subject and liable to impressment in the royal navy. In more than six thousand cases, men claiming to be Americans had been taken from American vessels on this ground, in precisely the same way that the rebel emissaries had been taken from the British mail steamer; and the war, which abated the exercise of this power, did not suffice to silence the pretension of right to its exercise. Although the language of English jurists, and of American authorities founded thereon, sustains the doctrine that an ambassador may be captured and the vessel that carries him may be condemned, yet the early and constant predilections of Americans for neutral rights, had led our administrations in a long course of diplomatic negotiation, to urge the adoption of a more liberal rule, which should exempt from such seizure persons of every description, officers and soldiers in the military service of the enemy alone excepted; and by provisions in our treaties with every nation which would accede to such a rule, the United States had done all in their power to introduce this modification of what may be deemed the general law of nations.* Great Britain, however, had never acceded to this rule.

The English demand was received and answered about Christmas.

In reply to it the Secretary of State explained that Captain Wilkes acted, in making the capture, upon his own suggestions of duty, and that the Administration had given instructions neither to him nor to anybody else, to seize the commissioners. Inasmuch, however, as during this insurrection Great Britain had declared herself to be a neutral, and the prisoners were emissaries presumed to bear dispatches, our Government deemed them and their dispatches to be by the general law of nations contraband, and justified Captain Wilkes in stopping the Trent and searching her, both in the act and in the manner of the act. Our Government, however, conceded that the capture of the emissaries was not effected in the manner recognized by the law of nations.

Contraband property, the Secretary reasoned, is not to be declared so by the mere fiat of the captor. By the law of nations he must bring his prize into a port and give to the captive the benefit of a judicial trial; where the facts giving the right to capture must be established, before the captor can enjoy its fruits. It is true that the courts have no process adapted to try the right to seize prisoners. But, in such case, there ought, if practicable, to be, at least, the same safeguards as in a case where only property is at stake. These can be secured by requiring the captor to institute a trial, in respect of the vessel, on the ground that by carrying the prisoners she was guilty; and if the vessel be regularly forfeited in this way, a legal certainty that the prisoners were contraband, is clearly, though circuitously, attained. The Government, therefore, ought not to detain these prisoners, if, under the circumstances, it would have been practicable to bring the Trent back as a prize, so as to have her case judi

*The history of the American doctrine on this subject is well told by Mr. Sumner of Massachusetts, in his speech on Maritime Rights, delivered in the Senate on the 9th of January, 1862. The treaties into which the United States have procured the incorporation of this doctrine are there enumerated, and the broadest doctrines of the liberties of neutral commerce vindicated with a masterly hand.

cially determined. Since it was not wholly on the ground of impracticability, but in part to avoid what he deemed an unnecessary inconvenience to innocent passengers, that the captor omitted this step, our Government were led frankly to concede that, though approving his motive and ratifying his act, they still could not consistently detain the prisoners, since without the presence of the Trent on which to found a suit, there was no legal process by which to give the question of the legality of the capture a trial. Our Government as well as the captain were satisfied of the legality of the seizure, but there ought to be more than a conviction on the part of those interested in the act; there ought to be an adjudication, in a trial, where the defense could be represented; and this was now out of the question.

The Secretary closed his clear and frank discussion of the case with reverting to the fact that these principles of neutral rights, had always been strongly asserted by ourselves, and that we cheerfully should adopt them, even against our own impulse, and not seek for English precedents for a less liberal course, but rather accept, from the present generation of England, this practical disavowal of belligerent claims which vious generations, with peculiar interests and passions, had insisted on.

pre

In accordance with these views the British Government were informed that the prisoners would be given up to them, and accordingly a short time afterwards they were transferred, in an American tug-boat, from Fort Warren to a British vessel, which came for the purpose to Provincetown, and at last they reached England, where, however, they were not officially received. Their arrival elicited no marks of popular approval, but not a few contemptuous comments from the very organs of popular opinion which had most warmly appealed for their rescue.

The result of the discussion was accepted by the British Government, but they refused to accede to the grounds on which the surrender was accorded. Hence, though it can hardly be said that the discussion resulted in finally adding anything to the recognized principles of international law, yet it afforded, perhaps, the most signal proof our nation has ever given of her attachment to the interests of peace, and her favor towards the principles which neutral nations may claim against the pretensions of nations who are waging war; and it gives new courage to a hope for the coming of the time when Peace shall be the acknowledged mistress of the seas—a time auspicious of her ultimate, universal sway.

CHAPTER XIII.

ROANOKE AND NEWBERN.

FLEET OF COм. GOLDSBOROUGH AND ARMY OF GEN. BURNSIDE. SAILING FROM HAMPTON ROADS. STORM AT HATTERAS. PERILS OF THE CREW OF THE NEW YORK.-EFFECTS OF THE STORM.-A STRIKE FOR FREEDOM.-POSITION AND Defenses of ROANOKE.-RECONNOISSANCECONTEST COMMENCED BY THE FLEET. — DISEMBARKATION OF TROOPS. MARCH UP THE ISLAND.-CHARGE OF THE ZOUAVES.-VIGOR OF GENERALS RENO AND FOSTER.-ROANOKE SURRENDERS.-INCIDENTS.-O. JENNINGS WISE.-ELIZABETH CITY.-EDENTON.-PLYMOUTH.CHARGES UPON BATTERIES NEAR NEWBERN.-ARRIVAL AT NEWBERN.-ANECDOTE.

On the 11th of January, 1862, a strange and heterogeneous assemblage of vessels filled Hampton Roads. Gen. Burnside had been ordered to fit out an expedition to proceed against a certain point on the Southern coast-but where that point was it was reserved for time and events to announce. Accordingly, by dint of unwearied exertion, Gen. Burnside had collected this mass of one hundred and twenty-five water-craft. Utterly regardless of the appearance of his fleet, and with a single eye to utility, he drew upon all the resources of the steam merchant service from the Kennebec to the Chesapeake.*

There were ferry-boats changed into gun-boats; old lake-boats into transports; and not a few river boats appeared, with extemporized portholes, through which frowned a cannon's mouth. One queer craft, from the Kennebec, was particularly noticeable, and was the subject of many jokes from the seamen. This boat, the "Union," was a stern-wheeled vessel, floating very light upon the water, and apparently suffering from old age and ill usage. This "wheelbarrow" made the trip, from the Ken

* Ambrose Everett Burnside, of Scottish ancestry, was born at Liberty, Indiana, May, 1824. At eighteen years of age he entered West Point, and graduated, with distinction, in the Artillery, in 1847. He immediately entered upon the Mexican campaign, as 2d lieutenant. He was placed in such a position, guarding the trains, that he had no opportunity to signalize himself here. He was afterwards engaged on the frontier in the wild adventures of Indian warfare. Subsequently he commenced a manufactory of fire-arms at Bristol, R. I. At length he became Treasurer of the Illnois Central Railroad, and took up his residence in New York. He was in this situation at the opening of the rebellion, when Gov. Sprague, knowing well his merits, invited him to take command of a regiment. In half an hour after receiving the dispatch he was on his way to Rhode Island, and four days after passed through New York at the head of the Rhode Island Volunteers, for the defense of Washington. He was at the battle of Bull Run, where he displayed extraordi nary energy, courage and military ability, acting as Brigadier-General in Hunter's division. He is an intimate acquaintance and very warm friend of Gen. McClellan. It has been said of him, "He is, in personal appearance, one of the finest looking men to be seen in the service. His counte nance is an exponent of his character. Frank, brave, guileless and open-hearted, he is distinguished for every manly quality and every soldierly characteristic."

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