INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

THIS is an attempt to tell the story of the Alabama arbitration, as far as possible, in the words of the participants in that drama. It is hoped the work will be of use to historical students. My brother, Edwin Swift Balch, Esq., has aided me in one way or another in its preparation.

PHILADELPHIA, May 5th, 1900.

T. W. B.

CHAPTER I.

OON after the outbreak of hostilities in 1861 in

SOON

the United States between the Northern and the Southern States over the Slavery question, the Confederate States, in order to injure the power of the Union States by striking and destroying the mercantile marine of the latter, sought with great energy, tenacity and skill to create a navy sufficiently strong to force the Union maritime commerce to seek the shelter of a neutral flag. And in this course their hasty recognition as belligerents by England helped them very much.1 Fort Sumter fell April 13th, 1861; President Lincoln issued his proclamation declaring a

1The National and Private "Alabama Claims" and their "final and amicable settlement," by Charles C. Beaman, Jr. Printed by W. H. Moore, Washington, D. C., 1871, pages, 7–48. Correspondence concerning Claims Against Great Britain. Volume VI. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1871, page 4 et seq. Letter of "C." on The American Blockade and Belligerent Rights in the London Daily News, Thursday, October 19th, 1865 reprinted in Correspondence concerning Claims Against Great Britain. Volume IV. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1869, page 257. Adams, by his son, Charles Francis Adams. York, 1900, pages 168-172.

Charles Francis Boston and New

blockade of the Southern ports on April 19th; and in spite of Earl Russell's promise to Mr. Dallas, the American Minister, to wait to hear Charles Francis Adams, the newly chosen representative to England of the new Administration, the British Government published, on May 13th, the very day of Mr. Adams's arrival in London, the Queen's neutrality proclamation recognizing the Confederates as belligerents. That act was the first step that made it possible for the latter to carry on from the shores of England a naval war against the United States.

The first ship of war of any importance that flew the Confederate flag on the high seas, was the Sumter.2 Under the command of Raphael Semmes, who equipped her and, at the end of June, 1861, took her successfully out of New Orleans past the Union ships, she proved for six months a scourge to Northern commerce. She did not destroy many vessels, but she inspired sufficient fear to Northern ship owners to cause many of them to place their boats under the neutral flag of England. Her career as a Confederate cruiser was cut short at Gibraltar in January, 1862, when her com

2

Memoirs of Service Afloat, during the War between the States, by Admiral Raphael Semmes, C. S. N., Baltimore, 1869, pages 93-345 passim. Papers relating to the Treaty of Washington. Volume I. Geneva Arbitration. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1872, page 129.