gether to remove the unfavorable impression which has been created as to the motives and conduct of her Majesty's government, and their officers, including myself, in regard to this matter. I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurance of my high consideration. Hon. W. L. MARCY, &., &c., &c. JOHN F. CRAMPTON. [No. 107.] Mr. Marcy to Mr. Buchanan. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 8, 1855. SIR: In my private letter of the 2d instant, I informed you that I had prepared an official note, relative to the British enlistments within the United States, to which British officers were auxiliary. As Mr. Crampton was personally implicated, it was determined to send it to him, although other communications on the subject had been addressed to you. The note was sent to Mr. Crampton on the 5th instant, and yesterday I received one from him, in which he informs me that he shall send my note to his government for directions as to the reply.. I herewith transmit to you copies of the notes above alluded to, together with copies of a part of the proofs in possession of this government on the subject, implicating her Britannic Majesty's officers. I do not believe Strobel's statement can be successfully impeached. I am quite sure it cannot be in its essential parts. Lord Clarendon must have been misinformed as to the actual state of things here, when he assured you that the persons who had violated our neutrality law were self-constituted and unauthorized agents. If the British government choose to take pains to ascertain what disposition has been made of the large sums of money expended in carrying out the scheme of enlistments in this country, it will find that a considerable amount of it has gone into the hands of these agents, and that it was paid to them for the purpose of being expended in the United States, in raising recruits for the British military service. I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES BUCHANAN, Esq., &c., &c., &c. W. L. MARCY. [No. 93.] Mr. Buchanan to Mr. Marcy. [Extract.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 107, of the 8th instant, with the accompanying documents. I transmit to you the copy of a note of yesterday's date, received this morning from Lord Clarendon, in reference to your note to Mr. Crampton of the 5th instant on the subject of British recruitments in the United States, together with a copy of my note of this date acknowledging its receipt. I have been thus prompt in notifying his lordship that I had no instructions which would warrant me in interfering with the correspondence commenced between Mr. Crampton and yourself at Washington, so that there might be no reason for any delay on the part of the British government in sending their instructions to that gentleman. I doubt very much, however, whether the confident trust expressed by him in his note to you of the 7th instant will be realized, that after having been more fully put into possession of the views of his government he "shall be enabled altogether to remove the unfavorable impression which has been created as to the motives and conduct of her Majesty's government and their officers, including myself, [himself,] in regard to this matter." Lord Clarendon's note to me of yesterday renders it improbable that Mr. Crampton will receive any such instructions; and I doubt whether the expression of his confident trust to this effect has received the approbation of his lordship. I also transmit a copy of my note of the 18th July last to Lord Clarendon, to which he refers in his note to me of yesterday. I communicated to you the substance of this note in my No. 81, of the 20th July, though at that time I did not deem it necessary to send a full copy. I have not time at present, before the closing of the bag, to make some observations which I had intended to do on the subject. I may resume it next week. FOREIGN OFFICE, September 27, 1855. Mr. Buchanan, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States at this court, will probably have received from his government a copy of a letter which Mr. Marcy, Secretary of State of the United States, addressed to Mr. Crampton, her Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in the United States, on the 5th of this month, on the subject of the communication which the undersigned, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, had the honor to make to Mr. Buchanan on the 16th of July, in reply to his note of the 6th of that month, complaining of the proceedings of British agents and British colonial authorities in raising within the States of the Union recruits for the British military service, in violation (as was alleged) of the act of Congress of the 20th of April, 1818. The undersigned had hoped, from the answer which he received from Mr. Buchanan on the 18th of July, that the explanations and assurances which he had given on this subject in his note of the 16th of that month would have proved as satisfactory to the government of the United States as they appeared to be to Mr. Buchanan; and it was therefore with no less disappointment than regret, that her Majesty's government perused the letter addressed by Mr. Marcy to Mr. Crampton on the 5th instant, of which the undersigned encloses a copy to Mr. Buchanan in case he should not have received it from Washington. In this letter, Mr. Marcy, laying less stress than Mr. Buchanan did upon the alleged infraction of the municipal laws of the United States, dwells chiefly upon the point, which was but slightly adverted to by Mr. Buchanan, of an assumed disregard of the sovereign rights of the United States on the part of the British authorities or the agents employed by them. Her Majesty's government have no reason to believe that such has been the conduct of any persons in the employment of her Majesty, and it is needless to say that any person so employed would have departed no less from the intentions of her Majesty's government by violating international law, or by offering an affront to the sovereignty of the United States, than by infringing the municipal laws of the Union to which Mr. Buchanan