle, moral and polit ical, with a geographical line once conceived, I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind ; that it would be recurring on every occasion and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred as to render sepa ration preferable to eternal discord/ " Sir, the prophecy is fulfilled. There is a party organized, or in course of organization at the North, lifting itself erect on the pending canvass for the Presidency, on whose banner is inscribed, as the sole rallying cry, Destruction to the Slave Power. " We have seen the preliminary chart of that party in the manifesto of its convention recently held at Utica, in New LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. York, in which all parties are invited, at the North, to abandon all subjects of former dissension and to unite in a common cru sade to break down the institutions of the South. Sir, the Sena tor from New York (Mr. Dix) stands the exponent of that party in this Senate-house a party whose mission is, to divide the North and South on this question of the so-called " Slave power." Already we have three remarkable documents shad owing forth their plan of campaign. " The first is a letter from Martin Van Buren addressed in reply to the delegates of the city and county of New York to the Utica Convention, sketching in advance the principles and policy of the party in embryo. " Next comes the speech of the honorable Senator from New York, following step by step the landmarks there laid down, and denouncing any extension of slavery into the terri tories where it is not now found, as of evil tendency, wrong in itself, and repugnant to the humanity and the civilization of the age. " And last, the manifesto of the Utica Convention. I trust, sir, that Senators on all sides have read this paper with atten tion, because it develops in extenso, the principles and purposes of this new Northern party, avows its objects to be, to get pos session of the Government of the Union for the purpose of de stroying the political weight of the Slave representation and assigns their appropriate duties to its recognized leaders. And, more than all, it denounces the old and healthy issues which have heretofore divided parties, as no longer worthy of consid eration, and calls upon former friends and former foes, to unite alike in a great concerted effort to break down the barriers of the Constitution. " To prove this, sir, I may be pardoned for making a single extract from the document, where it will be found under the head of Duty of the Free States/ and in these words : " If, from these, or any other causes, the people of the Free States have suffered in the estimation of the South, or of the world, the time has now come when they owe it to themselves, and to the nation, to redeem their character from this reproach. Both the late political parties have the opportunity to do, and they are called upon to do this : they may unite in the effort LIFE OF JAMBS MURRAY MASON. without any abandonment of their distinctive principles. The old issues, which for the last twenty years have divided them, are now settled or set aside ; a new issue has been presented, in which all minor differences and in which differences that, under other circumstances, would be important are merged and swallowed up. " It is important, too, that this effort should now be made, and that, if possible, it should be made to succeed. Resist the beginning, is the maxim of political, not less than moral science. This is the first time, since the formation of the Government, that the slave power, whilst retaining its distinct political asso ciations with the two great national parties, has been able to seize and to sway the sceptres of each. If the people of the Free States understand and perform their duty, such an exhi bition will never again be witnessed/ " Mr. President, these are words of fearful omen. We are aware that ten States of this Confederacy have, through their legislative assemblies, called upon their representatives in Con gress to maintain this interdict against the extension of South ern institutions to the new territories. And here we have a proclamation by a party, said to be of formidable numbers, in the great State of New York, separating themselves from all former political alliance, arrayed under leaders of known dis tinction, burying all former topics of political dissension, and proclaiming as the great bond of future union, exterminating war to slave-power. And for what objects is a party to be thus marshalled? For the public weal, the common good? Sir, let not words so dear to the Republicans be profaned by such unholy perversion. To advance the cause of freedom and free government? No, no! When was freedom born of tyranny, whether it be the tyranny of one or of many? " The evil day looked for and dreaded by the sages and patriots of the land, dawns darkly through this proclamation when a line shall be drawn between the North and the South, and a party resting on geographical division alone shall march up to it, as the line of power. This is the party which the Utica manifesto seeks to rally. " But, sir, I pursue this ungrateful theme no further. I yet confide in the regenerative spirit of Republican virtue at the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. North to consign to deserved obloquy this first attempt to array the Republics of the Confederacy against each other in a sheer struggle for power." It is interesting to note his sensitiveness regarding the limi tations of the power entrusted to the Federal Government. Possibly there may be some who will recognize, in these later days, the truth and justice of what he repeatedly said when he was contesting inch by inch the extension of this power. An instance of this occurred on March 3d, 1849, when a bill was in troduced to " Create a new Executive Department of the United States to be called the Department of the Interior, the head of which Department shall be called the Secretary of the Interior." Mr. Mason then said : " Mr. President, I can not but look on this bill as one that will make a material change in the admin istration of the affairs of this Government. A bill comes into the Senate, vital in its character and proposing to make a change in the existing offices of the Government. Was not the Government devised, planned, and organized to manage the exterior, the foreign relations of the States? " The design evidently was to confine the Federal Govern ment, as far as possible, to the management of foreign relations in the four great departments of the Government. The State, Treasury, War, and Navy were organized with that view. But, sir, none who have watched the course of the Government to any purpose can have failed to see that a policy has grown up whose object has been, as far as possible, to bring within the power of the Federal Government the management of the Interior and industrial pursuits alluded to by the Honorable Senator who has just taken his seat (Niles, of Connecticut). These industrial pursuits of our people, it has been sought to bring within the vortex of Federal action. " There can be no question that if the object is merely to provide means of doing the work, it can be far better done by keeping the officers, as they are now, separate, and to a certain extent independent, giving an assistant to each, subject to appeal to the head of the Bureau. It is said that this measure is recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury. Yes, sir; and it has been recommended from the days of Mr. Madison LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA8ON. and Alexander Hamilton. The very fact that it has never been adopted, though so long recommended and from such high sources, shows a distrust of the American people of the safety of giving such a State capacity to this Federal power. "Are we to increase this central power? More especially, are we, who belong to the South who have very little more interest in this country than to have the protection of our inde pendence, with the other States, from whom a great part of the revenue is drawn, and to whom very little of it is returned ; who pay everything to Federal power and receive nothing for it are we, at this day, to give our sanction, under whatever auspices it may be presented, to this vital change in the Federal Govern ment? " If this thing is done, it is an entering wedge. " He then moved the bill be laid on the table, and asked the yeas and nays upon that motion. The vote was taken with the result, yeas 22, nays 31. In the afternoon session of the same day, he made another effort in the same direction, by moving to amend the bill by striking out the words " Create a new Executive Department of the United States to be called the Department of the Interior, the head of which shall be called the Secretary of the Inte rior/ " and in lieu thereof inserting, " Appoint an officer to be called an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury." He supported the amendment and further said : " He has read the history of his country to little purpose who does not know that there are two great parties in this country; those who would extend the powers of the Federal Government, and those who would con fine them. Sir, in the school in which I have been reared, and which, I trust, I shall ever religiously venerate, I have had im pressed upon me a distrust of every measure which tends to strengthen the area of Federal power. I would hold this Gov ernment strictly to the powers clearly granted, and restrain it, as far as practicable, from interference with the people in their domestic pursuits. " I have been taught, sir, that the State governments are to administer in our domestic relations ; and that the operations of the Federal Government were intended chiefly for the regula tion of our exterior and foreign relations. And the lesson has, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. been impressed upon me by my knowledge of what has beei. attempted over and over again by those who. lean to an. exten sion of Federal power. " Sir, how is the country divided? Look at it, I beseeci* you. Is it not manifest that the planting States, those which grow the articles of export, pay the taxes ; and those which enjoy the carrying trade, and conduct our foreign commerce, which are engaged in manufactures, pay but little tax, while they revel and grow rich by the expenditures of the Govern ment? What is the tendency of this? Why, it leads those who thus profit, to bring everything they can within the vortex of the Federal Government." This amendment was rejected and the bill was passed. It was not, however, done by a sectional vote; the only political parties then known were the Whigs and the Democrats. Is it not worthy of note that when Congress convened in the follow ing December, a third party had been organized which was entirely confined to the Northern States? In the lists of the members of Congress, given in the Congressional Globe of that year (1849), thirteen members of the House of Representatives and two of the Senators are called " Free-Soilers." Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, were the two Senators, and David P. Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, was one of the thirteen in the House. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER IV. Compromise of 18150 Mr. Calhoun s Prophecy Mr. Mason Member of Committee of Thirteen He Dissents from Report of Committee The Union Party and the Secessionists. Reply to Invitation to Address Mass- meeting at Newmarket. California Admitted into Union Protest of Southern Senators Fugitive Slave Law Extract from Diary Re-elected to Senate Chairman of Committee on Foreign Relations New England Fisheries. The effort to exclude slavery from the Western territories caused continuous excitement throughout the country, and engendered a feeling of hostility between the Northern and the Southern sections of the Union that increased in strength and bitterness as time passed. The refusal by the Northern States to comply with the obligation regarding the rendition of fugitive slaves, imposed upon them by the Constitution, had become another source of constantly increasing grievance to the South; and when the 3 ist Congress assembled, in December, 1849, there was a gen eral recognition of the necessity for some legislation that would avert the impending crisis. Many looked to Mr. Clay, the " Great Pacificator," with anxious expectations of relief to be afforded by the measures he should propose. The famous Compromise of 1850 has been ascribed to him, and doubtless he was chiefly responsible for it. Those at all familiar with the political world of that day are aware of the fact that Mr. Mason was one of those who differed entirely from that great statesman regarding both the propriety of the concessions then made by the South, and the results to be anticipated from them. On January 29th, 1850, Mr. Clay introduced in the Senate a series of resolutions intended to cover all the questions under discussion, and other Senators offered numerous modifications and amendments, but the debate waxed warmer and served only to increase and make more intense the feeling of hostility between the two sections. It was in the midst of this critical period that Mr. Cal houn s voice was hushed to be heard no more in the councils LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of his country. On March 4th of this year, 1850, he appeared for almost the last time in the Senate, and said he had hoped to speak on the questions then pending, but, finding he had not sufficient strength to do so, he had committed to paper what he wished to say and would ask his friend from Virginia (Mr. Mason) to read to the Senate what he had written. This request was, of course, complied with. The fact that Mr. Mason was selected to read this speech is sufficient evidence that it touched responsive chords in his mind and heart, and thus it seems particularly appropriate to give here a brief extract which describes the condition of the South, as it was understood by this distinguished statesman : " I have believed from the first/ wrote Mr. Calhoun, " that the agitation of the subject of slavery would, if not prevented by some timely and effective measure, end in dissolution. The agitation has been permitted to proceed, until it has reached a period when it can no longer be disguised or denied that the Union is in danger. How can the Union be preserved? The first question presented for consideration, in the investigation I propose to make is, What is it that has endangered the Union? To this question there can be but one answer: that the immediate cause is the almost universal discontent which pervades all the States composing the southern section of the Union. It is a great mistake to suppose that it originated with demagogues, or with the disappointed ambition of certain poli ticians, who resorted to it as a means of retrieving their fortunes. The cause of this discontent will be found in the belief of the people of the Southern States that they can not remain, as things are now, consistently with honor and safety, in the Union." Among the fragmentary memoranda found with Mr. Mason s papers, from which quotations have already been made, the following is interesting in this connection. It is in Mr. Mason s handwriting. In the last illness of Mr. Calhoun, and not long before his death, sitting with him in his chamber, the conversation turned on the various propositions and the ques tions before the Senate and on the subject of slavery, as arising out of the acquisition of California and New Mexico. In this conversation he said : " The Union is doomed to dissolution, there is no mistaking the signs. I am satisfied in my judgment, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. even were the questions which now agitate Congress settled to the satisfaction and with the concurrence of the Southern States, it would not avert, or materially delay, the catastrophe. " I fix its probable occurrence within twelve years or three Presidential terms. You, and others of your age, will probably live to see it; I shall not. The mode by which it will be done is not so clear ; it may be brought about in a manner that none now foresee. But the probability is, it will explode in a Presi dential election/ Mr. Calhoun died in Washington, March 3ist, 1850. Mr. Mason was appointed as chairman of the Senate Committee of Arrangements for the funeral, and, accompanied by several other members of the committee, he took the body to South Carolina for interment. So critical was the situation in the Senate acknowledged to be, that it was thought necessary to effect an agreement that no measures involving the subject of slavery should be discussed during the absence of the committee. Upon their return the debate was resumed and was continued until some time in April, when it was arranged to refer all questions connected with slavery to a committee of thirteen, of which Mr. Clay was made chairman, and Mr. Mason one of its members. On May 8th, Mr. Clay reported from that committee the measures that made up the compromise. " Many Senators desired to consider these measures separately, but the com mittee had decided to embrace them all in one bill of four parts, which bill has been commonly known as the Omnibus bill. J The reader is referred to the Congressional Globe (3ist Con gress, ist session, May 8th), for the full report made by Mr. Clay, with the remarks he then made. Upon their conclusion Mr. Mason said : " Mr. President, I rise to make a few remarks upon the subject of the report just presented by the distinguished chairman of the committee. The honorable gentleman has done no more than justice full and proper justice to every member of it certainly so far as I am informed. I went into that committee, sir, with the earnest hope that it was in the power of the committee to recommend such an adjustment of the great questions committed to them as would be satisfactory to the States. None can regret more LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. deeply than I do that their counsels did not so result. I need not say to you, sir, or to the Senators around me, that the sub ject committed to them was environed with difficulties ; but I fear, so far as I am informed of what is expected of the repre sentatives of the Southern States upon this question, that those difficulties, by the report submitted, have not been removed. The language of the report, Mr. President, shows that, except ing a single one of the subjects considered by them, there was not unanimity. That one was the construction of the compact under which the State of Texas was annexed. It was my mis fortune not to be in the majority who made this report, or that has recommended the measures to be adopted. I do not mean to go into that now, sir. It may become my duty to do so in the deliberations of the Senate, when they shall take up the various modifications which these measures are to undergo, if it then shall be found that we can fix upon some plan satisfac tory to the country. I desire only to state, because of the gravity and importance of the question to be considered, hum ble as I am upon this floor, but representing one of the States most deeply interested in the question involved, that I do not constitute one of the majority of the committee. I deeply and earnestly regret it, sir, that I could not either concur in the measures recommended by the committee at least those meas ures which were of the chief importance and that I could not recommend any conclusion attained by the committee, or the reasons which led them to it. I do not mean to detain the Senate, I wish merely to put myself right in relation to the measures proposed." The most important measures recommended in this report, were, that California should be forthwith admitted into the Union with the boundaries she had proposed; and that there should be " more effectual enactments of law to secure the prompt delivery of persons bound to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, who escape into another State." The bill to admit California was immediately taken up and for more than three months was the chief subject of considera tion and of discussion, not only in both Houses of Congress, but in every little town or hamlet and at the country post-offices throughout the Southern States. Wherever two or three peo- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 75 pie gathered together the one absorbing topic of common inter est was the same. Everywhere meetings were held for the pur pose of considering the measures proposed by the Committee of Thirteen, and many resolutions were adopted similar in their tone, to those passed by the Legislature of Mississippi, which are here quoted as expressing the opinions, with some few exceptions, of the people of the South, as well as those of their Senators and Representatives in Congress. It is true that there were some in the South who thought it possible to preserve the Union by yielding their right to share equally with the Northern States the enjoyment of the terri tories as being the property of all the States equally, and who were, therefore, in favor of the proposed compromise. The number of these grew gradually smaller as time rolled by, although it was large enough in 1850 to be recognized as a dis tinct party, known as the Unionists, in opposition to the so- called Secessionists, whose position was clearly defined by the Virginia Legislature in the resolutions adopted in 1847, an< ^ more than once afterwards repeated. The Legislature of Miss issippi simply stated the same general principles and pointed out their application to the case then presented to the country, when it " Resolved, That the policy heretofore pursued by the Gov ernment of the United States in regard to said territory (Cali fornia) in refusing to provide territorial government therefor, has been, and is, eminently calculated to promote, and is about to effect, indirectly, the cherished objects of the Abolitionists, which cannot be accomplished by direct legislation, without a plain and palpable violation of the Constitution of the United States : "Resolved, That the admission of California into the Union as a Sovereign State, with its present Constitution, the result of the aforesaid false and unjust policy of the Government of the United States, would be an act of fraud and oppression on the rights of the people of the slaveholding States, and it is the sense of this Legislature that our Senators and Representa tives should, to the extent of their ability, resist it by all hon orable and constitutional means." Mr. Mason was frequently called a Secessionist. The follow- 7 6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ing letter speaks for itself: Might he not well have quoted Patrick Henry, and said : " If this be treason, make the most of it"? " WASHINGTON, July 23d, 1850. " To David Hedrick and others, Committee: " GENTLEMEN : I have your letter of the Qth, as a com mittee of citizens of New Market and its vicinity, inviting me to attend and to address a Union Mass Meeting to be held at New Market on Saturday, the 27th inst., to take into consid eration the plan submitted by the Committee of Thirteen now before the Senate of the United States for the adjustment of the unhappy difficulties existing between the North and the South on the subject of slavery and all other subjects connected with the same/ " Could I be absent from my place at Washington, I should gladly embrace the opportunity, afforded by your kind invita tion, to meet my fellow-citizens of Shenandoah in counsel, and to lay before them my views at large, on the great and moment ous questions now depending before the country. " But my first duty is to be discharged here, and until these questions are disposed of, no representative from the South can be safely absent from the post assigned him. I regret, therefore, that I can not be with you on the 27th. " That our glorious and once happy Union is brought into serious danger by the perverse and wicked counsels of those who seek to destroy the equality of the States, and to break up the social organization of our Southern institutions, we have been again solemnly warned by our own General Assembly dur ing the past winter, reviewing and reaffirming the deliberate pos ture of resistance it was forced to assume in 1847. ^ n tne l an ~ guage of our Legislature, speaking to their sister States the voice of Virginia, Her loyalty to the Union is no matter of empty profession ; it is stamped upon every page of her history. No State has done as much to form the Union; none is pre pared to do more to perpetuate it, in the spirit in which it was formed, and in which alone it can be preserved. But loyal as she is, and ever has been, it were a fatal error to suppose that Virginia will ever consent that that Union, to which she has LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. looked as a source of happiness and honor, shall be converted into an instrument of degradation and oppression. " Every true son of our noble Commonwealth will stand by the General Assembly, in support of the principles and sentiments thus announced; I am sure none with more unwavering devotion than my fellow-citizens to whom I address this letter. " In the present unhappy dissensions which divide the country, and to which you have alluded, I can only say that no one is prepared to go farther than I in efforts to compose and settle them forever. But this can be no better effected by evasive adjustment, than by peremptory submission to lawless power. " In regard to the bill reported to the Senate by the Com- mitttee of Thirteen, it is a measure yet depending, and it is im possible to say what changes it may undergo before a final vote is ordered. If it ultimately assumes such a form, as under its operation to ensure the just equality of all the States, in the benefits as well as in the burdens of a common government, it shall receive at my hands a cordial and zealous support if otherwise, clearly and decidedly not. " With great respect, I am, Gentlemen, " Your friend and fellow-citizen,, "JAMES M. MASON." History records the adoption of the compromise measures, and the admission of California into the Union as a State on August 1 3th, 1850. The next day, Mr. R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, said in the Senate : " I rise not to present a petition, but to address a motion to the courtesy of the Senate a motion which I am aware I can not make as a matter of right and parliamentary privilege. It is to ask that a protest, which has been prepared and signed by ten members of this body, against the passage of the bill admitting California into the Union as a State, which passed yesterday, may be received and spread upon the Jour nals of the Senate. We ask it, because we deem it one of the most, if not perhaps the most important measure that has passed during our experience here, and we wish to give what- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ever emphasis we legitimately can to our opposition to it. We wish, so far as we can, to break the force of a precedent, which we regard as mischievous and dangerous, for the admission of States into this Union. I ask that it may be read and spread upon the Journals of the Senate." After considerable oppo sition on the part of several of the Senators, this protest was received and read. It is given as copied from the Congres sional Globe: PROTEST AGAINST THE PASSAGE OF THE BILL ADMITTING CALIFORNIA AS A STATE. " We, the undersigned Senators, deeply impressed with the importance of the occasion, and with a solemn sense of the responsibility under which we are acting, respectfully submit the following protest against the bill admitting California as a State into this Union, and request that it may be entered upon the Journal of the Senate. We feel that it is not enough to have resisted in debate alone a bill so fraught with mischief to the Union and the States which we represent, with all the re sources of argument which we possessed ; but that it is also due to ourselves, the people whose interests have been intrusted to our care, and to posterity, which even in its most distant generations may feel its consequences, to leave in whatever form may be most solemn and enduring, a memorial of the opposition which we have made to this measure, and of the rea sons by which we have been governed, upon the pages of a Journal which the Constitution requires to be kept so long as the Senate may have an existence. We desire to place on record the reasons upon which we are willing to be judged by generations living and yet to come, for our opposition to a bill whose consequences may be so durable and portentous as to make it an object of deep interest to all who may come after us. We have dissented from this bill because it gives the sanction of law, and thus imparts validity to the unauthorized action of a portion of the inhabitants of California, by which an odious discrimination is made against the property of the fif teen slaveholding States of the Union, who are thus deprived of that position of equality which the Constitution so mani- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. festly designs, and which constitutes the only sure and stable foundation on which this Union can repose. " Because the right of the slaveholding States to a com mon and equal enjoyment of the territory of the Union has been defeated by a system of measures which, without the authority of precedent, of law, or of the Constitution, were manifestly contrived for that purpose, and which Congress must sanction and adopt, should this bill become a law. " In sanctioning this system of measures, this Government will admit that the inhabitants of its territories, whether perma nent or transient, whether lawfully or unlawfully occupying the same, may form a State without the previous authority of law ; without even the partial security of a territorial organization formed by Congress ; without any legal census or other efficient evidence of their possessing the number of citizens necessary to authorize the representation which they may claim ; and without any of those safeguards about the ballot-box which can only be provided by law, and which are necessary to ascertain the true sense of a people. It will admit, too, that Congress, having refused to provide a Government except upon the condition of excluding slavery by law, the Executive branch of this Gov ernment may, at its own discretion, invite such inhabitants to meet in convention, under such rules as it or its agents may prescribe, and to form a Constitution affecting not only their own rights, but those also of fifteen States of the Confederacy, by including territory with the purpose of excluding those States from its enjoyment, and without regard to the natural fitness of boundary, or any of the considerations which should properly determine the limits of a State. It will also admit that the convention thus called into existence by the Executive may be paid by him out of the funds of the United States, with out the sanction of Congress ; in violation not only of the plain provisions of the Constitution, but of those principles of obvious propiiety which would forbid any act calculated to make that convention dependent upon it ; and last, but not least, in the series of measures which this Government must adopt and sanction in passing this bill, is the release of the authority of the United States by the Executive alone to a Government thus formed, and not presenting even sufficient evidence of its So LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. having the assent of a majority of the people for whom it was designed. In view of all these considerations, the undersigned are constrained to believe that this Government could never be brought to admit a State presenting itself under such circum stances, if it were not for the purpose of excluding the people of the slaveholding States from all opportunity of settling with their property in that territory. " Because to vote for a bill passed under such circumstances would be to agree to a principle which may exclude forever hereafter, as it does now, the States which we represent, from all enjoyment of the common territory of the Union ; a principle which destroys the equality of their States in the Confederacy, the equal dignity of those whom they represent as men and as citizens in the eye of the law, and their equal title to the pro tection of the Government and the Constitution. " Because all the propositions have been rejected which have been made to obtain either a recognition of the rights of the slaveholding States to a common enjoyment of all the ter ritory of the United States, or to a fair division of that territory between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States of the Union every effort having failed which has been made to obtain a fair division of the territory proposed to be brought in as the State of California. " But, lastly, we dissent from this bill, and solemnly protest against its passage, because, in sanctioning measures so con trary to former precedent, to obvious policy, to the spirit and intent of the Constitution of the United States, for the purpose of excluding the slaveholding States from the territory thus to be erected into a State, this Government in effect declares that the exclusion of slavery from the territory of the United States is an object so high and important as to justify a disregard not only of all the principles of sound policy, but also of the Con stitution itself. Against this conclusion we must now and forever protest, as it is destructive of the safety and liberties of those whose rights have been committed to our care, fatal to the peace and equality of the States which we represent, and must lead, if persisted in, to the dissolution of the Confederacy, in which the slaveholding States have never sought more than LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Si equality, and in which they will not be content to remain with less. " Signed, "J. M. MASON, Virginia. " R. M. T. HUNTER, Virginia. "A. P. BUTLER, South Carolina. "R. B. BARNWELL, South Carolina. "H. L. TURNEY, Tennessee. " PIERRE SOULE, Louisiana. " JEFFERSON DAVIS, Mississippi. " DAVID R. ATCHINSON, Missouri. "JACKSON MORTON, Florida. " D. L. YULEE, Florida." On the day after this protest was presented, the Senate, at the request of Mr. Mason, took up the " Fugitive Slave Bill " which he had introduced on a previous occasion, and of which he had then said : " I introduced the bill here to discharge a duty which I owe to the people whom I represent, and in obedience to instructions of the General Assembly of Virginia." * * " I am free to confess," he continued, " that although the bill and the amendments have been framed with some care, and the amendments have met the approbation of the Committee on the Judiciary, I have little hope that it will afford the remedy it is intended to afford. I fear it will be found that even this law will be of little worth in securing the rights of those for whose benefit it is intended, and yet, if the remedies proposed could be enforced, they would be found of exceeding value and impor tance, not alone to the people of the State which I represent, but to all the Southern States now holding the African race in bondage." It should be here noted: this bill was not only in accord ance with the compromise just agreed upon, but it was in fact provided to carry into effect one of the provisions of the said compromise. It has been, nevertheless, held up to condemna tion, even to execration, by the people of the North; and Mr. Mason was specially odious to the Abolitionists, because he was generally known as its author. The following clipping from an English newspaper gives 8 2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. interesting information concerning this bill, which, after much earnest and angry debate, was adopted by the Senate on August 26th, and by the House of Representatives, on September I2th, 1850. There is strong circumstantial evidence this article was contributed by Mr. Mason, although his name was not given when it appeared (during the war) in the form of a LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF " THE INDEX/ "Sir: So much having of late been said about Mr. Mason s connection with the Fugitive Slave Law, I beg to send you the following brief sketch of the true history of that law, and its real authorship, as derived from the most authentic records : " The Constitution of the United States is the author of the so-called Fugitive Slave Law. It contains a clause stipulating between the States, parties to it, for the surrender of fugitives escaping from one State into the jurisdiction of another State, and without which such fugitives could not be reclaimed; that is to say: " First. Felons, called fugitives from justice/ " Second. Apprentices or indentured servants, called per sons held to service/ " Third. Slaves, called persons held to labour/ " This stipulation is found in Article IV, Section 2, of the Constitution, in the following words: " A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the Executive of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. " No person held to service or labour in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due/ " This provision, it is seen, makes it incumbent to deliver up a fugitive of either class to the jurisdiction from which he fled. The Constitution went into operation in 1787, but no case LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. arose calling for the aid of this stipulation until 1792-93, and it arose then in the case of a fugitive from justice. The Governor of one of the States desired to reclaim a person guilty of felony who was found in another State. The Governor of the State where the fugitive sought refuge decided that he had no power either to apprehend or to deliver him up/ An appeal was then made to the Executive of the United States, as a duty devolving on it under the Constitution, General Washington being then President. The question was referred by him to the Attorney- General of the United States, as its law adviser. The Attorney- General reported that, although the duty was imperative, the Constitution required legislation to give it effect, and that with out such legislation the Government was without power in the premises. " President Washington laid this report before Congress, with a recommendation that proper legislation should be sup plied to give effect to the Constitution in this regard. No difficulty had arisen at that day about the surrender of slaves escaping from their masters, * Runaways/ as they were called in common parlance; they were taken by their masters wherever found, without hindrance, and with the aid, if necessary, of the vicinage. " Congress, on the President s recommendation, took up the subject, and finding that three classes of fugitives were pro vided for in the same Article of the Constitution, enacted a law embracing the three classes as in pari materia, by the act en titled, An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping from the Service of their Masters/ approved by Presi dent Washington, February I2th, 1793. " This Act, the first passed for the recovery of fugitive slaves, provided for their arrest by the owner in whatsoever State such fugitive was found, and imposed penalties on any who should obstruct or hinder such arrest, or rescue the fugitive from the custody of his owner, or should harbor or conceal him. " If there be any curiosity to establish the authorship of the so-called Fugitive Slave Law/ it is thus historically traced. The Constitution of the United States is the author of the princi ple of the reclamation of the slave, and General Washington, by his recommendation to Congress, was the author of the law to LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. give effect to the principle, the Constitution being powerless proprio vigore. " Mr. Mason, thus, was not the author of this law, but he was the author of a subsequent law of Congress, passed in 1850, more effectually to carry into effect the provisions of the Act of 1793, which the title of the Act of 1850 fully discloses, it being entitled, An Act to amend and supplementary to an Act Entitled An Act respecting Fugitives from Labour and Justice, approved February I2th, 1793." It would be deeply interesting to study closely the progress of legislation during the next eight years, to trace back to their respective sources the various measures proposed, and to find, in the speeches made in the Senate, the arguments urged by the advocates of each measure and the evil results predicted from them by their opponents. Such study might reveal much that is not generally found in the histories that have been written, and might place beyond further question the wisdom and fore sight of those Southern Senators who, before the close of that decade, had said to their respective States that both their safety and their honor demanded their withdrawal from the Union. The necessary limits of this volume do not, however, admit of more than brief notices of some of the more important events of that eventful period, with extracts from such of Mr. Mason s speeches and letters as will show whether he correctly inter preted the signs of the times. It will be evident that while he claimed for the Southern States nothing more than had been guaranteed to them by the Federal Constitution, he strove earnestly to point out to the people of the whole country the inevitable results of the policy which secured complete political ascendency to one section and placed the other in a helpless minority. In the fragmentary memoranda, before spoken of as found among Mr. Mason s papers, there is the following entry, which is dated, Selma, August 9th, 1851 : THE SLAVE QUESTION AND THE DISPOSITION MADE OF IT BY THE 3 IST CONGRESS, 1850. " The pseudo compromise of the slave question, claimed to have been effected by the measures of this session, will, in LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. its consequences, be found fatal, either to the Union of the States, or to the institution of slavery. The disposition of the subject made by the compromise laws has had the necessary effect of placing the Union of the States under a common gov ernment, in direct hostility to the institution of slavery, and an antagonism, not before even known to exist, has thus been established and placed broadly before the eyes of the people. It leaves to the Southern States no escape from the decision. Which, on their part, shall be preferred? And all this has been done by defection in the Representatives of the South. Who these are, history and the records of the day will leave in no uncertainty when the day of trial comes. The issues made were, the right of the Federal Government to prohibit slavery in the territories, and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. " The Southern States had, with entire unanimity, pre scribed these issues as the fighting line, and both were, by the compromise unconditionally surrendered. The former, directly and without equivocation, and the latter, substantially; because, on the question of right there can be no difference between the right to abolish an institution, and the right to destroy an in cident material to its preservation. In looking to the part I bore in the deliberations and acts of that Congress, I have the satisfaction of knowing that my judgment never wavered, or recognized one doubt as to the line of duty, an opposition from the beginning to the close of the disgusting drama, with a protest when it ended. The rest is a question of time, and of time only. The safety and integrity of the Southern States (to say nothing of their dignity and honor) are indissolubly bound up with domestic slavery, and for the overthrow of the latter the Federal Government is now com mitted, to the world, and to the majority which wields its power. Those who would have averted this fearful issue were the true friends to the perpetuity of the Union; and if it be found true that this issue is presented by the so-called Compromise Measures, it results that the responsibility rests with those who voted them into law." Another entry in the same memoranda, says : " The term for which I was elected to the Senate, expired on March 4th, S6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 1851. The Legislature met at Richmond on Monday,. Decem ber 2d, 1850, and on Saturday following, December 7th, I was re-elected for six years to expire March 4th, 1857, by the triumphant majority of seventy, against all competitors, on the first ballot. The election was made thus immediately after the Legislature met (as shown by reasons assigned in the debate), to mark the more emphatically its decided approbation of my course in the Senate, on the slavery questions, arising out of the acquisition of California and New Mexico. Bis dat, qui cito dat." His re-election to the Senate was, of course, the subject of comment in many of the newspapers. The opinions then ex pressed possess some interest now. The first extract is taken from one of the papers of Charles- town, Jefferson County, Virginia, which said : " On the arrival of the news from Richmond of the re election of Colonel James M. Mason to the United States Senate by the Legislature of Virginia, the Court-House bell was rung, and a meeting of the people of the town and neighborhood held. On motion, Colonel Francis Yates was called to the chair, and Robert Baylor appointed secretary. On motion of R. H. Butcher, Esq., the following resolutions were offered and adopted : " Resolved, That with unfeigned pleasure we have just heard of the re-election of the Honorable James M. Mason to the Senate of the United States by the Virginia Legislature. " Resolved, That this meeting hails with delight this act of justice and right on their part towards a distinguished, faith ful, public servant, who has obeyed his State, faithfully repre sented his constituents, and reflected honor upon this noble Commonwealth. " Resolved, That our worthy Senator should see in this act of his constituents, not only his reward, but his duty to per severe in that course which shall ensure to his own State and the whole South her constitutional rights under the Constitu tion made by the Fathers of this Republic. " Resolved, That this meeting tender their thanks to the Senator from this district, H. L. Opie, and other Senators and members from the Valley, for vindicating the rights of this State LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and the South, in their advocacy of the claims of the Honorable James M. Mason to the Senate of the United States. " Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the Chair to procure ammunition and fire a salute of thirteen guns in honor of the re-election of the Honorable James M. Mason to the Senate of the United States. " Resolved, That the Secretary of this meeting forward a copy of the proceedings of this meeting to Honorable James M. Mason, Senator-elect; to the Honorable R. M. T. Hunter, to the State Senator from this district, and to his Excellency John B. Floyd, Governor of Virginia/ " A postscript by the editor said : In accordance with the above resolutions, our old cannon made vocal the hills and the valleys on last evening, in honor of the election of Mr. Mason. Bonfires also illumined our village, and with many of our citizens it was an occasion of no ordinary rejoicing/ " The Southern, Argus, of December nth, 1850, said: "The two Houses of the Virginia Legislature, by joint ballot, on Saturday re-elected the Honorable James M. Mason, Senator of the United States for six years from the 4th of March next, by the overwhelming vote of 112, scattering 42. The Richmond Enquirer says that Mr. Mason received the vote of every Democrat and of many Whigs who felt it their duty to sustain him. We feel gratified and proud at this result. Had the Legis lature pursued a different course towards this pure patriot and statesman, it would have been an ineffaceable stain upon the character of the State." These extracts from contempoVaneous newspapers afford evidence that his course was fully approved and endorsed by his constituents. The estimation in which he was held in the Senate may be inferred from the fact that, upon the opening of. the next session of that body, in December, 1851, he was elected Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, and was re- elected to this important position each session during the next ten years, or so long as Virginia retained her place among the States of the Union. An extract from the Congressional Globe indicates his jeal ous care (as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations) for the rights of the people of the United States, irrespective of 8$ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. sectional questions. It may be well to say, in explanation, that in the early summer of 1852, great excitement and indignation was aroused in the New England States by the appearance on the North American coast of British vessels of war sent out for the avowed purpose of seizing any American fishing vessels found within the limits defined by " The Crown Officers of England/ The opinion delivered by these officers of the Crown was, " That by the terms of the Convention of 1818, American citizens were excluded from any right of fishing within three miles from the coast of British America, and that the prescribed distance of three miles is to be measured from the headland or extreme points of land next the sea, of the coast or of the entrance of bays or indents of the coast, and consequently that no right exists on the part of American citizens to enter the bays of Nova Scotia, there to take fish, although the fishing being within the bay may be a greater distance than three miles from the shore of the bay; as we are of opinion that the term head land is used in the treaty to express the part of the land we have before mentioned; including the interior of the bays and the indents of the shore." In the newspapers of July 6th, 1852, had appeared a com munication headed: AMERICAN FISHERIES (OFFICIAL) DEPARTMENT OF STATE. " Information of an official nature has been received to the effect that, with the recent change of Ministry in England, has occurred an entire change of policy regarding the questions re lating to protection for the fisheries on the coasts of British North America. That her Majesty s Ministers are desirous of removing all grounds of complaint on the part of the Colonies, in consequence of the encroachments of the fishing vessels of the United States upon those waters, from which they are ex cluded by the terms of the Convention of 1818; and they there fore intend to dispatch, as soon as possible, a small naval force of steamers or other small vessels, to enforce the observance of that Convention." After a clear recital of the facts and circumstances relevant, the paper concludes : " It is this construction of the intent and LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. meaning of the Convention of 1818, for which the Colonies have contended since 1841, and which they have desired should be enforced. This the English Government has now, it would appear, consented to do, and the immediate effect will be the loss of the valuable fall fishing to American fishermen, a com plete interruption of the extensive fishing business of New Eng land, attended by constant collisions of the most unpleasant and exciting character, which may end in the destruction of human life, in the involvement of the Government in questions of a very serious nature, threatening the peace of the two countries. Not agreeing that the construction thus put upon the treaty is con formable to the intentions of the contracting parties, this in formation is, however, made public to the end that those con cerned in the American fisheries may perceive how the case at present stands, and may be upon their guard. The whole sub ject will engage the immediate attention of the Government. "(Signed) DANIEL WEBSTER, " Secretary of State" On July 23d, 1852, Mr. Mason submitted the following resolution : " Resolved, That the President of the United States be re quested to communicate to the Senate, if, in his opinion, not incompatible with the public interests, all correspondence on file in the Executive Departments with the Government of Eng land, or its Diplomatic representatives, since the Convention between the United States and Great Britain, of October 2Oth, 1818, touching the fisheries on the coasts of the British pos sessions in North America, and the rights of American citizens of the United States engaged in such fisheries, as secured by such Convention. " And that the President be also requested, under like limitations, to inform the Senate whether any of the -Naval forces of the United States have been ordered to the seas adjacent to the British possessions in North America, to protect the rights of American fishermen, under said Convention of 1818, since the receipt of the intelligence that a large and un usual British naval force had been ordered there to enforce certain alleged rights of Great Britain, under said Convention." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. He then said : " Mr. President, I have thought it my duty, considering the present aspect of affairs, so far as they are com municated to us by the public journals, to submit this resolu tion, and ask that it be considered immediately. We are in formed, unofficially, but in a manner clearly indicating that it is correct, that the British Government has recently asserted rights under the Convention of 1818, in relation to the fisheries of the North, which, whether they exist or not, they suffered from 1818 to 1841 to pass without a question, and after 1841, when the question was mooted as to the respective rights of British subjects and American citizens under the treaty of 1818, they still suffered to remain in statu quo. " Sir, the British Government know well that very large and important interests are embarked by citizens of the United States in these fisheries. They know that the harbors, and coasts, and seas off their possessions in North America swarm at stated seasons of the year and this, as I am informed, is one of those seasons with these fishing vessels ; yet, suddenly, with out notice of any kind, we are informed from the public journals, and semi-officially by a sort of proclamation from the Secretary of State, that a very large British naval force has been ordered into those seas for the purpose of enforcing, at the mouth of the cannon, the construction which Great Britain has now recently determined to place on that Convention. Now, sir, I had supposed, in this civilized age, and between two such coun tries as those of Great Britain and the United States, that were it the purpose of England to revise her construction of this Convention, and require that it should be enforced, comity, ordinary comity, national courtesy, would have required that notice should have given of that determination on the part of Great Britain. " But, sir, when no such notice is given ; when on the con trary, the first information that reaches us is that Great Britain has ordered into those seas a large naval force for the purpose of enforcing this alleged right, I know not in what light it may strike other Senators, but it strikes me as a far higher offence than a breach of national courtesy as one of insult and in dignity to the American people. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " This morning, in the first paper I took up from the North, I see extracted from one of the British colonial news papers, printed at St. Johns, in New Brunswick, a formal state ment of the actual naval force ordered by Great Britain im mediately to rendezvous in those seas. It consists of the Cumberland, a seventy-gun ship, commanded by Sir G. F. Sey mour, who, I believe, is a British Admiral commanding on the West India Station; and then follows an enumeration of steam vessels, sloops of war, and schooners, to the number of nineteen, ordered to rendezvous there immediately, and with the utmost dispatch. For what purpose? To enforce at once, and without notice to this Government, so far as I am informed and yet we have some information, through the quasi-proclamation of the Secretary of State at the mouth of the cannon, the con struction which the British Government places upon that Con vention. I do not know what view has been taken by the Presi dent of this extraordinary movement on the part of the British Government ; but I think I do know what the American people would demand of the Executive under such circumstances. If there be official information or information satisfactory to the Executive, that this extraordinary naval armament has been ordered by Great Britain into the North American seas, for the purpose of executing, instanter, the construction which Great Britain places upon the Convention, I say the American people will demand of their Executive that all the naval force on the home station should be ordered there instantly, to protect the American fishermen. " Sir, we have been told by the poet who most deeply read the human heart, that out of this nettle, danger, we pluck the flower, safety ; and if I may be told there is danger of collision, I would answer at once, there is no danger. But if there were, it becomes the Executive immediately to resent that which can be looked upon only as an indignity and insult to the nation. I have no fear, Mr. President, that war is to follow the apparent collision which has taken place between the two governments; but I confess that I feel deeply the indignity that has been put upon the American people, in ordering this British squadron into those seas without notice ; and if I read the feelings of our people aright, they will demand that a like force shall be in- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. stantly sent there, in order that the rights of our people may be protected. " Sir, I do not profess the power to construe the purpose of this movement on the part of the British Government; but I was very much impressed by a dispatch which I saw in one of the late papers, but which, unfortunately, I have not at hand, within the last few days, a dispatch from the Foreign Office of Great Britain to the Colonial Office advising the Colonial Office of this movement, advising it that it was one requiring celerity and dispatch, and requiring that measures should be taken by the Colonial Office to procure concert between the British naval force and the Colonial authorities. The reason assigned was that this measure was taken on the part of Great Britain as preliminary to certain negotiations. Now, what does this mean? I know not what these negotiations are, but if it means any thing, it means that we are to negotiate under duress. Ay, sir ; at this day, that this great people covering a continent, and numbering five and twenty millions, are to negotiate with a foreign fleet on our coast. I know not what the President has done; I claim to know what the American people expect of him. I know, that if he has done his duty, the reply to the resolution of inquiry will be, I. have ordered the whole naval force of the country into those seas to protect the rights of American fishermen against the British cannon/ " I hope it will be the pleasure of the Senate to consider the resolution immediately/ The resolution was commended, in short speeches, by Messrs. Hamlin (Maine), Cass (Michigan), and Seward (New York), and was adopted. It does not pertain to the present purpose to go into the negotiations that followed between the British and the United States Governments on the subject. A letter from Mr. Woodbury is appended as one among many received from New England in acknowledgment of Mr. Mason s vigilance in protecting the rights and the interests of that sec tion of the country. " BOSTON, February 25th, 1852. " To the Hon. James M. Mason, " U. S. Senate, Washington, D. C. "DEAR SIR: A great excitement prevails here on the fishery LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. question, and your conduct in the Senate excites the warmest approbation along the coast. In the present peculiar position of the question we hardly know whom to petition, or exactly what to ask; a great many petitions are circulating in all our coast towns. Every Yankee feels his honor and his interest alike involved in this matter, and if the Government will only permit the fishermen to arm themselves, they may not be able to catch steamers, but you may rely upon it there will be no British left on land or water within a marine league of the coasts of the provinces. " The accompanying memorials are sent through you, as Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations, with the desire that you may refer them to the President or the depart ment most proper to entertain them, or if the preliminary move ment is from Congress, to use yourself. This step is not in tended in any doubt or disrespect of the members from this State, but for the purpose of informing your committee in transitu, and expressing our gratification that you should so promptly tread in the steps of the illustrious Jefferson (your countryman) in vindicating that child of his policy, the nursery of American seamen. " I am, etc., yours respectfully, "CHAS. LEVI WOODBURY." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER V. Kossuth Speech on Intervention and Monroe Doctrine Know-Nothing Party President Pierce and His Cabinet Kansas-Nebraska Act Kansas Aid Society Senator Sumner s Speech and Mr. Mason s Reply Mr. Sumner Punished by Mr. Brooks. Another extract from the fragmentary memoranda found among Mr. Mason s private papers will supply an appropriate introduction to his speech on the " Intervention Policy," made in the Senate on April 6, 1852. It is the last of these mem oranda, and it is dated " SELMA, September i8th, 1852. " I found it impossible at the late session, which terminated August 3 ist, to continue the foregoing as a contemporaneous diary; and thus record now such of the events of that session as memory retains, or I may think worth transmission. " The first was the visit of Kossuth, the soi-disant Governor of Hungary, to Washington. Either instinct or some knowl edge of humanity led me to consider this man an impostor, and his subsequent career in the country fully confirmed the first impression. I did not call on him in Washington, being one of the very few who did not. I voted against his reception by the Senate, and took occasion in debate on the intervention policy to give my opinion of him. " He is certainly a man of genius, but it is the genius of a poet and a visionary. " The occasion of his visit, and his avowed policy to induce this Government to depart from its hitherto neutral position in all questions affecting foreign interests, was taken hold of by all the aspirants for the Presidency, to -conciliate the immense foreign vote of the country, at the expense of its peace and safety. " At a dinner given to him in Washington by members of Congress, to which I refused to subscribe, Captain Douglas, and even Webster, though Secretary of State, vied in the effort to exceed each other in such oblations. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " Kossuth, in his progress through the country, collected and took with him to Europe some $100,000 as a sacred fund for aid to Hungary in future revolution. It remains to be seen how it will be accounted for by the trustee." The following extract can be found on Page 401 of the Appendix to the Congressional Globe of the session 1850-1852: The Senate having under consideration the resolutions offered by Mr. Clark, with amendments offered by Mr. Seward and Mr. Cass, reaffirming the doctrines of non-intervention, Mr. Mason said: " Mr. President : The resolutions which have been offered by the Honorable Senator from Michigan (Mr. Cass), and also by the Honorable Senator from New York (Mr. Seward), are directed to an occasion that has passed by. They are intended to express the sense of the Congress of the United States on the armed intervention of the Emperor of Russia between Austria and Hungary, one of its dependencies. But, though the occa sion is passed, these honorable Senators regarding, I doubt not, the strong feeling which was manifested in some parts of the country on the occasion of that intervention have deemed it proper to bring the subject before Congress, in order, first, that the Congress of the United States may express, so far as lies with them, the sentiments of the country on the subject of that intervention; and, secondly, with a view to foreshadow what those Senators, and others who think with them, take to be the true position of this Government, and of this country, in refer ence to all similar occasions when they may arise. " Now, sir, we can not shut our eyes to the fact, that among some of the people of this country, confined, I believe, pretty much to the West and North, a strong sentiment has been excited by the presence of one of the refugees from this re-subjugated country of Hungary, who came among us, brought out under the safe conduct of our flag, as was supposed, with a view to find a Republican home ; or if not, then simply to make his acknowledgments for that safe conduct ; but as it has turned out, he came with a view to establish himself as a propagandist in this country; to invite the councils of the nation to what he apprehended to be the duty that this country owed to others, and more especially to his own. The feeling natural to the 9 6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. occasion was very much inflamed by the peculiar talents of the man as a popular orator. And so it has been that your table, Mr. President, now has on it memorials and petitions from various parts of the country asking the Government to review, in order to remodel, the policy that has been the guide of this country for the last half century in its intercourse with and in its relations to foreign countries. " Sir, the resolution which has been offered by the Senator from Michigan, adverting to this armed interference of Russia between Austria and Hungary, expresses, on the part of the United States, the declaration that they have not seen, nor could they again see, without deep concern, the violation of this principle of national independence ; the principle being as recited in the resolution, that which is an undoubted law of nations, that one nation has not the right to interfere with the domestic concerns of another. " The resolution of the Senator from New York goes a little further. In that resolution it is declared that, The United States, in defence of their own interests, and of the common interests of mankind, do solemnly protest against the conduct of Russia on that occasion, as a wanton and tyrannical infrac tion of the laws of nations; and the United States do further declare that they will not hereafter be indifferent to similar acts of national injustice, oppression, and usurpation, whenever or wherever they may occur/ " The sanctions under which these resolutions were offered to the world are pretty much the same in both instances. The Senator from Michigan says, that the United States can not see without deep concern any further violation/ etc., and the Senator from New York says that we can not see it with indifference. The import of the two expressions, I apprehend, being pretty much the same; but they both go to this extent, that it is the duty of the United States to express a purpose on their part, should there be any future intervention by one foreign nation in the domestic concerns of another. " Mr. President, the reasons which Senators have assigned in sustaining these resolutions have gone further than the resolu tions themselves. They have shadowed forth some more dis tinctly, some less so, and I refer especially to the remarks of the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Senator from New York (Mr. Seward), and those of the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Soule), they have shadowed forth on the part of these honorable Senators this idea, that the time was at hand when it became this country to review its. policy in this respect, although not expressed in language sufficiently pointed to enable us to understand to what extent that review should be carried. " But the honorable Senator from Louisiana went some what further. He undertook to show that that which had been assumed as being the policy of Washington a subject of late much discussed at public meetings in the country, as well as in the newspapers was a sort of historical misconception, that there had been no such policy at all, or if there had been, that it was a policy adopted only for an occasion, and which ended with the occasion which gave it birth. This suggestion would seem to render it proper that we should go back to the early history of the country, and trace from their first beginning the rules and maxims, which, it is alleged, on our part, were in stituted by the fathers of the Republic, to guide us in our inter course with foreign nations. " Thus looking back, we shall find three great occasions on which the policy of this Government, in its relation to foreign powers, was brought prominently before the country : " First, in the wars following the French Revolution, towards the close of the last century. " Second, on the threatened intervention of the Holy Alliance between Spain and her American Colonies. " Third, on the invitation to this Government by the South American Republics, to meet them in a Congress at Panama. " The first arose immediately after the organization of the Government. Washington was inaugurated President in 1789, and his celebrated proclamation of neutrality issued in 1793. To this proclamation history goes back as the great landmark in every review of our foreign policy. It will be useful therefore, briefly to recall the position of the country at that time, and the occasion that brought it forth. " From the commencement of the American Revolution, France had looked to the ultimate separation of England and her American Colonies with an eye of favor, and, as a consequence, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. nothing was left undone on their part to engage France in the contest. " Dr. Franklin had been sent to Paris to conciliate the good will of that country, and to procure aid. He was kindly and graciously received, though not formally acknowledged as the representative of his country. But soon the favor of the French Court was strongly evinced by permitting military stores and other supplies to be shipped to America, and even vessels of war to be armed and equipped in her ports against England. The gratitude of our country thus strongly awakened for even by such connivance France incurred the hazards of a war was soon more keenly excited by the treaty of 1778, by which she made herself a party belligerent, and guaranteed our independ ence. It was to be expected, therefore, that the American people would strongly sympathize with those of France, when they were soon after found in a like struggle for freedom, as was fondly believed, against a league of foreign despots. " The year 1793, just ten years after the independence of the United States had been finally established by the treaty of peace, found our old enemy, England, confederated in arms with Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and the United Netherlands, against Republican France. The occasion was eminently calculated to unsettle the judgment of the country. The despots of Europe in league to subjugate Republican France, that France, who, but ten years, short years, before, had been our ally in a like contest with one of those very powers then armed against her. " Fortunately for the event, the destinies of the country were then under the guidance of men who were statesmen, as well as patriots. They were (to borrow the appropriate word of the Senator from Louisiana, Mr. Soule) impassive/ unmoved by the stirring excitement of the occasion; they took counsel only of the duties they owed to their own country. They well knew that, however equally our country had reaped the benefits, France, in becoming our ally, was actuated, as nations always are actuated, by considerations, first, of her own interest. " France and England were then the great rival powers of the world and at that very juncture, the former was yet smarting under the humiliations of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, by which she lost her possessions in North America, and England had LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. acquired them ; and without disparaging the important aid which we had derived from France, they knew, also, that she had not committed herself to a breach with England, until the success of our arms in the campaign of 1777, in the plains of New Jersey, followed by the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, showed our country capable of maintaining the independence it had declared. In fine, they knew that the first, if not the single object of France, was to weaken her rival, by dismembering her colonies. " Mr. Gerraud, one of the commissioners on the part of France, who signed the treaty of 1778, stated to the American Commissioners : That his most Christian Majesty was fixed in his determination, not only to acknowledge, but to support their independence; that in doing this he might probably be soon engaged in a war, yet he should not expect any compensation from the United States on that account, nor was it pretended that he acted wholly for their sakes, since, besides his good will to them, it was manifestly the interest of France that the power of Eng land should be diminished by the separation of the Colonies from its Government. The only condition he should require, and rely on, would be, that the United States, in no peace to be made, should give up their independence and return to obedi ence to the British Government. * " Reasoning as a statesman should, Washington and his Cabinet acknowledged only the responsibility of the nation to itself. Although under many stipulations to guaranty to France her West Indian possessions, there was none that America should make herself a party to the war; and by direction of President Washington, the proclamation of neutrality was issued. Its character simply was, to define the relations of the country, as existing with all foreign powers, under the laws of the country, nothing more. It laid for the time, but it laid broad and deep, the foundations of our foreign policy. In communicat ing it to Congress, at the first session thereafter, by his message of December, 1793, the President said: ; As soon as the war in Europe had embraced those powers with whom the United States have the most extensive relations, there was reason to apprehend that our intercourse with them might be interrupted, and our disposition for peace *See Ramsey s "History of the United States." I00 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. drawn into question by the suspicions too often entertained by belligerent nations. It seemed, therefore, to be my duty to admonish our citizens of the consequence of a contraband trade, and of hostile acts to any of the parties, and to obtain, by a declaration of the existing legal state of things, an easier admis sion of our right to the immunities belonging to our situation. Under those impressions the proclamation which will be laid before you was issued/ " Of this proclamation the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Soule) says, it was only a transient measure, looking wholly to the then situation of the country, and to the demands which that situation, with its surrounding perils, made upon it/ And again : It seemed to be debated in Cabinet Council how far, in issuing that proclamation, General Washington had not tran scended the powers vested in the President by the Constitution; and we have the authority of Mr. Jefferson to the effect that he apologised for the use of the term neutrality The President, remarked Mr. Jefferson, declared he never had an idea that he would bind Congress against declaring war, or that anything contained in his proclamation could look beyond the day of their meeting. The President said he had but one object, the keeping our people quiet till Congress should meet/ " The impression that would seem to be conveyed by the honorable Senator in the expression thus used, is, that this proc lamation was one intended only to indicate a policy altogether transient; a policy that should die with the exigency that had given rise to it ; and tie cites from the Ana of Mr. Jefferson, published with his correspondence, to show what General Wash ington himself thought of the proclamation. He says that Gen eral Washington declared that he had no idea of committing Congress by that proclamation ; but that his only object was to keep the nation quiet until Congress should meet/ Now, sir. it did not require any declaration on the part of General Wash ington, as to what the character of that proclamation was, for the proclamation speaks for itself. It did not require anything from General Washington to inform the American people of that day, of the extent of his powers ; for the extent of his powers, as Presi dent, were denned in the Constitution. Washington declared, and declared correctly, that the proclamation originated nothing. It LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. IQI was no enactment of a law. It was a single declaration of the existing relations between this country and all foreign powers, relations not arising from his will, nor created by the proclama tion, but existing under the laws. His purpose and sole object was, to declare to the American people, the obligations which existing laws imposed upon them. What were those laws? Laws recognizing that this country was at peace with all the world. And the proclamation was nothing more than that being at peace, it was his duty, as the conservator of the laws, to see that that peace was not broken. " Sir, parties were somewhat divided at that day upon the policy which it became this country to pursue towards France; one party asserting that our proper position was neutrality, another party asserting that we ought to embark in the war, that it was a duty which we owed to our ancient ally, to sustain her in her war for independence, as she had recently sustained us. But, until war was declared by the Congress of the United States, who alone were competent to declare it, there could be no dif ference of opinion as to the duty of the Executive, to take care that the peace of the country was preserved. The country was then new. The Constitution was new. It was comparatively untried. The extent of power confided under it to the Ex ecutive, and to the Congress of the United States, although to be gathered from the instrument, was a matter that very much occupied the minds of statesmen of that day. It does appear, on the relation of Mr. Jefferson, that in the Cabinet, occasionally, Alexander Hamilton, whose latitudinarian opinions upon the subject of power we all know, advanced the opinion, that there was something more potent in this proclamation of neutrality, than a mere declaration of the existing state of things. Hamil ton seemed to have entertained the opinion, that it was com petent for the President of the United States, by a proclamation of neutrality, to create a neutrality; and he went so far in main taining his position, as to declare his belief that, under the treaty- making power, it was competent for the President and the Senate to stipulate a neutrality with a foreign nation, and thereby take away from the Congress of the United States the right to declare war in that particular case. In this broad opinion Mr. Hamilton seems to have been sustained by General Knox. Mr. I02 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Jefferson and Edmund Randolph combated it; and General Washington, it would seem, agreed with them, declaring, as reported by Mr. Jefferson, that he had but one object, that of keeping the people quiet until Congress met/ The proclama tion, in truth, originated nothing; it created nothing. It estab lished the status of the country only until Congress should meet. But it declared the opinion of General Washington as to the duty of his country, and that that duty was neutrality. " The Senator from Louisiana, whose absence I very much regret, because I am commenting on the very able speech which he delivered here a few days ago, and which, I doubt not, will have its effect upon the country in the decision to which they will come on this question, in speaking of this proclamation, says further : : A war had just broken out between France and England I should say between France and coalesced Europe, France alone struggling for her liberties and the liberties of mankind against the world in arms. The question arose what part America should act in that awful conflict. Would she redeem those pledges which ardent and enthusiastic minds had per suaded themselves she was under, and taking the part of France, strike by her side for the liberties of the world? She could not join England in a crusade against those liberties. Would she then participate in the struggle, or would she rather remain a quiet spectator of the gigantic scene, and trust to God the des tinies of her ally? Necessity stern necessity could alone impel her to choose the last alternative/ " He here conveys the idea that the American people were deterred from embarking in that war with France, only because of their debilitated condition. That, he holds, was their neces sity/ Now, I apprehend, the history of that period shows very differently. Washington issued the proclamation of neutrality in April. Congress met in the ensuing December; and so far from declaring any war, with a view to aid our former ally, France, Congress passed, from time to time, a series of laws to protect this country in the neutrality thus established. Things went so far, as we know from the history of the times, that Con gress at last authorized reprisals to be made against France, on account of the spoliation on American commerce ; and the scene LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. closed by a formal act of the Congress of the United States, repealing the Treaty of 1778, and with it all the guarantees which it had made to France. I adduce this for the purpose of show ing, that, so far as the spirit of the American people is to be ascertained from the legislation of the country, during the whole of that trying period, Congress sustained the President of the United States in his neutral policy, and passed every law which they considered would conduce to the preservation of neutrality, and keep the country free from all foreign obligations.* " Mr. President, I will weary the Senate no longer than briefly to sum up the points I have thus endeavored to establish, by reference to the appropriate history of our country. The policy of the United States in her intercourse with foreign nations, as established by Washington, and followed by his suc cessors, I take to be this : " That the Government shall keep itself free of all political connection with any foreign power. That the first and great object in view is to preserve rela tions of peace and amity with all ; and this is best subserved by avoiding all alliances, whether transient or permanent." After reviewing the circumstances attending the other two occasions to which he had referred, Mr. Mason quoted the cele brated message of President Monroe, and said of it. " The ground upon which President Monroe based this deliberate declaration was, as will be seen, that the allied powers could not extend their political system to any portion of the continent of America without endangering our peace and happiness. That was the distinct, independent, and sole ground on which he justified this ostensible departure from the established policy of the country. It was boldly and wisely done, and was sustained by the American people. This declaration went upon the prin ciple, that whilst this Government disclaimed all right to inter fere in controversies between foreign powers, yet such disclaimer was obviously limited to controversies which could not affect our own people ; when by any such controversy a different aspect was presented, the safety and interest of our own country be came our sole guide." *Want of space makes it necessary to omit much of this speech. It can be found in the Congressional Globe. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " That the cardinal maxim of the Government, when any measure affecting its policy is proposed, is to consider first, and to consider last, how it will affect the safety and welfare of our own people, and to do nothing (consistent with the honor of the country) which will endanger either. " That in case of war between two or more powers with whom we are at peace, both duty and interest require of us strict neutrality. " That should such war, or other form of hostility, exist between a Government and its own people, or its dependencies, however we may sympathize with the one party or the other, accordingly as we may consider on which side is the right, our duty of neutrality is not the less incumbent, than in case of such war between independent powers. " That the laws of nations have their sanction only in the faith and in the honor of nations; whence it results that, what ever opinions may justly be entertained of the offender, when they are violated or disregarded, no nation is called upon to enforce such law, or to redress the wrong, unless thereby injury be committed against herself. " That in any case where one nation interferes by force or otherwise, with the internal or domestic affairs of another, how ever it be in violation of the law of nations, our American policy prescribes, that it is no affair of ours, unless such interference shall, either directly or ultimately, affect the safety or interest of our own people; in which case, such affair becomes ours, and our Government is bound to act accordingly. " That in regard to any such foreign interference, our duty is measured only by our interests; we may be called to intervene when its consequences are, or may become, injurious to our own people, but not because of its injury to another people. " These maxims of policy have guided us thus far to honor, dignity, and strength. Under them the country is prosperous at home and respected abroad. To abandon them now would be in the very wantonness of power, to hazard in speculative philan thropy the peace and welfare of a whole people." During the summer of 1852 public attention was much engrossed with the pending Presidential campaign. The old party lines were almost disappearing before a new issue that had LIFE OF JAME8 MURRAY MASON. been brought into prominence, or it would, perhaps, be more accurate to say an old issue had been revived and presented in a rather different form. The American Party, formed in New York in 1842, had demanded that public offices should be held only by native Americans, and that naturalization should be allowed only after twenty years sojourn in the country. Now, in 1852, when immigration had greatly increased, a secret, oath- bound fraternity, with numerous lodges, -and with conventions which made nominations secretly, attained sudden importance because of the inroads made by it upon the Democratic and Whig parties, particularly upon the latter, as it drew much more largely upon that party than upon the Democratic. It was the outgrowth from the American Republican Party, and it revived the old claim that all public offices should be reserved for native- born Americans. From the professions of ignorance with which its members met all questioning, they derived the name " Know- nothings." Possibly the secrecy and mystery of the organization increased its popularity with certain classes, but to Mr. Mason and others of the same mould this feature alone would have made it odious, even though there had not been important issues at stake upon which this new party advocated measures at vari ance with those supported by the Democrats. Mr. Mason, there fore, took an active part in canvassing his State, and earnestly endeavored to point out the evils he apprehended from the Know-nothing party. Congress continued in session that year until August 3ist; consequently it proved a laborious season for him; but the results of the elections in the fall were more than compensation for the efforts he had made. In March of the next year, 1853, Mr. Pierce was inaugurated President, with Honorable W. R. King, Vice-President ; Governor W. L. Marcy, of New York, Secretary of State ; and Honorable Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War. Very kind, personal relations had long existed with all these gentlemen, and Mr. Mason s intercourse with this admin istration was most cordial and agreeable. It should also be noted in this connection that General Samuel Cooper, of New York, Mr. Mason s brother-in-law, was at this time Adjutant- General of the Army of the United States. Mr. Davis says, in his " Rise and Fall of the Confederate I0 $ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Government," when speaking of his own experience as Secretary of War, " me administration of Franklin Pierce presents the only instance in our history of the continuance of a Cabinet for four years without a single change in its personnel. When it is remembered that there was much dissimilarity, if not incon gruity, of character among the members of that Cabinet, some idea may be formed of the power over men possessed and ex ercised by Mr. Pierce. Chivalrous, generous, amiable, true to his friends and to his faith, frank and bold in the declaration of his opinions, he never deceived any one. And, if treachery had ever come near him, it would have stood abashed in the presence of his truth, his manliness, and his confiding simplicity." The " Kansas-Nebraska Act " was, perhaps, the most im portant measure adopted during the administration of Mr. Pierce; and as it has been considered one of the most potent factors in determining the course of future events, it may be well to say here that it provided separate governments for the two territories and left the question of slavery to be decided by the people of the future States, when admitted. Mr. Davis says of it, in his book before quoted : " This bill was not, as has been im properly asserted, a measure inspired by Mr. Pierce or any of his Cabinet. Nor was it the first step taken toward the repeal of the conditions or obligations expressed or implied by the estab lishment, in 1820, of the politico-sectional line of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes. That compact had been virtually abrogated, in 1850, by the refusal of the representatives of the North to apply it to the territory then recently acquired from Mexico. In May, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed; its purpose was declared to be to carry into practical operation the propositions and principles established by the compromise measures of 1850. The Missouri Compromise/ therefore, was not repealed by that bill its virtual repeal by the legislation of 1850 was recognised as an existing fact, and it was declared to be inoperative and void. " It was added that the true intent and meaning of the act was not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States/ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. The claim afterwards advanced by Mr. Douglass and others, that this declaration was intended to assert the right of the first settlers of a territory, in its inchoate, rudimental, dependent, and transitional condition, to determine the character of its institu tions, constituted the doctrine popularly known as squatter sovereignty/ Its assertions led to the dissensions which ulti mately resulted in a rupture of the Democratic Party/ No trouble arose regarding Nebraska, because, owing to the climate, there was little probability that slave labor could ever be profitably employed there. In Kansas the case was different. Great excitement prevailed throughout the Union ; the Massa chusetts Emigrant Aid Society sent colonies to keep slavery out of the State. A Congressional Association, known as the Kansas Aid Society, was formed for the purpose of aiding free emigration into Kansas ; arms, ammunition, and money, as well as men, were thus sent into the new Territory. John Brown (of Harper s Ferry fame) was one of these employes of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society who proved himself specially energetic and skilful in executing his mission of murder. Emigrants from Arkansas and Missouri moved, with their slaves, into Kansas for the purpose of counteracting these designs and of keeping the Territory open to the Southern people. Scenes of violence and bloodshed were the inevitable results of such conditions, and they were of such frequent occur rence as finally to call out the Federal troops to suppress the disorders. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, had been violently denounced by the Abolitionists of the North. Fourteen of the States had passed " Personal Liberty Bills " for the protection of fugitive slaves found within their borders, had prohibited the use of State jails, had forbidden State officers and judges to assist claimants or to issue writs in such cases, and had provided heavy penalties for the violation of these laws. Sectional feeling steadily increased in strength and bitterness. An extract from the Congressional Globe illustrates the strained relations that existed between the men brought together in Congress as representatives of their respective sections. It claims a place here because of its reference to Mr. Mason, and I0 8 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. also because the incident to which it relates has been recorded by more than one of the historians of the day who have con demned in unmeasured terms the conduct of Mr. Brooks, and have not shown the provocation to which he was subjected : " On May I2th, 1856, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, having under consideration the Bill to Authorize the People of the Territory of Kansas to form a Constitution and State Government, preparatory to their admission into the Union, when they have the Requisite Population/ Mr. Sumner spoke at length, and in the course of his speech he said : But before entering upon the argument, I must say something of a general character, particularly in response to what has fallen from Senators who have raised themselves to eminence on this floor in championship of human wrongs ; I mean the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Butler), and the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas), who, though unlike as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, yet, like this couple, sally forth together in the same adventure. I regret much to miss the elder Senator from his seat ; but the cause, against which he has run a tilt, with such activity of animosity, demands that the opportunity of exposing him should not be lost ; and it is for this cause that I speak. " The Senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight, with senti ments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight I mean the harlot, slavery. For her, his tongue is always profuse in words. Let her be im peached in character or any proposition made to shut her out from the extension of her wantonness, and no extravagance of manner or hardihood of assertion is then too great for this Senator. The frenzy of Don Quixote, in behalf of his wench, Dulcinea del Toboso, is all surpassed. The asserted rights of slavery, which shock equality of all kinds, are cloaked by a fan tastic claim of equality. If the slave States can not enjoy what, in mockery of the great fathers of the Republic, he misnames equality under the Constitution, in other words, the full power in the National Territories to compel fellowmen to unpaid toil, to separate husband and wife, and to sell little children at the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. auction-block, then, sir, the chivalric Senator will conduct the State of South Carolina out of the Union. Heroic knight ! Ex alted Senator ! A second Moses come for a second Exodus ! " But I have not done with the Senator. There is another matter regarded by him of such consequence, that he inter polated it into the speech of the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Hale), and also announced that he had prepared himself with it, to take in his pocket all the way to Boston, when he expected to address the people of that community. On this account, and for the sake of truth, I stop for one moment and tread it to the earth. The North, according to the Senator, was engaged in the slave trade, and helped to introduce slaves into the Southern States; and this undeniable fact he proposed to establish by statistics, in stating which his errors surpassed his sentences in number. But I let these pass for the present, that I may deal with his argument. Pray, sir, is the acknowledged turpitude of a departed generation to become an example for us? And yet the suggestion of the Senator, if entitled to any consideration in this discussion,, must have this extent. I join my friend from New Hampshire in thanking the Senator from South Carolina for adducing this instance ; for it gives me an opportunity to say, that the Northern merchants, with homes in Boston, Bristol, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia, who catered for slavery during the years of the slave-trade, are lineal progenitors of the Northern men with homes in these places, who lend themselves to slavery in our day ; and especially that all, whether North or South, who take part, directly or indi rectly, in the conspiracy against Kansas, do but continue the work of the slave-traders, which you condemn. It is true, too true, alas, that our fathers were engaged in this traffic ; but that is no apology for it. And in repelling the authority of this example, I repel also the trite argument founded on the earlier example of England. It is true that our mother country, at the peace of Utrecht, extorted from Spain the Assiento Contract, securing the monopoly of the slave-trade with the Spanish Colonies, as the whole price of all the blood of great victories; that she higgled at Aix-la-Chapelle for another lease of this exclusive traffic ; and again, at Madrid, clung to the wretched piracy, It is true, that in this spirit the power of the mother-country was prostituted IIO LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. to the same base ends in her American Colonies against in dignant protests from our fathers. All these things now rise up in judgment against her. Let us not follow the Senator from South Carolina to do the very evil to-day, which in another generation we condemn. " Among these hostile Senators, there is yet another, with all the prejudices of the Senator from South Carolina, but with out his generous impulses, who, on account of his character before the country, and the rancor of his opposition, deserves to be named. I mean the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Mason), who, as author of the Fugitive Slave Bill, has associated himself with a special act of inhumanity and tyranny. Of him I shall say little, for he has said little in this debate, though within that little was compressed the bitterness of a life absorbed in the support of slavery. He holds the commission of Virginia; but he does not represent that early Virginia, so dear to our hearts, which gave to us the pen of Jefferson, by which the equality of men was declared, and the sword of Washington, by which independence was secured; but he represents that other Virginia, from which Washington and Jefferson now avert their faces, where human beings are bred as cattle for the shambles, and where a dungeon rewards the pious matron who teaches little children to Alieve their bondage by reading the word of life. It is proper that such a Senator, representing such a State, should rail against Free Kansas. " Senators such as these are the natural enemies of Kansas, and I introduce them with reluctance that the country may understand the character of the hostility to be overcome. Arrayed with them, of course, are all those who unite under any pretext or apology, in the propagandism of human slavery. To such, indeed, the time-honored safeguards of popular rights can be a name only, and nothing more. What are trial by jury, habeas corpus, the ballot-box, the right of petition, the liberty of Kansas, your liberty, sir, or mine, to one who lends himself, not merely to the support at home, but to the propagandism abroad, of that preposterous wrong, that denies even the right of a man to himself? Such a cause can be maintained only by a practical subversion of all rights. It is, therefore, merely according to reason that its partisans should uphold the usurpa- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ITI tions in Kansas. To overthrow this usurpation is now the special, importunate duty of Congress, admitting of no hesita tion or postponement. To this end it must lift itself from the cabals of candidates, the machinations of party, and the low level of vulgar strife. It must turn from the slave oligarchy that now controls the Republic, and refuse to be its tool. Let its power be stretched forth towards this distant Territory, not to bind, but to unbind; not for the oppression of the weak, but for the subversion of the tyrannical ; not for the prop and maintenance of a revolting usurpation, but for the confirmation of liberty. Let it now take its stand between the living and the dead, and cause this plague to be stayed. All this it can do; and if the interests of slavery did not oppose, all this it would do at once, in reverent regard for justice, law, and order, driving far away all the alarms of war ; nor would it dare to brave the shame and punishment of this great refusal. But the slave power dares any thing ; and it can be conquered only by the masses of the people. From Congress to the people, I appeal. " With regret I come again to the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Butler), who, omnipresent in this debate, over flowed with rage at the simple suggestion that Kansas had applied for admission as a State; and, with incoherent phrases, discharged the loose expectoration of his speech, now upon her representative, and then upon her people. There was no ex travagance of the ancient Parliamentary Debate which he did not repeat ; nor was there any possible deviation from truth which he did not make, with so much passion, I am glad to add, as to save him from the suspicion of intentional aberration. But the Senator touches nothing which he does not disfigure with error, sometimes of principle, sometimes of fact. He shows an incapacity of accuracy, whether in stating the Constitution or in stating the law, whether in the details of statistics or the diversions of scholarship. He can not open his mouth, but out there flies a blunder. " In reply to Mr. Sumner s attack upon him, Mr. Mason, said : Mr. President, the necessities of our political position bring us into relations and associations upon this floor, which, in obedience to a common government, we are forced to admit. They bring us into relations and associations, which, beyond the II2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. walls of this chamber, we are enabled to avoid associations here, whose presence elsewhere is dishonor, and the touch of whose hand would be a disgrace. They are the necessities of our political position ; and yet, Mr. President, it is not easy to bear them. Representing our States here, under a Constitution which we came here to obey, we are constrained tt> listen, from day to day, from sources utterly irresponsible, to language to which no gentleman would subject himself elsewhere. I say it is difficult to bear. We bear it from respect to the obligations of the Con stitution, and in obedience to the constitutional trust which we have undertaken to perform. The Senator from South Carolina will return in good time to his place. He is now at home, where he has been for the last two weeks. I will say this, however, in the presence of the Senate, that when the Senator from Massa chusetts dared, in this chamber, and among those who know the Senator from South Carolina, to connect his name with untruth for he did so he presented himself here as one utterly in capable of knowing what truth is, utterly incapable of conceiving the perceptions of an honorable mind, when directed to the in vestigation of truth. He presented himself as the cunning artifi cer or forger, who knows no other use of truth than to give currency to falsehood; who uses the beaten gold to enable him to pass off the false coin ; who distinguishes between that which is pure metal and that which is not so, only to enable him to deceive those who have trusted him here. " But, Mr. President, I did not intend to be betrayed into this debate. I have said that the necessity of political position alone brings me into relations with men upon this floor who elsewhere I can not acknowledge as possessing manhood in any form. I am constrained to hear here depravity, vice in its most odious form uncoiled in this presence, exhibiting its most loath some deformities in accusation and villification against the quarter of the country from which I come ; and I must listen to it because it is a necessity of my position, under a common gov ernment, to recognize as an equal politically, one whom to see elsewhere is to shun and despise. I did not intend to be be trayed into this debate ; but I submit to the necessity of my posi tion. I am here now united with an honored band of patriots, from the North equally with the South, to try if we can preserve LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and perpetuate those institutions which others are prepared to betray, and are seeking to destroy; and I will submit to the necessity of that position at least until the work is accomplished. " What I desired chiefly to do, Mr. President, was to bring before the American people, and more especially the people represented by the Senator from Massachusetts, what he calls the supremacy of the slave power/ That Senator is not alone in exhibiting this power to the quarter of the country from which he comes. The ribald sheets of a depraved press in unison with that Senator, use the same language which he has used on this floor within the last twenty-four hours, though by another name they call it the * slaveocracy. The Senator from New York (Mr. Seward), speaks of it as an oligarchy/ All these Con federate Senators are loud in their denunciation of the slave- power/ They declare that it exercises a supreme control over the affairs of this Government. They taunt Senators who come here from States where there are no slaves, with submitting to it. And yet they have never told you what it is never. What, then, is the slave-power which Senators denounce ? It is not the wealth of the slaveholding States, for the Senator from Massachusetts himself, by an extravagance of speech, declared here yesterday, that the productive industry of his own small State was greater than the whole cotton-growing labor of the South. " Mr. Sumner : Three times greater. " Mr. Mason : Three times greater ; be it so for the argu ment. It is not the wealth of the South, then, which constitutes the slave power/ Is it the numerical strength? No; for in disputably we are numerically in a minority. Is it in political power meted out by the Constitution to the States? No; for we are in a minority in the Senate where the States are represented ; we are in a minority in the other branch where the people are represented numerically; and we are in a minority in the elec toral college. " What, then, is the slave-power to which the Senator from Massachusetts, and all his confederates, so frequently refer? Mr. President, there is but one power left, and that is a great and controlling power, not alone in the halls of legislation, but in the world. It is the moral power of truth and justice ; it is the moral II4 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. power which recognizes the obligations of a compact, and observes it as you observe the compacts of honor; and when these Senators ascribe that power to the slaveholding States, they pay an involuntary, perhaps, but a high tribute to the insti tution of slavery, which they denounce. " Now let the Senator survey the whole field of power to find whence the slave-power comes ; and when he admits, as he must admit, that it is not in wealth, or in numerical strength, or in the constitutional allotment of power, what is it? He says it exists; that it is supreme; that Presidents bend to it; that Senators yield to it; and his own acknowledgment of the exist ence of the power, shows that his own morale feels it also. Let me ask him whence it comes. The picture is his, not mine. If there be any slave-power exerting an influence upon the counsels of this country, it is moral power diffused throughout the world, acknowledged everywhere, and to which kings and potentates bow it is the moral power of truth; adherence to the obliga tions of honor, and the dispensation of those charities of life that ennoble the nature of man. That is the moral power which the Senator ascribes to the institution of slavery. " Now, Mr. President, if that be so, how ungrateful is that Senator and his State of Massachusetts. Whatever wealth it may have, and wealth it undoubtedly has, is the creature of this Federal Government ; for let them be separated from it, and they would dwindle, and decay, and die. What is their productive power? They are the carriers of the South, they are enriched by the exchanges of the South. We consume the fabrics of their looms ; and under the benefits of our commercial laws (all which the South has contributed, possessing the controlling power which the Senator ascribes to it), they have grown rich. They have grown rich by means of this very confederacy. I say, then, the Senator is ungrateful. He ascribes to that slave-power the controlling influence over this confederacy ; and yet is not grate ful, as he should be, for the beneficent rule (and at their own expense) of this very slave-power/ " Mr. President, the first criminal known to the world, in the complaint which instigated him to crime, declared only that the offering of his brother was more acceptable than his. It was the complaint of Cain against Abel, and he avenged it by putting LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. that brother to death, and then went forth with the primeval curse upon his brow. In the fortunes of those who are enlisted with the Senator from Massachusetts against this confederation now, let them go, as Cain did, with the curse upon their brow of fratricidal homicide; but with the still deeper guilt that they instigate others to shed blood when they shed none themselves/ " Two days after the delivery of Mr. Sumner s speech, Mr. Preston S. Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina, came into the Senate Chamber, about an hour after the Senate had adjourned, and approaching Mr. Stunner, who was seated at his desk writing, said to him : 1 Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech carefully, and with as much calmness as I could be expected to read such a speech. You have libelled my State and slandered my relation, who is aged and absent, and I feel it to be my duty to punish you for it/ He then struck Mr. Sumner on and about his head with his walking-stick, and gave him numerous and severe blows which cut his head and disabled him, for the time being, from attending to his duties in the Senate. Mr. A. S. Murray, a member of the House from New York, came up behind Mr. Brooks, caught him by the body and the right arm, drew him back, and turned him around from Mr. Sumner. After Mr. Brooks had been pulled off/ Mr. Sumner fell over. " Committees of investigation were appointed, both in the Senate and by the House. Many witnesses were examined by both committees. The Senate committee reported that, in their opinion, the Senate could not proceed further in the case than to make complaint to the House of Representatives of the assault committed by one of its members upon the Senator from Massa chusetts. " The House Committee presented reports from both the majority and the minority. The latter offered the resolution That this House has no jurisdiction over the assault alleged to have been made by Honorable Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina, upon the Honorable Charles Sumner, of Massachu setts, and therefore deem it improper to express any opinion on the subject/ The report of the majority declared that the said assault was a breach of the privileges of the Senate; Therefore, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Resolved, That Preston H. Brooks be, and he is forthwith ex pelled from this House as a Representative from the State of South Carolina/ "There was no material difference between the three reports, so far as regards the narrative of the facts of the case. The version here given is in strict accordance with that narra tive. The testimony taken by the committees shows that Mr. Brooks had informed Mr. Keitt, of South Carolina, and Mr. Edmundson, of Virginia, both members of the House, that he intended to call Mr. Sumner to account for the offensive portion of his speech ; that he had not notified Mr. Sumner, or any one else, of his purpose, and that no one knew when or where he intended to execute that purpose. Two broken fragments of the cane were exhibited to the committee. The longest piece, the head, was 22 inches long, the smaller end having been broken off. It was one inch thick at the large end and three-quarters of an inch thick at the smaller end. It was hollow, the hollow being three-eighths of an inch in diameter at the small end, and seem ing to increase proportionally to the head. " The resolution to expel Mr. Brooks was adopted by the House. He was, however, returned by his constituents and was re-sworn as a member of it before the close of the session. " The surgeon, who had been called in at the moment, tes tified before the committee that he had dressed Mr. Sumner s wounds, and said : There were marks of three wounds on the scalp, but only two that I dressed. One was a very slight wound that required no attention. One was two and a quarter inches long, cut to the bone, cut under as it were, and very ragged. This wound has healed up without any suppuration at all. The other is not quite two inches long, and has healed up within about half an inch, and has suppurated. I look upon them simply as flesh wounds. His wounds do not necessarily confine him one moment. He would have come to the Senate on Friday, if I had recommended it. Perhaps I ought to state my reason for objecting to his coming out on Friday (the day after the assault). There was a great deal of excitement at that time, and I thought that if Mr. Sumner did not go into the Senate for a day or two the excitement might wear off. It was not on account of his physical condition : he was very anxious to go." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER VI. Letter to Mr. Davis Letter Declining Invitation to Dinner Given to Elec toral College Tribute to Memory of Hon. A P. Butler Extract from Richmond Enquirer Re-elected to Senate Visit to Bunker Hill and to Boston " Kansas Letter" Speech on Admission of Kansas Speech in Opposition to Pacific Railroad Protest Against Bill Donating Public Lands to States that Provide Colleges for Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanical Arts John Brown Raid. A letter from Mr. Mason to Mr. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, written a few months after the foregoing incident, gives evidence of his appreciation, even at that early day, of the neces sity for preparation, on the part of the Southern States, to meet and repel the invasion that he foresaw. This letter was probably left by Mr. Davis in his office in the War Department in Wash ington, for it appeared in the New York Tribune during the war, while Mr. Mason was in England. It is here copied from the newspaper clipping found among his papers : FROM THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE, October, 1863 : " ANOTHER OF JEFF. DAVIS LETTERS PREPARATIONS FOR A REBELLION AS EARLY AS 1856 VILLAINOUS PROPOSITION BY J. M. MASON IT PLAINLY SHOWS THE TREASONABLE PURPOSES OF THE WRITER AT THE TIME OF ITS DATE." " SELMA, NEAR WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA, September 30, 1856. " Hon. Jefferson Davis : " MY DEAR SIR : I have a letter from * Wise of the 27th, full of spirit. He says the governments of North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana have already agreed to the ren dezvous at Raleigh, and others will this in your most private ear. He says further that he has officially requested you to exchange with Virginia, on fair terms of difference, percussion for flint muskets. I don t know the usages or power of the Department in such cases, but if it can be done, even by liberal construction, I hope you will accede. *Hon. H. A. Wise, Governor of Virginia. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " Was there not an appropriation at the last session for converting flint into percussion arms? If so, would it not fur nish good reason for extending such facilities to the States? Virginia probably has more arms than the other Southern States, and would divide in case of need. In a letter, yesterday, to a committee in South Carolina, I gave it as my judgment, in the event of Fremont s election, the South should not pause, but proceed at once to immediate, absolute, and eternal separation/ So I am a candidate for the first halter. * " Wise says his accounts from Philadelphia are cheering for Old Buck in Pennsylvania. I hope they be not delusive. Vale et Salute. "J. M. MASON/ This same letter was quoted in " The Life of Lincoln " published in Harper s Magazine. .The interpretation put upon it in both instances needs no comment. Nor does the letter require explanation to those who are informed concerning the laws regulating the distribution of arms to the militia of the several States by requisition of the Governors upon the War Department in Washington. The following letter, written a few months later, is of interest as it expresses more fully his views regarding the course to be pursued by Virginia: " WASHINGTON, December 2d, 1856. " Messrs. W . A. Patterson and others, Com t., " GENTLEMEN : I have had the honor to receive your let ter of 26th November, on behalf of the Democrats of Richmond, inviting me to a dinner to be given by them to-morrow in that city to the Electors of the President and Vice-President of the United States. " I had hoped it would be in my power to accept it, but I regret now to say that my engagements here will not admit of it. " I shall be with you, gentlemen, nevertheless in heart and sentiment, in rendering deserved honor to our noble Common- *Hon. H. A. Wise, Governor of Virginia. Hon. James Buchanan, afterwards President of the United States. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. TI g wealth, in the persons of those who represent her in casting her electoral vote. " Virginia, the oldest of the States, and the pioneer to inde pendence, has a great destiny to fulfil, and greatly has she realized that responsibility. True to the Constitution, because always true to herself, the waves of faction at home, or of dark conspiracy abroad, break harmlessly at her feet. Her honor is in her own keeping, and the sacred trust, transmitted from sire to sire, and from generation to generation, shall vindicate her position as a free, sovereign, and independent Republic, sub missive to her Federal obligations so long as they are respected by her associate Republics, but ready to assert and establish her separate existence when such submission is no longer consis tent with honor. " With great respect, I am, gentlemen, yours very respect- fully, "J. M. MASON." Within a few days after the date of this letter, the death of Judge A. P. Butler, one of the Senators from South Carolina, was announced in the Senate by the surviving Senator from that State, Mr. Evans. In rising to second the resolutions of respect offered by Mr. Evans, Mr. Mason said : " I can add nothing, Mr. President, to the eloquent and able tribute just rendered by the venerable Senator from South Carolina to the memory of his late colleague. " It is more to indulge my own feelings of deep and sincere sympathy with those who survive, than from any hope that I may contribute even one poor leaf to the garlands around his tomb, that I ask the indulgence of the Senate for a brief moment in these sad ceremonials. " It was my good fortune to have known our deceased colleague, Andrew Pickens Butler, on terms of more intimate association than most Senators now around me. He took his seat in the Senate in December, 1846, and I followed him in January, 1847. Educated in the same political school, and thus drawn together in political circles here, habits of association were formed which, for the ten years that followed our entrance into the Senate, and until his death, found us under a common roof, at a common hearth, and sharing a common board. Our I20 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. intercourse and association were in every sense fraternal. And you, Senators, who knew him best, will best appreciate the loss I am called to mourn in common with you. " Pickens and Butler united in him, mark the noble and gallant race from which he sprung; and he sealed in death a duty to his descendants, by transmitting both names to them without spot or blemish, as he had received them. Bayard-like, he bore them through life without fear and without reproach/ With that hardy morality which fears no contact, he mingled gracefully and graciously in the walks of life, alike with the most humble and the most exalted, honored and caressed by the one, loved and trusted by all. Thus, while the genial flow of a gen erous and sympathizing spirit attracted him to all classes in life, his lofty and unbending integrity, manly purpose and unswerv ing honor, assured to him the respect and unstinted confidence of all coming within his sphere. Distrust and suspicion were at once disarmed in his presence. Wherever else they might be found, there was no such atmosphere around him. " In forensic warfare, whether a friend or foe, all will bear witness alike to the true nobility of his nature. Bold, ardent, daring, and at times almost merciless when he joined in battle, yet there was no venom in any shaft that sped from his bow; and when the fight was done, his ready hand was equally extended, on whichever side victory might declare itself. He was an efficient debater ; more prone to, and perhaps more skilful in, attack than defence. " The rich and fertile resources of a well-stored mind proved that he was habitually a student ; and their skilful and sagacious use evinced that nothing rusted in his intellectual armor, but by thought and meditation was kept polished and on edge. Indeed, with him, the faculties of observation and meditation seemed more happily combined than it has been my lot to witness with other men. And then, nature, in its bounties, had added that great Creative Power which is the unerring mark, as it is the first instinct, of genius. His mind, in debate, seemed almost to overflow in the rapidity of its suggestions; and yet there was realized in him that rare faculty of excellence which the ancients ascribed to the Grecian painter, Timanthes, of whom it was said : Intelligitur plus semper, quam pingitur. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. I2I " As a Senator, you will all bear witness that, whatever dif ferences arose amongst us in the rivalries and contentions of political life, whatever part he bore in them, was always distin guished by candor, loyalty, and good faith. In the organization of this body, he held for many years, and until death closed for ever the scenes of this world, the Chair of that Committee which stands as the law adviser of the Senate, but the duties of which are frequently complicated with political questions, involving the success or defeat of political parties. " Who can forget how confidently and freely a minority was ever ready to commit all such questions to that committee, and how well that confidence was justified by its able, upright, and impartial decisions? The scales were held even, by a firm and resolute hand, however bitterness, prejudice, or distrust might seek to disturb the balance. " Born, nurtured, and reared in one of the most gallant of the Old Thirteen/ he loved and venerated her fame with instincts that were truly filial; and as a child would defend a parent from insult or wrong; you have marked his eye kindle and flash defiance, whenever called to vindicate the fame or honor of his State. His devotion and his first duty were to South Carolina; yet on the broader theatre of a common country, embracing all the States, his views were liberal, catholic, and fair, giving to each section its just and full share in whatever benefits or advantages flowed from a common Government. There his public service was directed with a single eye to the public good. " I have thus attempted, Mr. President, feebly to portray the Senator and the Statesman as he stood confessed before the country. But it was in the social and domestic circle in paths not opened to the common view that the richest gifts of nature to man, the latent virtues of the heart, shone with a lustre all their own. There was not an impulse there that was not gen erous, genial and confiding. He sympathized with his race, and his whole race. If it was his fortune at some time debellare superbos, that more grateful emotion was ever his, parcere metis. " But I should not detain you longer with this poor memo rial of the gallant dead. He sleeps beneath the soil of his own I22 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. loved Carolina, amidst those who loved and honored him in life, and who received his last sigh in death." Again the reader is referred to an extract from one of the Virginia newspapers for the verdict of his contemporaries regarding the manner in which Mr. Mason discharged the duties entrusted to him by his constituents. From the Washington correspondence of The Richmond Enquirer: " WASHINGTON, December 7th, 1856. " The debate in the Senate on the Message, during the last week, has furnished to the country the estimate placed on it by the Democratic party. Foremost among the moving minds of that august body, representing the conservative element of government, was Mr. Mason. It certainly gives a man a better opinion of his country and confirms his confidence in the con stitutional vitality of the Federation, to listen to this Senator. The dignity of simplicity, the earnest force of conscious rectitude, the finish of the high-toned gentleman, the glow and ardor of true patriotism and genuine love of country, combine to make Mr. Mason one of the ablest defenders of the Constitution in the Senate. The range which the debate took indicated very clearly the smouldering feeling and burning indignation of the Democratic speakers. The opposition attempted in vain to drown their fire. The record fairly reported shows to the country on which side in this discussion the truth is to be found. To accumulate opposing facts, is not the worst manner of resisting wild assumptions and baseless theories. The head ing of this debate might well be : Fact versus Fiction, or The Constitution against Fanaticism/ " Still higher evidence of the approval of his constituents and the confidence reposed in him by his State was afforded by his re-election to the Senate for another term of six years, beginning on the fourth day of March, 1857. On this same day Mr. Buch anan was inaugurated President of the United States, with the Honorable J. C. Breckenridge as Vice-President. One of the first acts of the new Vice-President was to appoint Mr. Mason Regent of the Smithsonian Institute for the ensuing term of six years, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and thus to retain him in the position he had already held dur ing the preceding eight years, from the time of his first appoint ment in 1849. In the summer of 1857, Mr. Mason was invited to attend the ceremonies connected with the unveiling of the statue of Gen eral Joseph Warren, on Bunker Hill, near Boston. The invita tion came under gratifying circumstances, and was the more agreeable from the fact that he had never before visited arty of the New England States, although he had formed, in Wash ington, many pleasant acquaintances among their people. The visit proved in all respects exceedingly agreeable and interesting, and it was ever afterwards spoken of among his cherished remi niscences of happier days. The following clipping from one of the Boston papers shows the like favorable impression that he made upon the Boston people : SENATOR MASON, OF VIRGINIA. " This gentleman, who spent the last week in Boston^ seems to have created a very favorable impression among the Northern people. On Saturday, in company with Mayor Rice, he visited the public schools of the city, and in the afternoon inspected the factories at Lowell. The Post says : His genial and affable manners, his generous estimate of what he saw and heard, and his gratification at the frank and cordial civilities offered to him on all hands, by the public authorities and individuals, were circumstances to host and guest which imparted unalloyed grati fication to the parties interested. " The speech of the honorable gentleman at Bunker Hill was appropriate, eloquent and national, and has received the warmest commendation. In his occasional brief addresses on various occasions during his sojourn at Deer Island, at the Revere House, and at private tables where he had been called upon to acknowledge compliments to himself and to his State he has exhibited a gracefulness of thought and a flowing, collo quial, feeling diction, which have rendered his voice the most charming part of the numerous festive courtesies extended to him. " He will leave many newly formed acquaintances in Boston I24 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. who will cherish his visit as among the most pleasing records of their memory ; and we are sure he will return to his own home with convictions in favor of men and facts here which will give additional ardor to his love for the Union, and increased strength to that fraternal feeling which is the only link that can render our nationality indissoluble." In the same newspaper has been found the following extract from the brief address he made, when called upon after the oration of the day had been concluded: " Mr. Mason said he had been honored by a generous in vitation to witness the great and imposing spectacle which he had beheld, and he thought he came as a witness only. He had not thought he should be called upon to become an actor in the scene. He was now, for the first time, present on Bunker Hill, and in the presence of the descendants and successors of that gallant and devoted band who laid down their lives on this soil that we might live as freemen. They have left you, my countrymen/ he said, a heritage such as has not been before known to the world since the most palmy days of Greece and Rome, the heritage of an immortal name, and more than that, the heritage of their great example/ " Who were they? The country people met in a hurry. And why? To meet the veterans of Old England on the soil of an English colony, that they might evince to the world their spirit of English resistance to tyranny from any quarter. And that gallant man whom you have all in honoring honored yourselves, that gallant man who was the most distinguished victim upon this distinguished field, this field of Bunker Hill, could he have returned from it, although he could not have said, as his Spartan predecessor at Thermopylae, that they had laid down their lives in obedience to Sparta s laws, for there were no laws then, as British rule had ended and American had not begun, he might have said to Massachusetts : Tell it to your sons in Massachu setts, and let it be handed down from generation to generation, that here upon Bunker Hill was laid the corner-stone of American independence and cemented with our blood/ " The audience has been well and truthfully told by the orator of the day, that at Bunker Hill, 82 years ago, the rule of the British Empire ceased upon this continent. Battles were LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. fought, and bitter privations were suffered afterward, but the British rule ended on this Hill 82 years ago. If that great and gallant Warren could have returned from the battle-field and told his descendants to hand down the memory of that day from generation to generation, he would have found his request per formed. " Four generations have passed away and we are here in the fifth now. I shall tell it in old Virginia when I return to her blessed hills, that I found the spirit of Massachusetts as buoy ant, as patriotic, as completely filled with the emanations that should govern patriotism when I visited Bunker Hill, as it was when that battle was fought. I am authorized to say so; else why this inspiring assemblage ; why that interminable procession of which I formed, by your kind invitation, a very humble part ; why those streamers from every house and from every window ; and why is all the beauty of your beautiful city assembled waving their handkerchiefs and streaming their banners of welcome to the commemoration of this day? I shall feel myself authorized to say to the people of Virginia that the spirit of Bunker Hill yet remains at Bunker Hill. " And now, my countrymen, something was said by the very eloquent and honored gentleman who represents Connec ticut in deprecation of that dishonored day which should witness this great Confederation broken into fragments ; I sympathize with him. I am here to say to you people of Massachusetts, that our Government is a government whose only sanction is in the honor and the good faith of the States of this Union, and to proclaim that so long as there are honor and good faith in the States and in the people of the States, the Union will be per petuated. I invoke you here on Bunker Hill, coming from my own honored State in the far South, I invoke of you all that you shall require of those who represent you, that they administer the Government as it was founded by our fathers under the Constitution, and not otherwise. I would ask the spirit of the patriot who has departed from us, if he can look down upon that earth which he once honored, to inspire you all with that feeling which would require that the Government should be administered under the Constitution in honor and in good faith. " Mr. President, I thank you again, and the Association of LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. which you are the worthy head, for having given me the oppor tunity of witnessing this great spectacle on Bunker Hill, and enabling me to take back to my people the assurance that the spirit of Bunker Hill yet lives in Massachusetts." An article in The Galaxy (Vol. 15, January to June, 1873), by Mr. Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy, from 1861 to 1869, confirms this account of the hospitality and considera tion accorded to Mr. Mason while in Boston ; although it gives a far less flattering report of both guests and hosts. Speaking of the " Trent Affair," and of the resolution offered by Mr. Colfax in the House of Representatives, to the effect that J. M. Mason should be confined as hostage for Colonel Michael Corcoran and should be treated as a convicted felon, Mr. Wells further says of Mr. Mason : " Professing a deep regard for State Rights, and, when he entered the Senate, profound venera tion for the Federal Constitution, he, nevertheless, introduced a bill for the capture and rendition of fugitive slaves, a measure that was more arbitrary and centralizing than any previously proposed by the ultra-consolidationists of Massachusetts. A visit he made to Boston, after his success in imposing upon the people the Fugitive Slave Law, where he was received with sycophantic adulation, convinced him the Yankees were defi cient in manly spirit and needed Virginians to govern and incul cate in them self-respect." Mr. Mason seems to have impressed those who saw and heard him as being very unlike the idea Mr. Wells would give of him. Again, Mr. Wells apparently ignored the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States made in the case " Priggs vs. Pennsylvania, That the Pennsylvania Statute, forbidding the carrying of any negro out of the State in order to enslave him, was unconstitutional, since it conflicted with the National Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. : The bill he referred to, and of which Mr. Mason was the author in 1850, was, as the title shows, " An Act to amend and supplementary to an act entitled An Act respecting Fugitives from Labour and Justice, approved February I2th, 1793. " A letter to the editor of The South, published in Washing ton, D. C, written in the summer of 1857, is interesting. It is dated, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Ill " WINCHESTER, VA., July 22d, 1857. " DEAR SIR : In your paper of Monday last, in an article headed Walker s Usurpation/ I observed the following para graph : " But we are told that Hunter and Mason, and other distin guished Southern Senators, in the debate on the Kansas- Nebraska bill, expressed the same opinion, that Kansas must be a free State, etc/ " I can not undertake to say what opinions may have been expressed by my honored colleague or by other Senators from the South, in reference to the probable condition of Kansas; though from a general knowledge of their views in regard to that territory, I should not doubt that any opinions so expressed-, would have reference to circumstances necessarily qualifying them. To avoid misconstruction, however, I think it proper to say that I never expressed the opinion ascribed to me ; because I never entertained it. At the time the law passed, organizing the Territorial Government, there were few with whom I conversed who did not believe that the future State would take its place with those recognizing and cherishing the condition of African Slavery. " There was at that time, certainly, every reason to believe why this should be so, and none why it should not. " The State of Missouri, bordering its eastern frontier, was a slaveholding State, holding, at that time, nearly an hundred thousand slaves, and these were chiefly held in the border coun ties. The State of Arkansas, adjacent to the Territory on the south, was likewise a slaveholding State. " The soil and climate of Kansas were well adapted to those valuable products, chiefly hemp and tobacco, which gave value to slave labor in Missouri. The proximity of its popula tion, with the attractions of new, fertile, and cheap land, I believe would lead the slaveholders in Missouri to diffuse themselves speedily over Kansas, and the prohibitory line of 36 degrees and 30 minutes being obliterated, there was no reason why they should not. I had no fear of fair competition in such appro priation of the new Territory from any quarter. Unfair compe tition I did not look to. What may yet be the result as to the condition of Kansas, notwithstanding the extraordinary and I2 $ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. unscrupulous efforts of Northern Abolitionists to force a popula tion there, I can not undertake to say. Nor will I allude, in this place, to the new and unexpected aspect now exhibited of affairs in that Territory, with so much propriety reprehended in the columns of The South. " Whatever may be the information of others, I certainly am not sufficiently informed of the existing state of things in Kansas, to form a clear opinion one way or the other; yet I will venture to say this much, that if African Slavery be ulti mately excluded from Kansas, it will be effected by numerical force of organized majorities, operating against the usual laws which govern emigration, and will present a new and most instructive lesson to the Southern States. " Very respectfully I am yours, &c., &c., " T- M. MASON." In close connection with this letter, come the extracts from his speech in the Senate, made on March 1 5th, 1858, when the bill for the admission of Kansas into the Union was under con sideration. He then said: " In the remarks which I am to submit before the Senate, I desire to review, as briefly as I may, the history of the events and causes which have brought the question of African bondage into discussion before the American Congress, in connection with the expansion of the country in the addition of new States. " The question of slavery, as it has existed upon this con tinent for more than two hundred years, was, before our colonial independence, a subject of no contention whatever between the colonies none that I have been able to trace. It was found after the Declaration of Independence (when the colonies, before that time perfectly independent of each other, came together to form a common government, in a spirit of fraternity that I wish could actuate States and statesmen now), that the existence of African bondage was, to a large extent, confined to the South ern States ; but still it existed in all the States. The subject of this form of servitude became a question of discussion in the Federal Convention upon the inquiry whether those subject to it should be treated, in the formation of the government, as an element of political power. It constituted a part of their popula- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. I2 g tion ; it was their property, conceded on all hands ; and it became immediately a sine qua non to the formation of any common gov ernment, on the part of the Southern colonies, that their African slaves should constitute an element of political power in the colonies where they were found. It was a subject of great delib eration, as all Senators know who have looked back into the history of the country. " Many most disturbing questions arose in that convention questions naturally springing out of the dissimilarity of inter ests and the dissimilarity in the pursuits of labor questions between the planting States and the commercial and navigating States, and other questions, that arose upon the demand of the smaller States to stand as equals in the Confederacy, by an equality of representation in one branch of the National Coun cils ; but there lay at the bottom of all, as was conceded by the patriots and statesmen of that day, this question of domestic servitude in the population of the Southern States, as the most difficult to adjust. Senators will find, in looking back to the proceedings of the convention, that one of its greatest minds and most illustrious members I mean the late James Madison when there seemed to be an almost irreconcilable rupture between the large and the small States, on the question of equal representation, told them, all that could be overcome; should they go back and settle the political relations of African bonds men in the Confederacy, they would find the rest of more easy adjustment. It was done, and resulted in the stipulation of the second section and first article of the Constitution, by which three-fifths of the slaves were to be computed in fixing decen nially the ratio of representation, thus constituting the slave population an element of political power. " Now, sir, statesmen may look at this subject as they please, but they will be brought, of necessity, back to this very question of representation of the slaves as the true point of division between the different sections of the country. Sir, if that was not fixed by the Constitution as an element of political power in the South, the sickly sentiment of the North, now so sedulously nursed by their politicians, against African bondage, would find little sympathy at their hands. Let us meet the question, then, as men and as statesmen, and, I trust, also as patriots. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " When did it first arise since the Confederation I mean the question of political power in the Confederacy, resulting from this slave representation? It was first agitated in the attempt made in 1820, upon a question exactly such as agitates our councils now the admission of a new State into the Con federacy. What was attempted then? To make it a condition of admission that the State should abolish slavery within her limits; and, if I recollect aright the history of that day, a dis tinguished Senator on this floor, then representing the State of New York (Rufus King), frankly avowed that the purpose of the condition was to impair the political power of the Southern States. He honestly avowed it, without subterfuge or evasion; it was then frankly avowed, that the condition sought to be imposed on Missouri was to prevent the expansion of political power in the South, by the constitutional right of slave repre sentation. " What was the result? The State of Missouri, then con stituting a part of that large country derived by us from France as the Territory of Louisiana, was admitted upon condition a condition unknown to the Constitution. The State of Missouri was admitted upon condition that a parallel latitude should be drawn across the whole territory of Louisiana; and whilst slavery should be excluded north of it, there was no guarantee that it should be admitted south of it. The prohibition was, that north of the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 minutes this invol untary servitude, as it was termed, should be forever excluded. And this unconstitutional restriction became handed down, in the traditionary history of the times, as the Missouri Com promise/ " Mr. President, I have yet to see the Southern statesman, looking back to the history of that day, and to the consequences which followed, who does not deplore in his heart that a final stand on the part of the Southern States, based on the securities of the Constitution, was not made there and then, and no step taken backwards. But the law passed; Missouri was admitted upon condition that involuntary servitude, except for crime, should be forever prohibited north of the line prescribed; and that passed, as I have said, in the traditionary history of the day, as a compromise. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " Well, we have believed, on our side ever since, that com promise or no compromise, it had no warrant in constitutional law. Time ran by, and it was acquiesced in. There was no express agreement, but a sort of tacit understanding, for the peace and repose of the country, that if, on one side they would fairly commit themselves to that line, we would assent that slavery should not extend north of it if they would assent that it should be extended south of it. How were we met? This line honorable Senators from the North, and those whom they rep resent, now speak of as a line founded in sacred compact, that was intended to give repose and peace to the country, and did give it ; and yet, when in after years further territory was acquired west of the Territory of Louisiana, and the proposition was made to carry out the compromise by extending the line, it was met by a decided refusal. Here, in 1848, when we were organizing the territory of Oregon, it was insisted that this inter dict should be placed on that Territory, far north as it was, and the proposition was made not from me; I had the honor then of a seat upon this floor, but no such proposition ever came from me ; but a proposition was made from Southern men, again, if they could, to secure the repose and peace of the country by extending that line to the Pacific ; and according to my recollec tion, almost every vote from the Northern States was against it. " So far to the contrary were they, indeed, from adhering to any compromise, that on the very first proposition to organ ize a territorial government in one of the new Territories, public men, representing the interests of the non-slaveholding States, exhumed from the dust of a half century the ordinance of 1787, and presented it to the country as a chart of republican freedom from our fathers, containing within it, as they alleged, a repudia tion of the condition of slavery, and recommended it for a like interdict in all the new Territories, giving birth to what was called, from the gentleman who first presented it, the Wilmot Proviso/ The ordinance of 1787, or this clause in the ordi nance, has been resorted to from that day to this as evidence that, even before the foundation of the present Government, our fathers looked to a power in the United States to affect, by eman cipation or otherwise, the condition of African bondage on the continent. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " Now, Mr. President, the people of that day have all passed from among us, but they have left some memorials behind; and I have one here from the same venerated man to whom I have before alluded, showing in what policy that clause in the ordinance of 1787 was founded. It was not intended in any manner to affect the condition of African bondage, as it then existed upon the continent. It was aimed as a blow against the foreign African slave trade, and nothing more. " Mr. President, years after the pseudo-compromise, made on the occasion of admitting the State of Missouri, this sixth article of the ordinance of 1787 was exhumed, perverted, and successfully applied without warrant of constitutional law by the Congress of the United States, under the name of the Wilmot Proviso/ to the Territory of Oregon ; thus showing a determination on the part of Congress, whatever result might follow, to carry out that policy, in prohibiting the expansion of slavery on the continent. We all know the deep sensation pro duced at the South by the adoption of this proviso; the inter dict was denounced as unconstitutional ; and although applied to a Territory far north of the Missouri line, it was looked upon at the South as the manifestation of a fixed policy to prevent the further extension of a slave population, which if persevered in could only end in dissolution. " In 1848, after the peace with Mexico, we acquired a large territory from her, embracing California. It became necessary to provide Governments for the population actually there, not in California alone, but in New Mexico; and instantly upon the proposition to organize Territorial Governments for these peo ple, then living without a Government, this demand of interdic tion was at once set up in both Houses of Congress. It was successfully resisted, so far as to prevent its being done, but at the cost of leaving these people, whom we had acquired under the faith of treaty, without a Government for a period of some two years. " I want to trace the history frankly, and I hope truthfully, that we may the better understand the exact position of the ques tion now presented on the admission of Kansas. Under the auspices of a very able and successful statesman of that day from Kentucky, the late Mr. Clay, a new scheme of adjustment was LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. suggested to the American people, by a series of what was called Compromise measures. I will not go over them here further than to show the result to have been the violent admission of an additional non-slaveholding State, with an equivocal post ponement of the question of future prohibition of slavery in the new Territories. I was one of those who were opposed to this new (so styled) compromise. I never knew a compromise made between a majority and a minority, unless on a basis by which the majority establishes a position for further aggression at a future day; and I think the history of all the compromises on the question of slavery, so far as they have progressed, warrants that conclusion. It was done. California was admitted into the Union as a free State; not objected to by Southern men because it was a free State, but objected to because of the machinery that was put in practice to produce that very effect. " Now, Mr. President, let us come back to the Kansas ques tion. A law was passed creating territorial governments in Kansas and Nebraska, according to their appropriate boun daries. The question of slavery was left open to be decided by the people to be affected by it, as I have said, in consequence, not of the spirit only, but the letter of the laws of 1850. " What was the next step? Hardly was the ink dry by which the bill became a law, when there was fulminated from the Halls of Legislation here a manifesto to all the abolition societies of the North, telling them that the Territory^ was thrown open to population and inviting and encouraging them, under every stimulant that could arouse their passions or excite their hopes, to throw their people into it with the utmost rapidity. I do not claim to be wiser than others, but yet have some knowledge of humanity and of my fellow-men; and I say that the state of things that has existed in Kansas ever since; events which Senators delight in depicting as the efforts of great and noble- minded freemen to vindicate their rights ; scenes of blood, rapine, and murder, disgraceful to the age, of fraud and violence in every form of licensed depravity, were but the legitimate consequences of throwing (by artificial means altogether) a population utterly irresponsible into a common Territory, under instructions, if not under contract, to carry out the political views of those who sent them. