the express purpose of maintaining our neutral relations 46 with other powers.(22) It was not reasonable to suspect that this scheme was in any way countenanced by the British Government, or any of its subordinate authorities resident within the United States or in the British North American Provinces; but a further examination into the matter has disclosed the fact that it has had not only the countenance, but the active support of some of the authorities, and, to some extent, the sanction of the British Government.

When intimations were thrown out that the British consuls in this country were aiding and encouraging this scheme 47 of enlistment within our limits, Mr. Crampton, Her Britannic Majesty's Minister to this Government, showed me the copy of a letter, which he had addressed to one of them, disapproving of the proceeding, and discountenancing it as a violation of our laws. After this act on the part of the British minister, it was confidently believed that this scheme, however it may have originated, and with whatever countenance it might have been at first looked on by British functionaries, would at once have been abandoned. This reasonable expectation has not been realized; for efforts to 48 raise recruits within the United States for the British Army have not been intermitted, but are still prosecuted with energy. To arrest a course of proceedings which so seriously compromitted our neutrality,(23) prosecutions, by the order of the Government, were instituted against the offenders. This led to developments which established the fact that the Governor of Nova Scotia, apparently with the knowledge and approval of Her Majesty's Government, had a direct agency in this illegal proceeding.

I herewith send you a copy of an order or notification which has been published in our newspapers, and believed to be genuine, purporting to have been issued by that functionary. It clearly appears from this document that the recruits were to be drawn from the United States; that the engagements with them were to be made within our limits, in open violation of the second section of the act of Con

Note 22. This accords with the view of the object and intent of the act taken ante, (folios 4, 21, 33, 41,) and see post note 95.

Note 23.-See ante note 18 and post folio 252 to 256, 313.

49

50 gress of the 20th April, 1818; and that British officials were the agents furnished with the means for carrying the illegal measure into effect. These agents have been engaged within our jurisdiction devoting themselves to the execution of this plan.

Notwithstanding the legal measures taken by the officers of the United States to suppress the procedure, the work is still going on. We have accounts of persons constantly leaving the United States for the British Provinces, under engagements, contracted here, to enter into the British military service. Such engagements are as much an infringe51 ment of our laws as more formal enlistments.(24)

I am directed by the President to instruct you to call the attention of Her Majesty's Government to this subject. He desires you to ascertain how far persons in official station under the British Government acted in the first instance in this matter with its approbation, and what measures, if any, it has since taken to restrain their unjustifiable conduct.

The excuse offered by the British authorities for enlisting or engaging soldiers to enlist within the United States is, that Her Majesty's subjects, and Germans resident therein, had expressed a desire to enter the British army. This fact, if it were unquestionable, would not justify the Bri52 tish authorities in converting the United States into a field for recruiting the British army.

Were not the proceedings in open violation of law, a respect for our obligations of neutrality, and the observance of the comity due to us as a friendly power, would render such a course by either belligerent disrespectful to us.

Though the proceedings of this government to frustrate this scheme may have caused the manner of carrying it on to be changed, there is reason to believe that it is still clan

Note 24.-Mr. Marcy takes a correct view of the law in this letter, but was mistaken in supposing that the British Government had authorised enlistments to be made in the United States, or any engagements to be made such as he speaks of. See a totally different view of the law adopted by Mr. Marcy, (folio 135) after Mr. Cushing's opinion had been taken, August 9th, 1855, upon the receipt of Lord Clarendon's letter of July 16th.

destinely prosecuted by British officers with means furnish- 53 ed by their Government.

The American Government are constantly receiving information that persons are leaving, and have left the United States, under engagements contracted within their limits to enlist as soldiers in the British army on their arrival in the British Provinces.(25) These persons are provided with 54 ready means of transit to Nova Scotia, in consequence of the express promise of the Lieutenant-Governor of that Province to pay "to Nova Scotian and other shipmasters" the cost of a passage for each poor man, "willing to serve Her Majesty," shipped from Philadelphia, New York or Boston.

The disclosures made within the very last month, upon a judicial investigation at Boston, (a report of which is now before the undersigned,) afford good reason to believe that an extensive plan has been organized by British functionaries and agents, and is now in successful operation in different parts of the Union, to furnish recruits for the British army.

