[Footnote 179:  Bancroft in his Seward (II, p. 183) prints a portion of an unpublished despatch of Seward to Dayton in Paris, July 1, 1861, as “his clearest and most characteristic explanation of what the attitude of the government must be in regard to the action of the foreign nations that have recognized the belligerency of the ‘insurgents.’”

“Neither Great Britain nor France, separately nor both together, can, by any declaration they can make, impair the sovereignty of the United States over the insurgents, nor confer upon them any public rights whatever.  From first to last we have acted, and we shall continue to act, for the whole people of the United States, and to make treaties for disloyal as well as loyal citizens with foreign nations, and shall expect, when the public welfare requires it, foreign nations to respect and observe the treaties.

“We do not admit, and we never shall admit, even the fundamental statement you assume—­namely, that Great Britain and France have recognized the insurgents as a belligerent party.  True, you say they have so declared.  We reply:  Yes, but they have not declared so to us.  You may rejoin:  Their public declaration concludes the fact.  We, nevertheless, reply:  It must be not their declaration, but the fact, that concludes the fact.”

[Footnote 180:  The Times, June 3, 1861.]

[Footnote 181:  Ibid., June 11, 1861.]

[Footnote 182:  U.S.  Messages and Documents, 1861-2, p. 87.]

[Footnote 183:  Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords, Vol.  XXV.  “Correspondence on Civil War in the United States.”  No. 56.  Lyons to Russell, June 17, 1861, reporting conference with Seward on June 15.]

[Footnote 184:  U.S.  Messages and Documents, 1861-62, p. 104.  Adams to Seward, June 14, 1861.]

[Footnote 185:  Bancroft, the biographer of Seward, takes the view that the protests against the Queen’s Proclamation, in regard to privateering and against interviews with the Southern commissioners were all unjustifiable.  The first, he says, was based on “unsound reasoning” (II, 177).  On the second he quotes with approval a letter from Russell to Edward Everett, July 12, 1861, showing the British dilemma:  “Unless we meant to treat them as pirates and to hang them we could not deny them belligerent rights” (II, 178).  And as to the Southern commissioners he asserts that Seward, later, ceased protest and writes:  “Perhaps he remembered that he himself had recently communicated, through three different intermediaries, with the Confederate commissioners to Washington, and would have met them if the President had not forbidden it.”  Bancroft, Seward, II, 179.]

[Footnote 186:  Du Bose, Yancey, p. 606.]

[Footnote 187:  A Cycle of Adams’ Letters, 1861-1865, Vol.  I, p. 11.  Adams to C.F.  Adams, Jnr., June 14, 1861.]

[Footnote 188:  See ante, p. 98.  Russell’s report to Lyons of this interview of June 12, lays special emphasis on Adams’ complaint of haste. Parliamentary Papers, 1862, Lords, Vol.  XXV, “Correspondence on Civil War in the United States,” No. 52.  Russell to Lyons, June 21, 1861.]