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " The emigrant aid societies formed a new feature in the laws governing emigration in our country societies that were got up with large capital for the purpose of throwing a popula tion into the Territory of Kansas at once which should pre occupy it, in order that politicians might effect what the laws had prohibited, in regard to the expansion of slavery. " I do not mean to say that we had any law, or could pass any law, prohibiting these societies ; but do mean to say, before the American people, and before posterity, that those who were instrumental in getting up such societies, and in carrying through their objects, are responsible for the bloodshed and rapine, and murder, and the utter destitution of every moral principle which have disgraced that Territory ever since. " Slaveholders from the adjacent and contiguous States, and from a distance, went there, as they had a right to do, with their slaves, and mingled with this population. The Territory at once became a scene of contention and strife, because they found it pre-occupied by men who had been sent there under contract for the very purpose of excluding them. Civil war almost ensued civil strife certainly did. It was necessary to. bring in the strong arm of Federal power through the military force, in order to repress it. Soldiers were quartered there for more than two years to keep peace amongst the people, and to make them obedient to the laws. What, then, did we find on the part of the emigrant aid societies in the New England States? Pen and pulpit were employed alike to fan the flame and to supply the munitions for civil war in the Territory of Kansas ; sermons were preached ; the popular mind was stirred up from its foundations to induce them to contribute money and fire-arms to be used in Kansas against their fellow-countrymen. " If that is the sort of government which these peace and order-loving people prefer, be it so. Our duty only is to see that the laws are enforced ; that the laws are obeyed ; that the institu tions of the country are preserved unimpaired, and not made the sport either of reckless fanaticism or the calmer calculations of reckless aspirants. " I think the President at the head of the last administration, as well as the present, have done no more than their duty in seeing that the laws were duly enforced by the full use of the military power. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " I will not trace the condition of slavery, as belonging to the African, back to the Bible, because, although I recognise that as the law which to a great extent governs the relations between man and man, yet it is not a law which is to be enforced by any human tribunal. I will not undertake to say that the African got his condition of slavery jure divino, although it has been so ascribed. It is enough for me that such is the fact. I know of no race of men now upon the earth whose original normal con dition was that of slavery but the African. You find him pre cisely in the same form of slavery in every land where he has gone, and at every age of his existence at home a slave, abroad a slave ; and when that slavery of the African is brought within the influences of civilization, we know, upon the experience of our continent at least, that it has elevated him very far beyond the uttermost conceptions of his ancestors in the scale of being. The African upon this continent, in the bondage to which he is subjected here, compared with the African in his own country upon the continent of Africa, might be compared to the differ ence between a high degree of civilization and the lowest condi tion of the savage. " I will not undertake to say, or even to suggest, what great ends the Supreme Ruler of the world may have designed, and is now executing in the transfer of a portion of the African Race to this continent ; but I have seen what feeble results have been obtained from the attempt to carry him back to his own con tinent. There is a philanthropic society, now in existence, formed some thirty or forty years ago, originating, I think, with some statesman of Virginia, intended to import the African back to his own country. I know that the colony which that society has established has been maintained as a very feeble colony only by the strong arm of civilized power to this day. " I know that wherever the African, even after he has been civilized in bondage, has been left to himself, he has lapsed into barbarism and savageism. I can not, therefore, but entertain a hope that there is some great end to be attained by the Deity who rules over all races, in the subjection of the African to bond age upon this continent, because I know that whilst in bondage he improves in civilization, and when he is freed from bondage he sinks in the scale of humanity. 136 LIFE OF JAMES HURRA? MASON. " Mr. President, if the States and the people of the States would only look at the things as they are, they see that we have a continent here peculiarly fitted for that priceless form of gov ernment which we have adopted, and a government equally fitted for the continent. There was an impression, I know, actuating the minds of many of our early statesmen, that our forms of government were not susceptible of expansion, but that, in course of time by its very expansion, the Government would break to pieces of its own weight. So far as I can read the great mission of popular government upon this continent, the very reverse is to be the result. If there be a government on earth that is susceptible of indefinite expansion, it is the Government of these States. What are they? A confederation of equal sovereigns, each member of the confederacy a separate organized political community; and if one or more should fall from the confederacy, at the very instant of the severance such State would be a perfect whole, and in the immediate exercise of every function that pertains to government teres atque rotundus an executive, a legislative, a judiciary department, organized with officers capable of exercising every function of independent power; hardly requiring any additional legislation but what might be necessary to make provision for foreign intercourse. If the American mind could only be brought to look on this Gov ernment in its true character, and remit to the States what be longs to them the exclusive jurisdiction of their own affairs within their own limits not interfering with them, but adhering to the behests of the Constitution, and administering only those great Federal powers which were conferred upon the common government for the common good of the whole, in the admin istration of which, appropriately done, there would be no inter ference or collision with State authorities; what would be the result? State after State might come into the Union ; they might expand as they have done, from thirteen to thirty-one, and to sixty-one, and to one hundred and one; and they would all re volve as harmoniously around their common orbit, the Federal Government, as did the original thirteen; susceptible of expan sion to any extent, and stronger as they expanded. And as if to anticipate such expansion in the advancement of the arts of civilized life, the telegraphs and railroads of modern construe- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. tion lend their powerful aid to bind them together by agencies that annihilate time and space. "What then is proposed? To get a political party into power by crushing out of existence one of the greatest agencies of civilization the world has ever known destroying not only the constitutional, but the domestic harmony, that fraternal re gard, that should ever actuate citizens of a common country. Violence and discord, detection and calumny, are badly calcu lated to promote good will or to retain communities in friendly relations. If the great American mind could only be made to realize what would be the condition of things if their public agents were kept within the limits of constitutional control, they would see, as I sometimes venture (I hope without Utopian vision) to contemplate, this Government extended over a con federation of States, the number of which shall be limited only by the boundless expanse of a continent stretching from sea to sea ; State after State entering the Union ; and each received with that cordial welcome which should signalize the access of a new confederate of common lineage, ranging side by side under a common destiny. To what may we not aspire if this great and prosperous confederacy can be preserved? But if it must be otherwise, let the responsibility rest where impartial history shall assign it." True to his convictions and resolute in his purpose to resist all and every usurpation by Congress of power not given to it by the Constitution, Mr. Mason opposed strenuously the build ing of the Pacific Railroad. In January, 1859, ne sa id in the Senate : " I can not vote for the bill because I can not see that, under the charter of our power the Constitution we have any authority whatever to touch the subject in any form. Mr. Presi dent, for some reason^ I will not undertake to say what, a large majority of the Senate look upon the scheme of building this magnificent road as one not only entitled to the greater share of their attention in their public duties, but they assume that it attracts the attention of the whole country. I do not know how that may be. Senators on the other side of the chamber, and some on ours, have undertaken to say, and they may be right, that although there is a large majority of Senators here who are LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. prepared to vote for a railroad, yet the strange phenomenon is presented that they can not get a bill which will conciliate a majority. Now what does that mean? The history of the measure has been written during this session. Why do they not agree? They do not agree because they can not arrange among themselves upon the Atlantic terminus of the road. Well, what does that mean? It means that that large interest which they claim to represent, and, I daresay, do represent, does not regard the road itself, and the advantages to result from the construc tion of the road, but regards the sectional advantages. It is not the road they go for, but it is the improvement of the country which the road will pervade. That is the reason they can not agree. "Sir, their whole conduct here has demonstrated it. Pro pose a Northern terminus, and the center and the South vote against it. Take a middle terminus, and both the North and South vote against it. Take a Southern terminus, and the other two vote against it. All agreeing, they say, that the road ought to be made ; all agreeing, as they say, that it is a subject of great national importance to make the road, and it being a matter of no importance where the road begins or where it ends, provided it begins on the Atlantic and ends on the Pacific; yet it is im possible for them to conciliate a majority, because if it is a Northern road the other two are against it, and if it is a South ern road the intermediate section and the North are against it. " Mr. President, I do not know any form in which this bill can be put that will authorize me to vote for it. I am prepared to say here, at once, that if you were to introduce a bill to com mence this road on the Potomac River, and carry it through the whole breadth of Virginia and the tier of the Southern States, and thence by the Gila, or by any other route, to the Pacific, whether it was to be constructed by Federal money or by Federal organization, I would vote against it; and I should forfeit, deservedly forfeit, the confidence of my constituency if I did not do so. So there is no form in which any bill can be presented which will conciliate my vote. " Other Senators who regard the working of this Federal machine in a light very different from that in which I regard it, may consider that the time has been wasted. I am rather dis- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. posed to think that if time has not been economized, constitu tional right has, and we gain something even by the waste of time. I submit to the Senate, and I submit to the country, that we have gained this ; we have gained information that will go before the American people to demonstrate that this great Pacific Railroad, so worthy of the great resources of this nation, as we are told, but, as I think, so fatal to the obligations of the constitutional compact, has received its death-blow at the hands of its friends. I think they will find, if they take the vote to-day, that this will be the day of its interment, I hope never to have a resurrection/ Again on February ist of the same year his voice was heard in earnest protest against " A bill donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanical Arts." He then said: " The very decided vote by which this bill has been made to supersede the annual appropriation bills, which are usually con sidered the most important bills at the close of the session, I presume indicates that it is the sense of the Senate that the bill shall pass in some form. What I have to say, therefore, can not be so appropriately addressed to the Senators present, to in fluence, if I could expect to influence their judgment, as to in form those outside of the Senate, and more especially those whom I have the honor to represent here, of another instance of the practical working of this Federal Government. " Sir, to my conception, it is one of the most extraordinary engines of mischief under the guise of gratuities and donations, that I could conceive would originate in the Senate. It is using the public lands as a means of controlling the policy of the State Legislatures. It is misusing the property of the country in such mode as to bring the appropriate functions of the State entirely within the scope of the bill, under the discretion of Con gress by a controlling power ; and it is doing it in the worst and most insidious form by bribery, direct bribery, and bribery of the worst kind; for it is an unconstitutional robbing of the Treasury for the purpose of bribing the States. That is exactly what is to be found in the substance of this bill, as I look upon the Constitution. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 11 Sir, where do you get the power? If you have the right to use the public property, or the public money either, to establish agricultural colleges, can not you establish a school system in each State for purposes of education? Would it not be in the power of a majority in Congress to fasten upon the Southern States that peculiar system of free schools in the New England States which, I believe, would tend, I will not say to demoralize, but to destroy that peculiar character which I am happy to believe belongs to the great mass of the Southern people. Ay, those New England free schools, upon which they pride them selves, and that system of social organization in reference to those free schools, might just as well be ingrafted on the policy of all the States by means of this same bribing process by which they here propose to establish agricultural colleges, or any other system, I care not what. " I do not know what States may be induced, if the bill should pass, to become the eleemosynary recipients of the bounty of the Government thus given to them; but I know whatever States do it, will place themselves in that relation to the Federal Government which will inevitably lead their people to believe that the Federal Government is not only the source of office and honour, but that it is the source of alms; for public charity is dealt out to the States as States, and the assent of the States is asked by this bill to become the recipient of the alms of the Federal Government. " Sir, the bill is fraught with mischief. Its unconstitu- tionality, which I do not mean to press upon gentlemen at all, but to which I desire to call the attention of my constituents, is bad enough. Its utter inexpediency, its tendency to mischief, its inordinate character as a precedent in bringing within the Federal Government* within that great vortex of the Govern ment which does hold the purse of the nation, almost the entire purse of the nation, I say as a precedent for similar exercises of power, there could not be projected, in my judgment, a measure more fraught with mischief. About the details of the bill, I know very little and care a great deal less. It is the principle ; not the principle alone of giving away that which you have no right to dispose of in that form, but the manner and purpose for which it is done, holding out a bribe to the States LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. to conform their agricultural policy to the superior wisdom of Congress." History records the triumph of the Abolitionists in exclud ing the Southern people from the new State of Kansas. It also records the attempt made, in 1859, to incite an insurrection among the slaves in Virginia and to induce them to carry death and destruction into the homes in which they had always lived peacefully and happily, and in which they were better fed, better clothed and better cared for in sickness and old age than has been, or is now the case anywhere in the world, with the poorer class of working people, or in many of the factories either in this country or in Europe, England included. This outrage, generally known as the " John Brown Raid," occurred on Sunday night, October i6th, 1859. And on the first day of the next session of Congress (December 5th, 1859), Mr. Mason offered a resolution in the Senate that, " A select com mittee be appointed to inquire into the late invasion and seizure of the public property at Harper s Ferry." In supporting this resolution he said : " What I design and hope to ascertain by this investigation is, from what source the funds and the counsels were obtained that led to or induced that invasion." Few historians have made more than passing allusions to this raid; and John Brown has been continually described as a hero, and a martyr in the cause of freedom. A brief statement of the facts of the case is given to enable the reader to form an opinion regarding the true character of the " raid," and to determine whether it might not be justly attributed to the in fluence of the Abolitionists of the Republican party in the Northern States. Two reports were presented to the Senate by the " Special Committee," one of them was signed by J. M. Mason, chairman, Jefferson Davis and G. N. Fitch ; the other by J. Collamer and J. R. Doolittle. They do not, however, differ as to the events at Harper s Ferry. Mr. Mason s report goes more into the detail and includes the testimony of those examined by the Committee. The following narrative is in accordance with both these reports : Mr. Collamer s report says : " On the night of the i6th day of October, 1859, John Brown, together with sixteen white men and five negroes as conspirators, took armed possession of LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the United States Armory at Harper s Ferry, in Virginia, killed four of the inhabitants, and were dislodged by armed force which they resisted, and in the action seven of the white conspirators were killed, and three of the negroes. John Brown was wounded and taken prisoner, and he, together with four others of the white conspirators and two of the negroes, were tried, convicted, and executed, and five escaped. " This took place in pursuance of a conspiracy commenced in Kansas by John Brown and most of these conspirators in the last part of 1857, or tne beginning of 1858. They were young men and entirely under the influence of Brown, and had been, as well as Brown, deeply engaged in the conflicts in Kansas in 1855, 1856, and 1857. " From Kansas they passed into Iowa, and from thence they were led by Brown to Chatham, in Canada, West. There they, with a number of negroes, formed a secret organization, with written articles of association, drawn up by Brown, having for its object the raising of slave insurrection in the slaveholding States, and subverting the Government thereof. " They had two hundred Sharp s carbines and two hundred revolver pistols and about one thousand pikes, together with a quantity of clothing and ammunition. The carbines and revol vers had been procured by contributions in Massachusetts in 1856, and forwarded to Iowa to be sent into Kansas for the aid and in the defense of the Free-State people in the struggle then existing there, and they had been intrusted to John Brown for that purpose, together with the ammunition. The clothing which had been contributed for the suffering people of Kansas, had been intrusted to him there for that purpose. " In 1857 these troubles in Kansas in a great degree sub sided. The associations and committees, who had made contri butions, ceased operations, and these arms and munitions in the hands of Brown came to be almost overlooked and disregarded until the summer of 1858, when a suggestion came to the persons having control of them, at Boston, that John Brown was about to make some improper use of them, and thereupon he was par ticularly charged to make no use of them but in Kansas, and for the defense of the Free-State people there, the purpose for which they had been furnished. It seems that this, together with being LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. unable to procure money, and an apprehension of being exposed, prevented him from executing the purpose of his conspiracy for that year. " In 1859, he procured to be completed in Connecticut one thousand pikes, for which he had contracted and partially paid in 1856 or 1857, for like service in Kansas, and then in 1859, ne procured those pikes, and also those carbines and revolvers, and the ammunition and clothing, to be privately conveyed and secreted at or near Harper s Ferry, without the knowledge or consent of those who had contributed them for use in Kansas, and contrary to the order so given him by those in control." In Mr. Mason s report it is said : " The committee find, from the testimony, that this so-called invasion originated with a man named John Brown, who conducted it in person. It appears that Brown had been for some previous years involved in the late difficulties in the Territory of Kansas. He went there at an early day after the settlement of that Territory began, and either took with him or was joined by several sons, and, perhaps, sons-in-law, and as shown by the proofs, was extensively con nected with many of the lawless military expeditions belonging to the history of those times. " It would appear from the testimony of more than one of the witnesses, that before leaving the Territory, he fully admitted that he had not gone there with any view of permanent settle ment, but that, finding all the elements of strife and intestine war there in full operation, created by the division of sentiment between those constituting what were called the Free-State and Slave-State parties, his purpose was, by participating in it, to keep the public mind inflamed on the subject of slavery in the country, with a view to effect such organizations as might enable him to bring about servile insurrections in the Slave States. " To carry these plans into execution, it appears that, in the winter of 1857-58, he collected a number of young men in the Territory of Kansas, most of whom afterward appeared with him at Harper s Ferry, and placed them under military instruction at a place called Springdale, in the State of Iowa, their instructor being one of the party thus collected, and who, it was said, had some military training. " These men were maintained by Brown ; and in the spring LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of 1858 he took them with him to the town of Chatham, in Canada, where he claimed to have summoned a convention for the purpose of organizing a provisional government, as pre liminary to his descent upon some one of the Slave States. The proceedings of this convention, with the form of the provisional government adopted there, was taken amongst the papers found with Brown s effects after his capture, and were before the committee, and will be found in the appendix to this report. " As to the attack itself at Harper s Ferry, the committee find that Brown first appeared in that neighborhood early in July, 1859. " The whole number assembled with Brown at the time of the invasion were twenty-one men, making with himself in all twenty-two. On Sunday night, the i6th of October, 1859, be tween ii and 12 o clock at night, Brown, attended by probably eighteen of his company, crossed the bridge connecting the village of Harper s Ferry with the Maryland shore, and, on reaching the Virginia side, proceeded immediately to take pos session of the buildings of the Armory and Arsenal of the United States. These men were armed, each with a Sharp s carbine and with revolving pistols. The inhabitants of the village asleep, the presence of this party was not known until they appeared and demanded admittance at the gate leading to the public works, which was locked. The watchman in charge states that on his refusal to admit them, the gate was opened by violence and the party entered, made him prisoner, and established them selves immediately in a strong brick building used as an engine- house with a room for the watchman adjoining it. They brought with them a wagon with one horse, containing arms and some prepared torches. " The invasion thus silently commenced, was as silently con ducted, none of the inhabitants having been aroused. Armed parties were then stationed at corners of the streets. Their next movement was to take possession, by detached parties of three or four, of the Arsenal of the United States, where the public arms were chiefly deposited, a building not far from the engine- house ; and by another party, of the workshops and other build ings of the Armory, about half a mile off, on the Shenandoah River, called Hall s Rifle Works. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " An armed party was sent into the adjoining country, with a view to the seizure of two or three of the principal inhabitants, with such of their slaves as might be found, and to bring them to Harper s Ferry (in the language of Brown) as hostages, Cook, who, had become well acquainted with the country around Harper s Ferry, acting as their guide. They thus seized Colonel Lewis W. Washington, with several of his slaves (negro men) at his residence, some five or six miles distant; and in like manner a gentleman named Allstadt, who lived near the road leading from Colonel Washington s to the Ferry, with five or six of his slaves (also negro men). A party was sent, taking Washington s wagon and horses, and five or six of the captured slaves, into Maryland to bring the arms deposited at Brown s house there to a point nearer the Ferry. On their way, they seized a gentleman named Byrne, who lived in Maryland, and whom they afterwards sent to the Ferry and placed amongst the other prisoners at the engine-house. It is shown that their design was to take, at the same time, as many of the slaves of Byrne as might be found, but in this they did not succeed. " When daylight came, as the inhabitants left their houses, consisting chiefly of workmen and others employed in the public works, on their way to their usual occupations, and unconscious of what had occurred during the night, they were seized in the streets by Brown s men and carried as prisoners to the engine- house until, with those previously there, they amounted to some thirty or forty in number. Pikes were put in the hands of such of the slaves as they had taken, and they were kept under the eyes of their captors as sentinels, near the buildings they occupied. But their movements being conducted at night, it was not until the morning was well advanced that the presence and character of the party was generally known in the village. " The nearest towns to Harper s Ferry were Charlestown, distant some ten miles, and Martinsburg, about twenty. As soon as information could reach those points, the citizens assembled, hurriedly enrolled themselves into military bands, and with such arms as they could find, proceeded to the Ferry. Before their arrival, however, it would seem that some four or five of the marauders, who were stationed at Hall s Rifle Works, were 146 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. driven out by the citizens of the village, and either killed or captured. " During the day it appears that all of Brown s party, who were not with him in the engine-house, were either killed or captured, except those who were on the Maryland side engaged in removing the arms, as before stated. Before, however, they were thus captured or destroyed, they shot and killed two per sons, citizens of Virginia, in the streets. One of them, a man named Boerly, who lived in the village, was killed by a rifle shot near his own house. He had taken no part in any of the attacks, and does not appear even to have been armed. The other,, Mr. George W. Turner, was a gentleman who lived in the country some ten miles distant, and who, it appears, had gone to the village upon information that his neighbor, Mr. Washington, had been seized in his house and carried off during the night. It would seem that, for his safety, he had taken a gun offered to him by some one in the village, and was proceeding along the street unattended, with it in his hand, when he also was killed by a rifle ball. " As soon as intelligence could be conveyed to Washington of the state of things at Harper s Ferry, the marines on duty at the Navy Yard were ordered to the scene of action, under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, of the army. " Colonel Lee, it will be seen, found it necessary to carry the engine-house by storm, the party within refusing to surrender except on terms properly held inadmissable. In this affair one marine was killed, and another slightly wounded. " There will be found in the Appendix,* a copy of the pro ceedings of the convention held at Chatham, in Canada, before referred to, of the provisional form of government there pre tended to have been instituted, the object of which clearly was to subvert the Government of one or more of the States, and of course to that extent the Government of the United States. The character of the military organization is shown by the commis sions issued to certain of the armed party as captains, lieuten ants, etc. " It clearly appears that the scheme of Brown was to take *Published with the report of Committee, and containing testimony of witnesses, and other papers that accompanied the report of the Committee. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASOft. 147 with him comparatively but few men, but those had been care fully trained by military instruction previously, and were to act as officers. For his military force he relied, very clearly, on inciting insurrection amongst the slaves, who, he supposed, would flock to him as soon as it became known that he had entered the State and had been able to retain his position an expectation to no extent realized, though it was owing alone to the loyalty and well-affected disposition of the slaves that he did not succeed in inciting a servile war, with its necessary attend ants of rapine and murder of all sexes, ages, and conditions. It is very certain from the proofs before the committee, that not one of the captured slaves, although arms were placed in their hands, attempted to use them; but on the contrary, as soon as their safety would admit, in the absence of their captors, their arms were thrown away and they hastened back to their homes. " It is shown that Brown brought with him for this expedi tion arms sufficient to have placed an effective weapon in the hands of no less than 1,500 men; besides which, had he suc ceeded in obtaining the aid he looked to from the slaves, he had entirely under his control all the arms of the United States deposited in the Arsenal at Harper s Ferry. After his capture, besides the arms he brought in the wagon to the Ferry, there were found on the Maryland side, where he had left them, 200 Sharp s rifled carbines, and 200 revolver pistols, packed in the boxes of the manufacturers, with 900 or 1,000 pikes, carefully and strongly made, the blade of steel being securely riveted to a handle about five feet in length; many thousand percussion caps in boxes, and ample stores of fixed ammunition, besides a large supply of powder in kegs, and a chest that contained hospi tal and other military stores, besides a quantity of extra clothing for troops." The Richmond Enquirer of October 3Oth, 1859, gives a letter from Mr. Mason to the editor of the Constitution which says : " It is right and due to truth that the material facts attend ing the late incendiary attack on the town of Harper s Ferry should be correctly understood. There was no insurrection in any form whatsoever on the part of any of the inhabitants or residents of that town or its vicinity. There is little doubt that such in- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. surrection was expected by the leader of the armed miscreants who came from the adjoining States, and under cover of night, into the town, an expectation in which they were wofully dis appointed, as fully admitted by themselves. The fact is un doubted that not a man, black or white, joined them after they came into Virginia, or gave them aid or assistance in any form." It is certain that the only emotion evinced by the negroes was alarm and terror. Not a slave escaped or attempted to escape during the tumult; of those carried by Cooke across the river, all escaped from him and returned home except one who was drowned whilst crossing the river homeward bound. Again Mr. Mason said in the Senate, a few months later : " I take pride in repeating that the State of Virginia was saved from insurrection among her slaves only by the loyalty of her slaves. That those fields do not now present a scene of incen diarism and blood is owing only to the loyalty of the slaves upon the soil of Virginia." The following letter needs no explanation nor comment, further than to say Mr. Mason was connected, by marriage, with Mr. Dallas. They had always belonged to the same school of thought on all important questions of public interest, and their personal relations had been those of confidential friends. Mr. Dallas retained the position of United States Minister in Eng land until the inauguration of President Lincoln, when he re turned to his home in Philadelphia. All communication with Mr. Mason then ended, and was never renewed : " SELMA, NEAR WINCHESTER, VA., Nov. 2d, 1858. " The Honorable James Buchanan, " President of the United States. "DEAR SIR: On Thursday of last week Mr. Faulkner called on me at my residence, and said, in course of conversa tion, that he had been for a day or two previously in Washing ton, that whilst there (in a conversation with you which admitted of it), he mentioned my name to you in connection with the mission in London, upon the hypothesis assumed in the conver sation, that Mr. Dallas was to be recalled. " Mr. Faulkner further said, that after expressing a doubt on your part, whether the mission would be acceptable to me LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. (which he was unable to solve), he was authorized by you to communicate to me what had passed, and to which you were good enough to add, that if acceptable it would be offered to me. " I replied to Mr. Faulkner that I had not thought of going abroad, and thus had never considered the subject connected with such a change of position but that in reference to the mission in question, my relations to Mr. Dallas were such, that I could consider no proposition affecting myself which looked to his being superseded and requested Mr. Faulkner, if he thought it proper to communicate the result of our interview to you, that such should be given as my reply. " To preclude any possible misconstruction, and whilst thanking you for the consideration which led you to acquiesce in Mr. Faulkner s suggestion of my name, I wish to supply in this form, to what Mr. Faulkner may write to you, that as well because of my relations to Mr. Dallas, as a belief in his pecul iar fitness for that important post. I could, under no circumstances, consent to become his successor. " That this note may not reach you in a promiscuous mail, I shall ask my friend Mr. Dickens (Secretary of the Senate), to hand it to you, though he is of course ignorant of its contents. " With great respect, " I am, sir, very cordially and truly yours, " T. M. MASON." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER VII. Disintegration of Democratic Party in 1860 Extract from Speech Made in Senate Mr. Seward s Speech in Boston Letter to Richmond Enquirer Conference of States Proposed by Virginia Extracts from President Buchanan s Message and from Mr. Sickles Speech Mr. Mason s Re marks on Mr. Powell s Resolutions Remarks on Withdrawal of Six Senators Letter to His Daughter Letter to the People of Virginia Remarks on Peace Conference Letters from Senators Chandler and Bingham Petitions to Congress from the People of Northern States Remarks on Resolution to Expel Senator Wigfall, of Texas. It is difficult to appreciate rightly, at this day, the excitement existing in all parts of the country during the years 1859 an d 1860. An excitement steadily increasing with the nearer approach of the Presidential election. There were very few who failed to recognize the peculiar importance of this election in its effect upon the South but there were differences of opinion regarding the measures best adopted to secure her safety. There was, without exception entire loyalty to the Union under the Constitution; and there were many who clung to the hope of preserving it (the Union), by means of further compromise. There were others who believed that the honor as well as the interests of the Southern States forbade compromise, and required firm resistance to the policy adopted by the Abolitionists, and who saw that the ascendency to power of this sectional party involved the virtual subjugation of the South. . Mr. Davis has given, in the " Rise and Fall of the Con federate Government," a very clear and concise account of the four conventions held in the spring of 1860. It is here quoted as being authentic history, coming, as it does, from the pen of one who was, necessarily, fully informed of each event as it occurred. The division made in the Democratic party is thus explained : " On April 23d, 1860, the Democratic party held a conven tion in Charleston, South Carolina, for the purpose of nominat ing a candidate for the Presidency. It was composed as usual of delegates from all the States; but an unfortunate disagreement with regard to the declaration of principles to be set forth LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. rendered a nomination impracticable. Both divisions of the convention adjourned, and met again in Baltimore in June. Then, having finally failed to come to an agreement, they separated and made their nominations apart. Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, was nominated by the friends of the popular sover eignty/ with Mr. Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, for Vice- President. " The convention representing the conservative, or State- Rights wing of the Democratic party, unanimously made choice, on the first ballot, of John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, for President, and General Joseph Lane, of Oregon, Vice-President. The resolutions of each of these two conventions denounced the action and policy of the Abolition party, as subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their tendency. " Another Convention was held in Baltimore about the same period by those who still adhered to the old Whig party, rein forced by the remains of the American organization, and per haps some others. This Convention also consisted of delegates from all the States, and, repudiating all geographical and sec tional issues, and declaring it to be both the part of patriotism and of duty to recognize no political principle other than the Constitution of the country, the Union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws, pledged itself and its supporters to maintain, protect, and defend, separately and unitedly, those great principles of public liberty and national safety against all enemies at home and abroad/ " Its nominees were Messrs. John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts. " The Republican party had held its convention on May i6th, in Chicago. It was a purely sectional body. There were a few delegates present representing insignificant minorities in the border States, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri; but not one from any State south of the celebrated line of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. It had been the in variable usage with nominating conventions of all parties to select candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, one from the North and the other from the South, but this assembly nominated Mr. Lincoln, of Illinois, for the first office, and for the second, Mr. Hamlin, of Maine, both Northerners." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Two days after this convention met, viz., on the i8th of May, Mr. Mason took quite an active part in a debate in the Senate upon the resolutions submitted, a short time before, by Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, affirming the equality of the States, the right of the citizens of each State to remove to the Territories with their property, and denying the right of Congress or a Territorial Legislature to discriminate either in relation to persons or prop erty in the Territories, and asserting the duty of affording pro tection when experience shall prove that the judicial and ex ecutive authority do not possess means to insure adequate pro tection to constitutional rights in a Territory. Brief extracts from what he (Mr. Mason) then said may be interesting in this connection and may serve to give the student of history fuller information in regard to the questions then agitating the country. Mr. Mason said : " Mr. President, I have not felt at liberty to refrain from expressing the opinions which control my judg ment on the resolutions before the Senate, because they involve questions not only deeply interesting, but, as I consider, of vital importance to my State, and to the section from which I come. " They involve the relations that subsist under the Consti tution, between the Territories of the United States and the States themselves ; questions not merely of abstract interest, but questions necessary to be settled in order to define and ascertain those rights, and bring them into practical fruition. The hon orable Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas), to whom I listened with great interest and respect during the last two days of the session, has presented his views, not only elaborately, but with great strength and power, upon this very question of the relations between the Territories and the States. Views from which I differ totally views which, if correct and carried into effect, must rend asunder existing party alliances and bring the Southern States to separate organization. They involve, of necessity, a discussion upon, a minute inquiry into, and a thorough understanding of, the relations which the occupants of a Territory bear to the States of the Union; because a Ter ritory, I believe all admit, is a common property, belonging just as much to one State as to any other; in which all have equal rights, and in which the Constitution requires that the rights of all shall be equally respected. Nor is it abstract, because the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. very question has arisen before the country, and is now depend ing in the legislation upon your table. " A doctrine has grown up, or rather has assumed shape and character, ascribing to the people in a Territory some inherent power in them as a political community, independent of Congress and the Government of the United States sov ereignty ; what has been termed by one of the ablest vindicators of this doctrine, the honorable Senator from Illinois, in a very elaborate thesis that he wrote upon this subject after the decision of the Supreme Court, " Popular Sovereignty in the Territories." That is the designation he has given to it in his pamphlet, which I have here, reprinted from Harper s Magazine. Why, sir, it is a solecism in mind, if not in language? What is sovereignty? Everybody understands that who has advanced beyond the horn-book of the publicists. There is no difficulty in defining it and comprehending it. Sovereignty is supreme power, let it be lodged where it may, suprema lex. The will of the sovereign is the law of the subject. Where does it exist in our country? In the Government of the United States? No. No man who respects his judgment, either as a jurist or a statesman, will affirm it. It is here in the country beyond all question. It does not reside in the Federal Government. It does not reside in the people of the United States ; but yet it is here potent, and its voice is felt every day in the government of the country. Sov ereignty in this country resides in the people of the several States as separate and distinct political communities, nowhere else. The sovereignty of my honored State of Virginia is pure and simple, as is that of the contiguous State of Kentucky ; but the sovereignty of Virginia is one thing, and the sovereignty of Kentucky is another thing, entirely distinct. The Government formed by the Constitution of the United States is the act of these sovereigns acting separately, each for itself, entering into a common government by compact; and thus it has been said, and well said, by honorable Senators who have preceded me, the honorable Senator from Texas (Mr. Wigfall), and the hon orable Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Davis), that the Govern ment of the United States is nothing but the agency of the States. It is through the Government of the United States that these sovereigns speak their will. The law of the Constitution has LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. no binding obligation on earth upon any citizen of this country ; but as it is the will of the separate sovereigns, to whom those citizens are subject. The Government then is but an agency, it has no sovereign power whatever. When it passes a law, that law is supreme, there is no doubt about that, every act of the Fed eral Government is a supreme act; and why? Because the sov ereigns who created the agency made it so, and for no other reason. The Constitution on its face declares that laws made pursuant to the Constitution shall be the supreme law of the land. The will promulgated through the law is not that of the Government ; it is the will of those who made the Government ; the sovereign States. " My earnest anxiety is, that the Government which has been transmitted to us by our fathers shall be preserved. I am attached to it, as you all are, doubtless, not only because it came as an inheritance from an honored line of ancestors, but because of its intrinsic merit, its excellence in itself. It seems almost to have been the work of an inspiration of the day. You might bring any body of men together now, I care not who, endowed with every moral and intellectual faculty, with the highest obligations of honor, loyalty, and patriotism upon them, and obliterate the Constitution from your Statute books, and they never could replace it, never. " Mr. President, the Union can be preserved, and it is the duty of all good men to do it, a duty, not of patriotism alone, but of probity. I declare to-day the judgment of Sena tors will confirm it this Union once dissolved, it is gone forever ; alliance between these States is gone forever ; there is no human power that can restore it. What is to destroy it? I say it with entire respect to all around me, there is nothing that can destroy it, if it is administered by the functionaries of the Government, loyally, honestly, and honorably; in other words, if they and their constituents will keep the bargain which their fathers made." An extract from a speech made by Mr. Seward, the acknowl edged leader of his party, gives information regarding the pur poses of the Republican party. The speech was made in Boston on August 27th, 1860, and the extract is copied from the Richmond Enquirer of September nth, of the same year. Mr. Seward then said : LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " What a comment upon the wisdom of a man is given in this single fact, that fifteen years only after the death of John Ouincy Adams, the people who hurled him from power and from place, are calling to the head of the nation, to the very seat from which he was expelled, Abraham Lincoln (enthusiastic applause), whose claim to that seat is that he confesses the obli gation of that higher law (applause) which the sage of Quincy proclaimed, that he avows himself for weal or woe, for life or death, a soldier on the side of freedom in the irrepressible con flict between freedom and slavery (prolonged applause). This, gentlemen, is my simple confession. I desire, now, only to say that you have arrived at the last stage of this conflict, before you reach the triumph which is to inaugurate this great policy into the Government of the United States. But let not your thoughts and expectations be confined to the present hour. I tell you, fellow-citizens, that with this victory comes the end of the power of slavery in the United States." The " victory " here anticipated came within the next three months, when Lincoln was elected President; and when it was known that Mr. Seward s influence and policy would prevail in the next administration. Mr. Mason s opinions regarding the existing conditions of the country are expressed in two letters written soon after the election : " SELMA, FREDERICK COUNTY, VA., " November 23d, 1860. ff Nathaniel Tyler, Esq., Editor of The Richmond Enquirer : "DEAR SIR: I received by the last mail only your letter of the 1 5th inst., and at once reply. " You ask for my opinions on the condition of the country, and more especially in regard to the expediency of the call of a convention of the people of Virginia, to consider what it may become us to do, in the crisis which is upon us, and with a view to their publication. " Whilst disinclined at all times to volunteer my opinions, I have not the slightest indisposition to express them, when they are asked. Should you think them worthy of publication, the act is yours. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " I have observed with great satisfaction, that the Governor has called the Legislature to meet at an early day, and, deeply impressed with the disordered condition of the country, from causes far beyond the reach of legislation, have taken it for granted their first act will be to order elections for a general convention of the State. " The questions now forced upon the country are vital in their solution to the peace, the honor, and the safety of the Southern States. Virginia, whether in territory, in population, or in position, certainly takes no inferior rank in the South; and it is of the last importance to her, as it is to them, that the matured sense of her people should be expressed in deliberation on these grave questions; and, if necessary, carried into exe cution, in the solemn forms of her sovereign authority. " All that has happened, and much that is yet to come, was foreseen and predicted by those not claiming to be wise beyond their generation, as the legitimate and inevitable fruits of the ascendency of the Abolition party in the North. How could it be otherwise? The election just over has established in the seats of Federal authority, and by overwhelming majorities in the non-slaveholding States, a great political power, whose open and avowed mission is to break up and destroy interests in property and in society in all the slaveholding States, which, when effected, must reduce their lands to deserts, and throw their people as outcasts upon the world. The public voice ordaining this atrocious wrong comes from a people who have no part or lot in the great interest so recklessly assailed, for it will stand as a recorded fact that not a single electoral vote will be cast in support of this power in any State where this inter est pertains. " Who does not see and feel, then, that when the States of the South are subjected to this dominion they will be brought, against their will, under a government to which they are not parties, and over which they hold not the slightest check? This is not the form of government which our ancestors gave us, nor is it a government which our people will endure. The people of the North, in thus acting, have separated themselves from the people of the South, and the government they thus inaugurate will be to us the government of a foreign power. We shall LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 157 stand to such power as Italy to Austria, and Poland to Russia. It will be one people governed by another people. Who can wonder, then, at the startling events which have crowded before us since the Anti-Federal act of this Northern election? " What was seen yesterday but in dim distance is the reality of to-day. And that which is looked to but as a proba bility to-day becomes the stern fact of to-morrow. Our people at the South are intelligent, brave and sensitive. When a hos tile army is raised against them, they do not wait for the blow, but rush at once to disable the adversary. And this is what they are now doing. " Let us review the events, and then we may the better understand what may devolve on Virginia, in the political exi gencies of the times. " The election of the President is made, and nothing remains but formally to cast, and then to count, the electoral vote. There are those who believe, and I am one of them, that no safety remains to the Southern States and their people but such as shall be vindicated by a stern purpose of self-protection. The event that fixes this belief is not the election of the man; it is the accession of the power of which he is the minister. They determine the political intentions of that power, not by its party platform (gross and insulting though it be), nor by the threats and taunts of its insolent lieutenants, or its demoralized press. They determine it by the spirit of the Northern mind, evinced by an obstinate tenacity of purpose, through every vicissitude of political fortune. By the Statutes of the Northern States, passed as well in violation of all honorable faith as of the highest constitutional obligation, paralyzing the laws of Congress, made in pursuance of the Constitution, to protect the property of the Southern people. By the encouragement given at the North to conspiracies and conspirators within their borders, against the lives and the property of the people of the South, and their refusal or failure to pass laws for the punishment of such offend ers, or the prevention of the like in future. By the open recom mendation of their Senators and Representatives of publications issued at the North, for circulation at the South, designed by false and calumnious charges to foment divisions amongst our people, and to excite the servile class to insurrection and rapine. By OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the sanction given to such inhuman and cruel conduct by con stituents at the North, in returning such representatives back to the Federal councils. And, if more were wanting, by that fixed and settled policy, made the corner-stone of the incoming administration (to which there is no party exception at the North), which refuses to the people at the South a common right with the people at the North in the common Territories of the Confederacy. " Such are some of the reasons which, I believe, have satis fied those of whom I speak, which have certainly convinced me, that the Southern people must now look to their own State authorities, and to them only, for their safety in the future. Whether in the form of other and higher securities in the present Confederacy, or in a new Confederacy, the injured States must determine in convention. " Indeed, in the progress of events so far, the field of delib eration may be narrowed. One State has already made her election to abandon the Confederation. I think, as to South Carolina, we may safely assume that as a fact, with which the future has nothing more to do than to establish it in history. As to three other States, and most probably four, there is every reason to believe they are prepared also to secede as soon as the acts of separation can be reduced to form. What may be the sense of other States in this great crisis (for great it certainly is), as to the proper measures to be adopted for their own safety, I will not venture to anticipate. But the secession of one State is a disruption of the Union. " Whether in the opinion of other States she has determined wisely or unwisely, the State is to be the arbiter of her own act ; her destiny is in her own keeping ; under submission alone to the Supreme Ruler of the universe. To reason otherwise, is to treat a State of the Confederacy, not as one of the Confederates, but as an integral part of a consolidated Empire. Fortunately for the occasion and its consequences, this is not an open question in Virginia. Our honored State has ever maintained that our Federal system was a confederation of sovereign powers, not a consolidation of States into one people, and, as a consequence, whenever a State considered the compact broken, and in a man ner to endanger her safety, such State stood remitted, as in sov- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ereign right, to determine for herself, and under no respon sibility, save to the opinion of the civilized world, both the mode and measure of redress. " The disruption of the Federal Union, thus imminent, or, I should say, actual, is a great event; and in considering, therefore, how it may become the Convention of Virginia to act, we must look to that event as a material, if not controlling, element in its deliberations. In the first place, it may, and most probably will, force upon the Federal Government the settlement between it and the several States, of the question of the right of secession. If that right is denied, a new and paramount issue will be made between the States and Federal power, which will be presented by the Virginia Convention in limine. 11 One thing is very clear : Virginia will not be passive (nor will any other Southern State), should any attempt be made, by force, to reduce such seceding State or States to subjection. " In the next place, it is to my mind equally clear, should one of the States separate from the Union on this slavery ques tion, the disruption will necessarily carry with it the like sepa ration of all those slave-holding States whose destiny it is to con tinue such; unless under a returning sense of right and justice in the Northern mind, all may remain, on such securities for the future as will establish this great social interest in the exclusive charge of those to whom it pertains. " I have ventured thus, though with unfeigned diffidence, to look forward to what Virginia may be called on to consider and determine, in regard to the great issues forced upon her counsels by events in progress. The magnitude of the occasion may be well estimated by the magnitude of those events. State follows State into convention, to deliberate on the necessity of breaking up a Government which they believe has levied war against the essential interests and dearest rights of their people. The Southern States, happen what may, have never been the aggressors in this strange, unnatural contest. " In what they have done, or what may yet remain for them to do, they are prepared to meet all the consequences. There can be no doubt or hesitancy, therefore, in my mind, as to the course of Virginia. A convention is the only authority com- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. patent to the occasion, and it should be assembled at the earliest day practicable. " In conclusion, I will only add, that the crisis which for unborn posterity will fix the destiny of the South, is upon us, and must be fearlessly met ; certainly with calm and prudent discretion, and all sobriety of judgment; but with an obdurate purpose to establish the just rights of our people, and to yield nothing that pertains to Virginia, as a free and sovereign State. " Very respectfully yours, "J. M. MASON." This letter to his sister-in-law is interesting-. It is, how ever, evident that it was written without any thought of publi cation : " SELMA, November 29, 1860. " Dear Sister Anne: Ida s hand is just now in, from writing for me more than one political letter this evening ; and as you seem to want one, you shall be indulged. As the hour is late, however, I can give you little more than my conclusions; for the reasons, I refer you to the two printed papers enclosed, signed Henry/ being my latest communications to the Richmond papers. " First, then, the dissolution of the Union is a fixed fact. As certain as the sun rises, South Carolina goes out as soon as the Act of Separation can be reduced to form, after the I7th of December, when the convention meets and she is right. The incidental meeting of her Legislature on the sixth of this month, to elect Electors, alone gave her the initiative. I have no doubt her example will be followed by State after State as fast as they can assemble in convention, and by Virginia with like speed. "The people at the North really seem to be blind and deaf to the exigency which is upon us, and them. The secession of one State for all purposes of dissolution, is as effectual as the secession of a dozen, because it breaks the Union, and involves all the issues incidental to a dissolution. " There are those in the South who think (and I am one of them) that we have no choice but to accept the irrepressible conflict tendered us by the late election. It is a social war, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. I ( )I declared by the North, a war by one form of society against another distinct form of society. Whether it be conducted in arms, the North, which tenders the issue, will decide. Of one thing be certain : there will be an undivided South; in a social war they will realize, and must have, a common destiny. " Show this to Sam, and tell him he may show it to any he may think it will interest. I go to Washington on Saturday. Mrs. Mason will doubtless answer your letter to her in good time ad interim. I send this as a sedative, and hope you will have a good nap upon it. With us, hereabouts, we have passed the period of excitement and are in the chronic stage, which you know carries with it repose. But in war or peace, I am, my dear sister Anne, " Most affectionately your brother, "J. M. MASON." Conventions were in session in several of the Southern States before the meeting of Congress on December 3d. All the States were, however, there represented, as usual, except South Carolina, whose Senators had tendered their resignation to the Governor immediately after the election of President Lin coln. The people throughout the country were in a state of anxious suspense, and in the South, all former distinctions of party were lost in the one vital issue then presented. A special session of the Virginia Legislature was called early in December, and the first act of that Legislature was to summon the people of the State to meet in convention on Feb ruary 1 3th. In the meantime, viz., on January iQth, the last great effort was made by Virginia to avert the war that all now saw was almost inevitable. Her Legislature on that day adopted a preamble and resolutions deprecating disunion, and inviting all such States as were willing to unite in an earnest endeavor to avert it by an adjustment of the then existing contro versies, to appoint commissioners to meet in Washington on February 4th to consider and, if possible, agree upon some suitable adjustment. Five of the most distinguished citizens of the State were appointed to represent her in the proposed con ference. Ex-President Tyler was sent to Washington to convey to the President of the United States official information regard- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ing this action of Virginia, and to ask the forbearance of the Federal Government. At the same time a commissioner was sent to all the other Southern States to carry Virginia s propo sition to them. It was promptly acceded to by the " Border States " in general, and others followed, so that twenty-one States were eventually represented in the " Peace Congress " which met in Washington ; fourteen of these were Northern, or " non-slaveholding," and seven were slaveholding States. Extracts from the Congressional Globe will here furnish an outline of the history of the events that crowded so closely together during that one short session of Congress. Quotations from the President s message and from a speech made in the House of Representatives by Mr. Sickles, of New York, give the testimony of two Northern men regarding the existing condition of public affairs and the cause of the secession of the Southern States. Extracts from the occasional speeches made by Mr. Mason in the Senate define the position he held and the counsels he gave regarding the political problems of that day. Extract from President Buchanan s message, December 3d, 1860: " Why is it, then, that discontent so extensively prevails, and the Union of the States, which is the source of all these blessings, is threatened with destruction? The long continued arid intem perate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States has at length produced its natural effects. The different sections of the Union are now arrayed against each other, and the time has arrived, so much dreaded by the father of his country, when hostile geographical parties have been formed. I have long foreseen and often warned my country men of the now impending danger. This does not proceed solely from the claim on the part of Congress or the Territorial Legis latures to exclude slavery from the Territories, or from the efforts of different States to prevent the execution of the fugitive slave law. All or any of these evils might have been endured by the South without danger to the Union as others have been in the hope that time and reflection might apply the remedy. The immediate peril arises, not so much from these causes, as from the fact that the incessant and violent agitation of the slave question throughout the North for the last quarter of a century LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 163 has, at last, produced its malign influence on the slaves, and inspired them with vague notions of freedom. Hence a sense of security no longer exists around the family altar. The feeling of peace at home has given place to apprehensions of servile insur rection.* Many a matron throughout the South retires at night in dread of what may befall herself and her children before the morning. Should this apprehension of domestic danger, whether real or imaginary, extend and intensify itself until it shall pervade the masses of the Southern people, then disunion is inevitable. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and has been im planted in the heart of man by his Creator for the wisest purpose ; and no political union, however fraught with blessings and benefits in all other respects, can long continue, if the necessary consequence be to render the homes and firesides of nearly half the parties to it habitually and hopelessly insecure. Sooner or later the bonds of such a union must be severed. " It is my conviction that this fatal period has not yet arrived, and my prayer to God is that he would preserve the Constitution and the Union throughout all generations. " But let us take warning in time, and remove the cause of danger. It can not be denied that for five and twenty years the agitation at the North against slavery at the South has been incessant. In 1835 pictorial handbills and inflammatory appeals were circulated extensively throughout the South, of a character to excite the passions of the slaves; and, in the language of General Jackson, to stimulate them to insurrection and produce all the horrors of civil war/ This agitation has ever since been continued by the public press, by the proceedings of State and county conventions, and by abolition sermons and lectures. The time of Congress has been occupied in violent speeches on this never-ending subject; and appeals in pamphlet and other forms, indorsed by distinguished names, have been sent forth from this central point, and spread broadcast over the Union. " How easy would it be for the American people to settle the slavery question forever, and to restore peace and harmony to this distracted land. They, and they alone, can do it. All that * The truth of history requires that it should be said here that no fear of the negroes was felt in the South, either before or during the war; and no case was known in which they did harm to the women and children who were left, in many instances, entirely dependent upon their servants. " 164 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. is necessary to accomplish the object, and all for which the Slave States have ever contended, is to be let alone, and permitted to manage their domestic institutions their own way. As sovereign States they, and they alone, are responsible before God and the world for the slavery existing among them. For this, the people of the North are no more responsible, and have no more right to interfere, than with similar institutions in Russia or in Brazil. " It may be asked, then, are the people of the States with out redress against the tyranny and oppression of the Federal Government? By no means. The right of resistance on the part of the governed against the oppression of their Governments can not be denied. It exists independently of all constitutions, and has been exercised at all periods of the world s history. It is embodied in strong and express language in our own Declara tion of Independence. " Secession is neither more nor less than revolution. It may or it may not be a justifiable revolution, but still it is revolution. Has the Constitution delegated to Congress the power to coerce a State into submission which is attempting to withdraw or has actually withdrawn from the Confederacy? If answered in the affirmative, it must be on the principle that the power has been conferred upon Congress to declare and make war against a State. " After much serious reflection, I have arrived at the con clusion that no such power has been delegated to Congress or to any other department of the Federal Government. It is mani fest, upon an inspection of the Constitution, that this is not among the specific and enumerated powers granted to Congress ; and it is equally apparent that its exercise is not necessary and proper for carrying into execution any one of these powers. So far from this power having been delegated to Congress, it was expressly refused by the Convention which framed the Consti tution. " Without descending to particulars, it may be safely asserted, that the power to make war against a State is at vari ance with the whole spirit and intent of the Constitution. Sup pose such a war should result in the conquest of a State, how are we to govern it afterwards? " Of similar import is this extract from a speech made in the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY UASON. House of Representatives, December loth, 1860, by Mr. Sickles, of New York : " Mr. Speaker, one of the great dangers of the day is that the country has not understood, does not understand, the extent of the peril in which she is placed. Illusions have usurped the place of reason in the popular mind. The country has been fatally deceived, and some of these delusions possess us even now. One of them is, that this Union can be preserved by force. I, for one, have never for a moment entertained such a thought. It is not the opinion of the people whom I represent ; and I must say to you, in all solemnity, that while the City of New York will cling to the Union to the last, yet when the call for force comes let it come whence it may no man will ever pass the boundaries of the City of New York for the purpose of waging war against any State of this Union, which, through its constituted author ities, and sustained by the voice of its people, solemnly declares that its rights, its interests, and its honor demand that it should seek safety in a separate existence. " What is the real cause of our present trouble? It is a dis regard of the obligations of our Constitution. Obey this Con stitution that we have, follow it, cherish it, cleave to it as an article of faith, and you will have peace again. If that had been done always this crisis would never have come upon us. Again. I say that one of the great evils of the times is the obdurate refusal to recognize the binding force of the constitutional pro visions. The people have been taught this by reckless leaders now in power in most of the States, and soon to claim the power of the Federal Government; and, I repeat, that it is upon them that the responsibility rests in this emergency. They have striven, in speeches and essays elaborately prepared by the mid night lamp, to alienate the North and the South. These insidious appeals are often written or revised by those who believe that private opinion is superior to constitutional obligations the higher law put forth here and sent from this Capital in untold millions, to undermine the foundations of fraternal good faith. Thus, sir, by teaching untruth to the people, they have been made to believe that their consciences were not bound by the Constitution or the law of the land. In the name of heaven, how idle it is to talk, in the face of such public opinion, of amending a LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Constitution, when none of those who follow the leaders I refer to care whether it is obeyed or not. What a mockery it would be to go before the Legislature of a State which has a personal liberty bill on its statute books, and ask them for an amendment to the Constitution. When men will keep such laws in force after they have taken a solemn oath, before High Heaven, to support the Constitution, could you believe any pledge they can make? The work must begin deeper than that. The same teachers who have led the minds of the people to this unbelief, the same teachers who have enticed the people up to the work of demolishing the existing Constitution, must again revive in their hearts the conscience that will preserve and obey a Constitution. Mr. Speaker, why may not the President-elect speak to the nation, and especially to his supporters in the aggressive States? He is secure in his election. The electoral colleges have met. There is no fear now as was suggested some time ago, that he might lose his office by opening his lips. I believe that among the chief causes which have produced the present state of affairs, has been the desire for power on the part of a new party, and the belief that they could most successfully obtain it by an appeal to the prejudices of the North against slavery. It is power that they want. It is power that they have secured. It is power that they wish to keep. Patriotism will sway many of Mr. Lincoln s supporters ; but the thirst for power will control more. Now, to illustrate what I think with reference to the controlling motives which are producing this state of things, I believe that if Mr. Lincoln would cause it to be made known to all the applicants for office under his administration, that he will not entertain the application of any man who is in favor of the so-called personal liberty bills, or opposed to the faithful execution, of the Fugitive Slave Law if he will do that, plainly and in good faith, through his representative men, you will not hear the word slavery for the next four years from the Republican party North, East, or West." On December loth, 1860, Mr. Powell (Kentucky), offered the following resolution : " Resolved, That so much of the President s message as re ferred to the agitated and distracted state of the country, and the grievances between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 167 be referred to a special committee of thirteen members, and that said committee be instructed to inquire into the present condition of the country, and report by bill or otherwise." In reference to this resolution, Mr. Mason said : " I am not at liberty to vote against it, and I trouble the Senate with a very few remarks only lest my vote in favor of it should be miscon strued elsewhere. There is a possibility that a vote in the affirmative may in some parts of the country, in the popular judgment, ascribe to the Senator so voting an idea that there is to be found in Congress any remedy for the present condition of the country. Sir, in my own State I know that the people are not looking to Congress for any legislation competent even to mitigate or palliate, far less to prevent those dangers. My State and a great many others of this Confederacy are going into con vention with a view to take up the subject for themselves, and as separate, sovereign communities, to determine what is best for their safety. I know that the public mind in Virginia is in no sense, in no manner, directed to Congress with any idea that it is competent to them to afford relief. The States are taking the subject into their own hands. I should regret extremely if the passage of this resolution should lead the citizens of other States, the non-slaveholding States, to look to Congress for any hope of an adjustment of these differences. It would mislead them. I should certainly hope that those States North and East and West would do as we are doing in the South, resolve themselves into their separate political communities and there determine whether anything and what can be done to save the Union. If they look to us with any such hope, they are misled, in my opinion. I should regret extremely, therefore, if an affirmative vote on my part, which will be given for the resolution more from what is due to parliamentary form than from any other reason, should lead them in any quarter to expect that it is competent to us, that we have the power to avert the perils that are im pending. I should expect much from the Northern and Eastern States, if they were to go into State convention, look at the evil as it exists, and apply a remedy if it be within their power. What is the evil? Gentlemen have well said, it is not the failure to execute the Fugitive Slave Law; it is not the passage of these liberty bills, as they are called, in the various States ; it is a social LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. war so far not a war of arms a war of sentiment, of opinion ; a war by one form of society against another form of society. " I possibly may have a misinformed judgment, but I rely upon it until corrected; and my judgment is satisfied that, for some reason the population in the States having no slaves, feel ing their great numerical majority, and having nursed this senti ment, this mere opinion about social forms existing elsewhere, have, in some manner, unfortunately, brought themselves to a determination to extinguish it. I do not mean by any immediate blow, by any present law ; but it is their purpose, having obtained possession of the Federal power, to use that power in every form to bring that social condition to a close. If the people would go into convention in all those States, as we are driven into convention, take up the subject, probe it, analyze it, look back to history and see what it is, they would have it in their power to apply a remedy. The remedy rests in their hands, not in Congress. I fear, too, sir; that in what fell from the honor able Senator from New York, we are admonished of the sort of legislation that is looked to on that side as a remedy for impend ing dangers. The honorable Senator says that it is the duty of the Executive Head of the Confederacy to execute the laws ; that it is the duty of Congress, if he has not sufficient power now under the law, to give it to him ; that he knows of nothing that can resist the laws unless it originates in insurrection or rebellion, which is to be put down. That is the sort of legisla tion, that is the sort of remedy, to which the honorable Senator looks. That means, Mr. President, that in the relation which subsists between the States of the Union and the Federal power, State existence is not to be recognised; and that if a State abandons the Union, separates from it, severs all political con nection with it, that fact is not to be recognised by, or known to, the Federal Government. A State in the full plenitude of her sovereignty, entirely resumed by her fundamental law, absolves her citizens from the allegiance they formerly held to the Gov ernment which they abandoned. That is not to be known; but the law is to march straight forward, like the car of Juggernaut, crushing all who may oppose.it. That I understand to be the doctrine of the Senator from New York; his construction of Federal power. Well, sir, if it be true, I am not one of those LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 169 who lend my aid or my vote to any legislation contemplating such a state of things. They may call it what they please ; they may call it putting down resistance to the laws, or insurrection, or rebellion, or treason, in a citizen, but at last it is war open, undisguised war, by one political power against another political power. That is it ; and the honorable Senator, seeking to evade I use the term in no offensive sense ; but the honorable Senator, seeking to characterize it in some terms that belong to civil jurisdiction, calls it insurrection or rebellion. The meeting of one political power with another political power in hostility, in arms, is war, and can come to nothing else." On December 2Oth, Mr. Clark (New Hampshire) moved to take up a resolution asking the President for information regarding the forts in South Carolina. Mr. Hunter, Mr. Davis, Mr. Mason, and others opposed the resolution on the ground that it was not, then, necessary, and it would have the effect of arousing bitterness of feeling. In the course of the debate, Mr. Mason said : " I have never doubted the perfect and indefeasible right of one of the States of the Union to determine for herself whether her honor and her safety will admit of her longer continuing in this Confederacy. I could not doubt it unless I denied to the States of the Con federacy sovereignty, perfect sovereignty. Nor do I see, as a question of public law, how any doubt can be entertained on that question, unless it be by those who consider these States as an integral part of a consolidated empire, having no sovereignty. Nor do*I see how such a position can be maintained, unless it be by those who consider that there is a sovereignty in this Government the Government created by the Constitution. If there be a sovereignty in the Government created by the Consti tution, and no sovereignty in the States who created it, then the proposition would follow, but not until then, that the people of the States constituted an integral part of a common empire." Mr. Trumbell (Illinois), said : " The Senators on the other side speak of declaring war against a State. This phrase, Coerce a State, is a phrase calculated to mislead the public mind. Of course we can not declare war against a State. Nobody proposes to coerce a State or convict a State of treason. You can not arraign a State for trial ; you can not convict or I70 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. punish it; but you can punish individuals. I trust the public mind is not to be misled or confused by this idea of coercing States. Men who violate the laws of the country are amenable to those laws, and if found guilty of violating the provisions of law they must suffer the penalties of the law. The Government has power to coerce and punish individuals who violate its laws." Mr. Mason. " Will the Senator allow me one instant? Ha says there is no purpose to make war on a State, but to punish individuals. I understand war to be the exercise of public force by the authority of one State against public force under the authority of another State. Now I would submit to the Senator, when he talks about punishing individuals and executing the public laws by the public force of the Federal Government, and is met by the public force of a State Government, is not that war? " Mr. Trumbell. " I suppose that I should have the right to ask another question of the Senator. What does he understand by rebellion?" Mr. Mason. " I will tell the Senator with great pleasure. I understand, by rebellion, resistance to the laws by the citizens a portion of them laws emanating from a common govern ment of those citizens, and the citizens being but an integral part of one government an empire, a republic, or anything else. The distinction, I hold, is this I shall detain the Senator but a moment in putting it, and I ask his permission to do it. The State governments are as sovereign at this day as they were when they formed the Constitution of the United States ; and being so, the State Governments have the power of absolving their citizens from the obligations to the Federal compact which the State entered into; and when the State absolves its citizens from the obligations to the Federal compact which the State entered into and formed, they become as completely foreign to this Government as to France or England." January 2ist, of the eventful year of 1861, witnessed an ever memorable scene, when the six Senators representing the States of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, made formal announce ment to the Senate of the withdrawal of their respective States from the Federal Union, and bid adieu to the other Senators. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. A little later on the same day, when the " Crittenden Com promise Resolutions " were under discussion, Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania, in the course of his remarks, said : " Mr. Presi dent, it seems to me the only difference between myself and the very distinguished Senator from Virginia (Mr. Mason) is, that he seeks for some excuse for getting out of this Union, while I desire to preserve it by any sacrifice of feeling, and I may say, of principle. To me, this Union is above all things in the Govern ment. It seems to me that, for some reason or other, he wants to go out, and to put the blame on somebody else. I, on the contrary, am willing to save the Union which his fathers and mine cemented with their blood at any sacrifice becoming honor able and patriotic men." In reply to this, as well as to what had been said by other Northern Senators, Mr. Mason said : " The honorable Senator says that I seem to be seeking an excuse to get out of this Union. Ah, Mr. President, that day has passed. If I felt it necessary to find an excuse, it would be to remain in the Union; no excuse for going out of the Union, the Senator may rely upon it. I con fess, from what I have seen here around me, and the votes that have been taken, I am utterly at a loss to know what excuse I could assign to my people for remaining in this Union. An excuse to get out of the Union is not necessary. Sir, what a spectacle have we seen to-day ! Six Senators, representing three States, taking a formal leave of the Senate, bringing here officially to the notice of the Senate that their States were no longer mem bers of this Union. One State, their predecessor, has had no Senators here during the whole session. Another State, as we learn from the telegraphic news, has already dissolved its con nection with this Union. Five of them gone ! Five States hold ing a homogeneous interest with that which I represent ! There is sympathy, intimate sympathy, necessary sympathy, between my honored State and those, in all those ties which bind us together. That Senator talks to me of my wanting an excuse to go out of this Union! I tell the Senator, if he will look at it with the consideration and calmness that becomes his position, he would ask himself, as I would ask myself, can I find an excuse in any way for remaining in the Union? Can I assign any ex- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. cuse to my honored State for remaining in this Union not ask for an excuse to get out of it? " I may speak, perhaps, Mr. President, with the tempera ment that belongs to my constitution, and with some appearance of warmth when I do not mean it. Earnestness, I mean. I mean not a word of unkindness to any one here. I know if there be a man that can shut up his intellect and close his ears or his eyes to the facts around us, I am not one of them. I know that this Union is at this day dissolved, absolutely dissolved. The separa tion of one State is as much a dissolution of the Union as the separation of ten. The separation of five, so far as we have gone at present and it is but a work of time to add to the list does no more, as far as the dissolution of the Union is concerned, than to confirm the fact that the Union is dissolved. " Honorable Senators on the other side of the chamber at least, I know, say the Union is not dissolved ; that the act of these States in separating themselves from it is a void act. They do not recognize it. The fact that the names of their Senators remain here upon your list, and are called every day to vote, is evidence that in the sense of Senators on that side at least, now in a majority, they do not recognize the fact of separation. Their recognition, or their refusal to recognize, does not change the fact in any form or shape whatever. The States are gone ; the chairs here are vacant, never again to be filled under the existing state of things. What is the remedy ? Force ? Coercion ? The dis cipline that a pedagogue inflicts upon a village urchin at school. Honorable Senators entertain that idea in relation to a sovereign State? They tell us we have but enforced the laws; that the Constitution is imperative upon the Executive Head of enforc ing the laws ; and that the Constitution is imperative upon Con gress, if any additional legislation is required to give it, that the laws may be enforced. Sir, the theory of the Government is against it. The voice of humanity at this civilized age is against it. You can not enforce your laws against the State that is no longer under your dominion by a barbarous war, the last resort of the tyrant. " The theory of the Government is unquestionably this : the laws are to be administered through the courts; and resistance to the laws is not known to the Constitution, unless it is resist- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ance to the law as expounded and administered in the courts. Such is the whole tenor of our legislation. The President has no power on earth to use a ship or a soldier, unless he is first admonished by the civil tribunals of the country that there is a resistance which the civil power of the country is unequal to overcome. Are you to change that, and give to the President the power of making war by what you call enforcing the laws? Sir, you can not enforce the laws against any one of these seced ing States unless you change the law, and you can not change the law unless you violate the Constitution. You can not work out the problem in any other way on earth that you can fix it. " Well, sir, what remains ? I am one of those who have venerated this Government for the good that it did, and for the hopes of the future, as much as any man who hears me. I saw a people increasing from three to thirty millions in a period of history so small as not to be appreciated in the history of nations. I saw them increasing in strength, in all the resources that belong to nations in intellect, wealth, power, respectability, and knowl edge. I saw that it was the fruit of that Union which our fathers devised, and if there be any man in this broad continent who valued this Union more than I did, I have yet to know who he is. But when the preservation of that Union is required of us at the expense of our domestic safety and our domestic peace ; when it is required of us at the expense of our self-respect; when it is required of us at the risk of destroying the very foundations of the social fabric upon which the Southern States repose, I say, let the Union go, with whatever regret, with whatever concern there may be no remorse. I tell the honorable Senator from Pennsylvania, for whom I really entertain kind personal feelings, while this thing lasts I want no excuse for leaving the Union. Would to God he would give me an excuse for remaining in it. " Mr. President, there is but one thing remaining for us, that I know of. The Union is dissolved gone. It is no longer a Union of thirty-three States, as it was when this Congress com menced its session. How many States will remain here in the next month I will not undertake to say ; how many States will remain here on the 4th of March next, when the present Con gress expires, I will not undertake to say ; but I will undertake to say this : that we shall not have, by many, the States that are now LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. here. Now, sir; we are in a minority on this side, certainly as far as the South is concerned. There are officially eight Senators from the Southern States absent, never to return. Others are to follow necessarily, backed by their States. If it is proposed to pass laws to coerce those States, what will be the result? I need not say to honorable Senators here, who them selves are brave men, men conscious of their manhood, of the honor of their States, and prepared to meet any emergency that may present itself, that this idea of coercion has no terrors for them. Much as they would deplore it, they would deplore it from the consequences that must follow, and not from any per sonal fear to themselves or to those connected with them. They must deplore it from the consequences that must follow. And what are those consequences? Why, sir ; you make a war. Call it enforcing the laws, if you please ; call it whipping a child who has been refractory ; it is war ; the exercises of public force on one side against public force on the other. Well, what is the end of war? Peace. What has been the consequence of war? An unnecessary, barbarous, and indecent effusion of human blood as a sacrifice to human passions, the impoverishment of the societies around you ; the load of debt that is to be accumulated ; and more than all, the breaking up pf all those foundations upon which concord, or I should rather say amity and good will and kindness, should have rested among the inhabitants of the States of North America. It is gone, sir, and you have done it. You have placed it out of the power of the Southern States to con federate with you any longer. You have not only declared your selves enemies, but you have made them feel that you are enemies. " You may pursue a sentiment, or a vague idea, that you are enforcing the laws when you are making war ; war that the civilized world will acknowledge as such ; war to be governed by all the rules of war; and your idea of hanging for treason is nonsense. According to my recollection there was no man hung for treason during the Revolution. Threats were abundant enough; but in that war, made by dependent colonies upon a strong and able maternal power, all their threats vanished into thin air. It was war. If it is instituted now, it will be followed by a peace. That peace will restore what treaties call amity; but it will be only that amity that is spoken of on the cold pages LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 115 of history. We shall stand, I should fear, for generations in a hostile relation to each other, which it will take more than gen erations to remove and bring about actual peace. " I say to honorable Senators on the other side, or to the section which they represent, that peace or war is in your hands. The issue of war is not ; but the fact of peace or war is in your hands, or those whom you represent. We have no voice in it. If war comes it is to be made upon us ; we are to accept it, not to institute it. The whole responsibility will be with you, and you will have to answer to the generations which are to follow, for all the consequences of that war. Why have a war? Realize existing facts, and you have no war. Realize the existing fact that the constituents of this Government are sovereign powers, and that those sovereign powers are not mere component parts of a common empire. Remonstrate with them, reason with them as you will, about the exercise of their sovereignty, but concede it. When those States who have left us, and those States that are to follow, shall have assumed the condition of independence, they will say to you mark my word for it we are ready either for war or negotiation. Deride it if you please ; plume yourselves upon the numerical strength which you possess; talk of your eighteen millions against eight or nine millions ; bring the bar baric force of numbers to bear upon the Southern States, and you will have a war such as the world has seldom, if ever seen, a war that must terminate in a peace or extermination. But what is the opposite? Let them go, regret it, remonstrate, denounce it if you will ; but let them go. Then the good sense of nations will return, when passion has subsided, and a union may be restored or reconstructed, which never can be done if the mad passions of the day prevail which seem now to prevail at the North. I am sorry to detain the Senate thus long; but I con fess that I felt anxious to expose to the constituents of the honorable Senator from Pennsylvania, as well as to my own, that in the present posture of the country, I and those with whom I stand ask no excuse for leaving this Union; but we shall be deeply grateful, as after ages will be, to him, if he will give us an excuse to remain." The letters here inserted express, even more fully than his speeches, Mr. Mason s views regarding the fallacy of all hopes of i 7 6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. preserving the Union under the Constitution : and the impor tance of prompt action on the part of Virginia. The dates show they were written a few days after the speech in the Senate just given. The nomination to which he refers was that of delegate to the convention. The inquiry about the ice-house shows his never-failing thought for the comfort of his family. "WASHINGTON, January 27th, 1861. " My Dear Daughter: I received night before last, yours of Monday, and the next morning Mr. Ambler read me Anna s letter with an account of the nomination. I am glad they let me off, because, if elected, I could not have retained my seat here, and in view of events to happen before the 4th of March, I had rather be at my post here than resign it to another. Mr. Hunter has also, and for like reasons, declined the convention. We are having a quiet time here awaiting events. We think now that peace will be preserved until after the 4th of March ; after that, we rely on having a Southern Confederacy organized and strong enough to defy assailants. All hope of adjustment is gone, and the Senators and Representatives here from Virginia have so announced in a public letter to the people of the State, sent yes terday to Richmond for publication, and which you will see in a few days. It is the joint production of Muscoe Garnett and myself. " Is our ice-house filled? I have had no bill. " Yours most affectionately, " J. M. M." Very many, if not the majority, of the people of Virginia refused to believe " All hope of adjustment was gone " and still clung to the expectation of an amicable settlement of all diffi culties by the Peace Congress ; it was, therefore, important they should have the information and the warning now given in this letter which was addressed to the people of Virginia, and said : " We deem it our duty, as your Representatives at Wash ington, to lay before you such information as we may possess in the present alarming condition of the country. " At the beginning of this session, now more than half over, committees were appointed in both Houses of Congress, to con sider the state of the Union. Neither committee has been able LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASJX. to agree upon any mode of settlement of the pending issues be tween the North and the South. The Republican members in both committees rejected propositions acknowledging the right of property in slaves, or recommending the division of the Territories between the slaveholding and the non-slaveholding States by a geographical line. " In the Senate, the propositions commonly known as Mr. Crittenden s were voted against by every Republican Senator; and the House, by a vote of ayes and noes, refused to consider cer tain propositions moved by Mr. Etheridge, which were even less favorable to the South than Mr. Crittenden s. "A resolution giving a pledge to sustain the President in the use of force against the seceding States was adopted in the House of Representatives by a large majority ; and in the Senate every Republican voted to substitute for Mr. Crittenden s prop ositions, resolutions offered by Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, declaring no new concessions, guarantees, or amendments were necessary; that the demands of the South were unreasonable, and that the remedy for the present danger was simply to enforce the laws, in other words, coercion and war. " In this state of facts, our duty is to warn you that it is vain to hope for any measure of conciliation or adjustment from Con gress which you could accept. We are also satisfied that the Republican party designs by civil war alone, to coerce the South ern States, under the pretext of enforcing the laws, unless it shall become speedily apparent that the seceding States are so numerous, determined, and united as to make such an attempt hopeless. " We are confirmed in these conclusions by our general intercourse here ; by the speeches of the Republican leaders here and elsewhere ; by the recent refusals of the Legislatures of Vermont, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to repeal their obnoxious personal liberty laws ; by the action of the Illinois Legislature on resolutions approving the Crittenden propositions, and by the adoption of resolutions in the New York and Massachusetts Legislatures (doubtless to be followed by others) offering men and money for the war of coercion. " We have thus placed before you the facts and conclusions which have become manifest to us from this post of observation LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. where you have placed us. There is nothing to be hoped from Congress ; the remedy is with you alone when you assemble in sovereign convention. " We conclude by expressing our solemn conviction that prompt and decided action by the people of Virginia in con vention will afford the surest means, under the providence of God, of averting a civil war and preserving the hope of recon structing a Union already dissolved. " Signed : "J. M. MASON, " R. M. T. HUNTER, " D. C. DE JARNETTE, " M. R. H. GARNETT, " SHELTON F. LEAKE, " E. S. MARTIN, " H. A. EDMUNDSON, " ROGER A. PRYOR, " THOS. S. BOCOCK, "A. G. JENKINS. " Washington City, January 26th, 1861." (Owing to the detention of ex-Governor Smith at his home in Virginia by sickness, this address could not be presented to him for his signature. There is no doubt he would have joined in it, if present.) The Peace Congress assembled in Washington on February 4th, less than ten days after the foregoing " warning/ On Feb ruary 27th, the measures agreed upon by this body were formally communicated to both Houses of Congress. This " Peace Congress " was composed of one hundred and thirty-three commissioners who represented the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary land, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Kansas. They agreed upon certain measures embodied, in the form of an amend ment to the Constitution, which they submitted to Congress with the request that it should be submitted to conventions in the States as Article XIII of the amendments to the Constitution. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. On February 28th, the day after this communication was received by the Senate, Mr. Mason said : " The message of the President communicates to the Senate certain resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of Virginia, now in session, expressive of the sense and earnest desire of that State, so far as that sense can be expressed by the Legislative body, in regard to the great movement which has already separated the States of this Union. They were communicated officially and formally to the President of the United States by the General Assembly of Virginia. The purpose of the resolutions is twofold : First, to inform the President that Virginia has undertaken the office of mediating between the two great sections of the country, in the hope that measures might be devised which, , if they could not avert that which had already happened the dissolution of the Union of the States might be the means of healing that rupture, and of restoring the Union under guarantees and provisions that might be satisfactory to both sections. The next object of the resolutions was, to induce the President of the United States, as the Executive Department of this Government, so far as with him lay, to refrain from any act which might bring into col lision the public power of the United States with the public power of the States that have seceded, from a knowledge that if such collision once ensued, it would be beyond the power of any mortal man to avert that greatest of all catastrophes to this country and to mankind, civil war between the people of this Union and the people of those other States. It was a great mission which Virginia has thus instituted, in the hope expressed in the resolutions : that this existing rupture of the States might be healed, and that every effort should be made in the meantime to avoid that greatest catastrophe, civil war. The President, in communicating those resolutions to Congress, has responded to the spirit of the General Assembly and has expressed the earnest hope that the objects of the General Assembly may be attained by Congress refraining from any act which would tend to lead to that collision. " Mr. President, it is known that Virginia has participated in this movement as one of the States affected, and the great purpose in the mission that she has instituted now in Washing ton is to induce the Federal authorities to refrain from any act LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASOX. which shall complicate, and irretrievably complicate, the exist ing issues between the North and the South. How is that to be done? The President has said in his message that very little power rests with him; that he considers it his duty, a duty in cumbent upon his office, to provide for the security of the public property so far as it may be within his power. I trust, sir, that this great object of Virginia in preserving the public peace be tween the opposing sections, for the time being, at least, may be successful. We know the Senate has been officially informed that, of the thirty-three States that constituted this Union, six have separated themselves from it by formal acts of the political community in each State, transacted as a political community ; that is a fact accomplished. Those States declare that they are no longer members of this Confederacy. None can doubt, I pre sume, from the evidence before our senses almost, that other States are to follow. The great object of Virginia in the mission instituted by these resolutions is to preserve the public peace, in the hope, as expressed in the resolutions, that if it be the pleasure of other States to send commissioners here, to meet those dele gated by Virginia, they may devise some additional amendment to the Constitution, in some form that will guaranty the rights of the minority section, which will be found acceptable to all the Southern States, and may even win back those who have sepa rated themselves from the Union ; or if that can not be done, and, if, in the providence of the Almighty, it should be decreed that the existing confederation is to be permanently dissolved, still, that the peace of this great continent shall be preserved notwith standing, and opportunity allowed for that great fund of good sense which is found in every section to interpose and take up the subject as it may be found by events, and see if the existing Union can not be restored, or if some other form of union in the nature of reconstruction, can not be devised, which, while it would insure the security of all, majorities, and minorities, would conduce to the great interests, the permanent interests of the great people who are diffused all over the States. That is the ulterior end. " Should it unfortunately occur, however, either from im patience in the States that have separated, or from any undue and over zeal in any department of the Federal Government, that the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. two sections should be brought into collision, there is an end to all negotiation. Men never negotiate in war. There must be a peace first. If there be any honorable Senator on this floor, or any citizen of any one of the States, who, under existing events, yet indulges the belief that an attempt to enforce the Federal laws in the States that have declared themselves beyond the Federal jurisdiction is not an act which leads to war, and to war alone, never was such a Senator or such a citizen more deluded. I have had occasion to say so heretofore. I speak it now, sir, certainly not in anger ; but I should speak it in sorrow, if I could be brought to contemplate such an event. " I think too, Mr. President, that we have evidences, daily evidences, from that section of the country which has separated itself from this Union, that, while the authorities there have thought it necessary, as measures of precaution to possess them selves in the several States, of the forts, arsenals, navy yards, and military materials found within their limits, acknowledging them to be part of the public property all the time, they have done so with no intention on their part to make war ; they have done so, as they conceived, only as measures of necessary, prudent precaution, in the event that any war should, unhappily, be waged on them. And, I think, honorable Senators on the other side will respond to the declaration, when I say that there is not one of those States, when they shall be restored to the Union, if they shall be restored, or when peace shall be concluded, if war should now follow, who will not account for every dollar of the public property that they have taken. I believe those States are actuated at this moment by an earnest desire to refrain from every act which would break the public peace. The State of Virginia has invoked a like disposition on the part of the Govern ment. I hope it will be successful. It is the only mode now left, under the direction of the Supreme Being, by which the people of this country can be saved from a civil war, and be restored to Government relations, in some form, under auspices that may yet lead a united country back to that great path of prosperity and strength and honor from which they have been diverted by the present (as I consider it) necessary movement on the part of those States. " I have deemed it incumbent upon me, Mr. President, as this LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. mediation originated with my State, to respond to the sentiments expressed in the message, in an earnest desire that the public peace may be preserved until events work out, in their own way, the great revolution which is impending, or rather which is per fected in six of the States of this Union." In striking contrast with the opinions and feelings here ex pressed by Mr. Mason, another extract is taken from the Con gressional Globe of February 27th, of same year, which will be found on page 1247 of Part II, Thirty-Sixth Congress. Mr. Powell (Kentucky), said : " I move to postpone the Army bill for the purpose of taking up the resolutions to amend the Constitution proposed by my colleague (Mr. Crittenden). For several weeks, Senators have declined to make an effort to call up the propositions of my colleague for the reason that cer tain peace commissioners were in session in this Capital, con vened at the call of the State of Virginia. I am confident now that that commission, Peace Congress, or Conference, or what ever you may call it, will not accomplish anything. Indeed, certain facts have fallen under my notice, that cause me to be lieve that it has been the fixed purpose of certain Republicans that that conference should not accomplish anything. I have thought that for some time past. A friend sent me, yesterday, The Detroit Free Press, containing two letters from the distin guished Senators from Michigan to their Governor, which, I think, clearly and fully establish the fact that the Republicans, a portion of them at least, instead of sending commissioners to that conference with a view to inaugurate something that would compro mise the difficulties by which we are surrounded, and save the country from ruin, have absolutely been engaged in the work of sending delegates there to prevent that commission from doing anything. I send this paper to the desk and ask the Secretary to read these letters." The Secretary read as follows : "WASHINGTON, February I5th, 1861. " Dear Sir: When Virginia proposed a convention in Washington, in reference to the disturbed condition of the country, I regarded it as another effort to debauch the public mind, and a step towards obtaining that concession which the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. slave power so insolently demands. I have no doubt at present but that was the design. I was therefore pleased that the Legis lature of Michigan was not disposed to put herself in a position to be controlled by such influences. The convention has met here, and within a few days the aspect of things has materially changed. Every Free State, I think, except Michigan and Wis consin, is represented; and we have been assured by friends upon whom we can rely, that if those States should send delegations of true, unflinching men, there would probably be a majority in favor of the Constitution as it is, who would frown down rebel lion by the enforcement of the laws. " These friends have urged us to recommend the appoint ment of delegates from our State ; and, in compliance with their request, Mr. Chandler and myself telegraphed to you last night. It can not be doubted that the recommendations of this con vention will have very considerable influence upon the public mind, and upon the action of Congress. " I have a great disinclination to any interference with what should properly be submitted to the wisdom and discretion of the Legislature, in which I place great reliance ; but I hope I shall be pardoned for suggesting that it may be justifiable and proper, by any honorable means, to avert the lasting disgrace which will attach to a free people who by the peaceful exercise of the ballot, have just released themselves from the tyranny of slavery, if they should now succumb to treasonable threats, and again submit to a degrading thraldom. If it should be deemed proper to send delegates, I think, if they could be here by the 2Oth, it would be in time. " I have the honor, with much respect, to be truly yours, "K. S. BINGHAM. " To His Excellency, Governor Blair." "WASHINGTON, February nth, 1861. " My Dear Governor: Governor Bingham and myself tele graphed you on Saturday, at the request of Massachusetts and New York, to send delegates to the Peace or Compromise Con gress. They admit that we were right and they were wrong; that no Republican States should have sent delegates ; but they are here and cannot get away. Ohio, Indiana, and Rhode LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Island are caving in, and there is danger of Illinois ; and now they beg us, for God s sake to come to their rescue, and save the Republican party from rupture. I hope you will send stiff backed men or none. The whole thing was gotten up against my judgment and advice, and will end in thin smoke. Still I hope as a matter of courtesy to some of our erring brethren, that you will send the delegates. " Truly your friend, " Z. CHANDLER. " His Excellency Austin Blair. " P. S. Some of the manufacturing States think that a fight would be awful. Without a little blood-letting this Union will not be, in my estimation, worth a rush." It should be here noted that day after day during all this session, innumerable petitions, signed by hundreds of thousands of the citizens of the Northern States, were sent to their Senators and Representatives in Congress urging them to make amend ments to the Constitution or to adopt such other measures as might preserve the peace of the country. Hundreds of these petitions specifically asked the adoption of the " Crittenden Com promise Resolutions " ; others simply prayed for peace. None of them appeared to receive any special attention, as they were all announced to the Senate as having been received and were " laid on the table." They should, however, be remembered and recorded as testimony of value to those interested in fixing the responsibility of war upon those who should rightly be held to account for it. No vote was taken on either the Crittenden Resolutions or on those proposed by the Peace Congress until late in the night of the third of March, when they were rejected by the Republi cans. On March 5th, the Senate met, in special session, according to the usual custom, after the inauguration of a new President. Both the Senators from Virginia continued in regular attendance and, so far as it was possible, continued to participate in the trans action of the public business, although the Republican majority had been. so largely increased by the accession to their side of the chamber of nearly all the newly elected Senators, as well as LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. by the withdrawal of those from the seceding States that further remonstrance against their measures was evidently hope less ; still, their voic s were frequently heard in warnings to the country of the impending evils. On March 8th, 1861, Mr. Foster (Connecticut) offered the following resolution : " Whereas, Hon. L. T. Wigfall, now a Senator of the United States from the State of Texas, has declared in debate that he is a foreigner, that he owes no alle giance to this Government, but that he belongs to and owes allegiance to another and foreign government : Therefore, Resolved, That the said L. T. Wigfall be, and he hereby is, ex pelled from this body." On March nth, this resolution being before the Senate, Mr. Mason said : " Mr. President, the resolution, which I have examined this morning, in its preamble recites the cause of the expulsion. It is what the Senator has said upon this floor. The language of the resolution is, that he has declared in debate; so that the cause of the expulsion is what the Senator has said. Now, sir, the Constitution of the United States, to enable the Senate to protect itself, has given to the Senate the power to expel a mem ber provided two-thirds vote for the resolution ; but the expulsion of the member is, of necessity, punitive in its char acter; and the intention of the resolution offered by the Senator from Connecticut is punitive punishing for what the Senator has said in debate. The Senator, to be sure, in the argument he delivered in support of the resolution, has said that the facts alleged by the Senator from Texas are inconsistent with a seat upon this floor to wit : that he is a foreigner, and not a citizen of the United States. If the Senator thinks he ought not to be a member of the Senate because of those facts that he is not a citizen, and does not owe allegiance the Senator knows very well that the mode, and the only parliamentary and just mode, is to refer it to a committee to inquire into the facts ; and if it is found to be true, in the judgment of the Senate, that he is not a citizen of the United States, he would not be expelled, but his seat would be declared vacant because of that fact. But the purpose of the resolution, as I have said, is punitive to punish the Senator. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " The language of the resolution is, that the Senator has declared in debate, first, that he is a foreigner ; and, next, that he owes no allegiance to this Government. Now, sir, if it be a punishable offence to allege a constitutional truth in the Senate, then the Senator s resolution may be well founded. I aver it here, as a Senator from Virginia, in the face of the country, that I owe and recognize no allegiance to the Government of the United States none whatever; and there I take my position alongside of the Senator from Texas. " Although the State of Virginia is a constituent of this Government as one of the Confederate States, and I am her rep resentative here, and her engagements with this Government when she became a party to the Constitution remain entirely unimpaired, yet I am utterly unconscious that I owe any alle giance to this Government. I do owe allegiance, in the accep tation of it known to American law, to the State of Virginia, and nowhere else on earth. Why, what is this Government? Does the Senator from Connecticut rest his extraordinary doctrines of constitutional law which he has presented here this morn ing on the idea that the Government of the United States is his sovereign? If he does, God help him. Then, so far as the Senator from Texas has committed an offence in saying that he owes no allegiance to this Government, I stand at his side, and I should be unworthy of my true relation to my sovereign State if I did not. " Sir, what is allegiance? The old feudal interpretation of the term allegiance, doubtless, is known to every Senator, and all who are conversant with the constitutional history of Eng land, from whence we derive chiefly our institutions. Allegiance is the relation between subject and sovereign ; in the old feudal times, the relation between vassal and lord. Allegiance under our American institutions is the allegiance which is due from the citizen to the sovereign power; and I know of no sovereign power anywhere but in the States that are parties to this Confed eracy ; and I take it for granted, with all submission to the better opinion of the honorable Senator from Connecticut, that his State is his sovereign; and if he acknowledges allegiance to this Government he is faithless to her. Why, sir, we have a law in Virginia prescribing the oath to citizens of Virginia, and that LIFK OF JAMES MVKRAT J/4S02V. l8 7 oath I have taken the trouble to transcribe, for the purpose of illustration. The oath of allegiance in Virginia, to be taken by all those who are admitted in any way to a participation in the political power of the State, is this : 4 I declare myself a citizen of the Commonwealth of Vir ginia, and solemnly swear that I will be faithful and true to the said Commonwealth, and will support the constitution thereof so long as I continue to be a citizen of the same. " I will be faithful and true to the said Commonwealth that is allegiance. Am I told by the Senator that we have a divided allegiance ; that we can owe allegiance to two sovereigns? Am I to be told by the Senator that when I come here as a rep resentative from a sovereign State, I put off my allegiance, and put on a new garb, and not to my sovereign, but to a mere agency? That is my construction of constitutional obligation and constitutional law. That, I take it for granted, is the con struction placed upon it by the honorable Senator from Texas ; and he is to be expelled because he differs in his idea of consti tutional obligation with the Senator from Connecticut. " Then again : The honorable Senator, it is alleged, said that he is a foreigner. Well, sir, if he is a foreigner, he is not a citizen of the United States, and he is not entitled to a seat on this floor; but that is because of the fact, not because of the allegation. If he is not a citizen, the Constitution says he shall not have a seat on this floor, but if he is mistaken in the fact, he is under no constitutional disqualification. Now, the honorable Senator from Connecticut heard what I suppose we all heard in the discursive remarks made by the very able Senator from Texas the other day. I do not pretend to quote his language, but I think I know the substance of what he said. He said, in his belief he was a foreigner to this Government; and why? Because, in his belief, the State of Texas, of which he was a citizen, had separated itself from this Union ; but he did not know the fact, and so alleged. He does not know the fact now, unless he got the information last night ; for last night, in conversation with him, I inquired what was the news from his State; whether he had yet evidence of this fact? He said, " No." I presume he has not got it yet. His statement was, that, in his belief, he was a foreigner to this Government ; because, in his be- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. lief, the people of Texas have ratified, by their popular vote, the act of their convention declaring the separation. Why does he believe it? He has had no evidence of it. He believes it because of his knowledge that the popular sentiment of his State has de termined to separate itself from this Government ; but that is to be evinced by the popular vote. The Senator told us, although he believed himself a foreigner, he had no proof of it, but when he had proof of it, he would exhibit it here in the face of the Senate, as his predecessors in separation from the Government had done. He would exhibit it here in the face of the Senate, that his State was separated from this Government, and therefore he was no longer constitutionally a Senator ; or, as he expressed it, he would exhibit to the Senate, when he got it, evidence of the fact that the office which he held here had been abolished by his State. That is the substance of it; and yet, because of these declara tions, the honorable Senator from Connecticut asks for his ex pulsion. " Now, Mr. President, I am not going into the argument which the honorable Senator from Connecticut has conducted with the ability that belongs to him, about the right of separa tion. The honorable Senator, as others around him and the new President have done, declares that an act of separation by a State is a mere nullity, and that the State holds the same rela tion to the Confederacy after the act of separation that it held before. That is the language and doctrine of the honorable Senator. We deny it. My State denies it. Six States six, so far as the proof has gone have not only denied it, but have acted on that denial, and have separated ; and they have not only separated, but they have confederated anew ; they have formed a new government ; as I said here the. other day, a government perfect in all its parts, and a government prepared to sustain itsef in arms if this Government should endeavor to subdue it. If Senators still persist in saying as matter of constitutional law, that these States have not separated, that their act is null, they are holding language which I say it with great respect, for I feel no other sentiment towards them is more disrespectful to the Senate tenfold than that which the Senator from Connecticut says deserves punishment of expulsion in the case of the Senator from Texas ; and why? Because, by their language, they declare LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 189 that five million people, and six or seven sovereign States, are in a state of insubordination and insurrection, and they are taking no measure to quell it. " They declare here that the acts of those States are null ; and, although they have seized what they call the public property, although they have possessed themselves of the forts and of the public arms, yet they take no means whatever, and recommend and propose none, to recover it or to subdue them. I say, then, that honorable Senators holding that language in relation to the condition of the country, as they understand it, and not acting upon it, are much more disrespectful to the body to which they belong than the language of the honorable Senator from Texas, because, with him, as with me, it is a question of constitutional construction, and nothing more in the world. How can we owe allegiance to this Government? How can I owe allegiance to it? If I do, then I must obey the orders and the commands of this Government in preference to those of my State. I must put off the fealty which subsists between me and the State of Vir ginia, as citizen and sovereign, and endue myself with a new livery, not to a sovereign, but a mere temporary agency I mean by temporary, one that is entirely dependent upon the will and pleasure of those who created it. Nor is there, in my judgment, anything in support of this argument in the fact that I and other Senators here are sworn to support the Constitution. I am sworn to support the Constitution. I am not sworn to be true and faithful to the Government, as I have sworn to be true and faithful to the State of Virginia ; but I am sworn to support the Constitution. What does that mean? Does it mean that, under no circumstances,! will be a party to a change in that Constitution? If I change the Constitution by my act, I do not support it. Does it mean that I am not at liberty in any way to change the Constitution or the form of govern ment? Certainly not; because, if it does, it would put this famous Peace Congress that assembled here the other day under appointment of their several States as mediators, in the char acter of plotters against the Government, which many of them, I know, had sworn to support. As I construe that oath, it means this : l that while ^*ou participate in the administration oi the Government, or while you live under the Government, if you IQO LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. are not participating in its administration, you will support the Government as it is organized ; but that does not prohibit you, so far as I reason, if you think, or more properly if your State thinks, there are reasons, paramount to your contract, from sepa rating yourself from it, and thus, as far as you are concerned, cease to support the Constitution. " But take it altogether, are gentlemen on this side of the chamber to be subject to this high punition of the Constitution, because they differ in its construction from gentlemen on the other side? Is that to be the rule that is to be measured out to minorities now? We stand here in a minority; a minority becom ing less in numbers every day; you stand there in a majority; a majority increasing every day, or every year. Is this to be the measure by which the relations of minority and majority are to be governed in the Government of the United States which is not supreme and not sovereign? If it is, let us understand it. " Now, sir, I do not mean at all to take any issue with the Senator from Connecticut in his disclaimer of any personal feel ing; but if there are not personal or party motives lying at the foundation of this thing, unknown to the Senator for my respect, and real respect, for him, forbids me to suppose that he is not candid and frank I am at a loss to conceive when he seeks to punish the Senator for what he said, and afterwards said that if what he said is the fact, he ought not to sit here why he applies so high a remedy to a declaration of opinion which he thinks is wrong; for at least it amounts to that." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. IQI CHAPTER VIII. Secession of Virginia Winchester a Military Camp Seizure of Harper s F err y Summer of 1861 in Winchester Appointed Commissioner to Eng land Letters from Charleston, from the San Jacinto, and from Port War ren His Own Account of His Capture and Imprisonment Release from Fort Warren and Arrival in London. There is no record of the exact day on which Mr. Mason left Washington, but there is no reference to him in the Congressional Globe as having been present in the Senate after the I9th of March or to Mr. Hunter after the 2Oth, although the session did not close until the 28th of that month. Long before the meeting of the extra session (on July 4th), Virginia had been enrolled among the Confederate States, and both Mr. Mason and Mr. Hunter had become members of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. On July nth, both of them, together with several other Southern Senators, were expelled from the Senate of the United States, by a vote of thirty-two ayes against ten nays, on a resolution offered by Mr. Clark, Senator from New Hampshire, on the ground, as stated in the resolution : they were engaged in a conspiracy for the destruction of the Union and Government, or, with full knowledge of said conspiracy, had failed to advise the Govern ment of its progress or aid in its suppression. The 1 5th of April, 1861, found Mr. Mason quietly awaiting events at Selma, his home near Winchester, and when the news of the President s * Proclamation reached him, his first com ment was : This ends the question ; Virginia will at once secede." He went immediately to Richmond, where the con vention was in session, and a letter to Mr. Davis, written from *This proclamation read: ^Whereas, the laws of the United States have been, for some time past, and now are, opposed and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Missis sippi, Louisiana, and Texas by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law, Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union to the aggregate number of 75,000 in order to suppress said combination, and to cause the laws to be duly executed." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. that city on April I7th, said : " I came here last night; you may rely now that Virginia will secede and promptly. Vessels sunk last night in the harbor at Norfolk to cut off the navy-yard, and troops ordered there to sustain the movement. Harper s Ferry arsenal to be seized at once. You shall hear as things advance. If you have anything to reply, telegraph me here." Within a few hours after this letter was written the con vention had passed the ordinance of secession, had sent a dispatch to Montgomery proposing alliance with the Confed erate States, and had, by means of trusted messengers, sum moned the people of Frederick and the adjoining counties to assemble promptly in Winchester, there to organize and pro ceed to take possession of the United States arsenal and armory at Harper s Ferry. May 23d was appointed as the day when the ordinance of secession should be ratified by the votes of the people ; but this was well understood to be merely a legal form, so unanimous was the determination of all parties never to unite in a war against the other Southern States, and all necessary measures of self-defense were adopted without loss of time. Quickly did the people respond to this sudden call, and the quiet, peaceful town of Winchester was transformed, as by magic, into a military camp. It is true the people of all the Southern States were in a con dition of anxious expectation and were prepared for any exigency that might arise, but the first intimation to the inhabitants of Winchester, of the action of the convention was the arrival, soon after dawn, on the morning of April i8th, of large numbers of men from the adjacent country, men of all sorts and conditions, rich and poor, some in their carriages, some on horseback, some in wagons, many of them on foot, and in their ordinary working-clothes, for, in some cases, they had literally left their ploughs standing in the fields and had joined their comrades, who hailed them from the road as they passed. All day long they continued to come, until the population was, perhaps, more than doubled; some of them brought the shot-guns ordinarily used for killing birds, squirrels, etc., others had pocket-pistols, the majority were without arms of any kind; all were, however, hungry, after their early, and, in many cases, long walk or ride, consequently, the hospitality of the town was taxed to feed the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. unexpected army. It is needless to say it stood the test as nobly as it met all the others that came during the next four years. The houses were all thrown open, the men were well fed, and those who remained in town during the next night, were provided with comfortable quarters and treated as if they had been invited guests. This is not only true of those citizens who were themselves supplied with the comforts of life, but it applies equally well to the poor people of the town, who earned their bread by the sweat of their brows, and includes the women, whose scanty support was dependent upon their needles. No sacrifice was deemed too great when required to repel the threat ened invasion by the armies of the North. Prior to the i8th of April, 1861, there was one train daily from Winchester to Harper s Ferry, which train, consisting gen erally of one passenger car with baggage car, and engine, left Winchester at a convenient hour in the morning, made the jour ney of thirty miles in time to make connection at " The Ferry " with the east-bound train on the Baltimore and Ohio road, then waited for the cars from Baltimore, and returned to Winchester in the afternoon. When, on this memorable day, the sudden demand was made for the transportation of troops, several hours were required to have a sufficient number of cars brought to Winchester, and this interval was busily employed by the citi zens of the town in feeding the men, who continued to come in crowds from the surrounding country. Words fail to describe the tension of feeling when, soon after midday, a long and crowded train steamed off, carrying the sons, brothers, and hus bands from almost every house in the town, and the people real ized that war had begun. The result of this first expedition of the Virginia militia is told in the following reports made by the commanding offi cers of both the Federal and the Virginia troops, which are copied from " The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion " : " HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES ARMY, " MOUNTED RIFLES, U. S. ARMY, " HARPER S FERRY, VA., April 18, 1861, 9 P. M. " To the Assistant Adjutant-General, Headquarters U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. "SiR: Up to the present time no assault or attempt to LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. seize the Government property here has been made, but there is decided evidence that the subject is in contemplation, and has been all day, by a large number of people living in the direction of Charlestown ; and at sundown this evening several companies of troops had assembled at Halltown, about three or four miles from here, on the road to Charlestown, with the intention of seizing the Government property, and the last report is that the attack will be made to-night. " Respectfully, etc., " R. JONES, " First Lieutenant, Mounted Riflemen, Commanding." And later to General Scott: " CHAMBERSBURG, April 19, 1861. " Finding my position untenable, shortly after 10 o clock last night, I destroyed the arsenal, containing 15,000 stands of arms, and burned up the armory building proper, and under cover of night withdrew my command almost in the presence of twenty-five hundred or three thousand troops. This was accom plished with but four casualties. I believe the destruction must have been complete. I will await orders at Carlisle. " R. JONES. " To General Winfield Scott." It would seem from the report of Major-General Kenton Harper (commander of the Virginia militia), that the destruction of the arsenal and armory was not so complete as Lieutenant Jones supposed, for, on April 2ist, General Harper wrote to General William H. Richardson, Adjutant-General, at Rich mond: " DEAR SIR : My present force here is about two thousand. I have endeavored to get up a consolidated report of the strength and condition of my command, but defer it on account of imperfectness in the returns. The work of forwarding to Winchester uncompleted arms and machinery progresses rap idly. The troops assembled without ammunition generally, and, there being little here, I have had to send abroad for it. I LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 195 expect, from news just received, an additional force to-morrow of five hundred men. If needed, I could have thousands. "Very respectfully, etc., " KENTON HARPER, " Major-General, Commanding. " Division Headquarters, Harper s Ferry, Va." Again on April 22d, General Harper wrote to Governor Letcher : " My object has been, not only to secure all the efficient arms here, and remove the machinery in such manner as that it may be readily put together again, as well as all the un finished guns, but to have an inventory made of the public prop erty, so that the officers charged with the details may be held to proper account. " From the information I have of the condition of the guns in progress of manufacture, there are components to fit up readily for use from seven to ten thousand stand of arms, ex clusive of those rescued uninjured from the flames." Also a letter from Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Confederate States : " RICHMOND, April 22d, 1861. " To President Dams: " Arrived here this morning ; shall meet convention in closed doors to-morrow at i o clock. Harper s Ferry in our hands. Arsenal containing 16,000 arms blown up by the U. S. forces, 4,000 or 5,000 saved. Best guns; all machinery of value, esti mated at $2,000,000, saved. Gosport Navy Yard burned and evacuated by the enemy. 2,500 guns, artillery and ordnance, saved, and 3,000 barrels of powder; also large supply of caps, and shells loaded, with the Boarman fuse attached. Yard not so much injured as supposed. Merrimac, Germantown, and Dolphin sunk ; Cumberland escaped. Only portion of Massachu setts regiment reached Washington; 16,000 troops north of Baltimore. Governor Hicks with United States (sic.). General Stuart, of Maryland asks aid. Governor Letcher has ordered 1,000 guns at Harper s Ferry to be sent to him. The South Carolina regiment will come here. Governor Letcher, this morning, issued proclamation ordering 5,000 infantry and rifles to rendezvous immediately on railroad. Plenty awaiting a com- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. mander-in-chief. Colonel Robert E. Lee is expected to-day, and is looked to as the commander. All the navy officers of Vir ginia have resigned and tendered services to the State. Gov ernor Letcher got a card on Saturday, sent from Gordonsville, purporting to be from Mr. Benjamin, saying you would be here on Wednesday ; it is, of course, bogus. " ALEX. H. STEPHENS." An extract from the proceedings of the Advisory Council of Virginia shows that : " It being considered desirable to ascer tain the condition of affairs and the state of public feeling in Maryland, the Governor is respectfully advised to appoint Colonel James M. Mason a commissioner to proceed forthwith to that State, and communicate to the Governor such information as he may obtain." Such a commission was accordingly sent by Governor Letcher to Mr. Mason on April 21 st. He went, at once, to visit Frederick City and other places in Maryland, and returned to Richmond about the first of May, " spoke encouragingly of the feeling of the Legislature and the probable secession of the State." The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States met, in special session, at Montgomery, Alabama, on April 29th. Hav ing been in the Senate of the United States, at the time of the secession of Virginia, Mr. Mason was a member of this Pro visional Congress ; but it would seem that his presence in Mont gomery could scarcely have been of the value it must have been at that time in his own State where it was evident that an im portant battle was imminent. He did not take his seat in Con gress during this session, which lasted only until May 2ist, when Congress adjourned to meet in Richmond on July 2Oth. This interval was spent by Mr. Mason partly in Richmond and partly in Winchester, constantly in consultation, at both places with the civil and military authorities. Winchester was, at that time, a place of rendezvous for the troops that were con stantly arriving from the Southern States, and early in May, General Joseph E. Johnston took command of the forces there assembled. He had been, in his youth, on terms of intimate friendship with Mr. Mason s youngest brother, Barlow Mason, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and had been a frequent visitor at *Analostan Island ; he was, therefore, greeted with special warmth at Selma, and was urged to make it his home while in the neighborhood. Deeming it necessary to remain at " Headquarters " he would only agree that he and his staff would breakfast there every morning. General Bee, General Bartow, and other officers of the army then congregated in Winchester, frequently joined the party, and thus were gathered around the family board at Selma, men whose names soon became known throughout the civilized world, and whose memories will be cherished and honored by all future generations. That army was, in truth, unlike any other ever known; its existence was due to the approach of an invading enemy; its object was to defend their rights as freemen, and to protect the sanctity of their homes ; in it the sons and brothers of the com manding officers were found in the ranks, serving as privates, and it was composed chiefly of educated gentlemen, for the young men at college had all left their books to stand beside their fathers in defense of their mothers and sisters. Was it not reasonable such a cause should call forth the best men of the South? Did it not appeal to every instinct of honor among men? Consequently, much of the best blood of the Confederacy was poured out on the battlefield of Manassas on July 21 st, 1861. Among the many whose lives were there sacrificed was Mr. Mason s brother, Barlow, who has been already mentioned. Immediately upon the secession of Virginia, he had come from his plantation in Mississippi, to offer his sword in defense of his native State. Arriving at Selma one morning in June, he found his old friend " Joe Johnston " at the breakfast table, surrounded by his staff, and before the meal was over, it was arranged that he should become a member of that staff and serve as volunteer aide-de-camp. In this capacity he went into that memorable first battle of Manassas there to receive the wound that caused his death a few weeks afterwards. On July 24th, Mr. Mason took his seat in the Confederate Congress, then in session in Rich mond; and the next day, he joined in the tributes there paid to the gallant men who had gained so great a victory at the cost of their own lives. He spoke with much feeling, as well he *The summer home of General John Mason. