The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-01-20
The eshenandoah-Corrssponaence he.
tween Earl Clarendon md Mr.
Adams.

Under date Of October 81, while
the Shenandoah was still carrying on
her depredations, Minister Adams
wrote to Earl Russell long ,commu-
n1catlon, i'll which he reviews the
facts concerning the equipping and
sending to sea of this vessel, and
makes use of some firm and explicit
language. On the 9th of October,
1864, he informs us, the Sea King set
sail from London, with British
crew, and having reached q point
near the island of Madeira, was for
mally transferred to rebel agent,
and took the name of the Shenan-
doah.
A considerable portion of this crew
consisted Of the very same persons
who had previously been rescued from
the waves by British intervention at
the moment when they had surren-
dered from the sinking Alabama.
These buccaneers were thus, it ap-
pears, succored and provided for in
England until new craft could be
fitted out for him On the day after
the Sea King left London, the Laurel
departed from Liverpool, laden with
arms of every kind, which were trans
ferred to the former ut sea, when it
was turned over to rebel agent.
Minister Adams further complains
that after this ''nefarious project had
been consummated, her Majesty's Go
vernment, instead Of taking prompt
measures to denounce the transac-
ton, and refusing to give it the
smallest countenapce in any British
port, deliberately proceeded to accept
the results as legitimate, and to
direct that this vessel, so constituted,
should be FROM that moment entitled
to all the privileges which an honest
belligerent claims or any vessel of the
United States would enjoy.
He further says, the results Of this
most unfortunate construction Of in
ternat'onal law, by which success in
committing the fraud was made the
only test to purge it of its often sive
nature, have been manifested in the
manner III which the Shenandoah was
received wherever it went in the Bri-
tlsh dependencies. The supplies there
obtained, under one pretence or
another, particularly in the remote
parts of Australia, enabled this vessel
to keep the seas, and to continue her
depredatlons, long after she had been
stripped of the last shadow of the
character with which her Maiesty's
Government voluntarily chose to in
vest her at the outset.
This enterprise appears to have
been the last of q series inaugurated
in London by rebel agents, who were
thus enabled, by means of British
protection and assistance, to operate
more effectually against the Federal
authorities than if they had been To-
Gated at Richmond So far as the
naval branch of warfare is concerned.
the real bureau was fixed at atLiverpool,
and not in the United States. The
vessels were constructed or purchased,
the seamen enlisted, the armament
obtained, the supplies of every kind
procured, the cruises projected, and
the officers and men regularly paid in
England. In other words. all the war
made on the ocean was from England
as the starting-point. History does
not furnish case of more fragrant
and systematic abuse of the neutrality
of country by a belligerent, kept up
Tor an equal length of time
Mr.. Adams continues: In consent
ing to receive this vessel. (the She
nandoah, after the fact of it's illegal
origin and outfit had been satisfacto-
rily established, 1 cannot resist the
conviction that her Majesty's Govern
ment assumed responsibility for all
the damage which it has done, and
which, down to the latest account, it
was still doing, to the peaceful com
merce of the United States on the
ocean.
This communication was replied to
at length by Earl Clarendon, Rus
sells successor, who cites precedents
attempting to show, as did his pre-
decessor on previous occasion, that
the United States pursued an exactly
similar course toward Portugal, when
the South American Republics re-
volted.
Minister Adams reioined, on the
same day he received Clarendon's
letter, with lengthy statement,
wherein he shows that there was no
parallel between the two cases, and
plainly gives England to understand
that the United States will not be
obllvlous of her failure to award ius-
tlce III this matter of depredations
upon American commerce. He then,
II