a letter from Mr. Benjamin to Mr. Helm, the agent of the insurgents at Cardenas, in Cuba, saying that he is "an active and accomplished business man ;" that he is to aid Helm, "whether in the disposal of the cotton or the arrangements for the shipments;" and that "the articles first in importance, and to be sent in preference to everything else, are small-arms and cannon powder. " Heyliger went to Cuba, and in a few days after was transferred to Nassau to take charge of "the British Steamer Gladiator, Commander G. G. Bird, with a cargo for the Confederate States." He remained there as the agent, treasury depositary, and representative of the insurgents during the rebellion. What was done at The Gladiator was a steamer bought and fitted out in England under an agreement made at London, October 24, 1861, between Mr. T. O. Stock, a subject of Her Majesty, and Mr. Caleb Nassau. Huse.3 The evident object of this agreement was to enable her to sail under the British flag, although owned by the insurgents. She was to take out five hundred tons of goods, and was "to proceed to a port [226] in the *Confederate States or an intermediate port." No concealment of her object or destination was made in England. She arrived at Nassau from London on the 9th of December, 1861.5 The day after she arrived there a United States vessel of war came into the port. Heyliger, finding that this vessel would not leave, and that therefore the Gladiator, which was slower than the man-of-war, could not leave with safety, represented to the British authorities that such a course" would tend to cut off the trade" which the insurgents desired to divert to Nassau, and that he thought "some step should be adopted to remind him [the commander] that he is infringing on the laws of hospitality." Hereported this to Richmond and added, "I have reason to know that these arguments have not been without their effect, inasmuch as the matter was incidentally discussed at a meeting of the Council the other day; and I really believe that in the course of a week or two some action will be taken to impress the captain of the enemy's vessel with the conviction that his absence will be preferable to his company." "We have succeeded," he continued, "in obtaining a very important modification of the existing laws, viz: the privilege of [227] breaking bulk and transshipment." That modification was all that the insurgents wanted. That privilege converted the port of Nassau mto an insurgent port, which could not be blockaded by the naval forces of the United States. Further stay of the United States vessels of war was therefore useless. The United States ask the Tribunal to find that this act, being a permission from the British authorities at Nassau, enabling a vessel chartered by the insurgents, and freighted with articles contraband of war, to diverge from its voyage, and to transship its cargo in a British port, when not made necessary by distress, was a violation of the duties of a neutral. On the 27th of January, 1862, Maffitt, an officer in the service of the insurgents, (the same who afterward commanded the Florida,) was sent to take command of the Gladiator as an insurgent vessel, (although under British colors,) and on the 30th of January, 1862, a portion of the 1 Benjamin to Helm, Vol. VI, page 43. 2 Helm to Heyliger, 20th December, 1861, Vol. VI, page 51. 4 Adams to Seward, Vol. I, page 769. 6 Whiting to Seward, 10th December, 1861, Vol. VI, page 44. Gladiator's valuable cargo was transshipped to the "Kate," a small steamer sailing under British colors, and eventually all went in the same way. In the dispatch announcing the transfer to the "Kate," Heyliger said: "You may readily imagine how intensely disgusted the Yankees are at this partiality, as they style it. It is called another flagrant violation of neutral rights. My relations with *the authorities here are of the most friendly character. I receive [228] many marked attentions, which I value as going to show the increased cordiality of feeling toward the Confederate Government." ** The United States are not able to say what "effect" the colonial authorities of Nassau induced Heyliger to think would come from his "arguments." They point out, however, to the Tribunal of Arbitration the fact, that in about one month after that time, viz, on the 31st day of January, 1862, Earl Russell informed the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that " during the continuance of the present hostilities no ship of war or privateer belonging to either of the belligerents shall be permitted to enter or remain in the port of Nassau, or in any other port, roadstead, or waters of the Bahama Islands, except by special leave of the Lieutenant Governor of the Bahama Islands, or in case of stress of weather." An order more unfriendly to the United States, more directly in the interest of the insurgents, could not have been made, even if founded upon Heyliger's friendly intimations to the Colonial Authorities. Under the construction practically put upon it, the vessels of war of the United States were excluded from this harbor for any *purpose, [229] while it was open for free ingress and egress to vessels of the insurgents, purchased, or built, and owned by the authorities at Richmond, bringing their cotton to be transshipped in British bottoms to Fraser, Trenholm & Co., in