All these acts have been performed in direct violation of the second section of the Act of Congress of the 20th April, 1818, which provides, "That, if any person shall, within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States, enlist or enter himself, or hire or retain another person to enlist or enter himself, or to go beyond the limits or jurisdiction of

55

Note 25.-It will be observed that Mr. Buchanan did not at this time suppose that there could be any cause of complaint against the British Government unless engagements had been contracted in the way he mentions, (see folio 60) and yet we find Mr. Cushing contending afterwards that the law would be violated by merely inviting persons to enlist in Canada.

56 the United States, with intent to be enlisted or entered in the service of any foreign prince, state, colony, district, or people, as a soldier, as a marine or seaman, on board of any vessel of war, letter of marque or privateer, every person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars, and be imprisoned not exceeding three years," &c.

The plain and imperative duties of neutrality, under the law of nations, require that a neutral nation shall not suffer its territory to become the theatre on which one of the belligerents might raise armies to wage war against the other. (26.) 57 If such a permission were granted, the partiality which this would manifest in favor of one belligerent to the prejudice of the other, could not fail to produce just complaints on the part of the injured belligerent, and might eventually involve the neutral as a party in the war.

The Government of the United States, however, did not leave the enforcement of its neutral obligations to rest alone on the law of nations. At an early period of its history, in June, 1794, under the administration of General Washington, an act of Congress was passed defining and enforcing its 58 neutral duties; (27,) and this act has been supplied, extended and enlarged by the act already referred to, and now in force, of the 20th April, 1818. Under both these acts, the very same penalties are imposed upon all persons implicated, whether the actual enlistment takes place within the territory of the United States, or whether an engagement is entered into to go beyond the limits or jurisdiction of the United States, "with intent to be enlisted or entered in the service of any foreign prince," &c., &c. Without the latter provision, the former might be easily evaded in the manner proposed by the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. If the law permitted any individuals, whether official or unoffi

Note 26.-This doctrine is unobjectionable. But it by no means follows that a neutral nation is bound to prevent invitations to its citizens to enter nto foreign service, especially where under the political system of such neutral nation its citizens have an absolute right of expatriation. See ante folio 35 and post folios 252 to 256, 288, 313.

Note 27.-That was the true object of the act, and it, like the act of 1818, merely forbade enlistments and the hiring or retaining of persons to go abroad with intent to enlist.

cial, (28,) to engage persons in Philadelphia, New York and 59 Boston to serve in the British army, and to enter into contracts to transport them to Halifax, there to complete the formal act of enlistment, then it is manifest that this law, to a very great extent, would become a dead letter.

The undersigned is happy to know that, in this respect, the policy of the British Government is identical with that of the United States, (29.) The foreign enlistment act, (59 Geo. 3, ch. 69,) like the act of Congress, inflicts the same penalties upon any individual who shall, within the British dominions, "engage any person or persons whatever" "to go, or to agree to go, or embark from any part of Her 60 Majesty's dominions, for the purpose or with intent to be so enlisted," as though the enlistment had actually taken place within the same.

*

In view of all these considerations, the President has instructed the undersigned to ascertain from the Earl of Clarendon how far persons in official station, under the British Government, have acted; whether with or without its approbation, either in enlisting persons within the United States, or engaging them to proceed from thence to the British Provinces for the purpose of being there enlisted, (30;) and

Note 28.-Mr. Buchanan is right in treating the acts of individuals, whether official or unofficial, as standing on the same basis. A different position, however, is assumed by Mr. Marcy. (See on this point folios 294 to 300.)

Mr. Buchanan is also right in saying that the law did not permit individuals to engage (i. e. to contract with) others in Philadelphia, New York, &c., to serve in the British army. But he mistakes the position taken by the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia who did not authorise any such engagements to be made in the United States.

Note 29.-This is a mistake. (See ante folio 5 and post folio 292.)

Note 30.-N. B.-The only question put to Lord Clarendon is, how far persons in official station have acted "either in enlisting persons within the United States, or engaging them to proceed from thence to the British Prov. inces for the purpose of being there enlisted."

On receiving the answer of Lord Clarendon that he did not believe that any persons in official station had acted in the way suggested, and that if they had, their conduct was unauthorised, Mr. Marcy, under the guidance of Mr. Cushing, broaches an entirely new theory and talks about the seduction of people from the United States as if they were the subjects of some despotic prince! And all this after Lord Clarendon, in order to avoid any offence