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. might, of Generals Bee and Bartow, with whom he had parted, only a few days before, when they came to Selma to say good bye, at the last moment, before riding at the head of their respective commands from Winchester to Manassas. He also paid fitting tributes to the young men, some of them mere boys, from Frederick and the adjoining counties, who had fallen in this battle, among them were Peyton Harrison, Jr., David Barton and the two brothers, Holmes and Tucker Conrad, all of them sons of friends he had loved from his own youth ; per haps he felt the more deeply from the fact that his own two brothers had gone through the same fight unhurt. His term of service in the Confederate Congress was very short, for on August 29th, he was appointed by the President to be " Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America, near the Government of Her Majesty, the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland." It was thought important he should be in London at as early a day as possible, so he lost no time in arranging his affairs for his absence ; and on September 25th reported in Rich mond ready to sail. In taking leave of his family, he gave them but few directions, said he relied confidently upon Mrs. Mason s discretion to guide her and her daughters in any emergency that might arise; and felt fully assured they would be well and kindly cared for by his friends in Richmond, as well as by those in Winchester. He expressed the wish that the family silver should be given into the public treasury, to be melted into coin, if there should ever be need for it ; and urged, as his last request, that his wife and daughters would never allow themselves to be within the enemies lines, but would make whatever sacrifices might be required to enable them to go, if necessary, from place to place until they reached the last village in the Confederacy. When urged to take with him one of his daughters, whose com panionship, and whose assistance as an amanuensis was thought to be indispensable to his comfort, he said nothing could induce him to incur for his wife or daughters any possible risk of capture. " Moreover," said he, " the boys need their mother near them in case they should be wounded, and turning to his daugh ters he added, " You, girls, will be of more value to me if you are with your mother to aid, to cheer and to comfort her, than you LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. could possibly be in any other way, no matter how great a pleasure your presence with me could ever prove." For his own safety he had no fear, nor had he any apprehensions or doubts as to the triumphant success of the Confederate Govern ment in establishing and maintaining its independence. This confident assurance is evinced in all his letters and dispatches. Extracts from them tell the story of the next four years. " CHARLESTON, S. C., October Qth, 1861. " My Very Dear Wife: I expect to dispatch this to-morrow as my last missive before going. The hope now is of getting off to-morrow night under a plan of increased safety ; the Nashville is abandoned because of the difficulty of getting out, arising from the draft of water incident to her size. She will go, how ever, on account of the Government and take the risk, probably to-night. We have, by authority of the Government chartered a smaller, but very safe steamer, called the Gordon, to take us either to Nassau (an island of the Bahamas off the coast of Florida), or to Havana, at our option. There is no risk of our being seen by the enemy as we go out, as we can run close to shore, and her speed is our security at sea. She can reach Havana in seventy hours, and then we go by the regular line of British steamers, the largest class of packets. I think thus, after much delay, we are on the right track ; but nothing is to be said of all this, until you hear that we are off, as you shall do by earliest telegram. "FRIDAY, nth October. There has intervened the usual delay in getting a steamer ready, but now writing to you at 5 o clock p. m., we are assured that we shall be off to-night as soon as the moon goes down at midnight, and we have made all preparations accordingly. Our boat is a strong " Line Steamer " well known in these waters as the fastest afloat, and we have chartered her, by authority of the Government at $10,000 to place us in Havana; so you see how valuable we are considered. Mr. SlideU s family and Mrs. Eustis accompany us, still I am satisfied that I did not take either of the girls, although, probably no real risk, I could not dismiss apprehensions. Tres- cott will telegraph you of our safe departure through the State Department. I am perfectly well and leave the country in high 200 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. hope and buoyant. Again, my dear wife, invoking the care and blessing of Heaven on you and our dear children, " I am, as ever, most affectionately yours, "J. M. MASON." " AT SEA, OFF THE SOUTHERN END OF THE ISLAND OF ABAGO. "(ONE OF THE BAHAMAS), October I4th, 1861. " Here we are, my dear wife, on the deep blue sea ; clear of all the Yankees. We ran the blockade in splendid style on Saturday morning at i a. m. ; a dark, rainy night such as the enemy thought no sinner would be abroad in, passed within sight of the lights of the blockading squadron, but I presume without being observed by them, as we made no noise that we were aware of; we had a light, rapid steamer and she went by under press of steam. So it was, we got clear, and now, having run about six hundred miles, are within four hours of Nassau (island of New Providence, Bahama), a British possession, which will be our first stopping place ; the steamer being under our control for the voyage. (You will see the Bahama group on the map im mediately off the coast of Florida.) We stop at Nassau to learn about the English line of steamers, and where we had better join the next packet ; thence to Havana, which is not more than twelve hours run, and where (stopping a few hours at Nassau) we expect to be on Wednesday, the i6th. Could we have ordered everything it could not have been more propitious ; first, in the dark, rainy night to get out ; and since in the finest, calmest weather, our little egg-shell of a bark delights in. The first day out we had a spirited breeze, since then, the sea has been as calm and smooth as a lake, and yet so continues. The long heavy swell, however, which belongs to old ocean, made everybody on board sick, even including Slidell, but myself. I have never felt the slightest qualm, but had a good appetite and a clear head all the time. We have with us Mrs. Slidell and three daughters and son, aged fifteen, and Mrs. Eustis. The ladies did not appear for twenty-four hours and hardly yet have their feet under them. The sun is rather hot in these latitudes, but even in the absence of a breeze, the rapid motion of the boat gives us a fine and cool air. " We shall take the first English steamer we can find for LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2OI England, but we may have to wait for some days in Cuba for her departure. Should this detention occur, we shall go out into the country to avoid risk of sickness in Havana, although, it is said that at this season the place is healthy. But having run the blockade successfully everything else is plain sailing, because under any foreign flag we are safe from molestation. Mr. Tres- cott promised to send you a telegram through the Department of State, and to write you by mail of Sunday if we got safely out, so that I am flattering myself you and our dear circle have heard, long ere this of our success. You must tell me in your next letter when you heard of our departure and what? I am curious to know how far those we left on shore could judge of our safety ; we had no one to send back. I write this to keep you au-courant of our movements across the ocean, and I shall finish it at Havana to go back by the steamer, lately the Gordon, now, the Theodora. To confuse the enemy, they change names here with little scruple. " WEDNESDAY, October i6th, off the coast of Cuba. " We stopped at Nassau on Monday afternoon and found no steamer running thence except to New York ; made the coast of Cuba at 10 a. m. this morning, and soon fell in with a small Spanish steamer of war, whom we boarded and there learned that we were just too late for the English steamer, and should have to wait there three weeks. " We shall land at a small town, called Cardenas, about one hundred miles down the coast from Havana, and to avoid risk of fever shall go into the high and cool lands. At any rate, we are safe from the Yankees and henceforth under a foreign flag. I have pencilled this to go back by the Theodora, the nom de guerre of the Gordon. It will assure you and our dear children of my safety and will bear to you the love and affection of, my dear wife, Yours ever, " T. M. MASON." "CARDENAS, CUBA., October i8th, 1861. " My Dear Wife: Landed safely at last, and have the Yan kees at defiance. We got here the day before yesterday, escorted in from sea by a Spanish man-of-war we found cruising off the 202 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. coast, and who, finding- who we were (we sent aboard to him), offered that grateful courtesy. I wrote you of my voyage fully from sea, and left it on board the ship. I shall send this to meet her at Havana, whither she proceeded after landing us. We have been received here with great kindness and hospitality. The local Governor and the principal men of the city have called on us, and tendered us every civility. We had determined to go to Havana (one hundred miles off) at once, but a Mr. Cazanova, who married a Virginia girl, hearing by dispatch to him by telegraph, on his plantation, of our arrival, hastened to town, and has, in the kindest and most urgent manner, insisted upon the whole party (some fifteen in number), becoming his guests during our stay on the island, and to carry it out engaged a special train of cars to carry us within two miles of his house. A plain unassuming gentleman, who has spent much time in the United States. We accept, of course, and I think I shall remain there two or three days and then go to Havana or rather to some healthy place in its vicinity. The weather here is rather warm, the thermometer ranging from 96 to 98, and mosquitoes ad libitum, but I was never in better health, and it is said, the island is free from fever. We shall have full time for recon- noissance, as the British steamer, only making monthly trips, does not leave here until the 9th of November. Everything, as you may suppose, is new, or rather strange, and to our eyes outre, but the people know our mission and accost us kindly and without ceremony on the street, wishing us every success in our struggle at home and a safe voyage. If a chance offers to a Southern port, I will write again before we sail. " Best love to all our dear circle. " Yours, my dear wife, always, " J. M. MASON." " HAVANA, October 29th, 1861. " My Dear Wife: I have a chance to write to you and to the dear circle at home, by a small vessel to sail to-day, and it is thought will get into some port in the Confederate States. Still at Havana, and although everything is new, yet the in tolerable heat forbids any enjoyment of it; the thermometer in the day 98 and 100, but the nights endurable; to walk a few LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. hundred yards disables you for the day ; but there is little temp tation to walk, the streets are so narrow ; and the sidewalks don t allow two persons to pass ; narrow balconies over the streets are so near that persons in opposite houses can converse without raising the voice. We have been received here with marked attention by the inhabitants, all of whose sympathies are with the Confederate States, from the Captain-General down. As an evidence, the ladies of Havana got up a large silk Con federate flag and presented it to the ship that brought us here, and under which, floating from the masthead, she sailed out of the harbor on her way home; we, of course, have not heard of her since, but our prayers for her safety went with her. The name, you will recollect, is the Theodora; look for her arrival. As I wrote you from Cardenas, we went thence to the plantation of Mr. Cazanova, a very large sugar estate, where we were most sumptuously entertained from Saturday until Tuesday then came here. The Cazanovas are people of great wealth, and, from our experience, of profuse hospitality ; the estate, we were told, yields two thousand hogsheads of sugar, and he has two coffee plantations adjoining, besides other estates in the island; carriages, horses, and negroes without stint. There are many planters here of inordinate wealth ; saw on the estate twenty or thirty negroes just from Africa and plenty of Coolies (Chinese) as much slaves as the Africans. The gay season in Havana is just beginning, and we are invited to balls innumerable; the Slidells don t go because they are in mourning, and I declined on many pretexts, the true cause, the heat. We called, of course, on the Captain-General, by appointment. He returned the call by a card. He begged we would command him for anything we desired. The fruit here is certainly exquisite; on the plantation especially, we enjoyed it. The usage is, in the morning about seven, a cup of coffee, and after that oranges; breakfast a Id fourchette at 10 o clock, stews, haricots, fish, etc., etc., and claret ; at i o clock lunch of fruit all pulled fresh from the trees, pine apples in perfection, oranges of every shape and flavor, and delicious bananas, guavas, yuccas, and a long catalogue of others, the beverage cocoanut water, from the cocoanut fruit; dinner at five, and very recherche; and a dozen servants. We are to sail from here on the 6th of November, to meet the English LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. steamer at St. Thomas, an island of the British West Indies, some eight hundred miles off, and shall reach London about the 28th. I wrote a few days since, to your sister Anne by a steamer sailing for New York, and after I get to London, and have an address, will write to Henry about our affairs. Then too, my dear wife, I shall hope to have some accounts from home, for which, Heaven knows how much I long. " God bless and preserve you all is the prayer of yours, my dear wife, ever, " T. M. MASON/ " UNITED STATES SHIP SAN JACINTO, " Off the Capes of Virginia, Nov. 15, 1861. " My Very Dear Wife: The date of this will show you that we have been captured and are on the way to New York ; the ship will put into Hampton Roads for coal. Captain Wilkes has been good enough to say that he will give this to the officers at Fort Monroe to take the chances of being sent to Norfolk by any flag of truce that may offer. We left Havana on the 7th inst. on board a British mail steamer bound for England, and on the next day, this ship fell in with us at sea, and Captain Wilkes, the commander, it seems, felt himself authorized to demand us from the English captain, and here we are. As to all questions arising from the circumstances attending our capture, it would not become me to discuss them here, as my letter will, of course pass under inspection. Mr. Eustis, Slidell, Macfarland and my self were taken, the ladies proceeded on the voyage to England. Of course, there will be all sorts of conjecture in the newspapers concerning our capture and its consequences, but I have only to say, my dear wife, that you should not permit your mind to be affected by them, and draw no other inference from my silence concerning them except that I, of necessity, write under re straint. " In the meantime I assure you and our dear ones at home that I was never in better health in my life, and in no manner depressed, as I beg you will not be. We have been treated with every possible courtesy by Captain Wilkes and his officers, and are guests in the cabin. I suppose we shall get to New York on Sunday or Monday next, the I7th or i8th, and in due time LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. presume the papers will tell what disposition is made of us. I do not know whether I can write to you, but, if allowed, will do so, and may have it in my power to tell you through what chan nel you can write. Macfarland will attend to your affairs, and have no care about mine, which are ample. I have one great consolation always present that while I am deprived of the power of watching over and advising you, I feel entire reliance upon the efficiency and excellence of our children and the kind friends around you. Should you find the means of writing to me let me have full details of domestic, but nothing of public affairs. I can only add, my dear wife, my prayers for your safety and that of our loved ones at home. " Yours most affectionately, "J. M. MASON. " My love to Anna, Kate, and all our circle and friends." " FORT WARREN, 29th November, 1861. "My Very Dear Wife: An officer returning South on parole enables me to write you more at length. Your first anxiety, I know, is for my health and comfort; you and our dear children may be assured of both. " We four have two rooms and a closet attached, good beds ; and are allowed to get from Boston anything we want, and also have a good servant. We mess with the Maryland prisoners and officers of the army and navy confined here; and I have never met a finer body of gentlemen. Our table is superintended by a committee of the mess; and besides, supplies ad libitum and daily from Boston, everything that is good and homelike comes to us from Baltimore, fine hams by the dozen, turkeys, sad dles of mutton, and canvasbacks. Indeed we have a better daily table than any hotel affords ; and whatever wine or other luxuries we choose. We are at entire liberty in the building, which is very large, no espionage, and allowed to walk at pleasure within ample limits in the enclosure. Colonel Dimmick, who com mands, and the officers under him always courteous and kind. I have supplied myself from Boston abundantly with warm cloth ing and have, therefore, really nothing to complain of personally but the loss of liberty. We have a daily boat from Boston, seven miles off, which brings us all the newspapers and frequent letters 2 o6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. from as far south as Maryland. My anxieties now are for the dear ones at home. In late letters I told you how to write to me, enclosing your letter open to General Benjamin Huger, Norfolk. Not a word have I had since yours to me at Charleston, of 3Oth September. I have had kind notes and offers of any personal service from friends in Boston; and strangers in the States around send frequent supplies of turkeys and poultry to the prisoners. It is pretty hard, to be sure, to be seized and shut up, but beyond that nothing oppressive has been shown. In my last letter, I sent you some postage stamps of the United States to be put on your letters, send me a few of the Confederate States to be used on mine. Tell me of Kate and her children and whether Dorsey has heard anything of his concerns at home ; and where my boys are? and what you hear of *George? My best regards to our kind friends at home. " Of course, I can say nothing beyond personal matters. " Always hope for the best and pay no regard to the specu lations and tracassories of the Northern press. Commending you and our dear ones, each by name, to the kind care of Him who watches over all, " I am, my dear wife, ever yours, "J. M. M." " FORT WARREN, 3d December, 1861. "My Very Dear Wife: Your letter of the 2ist November, with those of our dear children, came to me two days ago ; never were tidings from home more welcome. They not only assure me of your safety and welfare, but were all in the right spirit for the times. Before this, I hope, you will have received my two letters from here, and had your anxieties removed concerning what might pertain to my health and comfort. " Indeed I have nothing but the detention of my person to complain of; no privilege consistent with that is refused. That, to be sure, comprises a great deal to one who never before, since manhood, was under restraint. Indeed you might look the world over, and you would find nowhere, in the same space, a finer body of gentlemen assembled, and we are allowed free intercourse. Besides army and navy officers, we have here, I *His son in Texas. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. think, twenty-three members of the Maryland Legislature, the Mayor of Baltimore, and the Police Commissioners of that city, of whom your cousin Charles Howard is one, and with him, his son F. Key Howard ; so have no concern about my health or want of society. We have all the newspapers daily, and any books we want are tendered us from Boston. " I must close ; there is a rule about the length of letters which I may have already transcended. Tell the girls they must consider my letters equally addressed to them, including M., with thanks for her kind and affectionate note. My best regards to our kind friends in Winchester. " Ever, my dear wife, yours, " J. M. M. " In my late letters I endorsed my name as prisoner, etc., on the envelope, it was to substitute a postage stamp in Virginia; send me some. Don t think of joining me; even were it possible to get here, you would hardly be allowed to see me, certainly not to remain with me." " FORT WARREN, I2th December, 1861. " I was gratified yesterday, my dear wife, by the receipt of yours of the 2d inst. with one from Johnny. Tell him, with my best love, that I congratulate him upon the good fortune he so richly has merited. I have little to tell you of the short and simple annals of our prison house, except that we are allowed to make ourselves very comfortable indoors, and, so far, the weather has not been inclement outside. We have ample space for walking and, as I have told you, a most agreeable set of gentlemen, our fellow-sojourners. " Mr. Falkner has been allowed to go to Virginia on parole ; he has promised to see you at Selma and tell you of my sur roundings. " Can t you be a little more explicit about home matters? Do you get gas and coal? and if not have you good supplies of wood? and what substitute for gas? I get frequent notes from Teko, there being no interdict to the mail in the U. S. and the surveillance of no moment in her letters. You must give my best regards to each one of the servants and tell them how much gratified I am by your accounts of them, particularly to William, 20 S LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. for his offer to join me here. We have here all the troops taken at Hatteras, N. C., and amongst them many whom we employ, for a perquisite, as attendants. The one with our party is very attentive and valuable. Send me extracts from Jemmy s letters so far as to show his spirit and temper, nothing farther. My best love to our dear daughters, each and every one. Let one, at least of them write whenever you do and this should be, at least, once a week; I do not suppose such frequency would be objected to. " Ever, my dear wife, yours, "J. M. M. " Since writing the above, I have received dear V. s and L/s letters of the 2ist November, sent through Mr. Dallas, but not a line from him. Thank V. and L. with my love." The next letter announces his release from prison, for which happy event he was indebted to the interference of the English Government. " FORT WARREN, January ist, 1862. "My Dear Wife: Time before leaving the Fort for but a line. We are just going on board a steamer, to be placed, at sea, on board a British steamer for England. I am in perfect health and buoyant will write by first chance as you all must. " God bless you all. " J. M. M." This capture of the Commissioners, or as the incident is commonly known, the " Trent Affair," attracted, at the time, world-wide attention and interest, because it involved important questions of international law, the persons captured having been as much under the protection of the English flag while passengers on board an English mail steamer as they would have been in the streets of London. Consequently, the arrest was considered in England to be an insult to the English Govern ment, and as soon as the " Trent " reached England and re ported the affair to the Government, a special dispatch was sent, by the sloop-of-war " Rinaldo," to the British Minister at Washington (Lord Lyons), instructing him to demand that the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. four gentlemen, thus taken prisoners, should be immediately released and placed again under British protection. The scope of this narrative does not admit of any descrip tion of the excitement caused, by this incident, in both the United States and England. Mr. Mason left, among his private papers, a detailed account of his experience from the time of his departure from Charleston to his arrival in London. It has never before been published, and is now carefully copied from the original paper: " In September, 1861, pursuant to authority of a law of the Confederate States of America, I was appointed by the Presi dent with the advice and consent of the Senate, as Special Com missioner to the Government of England. " John Slidell, Esq., of Louisiana, was at the same time, and in like manner, appointed Special Commissioner to France. The Commissioners were invested with the usual diplomatic powers of Ministers Plenipotentiary. At that time the ports of the Con federate States were under close blockade by the enemy. In order to facilitate their getting out of the country, the Govern ment purchased at Charleston in South Carolina a fast steamer, which had theretofore run between that port and New York as a mail packet, called the Nashville/ and put her in command of Captain Pegram of the navy, with a naval crew. She was unarmed, the object being, as far as practicable, to ensure speed. " Mr. Slidell and I met at Richmond on the 24th of Septem ber in that year (1861), and, after receiving our respective in structions, proceeded to Charleston to embark, where we arrived on the 2d of October. Mr. Slidell was here joined by his family, consisting of Mrs. Slidell, two daughters, and son, a boy of twelve or thirteen years of age, and also by George Eustis, Esq., of Louisiana, who, with Mrs. Eustis, was to accompany him as Secretary of Legation. James E. Macfarland, Esq., of Virginia, accompanied me as Secretary of Legation to England. After much consultation with the naval officers and others best acquainted with the harbour of Charleston, we determined that the Nashville, from her draught, made our safe passage of the bar, except under the most favourable concurrence of wind and tide, very uncertain. The harbour was at that time blockaded by three steamers, a frigate and sloop of war, all in full sight 2IO LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. from the city, and some six or seven miles distant. Under these circumstances, as the Government had a great object in getting the Commissioners successfully off, Mr. Slidell and I advised that, in lieu of the Nashville, we should be allowed to charter the steamer Gordon/ a small river boat of unusual speed, to take us to one of the West Indian Islands, where we could meet the West Indian mail steamer for England. This was acceded to by the Government, and the Gordon was chartered accord ingly to take us with our suites to Nassau, and if required to Havana, at the price of $10,000, the Government guaranteeing her at the value of $60,000 out and back. She drew but seven feet of water, was in all respects well found, and we were satis fied that the contract was fair and reasonable. The arrangement thus made, everything was hastened for our departure, and very soon the ship was reported ready. We embarked on the night of the 1 2th of October; it had been a clear and bright day, the moon, which shone in the earlier part of the night, would disappear below the horizon at midnight. We were all on board, attended by a large party of friends ; the sky during the night had become overcast with clouds ; at 12 o clock precisely the order was given to cast loose from the moorings, friends ex changed a hasty, and anxious farewell, with many an earnest wish for a prosperous voyage, and we were off. The absence of the moon and the presence of the clouds made it very dark, and to add to our good fortune, it began to rain, an accessary we had not counted on to facilitate our escape. The name of the steamer, I should have said, had been changed after the charter from the Gordon to the Theodora, a practice much resorted to by those who run the blockade to puzzle any curious enquirer. The steamer proceeded at a moderate rate, keeping Fort Sumter between her and the enemy, for the first three miles, and during this time every arrangement was made to preserve perfect still ness and quiet ; all lights were carefully extinguished : we were seated on the deck, malgre the rain, and before passing Fort Sumter even our cigars were relinquished. " Our speed had gradually increased as we advanced, and after passing the Fort the little Theodora was put to her utmost power. Although it continued to rain hard, there was little or no wind. The lights on board the blockading ships LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. 2II came presently more and more distinctly before us, at first in front, then abreast, and then astern. We had passed the block ading squadron, and manifestly without being observed or heard. Captain Lockwood, commanding the Theodora, and the pilots, said that we had passed within a mile and a half of the nearest ship, being enabled to hug the shore by reason of our light draught. It was a moment of intense excitement and anxiety, though comparatively but a moment. In less than an hour after we had passed Fort Sumter we were far beyond the reach of the blockaders, and had retired comfortably and confidently to our berths, nor did we hear anything more of the enemy from that quarter. Our plan being to intercept the British West Indian mail at the nearest island where it touched, we steered direct for Nassau and arrived off the port on the afternoon of the I4th. Communicating with the shore, we learned that the mail steamers did not touch at that island, nor could we reach them at a point nearer than Havana. Thus without landing, and after but short delay, we proceeded on our voyage across the Bahama banks to Cardenas, the nearest port in the Island of Cuba. Pass ing over the Bahama banks, we sailed for some eighty miles, with no land in sight, and with the water ranging from only seven to eight or nine feet deep; and this phenomenon was the more striking, because the coral bottom of uniform white made the water appear of unusual transparency, and of less than its real depth thus we had for a long distance a full view of the bottom of the sea. At daylight on the morning of the i6th, we had the coast of Cuba in view, distance some eight or ten miles, and in view also, a steamer about midway between us and the coast, steering west along the coast, and distance some four or five miles. She was soon made out to be a ship of war, and under the Spanish flag each vessel continuing on its course, she would soon have left us, but in a very short time the stranger put about and made directly to intercept us. This was the first steamer we had seen since we left Charleston, nor indeed had we met with any sail, except an occasional little schooner. A hurried consultation was held whether we should change our course, or wait his com ing nearer, but the nautical men on board were so confident from his build, and other evidences, that he was bona-fide a Spaniard that we boldly diverged from our course to meet him and ran up 2I2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the Confederate flag. When the two ships were in less than a mile of each other, the stranger again altered his course west- wardly. On this indication our flag was dipped, a salutation that was immediately returned, when we made a signal that we desired to speak him. The two ships then approached each other slowly, shutting off steam, when about a hundred yards apart. Mr. Slidell, who spoke the Spanish language, accom panied by Mr. Eustis, then went aboard. :i They returned in a short time and reported that it was a small Spanish war steamer cruising as a Guarda Costa, com manded by a young officer who had the manner and deportment of an urbane and accomplished gentleman ; that the Spanish captain reported that so far as he knew there was no Federal cruiser off the island. Mr. Slidell told him who we were, our mission and that we were bound for Cardenas as the nearest port in Cuba, but that, if he, the Spaniard, was bound for Havana, then some hundred miles distant, and would give us convoy we would go on to that port. The officer very courte ously expressed his regret that his orders would not carry him so far down the coast, but that he would, with great pleasure, accompany and give us safe convoy to Cardenas ; an offer that Mr. Slidell accepted, and the Guarda Costa accordingly passed ahead and we followed in his wake, without further incident to Cardenas. " We anchored off the town of Cardenas in the afternoon of the i6th of October, and very soon were boarded by an officer from the Custom House, who said, according to port regulations neither passenger nor baggage could be landed with out a permit from the Captain-General at Havana. He was very civil and polite after learning" who we were. We told him that we had no cargo, that there was nothing to land but the Commissioners with their families and suites with their baggage still he persisted that nothing could be landed but under a permit from Havana, and very courteously offered immediately to communicate by telegraph with the authorities at Havana, expressing his belief that an answer could be received in time to enable the party to land and sleep on shore, and he took his departure. It was soon understood in the city who were on board the steamer just arrived under the Confederate flag, and LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. very soon several gentlemen came off in boats bringing with them very acceptable baskets of the tropical fruits. They learned our difficulty about landing, but said it was at least but a mere matter of form; that the permit would, of course, come from Havana, and that in advance of it we might safely land in our ship s boats, taking with us only such small parcels of baggage as might be convenient for the toilet of the night, and thus could not be questioned by Custom House regulation. The ladies of the party caught eagerly at the suggestion they were very tired of the voyage and the discomforts of our small steamer, and, as they expressed it, could not resist the tempta tion of the ample apartments of the promised hotel with its accessories. " They determined to go, and took little account of Custom- House etiquette of course, some of the gentlemen went with them. They conformed to the observances suggested so far as to take with them only small traveling bags and other like appendages which could be carried in the hands of their atten dants. Quand a moi, I did not choose to make any issue with the Custom-House regulations and, therefore, remained on board. Cardenas is comparatively a new town, with a good harbour and about one hundred miles distant from Havana, with which it communicates by railroad. Our little steamer Theodora/ after landing us, proceeded to Havana, and our plan was, after resting for a day or two at Cardenas, to go to Havana and wait there the sailing of the West India mail steamer for England. The local Governor of Cardenas called upon us the day after our arrival, and was very civil and courteous in his proffer of hospi talities, indeed we found the whole population of the city earnestly and warmly enlisted in the interests of the South. After remaining three days in Cardenas, we accepted the urgent and kind invitation of Mr. Cazanova to visit him at his plantation, which we could reach by a railroad, distant about thirty miles, on our way to Havana. This young gentleman it seemed, had been in the United States, and on one occasion a guest at a party at Mr. Slidell s in Washington, and upon the small claim so presented by him his earnestness could not be resisted. On the following day, we found, that to make the excursion entirely agreeable to the ladies, he had provided a special train to leave LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. at such hour as they might indicate. Arriving at the station, which was on the plantation, we found any number of volantes and saddle horses awaiting us. The Senora Cazanova, I found was a young lady from Frederick County in Maryland, married within the year, and whose sister was the wife of a near relative of mine in that State. It was a large sugar plantation of some three hundred slaves, one of several that belonged to the father of our host, the old gentleman lived principally in Havana. We spent three days with great pleasure and interest, informing ourselves in plantation life and sugar planting in Cuba, and on the 22d, we went to Havana. " The West India mail line from England to Mexico we learned, touched Havana and was due on the return trip to England, on the 7th of November. Mr. Crawford, the British Consul, was the agent for this line at Havana, and we took our passage and registered our names, accordingly, with him. I should remark here that we were indebted to this gentleman for many acts of courtesy and hospitality. In the absence of any resident officer of the Confederate Government he called, on our part, upon the Count de Serrano, the Captain-General of Cuba, and expressed our desire to call upon, and tender to him our respects. The answer was that the Captain-General would receive us with pleasure the next day at 2 o clock, but that for reasons that we could appreciate, it could only be in unofficial form. Mr. Slidell and I, with our respective secretaries, called, accordingly, the next day at the Palace at the hour named and were very kindly received the conversation was only on gen eral subjects including the progress and prospects of the war in regard to which, although not directly expressed, it was mani fest that his sympathies were with us. The following day the visit was returned by his card. About the close of this month (October) the United States steamer San Jacinto, Captain Wilkes, arrived at Havana and anchored in the harbour it was said that she called for coal she remained some two or three days and sailed, it was said, for the United States. " This ship was on her return from the coast of Africa, where she had been some two or three years, as part of the squadron on that coast. Captain Wilkes had been sent out, some LIFE OF JAMES MURRAT MASON. six or eight months before, to relieve the officers in command of that squadron, and to bring this ship home. Our presence in Havana and our mission to Europe as well as our purpose to embark in the mail steamer which was to leave Havana on the 7th of November was well known in the city. We knew it had been spoken of and commented on by the Consul of the United States at Havana and thus would, of course, reach the ear of Captain Wilkes, beside which I had visits at my hotel from *two of the officers of that ship. Of course, in conversation with these gentlemen, I imparted nothing touching our plans or pur poses but, in the manner above noted, it became fully known to Captain Wilkes that we were to embark in the mail steamer for England via St. Thomas on the 7th of November. When he sailed, some seven or eight days previous, it was announced in continuation of his voyage he had gone direct to the United States, nor did he leave behind a suspicion or intimation of a purpose to waylay us. " We left Havana on the morning of the 7th of Novem ber in the English Royal Mail Steamer The Trent/ Captain Moir, for Southampton, England, via the Island of St. Thomas. The Trent had touched only at Havana on her way from Vera Cruz in Mexico ; there were some eighty passengers, most of them Englishmen or from the English Colonies. On the fol lowing day, the 8th, when passing along the old Bahama channel, the usual and direct course of the voyage, in sight of and about ten miles distant from the coast of Cuba, about mid-day a steamer was made out from the deck, distant in the haze some five or six miles without motion and directly across our path. As we advanced, the Captain and others, observing through their glasses, declared her a war steamer she lay perfectly motionless with steam shut off and showed no flag. The Captain, eyeing her closely, reported that she lay in mid-channel in a position apparently taken to cut us off and that she must mean mischief this was said to Mr. Slidell and myself, whom he had drawn aside on deck for the purpose. We continued directly on our course and without change of speed, when within a mile or a mile * The account given of these visitors has been omitted, since it con tains nothing of public interest or history. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and a half the Captain of the Trent displayed his flag at the main and peak, very soon after which a shot was fired by the San Jacinto across our bow the flag of the Trent/ which had been continued up for several minutes and then lowered, was again raised, the Trent never checking her speed, or changing her course when about a quarter of a mile distant, a shell was thrown from the San Jacinto again across her bow, which struck the water and exploded a short distance from her. Captain Moir then slackened his speed and shut off steam within speaking distance of the San Jacinto/ He hailed and enquired, What do you want? The answer was, We 11 send a boat aboard/ During this time, I was sitting aft on the quarter deck waiting events, most of the passengers were on deck amid- ship, and amongst them were seated Mr. Slidell and his family. T sat still observing the movements on board the San Jacinto. I should have stated above that the San Jacinto hoisted the United States flag for the first time when she fired the first shot. A boat put off from the San Jacinto and from the side opposite to us ; as she came around the stern of the ship, I saw that she was a large boat with a crew of some twenty men armed with cutlasses and pistols in their belts, I thought then for the first time with Captain Moir, that she meant mischief/ My first impression was to provide for the safety of our papers. I accordingly called to Mr. Macfarland and asked him to take the dispatch bag which contained my public papers, credentials, instructions, etc., and which was in my state-room, and deliver it to the mail agent of the steamer, to tell him what it was and ask him to lock it up in his mail-room, and I told him at the same time to make the same suggestion to Mr. Slidell. I was seated on the quarter-deck at some distance from the rest of the pas sengers and thus this direction was unobserved and unheard. Before the boat from the San Jacinto reached our ship, Com mander Williams of the Royal Navy, who had charge of the mails on board, came to me where I was seated and reported that he had the dispatch bags of Mr. Slidell and myself locked up in his mail-room. Of which said he, I have the key in my pocket and whatever their objects may be they must pass over my body before they enter that room/ I told him in a few words that the bags contained the public papers of Mr. Slidell LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and myself and requested, if we were separated from them, that he would see to their delivery to some one of the Commissioners of the Confederate States, Messrs. Yancey, Rost, and Mann, who were then in London, which he promised faithfully to do. On our arrival at London, we found the bags with their con tents unharmed in the possession of those gentlemen. When the boat from the San Jacinto reached the Trent, the board ing officer alone came on board, leaving the crew in the boat, and ascended to the upper deck where the passengers were assembled amidship. I could see from where I was seated that he was holding a conversation with our Captain, though I could not hear what was said. Mr. Slidell was sitting- a little apart from the group in which were the ladies of his family, and from the glances interchanged between them I suspected that we were the subjects of discussion. Very soon Mr. Slidell rose and advancing toward the officer said in a tone that reached my ear, I am Mr. Slidell/ I then immediately advanced to the group and near the boarding officer. At that moment he was in a dis cussion, somewhat excited on the part of the latter, with Captain Moir. When near to him, he addressed me by name but with a manner perfectly respectful. He said, Mr. Mason, I am Lieuten ant Fairfax of the United States ship San Jacinto/ and I am ordered by Captain Wilkes, who commands the ship, to take you with Mr. Slidell, Mr. Eustis, and Mr. Macfarland, and to carry you on board his ship/ My reply, Very well, sir, execute your orders/ He said, Will you go with me ? My answer, Cer tainly not unless compelled by force greater than I can over come. I know my rights I am under the protection of a neutral flag and will be taken from that protection only by force/ The Lieutenant said, I trust, sir, you will not require me to use force upon your person ; it would be the most painful act of my life to do so/ My reply, You must decide that for yourself, I can only repeat that I will not leave this ship unless compelled by a force which I can not overcome/ As I have said the whole deportment of the Lieutenant was respectful and forbear ing. During our colloquy, which was overheard by the pas sengers, they became very much excited and interjected many angry and defiant remarks. I had not heard the earlier con versation with our Captain (presently referred to), but whilst 2I $ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MAKOJf. this conversation proceeded, 4ie more than once interposed his protest in the most decided manner, expressing his regret that his ship was unarmed, declaring that were it otherwise Captain Wilkes would never dare so great an outrage upon his flag. Commander Williams too, the mail agent, advanced to Lieuten ant Fairfax and addressed him pretty nearly as follows, in a calm and deliberate manner : * I am an officer, sir, of the Royal Navy, as you will see from my uniform, and thus the only im mediate representative of my Government on board this ship- in that character and speaking for my Government, I denounce your act, and that of your commanding officer as an infamous act of piracy. I am going directly to England and shall so report it to my Government. Mr. Slidell bore his part in the conversa tion pretty much of the same tenor as mine. To end the scene, I said to the Lieutenant, It is idle to prolong this conversation ; I have told you my determination, to which I adhere. You have abundant force at hand and it rests with you to use it. As I have said we were on the upper deck ; the state-rooms were on the deck next below, and on that deck also was the gangway at the side of the ship. The Lieutenant descended to the lower deck to communicate with his boat. I went down also to go to my state-room. Mr. Slidell, with his family, also went down about the same time, and we were followed by most if not all the passengers. Before I left the upper deck, I observed two other large boats each with a crew of some twenty or twenty-five men, armed, and in one of them a squadron of marines passing from the San Jacinto to our ship. It appeared afterwards from the report of Lieutenant Fairfax, that apprehending resistance, he had, by signal, called for this additional force. When we reached the lower deck, Mr. Slidell went with Mrs. Slidell into his state room which was near amidship and in full view of those stand ing by, he remained there arranging with Mrs. Slidell matters that might be useful to her in Europe in the event of their abrupt separation. " The Lieutenant in the meantime had called on board and stationed on the lower deck in front of us some twenty or thirty sailors, armed with pistols and cutlasses, with the squad of marines having- muskets with bayonets fixed; the residue of his force remained alongside in their boats. Seeing our removal LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. thus inevitable I asked the Lieutenant if I might go to my state room and put up such portions of my luggage as was out of the trunks ; he replied, at once, and courteously, in the affirmative. I was absent but a few minutes when I returned I found Mr. Slidell still in his state-room, where he appeared to be in con versation with Mrs. Slidell at the end farthest from the door. His eldest daughter (quite a young lady), stood in the doorway with her arms extended grasping each postern, thus obstructing the entrance, whilst the Lieutenant stood in her front earnestly but respectfully remonstrating with her and asking permission to pass. I paused for a moment at the door and said to her I thought she had better go into the state-room and leave the difficulty to be settled by her father and myself, but the faithful daughter stood equally silent and unmoved, in the vain hope that she could thus protect her father ; she appeared not to hear a word that was addressed to her. "f o end the distressing scene Mr. Slidell had gotten out of a window which opened on the deck in the rear of and unseen by his daughter. The Lieutenant then said, Gentlemen, I hope you will now go with me/ I replied, I have only to reiterate what I said at first, I will not leave the ship unless compelled by force greater than I can over come. The Lieutenant then took hold of my person, as did three or four of his men by his order, and by like order they laid hands upon Mr. Slidell. We then said we had no alterna tive but to yield to force and would accompany him; those hav ing hold of us released their grasp and we proceeded to the gangway (our Secretaries, Messrs. Eustis and Macfarland, ex pressing their purpose to be guided by us, went with us), accom panied by the Lieutenant. Miss Slidell was not aware that her father had left the state-room, which she thought she still guarded, until she saw him moving off in custody when, with a distressing cry, she fell into the arms of her mother. As we moved off to the gangway, our fellow passengers, who were vehemently excited and were venting bitter execrations at what was passing, pressed upon us in a body, when the marines pre sented their guns at a charge as if to intercept them the move ment was so marked that I paused and said a word or two to them expressive of our thanks for the interest they manifested in our behalf, and pointing out to them the hopelessness of any 220 LIFE OF JA.ME8 MURRAY MASON attempt at interference on their part. We descended the steps of the gangway and got into the boat, which by order of Lieuten ant Fairfax (who remained on board the Trent ), at once pushed off and rowea for the San Jacinto/ As we left the ship, the Lieutenant said to us he would see that our baggage was all sent on board. Arriving at the San Jacinto we had to clamber up by the elects, at the side of the ship, with the aid of the pendant ropes, which, as the sea was a little rough, and not being practised mariners, we found no easy task. As we stepped on the deck, Captain Wilkes, who was standing near the gangway touched his hat and said, Captain Wilkes, gentlemen, who commands this ship ; will you please to walk into the cabin/ We found the men at quarters, the guns run out with tompions off, and everything ready for action. I replied to Captain Wilkes s invitation, We are brought on board this ship by your order, and against our will, and of course must abide your direction. He again said, Please to walk into the cabin. The cabin was on the upper deck, and we entered it attended by the Captain. He said, " Gentlemen, I wish to make you as comfortable as I can on board my ship, but regret to say there are but two state-rooms, which can be occupied by Mr. Slidell and Mr. Mason. Mr. Eustis and Mr. Macfarland will find accommodations in the ward-room, where we will do the best for them we can. He then called in his steward and said, Steward, you will under stand that the cabin and all the stores belonging to it, are at the command of these gentlemen, and you will obey their orders accordingly/ He then left the cabin and we remained in it. Through the windows of the cabin, we could see the passengers of the Trent, clustered on deck, at the side of the ship, and the boats flying between after some time Captain Wilkes again came in, and said, Gentlemen, your baggage has been brought on board; will you please to come on deck and see if it is all right? or if any stores that you desire to have, are left behind/ On examination we found the baggage all there, but some little parcels of our stores were not ; this was reported to Captain Wilkes, when a boat with an officer, bearing a memorandum from us, was despatched to bring them and they were brought accordingly. I should state also that on leaving the Trent/ Captain Moir desired the officer C3mmanding the boat to enquire LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 22I of Captain Wilkes, whether he should send any stores for the convenience of the passengers taken away and what? I did not hear the reply of Captain Wilkes, but there was sent from the Trent amongst other things, some dozens of sherry, with pitchers and basins, and other conveniences for the toilet. I note these humble appendages, as the narrative may hereafter refer to them. Learning that everything we desired was on board, Captain Wilkes gave the order for the ship to proceed on her course, and the Trent was allowed to depart. " I subjoin, in a note, a letter addressed to Captain Wilkes, soon after we were taken on his ship, by my fellow voyagers and myself, containing a narrative of the facts attending- our capture, with his reply. We thought it safe to put this on record contemporaneously the concluding paragraph, requesting that he would send it, with his report to his Government was tenta tive only, but successful as shown by his reply. His official reports, however, of the affair showed no material discrepancy between the version of the boarding officer and our own. " The two ships proceeded on their way in opposite direc tions, ours proceeding to the northward. We made the land first on the coast of Georgia, and ran in, within two or three miles, continuing up the coast; the reader may imagine our feeling, at the near view of our Southern soil from the deck of our prison ship. The coast was low and penetrated everywhere by inlets and conduits from the sea the weather was calm, the sea tranquil, and our ship proceeded at no great speed, at from two to three miles from the land. At one time we could make out a small steamer, proceeding inland up and parallel with the coast. In the occasional depressions of the land, we could see her hull, but her course was generally indicated by her smoke. At another time we passed very near and spoke a British war steamer, going in an opposite direction; she was reported as her Majesty s ship The -Steady. We were standing on deck and heard the hail and reply another trying incident to a captive, especially to one made a prisoner in a manner insulting to the flag which The Steady bore and here by way of episode, and not as a prophet after the fact, which I challenge the rather, as I vouch a witness. Walking to and fro on the decks of the San 222 LIFR OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Jacinto with Mr. Macfarland, on the day after our capture, I reasoned out each subsequent event as it afterwards happened. " My knowledge of the principles of public law, assured me that the act "of Captain Wilkes could never be sustained, and I felt equally certain, that the demand of England would be categorical, and with no room for evasion. "I said to Mr. Macfarland, the report of this occurrence in England, to be made when the Trent arrives, will produce a profound sensation. A sentiment of public indignation will be aroused, which nothing can resist, and no ministry could live an hour, which did not fully respond to it. I said it would be made by England a very grave occasion that a note would be written at the Foreign Office to the British Minister at Wash ington, setting forth the facts and requiring immediate repara tion and further, that the Minister would be instructed by an unofficial note to notify the Secretary of State of an early day, limited for the answer with further instructions, if the demand was not unconditionally complied with, that he should demand his passports, and return with his Legation, forthwith to Eng land; that the note would be expressed in the most courteous terms, but would be borne by a messenger of the highest grade in diplomatic intercourse. That the demand for reparation would be, that the wrong-doer should put things back where he found them, when the wrong was committed, which of course would require that we should be put back under the British flag. History will tell the rest. " We proceeded slowly up the coast, the weather continu ing calm, our first stopping place being in the midst of the blockading fleet off Charleston, just one month after we had suc cessfully evaded it we could see our noble flag flying over Fort Sumter, the spires of the Churches in view of the unaided eye, and with glasses, every part of the city could be made out. It was a sore trial to be thus near, without the means, even of com munication. Commodore Wilkes visited the flag-ship, then the Congress/ which was very near to us. On his return, he re ported the battle which had occurred but three days before, in the harbour of Port Royal at Hilton Head, between the enemy s fleet and our extemporised defences at that point. The Con gress was one of the largest frigates in the Yankee Navy had LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. borne a conspicuous part in the action and, as Captain Wilkes reported, had sustained the heaviest loss in killed and wounded, yet there she lay, as buoyant, and apparently as unharmed, as if she had never received a shot, although she had received a great many from guns of heavy calibre at short distance. I remarked this to Captain Wilkes, who said that such large ships were so strongly built, that they could stand a great deal of battering. Yet this same ship a few months afterwards was sunk in Hamp ton Roads, by a few well directed shots, from the iron clad 1 Merrimac/ carrying down with her, more than a hundred of her killed and wounded. We remained off Charleston a few hours, and then proceeding North, still in calm weather, entered the Capes of Virginia, and anchored in the midst of a Yankee fleet off Fortress Monroe, on the evening of the I5th of Novem ber. We put in here, it was said, for coal, and here for the first time since our capture, Captain Wilkes had the opportunity of communicating with his Government. He sent off dispatches, as we understood, immediately on his arrival, by a special messenger. " We anchored near the Fortress and the Captain landed soon after our arrival. General Wool I knew, was then in com mand there, and General Huger in command at Norfolk, then in our possession on the opposite side of the roads. Our arrival would bring the first news of our capture, and I was very anxious, as far as I could, to relieve the apprehensions of my family. I asked Captain Wilkes if there would be any objection to his bearing a letter from me, to my wife, to be delivered to General Wool with a request that he would send it by a flag, over to Norfolk, with a note to General Huger that of course, both the letter and note, should contain nothing but information of what had occurred, and be open for their perusal. Captain W. assented to it, and the notes were written accordingly. He brought a civil message back from General Wool, that the letter and note should be sent over to Norfolk the next day, and that this was done, was shown by subsequent information, that on the day that General Huger received them, he communicated their contents by telegraph, to President Davis at Richmond, and a letter in reply, from Mrs. Mason to me at Fort Warren, showed that mine to her had been received, in regular course of 224 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. mail. I should here remark, that from the time of our capture, the deportment of Captain Wilkes toward us, was of marked attention and courtesy thus when landing for the first time at Fortress Monroe, he asked if there was anything to be procured there which we would like to have, in the way of stores or other wise? During his absence, we had directed the Steward to order some barrels of oysters, to be sent on board for us, which was done, and when we asked for the bills, were told that Captain Wilkes had directed them to be paid by his Purser. It is due to Captain Wilkes to say this, considering the relations we held to each other. " We had no communication with, nor did we see any person from the shore. Having obtained a supply of coal, the ship proceeded on the next day to New York, the destination announced to us, when we were taken on board. We had still calm and smooth weather, and we entered the bay of New York at an early hour in the evening the night was dark and rainy Mr. Slidell and I were seated in the cabin about 9 o clock play ing a game of backgammon, when the headway of the ship was suddenly stopped, and Captain Wilkes immediately left the cabin, and went on deck. We continued undisturbed at our backgammon. Very soon afterwards Captain Wilkes returned to the cabin, and the ship again got under weigh. He reported, Gentlemen, we are not to land at New York a steamer from the city has intercepted us with an order from the Secretary of State, that you be taken to, and landed at Fort Warren, in the harbour of Boston, and the ship has changed her course accord ingly. He further told us, that a deputy marshal from New York, with an assistant, had been placed on board to accom pany us. We received the communication without remark, and continued our backgammon ; it amounted only to imprisonment at Fort Warren, instead of Fort Lafayette, about which we were indifferent. Proceeding still northward, and eastward, up the coast, in the next two days, the barometer with other marine prognostics showed evident signs of unsettled weather, and it be came too, most uncomfortably cold, there being no fire, or means of making one, in the cabin. To remedy this, Captain Wilkes supplied the cabin with hot shot, the largest he had on board, heated to a red heat in the furnaces of the ship, and LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. brought in resting in large tubs of sand, it was a good device, and by renewing them from time to time the cabin was kept comfortable. Our Captain, proceeding along this inhospitable, and in winter, tempestuous coast, with great caution, on the 2Oth put into Newport, Rhode Island, to avoid an impending gale from the northeast, and we laid there at anchor that night, and part of the next day. Here again Captain Wilkes availed himself of the opportunity to replenish his stores, and provided for our comforts in the cabin by a stove put up there, although to admit it, it was necessary to cut a hole in the roof to provide a way for the stove pipe. This stove was a great addition to our comfort, for the weather had become extremely cold. It is again due to Captain Wilkes to say that he was really sedulous, and left nothing undone to contribute to our comfort, or to make our condition as agreeable as was consistent with our position. He gave us the entire command of the cabin, and of the quarter deck, asking that we would not consider the ordinary rules of the ship, as extended to us those rules were, that lights were to be extinguished at a certain hour, and that none should smoke on the quarter-deck. He begged that we would continue our whist at our pleasure at night, in the cabin, and smoke our cigars where we pleased on the deck. I desire to do full justice to Captain Wilkes, and the rather as his act in our capture will be condemned in the history of the times. I have said that he gave to Mr. Slidell and myself the only two state-rooms con nected with his cabin the largest was that which he occupied. I protested earnestly against displacing him, and we com promised at last by having a curtain extended across, so as to divide it in half, he occupying that part which contained his secretary and wardrobe I had his bed, and he resorted to a cot, swung at night in the cabin. As a host, he certainly had a care for his guests. We lay off Newport in the stream. Captain Wilkes landed, but we of course had no communication with the shore. We sailed again on the 2ist; the weather still dark and lowering, keeping near the coast. On the evening of the 22d, there being every indication of a gale, we put into Holmes hole, or Martha s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, and anchored for the night. This anchorage is completely land-locked, and is a favorite resort in doubtful weather for vessels on that coast. 226 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. We found a large fleet of small craft at anchor, and during the night they were joined by many others. In some way, it became known that the Southern envoys, recently captured on the high seas, were on board the newly-arrived man-of-war. Immediately all the vessels were decorated with their flags a salute was fired from the shore, and a deputation waited on Captain Wilkes, tendering their congratulations, and with them more substantial evidences in the form of supplies. Having taken on board a pilot, we again got under weigh. About daylight, on the morning of the 23d, in due time we rounded Cape Cod, and soon after dark on the same day, anchored off Fort Warren, in Boston harbour, Captain Wilkes telling us that he would land at the Fort in the morning, and learn what orders would be taken for our reception. The harbour of Boston is a roadstead open to the sea, from which the city is some ten or twelve miles distant. In the estuary are many islands, on one of which, distant about eight miles from the city, is situated Fort Warren. It is one of the largest fortresses on the seaboard of the United States, and occupies nearly the entire island, there being but a small fringe of shore outside the walls of the fortress. " Being direct from Havana, we had amongst our stores intended for use in Europe, several thousand segars, which we thought it possible the authorities might require should be landed in Boston, either to pass through the Custom-House, or as it might be, confiscated. We stated the matter frankly to Captain Wilkes, who said at once, they should be taken, as they really were, as part of our luggage, and that he would see to it. On the next morning when we assembled at breakfast in the cabin about 9 o clock, the captain reported that he had landed soon after sunrise, and had an interview with Colonel Dimmick, the commanding officer of the fortress, and that it was arranged that a steamer should be sent at u o clock to take us to the fort in charge of an officer to attend us. He reported further in reference to our questions about the segars, that Colonel Dimmick said he would make no inquiry about our stores, but whatever was landed with us from his ship would be treated as belonging to us. " Before leaving the San Jacinto, I must return to the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. marshal of New York, who had been put on board when we were intercepted, entering the harbour of New York. We had not seen or heard of him or his assistant, after their pres ence on board had been reported to us ; we learned, however, afterwards, through our secretaries, that they became very seasick after getting to sea, and seldom appeared on deck. After Captain Wilkes announced their coming on board, we asked whether we were to consider ourselves as transferred to their custody? to which he replied, Certainly not; why they were put on board I do not know. They brought an order requiring me to receive them. I told them, however, they could have nothing to do with you gentlemen, whilst you were on board my ship. Nor did I ever see them, or hear farther of them whilst we remained on board. On the morning of the 24th of November, a small steamer put off from Fort Warren, and ran alongside the ship. Our baggage and stores had all been got ready, and at n o clock A. M., we left the ship for Fort Warren. Lieutenant Fairfax attended us, and on board the steamer, Lieutenant Buell, of the Army of the United States, was introduced as the officer to receive us. On landing we were conducted through a sally-port into the fortress, and thence to the quarters of the commanding officer, Colonel Dimmick. " It was Sunday when we landed at Fort Warren, and arriv ing at the Colonel s quarters, it was reported that he was at church but that an officer had gone to summon him. He appeared very soon, and apologized for his absence by saying he thought the service would be over before we landed. We learned afterwards that the public worship which the Colonel had attended was held every Sunday in a room appropriated for the purpose, one of the prisoners of State officiating who was a clergyman named North. He lived in Jefferson County, Virginia, near Harper s Ferry, on a farm which he owned, and had been captured some time before, in a foray of the enemy s cavalry. Nothing was alleged against him, but that he lived in a suspicious neighborhood. He was a plain and unsophisticated man, had committed no offence whatever against any person or State, yet he was taken from his family, carried more than five hundred miles from home, impris oned without cause, and released, even without apology. I attended his service one Sunday, and found that amidst all 22 8 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. this, he made no distinction in his prayers between friends and enemies. " Colonel Dimmick received us with great courtesy, said he had given orders, early in the morning, to have our quarters got ready, but found, as the rooms had to be scrubbed, it might not be quite dry, and begged that we would occupy his quarters until ours were ready. Colonel Dimmick was an officer of the old army, and was in everything thoroughly a gentleman. Whilst thus in stalled in the Colonel s quarters, f ecce itterum crispinus/ the New York marshal again appeared. Colonel Dimmick, as if by no means satisfied with his errand, announced that the marshal of New York was at the door, and said he was ordered to search our baggage. Said he, Gentlemen, I hope you will understand that I have nothing to do with it. We told him by all means to admit the marshal. I then, for the first time, saw him, a common and vulgar-looking man, exhibiting the shy subserviency which became the office he had to discharge. We at once gave him our keys, and requested our secretaries to point out to him our trunks, lying in the hall. He returned the keys soon after; of course he found no papers, and I must do him the justice to say that his examination was conducted with due regard to our assurance that our baggage contained nothing worthy of search. " Whilst at the Colonel s quarters, Lieutenant Buell, who was the executive officer, told us the rules required that we should deposit with him all money, drafts, or cheques, in our possession; that we were allowed each to retain twenty dollais, which we might expend as we pleased, without account, and when expended, he was authorized to give us each twenty dollars more. He said that whatever we deposited would be placed to our credit on his books, which would always be open to our inspection. In truth, we had very little money, not more than two or three hundred dollars between the two Commissioners and the two secretaries. Our funds were all in bills upon Eng land. We complied, however, with his demand, which was made in a manner respectful and deferential. We remained in the Colonel s quarters an hour or two, until it was reported to us that our apartment was ready for us, when Colonel Dimmick led the way to accompany us. Soon after leaving his door, we LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. were greeted by our fellow-prisoners in crowds, who were assembled to intercept us on the way. I recognized among them a body of old and attached personal friends, chiefly from Maryland, with a few from other States. * The room to which we were conducted was one of a series built of officers quarters. The fortress was circular in form, and along the inner walls a number of stone houses were erected, extending well around the inside of the fort, intended as barracks for the garrison. We found in the fort some twelve or thirteen hundred prisoners, of whom about an hundred and twenty were called prisoners of State, mean ing those who were arrested for political reasons; some eight or nine hundred prisoners of war, including officers recently before captured at Fort Hatteras, in North Carolina, with other military and naval officers captured during the war. Of the State prisoners were some twenty or thirty members of the Legislature of Maryland, who had been arrested on the first day of the meeting of that body, to prevent a quorum assem bling. Mr. Slidell and I found in this class of prisoners a num ber of old and valued friends, by whom we were most cor dially welcomed. Our quarters consisted of a single room about eighteen feet square, having a small bed in each corner, and attached to it a small closet, which contained our luggage, with the furniture for a very simple toilet. Leading from this closet was a recess in the walls of the fort, terminated by a loop hole. This accessory of space enabled us to have some shelves put up for other stofage, to the relief of our sleeping room. That room was our only apartment, where we received com pany by day and slept at night, but restricted as such quarters were, we soon found that we were far better off than the rest of our fellow-prisoners, who were crowded eight or nine together, in a room of like size as ours. Under the regulations of the prison we were allowed the freest intercourse with each other during the day, and to visit at pleasure the range of buildings in which we were lodged, being altogether on one side of the fortress, and in front of these buildings, in a space three hun dred feet long, by thirty feet wide, guarded by a line of sentinels, we were allowed to take exercise; thus our communica tion with each was unrestricted during the day. Retreat was LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. beat at five o clock, and then each prisoner was required to retire to his quarters, not again to leave them until the next day, to ensure both of which an officer visited each room after retreat, and a sentinel was placed at the door. The command ing officer, however, would give special permits to visit at night until 10 o clock, when it was required that all lights should be ex tinguished. A special exemption, however, was extended to our room, where visitors were allowed to remain,, and the lights to burn until n o clock this was done, not at our request, but at the suggestion of some of our fellow-prisoners, who joined us at whist in the evening. Most of our fellow-prisoners had been in the fortress for some time, and were thus domesticated. They were allowed, as we were, only the prison fare, which, in perpetuam memoriam to the credit of the Government of the United States, I record here from the memorandum given to me there : RATIONS TO THE PRISONERS AT FORT WARREN. PER DIEM : Twenty-two ounces of flour, twelve ounces bacon, one and a half ounces coffee, two ounces sugar, one ounce salt, one gill vinegar, and one-half pound potatoes. But some thirty or forty of them had formed a mess, and the Colonel had kindly assigned them a large room in the barracks, as a mess-room detached from our other quarters. As newcomers, we were invited to join this mess. The room was large enough to accommodate the tables, and, being oblong, to allow the cook ing to be done at the farther end. So whatever the supposed annoyance of the cooking, our dinners were served hot. Our predecessors had obtained cooks, with their attendants from Boston, and with the markets in which city they had established a daily, and well constructed intercourse. A steamer came every day to the fort from Boston bringing the mails and supplies for the garrison, which bore equally, orders from the prisoners sanctioned by the executive officer. Our table was thus well supplied, but not alone from the markets at Boston; almost every day our fellow-prisoners from Baltimore received large stores from their families and friends there, including all the delicacies of the season, canvasback ducks, terrapins, and oysters from the waters of the Chesapeake, and in great profusion. Our friends in Baltimore sent like welcome presents to Mr. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Slidell and me, and as Christmas approached, he and I received a very large box filled with the viands appropriate to that festival, from ladies in Hagerstown, and the adjoining county in Mary land. And here I must record, too, that a lady of Portland, in Maine (whose name I may give in a note when the war is over), sent to me for our Christmas dinner, a very large box, filled with the like material everything that could make a substantial and luxurious dinner was in that box, and in quantity to serve a hun dred men so abundant was it that, after taking out a few things, the rest was turned over to the North Carolina troops. " This excellent lady I have never seen but once. Some four or five years before, being at Boston, I had gone with General Pierce, then late President of the United States, and a little party, to visit the White Mountains in New Hampshire. There we met this lady and spent the evening in her company, introduced by General Pierce. In a very kind note accom panying the box, she referred to the acquaintance thus formed, expressed her sympathy in my captivity, and on behalf of her self and other ladies of Portland, whom she named, asked our acceptance of the contents of the box, to improve our Christmas dinner/ " Our life in the fortress, of course, afforded no great variety of incident we were allowed to receive letters passing under the inspection of our jailers, and thus I heard two or three times from home. Being also allowed to receive the newspapers, we had every day the daily journals from Boston, New York and Philadelphia, with the English papers and periodicals. Our prison life was, of course monotonous; now and then we could welcome a newcomer, but very seldom could we take leave of one departing. " On the first day of December, the Congress of the United States met, and on that first day, the House of Representatives, by a unanimous vote, adopted a resolution requesting the Presi dent to have the writer of this memoir by name placed in a dungeon, and treated as a felon there to remain as a hostage, to answer for the life of a Federal officer then held as a hostage in the Confederate States, in like manner, to answer for the life of a captain of a Confederate privateeer, who had been tried and convicted as a pirate in the Federal Courts at Philadelphia. 2J2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Such was my first greeting by the Federal authorities as their prisoner. On the second day of the session, a like resolution was unanimously passed by the House, on behalf of Mr. Slidell. Such was the spirit of the mob at our capture, and the House of Representatives was the excerpt of the mob. This, of course, will pass into history it resulted that it was at last a mob extravagance. The President, so far as we knew, took no account of it, nor did we hear anything more of it. I record it here as an exemplar of those entrusted with power by the people. Another incident should be noted: The State pris oners were one day formally notified by the Governor of the fortress to be in their rooms at a given hour to hear an order from the Secretary of State, William H. Seward, a name that would go with infamy to posterity, were it not rescued from such elevation by contempt. The order was one prohibiting the prisoners from having any communication with counsel, upon pain of such communication being made the cause of prolonged imprisonment/ Time glided on. I never doubted what the action of England must be upon our capture ; from my knowledge of public law, I was satisfied and said so to those around me, however anxious England might be to avoid a quarrel, this must be made a fighting issue, and that no diplomatic delays would be allowed. It was an unmixed ques tion of national honor. England had never been recreant. I was satisfied that the demand would be that the wrongdoer would be required to repair the wrong, that is to say, that the prisoners should be put back under the safeguard of the British flag. All this was a subject of daily discussion in our prison circles^as my fellow-prisoners will warrant, should this ever meet their eye. I never doubted what England would do what the United States would do when the demand was made, was a theme for more extended speculation. " The official report of the capture brought a highly com mendatory letter to Captain Wilkes from the Secretary of the Navy, who said the act had the Emphatic approbation of the Department. The press of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, each vied with the other in laudation of the act in capturing the Rebel emissaries/ Captain Wilkes was feted at Boston and at New York, where he paused in his progress/ and the House LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of Representatives passed a resolution voting him a sword, and the thanks of Congress. History will record the events attending this capture as a most extraordinay lapse in the career of a civilized nation an instance where statesmen and Juris consults betrayed their country to administer to the passions of a mob. Edward Everett, who will be known in the history of that country as one who aspired to be both jurist and states man, following the example of others, who assumed to be of like grade, wrote for the newspapers vindicating on principles of public law, the act of Captain Wilkes. He cited only from the text-writers, and even into them did not go skin deep, but in his anxiety to sustain the act he falsified history, it will be imma terial to posterity, whether from ignorance or design. Con sidering Yankee ethics, he would choose it to be ascribed to the latter. Colonel Laurens, of South Carolina, had been sent by the Continental Congress as Minister to Holland, and was captured at sea by a British man-of-war he was taken to England and confined in the Tower as a state prisoner until the end of the war a period of more than two years. The news papers seized upon this as a precedent, assuming without ex amination that the captured ship was under the Dutch flag. Mr. Everett, in an elaborate vindication of the act of Captain Wilkes, justified it on this precedent. It was shown afterwards by clear proof, from historical documents, that the ship from which Col onel Laurens was taken belonged to the Revolutionary Colonies, and was under the flag of the Continental Congress. This was immediately fully exposed in the public journals of the day, and yet Mr. Everett, the soi-disant jurist and statesman, remained silent. This gentleman had been minister to England, Senator of the United States for Massachusetts, and Secretary of State of the United States. He was followed by sundry others of the best known public men in the North, in like manner vin dicating and justifying the capture, amongst whom I enumerate General Lewis Call, of Michigan, and Mr. Beecher Lawrence, Rhode Island, who had undertaken to be an editor of and com mentator on Chancellor Kent s treatise on International Law. Such is Yankee character it was all surrendered at the first summons from England. " Our prison life, afforded, of course, but little variety LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. we breakfasted at nine, and after that took exercise in walking up and down the limited space allotted to us in the area of the fortress, but in this, although girded round by sentinels, we were allowed freely to intermingle and to talk without reserve. During this period, our only apartment was put in order by a servant in bad weather, to enable this operation to be per formed, we alternated with our neighbors in the occupation of our apartments. About 12 o clock the steamer arrived with the mails from Boston. They occupied us for an hour or two ; after that, we inter-visited, had a glass of toddy, talked over and speculated on the news. Our dinner was at three, and thanks to the sedulous and provident care of our friends in Maryland, we always had the materials for a good one. After dinner, again exercise until retreat was beaten at 5 o clock, when, as I have said, we were all required to repair to our quarters, there to be inspected. We had the means of making tea in our respective apartments, and made it the occasion of a social gathering. After tea, whist for those who were so inclined, until the hour came to extinguish the lights. The fort was garrisoned by some five or six hundred new levies, officers and all, from Massachusetts, to whom the technical term raw was peculiarly appropriate. The fortress had just been finished had hardly a gun mounted, and certainly not a man capable of firing one. We all prayed earnestly that the Yankees would refuse to sur render us nor was this on our own part particularly disin terested, knowing as we did that the war with England to follow such a refusal would speedily terminate the war with the South. " Time glided on on the - of December we saw by the papers that the first news of our arrest was received in England, when the Trent arrived, and that it made a profound sensa tion. It struck the public mind of England at once as an insult to her flag and to her national honour. By the next arrival, three days afterwards, we learned that the packet had been detained at Queenstown one day to receive a Queen s mes senger, that on landing at New York he had proceeded at once by a special train to Washington, and speculation was rife as to the character of the dispatch he bore to the British Min ister. I never doubted the character of the demand, and, as evidence, here record the fact, that I laid a wager of fifty barrels LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of corn with my fellow-prisoner, Charles J. Faulkner, Esq., of Berkeley County, Virginia, that the demand would be to replace the prisoners under the British flag and that demand would be peremptory, in terms to admit of no delay. Mr. Faulkner had been the Minister of the United States in France; had been arrested on his return from that mission a few months before, and was confined at Fort Warren. " He was released before the intelligence came from Eng land, but I won the bet, as doubtless he will acknowledge should we ever meet again. We remained in suspense some five or six days, when the papers brought us the demand of Lord Russell from the Foreign Office, that we, with our secretaries, should be delivered to Lord Lyons, the British Minister, with the reply of Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, complying with it, though filled with reasons to show why he should not, and when he would not comply. " On the first day of January, 1862, returning from break fast between 9 and 10 o clock, I was met by Colonel Dimmick, who told me that a messenger had arrived from the Depart ment of State, who desired a private interview with Mr. Slidell and myself. I said to him : Very well ; where shall the interview be held? We have but our sleeping apartment, which is just now in a state of disorder/ The Colonel replied : You shall have it, if you please, at my quarters/ and calling up the messenger at the same time, who stood near, introduced him as Mr. Webster, from the Department of State. We were near my apartment and I said I would go in and have it hastily pre pared to receive us. Mr. Slidell had not yet left it. Tne Mr. Webster thus introduced told me at first, in reply to a question, that he was a clerk in the Department of State; subsequently he told our secretaries that he was a deputy marshal in the District of Columbia. When alone with Mr. Slidell in our apartment he said that he was sent by the Secretary of State to take us, with our secretaries by name, from the fort, and to take us out forty miles to sea, where he would meet a ship, on board of which he was to place us, adding that the hour of twelve was fixed for the rendezvous at sea, and he hoped, there fore, that we would lose no time in getting off. We asked him if his orders, or his directions, for our guidance were in writing? 236 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. He said no, his orders were entirely verbal, that he had noth ing in writing. We asked him where at sea we were to meet the ship? He replied that he was not at liberty to say, but that he would meet it at the distance of forty miles. He said he had brought a steamer from Boston to conduct us, apolo gizing that it was only a tug/ by saying that it was the only steamer to be chartered in Boston, when he arrived the night before. It was reported to us by our secretaries that this emissary from Washington told them, whilst on board the tug, that he had no orders in writing from Mr. Seward, but was directed verbally when he arrived at Boston to report himself there to the commander of the Navy- Yard, who would furnish him with a steamer to take off the prisoners, and that he must not disclose his errand to any one except the commanding officer at Fort Warren. This reserve was doubtless due, in the opinion of the Secretary, to his fears that, if our intended release was known in Boston it might excite an emeute. I should add further that we found on board the tug as a guard of honour, a corporal with six marines. Colonel Dimmick, com mander of the fortress, attended us to the wharf, where we embarked, and took a respectful and kind leave of us wherr we went on board the tug/ and I have here great pleasure in recording the fact that this officer, whilst strictly regardful of the duties of his position, was always considerate, kind and respectful, and omitted nothing which he could properly do, which would contribute to the comfort of the prisoners in his charge. As we passed out of the fort, our fellow-prisoners ranged themselves in line to witness our departure. They were restrained from other manifestation than a cordial good bye , 1 God bless you ; their tone of voice spoke the rest. " Some time before our release, some four hundred of the prisoners of war from North Carolina had been paroled, and embarked in a ship sent to receive them off the fort. By special permission of Colonel Dimmick, their comrades, along with the prisoners of state, were allowed to go to the ramparts to witness their departure. As their ship moved off we all gave them a parting salute of three cheers. We looked to the same indulgence to those we left behind at our departure, but not a man appeared on the ramparts We heard afterwards inci- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. dentally that some evidences of disaffection were manifested by the garrison, in consequence of our release, and this may have disinclined the Colonel to permit a cheer from the ramparts. The weather was very rough on our passage, across an arm of the sea to Provincetown, in Massachusetts, some forty miles from Fort Warren, and the waves made a clear passage over the deck of our little tug. As we entered the harbor we saw a war [steamer under the British flag, lying at anchor, ranging alongside. The emissary having us in charge went on board, as he said, to inquire whether that was the ship on board which he was to deliver us returning, he reported it was right, and we were at liberty to go on board. We did so, and were most courteously received on the quarter-deck by Captain Hewett, of Her Majesty s ship the Rinaldo. The manner of placing us on board this ship from a small tug/ in charge of a corporal s guard of marines, was one of designed and marked indignity, the conception of Mr. Secretary Seward. It was observed, of course, by Captain Hewett, who told us he had been ordered by Lord Lyons to await our reception where we found him, and that he had been looking out for us all day, but that when our steamer approached it did not enter into his mind that his guests were to be so delivered. " It was a steamer of moderate size, carrying but thirteen guns, and, of course, but of limited accommodation. We were conducted at once to the cabin on the deck below, where the captain told us his own state-room, opening into the cabin, and that of his first lieutenant into the ward-room, were placed at the disposal of the two Commissioners ; and that of our two secretaries, one could have a cot swung in the cabin, and the other be well provided for forward. We protested earnestly against this arrangement so far as it dislocated the captain and his lieutenant, but he persisted that he must be allowed to make the provision he thought proper for his own guests. It resulted that Mr. Slidell, as the senior, was assigned to the cabin state room, I to the first lieutenant s. Mr. Eustis had a cot swung in the cabin, and Mr. Macfarland to the berth of one of our ward-room officers. Captain Hewett then showed us his orders from Lord Lyons, his ship at the time lying at New York they were that he should proceed at once to Province- 2 3 S LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. town, Massachusetts, and there remain until we arrived. That we should be received in a manner due to private gentle men of distinction, but without any formal distinction. That as soon as on board we should get under weigh and take us to any neutral port we might elect, but we were not to be taken to any port either in the United or Confederate States. Thus the anchor was weighed as soon as we attained the deck, and the ship then moved out of the harbour to sea. We at once requested to be taken to Halifax, where, without detention, we could re-embark on a Cunard mail steamer for England, and it was so decided. Captain Hewett then begged that we would consider his cabin as our own, and announced the dinner hour at 6 o clock. His steward had orders to consider our commands as his, and we were thus placed entirely at home. We had a very good and very pleasant dinner, with ample variety of ex cellent wine. On coming aboard we observed a large supply of fresh provision, including poultry and game, hanging in the after-rigging. Just released from prison, speeding on the way to our mission, and surrounded by cordial and hospitable hosts, everything looked bright. We retired to bed about n o clock. The captain told us as we parted that he feared we would have a rough night, that the barometer had been falling all day and yet continued to fall, that we had fairly got to sea, and were in a stiff gale. I took little account of it, and turned in, and was soon fast asleep, losing in the act only the most bright and hopeful visions. " An hour or two before day I waked up, rinding myself thoroughly wet and exceedingly cold. The door of the state room admitted a dim light from the lantern swung in the ward room. When fairly roused, I found the water trickling upon me rapidly from above. My attention was attracted by a regur gitating sound of water on the cabin floor. I looked down and saw the clothes I had taken off and deposited on a chair, with my boots, making their gyrations over the floor with the motion of the ship, in six or eight inches of water. Not well accustomed to the incidents of sea life, I was at some loss to know what was the matter it was certain only that I was very wet and cold, with the water pouring upon me from above, and several inches deep on the cabin floor. I leaned over the berth, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and, as opportunity offered in the ebb and flow of the tide, res cued my clothes piece by piece from the flood below, wrung out the water as well as I could and put them beside me in the dryest part of my berth. The rolling and tossing of the ship, with the incessant roar of the wind heard from above, recalled the captain s prediction that we were to have a rough night but what was I to do? very wet and getting wetter, and very cold and getting colder. Whilst pondering on my condition, I heard some one in the adjoining apartment, and calling to him brought in the ward-room steward. I asked him what was the matter? He replied, in a tone which seemed earnestly intent on shifting the responsibility, that it was blowing a fearful gale and the ship was straining very hard, and that some of the seams had opened on deck, which let the water in below ; that he was very sorry, but there was no way of stopping it. " It must be remembered that we were in a northern lati tude on the night of the ist of January, no fire, and the ther mometer far below the freezing point. It took little time to determine that I could not remain where I was; the steward brought me some outer clothing from the lieutenant s stores, with some dry blankets. I got up, keeping my feet out of the water with his aid, and wrapped in these habiliments I found my way into the cabin. The cabin floor was on a higher level than the ward-room, and its broad and ample lockers well supplied with morocco cushions, of every length and breadth. I laid down on the floor, and with the aid of the cushions, the steward supplied me with a comfortable bed, wedged in by other cushions to keep me in place against the rolling of the ship. At every half hour the captain, lieutenant, or sailing-master came in to consult the barometer, which, as they reported, continued to fall. They reported further that it was blowing a hard gale, with very thick weather and snow. At the usual breakfast hour no table could be spread, and while I lay on the floor, the steward brought me a cup of coffee, with a piece of bread and a dish of Irish stew in sea phrase, lobscouse the former the cabin, the latter the forecastle name, meaning a hash of mut ton stewed with sundry condiments, more savory than refined, the principal ingredient the proscribed onion. I had no relish for lobscouse, but refreshed by the coffee and bread, and LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. wrapped in the warm overcoats of the officers, made my way to the deck, and there was a spectacle that I presume could find its parallel only in the most dreary wastes of the Arctic ocean. " Upon the uniform basis of a hoarse and continuous roar, the wind actually howled and shrieked the ship everywhere coated thickly with ice, not a sail was set, nor could one be set, every part of the rigging was a conglomerate mass of ice, which was increased in thickness every moment by the heavy spray of the sea, of which every drop froze directly where it fell. The ample store of provisions, which I have commemorated on a preceding page, in the rigging, had all gone as an offering to Neptune or other monsters of the deep. The boats hang ing in the davits had disappeared, stove, and carried away during the night. The foretopsail under a double reef, the only sail on the ship carried away, and the bulwarks followed, stove in. The sea presented no appearance, even, of undulation, but its surface seemed erected into large upright cones, seeth ing and foaming at the apex. The deck, even then, was coated with ice, certainly some two or three inches thick, and there was no walking without the aid of those having better sea-legs than I. The forecastle presented the appearance of a magnifi cent cave, or grotto, the roof of which was sustained by massive stalactites, and the guns were covered by a uniform, continu ous sheet of thick ice, nothing of the guns or its carriage visible in the appropriate outlines. For four days and nights we struggled with that storm the ship all the time under steam. We never saw the sun by day, or the moon or stars by night, and thus had no observation to determine our position. Dur ing the whole period the barometer continued to fall. The sailing-master estimated by his dead reckoning that we had passed to the eastward of Halifax, but in the uncertainty and absence of any observation it was too hazardous an attempt to approach the land. More than twenty of the crew were frost bitten in their fingers and toes, but the captain held on his course, determined to make good his port in Halifax. We had more than once remonstrated and urged him to give it up, there being nothing to indicate that the gale would abate. On the morning of the 5th of January, things were dark and gloomy as ever, and the captain told us that he had determined, if he LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. got no observations at meridian, he would bear away for Ber muda. At 12 o clock he came into the cabin and said: Gen tlemen, I am happy to inform you that the ship has altered her course and we are heading due south, direct for Bermuda. To this happy change I believe we were more indebted to the diminished quantity of our coal than to any diminution in the persevering purpose of Captain Hewett. We ran some three hundred miles before we got within the benign influence of the Gulf Stream, and the gale followed us to the borders of the gulf. As we advanced into it, the temperature of the air became milder, but it required hot water from the furnaces, liberally dis tributed over the deck for several hours, to thaw the compact masses of ice. The sun once more shone out brightly, and all the officers except the captain were busily engaged exercising themselves with shovel, pick-axe and other implements, in break ing the masses of ice and throwing it overboard. " It took several hours to get the ship free of ice, but we had passed beyond the region of the gale, and when this was done, with a bright sun, a gentle breeze and a dry ship, we seemed to enter upon a new life. Then, for the first time, the captain told us of the perils we had passed. It seems that when off the Bay of Fundy, during the midst of the gale, the tiller-rope broke, and a few minutes afterwards the preventer rope, the adjutant of the tiller, broke also, from the great pres sure on the wheel. There was nothing then left by which the ship could be kept on her course but the foretopsail, and that blew away. Fortunately, we were all fast asleep and uncon scious of our condition. It seems that it took more than an hour to get a new rope adjusted on the wheel, and in the mean time, our ship drifted ad libitum. The captain reported that when the ship came again under command of the helm, he found by his soundings that he was in thirty- fathom water, indicating the dangerous proximity of St. George s banks, at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. Having had no observation, he could only guess at his actual position, and after a few moments pause, whether he should seek to extricate himself by wearing ship, or by forcing her ahead by the power of steam, he determined on the latter, and in a short time again found him self out of soundings. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " We had a pleasant run after this to Bermuda, where we arrived on the Qth of January. We made the land soon after daylight; there was quite a breeze blowing, and we approached it cautiously and slowly. The island presented a high and mountainous outline, with a narrow fringe of coast, against which the surf broke in cooling sheets of foam. A pilot boarded us some three or four miles off, in the form of a dark brown mulatto, in sailor s garb with a broad, weather-beaten straw hat. The ship was given up to him as the pilot, and he guided us slowly but securely into a large land-locked bay. As we approached, telegraphic signals were interchanged between the ship and the Admiral s residence on shore. They apprised him of the name of the ship and of our presence on board. Cap tain Hewett landed to pay his respects to the Admiral, and the ship continued her way to the Government docks inside the Mole. We passed very near the Admiral s ship of 90 guns, the Nile/ lying at anchor in the bay. The signals had apprised her, too, of our arrival. As we passed, the band mustered on the quarter-deck, with the officers grouped around. It struck up the air Dixie Land/ then supposed to be the national air of the Confederates. Mr. Slidell and I, standing apart on the deck, acknowledged the compliment by waving our caps, and the salute was returned in like manner by the officers of the Nile. Soon after we made fast within the Mole, the captain and senior lieutenants of the Nile came on board to make their con gratulatory respects, with an earnest invitation to us to visit their ship. We did so the next morning before sailing, and were most kindly and hospitably received. This civility was an earnest of the sympathy and good feeling we met with every where from the British naval officers. " We had requested Captain Hewett to say to the Admiral that we should be very much obliged if he would expedite us on our way to England, either by sending us direct if he could spare a ship from the station, or if not, then that we should go as early as practicable to the Island of St. Thomas, where we could intercept the Royal Mail Steam Line from Mexico to Havana. We knew that this line in regular course left St. Thomas on the I3th, but was often delayed a day tw make con nection with an associate line from South America. Captain LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Hevvett had been good enough to say that, in default of a more suitable arrangement, he would, with the Admiral s permis sion, have his ship coaled during the night and pursue his voy age with us on the next day (the loth). The sea was calm in those latitudes, and he felt assured that he could make the run in four days, which would put us at St. Thomas on the I4th, and thus enable us without detention to proceed to England, provided the mail steamer should, as sometimes happened, have been detained a day. Captain Hewett returned from his visit to the Admiral about 3 p. m. He reported first an invitation from the Admiral, that we should dine with him that evening, at seven, and spend the night ashore next, that he had but one steamer, then at Bermuda, which he could offer us to go to England, the Racer/ Captain Lyons, and that she could be got ready for us in three .days, but if we preferred taking the chance of hitting the mail steamer at St. Thomas, he would give an order to Captain Hewett accordingly. The * Racer, we found, was a small steamer and a slow one (lucus a non lucendo) and would probably require twenty days to get to England. Captain Hewett, whose earnest kindness I have renewed pleasure in recording, although his ship was much shattered by the gale we had left, said, if we chose to go with him, he would have his coal replenished during the night, get off at an early hour on the next day, and would engage to have us at St. Thomas in the forenoon of the I4th. We accepted the latter course, which he telegraphed to the Admiral, and the order was issued accordingly. " Immediately a large force was put to coal the ship, which was successfully concluded betwen 10 and n o clock on the morning of the loth. We were visited during our stay by the naval officers on the station ashore and afloat, with most kind and hospitable invitations to dine, and so forth. And now for our visit to Admiral Milne. " He had a beautiful official residence on shore, with cul tivated grounds, shrubberies, etc., and gave us a cordial wel come. We found a party oLthe officials of the island assembled. The Admiral was very kind and gracious in his disposition to make the best provision in his power for our comfort. He had given the necessary orders and employed all the necessary force to have the Rinaldo ready for departure at an early hour LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. on the following day. We were told on taking leave that we were to be quartered for the night at the house of Mrs. Robinson, not far off, which had been provided for us. Arriving there about midnight, we found a good- looking country house, and our hostess, a sturdy but well mannered negro woman. Lights were burning, and she expecting us. Counting up the party of four, she said she had but three chambers, but the fourth gentleman was to stay with Mrs. Philips. Of this latter lady we had never heard, but her house was near by, and Mr. Eustis and Macfarland cast lots which should be the guest of Mrs. Philips. It fell upon Mac farland, and he moved off in the dark, to hunt up his hostess and claim his position. We had clean and commodious chambers, with excellent beds, neatness, propriety, and every proper obser vance due to our comfort, including baths, abundance of water and towels. It was the first night in which we had slept in a quiet bed, hard and fast on the land, and we enjoyed it accord ingly. The breakfast table, the next morning, was of most inviting aspect, abundantly supplied with fish, vegetables, and fruit and delicious coffee, the table service of silver. On taking leave, we offered ample remuneration to our landlady, which she civilly but peremptorily declined, saying that we were the guests of the Admiral, and not hers. We had to content our selves, therefore, with distributing silver coin to the little negroes, her children. " What we saw of the Island of Bermuda the first week in January, would show it a delightful climate. Thermometer from 75 to 80, the heat tempered by the breezes from the sea. Roses and flowers of every hue blooming everywhere, birds singing and the sky without a cloud. We embarked in the Admiral s boat about 10 o clock on the morning of the loth of January to return to our ship. We were conducted to the boats at a land ing by an artificial stairway, in a beautiful land-locked little bay, trenching from the ocean deeply into the island. The ever green foliage on all sides came down to the water s edge, the depths ranging from ten to twenty feet the bottom of coral, perfectly white, and the water so transparent that you saw the bottom as though no fluid was interposed. On the way to our ship we visited, by invitation, the Admiral s ship, the Nile/ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. were most courteously and hospitably received, and after inspect ing her throughout, her officers, in a parting glass, drank to our safe arrival in Old England. We weighed anchor and stood out from Bermuda in the forenoon of the loth of January. Our hospitable captain had fully replenished his larder, the sea was calm, and we had a prosperous run to St. Thomas. Rounding the headland of the beautiful bay, on the precipitous sides of which the town, seemed suspended, we came to anchor, about 10 o clock on the morning of the I4th, near the Royal mail steamer, the La Plata/ which, as we had hoped, had been detained a day by the failure of her South American associate. " The United States war steamer Troquois was there, also at anchor, and near her at anchor was the British war steamer Cadmus/ Our arrival by this route was of course entirely unexpected. The captain of the latter ship came on board, and after a very kind salutation, told us that our arrival would relieve him from the very annoying duty of following and watching the Yankee man-of-war; that he had been following him through those seas for some weeks; that he should lie where he was, after the La Plata sailed, unless the Yankee weighed anchor, when if he does, you may rely that I shall follow him, to prevent another Trent affair. " Although so far advanced in the winter, the weather was intensely warm, and we were habited in linen jackets, with straw hats. Communicating with the La Plata, we learned that she would sail in a few hours, and because of the heat I did not go ashore. Mr. Macfarland and Eustis, however, did so, and brought us an ample supply of fruit, for which St. Thomas is celebrated, for the voyage. Pineapples, oranges, bananas, in short, all the fruits of the tropics, in addition to which some ladies of the island, hearing of our arrival, sent off servants with large baskets of fruit and flowers, and a kind note of welcome. When the time arrived for our departure, Captain Hewett, hav ing previously sent our baggage, himself accompanied us on board the La Plata in his gig/ All the officers of the ship assembled in the cabin to take leave ; their adieus, over a glass of champagne, with the earnestly expressed hope that we should meet again, were kind and sincere. The La Plata weighed anchor about 2 P. M., and we were off for England. 246 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " This ship was the same, on the Royal Mail Line, sailing in connection with the Trent, which would have received us on her voyage out before, had we not been captured, and which conveyed Mrs. Slidell, with the other ladies of our party, after that event. Captain Weller, commanding the ship, was in every thing courteous and cordial, and by his direction we had excel lent state-rooms. When we sailed from Havana our passage was paid through to England, which he informed us was taken in full of further demand, besides which courtesy, our purses being low, he advanced to me all the money required by the party for contingencies, for my cheque upon a banker. Should there be any who object to the apparently light character of these reminiscences, I will remit him to himself under like circum stances. Our ship was not crowded, but amongst the passen gers were several educated and intelligent gentlemen, inclu ding the Governor of Martinique, returning home on a leave of absence. We had thus a pleasant party. We had a fine ship ; her flushed deck, 300 feet long by 30 feet wide, gave us for exer cise the same space that we had been allowed at Fort Warren. The weather, though somewhat boisterous as we advanced on the voyage, was, on the whole, passable for a winter month, and we arrived at Southampton on the 2Qth of January, after the usual passage of fourteen days. Soon after landing I pro ceeded to London, on the same day, and took quarters at Fen- ton s Hotel, St. James Street/ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER IX. Instruction from State Department Dispatch from Richmond About the British Vessels "Bruce" and "Napier," and Denying Report the Confede rate States Government Had Prohibited Export of Cotton to Neutrals Letter from Mr. Mason to Mr. Hunter English Sympathy with South Views of Members of Parliament on Blockade and Recognition Inter view with Earl Russell Mr. Lindsay s Interview with the Emperor Visit of M. Mercier to Richmond a Mystery Cotton Famine Educated Classes in England Favor the South Private Letters. The difficulties of communication between the Confederate States and foreign countries caused great irregularity and delay in the transmission of dispatches. Long intervals occurred dur ing which Mr. Mason heard nothing from home and nothing from him reached his family or the Department, although letters and dispatches were frequently sent from both sides, and few of them failed eventually to reach their destination. It has not been found practicable to arrange them in the usual form of a correspondence, since the dates of those on the same subject bear no relation to each other; many of them having been delayed until long after others, written much later, had been received and answered. Not only were duplicates and triplicates sent of every dispatch, but each began with a brief synopsis of the former ones ; to give them in full would, therefore, involve much tedious repetition. Extracts from them have been selected to tell all that is of interest connected with the mission, or that relates to military events in America, and occasional letters to members of Mr. Mason s family are introduced to tell of the warm interest and sympathy felt in England for the South, evinced by the kindness and hospitality extended to him, the representative of the South. Dispatches from the Department, in Richmond, have been inserted with regard to the subjects to which they refer and the time when they reached London, rather than to the time they were written. 248 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. EXTRACTS FROM " INSTRUCTIONS " TO HON. J. M. MASON. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, "RICHMOND, September 23d, 1861. " To the Hon. J. M. Mason, etc., etc. " SIR : The President desires that you should proceed to London with as little delay as possible, and place yourself, as soon as you may be able to do so, in communication with the Gov ernment. " The events which have occurred since our Commissioners had their first interview with Lord John Russell have placed our claims to recognition in a much stronger point of view. But, in presenting the case once more to the British Government, you ought again to explain the true position in which we appear before the world. " We are not to be viewed as revolted provinces or rebel lious subjects seeking to overthrow the lawful authority of a common sovereign. Neither are we warring for rights of a doubtful character, or such as are to be ascertained only by im plication. On the contrary, the Union from which we have with drawn was founded upon the express stipulations of a written instrument, which established a Government whose powers were to be exercised for certain declared purposes, and restricted within well defined limits. When a sectional and dominant majority persistently violated the covenants and conditions of that compact, those States whose safety and well-being depended upon the performance of these covenants, were justly absolved from all moral obligation to remain in such a Union. And when the Government of that Union, instead of affording protection to their social system, itself threatened not merely to disturb the peace and security of its people, but also to destroy their social system, the States thus menaced owed it to themselves and their posterity to withdraw immediately from a Union whose very bonds prevented them from defending themselves against such dangers. Such were the causes which led the Confederate States to form a new Union, to be composed of more homogene ous materials and interests. Experience had demonstrated to them that a Union of two different and hostile social systems LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. under a Government in which one of them wielded nearly all the power, was not only ill-assorted, but dangerous in the extreme to the weaker section whose scheme of society was thus unpro tected. Prompted by these teachings, eleven sovereign States bound together by the tie of a common social system, and by the sympathies of identical interests, have instituted a new Con federacy, and a new Government, which they justly hope will be more harmonizing in its operation, and more permanent in its existence. In forming this Government they seek to preserve their old institutions and to pursue through their new organic law the very ends and purposes for which, as they believe, the first was formed. " It was because a revolution was sought to be made in the spirit and ends of the organic law of their first Union by a dominant and sectional majority, operating through the machinery of a Government which was in their hands, and placed there for different purposes, that the Confederate States withdrew themselves from the jurisdiction of such a Govern ment, and established another for themselves. Their example, therefore, furnishes no precedent for the overthrow of the law ful authority of a regular Government by revolutionary violence, nor does it encourage a resort to fractious tumult and civil war by irresponsible bodies of men. On the contrary, their Union has been formed through the regular action of the Sovereign States comprising the Confederacy, and it has established a Government competent to the discharge of all its civil functions, and entirely responsible, both in war and peace for all its actions. Nor has that Government shown itself unmindful of the obliga tion which its people incurred whilst their States were members of the former Union. On the contrary, one of their first acts was to send Commissioners to the Government at Washington to adjust amicably all subjects of difference, and to provide for a peaceable separation and a fair satisfaction of the mutual claims of the two Confederacies. These Commissioners were not re ceived, and all offers for a peaceful accommodation were con- temptously rejected. The authority of our Government itself was denied, its people denounced as rebels, and a war was waged against them, which, if carried on in the spirit in which it was proclaimed, must be the most sanguinary and barbarous which 250 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. has been known for centuries amongst civilized people. The Confederate States have thus been forced to take up arms in defence of their right to self-government, and, in the name of that sacred right, they have appealed to the nations of the earth, not for material aid or alliances offensive and defensive, but for the moral weight which they would derive from holding a recog nized place as a free and independent people. In asking for this, they feel that they will not receive more than they will give in return, and they offer, as they think, a full equivalent for any favor that may thus be granted them. Diplomatic relations are established mainly to protect human intercourse, and to adjust peaceably the differences which spring from such intercourse, or arise out of the conflicting interests of society. The advantages of such intercourse are mutual, and in general, as between nations, any one of them receives as much as it gives, to say nothing of the well-being of human society, which is promoted by placing its relations under the protection and restraints of public law. It would seem then, that a new Confederacy, asking to establish diplomatic relations with the world, ought not to be required to do more than to present itself through a Govern ment competent to discharge civil functions, and strong enough to be responsible for its actions to the other nations of the earth. After this is shown, the great interests of peace and the general good of society would seem to require that a speedy recognition should follow. " It can not be difficult to show, in our case, a strict com pliance with these, the just conditions of our recognition as an independent people. If we were pleading for favors, we might ask and find more than one precedent in British history for granting the request that we be recognized for the sake of that sacred right of self-government for which we are this day in arms, and which we have been taught to prize by the teachings, the traditions, and the example of the race from which we have sprung. But we do not place ourselves before the bar of nations to ask for favors ; we seek for what we believe to be justice, not only to ourselves, but justice to the great interests of peace and humanity. If the recognition of our independence must finally come, and if it be only a work of time, it seems to be the duty of each of the nations of the earth to throw the moral weight of LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. its recognition into the scale of peace as soon as possible. For to delay will only be to prolong unnecessarily the sufferings of war. If, then, our Government can be shown to be such as has been here described, we shall place ourselves in the position of a people who are entitled to a recognition of their independence. The physical and moral elements of our Confederacy; its great, but undeveloped capacities, and its developed strength, as proved by the history of the conflict in which we are now engaged ought to satisfy the world of the responsible character of the Govern ment of the Confederate States. The eleven States now Con federated together cover seven hundred and thirty-three thou sand, one hundred and forty-four square miles of territory, and embrace nine millions, two hundred and forty-four thousand people. This territory, large enough to become the seat of an immense power, embraces not only all the best varieties of climate and production known to the temperate zone, but also the great staples of cotton, tobacco, sugar, and rice. It teems with the resources both moral and physical of a great empire, and nothing is wanted but time and peace for their development. To these States there will probably be added hereafter Mary land, Missouri, and Kentucky, whose interests and sympathies must bind them to the South. If these are added, the Con federate States will embrace eight hundred and fifty thousand square miles of territory, and twelve and a half millions of people ; to say nothing of the once common Territories west of these States, which will probably fall into the new Con federacy. Is it to be supposed that such a people and with such resources can be subdued in war when subjugation is to be fol lowed by such consequences as would result from their con quest? If such a supposition prevails anywhere, it can find no countenance in the history of the contest in which we are engaged. In the commencement of this struggle, our enemies had in their possession the machinery of the old Government. " The naval, and for the most part, the military establish ments were in their hands. They had, too, most of the accumu lated capital, and nearly all the manufactories of arms, ordnance, and of the necessaries of life. They had all the means of strik ing us hard blows before we could be ready to return them. And, yet, in the face of all this, we have instituted a Government LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and placed more than 200,000 men in the field, with an adequate staff and commissariat. A still larger number of men are ready to take the field, if it should become necessary, and experience has shown that the only limit to the disposition of the people to give what may be required for the war, is to be found in their ability. The enemy with greatly superior numbers have been routed in pitched battles at Bethel and Manassas. The com paratively little foothold which they have had in the Confederate States is gradually being lost, and after six months in which they employed their best resources, it may truly be said they are much further from the conquest of the Southern States than they seemed to be when the struggle commenced. " The Union feeling, which was supposed to exist largely in the South and which was known to us to be imaginary, is now shown in the true light to all mankind. Never were any people more united than are those of the Confederate States in their purpose to maintain their independence at any cost of life and treasure, nor is there a party to be found anywhere in these States which professes a desire for a reunion with the United States. Nothing could prove this unanimity of feeling more strongly than the fact that this immense army may be said to have taken the field spontaneously and faster almost than the Government could provide for its organization and equipment. But the voluntary contributions of the people supplied all de ficiencies until the Government could come to their assistance, as it has done with the necessary military establishments. And what is perhaps equally remarkable, it may be said with truth that there has been no judicial execution for a political offense during the whole of the war, and so far as military offenses are concerned, our prisons would be empty if it were not for a few captured spies. " Under these circumstances it would seem that the time has arrived when it would be proper in the Government of Great Britain to recognize our independence. If it be obvious that the Confederate States can not be conquered in this struggle, then the sooner the strife be ended the better for the cause of peace and the interests of mankind. Under these circumstances to fail to throw the great moral influence of such a recognition into the scale of peace when this may be done without risk or danger, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. may be to share in the responsibility for the longer continuance of an unnecessary war. This is a consideration which ought, per haps, to have some weight with a nation which leads so largely as does that of Great Britain in the progress of Christian civiliza tion. That the British people have a deep political and com mercial interest in the establishment of the independence of the Confederate States, must be obvious to all. Their real interest in that event is only a little less than our own. The great ques tion of cotton supply which has occupied their attention so justly and so anxiously for some years past will then be satis factorily settled. " Whilst the main source of cotton production was in the hands of such a power as that of the late United States, and controlled by those who were disposed to use that control to acquire the supremacy in navigation, commerce and manu factures over all rivals, there was just cause for anxiety on the part of nations who were largely dependent upon this source of supply for the raw material of important manufactures. But the case will be far different when peace is assured and the in dependence of the Confederate States is acknowledged. Within these States must be found, for years to come, the great source of cotton supply. So favorable a combination of soil, climate, and labor is nowhere else to be found. Their capacity for in creased production has, so far, kept pace with the increased demand, and in time of peace it promises to do so for a long while to come. In the question of the supply of this great staple there is a world-wide interest, and if the nations of the earth could choose for themselves a single depositary for such an interest, perhaps none could be found to act so impartially in that capacity as the Confederacy of Southern States. Their great interest is and will be for a long time to come in the production and exportation of the important staples so much sought by the rest of the world. It would be long before they would become the rivals of those who are largely concerned in navigation, manufactures and commerce. On the contrary, these interests would make them valuable customers and bind them to the policy of free trade. " Their early legislation which has thrown open their LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. navigation, foreign and coasting, to the free competition of all nations, and which has imposed the lowest duties on imports con sistent with their necessary revenue wants, proves the natural tendency of their commercial policy. Under these circumstances the supply of cotton to Great Britian would be as abundant, as cheap and as certain as if these States were themselves her colonies. " The establishment of such an empire, committed as it would be to the policy of free trade, by its interests and tradi tions, would seem to be a matter of primary importance to the progress of human industry and the great cause of human civil ization. " The President of the Confederate States believes that he can not be mistaken in supposing it to be the duty of the nations of the earth, by a prompt recognition, to throw the weight of their moral influence against the unnecessary prolongation of the war. " But whilst he neither feels nor affects an indifference to the decision of the world upon these questions which deeply concern the interest of the Confederate States, he does not pre sent their claim to a recognized place among the nations of the earth from the belief that any such recognition is necessary to enable them to achieve and secure their independence. Such an act might diminish the sufferings and shorten the duration of an unnecessary war, but with or without it he believes that the Con federate States, under the guidance of a kind and overruling Providence, will make good their title to freedom and independ ence, and to a recognized place among the nations of the earth. " When you are officially recognized by the British Govern ment and diplomatic relations between the two countries are thus fully established, you will request an audience of Her Majesty for the purpose of presenting your letters, accrediting you as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Con federate States near Her Majesty, and in that capacity you are LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. empowered to negotiate such treaties as the mutual interests of both countries may require, subject, of course, to the approval of the President and the coordinate branch of the treaty-making power. " I have the honor to be, sir, " Your obedient servant, " R. M. T. HUNTER." DISPATCH No. 2. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, "RICHMOND, October 2Qth, 1861. " Hon. James M. Mason, " Commissioner of Confederate States. " SIR : The attention of this Government has been recently drawn to the case of two British vessels laden with naval stores at the port of Wilmington, North Carolina, which were forbidden to proceed to sea by the military authorities of that port. To avoid any misapprehension of the motives of this action on the part of this Government, and to enable you to explain the matter fully, in case you are required to do so, I think it proper to put you in possession of all the facts. " When it was ascertained that the British vessels Bruce and * Napier were taking on board cargoes of naval stores (con traband of war) and proposed to clear from the port of Wilming ton, the Secretary of the Treasury directed the Collector of that port to allow these ships to complete their cargo, and clear as they desired, unless there was good reason to believe, as many of the inhabitants supposed, that their neutral papers were in tended as covers for unlawful trade with the enemy. Under this authority, it appears, these two vessels laden with full cargoes of naval stores, were proceeding to sea, when the General com manding at Wilmington, believing that they would certainly be captured and their cargoes fall into the hands of the enemy to be used in the war now being waged against us, and acting under instructions from the War Department, issued an order for their detention, until he should be satisfied that they could proceed with a reasonable prospect of escape from the enemy s cruisers. This order for the detention of the vessels was accompanied by an offer to their owners that if they should be unwilling to suffer LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. this delay, the Government of the Confederate States, in the exercise of its right of preemption in regard to the cargoes (being contraband of war), would pay the compensation proper in such cases according to the law of nations. It is true that the Bruce and the Napier entered Wilmington without molesta tion from any blockading vessel, and it is said without any notice that any blockade existed; and it may be said, therefore, that having entered a port when no blockading force was in sight, they have a right to go to sea with their cargoes without hin drance from the enemy. That they have such a right is un doubted, but we know that the rights of neutrals, and the usages of nations have not been recently respected by the Government of the United States. " The Hiawatha, with a cargo owned by British subjects cleared from the port of Richmond, having, it is confidently asserted, never received any notice of a blockade ; yet she was seized and has been condemned by a U. S. Court. Admonished by this and other examples, this Government was clearly justified in supposing that the enemy s authorities would not suffer the 1 Bruce and Napier to proceed to sea without hindrance, particularly when it was known that these vessels contained articles of which they stand in urgent need for warlike purposes. " You will observe from the foregoing detail that this Gov ernment has treated the cases of the Bruce and Napier with all possible indulgence consistent with our own security, and that its action can not be justly considered in the least derogation of that protection which it owes to the legitimate trade of neutrals within its ports. " It is the earnest desire of this Government to promote and encourage, by all the means in its possession, the most intimate and liberal commercial intercourse with neutral powers. It is a source of deep regret that those powers have not availed them selves of their legitimate right to trade in every port of the Con federate States, since it can not be contended that at any time the blockade declared by the Government of the United States has been efficient or binding on neutral nations. While this Government is indisposed to complain of the course pursued by the Governments of the great European powers since the com mencement of the war between the Confederate States and the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. United States, it can not be denied that the effect of the neutrality observed by those powers has proved of far more disadvantage to the Confederate States than to the enemy. " While the strict letter of the Declaration of Paris in rela tion to privateers has been enforced against us, to our manifest prejudice, the terms of that agreement, which declare that block ades to be binding must be effective, have not been enforced as against our enemy, although abundant evidence has been afforded that no port in the Confederate States has ever been efficiently blockaded. Thus, neutrality has been strained to its utmost limit as against the Confederate States ; while clear legal rights have not been asserted as against our enemies, where their assertion would have been to our advantage. I have observed that the impression prevails to some extent in England that this Government has prohibited the exportation of cotton by sea to neutral and friendly nations. It would be well that you should take means to correct this error. The laws of the Confederate States warrant no such prohibition, and further proof of this is afforded by the recent departure from Savannah of the steam ship Bermuda/ laden with cotton and bound for Liverpool. Congress has alone prohibited the exportation of cotton for the use of the enemy or through the enemy s territory. I am sir, " Your obedient servant, " WM. M. BROWNE, " Acting Secretary of State." In an unofficial letter to Mr. Hunter, then Secretary of State, written the day after his arrival, Mr. Mason said : " I have had but one day in London, and that engrossed by visitors, embracing many of our countrymen here, with many English gentlemen who sympathize with us. In my short note of last night, I could tell you only of the favorable impressions we received everywhere on our voyage, of sympathy from the British naval officers. Now, with but a day s experience in London, my impressions decidedly are that although the ministry may hang back in regard to the blockade and recogni tion through the Queen s speech, at the opening of Parliament next week, the popular voice through the House of Commons will demand both. But few members, it is said, are yet in town, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. but there is a prevalent desire manifested to be well informed as to American affairs, and I have said to those who have called on me, that I should be happy to see and converse with any gentle men who desired such information. My views, of course, upon such short acquaintance here, must be crude, but I shall be dis appointed if the Parliament does not insist on definite action by the ministry, inuring to the relief of their people, as well as ours/ On February 2d, he wrote : " In the three days that I have been here, I have been called on by a great number of gentle men. From all that I can gather here, while the ministry seem to hang fire, both as regards the blockade and recognition, the opinion is very prevalent, in best informed quarters, that at an early day after meeting of Parliament, the subject will be intro duced into the House of Commons, and pressed to a favorable vote. The motion will probably come from a moderate Con servative, in the form of an amendment to the Address/ and with the opposition, will carry sufficient Conservative vote to reach a majority." Again on February 7th, 1862, in his second dispatch to the Government at Richmond, he said : " I send you with this the Times of this date, containing the Queen s message and the debate on it in Parliament. The former, as you will see, contains no further reference to American affairs than the affair of the Trent/ It is thought that silence as to the blockade was in tended to leave that question open. " Mr. Gregory was kind enough to call on me by appoint ment, and find me a place in the House of Commons. It would seem after consultation, members favorable to our interests thought it best not to broach them in the House in the form of an amendment to the address, as I thought would be done in my No. I, but the question will come up in both Houses in the same form at an early day. Many members of Parliament, warmly in our interest, have called on me, including Mr. Lindsay, M. P. for Liverpool, and who is the largest ship-owner in England, and I was introduced to others at the House. They confer freely as to what may be best for our interest. They say the blockade question is one more easily carried in our favor just now than recognition, in which I agree, and their efforts will be mainly LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. directed to a repudiation of the blockade. If that is done, recog nition will speedily follow. The ministry are certainly averse to either step just now. They seem afraid of any further broil with the Government at Washington. You will see what was said by Lord Derby in the Lords, and Disraeli in the House. There was extreme reluctance with all parties to go into any contro versial question on the address, because of the recent death of the Prince and the real sorrow of the Queen. I have had long conferences with Mr. Gregory, who will be an earnest and efficient coadjutor; all agree that I could not have a more useful or safe adviser. A call will be made, probably in both Houses, for any information in possession of the Government touching the efficiency of the blockade. I have the returns from the Southern ports given me at Richmond, up to the 1st of Septem ber, and received here since I came, for the months of September and October. I shall make free use with our friends in Parlia ment of the results they show, and when in communication with the foreign office, shall send them to Earl Russell. As to the latter, Mr. Gregory has kindly offered to consult with judicious friends and advise me in what manner it may be best to ask the interview, always considering that while conforming to any proper usage, I stand in no attitude as a suppliant, or as asking any favor." In dispatch No. 4, dated February 22d, 1862, Mr. Mason said : " My last dispatches Nos. 2 and 3, both dated on the 7th of the month went by a steamer intended to attempt the block ade. This goes by an opportunity through Mr. Pringle of South Carolina, who will make the like attempt in the Bermuda. If time admits, I will send you informal duplicates, with this, of my Nos. 2 and 3. " In my No. 2, I told you that I had addressed a note, on that day, to Earl Russell asking an interview, and on the same day received his reply, saying that he would receive me, on Mon day the loth instant, unofficially at his residence, at n a. m. I enclosed herewith copies of those notes. " Mr. Mason, deputed by the President with the advice and consent of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, as special Commis sioner to the Government of her Britannic Majesty, has the honor to inform Earl Russell of his arrival in London. "Mr. Mason is instructed by his Government, to ask that Earl Russell LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. would admit him to the honor of an interview, at such time as may be con venient to his Lordship. " Mr Mason is aware that the Government of the Confederate States being not yet recognized by the Government of her Majesty, the interview he ventures to ask must, of course be unofficial. "FENTON S HOTEL, Saturday, Feb. 8th, 1862. " The Right Hon. Earl Russell, "Foreign Office:" 1 (REPLY.) "Earl Russell presents his compliments to Mr. Mason, and in answer to his note of this day, will be happy to receive Mr. Mason unof ficially at Lord Russell s House, No. 37 Chesham Place, at n o clock on Monday morning, the roth instant. "FOREIGN OFFICE. " February 8th, 1862." " I am now to give you an account of the interview, Earl Russell received me in a civil and kind manner, and expressed the hope that I had not suffered on the protracted voyage, and its incidents. I had been told,, on all hands, that his usual manner was cold and repulsive not likely to be improved, I thought, by the character of our interview, yet I did not find it so. " I told him that I had brought with me, my credentials as Special Commissioner to England, which, if he desired, I would read to him. He said that would be unnecessary, our relations being unofficial. After some introductory conversation, as to the general objects of my mission, I told him that, with his per mission, I would read to him portions of the instructions from my Government to me, not in their form of instructions, but as embodying the views which my Government desired to be laid before his ; and I read to him accordingly, those portions of the paper, relating to recognition and the blockade. So much as related to the question of cotton supply and its importance to this country, I thought it best to omit, as I had reasons to be lieve, from very intelligent sources, that it might be considered obtrusive, having been urged until England had become a little sensitive. He listened with apparent patience and attention, making no remark as I went on. I then resumed the conversa tion, stating, that although recognition was certainly desirable, and, we thought, fully our due, yet we did not consider it the matter of first moment; that we well knew our strength and resources, and thus, that recognition was but a question of time, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2 ( >I in the solution of which, perhaps other Governments might soon find themselves as much interested as we were. What I chiefly pressed upon him, and what I assumed now to be the common sentiment of Europe, was that in no possible contingency, would the Confederate States come under a common government with the North. That none could doubt we had ample resources of men and means to carry on the war, so long as the enemy was in the field against us with entire unanimity of sentiment to remain, as we then were, an independent people. He took but little part in the conversation, asking only one or two questions ; one was, as to the internal condition of Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, and he referred also to the alienation of Northwestern Virginia. I told him that, as far as the three States named were concerned, they were now members of the Confederate States; that we knew a very large majority of their people were with the South, and none who knew the actual condition of things, doubted that they would remain so ; and that, as to Northwestern Virginia, the pretence of a separate government there was an empty pageant, credited only by the Government at Washing ton, and by it alone for the purposes of delusion. " On the whole, it was manifest enough that his personal sympathies were not with us, and his policy inaction. Before leaving him, I told him that I had received a dispatch from Richmond, containing an explanation of the causes, which led to the detention, by the military authorities of Wilmington, North Carolina, of the *British ships, Napier and Bruce/ which ex planation I was instructed to give, if they were asked for; I desired only to inform him they were in my possession. I had risen to take leave. He said he would be glad to hear them, and asked me to resume my seat. I read him that dispatch. He remarked that the detention was manifestly from military con siderations only, and the explanation sufficient. " On taking leave, I said to him, that I was aware, from the published dispatches, that both France and England had held direct communication with the Government at Richmond, in matters interesting to them, through the agency of their consuls at Charleston and Savannah, and that I referred to it only to say that I should remain in London, and perhaps might be the *See dispatch No. 2, dated Richmond, October 29th, 1861. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. medium of like communication, should future occasions occur. I do not know that he will use it, but should he do so, it might be pressed to our advantage. His only reply was, he hoped I might find my residence in London agreeable. " I should add, that during the interview I told him that I was in possession of official returns of the number of vessels, entered and cleared at the Confederate ports, since the blockade was declared, and which, if permitted, I would send him. He said he would be glad to have them, and I sent them to him accordingly. They contain, however, returns only for Charleston and Savannah, up to the 3ist of October, for the other ports, only to August and September. " Earl Russell seemed utterly disinclined to enter into con versation at all, as to the policy of his Government, and only said, in substance, they must await events." DISPATCH No. 5. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, February 28th, 1862. " Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, " Secretary of State. " SIR : I send with this a duplicate of my No. 4. I send also papers laid before Parliament a few days since, but now just printed, touching the blockade ; and on a separate sheet, remarks on them part in cipher. Also duplicates from Mr. Slidell, letters for the War Department and private individuals, with numbers of the Times. As to letters for private persons, I find numbers here from our country, unable to communicate with home, on matters of pressing interest to them, and I do not feel at liberty to refuse them my aid. " A telegram from Madrid in the Times of the 26th instant, said that Captain Semmes of the Sumter had been arrested at Tangiers, at the instance of the American consul at Gibraltar, and the Captain of the United States ship Tuscarora/ who had gone there for that purpose. At latest accounts the Sumter was at Gibraltar, and the Tuscarora at Algesiras, a Spanish port on the opposite side of the bay. I communicated this, at once, to Mr. Slidell, and have his reply this morning, stating that he LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 263 had no further information than by the telegram referred to. Not being confirmed through any other quarter, I hope it is untrue ; if otherwise, however, Mr. S. and I will endeavor in some way to interpose. " I am etc., " J. M. MASON. " P. S. Since the above was written, I learn that Mr. Grif- fifth, M. P., has given notice of a motion to ask the Secretary for Foreign Affairs if information has been received that the Captain of the Sumter has been arrested at Tangiers ; and if so, whether it is supposed, that any pressure has been put on the Moorish Government. I learn further, from correct sources, that the motion was not pressed, on private information from the Government that measures had been taken by it to learn the truth, which would be given in reply to the question. Thus it is certain that this Government has taken the thing in hand. " From the relations between England and Morocco, arising out of the late loan, none doubt that a word from the Foreign Office would effect their release. " I learn further that on this day week (6th March), an enquiry from the Conservative party agreed on, to the Govern ment, will bring up questions on the doctrines of Earl Russell s letter. I feel authorized to say further that the Government at Washington has been sounded on the question, whether a single port in the Confederate States could not be exempted from the blockade with a view to the export of cotton, etc. ; no answer yet received. I give you the foregoing as matters to be con sidered at Richmond, but of course, not to go in public channels, as otherwise sources open to me here might be cut off. " J. M. M." Enclosed with dispatch No. 5 was this letter (part in cipher) from Mr. Mason to Mr. Hunter, dated also, February 28 : " You will observe in the papers laid before Parliament (herewith) the remarkable letter of Earl Russell to Lord Lyons, of so recent date as the I5th of this month. It is of course to be taken as the Government exposition of the law of blockade, established by the Congress at Paris, and acceded to by the Con federate States, at the request of the English and French Gov- 264 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ernments. I should read in connection with it the language used by M. Billault in the French Senate, on the instant, of which I enclose the report of the Paris correspondent of the London Times. Monsieur B., it is said, is the admitted exponent, in the Senate, of the views of the Emperor, and thus spoke by authority. " In this connection, it would seem, that the doctrines of Russell s letter had been previously agreed on between the two Governments, nor could it well be otherwise, when we consider the entire accord, as to American affairs, existing between them. I submit it to you as the event of latest interest. " In political circles, it is thought the condition of the Queen has much to do with the manifest reluctance of the Ministry to run any risk of war by interference with the blockade. It is said that she is under great constitutional depression, and nerv ously sensitive to anything that looks like war. Indeed much fear is entertained as to the condition of her health. " I yet hope an issue will be made in Parliament on the doctrines of Earl Russell s letter, but at present it is a hope only." Dispatch No. 6, dated March nth, 1862, is of sufficient im portance to be given in full. It said : " The recent debate in the two Houses of Parliament, on the question of the blockade, clearly demonstrated, that no step will be taken by this Government to interfere with it. I send you with this, files of the London Times in continuation of those sent with my No. 5, containing the debate at large, in both Houses. " It came on last night in the House of Lords, and is re ported in the Times of to-day. You will remark in Earl Rus sell s reply, at the close, he expresses the hope, if not the belief, that the war will end in three months, and looks to its close, by a peaceable separation in two States.