The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1861-12-26
Gen. SCOTS EeIt9r on tEe IS Trent, AT
fair

Gen. SCOTS Eettar on the g Trent'' AT
fair.
The United States consul at Paris has COM
municated to the French papers the following
letter to Gen. Winfield Scott:
My DEAR SIR You were right in doubling
the declaration in puted to me, to wit That the
Cabinet at Washington had given orders to seize
Messrs. Mason and Sldc, even under a neutral
flag, for | was not even aware that the Govern
ment had had that point even under consdera-
ton At The lime of my leaving New York it
was not known that the San JaCtntO had return
ed to the American seas and it was generally
supposed those persons had escaped to Cuba for
the purpose of -embarking in the Nashville, in
pursuit of which vessel the James Adger and
other cruisers had been dispatched.
| | think can satisfy you in a few words that
you have no serious occasion to feel concerned
about our relations with England, if, as her ru-
lers profess, she has no disposition to encourage
the dissensions in America.
(! In the first place, it is almost saperhuous TO
say to you that every instinct of prudence as
well as of good neighborhood prompts our Gov
| eminent to regard no honorable saerhce too
great for the preservation of the friendship of
| Great Britain. This must be obvious to all the
world. At no period of our history has her friend,
ship been of more importance to our people, at
no period has our Government been in condi-
ton to make greater concessions to preserve it.
The two nations are united by interests and
ympathies-commercial social, political and
religious, almost as the two arms to one body,
and no one is so ignorant as not to know that
| what harms one must harms the other in a cor
responding degree.
| am persuaded that the British Government
can entertain no doubt upon this point, but lift
does, feel that | may take it upon myself to
say that the President of the United States,
when made aware OF its existence, will lose no
opportunity of dispelling it.
Nor is there anything, venture to affirm, in
the seizure of these rebel emissaries which
ought to receive an untrendly construction from
England. Her statesmen will not question the
legal rig hit OF an American vessel of war to search
any commercial vessel; that right has never
been surrendered by England it was even
guaranteed to her by the Treaty of Paris, and
British guns frowning down upon nearly every
straight and inland sea upon the globe are con
elusive evidence that she regards the right as
one the efficacy of which may not be entirely
exhausted. Ofcourse there is much that is irri
tatng in the exercise of this right under most ia
vorable circumstances, and it is to be hoped that
the day is not far distant when the maritime
States of the world wall agree in placing neu-
tral commerce beyond the reach of such vexa-
tons. The United STATES Government has been
striving to this end for more than fifty years; to
this end, as a nation, it embarked in a war with
the greatest naval power in the world, and it is
even now persistent sutton in every maritime
Court in Europe for more liberal recognition
of the rights of neutrals than any of the other
great maritime nations have yet been disposed to
make. But until those rights are secured by
proper international grantees upon cOmpre-
hensive and enduring basis, of course England
cannot complain Of All act for which in all it's
material bearings her own naval history affords |
such numerous presidents.
Whether the captives from the Trent were
of war or not, is a question which |
The two Governments can have 10 serious diff /
Guilty in agreeing upon, If Mr.. Seward cannot |
SAT- sly Earl Russell that they were, have no |
doubt that Earl Russell will be able to satisfy |
Mr.. Seward that they were not. If they were !
as all authorities concur III admitting agents Of |
the rebellion it will be difficult to satisfy Impair
til minds that they were any less contraband !
than file of rebelsoldiers or battery of hos
tile cannon.
But even should there be difference ofopin-
on on this point, it is very Gear that our Gov
eminent had sufficient grounds for p!esuming
itself in he right, to escape the suspicion ofhay