more particularly called the attention of the undersigned. Her Majesty's government feel confident that even the extraordinary measures which have been adopted in various parts of the Union to obtain evidence against her Majesty's servants, or their agents, by practices sometimes resorted to under despotic institutions, but which are disdained by all free and enlightened governments, will fail to establish any well-founded charge against her Majesty's servants. The British government is fully aware of the obligations of international duties, and is no less mindful of those obligations than is the government of the United States. The observance of those obligations ought, undoubtedly, to be reciprocal; and her Majesty's government do not impute to the government of the United States, that while claiming an observance of those obligations by Great Britain, they are lax in enforcing a respect for those obligations within the Union. But as this subject has been mooted by Mr. Marcy, her Majesty's government cannot refrain from some few remarks respecting it. The United States profess neutrality in the present war between the Western Powers and Russia; but have no acts been done within the United States, by citizens thereof, which accord little with the spirit of neutrality? Have not arms and ammunition, and warlike stores of various kinds, been sent in large quantities from the United States for the service of Russia? Have not plots been openly avowed, and conspiracies entered into without disguise or hindrance, in various parts of the Union, to take advantage of the war in which Great Britain is engaged, and to seize the opportunity for promoting insurrection in her Majesty's dominions, and the invasion thereof by an armed force proceeding from the United States ? Her Majesty's government have been silent on these matters, which they did not consider indicative of the general feelings of the American people; for, remembering the many ties and sympathies which connect the people of the United States with the two powerful nations who are engaged in the present contest with Russia, they were convinced that a free, enlightened, and generous race, such as the citizens of the great North American Union, must entertain, on the important questions at issue, sentiments in harmony with those which animate not only the British and French nations, but the great mass of the nations of Western Europe; and her Majesty's government would not have adverted to the exceptional course pursued by a certain number of individuals, if it had not been for the above-mentioned statements in Mr. Marcy's note. But her Majesty's government think themselves entitled to claim the same credit for sincerity of purpose and uprightness of conduct which they readily allow to the government of the United States; and to expect that their assurance should be received, that as they have enjoined on all her Majesty's servants a strict observance of the laws of the United States, so they have no reason to believe that any of her Majesty's servants, or any agents duly authorized by those servants, have disregarded those injunctions in respect to the matters which form the subject of this note. The undersigned requests Mr. Buchanan to accept the assurance of his highest consideration. Hon. JAMES BUCHANAN, &c., &c., &c. CLARENDON. Mr. Buchanan to Lord Clarendon. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the note, dated on the 27th instant, from the Earl of Clarendon, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in reference to the note of the 5th instant, addressed by Mr. Marcy, the Secretary of State, to Mr. Crampton, her Britannic Majesty's minister at Washington, on the subject of the enlistment and engagement of soldiers. for the British army within the limits of the United States; and he will not fail to transmit to Washington a copy of his lordship's note by to-morrow's steamer. The undersigned forbears to make any observations on this note, or to interfere in any manner with the correspondence commenced at Washington between the Secretary of State and Mr. Crampton, as he has received no instructions which would warrant him in so doing. The undersigned has the honor to renew to the Earl of Clarendon the assurance of his distinguished consideration. JAMES BUCHANAN, The Right Honorable the EARL OF CLARENDON, &c., &c., &c. Mr. Buchanan to Lord Clarendon. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, July 18, 1855. The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the note which the Earl of Clarendon, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, addressed to him on the 16th instant, in answer to his note of the 6th instant, on the subject of the enlistment and employment of soldiers for the British army within the United States; and the undersigned will have much satisfaction in transmitting a copy of his lordship's note to the Secretary of State by the next steamer. The undersigned has the honor to renew to the Earl of Clarendon the assurance of his distinguished consideration. JAMES BUCHANAN. SIR: I herewith send you papers containing the report of the trial of Hurtz, for a violation of our neutrality laws by enlisting soldiers for the British army. The testimony shows that Mr. Crampton and several other British officials are deeply implicated in the transaction. Lord Clarendon's note, in answer to yours bringing the subject to his notice, assumed that none of her Majesty's officers had been in any way engaged in the plan of recruiting within the United States. Had the facts been as he assumed them to be, and this government had had no reason to believe that the measure was not designed to draw recruits from the United States, his lordship's reply would have been satisfactory. Subsequent developments show that Lord Clarendon was misinformed as to the true state of the case. The second despatch to you on the subject showed that the ground of grievance was not confined to the mere fact of a violation of our neutrality laws by British officers. It presented the case as a national offence committed by them, irrespective of those laws. These officers |