- I was given a seat on the floor of the House and some two or three of the Peers, in con versation with me, construed his meaning to be, that the existing separation was final ; and such, I have no doubt, is the settled conviction of the public mind of this country. Still the ministry is sustained, and as it would seem, by almost all parties, in its refusal either to question the legality of the blockade, or to LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 265 recognize our independence. Many causes concur to this end. " First, the pervading disinclination, in any way, to disturb the mourning of the Queen. The loyalty of the English people to their present Sovereign is strongly mixed up with an affectionate devotion to her person. You find this feeling prev alent in all circles and classes. Then, as regards the question of cotton supply, which we had supposed would speedily have disturbed the level of their neutral policy. This state of things manifestly exists. The con stantly increasing supply of cotton, with a corresponding de mand for its fabric, for a few years past, it would seem, has so stimulated the manufactories, that the blockade found the markets overstocked with fabrics, and very soon, the price of the fabric bore a very diminished relative value to that of the raw material. " This disproportionate ratio has since continued ; the price of the fabric, though constantly rising, still not keeping pace with the rise in the raw material, it would follow, that until prices approached a level, it would not be the interest of the manu facturer to cheapen the latter, until the stock of the former, on hand should be disposed of. Thus it is, that even in Lancashire and other manufacturing districts, no open demonstration has been made against the blockade. " True, that more than one-third of the mills have been stopped, and the rest working only on half time, still the owners find it to their account not to complain, and they silence the working classes by sufficient alms, in aid of parish relief, to keep them from actual starvation. The supply of cotton, however, is now very low, and the factitious state of things, above referred to, can not last very long 1 . " The better to keep the public mind quiet, too, on the sub ject of cotton supply, great efforts have been made, as you are aware, to produce the belief, that in any event adequate supplies of this material will be ensured by the increase of its culture in India ; still I do not find that much faith is given to such promises, by those who ought best to know. " All seem to agree, that the hope either of reunion or re construction is gone, but that is accompanied by the idea, strongly confirmed by our recent disasters on the Cumberland 2(5(5 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. River, that the South will be forced to yield the Border States, or at least Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland, to the North; and that the Government at Washington will be ready, in the course of two or three months, to agree to the separation on these terms; looking thus to a speedy end to the war, they are the more disinclined to any course which would seem to commit this country to either side. " Members of both Houses call on me frequently, seeking information, and I am always sedulous and earnest to disabuse their minds of all belief that the Confederate Government will lay down its arms, on any such terms, but that, cost what it may, the States now confederated will preserve their integrity, con senting only to part with any of the Border States, when it shall appear, by the free and unbiased vote of the people of such State, that they prefer to^cast their lot with the North, a con tingency which none in the South believe will ever arise. " The late reverses at *Fort Henry and Fort Donelson have had an unfortunate effect upon the minds of our friends here, as was naturally to be expected. I assured them that at most, they are to be considered only as driving in or capturing out posts, by the invading army, and by no means, should be taken to foreshadow the result of the general battle, which seems im pending on our Western frontier. " The steamer Annie Childs/ late from North Carolina, arrived at Liverpool two days ago, having left Wilmington, N. C, on the 5th of February, and successfully run the blockade, with a cargo of cotton and turpentine. I received by her, private letters from home, but no dispatches. It is of great importance that we should be kept advised here, as far as practicable, of the conduct and prospects of the war, as to which we get nothing from the South but meagre and distorted accounts, through the Northern press. Perhaps by proper instructions to the collec tors at the Southern ports, who would know when vessels are about to leave for any neutral port, they might be directed to send, at least, the latest Southern newspapers. " I have seen through the Northern papers that Mr. Hunter has been transferred to the Senate ; but I have not heard who has *The official dispatch from Richmond, giving reports of these events, will be found in the next chapter. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. succeeded him in the Department of State, and thus address this dispatch accordingly. " I have the honour to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." Copy of Mr. Slidell s memorandum of Mr. Lindsay s inter view with the Emperor Napoleon, spoken of in Mr. Mason s dispatch of April 2ist: " Mr. Lindsay had on April nth, by appointment, an inter view with the Emperor, having received on the previous evening a note from Mr. Moquard, his private secretary, inviting his presence at the Tuilleries at I p. m. The Emperor said to Mr. Lindsay that he had been led to desire the interview by Mr. Thouvenal, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, having been informed by Mr. Rouher, Minister of Commerce, of a conversation which he had with Mr. Lindsay that morning. " After some preliminary conversation about the navigation laws of France, the scheme of establishing a line of steamers from Bordeaux to New Orleans under the patronage of the French Government was spoken of. This, of course, led to the American question. Mr. Lindsay spoke of the Federal blockade as being ineffectual, and not in accordance with the Fourth Article of the Declaration of the Congress of Paris, and mem- tioned facts in support of his opinion ; the Emperor fully con curred in Mr. Lindsay s opinion, and said he would long since have declared the inefficiency of the blockade, and taken the necessary steps to put an end to it, but that he could not obtain the concurrence of the English ministry, and that he had been, and was still, unwilling to act without it. That M. Thouvenal had twice addressed Lord Cowley, the British minister, represen tations to this effect, but had only received evasive responses. The dates of those representations were not mentioned by the Emperor, but M. Rouher had said to Mr. Lindsay that the first had been made during the past summer, and the other about three weeks since. Mr. Lindsay then adverted to the present sufferings of the labouring classes of France and England, mainly caused by the interruption of the supply of cotton from the Confederate States, sufferings which even now were cal culated to excite very serious apprehensions in both countries, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. but which were from week to week becoming more aggravated, and which in two or three months would become absolutely in tolerable. That the time for action had arrived, for if the remedy was not soon applied, the most fearful consequences might be anticipated. To all these remarks the Emperor gave his most unqualified assent, but asked what was the remedy. Mr. Lindsay said that the recognition of the Confederate States would do much to mitigate the danger; that if the two powers were not prepared to act immediately, some other neutral nations might take the initiative, and that being thus taken, France and England might invoke the example and follow it. He named especially Spain and Belgium, but the Emperor replied that he did not think that Spain would be willing to assume the respon sibility of putting herself in the breach, and that as to Belgium, England was the proper power to make the suggestion. " Mr. Lindsay then went on to say, that not only the interest of Europe required the war to be put a stop to, but that every principle of humanity demanded prompt intervention to stop so dreadful an effusion of blood, and the mutual exhaustion of both parties ; that everybody who knew anything of the feel ing of hostility between the two sections was convinced that the Union could not be restored, and that even if the South were overrun, she could never be subjugated; that she was carrying on a most unequal contest, rendered still more unequal by the submission of neutral powers to an inefficient blockade, that while professing to be neutral, they were not so in fact, as the Northern States were receiving unlimited supplies of arms, munitions of war, clothing, and of every article necessary for the support of their armies, while the South was effectually cut off from supplies of every kind, which, being a purely agricul tural people, they could not manufacture for themselves. To these remarks the Emperor also fully assented. Mr. Lindsay went on to say that the North was not making war, as many pretended, for the abolition of slavery, but to subjugate the South in order to reestablish their protective tariff, and to restore their monopoly of Southern markets. That for this purpose it was only necessary to refer to Mr. Lincoln s inau gural and messages, and to the proclamation of his generals ; he referred to the continued existence of slavery in the District LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of Columbia, which might have been put an end to a year ago. That he knew many Northern men, and had a very extensive correspondence with them, and that all agreed that not one Northern man in ten desired the abolition of slavery, for the sim ple reason that they knew it would be destructive of their own interests. The Emperor said that he believed that this was a true statement of the case; what then was to be done? He could not again address the English Ministry through official channels without some reason to believe that his representa tions would receive a favourable response, that he was prepared to act promptly and decidedly; that he would at once dispatch a formidable fleet to the mouth of the Mississippi if England would send an equal force ; that they would demand free ingress and egress for their merchantmen with their cargoes of goods and supplies of cotton, which were essential to the world. He au thorized Mr. Lindsay to make this statement to Lord Cowley, and to ascertain whether he would recommend the course in dicated to his Government, and further that he should see Lords Russell and Palmerston to confer with them on the subject. He asked Mr. Lindsay to defer his intended departure for London until Sunday night, and fixed Sunday, n a. m., for a further hearing. DISPATCH No. 8. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, April 2ist, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: " SIR : I have the honour to transmit to you a despatch from Mr. Slidell, which I brought with me yesterday from Paris. I went to Paris with the gentleman referred to by Mr. Slidell, when he returned there on the i6th instant, to report the result of his mission to England. That gentleman had kindly imparted to me here what had passed in Paris between him and (the Emperor),* reported in the Memorandum of Mr. Slidell herewith. I am now to supply what passed in his second interview with (the Emperor). " We reached Paris on the I7th instant, and the next day *Such portions of this dispatch as are included within parentheses were, in the original, in cipher. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the interview took place. He reported to (His Majesty) that (Earl Russell) had declined receiving his communication, on the score that he could not communicate with a foreign Power except through the regular diplomatic channels nor did (Lord Palmerston) send for him, though in his note to (Earl Russell) he said he was equally charged to communicate his mission to the former. He, by permission (of the Emperor), however, reported the matter to Mr. (Disraeli) as the (leader of the Con servatives). (Lord Derby) was too ill to be seen. (The Emperor) seemed disturbed at the manner in which his (agent) had been repulsed, and so expressed himself freely said that the two former communications from him, on American affairs, through his (Ambassador at London), had been answered only evasively, and therefore, he did not choose again to communicate (officially) with the (British Government) on that subject, unless previously advised that his proposition would be received favourably that (England) seemed to be acting in a strange manner towards (France) that since the friendly interposition of the latter, in the affair of the ( Trent/ England) seemed less disposed to cultivate, or to continue in cordial (relations) said that (Earl Russell) had dealt unfairly, in sending to (Lord Lyons) his previous propositions to (England), in regard to action on the (blockade), who had made them known to Mr. (Seward),and this latter was an insuperable objection to his again communicating (officially, at London,) touching American affairs, until he knew (England) was in accord. (Mr. Lindsay) reported to (the Emperor) the substance of his interview with (Disraeli), which was an assurance that the (Conservative party) were of the same opinion with him in regard to the repudiation of the (blockade), that if the (Ministry) should coincide with the views of the (Emperor) their action would have a unanimous (support). But that he (Disraeli) had strong reasons to believe that (Lord Russell) had a private understanding with (Seward) in regard to American affairs. This latter, particularly, struck (His Majesty) as a key to the conduct of (Lord Russell). I should add that Mr. (Lindsay), after his first interview with the person named, reported all that had passed to the (British Ambassador) at Paris, by permission, and had no doubt that he had at once sent it to (Lord Russell), so that the latter knew LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. fully the purpose of the communication to be made by (Mr. Lindsay) when he declined to see him. (The Emperor) did not commit himself, as to acting separately, though (Disraeli) had given his opinion that if he did so the (British Government) would be compelled to follow. On the whole, (Mr. Lindsay) is of opinion that any decisive success to our arms, though local, would lead (the Emperor) to act alone or, if none, then absence of success, and delays on the part of the enemy. "And further, that in any event, this projected movement must and will bear its fruits, and that speedily. The gentleman referred to is, as you know, a man of highest consideration here, and of weight in (Parliament). He is deeply in earnest, and strongly disposed to make the most of the power to achieve what he is after, which he derives from his backing, on the other side of the (channel.) In the meantime, the cry of distress is coming up, stronger every day, from the manufacturing districts, and as some evidence of the impression it is making, I enclose a slip from the London Times, of the iQth instant. " I enclose Mr. Slidell s memorandum, under cover with this, and have had it copied to send in duplicate, a few days hence. Parliament meets again on the 28th of this month, and I am not without hope that this new complication may soon have its results, and the Ministry give in. My last was my No. 7, of the 1 8th of March. I have nothing from the Department since my arrival here. Mr. Mann left here for Brussels on the 1 7th instant. I must add, that gentleman, in communication with us, strongly enjoins that what we derive from him should be known only to the President and yourself. " I have the honour to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 9. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, May 2, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: " SIR : I have the honour to transmit to you, herewith, a letter addressed to me by Mr. Spence, of Liverpool, to the end 272 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. that it might be communicated to the Government through you. It embodies the substance of a conversation he had with me a few days ago. Mr. Spence is the author of a book entitled The American Union/ which was published here last fall, and has already gone through four editions. It has attracted more attention and been more generally read, both here and on the Continent, than any production of like character; of the many that have appeared. " He sent a copy of it, through me, to the President, some weeks since, which I hope may have reached him. Its general purpose was to enlighten the European mind as to the cause which brought about the dissolution to show that to the South it was inevitable that the safety and welfare of the South re quired it, and to put an end, at once, to all expectation of reunion or reconstruction, in any form. Besides this work, he has been, and yet is, a constant contributor to the London Times, in articles of great ability vindicating the South against the calumnies from the Northern Government and press, and infusing into all classes in England sympathy with us. His writings show that he is a man of large research, liberal and expanded views. He is about forty-five or forty-six years of age, full of enterprise and an able and experienced merchant. * " It would seem to me that the suggestions contained in his letter of the importance, at a future day, to the Government, of such an agency as he suggests, are worthy of consideration. I do not believe it could be confided to more capable or efficient hands, in England, and on the score of desert, would be a well- merited recompense to Mr. Spence for his persistent and valu able labours in our cause. His notion of change in the style of the Confederacy, fanciful enough to us, is from an English busi ness point of view. From a great regard for the meritorious services of Mr. Spence, I hope his suggestion may be kindly received, and shall be happy to be the medium of communicating to him the views of the President. " I have the honour to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." See dispatch No. 6 from Richmond, given in next chapter. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. DISPATCH No. 10. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " May 1 6th, 1862. " Hon. J . P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: " SIR : My No. 9, with a communication intended for the Government from James Spence, Esq., of Liverpool, goes by same conveyance as this. A few days since I received, under cover, from the house of Messrs. Frazer, Trenholm and Com pany, of Liverpool, a dispatch from William M. Browne, Esq., Secretary of State ad int., dated I3th of March last, and marked No. 5. It contained nothing but an account of the then recent victory of the Virginia over the Federal squadron in Hampton Roads, accompanied by the official report of the engagement. On my arrival here, in January last, I found two dispatches from the Department, dated respectively October 29 and November 9th, 1861, and marked Nos. 2 and 3. I have received none others, except No. 5, above acknowledged, and thus Nos. i and 4 are missing. I note this, less the Department should suppose I had been inattentive to their contents. I hear of occasional arrivals at Liverpool from the Confederate States. Only three days ago a ship arrived to Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm and Company, with communications from the War Department, for Captain Huse, its agent in England, but with nothing either for Mr. Slidell or for me. I am very well aware, whilst unaccredited here, the Department can have little to communicate, in the form of in struction or advice still, it would be desirable to hear occasion ally from the Government, were it only words of encourage ment and hope. In political circles here, constant inquiry is made as to what I hear from home ; and when I answer that I get nothing, a doubt seems implied that the Government hesi tates to commit itself to persistence in the war, in the midst of the trying circumstances in which it is placed. True I leave nothing undone to dispel such doubt ; but an occasional letter, even referring only to the spirit of our people, and the determina tion of the Government, happen what may, would go far to reassure our more timid friends in England, and it is of the last moment to keep the public mind here assured that the war, so disastrous in its consequences to Europe, will go on, at any cost of suffering or distress, until the Federal Government 274 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. shall lay down its arms and leave the territory of the South. " My No. 8, of the 2ist of April, with the memorandum from Mr. Slidell accompanying it, gave to the Department informa tion of apparent grave moment from France. Lest it may not have reached you through the blockade, I have entrusted its substance to Mr. Ward (late Minister of the United States to China), to be communicated, orally, to the President. Mr. W. also bears with this an unofficial note from me to the President, referring to it. All is mystery with us, touching the late visit of * M. Mercier to Richmond, as connected with which I enclose an extract from a note received yesterday from Mr. Slidell at Paris, dated on the I4th. You will, of course, know the ostensible, as well, I pre sume, as the real purpose of the visit of M. Mercier; but not withstanding the disclaimer of M. Thouvenal to Mr. Slidell, I must, until the future shall show the contrary, remain of opinion that M. Mercier went to Richmond under orders from the Emperor direct, and on a mission which he did not choose should, for the time, at least, be made known to England. " My No. 8 will have shown that there were reasons why intercourse between the Emperor and the Confederate States should not be conducted through the usual diplomatic channels. He may have chosen that M. Thouvenal should not be able to answer Lord Cowley s inquiry as to the object of such mission ; and we know here that when the first intelligence came that M. Mercier had gone to Richmond, Lord Cowley inquired of M. Thouvenal what it meant, and was answered that he had no information. And now, this theory gets further confirmation in the fact that M. Thouvenal has not yet heard from M. Mercier, but is left to Lord Lyon s dispatches to his Government (as he reports to Mr. Slidell) to know what a mission of his own Min ister, and of such grave moment, meant. If the orders went from the Emperor direct, the return dispatch would go to the Emperor direct, and so M. Thouvenal would be left to the dis patches of Lord Lyons. " Nor do I find these views at all inconsistent with the alleged mission from Mr. Seward, spoken of in the dispatches from Lord Lyons, as M. Thouvenal reported them to Mr. Sli- *See dispatch No. 6 from Richmond, given in next chapter. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. dell, that I should take as the ostensible, while the real mission was known only to the Emperor and his Minister, and I pre sume also to the Government at Richmond. I venture on these speculations only that, in some event, the suggestion and the reason for it, that the purpose of M. Mercier s visit was not dis closed by the Emperor to any one, may possibly be of service to you, as a clue to anything that may be hidden. I send you with this, late files of the London Times, from which, inter alia, you will see the extent of the distress in the manufacturing districts, and the way it is dealt with by the Government. " I have the honour to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." " 54 DEVONSHIRE STREET, PORTLAND PLACE, " LONDON, May i6th, 1862. " Hon. Jefferson Davis: "Mv DEAR SIR: This will be handed you by Colonel Ward, of Savannah, the late Minister of the United States to China. I avail myself of his return to make him the depositary of the substance of the late dispatches of Mr. Slidell and myself, in cipher, to the Department of State, in the event of their not reaching their destination. " Those dispatches were not sent in duplicate, and Colonel Ward is obliging enough, should they not have reached the Department, to be the medium of communicating them, orally, to you. " The great importance that this information should reach you has caused me to entrust it, orally, to Colonel Ward, know ing its safety with him; but the gentleman from whom it was derived imparted it to Mr. Slidell and myself, with a request that it should not be known to any, except the Secretary of State and yourself, which please regard. We have heard nothing more from that quarter. " Colonel Ward can tell you fully of the state of public feeling in England and on the Continent, in regard to American affairs. " Here, the higher and the educated classes strongly sym pathize with the South, and seem to deplore the coldness and inaction of the Government ; but none are disposed to encourage LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the opposition to make an issue with the Ministry on the ques tion either of recognition or of the blockade. " The fall of New Orleans will certainly exercise a depress ing influence on counsels here for intervention, in either form; but we are anxiously and hopefully looking for success to our arms both in Virginia and Tennessee. In the event of both, or even either, if success is decisive, I should look for some decided impulse toward intervention. " We are all mystified here touching the late visit of M. Mercier to Richmond; and to you, to whom its objects are fully known, our speculations would be superfluous ; still, as in certain aspects they may not be without value, I have ventured to give them, in my dispatch of this date, to the Department of State. " With an earnest prayer for speedy relief to our suffering country, and best wishes for your health and welfare, " I am, my dear sir, " Very respectfully, etc., " Truly yours, " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 12. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMTSSION, " LONDON, June 23, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: " SIR : My last were Nos. 10 and n, each dated on the i6th of May. No. n was merely sending to the President a com munication from a certain Count Brignola containing a theoretic financial scheme. In No. 10, I stated that dispatches from the Department Nos. i and 4 had not been received, the latest being No. 5, dated on the I3th of March. Since then, and within the last few days, I have received dispatch No. 4, dated on the 8th of February, from your predecessor, the Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, with the documents referred to in the postscript as transmitted with it. " Looking to the contingency of intervention by Great Britain repudiating the blockade, dispatch No. 4 contained the views of the President to be impressed upon the Foreign Min ister here, in such event. As things stand at present, there is little prospect of intervention in that form, either by Great LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Britain or France. The President s views, however, are pre sented with great force, and would be equally impressive and useful, to enforce the propriety and duty of recognizing the independence of the Confederate States, when that may be con templated, and as instructed by the dispatch, they shall be laid before the Minister when the fitting moment may arrive. " In my No. 8, of the 2ist of April, I communicated to the Department information then deemed important from France, and in a letter to the President of the i6th of May (borne by a gentleman to whom it was entrusted and who was worthy of full confidence), I told him that the bearer was a depositary of the substance of that information to be communicated orally to him, in the event of the dispatch referred to not reaching its destination. Referring to its substance matter, I have only to add that nothing further has transpired concerning it, and we are thus disappointed in the hope of results expected from it. The occupation of the principal Southern ports by the enemy, and the increased rigour of the blockade of those remaining to us, resulting from it, gives little hope now of any interference in regard to the blockade, and leaves only the question of recog nition. In this connection, I must add that even the recent seizure of British ships, under the British flag, and freighted with British property, on the high seas, on voyages from ports in England to Nassau, and, in one instance, of a British ship, in same manner freighted, bound from a port in France to Havana, does not seem to have claimed trie intervention of the British Government. In each of these cases it was said that the cargo, in part at least, was alleged by the captors to be con traband. They were referred, under strong representations, to the Ministry by the British owners, and the reply given was that, on reference to the Law Officers of the Crown, it was determined that the ships must abide adjudication in the Prize Courts. " It was recently strongly rumored here that France had proposed to England to offer their joint mediation to the bellig erents ; but on a question put, both in the Houses of Lords and Commons, it was declared by Earl Russell in the former, and Lord Palmerston in the latter, that no such proposition had been made by France, and further, that it was not in contemplation, 2 7 8 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. by this Government, to offer such mediation jointly or separately Lord Russell adding that he considered, at present, it would be inopportune. " In a note from Mr. Slidell, dated on the I7th instant, he says that the determination of France not to act in our matters, without the concurrence of England, is unchanged. Still, it seems to be well understood in public circles, both here and in France, that the Emperor is fully prepared to recognize our independence, and is officially urging its expediency upon England. " I am in full and frequent communication here with many able and influential members of the House of Commons, who confer with me in perfect frankness and candour, and who are prepared to move the question in the House whenever it may be found expedient, and in the attitude of parties here, mean ing the Ministerial and the Opposition, as the Ministry will not move, it is not deemed prudent to enable it to make the question an issue with the Opposition, and so motions that have been projected hang fire. As far as the public is concerned, all agree that there has been a complete change of sentiment as the war goes on ; both my own intercourse, which is becom ing large, and information derived from all quarters satisfy me that the educated and enlightened classes are in full sympathy with us, and are becoming impatient at the supineness of the Government. The stock of cotton is almost exhausted, and it seems fully conceded that no approximation to a supply can be looked for in any quarter other than the Confederate States. The cotton famine (as it is now everywhere termed) prevailing and increasing in the manufacturing districts, is attracting the most serious attention. Parochial relief, although the rates have been increased beyond anything hitherto known, is found utterly inadequate to prevent actual starvation of men, women, and chil dren, who, from such causes, are found dead in their houses. Private contributions, coming largely in aid of parochial relief, do not and can not remove the sufferers from the starvation point ; and very soon they must be left to die, unless aid is afforded from the Treasury. When the question is presented in this form, the causes which withhold cotton from America will be pressed in our favour, with increased force, on the public attention. I LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. enclose, with this, a recent debate in the House of Commons, in which the sources of cotton supply, present and prospective, are discussed at much length. " I have conferred frequently and freely with Mr. Slidell, on the expediency of making a renewed request to the Govern ments of France and England, or to either, for recognition of our independence, and I am happy to say that a cordial under standing exists between us to act simultaneously or inde pendently, as our joint judgments may approve. My own strong conviction is that it would be unwise, if not unbecoming, in the attitude of the Ministry here, to make such a request now unless it were presented as a demand of right; and if re fused as I have little doubt it would be to follow the refusal by a note, that I did not consider it compatible with the dignity of my Government, and perhaps with my own self-respect, to remain longer in England, but should retire to the Continent, there to await the further instructions of the Government. I do not mean to say that I contemplate such an immediate step, but only if the demand be made and refused, to remain longer in England, as the representative of the Government, would seem to acknowledge the posture of a supplicant, and therefore the step is not to be taken without the most grave and mature deliberation. I have consulted with judicious and enlightened friends here, amongst the public men who are earnestly with us, and they advise against a renewed demand at present, whilst they admit it might place me under such neces sity. " One of the documents accompanying the dispatch No. 4 is the statement of Mr. J. W. Zacherie, of New Orleans, relative to the outrage perpetrated on him while on board the vessel Eugenie Smith/ but I am not instructed to lay it before the Government here, and therefore await further directions. " I have the honour to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." " 54 DEVONSHIRE STREET, PORTLAND PLACE, " LONDON, July 20, 1862. " My very dear Wife: Although my fingers, as usual, refuse their office, I shall try to make my script intelligible. I have 2 80 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. lately had the great indulgence of receiving various letters not from home, but, what is to me as dear, from those I left at home, and to satisfy you that it is not vain to write to me (malgre the blockade), enumerate them, according to their dates. From you, my dear wife, and from Anna, at Selma, on February 8th those were long delayed and reached me about a month ago. May 25th; from you at Greensboro, N. C, May 26th, and from Ida at Richmond, May I3th; from John Ambler at Richmond, May 25th ; from you at Greensboro, N. C., May 26th and from Kate of same date at Richmond. Thus my latest letters are of the date just given, but you may imagine how welcome they were, as they assured me of the safety and welfare of those I most value on earth ; but since then, how much has happened to create apprehensions for those I left behind. We heard in due time of the battle of Fair Oaks, before Richmond, on the 3ist of May and ist of June, and yesterday heard of the apparently great battle before Richmond of the 26th and 27th of June. These accounts were only through Yankee sources, i. e., by the New York papers, but they tell us enough to assure us that we achieved a great victory at what cost? I almost fear to learn. Kate s last told me that Jemmy, at his own request and for more active service, had been transferred from General Anderson to General Griffith s staff, and was in the army before Richmond. I am sure, before the enemy, he will bear himself as becomes him. Of Johnny they all speak as he doubtless deserves. God bless and preserve these boys ; it is matter of daily lamentation that I am not near to watch and guide them. Your hegira has deeply interested me: from Selma to Morven, to Charlottes- ville, to Richmond, and last to Greensboro, N. C. Your ex perience of the buffetings of the world will be worth an age of ordinary life. " The Government here is tardy and supine, looking to any interference against the Yankees, but the increasing dis tress for cotton, and the late apparent decided successes before Richmond, I think will move them. As I have said, we heard of it only yesterday, and then had nothing but the meagre and garbled accounts furnished by the New York papers but they were enough to cause a stir. I have had visits to-day from some of the most eminent and distinguished members of Parliament, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. advising and counselling whether it was now prudent, and in what way, to bring the subject before the House of Commons. Of course, as this letter is liable to capture, I can give no details, but England is seriously moved; I can at least say that much, and I shall look now speedily for intervention in some form. If I am right on the decisive results of the late affair before Rich mond, I hope, my dear wife, you will find yourself safe in return ing there. I was very much gratified to hear of your kind recep tion by our friends, and that you are satisfied to make it a home until better can be done. I do not think things can con tinue as they have been very much longer, and then I look cheerfully to the time when you can all join me here. " I have been in London now nearly six months, and it has grown wonderfully in favour; as a stranger at first, things were found formal and difficult, but as time elapsed and acquaint ances extended, I have found far the larger portion of the elite but the type of our best Virginia circles. I am really too much occupied in returning and acknowledging the visits of the im mense number who call daily, and of the highest order in their classes. Yesterday, for instance, the Marquis of - - called, (I can t give name for fear of Yankee interception), and not finding me at home, called again to-day to congratulate me upon the success at Richmond. I visited this really noble-man at his estate in the country in the Easter holidays, and remained four days; nothing could have been more cordial and genuine than the hospitality I have received, all of which awaits you and our dear girls when the time comes to embark. JULY 3 1 st. I have detained the above waiting for an opportunity to get it off, and now one offers which I trust may bear it safely. Since the first date, we have had further news of the glorious series of battles that have been fought and won for us before Richmond; but my heart bleeds at the great loss of valuable lives they have cost us, and I am all anxiety for the fate of our boys, who, I presume, were in the fight. When I shall hear who was lost, and who escaped, the Lord only knows. I have only to add that I continue in abundant health, and with constant love to our dear circle, am, my dear wife, " Ever yours, " I. M. MASON." 2$ 2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER X. Dispatch from Richmond Tells of Victory at Hampton Roads Inaugura tion of Permanent Government Cabinet Fall of Forts Fisher and Don- elson General Buckner Captured Reverses at Nashville, Columbus, Roanoke Island Capture of Newbern and Washington, in North Caro lina Feeling of Southern People Resolution of Congress Never to Re- enter Union Battle in Arkansas Generals McCulloh and Mclntosh Killed Inefficiency of Blockade Mr. De Leon s Mission Recognition Would End the War Victory at Shiloh General A. S. Johnston Killed Fall of Island No. 10 New Orleans Taken General B. F. But ler Visit of M. Mercier to Richmond Loss of Fort Pillow, Memphis and Western Tennessee General Bragg Lieutenant Commander Brown General Jackson in Valley of Virginia Battle of Seven Pines General J. E. Johnston Wounded General Lee in Command Battles at Rich mond and Manassas Lee Enters Maryland Takes Harper s Ferry- Battle at Sharpsburg General Loring s Success in West Virginia Gen eral Pope s Orders Letters from Earl Shaftsbury. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, March i3th, 1862. " Hon. James E. Mason, etc., etc.: " SIR : It becomes my pleasing duty to announce to you that on Saturday and Sunday last, the 8th and gth inst., a great naval battle was fought at Hampton Roads, in this State, be tween the James River Squadron, consisting of five vessels and twenty-one guns, and a Federal fleet of two hundred and ten guns, resulting, without serious damage to a single Confederate vessel, in the total destruction of two of the most powerful frigates of the United States Navy, the serious disabling of two others, the sinking of two gunboats, the capture of several trans port steamers, and the defeat and utter rout of the remaining vessels of the fleet, amongst which were the steam frigate Roan oke, of forty guns, and the ironclad steamer Monitor. The following authentic details have been received : " On the morning of the 8th, at 1 1 o clock, the Confederate States ironclad steam sloop Virginia ( formerly the Merri- mac ), of ten guns, Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan, command ing, attended by the steam tugs, Beaufort and Raleigh of one gun each, left Norfolk harbor and proceeded towards the enemy s battery at Newport News, under the guns of which were lying the Federal frigate Cumberland/ of twenty-four guns of LIFE OF JAMES MURK AT MASON. 2*3 heavy calibre, and the frigate * Congress of fifty. Steering directly for the Cumberland and receiving her broadsides at point blank range without the slightest injury, the Virginia * (at about 3.30 p. m.) struck her amidship with her iron prow, literally cleaving open her sides, and then withdrawing, opened upon her a terrific fire. In fifteen minutes the Cumberland sank, having on board three hundred and sixty souls, of whom not more than one-third escaped. " The Virginia with her bow gun next engaged the Con gress/ and at the same time poured frequent broadsides into the battery of twenty guns at Newport News. At the end of an hour s contest the Congress was driven ashore in a sinking condition. Her colors having- been hauled down and a white flag run up, our gunboats were dispatched to relieve the wounded of the crew. Whilst in the performance of the humane act of taking them on board of our gunboats, the commander of the Congress/ in a spirit of unexampled perfidy and barbarism, and after he had surrendered the frigate and given us his sword, directed the remainder of the crew to turn the guns of the Con gress upon our gunboats. His command was obeyed, and by that foul act of treachery Lieutenant Minor and several of our men were wounded. Our vessels then opened fire upon the Con gress and burned her to the water s edge. During the engage ment between the Virginia and the two frigates, the Min nesota of forty guns, the ( St. Lawrence of fifty, and the Roan- oke of forty, came out from Old Point to their assistance. The Minnesota ran aground and was badly damaged by the guns of our vessels. The Roanoke and St. Lawrence put back to Old Point. Night having closed in, our squadron with drew to Sewell s Point. " On Sunday the Virginia again opened fire upon the Minnesota/ but on account of the shallow water could only engage her at a distance. The Minnesota was finally got off, and towed in a sinking condition to Old Point. During this day, the enemy s fleet was reinforced by the Monitor/ an iron-clad steam battery which engaged the Virginia for several hours at close quarters, but at length retreated precipitately to the protection of the guns of Fortress Monroe. In this brilliant engagement, lasting through a considerable portion of two days, 284 LIFE OF JAME8 MURRAY MASON. our loss was but seven killed and seventeen wounded. Amongst the wounded were Flag Officer Buchanan, slightly, and Lieuten ant Minor severely, the latter in the treacherous manner above related. The loss on the Federal side can not be less than six hundred. I herewith enclose an official report of the battle of the 8th as transmitted on that day to the Navy Department. " I have the honour to be sir, " Your obedient servant, " WM. M. BROWNE, " Secretary of State ad interim." From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State Confederate States, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner of the Confederate States to Great Britain, received in London June 29th, 1862. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, April 5th, 1862. " SIR : The inauguration of the permanent Government of the Confederate States having taken place in accordance with the Constitution and the Laws on the 22d February last, the President determined to make certain changes in his Cabinet, and the Department of State was confided to my charge. The Cabinet was formed on the igth ulto., and is constituted as fol lows, viz : J. P. Benjamin, of Louisiana Secretary of State C. G. Memminger, of South Carolina .... Secretary of Treasury Thos. H. Watts, of Alabama Attorney General Geo. W. Randolph, of Virginia Secretary of War S. R. Mallory, of Florida Secretary of Navy J. H. Reagan, of Texas Postmaster-General " All of these gentlemen have entered on the discharge of their duties, except Hon. Thos. H. Watts, who has not yet arrived in Richmond. " In assuming the charge of this Department under the permanent Government, it is deemed expedient to keep the archives separate from those of the Provisional Government. Hence a new series of numbers will be commenced in the dis patches, and this is numbered one. LIFE OF JAMKS MURRAY MASON. 28 5 The last dispatch of my predecessor bears date on the 8th February, and I deem it useful for your information to give a brief sketch of the salient events which have occurred since that period, and shall henceforth endeavor to keep you promptly advised of the current history of public affairs. If possible, you shall also be supplied with files of Southern newspapers. " The reverses to our arms at Forts Henry and Donelson, and > at Roanoke Island are of course known to you, but the nature and extent of these disasters have doubtless been so ex aggerated by the Northern press that a correct summary may be of use. " Fort Henry, an open earthwork situated on the banks of the Tennessee, mounting eleven guns, was on the 8th day of February attacked by a fleet of the enemy s gunboats, seven in number and mounting fifty-four guns, while their transports landed an army of twelve thousand men with a view to the capture of our small force of less than three thousand, stationed there for the defence of the batteries. The contest was at once seen to be so unequal as to leave nothing to be done but to with draw with the least possible loss. Under these circumstances, General Tilghman, in command of the Fort, determined to hold it with some eighty men to the last moment, in order to cover the retreat of the army. This object was effected, and the forces were marched in safety across the land to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River without loss. General Tilghman after sus taining the bombardment of the battery for several hours, and having had all his guns dismounted except four, was compelled to surrender with the few men, less than sixty in number, who remained to serve the guns. " Fort Donelson, situated on the bank of the Cumberland River, was a work of much greater importance than Fort Henry, and covered the approach to Nashville, which as you are aware, is accessible to boats of large class at high water. General A . S. Johnston, commanding the Western Department, was fully aware of the value of this position, and lost no time, nor did he spare any effort for its defence. His whole force, however, then sta tioned at Bowling Green, was nominally but 30,000 men, and in effective force not more than 24,000. He had in his front General Buell, with an army of 60,000 men, while Fort Donelson was 2 $6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. threatened by the army of General Grant, with a like number, and by the gunboat fleet of the enemy flushed with its recent success at Fort Henry. The fall of the latter fort had already rendered imperative the abandonment of Bowling Green, as the possession by the enemy of the Tennessee River cut off the army of General Johnston from that of General Polk at Columbus ; thus leaving it free to the enemy to attack either division with his entire force. Under these difficult circumstances, General Johnston sent to the aid of Fort Donelson rather more than one- half of his small army, retaining the remainder to cover the with drawal of his stores and munitions of war, and to check the advance of General Buell and prevent his direct march to Nash ville. After four days desperate combat, during which the enemy s gunboat fleet was greatly damaged, defeated and driven back, the constant reinforcements of fresh troops by which our small army was incessantly assailed, leaving them not an instant s repose, finally succeeded in reducing them to such a state of physical exhaustion, that a surrender was deemed unavoidable ; and although a considerable body of our men made good their escape, together with Generals Floyd and Pillow, the two senior generals, the enemy succeeded in capturing the remainder of the force, between six and seven thousand in number, together with General Buckner and a large number of commissioned officers. The victory was dearly bought, as the loss of the enemy in killed, wounded and prisoners (the latter taken in a victorious sortie) can not have been less than 5,000 men. " The capture of Fort Donelson necessarily involved the fall of Nashville, which was soon after taken possession of by the enemy, who have since remained masters of the northern part of central Tennessee. These operations rendered the evacuation of Columbus a military necessity, its position on the Mississippi being too far North to permit our shattered forces to maintain it against a land attack from the combined forces of the enemy, and the armament was accordingly withdrawn and the evacuation con ducted with entire success, while a new position was assumed at Island No. 10, situated about twenty miles above New Madrid. " In the meantime General Johnston, reassembling and re organizing the scattered remnants of the army of Fort Donelson, LIfK OF JAUES MURRAY MASON. 287 and uniting with a small division under General Crittenden, has succeeded in accomplishing one of the most masterly movements of the war. Anticipating the enemy, who by their enormous fleet of transports on the Cumberland and Tennessee have the means of rapid concentration in large masses, and in opposition to the advice of all his officers, he succeeded, by a forced march across the country, in moving his forces with all their baggage train and supplies to Decatur in Alabama, which he reached just in time to find himself in front of the enemy who had endeavored by a rapid ascent of the Tennessee River to place themselves be tween him and the army of General Polk, now commanded by General Beauregard. This movement has united into one grand army, the forces of General Johnston, the army which evacuated Columbus now commanded by General Beauregard, and a third force of about 10,000 men, under General Bragg, withdrawn from Pensacola. These with large reinforcements from the States of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi constitute an army that can not now number less than 80,000 men, concentrated at Corinth, Miss., near which point a great battle is hourly im pending. " In the meantime our position at Island No. 10, fortified and reinforced, has been the object of unremitting assault from the enemies gunboat and mortar fleet, but after fifteen days in cessant firing accompanied with no appreciable loss to us, and considerable damage to their fleet, they seem to have abandoned in despair the effort to descend the Mississippi River by forcing the passage, and to be now awaiting the operations of the land forces. " The fall of Roanoke Island occurred on the 8th February. It yielded to the combined attack of a fleet of gunboats and an army of 10,000 men, which succeeded in effecting a landing and forcing the capitulation of our troops, about 2,500 in number. This disaster derives its importance from the basis thus afforded to the enemy (commanding as he does the navigation of the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds) for concentrating forces for ex peditions against the coast of North Carolina, but chiefly for an attack on Norfolk in the rear. The gathering forces of the enemy on the Peninsula in the neighborhood of Fortress Monroe, and the strong reinforcements pouring incessantly 288. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. through Hatteras Inlet to the aid of General Burnside, indicate an intention to spare no effort for the capture of Richmond, and we are hourly in anticipation of heavy engagements in this neighborhood. " The army of General Burnside, after the capture of Roan- oke Island, has made two further captures, viz ; the towns of Newbern and Washington in North Carolina. At the latter place there was no defence, the town being quite insignificant, the population not exceeding 1,200 or 1,500 souls; but at Newbern a very gallant defence was made by about 4,000 men agamst the combined fleet and army of the enemy, and although our forces were compelled to retreat, the loss of the enemy can not have fallen short of 1,500, while the results of the capture of the town are unimportant. " It is most gratifying to observe that the series of dis asters of which I have just given you an impartial narration, have had the most beneficial effect on the temper, tone, and spirit of our people. The long inaction to which we had been condemned by the inferiority of our forces had produced its usual effects on our troops. A feeling of listlessness ; a growing belief that there would be little more fighting; the irksomeness of camp life when unvaried by active service ; the prevalence of camp dis eases ; the desire to revisit home and family ; all had combined to produce a state of things under which our army was wasting away, and the spirit of volunteering had almost died out. The change has been magical. Our people are alive to the magnitude of the contest. A stern and resolute spirit is manifested far more promising than the unreflecting enthusiasm under which the volunteers first rushed to our standard. The whole people are at war with our deadly foe. Nothing is wanted but an ample supply of arms and ammunition to place on foot the most formidable army of modern times. Entire con fidence in the result of the contest is felt to the very core of the national heart, and you need entertain not the slightest hesitation in giving every assurance that this contest can by no possibility, and under no stress of human power, end in aught but final separa tion between the contending parties. The temper of Congress can not be better evinced than by the following resolution, unan imously adopted on the 5th of March : LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 289 " Whereas, The United States are waging war with the Confederate States with the avowed purpose of compelling the latter to reunite with them under the same Constitution and Government; and Whereas, the waging of war with such an object is in direct opposition to the sound Republican maxim that All government rests only upon the consent of the gov erned/ and can only tend to consolidation in the General Gov ernment, and the consequent destruction of the rights of the States ; and Whereas, this result being attained, the two sections can only exist together in relation of the oppressor and the oppressed, because of the great preponderance of power in the Northern section, coupled with dissimilarity of interests; and Whereas, we, the representatives of the people of the Confederate States, in Congress assembled, may be presumed to know the sentiments of said people, having just been elected by them; therefore be it " Resolved, That the Congress do solemnly declare and publish to the world that it is the unalterable determination of the Confederate States (in humble reliance upon Almighty God) to suffer all the calamities of the most protracted war, but that they will never, on any terms, politically affiliate with a people who are guilty of an invasion of their soil and the butchery of their citizens. " The sole important success obtained by us during the period embraced by this dispatch is the naval victory in Hamp ton Roads, on the 8th and gth ulto., of which full details were given in the dispatches of the Assistant Secretary, then Secretary ad interim, under date of I3th March. " Far up in Northwestern Arkansas there was fought on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of March, one of the most obstinate battles recorded in history, the result of which, although highly credit able to our arms, can scarcely be claimed as a victory. General Earl Van Dorn, in command of the trans-Mississippi Depart ment, having succeeded in effecting a junction between the forces of General McCulloch and those of General Price, who had retreated from Missouri before overwhelming numbers, deter mined to give battle to the enemy, notwithstanding the great dis parity in arms and equipment of the two forces. The numbers on the two sides did not vary materially, being near 30,000 each. 2 po LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. But our troops were principally armed with shotguns, squirrel rifles (as they are called by the country people), and in many instances not even with them, but with such rude weapons as the men could hastily fashion for themselves. The first day s combat resulted in driving the enemy from their position by a desperate charge, ending near dark, and our troops slept on the battle-field. But we lost precious lives. General McCulloch and his second in command, General Mclntosh, both fell at the head of their columns, and Colonel Herbert, commanding the Louis iana troops, was wounded and made prisoner. The combat was renewed next day by a fresh attack from our army on the enemy, who had again assumed a strong position some two or three miles beyond the battle-field of the first day. The result of this second attack was less favorable, owing to the discouragement produced in one wing of the army by the loss of their generals ; and the combat ended by the withdrawal of each party from the field. The enemy retreated into Missouri, and our generals, after giving the needful repose to their troops, advanced east ward with a view of co-operating, for the defence of the Mis sissippi River, with the armies of General Johnston and Beaure- gard. I subjoin the general order of the Commanding General in relation to the battle : " HEADQUARTERS OF THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DISTRICT, " VAN BUREN, ARK., March i6th, 1862. " The Major-General commanding this District desires to express to the troops his admiration of their conduct during the recent expedition against the enemy. Since leaving camp in Boston Mountains they have been incessantly exposed to the hardship of a winter campaign, and have endured such priva tions as troops have rarely encountered. In the engagements of the 6th, 7th, and 8th inst., it was the fortune of the General commanding to be immediately with the Missouri Division, and he can therefore bear personal testimony to their gallant bearing. From the noble veteran, who led them so long, to the gallant S. Churchill Clark, who fell while meeting the enemy s last charge, the Missourians proved themselves devoted patriots and staunch soldiers. They met the enemy on his chosen positions, and took them from him. They captured four of his cannon and LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2QI many prisoners. They drove him from his field of battle and slept upon it. The victorious advance of McCulloch s Division upon the strong position of the enemy s front was inevitably checked by the misfortunes which now saddened the hearts of our countrymen throughout the Confederacy. McCulloch and Mclntosh fell in the very front of the battle, and in the full tide of success. With them went down the confidence and hopes of their troops. No success can repair the loss of such leaders. It is only left to us to mourn their untimely fall : emulate their heroic courage, and avenge their death. You have inflicted upon the enemy a heavy blow. But we must prepare at once to march against him again. All officers and men must be diligent in perfecting themselves in knowledge of tactics and of camp dis cipline. The regulations of the army upon this subject must be rigidly enforced. Officers will recite daily in tactics, and all must drill as many times daily as other duties will permit. In every company the prescribed roll-calls will be made. The arms will be daily inspected, and a careful attention be given to neat police of the camp. " Commanders of brigades will publish and strictly enforce these orders. " ( By order of Major-General Earl Van Dornf " I have the honor to be, sir, " Your obedient servant, "J. P. BENJAMIN." Another dispatch from Richmond was received at same time with that given above ; only a short extract is here quoted as the same substance is repeated elsewhere in the dispatches : " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, April 8th, 1862. " SIR : I regret to inform you that with the exception of a short informal letter to Mr. Hunter, written immediately on your arrival in London, the Department is still without any com munication from you. It is not doubted, however, that you must have, more than once, forwarded dispatches by such means of conveyance as you have been able to discover. In the absence of reliable information as to the present condition of public affairs in England and the tone and temper of its Government LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and people, the President does not deem it advisable to make any change in the instructions communicated to you by my pred ecessor. There is, however, one point on which additional remarks may be useful, to which your attention is now invited. " You will find annexed a list showing the number and character of the vessels which have traded between our ports and foreign countries, during the months of November, Decem ber, and January. They exceed one hundred in number and establish in the most conclusive manner the inefficiency of the blockade which it has pleased neutral nations heretofore to respect as binding on their commerce. " There are some considerations connected with this subject that do not seem hitherto to have been brought to your notice and which are suggested by the recently published reports of dip lomatic correspondence and debates in the English Parliament. " Prior to the Treaty of Paris the test of the validity of a blockade had not become matter of special agreement among the leading powers of the earth. * * * * * j^- was> however, with the view, as declared by themselves, of putting an end to deplorable disputes and to differences of opinion be tween neutrals and belligerents which may occasion serious diffi culties and even conflicts that the Plenipotentiaries of seven European nations, including the five great powers, fixed by com mon agreement and solemn declaration the principle that block ades, in order to be binding, must be effective, that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy." Again from Mr. Benjamin to Mr. Mason: " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, RICHMOND, April 12. " SIR : I have arrived at the conclusion that the interests of the Confederacy required a more liberal appropriation of the funds of the Department in our Foreign Service. With enemies so active, so unscrupulous, and with a system of deception so thoroughly organized as that now established by them abroad, it becomes absolutely necessary that no means be spared for the dissemination of truth and for a fair exposition of our condition and policy before foreign nations. It is not wise to neglect pub lic opinion, nor prudent to leave to the voluntary interposition of LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. friends, often indiscreet, the duty of vindicating our country and its cause before the tribunal of civilized man. .The Presi dent shares these views, and I have, therefore, with his consent and under his instructions, appointed Edwin de Leon, Esq., formerly Consul-General of the United States at Alexandria, confidential agent of the Department, and he has been sup plied with twenty-five thousand dollars as a secret service fund to be used by him in the manner he may deem most judicious, both in Great Britain and on the Continent, for the special purpose of enlightening public opinion in Europe through the press. Mr. de Leon possesses to a high degree the confi dence of the President as a man of discretion, ability, and thorough devotion to our cause. He will bear to you this dispatch, and I trust you will give to him on all occasions the benefit of your counsel, and impart to him all information you may think it expedient to make public, so as to facilitate him in obtaining such position and influence among the leading jour nalists and men of letters as will enable him most effectually to serve our cause in the special sphere assigned to him. " A subject of extreme importance to us is the organization of some means of communication between Europe and the Con federacy. On this subject I have addressed Mr. Slidell at length, believing his position better calculated than yours to succeed in obtaining facilities from the dispatch vessels employed by the European Governments, as it is understood that in France the principle that dispatches are contraband of war is not admitted to be in conformity with international law. The subject is called to your attention in the hope that you may be able to devise some means of private conveyance, however expensive, by which we may overcome the great disadvantage under which we now labor in this respect. " There is one aspect in which the question of our recognition by European powers may be viewed, which the President is desir ous should be placed prominently before Her Majesty s principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. " The continuance of the desolating warfare which is now ravaging the country is attributable in no small degree to the attitude of neutral nations in abstaining from the acknowledg ment of our independence as a nation of the earth. The heat LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of popular passion, which in the Northern Government controls public policy, will not permit their rulers to entertain for a moment the idea of separation so long as foreign nations tacitly assert the belief that it is in the power of the United States to subjugate the South. " National pride, the hatred engendered by this war, the exasperation of defeat in their cherished hope of subduing the South, all combine to render the administration of Mr. Lincoln powerless to accept the accomplished fact of our independence, unless sustained by the aid of neutral nations. So long as Great Britain, as well as other neutral powers, shall continue prac tically to assert, as they now do, their disbelief of our ability to maintain our Government, what probability is there that an enemy will fail to rely on that very fact as the best ground for hope in continued hostilities? " Without intending that their policy should be thus dis astrous in its results, it can not be doubted, on reflection, that the delay of the neutral powers in recognizing the nationality of the South is exerting a very powerful influence in preventing the restoration of peace on this continent, and in thus injuriously affecting vast interests of their own, which depend for pros perity and even for existence, on free intercourse with the South. " There is every reason to believe that our recognition would be the signal for the immediate organization of a large and influential party in the Northern States favorable to putting an end to the war. It would be considered the verdict of an impartial jury adverse to their pretensions. All hope of sub mission from a nation thus recognized would be felt to be with out foundation, and thus a few words emanating from Her Britannic Majesty would, in effect, put an end to a struggle which desolates our country, afflicts mankind, and which, how ever protracted, has for its only possible result that very recog nition which she has now the power to grant without detriment to any interest of the British people or throne. " I am, sir; very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, "J. P. BENJAMIN." The next dispatch (No. 6, from the Department,) was not LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. among Mr. Mason s papers, but was obtained from the Depart ment at Washington. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, RICHMOND, July 19. " SIR : I received on the 5th instant from the Hon. Mr. Ward, late United States Minister to China, your two dis patches, Nos. 9 and 10, of the 6th and I5th of May respectively, being the first communication received from you since your No. 3, of February 7. Mr. Wetter and Mr. Ficklin, who had been entrusted with previous dispatches from Europe, both arrived, but were compelled to destroy their dispatches on being boarded by the enemy s gunboats. You may judge, therefore, with what anxiety we look for news from your mission. " Being thus left without advices and having no opportunity of sending dispatches with a reasonable prospect of their reach ing you, I have sent nothing since the departure of Mr. de Leon. As he arrived safely at Nassau, you must long since have re ceived the dispatches of which he was the bearer. 11 The letter of Mr. Spence, inclosed in your dispatch of the 6th of May, was duly communicated to the Secretary of the Treasury, and after conference with him, I beg you will inform Mr. Spence that this Government has the highest appreciation of his valuable and disinterested service in enlightening public opinion as to the true merits of the contest we are now waging, and as to the condition, motives, and objects of the people of the Confederate States. The President also desires me to convey to Mr. Spence, through you, his acknowledgments for the copy of the American Union. The work has been read by us both, and deserves the tribute which the public has spontaneously paid by demanding repeated editions. But in so far as Mr. Spence s suggestions of the necessity of our having a financial agent abroad are concerned, the Secretary of the Treasury is of opinion that the subject is now premature. It is by no means certain that we shall require a foreign loan ; indeed, it is not even very probable, and the Secretary does not deem it now wise or prudent to anticipate in any way a decision as to the line of our financial policy when we shall have established our relations with the people of Europe. " I have nothing to add to the subject of my former dis patches, and shall confine myself to informing you of the most LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. important events which have transpired since Mr. de Leon s departure. I shall not, however, continue the connected narra tive of my former dispatches, as the great delay in communi cation completely destroys the value of the information. " On the 24th of April, the enemy s fleet succeeded, under cover of a very dark night, in passing the forts below New Orleans. A concurrence of most unfortunate events alone ren dered this possible. A storm in the river destroyed a portion of the floating obstructions which connected the two banks of the river and left an opening through which the fleet passed without being seen till actually past the forts. The fire-rafts, which had been provided for lighting the river, were not lighted, and the blame of the omission, unpardonable as it was, has not yet been fixed, the naval and military commanders accusing each other of the fault. The steam ram Louisiana/ which alone, if in good order, could have stopped the whole fleet, had her machinery temporarily disabled and could not move. These combined circumstances enabled the enemy to pass, though not without heavy loss. The forts were, however, still in our hands when a mutiny broke out in one of them, the guns were spiked by the mutineers, and General Duncan was forced to surrender and is now a prisoner on parole. On arrival of the enemy s fleet before New Orleans, a surrender was demanded but refused, although General Lovell had withdrawn all his forces, being unable to resist the fleet with infantry alone. Upon the receipt of the news, however, that the forts had surrendered, the com mander of the fleet was informed that no further resistance would be made, and in a few days afterwards General Butler, with six or eight thousand men, entered the city. " The press of the civilized world has already informed you of the nature of the tyranny exercised over that unfortunate city by the brutal commander who temporarily rules over it. The order inviting his beastly soldiery to treat the ladies of New Orleans as women of the town pursuing their avocations is not only authentic, but has been tacitly approved by his Government, which has in no manner indicated an intention to disavow its acts. His seizure of the consulate of the Netherlands, with $800,000 in gold, belonging to Hope and Company, of Amster dam ; his seizure of merchandise of neutral merchants on the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ground that by buying this merchandise with Confederate notes, they had given aid and comfort to the rebellion ; his requiring an oath of quasi-allegiance from all foreigners; his insulting answers to the most temperate letters from the foreign consuls ; his decree that no person s property or personal rights should be respected, unless an oath of allegiance was first taken ; his order sending Mrs. Phillips to solitary confinement on Ship Island for laughing when a procession was passing her house ; his murder of Mumford for hauling down the United States flag before the surrender of the city ; his thousand similar acts of atrocity, far exceeding the cruelties of Neapolitan or Austrian commanders in Italy, all combine in stamping upon him and on the Govern ment which sustains and supports him, indelible infamy. "We were quite startled on the 15th April by a dispatch from Norfolk, asking, in the name of * Count Mercier, permission to visit Richmond in a private capacity. He accordingly arrived on the i6th, and immediately came to see me. He stated that he had come with Seward s consent and knowledge, but did not say that Seward had asked him to come. He represented that he entertained an earnest desire to see and judge for himself the temper and spirit of our people and Government, and the prospect of the duration of the war. " He said that he would state frankly that he considered the capture of all our cities within reach of the water as a matter of certainty ; that it was purely a question of weight of metal, and that as the North had undoubtedly a vast superiority of resources in iron and other materials for gunboats and artillery, he did not deem it possible for us to save any of our cities, and he asked me to say frankly what I thought would be the course of our Government in such an event. I, of course, took it for granted that his visit to Richmond had some motive and was due to some cause other than that represented by him, but I accepted the interview on the basis chosen by him, and we entered into a long and animated conversation as mere personal acquaintances, re newing the relations which formerly existed between us at Washington. The result of this conversation has been very fairly stated by him, and he left Richmond two or three days later, in all appearances thoroughly convinced that the war *Minister from France to the United States. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. could have no issue but our independence, although he thought it might last a long time. In the course of conversation he remarked that it would be a matter of infinite gratification to himself personally, as well as to his Government, if his good offices could be interposed in any way to restore peace, and said that the only possible solution he saw was political independence combined with commercial union. But/ he continued, how can anybody talk to either side? I dare not utter to you a sin gle sentence that does not begin by the word independence, nor can I say a syllable to the other side on any basis other than Union/ I replied good-humoredly, and, still keeping the con versation on the footing assumed by him of a private and unof ficial interview between old acquaintances, Why should you say anything to either side? I know your good feeling for us, and we require no proof of it, but you know we are hot-blooded people, and we would not like to talk with anybody who enter tained the idea of the possibility of our dishonoring ourselves by reuniting with a people for whom we feel unmitigated contempt as well as abhorrence. I saw nothing further of him except in social parties, at dinner, and in a farewell visit I made him of a few moments on the eve of his departure. I do not know, of course, what changes may have been made in his opinions about the certain capture of our cities by our recent brilliant success at Charleston and Richmond, and the abandonment even of the attempt to take Mobile, Savannah, or Wilmington. I am very much inclined to believe that he really came at Seward s request to feel the way and learn whether any possible terms would induce us to reenter the Union. If that was the case, his mis sion was a signal failure and has resulted, I think, in good to our cause. " After the battle of Shiloh, our army continued encamped at Corinth, and although so reinforced as to give assurance that a brilliant, aggressive campaign was before us, General Beaure- gard, for reasons not yet satisfactorily explained, kept his whole forces in entrenchments at Corinth, in a very unhealthy locality, without attempting anything until his forces, by disease, despond ency and discontent at long inaction, had dwindled down from 104,000 men to about 50,000. " In the meantime General Halleck had advanced by LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. regular parallels, as though besieging a fortress, until Beaure- gard was forced to a retreat, the unfortunate results of which were very soon disastrously apparent. We lost Fort Pillow, Memphis, all of Western Tennessee, and our whole line of communication by the railroad from Memphis to Chattanooga. His health was bad, and on his leaving the army on a surgeon s certificate for four months, the President found it necessary to give General Bragg the permanent command of the Army of the West. He at once proceeded to reorganize the forces, issued an address to inspirit them, and has just commenced active operations, which we are confident will result in our reoccupa- tion of Tennessee. " General Bragg has sent General Van Dorn to Vicksburg with a force of some ten thousand men, and that gallant officer has succeeded in making such a defense of that important point as utterly to destroy the enemy s project of opening the com merce of the Mississippi River, or even of maintaining their communications on that important stream. They have been repulsed with the loss of several of their boats and have aban doned their attempts to take the town. By telegram, just re ceived, we learn officially that the Confederate steamer (iron clad) Arkansas/ of ten guns, has just issued from the Yazoo River, dashed into the enemy s fleet of sixteen or eighteen ves sels, including two sloops of war and four ironclad gunboats, and has utterly routed the whole fleet, destroying four vessels and disabling several others. This exploit of Lieutenant-Com mander Brown is one of the most brilliant of the war. On the whole, our campaign in the West is of the most promising character; the spirit of the army and people high and hopeful, and you may confidently expect good news from that quarter. " Early in May the campaign in the Valley of Virginia assumed a new aspect under the daring leadership of Major- General Thomas J. Jackson. Having been reinforced by a division under Major-General Ewell, he commenced an active, aggressive movement. On the gth May he attacked and routed the army of General Milroy at McDowell (near Staunton). On the 24th, 25th, and 26th May, in three successive battles at Front Royal, Lewiston, and Winchester, he cut to pieces the whole army of General Banks, and drove it in disgraceful flight across LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the Potomac, creating great consternation at Washington, and a cry of alarm from President Lincoln, who made hasty and urgent appeals for help from the militia of the several States to save his Capital. And on the 8th and Qth June, he defeated the army of Shields at Port Republic. By the celerity of his marches. the promptness of his movements and the vigor of his assaults, he cost the enemy the loss certainly of not less than 30,000 men in this series of battles, besides a vast quantity of cannon, ammunition and supplies of all sorts, which fell into his hands and were secured for our services. In these battles Brigadier- General Richard Taylor, of Louisiana, particularly distinguished himself, and has been warmly recommended by his commander for promotion. On the i6th June, the enemy, in heavy force, made a desperate attempt to carry one of our entrenched ad vanced posts at Secessionville, on James Island in Charleston harbor. After repeated and determined assaults they were re pulsed, with a loss of 667 men, as stated in their own reports, and have since withdrawn all their forces from the neighborhood of the city and are encamped under the protection of the guns of their fleet. " On the 3 ist May, General Joseph E. Johnston attacked the troops of the enemy in their position on the Williamsburg road, on the south side of the Chickahominy near the Seven Pines. The enemy s force was about 25,000. The enemy were driven from their position, their entrenchments stormed, bat teries captured, and their camp occupied by our forces. On the next day, the ist June, the enemy made a vigorous assault on our troops in the position captured by us on Saturday, but were decisively repulsed after a fight of some four hours. The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded and prisoners in these two battles was about 14,000; the Confederate loss was about 6,000. General Joseph E. Johnston was severely wounded in the battle of the 3 ist, and the command of the army devolved on Major-General G. A. Smith. On the evening of ist June, the President, who had remained on the field during the whole of the fighting on both days, assigned the command of the army to General Robert E. Lee, who has gloriously vindicated the wis dom of the choice and secured undying renown by the grand bat tle and victory at Richmond. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " No sooner had General Lee assumed command than he changed the whole face of affairs in front of Richmond. He formed the design of turning the right wing of the enemy, cut ting him off completely from the base of his supplies on the York and Pamunky Rivers, and driving him from his entrenchments. With this view, and the more effectually to mask his designs, he sent several brigades from his army to join General Jackson s army in the Valley of Virginia, and he succeeded in creating the impression, both with our people and the enemy, that Jackson was to advance into Maryland and attack Washington. The troops sent to Jackson were, however, met before crossing the mountain by his whole army, which thus reinforced, was rapidly marched to Ashland, on the Central Railroad, just north of Richmond. Jackson s army was then thrown across the Chickahominy, turning the enemy s right wing on the afternoon of Thursday, 26th of June. So successful had been this movement of General Lee, that the enemy was actually engaged in throw ing up entrenchments to resist the hourly expected attack of Jackson at Harper s Ferry, on the fourth day after Jackson had attacked the right wing of McClellan on the banks of the Chickahominy. I can not add to the great length of this dis patch by a description of the battle at Richmond. I confine myself to stating that, in an uninterrupted series of engagements, our army, about 80,000 strong, met the enemy, admitted to have con sisted of 95,000 effective men ; that the army of McClellan was driven from its entrenchments, which were of the most complete and formidable character that have ever been erected; that this enemy was, as it were, lifted out of his entrenchments and hurled to a distance of thirty-five miles ; that the battle and pur suit lasted seven days; that nothing but the most desperate efforts of the enemy, aided by a country covered with swamps and thick woods, and affording constant positions of formidable strength for defence, saved McClellan s Grand Army of the Potomac from utter annihilation ; that the enemy, when at last reaching the banks of the James River and taking shelter under his fleet of gunboats, was a routed and disorderly mob ; that the loss of the enemy is admitted to be 30,000 in killed, wounded and prisoners, but it is believed to be much greater ; that we have captured upwards of ten thousand prisoners, have in LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. our possession fifty-one pieces of his splendid artillery, and on Saturday night, the I2th instant, had already received in Richmond 31,400 stands of small arms and are still rapidly collecting them from the whole line of retreat, so that the number taken will scarcely fall, short of 40,000 stands; that the quantity of supplies of all sorts which have fallen into our hands is enormous, our wagons being still employed, in large numbers, hauling the spoils to Richmond, and that the amount of destruction by the enemy of his own stores and supplies is such as almost to exceed belief. This grand victory was dearly purchased, yet its price was less than was anticipated. It is hoped that our total loss in killed and wounded will not count up more than 15,000, and a large num ber of these are slightly wounded. Our only loss in general offi cers was Brigadier-General Griffith killed, and Brigadier-Gen eral Elzey wounded, but getting well. Of the enemy s generals, we captured Major-General McCall and Brigadier-General Reynolds, while Brigadier-General Meade was killed, two other generals severely wounded and two others slightly injured. " I need scarcely enlarge upon the effects of such a mag nificent victory on ourselves as well as on the enemy. As regards the latter, you will be able to form your own conclu sions from the Northern papers, which openly avow the impos sibility of obtaining the 30,000 men called for by Lincoln with out a forced draft, and which will tell the story of an impending financial crash in the prices current of gold and sterling ex change, the former being at 17 per cent, premium and the latter at 28 per cent, to 30 per cent. This Government and people are straining every nerve to continue the campaign with renewed energy before the North can recover from the shock of their bitter disappointment, and if human exertion can compass it, our ban ners will be unfurled beyond the Potomac in a very short time. " Our sky is at least bright, and is daily becoming resplen dent. We expect (we can scarcely suppose the contrary possible) that this series of triumphs will at last have satisfied the most skeptical of foreign cabinets that we are an independent nation, and have the right to be so considered and treated. A refusal by foreign nations now to recognize us would surely be far less than simple justice requires. On this theme, however, I feel LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. that it is quite unnecessary to say more than to assure you of the entire reliance felt by the President and the Department, that you will spare no effort to avail yourself of the favorable oppor tunity presented by our recent success in urging our right to recognition. We ask for no mediation, no intervention, no aid ; we simply insist on the acknowledgment of a fact patent to the world. Of the value of recognition as a means of putting an end to the war, I have spoken in a former dispatch. In our finances at home, its effects would be magical, and its collateral advan tages would be innumerable. " It is not to be concealed that a feeling of impatience and even of resentment is beginning to pervade our people, who feel that in the refusal of this legitimate demand the nations of Europe are in point of fact rendering active assistance to our enemies, and are far from keeping the promise of strict neutrality which they held out to us at the beginning of the war. " Not having time to write at length to Mr. Mann by the present conveyance, which has offered itself quite suddenly, I must beg you to communicate to him a copy of that part of my dispatch which does not refer especially to your mission. " I am gratified to inform you that the health of the Presi dent is better than I have known it to be for years past. He was on the field in person during all the engagements in the neighborhood of Richmond. " J. P. BENJAMIN, " Secretary of State. " Hon. James M. Mason, etc., London." A dispatch from Mr. Benjamin to Mr. Mason, dated Rich mond, September 26th, 1862, gives a narrative of military events, which is here omitted, and then continues as follows : " In your dispatch of the 23d of June, you intimate a purpose of withdrawing to the Continent to await the instructions of the Government in the event of a refusal of recognition by the English Government after a formal demand which you contem plated making. The debates in Parliament show that the demand was made by you (as well as by Mr. Slidell of the French Gov ernment) and was followed by a refusal on the part of the British Ministry to accede to our claim. We therefore anxiously 304 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. await the receipt of your subsequent dispatches, not know ing whether you persisted in your design of withdrawal or have determined to await in England the instructions of the President. It is, of course, not possible that the President can, until your correspondence shall have been sub mitted to him, determine as to the propriety of such with drawal. A measure so decided could not, as stated by yourself, be adopted without the most grave and mature con sideration; and while the President fully concurs in your opin ion that both the dignity of this Government and the self-respect of its accredited representative in England would not permit that any attitude susceptible of being construed into that of a supplicant should be assumed, many contingencies may arise in which the presence (or immediate proximity) of an accredited minister near the British Sovereign would prove of great impor tance and value, to the public interest. Cases may readily be imagined where the Cabinet of Saint James, influenced by the continuance of marked successes on our part, might determine on the final step of recognition, and change their purpose on the arrival of unfavorable intelligence during the delay caused by the absence of our Minister. Your presence for the purpose of correcting false opinions, disseminating favorable impressions of our Government and people, as well as for affording a com mon center or rallying point for consultation of the parties rep resenting the various interests favorable to our cause, can not be otherwise than important; nor is it at all in conflict with established usage that Commissioners accredited for the pur pose of securing the recognition of a new power should be delayed much longer even than we have been, before their just claims were admitted. In suggesting these reflections, which have doubtless occurred to yourself, it is by no means intended to intimate that the circumstances under which you were placed may not have fully justified the intended step if you have really taken it, but rather with a view to enforce your own conclu sions, if the matter is still in abeyance, that it ought not to be adopted without very grave and weighty reasons. "Herewith you will receive the President s message and accompanying documents, including the measures taken for the repression of the enormities threatened by the enemy under the command of General Pope. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " I am gratified to inform you that some seventy of Gen eral Pope s officers, including General Prince, were captured by General Jackson at the battle of Cedar Run, soon after the issue of the President s retaliatory order, and were excepted out of the exchange of prisoners of war and held in close custody. This wholesome severity produced the desired effect, and on official assurances received from the enemy, that General Pope s order was no longer in force and that he had been removed from command, the captured officers were paroled for exchange. As I have observed that in some of the English journals the facts have been strangely perverted, and the action of the President censured as wanting in humanity, it is desired that some proper means be adopted by you for giving publicity to the facts. The confinement of the officers, notwithstanding the threat of great rigor, was the same as that of all the other prisoners of war, and no other severity was exercised toward them than a refusal to parole them for exchange till Pope s murderous orders were set aside. " It may not be improper to call your attention, for such use as may occur, to the enormous losses suffered by the enemy during the present campaign, and to which history furnishes no parallel except the disastrous retreat from Moscow. I give you the following estimate, which, without any pretence to exact accuracy, is reduced much below what is believed to be the real state of the case, from sources of information derived mainly from the enemy s own confessions. The list includes not only the killed, wounded and prisoners, but the losses of the enemy by sickness (which was truly terrible) and desertion: " i. McClellan s army lost 100,000 " He landed on the Peninsula with nearly 100,000 men, was afterwards reinforced to 158,000, and left with a remnant of about 55,000 men. " 2. Pope s army, in the battle of Cedar Run and of Manassas Plains 30,000 " 3. The armies of Banks, Milroy, McDowell, Shields, and Fremont, in the battles of the Valley of Virginia 30,000 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " 4. Halleck s army in the West, originally 220,000, was reduced by battles at Shiloh and elsewhere, by sickness and desertion, to less than 100,000 men ; but let the loss be stated at only 100,000 " 5. On the coast of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, principally by sickness and desertion, at least 10,000 " 6. In North- and South-western Virginia 5,000 " 7. In the battle of Boonesboro and Sharpsburg. . . . 15,000 " 8. In the surrender at Harper s Ferry 1 1,000 " 9. In the battle of Boteler s Mills 2,500 " 10. In the army of General Morgan at Cumberland Gap 5,ooo " ii. In the battle of Richmond, Kentucky 7,000 " 12. In the surrender at Mumfordsville 5,ooo " 13. In the campaigns of Morgan and Forrest and other partisan leaders in Kentucky and Ten nessee 4,000 " 14. In the Trans-Mississippi campaign, including par tisan warfare in Missouri and Kansas 25,000 " In this enormous number I am not able to state what general officers were included, but in the single battle of Sharps- burg, of the i6th and I7th instants, eleven generals of the enemy were killed or wounded, among them four major-generals. " I am, sir, respectfully your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN, " Secretary of State Confederate States." FROM PRESIDENT DAVIS TO GENERAL R. E. LEE. "RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, July 31. " SIR : On the 23d of this month a cartel for general ex change of prisoners of war was signed between Major-General D. H. Hill, in behalf of the Confederate States, and Major-Gen- eral John A. Dix, in behalf of the United States. By the terms of that cartel it is stipulated that all prisoners hereafter taken shall be discharged on parole until exchanged. Scarcely had that cartel been signed when the military authorities of the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. United States commenced a practice of changing the character of the war from such as becomes civilized nations into a cam paign of indiscriminate robbery and murder. The General Order issued by the Secretary of War of the United States, in the City of Washington, on the very day that the cartel was signed in Virginia, directs military commanders of the United States to take the private property of our people for the conveniences and use of their armies, without compensation. " The General Order issued by Major-General Pope on the 23d of July, the day after the signing of the cartel, directs the murder of our peaceful inhabitants as spies, if found quietly tilling the farms in his rear, even outside of his lines, and one of his Brigadier-Generals, Steinwehr, has seized upon innocent and peaceful inhabitants to be held as hostages, to the end that they may be murdered in cold blood if any of his soldiers are killed by some unknown persons whom he designated as bush whackers. Under this state of facts, this Government has issued the inclosed General Order, recognizing General Pope and his commissioned officers to be in the position which they have chosen for themselves that of robbers and murderers, and not that of public enemies, entitled, if captured, to be considered prisoners of war. We find ourselves driven by our enemies by steady progress towards a practice which we abhor, and which we are vainly struggling to avoid. Some of the military authori ties of the United States seem to think that better success will attend a savage war in which no quarter is to be given and no sex or age to be spared than has hitherto been secured by such hostilities as are alone recognized to be lawful by civilized men in modern times. " For the present we renounce our right of retaliation on the innocent, and shall continue to treat the private enlisted soldiers of General Pope s army as prisoners of war ; but, if after notice to the Government at Washington of our continuing repressive measures to the punishment only of commissioned officers who are willing participants in these crimes, the savage practices are continued, we shall reluctantly be forced to the last resort of accepting the war on the terms chosen by our foes, until the outraged voice of a common humanity forces a respect for the recognized rules of war. While these facts would justify LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY our refusal to execute the generous cartel by which we have consented to liberate an excess of thousands of prisoners held by us beyond the number held by the enemy, a sacred regard to plighted faith, shrinking from the mere semblance of breaking a promise, prevents our resort to this extremity. " Xor do we desire to extend to any other forces of the enemy the punishment meted above to General Pope and such commissioned officers as choose to participate in the execution of his infamous orders. " You are therefore instructed to communicate to the Com- mander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States the contents of this letter, and a copy of the enclosed General Order, to the end that he may be notified of our intention not to consider any officer hereafter captured from General Pope s army as prisoners of war. Very respectfully yours, " TEFF. DAVIS. " General R. E. Lee, Commanding, etc." The following letters to Mr. Mason from Earl Shaftesbury serve as an example of this " Outraged voice of a common humanity " : " SPA, August iQth, 1862. " SIR : The recent news from America contains an order by General Pope for the devastation of the Virginia Valley, and for the total disregard, by his troops, of all the rights of private property. It contains, moreover, the details of a public meeting, held at Washington, where President Lincoln himself, strange to say, took the chair, and which, under his sanction, passed among others, the following resolutions : We deliberately and solemnly declare that rather than witness an overthrow of the Union, we would prosecute the present war until our towns and cities should be devastated, and we and all that are dear to us should have perished with our possessions. Let the Union be preserved, or the country be made a desert. " * We are convinced that the leaders of the rebellion will never return to their allegiance, and, therefore, they shall be regarded and treated as irreclaimable traitors, who are to be stripped of their possessions, deprived of their lives, or expelled from the countrv. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " Much as I was prepared to expect from this, as it is termed by Mr. Lincoln, injurious and unnecessary civil war/ I was, I confess, taken aback by such an expression of deliberate ferocity from the lips of a civilized and Christian people. I have no authority to speak in the name of England, nor can I, at this season and distance of place, collect any great number of opinions, but I am certain that the first sentiment of the bulk of my countrymen, on reading these documents, will be a prayer to God that the Confederate States may not be tempted to enter upon reprisals, and that the war, if war there must be, may be conducted, on one side, at least, according to those military rules which humanity has suggested and observed for the miti gation of this fearful scourge of individuals and nations. I believe that such a course will be very effective. The late Lord Amherst, who had filled the great office of Governor-General of India, told me that, at the outset of the Burmese war, a Sepoy, having been taken prisoner by the enemy, was crucified and left on the line of march as a terror to our troops. Some were for reprisals ; but the commanders of the forces were wiser men. They took the opposite course. Having treated some of their captives with mercy and kindness, they set them at liberty. The contrast was felt even by those savages, and that Sepoy was the first and last instance, so far as he knew, of such atrocity. God grant that your Government may follow this merciful example and spare England, and all Europe, another shock, and another doubt whether the world, which just now had such bright pros pects, is not rolling back into primitive barbarism. " I am, sir, your obedient servant, " SHAFTESBURY. " Mason, Esq., Delegate from the Confederate States. 1 " September 23, 1862. " DEAR SIR: I am deeply thankkil to read in the Times of the 20th, that the Confederate Provost Marshal has issued an order the very reverse of General Pope s. He has done what I ventured to suggest to you should be done, and done it, too, on the spot, as the spontaneous act of his Government. This is Christianlike and politic. I saw Mr. Slidell in Paris. " God grant that this unhappy war may now be closed. " Your obedient servant.. " /. Mason, Esq." " SHAFTESBURY. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER XL Mr. De Leon Arrives in London Emperor Ready and Anxious for Recog nition; Has Pressed It Upon England Mr. Slidell Makes Formal De mand for Recognition Mr. Mason Makes Similar Demand of Earl Rus sell, which is Refused Russell Declines Interview Correspondence with Earl Russell Russell s Position Based on Seward s Report of Disaffec tion in South Discourtesy of Earl Russell Protest Against England s Position on Blockade Views of President Davis on the Attitude of the British Ministry British Cabinet Not Considered a Fair Exponent of the Sentiments and Opinions of the British Nation President Deems it Proper Mr. Mason Should Remain at His Post but Should Refrain from Further Communication with Earl Russell Unless it Should be Invited. Dispatch No. 13, from Mr. Mason, referred only to a com munication he had recently received from Germany, and which he enclosed. Said communication contained instructions for the preparation of a newly invented explosive powder, containing neither nitre nor sulphur. The invention to be kept a secret, pending negotiations with the Governments of Europe regarding its introduction, but it was placed at the command of the Confed erate States, should they approve its use, on terms " a just compensation should be made, at a future day, to the inventors." DISPATCH No. 14. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, July 3Oth, 1862. " Hon. ] . P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: " SIR : I had the honour to receive on the 2Qth of June, your respective dispatches Nos. i, 2, 3, 4, and 5, brought by Mr. de Leon, and dated respectively on the 5th, 8th, I2th, and the two latter on the I4th of April. Your dispatch No. I was of much value here, as it corrects accounts of the various battles fought previous to its date. The English papers having fur nished only the false statements of many of those battles taken from the Northern press, I thought it advisable to have ex tracts from the dispatch, referring to the most important of them, published here of course, not stating whence they were derived, but vouched for, only, as from a source in the South entitled to confidence. " Your No. 2 refers, first ; to the interpretation apparently LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. put upon the convention of Paris by Earl Russell, in his letter to Lord Lyons, of the i5th of February last. " Second, to the character of the blockade and the interrup tion of all commerce between neutral powers and the Confed erate States, by armed cruisers off the coast ; and suggesting the inquiry whether this Government could not be induced to re quire that the blockade ports should be designated ; and third, contains a disclaimer of any policy in the Confederate Govern ment to prohibit or discourage the export of cotton. With in structions to lay the views of the President on these subjects, as set forth in the dispatch, before the Government here, and to press them on its consideration. " I accordingly addressed a letter to Earl Russell on the 7th day of July instant, of which, and of the reply thereto, by Mr. Layard, Under Secretary, I have the honour to transmit copies herewith. " You will remark that in mine to Earl Russell, I quoted from your dispatch, the just surprise of the President at the terms of his letter to Lord Lyons, with the distinct request that he would place it in my power to solve the doubt implied by the terms of that letter in regard to the convention of Paris. " And, again, that as instructed, and for the reasons there assigned, I make a specific inquiry as to the practicability of requiring blockaded ports to be designated; and yet the only notice taken of the letter is the formal note of the Under Sec retary, acknowledging its receipt ; but without allusion even, far less an answer, to the request it contained. This must mean that the Confederate Government not having been acknowledged, has no right to put questions to the Government here, even in regard to a public act entered into by the former at the request of the latter. In the dispatch referred to, you establish a right to make the inquiry as to the grave addition made by the Government here to the convention of Paris, on the fact, that the Confederate Government accepted the terms of that convention at the invita tion of this Government, and yet the British Government refuses an answer. It is difficult to hold intercourse under such circum stances, and unless otherwise instructed, I shall, as at present advised, endeavor in any future communications, so to frame them as not to admit of a like discourtesy. 3I2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " The fact is, I entertain no doubt that the British Govern ment does not mean to abide, except at its pleasure, by the terms of the convention of Paris ; neither the party in power, nor the opposition treat with any favour the principle there established in regard to blockade ; but notwithstanding the clear and definite terms of the convention, hold it as subject to policy. Such is British faith. " I have the honour to transmit also, herewith, copy of a letter I addressed to Earl Russell, dated on the iyth of July, instant, in regard to certain expressions therein referred to, which fell from Lord Palmerston and himself, on American affairs, in reply to questions put to them, respectively, in Parlia ment ; and which, I hope, will have the approval of the President. It is notorious here that the Emperor of the French is both ready and anxious, either to recognize the independence of the Con federate States, at once, as an act pure and simple; or to effect the same object by a tender of good offices as mediator with the reserve if such offer be declined by the United States, that recognition should follow and has earnestly pressed England to unite with him in one, or the other measure. It is true that both Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell have denied that any such propositions have been made by France; but it is equally true, or so generally believed, that for diplomatic reasons, such propositions, though really pressed on England, were made un officially, and thus, the ministers felt at liberty to answer as they have done. " One object of my letter was to place on the files of the Foreign Office, a disclaimer on the part of the Confederate States, of any authority in the ministry to impute to them a feel ing that would be offended bv an offer of mediation. " Another object was to enter such disclaimer, in advance of- a motion of which Mr. Lindsay had given notice in the House of Commons, looking to such offer of mediation. " Mr. Lindsay s motion was in the following words : " That in the opinion of the House, the States which have seceded from the Union of the Republic of the United States have so long maintained themselves under a separate and established Government, and have given such proof of their de termination and ability to support their independence, that the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. propriety of offering mediation with the view of terminating hostilities between the contending parties, is worthy of the seri ous and immediate attention of Her Majesty s Government. " The terms of the motion you will find very much diluted ; they were adopted, however, after much consideration and con sultation, as those most likely to avoid any collateral issues by objectants, and yet strong enough to mould the policy of the Government. " I send, herewith, the debate on the motion taken from the London Times, and at which I was present. The motion was not pressed to a vote, because no reasonable assurance could be obtained, after Lord Palmerston s protest, that it would be suc cessful. " It is vexatious and mortifying enough, to find that the Government here can not be driven to a decided position. There is no question but that the public sentiment of England is decidedly with us, and yet among the most enlightened and con siderate men, both in and out of Parliament, though participa ting in it, are found those who yet insist that the responsibility, being with the Executive, the Ministry should determine its own policy. " I have advised Mr. Slidell of the opportunity to send this dispatch, so that I hope he, too, will be able to avail himself of it. I was informed by Mr. Slidell a few days since that he had had an interview with the Emperor, after which he had determined to send a formal note to M. Thouvenal asking for recognition, and suggesting I should make a like demand here, in order that when the fact of his request should be communicated by the French Government to Earl Russell the latter could not reply that no such request had been made of this Government. Mr. Slidell has promised to send me notes of what passed at his interview with the Emperor, as well as of an interview which he subsequently had with M. Thouvenal, but I have not yet received them. I am not aware, therefore, of the circumstances which led him to the request at this time, but his judgment of the propriety of doing so, after his interview with the Emperor, was, of course, conclusive with me. " Mr. Slidell presented his letter to M. Thouvenal on the 23d of July, instant, and I transmit herewith a c opy of my letter LIFE OF JAMES MVRRAJ MASON. of like import to Earl Russell, dated on the 24th, and delivered to him on that day. It was accompanied by a private note, dated on the same day, asking for an interview, copy of which I also transmit herewith, but, up to this time, I have received no answer to either. Thus the matter stands at present." " JULY 3ist. " I had written so far on yesterday, and to-day received from Mr. Slidell his dispatches for the Department, and which, by his permission, I have read. They accompany this. I should think with him, that if England still holds back, there are incen tives to the Emperor which may lead him to take the advance. I have as yet, although seven days have elapsed since my letter to Earl Russell asking for recognition and my note requesting an interview have been sent in, received no answer. " It may be that England will not answer until full com munication has been had with France, but I see no like reason for delay in an interview, if that is to be granted. " Your No. 3 imparted to me the object of Mr. de Leon s mission, in regard to which I had a full conversation with him. As the most intelligent counsel and active coadjutor, I put him in communication with Mr. Spence, who was good enough to come to London to meet him. You will have known Mr. Spence as the most efficient and able advocate here, through the press, of Southern interests. " In the same dispatch, No. 3, is contained the President s views, very strongly expressed, of the indirect effect produced on the people and Government at the North by the failure of Euro pean Powers to recognize our independence, in that it implies a tacit belief in the Powers of the possible subjugation of the Southern States. It was chiefly to present those views to Her Majesty s Government that I asked for the interview with Earl Russell. They are certainly cogent, and would have effect with a Government not willingly deaf ; but as my communi cations with this Government may be called for in Parliament, before it is prorogued, I thought it better to present them orally than to embody them in my letter to Earl Russell. Should the interview be declined, I will send them in a supple mental note to the Foreign Office. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " I observe in Air. Slidell s dispatches that he has applied to the French Government for permission to send and receive dispatches through the public ships of France ; if allowed, I sup pose I may have access to them through him. Beyond this, I know of no other mode of certainty, with reasonable dispatch, in communicating with the Department, unless it can be done as follows : The mails from here to Nassau, as I learn, go via New York, in a sealed bag, and whilst in transitu are in charge of British functionaries. I presume it would not be objected that we should send dispatches under cover to Government agent at Nassau by this route, although this latter is not certain. From Nassau they could be taken by a fast steamer of light draft, to be put on such service by the Government. " Parliament is to be prorogued on the 5th of August. There is great uneasiness in regard to the increasing famine in the cotton districts, beyond the reach of existing poor rates, now increasing fearfully every day, and with the certainty of being far worse as winter approaches, a state of things that must enter, whether avowed or no, into the deliberations of the ministry, in its action on our affairs. " It seems conceded that Lord Derby could take the helm at his pleasure, but there are political reasons which deter him from ousting Palmerston at present. Indeed it is intimated that he is under a committal to the Queen not to move against the existing Government during the period of her mourning. The Queen has not been in London since my arrival here, now six months ago ; but passes and repasses from Osborne to Windsor and Balmoral. She remains in great seclusion, and it is more than whispered that apprehension is entertained lest she lapse into insania." " AUGUST 2D. "The last preceding pages bear date of the 3ist of July. After they were written, I received a note from Earl Russell dated on that day, of which I enclose a copy. You will see that the reason assigned for the delay in answering my note of the 3 ist of July, was that he might submit a draft of the answer to the Cabinet on Saturday, to-day, August 2d. I have little hope that it will be satisfactory,, still it may be of importance that it LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. should reach you by the earliest opportunity, and I have been able to make arrangements to delay the departure of Mr. Fearn, until Tuesday, the 5th instant, in the hope that it will be in time to accompany this dispatch. " You will see, too, that Lord Russell has declined the inter view I proposed, because he does not think any advantage would arise from it/ I have no further solution of the apparently uncourteous act. " Thus cut off, I thought it best, in a supplement to my letter of the 24th of July, to bring before him the views presented in your last Instructions and to ask that, as supplemental, they might be considered as part of the letter of the 24th of July. The supplement, as you will see, bears date of the ist of August, the day following the receipt of his note, and was sent to him on the same day, so that it might be before the Cabinet on the day following." " AUGUST 4TH. " On Saturday night, the 2d instant, I received the answer of Lord Russell which he led me to expect would not come in to-day. I annex a copy herewith. His note apprised me that it was to be submitted to the Cabinet Council, and is to be taken therefore, as the judgment of the Government. You will remark, that after some recital, the conclusion is made to rest upon the statements in Mr. Seward s dispatch, that a large portion of the once disaffected population has been restored to the Union, and now evinces its loyalty and firm adherence to the Government: now in insurrection is under five millions ; and that the Southern Confederacy owes its main strength to the hope of assistance from Europe. It results that the Government here shuts its eyes to accumulating proofs coming by every arrival from the North showing that the Northern mind is now satisfied that there is no Union feeling at the South ; that in every city that has been seized, after vain attempts to seduce its population, the Generals have been obliged to disband the municipal authorities, from their refusal to give in their adherence ; to imprison all the lead ing citizens, because of their like refusal; that wherever the armies approach the population recedes, and fraternizes nowhere I say the Government shuts its eyes to all this, and relies on the mendacity of Mr. Seward, as the excuse for its position. It LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. is said that the Cabinet were much divided on the question. I can venture to predict nothing, but if our expectations from France should not be disappointed, it may yet be that they may be dragged into an ungraceful reversal of their decision. " I have under consideration the propriety of a reply to Earl Russell, commenting freely, but respectfully on its positions, ex posing Mr. Seward, and adducing proofs of the statements on which I relied. T , I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." " 54 DEVONSHIRE STREET, PORTLAND PLACE, " LONDON, July 7th, 1862. " The Right Hon. Earl Russell, " Pier Majesty s Secretary of State "For Foreign Affairs. " MY LORD : I am instructed by a recent dispatch from the Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America, to bring to the attention of your Lordship what would seem to be an addition engrafted by Her Majesty s Government on the prin ciple of the Law of Blockade, as established by the Convention of Paris, in 1856, and accepted by the Confederate States of America, at the invitation of Her Majesty s Government. " In the instructions to me, the text of the Convention of Paris is quoted in the following words : Blockades in order to be binding must be effective that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient, really, to prevent access to the coast of the enemy. " And the dispatch of the Secretary of State then proceeds : " The Confederate States after being recognized as a bel ligerent power by the Governments of France and Great Britain, were informally requested by both those powers to accede to this declaration as being a correct exposition of international law. Thus invited, this Government yielded its assent. " Great then was the surprise of the President, at finding in the published correspondence, before alluded to (referring to the papers laid before Parliament touching the American block ade) the following expressions of Earl Russell, in his letter to Lord Lyons of the I5th of February last: " Her Majesty s Government, however, are of opinion, that assuming that the blockade was duly notified; and also that a LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. number of ships is stationed and remains, at the entrance of a port, sufficient, really to prevent access to it, or to create an ei idcnt danger of entering or lea-ring it, and that the ships do not voluntarily permit egress, or ingress, the fact that various ships may have passed through it, as in the particular instance referred to, will not, of itself, prevent the blockade from being an effectual one by international law. " You must perceive that the words I have italicized are an addition to the definition of the Treaty of Paris of 1856. " If such be the interpretation placed by Great Britain on the Treaty of 1856, it is just that this Government should be so officially informed. Certain it is, that this Government did not. nor could it anticipate, that the very doctrine in relation to blockade formerly maintained by Great Britain, and which all Europe supposed to be abandoned by the Treaty of 1856, would again be asserted by that Government. " The language of Her Majesty s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs may not have been intended to bear the con struction now attributed to it, but it is evidently susceptible of this interpretation; and we can not be too cautious in guarding our rights, in a matter, which must in the future as well as the present, so deeply involve the interests of the Confederacy. " As a warrant for the assertion in the dispatch of the Sec retary, that the superadded words promulged a doctrine in rela tion to the blockade, formerly maintained by Great Britain, I am referred, by him, to the text of the treaty between Great Britain and Russia, in 1801, as follows : " That in order to determine what characterizes a block aded port, that denomination is given, only, where there is, by the disposition of the power which attacks it, with ships sta tionary or sufficiently near, an evident danger in entering. Art. Ill, Sec. 4. " The force and effect of these superadded words, it must be plain to your Lordship, has materially and most prejudically affected, and must continue so to affect, during the existing war, the interests of the Confederate States ; nor could this be better shown, than by the illustration adopted in the letter referred to. from your Lordship to Lord Lyons, that, The tact that various ships may escape through it (the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. blockade) will not, of itself, prevent the blockade from being an effectual one by the international law. " It may be readily admitted that the fact that various ships, entering or leaving a port, have successfully escaped a block ading squadron does not show that there may not have been an evident danger in so entering or leaving it ; but it certainly does show that the blockade was not, in the language of the Treaty of Paris, maintained by a force sufficient, really, to prevent access to the coast of the enemy. " I have, therefore, the honour to request, for the informa tion of my Government, that your Lordship will be good enough to solve the doubt entertained by the President of the Confeder ate States, as to the construction placed by the Government of Her Majesty on the text of the Convention of Paris, as accepted by the Government of the Confederate States, in the terms here inbefore cited that is to say : whether a blockade is to be con sidered effective, when maintained at an enemy s port by a force sufficient to create an evident danger of entering it or leaving it and not alone where sufficient, really, to prevent access/ " On the subject of the alleged blockade, I have received from the Department of State of the Confederate States, and am instructed to lay before your Lordship, as Her Majesty s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the accompanying lists of vessels entered and cleared at the port of Charleston, S. C, in the months of November and December, 1861 ; at Galveston, Texas, for the months of December, 1861, and January and Feb ruary, 1862; at New Orleans, La., for the months of November and December, 1861, and February, 1862; at Pensacola, Fla., for the months of December, 1861, and January and February, 1862; at Appalachicola, Fla., for the months of December, 1861, and January, 1862; and at Port Lavaca, Texas, in January, 1862. " The doctrines of international law certainly are, that war does not put an end to commerce between a belligerent and neutrals, except at ports and places actually blockaded, and yet in the strange and anomalous pretensions of the United States, apparently acquiesced in by neutral powers, all commerce be tween neutrals and the Confederate States is prohibited along an entire coast line of some twenty-five hundred miles. Armed vessels cruise along the coast, and capture neutrals that fall in 320 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. their way, on the allegation that the entire coast is under block ade. The Confederate States, as is known, have never been com mercial their carrying trade being almost entirely in the hands of other nations. Were it otherwise, little effect would be pro duced upon their commerce by this misnamed blockade. As it is, the few ships and other vessels owned by them, have from the beginning of the war, been actively and profitably employed in carrying their products to foreign ports, and in bringing back supplies. Not one in ten, in the large number of voyages so made, it is believed, have been captured ; and had that respect been exacted for neutral rights, which the law of nations pro vides, commerce between Europe and the Confederate States would have been, comparatively, but little interrupted: and in this view, I am instructed to enquire whether it may not be practicable to require of the blockading power to specify, from time to time, the ports claimed to be actually blockaded. Besides the large ports (few in number in the Confederate States) there are numbers of smaller towns accessible from the sea, where com merce continues to be carried on with foreign nations in the few vessels possessed by Confederate owners; and were blockaded ports designated, these latter would at once be open to the com merce of the world in everything not contraband. How far this would be advantageous to neutral powers, it remains for them to determine. The article of cotton alone taken from such ports which are not, and have not been actually blockaded, but com merce with which is intercepted by armed cruisers occasionally passing along the coast, would go far to supply the pressing demands of European manufacturers. " In this connection, I am instructed emphatically to dis claim any policy in the Confederate States Government to pro hibit or discourage the export of cotton. It has been the policy of the enemy to propagate such belief ; and perhaps, to some ex tent, it may have obtained credence in Europe. On the contrary, I am instructed to assure Her Majesty s Government that if Europe is without American cotton, it is because Europe has not thought it proper to send her ships to America for cotton. Were the blockading power required, strictly to designate the ports and places blockaded, and to maintain the same by adequate force; from those other ports, thus clearly ascertained to be open to LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. trade, any amount of cotton required would be freely offered in exchange for the manufactures of Europe. There is no lack of this great article of export in the interior of the Southern States. It has not been brought to the seaboard, because there was little demand for exportation, and it would otherwise be subject to depredation by the enemy. Wherever they approach, it is destroyed by fire to prevent its falling into their hands but let the blockaded ports be designated, as required by public law, and it will freely flow to the coast, at other points, thereby opened to the trade of the world. " There is one subject further, in connection with this alleged blockade, to which I am directed to call the attention of Her Majesty s Government. It is, that vessels of war of the United States are stationed off the mouth of the Rio Grande, with orders not to permit shipments of cotton to be made from the Mexican port of Matamoras. It is claimed that cotton taken from the Confederate States at Matamoras is lawful subject of capture. In proof of this I have the honour to transmit here with, a copy of an extract of a letter from J. A. Quintero, the Commercial Agent of the Confederate States at Matamoras, to the Secretary of State of the Confederate States. " I need not say to your Lordship, that although a maritime blockade may, in some sense, be frustrated by the carriage of merchandise, through the medium of interior communication, from a blockaded to a neutral port, when shipped from the latter, it is no breach of blockade ; yet this is now done at the mouth of the Rio Grande, a river forming the boundary between Mexico and the Confederate State of Texas. " I have the honour to be, with great respect, (< Your Lordship s obedient servant, " J. M. MASON, Special Commissioner 0} the Confederate States at London." 11 54 DEVONSHIRE STREET, PORTLAND PLACE, " The Right Hon. Earl Russell, " L NDON July J 7 th > l862 " Her Majesty s Secretary of State " For Foreign Affairs. " MY LORD : In late proceedings of Parliament, and in reply to inquiries made in each House, as to the intention of Her 322 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Majesty s Government to tender offices of mediation to the con tending powers in North America, it was replied, in substance, by Lord Palmerston and your Lordship, that Her Majesty s Government had no such intention at present, because, although this Government would be ever ready to offer such mediation, whenever it might be considered that such interposition would be of avail, it was believed by the Government that in the present inflamed or irritated temper of the belligerents any such offer might be misinterpreted, and might have an effect contrary to what was intended. " I will not undertake, of course, to express any opinion of the correctness of this view of Her Majesty s Government, so far as it may apply to the Government or people of the United States. But as the terms would seem to have been applied equally to the Government or people of the Confederate States of America, I feel warranted in the declaration, that whilst it is the unalterable purpose of that Government and people to maintain the independence they have achieved, whilst under no circum stances or contingencies will they ever again come under a c om- mon government with those now constituting the United States ; and although they do not, in any form, invite such interposition, yet they can see nothing in their position which could make either offensive or irritating, a tender of such offices on the part of Her Majesty s Government, as might lead to the termination of the war a war hopelessly carried on against them, and which is attended by a wanton waste of human life at which humanity shudders. " On the contrary, I can entertain no doubt that such offer would be received by the Government of the Confederate States of America with that high consideration and respect due to the benign purpose in which it would have its origin. " I have the honour to be very respectfully, " Your Lordship s obedient servant, " T. M. MASON. Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America." " FOREIGN OFFICE, July loth, 1862. " SIR : I am directed by Earl Russell to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 7th instant, and its enclosures LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. respecting the blockade of the Southern coast of North America. " I am sir, your most obedient humble servant, " A. H. LA YARD. " /. M. Mason, Esq., " 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place" " FOREIGN OFFICE, July 24th, 1862. " SIR : I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the I7th instant, respecting the intention expressed by Her Majesty s Government to refrain from any present offer of mediation between the contending parties in North America, and I have to state to you in reply, that in the opinion of Her Majesty s Government, any proposal to recognize the Southern Confederacy would irritate the United States, and any proposal to the Confederate States to return to the Union would irritate the Confederates. " This was the meaning of my declarations in Parliament upon the subject. " I have the honour to be sir, your most obedient servant, " RUSSELL. " J. M. Mason, Esq., " 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place" " 54 DEVONSHIRE STREET, PORTLAND PLACE, " July 24th, 1862. " The Right Hon. Earl Russell, " Her Majesty s Secretary of. State " For Foreign Affairs. " MY LORD : In the interview I had the honour to have with your Lordship in February last, I laid before your Lord ship, under instructions from the Government of the Confederate States, the views entertained by that Government leading to the belief that it was, of right, entitled to be recognized as a separate and independent power and to be received as an equal in the great family of nations. " I then represented to your Lordship that the dissolution of the United States of North America, by the withdrawal there from of certain of the confederates, was not to be considered as a revolution, in the ordinary acceptation of that term far less was it to be considered as an act of insurrection or rebellion ; that LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. it was, both in form and in fact, but the termination of a con federacy which, during a long course of years, had violated the terms of the federal compact by the exercise of unwarranted powers, oppressive and degrading to the minority section; that the seceding parties had so withdrawn as organized political com munities ; and had formed a new confederacy, comprising then as now, thirteen separate and sovereign States ; embracing an area of eight hundred and seventy thousand, six hundred and ten square miles ; and with a population of twelve millions. This new confederacy has now been in complete and successful operation as a Government, for a period of nearly eighteen months ; has proved itself capable of successful defence against every attempt to subdue or destroy it; and in a war conducted by its late con federates on a scale to tax their utmost power, has presented, everywhere, a united people, determined at every cost to main tain the independence they had affirmed. " Since that interview, more than five months have elapsed, and during that period events have but the more fully confirmed the views I then had the honour to present to your Lordship. The resources, strength, and power in the Confederate States, developed by those events, I think, authorize me to assume as the judgment of the intelligence of all Europe, that the separa tion of the States of North America is final, that under no possible circumstances can the late Federal Union be restored ; that the new Confederacy has evinced both the capacity and the deter mination to maintain its independence ; and therefore, with other powers, the question of recognizing that independence is simply a question of time. " The Confederate States ask no aid from, nor intervention by foreign powers. They are entirely content that the strict neutrality which has been proclaimed between the belligerents shall be adhered to, however unequally it may operate (because of fortuitous circumstances) upon them. " But if the principles and morals of the public law be, when a nation has established before the world both its capacity and its ability to maintain the Government it has ordained, that a duty devolves on other nations to recognize such facts ; then, I submit that the Government of the Confederate States of America, having sustained itself unimpaired, through trials LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. greater than most nations have been called to endure, and far greater than any it has yet to meet, has furnished to the world sufficient proof of stability, strength, and resources, to entitle it to a place among the independent nations of the earth. " I have the honor to be, with great respect, " Your Lordship s obedient servant, " J. M. MASON, " Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America." " 54 DEVONSHIRE STREET, PORTLAND PLACE, " July 24th, 1862. " Mr. Mason presents his compliments to Earl Russell, and if agreeable to his Lordship, Mr. Mason would be obliged if Earl Russell would allow him the honor of an interview, at such time as may be convenient to his Lordship. " Mr. Mason desires to submit to Earl Russell some views connected with the letter he has the honor to transmit here with, which he thinks may be better imparted in a brief conversa tion. " The Right Hon. Earl Russell, " Pier Majesty s Secretary of State " For Foreign Affairs. 1 " FOREIGN OFFICE, July 31, 1862. " Earl Russell presents his compliments to Mr. Mason : he begs to assure Mr. Mason that it is from no want of respect to him that Lord Russell has delayed sending him an answer to his letter of the 24 ult. Lord Russell has postponed sending that answer in order that he might submit a draft of it to the Cabinet on Saturday next. It will be forwarded on Monday to Mr. Mason. " Lord Russell does not think any advantage would arise from the interview which Mr. Mason proposes, and must there fore decline it." 3*6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " 54 DEVONSHIRE STREET, PORTLAND PLACE, " August i, 1862. " The Right Hon. Earl Russell, " Her Majesty s Secretary of State " For Foreign Affairs." " MY LORD: In the interview I had the honor to propose in my late note, I had intended briefly to submit the following views, which I thought might not be without weight in the consideration to be given by Her Majesty s Government to the request for recognition of the Confederate States, submitted in my letter of the 24th July ultimo. I ask leave, now, to present them as supplemental to that letter. If it be true, as there assumed, that in the settled judgment of England, the separation of the United States is final, then the failure of so great a power to recognize the fact in a formal manner imparts the opposite belief, and must operate as an incentive to the United States to protract the contest. " In a war such as that pending in America, where a party in possession of the Government is striving to subdue those who, for reasons sufficient to themselves, have withdrawn from it, the contest will be carried on in the heat of blood and popular ex citement long after it has become hopeless in the eyes of dis interested parties. " The Government itself may feel that its power is inadequate to bring back the recusant States, and yet be unable at once to control the fierce elements which surround it whilst the war rages. Such, it is confidently believed, is the actual condition of affairs in America. " It is impossible, in the experience of eighteen months of no ordinary trial, in the small results attained, and in the manifest exhaustion of its resources, that any hope remains with the Gov ernment of the United States, either of bringing about a restora tion of the dissevered Union, or of subjugating those who have renounced it. And yet the failure of foreign Powers formally to recognize the actual condition of things disables those in authority from conceding the fact at home. " Again, it is known that there is a large and increasing sentiment in the United States in accordance with these views LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. a sentiment which has its origin in the hard teachings of the war as it has progressed. " It was believed (or so confidently affirmed) that there was a large party in the Southern States devoted to the Union, whose presence and power would be manifested there, as soon as the public force of the United States was present to sustain it. I need not say how fully the experience of the war has dispelled this delusion. " Again, it was believed, and confidently relied on, that in the social structure of the Southern States there was a large popu lation of the dominant race indifferent, if not hostile, to the basis on which that structure rests in which they were not interested, and who would be found the allies of those whose mission was supposed to be, in some way, to break it up. But the same experience has shown that the whole population of the South is united, as one people in arms to resist the invader. " Nothing remains, then, on which to rest any hope of con quest but a reliance on the superior numbers, and supposed greater resources, of the Northern States. I think the results of the late (or pending) campaign have proved how idle such specu lations were, against the advantages of a people fighting at home, and bringing into a common stock of resistance, as a free will offering, all that they possessed, whether of blood or of treasures a spectacle now historically before the world. " It is in human experience that there must be those in the United States who can not shut their eyes to such facts; and yet, in the despotic power now assumed there by the Govern ment, to give expression to any doubt would be to court the hospitalities of the dungeon. One word from the Government of Her Majesty would encourage those people to speak, and the civilized world would respond to the truths they would utter that for whatever purpose the war was begun, it was continued now only in a vindictive and unreasoning spirit, shocking alike to humanity and to civilization. That potent word would simply be to announce a fact which a phrenzied mind only could dispute that the Southern States, now in a separate Confederacy, had established before the world its competency to maintain the Government of its adoption, and its determination to abide bv it. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " To withhold it would not only seem in derogation of truth, but would be to encourage the continuance of a war, hopeless in its objects, ruinous alike to the parties engaged in it, and to the prosperity and welfare of Europe. " I have the honor to request that your Lordship will receive this as supplemental to my letter of the 24th of July, and subscribe " With great respect, your Lordship s obedient servant, " T. M. MASON, " Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America 1 LORD RUSSELL S REPLY. " FOREIGN OFFICE, August 2, 1862. " SIR : I had the honor to receive your letter of the 24th of July and ist instant, in which you repeat the considerations which, in the opinion of the Government of the so-called Con federate States entitled that Government to be recognized of right, as a separate and independent power, and to be received as an equal in the great family of nations. " In again urging these views you represent, as before, that the withdrawal of certain of the Confederates from the Union of the States of North America is not to be considered as a revolu tion in the ordinary acceptance of that term, far less an act of insurrection or rebellion, but as the termination of a confed eracy which had, during a long course of years, violated the terms of the Federal Compact. " I beg leave to say in the outset, that upon this question of a right of withdrawal, as upon that of the previous conduct of the United States, Her Majesty s Government has never presumed to form a judgment. The interpretation of the Constitution of the United States and the character and proceedings of the Presi dent and Congress of the United States under the Constitution, must be determined, in the opinion of Her Majesty s Government, by the States and people in North America, who have inherited, ;and have, until recently, upheld that Constitution. Her .Majesty s Government decline, altogether, the responsibility of .assuming to be judges in such a controversy. " You state that the Confederacy has a population of twelve millions, that it has proved itself for eighteen months capable of LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. successful defence against every attempt to subdue or destroy it, that in the judgment of the intelligence of all Europe the sepa ration is final and that under no possible circumstances can the late Federal Union be restored. " On the other hand, the Secretary of State of the United States has affirmed, in an official dispatch, that a large portion of the once disaffected population has been restored to the Union, and now evinces its loyalty and firm adherence to the Govern ment; that the white population now in insurrection is under five millions, and that the Southern Confederacy owes its main strength to the hope of assistance from Europe. " In the face of the fluctuating events of the war, the alter nations of victory and defeat, the capture of New Orleans, the advance of the Federals to Corinth, to Memphis, and the banks of the Mississippi as far as Vicksburg, contrasted on the other hand with the failure of the attack on Charleston, and the retreat from before Richmond, placed, too, between allegations so con tradictory on the part of the contending powers, Her Majesty s Government are still determined to wait. " In order to be entitled to a place among the independent nations of the earth, a State ought to have not only strength and resources for a time, but afford promise of stability and perma nence. Should the Confederate States of America win that place among nations, other nations might justly acknowledge an inde pendence achieved by victory, and maintained by a successful resistance to all attempts to overthrow it. That time, however, has not, in the judgment of Her Majesty s Government, yet arrived. Her Majesty s Government, therefore, can only hope that a peaceful termination of the present bloody and destructive contest may not be distant. " I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient humble servant, " RUSSELL. " 7. M. Mason, Esq." The Government at Richmond, having received Mr. Mason s communication, inclosing the foregoing correspondence, replied in Dispatch No. 9, a part of which is here inserted : LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. "J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, October 3ist, 1862. " SIR : I proceed to lay before you his (the President s) views in relation to the discourteous and even unfriendly atti tude assumed by the British Cabinet in the correspondence between yourself and Earl Russell. It results clearly from the tenor of these dispatches : " ist. That the British Cabinet, after having invited the Government to concur in the adoption of certain principles of international law, and after having obtained its assent, assumed in official dispatches to derogate from the principles thus adopted, to the prejudice of the rights and interests of this Confederacy ; and that, upon being approached in very respectful and temperate terms with a request for an explanation on a matter of such deep concern to the people of this country, that Cabinet refuses a reply. " 2d. That Her Majesty s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs curtly refuses an unofficial interview with the accredited agent of this Government, requested for the purpose of submit ting some views (on a subject of the highest importance) which may be better imparted in a brief conversation. " 3d. That in answer to your communication placing cer tain well known historical facts before the British Cabinet as the basis of our claim for the recognition of our independence, it has pleased Her Majesty s Government to quote from a dispatch from Mr. Seward statements derogatory to this Government and without foundation in fact. " On the first of these points it is to be observed that Her Majesty s Government can have no just grounds for refusing an explanation of its conduct towards the Confederacy because of the absence of a recognition of our independence by the other nations of the world. It was not in the character of a recognized in dependent nation, but in that of a recognized belligerent that the two leading powers of Western Europe approached this Government with a proposition for the adoption of certain principles of public law as rules which should govern the mutual LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^7 relations between this people as belligerents and the nations of Europe as neutrals during the pending war. Two of these rules were for the special benefit of Great Britain, as one of these neutral nations. We agreed that her flag should cover enemy s goods and that her goods should be safe under enemy s flag. The former of these two rules conceded to her as a neutral, rights which, during her entire history she had sternly refused when herself a belligerent, with the exception of a temporary waiver during her last war with Russia. To these stipulations in her favor we have adhered with a fidelity so scrupulous that now, when we are far advanced in the second year of the war, we are without even complaint of injury from a single British subject arising out of any infringement of our obligations. Great Britain on her part agreed that no blockade should be considered bind ing unless Maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy. On the very first occasion which arose for the application of this, the only stipulation that could be of practical benefit to this country during the war, Her Majesty s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in an offi cial dispatch published to the world, appends a qualification which in effect destroys its whole value, and when appealed to for an explanation for this apparent breach of faith remains mute. This silence can only be construed into an admission that Her Majesty s Government is unable satisfactorily to explain, while it is unwilling to abandon the indefensible position which it has assumed. This Government is the better justified in reaching this conclusion from the open avowal by a British Peer in debate in Parliament that if England were involved in war the first thing she would do would be to retreat from the protocols of Paris. In view of these facts, the President desires that you address to Earl Russell a formal protest, on the part of this Government, against the pretension of the British Cabinet to change or modify, to the prejudice of the Confederacy, the doctrine in relation to blockade, to which the faith of Great Britain is, by this Govern ment, considered to be pledged. You will justify this protest by prefacing it with a statement of the views just presented, and you will accompany it with the announcement that the President abstains for the present from taking any further action than the presentation of this protest, accompanied by the expression of a 332 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. regret that such painful impressions should be produced on his mind by this unexpected result of the very first agreement or understanding between the Confederate States and Great Britain. " On the second point, of a refusal to accord you a personal interview, the President can not persuade himself that it arose from personal discourtesy, but believes it rather to be attributable to apprehension by Earl Russell of the displeasure of the United States. You may perhaps not be aware that on a former occa sion, when a conference took place between Earl Russell and your predecessors, the Minister of the United States near the Court of St. James assumed to call Her Majesty s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to account for admitting those gentle men to an interview, and threatened that a protraction of relations with them would be viewed by the United States as hostile in spirit and require some corresponding action accordingly ; that Earl Russell yielded to this assumption and made deferential explanation of his reception of our Commissioners, closing by saying that he had no expectation of seeing them any more/ The whole statement, as contained in Mr. Adams s published dis patch to Mr. Seward of I4th June, 1861, will satisfy you that Earl Russell does not feel himself at liberty to converse with you without incurring the displeasure of the Government of the United States. This explanation of the refusal to receive your visit, however, does not preclude the necessity of determining the propriety of your remaining in London, although it relieves the refusal of any feature either of personal discourtesy or inten tional offence to this Government. This question will be better considered after a review of the next topic, which is the answer made by Earl Russell to your demand for recognition. " The proprieties of official intercourse render it embarrass ing to qualify, in appropriate language, the affirmations of Mr. Seward which Her Majesty s Government has deemed proper to oppose to your statement of historical facts. If you had stated those facts as matters of personal knowledge there would, no doubt, have been just ground for deeming it far from compli mentary to yourself to have an affirmation from Mr. Seward presented as an offset to yours. But your statement of facts was a mere presentation of what has now become history ; what was as well known to the British Cabinet as to yourself, and suscep- LIFE OP JAMES MURRAY MASON. tible of verification by all mankind. The quotation, therefore, by the Foreign Office of an extract from Mr. Seward s letter, containing untruthful allegations, is to be taken rather as indi cating the absence of any well-founded reason for withholding compliance with our just demand for recognition, than personal discourtesy to yourself. But the spirit of the whole corres pondence between yourself and Earl Russell, his refusal to reply to your request for explanation on the subject of the blockade, his declining to grant you an interview, his introducing into his answer to your demand for recognition Mr. Seward s affirma tions, both unfounded and offensive to this Government, all combine to force upon the President the conviction that there exists a feeling on the part of the British Ministry unfriendly to this Government. This would be conclusive in determining him to direct your withdrawal from your mission, but for other con siderations which have brought him to a different conclusion. " The chief of these is the conviction entertained that on this subject the British Cabinet is not a fair exponent of the senti ments and opinions of the British nation. Not only from your own dispatches, but from the British press and from numerous other sources of information, all tending to the same result, we cannot resist the conclusion that the public opinion of England, in accordance with that of almost all Europe, approaches unanimity in according our right to recognition as an indepen dent nation. It is true that in official intercourse we can not look to any other than the British nation ; but it is equally true that in a government so dependent for continued existence on its con formity with public opinion, no Ministry, whose course of policy is in conflict with that opinion, can long retain office. " It is certain, therefore, that there must very soon occur such a change of policy in the Cabinet of St. James as will relieve all embarrassments in your position arising from the unfriendly feelings toward us, and the dread of displeasing the United States, which have hitherto been exhibited by Earl Rus sell. In such event, it would be of primary importance that you should be on the spot to render your services available to your country without hazard of delay ; and in the meantime, you are aware of the contingencies which are now constantly occurring that render your presence in London valuable in effecting ar- 334 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. rangements that could not otherwise be accomplished by the agents of the different departments now in Great Britain. " On the whole, therefore, it is, by the President, deemed proper that you continue to occupy your present post until fur ther instructions, but that you confine yourself to the simple pre sentation of the protest, in terms that shall not seem to imply any expectation of an answer ; and that you refrain from any further communication with Earl Russell until he shall himself invite correspondence, unless some important change in the conduct and policy of the British Cabinet shall occur, rendering action on your part indispensable. ********* " I am, sir, your obedient servant, " T- P. BENJAMIN." