Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: Your despatch of January 1st (No. 287) has been received. The note you have addressed to Earl Russell, on the subject of the Sumter, is approved.
You are aware that that vessel was originally called the Marquis of Havana, and under that name was captured off Vera Cruz on the 6th of March, 1860, by the United States sloop-of-war Saratoga, T. Turner, commander. She was afterwards sent into New Orleans for adjudication, and a trial of the case took place before the United States district court there, the vessel being claimed as Spanish property.
There is no precise information here as to the result of the trial, but in a letter to the Solicitor of the Treasury, dated in November, 1860, the United States attorney at New Orleans asks leave to cause a sale of the vessel to be made. No answer was returned to this letter, and we are not aware whether the sale actually took place, or under what circumstances. More definite information on this point will at once be sought in the proper quarter at New Orleans. The Marquis of Havana is understood to have remained there until after the insurrection, when, as you know, she was fitted out as an armed vessel in the service of the insurgents, and having broken through the blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi, and having gone on her career of devastation, she ultimately sought refuge in Gibraltar. It is at least possible that this government may in the end have to account to Spain for her capture above referred to. This, and the great probability that there was no legal sale of the vessel, would perhaps have justified us, independently of other considerations, in directing the seizure of the Sumter on the high seas. Her capture, even after her sale at Gibraltar, would seem to be warranted at least by a passage in “Wildman’s Law of Search, Capture, and Prize,” page 28, which is in the following words:
“The purchase of a ship-of-war by a neutral, while she is lying in a port to which she has fled for refuge, is invalid.”
Pursuant to this, before your despatch of the 24th ultimo (No. 280) reached here, this department addressed a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, recommending that orders should be given for the capture of the Sumter anywhere on the high seas. When that despatch was received, however, another letter was addressed to Mr. Welles, requesting a suspension of any order which might have been given pursuant to the first communication. This letter reached the Navy Department before any orders had been despatched, and a suspension of them has accordingly taken place.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.