Delaware State journal and statesman., 1862-01-07

Great Britain as a friendly Power, while she
had assumed for herself the attitude OF neu-
trail and that Spain was considered in the
same light, and has assumed the same attitude
as Great Britain.
1t had been settled by correspondence that
the United States and Great Britain mutually
recognised as applicable 10 this local STRIFE
these two articles of the declaration made by
the Congress of Paris in 1856, namely, that
the neutral or friendly flag should cover enc
my's goods not contraband of war, and that
neutral goods not contraband of war are not
liable to capture under an enemy's flag. These
exceptions of contraband from favor were a
negative acceptance by the parties of the rule
hitherto everywhere recognised as part OF
the law of nations, that whatever is contraband
is liable to capture and coniscation in all
cases.
James NJ Mason and Il. J. Mcfarland are
citizens of the United States and residents of
Virginia. John Slidell and George Eustis are
citizens OF the United States and residents of
Louisiana. 1t was well known at Havana,
Theh these parties embarked in the Trent, that
'aii''s NJ. Mason was proceeding to Englandin
tne anee~d character of a Minister Plenipo-
.ntlary u u, Court of St. James, under
pie's"A'H cohuii@sap from Jefferson Davis,
who had Assumed TO be-.a.;aan, ,f the ;nsnr'
loc,ionary party in the Un,e sto,as on1E
J. Mcfarland was going with h, ~ a lite
unreal character of Secretary of Les. ,;on 70
the pretended mission. John Sidell, in s..
lar circumstances, was going to Paris as pre-
tended Minister to the Emperor of the French,
and George Eustis was the chosen Secretary
of Legation for that simulated mission. The
fact that those persons had assumed such
characters has been since avowed by the same
Jefferson Davis in a pretended message to an
unlawful and insurrectionary Congress. 1t
was, as we think, rightly presumed that these
Ministers bore pretended credentials and in-
structions, and such papers are in the law
known as dispatches. We are informed by
our Consul at Paris that these dispatches hav-
ing escaped the search of the Trent, were ac-
tually conveyed and delivered to emissaries of
the insurrection in England. Although it is
not essential, yet it is proper TO state, as do
also upon information and belief, that the own
er and agent and all the officers OF the Trent
including the Commander Williams, had know
ledge of the assumed characters and purposes
of the persons befnrenamed when they EN-
barked on that vessel.
Your lordship will now perceive that the
case before us, instead Of presenting a merely
iagrant act of violence on the part of Captain
W;lLav N ,niuht u,aII ha infarrad frotn tho in
complete statement of il that went up to the
British Government, was undertaken as a sim
pie legal and customary beTligerent proceeding
by Captain Wilkes to arrest and capture neu-
tral vessel engaged in carrying contraband
OF war for the use and benefit Of the insur-
gents.
The question before us is, whether this pro-
cording to the law OF nations. 1t involves the
following inquiries
LIST. We're the persons named and their sup
posed dispatches contraband of war;
"a. Might Captain Wilkes lawfully stop and
search the Trent for these contraband persons
and dispatches? ..
Sd. Did he exercise that right in lawful
and proper manner
4th. Having found the contraband persons
on board and in presumed possession of the
conlraband dispatches, had he right to cap
ture the persons2
9TH. Did he exercise that right of capture in
the manner allowed and recognised by the law
of nations?
II all these inquiries shall be resolved in
the affirmative, the British Government will
have no claim for reparation.
address myself TO the frstinquiry, namely,
were the four persons mentioned, and their
suppoeed dispatches, contraband2
Maritime law so generally deals, as its pro-
iessors say, in rem, that is, with property, and
SO seldom with persons, that it seems strain
ing of the term contraband to applyit to them.
But persons as well as property, may become
contraband, since the word means broadly
"contrary to proclamation, prohibited, illegal,
unlawful
All writers and judges pronounce naval or
military persons in the service of the enemy
contraband. Vattel says war allows us to cut
off from an enemy all his resources, and TO
hiuder him from sending ministers to solicit
assistance. And Sir William Scott says you
may stop the ambassador of your enemy on
his passage Dispatches are not less clearly
contraband, and the bearers or couriers who
undertake to carry them fall under the same
condemnation.
| A subtlety might be raised whether pretend
ed ministers OF an usurping Power, not recog-
missed as legal by either the belligerent or the
neutral, could be held to be contraband. But
it would disappear on being subjected to what
is the true teskin all cases-namely, the spirit
of the law. Sir William Scott, speaking of
civil magistrates who were arrested and de-
tained as contraband, says;
sit appears to me on principle to be but rea-
sonable that when II is of sufficient Importance
to the enemy that such persons shall be sent
out on the public service at the public expense,
it should afford equal ground of forfeiture
against the vessel that may be let out for a
purpose so intimately connected with tho hos.
tile operations"
l trust that have shown that the four per-
sons who were taken from the Trent by Capt.
Wilkes, and their dispatches, werecontraband
of war,
The second inquiry is, whether Capt Wilkes
had right by the law of nations to detain and
search the Trent?
The Trent, though she carried mails was a
contact or merchant yessel-a common car
rier for hire. Maritime law knows only three
classes of vesses-vesses of war revenue
vessels, and merchant vessels. The Trent falls
within the latter class. Whatever disputes