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER XII. Mr. G. N. Saunders Commander Sinclair Suggested that Money Could be Commanded by Use of Obligation for Delivery of Cotton by the Gov ernment Emperor Strong for Recognition England s Scant Courtesy and French Polished Civility Private Memoranda Tells of English Sym pathy and Interest, and also of Hospitality and Kindness Extended to Him Acting-Midshipman Andrews, in Command of the Sumter, Killed by Master s-Mate Hester English Scheme to Raise Money on Cotton French Proposal for Loan Line of Steamships Betvveen Europe and Con federacy Agreement with Erlanger & Co. Emancipation Proclamation Met with General Contempt and Derision Cotton Famine Fearful The Cruiser "Sumter" Sold to a British House English Property Taken by the "Alabama" and Earl Russell s Position Thereon. DISPATCH No. 16. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, "LONDON, September 18, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I have the honour to enclose herewith copy of a letter of this date, addressed by me to the Secretary of the Navy, as germane to the subject of this despatch. " Mr. G. N. Saunders, who arrived here recently, called upon me and exhibited to me a contract with the Navy Depart ment, authorizing him to build certain ships for its use, and containing an engagement of that department to pay for them in cotton, deliverable at any port in possession of the Con federate States, at prices current there at time of delivery. " Mr. Saunders had submitted this contract to, and invited the co-operation of, the house of Messrs. W. S. Lindsay & Company, of London, whose reputation may probably be known to you; but I may add that it is fully and justly established in public confidence, and entirely in the interests of the South ; nor could the matter be in better hands here. " At Mr. Saunders request, I had an interview with that house, and learned from them that, whilst they confidently believed the money that was required could be obtained, upon the engagement of the Navy Department to deliver cotton in the manner proposed, and at the time specified in the contract, yet that it could not be done, unless at a stipulated price; and that after full consideration of the subject in all its bearings, 336 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and more especially to the rate of exchange arising out of the condition of the South during the war, they fixed the price at eight cents in coin, and they were willing to undertake the operation on those terms. They said further, that if I, as the representative of the Government, would modify the contract by fixing such price (although fully aware that I had no special authority to do so) they would undertake the operation, and believed it could be carried through. " Although perfectly willing to assume any responsibility that might be necessary here to further the public service, yet in this instance I thought it best to decline the proposal ; and the more readily, as we thought that little time would be lost in remitting the question to the Department. And it has accordingly been arranged that Mr. Saunders shall go back for that purpose, pursuing a route that we think gives the best pros pect of success in getting in. " I have to report further that Commander Sinclair, of the Navy, came here a month or six weeks ago, with an order from the Navy Department to purchase or build a ship, under instruc tions that funds would be supplied him for that purpose out of means placed in the hands of Captain Bullock ; but he found on his arrival that all those funds had been committed to exist ing arrangements, and he was thus left powerless. There was to be taken into consideration, too, the difficulty, if not impos sibility, of commanding exchange in the Confederate States, even at the high rates prevailing, which we understand were about two for one, there being, in fact, nothing here to draw upon. Under these circumstances, and to enable him to build the ship at once, I agreed to approve an arrangement to be made with the house of Messrs. Lindsay & Company, and endorse a printed form as the form which the transaction will assume. You will observe that my endorsement on the bond, imports only, that it is issued under competent authority, and as a con sequence, that its obligation will be met by the Government. I deduced this from the terms of the order to Captain Sinclair, which gave him authority to build, or purchase under an urgent necessity, leaving everything to his discretion, coupled with the unexpected failure of means. It was clearly and fully under stood that I had no authority to commit the Government, the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. contractors taking the risk of the latter making it good. And I had, again, the less hesitation, as the Navy Department hav ing established policy of paying in cotton, the only real responsi bility was as to the price ; and the sum required being but sixty thousand pounds sterling, this engagement could not embarrass the Government in any future like operation. " I hope, therefore, that what I have done will meet the approbation of the Government. " I am fully aware of the great difficulties the Government must have in placing the funds in Europe necessary for its use, because of the cessation of commerce and the interrupted com munication. I venture to suggest, therefore, that money may be commanded here by the use of obligations for delivery of cot ton by the Government on the terms and in the manner ex pressed in the paper inclosed; that is to say, that the delivery shall be made at any port in possession of the Confederate States when demanded by the holder of the bond, after reason able say thirty or more days notice, or within three months or more after a peace. " I have every reason to believe that four or five millions sterling, or more, if required, could be commanded in this form, from the cotton spinners alone. It is perfectly well understood that this class is redundant with money arising out of the large profits made from stocks on hand when the scarcity of cotton developed itself money that would be immediately invested in cotton when it should be again accessible. " Should the Government think it proper to entrust this service to me, I shall take great interest in performing it. The form of the bond inclosed will convey the idea, but I think the price of cotton should be left at discretion the Government fixing a maximum. M j haye the honor tQ be> ^ " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 17. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, September 18, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I have heard from one or two accredited quarters that this question (Recognition) is again to come under the .338 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. consideration of the British Cabinet in October, and the same report has reached Mr. Slidell. " In this posture of affairs, I can but hope that the reconsideration of the British Cabinet is brought about at the instance of the Emperor; and if this is so, I have little doubt that a favorable response will be strongly pressed upon it by him. " There is no doubt but the Emperor is both willing and anxious to iccognize our independence, and seems so to declare himself without reserve. I had a note the other day from an English gentleman of high position, who told me that he had just seen the Emperor at Chalons, and who told him in conver sation that he was, and had been for some time, ready to recog nize us, and spoke rather impatiently of the opposite disposi tion of the British Government. " I have apprised Mr. Slidell of the present opportunity, though I could give him but short notice, and hope he may have time to embrace it for a dispatch. " We are all much cheered and elated here at the signal suc cesses of our arms in the series of battles reported from the Rappahannock to the Potomac lines opposite Washington, fol lowed up by an arrival yesterday announcing that our forces had crossed into Maryland. W> have only the Northern accounts, but even they are full to show that our victories have been complete, and the enemy both routed and disorganized. At this distance, and without the power to aid, I am filled with emotions of gratitude to those by whose counsels and whose courage such great events have been brought about. I look with renewed confidence to the effect which they must produce on the pending decision of the Emperor as to recognition. " I have the honor to be, etc., "J. M. MASON." J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, 28th October, 1862. "SiR : * * * The subject of a loan based on cotton cer tificates has been fully considered, and you will receive a com munication from the Secretary of the Treasury informing you of the conclusions reached by us after much deliberation. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 339 " I communicated to the Secretary your tender of services in connection with this matter, and he requests me to express his thanks and to solicit your aid and cooperation in any move ments that may be made to secure success by Mr. Spence, to whom the Government has confided the business, in conse quence chiefly of your recommendation. He had been appointed to take charge of other negotiations before the receipt of your last dispatches. " The President desires me to express his approval and sat isfaction with your conduct in assuming, under the circum stances, the responsibility of making the arrangements neces sary for the success of Captain Sinclair in his arrangements for building a ship. " It is gratifying to perceive that you had, as was confi dently anticipated, reviewed your impressions, and determined not to withdraw from London without the previous instruc tions of the President. Your correspondence with Earl Rus sell shows with what scant courtesy you have been treated, and exhibits a marked contrast between the conduct of the English and French statesmen now in office, in their intercourse with foreign agents, eminently discreditable to the former. It is lamentable that at this late period in the nineteenth century a nation so enlightened as Great Britain should have failed yet to discover that a principal cause of the dislike and hatred towards England, of which complaints are rife in her Parlia ment and in her press, is the offensive arrogance of some of her public men. The contrast is striking between the polished courtesy of Mr. Thouvenal and the rude incivility of Earl Rus sell. Your determination to submit to these annoyances in the service of your country, and to overlook personal slights while hope remains that your continued presence in England may benefit our cause, can not fail to meet the warm approval of your Government. I refrain, however, from further comment on the contents of your dispatches till the attention of the President (now concentrated on efforts to repair the ill effects of the failure of the Kentucky campaign) can be directed to your correspondence with Earl Russell. j am s j r " Your obedient servant, "J. P. BENJAMIN." 340 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. In contrast with " the scant courtesy of Earl Russell," a few extracts are taken from Mr. Mason s private memorandum book, which tell of the kind welcome extended to him by many English people whose positions in the social and political cir cles of that day are well known : Arrived in London January 29, 1862. February 9, dined with Hon. W. H. Gregory, M. P. for Galway, Ireland, at the Garrick Club ; met Alex. Baring, M. P., Mr. Bocock and others. February 10, dined with John W. Cowell, Esq. ; met Mr. Gregory only. Mr. Cowell is a retired gentleman of family, who spent two years in the United States in 1837-38. February n, breakfasted with Richard Cobden, Esq., M. P. Same day dined with John K. Gilliat, of the firm of John K. Gilliat and Company. Met a party of ladies and gentlemen. February 13, dined with Sir James Ferguson; met Lords Dufferin and Carnarvon, Mr. Gregory, Mr. Baring and others. February 23, dined again with Mr. Cowell to talk over American affairs. February 28, dined with Lord Overstone, and met a pleas ant party of nobility. March 2, a Sunday dinner with Lord and Lady Overstone ; a family party, and very pleasant. March 7, dined with Rev. Ernest Hawkins ; an agreeable dinner; some of the clergy and others. March u, dined with Sir Edward and Lady Caroline Ker- rison; met their uncle, Mr. Ellice, and an agreeable party. March 22, dined with Mr. Cowell to meet General Sir John Burgoyne, son of General Burgoyne, of the Revolution, and his daughter and son-in-law, Captain and Mrs. Wrottesley. Lord Wrottesley, father of the captain, resides in Staffordshire, near the Gunston Estate, and this dinner to bring us together. March 29, breakfasted with Sir Culling Eardley, the great humanitarian and emancipationist; met several gentlemen of that type, and had a long but temperate discussion on slavery in Southern States. March 31, breakfasted with Sir Henry and Lady Holland. Sir Henry is a physician of great eminence, who attended the Prince of Wales to the United States, and Lady Holland a daughter of the late Rev. Sydney Smith. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. April 2, lunched with Sir Culling Eardley, by invitation, at i P. M. ; found a small party of guests; was asked the history of the " Fugitive Slave Law " (ascribed to me) and the history of the " Dred Scott case." April 7, by invitation from Lord Abinger, a peer com manding the Scots Fusileer Guards, went to visit him and dine with the regiment mess at Eastbourne ; very rainy and bad weather but an agreeable party ; target-shooting by his corps on the beach; returned next day to London, although pressed to remain by Lord Abinger. April 13, dined with Alex. Baring, M. P., at the " Garrick Club"; met the Marquis of Bath, an intelligent and accom plished young gentleman. April 23, visited the Marquis of Bath at his seat, Long- leat, in Wiltshire ; guests, his uncle, Lord Edward Thyne and the Rev. Mr. Fane ; remained until the 26th, and was most cour teously and hospitably entertained. The estate of Longleat comprises 15,000 acres. He is thirty-one years of age, and married a daughter of Viscount de Vesci, an Irish peer. April 30, dined with Lord Campbell Stratheden, at his residence, Stratheden House ; met Sir James Scarlett, of the Crimean War, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, the authoress, and others. May i, at a reception of the Duchess of Sutherland and Cromartie. Went with the two Misses Williams, of Tennessee, daughters of the late Minister of the United States to Constan tinople. Went at ii P. M., and reached the Duchess, to make our devoirs about 12 ; a great crowd of the nobility, the Crown Prince of Prussia, the Duchess and Princess May, of Cam bridge, and others of the Royal family, it was said, were present. Got away about 1.30 A. M, Stafford House is, perhaps, the largest and most sumptuous in London. The Duke asked me to remain until the company were gone, and smoke a cigar with him; could not because of my charge of the young ladies. May 7, Mr. Gregory told me that Prince Oscar, of Sweden, now in London, expressed a desire to see and talk with me on American affairs. By his appointment, I called on him to-day at 2 P. M. and had a long conversation. The Prince expressed himself earnestly on the Southern side, and put many ques tions. I assured him we could never be conquered. A young LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and intelligent man of thirty years. With him nearly an hour. May 25, dined at the Stafford House with the Duke of Sutherland; the Duchess the only lady present; sat near her at table and in the drawing-room, after dinner; had much conver sation with her. Her title is " Duchess of Sutherland and Cromartie"; a very pretty and intelligent lady of thirty years; Lord Dufferin and others of the nobility, at table, inter alios Baron Rothschild. July 6, Mr. Richard Cobden at breakfast with me; had a long conversation on American affairs ; Mr. C. decidedly North ern in his sympathies, but deploring the war; admits his sym pathies with the North because anti-slavery. July 12, a visit this morning from Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald. Under Secretary of State in the Derby Administration. He called to have a private conversation on the proposed movement in the House of Commons for intervention in American affairs. Agreed to call at his house on Tuesday, the isth instant, to visit the Earl of Malmesbury on the same subject. The Earl was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in same administration. July 1 6, a visit from the Earl of Malmesbury to talk on American affairs. July 19, dined with Seymour Fitzgerald, at his residence; a large party of M. P s. " 54 DEVONSHIRE STREET, PORTLAND PLACE, " LONDON, October ist, 1862. " MY DEAR SON : The return of Mr. S. to Texas gives me the first opportunity of sending you a letter since I left home which I could hope would reach you. Deplorable as have been the consequences of the war to those we value most, yet I am ever filled with joy and gratitude at the spirit of our people in braving it, and the indomitable purpose to win their independence. England stands amazed at the courage, constancy, and self-sacrificing spirit of the South; and notwithstanding the supineness of the Government in refusing acknowledgment of our independence, the public judgment of the English mind is that independence is established. After such repeated disappointments I should hesitate to predict, but I think recognition is not very far off. France is both ready and willing. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^43 but England holds back, and they, it seems, have agreed not to act separately. You will have heard how the vandals, whilst in Winchester, desolated our dear home, and that your excellent mother and sisters had, very prudently, abandoned it in advance. I have great comfort in knowing that they are all safe in the southern part of the State, and in the midst of a body of friends, able and willing to guide and protect them. " I have been kindly and hospitably received by society in London, both Peers and Commons ; indeed, their highest orders are only the types of Southern gentlemen and ladies, simple, genial, and unostentatious. If you can get a letter into the hands of some friend at Brownsville, who would trouble himself to put it in the right channel to reach Vera Cruz or Tampico, it would reach me. Do write if you can, and tell me all that interests you and yours. My best love to Ella and dear little Jemmy, and the young one, too, who may recollect Grandpa. " Yours most affectionately, " T. M. MASON." " To George Mason, Galveston, DISPATCH No. 18. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, October 30, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: " SIR : It becomes my painful duty to inform the Govern ment of an occurrence which has recently happened on board the Confederate States ship Sumter, lying in the bay of Gibraltar. " Captain Semmes and his officers having been transferred to the Alabama, the Sumter was left in charge of a midshipman and a boat s crew only a guard deemed sufficient by Captain Semmes. On the I4th of this month I received a telegram from vSergeant Stephenson of the Marines, one of those left in charge of the ship, stating that Acting-midshipman Andrews (in command) had been shot and killed by one of the men named Hester, who was master s mate; that Hester had been taken into custody by the civil authorities there; and asking for instructions, I imme diately replied, by telegraph, to Sergeant Stephenson, directing him to take charge of the ship and the public property on board, and that an officer would be sent at once to relieve him. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " Lieutenant Chapman, a former officer of the Sumter/ was then in Paris, on duty assigned to him by the Secretary of the Navy. I wrote to him to proceed immediately to Gibraltar and take command of the ship. After the death of Midshipman Andrews, and the arrest of the master s mate, the only person on board having the semblance of authority was the sergeant of marines. Some days after, I received a letter, dated on board the Sumter/ the I7th of October, signed by all the ship s crew (only nine in number), including the sergeant of marines, denouncing, in strong terms, the act of Hester as a cool, deliberate murder/ and promising that everything should be done by those on board to take care of the ship until further orders. I subsequently received two letters from a Mr. George F. Coonwall, dated respectively at Gibraltar, the I7th and 22d of October, informing me that he had been engaged as counsel by Hester; and vindicating it on the ground that Midshipman Andrews had expressed his determination to take the vessel out of this port (Gibraltar) and give her up at Algesiras to the United States ship Supply/ then in the latter port, and threat ened to shoot any one who opposed his purpose. Mr. Hester not being (as he says) able to rely on the crew, adopted this fatal course, and believes that he has only done his duty. I should have stated above, that in the letter from the crew of the Sumter no particulars of the affair were given, nor anything stated as the cause of the affair except, as in the following para graph quoted from that letter : " As regards the accusation made by Mr. Hester against Mr. Andrews being a traitor, it is, as far as we all know, entirely without foundation, for he was one that was beloved and re spected by all who knew him, more especially by his crew. " Lieutenant Chapman came immediately to London on receipt of my letter, as the shortest route to Gibraltar, and sailed for that port in the mail-packet on Monday last, the I7th inst. He should have arrived there yesterday. " I instructed Lieutenant Chapman to make a full inquiry into the affair and its circumstances, and to report them accord ingly. In the letters of Mr. Coonewall, the counsel, he reports the earnest request of Hester that I would provide means for his defence, and in his last letter, a like request that I would take LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASOtf. measures to have the prisoner restored to the jurisdiction of the Confederate States, fearing the result of a trial by the British authorities. He further requests that measures may be taken to have certain officers of the Sumter, including Lieutenant Chap man, brought as witnesses on his behalf at his trial. " I can form no opinion of what it may be proper for me to do in the premises, until I get the report of Lieutenant Chap man. Should there be reasonable foundation for the alleged belief of Hester that Andrews designed the surrender of the ship to the enemy, I shall consider it my duty to do whatever may be found best to give him the full benefit of the proofs he may adduce. On the question of jurisdiction, it would certainly be right that he should be tried under the authority of our Government, but even should the jurisdiction be yielded by the British Govern ment (which in our unrecognized condition is by no means cer tain), I should be at a great loss to know how to bring the prisoner to trial, and what to do with him in the meantime. This, however, can be only or best determined after getting Lieutenant Chapman s report. " I have further to state in the dilemma arising out of this unfortunate affair, and with the entire concurrence and advice of Captains Bullock and Sinclair, of the Navy, as well as Lieu tenant Chapman, I have determined to have the * Sumter * sold, and have taken measures to have the sale made by Captain Bul lock, the senior officer in the service here. Her armament, and such stores of clothing, etc., as can be used in fitting out other ships, will be reserved. * I have the honor to be, etc., "J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 19. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, November 4th, 1862. " Hon. /. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: "SiR: In my No. 16, of the i8th of September last, I advised you of my opinion that money might be commanded here by the Confederate Government, and in large amounts, upon obligations for the delivery of cotton. I revert to that subject now and more at length. 34 6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASOX. " In order to obtain as full and satisfactory information as could be had prospectively on this subject, I sought an inter view with Mr. W. S. Lindsay, who is the founder and principal in the house of W. S. Lindsay and Company, of London. I do not know whether you are acquainted with the reputation of the house, but he is known as the largest ship-owner in England of the most extended commercial connection, and is trusted and consulted in commercial matters, as well by his own Government, as by the Emperor of the French an original and steady friend of the Southern States, and who has been for many years a mem ber of Parliament. Through his house, as stated in my No. 16, bonds for the delivery of cotton were negotiated to the amount of sixty thousand pounds sterling, for the use of the Navy- Department. " Mr. Lindsay brought to me afterwards a Mr. Thomas Hug- gins, a stockholder of this city, as one of the best acquainted with moneyed affairs here, and I enclose you herewith a memo randum furnished by him, embodying his views on the subject, together with a letter from Mr. Lindsay, referring to it as Paper A. You will see that Mr. Huggins contemplates an Act of Congress authorizing this mode of finance to be recited in the bond. This, I have no doubt, would make them more accep table in the market. The main thing, however, is the principle of raising money in this mode, and the price at which the Gov ernment can properly enter into it as the seller of cotton for future delivery. In view of what we learn is the present price of cotton (fourpence sterling per pound equal to eight cents in coin of our money), it is certainly low; but Mr. Huggins, I think wisely suggests that the price, in after issues would be adjusted, having in view the elements of market-value and ex change, by the appreciation in value of the bonds after they came into market. Thus, that the first issue of bonds should be for a comparatively small amount : say, one hundred thousand pounds sterling, or, if desired, double the sum. He does not doubt that this amount could be readily placed (as they call it) at fourpence per pound. They would go into the hands of large holders, who would expect to part with the whole or a portion of them at a profit. He thinks this form of investment would present an in viting speculation; and that the bonds so issued would rapidly LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. appreciate, and, thus, the Government would have the advantage of whatever premium they might attain in its subsequent issues. He does not think that increasing the price of the cotton in such subsequent issues, would be likely to produce as large avails as by retaining the original price and looking to the appreciation of the bonds. This, however, could be best adjusted on ex perience. The state of exchange and fluctuating price of cotton so materially affect a scheme of this kind (elements better known to you than to me), that I am at a loss to express an opinion as to the advantage of such loan, but it is very certain, that in the form proposed, money can be had at once. Indeed Mr. Lindsay told me I might say to the Government that, apart from the other probable demand, he would undertake to furnish, through himself and connections, from a quarter to a half million of pounds sterling. " I send with this, the form of the bond issued by Captain Sinclair and endorsed by me, which will give the outline of the proposed transaction. " I send also, with this dispatch, Mr. Slidell s No. 18, which he forwarded to me for transmission, accompanied by a proposal from the banking house of M. M. Emile Erlanger & Company, of Paris, for the loan to the Government of five millions of pounds sterling ; accompanied by sundry printed papers from that house, together with a letter from them to Mr. Slidell, referring to the subject. " I have no information about this house except such as is furnished by Mr. Slidell, and which, I, in no manner, doubt. " The proposals, as you will see, impart an agreement to which I am made party for submitting them to the Government, vouching for the character of the house (in Article 20), and advising that a person be appointed in Europe to sign a defini tive contract/ etc. Lest my act should be misinterpreted at home, I did not feel disposed to sign the paper. Mr. Slidell having access to information in Paris which I had not, might well agree to submit the plan for consideration, when I, in the absence of such information, perhaps, ought not. Do not understand, therefore, that the absence of my name from the paper imports anything more than the want of proper information. I thought it possible, too, in presenting projects from both London and LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Paris on this subject, my formal signature of the Paris pro posals might seem (unexplained), to give them countenance over those from here. It certainly seems .to me that the London plan offers the best scheme of finance; and it can be adopted pro gressively or discontinued, if found inadvisable. What incidental political advantages might attend the Paris plan, Mr. Slidell is far more competent to determine than I can be. I can only add, should the Government be disposed to commit anything to me on this subject, I shall execute its orders under the guidance of the best counsels I can obtain here. Mr. Lindsay s letter, enclosed, refers also, and at some length, to a plan of direct intercourse by steam between Europe and the Confederate States, at the ports of Norfolk and New Orleans, by the French Compagnie Generate Trans-Atlantique, of which he sends, with his letter, their organization as printed. These proposals, I need not say, are worthy of the mature consideration of the Government. The capital is large, in able hands, and under the most responsible directory ; and, as will be seen, has the potent aid and patronage of the French Emperor. ;< The plan of the company was to run a line between France and the United States. Mr. Lindsay, I know, is intimate in the commercial counsels of the French Emperor, who relies much on his judgment and experience : and I know that the latter sends for him occasionally to consult with him on matters pertaining to French commerce. He has had, moreover, a large agency in establishing and regulating the commercial relations and inter course between the two Governments. You will remark by the extract from his letter to the manager of the French company, that he points very strongly to the reasons why the proposed intercourse with America should be changed from North to South : and he says in his letter to me (enclosed herewith), that on these, conditions he will become a member of the directory ; and, at the close of the war, will go in person to the South, and if acceptable to our Government, will there arrange the terms, etc. He thinks, as doubtless you will, that it is of the greatest moment everything should be in readiness to open this communication immediately, upon the close of the war, or the opening of our ports ; and I know enough of him and of his influence, both here and on the Continent, to be assured that the matter could not be in more friendly or judicious hands. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 349 " The business affairs of the house of Messrs. Lindsay & Company, are now chiefly managed by other members of the firm. Mr. L. himself devotes a great deal of time to matters of more general and public interest connected with commerce, and which he is well able to do, being of large and independent fortune. " I have had several plans laid before me by merchants and others here, all eager to grasp the first fruits of direct trade with the South; but they come altogether from private individuals, who will have to look up the capital to begin with, and must rely mainly for success on aid expected from the Confederate States Government, over all which the French Company certainly has overshadowing advantages. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." [UNOFFICIAL.] " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE. " LONDON, November 8th, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: " SIR : My dispatches by Lieutenant Wilkinson went off yesterday. I write this unofficial note to overtake him and reach you with them. " Since they were written, what was rumour then has at tained a form of authenticity which leads me at once to send it to you. " There is no doubt that the Emperor of France has proposed to England and Russia that the three powers should unite in proposing to the belligerents of America an armistice for six months, with the blockade removed as part of the armistice, and it is confidently asserted that Russia has assented to it. . " I have not been able to gather opinion from public men, of what England may do, but it is hardly probable that she will refuse her concurrence. " You may receive as a fact that the Emperor of France has made the proposal. I can not speak with like certainty of the assent of Russia, but believe it to be true. " You may learn all this probably through the Northern LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. papers before this reaches you, but it may come as rumour only ; I therefore hasten to send it to you as above. " I have the honour to be very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, "J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 12. 4t J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, January i5th, 1863. "SiR: A copy of your No. 18 has been furnished to the Navy Department, which has issued the proper instructions, as I am informed, in relation to the Sumter s affairs. I believe Mr. Mallory is entirely satisfied that your course in ordering the sale of the vessel ; it was the best that could be adopted under the circumstances. The conflicting statements of Hester and the crew render it extremely embarrassing to suggest any course of action in relation to the unfortunate occurrence on board of that vessel ; besides which, it is scarcely probable that any in structions from this side could reach you in time to determine your action. Under all the circumstances, therefore, it is thought best that you should exercise your own discretion as to the proper course to be pursued, after satisfying yourself of the true state of facts. " If Hester s statement be false, it is certainly a very bold device on his part to escape the consequences of his crime, and I confess that it seems to me more probable that his statements are true than that they were invented as an excuse for his act. " A copy of your No. 19 has been furnished to Mr. Mem- menger, and we have had several conferences on the subject. The plan recommended by Mr. Lindsay had been substantially adopted prior to the receipt of your dispatch, and cotton bonds to a considerable amount had been forwarded to Europe, in order that they might be disposed of by Mr. Spence, with the aid and advice of Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Company, after being verified and signed by you. This agency was confided to Mr. Spence in deference to your advice, and you will perceive, there- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ..351 fore, that it is out of the power of the Secretary of the Treasury to avail himself of the tender of services of Messrs. Lindsay, which would have been quite acceptable. The bonds sent to Mr. Spence are for cotton at fivepence, and at that rate they seem to us ex cessively low and are sent in the hope that they will command a handsome premium. It occurs to us that the basis on which the value of cotton is placed by Messrs. Lindsay and Mr. Huggins is by no means a reasonable one. The average value of cotton dur ing the five years that preceded this war, when abundant supplies were supposed to be always accessible, and when enormous ac cumulations of stock of both the raw material and the manufac tured articles existed in the principal marts of the world, is surely no basis for estimating the future value of cotton, when the crops of the three years of the war will not much exceed a single year s supply, when accumulated stocks have been exhausted, and particularly in view of the fact that for the first few years of peace the supplies from this country will still continue to be limited by reason of the exhaustion produced by the war, and the diversion of slave labor to many other pursuits. It is my deliber ate opinion that cotton of the quality of middling Orleans can not be sold below eightpence for a series of years. " In relation to a loan of which those gentlemen made men tion, there is no desire nor intention on our part to effect a loan in Europe. When peace shall return and our position is firmly secured, if we can obtain a large loan at low rates so as to con vert our debt to advantage, no doubt we shall be ready to do so ; but during the war we want only such moderate sums as are required abroad for the purchase of warlike supplies and for vessels, and even that is not required because of our want of funds, but because of the difficulty of remittance. I state these facts, because we already perceive both in England and France indications that an impression is entertained of our desire to raise money by loan, while such is not the policy of the Government. The agents of Messrs. Erlanger and Company arrived a few -days before your dispatches, and were quite surprised to find their proposals were considered inadmissible. They very soon discovered how infinitely stronger we were, and how much more abundant our resources than they had imagined. We finally agreed with them to take fifteen millions instead of twenty- 352 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. five which they offered. Instead of seventy per cent, for our bonds bearing interest at eight per cent, they have agreed to give seventy-seven per cent, for our bonds bearing interest at seven per cent., and if payment is made in cotton we are to be allowed sixpence a pound for it. These terms, although vastly better than the outline of contract made in Paris, were considered by us so onerous, that we were unwilling to take the whole amount offered, and would have declined it altogether, but for the political considerations indicated by Mr. Slidell, in whose judgment in such matters we are disposed to place very great confidence. " The subject of steam connection between Europe and the Confederacy is one which we look to with deep interest, and the President has read with great satisfaction the communication ad dressed by Mr. Lindsay. He desires me to express his acknowl edgments for the offer of Mr. Lindsay to interest himself in the establishment of a connection between us and France by means of the French Company, and to assure Mr. Lindsay, through you, of the great pleasure with which he would receive that gentleman s proposed visit to our country, and the confidence he entertains that Mr. Lindsay s enlarged experience would be of great value to us in the commercial and foreign postal arrange ments which will become necessary on the establishment of peace. If Mr. Lindsay should carry into effect his purpose of visiting Richmond, he will be received not only with the cordial welcome due to his position and character, but with evidence that we have not been insensible to the generous sympathies in our behalf which he has so constantly and efficiently exhibited from the very beginning of our contest. " You are however, aware, that under our Constitution it is not within the power of the Confederate Government to grant postal subsidies, as the provision is express that the expenses of the Post-Office Department after the first day of March, 1863, shall be paid out of its own revenues/ The whole extent of the aid that we could give to a line of steamers therefore, would be the gross proceeds of the inland and sea postages on the mails carried by it ; but this would be no inconsiderable sum as soon as commerce resumes its regular peaceful channels. If necessary, statistics could be prepared on this point, exhibiting the probable LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. revenue to be derived from that source. But although the Con federate Government is thus without power under the Constitu tion to grant postal subsidies, the several States have such power, and it is deemed highly probable that the State of Virginia, in view of the great advantages she would derive from the establish ment of a line of steamers terminating at Norfolk, would make a reasonable grant for such a purpose. This you will understand, however, to be a mere expression of personal opinion, and you are the best judge of its value. " We have not a word from Mr. Slidell or yourself since the publication of the correspondence between the Cabinets of Great Britain, France, and Russia early in November last. My dis patch No. n, sent in duplicate, and which I hope has reached you, contained a full exposition of the view of the Government in relation to the probable effects of peace on our commerce, and the President s message sent herewith, contains so full a review of our internal condition as to relieve me from the necessity of further detail. " I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN." DISPATCH No. 20. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, "LONDON, November 7th, 1862. " Hon. J . P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : From here I have nothing new to report. A meet ing of the Cabinet which had been called for the 23d of October, which it was generally believed had been convoked to deliberate on American affairs, was not held; Earl Russell notifying the Ministers by telegraph on the day previous that it was unneces sary for them to attend; nor have I heard of any called since. Indeed the purpose of those who rule in the Cabinet seems obdurate not to recognize now, nor to give intimation when, or under what circumstances recognition may be expected; still everything that occurs at the North, or in the operations of the armies works favorably for us in the public judgment. Even the Emancipation Proclamation, which it is believed was issued under the promptings of their Minister Adams, as the means of LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. warding off recognition, had little other effect than to disappoint the Anti-slavery party here, and met with general contempt and derision. It was seen through at once, and contemned ac cordingly. " The cotton famine, however, which has been pressing hard upon the manufacturing districts, is looming up in fearful pro portions. It is stated that there are, now, some hundred thou sand of the population entirely dependent on charity for subsist ence ; and this large number is increasing at from ten to twenty thousand a week : added to which, pestilence in the form of low or typhoid fever, has already commenced its ravages. " The public mind is very much disturbed at the fearful pros pect for the winter ; and I am not without hope that it will pro duce its effects on the counsels of the Government. I am grati fied to be able to say that the abilty of our generals, and the prowess of our arms is everywhere acknowledged in Europe, and there is equally acknowledged the striking difference between the inflated and mendacious reports on the Northern side contrasted with the calm and dignified revelations of truth that slowly reach here from the South. " I see and hear nothing from the British Government either officially or unofficially. Mr. Slidell has an advantage over me in this, as he sees the Ministers frequently, as well as the Em peror. I have sometimes thought it might be due to the dignity of the Government, under such circumstances, that I should terminate the mission here ; but I do not feel at liberty to advise it, because, although unaccredited, I find my presence in London, as the representative of the Government, is really important in matters frequently arising, where we should not be without some responsible head. " I have the honor to be, etc., "J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 21. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, December loth, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. "SiR : Referring to my No. 8, 1 have to add that since its date I received a full report from Lieutenant Chapman, which leaves LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. little doubt that the allegation of Hester that Midshipman Andrews designed to surrender the Sumter to the enemy was altogether a fabrication ; and that the true cause of the murder was that Hester had just been detected by Andrews in pilfering the public property in the ship. " On the question of demanding the prisoner for trial by the Confederate authorities, I have stated the difficulties that were presented in my No. 18. Subsequently I presented the question fully for the advice of Mr. Slidell, and was happy to find that he agreed with me as to the expediency, or rather necessity of leaving the matter in the hands of the British authorities. " I have thought it due, however, as Hester was a petty officer in the navy, and had no means of providing for his defence, that he should not be left without some such provision for the expenses of counsel and witnesses ; and have directed Lieutenant Chapman accordingly. " In my No. 18 I stated also that I had determined to have the Sumter sold, and the reasons for it. The whole subject of the sale was submitted to Captain Bullock, C. S. A., as the senior naval officer, and I learn by telegraph this morning from Gibral tar that the ship had been sold to a British house, the price not stated. The proceeds of the sale will be turned over to Captain Bullock, in charge of the naval funds here. " Will you be good enough to communicate this dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy ? " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 22. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, December loth, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : Referring to my dispatch No. 19, of which you have a duplicate herewith, I have only to say, that since its date, I have taken no further steps in regard to the plan proposed of raising money by means of obligations for the delivery of cotton. Since then, however, Commander Maury, of the navy, has arrived here, with authority from the Secretary of the Navy to obtain 356 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. money for the naval purposes committed to his charge, by means of such cotton obligations, should he find it necessary and prac ticable. He brought a like authority to other naval officers here who had actual contracts in course of execution for building ships. I have also had an interview with Mr. Spence, of Liver pool, tg whom the Secretary of the Treasury had confided an agency for the sale, or other disposition of the bonds of the Confederate States, as auxiliary to the purpose of the Navy Department. These gentlemen have all freely consulted with me as to the most desirable course to be pursued. They saw, at once, the difficulties and embarrassments that might arise from any separate action on their parts in the markets. The matter in relation to the sale or disposition of the bonds, was given to Mr. Spence, who was to act in consultation with the house of Fraser, Trenholm & Company, of Liverpool, and the subject of the cot ton obligations was by the naval officers, wisely, I think, turned over to the agency of that house. From all the information derived, their impression seemed to be that money could be more advantageously obtained, by means of the latter than by the use of the Confederate bonds. " Nothing pertaining to this matter of obtaining money has, as you are aware, been committed to me ; nor have I acted further in it than freely to consult with those gentlemen to whom it has been committed. In the course of these deliberations and discus sions, however, it has become very manifest, that the credit of the Government would be better sustained, and its operations much facilitated, by prescribing a definite mode in the management of all money operations here; that is to say, that separate and single agencies should be established, for providing funds in Europe, whether by the sale of Government bonds, or by the use of cotton obligations on the part of the Government; and that all money to be disbursed here should be by drafts on such agencies, nor do I know of better hands to whom it should be confided than where it now rests say to Mr. Spence as agent for the bonds, in consultation with the house named in Liverpool; and to that house in regard to the cotton bonds ; and perhaps, for additional security it should be required that what they might do in England, should have the approval of the representative of the Government here. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " I venture to submit these suggestions to the better judg ment of yourself and the Secretary of the Treasury. " I have the honor to be, etc., "J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 23. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, December nth, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : At this season of the year, as you are aware, the public functionaries are generally in the country ; and we hear but little from political circles. I think, however, events are maturing which must lead to some change in the attitude of England. The cotton famine still continues to extend itself with apparently gigantic strides, and the English people are exerting themselves, through all ranks, to come to its relief by private contributions. It is not believed, however, that actual starvation can be kept off by such means, and the Government must come in aid. " Parliament is to meet early in February, and if the question comes before it of supplying means from the Treasury, a potent argument will be drawn thence in support of the relief that could be extended by the termination, in some way, of the American war. " Through the Northern papers you will have seen the suc cessful cruise of the Alabama, so far, against the enemy s com merce. It is alleged, that in some instances, British property has been destroyed on board the prizes ; and within a few days past, I have received a letter from a commercial house here, inclosing one from Mr. Richard C. Gurney, who states himself to be a British subject, resident in New York, making a reclamation on the Confederate Government for eighty-five barrels of flour alleged to have been destroyed by Captain Semmes of the Ala bama, on board the Federal ship Brilliant. I advised the house here that the claim should be made through the Foreign Office ; but if they desired it, I would transmit the papers directly to my Government, when communication between the two countries should have opened. " On this subject of the Alabama, there appeared a late LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. letter from Earl Russell, which, in its expressions, went further towards recognition than anything that has yet fallen from him. " It appears that certain merchants of Liverpool had made complaint to him that their American ships had been destroyed by the Alabama/ and they asked for redress. In his reply, recapitulating this request, he spoke of it as property alleged to have been destroyed by the Confederate war-steamer Alabama/ and told them, that as in like cases, where neutral property was destroyed by a belligerent at sea, their redress could only be through the Prize Courts of that belligerent. " I have the honor to be, etc., "J. M. MASON." " /. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to England. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, February 7th, 1863. " SIR : It was very unfortunate that your situation was such as to render it impossible for you to take charge of the accused Hester, or to send him to this country for trial, as his offence, committed on board one of our national vessels was as much within our exclusive jurisdiction as if committed on the soil of the Confederacy. But as you would, in the event of his delivery to you on demand, have been utterly without any means of bring ing him away or sending him under proper guard to this country, you seem to have had no choice in the matter. It is to be feared that this case, however, may be hereafter cited as a precedent against us when our circumstances shall be changed, and it is regarded as unfortunate that our silent acquiescence, enforced as it has been by our peculiar condition, leaves us open to mis construction. " Your views expressed in No. 22 are in entire accordance with those of Mr. Memmenger and myself, and means have already been taken to concentrate in one house or agent all the financial operations of the Government abroad, and to revoke authority given by heads of departments to separate or special agents. " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER XIII. Dispatch from Richmond Speaks of Future Commerce with Confederate States Of Correspondence Between France, England, and Russia Re garding an Armistice Private Letter Favorable Effect in England of Southern Victories Politics in the North Parties in Parliament Private Letter Conversation with Lord Donoughmore Department Refutes Northern Reports Regarding Re-opening the Slave Trade Cotton Cer tificates from the Treasury the True Mode of Raising Money List of U. S. Vessels Destroyed by Confederates Blockade Raised at Charleston, Galveston, and Sabine Pass England Determined to Run No Risk of Trouble with United States. " /. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State Confederate States, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain: " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, "RICHMOND, December n, 1862. , (Received in London February 25.) " SIR : The recently published correspondence between the Cabinets of France, Great Britain, and Russia indicates that the period is fast approaching when the dictates of reason, justice, and humanity will be respected, and our undoubted right to recognition as an independent nation be acknowledged. This recognition must, in the nature of things be followed by a speedy peace. " The consideration of the effects which will be produced by this event on the commercial relations of the Confederacy evokes deep solicitude, and it becomes my duty to communicate to you the instructions of your Government on this important subject. " It is necessary to keep in view the very exceptional condi tion in which the present war has placed the Confederate States, in order to form a just estimate of the probable results of the renewal of peaceful relations between the belligerents. " The almost total cessation of external commerce for the last two years has produced the complete exhaustion of the supply of all articles of foreign growth and manufacture, and it is but a moderate computation to estimate the imports into the Confederacy at three hundred millions of dollars for the first six months which will ensue after the treaty of peace. The articles which will meet with most ready sale (and in enormous quanti- 360 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ties), as soon as our country is open to commerce are textile fabrics, whether of wool, cotton or flax ; iron and steel and articles manufactured from them in all their varieties ; leather and manu factures of leather, such as shoes, boots, saddlery, harness, etc., clothing of all kinds ; glass, crockery ; the products of the vine, whether wines, brandies, or liqueurs ; silk and all fabrics of silk ; hats, caps, etc. ; the large class of commodities known as articles de Paris ; the comestibles of France, including not only pre served meats, game and fish, but fruits, vegetables, confec tionery and sweetmeats ; salt, drugs, chemicals, stationery, manu factures of brass, lead, pewter, tin ; together with an innumerable variety of other articles of less importance. " In exchange for these importations we have to offer the cotton, tobacco, and naval stores accumulated in the Confed eracy. They are of much larger value even at half their present prices than the amount of importations estimated as above for the first six months; indeed I feel confident that at one-third the present European prices for our staples we have exchangeable value for the whole $300,000,000 in these three enumerated articles, independently of rice, ship-timber, and other productions of the field and forest. " It must, however, be admitted as not improbable that a considerable quantity of these accumulated products may be destroyed by us in order to avoid their seizure by the enemy in such portions of the country as may become readily accessible to their gunboats during the approaching season of high water. This necessity is imposed on us, as you are aware, by the fact that the troops of the United States pay no respect to private property, even of non-combatants or neutrals, but appropriate to themselves every article of movable property that they can reach in any part of our country. " Notwithstanding the exasperation of feeling now prevail ing in the Confederacy against the United States, no statesman can fail to perceive that in the restoration of peace the commer cial intercourse between the present belligerents must necessarily be placed on such a basis as to accord to each other the same terms and conditions as are accorded to friendly nations in gen eral. It is scarcely to be supposed that a treaty of peace could be concluded that should leave it optional to either party to LIFE OF JAMES HURRAY MASON. 361 wage a war of hostile tariffs or special restrictions against the other ; nor would such a state of things be desirable, if possible, for it would be manifestly incompatible with the maintenance of permanent peaceful relations. It must be conceded, therefore, that the final cessation of hostilities will open to the United States access to the markets of the Confederacy as free as that which may be conceded to European nations in general. " In view of this condition of affairs, it is not difficult to predict the probable results on the commerce of the Confederacy, which will be immediately developed unless prevented by some counteracting influence. " I. The first consequence to be anticipated is that our land will be pervaded by the agents of the Northern mer chants who will monopolize those products of the South from which Europe has been so long debarred, and which are so need ful to its prosperity. The cotton, tobacco, and naval stores of the South will become at once the prize of Northern cupidity, and will only reach Europe after having paid heavy profits to these forestallers. Nor will the amount of the profits exacted be the only loss entailed on Europe. The purchase of the raw material at lower cost would give to the manufacturers of New England an advantage over their European rivals much more important than the mere original excess of outlay to which the latter would be subjected. " II. Such are the necessities of our people and so eager will be their desire to avail themselves of the first opportunity for pro curing commodities which they have cheerfully foregone as long as privation was the price of liberty, that it will be nearly impos sible to prevent the enormous demands for necessary supplies from being satisfied almost exclusively from the North, which will avail itself of its close proximity to preoccupy so inviting a field of richly remunerative commerce. " III. The current trade will thus, at the very outset of our career, continue to flow in its ancient channels, which will even be deepened, and our commerce with Europe, instead of becoming direct, to mutual advantage, as for years we have desired, will remain tributary to an intermediary. The difficulty of diverting trade from an established channel has become pro verbial, and in our case the difficulty would be enhanced by the 3 62 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. causes just indicated. These contingencies can not be contem plated without deep concern. During the whole period of the existence of the Southern States their pursuits have been almost exclusively agricultural ; they possess scarcely the semblance of a merchant marine, nor can they hope to acquire one sufficient for the exchange of their products until after the lapse of a num ber of years; and a still longer period must intervene before they can expect to provide, by their own manufacture, a supply of many articles of necessary consumption. "In addition to the difficulties inherent under any circum stances in the task of creating the navigation and manufactures required for a population of over ten millions of people, there exists in the South obstacles resulting from the education, habits, tastes and interests of its citizens. For generations, they have been educated to prefer agricultural to other pursuits, and this preference owes its origin to the fertility of their soil and the genial influences of their climate, which render those pursuits not only more attractive to their tastes but more lucrative than those of the manufacturer or the seaman. It is certain, there fore, that for many years the carrying trade of the Confederacy, both foreign and coastwise, will be conducted and its supplies of manufactured articles will be furnished by foreign countries in exchange for the products of its soil. " It is the most earnest desire of this Government and peo ple that a commerce so large and profitable as that which they tender to mankind shall not be monopolized by the United States, and that a direct trade with Europe shall furnish to us all articles, the growth or manufacture, of that continent. They are well aware that from proximity the Northern States possess a natural advantage over any European rival for much of our trade, but the value of their political independence would, in their estimation, be greatly impaired if the result of the war should leave them in commercial dependence by giving to those States the additional enormous advantage arising out of the present exceptional condition of the South. Unless some preventive measures be adopted the exchange of the South for staples accumulated during the two years of the war will be practically effected during the first two months of peace, and will inure to the almost exclusive benefit of that power whose wicked aggres- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 363 sions have already entailed so much misery and distress not only on ourselves but on the rest of the civilized world. " It is scarcely possible to refrain from the reflection that consequences so hostile to the interests of Europe as well as our own, have been produced by a policy on the part of certain European powers in disregard of the plainest dictates of inter national law, as well as of implied promise to ourselves. If Europe had asserted its unquestioned right to resist a predatory cruise carried on against its commerce on three thousand miles of our coast by the ships of the United States, under pretext of a blockade of our ports, we should not now be engaged in an effort to avert the disastrous effects to European interests which must be anticipated from the causes above pointed out. Our markets would not now be denuded of all supplies of European commodities, and on the restoration of peace the North would possess, in the competition for our commerce, none of the abnor mal advantages which we now seek to neutralize. It is far from our purpose, in the expression of this view, to indulge in vain recrimination, but the suggestion is made in the hope that neutral nations will be induced, not only by a regard to their own inter ests, but by the higher obligations of justice and duty to co operate in the endeavor to obviate any further ill effects of a policy which experience now justifies us in pronouncing to have been at least unwise. " What are the practical measures which can be devised for this purpose? What can be done to prevent consequences which we frankly own would be considered by us as a national calamity, as well as a source of deep mortification? The difficulties are great, but not perhaps insurmountable, especially if you can suc ceed in exciting the solicitude of the Court to which you are accredited and awakening it to the magnitude of the interests of neutral nations involved in the subject. It is one which our position has forced upon our attention, and which it is not un natural to suppose has been considered by us with more care than by those less intimately conversant with the state of affairs on this side of the Atlantic. " Without restricting you as to the adoption of any other measures than may be proposed, or may occur to your mind, 3*4 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. you are instructed to urge the different points which I now pro ceed to suggest. " I. In order to prevent the monopoly by the Northern States of the accumulated staples now held by our people, no measure seems less objectionable nor more appropriate than to encourage the merchants of neutral nations to purchase in ad vance these products and to leave them here in depot till the ports are opened. " This course would already have been adopted to a very considerable extent (as I am aware from numerous applications made to this Department) if the staples thus purchased could be guaranteed against destruction by the respective belligerents. The remedy for this seems to be very simple and entirely within the reach of neutral powers, but they have hitherto, for reasons doubtless satisfactory to themselves, but which we are unable to conjecture, declined to adopt it. " The case stands thus : In the language of Mr. Phillimore, There is no more unquestionable proposition of international law than the proposition that neutral States are entitled to carry on, upon their own account, a trade with a belligerent. " The United States do not, however, concern themselves with unquestionable propositions of international law, nor have they ever affected, during the present war, to refrain from any exercise of power against neutrals which seemed to offer the slightest momentary advantage. General Butler still continues to imprison and rob indiscriminately foreign merchants and native citizens of New Orleans ; and in no place where the forces of the United States penetrate is there a moment s hesitation in appropriating any neutral property to their use. This universal robbery by the enemy of all private property, forced upon this Government the necessity of destroying everything movable as fast as it became exposed to imminent danger of pillage. In this state of the case, the Department was addressed by the agents of foreign merchants desirous of purchasing our staples and storing them until peace should be restored, with the request that special instructions should be given to exempt from such destruc tion the property thus purchased. This Government could have no possible motive for destroying neutral property, but every dictate of policy counselled that, on the contrary, we should LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 365 protect it. We could not consent, however, that neutral prop erty should be seized by the enemy and converted to his use, for we would thus have been supplying him with the means of continuing hostilities against ourselves. The effect of such action on our part may be readily illustrated: Cotton is worth at least two hundred dollars per bale in specie in the United States, and not more than one-fifth of that sum in the Confed eracy. Thus, on the supposition that only 100,000 bales of cot ton belonging to neutrals should be seized and appropriated by the United States, they would be provided with twenty millions of dollars in specie, and if called on to refund in damages by neutral powers would seek to escape responsibility, and perhaps succeed in doing so, by reimbursing to the neutral owners, after some years of diplomatic correspondence, the fifth of that sum as being the value of the cotton at the time and place of its seizure. The simplest instincts of self-defence required us to defeat such machinations, and this Department made answer, therefore, to the applications of neutral merchants that this Government would protect their property against destruction, upon receiving any satisfactory assurance from their own Governments that the property would be effectually protected against seizure and ap propriation by the enemy if it fell into their hands. This answer seems to have been submitted to the Government of Her Britannic Majesty by different British Consuls and to have elicited a reply to which extensive publicity was given. This reply, dated the loth August, 1 862, and signed by Her Britannic Majesty s Charge d Affaires at Washington, is confined to an acknowledgment of the right of this Government to act in the manner already men tioned, but omits giving to British subjects any assurance of protection against spoliation by the United States. No action on the subject has been taken by any other neutral power, if we are fully informed, and the whole matter seems res Integra so far as the present inquiry is concerned, for it is impossible to inter pret the mere silence of the British Cabinet on this point as an abandonment of the right of protecting British subjects against unlawful spoliation. " II. In order to prevent the United States from pre occupying, for their exclusive benefit, the market for foreign LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. merchandise which the South will present as soon as peace is declared, several suggestions occur. " It would, in the first place, seem not to be impracticable for the several European Governments, pending the negotiations which must necessarily precede the final settlement of the terms of a treaty, to devise some means of communicating in advance to their merchants, the assured conviction of an early renewal of commerce with the Confederacy, and to encourage the forma tion in their West Indian colonies of large depots of the supplies known to be needed here, ready for immediate introduction into the Confederacy. Such measures, accompanied by the necessary arrangements for the speediest transmission to these depots of the news of the opening of commerce, would aid, to some extent, in the accomplishment of the objects desired. A large number of the merchant ships required for the transportation of these supplies would also meet with a ready sale in the ports of the Confederacy, especially if screw steamers suitable for direct trade with Europe or for Government transport ships. And the effi ciency of this measure would be greatly increased if accompanied by the prompt operation of one or more lines of steamers between Europe and Southern ports. But the only effective remedy for preventing Northern monopoly, and for neutralizing the unjust advantages which the United States, at the expense of Europe, would seek to secure from their violent infractions of inter national law, would be to place the Confederacy in the same condition relative to foreign supplies as was occupied by it prior to the declaration of the blockade of the entire coast a declara tion which for the first time in history has been respected as legal by neutral powers. To this end no measure seems better adapted than that proposed by His Imperial Majesty of France to the Cabinets of Great Britain and Russia, in the correspond ence already adverted to. An armistice for six months, during which every act of war, direct or indirect, should provisionally cease, on sea as well as on land/ would give to European powers that opportunity which justice demands for placing within the Confederacy the supplies and making the purchases that would long since have been effected, but for the unjust interference of the United States with neutral rights, and thus enforce against that aggressive power the rule of universal equity that none shall LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. be allowed to profit by their own misdeeds. Neutral nations would thus be reinstated in the possession of their unquestion able right to trade for their own account with a belligerent/ and upon the final cessation of hostilities would enter into the compe tition for our trade then open to the world, upon conditions ap proximating equality with the North, a result eminently desirable for the common interests of all, and scarcely attainable in any other manner. " Even if the blockade were continued during an armistice, the object desired could be greatly promoted. The cessation of our foreign commercial intercourse has been caused not by the blockade of our ports, but by a general cruise on the coast against all neutral commerce and the seizure of neutral vessels bound to points where not a blockading vessel was ever stationed. We have now numerous ports where there is not a single blockading vessel, but no trading vessel dares sail for them, for fear of cap ture on the high seas by the Federal cruisers. If Europe, even at this late date, would put an effectual stop to this outrage on its rights of trade with a belligerent, we would soon be so well supplied with her manufactures and she would obtain so large a supply of our staples as would effectually deprive the North of the profits it hopes to reap by the unprecedented aquiescence of all nations in its interdict against their trade with us. In the event of an armistice, the crusade against neutral vessels could not, of course, be continued, even if the blockade were respected in ports where a blockading force is stationed. You are instructed to furnish a copy of this dispatch to Her Britannic Majesty s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at the earliest moment. " I have the honor to be, sir, " Your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN." " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, " LONDON, December 28th, 1862. " My Very Dear Wife: Your two last were of the 2d and nth November, both coming through the channel provided by our kind friend Macfarland; the last was received on Christmas 368 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. day, and was a most welcome and appropriate present. I re ceived yesterday a large bundle of dispatches from Richmond, the latest of the 5th of November. Ask Cooper to say this to the Secretary of State, as I should not write of public matters through this channel. I think now, as a more speedy channel is opened to our correspondence, while it lasts, it may be better to trust to it than to take the risks and delays incident to running the blockade par example, Vs. letter of the 2Qth of July, indorsed as sent by an officer of the army, reached me only on Christmas day, at same time as yours of nth November. " When yours came I was spending Christmas week at Bedgebury Park, the seat of Beresford Hope, Esq., some sixty miles from London, where I had a favourable opportunity of wit nessing the customs and partaking the hospitalities of English country life on the most extended scale, including a country ball in the village, five miles off. I was their guest from Monday till Saturday. Except on a far more elaborate scale, admitted by their more elaborate wealth, I found their Christmas usages very much those on the Island, and at Clermont, according to my early recollections in the better days of the Old Dominion, an abundant interchange of presents, church in the private chapel on Christmas eve and Christmas evening, a large dinner every day, at which the country neighbours were guests, and, of course, service in the village church on the day of Christmas. " My host, Mr. Hope, is a descendant of the Field Marshal Beresford, who was the second in command to Wellington, in the wars of the Peninsula, and Lady Mildred Hope, sa femme, daughter of the Marquis of Salisbury. " I should tell you also of a most agreeable and interesting visit I made some three weeks ago to the University of Cam bridge, at the invitation and as the guest of the Rev. George Williams, Senior of King s College. It was an occasion of annual scholastic festivity of Trinity College and King s College/ two of the seventeen colleges constituting the University of Cambridge. " I was most graciously received by all the college authori ties, and had two capital dinners, at Trinity and King s , respec tively, with all the ceremonials since the days of Henry VI, in cluding the Grace-cup after dinner, and the dessert of a last LIFE OF JAMES MVRRA7 MASON. year s pippin/ with a dish of carraways/ for which I was re ferred, as proof of its being an approved dessert in Old England, to Shakespeare, Henry IV, Act 5, Scene 3, and it was literally true that a part of the annual dessert of the Masters, Fellows, and Scholars of Trinity College, Cambridge, is a roasted pippin, with carraway seed." Dispatch No. 24, from Mr. Mason to the Department of State, contained nothing new or of special interest, and is omitted. Dispatch No. 25 begins with acknowledgments of dispatches received from the Department, and then says : " Your resume in No. 7 of our military operations contains many facts that had not otherwise reached us, and I have taken leave to publish it in The Index, with an introduction stating that it came from sources entitled to highest credit. That part of it which referred to the ultimate action of the President on his Retaliatory Order against General Pope, with his reasons for it, I had published in the London Morning Herald, as an extract from an official dispatch received by me. It was sent to the editor with a note from Mr. Macfarland saying it was done with my permission. We had not before heard that no actual difference had been made in the treatment of General Pope s officers, far less had we heard that official assurance had been given by the enemy that the obnox ious order had been withdrawn. I was happy in the occasion of bringing both these facts, in a quasi-official form, before the British public. * * * * I am gratified to find from the dis patch that what I did in supplying money to Captain Sinclair has met the approbation of the President, and that I have his like approbation of my determination to remain at my post, malgre the apparent incivility of the Foreign Office. The occasions con stantly presenting themselves of rendering service outside of official channels, which none but a lepresentative of the Govern ment could render, satisfy me that I have done right in remaining. ********* " I have the honour to be, etc., 11 J. M. MASON." Dispatch No. 26 only acknowledged receipt of drafts, from Department, for payment of salaries of Commissioners and other agents of the Confederate States then in Europe. OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. DISPATCH No. 27. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, "LONDON, January I5th, 1863. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : The latest intelligence of importance received here since the date of my last dispatches has been the great and signal defeat of the enemy at Fredericksburg, on the I3th of December, and the actual issuing of the proclamation of President Lincoln declaring freedom to the slaves in certain States and parts of States, on the ist of January instant. " The great success of our arms at Fredericksburg, being the sequel to events of like character in the late invasion of Virginia has fully confirmed opinion here that the avowed object of the war on the part of the North is hopeless, whether that object be the restoration of the Union of the States, or the subjugation of the South, and has most favorably impressed the public mind with the courage, determination, and gallantry of our people. " Again, the success of the Democratic party in the North, and more especially in New York, has established a general belief here that the arm of the Federal must be, to a great extent, paralyzed, and that, henceforth, the war will languish an opin ion that finds strong corroboration in the utter derangement of the financial system of the Government, its inability to reinforce its armies, either by enlistment or by draft, and the information, coming from the North by every arrival, of demoralization of and desertion from its armies in the field. Still, what effect all this is to have upon the action of the British Government is problem atical. I am, by no means, hopeful. " Parliament is to convene on the 5th of February, and though, I doubt not, a word from the Minister, suggesting that the time has arrived for Recognition, would bring a unanimous response in the affirmative, both from Ministerial and Opposition benches in the House of Commons, I do not think Lord Pal- merston is disposed to speak that word. Nor will the Tories make an issue with him on American affairs. The fact is, that parties are so nearly balanced in the House, and, as it would seem, in the country, that they are very wary in measuring strength with their opponents. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " The Abolition decree of the ist of January is characterized in the Times of this morning, in an article demonstrating that the Federal Government could not subdue the South by arms, as the execrable expedient of a servile insurrection/ and this, I think, will be the judgment passed upon it by all except the most ignorant classes in England. It will have an effect exactly oppo site to that which was intended, if the object was to conciliate the anti-slavery of England. " I have nothing from Mr. Slidell since the Emperor s speech at the opening of the Chambers, which you will have seen long ere you receive this. In his last note, dated on the nth instant, he says : " I was at the Affaires Etrangeres yesterday. Mercier had written that Seward is in favour of an Armistice, and wishes the Emperor to propose it, but that Lincoln is decidedly opposed to a cessation of hostilities, and is determined to carry on the war at all hazards. I have reason to believe that the reports in the papers that Dayton has had interviews with the Emperor and M. Drouyn de Lhuys on the subject are true. " I have the honor to be, etc., " T- M. MASON." " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, " LONDON, January i8th, 1863. " My Dear Wife: It is a sad thing to be obliged to use an amanuensis, even in writing to you, but I have no alternative, otherwise I should be obliged to leave much unsaid. Mr. John Thompson, a young gentleman from South Carolina, leaving here to take the chance of running the blockade, I avail myself of it to send by him a package, containing sundry pairs of gloves, some pins, needles, and sewing silk, asked for in a memorandum from Ida, which came recently, through a letter of old date ; I hope they may reach safely. " We have been much cheered and encouraged here, by the late gallant defense of Fredericksburg, and the more recent intelligence of military successes in Tennessee, though as the account of these come altogether through the North, it is not easy to get a satisfactory view of what has occurred there. LIFE OF JAMES HURRAY MASON. " I am most hopeful, too. from the late political uprising in the Middle and Western States, of opposition to Lincoln s Gov ernment, that through disaffection and distrust at home, that Government will soon be paralyzed, or at least will find many impediments in its reckless conduct of the war. Failing this, I do not see any reasonable prospect of an early termination of the war. It is, however, idle to speculate here on what may result in the course of events on the Western continent, on which those around you are more competent to decide. This Govern ment remains impassive and impenetrable as ever. In France, Mr. Slidell has had interviews with the Emperor two or three times, and sees the different members of the ministry at his pleasure, and almost every day. Here, I have seen none but Lord Russell, now nearly a year ago, and have never since had from any ministerial quarter, the least intimation of a desire to form acquaintance. Outside of that circle, however, and with those in higher position, I have been very kindly received, au reste. I find my time fully occupied, and am kept busy between correspondence and the calls of business; I have a very large correspondence, incident to my position, and there are occasions in which I am oppressed by heavy responsibilities, in determin ing what is proper to be done to sustain the Government here, in the absence of authority or instructions to meet unexpected events, etc. But so far I have gone right. " For the last four months, London has been in recess, that is to say that although more than three millions of people remain, living, and toiling, each class in its appropriate sphere within its walls, yet the common expression is, should you casually meet a friend, How completely London is deserted, there isn t a soul left in it. " Parliament is to meet on the 5th of February, and then the great world will begin slowly to roll back, the circles of the public men will be enlarged, and to that extent London society will be established, but the season as it is called, meaning the access of the gay world proper, does not fairly begin until the ist of May, continuing until August, and then, all who can, again depart from London; the landed gentry to their country homes. I am to go, by the way, on the day after to-morrow on a visit to the Marquis of Bath, at his seat of Longleat; these LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ?7? ____ J/J visits to the country, beside all the agreeable incidents connected with them, contribute much, I doubt not, to the excellent health I enjoy, there, you get occasiona4 glimpses of the sun, but in London, for ten minutes of feeble sunshine, you have ten days of impenetrable fog, with intervals only of hard rain. I sit by the window after breakfast to read the morning papers, and it is by no means unusual, to be obliged to leave the window and light the gas. They will tell you that such is only their winter climate, but I have been in London both winter and summer, and I confess I see no difference in the fogs and rain, and no great difference in the temperature. " God bless and preserve you, my dear wife until this sad war is over, when you will be at liberty to join me here. " With best love to all, " Yours ever, " J. M. MASON." [UNOFFICIAL.] This unofficial letter was not among Mr. Mason s papers, but was obtained from the Department in Washington : " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, " LONDON, November 4th, 1862. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin. " DEAR SIR : The contents of this note, I have thought had better be unofficial, and thus not to go on the files of the De partment, unless you should think otherwise ; and yet the matter, it seems to me, should at once be brought under the considera tion of the President, that we may be ready when the time arrives. " I have the strongest reason to believe when, after recogni tion, we shall come to the negotiation of the ordinary treaty of Unity and Commerce/ this Government will require as a sine qua non the introduction of a clause, stipulating against the African slave trade. Although I well know the pertinacity of England on that subject, yet I had supposed that the voluntary act of the Confederate States Government, inhibiting this trade, by the enactment in the Constitution when the Government was first established, would have satisfied England to be passive at LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. least, in her future intercourse with us ; I have now great reason to apprehend the contrary. " Some few days since, I dined with Lord Donoughmore, who was President of the Board of Trade during the late Derby administration, and will hold the same, or a higher office, should that party again come into power ; a very intelligent gentleman, and a warm and earnest friend of the South. In the course of conversation after dinner, the subject came up incidentally while we were alone, and he said I might be satisfied that Lord Pal- merston would not enter into a treaty with us, unless we agreed in such treaty not to permit the African slave trade. I expressed my surprise at it, referring to the fact that we had voluntarily admitted that prohibition into the Constitution of the Confed erate States, thereby taking stronger ground against the slave trade than had ever been taken by the United States ; that in the latter, it was only prohibited by law, whilst in the former not only was the power withheld from Congress, but the legislative branch of the Government was required to pass such laws as would effectually prevent it. " He said that was all well understood, but that such was the sentiment of England on this subject, that no minister would hold his place for a day, who should negotiate a treaty with any power, not containing such a clause ; nor could any House of Commons be found which would sustain a minister thus de linquent, and he referred to the fact (as he alleged it to be), that in every existing treaty with England that prohibition was con tained. He said further, that he did not mean to express his individual opinions, but that he was equally satisfied should the Palmerston ministry go out and the Tories come in, such would likewise be their necessary policy, and he added that he was well assured that England and France would be in accord on that subject. " I told him, in reply, that I feared this would form a formid able obstacle if persisted in, to any treaty ; that he must be aware, that on all questions affecting African servitude, our Govern ment was naturally and necessarily sensitive, when presented by any foreign power. We had learned from abundant experience that the anti-slavery sentiment was always aggressive ; that this condition of society was one which, in our opinion, the destinies LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of the South were indissolubly connected ; that as regarded foreign powers, it was with us a question purely domestic, with which our safety required that none should in any manner inter fere : that, of course, I had no special instructions on the subject, but I thought I knew both the views of our Government and people ; and that (to express it in no stronger terms), it would be a most unfortunate thing if England should make such a stipula tion a sine qua 11011 to a treaty. I said, further, that I presumed it might be averted by recognizing mutually the fact, that such a stipulation was not properly germane to a treaty purely com mercial ; and thus to be laid over as a subject for future negotia tion if pressed. He still maintained his belief that no matter who might be in power, it would be insisted on, in the first treaty to be formed. " A few days afterwards, Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, passing through town, came to see me. I had known him very well, and during the late session of Parliament, had seen a good deal of him. He is a man of ability and influence, was Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Derby administration, and will take the place of Lord Russell, it is supposed, should the Conserva tives again come into power ; and he, too, is an earnest and sincere friend to our cause. I told him of my conversation with Lord Donoughmore and of my surprise at the opinion he enter tained. " I regret to say that Mr. Fitzgerald coincided fully with Lord D. in these opinions, not as his own, but as those which must govern any ministry in England. " We shall, therefore, have this question to meet, I take for granted, at the time, and in the manner suggested. " I do not ask for any definite instructions in regard to it, but only bring it thus, unofficially, to the notice of the President and yourself. " Very respectfully and truly yours, "J. M. MASON." [UNOFFICIAL.] " RICHMOND, January I5th, 1863. " Hon. J. M. Mason, etc., etc., London. " DEAR SIR : Your unofficial communication enclosed in dispatch No. 20, was duly received. We are greatly surprised at 376 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. its contents, but the suspicions excited abroad, through the numerous agencies established by the Northern Government, of our intention to change the Constitution and open the slave trade are doubtless the cause of the views so strongly expressed to you by Lord Donoughmore and others. " After conference with the President we have come to the conclusion that the best mode of meeting the question is to assume the Constitutional ground developed in the accompanying dispatch, No. 13. " If you find yourself unable by the adoption of the line of conduct suggested in that dispatch, to satisfy the British Gov ernment, I see no other course than to propose to them to trans fer any negotiations that may have been commenced to this side, on the ground of the absence of any instructions or authority to bind your Government by any stipulations on the forbidden sub ject, and the totally unexpected nature of the propositions made to you. " If the British Government should persist in the views you attribute to it, the matter can plainly be disposed of to much more advantage on this side, and it may very well happen that that haughty Government will find to its surprise that it needs a treaty of commerce with us, much more than we need it with Great Britain. Of this, however, I am sure you will allow no hint to escape you. " Very respectfully and truly yours, " ]. P. BENJAMIN, " Secretary of State" " From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State, to /. M. Mason. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, January I5th, 1863. " SIR : It has been suggested to this Government from a source of unquestionable authenticity that after the recognition of our independence by the European powers, an expectation is generally entertained by them that in our treaties of amity and commerce a clause will be introduced making stipulations against the African slave trade. " It is even thought that neutral powers may be inclined to insist upon the insertion of such a clause as a sine qua non. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " You are well aware how firmly fixed in our Constitution is the policy of this Confederacy against the opening of that trade, but we are informed that false and invidious suggestions have been made by the agents of the United States at European courts, of our intention to change our Constitution as soon as peace is restored, and of authorizing the importation of slaves from Africa. If, therefore, you should find in your intercourse with the Cabinet to which you are accredited, that any such im pressions are entertained, you will use every proper effort to remove them; and if an attempt is made to introduce into any treaty which you may be charged with negotiating, stipulations on the subject just mentioned, you will assume on behalf of your Government the position, which, under the direction of the Presi dent, I now proceed to develop. " The Constitution of the Confederate States is an agree ment between independent States. By its terms all the powers of the Government are separated into classes, viz : " First. Such powers as the States delegate to the General Government. " Second. Such powers as the States agree to refrain from exercising, although they do not delegate them to the General Government. Third. Such powers as the States without delegating them to the General Government, thought proper to exercise by direct agreement between themselves contained in the Consti tution. Fourth. All remaining powers of sovereignty, which not being delegated to the Confederate States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people thereof. " On the formation of the Constitution, the States thought proper to prevent all possible future discussions on the subject of slavery, by the direct exercise of their own power and delegated no authority to the Confederate Government, save im material exceptions presently to be noticed. " Especially in relation to the importation of African negroes, was it deemed important by the States that no power to permit it should exist in the Confederate Government. The States, by the Constitution (which is a treaty between themselves of the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. most solemn character that States can make), unanimously stipulated that The importation of negroes of the African race from any foreign country other than the slave-holding States or territories of the United States of America is hereby forbidden ; and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same. Art. I, Sec. 9, Par. I. " It will thus be seen that no power is delegated to the Con federate Government over this subject, but that it is included in the third class above referred to, of powers exercised directly by the States. It is true that the duty is imposed on Congress to pass laws to render effectual the prohibition above quoted. But this very imposition of a duty on Congress is the strongest proof of the absence of the power in the President and Senate alone, who are vested with authority to make treaties. In a word, as the only provision on the subject directs the two branches of the legislative department, in connection with the President, to pass laws on this subject, it is out of the power of the President aided by one branch of the legislative department to control the same subject by treaties ; for there is not only an absence of express delegation of authority to the treaty-making power, which alone would suffice to prevent the exercise of such authority, but there is the implied prohibition resulting from the fact that all duty on the subject is imposed on a different branch of the Government. " I need scarcely enlarge upon the familiar principle that authority expressly delegated to Congress can not be assumed in our Government by the treaty-making power. The authority to lay and collect taxes, to coin money, to declare war, etc., etc., are ready examples, and you can be at no loss for argument or illus tration in support of so well recognized a principle. " The view above expressed is further enforced by the clause in the Constitution which follows immediately that which has already been quoted. The second paragraph of the same section provides that Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member, or Territory not belonging to this Confederacy. Here there is no direct ex ercise of power by the States which formed our Constitution, but an express delegation to Congress. It is thus seen that while the States were willing to trust Congress with the power to prohibit the introduction of African slaves from the United States, they LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. were not willing to trust it with the power of prohibiting their introduction from any other quarter, but determined to ensure the execution of their will by a direct interposition of their own power. " Moreover, any attempt on the part of the treaty-making power of this Government to prohibit the African slave trade, in addition to the insuperable objections above suggested, would leave open the implication that the same power has authority to permit such introduction. No such implication can be sanctioned by us. This Government unequivocally and absolutely denies its possession of any power whatever over the surjject and can not entertain any proposition in relation to it. " While it is totally beneath the dignity of this Government to give assurances for the purpose of vindicating itself from any unworthy suspicions of its good faith on this subject that may be disseminated by the agents of the United States, it may not be improper that you should point out the superior efficacy of our Constitutional provision to any treaty stipulations we could make. The Constitution is itself a treaty between the States of such binding force that it can not be changed or abrogated with out the deliberate and concurrent action of nine out of the thirteen States that compose the Confederacy. A treaty might be abrogated by a party temporarily in power in our country at the sole risk of disturbing amicable relations with a foreign power. The Constitution, unless by an approach to unanimity, could not be changed without the destruction of this Government itself; and even should it be possible hereafter to procure the consent of the number of States necessary to change it, the forms and delays designedly interposed by the framers to check rash innovations, would give ample time for the most mature deliberation and for strenuous resistance on the part of those opposed to such change. " After all, it is scarcely the part of wisdom to impose re straint on the actions and conduct of men for all future time. The policy of the Confederacy is as fixed and immutable on this subject as the imperfections of human nature permits human resolve to be. " No additional agreements, treaties, or stipulations can commit these States to the prohibition of the African slave trade with more binding efficacy than those they have themselves 3 8o _ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. devised. A just and generous confidence in their good faith on this subject exhibited by friendly powers will be far more efficacious than persistent efforts to induce this Government to assume the exercise of powers which it does not possess, and to bind the Confederacy by ties which would have no constitutional validity. " We trust therefore that no unnecessary discussions on this matter will be introduced into your negotiation. If, unfortu nately, this reliance should prove ill-founded, you will decline continuing negotiations on your side and transfer them to us at home, where in such event they could be conducted with greater facility and advantage, under the direct supervision of the President. " Very respectfully your obedient servant, " T. P. BENJAMIN." DISPATCH No. 28. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, January 3ist, 1863. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I have a letter from M. Bellot des Minieres, who has a contract with the War Department for furnishing certain sup plies, transmitting to me copies of an official correspondence addressed by the Minister of Marine and of Colonies to Admiral Jurien, commanding the French naval forces off Mexico, the substance of which M. Bellot requests I should make known to the Government. " The Minister of Marine, under date the i7th and 2Oth of January, advises the French Admiral that certain vessels were sent by M. Bellot from ports in England and France to Mata- moras in Mexico, and would return thence to Havre laden with cotton for account of M. Bellot ; and the Minister recommends those vessels to the cognizance, and protection, if necessary, of the French Admiral. " M. Bellot further requests that I would invite the attention of the Government to these facts as suggestive of any interven tion on its part to facilitate the movement of cotton to Mata- LIFE OF JAMES MURRA7 ilASJX. moras, for trans-shipment thence, which I have the honour to do accordingly, and am " Very respectfully, etc., " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No, 29. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, February 5th, 1863. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR: Since my No. 28 of the 3ist of January, which goes with this, I learn that the ship intended to take it is yet detained. I am enabled thus to report to the Department, two transactions in cotton made by Major Caleb Huse, C. S. A., for account of the War Department, the details of which will, of course, be reported by that officer to his superiors. " The first an engagement for the delivery of two million, three hundred thousand pounds of cotton, to enable him to make a purchase for his Department, then to be made, on favorable terms, and much wanted ; the second a like engagement by the same officer for the delivery of five millions of pounds of cotton, at fivepence sterling per pound, as payment pro-tanto of indebted ness on his part for supplies purchased and shipped to the War Department; and which, as he showed me, it was imperiously necessary to provide for. " In regard to both these transactions, I did no more than to endorse my approval of them on the certificates, as Commissioner of the Confederate States : in the first case, being satisfied of the authority of Major Huse to make purchases of the character in dicated ; and of the necessity for such supplies ; in the last case being equally satisfied from the correspondence of Major Huse with the War Department that they were aware of his having incurred a much larger indebtedness, which that Department had sought to provide for by remittances in Confederate bonds, but which bonds could not be used here just now. " In reference to the general subject of indebtedness here, for account of the War and Navy Departments, by their respect ive agents, I have felt it incumbent on me though without ex press authority, under existing circumstances to extend all aid LIFE OF J&ME8 MURRAY MASON. in my power to those agents, to enable them to meet their engagements, and thus to preserve as of the last importance, the credit of the Government. " As you are probably aware, large remittances have been recently made, as well by the Treasury, as by the War and Navy Departments, to their respective agents in England, of Con federate bonds, as well as of cotton certificates, in the form adopted by the Treasury Department. After their arrival, and after full consultation with the gentlemen to whom they were entrusted, it was deemed judicious not to put the cotton certifi cates, at least, upon the market, until we could learn the result of the proposals for a direct loan which had been sent by a special messenger to Richmond, by a banking house on the Con tinent; lest by doing so (should the proposal be accepted), we might disturb the market on which those bankers relied to dis pose of their loan. Thus, although at great inconvenience to existing engagements, no steps have been taken here in regard to disposing of the cotton certificates sent from the Treasury. " The same reason not applying to the Confederate money- bonds, Mr. Spence, as financial agent, occupied himself in the proper form of inquiry as to disposing of them; but, unfortu nately within the past two weeks, because of some disturbance of capital here, the rate of interest has been raised by the Bank of England, from three per cent., at which it had long stood, at first to four, and afterwards to five per cent. ; at which latter rate it now is, but with general expectations of a yet further advance. Mr. Spence s inquiries, therefore, were unsatisfactory, and so far fruitless. It was in this stagnation and difficulty that I felt called on to sanction the cotton operations above noted of Major Huse the case he presented being the most urgent. " I have deemed it proper to make this full report to you, although of matters pertaining to other departments of the Gov ernment; and I hope my action in the premises will meet with approval. " Yesterday, I learned by a note from Mr. Slidell, that intel ligence had been received at Paris by the bankers in question, from Richmond, that the loan had been accepted by our Govern ment to the extent of two millions sterling the Government declining a larger amount, although proposed. We have, as yet, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 383 received no details, nor is it known when the money is to be available here. It is assumed, however, that the loan will, by no means, yield its nominal amount ; but whatever that may be, I am disposed to think it will not be sufficient to meet engage ments here existing, and under orders that are prospective. Still, in the absence of full information, I am disposed to think it well that a larger amount was not taken on the French proposals, especially, should it have been arranged for an enlargement of the loan if required. " I am still strongly of opinion that the true mode of raising money here will be found to be by prospective sales of cotton, in the form, if not in the actual terms prescribed by the cotton certificates from the Treasury ; and although it may be that loss will result to the Government by the difference in price at which they purchase and sell ; yet regarding the state of exchange, and the heavy losses to be incurred in any negotiation of Confederate money-bonds, I think that cotton will be found the best basis for supply. As I have said, we have not yet tested the market, but as there is a growing expectation here that a peace is impending, these cotton certificates, I think, will improve in value; and as the prospect for peace increases, of course, that value will aug ment. " In a communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, he informs me that he is actively at work purchasing cotton. I do not think a more effective measure could be adopted to strengthen the financial position of the Government. Cotton, as the property of the Government, will always be, in Europe, a sure basis of credit so sure, as to engage money on better terms than any other form of credit. In this connection, and in regard to any future operations that may be required here, I would suggest that I be kept informed, from time to time (or by each dispatch), of the quantity of cotton actually possessed by the Government. Such inquiries are made of me, and the information would be deemed valuable here in any cotton operations. " The last New York papers contain, published at length, various dispatches from your department, as well as others, in tercepted, as it would appear, by the enemy s cruisers. Amongst them, yours to me of the 2ist of September and 28th of October duplicates, I suppose, as the originals had previously reached 384 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. me ; a duplicate of Mr. Memmenger to me of the 24th of October, and his triplicate of the 25th of the same month ; Mr. Mallory s duplicate to me of the 26th of October, had also been received : but to the enemy I am indebted for the first receipt of a letter from Mr. Mallory to me of the 3Oth of October. " It is certainly unfortunate that the messenger to whom these dispatches were intrusted, permitted their capture, although I am not aware of any particular inconvenience to arise from it, except so far as they refer to operations here of the War and Navy Departments. " I have, etc., " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 14. "y. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, February 6th 3 1863. " SIR : I enclose you copy of a circular recently sent by me to the different consuls of foreign powers announcing the raising of the blockade of Charleston by our superior forces. " That at Galveston was raised in the same manner, and this morning s papers announce the capture of three Federal vessels at Sabine Pass and the opening of that harbor by the breaking of the blockade by superior force. Of this last fact we have no official knowledge. " We scarcely suppose that this intelligence will have any effect on the conduct of the European powers, whose settled determination to overlook any aggression on their rights by the United States has been exhibited under all circumstances, how ever aggravated, in a manner so unmistakable that we have ceased to expect impartiality at their hands. " The recent losses of the enemy in vessels are considerable, I append an imperfect list : " i. The gunboat Sidell, destroyed on Tennessee River. " 2. The ironclad Monitor, sunk at sea. " 3. The gunboat Columbia, wrecked on coast. " 4. The gunboat * Cairo, blown up by torpedo in Yazco River. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " 5- The steamer Harriet Lane/ captured at Galveston. " 6. The gunboat Westfield/ blown up at Galveston. " 7. The gunboat Mercedita/ sunk off Charleston. off " 9. The gunboat Isaac P. Smith/ captured in Stone River. " 10. The gunboat / burnt in North Carolina. " ii. The gunboat Hatteras/ sunk off Galveston. " Besides the above are three vessels just announced to have been captured at Sabine Pass, and several others much damaged by Flag Officer Ingraham s squadron off Charleston. So that upon the whole our success on the water has not been incon siderable. " In addition to the above some twenty of their transport steamers have been captured or destroyed on our inland waters within the last sixty days, while the Alabama and Florida have not been idle at sea. Of the general aspect of the war you will be able to judge by the newspapers of the North which paint their own condition in colors so dark that we can scarcely desire to add anything to the gloomy picture. Public feeling with us is bright and confident, almost too much so. The conviction that a disruption or revolution of some sort will take place at the North within a very short period is daily gaining ground. " Yours, very respectfully, " I. P. BENJAMIN." The circulars referred to in the dispatch above read : CIRCULAR TO THE CONSULS. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, January 3ist, 1863. " SIR : I am instructed by the President of the Confederate States of America to inform you that this Government has re ceived an official dispatch from Flag Officer Ingraham command ing the naval forces of the Confederacy on the coast of South Carolina, stating that the blockade of the harbor of Charleston has been broken by the complete dispersion and disappearance of the blockading squadron in consequence of a successful attack made on it by the ironclad steamers commanded by Flag Officer LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Ingraham. During this attack one or more of the blockading vessels were sunk or burnt. " As you are doubtless aware that by the law of nations a blockade, when thus broken by superior force, ceases to exist and can not be subsequently enforced unless established de novo with adequate force and after due notice to neutral powers, it has been deemed proper to give you the information herein contained for the guidance of such vessels of nations as may choose to carry on commerce with the now open port of Charleston. " Respectfully, etc., etc., " j. P. BENJAMIN. Secretary of State, " Mr. George Moore, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty s Consul at Richmond." CIRCULAR. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, February 7th, 1863. " SIR : I have again to inform you of the raising of the blockade of two Southern ports by superior forces. " This Government is officially informed of the total dis persion and disappearance of the blockading squadron recently stationed off Galveston harbor by the combined attack of land and naval forces of the Confederacy. In this attack the enemy s steamer Harriet Lane/ was captured, and the flag-ship of the squadron, the Westfield/ was blown up and destroyed. The blockade of the port of Galveston is therefore at an end. " The armed river boats which raised the blockade at Gal veston then proceeded to Sabine Pass, where they again attacked the enemy s blockaders, captured thirteen guns, large quantities of stores and a number of prisoners. No blockading fleet now exists off Sabine Pass, and the steamers of the Confederacy were, at the last account, cruising off the Pass with no enemy in sight. " This information for the guidance of such of the merchants of your nation as may desire to trade with either of the open ports of Galveston or Sabine Pass. " Respectfully your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN, " Secretary of State." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 387 DISPATCH No. 16. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, 21 st February, 1863. " Hon. I. M. Mason. " SIR : The expeditions of the enemy against Vicksburg, and against Charleston and Savannah, have thus far recoiled from the dangers which threaten any attempt to storm those formid able positions, and the army of Northern Virginia has been weakened by heavy details sent to the lower James River. No immediate operations in Virginia are at all likely, and attention is fixed on the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi Valley. We await the onset with calm confidence. " I enclose you a correspondence with the British Consul on the subject of Hester s case which relieves us from all embar rassment on that subject which was feared, as was mentioned in my No. 15. " I send for your further information a copy of a further cor respondence with that official on the subject of his exequatur. " I learn with gratification through Mrs. Mason that all my dispatches down to 5th November had been received by you. " I am, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " T. P. BENJAMIN." DISPATCH No. 30. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, February 9th, 1863. " Hon. J . P . Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I have the honor to enclose you, herewith, a full report of the proceedings and debate in Parliament on the Queen s speech/ at the first day of the session. Whilst both ministry and opposition agree that the separation of the States is final, yet both equally agree, that in their judgment, the time has not yet arrived for recognition. Both parties are guided in this, by a fixed English purpose to run no risk of a broil, even far less a war, with the United States. For us, it only remains to be silent and passive. The ground taken by Lord Derby, that LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. recognition without other intervention would have no fruits, is constantly assumed here by those who are against any move ment ; and with those willingly deaf, it is vain to argue. I hope, at an early day of the session, on a call to be made, my cor respondence with the Foreign Office will be laid before Parlia ment; the English people will then at least, have the Southern view of the effect of such simple recognition. " It is thought here that if from no other cause, the war must soon come to an end from sheer inability in the Lincoln Government to carry it on. " Our latest military advices are the damaging blows dealt to the enemy at Murfreesboro ; the late signal and unexampled naval victory at Galveston ; and, to-day, in the report by telegram, that the enemy s gunboat Hatteras after a sharp action with one of our little navy supposed to be the Alabama/ the Oreto, or the Harriet Lane had been sunk. The report comes from Queenstown by a vessel just arrived there from Nova Scotia. The public here, schooled by experience, look just as confidently by each arrival for news of Southern successes, as you await them in Richmond. " As yet, I have not even an acknowledgment from the Foreign Office of the receipt of my letter of the 3d of January, containing the protest you instructed me to make on the failure of the Secretary to answer the inquiries put to him. The letter was delivered by Mr. Macfarland, and there can be no question, therefore, of its receipt. Strange contumacy from such a quarter. " I have the honour to be, etc., etc., " JAMES M. MASON." An incident that occurred only two days after the date of this last dispatch, would certainly seem to encourage the belief so frequently expressed by Mr. Mason, that Earl Russell was not really a fair exponent of the feelings or opinions of the English people. The occasion referred to was recorded in Mr. Mason s private memoranda for the benefit of his family; it was also noticed in the Times. Both accounts are here given. Mr. Mason said of it Februa - T nth, 1863: " Dined at the Mansion House by invitation from the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 389 " Each estate in the realm represented the Houses of Lords and Commons, the Church, the Army and Navy, with the sheriffs and municipality of London. Some three hundred ladies and gentlemen present. >; The dinner was served in the Egyptian Hall, with all the paraphernalia of a civic banquet. After the cloth was removed, the toasts were announced by the master of the ceremonies each accompanied by a short, appropriate address, in the following order. The Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Royal Family, the Army and Navy, the House of Lords, the Commons, the Sheriff of London, the Aldermen of London, and last, Distin guished guests, as whom were named Mr. Mason, Commissioner from the Confederate States of America, and the Mayor of Que bec. As arranged in the programme, the Mayor of Quebec only was called on to respond to the toast, which he did in appropriate terms. I should have remarked when my name was announced by the Mayor, it was received with a storm of applause, and when the Mayor of Quebec concluded his remarks that storm was renewed, with calls upon me by name from every quarter of the hall. My seat was nearly opposite to the Lord Mayor, and by silent, though intelligent glances, he inquired whether I would respond to the call of course I assented, and thus without notice or preparation, made an address to the Mayor and Livery of London. " When we returned to the drawing-room, the Mayor came to me and said, whilst announcing me as a guest, he did not feel at liberty to put me in the programme for a speech, and hoped I was not disturbed when the company decreed otherwise. The invitation was for 6 p. m. We were seated at half-past six, and the dinner lasted until half-past ten. Music, with songs and glees from a choir, filled the intervals between the toasts." ( EXTRACT FROM AN ENGLISH NEWSPAPER. " Mr. Mason, the Commissioner from the American Con federate States : " Last evening, this gentleman made a speech in public, at a banquet at the Mansion House, in reference to the existing relations between the Confederate States of Amerisa, of which he LIFE OF JAMES MVRRAJ MASON. is here the accredited representative, and the English Govern ment, by whom he is as yet unrecognized. " Towards the close of the entertainment, the Lord Mayor proposed the toast of The Visitors/ referring particularly to the presence of the Mayor of Quebec and Mr. Mason. The men tion of the latter gentleman s name elicited loud cheers. His Lordship proceeded to say, alluding to Mr. Mason, that although he could not greet that gentleman as a recognized plenipoten tiary to this country, he was perfectly justified, by virtue of his position as chief magistrate of the City of London, in offering to him, and to all gentlemen who came to this country on any im portant public business, a hearty welcome in his official residence. They, as citizens of London, deeply deplored the disastrous war which was being waged on the American continent, and longed, in common with the rest of their countrymen and of the civilized world, to see it brought to some satisfactory termination. He gave The Visitors/ coupling with the toast the name of the Mayor of Quebec. " Mr. Pope, the Mayor, briefly acknowledged the compli ment in an animated speech. " Mr. Mason, responding to an urgent invitation of the company, presented himself to speak, and was received with enthusiastic cheers. He said: My Lord Mayor, my Lady Mayoress, my lords and ladies, and gentlemen, but that I feel deeply the obligations I am under to the honored Chief Magis trate of this city for permission to be present to-night, I should feel strongly disposed to pick a quarrel. His Lordship has not chosen to remember that here in England I am not considered of full age, that I am yet in my minority. The Government of England we all know, honoured from ages, and always a wise Government in its generation has declared that the country which I represent beyond that broad water has not yet attained years of discretion, and is not capable of managing its own affairs (laugh). I say, therefore, that but for the kind and generous manner in which I have been received by this honoured company, and in the presence of your Chief Magistrate, I should have been disposed to say, in the language of a poet : " You would scarce expect one of my age To speak in public from the stage. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " My Lord Mayor, I am a stranger in London or rather, I was a stranger ; but I have learnt that since I came to London that none of English blood from my own Southern land are strangers among you (cheers). I speak this from my heart (cheers), for I have been, by every circle in England and by every class of society, a welcome and an honoured guest (cheers). I return my sincere thanks to you for the kindness with which you have listened to a stranger. The day will come (great cheering) it is not far off when the relationship between the Government which is now in its infant fortune and yours will be one of close and intimate alliance (renewed cheers). I say this more especially as regards the city of London, which is the great market for the world. My country is the unrivalled producer of the great staples of the world, and I say the relations commercial, doubtless political, certainly social between my honoured countrymen and the people of London will before long be one of the most intimate character (cheers). The following letter is interesting, as expressive of the feel ings and opinion of those present on the occasion. The writer (an Englishman) held so high and responsible a position in the commercial world, his testimony has peculiar value : BLACK BALL LINE, BRITISH AND AUSTRALIAN PACKETS, T. M. MACKAY & Co., LONDON. " LONDON, February i2th, 1863. " i LEADENHALL STREET, E. C. " MY DEAR SPENCE : I was at the Mansion House last night and heard the Lord Mayor virtually recognize the South in the quietest and most inoffensive way that could be imagined. The Times gives a very good report of what Mr. Mason said, but no description can picture the effect of his calm and dignified delivery of these simple sentences John Kemble as Corio- lanus was never so grand, and Mr. Mason s pauses were elo quence itself you might have heard a pin fall except at the tumultuous interruptions arising from sympathy and admiration. It was a scene to be remembered in one s lifetime, and something to say to my grandchildren. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " As I came out I rubbed shoulders with Captain Tinker, Grinnell s partner, and I said, jocularly, Well, you see the Lord Mayor has been and gone and done it/ He laughingly replied : Oh, yes, it s all over now. Depend on it, this expression of opinion from the heart of England s middle classes must tell. It will reverberate thro the land and find an echo it may be, even in the North itself. Had you been there with your bonds they would all have disappeared as readily as the Greenfat. Could I say more? " Yours truly, " T. M. MACKAY." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER XIV. Brilliant Success of Confederate Loan England Apprehends Trouble with United States Correspondence with Earl Russell About Blockade De partment Sends Design of the Confederate Flag Description of Seal for Confederate States, with Instructions to Have it Made in England Mr. McCrea has Management of Loan Extracts from Private Letters Fed eral Recruiting in Ireland Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Lindsay Visit the Em peror Minutes of Their Conversation. In dispatch No. 31, dated March 19, 1863, Mr. Mason says: " I am most happy to record here (though the news will have reached you long before you get this dispatch), the decided and brilliant success of the Confederate loan. Mr. Erlanger, who has been for the last ten days in London, seems to have worked it with great skill, diligence and tact. He has conferred freely and frankly with me, and as there was a strong opinion in monied circles of the city that the enterprise was a hazardous one, and likely to fail in the market, I am the more impressed by the judgment and good sense evinced by Mr. Erlanger. It was placed on the market yesterday, when more than five millions sterling were subscribed at once ; and before night it commanded a premium of four and a half to five per cent. What has been subscribed at Liverpool and on the Continent we have not heard, but the books do not close until to-morrow at 2 p. m. " I saw Erlanger last night, who was, of course, much gratified at his success. He does not doubt that the entire sub scription will reach, most probably exceed, ten millions. Although doubtless the large subscription was made in expectation of profit, yet I know, from many sources, that very large sums were subscribed from a single desire to serve the Confederate cause, and the leading houses in London and Paris subscribed largely." The]following extract is taken from the same dispatch : " We are looking with great interest here to the progress of events in the Northern States. It is thought, as things stand there, that our earliest hopes of peace may be looked to from their weakness at home. Opinion is gaining ground that, in their desperation, they will provoke, by design, a war with England, to avert an internecine war at home. LIFE OF JAMES MURRA7 MASON. " Having no intercourse, unofficial or otherwise, with any member of the Government here, I can gather opinion only from those who have, and referring to such source, I have a strong opinion that there are those in the Cabinet who anticipate, by each mail from the North, accounts of hostilities actually begun against England. I tell them I fear I am almost selfish enough to hope their anticipations may not be disappointed." Another from same dispatch, dated March 25 : " I enclose, cut from the London Times of yesterday, a short debate in the House of Lords of the day before, between Lord Stratheden and Earl Russell, on a motion of the former in regard to recognition of the Southern Confederacy. " You will find it leaves the question pretty much where it found it, but the concluding paragraphs of Earl Russell s re marks contain expressions which seem strongly to import, and by design, a double meaning. His Lordship admits, in sub stance, that our independence is achieved, and at some day it may become necessary for England to recognize it, but he throws out to the English people what the responsibility of that Min istry will be which recognizes a State that vindicates African slavery. " The Sumter/ you are aware, has been sold to a British house. After the sale, which the United States Consul there tried in various ways to frustrate, a constant watch was kept on her by a Federal ship in waiting. She escaped, however, on a dark night, and arrived safely at Liverpool." Accompanying this dispatch was the annexed correspon dence with Earl Russell. " From Earl Russell: " FOREIGN OFFICE, February 10, 1863. " SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of January, referring to the letter which you addressed to me on the 7th of July last, referring to the interpretation placed by Her Majesty s Government on the declaration with regard to blockade appended to the Treaty of Paris. " I have, in the first place, to assure you that Her Majesty s Government would much regret if you should feel that any want of respect was intended by the circumstance of a mere acknowl- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ?(? 5 edgment of your letters having hitherto been addressed to you. " With regard to the question contained in it, I have to say that Her Majesty s Government see no reason to qualify the lan guage employed in my dispatch addressed to Lord Lyons of ihe 1 5th of February last. It appears to Her Majesty s Government to be sufficiently clear that the declaration of Paris could not have been intended to mean that a port must be so blockaded as really to prevent access in all winds, and independently of whether the communication might be carried on of a dark night, or by means of small, low steamers or coasting craft creeping along 1 the shore in short, that it was necessary that the com munication with a port under blockade should be utterly and absolutely impossible under any circumstances. " In further illustration of this remark, I may say that there is no doubt a blockade would be in legal existence, although a sudden storm or change of wind occasionally blew off the block ading squadron. " This is a change to which, in the nature of things, every blockade is liable. Such an accident does not suspend, much less break, a blockade. Whereas, on the contrary, the driving off a blockading force by a superior force does break a blockade, which must be renewed de novo, in the usual form, to be binding upon neutrals. 4 The Declaration of Paris was in truth directed against what were once called paper blockades, that is, blockades not sustained by any actual, or by a notoriously inadequate, naval force, such as the occasional appearance of a man-of-war in the offing, or the like. " The inadequacy of the force to maintain the blockade, must, indeed always, to a certain degree, be one of fact and evi dence, but it does not appear that in any of the numerous cases brought before the Prize Courts in America the inadequacy of the force has been urged by those who would have been most interested in urging it against the legality of the seizure. " The interpretation placed, therefore, by Her Majesty s Government on the Declaration of Paris was, that a blockade, in order to be respected by neutrals, must be practically effective. " At the time I wrote my dispatch to Lord Lyons, Her Majesty s Government was of the opinion that the blockade of the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Southern ports could not be otherwise regarded, and certainly the manner in which it has since been enforced gives to neutral Governments no excuse for asserting that the blockade has not been efficiently maintained. " It is proper to add that the same view of the meaning and effect of the Article of the Declaration of Paris on the subject of blockade which is above explained, was taken by the Representa tive of the United States (Mr. Dallas), at the Court of St. James during the communications which passed between the two Gov ernments some years before the present war, with a view to the accession of the United States to that declaration. " I have the honor to be, etc., " RUSSELL. " J. M. Mason, Esqr." " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, " PORTMAN SQUARE, " February 16, 1863. " The Right Hon. Earl Russell, " Her Majesty s Secretary of State " For Foreign Affairs. " MY LORD : I deem it incumbent upon me to ask the attention of Her Majesty s Government to recent intelligence re ceived here in regard to the blockade in Galveston, in the State -of Texas, and at Charleston, in the State of South Carolina. " First, as regards Galveston, it appears that the blockading squadron was driven from that port and harbor by a superior Confederate force, on the first day of January last ; one ship of that squadron was captured, the flagship destroyed, and the rest escaped, making their way, it is said, to some point on the South ern coast occupied by the United States forces. Whatever block ade of the port of Galveston, therefore, may have previously ex isted, I submit was effectually raised and destroyed by the superior forces of the party blockaded. "Again, as respects the port of Charleston through the ordinary channels of intelligence we have information, uncon- tradicted, that the alleged blockade of that port was in like man ner raised and destroyed by a superior Confederate force, at an early hour on the 3ist of January ultimo, two ships of the block- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 397 ading squadron having been sunk, a third escaped disabled, and what remained of the squadron afloat was entirely driven off the coast. " I have the honour to submit, therefore, that any alleged pre-existing blockade of the ports aforesaid was terminated at Galveston on the ist of January last, and at Charleston on the 3 ist of the same month a principle clearly stated in a letter I have had the honor to receive from your Lordship, dated on the loth instant. " I am aware that official information of either of these events may not yet have reached the Government of Her Majesty; but the consequences attending the removal of the blockade (whether to be renewed or no) are so important to the commercial in terests involved, that I could lose no time in asking that such measures may be taken by Her Majesty s Government in rela tion thereto as will best tend to the resumption of a commercial intercouse so long placed under restraint. " I avail myself of this occasion to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship s letter of the loth of February instant, to which I shall have the honor of sending a reply in the course of a day or two, and am " With great respect, etc., "J. M. MASON, " Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America." " FOREIGN OFFICE, February i6th, 1863. " SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this date, calling my attention to the occurrences, as reported in the public prints, at Galveston and Charleston on the ist and 3 ist of January respectively, and I have the honor to inform you that your letter shall be considered by Her Majesty s Government. " I have the honor to be, etc., " RUSSELL. " /. M. Mason, Esqr." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, " PORTMAN SQUARE, " February 18, 1863. " The Right Hon. Earl Russell, etc., etc.: " MY LORD : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the loth of February instant, in answer to mine of the 3d of January last, but referring more especially to in quiries which I had the honor to address to your Lordship under the instructions of the Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America, on the 7th day of July last, concerning the interpretation placed by Her Majesty s Government on the declaration of the principle of blockade agreed to in the Con vention of Paris. I shall, as early as practicable, communicate the letter of your Lordship to the Government at Richmond, but will anticipate here the satisfaction with which the President will receive the assurance of your Lordship that no want of respect was intended by a mere acknowledgment, without other reply, to the inquiries contained in my letter of July. " In regard to so much of the letter of your Lordship as relates to the interpretation placed by the Government of Her Majesty on that part of the Declaration of Paris which prescribed the law of blockade, I am constrained to say that I am well assured the President can not find in it a like source of satisfac tion. It is considered by him that the terms used in that Con vention are too precise and definite to admit of being qualified or, perhaps it may be more appropriate to say revoked, by the superadditions thereto contained in your Lordship s exposition of them. The terms of that convention are, that the blockading force must be sufficient really to prevent access to the coast; no excep tion is made in regard to dark nights, favorable winds, the size or model of vessels successfully evading it, or the character of the coast or waters blockaded ; and yet, it would seem, from your Lordship s letter, that all these are to be taken into consideration on the question whether the blockade is, or is not to be respected. What might be considered a small or low steamer coming in from sea at the port of New York would, at one of those Southern ports, be rated a vessel of very fair average size, when referred to the ordinary stage of water on its bar; yet, I look in LIFK OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. vain, in the terms of the convention referred to, for any authority to expound them in subordination to the depth of water, or size or mold of vessels finding ready and comparatively safe access to the harbor. " In acceding to the terms of that treaty, great advantages were yielded to a maritime neutral, with like immunities to a mari time belligerent. The property of the neutral is safe under the flag of the belligerent, and the property of the belligerent equally safe under the flag of the neutral ; the only equivalent to the belligerent not maritime, but dependent on other nations as carriers, is this strictly-defined principle of the law of blockade, which the Confederate States presumed was extended to them, when, at the request of Her Majesty s Government, they became parties to those stipulations of the Convention of Paris of 1856. It results that after yielding full equivalents the stipula tions in regard to blockade reserved as the only one beneficial to them, would seem illusory. " In regard to the character of this blockade, to which your Lordship again reverts in the remark that the manner in which it has been enforced gives to neutral Governments no excuse for asserting that it has not been efficiently maintained, although I have not been instructed to make any further representations to Her Majesty s Government on that subject, since its decision to treat it as effective, I can not refrain from adding that for many months past the frequent arrival and departure of vessels (most of them steamers) from several of these ports have been matters of notoriety. A single steamer has evaded the blockade success fully, and most generally from Charleston, more than thirty times. And within a few days past, it has been brought to my knowledge that two steamers arrived in January last, and within ten days of each other, at Wilmington, North Carolina, from ports in Europe one of them four hundred and the other five hundred tons burden, both of which have since sailed from Wilmington and arrived with their cargoes at foreign ports. I cite these only as the latest authenticated instances. And as another fact, it is officially reported by the Collector at Charleston that the revenue accruing at that port from duties on imported merchandise dur ing the past year under the blockade was more than double the receipt of any one year previous to the separation of the States ; LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and this, although the duties under the Confederate Govern ment are much lower than those exacted by the United States. " As regards other portions of your Lordship s letter, I may freely admit, as it is there stated, that a blockade would be in legal existence although a sudden storm or change of wind occasionally might blow off the blockading squadron ; yet, with entire respect, I do not see how such principle affects the ques tion of the efficiency of such blockade whilst the squadron is on the coast. And again, whilst I am not informed whether a defense resting on the inadequacy of the blockading force has been urged in cases of capture before the Prize Courts in America, I can well see how futile such defense would be, when presented on behalf of a neutral ship whose Government had not only not objected to, but admitted the efficiency of the blockade. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON, " Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America." " Earl Russell to Mr. Mason: " FOREIGN OFFICE, February 19, 1863. " SIR : With reference to my letter of the i6th instant, acknowledging your letter of that day, calling attention to the accounts that had reached this country, tending to show that the blockade of the ports of Galveston and Charleston had been put an end to by the action of the Confederate Naval forces, I have the honor now to state to you that the information that Her Majesty s Government has derived from your letter, and from the public journals on this subject, is not sufficiently accurate to admit of their forming an opinion, and they wish, accordingly, by the first opportunity, to instruct Lord Lyons to report fully on the matter. " When his Lordship s report has been received and con sidered, I shall have the honor of making a further communi cation to you on the subject. " I have the honor to be, etc., " RUSSELL. " /. M. Mason, Esqr." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 401 In dispatch No. 32, dated March 3Oth, he says : " In my dispatch of the igth instant, I spoke of the brilliant success of the Confederate loan, then first upon the market. I have now the satisfaction, ten days having expired since the books were closed, and three days since the allotment to subscribers, of con firming that success. The books were open only from Thursday to Saturday at 2 p. m. (say two days and a half), and the sub scription reached nearly sixteen millions. As was to be expected, the premium attained in the first excitement of speculation, when it reached five and a quarter per cent., has since fluctuated. It closed firmly on Saturday (day before yesterday), at from one and three-fourths to two per cent. I have just had an interview with Mr. Erlanger, who was accompanied by Mr. Schroder, the principal banker in London managing the loan. They assure me that since the allotment, when the stock came into the pos session of holders, prices have settled down so firmly at present rates, and with such indication of strength, that there is little fear of its falling lower, and none that it will touch par. They say that such entire confidence is felt and evinced by holders in the security that they have no fear. ;< They tell me, further, that subscriptions come direct from Russia, and from cotton spinners ; also from Switzerland, from the free cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Frankfort, and even from Trieste. They say, also, as evidence of the strength of this loan, compared with others contemporaneously put upon the market; namely, one for Denmark offered at ninety, that at first it attained a premium of two per cent., and then fell to one-half discount, or below par ; and one of the Italian States, offered at seventy-nine, was not all taken, and fell immediately one-half per cent, discount, though both these loans were brought for ward by the Rothschilds. " I think I may congratulate you, therefore, on the triumph ant success of our infant credit it shows, malgre all detrac tion and calumny, that cotton is king at last." " /. