Under the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1819, British subjects were forbidden to arm or equip ships to be used by foreign belligerents at war with a power friendly with Great Britain. The Confederate naval agent James D. Bulloch circumvented the law by having unarmed warships built in English shipyards and then arranging for them to be equipped with guns and ammunition outside of British territory. Despite repeated protests by Charles Francis Adams, the U.S. minister to Great Britain, the Palmerston government failed to prevent the construction and sailing of the commerce raiders Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. Bulloch had also contracted with the Laird shipyard in Liverpool for the building of two large ironclad rams, and then devised the stratagem of selling them to a French broker purportedly acting for the Egyptian government. On July 11, 1863, Adams sent the first of a series of letters to the British foreign secretary, Lord Russell, protesting the construction of the rams and providing evidence of their true destination. In his reply of September 1 Russell described most of the evidence as hearsay and said the government had no legal grounds to interfere. Adams responded in this letter with a warning that became famous after it was published in January 1864. In fact, Russell had given orders on September 3 for the rams to be detained in port. The British government seized the ships in October, and they were purchased by the Royal Navy in May 1864.
LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, September 5, 1863.
MY LORD: At this moment, when one of the iron-clad vessels is on the point of departure from this kingdom, on its hostile errand against the United States, I am honored with the reply of your lordship to my notes of the 11th, 16th and 25th of July, and of the 14th of August. I trust I need not express how profound is my regret at the conclusion to which her Majesty’s government have arrived. I can regard it no otherwise than as practically opening to the insurgents free liberty in this kingdom to execute a policy described in one of their late publications in the following language:
“In the present state of the harbor defences of New York, Boston, Portland, and smaller northern cities, such a vessel as the Warrior would have little difficulty in entering any of these ports and inflicting a vital blow upon the enemy. The destruction of Boston alone would be worth a hundred victories in the field. It would bring such a terror to the ‘blue-noses’ as to cause them to wish eagerly for peace, despite their overweening love of gain, which has been so freely administered to since the opening of this war. Vessels of the Warrior class would promptly raise the blockade of our ports, and would even, in this respect, confer advantages which would soon repay the cost of their construction.”
It would be superfluous in me to point out to your lordship that this is war. No matter what may be the theory adopted of neutrality in a struggle, when this process is carried on in the manner indicated, from a territory and with the aid of the subjects of a third party, that third party to all intents and purposes ceases to be neutral. Neither is it necessary to show that any government which suffers it to be done fails in enforcing the essential conditions of international amity towards the country against whom the hostility is directed. In my belief it is impossible that any nation, retaining a proper degree of selfrespect, could tamely submit to a continuance of relations so utterly deficient in reciprocity. I have no idea that Great Britain would do so for a moment.
After a careful examination of the full instructions with which I have been furnished, in preparation for such an emergency, I deem it inexpedient for me to attempt any recurrence to arguments for effective interposition in the present case. Under these circumstances, I prefer to desist from communicating to your lordship even such further portions of my existing instructions as are suited to the case, lest I should contribute to aggravate difficulties already far too serious. I therefore content myself with informing your lordship that I transmit, by the present steamer, a copy of your note for the consideration of my government, and shall await the more specific directions that will be contained in the reply.
I seize this opportunity to pray permission of your lordship to correct a clerical error inadvertently made in my note of the 3d instant, in inserting the date of two notes of mine as having received the express approbation of my government. The intention was to specify only one, that of the 11th of July. The correction is not material, excepting as it conforms more strictly to the truth.
I pray your lordship to accept the assurances of the highest consideration with which I have the honor to be, my lord, your most obedient servant,
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
Right Honorable EARL RUSSELL, &c, &c, &c.