Liverpool, and taking on board the cargoes of arms and munitions of war which had been dispatched thither from Liverpool. The Tribunal of Arbitration will not fail to observe that this was no British commerce which had existed before the war, and which the neutral might claim the right to continue. It was to a large extent the commerce of the authorities at Richmond-carried on in their own vessels, and for their own benefit-and consisted of the export of cotton from the South on account of the so-called Government, and the return of arms, munitions of war, and quartermaster stores from Great Britain, for the purpose of destroying the United States-a nation with which Great Britain was at peace. The United States confidently insist that Great Britain, by shielding and encouraging such a commerce, violated its duties as a neutral toward the United States. The United States denied permission to It is a most unpleasant duty of the United States to call the attention of the Tribunal of Arbitration to the fact that, at the deposit coal at Nas. Very time of this affair of the Gladiator, another matter was going on in the same port, which furnished [230] a commentary on the ideas of neutrality entertained by the Colonial Authorities. The day after the arrival of that vessel, the United States Consul at Nassau wrote to his Government thus: "The coal which is being landed here for Government has caused great excitement among the Nassau masses, and a deputation visited Governor Nesbitt yesterday to remon strate against its being landed." The remonstrances were successful. Heyliger to Benjamin, 30th January, 1862, Vol. VI, page 48. 2 Vol. VI, page 175. 3 Whiting to Seward, Vol. VI, page 44; Vol. I, page 696. On the same day the Colonial Secretary wrote to the Consul that the coal could be admitted only "on the express condition and understanding that such coal should not afterward be reshipped or otherwise used in any manner which may, in the opinion of the law authorities of the Colony, involve a breach of Her Majesty's Proclamation of the 13th of May last, and particularly that such coal shall not be used for the purpose of coaling, or affording facilities for coaling, at this port, the vessels of war of the United States Navy, during the continuance of the hostilities." 1 The sincerity of the desire of the Colonial Authorities to obey Her Majesty's Proclamation may be estimated from the following facts: [231] 1. That that Proclamation inhibited Her Majesty's subjects from "breaking, or endeavoring to break, any blockade lawfully or actually established by or on behalf of either of the said contending parties;" yet the Colonial Authorities finding that the Gladiator, which had been chartered to break a blockade established by the United States, would probably be intercepted by the vessels of the United States, permitted the cargo to be transshipped into smaller steamers, with the avowed purpose of breaking that blockade; 2. That Her Maj esty's Proclamation also inhibited British subjects from " carrying military stores or materials, or any article or articles considered and deemed to be contraband of war, according to the law or modern usage of nations, for the use or service of either of the said contending parties;" yet the Colonial Authorities welcomed the Gladiator, sailing under the British flag with contraband of war in violation of the Proclamation, and permitted her to shift her illegal cargo into other vessels, in like manner using the British flag for the purpose of transporting it to and on account of a belligerent. 3. That Her Majesty's Proclamation made no mention of coal, and that coal is not regarded by Her Majesty's Government as an article necessarily contraband of war;3 yet the [232] Government of the *United States was forbidden by the same authorities, in the same week, to deposit its coal at Nassau, ex cept upon the condition that it would not use it. The United States have no reason to suppose that either of these partial decisions met with the disapproval of Her Majesty's Govern ment. On the contrary, Earl Russell, on the Sth of January, 1862, in reply to a complaint from Mr. Adams that the port of Nassau Complaints to Earl was used as a depot of supplies by the insurgents, officially Russell and his reply. informed that gentleman that he had received a report from the receiver general of the port of Nassau stating that no warlike stores have been received at that port, either from Great Britain or elsewhere, and that no munitions of war have been shipped from thence to the Confederate States.”4 The United States with confidence assert, in view of what has been already shown, that, had Earl Russell seriously inquired into the complaints of Mr. Adams, a state of facts would have been disclosed entirely at variance with this report-one which should have impelled Her Majesty's Government to suppress what was going on at Nassau. The foregoing facts were all within the reach of Her Majesty's Government, although at that time not within the reach of the [233] Government of the United States. The failure to discover them, after Mr. Adams had called attention to them, was a neglect of the diligence in the preservation of its neutrality, which was "due," Thompson to Whiting, Vol. VI, page 45. 2 Vol. I, page 44. 3 Lord Granville to Count Bernstorff, 15th September, 1870. |