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, May I3th, 1863. " SIR : I have the honor herewith to transmit a correct 402 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. design of the Confederate flag made at the Engineer s Bureau, and a copy of the act of Congress by which it was established. " Respectfully, your obedient servant, "J. P. BENJAMIN." ACT OF CONGRESS ADOPTING THE FLAG. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, "That the flag of the Confederate States shall be as follows: The field to be white, the length double the width of the flag, with the union (now used as the battle flag) to be of a square of two-thirds the width of the flag, having the ground red, thereon a broad saltier of blue, bordered with white, and emblazoned with mullets or five pointed stars, corresponding in number to that of the Confederate States." " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, May 3Oth, 1863. " /. M. Mason, Esqr. " SIR : Since my No. 22, of I3th instant, I have received your No. 33, of gth instant. Nos. 28, 30, 31, and 32 are still missing. " I am happy to inform you of the full approbation accorded by the President to your action in the matter of the loan as ex plained in that dispatch. " I have, through Mr. Hotze, received several copies of the Blue-Book containing your correspondence with Earl Russell on the subject of the blockade, and have some comments to make, and some further evidence to be placed before his Lordship, in cluding extracts from his own correspondence, which fully cor roborate our assertion that the blockade is ineffective and is re spected by the British Government on grounds entirely independ ent of the intrinsic merits of the question. But I defer further remarks till I have received your dispatch covering the corre spondence, as it may contain matter which would affect our action on the subject. " Congress has passed a law establishing a Seal for the Con federate States. I have concluded to get the work executed in England and request you will do me the favor to supervise it. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. You will receive herewith a copy of the act of Congress describ ing the Seal, and a photographic view of the Statue of Washing ton. "The photograph represents the horse as standing on the base of a statue, but in the Seal the base ought to be the earth, as the representation is to be of a horseman, and not of a statue. The size desired for the Seal is the circle on the back of the pho tograph. The outer margin will give space for the words : The Confederate States of America, 22d February, 1862. I do not think it necessary that the date should be expressed in words, the figures 22, 1862, being a sufficient compliance with the re quirements of the law. Indeed, I know that in the drawing sub mitted to the committee that devised the Seal, the date was in figures and not in words. There is not room for the date in words on the circumference of the Seal, without reducing the size of the letters so much as to injure the effect. " In regard to the wreath and the motto, they must be placed as vour taste and that of the artist shall suggest, but it is not deemed imperative, under the words of the act, that all the agri cultural products (cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, corn, wheat, and rice) should find place in the wreath. They are stated rather as examples. I am inclined to think that in so small a space as the wreath must necessarily occupy it will be impossible to include all these produtcs with good effect, and in that event, I would suggest that cotton, rice, and tobacco, being distinctive products of the Southern, Middle, and Northern States of the Confed eracy, ought to be retained, while wheat and corn, being produced in equal abundance in the United States as in the Confederacy, and therefore less distinctive than the other products named, may better be omitted, if omission is found necessary. It is not desired that this work be executed by any but the best artist that can be found, and the difference of expense between a poor and a fine specimen of the engraving is too small a matter to be taken into consideration in a work that we fondly hope will be re quired for generations yet unborn. " Pray give your best attention to this, and let me know about what the cost will be and when I may expect the work to be finished. I am happy to apprise you that the information from all parts of the Confederacy is most encouraging as regards the 404 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. growing crops. In the more southern portions of our country they are just beginning to gather the wheat harvest, and no com plaint is heard from any part of the country of rust or other injury. The production of wheat and other small grain will be very large this year, while that of corn will be enormous, prob ably enough for two years consumption, unless some very un expected and unusual calamity shall occur. Our enemies must find some other instrumentality than starvation before they suc ceed in breaking the proud spirit of this noble people. How it makes one s heart swell with emotion to witness the calm, heroic, unconquerable determination to be free, that fills the breast of all ages, sexes and conditions. What effect may be produced in Europe by the repulse at Charleston and the defeat of Hooker is not now even the subject of speculation among the people. It is the evident purpose of foreign governments to accord or refuse recognition according to the dictates of their own interests or fears, without the slightest reference to right or justice, and we have thus learned, at heavy cost, a lesson that will, I trust, remain profitable to our statesmen in all future time. We have now, by our system of taxation, so arranged our finances as to be entirely confident of the ability to resist for an indefinite period the execrable savages who are now murdering and plundering our people, and no prospect of peace is perceptible from any other source than the growing conviction among all classes in the United States that they are waging a war as ruinous in the pres ent as it is hopeless for the future. " I am very respectfully " Your obedient servant, "J. P. BENJAMIN." Mr. Mason s dispatch No. 34, of April 27th, 1863, said: " There is a very disturbed feeling in all circles here, arising out of the aspect of affairs between the United States and this country men s minds are highly incensed at the arrogant and exacting tone of expression found in the public speeches and in the press of the Northern States, and a strong opinion prevails that it will be difficult to avoid drifting into the war which the Lincoln Government and its advisers seem determined to provoke. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " The recent debates in Parliament have this good effect, at least, they keep up agitation on American affairs ; and although no vote is taken, it is perfectly understood in the House of Com mons, that the war, professedly waged to restore the Union, is hopeless ; and the sympathies of four-fifths of its members are with the South. Considering our experience of this Government on the question of recognition, it would be dangerous to venture a prediction, but many think here that the Government may adopt it, thereby expecting to avert the threatened war by assuming a bolder front. It is thought that Seward s policy is to provoke hostilities on the part of England, to which this would be a counter-move. I give you this as among the specula tions of the times. " I have received within a few days your duplicate copies of Circulars to Consuls, copy of correspondence with the British Consul at Richmond concerning the conscription of British sub jects, and a copy of the communication and your reply thereto, relating to the jurisdiction of the alleged murder on board the Sumter at Gibraltar. The voluntary admission of the British Government that the jurisdiction lies with us is so far satisfactory. I have sent a copy of the correspondence to Mr. Slidell." In a dispatch, No. 36, of May nth, Mr. Mason wrote: The Confederate loan seems to have dropped somewhat under the last intelligence that ships of the enemy had succeeded in running past Vicksburg ; at least, such was the reason assigned in the stock market. It closed, at last report, at par/ The dispatch of May i6th said : " Mr. McCrae, to whom has been committed the management of the loan, has at last arrived, but proceeded, at once, from Southampton to Paris, without passing through London. I have, therefore, not seen him. His presence I think all-important in the present posture of the loan, the condition of which is far different from that we had reason to anticipate from its apparent great success when first brought out, as stated to you in my last unofficial note sent in duplicate. " Our latest intelligence, via New York, two days ago, brings information of the movement of Hooker s army across the Rappahannock, and dated the 2d of May; but nothing more is stated than that the enemy crossed, both above and below Fred- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ericksburg, putting their columns some twenty or thirty miles apart ; but the New York papers say that the press is forbidden to give any details. Thus we are left to anticipate results, as far as we can, by reasoning from the past to the future. I do not doubt what those results will be, and hope we will have them by the steamer to-morrow. The tone of the press here is confident of our success in the impending battle, and in which, so far as I can reason, I fully participate. Amongst other good effects on this side, it will make our loan buoyant. " This dispatch is intended to go by a special messenger, to be sent by Captain Maury. " The delays of London tradesmen have prevented me from yet completing your order for books, but I hope now to get them off to Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm and Company, at Liver pool, in a very few days. I can pay for them, as I suggested in my last, out of the Contingent Fund, sending a proper voucher for adjustment of the expenditure. ********* " I have the honor to be, etc., "J. M. MASON." The following extracts are culled from the various letters written at intervals between March 20 and May 12, 1863 : " Tell *Nanny she has indeed made large contributions of sons to the cause, and they have done nobly, as I hear by occasional accounts her son Fitzhugh has fairly won his spurs, and gracefully has he worn them. Boy though he is, his name and his feats are familiar in European circles. * * * * " I am rendering, I know, and am made to feel every day, valuable service to the country in my position here, but I have many yearnings for our dear old home and all the associations connected with it. When our country is recognized, I suppose it will be necessary for me to remain here for a time to put the machinery in order for the proper establishment of international relations but I am longing for the time to arrive when you and the girls can join me. You and they will like London, for a while, at least it will be new, or rather it will be the newest thing in its appointments and wonderful proportions, that the * His sister, Mrs. S. S. Lee, mother of General Fitzhugh Lee, who had five sons in the service of the Confederate States. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. mind has ever conceived, certainly if it strikes you as it does me. I have been here now for more than a year to study and under stand it, and yet every day am the more convinced that I know but little of it. The truth is, I am very much occupied, and well for me it is so. I breakfast between nine and ten, and dine at six, and consider myself fortunate if I can get an hour or hour and a half after four for exercise. The famous Hyde Park is very near, and I ramble in that. Beside the advantage of open space and free air, I get away from the eternal and stunning noise of the car riages on the streets. Still, I am buoyant, cheerful, and never in better health; really the wonderful success attending our arms, achieved as they are by the gallantry, courage, and loyalty of our troops would find me a truant to home if I could be otherwise. * You will be satisfied with my asso ciation when I tell you that I breakfasted yesterday with the Dean of Westminster Abbey, and am to dine on Monday with the Lord Bishop of Exeter." A later letter says : " We have, from New York to-day, fragmentary and most unsatisfactory accounts of the advance of Hooker s army across the Rappahannock, with exulting notes from the enemy, heralding, as usual, an anticipated victory. It will be four days before we get further accounts through the same mendacious sources tantalizing and irritating enough, yet here, at this distance, and in the absence of attending circum stances, I remain calm and confident, but you can imagine what it is to be so far distant, with so much at stake. * " I observe from the Southern papers which occasionally reach me, no little impatience and indignation at the obstinate refusal of England to recognize our independence. It would be remarkable, indeed, had our people other than such feelings, and I share it to the utmost, yet the Government here remains immovable, in great part, I think, to avoid all risk of getting into a war, but the anti-slavery feeling of England has much to do with it. Thanking her for nothing, I shall be proud and exultant when peace comes that we will have worked out our own salvation unaided and alone. * " I had a letter a few weeks ago from your aunt in Baltimore, sending one to me from our kind friend Mrs. H. H. Lee, in Winchester. It gave a graphic account, but of deep and melan- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. choly interest, of the condition of our valued friends in that quar ter, and of the utter ruin and destruction by the vandals who have overrun it, of our own bright and happy home. I mourn over it, but not as one without hope the loss we sustain is as nothing, compared with what has been sustained by others in conducting the resistance to the war waged against us and is light in the balance compared with what those have suffered who remained at home and have borne, without change of front, the contumely and cruelties of the brutes of the Yankee army. I feel a debt, almost of personal obligation, when I call to mind what those valued friends have endured, and are yet enduring, in the face of a vindictive enemy, without blenching or giving in. When you have opportunity of communicating with them, pray express for me what I have written. * " I am gratified indeed to find from your letter that your good mother is carrying into successful execution her plan of establishing her own household, and you will have the merit and consolation, chiefly of building it up by your late raid into the enemy s neighborhood, collecting the debris of our late home. In my late letters I have told your mother how much I approve her plan. You must omit nothing, as the architect in charge, to make her comfortable. " I have no idea how your letter came ; it was post marked London, but it was very welcome, and was only one month on the way. I read it to Sir Henry and Lady Holland with their daughters ; they were deeply impressed by its simple, but to them wonderful, narrative. Were it not that I am con stantly and engrossingly occupied by matters pertaining to the duties of my mission, I should feel very tired of my exile life ; as it is, I really have no time to brood over it, and thus fortunately feel the less that depression which would attend my position. "May I2th * * * * but it is vain to repine; whether patriotic or no, I sometimes think that my first wish is, as the fruits of recognition, that it may bring you and the girls to England. On the prospects here, we can only speculate ; the hard teachings of experience satisfy me that we have nothing to look to from the European powers. We must work out our own salvation, and perhaps it is better that it should be so; we shall LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. then stand beside them as a peer, without obligation, and with as much right to dictate as they. " Of life in London, unless I were to write a great deal, I could tell but little. I have abundant occupation in duties inci dent to my position. The Government has necessarily many and large operations here, which, in the difficult and interrupted communication between the two countries, involve large responsi bilities in the exercise of a discreet judgment this, through the agency employed, pretty much devolves on me, and, as you may imagine, carries with it constantly recurring and engrossing cares ; still, I feel that I successfully meet them, and am able, in the absence of % instructions, to render valuable and important service, and that is compensation enough. * * * " The suffering and distress caused by the war are always before me, and although I am fully aware that I am rendering better service to our country here than I could do at home, yet absence at such a time is hard to bear. I hope you will send me a copy of so much of Mrs. Lee s journal as refers to the actual events of the war occurring at Winchester. " Our great and heroic people would seem to have nothing left but to work out their own salvation, and nobly will they do it. England, I am satisfied, will remain passive. What France may do, or be compelled to do, because of her complications with Mexico, is yet a problem ; something may come of that. At this season of the year all in political or social positions are out of London at their homes in the country, and I availed myself of the stagnation to pay a visit to Lord and Lady Donough- more, at their seat in Tipperary County in Ireland, at their kind invitation ; most agreeable, excellent and hospitable people. I remained with them more than a week, and enjoyed the country life not a little, then went to the Lakes of Killarney, spent a day or two in Dublin, and got back to London yesterday, after a fortnight s absence, very much refreshed." " PARIS, June i4th, 1863. " My Very Dear Wife: I came here a few days ago, at the invitation of Mr. Slidell, to confer about matters abroad, of in terest to our country. This is my second visit to France, the first one some twelve months since, and it improves on acquaintance ; 4IO LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. a great deal to be seen, but I am not alert at sight-seeing. The climate, as compared with England, its great attraction, and then, too, there is here quite a large circle of Confederates, emigrants chiefly from New Orleans and Maryland. Our great friend, Frank Corbin, has been as kind and liberal in his hospi talities as possible. He went with me to-day to Versailles, where we spent the day, marveling at the splendor and extravagance of the old regime. The palace, capacious enough, it is said, to receive within its walls all the other palaces of Europe ; and three miles of picture galleries by the best artists of any age. I was at the races on Sunday (the great French Derby), always fixed for Sunday, and had a full opportunity of scanning and studying that marvelous man, the Emperor, for a full hour, and within a few feet. He had a small court circle around him in an open box. There was nothing of that grave, almost stolid, expression, which his portraits give him ; on the contrary, his deportment, although always dignified, was of an easy and almost jaunty air, and the general expression of countenance affable and full of bonhomie, and such, it is said, is his real character. " Nothing new in the aspect of our affairs, either here or in England, and no clue to divine whether either Government is disposed to recognize us. My position as an unaccredited diplomat is far from agreeable, but I am conscious, nevertheless, that, as the representative of the Government, my presence in England is of great value to our country, and so I put up with it. I must close, as a dispatch is yet to be written. " With best love to all, " Yours, my dear wife, ever, " J. M. MASON." " CONFEDERATE STATES " NAVY DEPARTMENT, " RICHMOND, February 22d, 1863. " Hon. James M. Mason, " Commissioner of Confederate States: " SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch of the nth of December, 1862, enclosing the report of Lieutenant Chapman, Confederate States Navy, of the loth November, 1862, in relation to the unfortunate occurrence on LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. board the Sumter. Your course with regard to that vessel is approved by this Department, and you have its thanks for your prompt attention. " I am respectfully your obedient servant, " S. N. MALLORY, " Secretary of the Navy." "Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to Hon. J. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " SIR : The delay in the steamer s departure enables me to address you on a subject which attracts the earnest attention of this Government. " By the last European and Northern mails, we are in formed that extensive enlistments are now in progress in Ireland of recruits for the armies of the United States. It is, of course, impossible for us here to be as well informed on this subject as you must be in London, but there seems to be an absence of all disguise in the public journals, and no intimation is given of any effort on the part of Her Majesty s Government to arrest so flagrant a breach of the neutrality which has been announced as the fixed policy of Great Britain. It is assumed, however, that so grave a matter can not have escaped your attention and that you have not failed both to procure the necessary evidence to establish the facts and to place that evidence, with proper repre sentations, in possession of Earl Russell. " It is not necessary to refer to the memorable conduct of the United States during the Crimean war, nor to the harsh and peremptory manner in which it asserted its rights to prevent for eign enlistment on its territory, in order to justify your repre sentations on the present occasion. " The President is persuaded that no citation of precedent is required to induce Her Majesty s Government to give effect to Her Majesty s proclamation of neutrality, and to arrest the law less attempts of the official agents of the United States to effect designs violative of the territorial sovereignty of the British Queen and, manifestly, hostile to this Confederacy. In the expectation that you have been able to obtain satisfactory evi dence, and with full confidence that on a simple communication of the facts on which our complaint is grounded, Her Majesty s LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASOX. Government will take measures to prevent the commission of acts subversive both of the municipal law of Great Britain and of international obligations, you are instructed, if you have not previously done so, to bring this matter to the attention of Earl Russell. " I am, sir, respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN, " Secretary of State." DISPATCH No. 38. " PARIS, 4th June, 1863. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I came here a few days ago, at the suggestion of Mr. Slidell, to confer with Col. Lamar and himself upon matters pending, connected with our naval service, of the character of which you are aware, and to which you called my attention in a late dispatch, at the instance of the Secretary of the Navy. From locality, these arrangements being more particularly under the cognizance of Mr. Slidell, he will doubtless advise you of our success so far as things have advanced. " General McCrea also, who is here, derived the benefit of our joint counsels in matters pertaining to the disposition of the avails of the loan, so far as they have been received, it being in dispensable as well to the public service as to the credit of the Government that money should be supplied to its officers and agents here, whilst no warrants from the Treasury formally authorizing disbursements have yet been received by General McCrae. He will, of course, report to the Secretary of the Treasury what may be done in this regard. " A note from Mr. Macfarland, dated at London on the ist instant, informs me that on that day dispatches had arrived for Mr. Slidell, Colonel Lamar and myself ; that he opened mine. The only extract that he gives me from it is that in which you refer, and call my attention, to the alleged enlistment of recruits in Ireland for the Federal Army. You are right in supposing that this matter had not escaped my observation. The informa tion, as it reached me, was that extensive shipments were made from time to time, from Liverpool, of Irishmen whose passages LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 41 3 were paid, and who, it was said, had received small bounties in advance, with other circumstances tending to show that they were intended for military service in America, although the engagement entered into was to work on railroads or in some other evasive form. I took the only measure in my power to uncover the real purpose of this emigration, by authorizing a gentleman of Liverpool, entirely to be trusted, to employ such agents or detectives there fit for such service, to procure the proper evidence, stipulating to pay them such compensation as he might promise. His last report was that he had such men at work, but so far they had been unable to make any discov eries clear enough to found a representation to the Government. Of course, every precaution is taken by the Federal agents in England and Ireland to conceal the real design of the enlistments, and it will probably be no easy matter to make a case for the Government to interpose; still, I beg you to be assured that it shall be diligently followed up in such manner as shall best promise success. I do not personally know the gentleman to whom you recently sent a communication, through me, as com mercial agent at Cork, or of his fitness for his duty, but as your letter imported that he had the full confidence of the Depart ment, I shall communicate with him immediately on my return to London, to set on foot, if he can, the proper inquiries in Ireland. " I observe that the subject of these alleged enlistments in Ireland was brought before the House of Commons, I think on Monday last, by a question to Lord Palmerston whether they were being made, and whether any steps had been taken by the Government to prevent them. The reply of Lord Palmerston was that these alleged enlistments had been brought to the notice of the Government, and that inquiries in the proper quarter had been promptly instituted and should be diligently prosecuted to ascertain the truth, and if true, proper measures would be taken to punish the parties implicated. " Mr. Adams has so tormented the Minister with charges of alleged violations of the Foreign Enlistment Act by those in the interest of the Confederates that I think the latter will be even alert to establish like charges against Federal agents. "A few days before I left England, I spent a part of a day and a night with Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Lindsay, at the residence 414 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of the latter gentleman, near London. The visit was projected by Mr. L. to talk over the expediency of bringing the subject of recognition before the House of Commons. Both of these gentlemen seemed to think the time might now be opportune for introducing it, but that it would not be advisable to do it without previous consultation with some of the leaders of the Opposition. Since I came here, and within a few days past, I find that Mr. Roebuck has given notice in the House that he intended, at some future day, to propose that Her Majesty be requested to enter into negotiations with the principal powers of Europe, with a view to recognize the independence of the Confederate States ; and in a note from Mr. Lindsay, addressed to me here, he in forms me that before Mr. Roebuck gave the notice, he had a long conversation with Mr. Disraeli. Mr. Lindsay s note was brief and he did not give the tenor of that conversation, though his language would seem to imply that the notice was made to follow it. I think there are evidences, too, of a strong disposi tion to agitate the question of recognition by our friends at popu lar meetings got up for the purpose. I enclose a report of one, under the auspices of Mr. Roebuck, composed of his constituents at Sheffield, after our conference at Lindsay s, and before his notice in Parliament. Yet, after our experience of the impassive condition of the British Government, and the inertia of the Oppo sition, I can not say I am hopeful of results. " Absent from the office of the Commission, I can not affix the appropriate number of this dispatch, but will have it done when I get to London, and must ask that you will so order it at Richmond. " I have the honor to be, etc., "J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 39. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, June I2th, 1863. " Hon. J . P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : As I told you in my No. 38, immediately on my return from Paris, I wrote to Mr. Dowling at Cork, with full instructions to collect evidence, if practicable, in regard to the supposed Federal enlistments in Ireland. Should it be obtained, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the subject shall be, as you direct, brought before Earl Russell. " From your No. 20, of the I4th of April, I find that my dispatches sent by Mr. Hape, had been destroyed. I have not the means here of determining what dispatches were committed to him, but presume they were those of which duplicates were sent with my No. 31, of the igth of March. " I learn also, within a few days past, that triplicates of my Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, which were sent by Mr. Mohl in the PeterhofF have also been destroyed at sea these were of dis patches of which you informed me neither originals nor dupli cates had been received, and were necessary to complete your files. I have also just learned, through the Northern papers, that a Mr. Hobson, of Richmond, who sailed from here in the Havana mail steamer early in April, and who bore my dispatches No. 30 to 33 inclusive, had been captured, I presume, between one of the islands and the coast. This gentleman was strongly impressed by me with the necessity of destroying these dis patches in the event which has happened and, I doubt not, did so. " I have nothing to add on public matters since my No. 38, from Paris. We are all in much doubt of the result of things at Vicksburg. The latest accounts were that the enemy, in large forces, had been repulsed in successive assaults on the entrench ments at the city, up to the 22d of May. Should the defence be successful, I think Mr. Roebuck s motion, now fixed for the 3Oth, may be carried ; if otherwise, I should not advise its being put to a vote. " I completed the purchase of the books you have ordered for the Department of State yesterday, and they will go off to day or to-morrow, to the house of Frazer, Trenholm and Com pany, of Liverpool, as you direct. The bill shall be sent with the next dispatch. " The Confederate loan seems solidly placed at last ; the quotations for the past week have varied only from one to two per cent, discount. " I have the honor to be, etc., "J. M. MASON." 416 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, 6th July, 1863. " SIR : Your No. 36, of nth of May, was received on 3Oth ultimo, and on the 4th instant I received your dispatch from Paris, not numbered, bearing date the 4th June. This last is the quickest communication yet had with you. " I note what you state in relation to the recruiting by the enemy in Ireland. While it is satisfactory to know that you are diligent in the matter, we have determined to send two or three Irishmen, long residents of our country, to act as far as they can in arresting these unlawful acts of the enemy, by commu nicating directly with the people and spreading among them such information and intelligence as may be best adapted to persuade them of the folly and wickedness of volunteering their aid in the savage warfare waged against us. I enclose you copy of the instructions to one of them, that you may be fully possessed of our motives and purposes. " I have no special news for you. The details of the army operations must now reach you through Northern sources, as General Lee is too far removed to enable us to communicate freely with him. In Louisiana we have succeeded in wresting from the enemy the whole State except in the immediate vicinity of New Orleans on the east bank of the river. No fears what ever are entertained of the result at Port Hudson, and our pros pects at Vicksburg are brightening fast, through the operations of General Kirby Smith and Richard Taylor in Western Louisiana. The President has been seriously ill, but is now fast recovering. " I am, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " T. P. BENJAMIN." DISPATCH No. 40. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, June 2Oth, 1863. " Hon. J . P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : An opportunity offering by a good ship direct either to Bermuda or Nassau, I avail myself of it for this dispatch, to LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. be addressed, as the case may be, to Major Walker or Mr. Hezliger. " I send also, herewith, dispatches from Mr. Slidell, received for transmission within the past few days. I en closed also, as the latest, a note from him of the i8th instant, advising me in brief of his interview on that day with the Emperor and the result. I have nothing from him since. I sent Mr. Slidell s note to Mr. Lindsay, and he, with Mr. Roebuck, called on me this morning. They are both much interested in the success of the motion of the latter, to come up in the House of Commons on the 3Oth instant, and go off together to Paris to-night to have an interview with the Emperor. At their request, I telegraphed Mr. Slidell to arrange for their interview to-morrow. They desire to impress on the Emperor: first, the importance that he should formally invite England to unite with France in an act of recognition the communication to be made before the 3Oth with permission to state the fact (if it exists) in debate in the House ; secondly, if England should refuse to unite, then that the Emperor should act alone, with the assurance from them that in such an event England must follow in less than one month, or the Ministry would go out. Mr. Roebuck is, as you know, a statesman of great intelligence and experience, and I should hope good results from the mission. It certainly evinces great earnestness on their part. Without news of decided successful results at Vicksburg, or some move of the character contemplated on the part of the Emperor, I should fear, if put to the vote, that Roebuck s motion would fail. " I enclose a late debate in the House of Lords between Lord Clanricarde and Earl Russell involving questions of the blockade. You will see that the latter utterly repudiates the definition of the Convention of Paris, or rather, by a quibble on its text, which speaks of access to the coast/ construes the meaning to be that the coast and not the port alone, may be the subject of a blockade, re-establishing, thus, the doctrine of the blockade supposed to have become obsolete, or wholly rejected by the Paris Convention. These declarations of Earl Russell go a bowshot beyond the very latitudinous views expressed by him in his correspondence with me, and, I think, will be a warning to us to avoid the risk of any entanglement in future treaty stipulations, when the time comes. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " I send also, as bearing upon the public questions of the day, a correspondence between Mr. Moncure D. Conway and myself, which I caused to be published in the Times, with a copy of the advertisement calling a public meeting in the city of Lon don, under the auspices of Mr. Bright, to enable Mr. Conway to deliver an address on slavery. You will see that in the advertisement Mr. Conway is announced as from Eastern Vir ginia, and the son of a slave-holder. Who he is I do not know, but I thought his proposition to negotiate on terms resting on the basis of the independence of the Southern States, under authority from Northern Abolitionists, with the declaration that they would coerce their Government to stop the war and admit our independence, afforded an opportunity to expose the duplicity of that party to their own people not to be omitted. The fact that Mr. Bright was to preside at the meeting gave him and his mission, I thought, sufficient consequence to excuse me for enter taining the correspondence. I am glad to find that what I have done meets the approval of our friends here, and I think may do service at the North. " I enclose, also, copy of the bill for the books ordered for the State Department. They have been paid for out of the Con tingent Fund. In my No. 34, I stated that a copy of Han sard s complete (the cost of which you inquired) could be obtained in good half-binding at 105, the cost price, as stated by the bookseller, being originally 500. The box of books was sent to Liverpool on the i8th instant. " Within the last two or three months organizations call ing themselves Southern Clubs have made their appearance at Manchester, Birmingham, and other large towns, and under the auspices of respectable and influential men. These movements have been spontaneous and without instigation from Southern quarters, so far as I know. Their objects are, by public addresses, publication, etc., to get up a spirit of inquiry amongst the peo ple at large, and to diffuse information on the Southern side of the American question. They are in frequent communication with me for facts and in search of material. Of course, I do all in my power to encourage them. Under their auspices, too, public meetings have been held in the towns and villages, principally in the manufacturing districts, which are addressed by speakers in- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. vited for the occasion, and resolutions are adopted expressive of the sense of the meeting in favor of recognition, etc. Although rather voluminous, yet there being room in the dispatch-box, I send some of the placards which have been sent to me, to show the character of the movement, its forms and pressure/ " I have the honor to be, etc., "J. M. MASON." ) INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPEROR HELD BY MESSRS. ROEBUCK AND LINDSAY IN REGARD TO RECOGNITION. (Copied from Account Written by Mr. Lindsay.) " SUNDAY, June 2ist Arrived in Paris at 7 a. m. ; learned what had taken place up to that time and left for Fontainebleau, where we arrived at 6 p. m. As the Emperor had been good enough to say that whenever I wished to see him I had merely to express my wishes in a note to himself a liberty I would not under ordinary circumstances have taken, but as this matter was urgent, I did not hesitate to address the Emperor direct, sending my note, however, in an open envelope through M. Mocquard. I had an immediate answer, saying that the Emperor would be glad to see us on the following morning at ten-thirty. " MONDAY, 22d June At the time named, we proceeded to the palace. The Emperor at once received us, and though he has always, so far as I am competent to judge, been pleased to receive me very graciously, I think this morning he was even more so than usual. He met us at the door of his study, shak ing hands with me and bowing to Mr. Roebuck as if he was grati fied to make his personal acquaintance, and asked us to be seated, intimating that he would be glad if we went fully into the ques tion of recognition, and that, so far as he was concerned, he considered our meeting not a mere matter of form, but one of grave importance. I felt it to be so, and so did Mr. Roebuck, and we were too earnest to waste either the Emperor s time or our own with formal speeches. He saw that, and I believe felt as we did. " As the Emperor had been pleased on various occasions during the last eighteen months to open his mind freely to me on many questions relating to the lamentable war, such as the block- 420 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ade, the state of our working classes, the views of the commer cial classes of the United States, etc., and as we, on all the main features of this unhappy struggle and its results, seemed to agree, I considered it quite unnecessary to go into any details as to the causes of the war, or the slight effect which, in my judgment, the institution of slavery had especially upon its origin or its prolon gation. Knowing that he held somewhat similar views, it would have been a mere waste of His Majesty s time to tell him what we knew, or to reason what we agreed upon ; therefore I went at once to the question of recognition by saying that I was glad to learn that His Majesty s views had not been changed in regard to the claims of the South to be recognized as an independent nation. I then stated that Mr. Roebuck and I had no personal interests to serve. We appeared before him as two of the representatives of the people, different in many respects, but as one on the desira bility of recognition, to state our views in regard to it and to ask, I might say to implore, His Majesty to adopt any means short of war to put an end to the terrible and vain struggle now raging in America, in which both the people of France and Great Britain were so deeply interested. I told him that, so far as I could ascertain, the feelings of the people, and especially the views of the mercantile community, though I had no authority to speak for either, they were now, I thought, of the opinion that the North and the South would not be able to settle their differences among themselves, and that very many members of the House of Com mons appeared to be also of that opinion, but that the majority seemed afraid of responsibility and wished the question to be left with the Executive, but that the Executive with us seemed also to be afraid of responsibility, and thus thousands upon thousands of lives were sacrificed and a fearful amount of misery inflicted upon the human race because nobody would act, and that we sincerely hoped that His Majesty would make an urgent appeal to the English Government to take any means short of war to stop the carnage. I ventured also to remark that, if the English Government refused to act with him, I was confident that if His Majesty would alone pronounce the word recognition, peace would be restored. That word, I now said, would be the har binger of peace, and I devoutly hoped he would pronounce it. I further ventured to remark that if he would state he had re- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. solved to recognize the South as a nation for the reasons he had oreviously named to me, I did not think any Ministry in England \,ould or could stand which did not agree to join him in recog nition after all that had taken place. I then referred to Mr. Roebuck s motion, which stood for the 3Oth. These remarks, of which I have given merely substance, were made in the way of conversation, and during the course of them the Emperor freely offered his own opinions, to which I shall refer hereafter. Mr. Roebuck then begged His Majesty to understand that in what he was about to say he should speak as an Englishman, but that he believed in this matter he could point out a line of conduct that would conciliate the interests of France and England. His Majesty here interrupted him by saying that he was quite aware that such would be the case, and thought that Mr. Roebuck was right in so acting. Mr. Roebuck then said that his ultimate object was the immediate recognition of the Southern States of North America ; that to this end he put upon the books of the House of Commons a notice of motion as a means, and that in order to enable him to carry that motion, he asked His Majesty for aid he* begged to be permitted to submit to His Majesty a line of conduct. The first that he would submit was that which he believed the most advantageous to England, but if that should prove impossible, he would submit a second, less advantageous to England, but far more advanta geous to France. He acknowledged to the Emperor that he would far rather that His Majesty would adopt the first than the second, but he preferred his adopting the second to our remaining as we are at present. The first course, then, was that His Majesty would make a formal proposition to England to join him in recognizing the South the second, if he found the first impossible, or if England declined to act, was that the Emperor should himself, and if necessary alone, make the recog nition. " Mr. Roebuck then entered into a full statement of the rea sons which he thought should induce the Emperor to adopt either one course or the other. At the present moment, he said, a boon was offered to Europe such as had never been known in the history of Europe, or indeed in the history of the world. At this time 10,000,000 civilized men, producing three of the first 422 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. necessaries of European life, cotton, sugar, and tobacco, were suddenly compelled to look for a new customer, to change, in fact, their whole commercial relations. That up to the time of secession the whole commercial business of the South had been transacted by the North. In 1861, the United States had begun their system of protection that by this system the North had compelled the South to grant to the North a monopoly which was to the North a source of unexampled wealth, which, if it had continued, would have made New York really the Imperial city, and which would have enabled the North to domineer over the whole commercial world. This great business was suddenly, by the secession, withdrawn from the North and was as suddenly offered to Europe. If England had been sagacious enough to see her advantage, and had alone recognized the South, she would have won for herself the greatest part of this lucrative busi ness and London would have continued the great commercial city of the world. If France and England conjointly were to pro ceed to recognition, they would share alike in the advantage. If France were to proceed alone, then to her would fall the greater part of this singular benefit. England, it was clear, would not act alone the first course of conduct which he entreated His Majesty to adopt, was to propose to England a joint action ; this failing, he begged him to adopt the second, namely at once and by himself to recognize the South. This he knew was the conduct most beneficial to France, but he only wished him to adopt it if his proposal to England should be impossible or not accepted by England. The Emperor was evidently impressed with what Mr. Roebuck stated, and turning to me he said : You know how anxious I have been to maintain friendly relations with your country, and to act in concert with your Government in all great questions, more especially in regard to the sad state of things in the United States and though I have no reason for displaying any unfriendly feeling towards the Government of the United States and have no desire whatever to take any measure which might even be construed as unfriendly to the Federal Gov ernment, I feel more strongly now than I have ever felt that this war in which such vast sacrifices have been made can not restore the Union and can only lead to greater sacrifices and entail greater misery upon all who are now unhappily engaged in this LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. vain and terrible struggle; and therefore I am desirous on account of the interests of the North as well as the South that the carnage should cease. I believe the recognition of the South as an independent nation would restore peace, and therefore I am most anxious, in concert with Great Britain, to adopt measures for the recognition of a people who have given such proofs of their abilities to maintain their independence and to govern themselves/ Then, turning towards Mr. Roebuck, he said : I fear I can not make the formal application to England which you wish, and I will tell you why I can not : I have already made a formal application to England, and that application was immediately transmitted to the United States Government, and I can not help feeling that the object of that proceeding was to create ill blood between me and the United States. Therefore I can not again make a similar application and subject myself to the probability of being treated again in the same manner, but in addition to having contradicted the rumour which you had heard in regard to any change in my views, I have just requested Baron Gros to ascertain whether England is prepared to coincide with my views in regard to recognition, to suggest any mode for proceeding for the recognition of the Southern States which I so much desire. " In reply to the second course named by Mr. Roebuck, I fear if I took that measure alone it might in some respects tend to prolong the war, embroil me with the North, or it might cause the North to declare war against me. I do not want my people to be involved in war for very many reasons, and especially in a war with America, for such an event might seriously hamper my operations in Mexico, and supposing they were to send down their iron-clads to.Vera Cruz, what would be the result upon my fleet? I am indeed most anxious/ His Majesty continued, to see this war brought to a close, for I dread the consequences of the want of cotton to my people during the next winter/ " I then remarked, we do not dread it, but we see the con sequences must be great misery amongst our people also, and we thought we need not fear any declaration of war on the part of the Federal Government in the event of his deciding, for the reasons he had named, to recognize the South but that in the event of the Federal Government taking a course so extraordi- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. nary we did not think His Majesty had much to fear from any declaration of war by the Federal Government in its present state. But, turning to me, he again said, In what position would I be with my ships, etc., etc., at Vera Cruz? " I smiled and said that if even one-half of what some people in England said was true in regard to the power of his fleet I did not think he had much reason to fear the fleet of the Federals that their iron-cased ships were not fitted for operations at any distance from their own coast, and that they seemed to have more than enough work for them already in blockading the Southern ports and in other operations without seriously contemplating, in the event of war, an attack upon his fleet at Vera Cruz. The New York papers might write about such an attack and even Mr. Seward might favor the world with a few more of his threatening dispatches, but I thought that Mr. Seward could not seriously contemplate any such operation that so far from the people of the United States contemplating, in the event of his recognizing the South, any war with France, I was convinced that the people of the West would hail that act with delight, and that even the thoughtful men of the North (and there were many such) whose voices were suppressed by the despotic acts of their Government, would thank His Majesty for an act of necessity and mercy, even if they did not coincide with His Majesty in the justice of it. " I then referred to the great peace demonstration recently held at New York and explained that though New York had been the commission city of the Southern States, existing to a great extent on the trade of the South, and was consequently deeply interested in the restoration of the Union ; that even there a very large meeting, in that city had recently, in face of the frowns and threats of the Federal Government, declared that the restoration of the Union appeared to be hopeless and that they desired peace. " Mr. Roebuck then expressed a fear that we were encroach ing upon His Majesty s time, and rose to leave, but the Emperor remarked : Be seated ; I have more to state and I wish to hear more of this important matter/ " I then said, as I had always considered my audiences with His Majesty to be confidential, did he wish this to be treated in a similar manner ? He remarked, No, quite the contrary ; I wish LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 4 2 5 it to be known that you and Mr. Roebuck have been with me. And may we, I said, be allowed to state the substance of what your Majesty has been pleased to say to us ? Not merely the substance, he replied, but all that has passed, and to the House of Commons, because I appear to have been misunderstood, and I also wish the House of Commons to know that in all important international questions I desire to act with England, but more particularly in all that relates to America. " I then said, in using the word misunderstanding, I pre sume your Majesty refers more especially to the answer which Lord Palmerston gave to a member of the House of Commons last session, when he asked if any communication had been re ceived from your Majesty s Government in regard to American affairs ? Quite so, he remarked, and I was surprised Lord Palmerston gave that answer, for you know, Mr. Lindsay, it was not correct. " I then said I had heard that answer and was equally sur prised, but your Majesty knows that I have always considered anything you were pleased to state to me strictly confidential and not to be named except to Lord Cowley, and I did not feel myself at liberty to give a denial to that assertion which I could have done; but may I be allowed now to ask if I have your Majesty s permission to relate all that occurred between us in regard to American affairs? He replied, Certainly, and I am glad you have asked permission, as I wish it to be known that you have my authority for making these statements. He then asked an opinion in regard to Poland, and offered a few remarks concerning the feelings of his people and his own wishes, and at parting shook hands with Mr. Roebuck and myself and inquired if we proposed to remain over night at Fontainbleau. I said no ; that we were, leaving at once as I was anxious to be back to London. " We left Fontainbleau at I p. m. that day, and arrived in London on Tuesday the 23d, at 6 a. m., remaining at Paris four hours, on the way through, and reporting to Mr. Slidell the substance of our conversation with the Emperor." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER XV. Statue of Stonewall Jackson Dismissal of Both Consul Moore and Mr. Cridland State of Alabama Fays Interest to English Creditors Prisoner Hester Reverses at Home Affect Loan Success of Blockade Runners Suggestion that Government Take Exclusive Control of Export of Cotton Recall from London Private Letter from Mr. Benjamin Note to Earl Russell Unofficial Letter to Mr. Davis Earl Russell s Reply to Mr. Mason s Note Appointment of "Commissioner on the Continent" Let ter to Mrs. Mason. DISPATCH No. 41. \ " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, July 2d, 1863. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : Since my last, dated the 2Oth of June, I have had the honor to receive your No. 22 of the 3Oth of May, with a design of the new flag, and a copy of the Act of Congress adopting it. The flag has been generally admired, and when the time comes authorizing me to raise it, I shall feel great pride in unfurling it to England. " I shall take very great pleasure in carrying out your in structions to have the work properly executed in London by the best artists to be had. " A number of gentlemen, in highest social and political positions here, have constituted themselves into a committee to build a monument to our great soldier, the late Lieutenant- General Jackson. The movement has been entirely spontaneous and voluntary on their part, and it was only after it had been entered upon, that they communicated with me. I enclose, here with, a copy of the circular just issued. Other names have been since added to the committee, of the highest nobility. It is certainly a graceful and, I hope, a grateful tribute to the memory of the illustrious dead, as well as to the country that gave him birth, and honored him with its confidence. The subscription, I (loubt not, will be a great success. I have promised these gentlemen to obtain for them as exact a likeness as can be had. Will you be so obliging as to aid me in this endeavor, and send LIFE OF JAME8 MURRAY MASON. it out as soon as practicable? There are some photographs of him here, but they do not confirm my recollections of his appear ance. It is desirable, also, that the sculptor should have informa tion as to his height, and the general mould of his form. The artist named in the circular, Mr. Foley, is said to be the most eminent man in his profession; and Mr. Beresford Hope, him self a connoisseur in such matters, has advised that I should con sult with Mr. Foley, invoking his professional skill to arrange the form of the seal under the provisions of the joint resolution ; and probably, to select the artist to execute the work. Your in structions in regard to it shall be strictly pursued. " I enclose, also, report of the debate from London Times on .Mr. Roebuck s motion of the 3Oth of June. Mr. Slidell s dispatches which go herewith, communicate to you the result of his late interview with the Emperor; and you will see from the debate (as reported by Mr. Roebuck), the conversation held with that gentleman and Mr. Lindsay by the Emperor. In the slip from the Times, also enclosed, you will see the reply made by Lord Russell to the inquiry of Lord Stratheden on the same night, in the House of Lords. These things put together would seem to reduce the professions made by the Emperor to Mr. Slidell and to Messrs. R. and L. to a mere shadow. It would seem indeed, as if the Emperor held one language to those gentlemen, in conversations intended to be made public, but held a different language to his Ambassador in London; and, I add, as part of the history of the affair, as reported to me by Mr. Roe buck on the morning of the 3Oth June, that to enable him to speak definitively in the House in regard to the communication promised by the Emperor to be made to England through Baron Gros, his Ambassador here, that he called on that personage on the 29th, and asked him (provided he felt at liberty to give the information) to tell him the substance of his communication to Earl Russell, and when it had been made; the reply to which was, that he did not feel himself at liberty to give an answer to his question ; but he would say, that he had made no formal communication to Earl Russell on the subject. The debate was adjourned over, and, it is expected, will be resumed to-night. Should it be so, I may have it in my power to communicate the result of this movement. 428 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " There appeared in the London papers of this morning, a dispatch from you to me dated on the 6th of June, relating to the recent dismissal of the British Consul at Richmond. It was taken from a recent New York paper, and is stated to have been copied from the Richmond Sentinel of the I2th. Its appearance here, in this form, was my first acquaintance with it. The dis patch alone is published the documents to which it refers are not included in the publication. I am instructed, in the dispatch, to furnish a copy to Earl Russell. My present idea is to send the printed copy to his Lordship at once, telling him it shall be fol lowed by a copy of the original when it reaches me. This in cident may furnish the hint to communicate with me through the same channel, whenever it may be desirable to get a dispatch to me, without objection to its being equally known to the enemy. JULY 3d. It has been arranged to resume the debate on Roebuck s motion on Monday, the I3th of July, with the assent of the Government ; but last night the subject came up again in the House, upon an explanation made by Mr. Layard, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, of which I enclose a report, in a slip from the London Times. This gentleman more elaborately and pointedly denied the statements of the Emperor, as stated by Mr. Roebuck. The matter charged (in so much of it as referred to alleged betrayal, by the Government here to that at Washing ton, of communications from France touching American affairs), was erroneously conceived by the Under Secretary. He referred it to the late communication from France containing proposals for an armistice, mediation, etc. ; whereas, the complaint made by the Emperor went back to a period antecedent to April, 1862; and was made by him in conversations then held both with Mr. Slidell and Mr. Lindsay. I find it thus referred to in my No. 8 of April 2 ist, 1862 reporting what passed between Mr. Lindsay and the Emperor on the i8th of that month, viz : That Earl Russell had dealt unfairly in sending to Lord Lyons his previous propositions to England in regard to action on the blockade, who had made them known to Mr. Seward; and this latter was an insuperable objection to his again communicating officially at London, touching American affairs, until he knew England was in accord/ " Mr. Lindsay, who is au fait in the whole matter, will doubt- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. less present the true issue when the debate is resumed on the I3th. The Under Secretary, as you will see, also reiterated the denial that any communication had been recently received from the Emperor; in which denial, he said the Foreign Office was backed by Baron Gros, the French Ambassador. These collat eral issues are used in Parliament only to damage the ministry, though, if established, we may have the incidental benefit. " The Paris correspondent of the Times, who is generally considered accurate, in his letter published this morning says, that private letters from Madrid inform him that the Spanish Government had been sounded on the question of recognition, with an intimation, if Spain was ready, she should have the sup port of France. This latter power would seem to be playing a complicated diplomatic game ; but under what form of policy, I am not skillful enough to divine. " I have, etc., "J. M. MASON." Circular referred to in last dispatch : GENERAL THOMAS J. (STONEWALL) JACKSON. Two continents, both friend and foe, combine to mourn the premature death of General Jackson, hero and Christian. Two years have been sufficient to create a fame which has won the kindly respect of enemies and the admiration of the Old World, which twenty-four months since was ignorant of his ex istence. " It has been suggested that some general recognition from Great Britain of the worth of such a man, by name, by race, and by character related to us, although the citizen of another land, would be a graceful token of friendly feeling from the old country to our kinsmen across the Atlantic. The eminent sculptor, J. H. Foley, Esq., R. A., has under taken to execute a marble statue, heroic size, of the General for 1,000 while 500 may be required for pedestal, inscription, and other extras. "Accordingly, for 1,500 a complete statue of Stonewall Jackson, by one of our most distinguished sculptors, may be prepared for transmission to his native country when the unhappy LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. war shall have ceased. Towards raising this sum, the sub scriptions of our countrymen and countrywomen are earnestly solicited. Central and local committees, with auxiliary ladies committees, are being formed to collect the necessary funds. " The undersigned will gladly receive subscriptions until final arrangements are made, and an account has been opened for General Jackson s statue, at Messrs. Coutts & Company, Strand, London, W. C. " N. B. It is not at all intended that subscriptions to this statue should imply any opinion on the merits of the American struggle. They will be taken solely and simply as a recognition of the rare personal merit of General Jackson. [COMMITTEE:] A. J. B. BERESFORD HOPE, ESQ., SIR JAMES FERGUSSON, BART., M. P. LORD CAMPBELL, W. H. GREGORY, ESQ., M. P., SIR COUTTS LINDSAY, BART., G. PEACOCK, ESQ., W. LINDSAY, ESQ., M. P., G. E. SEYMOUR, ESQ., SIR E. KERRISON, BART., M. P., LORD EUSTACE CECIL, HON. EARNEST DUNCOMBE, M. P., HON. C. FITZWILLIAM, J. LAIRD, M. P., J. SPENCE, ESQ. EARL OF DONOUGHMORE, SIR EARDLEY EARDLEY, BART, COLONEL GREVILLE, M. P., A. J. B. BERESFORD HOPE, ESQ., i Connaught Place, Hon. Treasurer. W. H. GREGORY, ESQ., M. P., 19 Grovesnor Street, W., Hon. Secretary. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. DISPATCH No. 42. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, July loth, 1863. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I enclose copies of the communications to Earl Rus sell, dated respectively the 4th and 6th of July the first contain ing the newspaper slip of your dispatch of the 6th of June re ferred to in my No. 41, with the reply of Lord Russell acknowl edging its receipt the second, transmitting to him the protest of the master and crew of the Confederate steamer Margaret and Jessie/ :< There has been no further debate on Mr. Roebuck s motion since the date of my last ; but the imbroglio which then presented itself on the French question, to which I referred, has been somewhat solved by the enclosed slip (translated) from the Moniteur of the 4th instant. The debate stands adjourned to Monday next, the I3th instant. In a note from Mr. Slidell, dated yesterday, he says: As regards what was said of recogni tion by the Emperor, I am satisfied that he has kept his promise in good faith. Either the Minister of Foreign Affairs, or Baron Gros, or both, have failed to carry out his instructions or Messrs. Russell and Layard have asserted what is false. Perhaps Lord Palmerston may have received the communication and failed to inform his colleagues of the fact. The House of Commons is, manifestly, much agitated by the entanglement around the ques tion, as it rests since the last debate ; and I think it not improb able that some new phase of it may be presented before closing this dispatch to-morrow. I am assured from every quarter, and such is the result of my own observation, that four-fifths of the House of Commons is with us ; but as parties stand there be tween the Ministry and the Opposition, it is thought, if Roebuck s motion should go to a vote, it would be rejected. " We are anxiously awaiting the steamer, due to-morrow, by which we confidently expect something definite from General Lee s movements into Maryland and Pennsylvania. "JULY nth. The debate on Roebuck s motion was re sumed last night. I send it to you as reported in the Times of this morning. As you are aware, Sir James Fcrgusson, who 432 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. appealed to Mr. Roebuck to consent to a postponement of the debate, is one of the earliest and most earnest friends of the cause of the South ; and it was a good sign that Lord Palmerston immediately united with Sir James in this appeal. The occasion was further marked, too, by the admission of Lord Palmerston that the opinions of the French Emperor were well known (an admission never hitherto made by the Ministry), and that Eng land was now ready to interchange views with France on the American question. To be sure, Lord Palmerston made the admission in a manner qualified, designedly, to take from its force. Still, it is a great step gained. You will see from the general tenor of the debate, that our friends who spoke were all in favor of the adjournment with our adversaries against it. " The great movements of General Lee, which have just reached us, had much to do with influencing the opinions of our friends in favor of postponement. The holding-back on the part of Roebuck and Lindsay was designed only to bring the Premier, if possible, to a more full committal. " Our reports from the North by telegraph from Queenstown are to the ist of July instant. They would seem to indicate that Lee is perfectly master of the field of his operations both in Maryland and in Pennsylvania; and that Washington must speedily fall, with Baltimore as accessory, into his possession. Should this be realized before Parliament adjourns, I do not think the Ministry would hold out against recognition ; or, if they did, I think the House of Commons would overrule them. It is ex pected that Parliament will adjourn about the first week in August. " I have the honor, etc., "J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No 24. "From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J.M. Mason, Commis sioner Confederate States to England. 11 DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, 6th June, 1863. " SIR : Herewith you will receive copies of the following papers : " A. Letter of George Moore, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty s LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Consul in Richmond, to this Department, dated i6th February, 1863. " B. Letter from the Secretary of State to Consul Moore, 2Oth February, 1863. " C. Letters patent by the President, revoking the ex equatur of Consul Moore, 5th June, 1863. " D. Letter enclosing to Consul Moore a copy of the letters patent revoking- his exequatur. " It is deemed proper to inform you that this action of the President was influenced in no small degree by the communica tion to him of an unofficial letter of Consul Moore to which I shall presently refer. " It appears that two persons named Moloney and Farrell who were enrolled as conscripts in our service claimed exemption on the ground that they were British subjects, and Consul Moore, in order to avoid the difficulty which prevented his cor responding with this Department as set forth in the paper B. addressed himself directly to the Secretary of War, who was ignorant of the request made by this Department for the pro duction of the Consul s commission. The Secretary of War ordered an investigation of the facts, when it became apparent that the two men had exercised the right of suffrage in this State, thus debarring themselves of all pretext for denying their citizenship; that both had resided here for eight years, and had settled on and were cultivating farms owned by themselves. You will find annexed the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Edgar, marked E., and it is difficult to conceive a case presenting stronger proofs of the renunciation of native allegiance, and of the acquisition of de facto citizenship, than are found in that report. It is in relation to such a case that it has seemed proper to Consul Moore to denounce the Government of the Confeder ate States to one of its own citizens as being indifferent to cases of the most atrocious cruelty. A copy of his letter to the counsel of the two men is annexed, marked F. " The earnest desire of this Government is to entertain amicable relations with all nations, and with none do its interests invite the formation of closer ties than with Great Britain. Although feeling aggrieved that the Government of Her Majesty has pursued a policy, which according to the confessions of Earl LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Russell himself, has increased the disparity of strength which he considers to exist between the belligerents, and has conferred signal advantage on our enemies in a war in which Great Britain announces herself to be really and not nominally neutral, the President has not deemed it necessary to interpose any obstacle to the continued residence of British Consuls within the Con federacy by virtue of exequaturs granted by the former Govern ment. His course has been consistently guided by the principles which underlie the whole structure of our Government. The State of Virginia having delegated to the Government of the United States by the Constitution of 1787, the power of controlling its foreign relations, became bound by the action of that Govern ment in its grant of an exequatur to Consul Moore. When Vir ginia seceded, withdrew the powers delegated to the Government of the United States, and conferred them on this Government, the exequatur granted to Consul Moore was not thereby in validated. An act done by an agent while duly authorized con tinues to bind the principal after the revocation of the agent s authority. " On these grounds the President has hitherto steadily re sisted all influences which have been exerted to induce him to exact of foreign consuls that they should ask for an exequatur from the Government as a condition of the continued exercise of their functions. It was not deemed compatible with the dignity of the Government to extort, by enforcing the withdrawal of national protection from neutral residents, such inferential recog nition of its -independence as might be supposed to be implied in the request for an exequatur. The consuls of foreign nations therefore, established within the Confederacy, who were in the possession of an exequatur issued by the Government of the United States prior to the formation of the Confederacy, have been maintained and respected in the exercise of their respective functions, and the same respect and protection will be accorded to them in the future so long as they confine themselves to the sphere of their duties and seek neither to evade nor defy the legitimate authority of this Government within its own jurisdic tion. " There has grown up an abuse, however, the result of this tolerance on the part of the President, which is too serious to be LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 435. longer allowed. Great Britain has deemed it for her interest to refuse acknowledging the patent fact of the existence of this Con federacy as an independent nation. It is scarcely to be expected that we should, by our own conduct, imply assent to the justice or propriety of that refusal. " Now, the British Minister accredited to the Government of our enemies assumes the power to issue instructions to, and exercise authority over the consuls of Great Britain residing within this country: nay, even to appoint agents to supervise British interests in the Confederate States. This course of conduct plainly ignores the existence of this Government, and implies the continuance of the relations between that Minister and the Consuls of Her Majesty resident within the Confederacy which existed prior to withdrawal of these States from the Union. " It is further the assertion of a right on the part of Lord Lyons by virtue of his credentials as Her Majesty s Minister at Washington to exercise the power and authority of a minister accredited to Richmond, and officially received as such by the President. Under these circumstances and because of similar action by other ministers, the President has felt it his duty to order that no direct communication be permitted between the consuls of neutral nations in the Confederacy and the function aries of those nations residing within the enemy s country. All communications therefore, between her Majesty s Consuls or consular agents in the Confederacy and foreign countries whether neutral or hostile, will hereafter be restricted to vessels arriving from or dispatched for neutral ports. The President has the less reluctance in imposing this restriction because of the ample facilities for correspondence which are now afforded by the fleets of Confederate and neutral steamships engaged in reg ular trade between neutral countries and the Confederate ports. This trade is daily increasing, in spite of the paper blockade which is upheld by Her Majesty s Government in disregard, as the President conceives, of the dictates of public law and of the duties of impartial neutrality. " You are instructed by the President to furnish a copy of this dispatch with a copy of the papers appended, to Her Majesty s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. " Your obedient servant, "J. P. BENJAMIN." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. DISPATCH No. 25. " From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commis sioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, "RICHMOND, nth June, 1863. " SIR : Since my No. 24 of 6th inst., further information has reached the Department illustrating most forcibly the neces sity for the action taken by the President on the subject of Her Britannic Majesty s Consuls resident within the Confederacy as explained in that dispatch. " On the 1 8th May, Mr. Cridland, who had occasion-ally acted as Consul in Richmond during temporary absences of Consul Moore, sought an interview at the Department, and on being admitted called my attention to an article in the Richmond Whig of that date which announced that Mr. Cridland was about to depart for Mobile with the commission of Consul, and that he was accredited to Mr. Lincoln, not to this Government. Mr. Cridland assured me that the statement was erroneous, that he was going to Mobile as a private individual, unofficially, to look after certain interests of the British Government that had been left unprotected by the withdrawal of Consul Magee. He further stated that as he was going there unofficially he had not con ceived that there was any impropriety in doing so without com municating his intenton to the Department and hoped that such was my own view of the matter. I informed him that all neutral residents were at liberty to travel within the Confederacy and to transact their business without other restriction than such as the military authorities found it necessary to impose for the public safety, and that this Department saw no reason to interpose any objection to his going to Mobile to transact business unofficially. He then said that he had called at the office of the Whig to make a similar explanation to the editor of that paper with a view to the correction of the erroneous impression created by its article, and accordingly on the next day, an article appeared in that journal announcing that it had received the assurance from Mr. Cridland that he was going to Mobile to look after British in terests In that quarter in an unofficial way and that he was LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. without commission from the Queen or exequatur from Wash ington/ " I was therefore quite surprised at receiving from the Sec retary of the Navy official communication of a telegram received by him from Admiral Buchanan informing the Secretary that Mr. Cridland had been officially introduced to him by the French Consul as acting English Consul at Mobile and had shown the Admiral an official document signed by Lord Lyons appointing him acting English Consul at Mobile/ I append copies of this telegram and of the two articles above referred to extracted from the Richmond Whig. " These, however, are not the only exceptionable features which mark this affair. Other circumstances to which your attention is invited have been brought to the notice of tEe De partment by official communications from the Governor of Alabama. " On the nth November last, the bank of Mobile as agent for the State of Alabama addressed a communication to Consul Magee at Mobile informing him that the State would owe during the ensuing year to British subjects interest coupons on the State bonds, to the amount of some forty thousand pounds sterling; that this interest was payable in London at the Union Bank and at the Counting House of the Messrs. Rothschild, and request ing to know whether the bank would be allowed to place in the hands of the Consul, in coin, the sum necessary, for transmission to England at the expense of the State for the purpose men tioned. " On- the I4th November, Consul Magee replied that he had sent to Her Britannic Majesty s Consul at New Orleans to ask if Her Majesty s steamship Rinaldo could not be sent to Mobile to receive the specie and take it to Havana to be for warded thence by the Consul-General of Great Britain to London. " The specie was not conveyed by the Rinaldo but by Her Majesty s ship Vesuvius/ and was accompanied by a certificate of the president of the bank stating that the remittance of the thirty-one kegs of specie containing each five thousand dollars, together $155,000, is for the purpose of paying dues to British subjects from the State of Alabama, and is the property and be longs to the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty/ 438 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " The shipment was accompanied by a letter addressed by the bank, as agent of the State of Alabama, to W. W. Scrimge- our, Esq., manager of the Union Bank of London, directing its appropriation to the payment of the interest due to British and other foreign holders of the State bonds, with a statement of the dates at which the several instalments of the interest would be come due and of the places in London where they were to be paid. " So little doubt seems to have been entertained of the pro priety of this transaction by all that were engaged in it, that the Vesuvius informed the commander of the United States block ading squadron that the British Consul had money to send by him, and no objection or protest was made. Among the papers annexed you will find the account given by Commodore Hitch cock himself of his conversation with the commander of the Vesuvius written after the dismissal of Consul Magee, and therefore at the period when the Commodore could certainly have no motive for giving a coloring to his narrative adverse to what was then known to be the views of his Government on the subject. " Under these circumstances, the Vesuvius received and conveyed the specie which has since been received in England, and, as stated in the public journals, paid in whole or in part to British subjects, thus establishing the bona fides of the conduct of all the parties to the transaction. " It now appears that no sooner was the intention of mak ing this remittance communicated to Her Britannic Majesty s Minister in Washington than he took active measures -to prevent it by sending dispatches to Mobile forbidding the shipment. They, however, failed to arrive before the departure of the Vesuvius with the specie, whereupon Consul Magee was dis missed from office for receiving and forwarding it, and the vacancy thus created in the office of the British Consul at Mobile was filled by Lord Lyons by the issue of a commission to Mr. Cridland and his departure for Mobile under the circumstances already explained. These facts are of a character so grave as to have attracted the earnest attention of the President, and it is my duty to apprise you of the conclusions at which he has arrived, in order that you may lose no time in laying them before LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Her Majesty s Government, in the hope that a renewed examina tion of the subject and a knowledge of the serious complications which the present anomalous relations between the two Gov ernments may involve, will induce the British Cabinet to review its whole policy connected with these relations and to place them on the sole footing consistent with accomplished facts that are too notorious and too firmly established to be much longer ignored. " By the principles of the modern public code, debts due by a State are not subject to the operation of the laws of war, and are considered so sacred as to be beyond the reach of confisca tion. An attempt at such confiscation woufd be reprobated by mankind. The United States alone in modern times have courted such reprobation, and just detestation has been uni versally expressed of their confiscation laws passed during the pending war. The Government of Great Britain, on the contrary, has at all times manifested its abhorrence of such breaches of public faith, and in the Crimean war gave to the world a memo rable example of its own high regard for public honor by paying over to its enemy money which it well knew would be immediately employed in waging hostilities against itself. The States of this Confederacy are emulous of examples of honor. And they ac cordingly refrained, on the breaking out of hostilities, from even the temporary sequestration of the dividends of their public debt due to their enemies. It was not until they had received notice of the confiscation law passed by the United States on the 6th August, 1861, that they consented to the temporary sequestration of the property of their enemies, and even then the sequestration was declared to be for the sole purpose of securing a fund to indemnify the sufferers under the confiscation law of the United States. The following clause of our law, exempting public debts from its operation, is extracted as a proof of the sacred regard for public faith manifested by these States under strong tempta tion to retaliate, and under all the exasperation of the savage warfare then actually waged against them : Provided further, That the provisions of this act shall not extend to the stocks or public securities of the Confederate Government, or of any of the States of this Confederacy, held or owned by any alien enemy, or to any debt, obligation or sum due from the Confederate Gov- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ernment or any of the States to such alien enemies/ (Sequestra tion Law of Confederate States, passed 3<Dth August, 1861.) " Such being the obligations imposed on States in regard to the payment of public debts towards even their enemies, no deeper reproach can stain their name than the refusal to do justice to mutual creditors. The observance of plighted public faith con cerns mankind at large ; in it all nations have a common interest, and the belligerent who perverts the weapons of legitimate war fare into an instrumentality for forcing his enemy to dishonor his obligations and incur the reproach of being faithless to his engagements, wages a piratical and not an honorable warfare, and becomes hosfis generis humani. Public honor is held sacred by international law against the attack of the most malevolent foe, and as susceptible of loss only by the recreancy of its possessor. " What possible lawful interest could the United States liave in preventing the remittance of the specie due to the credi tors of the State of Alabama ? Blockades are allowed by the law -of nations as a means of enforcing the submission of an enemy by the destruction of his commerce, the exhaustion of his re sources, and consequent forced abandonment of the struggle. The remittance of the specie in the present case, far from retarding these legitimate objects, tended, on the contrary, to promote them by the diversion of the money from application to military purposes. The United States could not have desired that the specie should remain within the Confederacy save with one or two motives : First, to dishonor the State of Alabama by giving color to the reproach that it was regardless of public faith, and on this, comment has already been made; or, secondly, in the hope that by the fortunes of war the money would come within the reach of spoliation under its confiscation law. It is scarcely necessary to observe that the desire to enrich itself by plunder at the expense of neutral creditors is as little consonant with respect for public law and the rights of neutrals, as the purpose forcibly to prevent the State of Alabama from redeeming its plighted faith. " Whatever may be the value to which these views may be justly entitled, it is certain that there are but few aspects in which the State of Alabama can be regarded by Her Majesty s Gov ernment. Alabama is either one of the States of the former LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^ 7 Union engaged in armed rebellion against the legitimate authority of the United States, or is an independent State, and a member of the Confederacy engaged in lawful war against the United States. An examination of the effect of either of these relations upon the facts connected with the dismissal of Consul Magee and the appointment of Mr. Cridland, will now be presented in vindication of the action which the President deems it his duty to take on this subject. " i. If the British Government think proper to assume (although the contrary is deemed by this Government to be fully established by convincing reason and victorious arms) that the State of Alabama is still one of the United States, then the Gov ernment of the United States is bound, towards Great Britain as well as to all other neutral nations, to render all legitimate aid in the collection of their just claims against that State. Although by the Constitution of the United States, its Government may be without power to enforce the payment of a debt due to foreign subjects or powers by an unwilling State, none can doubt its duty to interpose no obstruction to the payment of such debt ; and no more legitimate ground of complaint could be afforded to Great Britain against the Government of the United States than an opposition made by that Government to the payment of a just debt due by Alabama to the subjects of Great Britain. In this aspect of the case, the British officials at Mobile were doing a duty which ought to have been equally acceptable both to the United States and Great Britain when they facilitated the trans mission of funds by that State for that purpose to England, where the debt was made payable, and merited applause rather than a manifestation of displeasure. " 2. If, on the contrary, the State of Alabama be regarded (as in right and fact she really is) an independent State engaged in war against the United States as a foreign enemy, then the Presi dent can not refrain from observing that the action of Her Britan nic Majesty s Minister at Washington savored, on this occasion, rather of unfriendly cooperation with an enemy, than of just observance of neutral obligations. For in this view of the case, a Minister accredited to the Government of our enemies has not only assumed the exercise of authority within this Confederacy without the knowledge or consent of its Government, but has done 442 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. so under circumstances that rather aggravate than palliate the offense of disregarding its sovereign rights. His action further conveys the implication that the Confederacy is subordinate to the United States, and that his credentials addressed to the Gov ernment at Washington justify his ignoring the existence of this Government and his regarding these States as an appendage of the country to which he is accredited. Nor will Her Majesty s Government fail to perceive that in no sense can it be considered consonant with the rights of this Government, or with neutral obligations, that a public Minister should be maintained near the Cabinet of our enemies charged both with the duty of entertain ing amicable relations with them, and with the power of control ling the conduct of British officials resident with us. " Nor will the application of the foregoing remarks be at all impaired if Her Majesty s Government, declining to determine the true relation of the State of Alabama to the United States, cfioose to consider that question as still in abeyance and to regard that State as simply a belligerent whose ulterior status must await the event of the war. In this hypothesis, the objection to dele gating authority over British officials residing with us, to a Min ister charged with the duty of rendering himself acceptable to our enemies, is still graver than would exist in the case of hos tile nations equally recognized as independent by a neutral power. For in the latter case, the parties would have equal ability to vindicate their rights through the usual channels of official inter course, whereas in the former the belligerent which enjoys ex clusively this advantage is armed by the neutral with additional power to inflict injury on his enemy. " The President has, in the facts already recited, seen re newed reasons for adhering to his determination mentioned in my preceding dispatch of prohibiting any direct communication between Consuls or Consular Agents residing within the Con federacy and the functionaries of their Governments residing amongst our enemies. He further indulges the hope (which Her Majesty s Government can not but regard as reasonable and which he is therefore confident will be justified by its action) that Her Majesty s Government will chose some other mode of trans mitting its orders and exercising authority over its agents within the Confederacy than by delegating to functionaries who reside LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. among our enemies the powers to give orders or instructions to those who reside among us. " Finally, and in order to prevent any further misunderstand ing in Mr. Cridland s case, that gentleman has been informed that he can not be permitted to exercise Consular functions at Mobile, and it has been intimated to him that his choice of some other State than Alabama for his residence would be agreeable to this Government. This intimation has been given in order to avoid any difficulty which might result from the doubtful position of Mr. Cridland, who is looked on here as a private individual and who in Alabama represents himself as Acting English Consul/ " The President is confident Her Majesty s Government will render full justice to the motives by which these measures are prompted, and will perceive in them a manifestation of the earn est desire entertained by him to prevent the possibility of any unfortunate complications having a tendency to impair the amity which it is equally the interest and the desire of this Government to cherish with that of Great Britain. " The President wishes a copy of this dispatch to be placed by you in the hands of Earl Russell. " I am, sir, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN, " Secretary of State." DISPATCH No. 26. " From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commis sioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, June I2th, 1863. " SIR : I append copies of two letters of Earl Russell on the subject of the prisoner Hester, enclosed by Mr. Moore to this Department. " You are requested to inform his Lordship that this Gov ernment will be prepared to receive the prisoner at any port of the Confederacy where he may be delivered, and that in the event of a refusal on the part of the United States to consent to the pas sage of the Shannon through the blockade, we will send a naval officer of the Confederacy to Bermuda, charged with LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. authority to receive the prisoner and bring him into one of our ports on a vessel of the Confederate Government. " You will be pleased to renew to Her Majesty s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the expression of the thanks of this Government for his considerate attention in the matter. " I am, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, "J. P. BENJAMIN." Copy of letter from Earl Russell to Consul Moore: " FOREIGN OFFICE, May 2d, 1863. " SIR : I have to acquaint you, in reply to your dispatch No. 14, of the 1 7th of February, that arrangements are in progress for transferring to Bermuda for present custody, the prisoner charged with having committed a murder on board the Confederate steamer Sumter, at Gibraltar, and that as soon as the consent of the Government of the United States has been obtained, for the passage through the blockade of Her Majesty s ship, in which the prisoner will be embarked, he will be sent to a port in the pos session of the Confederates, for delivery to the local authorities. " I am, of course, unable now to say to what port the prisoner will eventually be sent, but you should arrange for his being re ceived by the Confederate authorities at whatever port the ship conveying him may arrive. " I am, etc., " RUSSELL." " FOREIGN OFFICE, May i5th, 1863. " SIR : With reference to my dispatch No. 5, of the 2d inst, I have to acquaint you that I have been informed by the Board of Admiralty that Her Majesty s ship Shannon left Gibraltar on the 5th instant for Bermuda, having on board Mr. Hester, the prisoner charged with the murder of the commanding officer of the Confederate steamer Sumter/ " I am, etc., " RUSSELL. " G. Moore, Esq." In his dispatch No. 43, of the 6th of August, Mr. Mason wrote : " The hopes and expectations of our friends in Europe LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. have been much depressed by the late intelligence from the South, one marked effect of which has been on the Loan, quoted yester day as low as 30 per cent, discount. I am informed, however, by Mr. McRae, the Treasury agent here, that arrangements had been previously fully completed to make the whole proceeds of the loan available, as stipulated in the contract, of which he has doubt less informed the Secretary of the Treasury. " The engagements of the Government here, present and prospective, both for the army and navy, it is very manifest will require much larger sums than will be derived from the loan, and I would earnestly suggest that arrangements should be per fected as speedily as possible, by means of fast steamers, for bring ing out cotton on Government account (as is now done to some extent) to Nassau and Bermuda. When there it could be made immediately available here by insurance. The fortunes of the late loan, I think, will preclude any other for the present." Dispatch No. 44, dated the 4th of September, said : " The copy of Hansard s Debates, directed to be purchased by your No. 27, will go off to Bermuda, via Halifax, to-morrow in the steamer bearing this dispatch, sent to N. S. Walker, Esq., com mercial agent, to whom I have written, with instructions to for ward it. Your instructions for a continuing subscription by the Department of State have been executed, but I regret the volumes could not be lettered in time for their departure. I hope they may safely reach you. The books previously sent went to Bermuda, via Halifax, a month ago. " In regard to the transmission of my dispatches, they are now sent regularly by the British mail, either to Bermuda or Nassau. " I shall be happy to receive the appeal to the justice of neutral powers on the subject of the blockade, proposed in your No. 27. The correspondence with Earl Russell, I fear, will show that little impression can be expected to be produced on this Gov ernment, at least, on the subject of the blockade. You will find that I laid before him evidence of the arrival of one hundred and two vessels at the port of Nassau, alone, from blockaded ports, within less than a year, terminating on the 2d June last ; in reply to which he merely says that Her Majesty s Government see no reason to alter their opinion as to the efficiency of the block- 446 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ade, etc. I think that I expressed the opinion in former dis patches that this Government did not intend to treat the text of the Convention of Paris (although a party to the Convention) as the law of blockade binding on it, but would resort to evasions, however palpable, to justify its violation on their part. " I regret that I did not see Lieutenant Capston, spoken of in your No. 29 as sent by the Department to Ireland. He re mained, it appears, but a day or two in London, where he saw Mr. Hotze, to whom he was referred, and then proceeded on his mis sion. There being a recess in public affairs at this season of the year, I availed myself of it to pay a visit to Ireland of a fortnight, whence I returned about the time Lieutenant Capston went there. His mission may be of value in obtaining information as to the manner in which emigrants are induced to go to the United States, and thus, possibly, furnish the means of counter-movement on our part ; but I should doubt whether he could make much impres sion upon the emigrating class in endeavors to enlighten them as to the true character of the war. Such seems the ignorant and des titute condition of most of that class that the temptation of a little ready money and promise of good wages would lead them to go anywhere. In regard to this emigration, I could learn only that it was going on largely, chiefly to New York, and under the inducements offered by Northern emissaries, but always under the guise that they were wanted for work on railroads or as farm hands. Whatever aid I can render to give efficiency in the accom plishment of this mission shall be fully extended. " Our loan, as you will have seen, sustained a sudden and great fall on the intelligence of our reverses on the Mississippi and General Lee s return to Virginia. These incidents of the war have had a most depressing effect on the barometer of the Stock Exchange, and it can not be denied that they produce doubt and uncertainty in regard to our affairs on the public mind ; yet the considerate and settled judgment of intelligent men remains, that reunion or reconstruction is a thing impossible. Perhaps the best index of opinion of that character is found in the Times, and in this connection, I send an extract from its impressions of to-day, being a succinct reply to the late elaborate manifesto addressed by Mr. Seward to his foreign Consuls on the subject of the War. The opinion seems general now that the war will LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. continue, at least, during the present Federal Administration, and which I have great fears may be well founded. It may drag on more heavily than hitherto from want of men, but I think the late manifestations in New York evince that the State Government there has succumbed to the Federal military power. " From recent events in Mexico I am again hopeful that France may be compelled to take a position of value to us. The in dications now are, and such seems the tone of the Continental press, that Russia w r ill so far modify her policy in regard to Poland as to remove all apprehension of war with the Western Powers. This will much disembarrass the Emperor ; and as soon as the Empire becomes an accomplished fact, or, in advance of that, when such Empire is determined upon and avowed on the part of France, there must arise, it appears to me, unamicable relations between that country and the United States. What form they will first assume may be problematical, but the advantage to result to us is inevitable. " You have not adverted in your dispatches to the views of the President as to the policy it may become us to pursue in the event, now at hand, of monarchy established in Mexico by France. Would it not be well that such policy should be defined, and put in possession of Mr. Slidell and myself? Looking on at this distance, and in view of what has happened in our own coun try, and what may be yet in store for us in the South when, even after peace, we must have for years a licentious and irre sponsible mob Government as our neighbor in the North, it would seem to me of no little moment to have France, through its inter ests in Mexico, as our ally against it. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 45. " CONFEDERATE STATES COMMISSION, " LONDON, September 5th, 1863. " PI on. I. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : It is very manifest from what comes before me here, that there are already existing and prospective demands by the Government for money in Europe very far exceeding the avails of the late loan. Correspondence between officers here and their 448 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. respective departments at home show that exchange there is exhausted or to be had only in small sums at 5 or 6 for one. The quotations yesterday for our loan were at 28 per cent, dis count, and its late fluctuations fully establish that its fortunes vary with the varying fortunes of the war. I think it would be unwise, therefore, to look at present to a future loan in Europe. :t The success of those engaged in running the blockade, and who bring out cotton in exchange for their inward cargoes, I am told, has already made that article scarce on the seaboard. I am aware that the War Department and, perhaps, the Navy, have commenced, in a limited way, to send out cotton to meet demands upon them here, and done it successfully, though far below the demands upon them. " In a conversation last night with Mr. McRae, the Treasury agent for the loan, he told me that he had recently written to the Secretary of the Treasury, strongly urging that the Govern ment should take the whole subject of the export of cotton and running the blockade into its own hands. I do not know that better or more skillful counsels in this matter could be had than from that gentleman. Besides being an earnest patriot, he is well versed in everything pertaining to the export of cotton. The ex perience of private enterprise seems to have adjusted trade through the blockade in such manner as to have removed much of the risk and expense. Supplies are sent from here in sailing vessels as English property, bona fide, and thence transshipped to the coast in fast sailing steamers of small draught, and they bring out cotton as return cargoes. I can see nothing to prevent the Government taking this whole business into its exclusive hands, and when the cotton is placed in one of the islands, its value is available here at once, without further risk. Under the control of a separate bureau, and in charge of naval officers, it must work well. If the war is prolonged, besides supplying all the wants of the Gov ernment in Europe at a cost cheapened by the absence of the immoderate profits now reaped by private enterprise, it would bring down exchange, and thus have an important influence in strengthening our currency at home ; besides, its effect upon our credit in Europe, when results were attained, would be of immense importance in a political view. " As things are conducted at present, through private chan- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. nels, there is little doubt that the enemy shares largely in the profits of running the blockade, as evinced, amongst other things, by the large shipments of cotton made to New York from the West Indian Islands. " I have been so strongly impressed by our increasing wants here, with the importance of this matter, that I venture thus to submit it to the consideration of the Government. " I have the honor to be, etc. " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 30. RECEIVED SEPTEMBER 14, 1863. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, August 4th, 1863. " Hon. James M. Mason, " Commissioner of the Confederate States, "London, England. " SIR : The perusal of the recent debates in the British Par liament satisfies the President that the Government of Her Majesty has determined to decline the overtures made through you for establishing, by treaty, friendly relations between the two Governments, and entertains no intentions of receiving you as the accredited Minister of this Government near the British Court. " Under these circumstances, your continued residence in London is neither conducive to the interests nor consistent with the dignity of this Government, and the President therefore re quests that you consider your mission at an end, and that you withdraw, with your secretary, from London. " In arriving at this conclusion, it gives me pleasure to say that the President is entirely satisfied with your own conduct of the delicate mission confided to you, and that it is in no want of proper effort on your part that the necessity for your recall has originated. " If you find that it is in accordance with usage, to give notice of your intended withdrawal to Earl Russell, you will, of course, conform to precedent in that respect. " Your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN, " Secretary of State." 450 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. PRIVATE. " Hon. James M. Mason. " DEAR SIR : The President desires me to say to you that, while the instructions contained in my No. 30, herewith forwarded, purport to be unconditional, he does not desire that you should consider yourself precluded from the exercise of all discretion on the subject, in the event of any marked or decisive change in the policy of the British Cabinet before your receipt of the dispatch. " Although no such change is anticipated, it is not deemed prudent to ignore altogether its possibility, and it is in this view of the case that discretion is left you as to your action. " In the absence of some important and marked change of conduct on the part of Great Britain, however, the President desires that your action on the instructions in No. 30 be as prompt as convenient. " I am, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN, " Secretary of State." DISPATCH No. 31. " DEPARTMENT -OF STATE, " RICHMOND, August i7th. "Hon. James M. Mason, " Commissioner of Confederate States: " SIR : I have the honor to forward duplicate of my No. 30, of the 4th instant. I should have mentioned in that dispatch that the President deems the best mode of disposing of the archives of your mission will be to deposit them with Mr. Slidell, until our relations with Great Britain can be placed on a footing satisfactory to this Government. It would be well, also, that you should inform our officers in England that whenever at a loss how to act in the business confided to them by the several departments, it is expected by the President that they will con sult Mr. Slidell with the same freedom as they have heretofore consulted with you. " In the matter of the Seal of the Confederacy, and some other small affairs which you have been good enough to put in train for the Department, I suppose Mr. Hotze can take your in- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASOX. structions about terminating them. You may, however, confide them to another person at your choice if you have any reason for preferring not to entrust them to Mr. Hotze. " I have received your dispatches down to No. 41 inclusive (with the exception of Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8), but deem it scarcely necessary, under the circumstances, to reply to them in detail. " We have as yet no news of the books purchased, and for which you enclosed a bill. " Your letters for Mrs. Mason have been handed to her. I am happy to inform you that all your family are well. " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, "]. P. BENJAMIN." DISPATCH No. 46. " LONDON, September 25th, 1863. "Hon. J. P. Benjamin, "Secretary of State. " SIR : Your No. 30, of the 4th August last, with your private note of the same date, reached me on the I4th of Septem ber instant. Having seen no evidence of any probable change in the policy of the British Government in regard to recognition, which was the only contingency expressed in the private note, on which I should exercise discretion in carrying into effect the instructions contained in your No. 30, I was prepared at once to notify Her Majesty s Government of the termination of this mis sion. Still, as Mr. Slidell and I had always freely conferred before taking any step of importance in our respective positions, I thought it best to defer any action until consultation with him. His absence in Biarritz delayed his reply to my letter until the 1 9th instant. He fully agreed with me that there appeared noth ing, present or in prospect, to be expected from this Govern ment which could affect the limited discretion given in your private note, and we both agreed in the propriety and soundness of the policy embodied in your instructions to terminate this mis sion, and to withdraw, with the Secretary of the Commission, from London. I accordingly, on Monday last (the 2ist instant), addressed to Earl Russell the note of which I have the honor to transmit a copy herewith, which was delivered the same day at the Foreign Office. I have, as yet, had no reply, but Lord Russell 452 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. was then, I understand, and yet remains, absent in Scotland. I hope the form given to this note will meet with your approval. It quotes from the dispatch the reasons assigned for the termina tion of the mission ; and to bring them before the British and European public, I deemed it proper to publish the note in the Index, the reputed organ of Southern interests. It appeared there in its issue of yesterday, and this morning was generally copied by the daily press, with various comments. " It is difficult to say, in advance, what effect may be pro duced upon the public mind in England by this decided act of our Government; nor should I anticipate its having any effect on ministerial counsels. It is not unlikely that some prejudice may result to the many and large interests of our Government now pending in this country, from the absence of a responsible head to solve the difficulties or assume responsibilities. Still, as a measure of dignified and becoming policy, I am satisfied of the entire wisdom in which it is founded. " I shall be prepared to leave London in the course of a very few days, and at the suggestion of Mr. Slidell, shall go to Paris, where he will again be about the ist of October. Should there be anything further to communicate, I will write to you again by mail to Bermuda, leaving on the 3d of October. This goes in the closed mail to Nassau. " The Record Book and Archives shall be deposited with Mr. Slidell. Other property belonging to the Commission, con sisting of two desks for papers, books, etc., shall be placed in safe hands here, and accurate lists, together with information of the place of deposit, be transmitted to the Department. Notice shall be given to the officers of the Government in England, as you direct, to consult Mr. Slidell in matters pertaining to their mis sions. " The preparations of the devices for the Seal, I have already placed in charge of Mr. Foley, R. N., probably the most eminent sculptor in England, and will take care that it is promptly attended to. " I was surprised to learn that you had not received, so late as yours of iyth August, the parcel of books first sent, and of which you had received the bill. As directed by you, they were sent to Messrs. Eraser, Trenholm and Company, at Liverpool, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. addressed to Major N. S. Walker, Bermuda, for shipment, and I have their letter, dated iQth June last, acknowledging the receipt of the box of books for the Department of State, with an assur ance that it should be sent to Bermuda, via Halifax. It should, therefore, have reached you long since. " The copy of Hansard/ ordered by a late dispatch, was put up in two boxes, addressed to N. S. Walker, Bermuda, and marked with the initials /. P. B. " Should you have further occasion to communicate with me, please address me to the care of Mr. Slidell. " I have the honor to be, etc. 4 " J. M. MASON/ / " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, " PORTMAN SQUARE, " September 2ist 1863. " The Right Hon. Earl Russell, etc., etc.: " MY LORD : In a dispatch from the Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America, dated 4th of August, and just now received, I am instructed to consider the Commission which brought me to England as at an end, and I am directed to withdraw at once from the country. " The reasons for terminating this mission are set forth in an extract from the dispatch which I have the honor to communi cate herewith. " The President believes that, The Government of Her Majesty has determined to decline the overtures made through you for establishing, by treaty, friendly relations between the two Governments, and entertains no intentions of receiving you as the accredited Minister of this Government near the British Court. " Under these circumstances, your continued residence in London is neither conducive to the interests nor consistent with the dignity of this Government, and the President, therefore, re quests that you consider your mission at an end, and that you withdraw, with your secretary, from London/ " Having made known to your Lordship, on my arrival here, the character and purpose of the mission entrusted to me by my 454 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Government, I have deemed it due to courtesy thus to make known to the Government of Her Majesty its termination, and that I shall, as directed, at once withdraw from England. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON, "Special Commissioner, etc." UNOFFICIAL LETTER TO MR. DAVIS. " PARIS, 2d October, 1863. " MY DEAR SIR : By mail via Nassau last week, I sent to the Department of State my letter to Earl Russell, announcing the termination of the Commission to England, pursuant to your in structions in the dispatch of Mr. Benjamin of the 4th August and that as directed I should withdraw from London. By the same mail I sent you a private note expressing that I was at some loss to know whether it was intended that I should remain for the present in Europe, or at my discretion should return home, and that in a note from Mr. Slidell, independent of any suggestion from me, he assumed as of course, that I was to remain in Europe, to await further instructions from the Government. Since I came here, after a full conversation with Mr. Slidell, he retains the same opinion as he may probably write to you by mail with this. My desire is to have the doubt solved, having it only in view to do that which may best conform to the purposes of the Government, or which, in its judgment, may best promote its service. It has seemed to me, too, the more proper that I should await further instructions, because of the uncertainty attending communications with Europe, and because, should a contingency arise when England, receding from her position (perhaps at the renewed instance of France) might be disposed to enter into relations with us, I should be at hand with the letter of credence in my possession, to present myself as the representative of our country. Mr. Slidell and I both agree that as things stand, though no longer Commissioner to England yet until otherwise instructed, should the contingency suggested above arise, and that England was prepared to receive me as Minister, it would be my duty at once to present my letter of credence. Such, at least, is the form on which the question presents itself here and it is thought better to LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. await further advice than to act precipitately. And I should add that Colonel Lamar, now in Paris, with whom I have also freely conferred, entirely concurs in the views of Mr. Slidell. I shall, therefore, remain in Europe until your wishes or purpose in regard to this matter, are received, and act accordingly. " Notwithstanding the reluctance of those really our friends in the House of Commons to vote Mr. Roebuck s motion, yet I am satisfied from intercourse with them at the time, that it resulted from no disaffection to our cause, but was really attribu table to the peculiar juncture of parties just now in England. Lord Palmerston s great personal popularity is the mainstay of his administration; the opposition are by no means satisfied that were his party overthrown in the House, it would not, by reason of his general popularity, be strengthened by a new election. They think were he out of the way, they would come in with a strength greatly increased add to this that he is now far advanced in years and subject to sharp attacks of gout, or its incidents. " Were there a new administration or one reconstructed on the loss of its chief, or any event that would displace Lord Rus sell, it is thought, and I think correctly, that the policy of Eng land in regard to our country would undergo great modification. " Colonel Lamar, who found it desirable to avail himself of the best medical advice in Paris, is now in much improved health and about to return home. " When it is determined whether I am to remain in Europe or otherwise (and if there be no reason against promulging it) it would, I think, much interest my good wife to learn it. I, of course, do not inform her of what I have written to you. " With most respectful and kind regards to Mrs. Davis, "Yours, my dear sir, most truly, "J. M. MASON. " Hon. Jefferson Davis" " LONDON, October igth, 1863. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I have the honor to transmit to you herewith a copy of a letter from Earl Russell to me, dated the 25th of September ultimo, in reply to mine of the 2ist of same month, in which I informed him of the termination of my mission to London. It 456 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. would seem proper that it should go on the files of the Department. " My letter to Earl Russell, as you will see, is dated 2ist September on the 3<Dth I left London for Paris, having given up my house, and removed all my effects, with the archives of the mis sion. All the books and other things belonging to the Commis sion are carefully packed and deposited for safe-keeping with my bankers. The cases for papers, etc., I left with Mr. Hotze. Complete lists of all are preserved in the box with the archives. " After remaining some two weeks in Paris, I returned, a few days since, here, to close some matters necessarily left open; but have remained chiefly in the country, coming to London but occasionally; and shall soon return to the Continent. I have nothing of interest to communicate. Colonel Lamar, who bears this, can give you the latest and best impressions of things in Europe. " I have, etc., " J. M. MASON." " From Earl Russell. " FOREIGN OFFICE, September, 1863. " SIR : I have had the honor of receiving your letter of the 21 st instant, informing me that your Government had ordered you to withdraw from this country on the ground that Her Majesty s Government had declined the overtures made through you for establishing, by treaty, friendly relations, and have no intention of receiving you as the accredited Minister of the Confederate States at the British Court. " I have on other occasions explained to you the reasons which have induced Her Majesty s Government to decline the overtures you allude to, and the motives which have hitherto pre vented the British Court from recognizing you as the accredited Minister of an established State. " These reasons are still in force, and it is not necessary to repeat them. " I regret that circumstances have prevented my cultivating your personal acquaintance, which, in a different state of affairs I should have done with much pleasure and satisfaction. " I have, etc., " RUSSELL. " J. M. Mason, Esq." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. DISPATCH No. 32. From 7. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commis sioner Confederate States to Great Britain. 11 DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, i3th November, 1863. " SIR : I have been compelled to await the President s return from the Southwest before answering your No. 46 announcing your withdrawal from London in conformity with the instructions contained in my No. 30. " Until the receipt of your dispatch it was of course impos sible to foresee whether you might not find it necessary to ex ercise the discretion confided to you in the private instructions which accompanied those containing your recall. " As we now know, however, that your mission to England has terminated, I have the President s authority for informing you that your services are considered by your Government as too valuable and useful to be dispensed with, and that you have again been appointed by him Commissioner under the Act No. 226 of 2oth August, 1861, entitled An Act to empower the President of the Confederate States to appoint additional Commissioners to Foreign Nations. Mr. Macfarland has also been appointed your Secretary. " These appointments bear date on the I2th instant, and you will receive the formal commissions for yourself and Secretary by the next mail, as there is no time to make up the instructions for the present conveyance. " As your former commission (together with that of Mr. Macfarland) was for England only, it is considered as having come to an end, by your withdrawal under instructions, but your accounts for salary, contingent expenses, etc., will be rendered up to the 1 2th instant, and your salary under the new appointment will commence at this last named date. You are of course aware that this being a new appointment made during recess will expire at the close of the next session of the Senate if not confirmed by that body. The books which you were good enough to procure for the Department have at last arrived in Wilmington, but all the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. cases have not yet reached Richmond nor have any been opened. I doubt not, however, that they are all right. " I am, sir, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN." " PARIS, 1 6 RUE DE MARIGNON, January I3th, 1864. "My Very Dear Wife: It is now four months since the last dates from home, though I have written by each of the semi monthly West India mails. And now letters have arrived here dated from the South in November and December, and still I have nothing. I can only hope for the best, and that you all remain as well and comfortable as I could wish you, or as the times will admit. " I told you in my last letters that I should remain in Europe, until I heard farther from the Government. A few days since I had a note from our commercial agent in London, quoting an extract from a letter from the Secretary of State of November 28th, con veying a request to me that I would remain abroad, and that a dispatch was then on the way to me, but it has not yet arrived, so that I am still in doubt as to my future ; but my great concern is for you and the dear children under your charge. What a bright day it will be, when we are all once more reunited, and I feel the assurance of certainty that that day will yet come. " My agent in England wrote me some weeks since that he had sent you a parcel of supplies by a ship then about to sail, under, a general order from me. He did not say what they were, but that they were in charge of Colonel White, of North Carolina. I hope they may reach you safely. " I am plodding on in this Babel, but with little in it to inter est me, except a large circle of Confederates, embracing some very agreeable families, who intermingle very sociably. " I have told you that under most kind and hospitable invita tion, I was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Soutter, both Virginians, though now refugees from New York. I have a chamber and small parlor detached, and with a separate entrance, though under the same roof, and nothing ever can exceed their cordiality and kindness. They have two sons in the Southern army and two LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. daughters at home, both interesting and useful girls ; they write for me constantly. " I have seen nothing in Paris, except the streets, have not been to the theater or opera, or anywhere except once, to the corps Legislatif (the Chamber of Deputies) to hear their most celebrated orator. In truth I have not the heart or spirit to gaze after new things, or else I am getting too old for new excite ments. " In all my letters, my dear wife, I have told you to call on our good friend Macfarland as before, whenever you want money, and not to be frightened at the large nominal sums in Confederate currency. His bill, I have told him, on my bankers, J. K. Gilliat & Company, London, will be paid as heretofore for my account. " My constant love to my dear Kate and her family, as well as to all the dear ones under your roof. " Always most affectionately yours, " J. M. MASON." 460 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER XVI. Makes Short Visit to London in Private Capacity Southern Independence Association of London Society for Promoting Cessation of Hostilities in America Anti-Slavery Sentiment in England Seizure of Tuscaloosa Seal to be Made of Silver Instructions for New Commission President gives Fuller Discretion as to Residence Maximilian Visits Emperor His Policy Towards Confederacy Changed after Reaching Paris Release of Tuscaloosa Mr. Seward admits the "Mallory Report" was a Forgery. DISPATCH No i. " OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER ON THE CONTINENT, PARIS, 1 6 Rue de Marignan, January 25th, 1864 " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : Your dispatch dated on the 3Oth of November ultimo, reached me here on the 2oth of the present month; and, as directed, the accounts of the Special Commission to Great Britain shall be closed as on the nth of November last, and those of the Commissioner on the Continent shall commence on the I2th of the same month, and stated to the 3ist December last. These accounts, together with those for the Contingent Fund, stated in like manner, shall be forwarded by the next mail to Bermuda, via Halifax. This goes by private opportunity just offering for Bermuda. " Commencing a new series of correspondence I shall make this Dispatch No. i. Yours to which it is in reply, is not marked. I shall treat it as your No. i unless there be a predecessor, in which case the number shall conform accordingly. " Unless instructions shall arrive inconsistent with it, I pro pose to go, soon after the meeting of Parliament, to England, of course, in a private capacity, only; and may remain there a few weeks. Parliament meets on the 4th of February. We have in it a body of earnest and sincere friends, some of whom have told me it would be very desirable to keep the public mind in England awake and informed on matters interesting to us ; though I am not aware of any reasons from which we may hope for any speedy action on the part of the Government. I could tell better, how- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ever, after a week or two in London ; and shall, of course, keep you advised. " As some evidence that we have earnest and active friends in high position there, I enclose a circular recently issued by the Southern Independence Association of London, and which fully explains itself. With most of the members of the com mittee I have a personal acquaintance, and am, with many of them, on terms of intimate relation. As of like character, I enclose, also, another circular just issued at London under aus pices of which I am fully aware, by a Society for Promoting the Cessation of Hostilities in America/ which also discloses its objects. It is important to notice that both these movements are purely of English origin their promoters indeed, have fully con sulted with me; but not until after the respective plans were devised and, to some extent, matured by themselves. They are, really, as they import, views of Englishmen addressed to the English people, and in this light is to be received the concluding paragraph in the circular of the Southern Independence Asso ciation of London. " In my conversations with English gentlemen, I have found it was in vain to combat their sentiment. The so-called anti- slavery feeling seems to have become with them a sentiment akin to patriotism. I have always told them that in the South we could rely confidently, that after independence when our people and theirs became better acquainted by direct communication when they saw for themselves the true condition of the African servitude with us, the film would fall from their eyes; and that, in the meantime, it was not presumptuous in us to suppose that we knew better than they did what it became us to do in our affairs. " The German complication with Denmark which seemed imminently to threaten an European war, within the last day or two has given a better promise, by a request from the latter power to be allowed to assemble and consult with the Danish Legislative Assembly before giving a final answer to the Austro-Prussian ultimatum. The reply of the latter power is not yet known, but it can hardly be a refusal. Peace and repose in Europe is just now of great importance to us, while awaiting European recogni tion. " On the subject of the Contingent Fund, the expenses in that 462 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. quarter are so moderate on comparing notes with Mr. Slidell, that there is no occasion for any addition. The instructions we brought with us confine this expenditure to limited objects, cer tainly, very proper in ordinary times ; but we both agree that there are objects of expenditure for political ends occasionally presenting themselves, when it would be well that the Commis sioners in Europe should have a large discretion. This character of expenditure might admit of a regular voucher, but must be sub mitted to the integrity of the Commissioner himself. It might be limited say not to exceed three or four hundred pounds sterling in any one year. Occasions have presented themselves to me, when good, and not unfair, use to our cause could have been made of moderate sums. I venture to submit this to your consideration. " I have, etc., " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 2. i " COMMISSION TO THE CONTINENT, " PARIS, February 8th, 1864. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : Parliament in England met on the 4th instant, and I enclose herewith the debate in each House on the Queen s Speech, which you may not otherwise obtain in extenso. I think it a matter of pregnant meaning that no reference was made in the speech to American affairs the solution being (besides apathy or indifference in the Ministry) in the fact that the public mind of Europe is engrossed by European affairs, the principal being the complications in Germany. We have intelligence to-day that the Danes have retreated from Schleswig, leaving it entirely in the possession of the Austro-Prussian forces. Whether this will end the war remains to be seen ; but I think it strongly imports that other European powers will not be brought in. " I think the general tenor of the debate imports that the Opposition in England are preparing for an issue with the Ministry on their foreign policy, but the former are conscious of weakness and it may be that they will not attempt it. I can not see, therefore, any prospect of an early movement anywhere advantageous to us, unless it arise from agitations before the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 463 people in England. In my last I spoke of the activity of our friends in that quarter. They are confident of good results ; and are sincere : but, at best, this must be the work of time. Having nothing particular to detain me here, I shall go over to England in a few days; and my next, I hope, may give you further and encouraging accounts of prospects there. " I have the honor to transmit, also herewith, as directed in yours of the 3Oth November, my accounts for salary as Special Commissioner to Great Britain, and as Commissioner on the Con tinent. These accounts show only the sums that I have received respectively, closing the Commission to England on the nth November last, and for the payment of a quarter as Commissioner on the Continent, terminating on the 3ist December last. As directed by you, the drafts drawn on Messrs. Eraser, Trenholm & Company were in duplicate. In regard to the question of ex change, it could apply only to the fragment of the quarter as Commissioner on the Continent, and, within the terms of your dispatch, upon actual sale of the drafts. To avoid complication, I did not sell the draft, but sent it to my bankers in London, simply to be collected and placed to my credit. " FEBRUARY QTH. I have, by mail to-day from London, re ceived your Nos. 32 and 33, dated respectively the I3th and I4th November ultimo. Oblige me by expressing to the President my sincere sense of his kindness in the expressions you were author ized to use in regard to my services in Europe. I can only regret that better opportunities have not offered to make them of real value. The new Commission to which you refer, with the in structions, has not yet arrived. I can only say in the meantime that the latter shall be properly observed. " I am not a little surprised and mortified to learn from your No. 33, of the deficiency in the volumes of Hansard. The order for them came but two days before the sailing of the Halifax steamer, and I was thus obliged to trust to the accuracy of the booksellers, without a personal examination of the boxes ; but the house of Willis & Sotheran was of such standing and character that such extraordinary neglect could not have been anticipated. I shall at once communicate with them, and have the missing volumes supplied down to the latest issue of Hansard, to go by the Halifax steamer of the 2Oth of this month, by which mail I will, of course, write you. 464 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " In regard to the Confederate Seal, the execution of which you placed in my charge, it is difficult to account for the delay in getting it finished. Before I left London, the design for it had been successfully completed by Mr. Harvey, an eminent sculptor ; who, at my request, undertook to have the Seal made by the most skillful artist. I have written twice to him since, but without answer. I will see further about it when in London, and hope soon to send it to you. " I have, etc., " J. M. MASON." " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, " LONDON, February i6th, 1864. "My Very Dear Wife: My last letters were from Paris, where I remained about three months, returning here the day before yesterday. I have written at least twice a month by the English mails to Bermuda, and Nassau alternately, since my first departure from England in September, yet I have no letter from home later than the 3Oth of August. In a dispatch from Mr. Benjamin of the iQth November, he was good enough to say that he had seen you a day or two before, and reported all well. I suppose I may put all this down to your uncertainty about my movements since I was dislocated. Yesterday, however, Mr. Law- ley, just returned, was good enough to call on me. He said that he saw you the day before he left Richmond, though I can not say I was entirely satisfied with the accounts he gave of your appear ance as to health. Mr. Washington, who is either Assistant Sec- retary h or Chief Clerk in the Department of State, is an earnest and kind friend of mine, and I think would be most likely to know when opportunity offered for letters to Bermuda or Nassau, and I am sure would aid you in their transmission. They should be sent to the care., at Bermuda, of Major N. T. Walker, agent of the Confederate States, or to Nassau, to the care of L. Hezliger, Esq., agent Confederate States. I hope indeed hereafter for more regular accounts. " Mr. Benjamin s late dispatch, which I am gratified to say, conveyed to me the President s entire approval of my conduct in the Commission to England, tells me that I have been appointed anew as Commissioner on the Continent, which Commission, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. with full instructions, will be sent by the following mail. They have not yet been received. " Being thus afloat, I came over to London, in a private capacity only, at the suggestion of many friends I have had the good fortune to make in England, to be present for conversation and to furnish information, after the meeting of Parliament ; how long I may remain must depend on events, chiefly on instructions I may get from home, but I think I may be of more service herein intercourse with public men in regard to affairs interesting to us, than I could be on the Continent. " When last in Paris, as I think I wrote you from there, I was the guest for the whole time of Mr. and Mrs. Soutter, both from Virginia, he from Norfolk, and his wife from Fredericks- burg. Their joint invitation was so cordial, frank, and sincere, that I felt at full liberty to accept it, and my residence with them took away all the desagremens of being left to a hotel, or the dreari ness of apartments. I owe them much indeed for their grateful and graceful hospitality, the more easily acceptable to me, from a knowledge of their ample means. Their house was the rendezvous of all Confederates in Paris, especially of our officers, of whom we had many there, their doors always open, and their table always spread, our nephews Smith Lee, and Macomb Mason, with Pinckney Mason always amongst them. I have nothing to tell you that is hopeful of our prospects in Europe. England will do nothing that might by possibility offend the Yankees, and France will only move in unison with England. Still, there can be no mistake that with all classes in England which have opinion, their entire sympathy is with us. Societies are forming all through the kingdom, headed by noblemen and eminent public men, whose object is by public addresses, publications, etc., and by petitions to Parliament, to bring about a recognition of our independence. It is in these circles where I find that I can be of aid. * * * So far, my dear wife, I have availed myself of an amanuensis, and the character of my writing, I fear, shows its necessity. To-day, I saw Mr. Collie. He tells me that he sent to you some months ago a supply of flannel and such things. I hope they will reach you safely ; they will, at least assure you I bear you all in mind. Mr. Lawley tells me that English merchandise of all kinds is abundant in Richmond, and although at nominal high prices, yet 466 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. when difference in exchange is computed, I suspect you can buy as cheaply there as I can here, and avoid the great risk of entire loss in forcing the blockade. To show the difference in exchange, I have just paid a bill here drawn on me by Mr. Macfarland for 32. 3. 6 sterling, which at par is equal to about $175, but which he advises me yielded to you in Confederate currency, about $2,000. You may be satisfied therefore though you may pay high prices at home, to supply the means is not oppressive to me here, and I am economical in my expenses. " And now, my dear wife, farewell. My constant and sincere love to those with you. " Yours most affectionately, " J. M. M." DISPATCH No. 3. " LONDON, February i8th, 1864. " H on. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : Since my arrival, we have had reported the seizure of the Confederate cruiser Tuscaloosa at the Cape of Good Hope by the Colonial authorities there, under instructions from the Government in England. Having no intercourse with the Foreign Office here, I addressed a note to Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, M. P., calling his attention to the report of it in the Times; and request ing, if he saw no reason to the contrary, that he would make a call on the Government for information. I have had no reply, but on the 1 6th, the Earl of Carnarvon made the call in the House of Lords, in connection with other matters relating to the Ala bama. You will see Earl Russell s reply in the Times of the I7th, which I send herewith. It seems that he avows the instructions, but says it will be necessary to communicate with the Colonial authorities, before they could be laid before the House. This is certainly a most extraordinary aggression. The Tuscaloosa, as yott are probably aware, was an enemy s ship captured by the Alabama, and fitted out as a cruiser under officers transferred from the latter. It is difficult to conjecture upon what grounds or pretexts instructions were issued from the Foreign Office author izing her seizure ; nor were they disclosed by Earl Russell in debate. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 467 " I can only say that the inquiry shall be followed up, so far as I can be instrumental by communication with our friends here in Parliament. I send, also, several late copies of the Times with the report made from the Cape of Good Hope. In this connection I do not know whether files of the English papers are received at the Department of State. If notj.. would it not be as well that I should order them to be sent regularly by the semi-monthly mails via Nassau and Bermuda to our agents there, to be forwarded by them? If two, I should suggest the Times and the Morning Herald the latter the organ of the Opposition. If three, the Post might be added said to be the immediate organ of Lord Pal- merston. " These dispatches will be borne by Commander Maury of the Navy, who is sent home by Commodore Barren, with the approbation of Mr. Slidell and myself, in order, personally, to communicate to the Navy Department full information in regard to the total failure of all efforts to get out ships either from France or England. Mr. Slidell, who had full cognizance of all the machinery set to work in France, will, by his dispatch to go with this, have given you full information ; or, if lost, it will be fur nished, orally, by Captain Maury. Suffice it to say here, the con viction has been forced upon us that there remains no chance or hope of getting ships out either from England or France: and that, in consequence, those in prospect are to be disposed of in the best way that can be done. It is a painful disappointment but I am satisfied that nothing was left undone to effect the object. From England we, long since, had nothing to expect from France we had a right to entertain a belief in other results why, Mr. Slidell s dispatches, or Captain Maury will explain. I confess that I can see neither excuse nor palliation in the defeat of our expectations in that quarter. " As my address in Europe may, for a time, be uncertain, perhaps it would be safe until further advice, to send my dis patches to the care of Henry Hotze, Esq., whose address you have. ** I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." LIFE O F JAMES MURRAY MASON. DISPATCH No. 4. " LONDON, February i8th, 1864. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : Referring to the concluding paragraphs in my No. 2 from Paris, which goes by the same conveyance as this, on my arrival in London four days ago, I called at the house of Willis and Sotheran and exhibited to them a copy of your dispatch No. 33, of the 1 4th November, relating to the imperfect condition of the copy of Hansard which they had furnished, and asked for explanations. It required some time to examine the sub- jectt and they have just reported that the facts were as stated in your letter. In excuse they say the remaining volumes were at that time very imperfect, and some very difficult to procure, so that we only packed to the period that was perfect, viz. : 1853 inclusive the portion from the session 1854 to 1863 which will complete the set, we hope to have from the binders within a week from this time, when they shall be carefully packed and dispatched without delay. There is, certainly in all this, no excuse, at least, for their strange neglect in not informing me at the time, or since, of the deficiency in the number of volumes ; and stranger still this omission, when they were paid for the full set. I called their attention, too, to the difference between the price paid and that quoted in their catalogue, to which you referred, but their note not referring to it, I have again called their attention to it, and may have their reply in time for this dispatch, which goes off to-night. Although I went to them at once, on my arrival here, and urged dispatch, that the books might go by the Halifax steamer which bears this, it seems that it can not be effected. I shall be able to send them, however, I hope, by a steamer of Crenshaw s Line, to sail direct for Bermuda in course of ten days. After I get the affair ended, unless better explanation is made than yet afforded, I shall be cautious of this house hereafter. " In regard to the Seal, too, I have now a report from Mr. Foley, who, it seems, has been some time absent from London. He says that the artisan, Mr. Wyon, employed to engrave it, in forms him that it will yet require six weeks or two months to finish it, as he is anxious/ he says, to bestow upon it all the pains so important a work demands. He is executing it in silver (the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASOX. metal the State Seals of England are executed in) which offers the advantage of proof against rust so often destructive to a seal engraved in steel. " The above is from Mr. Foley s note from Dublin to me at Paris. He tells me further that the cost for engraving the Seal, including the press for working it, will be eighty guineas; and that, as it is customary in England to receive half the amount on commencing the work, advises that I should conform, as it \vill at least prevent excuse for delay, and which I will do as soon as I can obtain the address of Mr. Wyon. " It occurs to me that I have no instructions from you as to sending the Seal over, and from its character, it appears to me that no risk whatever should be incurred in its getting into the hands of the enemy, which might happen, whatever precautions were taken here. As it may involve an additional delay of only a few weeks, I think I shall retain the Seal until further instruc tions. "I have the honor to be, etc.., " J. M. MASON/ DISPATCH No. 34. "/. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State Confederate States, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, 25th January, 1864. "SiR: The near approach of the session of Congress induced me to defer forwarding your commission and instructions under the appointment communicated to you in November last, until the action of the Senate on your nomination. I have now the honor to inform you that you were, on the i8th instant, con firmed by the Senate as Commissioner to represent the Confed erate States to such foreign nations as the President might deem expedient, under the act of Congress approved on the 2Oth August, 1861, and your commission as such is herewith forwarded. It is accompanied by a commission for Mr. Macfarland, as your secretary, he having been nominated and confirmed as such on the 1 8th instant. