Year: 1861

Letter from General Scott.
WRITTEN IN PARIS AND COMMUNICATED TO


gHs- FRENCH PAPERS BY THE AMERICAN


COSsUL.


MY DEAR SIR You were right in
doubling the declaration imputed to me,
to wit: That the Cabinet at Washington
had given orders to seize Messrs. Mason and
Slidell, even under neutral flag, for was
not aware that the Government had had
that point even under consideration at
the time of my leaving New York it was
not known that the San Jacinto had res
turned to the American seas and it was
generally supposed that those persons bad
escaped to Cuba for the purpose of re~eml
barking in the Nashville, in pursuit of which
vesse the james Adger and other cruisers
had been dispatched. ss. l.,


/ think can satisfy you in few woros
than you have no serious occasion to feel
concerned about our relations with England,
if, as her rulers profess, she has no disp0si-
tion to encourage the dissensions in America.


In the first place, it is almost superfaous
to say to you that every instinct Of pru
dence as well as Of good neighborhood
prompts our Government to regard no hon.
orable sacrifice as toe. great. for the preser-
walton of the friendship of Great Britain.
This must be obvious to all the world. At
no period of our history has her friendship
been of more Importance to our people at
no time has our Government been prepared
to make greater concessions to preserve it..
The two nations are united by interests and
mpathies--commercia social, political,
and religious, almost as the two arms to
one body, and no one is 80 ignorant as not
to know that what harms one, must harm
the other in corresponding degree


/ am persuaded that the British Govern.
ment can entertain no doubt upon this point,
but if it does, l feel that may take it upon
myself to say that the President of the
United States, when made aware of its ex-
istence, will lose no opportunity of dispell'
ing it,


Nor is there anything, / venture to af-
firm, in the seizure of these rebel emmissa>
ries which ought to receive an unfriendly
construction from England. Her statesmen
will not question the legal right of an
American vessel of war to search any COM
mercial vessel justly suspected of transport
ing contraband of war that right has
never been surrendered by England it was
even guaranteed to her by the Treaty of
Paris, and British guns frowned down upon
nearly every strait and inland sea upon the
globe, are conclusive evidence that she re.
CARDS this right as one, the efficiency of
which may be not yet entirely exhausted.
OF course, there is much that is irritating
and vexatious in the exercise of this right
under the most favorable circumstances, and
it is to be hoped the day is not far distant
when the maritime states of the world will
agree in placing neutral commerce beyond
the reach Of such vexations. The United
States Government has been striving to
this end for more than fifty years to this
end, early in the present century and in its
infancy as a nation, it embarked in war
with the greatest naval power iu the world,
and it is even now, a persistent suitor at
every maritime Court in Europe for a more
liberal recognition of the rights OF neutrals
than of the other great maritime nations
have yet been disposed to make. But till
those rights are secured by proper interna
tiOnal guarantees upon comprehensive and
enduring basis, of course England cannot
complain OF an act for which, in all its ma
terial bearings. her own naval history affords
such numerous precedents.


Whether the captive from the Trent
were contraband OF war or not, is ques
ton which the two Governments can have
no serious difficulty in agreeing upon. II
Mr.. Seward cannot satisfy Earl Russell that
they were, l have 20 doubt that Earl Rus
sell will be able to satisfy Mr.. Seward that
they were not. Ii they were, as all author
ilies &C cur in admitting. agents OF the
rebellion, it will be difficult to satisfy i'm
partial minds that they were any less co..
tyabard than a file of rebel soldiers or a
battery OF hostile cannon.


But even should there be difference of
opinion upon this point, it is very clear that
our Government had sufficient groun IS for
presuming itself in the right, to escape the
suspicion of having wantonly violated the
relations of amity which the two countries
profess to desire to preserve and cultivate.


The pretepse that we ought to have taken
the Trent Into port and bad her condemned
by Prize Court, in order to justify our
seizure Oh four OF her passengers, furnishes
very narrow basis on which to fix seri-
GUS controversy between the two great
nations. Stated in other words, an offense
would have been less if it had been greater.
The wrong done to the British flag would
have been mitigated if, instead of seizing
Al g., 1k,r,ln L. Al
detained all her passengers for weeks, and
confiscated her cargo. / am rot surprised
that Captain Wilkes took different view
of his duty, and of what was due to the
friendly relations which subsisted between
the two Governments. The renowned com.
mon sense Of the English people, believe,
will approve of his effort to make the dis.
charge of very unpleasant duty as little
vexations as psssible to all innocent parties.