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 11 The act under which you were appointed authorizes the President, as you will perceive, to accredit you to such foreign nations as he may deem expedient. At present we have in Europe but two Commissioners, Mr. Slidell accredited to Paris and Madrid, and Mr. Mann accredited to Belgium. It is not deemed necessary to associate an additional Commissioner with either of these gentlemen. " The considerations which have dictated your appointment are the following : In the present disturbed condition of European affairs, when grave events seem pending and when new and unexpected relations may arise between the European powers, prudence re quires that the interests of the Confederate States should not be left unrepresented during the delays incident to our present uncer tain and tardy communication with Europe. If a general war should grow out of any one of the many disturbing causes which threaten the tranquility of Europe., it is not difficult to imagine that a representative of this Government, with adequate powers, might find occasion for acting with signal benefit to his country. On the other hand, if the Archduke Maximilian shall accept the Mexican throne, the interest whicfi will naturally be felt by the Emperor of Austria in the fortunes of his brother, as well as the interest of the French Government, in the maintenance of their own work, suggest a series of contingencies, in any one of which it may be all-important that the Government should have discreet and able assistance at Vienna. " The views of the President upon the subject of our future relations with our Southern neighbor have been fully developed in my recent correspondence with Mr. Slidell, and it will be well that you sliould make yourself acquainted with them, if indeed you have not, from your intimacy with him, already been apprised of all that has occurred. Although it now seems to us here most probable that your services may first be required in Austria, it is deemed more prudent to provide you with duplicate full powers, addressed in blank, that may be filled up by you in any contingency requiring your presence at more than one of the European courts. It might even happen that, by unfortunate calamity, the Government might be deprived of the services of Mr. Slidell at a critical moment requiring the presence of a pleni- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. potentiary authorized to sign treaties or conventions that could not be postponed without hazard or even grave prejudice to our interests. The President will feel much more secure in the pro vision which it is his duty to make for the safeguard of our inter ests abroad when they are no longer dependent on the continued existence of a single public servant, however valuable he may be. " The discretion which he vests in you, therefore, is, as you perceive, very wide, and is intended to embrace unforeseen events which may render necessary prompt action by an accredited diplo matic agent. " It is one which could only be warranted by his entire con fidence in your prudence and discretion, and which he doubts not you will fully justify. " There is one point, however, on which it is perhaps neces sary to be quite explicit. The President does not deem it, in the present advanced state of our struggle, either judicious or con sistent with the dignity of our country, that there should be any addition to the number of our Commissioners occupying the posi tion of accredited agents awaiting recognition at European courts. " It is not expected that you will present yourself at any court in such an attitude, nor that you will make any formal appli cation for official reception as an accredited Commissioner, unless previously assured unofficially that your reception as such will at once be accorded. If, therefore, you find, at any time, that your presence at any capital or seat of government would be useful and probably productive of advantage, it is not expected by the President that you should reside there in any other capacity than as a private gentleman known to be in the confidence of his Gov ernment, nor that you should remain there after satisfying your self that the demand for an official audience to present your cre dentials would, if made, be refused. " It is scarcely necessary to add that in regard to Great Britain you would be expected to await some intimation from that Government of its desire to enter into official relations with you, before again approaching it even in the most informal manner. " The President would also prefer that in the absence of such intimation you should refrain from visiting England even in a LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. private capacity, unless some urgent necessity should compel your presence there. " I am, sir, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, "J. P. BENJAMIN. " P. S. Please inform me of the prospects of getting the Seal of State. It ought surely to be ready by this time." DISPATCH No. 35. " From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commis sioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, i8th April, 1864. " SIR : In the instructions which accompanied your com mission, letters of credence, etc., under date of 25th January last, I intimated, by direction of the President, his preference that you should abstain from visiting London, even unofficially, unless some urgent necessity should arise. " His attention has been called by me to certain passages in yotir dispatches, as well as to intimations received by the Depart ment from other sources, all indicating the probability that your presence in London at certain junctures, as a private gentleman called there by his personal interests, would be useful to our coun try. The President, yielding to these suggestions, now directs me to say that he is content to leave this subject to your discretion, confident that you will do no act that could countenance the infer ence of any intention on our part to withdraw from the position assumed towards the British Government when you were recalled from London. " I am obliged for your suggestion about furnishing me the London papers, but this was a matter with which I would not trouble you, and I have long been in receipt at the Department of the Times, the Saturday Review, Economist, and Examiner, as well as of the principal quarterly reviews, and Blackwoood s Magazine. I am thus enabled to obtain as lively an impression of the state and progress of public opinion in Great Britain on all matters connected with our interests as can be reached through the leading organs of the different political parties. The most LIFE OF JAMES MURRA7 MASON. striking articles from the Herald, Post, and other London dailies are cut out and forwarded by Mr. Hotze, and these suffice till the opening of our ports shall put us in possession of a line of regular mail steamers. " I am sorry to have given you so much trouble with the books for the Department, the more so as after all I have to announce the loss of all you sent except the two cases of Han sard. : The remaining cases, containing the annual register, etc., etc., were lost on the Hatfield/ after having been detained in Bermuda some six months before being shipped. " In relation to the Seal, it would be quite inconvenient to await the return of peace for its arrival, but of course every pre caution must be used to avoid any worse disaster than its loss. " I incline to think that the best plan will be to entrust it to some discreet and careful officer of the navy or army who may have occasion to return to the Confederacy, with the most stringent directions for having it ready to be thrown into the sea, should the danger of capture become imminent. By retaining the impression in England, its loss under such circumstances would involve nothing more than the mere cost of the Seal and the delay in having another made. There is nothing of general interest which I can communicate that you will not find in greater detail than I could give you in the files of Richmond papers which will accompany this. " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, "J. P. BENJAMIN." DISPATCH No. 5. " LONDON, March i6th, 1864. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I had the honor to receive yesterday from you five packets containing as follows : " ist. Commissions in duplicate and in blank as Commis sioner, etc. " 2d. Letters of introduction to Ministers of Foreign Affairs in duplicate and in blank, with two blank seals to be annexed. 474 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " 3d. Special passports in duplicate. " 4th. Full powers as Commissioner in duplicate. " 5th. Your dispatch No. 34, dated the 25th January, 1864, containing instructions for my guidance under my new Commis sion. " I beg to express my sense of gratitude to the President for the confidence he has reposed in me in regard to the exercise of the discretion left to me in the use of these commissions. The instructions are so explicit and definite that I apprehend no embarrassment in carrying them out in their exact spirit. Should a question arise, however, I shall have the able counsels of Mr. Slidell, the better to lead me to a satisfactory conclusion. " The present disturbed and unsettled condition of Europe makes it impossible to foresee what may be the solution of its complications so far as this Commission is involved for the pres ent we can only await events. " Should the Danish-Holstein question be adjusted in such a manner as to have the cordial support of Austria and Prussia, it is believed they will be in a position to repress further present enterprises of the other German powers, and the peace of -Europe, for the present at least, be secured. Until such peaceful attitude be attained, it will be utterly impracticable, in my judgment, to fix the attention of European powers upon what it may become them to do in regard to relations with us. In regard to the new duties which are devolved upon me, I need hardly say that I shall take peculiar care, in no manner, to compromit the dignity of the Gov ernment by any approach to any of those powers without previous distinct intimation of my reception. " In regard to Mexico, I much fear, from recent evidences, that the new Emperor will be as little disposed to enter into diplo matic relations with us as is the controlling power on the Conti nent, under whose auspices he is to be placed on the throne. There was reason to believe, from sources entitled to full credit, that the Archduke had expressed himself, at one time, of opinion that amicable relations with us were of the last importance to the stability of his new Empire ; and he even desired, at once, to establish the necessary diplomatic intercourse. Before this reaches you you will have seen, through the public journals of the day, his recent visit to Paris as the guest of the Emperor. In a late note LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. from Mr. Slidell, he informed me that he had been told by Mr. Estrada, chief of the Mexican Commission sent to offer to the Archduke the throne of Mexico, that the latter desired to see him (Mr. S.), and he might accordingly expect an invitation to an interview ; but such invitation did not come> and the Arch duke left Paris, Mr. Slidell not having seen or heard further from him. It had been previously strongly rumored in Paris that M. Mercier came from Washington authorized by President Lincoln to say to the Emperor that he, the President of the United States, would have his Minister accredited to the Emperor of Mexico, provided no negotiations for recognition of the Confed erate Government were entertained by the latter ; and Mr. Slidell believes that it was under such influence, through the Emperor, that the mind and purpose of the Archduke was changed, after his arrival in Paris. Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that before he left Miramar, the Archduke clearly and distinctly declared a policy which looked to an immediate recognition and intimate relations between his Government, when established, and ours. I have deemed it proper to give you this much, even at second hand, though I doubt not the dispatches of Mr. Slidell, by same opportunity with this, will be fuller and more direct on this head. In a late letter from Mr. Fearn to Mr. Hotze, which the latter showed me (written, I think, from Nassau), Mr. F. spoke of being there with General Preston, on a mission which might result contingently on their going to Mexico. I am aware that Mr. Williams, of Tennessee, late United States Minister at Constantinople, who is now here, has written fully, both to the President and Colonel L. Q. C. Lamar, of his interviews with the Archduke at Miramar ; and of the views and opinions of this per sonage in regard to future Mexican relations with us ; and I have thought it not improbable that the contingent mission of General Preston to Mexico had been founded on such information. Under these circumstances, and as at present advised, I shall suggest to Mr. Slidell whether his late experience with the Archduke, with whatever lights are before him, may not make it proper that he should communicate the apparent state of things to General Preston for his consideration, in event of his mission to Mexico being contingent upon previous intimation that he would be received. 47$ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " In regard to the seizure of the Confederate cruiser Tus- caloosa, at the Cape of Good Hope, spoken of in my No. 3, I have now further to report that some short time after its date, Earl Russell announced in the House of Lords that orders had been issued for her release, for the reason that her seizure had been authorized under a state of facts supposed to exist, which it was afterwards found did not exist. Some short time afterwards I was informed by Lieutenant Low, who commanded her, and who has arrived here, that after waiting three weeks, he deter mined to discharge her crew and go to England with his officers, and that no one was left at the Cape authorized to receive the ship when released. As it was impracticable, even if thought judicious, again to man the ship where she was, I advised that things remain in statu quo, and the responsibility be left with the British Government what should become of her. Reporting this to Mr. Slidell and to Commodore Barron, they both con curred that it was the best thing to do. Of course, the matter will be fully reported by the latter to the Navy Department. " These dispatches will be borne by Dr. Darby, of the Con federate States Army, and I send by him Parliamentary Docu ments Nos. I to 5 inclusive, containing correspondence relating to American affairs. At page 30 of No. 5 you will find a letter from Mr. Adams to Earl Russell, dated iQth January last, com municating to him a copy of what he alleges to be the report of Mr. S. R. Mallory, etc., etc., which report is printed at large on the preceding and same page. Mr. Adams, assuming this report to be genuine, bases upon it several specific demands for the action of the British Government in regard thereto. Earl Russell, in his reply of the 8th February, accepts the report as genuine speaks of the nature and importance of its admis sions/ and informs Mr. Adams that Her Majesty s Government have already taken steps to make the (Confederate) Govern ment aware that such proceedings can not be tolerated, etc. " This report had previously reached us through the Northern papers, and Captain Maury, then, as now, in England, had, by a letter in the Times, denounced it as a fabrication. I did not see the paper until a few days ago, when I received the Parliamentary Document. It bears intrinsic marks, which none conversant with the facts it professes to recite can doubt, stamp LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. it as a forgery. We learn, too, by a note from Mr. Helm, at Havana, to Mr. Slidell, that the British Consul-General there, Mr. Crawford, had been ordered by his Government to proceed in a ship-of-war to one of our ports, on a mission to Richmond, I suppose of no very amicable character, based chiefly on the admissions contained in this report. " I have not, of course, in any manner, direct or indirect, approached the British Government since my recall from London ; but I have not hesitated whenever an occasion offered, whether on the Continent or here, to place some one of our real friends in Parliament in possession of any facts which might be used to put the Government in the wrong in its offensive attitude toward us. So. in regard to this fabricated report of Mr. Mallory to say nothing of the incongruity of its being addressed to the Speaker of the House, the allegations it contains : First, in regard to the capture and condition of the Harriet Lane ; 2d, to the attack of our ironclads upon the blockading fleet off Charles ton ; 3, the statement that the Nashville was a Confederate ship at the time she was destroyed near Savannah ; 4th. what was said of the recapture of the Queen of the West/ and that her commander had been cashiered and dismissed from the service; and 5th, the statement in regard to the capture of the Caleb Cushing by the Tacony, are all such manifest departures from the truth, and so plainly proved the fabrication, that I brought the matter to the direct notice of Commodore Barren, and have obtained from him the written statements of several officers now in France, personally conversant with the facts in each case respectively, fully establishing their falsity ; and it is my purpose to make all this fully known to Lord Robert Cecil, a member of the House of Commons of admitted influence and ability, and one of our most earnest and decided friends, for such use as he may think proper to make of it. Should the mission of Mr. Craw ford be admitted at Richmond, the fact of this impudent forgery will be officially made known to Her Majesty s Government. My communications to Lord Robert Cecil will prepare our friends here for any steps they may deem proper in the meantime. " I have not, since I last came to England, been at either House of Parliament?, or in any public assemblage, nor have I reason to believe that my being here was known to any but a 478 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. few private friends. It was my intention to return to the Con tinent about this time, now confirmed, of course, on learning that the President would prefer that I should not visit England unless on an occasion of real urgency. " I shall return to Paris in the course of a very few days, and remain there, or elsewhere, unofficially, on the Continent. Until located, dispatches will always best reach me, as heretofore, addressed to the care of Henry Hotze, Esq. " Since writing the foregoing, I have seen and conversed with Mr. Ward, just here from the Confederacy. He told me of all that he learned from you in regard to General Preston s mis sion to Mexico. Mr. Ward goes to-night to Paris, and I have requested him to see Mr. Slidell on his arrival, and to tell him what he knows about the mission for his better guidance, in case Mr. Slidell should think it advisable to write to General Preston. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." " P. S. I ship through Eraser, Trenholm and Company, of Liverpool, on the British mail steamer which leaves the day after to-morrow for Bermuda, addressed to Major N. S. Walker, with your initials marked on it, a box containing the missing volumes of Hansard. They make the set entire, including the last volume issued. The booksellers excuse their apparent remiss- ness by saying that at the time of the first shipment of * Hansard they were unable to obtain the volumes now sent,, and then, time was required in having them uniformly bound. Their real fault was in not apprising me of the deficiency at the time. " I send, also, the Statesman s Year-Book for 1864, a very compendious and useful volume, published for the first time this year ; also, the British Almanac and Companion for the year. I think you will find them useful in the Department. " I am surprised and concerned at learning that the boxes containing the Annual Register, etc., had never reached you nor been heard of. In a previous dispatch I advised you that in obedience to your instructions at the time, they were sent for shipment to Eraser, Trenholm and Company, at Liverpool, in June last, and I have their letter acknowledging the receipt of the boxes, and advising that they would be shipped by the Cunard LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. line, sailing on that month for Bermuda, via Halifax. I have written to Major Walker, by mail bearing this, advising him of the new shipment, of which you are notified above, and calling his attention to the loss of the boxes shipped in June last, giving him the facts in regard to their shipment, and asking that he would make diligent search and inquiry for them, and let me know the result. I fear they have been lost in transitu between Bermuda and the Confederacy ; but Major Walker should know that. " I have no further information to give about the Seal in addition to what is stated in my No. 4, of which duplicate here with. When I leave England it shall be committed to the special charge of Mr. Hotze. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." The following dispatch from Mr. Seward to the United States Minister in London claims a place in the these records in connec tion with the foregoing denunciation of the " Forgery." It is here copied from the Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States Government, 1864, pt. i, p. 46. " Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " WASHINGTON, December 2Oth, 1863. " SIR : I send herewith a copy, which has accidentally attracted my notice, of what purports to be an extract from an annual report of S. R. Mallory, who is pretending to act as Secretary of the Navy for the insurgents at Richmond. So soon as I can lay my hand n a full copy of that paper I shall transmit it. In the meantime, it is proper to say that I have not the least doubt that the extract now sent is authentic. " It boldly avows the authority and activity of the insur gents at Richmond in the building of the rams in Great Britain and France on their own account, and for their use in making war from British and French ports against the United States. " SECONDLY. It avows, with equal boldness and directness, the sending of twenty-seven so-called commissioned officers and forty reliable petty officers from Richmond to the British North American provinces, to organize an expedition from thence to cooperate witfi the so-called army officers, in making war against 4 So LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the United States on our northern border lakes. And it con fesses that this expedition has only been defeated through the watchfulness of the British provincial authorities. " THIRDLY. In connection with these two avowals, the same conspirator says that he has sent another courier with in structions, which will shortly be made apparent to the enemies of the insurgents nearer home, which may possibly mean instructions under which the actors in the piracy and murder lately committed on board the Chesapeake proceeded in that criminal enterprise from and returned to the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. " You will lose no time in laying this information before Earl Russell^ and you will submit to him, as the opinion of this Govern ment, that the proof thus furnished is sufficient to remove all doubt that might yet be lingering over the objects, character, and designs of the builders of the steam rams which Her Majesty s Government has recently detained in the British ports upon your representation. " SECONDLY. In the opinion of this Government, a toleration in Great Britain, or in those provinces, of the practices avowed by the insurgents, after the knowledge of them now communicated to his Lordship, would not be neutrality, but would be a permis sion to the enemies of the United States to make war against them from the British shores. " THIRDLY. It is the opinion of this Government that to tolerate in the British realm or provinces, without some restraint, these avowed enemies of the United States, while carrying on the hostile practices now avowed, after the knowledge herein com municated, would not be an exercise of the unquestioned right of sheltering political exiles, but would be permitting them to use the British soil and British waters, and British vessels and arma ments, to wage war against a country with whom Great Britain is at peace. " FOURTHLY. That in the opinion of this Government it is the design of the Confederates in these proceedings to involve Great Britain in a war with the United States, and, at least, that they have a direct tendency to produce that evil, which is mutually to be deprecated by both nations. " FIFTHLY. This Government has borne itself towards that LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of Great Britain under these annoyances in the spirit and in the manner that have been best calculated to defeat the wicked design of the insurgents, without giving cause of offence or irritation to the British people. " SIXTHLY. That these new difficulties occur most unseason ably, and at a time when the Congress of the United States are considering the question of legally terminating the so-called reciprocity convention which regulates the commercial intercourse between this country and the British North American provinces a question of deep interest to the whole British Empire. " The President wishes that he was able to suggest to Her Majesty s Government any adequate remedy for the deplorable state of things to which I have referred, not inconsistent with the policy that Great Britain has adopted in regard to this insurrection. But, in the opinion of this Government, that state of things has resulted, although unintentionally and unexpectedly on the part of Her Majesty s Government, from that very policy itself. The recognition of the insurgents, without navy, ports, courts, or coasts, as a belligerent naval power, was deemed by them, and by ill-disposed British subjects conspiring with the insurgents, as an invitation to them to use British ports, navy, courts, and coasts, to make themselves the naval power they are acknowledged to be, and yet are not. " Indications of popular favor towards this design of the insurgents are not wanting in British communities. If we cor rectly understand occurrences of the hour, there are not only in the British provinces, but also in the British realm, and in its very Parliament, many persons who are engaged in advancing that design, or who at least are pursuing practices which they must well know necessarily tend to exhaust the patience of the United States, anH to provoke our citizens, in self-defence, either to seek their avowed enemies within British jurisdiction, or to adopt some other form of retaliation. It must be manifest that this Government can do nothing more to prevent that design than it has already done. If it is to be prevented, it would seem that something further than what has yet been done must now be done by Her Majesty s Government. " After making these frank explanations to Earl Russell, in the spirit of perfect friendliness, and in the most respectful LIF E OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. manner, you will, for the present, leave the whole subject for his just consideration. " I am, sir, your obedient servant, "WILLIAM H. SEWARD. " Charles Francis Adams, Esq., etc., etc., etc." . The substance of this dispatch was repeated in Mr. Adams s, communication to Earl Russell, that enclosed the following paper: REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE CONFEDERATE NAVY. " Hon. T. S. Bocock, "Speaker of the House of Representatives, " Confederate States of America. " SIR : I have the honor to submit herewith my third annual report of the condition of this Department. The operations of this branch of the Confederate service have been chiefly con fined to preparations for ridding our waters of the enemy s vessels now blockading our seaports. We have also been engaged in building, arming, and equipping ironclads and other steamers for service in our rivers and inland sounds. On the Mississippi, many of these vessels have done valuable service to our cause, while others, not yet completed, were either captured by the enemy or burned by our officers to prevent them from falling into the hands of the United States forces. On the ist of January, some of our naval officers manned a steamer and two schooners, in which they sailed forth from the harbor of Galveston and captured the L^nited States gunboat Harriet Lane, safely withdrawing her out of the reach of the other United States vessels then block ading that port. " The Harriet Lane has since been put in complete order, and has on board a sufficient number of officers and men ready for an opportunity to distinguish themselves. Owing to the vigilance of the enemy, I have not deemed it advisable to give orders for this vessel to attempt any offensive operations. In accordance with my instructions, the Confederate steamer Florida successfully ran the blockade from Mobile on the I3th of January, since which time she has been engaged in operations against the commerce of the enemy, capturing and destroying vessels and property amounting already to several millions of dollars. On the I7th of the same month, the Alabama destroyed LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 483 the United States gunboat Hatteras , in the Gulf of Mexico, for which daring exploit her commander deserves the thanks of the Congress. On the 3ist of the same month, three of our ironclad steamers, officered and manned by some of the bravest men of our navy, succeeded in inflicting serious injury upon the block ading fleet off Charleston harbor. Two of the enemy s vessels were disabled, and although one of them surrendered, we were unable to secure the fruits of this victory, owing to the injury sustained by our own vessels by the collision that occurred. " Had the commander of this expedition been careful to strike the enemy amidships, his vessel would have remained un injured, and our victory would have been complete. I had ordered a crew to be detached for service on the steamer Nash ville/ desiring to use her for the purpose of harassing the enemy while erecting batteries at the mouth of the Ogechee River, but fortunately she was destroyed by the enemy before my plans were carried out. On the i6th of April the ram Queen of the West/ which we had captured from the enemy, was recaptured, and her officers and crew, numbering one hundred and twenty persons, made prisoners. This occurrence was the result of carelessness on the part of her commander, who has since been cashiered and dismissed from the service. During the months of May and June, our gunboats on the Western waters actively cooperated with our land forces, and although operating under many disadvantages, many gallant exploits were performed by their officers and crews. " Owing to the evacuation of Vicksburg and the surrender of Port Hudson, I deemed it advisable to give orders to withdraw all our vessels in that region to safe and secure harbors, and cease the construction of those contracted for, the machinery for which was being transported to the several depots. Some of this machinery is now stored at various points, and as it seems unlikely to be required for service at the West, and is unsuitable for use elsewhere, I suggest that it be sold, and the proceeds applied to other purposes. On the seas some of our small privateers have inflicted considerable injury upon the enemy s commerce. The Tacony entered the harbor of Portland, and captured the United States revenue cutter Caleb Cushing. Owing to the ignorance of the harbor, our officers were unable to take the Cushing out LIFE OF JAME S MURRAY MASON. to sea, and she was again recaptured on the 27th of June by vessels sent in pursuit. Her crew were made prisoners. " During the months of July and August, I sent twenty-seven commissioned officers and forty trustworthy petty officers to the British provinces, with orders to organize an expedition and to cooperate with army officers in an attempt to release the Con federate prisoners confined on Johnson s Island in Lake Erie. " From time to time I learned that the arrangements made were such as to insure the most complete success. A large amount of money had been expended, and just as our gallant naval officers were about to set sail on this expedition, the English authorities gave information to the enemy, and thus prevented the execution of one of the best planned enterprises of the present war. In accordance with the order of the President, early in the present year, I dispatched several agents to England and France, with orders to contract for eight ironclad vessels suitable for ocean ser vice and calculated to resist the ordinary armament of the wooden vessels of the enemy. These ships were to be provided with rams, and designed expressly to break the blockade of such of the ports as were not blockaded by the ironclad monitors of the enemy. Five of these vessels were contracted for in England and three in France. Due precautions were taken against contravening the laws of England in the construction and equipment of these vessels. Three have been completed, but owing to the unfriendly construc tion of her neutrality laws, the Government of England stationed several war vessels at the mouth of the Mersey, and prevented their departure from England. Subsequently they were seized by the British Government. Another and larger vessel has since been completed, but it is doubtful if she will be allowed to leave the shores of England, although it is believed the precautions taken are sufficient to exempt her from the fate of her consorts. The vessels being constructed in France have been subjected to so many official visitations that I have forwarded instructions to cease operations upon them until the result of negotiations now pend ing shall permit our agent to resume work upon them. In this connection, it is proper for me to state that the great revulsion in popular sentiment, both in England and France, towards the Con federate Government has rendered our efforts to obtain supplies from those countries almost abortive. In view of all possible LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 485 contingencies, I have instructed the agents of this Department to await a more favorable opportunity for carrying out the in structions previously forwarded. By the last I sent instructions that will shortly be made apparent to our enemies near home. I do not deem it advisable to communicate any portion of these plans to your honorable body at the present time, for reasons perfectly satisfactory to the President. " Although the operations of our navy have not been exten sive, I can not overlook the services of Captain Semmes in the Alabama. During the year he has captured upwards of ninety vessels, seventy of which were destroyed, the others being either bonded or released. One of the greatest drawbacks this officer reports having experienced is the difficulty he now has in procur ing full supplies of coal. The provincial English authorities have hitherto afforded him every facility, but recently they have interpreted their neutrality laws so stringently that our war vessels and privateers are much embarrassed in obtaining supplies. I have instructed Captain Semmes to purchase coal from neutral shipmasters wherever he found it, and give them every necessary document to protect them against the effects such sale may have upon their vessels when they return to their several countries. By this means I anticipate a sufficient supply of coal will be obtained to enable him to continue his operations during the coming year. " The other operations of this Department have been chiefly confined to making such preparations for naval operations as circumstances might permit. From time to time I have caused surveys to be made upon steamers running the blockade, witfi a view of purchasing such as could be made available as war- vessels. Several have been bought and are now being trans formed into ships of war. " For the armament of these vessels it will be necessary that Congress should make an additional appropriation. Appropria tions will also be required to conduct our naval operations dur ing the coming year. The estimated expenditure of the Depart ment for the fiscal year ending July I, 1864, will amount to $27,249,890, in addition to $14,024,016 remaining to the credit of this Department in the Treasury. Since my last annual report, the expenditures for the navy have been $24,413,645. The busi- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ness transacted during the year in this Department has kept my very large clerical force so constantly engaged that from time to time I have ordered a number of naval officers to assist them in duties not properly devolving upon them. This course occasions so much dissatisfaction that I trust Congresss will make such additions to my official staff as shall enable me to permit all our naval officers to resume their respective positions. The great disproportion of officers in our service to the seamen enrolled is a matter requiring the legislation of Congress. The number of commanders now on active service,, either at sea or on shore, remains the same as previously reported. " Many of those occupying a lower grade in the service have volunteered in the army, owing to their desire to be actively employed against the enemy. I have not accepted the resigna tions of these gentlemen, but furnished them with temporary absences, until I can recall them for the performance of other duties. I have considered it important to keep the roll as com plete as possible, therefore, when I have been notified of the death of any naval officer, serving in the army, I have appointed his successor. The total number of commissioned officers at present attached to the Confederate Army is 383. The petty officers number 191, while the roll of sailors gives a return of 877, not including those on board of vessels now at sea, accurate rolls not having been transmitted. " In conclusion, I must add my testimony to the gallantry and efficiency of our navy, who have nobly sustained our cause under many trying circumstances. The proud spirit of our officers chafes at the inaction they are compelled to endure, and I trust that Congress will make provision for increasing the efficiency of this Department, and permitting it to undertake more offensive operations against the enemy. In conclusion, I would recommend the immediate passing of an act authorizing the construction of at least six turreted ironclads for harbor operations. The experience of the past year has demonstrated that such vessels are absolutely necessary if we expect to break through and destroy the blockade at present established by the enemy. Attached to this communication, I have the honor to submit the various reports of different commanders and officers sent upon detached duty, together with the reports of naval agents LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. and other officers,- at home and abroad, who have been engaged on duty connected with this Department. " All of which is respectfully submitted. " (Signed), S. R. MALLORY, " Secretary of the Navy." No. 28. "Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. " FOREIGN OFFICE, February 8th, 1864. " SIR : Her Majesty s Government have had under considera tion the representations contained in your letter of the igth ultimo, with regard to the alleged use of British territory for belligerent purposes by the Government of the so-styled Confederate States, as shown in the report of the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Mallory, of which you enclosed a copy. I have now to state to you that this document appears to Her Majesty s Government to contain the strongest proof, if any were wanted, that they have endeavored in good faith to observe strictly and impartially, under circumstances of no small difficulty, the obligations of neutrality which they have undertaken, and that the practical effect of their doing so has been advantageous in no slight degree to the more powerful of the two belligerents, namely, the United States. " What is termed in Mr. Mallory s report the unfriendly construction of Her Majesty s laws, is therein made a matter of grave complaint against England by the Government of the so- styled Confederate States, while to the same cause is ascribed the fact that those States have been prevented from obtaining the services of the greater part of a formidable war fleet which they had desired to create. u Her Majesty s Government are fully sensible of the nature and importance of the admissions made in Mr. Mallory s report of the endeavors of the Government of the so-styled Confederate States, by their agents in this country and in Canada, to violate in various ways Her Majesty s neutrality. " Her Majesty s Government have already taken steps to make that Government aware that such proceedings can not be LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. tolerated, and Her Majesty s Government will not fail to give to these admissions, to which you have invited their attention, the consideration which they undoubtedly deserve. " There is, however, one passage in your letter which it is impossible for Her Majesty s Government to pass over without special notice. This passage is as follows : I am further directed respectfully to represent that the toleration of these avowed enemies of the United States, whilst known to be carry ing on these hostile practices, now fully revealed, within the British realm and its dependencies, without restraint of any kind, can not be regarded as an exercise of the unquestioned right of sheltering political exiles, but rather as equivalent to permitting them to abuse that right for the purpose of more effectually avail ing themselves of British aid and cooperation now notoriously given them in waging war with a country with which Great Britain is at peace. " In reply to this allegation, Her Majesty s Government think it right to state that Her Majesty s dominions must neces sarily continue to be open to the subjects of both belligerents as long as Her Majesty is at peace with both of them, but that Her Majesty s Government will, at the same time, continue to put in force, as fc they have hitherto done, to the full extent of the means in their power, the laws of this country against those subjects of either of the belligerents who may be found, by trans gressing those laws, to have abused the rights of hospitality and to have offended against the authority of the Crown. " With regard to its being made a matter of complaint by the Government of the United States, that Her Majesty s Gov ernment thought fit, upon the original commencement of hostili ties, to recognize the status of belligerents in both the parties to this unhappy contest, Her Majesty s Government can only repeat the observation which they have had occasion to make on former occasions in reply to similar representations received from you, that any other course would have justly exposed this country to a charge of violating the clearest principles and soundest precedents of international law. " I am, etc., " RUSSELL." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. On February first, Mr. Seward writes to Mr. Adams: " Nothing has occurred here to raise a doubt as to the authenticity of the report of S. R. Mallory. It has internal evidences of genuineness, although it is wonderful that such a paper should have been promulgated." Again, on March 3d, he writes : " I have already informed you that Mr. Maury s denial of the authenticity of the report signed by Mr. Mallory is not here deemed sufficient to discredit the publication." Yet, on March 22, Lord Lyons, Minister from England to the United States, sends to his Government the infor mation that Mr. Seward had, on March iQth, admitted the paper had been " a forgery." "Lord Lyons to Earl Russell. " WASHINGTON, March 22d, 1864. "My LORD: In my dispatch of the 3ist December last, I enclosed an extract from a newspaper containing what purported to be a copy of a report of Mr. Mallory, the Confederate Sec retary of the Navy. Your Lordship will recollect that the sup posed report contained passages avowing the attempts to organize an invasion of the United States from Canada, and giving details with regards to ships of war stated to be building for the Con federate Government in England and France. Some stress has, as your Lordship is aware, been laid upon this document by Mr. Seward in his communications on the two subjects mentioned. After alluding to the importance which he had attached to it, Mr. Seward said to me on the iQth instant, that he felt bound to tell me that he had just discovered that it was a forgery. He said he had taken considerable pains to discover whether it was authentic when it first appeared, and although he had been unable to procure any Southern paper containing it, he had quite satisfied himself that it was genuine. Recently, however, the person by whom it had been concocted, hearing of his inquiries about it, had thought it right to let him know that it had been published originally as a mere jeu d esprit, and that partly the amusement which it had afforded to see every one taken in by it, and partly the notion that it was injuring the Confederate cause, had pre vented an earlier avowal of the truth. Mr. Seward stated that it was very remarkable that no disavowal of the supposed report LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. had, so far as he knew, appeared in the Southern newspapers. Its authenticity had indeed been denied by Captain Maury, in England, but Captain Maury might not have had the means of knowing for certain whether it was really authentic or not. There was, however, now no doubt, Mr. Seward said, that it was a forgery. " I have the honor to be 4 etc., " LYONS." Later still, viz. : on April 4th, Mr. Adams writes to Earl Russell: " I have the honor to apprise you that I have just re ceived a dispatch from Mr. Seward, informing me that after the most diligent inquiries it has been ascertained that the supposed report is admitted by the editor of the New York Sun to have been prepared for the columns of that newspaper, in which it first appeared." The document had, in the meantime, accom plished the desired effect upon the English Government. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER XVII. Letter to Mrs. Mason Case of the " Gerrity " Additional Forgery by the United States Government Counsel Provided for Men of the "Gerrity" Court of Queen s Bench Decide "It was not Piracy" Men Released Mr. Lindsay s Motion Looking to Mediation Mr. Lindsay Proposes In terview with Lord Palmerston Mr. Mason Declines it Unless Invited by Lord Palmerston Lord Palmerston Expresses Opinion that South Could not be Subjugated Mr. M. Visits London as a "Private Gentleman" in Response to the Request of Friends of the Confederacy that He Would Come to Their Aid Lord Russell Expresses Opinion North Could not Overcome South, and People of North were Getting Alive to that Fact Mr. D Israeli says in Case of Success in Battles at Richmond, He Would Bring a Motion of Like Character With Mr. Lindsay s Popular Senti ment in England Strongly With South Letters to Mrs. Mason Seal sent by Lieutenant Chapman Fight Between the Alabama and the Kearsage Public Dinner Tendered Captain Semmes in London All Europe Filled with the Fame of Lee, Beauregard, and Johnston Interview with Lord Palmerston Lieutenant Chapman Delivers Seal of Secretary of State, but Boxes Containing Iron-press, Wax, Etc., Lost Private Letters Bazaar In Liverpool, to Relieve Wants of Southern Prisoners Confined in the North. " PARIS, 16 RUE DE MARIGNAN, April i2th, 1864. "My Dear Wife: In former letters I have told you that whilst in Paris I was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Soutter, for merly of Virginia. Coming back from London some ten days ago, I am again under their hospitable roof, and am indebted to Miss Lilie Soutter as amanuensis for this letter. * * I have been gratified indeed to find from both your letter and Vs. that malgre the privations incident to the war, you remain, at least, in comparative comfort in your new home, and that things are not so bad in Richmond, or with the army as the Yankees represent them, and would have them to be. * * The reports you give of the noble and courageous bearing of our friends in Winchester interested me deeply, particularly of Mrs. Boyd and Mrs. Conrad. They are striking instances of the great truth that the occasion illustrates the man. When you are again communicating with our friends in that quarter, I beg you will say how sincerely I have sympathized with them in all their severe trials and how much gratified I have been at the great examples they have shown to their country. Always bear in mind that next to direct accounts from our own circle at Richmond, nothing from home interests me LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. more than to hear minutely of the valued friends we left in Win chester, and of the welfare and condition of each of them. " Do you hear of Dr. Stuart Baldwin and his family ? What has become of James Marshall and Sherrard ? John Page ? George Burwell, who, I understand, were refugees? and Angus Mc Donald? I hope he has been restored to better health. I must conclude this, I fear, dull letter, with best love to Maria and Nannie, to Kate and the girls, and to all the grandchildren. Yours, my ever dear wife, " Most affectionately, " J. M. M." DISPATCH No. 7. " PARIS, April I2th, 1864. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I returned to Paris soon after the date of my last, and have had nothing from the Department since your dispatches, acknowledged in my No. 5, of date 25th January last. " In my No. 5, and doubtless, also, in those of same date from Mr. Slidell, you will have learned the change that came over the aspect of our hoped-for relations with Mexico ; and I was, in consequence, gratified to learn, both from your instructions to General Preston and by letter from that gentleman to Mr. Slidell, that he was not to present himself in Mexico under any uncer tainty about his reception. The policy of the Emperor here, always mysterious, has had certainly that feature in regard to our affairs whatever the motive, the result remains the same. With fairest professions, even sedulously made, I look now for no movement of any kind, in that quarter, of value to us. Thanks to the spirit of our people, and the gallantry of our troops, under whatever loss and suffering, we can yet, unaided, work out our own salvation. " Some days since I received a letter from Messrs. Snowball and Copeman, solicitors at Liverpool, in regard to three men named Patrick Loonan, alias Ferrand, alias Clements, George McMurdock, and Quincy Sears, arrested there at the instance of the United States Consul on a charge of piracy, and claimed for extradition under the treaty. These men were of those who, under a Captain Hogg, embarked as passengers at Matamoras, on board the steamer J. L. Gerrity, seized her on her voyage to New LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. York, overpowering the captain and crew, and carried her to Belize, where Captain Hogg, it would appear, disposed of her cargo. The solicitors wrote me that they claimed to be citizens of the Confederate States, and had been in the Confederate Army that they were enlisted by Captain Hogg, for service intended on board the Gerrity and that the latter had some authority or commission for the enterprise from General Bee, in Texas. Seeing what had been done by the Department of State in the case of the Chesapeake/ and having the benefit of your instructions to Mr. Holcombe, sent as Commissioner for that case to Halifax. I requested Captain Bullock, at Liverpool, to examine into the case of these men, and particularly whether they were citizens of our country, and under what orders they acted. It appears they came to Liverpool as seafaring men from Belize, and, as was to be expected, without papers or other proofs as to citizenship. Captain Bullock, however, reported that from the best information he could obtain, Loonan was an Englishman who had been in the Confederate army; Murdock, British-borni, but naturalized in Virginia, and Sears, a native of Alabama. Looking to the action of the Department taken in the case of the captors of the Chesapeake/ I thought it would be the safer course, at least, to take care that these men should be properly defended, and wrote accordingly to these solicitors, sending them a copy of so much of your instructions to Mr. Holcombe as would apply to the case, and directing them to take care that the defence was con ducted in the best manner for the safety of the men. I was more induced to do this because I learned from Major Magruder, nephew and aide-de-camp of General Magruder, who was here some time since, that he met with Captain Hogg at Matamoras shortly before the Gerrity affair that he was an officer of the Confederate army, and had the reputation of great daring and courage then disabled by wounds received in the service. I told the solicitors that I would commit the Government for reason able expense of the defence, and I must defray it out of the Con tingent Fund. This, I hope, will have the approbation of the Department. " In regard to the spurious Report of Mr. Mallory, as Secretary of the Navy, about which I wrote in my No. 5, Lord Russell took occasion, a few days since, to say in the House of 494. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Lords that, since it was communicated to him, Mr. Seward had admitted that it was a forgery, fabricated, as he said, by some gentleman in New York. " Before I left London I called on Mr. Wyon, the artist employed to make the Confederate Seal, referred to in my No. 4, and paid him forty guineas one-half the cost of the Seal, in advance, and arranged that when it was ready it should be care fully packed, with the press, in a box lined with tin. and put in charge of Mr. Hotze until it could be sent over. He promised it should be ready by the middle of May. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 36. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, 22d June, 1864. "Hon. James M. Mason, etc., etc., Paris. "SiR: Your No. 7, of i2th April, was received on the 9th instant. " In relation to the Tuscaloosa/ the dispatches to the Navy Department give no further details than are contained in the British Blue Book which you forwarded to me. I regard this case as a marked outrage committed by a pretended neutral, but really hostile, Government, and one which the British Cabinet would not have ventured on for a moment against any nation which it believed capable of enforcing its rights against such insolent aggression. It is the consciousness of being safe at this moment from hostilities on our part, that can alone have embold ened the present Foreign Secretary to an action from which he would have shrunk in affright if directed against France, or Russia, or the United States. It was no doubt to this case that the President referred in his message when he said, and in one instance our flag also insulted where the sacred right of asylum was supposed to be secure/ and when he spoke of wrongs for which we may not properly forbear from demanding redress. " Your action in the matter of the three men from the Ger- rity was entirely accordant with our views, as you will probably have learned ere this from Mr. Hotze, to whom instructions were sent to provide for their defense. The facts of the case are set LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. forth in my dispatch to him, more accurately than they reached you. The additional forgery by the United States Government of the pretended deciphered note to me from a New York agent, as contained in the Blue Book of the Chesapeake case, having been already exposed by Mr. Slidell, it is perhaps not necessary that I should take any notice of it. If, however, it is thought that a denial is advisable, you are authorized, in my name, to make public the fact that Mr. Seward s statement to Lord Lyons (as related in the letter of the latter to Earl Russell, dated 24th December, 1863), that the paper forming enclosure No. 3 was the decipher of a letter from a Confederate agent in New York to Mr. Benjamin, the Secretary of State at Richmond/ is entirely false, and has not a semblance of fact to rest on. The enclosed paper No. 3. at foot of page 9, in the Blue Book, is a forgery from begin ning to end. Neither individually nor as Secretary of State have I ever had correspondence w r ith any person in New York who signed the initials J. H. C. or any other initials, nor am I able to conjecture whether these initials refer to any person in existence supposed to be in correspondence with me or are purely imaginary. I am equally unable to conjecture to what facts, if any, the pre tended letter in cipher refers, and have never had, directly or indirectly, whether as a private individual or public officer, any connection with or knowledge of any of the matters mentioned or referred to in the paper in question. The whole thing is just such a fabrication as the Mallory Report, and is, like that report, the invention of a gentleman. It will, of course, be followed by as many more similar forgeries as may be deemed necessary by the Washington Cabinet as long as they have a purpose to accomplish and can find dupes to credit them. It is not fair to expect us to descend to further exposures of such wretched false hoods and forgeries as form the staple of the correspondence of the United States Secretary of State in relation to our affairs, and if any publication on the subject is found necessary in the present instance, it should be accompanied by the distinct state ment that we shall deem it inconsistent with self-respect to make any further attempt to undeceive the British Government as to the character of the communications from the United States officials, which they are habitually accepting as trustworthy. L1FE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " I send Mr. Slidell a copy of my last communication to Mr. Preston, which will put you fully in possession of our present views on the matters to which you refer in both your last dis patches. " The box of books which you were good enough to send me, via Bermuda, has arrived in Wilmington, and I hope to receive it to-morrow. " I believe I have hitherto omitted to acknowledge receipt of the copy furnished by Mr. Lindsay of his correspondence with Mr. Drouyn de L Huys. It has been read with interest, and will remain on the records of this Department in connection with the other papers of the very singular affair to which it refers. " I am, sir, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN, "Secretary of State" DISPATCH No. 8. " PARIS, June ist, 1864. "Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : In my last I told you that I assumed the responsi bility of instructing Messrs. Snowball and Copeman, solicitors, at Liverpool, to employ counsel for the three men held in custody at the instance of Mr. Adams, Minister of the United States, and held for extradition on the charge of piracy in seizing the ship Gerrity, from Matamoras to New York, on board of which they were passengers. I have the honor to transmit herewith a duplicate of that dispatch which contains my reasons for doing so. " I have the pleasure to inform you that these men were discharged on habeas corpus by the Court of the Queen s Bench, on the 25th of May, the Chief Justice sustaining the arrest and the claim to extradition, and his three associates overruling his judgment. The cases were ably argued by eminent counsel on the part of the United States, and as ably defended on our part, for four consecutive days, as I find from the report at large in the newspapers. I have preserved the arguments and the opinions of the judges, which I will sejid to you when an opportunity offers, avoiding the heavy postage. The case turned and the dis- LIFE OF JAMES HURRAY MASON. 497 charge was ordered, on the construction of the treaty that the offense of piracy mentioned in the treaty did not mean piracy jure gentium, but was confined to piracy, so declared to be by the domestic laws of either country. I instructed our counsel to say that the defense was assumed by Mr. Mason on the part of the Confederate States, as its representative in Europe, and to defend the capture as an act of war. I have not yet received the bill of costs for the defense, but, as I have said in my No. 7, will defray them out of the Contingent Fund, to be adjusted by an appropriate voucher hereafter, as the expenditure does not belong to that class. I hope what I have done in the matter will have the approval of the Department. " On Saturday last, I received a letter from our earnest and valued friend, Mr. Lindsay, dated at London the day before. He had some months ago given notice of a motion to be made in the House of Commons on the 3d of June, to the effect that Her Majesty s Government should avail itself of the earliest opportunity of mediating in conjunction with the other powers of Europe, to bring about a cessation of hostilities in America^ and the chief object of his letter to me was to say that he had, on the day before, sought an interview with Lord Palmerston, in the hope of conciliating the support of the Government to his motion ; that he was to see him again, and yet hoped for a favor able result. He said, further, that in the course of a conversation, he expressed his regret that Lord P. had not seen me whilst I was in England, because he thought if he had done so, as one having the confidence of my Government and people, and well informed about their affairs and position, I might have given him useful and valuable information ; and, in this connection, asked whether it would be agreeable to his Lordship to see and con verse with me yet, as a private gentleman/ to which, after full conversation, Lord P. replied that it would give him pleasure to see me with Mr. Lindsay either on the Monday or Tuesday follow ing, at his residence in London. Mr. Lindsay said he told Lord Palmerston that he had proposed the interview without any com munication with me on the subject, and strongly pressed that I should go to London for this purpose. Mr. Lindsay added that Lord Palmerston told him that he had, of late, received two com munications, not official, from the Emperor, who seemed by them OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. to be very anxious that something should now be attempted to stop hostilities. I replied to Mr. Lindsay by the following mail, that I had maturely considered his proposition, and with every dis position to comply with it, as his request, but, I am not at liberty to do so, and that I may not seem fastidious after his Lordship s kind assent to your proposal that he should see me, I will tell you frankly why. After the persistent refusal of Her Majesty s Government to recognize, in any form, the existence of the Gov ernment of the Confederate States, I was directed by the President to consider my mission to England at an end, and to withdraw from London ; and further, instructions connected with my resi dence on the Continent express the desire of the President that in regard to Great Britain, I should not again approach it, even in the most informal manner, without some intimation from that Govern ment of its disposition to enter into official relations with my own. Had the suggestion you make of an interview and conver sation with Lord Palmerston originated with his Lordship, I might not have felt myself prohibited by my instructions from, at once, acceding to it, but as it has the form, only, of his assent to a proposition from you, I must, with all respect, decline it. f Although no longer accredited by my Government as Special Commissioner to Great Britain, I am yet in Europe with full powers; and, therefore, had Lord Palmerston expressed a desire to see me as his own act (of course, unofficially), even without any reason assigned for the interview, I should have had great pleasure in complying with his Lordship s request. " And in a private note to Mr. Lindsay, I told him he was at liberty, if he thought proper, to show my letter to Lord Pal merston. On the following day (yesterday) I heard again from Mr. Lindsay under the date of the 3Oth. He said that on receipt of my letter, he again called on Lord Palmerston, and read it to him ; when there followed more than half an hour s conversation on American affairs, during which his Lordship said he did not see how recognition would terminate the war unless the Government was prepared further to raise the blockade, etc. a position which Mr. Lindsay combatted by views inter alia which I had pre sented to him in my previous letters. He does not report the conversation in detail, but said that Lord Palmerston again ex pressed his opinion that the subjugation of the South could not LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 499 be effected by the North, and added that he thought the people of the North were becoming more and more alive to the fact every day. In regard to what I had written, Lord Palmer ston said that as he had, yet, nothing to say to me more than he had said to him, he could not think of asking me to come down from Paris to see him, but, that if I were in London, he would be very glad to see me, as he wished to know me, and would like to hear my views on the present state of affairs. " In regard to this resolution, Mr. Lindsay said that Lord Palmerston s feelings were in favor of it, and that he had asked him to leave a copy that he might consult with his colleagues ; and thought it had better be postponed for a short time, to which Mr. Lindsay acceded. " At the close of his letter, Mr. Lindsay added : Now, apart altogether from your seeing Lord Palmerston, I must earnestly entreat that you come here, unless you are much wanted in Paris your visit here as a private gentleman can do no harm, and may, at the present moment, be of great value to your country/ (The italics his.) " You are aware that there are in England a number of gen tlemen, chiefly members of the two Houses of Parliament, asso ciated together as the friends of Southern Independence. It seems that Mr. Lindsay showed my letter, at one of their meet ings, declining his proposal to see Lord Palmerston. I have this morning letters from two of them, earnestly pressing me to return for a while to London, of course, in a private capacity, whether I saw Lord Palmerston or not, and I have, in consequence, determined to do so. I have kept Mr. Slidell advised of the cor respondence, and he agrees with me, that after declining at first, it would be manifest indifference or churlishness to refuse even to visit London, though so urgently pressed by friends who are actively at work in our behalf to come to their aid. Whether or not I shall see Lord Palmerston will depend upon circumstances after I get there, and the counsels of judicious friends. I shall, in no way, court publicity, and, of one thing be assured, that no one, friend or foe, shall look upon me as a suitor. " In regard to the missing box of books, I hope it may before this have safely reached you. I wrote to Major Walker inquiring for it. I have his reply, dated the i6th April, acknowledging the 500 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. receipt of the last box shipped to his care, which contained the missing volumes of Hansard/ etc. I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 9. " LONDON, June gth, 1864. " Hon. /. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : Having taken the step of coming to London, in seeming departure from your instruction previously given. I was much gratified to find in yours of the i8th April that those instruc tions were modified so far as to leave such movements more at my discretion. " I have had a long conversation, since my arrival here, with Mr. Lindsay in regard to the subject of our correspondence before I left Paris, treated of in my last dispatch. Following up his hope of conciliating the Ministry in favor of his resolution, he had, a few days ago, an interview with Lord Russell, in which, while evincing every disposition to consider it favorably, he made no committal to give it his support, or that of the Ministerial party. I gave you the tenor of the resolution in my last. He said that Lord Russell expressed the decided opinion that the North could not overcome the South, and his belief that the people of the North were getting to be alive to the fact; but that, in all his conversations with Mr. Adams, the latter spoke as confidently as ever, and amongst other things said that his Government did not consider it of any great moment whether they succeeded in their movement against Richmond or no that their chief object was to maintain the control of the Mississippi. Such seems the chaff with which the Foreign Office is plied ! I had learned from other sources that Mr. Disraeli had said to one of his friends and followers, that if the South should obtain a decided success in the pending campaign against Richmond, he would be prepared to bring forward a motion of some such character as that of Mr. Lindsay. I told this to Mr. Lindsay, who agreed, at once, that it could not be in better hands; and, under such auspices, would certainly carry. Yielding to the suggestion of Lord Palmerston to await the result of the pending movement against Richmond, Mr. Lindsay has deferred his motion to the I7th instant. Should LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. c OI Grant be routed or finally driven back, either the Ministry would have to entertain a resolution favorable to us in some form, or the Opposition would make it an issue with them. Indeed, I am satis fied that so general, almost universal, is popular sentiment in Eng land with the South, accompanied by such strong impressions of the unnecessary and dreadful carnage which attends the war, that if we have the anticipated success in Virginia, the Ministry, even if disposed to resist, would have to yield to popular senti ment. " I shall remain in London as long as I think I can be useful here in intercourse with our friends, by whom I have been very warmly and kindly received. " JUNE IOTH. I have just had an interview with Mr. Wyon, who is executing the Seal. He tells me that it -will certainly be ready within a fortnight. He will send with it a supply of pre pared wax and other appendages for connecting the Seal with the document. I thought it better to have these supplies sent, in the absence of the proper materials in the Confederacy ; and will look out for some opportunity by an officer or other trusty person to take charge of them. " I have, etc., "J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 37. "J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State Confederate States, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner to Great Britain. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, i2th July, 1864. " SIR : The President is much pleased at the course pursued by you in the matter of the interview with Lord Palmerston, as detailed in your No. 8. It accords exactly with his view of what propriety dictated under the circumstances, and while prudence and policy require that any advances made by the British Cabinet towards the establishment of relations with you, should be met in a courteous spirit, we are satisfied that a lofty and independent bearing, exacting the utmost measure of the respect to which you are entitled as a representative of the Confederate States in for eign countries, is better calculated to subserve our interests than 502 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the indication of any eagerness to grasp at the first opening for an interview, whether official or unofficial, with the British Premier or Foreign Secretary. " In relation to your presence in London as a private gentle man, for conference with those who display so friendly a warmth in our favor as Mr. Lindsay and others whom you mention, the President considers that you are better able on the spot to judge of the advantage to be derived from an occasional visit to London, than he can be at this distance, and is content to leave your course on this point to be guided by your own discretion. " We have from the North, English dates to the 26th ultimo, announcing the adjournment of the conference without success in effecting any arrangement, and the renewal of hostilities in Den mark. " We can not judge what course England will take, though it seems, from this side, scarcely possible for her to avoid a war. " As nothing is said in the New York papers about Mr. Lindsay s motion, I take it for granted that it was again post poned. We have expected no result from this move, and regard it merely as an evidence of the sympathy and regard for us of the gentleman by whom the motion was made. " I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN." " 16 RUE DE MARIGNAN, " PARIS, June 2d, 1864. "My Very Dear Wife: I avail myself of the kind aid of Miss Eliza Soutter to send you this note. In the absence of Mr. Macfarland, who is in London, she is kind enough to act both as Secretary of Legation, and as amanuensis for me. We have just completed, and copied a long dispatch to Mr. Benjamin, and I am sure she will have your thanks, in advance, for her kindness in thus officiating. " We are all in painful suspense here in the absence of further intelligence, of the great struggle pending, at last accounts, in Vir ginia. Our latest dates were at New York on the loth of May, and Yankee though they were, they admit the heroic defense made by our gallant army. We do not hear the extent of the losses on our side, but the enemy admitting from fifty to eighty LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. thousand on theirs, we are left to imagine a proportionate one on our side ; horrible and distressing carnage indeed. When I read of these things, I feel more than ever, the earnest desire to be in your midst ; but in the trials we have to undergo, each must dis charge, as I know all do at home (and none can have harder trials than those who are perilled in battle), the duties that devolve on each. We have accounts of no later battle than that of the I2th of May, when the enemy was repulsed in a renewed attack at Spott- sylvania Court-House and where, as it would appear, General Johnston, with a large part of his division, was made prisoner. " I go to-morrow back to London, at the earnest instance of many friends there, chiefly members of Parliament, who think that my presence and counsels will aid them in efforts they are about to make to induce their Government to come to a better way of thinking on our affairs ; I do not expect to remain very long, and go with some reluctance, but have yielded to the opinions and wishes of those whose opinions on the matter I am not at liberty to disregard, and which I have explained in a private letter to the President, which goes with this. " Yours ever, "J. M. MASON." " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, "LONDON, June nth, 1864. " My Very Dear Wife: I came back to London three or four days ago from Paris, entirely as a private gentleman. On the 8th inst, two days after my arrival, I had the great pleasure to receive yours of 22d of April, with a P. S. from V. and a copy of a letter from Winchester. It will do good here. The accounts you give of our home and household, are very gratifying, but I am, as you may well know, in the midst of great anxiety for the results, and the consequences of the late terrible fighting in Vir ginia. Both our boys, I have understood, were in the division under General Johnston, which is reported, after serious losses, to have lost many as prisoners. I can only hope for the best. Indeed one can hardly indulge in personal anxieties amidst the terrible carnage occasioned by those battles. I had strong hopes that you, with the girls and little children, would have left Rich mond, thus avoiding all the painful excitement which must per- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. vade the city, and indeed I still hope that our good friends around you, may have induced you to do so. But in regard to all this, I can, for the present, only remain in doubt. " God bless and preserve you all, my dear wife, in this terri ble struggle. With constant love to Kate and her little ones, and to our own dear circle. " Yours most affectionately, " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 10. " LONDON, July 6th, 1864. (( Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I have the pleasure to inform you that I send by Lieutenant Chapman, C. S. N., who bears this, the Seal of the Confederate States, at last completed. It is much admired by all who have seen it here. I hope you will approve it as a fine work of art. " The Seal is carefully put up in a separate small box ; and Lieutenant Chapman is charged, under no circumstances to run the risk of its being captured. He takes the route to Bermuda, via Halifax, to sail on Saturday the Qth instant, and I ship through Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm and Company, by the steamer that takes him to Halifax, two boxes containing the iron press, with a full supply of wax and other materials for the use of the Seal. Although not expressly ordered, in the difficulty of obtaining these things in the Confederacy, at present, at least, of approved quality, I have thought it best to have them supplied here all which I hope you will approve. The enclosed duplicate bill will furnish you a list of those materials with the prices. The original I have paid and retain. " I have requested Lieutenant Chapman to take charge of the boxes at Bermuda, and to see to their safe delivery. To relieve him of expenses on the route, I have further requested Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Company here, if they can do so, to pay the freight all the way to Bermuda, and write to Major Walker at Bermuda to pay the freight thence to the Confederacy, should they not go in a Government ship. Still, it is possible that some part of this may not be done, and I have accordingly told Lieu- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. tenant Chapman, should any expenses in the transportation de volve on him, it should be paid promptly at the Department, which oblige me by having attended to. " I have, etc., " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. n. " LONDON, July 8th, 1864. (f Hon. /. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : You will have seen through the Northern press long before this can reach you the motion made in the House of Com mons in nature of want of confidence/ intended to oust the Ministry. The debate on the motion commencing on Monday the 4th, yet continues ; and absorbs every other question. The issue seems uncertain, but you will have heard that, too, far in advance of this dispatch. Whilst the debate is going on, we are receiving the cheering account of our great successes against Grant in Vir ginia ; and, as far as we can determine through the imperfect and disjointed intelligence from the North, of like successes against Sherman in Georgia. We do not doubt the result in either quarter ; and should they prove so decisive as finally to dispose of both armies of invasion, I entertain a strong hope, let the Ministe rial issue result as it may, that public opinion in England will compel the Government to move in some manner advantageously to us. And, as things present themselves, I should even have stronger hope of this, or rather, of more prompt action should the present Ministry remain in, than if unseated. In my last, I told you of the interview held by Mr. Lindsay with Lord Russell, having previously reported those held with Lord Palmerston, and from which Mr. Lindsay drew favorable inferences ; but in the preparations for the issue now made, and its engrossing character while pending, of course, no further steps concerning American affairs can be taken. We have, too, another gleam of light from another quarter which may inure to our benefit. It is said that Denmark, now certainly left alone to combat all Germany, has made overtures to terminate the war by being admitted into the Germanic Confederation. Should this prove true, and that em- broglio be removed out of the way, I should have still greater LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. hope that some favorable movement in regard to the South could be forced from the Ministry. These are the best speculations that I can offer as derived from my present sojourn in London. I see a great many of the more prominent public men, both Peers and Commoners, who talk freely with me, as I do with them. Should there be no dissolution, Parliament will probably remain in session until the first week in August " I have not seen Lord Palmerston, as I have written to you, as was proposed by Mr. Lindsay. On coming here Mr. L. renewed the proposal when I told him I would not call on Lord Palmerston on the indirect invitation given whilst I was in Paris, although I would be really happy to have a conversation with him ; and that if Lord Palmerston desired it, he had only to write me a note, or send me a message to that effect. I have heard nothing more in regard to it. " Since my last, we have sustained a severe blow in the loss of the Alabama after a daring and most gallant fight. I went to see Captain Semmes immediately on hearing of his arrival at Southampton, and he acquiesced in my suggestion that his official report to his superior officer in Europe should be published by me here at once, as the most speedy mode of getting it to our Govern ment by its republication in the North. Every indication was given here of the desire to receive Captain Semmes in the most marked manner a public dinner, I understand was tendered him by the Army and Navy Club, which he declined; and measures were at once taken, originating with officers of Her Majesty s Navy, to present him a sword. " I can not conclude without a full expression of the deep gratitude I feel, in common with all my countrymen here, to the gallant armies in the field, who have so nobly and successfully illustrated the character and spirit of our Southern people; and more especially to their able and heroic leaders. I really speak without exaggeration, when I say that all Europe is filled with the deserved fame of Lee, Beauregard, and Johnston. " I have, etc., " J. M. MASON." Unofficial letter to Mr. Benjamin. Not among Mr. Mason s papers, but obtained from the Department in Washington: LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " SHEPPERTON MANOR, MIDDLESEX, July I4th, 1864. "Hon. J. P. Benjamin, etc., etc., etc. " MY DEAR SIR : An opportunity immediately offering by Mr. Hamilton of the Navy, who sails day after to-morrow from Liverpool for Bermuda, and of which I did not know until to-day, I avail myself of it to report the heads of a conversation I had to-day with Lord Palmerston. His Lordship renewed, through Mr. Lindsay, his invitation to me to see him, and I went with Mr. Lindsay, from his home in the country, where I am a guest, to London this morning for that purpose. " I was received with great civility, and after the ordinary topics of salutation, Lord P. commenced the conversation. His points of inquiry were: the condition of the war; its probable duration; the prospects of the Presidential election, and the in fluences upon the war, as it might result ; whether I thought that any interposition now, by the European powers., would be better received by the Northern Government than at an earlier day. " My replies were, that I thought there was evidence the war would terminate with the present campaign, though not at once by a treaty of peace, but because the North would be unable to re plenish its armies ; that enlistments had ceased under any stimulant and that it was manifest they dare not attempt a draught. His Lordship asked in that connection, what would be the attitude of the South, and if they took Washington, what would be done with it. I replied I did not doubt it would be destroyed, not vindic tively but to keep the enemy at a distance. He expressed a doubt, whether in such a case it would not be wise in the South to remain still upon the defensive. As to the elections, I said, assuming, as I felt unable to do, the failure both of Grant and Sherman, there would result such anarchy in the North, as to make it doubtful whether any election could be held, Lincoln would probably be defeated, and such would be the condition of things, that if the European powers wousld take any steps, expressive of their sense that the war ought to end, it would bring out the potential voice of those who were really for peace, but who, without such aid, might be afraid to let their voice be heard ; and in this connection I told him, that I did not doubt the responsible and considerate mind of the North would look to such interposition as a godsend, and that, however the Government might have received it at an LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. earlier day, the Government would be powerless before the masses insisting on a peace ; that I thought both he and I would form a safe opinion as to the probable effect of such interposition, when we looked at the broken and disintegrating condition of the North, broken into factions, its finances in ruins, and unable to replenish its army ; in such condition men could look only to a peace. " Such is the outline only of what passed. At the conclusion I said to him in reply to his remark, that he was gratified in mak ing my acquaintance, that I felt obliged by his invitation to the interview, but that the obligation would be increased if I could take with me any expectation that the Government of Her Majesty was prepared to unite with France, in some act expres sive of their sense that the war should come to an end. He said, that perhaps, as I was of opinion that the crisis was at hand, it might be better to wait until it had arrived. I told him that my opinion was that the crisis had passed, at least so far as that the war of invasion would end with the campaign. " I send you this hurried note by the opportunity offering, but will reduce the conversation to more intelligible form for my next dispatch. It may be found that good will come of it. " Our interview was held in the form of an ordinary visit at his residence, Mr. Lindsay alone being present. " Praying your pardon for so hurried a note, I am, " My dear sir, very truly yours, " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 12. " LONDON, August 4th, 1864. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : Parliament was prorogued on the 2Qth July, and with out a vote being taken on the resolution of Mr. Lindsay. With many fair expressions, that gentleman found it impossible, it appeared, to conciliate the Ministry in its favor; and deemed it prudent to let it go by. As things stand, we can only still further await events. In an unofficial note, written from Mr. Lindsay s some two or three weeks since, I gave you the substance of an interview I had with Lord Palmerston. It imported but little, and in a private note to the President, which accompanies this LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 509 dispatch, I give the report somewhat more in detail, thinking it best not to give the subject the formal character of a dispatch. ( There being nothing special calling me to the Continent, and the political world generally being in recess for the summer, I propose, for the next two or three weeks, to visit different points in England and in Ireland, not to return to London unless specially called. I shall always, however, be in immediate reach by the mails and telegraph, and at once accessible through an address left in London. " I have, etc., "J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 38. "7. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State Confederate States, to 7. M. Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to England. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, 2Oth September, 1864. " SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your Nos. 10, n, and 12, the two former received together on 4th ultimo, and the last on I2th instant. " Your unofficial note of July I4th dated at Shepperton Manor, Middlesex, was not received till the I5th instant, and the private letter to the President stated to accompany your dispatch No. 12 has not yet reached him, nor was it found in the dispatch. " Although the Seal came safely to hand on the 4th ultimo, having been delivered to me by Lieutenant Chapman in person, I have no news as yet of the two boxes which were shipped by the same steamer to care of Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Company, so that I have as yet been unable to take an impression or to judge of the effect produced. " Mr. Trenholm, our new Secretary of the Treasury, has written to discover the cause of the delay. I begin to fear that the boxes are lost. " You will receive herewith Treasury draft for four hundred and fifty-eight pounds, one shilling, and four pence (458, I, 4), as requested in your No. 12 to cover the expenses of the defense in the case of the captors of the Gerrity. You must long since have received my dispatch conveying the approval by the Govern ment of your course in regard to these parties. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " I am afraid that in your interview with Lord Palmer ston you went rather beyond what the state of the case would warrant in the prediction made as to the condition of the North and the prospects of early peace. It is not considered here very likely that the North will be the first to recognize the independence of the Confederacy if it be possible for them to avoid the humiliation of such a step and although the war may gradually lose its intensity, there is great reason to fear that it may long continue a lingering existence, if European powers persist in the encouragement which is afforded the North by their obstinate refusal to recognize us. " You were probably better able to judge on the spot of the effect likely to be produced on the mind of the British Premier by the assurances given him, but from our standpoint it would seem that the expression of a conviction that hostilities would con tinue till our recognition by Europe should afford a basis for a treaty of peace would have been more likely to produce a good result as well as more accordant with the probable course of events. " You may perhaps have doubted whether the English Gov ernment desired the cessation of the war. Their conduct has pro duced the conviction on many minds that they dread the restora tion of peace on this side, and if that view be correct, your remarks were better adapted to produce effect than those above suggested. " We have, however, long ceased to expect from England any other action than such as may be dictated by our enemies to suit their own policy, and look with little interest to any declarations of her public men, being able to judge by the past what their acts will be under any circumstances. I perceive, however, that Lord Palmerston asked your opinion of the manner in which the North would receive any intervention or mediation on the part of Great Britain, still persistently taking for granted that such intervention was desired by us. It seems impossible to make foreign govern ments understand that we ask and desire no such thing, that we confine ourselves to the simple demand for recognition, that recognition will end the war from whatever quarter it may come, and that nothing else will. It is singular that when both belligerents have for two years shown in every conceivable manner that they consider the recognition of the South by Europe as absolutely conclusive of the struggle and as certain to LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. result in a cessation of hostilities, foreign governments should persistently affect to consider that such recognition would be of no value unless followed by active intervention. This is the more surprising because history is full of examples of recognition unac companied by any intervention or mediation, and productive of no further manifestation of resentment on the part of the nation seeking the subjugation of its adversary than an empty protest or remonstrance. The President will leave this evening for Georgia, and will I trust put matters there on a more satisfactory footing. There is no reason for despondency on account of the position of affairs there. On the contrary, we look for decisive success if the arrangements now in progress can be completed. " I have the honor to be, " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN." " LEAMINGTON, WARWICKSHIRE, Sept. iQth, 1864. " My Dear Wife: Returning from a little tour through Scot land and Ireland, where I paid some pleasant visits, in the latter to Lord and Lady Donoughmore, I have stopped for a few days at this pleasant country town on my way to Paris, and am again indebted to my kind friend Miss Lilie Soutter, who is here on a visit to some of her Confederate friends, as my amanuensis for this letter. " We have a large circle of Confederates in this retired town, which makes a sojourn amongst them very pleasant to one familiar only with the faces of strangers and foreigners. Amongst them, Mrs. B. W. Leigh of Richmond, with her daughters. Yet I have been fortunate in England, in attaching many agreeable and hospitable friends, as well within, as without the circles of the statesmen and public men, and have always abundance of invitations to visit them at their charming country homes, of which I avail myself as far as consistent with other duties. " I have promised to return from Paris to England about the middle of next month, to be present at a grand Fair/ called here a Bazaar, to be held in Liverpool, for the benefit of the sick and wounded Confederates, and for the relief of our men, prisoners at the North. This is purely an enterprise gotten up by English LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. gentlemen and ladies, sympathizers with the South, and of their own prompting, and will be under the patronage of ladies, most distinguished by their rank and their position in society, amongst them my friend Lady Mildred Hope and her daughters. These ladies are to take charge of or to represent each the several States, and to superintend, or rather to conduct the sales. It has been in course of preparation for some months and, I doubt not, will be a most munificent, as it certainly is, a most benevolent offering. I should not be surprised if it reached to an amount exceeding ten thousand pounds. I shall be the guest, at Liverpool, of James Spence, Esq., of whom you may have heard as an able and eloquent advocate of the Southern cause. " Most affectionately, " J. M. M." " No. 24 UPPER SEYMOUR ST., PORTMAN SQUARE, "LONDON, September 2ist, 1864. " Dear George: I have not had the pleasure of hearing from you for a very long time, but now, as the Yankees have left Brownsville, and Texas generally, I presume the communications will be again opened, and I hope you will occasionally write to me. Your friend Mr. Clements tells me that he gets letters from home, one recently, from Governor Morehead with a newspaper con taining a speech he delivered at Houston, and which showed that you introduced him to the meeting, thus, at least, giving evidence of your vitality. My latest from home were from the girls, dated Qth July, when all were well, cheerful and buoyant. They say their latest from you was dated on April 1st last, when you announced the arrival of another son ; my best wishes attend him. You will doubtless have seen in the papers that the Commission to England was terminated some twelve months ago, because of the general ill conduct to us of Her Majesty s Government with the refusal of Earl Russell to admit me even to an unofficial in terview, and I was ordered to withdraw from London, which I accordingly did, and have remained since chiefly on the Continent. After the termination of the English Mission, I was appointed Commissioner on the Continent at large, with general and large discretionary powers ; am now in England, but for a few days, when I shall return to Paris. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. The accounts I get from home, of the devastation and ruin of that part of our dear old State, where the enemy is in posses sion, or their armies have passed, are truly distressing ; the popula tion in those districts, chiefly women and children, and old or infirm men, reduced to absolute starvation, yet they give not the slightest evidence of submission, but are content to die rather than return to the brutal Government we have shaken off. Virginia has indeed shown herself worthy her ancient renown. " We are all speculating here on the probabilities of a ter mination of the war, through the dissensions and disorganization manifest at the North. " I have not the least reliance, far less faith, in the soi-disant Democratic party there, or in the professions they make either to themselves, or the South, and I repose, even here, in perfect con fidence that neither our Government nor our people will be in the least deluded by them. The present struggle is simply one of succession to political power, and the platforms and professions attending their conventions are only so many bids for the popular vote. Should the Democratic party get into power, its policy will be directed solely by measures thought, for the time being, best calculated to retain it ; whether they be measures of war or peace, without regard to any previous professions. Through the North ern press, however, I think there are unmistakable evidences that the enlightened, and responsible mind there, is hopeless of restor ing the Union, and equally hopeless of continuing the war, from lack both of men and money, and with full knowledge, that if the war were continued, their present apprehended bankruptcy would be a fact accomplished, and there are evidences equally strong, that the masses at the North, utterly disheartened and discouraged, have no farther stomach for the fight and will be neither led nor driven into it. However, it is vain to speculate, yet all history is deceptive, if the Northern people can escape a general breaking up, in some form, and our independence be secured through their weakness, and our compactness of purpose. In the long and tedi ous exile from home, I am happy to say that I have enjoyed unin terrupted health, an exile that has been much lightened by the association of many agreeable and interesting persons, elderly people with their families from the South, awaiting in Europe the return of peace, and in England have enjoyed the kindness and LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. hospitality of a large and attractive circle, as well in private as in public station. Whenever you can send letters to Havana they will come safely to me through the British mail, under cover to Colonel Charles Helm, Commercial Agent of the Confederate States at Havana, and do let me hear of every thing that interests you and yours. " With best love and remembrance to Ella and Jemmy. " Yours affectionately, " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 13. " PARIS, September 2Qth, 1864. "Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : Some ten days ago, I saw printed in the Northern papers your dispatch to me of the 25th of August, published as a reprint from the Richmond Examiner of the 27th, relating to the late interview between James F. Jacques and James R. Gilmore with the President at Richmond. The original I have not yet received. I could well understand the object in publishing this dispatch at home and at once. Immediately on seeing it, I took measures to have it published in the London journals. I had previously seen the version of that interview given by Mr. Gil- more through the Northern press ; and after the publication of your dispatch, was gratified to find that the Democratic journals there, at least, accepted it as the truth of the matter. " In regard to so much of your No. 36 as refers to the fabricated papers palmed off on the British Government by the American Secretary of State, through Lord Lyons, its denial of the authenticity of those documents is so minute and explicit; coupled with the declaration that our Government would deem it inconsistent with self-respect, hereafter, to descend to the like refutation with a view to undeceive the British Government as to the character of any future communications in relation to our affairs, which they habitually accepted from the Government at Washington, that I think it would be as well to give so much of the dispatch to the public, although the forgeries have hitherto been denounced by Mr. Slidell. I shall have it published in the Index. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " Whilst in Warwickshire, England, a few days ago, I wrote you an unofficial note by an opportunity offering through Mr. McHenry, then about to sail for the Confederacy, referring in it to such matters of public interest as presented themselves. I returned to Paris a few days since, and shall remain here until about the middle of October. At that time there is to be held at Liverpool a grand Bazaar. called in our country a Fair, the avails of which are dedicated to relieve the wants and necessities of Southern prisoners confined in the North. It originated with the Southern Club at Liverpool which has, for some time past, been collecting and remitting funds for that purpose to con fidential agencies at the North. The plan of the Bazaar has been taken up by the highest of the nobility in England, friends of our cause, and many of their ladies will officiate in person on the occasion, besides making large contributions. Our friend, Mr. Spence, has for some months had the matter actively in hand; and I have promised him that I would be present as his guest. He tells me that most munificent donations have been made in money from various parts of England ; and the nobility taking it up, gives a tone which ensures success. He thinks its avails may far exceed, and can not fall below ten thousand pounds. v I speak of it as part of the history of the times, and evincing the sym pathies of the English people. " There is nothing new here in European politics beyond what you will get through the public journals. Much speculation is indulged in as to the probable result of the Presidential election at the North, since the manifesto in McClellan s letter of accept ance. Result as it may, I can not see how the war can be carried on where it is manifest that the people have no longer any stomach for the fight. " I have, etc., " J. M. MASON." 5 i6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER XVIII. Mission of Messrs. Jacques and Gilmpre to Richmond St. Alban s Raid- Letter from Bennet Young Criticism by " Historicus" of Instructions from Department to Cruisers In Regard to Neutral Property Morning Post Condemns Position Taken by "Historicus" " Historicus" Said to be Mr. Vernon Harcourt Post Said to be Lord Palmerston s Organ Rumors of Purpose to Increase Southern Army by Arming the Slaves Attracts Favorable Attention in England Correspondence With Mr. Coolidge, of Boston, Relating to Treatment of Northern Soldiers in Southern Prisons. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, 25th August, 1864. " Hon. James M. Mason, Commissioner to the Continent, Paris. 11 SIR : Numerous publications which have appeared in the journals of the United States on the subject of informal over tures for peace between the two Federations of States now at war on this Continent, render it desirable that you should be fully advised of the views and policy of this Government on a matter of such paramount importance. It is likewise proper that you should be accurately informed of what has occurred on the several occa sions mentioned in the published statements. " You have heretofore been furnished with copies of the manifesto issued by the Congress of the Confederate States with the approval of the President on the I4th June last, and have doubtless acted in conformity with the resolution which requested that copies of this manifesto should be laid before foreign govern ments. " The principles, sentiments, and purposes by which these States have been and are still actuated are set forth in that paper with all the authority due to the solemn declaration of the Legislative and Executive Departments of the Government, and with a clearness which leaves no room for comment or explana tion. In a few sentences it is pointed out that all we ask is im munity from interference with our internal peace and prosperity, and to be left in the undisturbed enjoyment of those inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness which our com- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. mon ancestors declared to be the equal heritage of all parties to the social compact. Let them forbear aggressions upon us and the war is at an end. If there be questions which require adjust ment by negotiation, we have ever been willing and are still will ing to enter into communication with our adversaries in a spirit of peace, of equity and manly frankness. The manifesto closed with the declaration that we commit our cause to the enlightened judgment of the world, to the sober reflections of our adversaries themselves and to the solemn and righteous arbitrament of Heaven. " Within a very few weeks after the publication of the mani festo, it seemed to have met with a response from President Lincoln. " In the early part of last month, a letter was received by General Lee from Lieutenant-General Grant in the following words : " HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, " CITY POINT, VA., July 8th, 1864. General R. E. Lee, 1 Commanding Confederate Forces near Petersburg, Va. GENERAL : I would request that Colonel James F. Jac ques, Seventy-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and J. R. Gil- more, Esq., be allowed to meet Colonel Robert Ould, Commis sioner for the Exchange of Prisoners, at such place between the lines of the two armies as you may designate. The object of the meeting is legitimate with the duties of Colonel Ould, as Commis sioner. If not consistent for you to grant the request here asked, I would beg that this be referred to President Davis for his action. " Requesting as early an answer to this communication as you may find it convenient to make, I submit myself very respectfully, Your obedient servant, " U. S. GRANT, " f Lieutenant-General U. S. A! 11 On the reference of this letter to the President he authorized Colonel Ould to meet the persons named in General Grant s letter, and Colonel Ould, after seeing them, returned to Richmond and reported to the President in the presence of the Secretary of War and myself that Messrs. Jacques and Gilmore had not said any- 5i8_ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. thing to him about his duties as Commissioner for exchange of prisoners, but that they asked permission to come to Richmond for the purpose of seeing the President ; that they came with the knowledge and approval of President Lincoln and under his pass ; that they were informal messengers sent with a view of paving the way for a meeting of formal Commissioners authorized to nego tiate for peace, and desired to communicate to President Davis the views of Mr. Lincoln and to obtain the President s views in return so as to arrange for a meeting of Commissioners. Colonel Ould stated that he had told them repeatedly that it was useless to come to Richmond to talk of peace on any other terms than the recog nized independence of the Confederacy; to which they said that they were aware of that, and that they were nevertheless confident that their interview would result in peace. The President, on this report of Colonel Ould, determined to permit them to come to Richmond under his charge. " On the evening of the i6th July, Colonel Ould conducted these gentlemen to a Hotel in Richmond where a room was pro vided for them in which they were to remain under surveillance during their stay here, and the next morning I received the fol lowing letter : " SPOTTSWOOD HOUSE, " RICHMOND, VA V July lyth, 1864. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State of C. S. A. " DEAR SIR : The undersigned James F. Jacques, of Illinois, and James R. Gilmore, of Massachusetts, most respectfully solicit an interview with President Davis. They visit Richmond as private citizens, and have no official character or authority, but they are fully possessed of the views of the United States Govern ment relative to an adjustment of the differences now existing between the North and the South, and have little doubt that a free interchange of views between President Davis and themselves, would open the way to such official negotiations as would ultimate in restoring peace to the two sections of our distracted country. " They therefore ask an interview with the President, and awaiting your reply are " Most truly and respectfully, your obedient servants, " JAMES F.JACQUES, " JAMES R. GILMORE. " LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " The word official is underscored and the word peace doubly underscored in the original. " After perusing the letter, I invited Colonel Ould to conduct the writers to my office, and on their arrival stated to them that they must be conscious that they could not be admitted to an interview with the President without informing me more fully of the object of their mission, and satisfying me that they came by request of Mr. Lincoln: Mr. Gilmore replied that they came unofficially but with the knowledge and at the desire of Mr. Lin coln : that they thought the war had gone far enough, that it could never end except by some sort of agreement, that the agree ment might as well be made now as after further bloodshed ; that they knew by the recent address of the Confederate Congress that we were willing to make peace ; that they admitted proposals ought to come from the North and that they were prepared to make these proposals by Mr. Lincoln s authority; that it was necessary to have a sort of informal understanding in advance of regular negotiations, for if Commissioners were appointed without some such understanding they would meet, quarrel, and separate, leaving the parties more bitter against each other than before ; that they knew Mr. Lincoln s views and would state them if pressed by the President to do so, and desire to learn his in return. " I again insisted on some evidence that they came from Mr. Lincoln, and in order to satisfy me, Mr. Gilmore referred to the fact that permission for their coming through our lines had been asked officially by General Grant in a letter to General Lee, and that General Grant in that letter had asked that this request should be referred to President Davis. Mr. Gilmore then showed me a card written and signed by Mr. Lincoln requesting General Grant to aid Mr. Gilmore and friend in passing through his lines into the Confederacy. Colonel Jacques then said that his name was not put on the card for the reason that it was earnestly desired that their visit should be kept secret ; that he had come into the Con federacy a year ago and had visited Petersburg on a similar errand, and that it was feared if his name should become known that some of those who had formerly met him in Petersburg would conjecture the purpose for which he now came. He said that the terms of peace which they would offer to the President would be 520_ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. honorable to the Confederacy, that they did not desire that the Confederacy should accept any other terms, but would be glad to nave my promise as they gave theirs, that their visit should be Kept a profound secret if it failed to result in peace ; that it would not be just that either party should seek any advantage by divul ging the fact of their overture for peace, if unsuccessful. I assented to this request and then rising said, Do I understand you to state distinctly that you come as messengers from Mr. Lincoln for the purpose of agreeing with the President as to the proper mode of inaugurating a formal negotiation for peace, charged by Mr. Lin coln with authority for stating his own views and receiving those of President ? Both answered in the affirmative and I then said that the President would see them at my office the same evening at 9 p. m., that at least I presumed he would, but if he objected after hearing my report they should be informed. They were then recommitted to the charge of Colonel Ould with the understanding that they were to be reconducted to my office at the appointed hour unless otherwise directed. This interview, connected with the report previously made by Colonel Ould, left on my mind the decided impression that Mr. Lincoln was averse to sending Commissioners to open negotiations lest he might thereby be deemed to have recognized the independ ence of the Confederacy, and that he was anxious to learn whether the conditions on which alone he would be willing to take such a step would be yielded by the Confederacy ; that with this view he had placed his messengers in a condition to satisfy us that they really came from him, without committing himself to any thing in the event of a disagreement as to such conditions as he con sidered to be indispensable. " On informing the President therefore of my conclusions, he determined that no questions of form or etiquette should be an obstacle to his receiving any overtures that promised, however remotely, to result in putting an end to the carnage which marked the continuance of hostilities. The President came to my office at nine o clock in the even ing and Colonel Ould came a few moments later with Messrs. Jacques and Gilmore. The President said to them that he had heard from me that they came as messengers of peace from Mr. Lincoln; that as such they were welcome; that the Confederacy LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. had never concealed its desire for peace and that he was ready to hear whatever they had to offer on that subject. " Mr. Gilmore then addressed the President and in a few minutes had conveyed the information that these two gentlemen had come to Richmond impressed with the idea that this Govern ment would accept a peace on the basis of a reconstruction of the Union, the abolition of slavery and the grant of an amnesty to the people of the States as repentant criminals. In order to accom plish the abolitipn of slavery it was proposed that there should be a general vote of all the people of both Federations in mass and the majority of the vote thus taken was to determine that as well as all other disputed questions. These were stated to be Mr. Lin coln s views. " The President answered that as these proposals had been prefaced by the remark that the people of the North were a majority and that a majority ought to govern, the offer was in effect a proposal that the Confederate States should surrender at discretion, admit that they had been wrong from the beginning of the contest, submit to the mercy of their enemies and avow themselves to be in need of pardon for crimes ; that extermination was preferable to such dishonor. " He stated that if they were themselves so unacquainted with the form of their own Government as to make such propositions, Mr. Lincoln ought to have known when giving them his views, that it was out of the power of the Confederate Government to act on the subject of the domestic institutions of the several States, each State having exclusive jurisdiction on that point, still less to commit the decision of such a question to a vote of a foreign people ; that the separation of the States was an accomplished fact ; that he had no authority to receive proposals for negotiation except by virtue of his office as President of an independent Confederacy, and on this basis alone must proposals be made to him. At one period of the conversation., Mr. Gilmore made use of some lan guage referring to these States as rebels while rendering an account of Mr. Lincoln s views, and apologized for the word. The President desired him to proceed, that no offense was taken, and that he wished Mr. Lincoln s language to be repeated to him as exactly as possible. Some further conversation took place, sub stantially to the same effect as the foregoing, when the President 522 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. rose to indicate that the interview was at an end. The two gentle men were then recommitted to the charge of Colonel Ould and left Richmond the next day. " This account of the visit of Messrs. Gilmore and Jacques to Richmond has been rendered necessary by publications made by one or both of them since their return to the United States, not withstanding the agreement that their visit was to be kept secret. They have perhaps concluded that as the promise of secrecy was made at their request, it was permissible to disregard it. "We had no reason for desiring to conceal what had occurred, and have therefore no complaint to make of the publicity given to the fact of the visit. The extreme inaccuracy of Mr. Gilmore s narrative will be apparent to you from the foregoing statement. " You have no doubt seen in the Northern papers an account of another conference on the subject of peace which took place in Canada at about the same date between Messrs. C. C. Clay and J. P. Holcombe, Confederate citizens of the highest character and position, and Mr. Horace Greely, of New York, acting with authority of President Lincoln. " It is deemed not improper to inform you that Messrs. Clay and Holcombe, although enjoying in an eminent degree the con fidence and esteem of the President, were strictly accurate in their statement that they were without authority from this Govern ment to treat with that of the United States on any subject what ever. We had no knowledge of their conference with Mr. Greely nor of their proposed visit to Washington till we saw the news paper publications. "A significant confirmation of the truth of the statement of Messrs. Gilmore and Jacques that they came as messengers from Mr. Lincoln is to be found in the fact, that the views of Mr. Lincoln as stated by them to the President are in exact con formity with the offensive paper addressed to Whom it may concern which was sent by Mr. Lincoln to Messrs. Clay and Holcombe by the hands of his private secretary, Mr. Hay, and which was properly regarded by those gentlemen as an intimation that Mr. Lincoln was unwilling that this war should cease, while in his power to continue hostilities. " I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN, "Secretary of State." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. DISPATCH No. 14. " PARIS, November loth, 1864. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR: In my No. 13 of the 2Qth September, I informed you that neither Mr. Slidell nor I had received the copies of the manifesto of Congress spoken of in your circular of the 25th of August, and which we first saw reprinted in the Northern journals from Richmond papers. Since my dispatch of the I3th September the circular arrived, and I at once communicated with Mr. Slidell and Colonel Mann as to the proper mode of carrying out the request of Congress that they should be laid before foreign Gov ernments by the Commissioners abroad. Some little delay occurred as we thought it best to await the arrival of the last mail from Bermuda, which might bring the copies from your Depart ment and probably with specific instructions, but nothing came. It was considered by us an occasion on which the duty imposed on the Commissioners by the request of Congress should be dis charged in a formal and becoming manner, and we met at Paris a few days since, to determine the mode. The broad expression in the resolution of Congress that the manifesto should be laid before foreign governments led us to consider, in the absence of instruc tions, that it would be proper to communicate it to all the principal powers, namely England, France, Prussia, Austria, Belgium, the Swiss Confederation, Denmark, the kingdom of Italy, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Rome; and the mode that the manifesto should be neatly engrossed by a skilful writer, in good but plain penmanship, on suitable paper of rather more than dis patch size a copy to be sent addressed to the proper Minister of State of each one of those powers, accompanied by a joint note of the Commissioners to the Minister, of which I send you a copy herewith. To France and Belgium, this note, with the manifesto will be presented by Mr. Slidell and Mr. Mann respectively; to each of the other Governments it will be borne by one or the other of the Secretaries of the Commissioners. The manifesto is cer tainly a most able and impressive paper, and the request of Con gress that it should be laid before foreign governments, as emana ting from that body, we thought an occasion sufficiently grave and important to require that it should be done in a manner, and with LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the ceremonial adopted. The papers are now nearly ready, and will be sent off in the course of one or two days ; and I hope what is done will have the approval of your Department. " I am gratified to learn that the Seal arrived safely, and it was followed, I hope, speedily by the boxes containing the materials for its use. " In regard to your remarks on my late conversation with Lord Palmerston, after the distinct and repeated refusal of his Government to recognize the independence of the South made the principal reason for terminating the mission to England. I did not, of course, directly or indirectly intimate to him that we yet asked it. I have not a copy of the memorandum of the con versation with me in Paris, but have a strong recollection that the course of conversation admitting it, I made the direct point that recognition at any time by any principal power of Europe, and without other act on their part, would stop the war. You are right, however, in your remark that in despite of all evidence and reason to the contrary, England, at least, affects to consider that such recognition would be of no value, unless followed by active intervention/ Nor is this peculiar to the Government. The public men of that country seem unable or unwilling to divest themselves of such belief; the true reason can only be that they use it as an evasion of the duty incumbent on their Government under every principle of public law, because of the latent fear that it will involve them in war. You will have seen in the later English papers that the distress in the manufacturing districts is again exhibiting itself to an extent causing much alarm, with the prospect of its even exceeding in intensity, this winter, the experi ence of the last two years. This, with the great derangement in commerce, and the pressure consequent thereon in the money market, may not be without its effect in our favour when Parlia ment meets in February. " Colonel Mann, who is here, tells me that he thinks a reaction is strongly setting in, in Germany, which will have the effect of throwing back upon the United States very large amounts of their public securities that were taken up in that country, under the attraction of the high rate of interest brought about by the rate of exchange. I have thought of going, for a time, to Frankfort- on-the-Main entirely as a private gentleman, to see what may be LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 525 done in aid of such catastrophe ; and, perhaps, I can be useful, also, in discouraging emigration from that country under the fraudulent practices there of Northern agents. " Captain Morris, late Commander of the Florida, has just reached here, and made his official report to Commodore Barron, of the base and cowardly act of the commander of the Wachu- setts taking advantage of the absence of one-half the crew of the Florida on shore-leave at night, to overpower the remainder and seize the ship. I have sent the report to be published through the Index in the English and other European journals ; and you will have seen it in reprint in the New York papers before this reaches you. It is thought by some that England and France will come to the aid of Brazil in a demand for full reparation to that power, though I doubt whether this intervention will extend beyond a formal protest against the act, as a precedent. " I have, etc., etc., " J. M. MASON. " P. S. Since the foregoing was written it was determined on further consideration to change the mode of communicating the manifesto to the different governments instead of sending it by a special messenger to each court, they will be transmitted through the Legations of each at Paris by the agency of Mr. Slidell. " J. M. M." ( DISPATCH No. 15. " LONDON, December i6th, 1864. " Hon J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 11 SIR : I have now the honor to send you herewith a dupli cate of my No. 14, and also a copy of a letter from Earl Russell acknowledging the joint note of Messrs. Slidell, Mann, andmyself, communicating to him a copy of the manifesto of Congress. You will have seen it long since, doubtless, together with the note to which it was in reply, through the Northern press. I have thought it proper, nevertheless, to send a formal copy for the records of the Department. It has been generally thought here that there is in it some relaxation in tone if contrasted with his usual style when writing or speaking of the Confederate States, which may LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. mean something or nothing. Where he speaks, for example, of the struggle between the Northern and Southern States of the formerly United Republic of North America. " I do not myself attach much importance to it. It is the only reply received from the Minister of any court to which the manifesto was communicated. " A few days since, I received from Canada a letter from Mr. James D. Westcott, formerly Senator of the United States from Florida ; and with it a printed copy of the proceedings and evidence, so far as they had gone, in the case of Lieutenant Young and others, claimed for extradition by the Government of the United States, on a charge of felony committed by them in their late attack on St. Albans, Vermont. Mr. Westcott s letter was dated from Montreal, where he said he had gone to attend the trial as the friend of Mr. Wallace, one of the parties charged. His letter was dated the I4th November ; and it appeared that time had been allowed the prisoners to the I3th December to obtain evidence on their behalf from Richmond. It also appeared that Lieutenant Young exhibited in evidence his commission as Lieu tenant in the army of the Confederate States, with authority to enlist a given number of men beyond the limits of the Confederacy for special service, and he, with his companions being allowed to make declarations in court, stated that their plans were con cocted at Chicago and that what they had done had been in execution of their military orders. It was thus clearly shown that their acts were acts of war, and in no possible sense could be treated as an offense within the treaty. Mr. Westcott informed me that Mr. J. J. Abbott, formerly Solicitor-General of Canada, was their principal counsel. I can hardly conceive that the deci sion in Canada will be adverse to the prisoners, yet, considering that nothing should be left undone which might possibly inure to their safety, I thought it prudent here to lay the papers before Sir Hugh Cairns, at present probably the most distinguished jurist at the bar. My object was, in advance, if possible, of the decision in Canada to put Mr. Abbott professionally in communication with Sir Hugh, with a view to have the defense so conducted as to provide for an appeal to the courts in England, if the result in Canada should make it necessary ; and I wrote by the earliest mail, and told Mr. Abbott of the retainer of Sir Hugh with a request LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 527 that he would communicate with him in the view I had men tioned.* " I have received an address from the Southern Independ ence Association at Manchester to the President of the Con federate States signed by its Executive Committee, with a request that I would transmit it to the President. It congratulates him on the success of our arms, expresses entire confidence that our in dependence is achieved, and fully approves the proposed plan of arming the slaves, should the same be found necessary to recruit the armies. It shall be sent by the first convenient oppor tunity, and I have so informed the committee. This association is the largest, as it is the most active and energetic, of any that have been formed for agitation in our behalf. The accompany ing sheet, containing the names of its officers, etc., will show the ^Extract from the Quebec Morning Chronicle of October 26th, 1864. "We have just received the following letter from Lieutenant Bennett H. Young, commanding the party of raiders on St. Albans, and hasten to give it the publication asked for it, with no other comment than that it in no re spect changes our previously expressed opinions : " FREELIGHSBURG, EAST CANADA, Oct. 2ist, 1864. " To the Editor of the Evening Telegraph. " Through the columns of your journal I wish to make some statements to the people of Canada in regard to recent operations in Vermont. I went there for the purpose of burning the town and surrounding villages, as a re taliation for recent outrages in Shenandoah Valley and elsewhere in the Confederate States. I am a commissioned officer in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, and violating no law in Canada. I do not wish my name connected with the epithets now applied without a knowledge on the part of the people as to who we were and why our action. I wish, also, to make a few statements as to how myself and party were taken. I was seized on Canadian soil by American citizens, with arms in their hands, and violently searched ; my pocketbook taken, and I forcibly placed in a buggy between two men and started towards the United States. I reached out my hand and caught the rein, when three pistols were leveled at my head, with threats to shoot the d n scoundrel dead if he moved. Some Canadian citizens then spoke up, and seeing a bailiff, they started with me towards him, two of them holding arms in their hands. These statements can be proved by Canadian citizens. Bands of American citizens came into this place, and even beyond it, brandishing their guns and attempting to kill some of us after we were in the hands of the British authorities. Surely the people of Vermont must have forgotten that you are not in the midst of war, and ruled by a man despotic in his actions and supreme in his infamy ! I am not afraid to go before the courts of Canada ; and when the affair is investi gated, I am satisfied they, not my party, will be found the violators of Can adian and English law. Some one, I hope, will be sent to investigate this breach of neutrality, and award to those American citizens doing armed duty in Canada the just merit of their transgression. " Hoping you will give this a publication. " I remain, etc., (Signed) " BENNETT H. YOUNG, " < First Lieutenant P. A.C. 5V " LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. general character of its material. The address is handsomely engrossed in parchment in the illuminated style. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." DISPATCH No. 16. " LONDON, January i2th, 1865. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I learned some two weeks since from Mr. Slidell that the French Government had made a proposition to the British Government, that each power should permit our prizes, having cargo, in whole or in part, claimed as property of the subjects of either, to be taken for adjudication into the ports of either respectively. So far, I learn, the only answer received was that it had been referred to the Crown lawyers. In the very sensitive attitude held by the British Government towards the United States, manifestly afraid of incurring the slightest risk of their displeasure, I have little idea that the British Govern ment will assent to the proposal. Its being equitable, just, and reasonable, will weigh nothing with Her Majesty s Government against the possible risk of rupture with the United States. In the Times of yesterday you will observe an elaborate criticism by the noted Historicus of the recent instructions issued by your Department for the governance of our cruisers in regard to neutral property found under the enemy s flag, and the converse. It is written, as you will find, in bad temper and spirit, with a threat of punishment by England, should the instructions be carried out in practice. The writer, as I learn, is Mr. Vernon Harcourt, a barrister of ability, and connection by marriage of the late Sir George Cornwall Lewis, Secretary of War; and who is now himself one of the Crown lawyers, though not of the three officials who are the responsible law advisers of the Gov ernment, his province being, under official appointment, the adviser in questions that are of penal or criminal, and not of a political character. But I think it would follow that, on important questions of the latter class he would be taken into counsel. I can not but think, therefore, that his paper in the Times is in tended to be a vindication in advance of the refusal of the Govern ment to the proposal from the French Emperor. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " I have little to add to what I have heretofore reported in regard to matters in England. I see some of their public men from time to time, and have been kindly received at their homes in the country. They continue to express, and, I am satisfied, to feel, the same interest as ever in our success in the war ; but I am not aware that there is any increased disposition, either with Liberals or Conservatives, to overrule the policy of the Admin istration. " It may be as well to state that in a private note from Mr. L. Q. Washington, dated the 8th November, he informed me that whatever dispatches were on board the Condor had been lost with Mrs. Greenhow. " In a note from Colonel Mann, dated Brussels, 5th instant, he says : The Federal bonds are very buoyant, as well here as at Amsterdam and Frankfort, under the influence of the intel ligence of our reverses in Tennessee and Georgia, but no new arrivals have occurred, nor are any likely to occur. The markets are quite as full as they will bear. The Federal treasury, it would seem, admitting that hereafter its receipts in coin will b< scarce equal to payment of interest in gold-bearing securities already issued, has determined to discontinue that form of security and to rely on a new issue, with interest payable in cur rency. This is a confession of weakness that I think must alarm bondholders in Europe. It is very certain that in England, and so far as I can learn everywhere in Europe, with capitalists or fundholders they can not place a dollar. " Mr. Slidell will have sent you, of course, the replies, so far as received, to our joint note communicating the Manifesto of Congress to the European powers. They were sent to him because our note was transmitted by him through the Embas sies of those powers at Paris. So far, three only have been re ceived, and they have been published here, the sooner to reach our Government. They amount, as you will have seen, to nothing substantial ; though it would appear from the Northern press that some forms of expression in the note of Lord Russell is strongly excepted to by the Yankees. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. DISPATCH No. 17. " LONDON, January 2ist, 1865. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I avail myself of the mail via Halifax to Bermuda, leaving to-day, to send you herewith a duplicate of my No. 16, of the 1 2th January instant. " I have nothing to report of interest since that date, nor have I yet been able to learn what answer, if any, has been given by this Government to the proposal of France mentioned in my last, for the admission of our prizes having neutral cargo into the ports of either power for adjudication. No answer has been received by the French Government so late as the 8th instant, as I learn by a note from Mr. Slidell. " In regard to what is said in my last dispatch about the strictures of Historicus through the Times, on the late in structions from your Department for the governance of our cruisers at sea, I observed, in a few days afterwards, an able and decided leader in the Morning Post, reviewing and condemning the position assumed by Historicus, and fully sustaining those taken in the instructions. A slip containing it, I understand from Mr. Hotze, was sent to you by the last mail via Nassau. The Post, as you are probably aware, is generally considered as the particular exponent of Lord Palmerston, which may give some significance to the article. " The rumors lately prevalent, coming from the South, of a purpose to increase our military forces by arming a large body of slaves, sustained by a portion of the press there, and said to have the countenance of General Lee, has attracted much atten tion in England ; and many inquiries have been made of me by our well-wishers whether I thought it would be done. It is con sidered by them with much favor as a measure carrying large aux iliaries to our armies, whilst in their opinion it would be a first step toward emancipation. I have answered that I had no doubt that the matter was looked on at the South as a question of ex pediency only; that our people would have no fear of bringing our slaves into the field to an enemy common alike to them and to their masters; nor did I doubt that our slaves would make better soldiers in our ranks than in those of the North. Yet that LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. there were strong objections which I thought would lead the Government not to resort to this reserve force unless it was con sidered necessary to bring our armies to some required standard. That the objections, as they presented themselves to me were, first, that it would diminish our agricultural labor for a time, and secondly, that should it be thought incumbent, after the war, to offer freedom to those who took part in it, great mischief and in convenience would result from any increase in the number of f i ee blacks amongst us ; and thus, I thought the question would turn ultimately upon the inquiry whether the demand for men in the army was sufficient to overcome the objections stated. I have thought it best to keep you ait courant as to opinion here on a policy so interesting to us. " The signal and disastrous failure of the enemy off Wil mington came very opportunely to affect the current of opinion here in regard to our prospects after the successful march of Sherman, and his possession of Savannah, with the reverses that seemed to attend the campaign of General Hood. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." The following correspondence relates to a subject, the treat ment of Northern soldiers in Southern prisons, that has been fre quently misrepresented. It is copied from a newspaper clipping that was preserved by Mr. Mason among other material for history : " To the Editor of the Times: " As part of the political history of the times, the corres pondence I transmit herewith may have sufficient significance to call for its publication. I submit it to you accordingly for a place in your columns. " I am, sir, etc., "J. M. MASON, " 24 Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square, London. " BOSTON, December isth, 1864. ff Mr. J. M. Mason, London. " SIR : I take the liberty of sending you a pamphlet pub lished bv the United States Sanitary Commission on the treatment LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of Northern prisoners at the South. I beg you will look through it. " I send it to you, sir, believing that you yourself are not aware of this state of things, and that you occupy a position which may enable you indirectly to ameliorate this appalling suffering. " I am, sir, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, "A. COOLIDGE. "65 Marlborough Street, Boston, Mass/ " LONDON, January 25th, 1865. "A. Coolldge, Esq., Boston, Massachusetts. " SIR : I have your letter of December I5th, with the volume accompanying it, entitled a Narrative of Privation and Sufferings of United States Officers and Soldiers while Prisoners of War in the Hands of the Rebel Authorities. Being the Report of a Commission of Inquiry appointed by the United States Sanitary Commission/ " In your letter you beg that I will look through it/ and say that you sent it to me, believing that I am not aware of this state of things/ and may have it in my power indirectly to ameliorate this appalling suffering/ I am thus to infer from your letter that you think the contents of the volume are entitled to my credence. I have looked through it, and have looked also at the pictures that adorn it, which are alleged to be photographic illustrations of the emaciated forms of certain of the prisoners returned from the Confederate States. This form of pictorial literature would seem almost peculiar to the country to which you belong, and, as would appear, is known alike to its humanitarians and its statesmen; for it so happens that about the time the volume of the Sanitary Commission came from you I received from another quarter another volume of like grade, and prepared for a like purpose, entitled Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War Fort Pillow Massacre Returned Prison ers/ a document issued by the Congress of the United States; and this volume, too, is adorned with like pictorial illustrations. As I understand, in the vocabulary of your country, the class of literature to which both these volumes belong, is called the sen sation style/ and is adapted to that class of readers whose con- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. victions are to be reached by fraudulent practicings on their intellect. As noted examples of similar productions, I will recall to you Uncle Tom s Cabin/ by Mrs. Stowe, one of your country women. and a book, the title of which I have forgotten, but familiarly known in the circles of your country as Helper s Book/ both illustrated by pictorial sketchings. But I am to deal now with the volume the Sanitary Commission : the others, having each done the dirty work of their day, are laid by to serve with the volume in hand as authentic materials for future history by some New England historian. " None can read the work of the Sanitary Commission with out seeing that it was written for a very different purpose than that of ameliorating by its labors the suffering and privation ascribed in it to prisoners of war in the Confederate States ; nor will the character of the gentlemen, whatever that may be, who give it their sanction as a committee, with the long array of titles annexed to their respective names, rescue it from such imputa tion. Its true character is that of a political work, and of the lowest type, intended to excite and inflame the popular mind at the North by false and exaggerated pictures of the privations and sufferings of Northern soldiers held as prisoners at the South. The narrative carries with it intrinsic evidence that it is from a pen long practiced in the unscrupulous school to which it belongs ; indeed, the writer seems to have considered it necessary to account in some way for the peculiar style of a work professedly of pure humanity. He calls it, at page 24, the dramatic development of the inquiry of the Sanitary Commission in which all the salient points of the evidence/ with the results of their own observations, are incorporated together. In other words, the evidence and the so-styled results of observation were to be grouped and colored for political effect. " Now, on the subject of the treatment of prisoners, either at the North or South, I have no information but that which comes to us through the public prints ; but I am fully aware that the condition of prisoners of war, wherever they may be, must of necessity be attended with privation and suffering, and necessarily more so in the South, whatsoever care can be extended to them, from the atrocious manner in which the war is waged by those who conduct your armies in my country. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " Your Sanitary Commission complains that they are stinted in food; that it is bad in quality; are not sufficiently clothed, and, when sick, they are not treated with sufficient and proper medi cine ; and this in the face of the notorious fact that wherever your armies penetrate they are ordered to burn and destroy everything that contributes to the food and raiment of man an order most relentlessly obeyed ; and, as if to add to the infamy of such prac tices, all medicines, surgical instruments, and whatever could minister to the sick or wounded in the hospitals, your Government has declared and treated as contraband of war, with orders that they be destroyed wherever found orders that are invariably obeyed. Whole regions of the Southern country have thus been ruthlessly laid waste. As a single example, let me recall the recent instances in the Valley of the Shenandoah, a country teem ing with population and of unrivalled fertility. " In its late retreat your army devastated the entire country through which it passed, its General boasting in his official report that he had burned in his progress two thousand barns rilled with the harvesting of the year ; that he had burned all the mills in that whole tract of country, destroyed all the factories of cloth, and killed or driven off every animal, even to the poultry, that could contribute to human sustenance, in an extent of country some sixty miles long and from thirty to forty wide. Cut off to a great extent by your blockade from the importation of foreign salt, it is the boast of your generals that military parties are organized to destroy our salt factories wherever found, either on the seaboard or in the interior ; and very recently we have accounts exultantly presented, of destruction done at Saltville, in South western Virginia, extending to the breaking up of the kettles used in its manufacture, and despoiling the salt wells. There is but one step of greater infamy against your fellowman I should not say greater, for it is the equal only and that would be to poison the water in the streams. In the face of such notorious facts your Sanitary Commission has the effrontery to complain to the world that the prisoners of war in the South are stinted in food, badly clothed, their health impaired from want of salt, and death frequent in the hospitals from the failure to supply the proper medicines. I desire to say to you, then, that I can give no credit to the report of your Sanitary Commission. Little as LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ex-partc testimony is proverbially entitled to belief, it is still less so in the hands of those interested by their own showing to deceive, and who resort for their witnesses to a class of men who are thus described by an authority in your own country whom neither you nor they, on this subject, at least, dare discredit. The editor of the New York Times, speaking of the character of the recruits sent to your army on the James River in Virginia, as substitutes for drafted men, and from information derived from a correspondent with the Federal army at City Point, describes them as wretched vagabonds, depraved in morals, or decrepit in body, without courage, self-respect or conscience. * * They desert when put on picket duty, they skulk in action, and are dirty, disorderly, thievish, and incapable in camp, and pass most of their time on barrels tied up to trees, or bucked and gagged. Of such materials is your army in Virginia, and from such materials your Sanitary Commission could be at no loss for witnesses in their dramatic development. You will find this agreeable picture of your own troops in the New York Times of January 6th. 1865. " To its further discredit, I know that the batch of prisoners whose emaciated forms supplied the materials for its pictorial illustrations, were the sick brought from the hospitals in Rich mond under the cruel policy of your Government to make no exchanges except of the sick. Your Sanitary Commission might, and with as good grace and as much fairness, have the patients in the worst form of disease from your public charities, exhibited in photograph as evidence of inhuman treatment at such hos pitals. But it is waste of time to attempt to refute these calum nious imputations. Those to whom they are addressed in your country do not desire to be undeceived. When first propagated, some year or two ago, pains were taken in the South, through the aid of disinterested and impartial observers, to have the real con dition of prisoners at the South enquired into and laid before the world. Their statements were in true keeping with what was the acknowledged duty of a humane and Christian people, and in accordance with the established rules of civilized warfare. The rations allowed to prisoners were the same in quantity and quality as those given to our own soldiers in the field ; nor was there any scarcity with the former which was not shared equally by our own soldiers. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " What my own countrymen are suffering in your Northern prisons we are seldom allowed to know ; but even since the receipt of your letter we have some striking evidence of what their con dition is, in the teeth of the statement of your Sanitary Commis sion, as to the treatment of our prisoners at the North. I would refer you on this head to a letter from Joseph Taylor, of a Louis iana regiment, addressed to Lord Wharncliffe, and published in the Evening Standard at London, dated at Barnsley (England), January 5th, 1865, brought out by Mr. Seward s late letter, in which he permits himself to say that prisoners of war at the North are suffering no privations, and that appeal for relief or charity at home or abroad is unnecessary. Taylor speaks from an experience of several months in Fort Delaware ; the prisoners then averaged there from 6,000 to 7,000. The rations were always irregular, sometimes two ounces of meat per day, some times none. Soup was given at times, but such stuff that the most robust stomach could not take it ; the consequences were that a large proportion of the men were reduced almost to skeletons/ He says that the prisoners were worse treated when guarded by the militia than when by the regular soldiers, and adds : The cruelties practiced by the former were such as would scarcely be believed, even if the work of savages ; that the relief proposed by your Lordship and friends would have been the means of saving life I have not the slightest doubt. " This man, it appears by a note of the editor, resides in Barnsley, was taken prisoner at Gettysburg, was confined in Fort Delaware for seven months, and released on terms that he would give aid in no form to the Confederates and would leave the country. " Again, I refer you to a letter published in the New York Daily News of January 3d, dated at Chicago, December 27th. The editor vouches for the writer as a lady of unquestionable veracity, great purity of character, and true Christian charity. " She speaks of the condition of prisoners, 6,000 to 8,000 in number, confined at Rock Island ; says that the allowance to each man has been one small loaf of bread it takes three to make a pound and a piece of meat two inches square per day. This was the ration ; lately it has been reduced, and they are trap ping rats and mice for food, actually to save life ; many of them LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. are nearly naked, barefooted, bareheaded, and without bedclothes ; each day their number growing less by death their only merciful visitor/ She adds that charitable persons have sent supplies of clothing to these prisoners, but they have not been permitted to reach them. Again, please refer to a letter from three of the surgeons, prisoners of war at Johnson s Island, dated November 1 6th, and addressed to the Colonel commanding the post, pub lished in the New York Daily News, January 7th. It concludes thus : 4 It is our solemn conviction that if the inmates of this prison are compelled to subsist for the winter upon this reduced ration of 10 ounces less than health demands and 6 ounces less than Colonel Hoffman s order allows, all must suffer the horrors of continued hunger, and many must die from the most loath some diseases. Again, in the same paper, on the 5th page, is an article headed Treatment of Prisoners of War/ a communication alleged by the editor to be from one of our most respectable citizens, whose address is in our possession. " It refers to the prisoners on Rock Island, and states that those who refuse to enlist in the Federal service are kept on starvation rations, and are often reduced to rats, dogs, putrid meat, and other repulsive food picked out of slops. It contains, too, a letter of one of the prisoners, giving the reason why he enlisted with the enemy. He says : You will say that I had better have died than dishonor myself. I would have said so, too, a year ago, but no one who has not been placed as I have been placed should judge me harshly. I had lingering starvation before me from day to day, from week to week, until I scarcely knew what I was doing. I was dying by inches. To escape a loathsome death, I enlisted ; but it is expressly stated in my enlist ment that I am not to fight against my own people. The com munication to the Daily News concludes as follows : It is a hor rible truth that there are now in our military prisons nearly fifty thousand prisoners of war undergoing the tortures of pro tracted starvation, denied all relief from without even the pur chasing with their own money the food essential to life and health. " These cumulative proofs may explain the reason why Mr. Seward refused to allow an agent from England to visit the military prisons at the North as preliminary to the proper dis pensation of the large furrd contributed by English benevolence LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. for the relief of those confined in them ; but in view of their pri vation and want, what can excuse, before the Christian world, his refusal to allow that relief to reach them in any form? " And now, to close this reply, already too long tell your Sanitary Commission, if they be really in earnest to bring relief to their countrymen alleged to be suffering as prisoners in the Confederate States, to address themselves to their own Govern ment, by whose act alone those prisoners remain in confinement. " Let your Government renew the system of exchanges under existing cartels which they have for more than two years fraudulently evaded. At the commencement of the war your Gov ernment affected to consider those of my countrymen who fell into their hands as traitors worthy only a traitor s doom, nor was it until the balance of prisoners was largely on the Confederate side that a system of exchanges was agreed to. Though a large creditor, the Confederate Government framed a cartel on the most liberal basis, and by a solemn convention between the two Governments that cartel was adopted. It provided for the release of all prisoners on parole ten days after their capture, and an im mediate exchange to follow the excess on either side to remain on parole for future exchange. In July, 1863, after the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the balance of prisoners, for the first time, was against the Confederates, and from that time forth, under all manner of subterfuges, your Government refused ex changes on the basis of the cartel. All these facts are set forth in the correspondence between Robert Ould, Confederate Agent of Exchange, with your General Meredith, Major Mulford, and Major-General Hitchcock, at various times Federal Agents of Exchange, commencing in October, 1863, and terminating August 3 ist, 1864, published in the papers at Richmond and reproduced in those at New York. That correspondence shows how earnestly and persistently the Confederate Government sought to obtain by exchanges the mutual release of all prisoners consenting even to waive the strict terms of the cartel when the balance of prisoners was against the Confederates and how persistently and by what fraudulent evasions your Government refused. And thus it has resulted that, at last accounts, there were some sixty thousand of your countrymen prisoners of war in the Confed erate States and remaining there solely because of the refusal of LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. your Government to receive them back. This monstrous and cruel policy on their part can have but one solution. It was known that every man sent back to us would at once return to the field, whilst on your side the term of enlistment of far the major part of the prisoners had expired, and of the rest, few had any further stomach for the fight. If your Sanitary Commission, therefore, is sincere in its denunciation of the Confederate authori ties for their alleged maltreatment of their countrymen prisoners of war, with what execration should they visit their own Govern ment for thus inhumanly and voluntarily abandoning them to their captivity. " I am, sir, your obedient servant, " J. M. MASON. " P. S. I shall commit this correspondence to the press in London. " J. M. M." LIFE OF JAMES HURRAY MASON. CHAPTER XIX. Expectation of Peace Aroused in England by Reports from North- Dispatch from Department on " Our Foreign Relations "- -Are the West ern Powers of Europe Determined Never to Recognize Confederate States Until United States Assents? Vindication of Right to Self-Government is Sole Object of War Prisoners in St. Alban s Case Released Earl Rus sell s Communication to Commissioners, and their Reply Would Any Concessions Regarding Slavery Secure Recognition? Mr. Mason s Inter view With Lord Palmerstonon this Subject His Conversation with Lord Donoughmore Letter to Col. Mann Dispatch of May ist Assassina tion of Lincoln Stanton s Dispatch to Adams Mason s Denial of Stan- ton s Charge of Confederate Complicity Proclamation of President John son. " LONDON., February, 1865.* " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I send by Lieutenant Fitzhugh Carter, who bears this, an address by the Southern Independence Association of Manchester, to the President. It will be seen by the names attached to the address that the association comprises a body of influential gentlemen. Should the President deem it proper to send a reply, I shall be most happy in being the medium of com municating it. " I hear nothing since my last in regard to the proposal therein referred to said to have been made by France to Eng land for the admission of our prizes into their ports, having cargo on board claiming to be neutral ; and much doubt whether any thing will come of it. " We have heard here with great concern of the capture of Fort Fisher and other defences protecting the port of Wilmington, but our troops made a gallant and great defense, and whatever the loss to us, its conquest has been at great cost to the enemy. Yet, beyond the disaster, we are cheered and elevated here by the defiant tone of the South, with the renewed declaration of Con gress that the war will be prosecuted to independence at whatever cost or hazard. Public expectation has been much aroused in England by the reiterated reports from the North that peace was *Date accidentally omitted in the original draft of the dispatch. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. at hand, coupled with the late visits of Mr. Blair to Richmond, and his alleged reception by the President. I have said in reply to inquiries, that if these things meant a peace, it would be on over tures from the North resulting from its inability to continue the war, because their men had no longer any stomach for the fight, and because of impending bankruptcy. " Notwithstanding our late reverses, the Confederate loan maintains itself comparatively well, the last quotation being from 55 to 56, when shortly before the fall of Fort Fisher it had fallen to 52-54. " Parliament meets to-morrow ; but I have no reason to anticipate any modification in the policy of the Ministry toward us. Still, as we have a large body of earnest friends and sympathizers in both Houses, it may be that something will arise during the session of which advantage may be taken. The port of Wilmington being no longer open, I fear that communication will be seriously impeded. I shall continue to write, nevertheless, by the mails to Bermuda and Nassau, under cover to our agents there, and by good private opportunities when they offer. " I have nothing from the Department since the receipt of your circular of the loth October, acknowledged in my No. 17. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." "From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commis sioner Confederate States to Great Britain. " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " RICHMOND, 3Oth December, 1864. " SIR : Since my No. 38, of 2Oth September last, I am without any further intelligence from you, than your No. 13, of 29th September, which was received on the 5th instant, and your letter from Leamington, of the i8th September, also received on the 5th instant. The boxes containing the press, etc., etc., for the use of the Seal of the Confederacy have not yet arrived, and I would be obliged if you will endeavor to have them traced, and that they may be duplicated, if unfortunately lost, as I fear is the case. - . 2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " I wrote yesterday to Mr. Slidell on the subject of our for eign relations in the following terms : " The Confederate States have now for nearly four years resisted the utmost power of the United States with a courage and fortitude to which the world has accorded its respect and admiration. No people have poured out their blood more freely in defense of their liberties and independence, nor have endured sacrifices with greater cheerfulness than have the men and women of these Confederate States. " They accepted the issue which was forced on them by an arrogant and domineering race, vengeful, grasping, and ambitious. They have asked nothing, fought for nothing, but for the right of self-government, for independence. " If this contest had been waged against the United States alone, we feel that it would long since have ceased : that we had not miscalculated our power of resistance against the great pre ponderance of numbers and resources at the command of our enemies, and that they would already have acknowledged the failure of their schemes of conquest. But we freely avow that when we engaged in the unequal struggle to which we committed our lives and fortunes, we did not anticipate that the United States would receive from. foreign nations the aid, comfort, and assist ance which have heen lavished upon them by the Western powers of Europe. Conscious, for reasons presently to be stated, that we were fighting the battles of France and England, it could not enter into our calculations that one of the consequences of our action would be the abandonment by those two powers of all their rights as neutrals : their countenance of a blockade, which, when declared, was the most shameless outrage on international law that modern times have witnessed; their closing their ports to the entry of prizes made by our vessels of war; their efforts to prevent our getting supplies in their ports ; their seizure of every vessel in tended for our service that could be reached by them ; and their indifference to the spectacle of a people (while engaged in an unequal struggle for defense) exposed to the invasion not only of the superior numbers of their adversaries, but of armies of mercenaries imported from neutral nations to subserve the guilty projects of our foes. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. I have said that we were fighting the battles of France and England, and it requires but little reflection to reach this conclusion: The sentiments of the people of the United States towards France and England have been known for too long a period to permit a doubt of the aggressive policy which will be pursued by the Northern Government on the first favorable occa sion. No opportunity is lost by that Government for giving expression to the feeling prevalent in the country, not only among the masses, but among those placed high in authority. Look at the contemptuous disdain of Mr. Lincoln s recent message towards France. Mark the insolent irony with which he caricatures the conduct of the Emperor in our war, by declaring that in Mexico the neutrality of the United States between the belligerents has been strictly maintained/ and then consider the platform of prin ciples on which Mr. Lincoln was elected, and the recent reprimand addressed to him and Mr. Seward by the vote of the House of Representatives censuring them for their assurances to Mr. Drouyn de L Huys in relation to Mexico; and it needs no sagacity to predict that in the event of success in their designs against us, the United States would afford but a short respite to France from inevitable war ; a war in which France would be in volved not simply in defense of the French policy in Mexico, but for the protection of the French soldiers still retained by the Emperor Maximilian under the treaty with him, for the main tenance of his position on the Mexican throne. " If we now turn to Great Britain, the revelations of the venomous hostility toward that power which exists at the North are still more striking. The insulting letter of Mr. Webb to the Brazilian Cabinet, the rancor of Mr. Seward s response to Lord Wharncliffe, and the debates of their Congress on the reciprocity treaty with Canada, the arrogant boasting of that portion of the press which specially represents the party in power, all point un mistakably to the existence of a desire on the part of the L^nited States to engage in a war with England ; a desire repressed solely, avowedly, by the necessity of concentrating the whole energies of the country for the prosecuting of the war against us. The administration papers in the United States, by their party cry of one war at a time/ leave England little room for doubt as to the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. settled ulterior purpose of that Government to attack England as soon as disengaged from the struggle with us. " What is the present aspect of the war now waged in these States? Our seacoast is guarded by numerous fleets against which we have been deprived of all means of defense by the joint action of France and England. On the land we are pressed not only by the superior numbers of our foes, but by armies of mercenaries, very many of whom come from British soil, and sail to New York or Boston under British flag. While engaged in defending our country on terms so unequal the foes whom we are resisting profess the intention of resorting to the starvation and extermination of our women and children as a means of securing conquest over us. In the very beginning of the contest they indicated their fell purpose by declaring medicines contraband of war, and recently they have not been satisfied with burning granaries and dwellings and all food for man and beast. They have sought to provide against any possible future crops by destroying all agricultural implements, and killing all animals that they could not drive from the farms, so as to render famine certain among the people. This condition of things, taken in connection with the attitude of foreign powers, can not but create the gravest concern in those to whom the people have entrusted the guidance of their affairs in a juncture so momentous. While unshaken in the determination never again to unite ourselves under a common Government with a people by whom we have been so deeply wronged, the inquiry daily becomes more pressing, What is the policy and what are the purposes of the Western powers of Europe in relation to this contest? Are they deter mined never to recognize the Southern Confederacy until the United States assent to such action on their part? Do they propose, under any circumstances, to give other and more direct aid to the Northern people in attempting to enforce our submission to a hateful union? If so, it is but just that we should be apprised of their purpose, to the end that we may then deliberately consider the terms, if any, upon which we can secure peace from the foes to whom the question is thus surrendered ; and who have the countenance and encouragement of all mankind in the invasion of our country, the destruction of our homes, the exter mination of our people. If, on the other hand, there be objections LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. not made known to us, which have for four years prevented the recognition of our independence notwithstanding the demonstra tion of our right to assert, and our ability to maintain it, justice equally demands that an opportunity be afforded us for meeting and overcoming those objections, if in our power to do so. " We have given ample evidence that we are not a people to be appalled by danger, or to shrink from sacrifice in the attainment of our object. That object the sole object for which we would ever have consented to commit our all to the hazards of this war is the vindication of our right to self-government and independ ence. " Tor that end no sacrifice is too great save that of honor. If, then, the purpose of France and Great Britain have been, or be now, to exact terms or conditions before conceding the rights we claim, a frank exposition of that purpose is due to humanity. It is due now, for it may enable us to save many lives most precious to our country by consenting to such terms in advance of another year s campaign. " This dispatch will be handed to you by the Hon. Duncan F. Kenner, a gentleman whose position in the Confederate Con gress, and whose title to the entire confidence of all departments of our Government are too well known to you to need any assur ances from me that you may place implicit confidence in his statements. " It is proper, however, that I should authorize you, officially, to consider any communication he may make verbally on the subject embraced in this dispatch as emanating from this Depart ment under the instructions of the President. " I have the honor to be, " Very respectfully, "Your obedient servant, " J. P. BENJAMIN, "Secretary of State/ " P. S. Kenner is delayed. You need not await his arrival before acting. 546 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. DISPATCH No. 19. " LONDON, March 3ist, 1865. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I annex hereto a copy of a letter addressed by Earl Russell to the three Commissioners jointly, dated Foreign Office, February 131)1 ; and also a copy of our joint reply dated Paris, February 28th. " This dispatch will be borne by Commodore Barren, who returns home via Texas ; and although subject to the delays of this circuitous route, I hope will reach you safely. " In a separate packet, also borne by the Commodore, I send you the only Parliamentary papers printed at this session relating to American affairs, with four copies of a pamphlet by Mr. John W. Cowell recently published both here and in Paris the latter as a French translation. The author, an English gentleman, one of our earliest and fastest friends, has written much on the side of the South, in pamphlet form and for the public journals all, including the pamphlet now sent, published at his own expense. I send these copies to you at his request. Please hand one to the President. " When we assembled recently at Paris on the occasion of the letter of Earl Russell to us, Mr. Slidell and I each prepared a form of reply, or rather his own had been drawn up when we met and mine prepared afterwards ; our intention being to adopt the one or the other, or to draft a separate one from the materials of the two, as might be considered best. Before this was done, Mr. Kenner arrived with your dispatch of 3oth December, when after consultation it was determined, inasmuch as a communica tion of peculiar kind was to be made to the English Government, that it would be more prudent to avoid raising new issues with that Government immediately in advance of such a communica tion ; and to content ourselves with the general reply of which you have a copy herewith, referring his complaint, for answer, to our Government. We refrained, also, for the additional reason, that without specific instructions our views or positions in answer to his complaints might embarrass the Government should they differ from our own. Mr. Slidell and I, however, agreed the sugges tion being his that we should send you a draft of the reply we LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. proposed respectively to ourselves, in order to show how the matter was regarded by us. " I have been much concerned to know that the two cases containing the materials for the Seal failed to reach you. One of them was bulky and heavy and contained the iron press. They were sent to Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Company, of Liverpool, on the 5th July last, to be consigned to Major Walker at Bermuda by the mail steamer, via Halifax, in which Lieutenant Chapman, having charge of the Seal, sailed ; and I particularly requested the latter to inquire for them, on his arrival at Bermuda, of Major Walker, and take them, if he could, to the Confederacy. With such apparent safeguards it is the more annoying they should have miscarried. Now that our Atlantic ports are closed, I do not see how the loss can for the present, be replaced. " A few days since, I received a letter from Mr. Abbott, counsel in Canada for Lieutenant Young and others claimed for extradition by the United States, with a case stated presenting those questions of law both public and domestic arising upon the evidence at the trial, accompanied by a pamphlet containing the evidence, then closed ; and requesting that the case should be sub mitted for the opinion of Sir Hugh Cairns or other eminent coun sel in England. He informed me that the judge, before whom the case was pending had been taken ill, and said that the opinion might reach him, if promptly given, before the decision of the court was rendered. He thought the leaning of the court was decidedly with the prisoners, but that the Provincial Government was as decidedly adverse ; and anxious, indeed for their rendition ; and, if received in time, an opinion from so eminent a quarter in England would have a good effect. I therefore lost no time in put ting the case in the hands of solicitors to be presented to Sir Hugh together with the letter of Mr. Abbott, with an urgent request that it should be acted on in time to be sent to Canada on the first suc ceeding mail. I was gratified to find that my request was acceded to. Sir Hugh took into consultation Mr. Reilly, a barrister of peculiar eminence in matters of international law, and I was in vited to their consultation on the day following the submission of the case. The succeeding day I received their joint opinion in writing, which was full, clear, and conclusive, on all the points submitted, chiefly that upon the proof, the acts of Lieutenant LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Young and party were unequivocal acts of war committed under the authority of an acknowledged belligerent ; and so there was no crime in them, and again, if anything had been done by them in violation of neutrality, or of the domestic laws of Canada, such acts might make them amenable to punishment under those laws ; but had no bearing whatever upon what they did in Vermont, and beyond the jurisdiction of Canada. This opinion I transmitted by the steamer of the 22d, and I hope it will be in time to attain its proposed object.* The fees to counsel and solicitors amounting to 56. 1 8. 10, I have paid and charged to the contingent fund. " I have, etc., . " J. M. MASON." The communication from Earl Russell to the three Confeder ate Commissioners, to which Mr. Mason refers in his dispatch, reads as follows : " FOREIGN OFFICE, February I3th, 1865. ff Gentlemen: Some time ago I had the honor to inform you, in answer to a statement which you sent me, that Her Majesty remained neutral in the deplorable contest now carried on in North America, and that Her Majesty intended to persist in that course. " It is now my duty to request you to bring to the notice of the authorities under whom you act, with a view to their serious consideration thereof the just complaint which Her Majesty s Government have to make of the conduct of the so-called Con federate Government. The facts upon which these complaints are founded tend to show that Her Majesty s neutrality is not respected by the agent of that Government, and that undue and reprehensible attempts have been made by them to involve Her Majesty in a war in which Her Majesty had declared her inten tion not to take part. " In the first place I am sorry to observe that the unwarrant able practice of building ships in this country to be used as vessels *An extract from a newspaper dated Montreal, Canada, December i3th, 1864, says: " The case of the St. Alban Raiders was reopened to-day. The court decided, in a national question like the one under consideration, the Imperial Act was supreme, and that court possessed no jurisdiction in the case. He must therefore order the release of the prisoners. After being re leased their plunder was restored to them, so their daring undertaking was successful. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. of war against a State with whom Her Majesty is at peace still continues. Her Majesty s Government had hoped that this attempt to make the territorial waters of .Great Britain the place of preparation for warlike armament against the United States might be put an end to by prosecutions and by seizure of the vessels built in pursuance of contracts made with Confederate agents. But facts which are unhappily too notorious, and cor respondence which has been put into the hands of Her Majesty s Government by the Minister of the Government of the United States, show that resort is had to evasion and subtlety in order to escape the penalties of the law ; that a vessel is bought in one place, and that her armament is prepared in another, and that both are sent to some distant port beyond Her Majesty s jurisdiction, and that thus an armed steamship is fitted out to cruise against the commerce of a power in amity with Her Majesty. A crew composed partly of British subjects is procured separately; wages are paid to them for an unknown service, they are dispatched perhaps to the coast of France, and there or elsewhere are engaged to serve in a Confederate man-of-war. Now it is very possible that by such shifts and stratagems the penalties of the existing law of this country, nay, of any law that could be enacted may be evaded. But the offense thus offered Her Majesty s authority and dignity by the de facto rulers of the Confederate States, whom Her Majesty acknowledges as belligerents and whose agents in the United Kingdom enjoy the benefit of our hospitality in quiet security, remains the same. It is a proceeding totally unjustifi able, and manifestly offensive to the British Crown. " SECONDLY : The Confederate organs have published (and Her Majesty s Government have been placed in possession of it) a memorandum of instructions for the cruisers of the so-called Confederate States, which would, if adopted, set aside some of the most settled principles of International Law, and break down rules which Her Majesty s Government have lawfully established for the purpose of maintaining Her Majesty s neutrality. " It may indeed be said that this memorandum of instructions has, though published in a Confederate newspaper, never yet been put in force and that it may be considered as a dead letter. But this can not be affirmed with regard to the document which forms the next ground of complaint. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " THIRDLY : The President of the so-called Confederate States has put forth a proclamation claiming as a belligerent operation in behalf of the Confederate States the act of Bennett G. Burley in attempting in 1864 to capture the steamer Michigan with a view to release numerous prisoners detained in captivity in Johnson s Island in Lake Erie. Independently of this proclama tion, the facts connected with the attack on other American steamers, the Philo-Parsoners and Island Queen, on Lake Erie, and the recent raid at St. Albans in the State of Vermont, which Lieutenant Young, holding, as he affirms, a commission in the Confederate States Army, declares to have been an act of war, and therefore not to involve the guilt of robbery and murder, show a gross disregard of Her Majesty s character as a neutral power, and a desire to involve Her Majesty in hostilities with a conterminous power with which Great Britain is at peace. " You may, gentlemen, possibly have the means of contesting the accuracy of the information on which my foregoing statements have been founded; and I should be glad to find that Her Majesty s Government have been misinformed, although I have no reason to think such has been the case. " If, on the contrary, the information which Her Majesty s Government have received with regard to these matters can not be gainsaid, I trust that you will feel yourself authorized to promise on behalf of the Confederate Government that practices so offen sive and unwarrantable shall cease, and shall be entirely abandoned for the future. I shall, therefore, anxiously aw T ait your reply, after referring to the authorities of the Confederate States. " I have the honor to be, etc., " RUSSELL. "/. M. Mason, Esq., " J. Slidell, Esq., "A. D. Mann, Esq." To this document the Commissioners replied as follows : " PARTS, 28th February, 1865. " The Right Honorable Earl Russell, " Her Majesty s Secretary of State "For Foreign Affairs. " YOUR LORDSHIP : The undersigned Have the honor to LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. acknowledge the reception of your Lordship s note of the I5th instant. " They will, in conformity with its closing request, transmit a copy of it to their Government; and when they shall be fur nished with instructions on the subject to which it refers, they will not fail to communicate them to your Lordship. " In doing this, however, they consider it incumbent to record their protest against the general tone of your Lordship s com munication, and especially against that portion of it, which referring to a proclamation of the President of the Confederate States of America, would seem to impugn the good faith of the President by ascribing to him, in contradiction to the declarations of his proclamation, a gross disregard of Her Majesty s char acter as a neutral power, and a desire to involve Her Majesty in hostilities with a conterminous power with which Great Britain is at peace. " As regards the other statements contained in your Lord ship s letter, the undersigned will, at present, only say that they have every reason to be assured that one of them that relating to the continued building by agents of the Confederate States within Her Majesty s dominions, of ships-of-war is entirely without foundation; that as regards the other charges of your Lordship, the facts are not, as they confidently believe, correctly stated ; and that all your Lordship s complaints of violation of Her Majesty s neutrality are susceptible of satisfactory explanation by the Gov ernment of the Confederate States. " The undersigned have the honor, etc., "J. M. MASON. "JOHN SLIDELL. " A. DUDLEY MANN. " The Right Honorable Earl Russell, Her Majesty s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs" DISPATCH No. 20. " LONDON, March 3ist, 1865. " Hon. /. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : I came to London for an interview with the Prime Minister here, and soon afterwards, by a brief note from Mr. 55 2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Slidell, was informed of his interview with the Emperor ; who, he said, is willing 1 and anxious to act with England, but will not move without her. On the matter we had in reserve being sug gested to the Emperor, he said that he had never taken that into consideration; that it had not and could not have, any influence on his action ; but that it had probably been differently considered by England. " Some few days after the receipt of this letter, viz : on the 1 3th March instant, I addressed a note to Lord Palmerston pre senting my compliments and said that I had recently received at Paris important dispatches from the Government of the Confeder ate States, the contents of which the President desired should be made known to the Government of Her Majesty ; and I asked the honor of an interview for this purpose. In a note from his private secretary, the evening of the same day, the latter said he was directed by Lord Palmerston, in reply to my note, to appoint the interview for the following day at Cambridge House, his residence. Immediately after the interview, and while the subject was yet fresh in my mind, I returned home and drew up minutes of the conversation, to which I had given the closest attention. I have the honor to annex hereto a copy of those minutes. " The occasion impressed me as being one of great delicacy my extreme apprehension being that if the suggestion were made in distinct form, which was the subject of the private note to Mr. Kenner, no seal of confidence which I could place on it would prevent its reaching other ears than those of the party to whom it was addressed ; and it would thus get to the enemy. And if not accepted the mischief resulting would be incalculable. This diffi culty I had freely canvassed with Mr. Slidell and Colonel Mann in Paris, who fully shared in the apprehension. Thus impressed, I hope the manner in which the subject was treated, as disclosed in the minutes of conversation appended, will meet with the approval of the President and of your Department. " From the general tone of the interview I felt it impossible that the Minister could misunderstand my allusions, which was confirmed by the word he used in reply, as quoted in the minutes. In all my conversations here for the last three years, both in public and in private circles, whilst satisfied that their sympathies were entirely with us as a people struggling for independence ; LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. rro and whilst many declared that such sympathy would be even stronger and more general were it not for the question of slavery, yet, I was equally satisfied that the real impediment to recognition, and with both the great political parties, were first, the fear of a war with the United States, and secondly, a tacit conviction in the English mind that the longer the war lasted in America the better for them, because of the consequent exhaustion of both parties. Whilst the recent conference with our Commissioners in Hampton Roads was depending and rumours thickened that a peace would result, it was manifest here that there was great apprehension that a war with England or France would follow a peace in America, and that a war with either would involve both. It was in this light that I sought to impress on Lord Palmerston the views expressed in the minutes of conversation as to a possible alliance between the two sections under a pressure of necessity on our part, and from which we would at once be relieved by an European recognition. What I said to him as coming from the Emperor was derived from Mr. Slidell s late interview with him, and so reported to Lord Palmerston. " I have the honor to annex, also, herewith, minutes of a recent conversation held with the nobleman named in the paper. He is a gentleman really of intelligence, thought, and of practical experience in what controls the mind and Government of Eng land ; and for whose opinions I entertain great respect. Whether he is right or no as to what might have been done. two years ago, his views strongly confirm mine given in the minutes of conversa tion just above referred to as to what can not be done now. At the time of our recent conversation this gentleman was entirely ignorant of the interview I had recently had, or of what passed at it ; and, I doubt not, is so still. " The present aspect of the war, when the armies appear con centrated in Virginia and the Carolinas, should we have, as we ardently hope, decisive successes, may restore that status which, in the opinion of the nobleman whose conversation I have re ported, would have enabled us to move successfully for recogni tion in the manner indicated in the dispatch and communications to which this is in reply. Should such occur it may be that a more favorable opportunity will be afforded again to approach the Prime 554. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Minister, and to be more explicit. But, of course, I should do so, only, on full consultation with my colleagues. " I have, etc., " J. M. MASON." Minutes of a conversation held with Lord Palmerston at Cambridge House, March I4th, 1865 : " Last night I asked for the interview by note to Lord P. which was appointed by him for 12 M. to-day. " I commenced the conversation by stating that a few days since, while in Paris, Mr. Slidell and I had received dispatches from the Confederate States Government, the contents of which it was deemed important by the President should be made known to the two Governments of Great Britain and France. As evidence of the importance attached to them by the President, they were sent by Mr. Duncan F. Kenner, of whose character and position I spoke. " I then read to Lord Palmerston the latter part of the dis patch, first giving the substance of its introductory clause ; to wit, that the Government and people of the Confederate States deeply felt what they considered the injustice and hard measure dealt to them by the two principal European powers ; first, in regard to the blockade, which, for the first year or two of the war, at least, they considered had been respected by them in violation of the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris ; and secondly, in regard to the seizure of ships of war supposed to be intended for the Con federacy. That in this respect, whilst the markets of England were professedly open to both belligerents for the purchase of materiel of war, the South had been prevented from purchasing what it most needed, whilst the North obtained all it required. I told his Lordship that these matters were adverted to in order to show the state of feeling resulting therefrom in the Southern States. " I here read from the dispatch commencing at the paragraph What is the present aspect of the war now waged in these States ? to its close omitting, however, the last paragraph which begins It is proper, however, etc. I then reverted to that part of the dispatch which reads If there be objections not made known to us, etc./ which prevented our recognition, justice de- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. manded that an opportunity be offered to meet, and if we could, to overcome them. And, in this connection I stated to Lord P. that I was instructed to say that the Confederate States were so fully impressed with the belief that during four years of unex ampled trial, everything on their part had demonstrated their independence, not only as achieved, but that they were able and determined to maintain it, that the President could not reconcile with the existing facts the persistent refusal of Great Britain to recognize us, unless there were some latent objection or hindrance which Her Majesty s Government had not disclosed, but which yet governed its policy. If such be the case, had we not a right to know it in a matter so momentous to us? that thus if it stood a barrier to recognition we might remove it if in our power to do so ; and if not, govern ourselves accordingly. :t I remarked that the new aspect of the war had been long looked to and our present policy adopted as the result of our best military counsels. That the abandonment of the sea-coast and the concentration of our forces in the interior of the country, it was believed, would the sooner satisfy the enemy of the hope lessness of their efforts to subjugate us. But even should this policy lead to a war of endurance, our people were prepared for it with the nearest approach to unanimity. Such a war, while it could not under any fortune restore the Union, might bring the Southern States under engagements which otherwise they would equally abhor and condemn. I told Lord P. further, as the result of my own judgment and observation, and not as emanating from the Government, that I considered a peace within the power of the South, certainly after another campaign, should it consent to become a party to the aggressive policy of the North ; nor could I say how far the law of necessity might embroil us, were the alternative presented of a continued desolation of our country or a return to peace through an alliance committing us to the foreign wars of the North. In this connection I assured him that the statements of Mr. Seward in his letter to Mr. Adams of the iQth February, which were intended to import rather than directly to assert that such form of alliance was suggested by the Southern Commissioners in the late conference as a basis of peace, I knew to be untrue; and as evidence of this I cited Mr. Benjamin s letter to Mr. Kenner, after the latter had left Richmond, wherein 556 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. he stated that Blair on his second visit, had assured the President that Commissioners would be received to negotiate on the follow ing basis ; namely, to leave all questions in dispute open and undecided ; an armistice to take place ; and a league offensive and defensive entered into to drive the French out of Mexico. " This form of proposition came from the North, and when the question of peace was discussed at the recent conference, the Confederate Commissioners may have adverted to it. I told Lord P. I made this correction with no view to propitiate, but as due to the South and to the truth. That I was not prepared to say what the South might accept, under the pressure of necessity ; but that no such policy originated with the Confederate Government ; and I here instanced the stipulation on the part of the Colonies, under a somewhat like pressure, to guaranty to France her West Indian possessions, as the price of trie French alliance. " In recapitulation I impressively urged on Lord P. that if the President was right in his impression that there was some latent, undisclosed obstacle on the part of Great Britain to recognition, it should be frankly stated, and we might, if in our power to do so, consent to remove it. " I returned again and again during the conversation to this point, and in language so direct that it was impossible to be mis understood, but I made no distinct proposal, in terms, of what was held in reserve under the private note borne by Mr. Kenner. " Lord Palmerston listened with interest and attention while I unfolded fully the purpose of the dispatch and of my interview. " In reply he, at once, assured me that the objections enter tained by his Government were those which had been avowed ; and that there was nothing (I use his own word) underlying them. He then proceeded to review the various points I had made, observing, that it was not unnatural that the South should be sen sitive, as was the North, in regard to the conduct of a neutral power. That, in respect to the blockade it might be that in the earlier stages of the war, Great Britain might have taken excep tions to it exceptions which she was not disposed to strain, as, in future wars, she was more likely to be a belligerent than a neutral. As regarded the purchase of materiel of war in her markets, it was considered that her statutes excepted from such purchase ships intended for war against a power with which she LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. was at peace ; and that the United States complained it was yet carried on against her in evasion of these statutes. As for the rest, whatever policy had been adopted by Her Majesty s Govern ment was that which was deemed safest and best to preserve a strict neutrality. On the question of recognition the Govern ment had not been satisfied, at any period of the war, that our independence was achieved beyond peradventure, and did not feel authorized so to declare, when the events of a few weeks might prove it a failure. He did not mean to assert that such would be the result in weighing probabilities ; but that while the North continued the war to restore the Union on the scale it was now prosecuted, and with a purpose avowedly unchanged, there could be no such assurance in the result, as, in the opinion of his Gov ernment, would warrant their recognizing a final separation. He gave this as the sum of the objections against our recognition, and added, that as affairs now stood our seaports given up, the comparatively unobstructed march of Sherman, etc., etc., rather increased than diminished previous objections. In the matter of a possible or probable alliance between the two sections for pur poses offensive and defensive, he thought one could hardly take place, considering the North was committed not to admit a separation. " In reply to these observations I said to Lord Palmerston, that he must be aware that the almost uncontested naval suprem acy of the enemy, with its power to direct its entire force against any point along our coast, might well satisfy us that our own forces could be better employed in the interior, than against the enemy attacking by sea. The recent change, therefore, in our military policy, was received at the South as encouraging; and although it might for a time open the lower country to the ravages of the enemy, our people were equal to that as to all other sacri fices. As to the alliance suggested, his Lordship might feel assured, that the North would find itself under the sway of an imperious necessity, and it was looking to this necessity, that it was induced to take the initiative in the recent movement towards negotiations for peace. The strain upon its resources, already, with the knowledge of our immense reserve force in the slave population, were monitions not to be disregarded. As for its LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. committal against a separation, an alliance once determined on, the rest would be a matter of detail only. " I stated, also, to Lord P. that Mr. Slidell, in a recent inter view with the Emperor, had communicated to him the substance of the dispatches I had adverted to, and that the Emperor had said in reply, that he was willing and anxious to act with Eng land, but would not without her/ That Mr. S. had then asked His Majesty if he could not renew his overtures to England, to which the latter replied, that they had been so decidedly rejected, he could not suppose they would now be listened to with more favor. I remarked that such was the language uniformly held by the Emperor whenever approached by our Commissioner on the subject of recognition; and that thus the South understood that England was the obstacle to such action on his part. " Lord P. replied that it ought to be understood that France was equally free as England to determine her own policy, and they might perhaps differ in their views, but it could not be alleged that the latter had in any wise endeavored to influence the counsels of the former in this particular ; or to bring them into harmony with her own. " I said this was not alleged, so far as I knew, but that inas much as it appeared that France would not move without England, though willing and anxious to do so, and the latter declined to act, such an inference would seem to follow. " He replied that this could not be admitted though the facts might be as stated. That if France desired to do an act in con cert with England, in which the latter was not disposed to unite, her failure to do the act singly was her own affair, and for which England could not be held responsible. " The subject thus discussed, his Lordship inquired about the present conditions and prospects of the South, and said he pre sumed that even with our seaports in possession of the enemy, blockade-runners would continue to find their way in and out by the numerous inlets of our extensive coasts. In the course of our conversation, expressions fell from him implying that in such a struggle as the present, his personal sympathies could be only with a people who sought alone the right of self-government. " Our conversation lasted for more than an hour, and on rising to take leave, I expressed disappointment, or said rather, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 559 that the President would be disappointed to learn that he was mistaken in the impression that there was some operating influence that deterred Her Majesty s Government from recognizing us, which had not been made known to him. As matters now stood, there would be no alternative but to continue the war until terms could be made with the enemy (probably of the character I had intimated) and from which we had hoped to have been relieved by European recognition. " To this he made no further reply than that he could not see how mere recognition, without some intervention, could be of value to us ; on the contrary, he had always supposed such action would incite the North to still greater efforts. " I observed that upon recognition the North would be bound to admit that on the impartial arbitration of the great powers of Europe it was waging war against an independent State. Their pretext for suppressing a rebellion, which carried with it much moral force, would thus be removed. But, at any rate, it was fair to presume that the parties interested could best appreciate the value and the effect of such a decision, and it was certainly clear, that recognition was what the South most earnestly sought, and the North most strongly deprecated. " His Lordship here remarked that although there had been no formal recognition of the South in all the attributes of a politi cal power, its acknowledgment as a belligerent was a disclaimer of anything like rebellion. " Lord Palmerston s manner throughout the interview was uniformly conciliatory and kind, and when I apologized for the time I had occupied, he begged me to be assured that he would always be glad to see me, whenever I had anything which I desired to communicate to him. " It will be seen that I made no distinct suggestion of what the President considered might be the latent difficulty about recog nition in the mind of the British Ministry, construing the private instructions in the letter to Mr. Kenner to require that whilst inti mations should be given which should necessarily be suggestive to the Prime Minister, it was for every reason important that an open proposition from us should be avoided, and whilst there was no committal on my part, I do not doubt that Lord P. understood to what obstacle allusion was made; and I am equally satisfied LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. that the most ample concessions on our part in the matter referred to, would have produced no change in the course determined on by the British Government in regard to recognition." Enclosed in the same dispatch were the minutes of a con versation held with the Earl of Donoughmore: "SUNDAY., 26th March, 1865. " I called at his residence on the evening of the above date, as occasionally in the habit of doing. I have known this gentleman more intimately perhaps, than any other of his rank in England, and have always found him a fast and consistent friend of our cause. " Our conversation opened by an inquiry from him as to the prospects of the war, he expressing great concern at the apparent weakness of the South, as evinced by Sherman s unimpeded march through Georgia, and into the Carolinas, and its depressing effect upon public opinion in England, and remarked that but for slavery we should have been recognized two years ago. I told him that in my former intercourse with the Government here, as well as among our friends in and out of it ; whilst fully aware that slavery was deplored among us, I had never heard it sug gested as a barrier to recognition. " He replied that in his opinion it had always been in the way, and after Lee s successes on the Rappahannock, and march into Pennsylvania, when he threatened Harrisburg, and his army was at the very gates of Washington, he thought that but for slavery we should then have been acknowledged. " I told him that what he said interested me greatly, as giv ing new impressions, and asked him, suppose I should now go to Lord Palmerston and make a proposition, to wit, that in the event of present recognition measures would be taken satisfactory to the British Government for the abolition of slavery not suddenly and at once, but so as to insure abolition in a fair and reasonable time would his Government then recognize us? " He replied that the time had gone by, now especially that our fortunes seemed more adverse than ever. " Lord D., as you are aware, was a member of the late Derby Administration and will doubtless be so again, should his party come into power. Looking to this contingency, I inquired further, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. should such an event happen and the same proposition be made then, what would be the answer? " He replied, We should be obliged, as affairs now stand, to make the same. He then went on to declare that whilst he always strongly participated in the feeling against slavery, he must admit that his opinions, so far as regarded its status in the South, had been much modified by information derived through events of the war. " This gentleman is a thorough Englishman of his class, and an able and enlightened man, of liberal views." The date of the foregoing dispatch shows that it was written only two days before the evacuation of Richmond, therefore, it could not have reached its destination. It is, however, among the official records of the Mission, and is here copied from the " Dispatch Book," in which all dispatches were entered by Mr. Macfarland, Secretary of Legation, before they were sent to the Department. It affords authentic information regarding the subject of which it treats, and it is interesting as evidence that Mr. Mason was wholly unprepared for the crushing sorrow so soon to come upon him in the overthrow of his Government. The following letters express his confident expectations of the contin uance of the Confederacy ; and as late as May 1st another dispatch was written in entire ignorance of the condition of his beloved South. On April 2Qth, he wrote thus to Colonel Mann : " I have your two last of the 25th and 27th, and thank you with all my heart for the latter, in which you declare yourself more Hopeful. I assure you, in the midst of our late disasters, I have never been discouraged, far less despondent. I annex an extract from a late note to Slidell, to show you my temper. " I have certainly been depressed and disturbed at the mani festation of weakness which compelled Lee, after the evacuation of Richmond, to surrender his army, but I have never doubted, and do not now doubt that the war will go on to final success. I think I am too old and experienced in life to be deluded by mere idle hope. I confide ever in the spirit of our people; they have before them but success or bondage a thousand-fold worse than Egyptian now made more certain than ever by the accession of Johnson and against such, they must and will struggle LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. on to the death. What aspects the war may assume, into what reduced armies or small bands our forces may fall, I can not fore tell but they will keep the field. It may become a war of endurance, and in such a contest we shall outlast them. Such I honestly assure you is my feeling, and not assumed for the occasion, and the proclamation of the President comes opportunely to confirm it. I have a strong disposition to make a proper occa sion to write a letter to some friend, an M. P. here, to express these views, by way of hanging out our flag as a rallying point to the despondent. The assassination of Lincoln is an event., and I think will be of great consequence to us, as the commencement of a tornado at the North. I fear to theorize, yet, had there been but one assassin, it might have been the act of a crazed imagination, but there were two, and madmen don t conspire, and the time and circumstances lead me strongly to believe it was a conspiracy to accelerate the succession, and to frustrate the anticipated proffer of terms to the South, and that it will bear its fruits in the North. ***** " Ever most truly yours, " J. M. MASON." Next, according to date, comes the last official dispatch. " LONDON, May ist, 1865. " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. " SIR : Captain Maury, who sails to-morrow in the steamer for Havana, will bear this dispatch, and I have the honor to transmit to you herewith duplicates of my Nos. 19 and 20, with the documents thereto pertaining. The originals of all these were sent by Commodore Barren, who left here a month ago by the same route. As Captain Maury expects to go via Texas (the only route now open), it will be some months before he can reach the seat of Government, wherever that may be established. I shall hope before that to be in communication with the Government; and thus what I might write now, in regard to late events, would be of little interest. I shall only say, therefore, that the evacua tion of Richmond and surrender of Lee has produced the con fident belief here and throughout Europe generally, that further resistance is hopeless and that the war is at an end to be fol- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. lowed, on our part, by passive submission to our fate. I need not say that I entertain no such impression, and endeavor as far as I can to disabuse the public mind. The proclamation of the Presi dent at Danville, of which, as yet, we have the substance only, has not had the effect to reassure. It is the only report we have had from the Government since the above calamitous events. " The assassination of Lincoln and attempt on the life of Seward, as was to be expected, produced a great shock to all classes of society here, and public meetings have been held in Lon don and other parts of the Kingdom, expressing indignation and abhorrence at the deed without, however, tingeing their resolu tions with any partisan hue. " Together with the usual telegraphic accounts, came a dis patch from Mr. Stanton to Mr. Adams, giving an official version of the event. I felt it incumbent on me, at once, to reply to his charge of its being a rebel conspiracy, intended to aid their cause. I have the honor to enclose printed copies of both papers. My letter was published in all the London journals. " In the uncertainty of the future, or of what may be the views of the Government relative to the continuance of Commissioners or other agencies abroad, I can only remain where I am, and await its orders ; and however desirous to be at home to contribute to our great cause whatever it might be in my power to do there, or to give aid and protection to my (I fear) distressed family, I shall act accordingly. " I have the honor to be, etc., " J. M. MASON." The papers referred to as inclosed, are here copied from clip pings from English newspapers, preserved by Mr. Mason as " material for history." OFFICIAL REPORT. :< The following official telegram from Mr. Secretary Stanton has been furnished to us by the United States Legation in London : " (ViA GREEN CASTLE, PER NOVA SCOTIA.) " WASHINGTON, April I5th, 1865. " SIR : It has become my distressing duty to announce to you that last night His Excellency. Abraham Lincoln, President of LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the United States, was assassinated, about the hour of half past ten o clock, in his private box at Ford s Theatre, in the city. The President, about eight o clock, accompanied Mrs. Lincoln to the theatre. Another lady and gentleman were with them in the box. About half past ten, during a pause in the performance, the assas sin entered the box, the door of which was unguarded, hastily approached the President from behind, and discharged a pistol at his head. The bullet entered the back of his head, and penetrated nearly through. The assassin then leaped from the box upon the stage, brandishing a large knife, and exclaiming, Sic semper tyrannis, and escaped in the rear of the theatre. Immediately upon the discharge the President fell to the floor insensible, and continued in that state until twenty minutes past seven o clock this morning, when he breathed his last. About the same time the murder was being committed in the theatre, another assassin pre sented himself at the door of Mr. Seward s residence, gained ad mission by representing he had a prescription from Mr. Seward s physician, which he was directed to see administered, and hurried up to the third story chamber, where Mr. Seward was lying. He here discovered Mr. Frederick Seward, struck him over the head, inflicting several wounds, and fracturing the skull in two places, inflicting, it is feared, mortal wounds. He then rushed into the room where Mr. Seward was in bed, attended by a young daughter and a male nurse. The male attendant was stabbed through the lungs, and it is believed will die. The assassin then struck Mr. Seward with a knife or dagger, twice in the throat and twice in the face, inflicting terrible wounds. By this time Major Seward, eldest son of the Secretary, and another attendant reached the room and rushed to the rescue of the Secretary ; they were also wounded in the conflict, and the assassin escaped. No artery or important blood vessel was severed by any of the wounds inflicted upon him, but he was for a long time insensible from the loss of blood. Some hope of his possible recovery is entertained. Im mediately upon the death of the President notice was given to Vice-President Johnson, who happened to be in the city, and upon whom the office of President now devolves. He will take the office and assume the functions of President to-day. The murderer of the President has been discovered, and evidence obtained that these horrible crimes were committed in execution of a conspiracy LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. deliberately planned and set on foot by rebels under the pretence of avenging the South and aiding the rebel cause ; but it is hoped that the immediate perpetrators will be caught. The feeling occa sioned by these atrocious crimes is so great, sudden, and over whelming, that I can not at present do more than communicate them to you. At the earliest moment yesterday the President called a Cabinet meeting, at which General Grant was present. He was more cheerful and happy than I had ever seen him, re joiced at the near prospect of firm arid durable peace at home and abroad, manifested in marked degree the kindness and humanity of his disposition, and the tender and forgiving spirit that so emi nently distinguished him. Public notice had been given that he and General Grant would be present at the theatre, and the oppor tunity of adding the Lieutenant-General to the number of victims to be murdered was no doubt seized for the fitting occasion of executing the plans that appear to have been in preparation for some weeks, but General Grant was compelled to be absent, and thus escaped the designs upon him. It is needless for me to say anything in regard of the influence which this atrocious murder of the President may exercise upon the affairs of this country; but I will only add that, horrible as are the atrocities that have been resorted to by the enemies of the country, they are not likely in any degree to impair the public spirit or postpone the complete final overthrow of the rebellion. In profound grief for the events which it has become my duty to communicate to you, I have the honor to be, " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, "EDWIN M. STANTON." MR. MASON S LETTER. The following is the text of the Hon. James M. Mason s letter repudiating the charge of " Rebel Conspiracy " : " To the Editor of the London Index. " SIR : Time will develop the mystery as yet attending the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, and the attempted assassination of Mr. Seward, his Sec retary of State. I desire only to repel at once the calumnious assertion of Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, in his letter LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. to Mr. Adams, printed in the London journals of this morning, that these acts were planned and set on foot by rebels, under pretence of avenging the South, and aiding the rebel cause/ and of which he says there is evidence obtained. " Mr. Stanton s letter is dated on the I5th of April, and states that Mr. Lincoln was assassinated in the theatre at half past ten o clock the previous night, and died at twenty minutes past seven on the morning of the day that he wrote. I adduce this to show how unlikely it is, in the hurried excitement, and the necessary occupations attending such events, that any but the wildest theories would prevail in regard to the cause of the event, or the object of the perpetrators. Mr. Stanton adopts that which he deemed would be most useful before the public of his country. Should the evidence to which he refers to support his calumny ever see the light, it will be scanned with the experience derived in regard to other evidence, unscrupulously fabricated in the same quarter, during the present war, for base political effect. It is the crudest conception, too, that the murder of Abraham Lincoln was planned and executed for the purpose of aiding the rebel cause ; but I can well understand that it may have material influence in aiding the cause of that overpowering party in the United States of which Mr. Stanton is the type, and Andrew Johnson, who suc ceeds as President, with Butler, of the notorious prefix, are the exponents and leaders a party in whose path the late President and his Secretary were acknowledged obstacles in their projected schemes of plunder and rapine to follow their dominion over the Southern States. " For the rest, I learn from a well-informed source in Lon don that Wilkes Booth/ who is accused of the deed, is a son of the celebrated English actor of that name, was of his father s pro fession, which he pursued principally in the Northern States, and was generally understood as inheriting those traits significant of his father s name, Junius Brutus Booth, by whom he was named John Wilkes, after the great English Radical an origin and mental training little likely to engender the slightest sympathy with the great cause of the conservative South. As to the crime which has been committed, none will view it with more abhorrence than the people of the South ; but they will know, as will equally all well-balanced minds, that it is the necessary offspring of those LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. .567. scenes of bloodshed and murder in every form of unbridled license which have signalized the invasion of the South by the Northern armies, unrebuked certainly, and therefore instigated by their leaders, and those over them. " Pardon the length of this note ; I desired only instantly to repel the atrocious calumnies in the letter of Mr. Stanton. " Very respectfully yours, " J. M. MASON. " No. 24 Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square, London, " April 2?th, 1865" An extract from the official records of the Federal Govern ment, as given in " The War of the Rebellion," may be of interest to the reader. On page 665 of Vol. XLIX, Part IL, Series I., it is recorded, in a communication from Brevet Major-General J. H. Wilson addressed to Brevet Major-General Upton, at Augusta, Ga., that " The President of the United States has issued a proclamation announcing that the Bureau of Military Justice has reported, upon indubitable evidence., that Jeff. Davis, Clement C. Clay, Jacob Thompson, George N. Sanders, Beverley Tucker, and W. C. Cleary incited and concerted the assassination of Mr. Lincoln and the attempted assassination of Mr. Seward. He therefore offers for the arrest of Davis, Clay, and Thompson $100,000 each ; for Sanders and Tucker, $25,000 each, and for Cleary, $10,000. Pub lish this in hand-bills ; circulate everywhere, and urge the greatest possible activity in the pursuit." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. CHAPTER XX. Anxiety and Trouble About Richmond " No Fear or Doubt as to Result " Passage Engaged to Canada Departure Delayed by Political Considera tions " What is to be the Future of the South?" Visit to Sir Frederick Pollock Contributions to Baltimore Bazaar President Johnson s Policy Probable Emigration of Young Men from the South War Struck the Blow Which Must Eventually Sever North and South Arrival in Mon trealVisits from Mr. Davis and Others Return to Virginia Letter from Mr. Hunter Speaks of Condition of South Letters from Hunter and Davis Relate Hampton Roads Conference Lincoln s Account of It Failure of Mr. Mason s Health His Death. The record of Mr. Mason s public life ends with the last chapter. The story of his remaining years is best told by extracts from his correspondence. The first letter given belongs to an earlier date but it was reserved for this place rather than break the connection by introducing it where it was not relevant to the subject there treated of. Its expressions of unshaken confidence in the final triumph of the South gives to it peculiar interest. " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, " PORTMAN SQUARE, " LONDON, March 25th, 1865. "My Very Dear Wife: I begin this letter a week in advance of the time when Captain Barren, of the Navy, expects to sail, that it may be ready and I can add to it in the meantime. I fear it will be some months before it may reach you, as he will have to go via Mexico and Texas, but since all our ports are in the hands of the enemy, we must avail ourselves of such chances as may offer. " Your last and most welcome letter was of the i8th of Jan uary, and reached me about a month ago; a most charming and encouraging one it was, considering the constant, and, I fear, har assing cares with which you are beset, during this cruel and fiendish war. Indeed, although I never fear or doubt the result, yet with the picture always before me, of what you and our dear girls are called to endure, I am sometimes sorely tried in my exile. Were I with you, I could at least, share your privations and to that extent seem to diminish them, but it is vain to repine. * * * LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " In regard to events at home, we are kept here always in the most trying suspense. I get regularly the New York papers, and they quote occasional paragraphs from the Richmond papers, and thus, to some extent, we can neutralize the Yankee accounts (but these last always come first by telegraph) of items prepared at New York for the English press, and are manipulated accordingly, and thus we are kept in anxiety and doubt from week to week. Our latest accounts are to the nth of March, now fourteen days since, and we are all on the eve of expectation for the result of Sherman s movements in South Carolina, as they, besides other important results, may involve the fate of Richmond, but how idle to indulge in these speculations in a letter which is not to reach you for months, and long after the results and their consequences are covered over and hidden in the great march of events. " MARCH 28th. In advance of the time when it may be neces sary to call in the aid of an amanuensis to finish this, I want to say a word about your finances, in case, in the changes of the war, it should become necessary to leave Richmond, an event I don t contemplate, but which still may happen. As long as you are in Richmond you have a safe resource in the kindness of our friend Macfarland, and out of it, I am sure he will direct you to safe hands. I have made ample provision here for your drafts, and you may, therefore, safely rely, and assure others that they will be met. Let them be made on me, payable at the house of John K. Gilliat and Company, 4 Crosby Square, London. " At this distance from the scene apprehensions cluster thickly around me, and am constantly harassed at what you and the dear girls may have to endure, should the fortunes of war again compel you to seek a new home, but as far as means are concerned, always rely that you can draw on me as heretofore for supplies. * *, * " I see by the New York papers that Mrs. Hugh Lee, with the young ladies of her family, and Mrs. Sherrard, with hers ? have been expelled from Winchester by that brute, Sheridan, thus adding more material to the suffering and, I fear, often destitute, refugees driven from home. Should you meet them, pray say for me that my heart and sympathies have been with them in all their trials, and express my admiration at the noble and unflinch ing manner in which they have been borne. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " MARCH 3ist. You may well conceive, my dear wife, the anxiety and trouble I am in just now about you all at Richmond. We have been alarmed at the President s late declaration, that the city is more seriously threatened than ever before; at the un obstructed raid by Sheridan from Winchester through Staunton, to the James River, and the destruction he has made on the rail roads and canal leading to Richmond ; and the march of Sher man s army through the Carolinas. Still, I have unabated confi dence in those who hold the helm, and above all, in our gallant armies, and I try to reassure myself, should you find it necessary to leave Richmond, that you are surrounded by kind friends and able advisers, as to the best point to be reached. Heaven preserve and protect you and your large charge in the severe trials to which you are subjected. I do not know how I am to get letters now, but you must ask the authorities at Richmond to keep you in formed of opportunities. My best and constant love to Kate and her household, to the boys and my dear daughters, and to Marie, to Maria and Nannie. Always, my very dear wife, " Most affectionately yours, "J. M. M." "LEAMINGTON, ENGLAND,, June 7th, 1865. "My Dear Wife : I have just had the inexpressible pleasure of hearing, through a letter from Teko, that you, with our dear girls, were then in Baltimore, en route for St. Catherine s, Canada. I hope you were enabled to pursue your journey unmolested, and I take the chance by the first Quebec steamer to write to you. I earnestly trust that you managed to get through safely, and that this letter will find you safe and rested and quiet under the flag of Old England, with nobody to come near you or make you afraid. " I can not tell you how much I am relieved by the intelli gence that you and our dear girls are at last beyond the domain of the brutal Yankees who have made our land a desert. Now I can write freely and so can you and they, and I beg you will do so ; tell the girls that everything they can tell me of what interested them in the fearful drama will interest me and deeply. I write this to take the chance of its reaching you ; when you are fixed, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. give me your exact address, and then my letters will go to you regularly. * * * " I have been in this quiet inland town for the last two or three weeks, to get away from the crowd and distraction of Lon don, and, too, for economy. I may change my quarters, but the Gilliats will always have my address. " I can not write of my views, or of our affairs, domestic or political, until I have certainty that my letters will reach you out of the United States then I shall be free to talk. Tell the dear girls and the grandchildren that I send my best love and welcome to the English flag. " Most affectionately, yours, " J. M. MASON." " LEAMINGTON, ENGLAND, June I4th, 1865. "My Dear Wife : I have heard nothing from you since Teko s letter of the 22d of May. speaking of your arrival and detention for a day in Baltimore. The Quebec steamer arrived at Liverpool yesterday, and I am eagerly in hope of receiving, during the day, the long desired letter to assure me of the safety of yourself and our dear girls, where you can once more write and speak freely, and enjoy again some of the comforts of life. " I told you in my last, of my purpose, under a sense of duty, of remaining in England until I heard definitely of what might be done by Texas. If she surrenders, I will join you at once ; if not, I feel it due to remain until I see whether that State looks to my services in Europe in such case I shall hope to make arrange ments for you to join me here. These doubts must, I think, be cleared up in a very short time. * * * " I am resident in a beautiful English town, some hundred miles from London, and, so far, there are several agreeable Con federate families here, amongst them Mrs. Watkins Leigh, of Richmond, and two daughters. Her son, Chapman Leigh, arrived a few days since ; as he left Richmond after you did, was in the army, and was at Danville after the surrender, he has given me much interesting but sad detail. Tell me of all arrangements you have made or propose to make for temporary residence, and send me your address for my letters. " Yours most affectionately, " J. M. MASON." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " LONDON, August Qth, 1865. " I have just been made happy, my dear wife, by the receipt of yours of the 27th July, with enclosures from the girls, and now, I think I shall add to your and their happiness when I tell you that my passage is engaged in the Peruvian, to leave for Quebec on the 24 instant, which I trust will put me once more with you and our dear daughters at an early day in September. " Tell the girls that we will then discuss the details of our future settlement in which plans I shall be most happy to include the young gentlemen who are now with you. General Brecken- ridge and Colonel Helm, our late Consul at Havana, go with me to Canada. * * * " With constant love to all, " Yours, my dear wife, ever, " J. M. M." Another letter of August i6th said : "In my letter of last week I told you that I should sail, in company with General Breck- enridge, on the 24th, for Canada. Since then we have heard of the arrival of Mr. Benjamin at Havana, and that he will be here on the steamer from that place to arrive on the 28th. This may possibly cause us to delay our departure for a week. The Gen eral is now in Paris, to return the day after to-morrow ; until I see him, I can not decide, but it seems to me that it would not be well to leave Europe without a conference with Mr. Benjamin. I have just returned from a visit of a few days to Bedgebury Park, taking leave of my most excellent friends, the Hopes, and with sincere regret at parting." A note, written a day later, on August 1 7th, said : " Our departure is delayed for a week. We, that is, Gen eral Breckenridge and I, will sail on the Hibernian, on the 3ist instant, which will bring me, I hope, to you by the loth or I2th of September." Still later, on August 23d, he writes : " I am now to make a suggestion which I fear will try your equanimity. After I had committed myself to leave Europe by taking passage for Canada, it brought many remonstrances from friends here, both Confed erate and English, resting chiefly on political considerations not easily developed in a letter, and which set me to thinking maturely LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. on the step. I had no object in going to Canada but to join you and our dear circle there. Why not bring you all here? I had not suggested this before from a general apprehension that you and the girls might be disinclined to the sea voyage, which was a matter of no moment to me; and then on the score of economy, which we are now so much bound to regard, I am satisfied that in a good country town in England there would be little if any difference, and on the score of comfort and peace, we shall be far better off than when near the Yankee frontier. " As to the sea voyage, I am told by nautical men here that the month of October is amongst the most tranquil months, but whether or no, the steamers are so large and under such expe rienced command that whatever your anticipations, I am sure you would have a pleasant voyage and be at least, not more than ten days at sea. And on learning on what ship you sail, I should meet you on board and before you land. I really see no difficulty in all this, and hope that you will not. * * * I am earnestly impressed with the belief that this is the best thing to be done for all of us, and I hope you will allow no really minor obstacles to deter you ; but at last, if you really find it impracticable, then I must join you, and it will have resulted only to delay for a short time our meeting." " LONDON, September 23d, 1865. " My Very Dear Daughter : I can well understand the great disappointment so strongly expressed in your letter of the 7th, on the receipt of mine informing you that I could not join you, as I had given you full reason to expect, but I had earnestly hoped it would have been mitigated by your finding yourselves in a posi tion to join me. I was certainly aware that there would be diffi culties in family arrangements, but I thought they might be over come ; but those which you have stated as personal to your excel lent mother, are conclusive with me certainly while they remain could I get to you, perhaps I could remove them, but until I do, I acquiesce cheerfully in her decision. General Preston, who is here, will sail in the packet of next week for Quebec, and after re ceiving your letter, I had almost determined to overrule as well my own judgment, as that of others, and go with him, when this morning he, with Mr. Benjamin (also now here), and General LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. McCrea, financial agent of the Confederacy, came to see me to remonstrate against it. I can not put on paper the reasons they suggested. Those that referred to a possible risk of my personal safety, were I to appear at this time in Canada, I should overrule ; but there were others of a political character altogether .which I do not feel at liberty to disregard. It may be yet that I may get off in October, but after my late signal failure, I am afraid to promise more. In meantime, it being settled that you can not come here, I hope your mother will avail herself of the remaining mild weather to establish her household comfortably for the winter. Even should I not get to you before the steamers cease running to Quebec, I may afterwards make my way from Halifax, for I confess that everything abroad has become to me stale, flat, and unprofitable. On October 24th he writes to his daughters : " Most earnestly indeed do I wish that I could bring to an end this long separation I think fully with you that not only your excellent mother and all of you, but that / too, considering all that you have undergone in the last four years, f deserve that we should be united, and to remain united once more. I can only say, my dear girls, that as soon as I can leave Europe with justice to affairs in my charge here, it shall be done. When I can explain them to you, you will agree that I am right." His next letter, a few days later, says : " In regard to my own movements, I can not yet speak more definitely than before the same reasons then detaining me remaining. If the Canada line continues to run during November, I may effect it. You may well imagine, besides my earnest desire to be once more united to you all, in the condition of things around me here, Europe pre sents but little interest." * * * " I can t say that I expect it, but yet it may be possible, that things may be so arranged that we may be enabled to go back where we came from (I can not say to the country we left) in the course of next year. Mr. President Johnson, little as was expected of him, has certainly shown, in his policy so far, a fixed purpose to disappoint that party who revelled in the ruin of the South from his late speech to the delegation from South Carolina, which seems to have been well considered, is shown a LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. full determination to win the confidence of our people, and under no circumstances to permit any executions for alleged treason, and in aid of all which, came his prompt release, on parole, of certain of the chief offenders. In the policy thus indicated, he will be sustained certainly by those who rejoice in the appellation of the Democratic party and I should think with equal earnestness, by the entire responsible and considerate mind at the North, of every party they must be aware that their country can be saved from ruin, and disgrace in their finances, only by getting back the South once more as a productive country. All this, however, can be little other than speculation, until we see what may be the temper and policy of the Congress about to meet." " NOVEMBER 23d. As to the future, one may speculate, but can speculate only. So far as I can see now, Canada may be our residence for some time to come we can only make the best of it. I suppose it must be determined by the action at Washington during this winter what is to be the future of our unhappy South, and of those who are now its exiles ; looking forward, I confess my forebodings are gloomy. At present, with all the apparent disposition of Mr. President Johnson to invigorate and restore it, it yet lies prostrate and powerless under a despot s foot. It can never be what it was, and unless, in a hope that I could render some possible service to my countrymen who are compelled to remain there, I can have no wish to return. I am satisfied I could render no service now unless I were to aid in adjusting the yoke that is upon them, an office for which I have no inclination. It is idle thus to moralize, yet with me, as I am sure with you, the past is ever present, and will engross all my thoughts." The following article was written about this time and during one of Mr. Mason s visits to Shepperton, the residence of his friend, Mr. Lindsay. It is introduced in this connection as further illustrative of his (Mr. Mason s) opinions and feelings: " SHEPPERTON MANOR HOUSE, " MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND, 1865. "WHAT is TO BE THE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH ? " At so early a day after its conquest, this must, to a great extent, be little more than a subject of speculation, yet there are certain positions which it is thought may be safely assumed. 57 6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " It is certain, as the result of the war, the whole South is now prostrate and powerless that war was for independence. An independence believed to be from political considerations indis pensable to the safety and welfare of the people, its value may be estimated by the price paid in the attempt to obtain it. Indepen dence is deferred, the same political causes which led to the war must continue until the end is attained. The great blow has been struck, the people North and South, as communities, are separated forever. At present, and since the war ended, the South has re mained unresisting under the dominion of the North, its proud and spirited people have been made to feel the bitterness of subjuga tion, and the inquiry forced upon us is, what course is left to them ? Shall they flee to a foreign land, or remain and await events? Pride might adopt the former, but reason and manhood require the latter. When the prize is ultimately gained, the sufferings, privations, and even humiliations through which it was attained will only the more ennoble it. " But if the South has thus suffered in its wealth and re sources, the North has sustained even a greater loss in its form of government. It is no longer a Republic. It is no longer a government of limited power. It is no longer a federation of States. It is a government centralized and consolidated, and its power is measured only by the will of the Congress and the Presi dent, as they are adapted from time to time to the shifting expe dients of ignorance or fraud, and such must continue its character until, by some violent convulsion, all power is centered in a junto or seized by a usurper. " The form of government, when the war was begun, was that of a Federated Republic, the confederates being each a separate and equal sovereign State. State equality and State sovereignty were overthrown by the war, and the North has accepted that as one of its fortunate results. The idea that the Southern States can or should return to the Union in the condition that they left it is idle and impossible. Were this proposition made by the North, and made with honorable and fair intent, it would be fatuous in the South to accept it. Their experience under the late Union would prove that they would then only become one people governed by another people. "What remains to them? They can only for the present LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 577 wait events, and one of two things must happen, either the South will yet attain independence or the North become a consolidated empire with the South absorbed. The people of the South will be in fair competition with the people of the North for the domin ion." " LONDON, January i8th, 1866. " My Dear Wife : I have nothing to tell you of myself except that time drags on at a slow and heavy pace. Fortunately, my health continues robust, though the winter climate of England is anything but agreeable. I think I may safely say that six days in seven present the same unvarying round of clouds, rain, and fog, yet I manage to keep up my usual habit of exercise, walking one. two, or three miles every day. My great want is the lack of active mental occupation. I have been so long accustomed to such aliment, having a share in the administration of affairs around me, that its absence now leaves a great void. I employ myself first in reading the newspapers chiefly, whenever I can get them from the Northern States. It interests me deeply to see the struggle of parties there, and to speculate on the result so far as it may affect our unhappy South. In this view, I have pro cured, through a friend, a subscription to be made to the official Register of Debates in Congress, and read them regularly, every word; it keeps me well informed in every phase of their inter necine war. * * I have received a paper from Mr. McMurtrie, at Philadelphia, in form of a resignation of my executorship of your brother Anthony s estate, with a request that I should make an affidavit to it before the Consul of the United States. It may amuse you to know what passed at the interview. I found at the office a Vice-consul, as it appeared. I handed him the paper, which was brief, and had my name in full written in it, telling him I had received it from counsel at Philadelphia, with instructions to make affidavit to it before the Consul of the United States and return it, to be used in the Courts there. It was manifest that he knew me, for pausing, after he read it, he said, Are you a citi zen of the United States? I replied, I am not. Another pause. Of what country are you a citizen ? I replied, I am at present, and have been for some time, resident in England. But, said he, you must belong to some country ? I answered, I was a 578 LIFE OF JAMES HURRAY MASON. citizen of the United States, and after the rupture there, became a citizen of the Confederate States that when the Government of the latter had been unfortunately overthrown, I was in Europe, where I had remained since and without any purpose of returning to the United States. After some hesitancy, he added, I sup pose you may still be considered a citizen of the United States. I replied, You may so consider it, if you please, but it will be your act, not mine. " He then said, Perhaps I had better consult the Consul about it and asked me to take a seat for a few minutes, apolo gizing for the delay indeed, his manner was exceedingly civil throughout. After a few minutes he came back from an inner room, and said, The Consul did not think himself authorized, under the circumstances, to administer the affidavit that his authority was limited only to citizens of the United States, or to British subjects, and went on to explain why. He was very civil, however, and expressed regret that I should be put to addi tional trouble in the matter, himself suggesting that the affidavit would be equally good if made before the Lord Mayor, then the Consul would officially certify to the Mayor s signature and so I took leave. I made the affidavit before the Lord Mayor, my bankers obtained the . certificate of the Consul, and it went off under cover to Mr. McMurtrie by the steamer of the 3d. Such are my relations with my former country but I hope what was done will remove the obstacles to gaining your inheritance. " I went on Saturday evening with Mr. Benjamin, to pay a visit in the country to Sir Frederick Pollock. Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, the highest judicial officer except the Lord Chancellor, in the Kingdom, and remained until Monday morning a really great man, and though 83 years of age, in full posses sion of all his faculties, mental and physical. He has a large family around him of young ladies by his second marriage very pleasant and agreeable people, and we had a very pleasant visit the old gentleman full of intelligence, anecdotes, and pleas antry ; indeed, there must be something in this dreary climate of England which takes away from long life those infirmities which may sometimes make it a calamity. I have seen old men, decrepit, in the lower classes, but such instances are very rare in the higher classes. My late host, for instance, rises at 5 o clock, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. breakfasts at half past eight, goes to London by railroad, arriving at half past nine, sits in Court every day for three-fourths of the year, from ten to four, returns home, arriving at half past five, dines at seven, and retires at nine and this is a daily routine; from his looks, voice, and gait, he would pass well for sixty or sixty-five. " The late Lord Palmerston, in his eighty-second year, as leader of the House of Commons, would be in his seat night after night, and taking a vigorous part in debate, until one, two, or three in the morning. It may be that exercise on horseback contributes to this robust longevity in the country, they are in the field all day. hunting or shooting; in town, they are on horseback an hour or two of each day, in the Park, and move at a round pace so much for John Bull. " With best love to all, yours my dear wife, ever, " J. M. MASON." " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, " PORTMAN SQUARE, " LONDON, March isth, 1866. f( My Dear Wife: I think I mentioned in one of my late letters that your cousin, Ben Howard, and his daughter M., had written to me telling me of the proposed fair at Baltimore for relief of our suffering countrymen in the South, and asking if I could send them any aid from England. I am gratified to say, that as the result, so far, of a short note that I sent to the London Times published on the Qth instant, saying that I would receive and remit any voluntary contributions that might be sent to me, I have received already 187 which with exchange when received at Baltimore ought to be equal to $1,000 there in gold, and con tributions are still coming in. I should hope, in the course of another week, that my deposit will not fall below 300. I have been really gratified in having it thus in my power to do some thing, even at this distance, for the relief of our suffering country men. I shall send it to Mrs. Howard, to be made the first or intro ductory entry on her cash account. * * * " I think I have never answered your inquiry whether my friend Lord Ashburton was the son of your former acquaintance, Miss Willing, of Philadelphia. He was, as I know from history. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. He said that his father went, in early life, on a visit to the United States, with general permission to go where he pleased, the only restriction placed on him being that he should not marry abroad but, I suppose he could not, as others could not after him, resist the Philadelphia lady. " One of the Crenshaws, lately from Richmond, came in to see me just as I began this letter, and remained so long talking over Richmond, its people and affairs, topics most interesting to me, that I have barely time to close my letter for the mail, though I do not know that I have anything more to say than to add my best love to all under your roof. " Yours ever, " J. M. MASON." In his next letter, a week later, he says : " I have spoken to you of my comparative success as a recipient of contributions for the Ladies Fair in Baltimore at present amounting to nearly 300, which sum, or very near it, I shall be able to send say equal in Baltimore to at least $1,500, in gold pretty well, I think, for one who never even hinted a request, far less solicited any one for aid, but the English are really a liberal peo ple whenever either their sympathies or a sense of duty impels them. " Of myself, I have nothing to tell you time flows by in an even current, and the occupations of one day are those of another. My mind is, of course, engrossed with the condition of things at home, and the state of affairs, with the conflict of par ties, in the United States, so far as the latter tend to results that may affect that home. Since the war, and more especially since Congress met, everything there has been chaos. President John son has certainly far surpassed, both in his statesmanship, and his will to carry it into effect, anything that could have been expected of him from his former career, but in his position as the Executive what he can do, must be rather to frustrate mischief in others, than to carry out a policy of his own. The rude shocks which the whole structure of the Government sustained during the war were such as to dislocate all the balances of power,. and pretty nearly to destroy every limitation on the will, or even the caprice, of those who administer it, and our own unhappy country so far, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. the powerless victim. I read, or rather study, here all the public papers that emanate from Washington, as well as the speeches of the leading men there on all sides, trying as far as I can, to pry into the future, both of the North and South and it becomes to me every day more and more apparent that the Government there has a problem to solve, in what they call reconstruction, and a burthen to carry in their immense debt, without a man in office capable of appreciating the difficulties before them, far less of pointing a way to be extricated from them. The policy of John son, even for their own interests, is far the best that has been devised ; whether the masses at the North will sustain him in it, considering of what material those masses are composed, is to me even more than doubtful whilst certain it is that the present Congress will leave nothing undone to frustrate it thus every thing remains in chaos, at least until a new Congress meets in December, 1867, nearly two years hence and it may very probably be that the ship of state, with ignorant helmsmen, and a mutinous crew, will founder and go to pieces in the meantime in such case, the South alone will survive the wreck," Again, in a letter to one of his daughters, dated April 5th, he writes: "I received last week yours of the I5th. The nar rative you give of the various lots of our old friends in Winchester is certainly melancholy, yet to me deeply interesting whatever it may be, we like to know the fortunes and fates of those with whom we once happily lived, and long been parted. It would be pain ful indeed to go back there, and witness the melancholy ruins of that once peaceful and exemplary society. In my varied inter course with the world, I have met with some whom I held in dis- esteem, with others in contempt, as unworthy, and some few who were essentially bad, but, in looking back, I do not recognize that my feelings toward any such amounted to acrimony, or insuper able hate. Now it is otherwise. I confess, that toward every man or thing North, there has arisen within me a feeling of detesta tion that I can not express or qualify, if I would. In the war they waged against us. they were demons in victory, they proved themselves fiends. There are, of course, individual exceptions I doubt not, but I have yet to learn of one prominent man there who has, since the rupture, expressed a sentiment, or evinced a feeling, that would not be held a disgrace to manhood elsewhere. Such 5 82 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. .are the opinions that have been forced upon me of that people dur ing the last five years. I need not ask myself, then, can I ever go back to the South, and live there whilst there remains any political union with such a race ? Social, or voluntary union, there can never be again. Had I been caught there, and obliged to re main, I feel that I should have died by slow torture a life to which a doom of penal servitude, with the most depraved of the earth, can only be compared. " As to the future of that noble South, I confess I can at pres ent see nothing but in gloom and despondency the sources of wealth are dried up, and her social structure destroyed forever, yet I am satisfied, as far as human judgment may be trusted, that the blow which severs North from South as distinct political communities, has been delivered by the war though it may take years, perhaps generations, to realize it. It must follow, too, as experience gradually develops, that men of degree and condition, born and raised in the South, can live under a Northern rule, only as under taskmasters. The young men, at least, of such class, will leave the country and establish themselves in masses elsewhere. To this I fear there will be no alternative. For this colonization, I know of no region preferable to the British Colonies, first, because with that race we are homogeneous, with the same lan guage, literature, and laws, and next, because our form of govern ment was molded chiefly upon theirs. There is one of those colonies which, if our people could reach in numbers, they might make into a new South Australia but it is too far off for a people as little enterprising as ours. Canada has, by accident and circumstances, been forced upon us, and I suppose for a time, at least, we must remain there, but the most available point, because of its proximity, and perhaps the most free from objection, is Mexico true, there may be some doubt about the stability of its government, and its exemption from pestiferous Yankee fraternization, but I have watched it with some care, and I think, as time goes by, the probability of stability im proves. Captain Maury, late of our Navy, went to Mexico at the close of the war, and has just come to England to take his family with him back to Mexico. ;< The Emperor, it seems, has placed him at the head of a Bureau of Emigration, and his accounts of the prospects for LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 583 Southern emigrants there (of whom there are already many) are couleur dc rose. He has been here but for a day or two, and I have seen him but once, but I shall have a long conversation with him, and subject him to a severe cross-examination before I form a judgment. What would you all think of an emigration, en to ute famille, to Mexico? " I have written you a long philosophic letter, but as you said in yours, it was on the subject always uppermost in my mind. "What you say of the usages of society in Montreal, is English all over they have no opportunity for what we call social visiting because of their late dinners ; they have no even ing until ten or eleven o clock at night. Of the many that I know here, and where I have been most hospitably received, there are but two families where I could think of a visit in the evening that of the late Lord Donoughmore, and Mr. Beresford Hope, where my relations were as cordial, almost, as with those at home ; and then I would enquire of the servant, whether the ladies had returned to the drawing-room, and whether there was company at dinner, before I ventured farther. " I remark what you nave said about the proposed fair at Baltimore in my late letters, I told what I had done for it, and which I hope will help it along. In addition to a sterling bill for very nearly 300, I sent off by steamer to New York last week, a box containing various articles, some contributed, and others purchased with money I received after I had remitted, and containing also the silver salt cellars, sent by the Dowager March ioness of Bath with her crest on them. I should think what I have sent over, ought to amount to some seventeen or eighteen hundred dollars in gold. " I have nothing to add concerning myself, except that I am getting very tired and lonesome, and long to get back yet I shall ever cherish grateful recollections of my residence in England, and of the many valued friendships contracted here, whatever the harshness of its Government toward us. " Yours, my dear daughter, most affectionately, "J. M. MASON." 584 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, " LONDON, April I2th, 1866. "My Dear Wife: I had the pleasure to receive, last week, yours of the 22d and V. s of the 23d of March, my due for this week, not yet arrived. I was not prepared to hear of the death of my brother Maynadier, or rather, I had no intimation that he was in failing health there have been sad ravages indeed in my family in the last five years but it is vain to repine. " I had a long letter recently from Mr. Sherrard, dated 22d of March. He gives a melancholy picture of scenes and things around our old home, including the depraved and vagabond condi tion of the negroes, and of the usurpations in society there, by the Yankees, male and female, but he says, at the same time, con firmatory of other accounts that reach me, that the people of our noble South remain unsubdued in spirit. I can have one advan tage at least in exchanging England for Canada, that I shall be nearer to them, and possibly have the opportunity of seeing and counselling with those who may come out from amongst them. The future of the South is far from being settled, I mean its political future. We can, at the present, no longer confide in her strength, but there is much to hope from the condition of the enemy. The experiences to be derived from the beggar on horseback/ may illustrate the career of the Yankees now in power. It would seem they have eaten, in the flush of unhoped-for ascendency, of the insane root. In my readings of history, except in the worst throes of the French Revolution, no country was ever environed with greater perils, or was in more incompetent hands, than that represented by the Government at Washington. France, after years of convulsion, found a Napoleon there was no con vulsion under him, but to avoid it, he had to make war against the world should the Yankees not find a Napoleon, our chance may be in their continued convulsion should they find one, then in the wars which would surround him. But it is idle to talk of politics, when we shall soon have the opportunity of discussing them in person. " With best love to all, yours ever, "J. M. M." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. " 24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, " LONDON, April 26th, 1866. " My Dear Wife: In my letter of last week, I told you I had definitely settled to sail in the Moravian/ then advertised for the loth of May. I hope now, that you and our dear circle around you will he agreeably disappointed to learn, that those managing the steamers have since determined that the Moravian shall sail on the 3d, and my passage is engaged in her for that day, and I shall thus have the great satisfaction of expediting my departure by a week, and hope to be with you within a week after you receive this. " I have been very busily engaged in packing up the material that has accumulated around me in the last four and a half years, to take with me, and in closing my arrangements, social and otherwise, for leaving England really a troublesome task, but I am getting on pretty well. " I paid a visit to-day to my kind and excellent friend, the Countess of Donoughmore. I think I told you in my late letters of the death of the late Earl, some six or eight weeks since, and how much I deplored it it was my first visit to her since then ; I sat with her for an hour, talking on those subjects that inter ested him in his lifetime it was an agreeable and pleasant visit for I think next to the family of Mr. Hope, they were those with whom I was on most intimate and cordial terms. She is a lady of some thirty-six or seven, gentle, refined, and genial in her manner and of unaffected simplicity. I often wish that you and the girls could have known some of those by whom I have been most kindly received in England. They all know, through me, of your being in Canada, and their first inquiry is about you and yours, and when I heard from you. When I get back, I can show you substantial proofs that such inquiries are not merely formal. " This is Thursday, and the steamer sails on this day week ; I propose to go to Liverpool on Monday, and shall there be the guest of my valued friend, Mr. Spence, until I embark. " Trusting that I shall find you and all dear to us, with you, in good health and glad to see me back, " I am, most affectionately yours, " J. M. MASON." LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. The long hoped-for day came at last and, in April, 1866, Mr. Mason joined his family in Montreal, where some weeks were spent in quiet enjoyment of the reunion. During this summer quite a number of refugees from the South found an asylum in the little town of Niagara, situated at the mouth of the Niagara River. General Breckenridge (ex-Confederate Secretary of War) had, among others, established himself with his family, in this village, and his description of its quiet seclusion and the great economy of its simple village life induced Mr. Mason to leave Montreal in July of the same year and spend the rest of the summer with the party of Confederates there assembled. The next winter was spent in Toronto, where they were again in the midst of Southern refugees, among whom were several of the families that had been together in Niagara. In Toronto as in Montreal, indeed everywhere in Canada, the kind welcome ex tended to the Southern people contributed greatly to cheer and brighten the lives of these exiles. Such was certainly the case with Mr. Mason s family, and the writer is glad to record their grateful appreciation of the kindness they received. The spring of 1867 brought no gleam of hope for the South ; on the contrary, an Act of Congress, passed in March, 1867, created five military districts consisting of the ten Southern States ; placed the people of these States under absolute military rule, and denied to them the right to protect themselves by their own militia in any emergency whatever. It required the forma tion of new Constitutions by State conventions ; provided for the registration of voters ; and declared " No one can be registered who may be disfranchised for participation in the late rebellion." Voters to be male citizens of the State, twenty-one years old, of whatever race, etc.. residents of State for one year. Mr. Davis was still in prison ; Mr. R. M. T. Hunter, of Vir ginia, and a number of other gentlemen who had filled offices of responsibility in the Confederacy had been imprisoned after the surrender of the Southern armies ; and fourteen classes had been named in the President s last proclamation as being excluded from the benefit of all offers of amnesty or pardon. The majority, if not all, of the Confederates then in Canada were thus excluded from pardon ; were in fact exiles. Mr. Mason was classed among the chief offenders, and he never for a moment entertained the LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MAUON. 587 thought of applying for pardon, or of taking any oath of allegiance to the Government or to the Constitution of the United States as it was then administered. It was therefore determined, in family council, to go back to Niagara as soon as warm weather began and to remain there awaiting events. Mr. Mason accord ingly rented a small but convenient house in that village and went to work to provide for the comfort of his family. He gave close attention to his garden and to his poultry-yard, particularly to the latter ; always feeding the chickens and gathering the eggs him self, and taking infinite pride and pleasure in his success when he brought in a basket of eggs or reported another brood of little chickens ; thus did he adapt himself to the simple routine of a country village as though he had been to the manner born. The memorandum book is still extant in which he wrote the dates when each hen began to set, the number of eggs given to her, and the number of chickens hatched. He was never idle and he was habitually cheerful. His leisure hours had always been occupied in reading particularly in reading history ; it now became his chief resource the newspapers were daily searched for informa tion concerning everything that affected the Southern people ; and his correspondence with friends in England, as well as with those in the South, served to employ many hours that must otherwise have dragged heavily. Letter-writing was one of his greatest pleasures, although a nervous affection of his hand made him dependent upon an amanuensis. It was his invariable rule to take a short nap every day after an early dinner, and then to take a long walk or ride, accompanied always by some of the young people of his family and frequently by a party of their young friends. His evenings were spent partly in reading or writing in his study, and partly in the parlor, where he always joined the family party an hour or two before bed-time ; he would then read aloud anything that had specially interested him in his books or papers or would smoke his pipe while he joined in the general conversation. In this monotonous manner the days, weeks, and months glided by, marked by nothing worthy of record except the occa sional visits from a few of his old friends, who sometimes came during the summer months to see him. Among these visitors were Hon. J. A. Bayard (U. S. Senator from Delaware) and his son, 588 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. Mr. T. F. Bayard, who afterwards succeeded his father in the Senate and still later became Ambassador from the United States to England. Mr. James Bayard and Mr. Mason had been closely associated during many years in the Senate they had been again together in London and in Paris when Mr. Bayard had, during the war, taken refuge abroad from the troubles at home. Another of these visitors was *Mr. Corcoran, of Washington, who had spent much time abroad during the war and had been brought into constant intercourse with Mr. Mason both in London and in Paris ; last, though far from least, was Hon. J. Randolph Tucker, of Virginia, who had been, from his boyhood in Winchester, re garded by Mr. Mason almost as a son, so constant and so con fidential had been their intercourse. Of the Confederate officers resident for the time in Niagara none remained there during the whole of Mr. Mason s sojourn. General Breckenridge and General Early spent the greater part of the summers of 1866 and 1867 in or near the town and General John S. Preston, of South Carolina, with his family, added much to the pleasure of the circle during their stay of some months in the summer of 1868. The writer recalls very vividly the appearance of the group of Confederate officers as they were so frequently seen sitting together under the trees in front of Mr. Mason s house; some times looking grave and anxious when letters from home brought accounts of the devastation of the South, the destruction of its homes and the consequent poverty and suffering of its people or the newspapers reported the oppression and tyranny of the conquerors in the appointment to all the offices in the Southern States of only such men as were willing tools in the work of reconstructing not only the system of State Government but the whole of their social and domestic organization. At other times, the same party would be amused by remi niscences of bygone days and one after another they would recall old stories told at the expense of each other until the peals of laughter would have done justice to a party of schoolboys particularly was this the case during the visit of Mr. Randolph Tucker who excelled in the art of telling good stories, and whose *The founder of the Louise Home, and of the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. mimicry was inimitable. Such scenes were oases in the desert of blighted hopes and dreary anticipations to which they had been condemned. The visits of most interest during this period were those from Mr. Davis who came in May or June, 1867, very soon after his release from prison, and again in the autumn when he was summoned to Richmond to stand his trial for treason, he came to take leave of Mr. Mason, with whom a warm friendship had existed for many years. On both occasions he spent some days quietly sharing in the usual family routine, and those who were privileged to be present during many of his conversations with Mr. Mason, can never forget the calm dignity of the man, nor the entire absence of all bitterness when speaking of his experience in prison. It does not pertain to the object of this book to recount the cruelties practised upon him or the sufferings that he endured. Few men have been subjected to such an ordeal, none could have borne the test more nobly. The reader is referred to the " Prison Life of Jefferson Davis " by Dr. John J. Craven, late surgeon of the United States Volunteers and physician of the prisoner during his confinement in Fortress Monroe from May 25th, 1865, to December 25th, 1865. On July 4th, 1868, general amnesty was proclaimed by Presi dent Johnson, but this did not include restoration to the rights of freeman ; it only offered to the Southern people the poor privilege of returning to their respective States to find their former homes reduced to ruins, and to be themselves reduced to the condition of quiet submission while ignorant and irresponsible negroes elected men to fill all the offices of the several departments of Govern ment, both State and municipal. No description of this period can give an adequate concep tion of it to those who did not live through it. Mr. Mason fre quently said, " I do not believe I could endure life in Virginia under existing circumstances; to me it would be death by slow degrees under torture ; I should feel as though I was bound hand and foot and forced to be a silent witness while the graves of my parents were desecrated by savages." The number of Southern people in Canada diminished, how ever, gradually, as one after another went back to their respective States until only the Mason family remained in Niagara. Another LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. six months rolled by before they began to entertain the idea of returning to Virginia. It may be that Mr. Mason had some con sciousness of failing strength, although he did not betray it to any one, and his health appeared to be unimpaired. His step had lost none of its elasticity, and there were few, if any, marks of advanc ing age visible to others, but early in the year 1869 he began to talk of going back to Virginia. He repeatedly said to his wife and daughter, " I can not be much longer with you, and I am not will ing to leave you so far from home and in a foreign land. I feel that I ought to take you back to your own people." The selection of their future residence then became the matter of chief interest with him. The old home at Selma had been destroyed by Federal troops and a fort had been built of the stones taken from the house. The town of Winchester had suf fered terribly at the hands of invading armies, and many of its best citizens had been driven from their homes consequently the thought of returning there to live was painful in the extreme. It was at last determined that before deciding so important a question, Mr. Mason would, as he expressed it, " Go in person to see how far the waters had subsided." " This will afford," he said, " an opportunity to indulge my long cherished wish to visit several of my old friends, Judge Sherrard, in Winchester, James Marshall, in Fauquier County, Richard Cunningham, and others. In this way I shall see the true state of things in different places and will be better able to decide upon our resting-place." In pursuance of this plan he left Canada in the early summer of 1869, and made the proposed visits in Virginia, spent some days in Baltimore with his relative and friend, Mr. Nevitt Steele, went to see his sister-in-law, Miss Anne Chew, at the old home, Cliveden, fn Germantown, Philadelphia, and also visited General and Mrs. Cooper in their home in Fairfax County, Virginia. The warmth and heartiness of the welcome that awaited him everywhere touched and gratified him exceedingly and he thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many of his friends ; but in Winchester he was deeply grieved by the absence of so many of those with whom he had formerly been very closely associated, and by the sad changes in all that he saw or heard. While a guest in Judge Sherrard s house in that town, he became quite ill, in consequence, it was said, of drinking the limestone water. Query : How far did mental suffer ing affect his physical condition? LIFE OF JAMES MURRAT MASON. " When he returned to Canada, his family were shocked and grieved by the change wrought in him during the few weeks of his absence. His step was slow and heavy, its elasticity was all gone. He came back an old man, and from that time his infirmities gradually increased. He was, however, very much delighted with his success in finding a " resting-place " that combined more advantages and attractions than he had ventured to hope for. He had selected the residence called " Clarens," in the neighborhood known as " Seminary Hill," in Fairfax County, Virginia, some three miles west of Alexandria. He thus looked forward to pass ing his old age in the section of the State where his childhood was spent. " Clarens " was within a short walk of the Episcopal Theological Seminary ; was very near the home of Bishop Johns and adjoined the residence of General and Mrs. Cooper ; it thus offered the pleasant prospect of constant association with both these families, a prospect particularly agreeable because of the near connection and truly fraternal relations with General Cooper that had existed so many years, and because of the friendship with Bishop Johns, formed when he and Mr. Mason had been schoolboys in Philadelphia and frequent visitors at Mrs. Mason s home in that city. September 24th, 1869, was tne happy day on which the sub ject of this sketch took possession of " Clarens " and thus realized his longing desire to have once more a home on Virginia soil. Here the curtain rose on brighter scenes than those before presented in this volume, for here he gathered around the family hearth as many as possible of their surviving friends and relatives ; here he derived much pleasure and gratification from his inter course with Bishop Johns, Rev. Dr. Sparrow, Mr. Cassius Lee, and others living in the neighborhood and also from the visits of Mr. Bayard, Mr. Davis, and other friends who sometimes came to see him. But there is little to be told of this quiet domestic life, although it afforded some incidents interesting at the time to those who recognized the former Adjutant-General of the Army of the United States and the Senator from Virginia, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, in the two old men who were seen constantly together, and busily engaged in some work in the gardens or orchards of their respective homes. The picture comes vividly before the writer of the two old gentlemen sitting on three LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. legged stools in the corn-house at Cameron, General Cooper s home, shucking corn one frosty November afternoon, and laugh ing over their experience ; General Cooper bantering Mr. Mason about the blisters on his hand, while the General escaped unhurt although he had " shucked the biggest pile of corn." At " Clarens," as in Canada, Mr. Mason s correspondence formed one of his chief occupations. The following letters claim a place here because of their historic value. The first one is from Mr. R. M. T. Hunter, and is dated : " LLOYD S, ESSEX COUNTY, October i6th, 1869. " My Dear Mason: Soon after my return from confinement, I received a letter from you written from Canada, which I would have liked very much to answer, but I did not believe I could do so through the post-office without a surveillance which I did not wish to encounter. When I saw accounts of you at Winchester, through the papers, I wrote to a friend in Washington to ascertain where a letter would reach you. He replied that he did not know but thought you had returned to Canada. It was not until about three weeks ago that I heard you had settled near Alexandria, where I shall send this letter in the hope of its finding you. I wish I could see you, for of all persons in the world I had rather talk to you just now. " Our people are looking for sad times after the 1st Januar\ when the stay law will expire ; still we are all working away, with such means as we have, and our people, I believe, are trained now to stand almost anything. Certainly we have shown wonderful powers of endurance, and like Gulliver when crammed by the Brobdignag Monkey, we have been filled ad nauseam by such good things as they have chosen to give us. " In your letter you seemed to think that a good day was yet coming to old Virginia. I still retain enough faith in her and enough of the old optimism of my disposition to hope so too. But I do not expect it in the sense that you seem to do. The day must come when she will recover much of her political power and develop great natural wealth and prosperity. Our disasters and poverty will give our posterity the training to achieve both. But what will become of the character of our people? Will it retain the moral and intellectual qualities of which we were so justly i LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. proud, and which were so wonderfully displayed in the war ? For myself. I would not give the last for the first, if that is to be the condition of our social reconstruction. Whoever drew the Under wood Constitution (I have never doubted its New England origin), had a special eye to such a change in the Virginia char acter. The change in our county organization had no other design. Yankee schools and Yankee system of county government are the instruments to effect the end. I have no objection to schools if they will let us establish them where practicable and upon our own plan. But I confess that the manner which all these things are forced upon us has been one of the most disagreeable results of the revolution. But why talk about such things neither you nor I can do anything to remedy these evils my only hope is in the excellence of the constitution of the Virginia character. It will take a great deal to break it down. I never meddle with politics now and scarcely ever talk of them when I can avoid it. But I would give a great deal to compare views with you of our future. I should like to hear from you our Confederate experi ences abroad, in return for which I might possibly give you some of them at home of which perhaps you have something still to learn. " I am truly glad, my dear Mason, that you have settled again on Virginia soil and have your family around you. Please make my kindest respects to Mrs. Mason and the young ladies. What of your boys? I have heard nothing of George since some time before the war. " Most truly and sincerely, your friend, " R. M. T. HUNTER. "Hon. James M. Mason" "MEMPHIS, TENN., June nth, 1870. " Hon. J. M. Mason. " MY DEAR FRIEND: It has been long since I have received a letter from you. Perhaps, you will reply it has been long since I wrote to you, but it is of the first only I think, because therein consists the loss. It is probably that it may be in my power to visit you this summer, and it is possible that about the end of July I may start for England. Will you go with me in that event, for a trip say of sixty days? Your friends would be rejoiced to see LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. you and I would endeavor to be as little disagreeable on the way as is possible for me. My journeys through the South and West have given me much to remember gratefully, and not a little to make me feel as one sorrowing without hope. " There is a deep undercurrent of patriotism and a manifest detestation of the Yankees, their tricks and their manners, but men who once led in Southern movements are, in many instances staining their record and shaming their friends by admissions in word and deed and by thus degrading themselves, gaining power and place. The fountain of place and honor, being corrupt, would have become odious to the rising generation if all who deserved or could command respect had refused to be beneficiaries. What is to be the effect of such defections? is the question which rises unbidden and to which comes the sad answer I have indicated. " Mr. Hunter promised me that he would write a full account of the sayings and doings of the commission which met Lincoln and Seward at Hampton Roads. I have not thought it well to write to him while he was subject to oppression by military and Underwood authority; now I do not know his address. I have heard of Judge Campbell and Mr. Stephens making such partial statements as amount to the suppressio veri, and gentleman Hunter is my hope for truth and justice. " Having got into the subject I will give you a brief account of the matter. Stephens, notwithstanding the total failure of his first attempt, for which he volunteered, continued to speak in the Senate of the practicability of arranging a peace by peaceable conference. When the project which led to the commission re ferred to was under consideration, I consulted Mr. Stephens, not intending again to send him. Others convinced me that it would be better to send him, because it would at least check his evil doing in the Senate, and as I had assurance that the commission would be received in Washington, it was thought he would be efficient there. The commission had no instructions beyond their authority to negotiate for a settlement between the two Govern ments. They agreed with Lincoln and Seward that they would regard their conversations as confidential. Their report, when they came back was therefore to a great extent oral. The written report, so meager as not to furnish, as it seemed to me, what was needful to a fair comprehension of their failure and the reasons for LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. it, I urged seriously that a further report should be made. Mr. Stephens tenaciously insisted that the mere statement made would be more effective to rouse and convince the country. Since then I have heard of his saying that terms beneficial to the South were within reach but lost by my action, etc., etc. Hunter told me he (Hunter) urged Lincoln to enter into some form of agreement, and endeavored to overcome his refusal by pointing out to him the example of Charles I, and that Lincoln said he did not know much of history, but he did know that Charles I lost his head. They reported to me that Lincoln said if we would lay down our arms and go home, that he would promise all the clemency within the Executive power, and that he refused to make or entertain any proposition while we retained our position as States confederated and having a Government of their own. It was a demand for a surrender at discretion, so viewed at the time and so treated by the orators who addressed the public meetings held in Richmond soon after the return of the commission and the promulgation of their views. If you see Hunter I wish you would talk to him on this subject. May God defend the right. Present me affection ately to Mrs. Mason and the young ladies and accept the sincere regard of your friend. " JEFFERSON DAVIS." An extract from a letter from Hon. R. M. T. Hunter is given here as referring to the same subject. It was dated : " LLOYD S, ESSEX COUNTY, VA., " September igth, 1870. "My Dear Mason: I have read Davis s letter which you enclosed and regret that I did not write out minutely my recollec tions of what passed at the Hampton Roads Conference whilst they were fresh in my mind. But I was imprisoned soon after the war and my papers were either seized or dispersed and since my return I have been engaged in hard work for a livelihood. As soon as I received this letter I sent for Stephens s account of the conference published in the Eclectic Review which really seemed to me to be very fair (August, 1870, Vol. 7, No. 2), and from which I do not much differ except as to the report of Seward s conversation on slavery, a matter which does not peculiarly touch Davis. I think Davis can not have seen the report which, in some respects, is quite LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. complimentary. You will see from that report that I did not assent to the scheme for invading Mexico, not, I confess, from any affection for the Emperor, whose whole course in regard to that matter and towards us seemed to me to be very weak. I was moved by considerations affecting ourselves. The whole scheme originated with F. Blair who, as you know, visited Richmond to persuade the Confederate Government to settle the controversy. Stephens was much taken with the proposition and enforced it very warmly upon Lincoln and Seward, not as a proposition from the Confederate Government, but as something to be considered. Campbell and I said nothing for a good while to see how the other party would take it towards the close I disclaimed the whole thing as Stephens reports in his published account of the confer ence. We all reported, I think, to Mr. Davis, I did, I know, that in our opinion no settlement was possible except upon the con dition of abolishing slavery and returning to the Union. But there was a question beyond that : Supposing these things to be in evitable, as they then seemed to be, was it not worth the effort to save as much as possible from the wreck? Upon this Mr. Davis and I differed I thought the effort ought to be made, but I saw then and see it still more plainly now that there might be two sides to that question. Although I retain my first opinion, I do not cen sure him for thinking differently. When the concessions believed to be inevitable were made, one might well have supposed that the Federal Government would have sought to make them as tolerable as possible to us, and to conciliate us as far as was consistent with these objects. This was only to attribute to them an ordinary stock of good sense and good feeling, but I feared the bitterness of feeling engendered by the contest and although far from appreciating its full extent I was not mistaken as to its existence. Whilst I expressed this opinion to both Davis and Lee, I told them that if they thought there was hope from war, I would do my best to aid them; they were to be the judges of that matter. Under these circumstances I made a speech at the African Church which some of my friends thought was a mistake, but if the contest was to be kept up it was necessary to animate the spirit which could alone sustain it. " We were all agreed in the Government as to the policy of an armistice. We should then have obtained time either to get some LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. settlement of the question, which would have saved us much life and suffering, or else to recruit our armies, which were then suffering much from desertion and the want of all necessary supplies. But it was not to be had, which I think we all regretted. I hope, however, that we may meet some of these days, when I can explain these and other matters by word of mouth and far more fully than upon paper. The difficulties which the Con federacy encountered are not generally known. The sacrifices and gallantry of the struggle on the part of the South, and especially of Virginia, have never been surpassed and hardly equalled in history. The Southern side of this history ought to be written. If I owned my time it would be a labor of love to endeavor to do it. " Most truly and faithfully, your friend, " R. M. T. HUNTER. "Hon. James M. Mason/ Few events of the war of 1861-65 aroused more interest at the time or have since caused more controversy than has been excited by this conference of February 3d, 1865, in regard to which widely differing opinions have been expressed. It may, therefore, be well to give in connection with these letters, the following extracts from official documents, taken from the Con gressional Globe (second session, 38th Congress, Page 729). In President Lincoln s message to the Senate of the United States of February loth, 1865, reference is made to Mr. Seward s dispatch, on this subject, to Mr. Adams (Minister from the United States in London). In this dispatch Mr. Seward writes: " A few days ago Francis P. Blair, Esq., of Maryland, obtained from the President a simple leave to pass through our military lines without definite views known to the Government. Mr. Blair visited Richmond, and on his return he showed to the President a letter which Jefferson Davis had written to Mr. Blair, in which Davis wrote that Mr. Blair was at liberty to say to President Lincoln that Davis was now, as he always had been, willing to send commissioners if assured they would be received,, or to receive any that should be sent ; that he was not disposed to find obstacles in forms. He would send commissioners to confer with the President with a view to the restoration of peace between the two countries if he could be assured they would be received LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. The President thereupon, on the i8th of January addressed a note to Mr. Blair, in which the President, after acknowledging that he had read the note of Mr. Davis, said that he was, is, and always should be, willing to receive any agents that Mr. Davis, or any other influential person, now actually resisting the authority of the Government, might send to confer informally with the Presi dent with a view to the restoration of peace to the people of our one common country. Mr. Blair visited Richmond with this letter, and then again came back to Washington. " On the 29th ultimo, we were advised from the camp of Lieutenant Grant that Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and John A. Campbell were applying for leave to pass through the lines to Washington as peace commissioners to confer with the President. They were permitted by the Lieutenant-General to come to his headquarters to await there the decision of the President. Major Eckert was sent down to meet the party from Richmond at General Grant s headquarters. The Major was directed to deliver to them a copy of the President s letter to Mr. Blair, with a note to be addressed to them and signed by the Major, in which they were directly informed that if they should be allowed to pass our lines they would be understood as coming for an informal conference upon the basis of the aforenamed letter of the 1 8th of January to Mr. Blair. " If they should express their assent to this condition in writing, then Major Eckert was directed to give them safe con duct to Fortress Monroe, where a person coming from the Presi dent would meet them. It being thought probable, from a report of their conversation with General Grant, that the Richmond party would in the manner prescribed, accept the condition mentioned, the Secretary of State was charged by the President with the duty of representing this Government in the expected informal con ference. The Secretary arrived at Fortress Monroe in the night of the first day of February. Major Eckert met him in the morn ing of the 2d of February with the information that the persons who had come from Richmond had not accepted in writing the condition upon which he was allowed to give them conduct to Fortress Monroe. The Major had given the same information by telegraph to the President at Washington. On receiving this information the President prepared a telegram directing the Sec- LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. retary to return to Washington. The Secretary was preparing the same moment to so return, without waiting for instructions from the President. But at this juncture Lieutenant-General Grant tele graphed to the Secretary of War, as well as to the Secretary of State, that the party from Richmond had reconsidered and accepted the conditions tendered them through Major Eckert ; and General Grant urgently advised the President to confer in person with the Richmond party. Under these circumstances the Secretary, by the President s direction, remained at Fortress Monroe, and the President joined him there on the night of Feb ruary the 2d. The Richmond party was brought down the James River in a United States steam transport during the day, and the transport was anchored in Hampton Roads. " On the morning of the 3d, the President, attended by the Secretary, received Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on board the United States steam transport River Queen, in Hamp ton Roads. The conference was altogether informal. There was no attendance of secretaries, clerks, or other witnesses. Nothing was written or read. The conversation, although earnest and free, was calm, courteous, and kind on both sides. " The Richmond party approached the discussion rather in directly, and at no time did they either make categorical demands or tender formal stipulations or absolute refusals. " Nevertheless, during the conference, which lasted four hours, the several points at issue between the Government and the insurgents were distinctly raised and discussed fully, intelligently and in an amicable spirit. What the insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor was a postponement of the question of separation, upon which the war is waged, and a mutual direction of efforts of the Government, as well as those of the insurgents to some ex trinsic policy, or scheme for a season, during which passions might be expected to subside, and the armies be reduced and trade and intercourse between the people of both sections be resumed. It was suggested by them that through such postponement we might now have immediate peace, with some not very certain prospect of an ultimate satisfactory adjustment of political rela tions between this Government and the States, section, and people now engaged in conflict with it. This suggestion though deliber ately considered, was nevertheless, regarded by the President as 000 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. one of armistice or truce, and he announced that we can agree to no cessation or suspension of hostilities except on the basis of the disbandment of the insurgent forces and the restoration of the National authority throughout all the States in the Union. Collaterally, and in subordination to the proposition which was announced, the anti-slavery policy of the United States was re viewed in all its bearings, and the President announced that he must not be expected to depart from the positions he had assumed in his proclamation of emancipation and other documents, as these positions were reiterated in his last annual message. It was further declared by the President that the complete restoration of the National authority, everywhere, was an indispensable con dition of any assent on our part to whatever form of peace might be proposed. The President assured the other party that while he must adhere to these positions, he would be prepared, so far as power is lodged in the Executive, to exercise liberality. Its power, however, is limited by the Constitution ; and when peace shall be made Congress must necessarily act in regard to appropriations of money and to the admission of representatives from the insurrec tionary States. The Richmond party were then informed that Congress had, on the 3ist ultimo, adopted, by a constitutional majority, a joint resolution submitting to the several States the proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union; and that there is every reason to expect that it will soon be accepted by three-fourths of the States, so as to become a part of the national law. The conference came to an end by mutual acquiescence without producing any agreement of views upon the several matters discussed, or any of them. Nevertheless, it is perhaps of some importance that we have been able to submit our opinions and views directly to prominent insurgents, and to hear them in answer in a courteous and not unfriendly manner. " I am, sir, your obedient servant, "WILLIAM H. SEWARD. " To Charles Francis Adams, Esq., Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at London." The message of President Davis to the Confederate Congress is added, also the report of the Confederate " Commissioners " (they are taken from the Richmond Whig of February 7th, 1865). LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. (j ol " To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America. " Having recently received a written notification which satisfied me that the President of the United States was disposed to confer informally with unofficial agents that might be sent by me, with a view to the restoration of peace, I requested Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, and Hon. John A. Campbell to proceed through our lines to hold a conference with Mr. Lincoln, or such persons as he might depute to represent him. " I herewith submit for the information of Congress the re port of the eminent citizens above named showing that the enemy refuse to enter into negotiations with the Confederate States or any one of them separately, or to give our people any other terms or guarantees than those which a conqueror may grant, or permit us to have peace on any other basis than our unconditional sub mission to their rule, coupled with the acceptance of their recent legislation, including an amendment to the Constitution for the emancipation of negro slaves and with the right on the part of the Federal Congress to legislate on the subject of the relations between the white and black population of each State. " Such is, as I understand, the effect of the amendment to the Constitution which has been adopted by the Congress of the United States. " (Signed) JEFFERSON DAVIS. "Executive Office, Richmond, February 6th, 1865." " REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS, "RICHMOND, VA., February, 1865. " To the President of the Confederate States: " SIR : Under your letter of appointment of 28th ult, we proceeded to seek an informal conference with Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, upon the subject mentioned in your letter. The conference was granted, and took place on the 3d instant, on board a steamer anchored in Hampton Roads, where we met President Lincoln and Hon. Mr. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States. It continued for several hours and was both full and explicit. We learned from them that the mes sage of President Lincoln to the Congress of the United States $ 02 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. in December last, explains clearly and distinctly his sentiments as to terms, conditions, and method of proceeding, by which peace can be secured to the people. And we were not informed that they would be modified or altered to obtain that end. We understood from him that no terms or proposals of any treaty or agreement, looking to an ultimate settlement would be entertained or made by him with the authorities of the Confederate States, because that would be a recognition of their existence as a separate power, which under no circumstances would be done; and, for like rea sons, that no such terms would be entertained by him from States separately; that no extended truce or armistice, as at present advised, would be granted or allowed, without satisfactory assur ances in advance, of a complete restoration of the authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States over all places within the States of the Confederacy ; that whatever consequences may follow from the reestablishment of that authority must be ac cepted; but that the individuals subject to pains and penalties under the laws of the United States, might rely upon a very liberal use of the power confided to him to remit those pains and penalties if peace be restored. " During the conference, the proposed amendments to the Constitution of the United States, adopted by Congress on the 3 1st ult, were brought to our notice. These amendments provide that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, should exist within the United States or any place within their jurisdiction, and that Congress should have the power to enforce this amendment by appropriate legislation. Of all the corres pondence that preceded the conference herein mentioned and lead ing to the same, you have heretofore been informed. " Very respectfully, your obedient servants, " ALEX. H. STEPHENS, " R. M. T. HUNTER, " J. A. CAMPBELL." / The historical records of this book end with these letters. It remains only to say: Mr. Mason lived little more than a year and a half after his return to Virginia ; his health failed gradually, there was no apparent disease it seemed as though the infirmities of old age suddenly overpowered him, although he LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 603 had not reached the age of seventy-three. The best advice was invoked, but there was not enough vitality to respond to any medical treatment, and it became evident that his days were numbered, although no one supposed the end was very near. With his accustomed calmness he arranged his earthly affairs in such way as to avoid risk of delay or inconvenience in providing for his family, and then expressed his wish to " Confess Christ before men," saying " I feel that I ought to give my testimony for the benefit of those who come after me." Although not a communicant of the church, yet there was never any question regarding his belief in the Bible and his reverence for the Chris tian Faith. He talked with both Bishop Johns and the Rev. Dr. Sparrow on these subjects and said, " I must now go to church ; I feel it is right that I should leave my testimony." It is to be regretted that it was not in his power to carry out this purpose. He died at " Clarens " on April 28th, 1871. The Hon. Henry A. Wise said truly, when writing of his death : " It was not in the course of nature, or in the reason of things, that he could remain with us longer. The disasters to the Con federacy and the South, the wounds to his pride, the aching agony of seeing all his hopes of liberty and self-government and State rights blasted, and the desecration of sacred things, and the devas tation and demoralization he witnessed on coming home, were too much tension on the nerves of an aged man of delicate sensibili ties and proud sense of honor. His system collapsed, and he fell under paralysis. His last moments were without pain, and he died as he lived, composed and firm. " He was an honest man, a highly cultivated gentleman, a well trained and practiced lawyer, a sound statesman, and a pure patriot. And as sure as the assurance of God s own word, that he who doeth truth cometh to the Light/ James M. Mason s great and grand soul, unstained by earth in the natural life, hath now come in the spirit to the Light of Heaven." HOME USE CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT MAIN LIBRARY m U. C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 324994 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY