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DECATUR, a village in Morgan co., Alabama, is on the left bank of the Tennessee river, and thirty miles west of southwest of Huntsville. It is one hundred and twenty-two miles from Nashville in Tennessee, and is the termination of a railroad from Nashville to Decatur, which crossed the Tennessee river by a long bridge. This bridge was burnt by a Federal force of the division of Gen. Mitchell to prevent the pursuit of a Confederate force. The Memphis and Charleston railroad passes through Decatur, which is 188 miles from the former point. Steamboats of light draft descend the Tennessee from this point into the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

DELAWARE, one of the Middle Atlantic States, first settled in 1627. Its area is less than that of any other State of the Union except Rhode Island, being 2,120 square miles. Its population in 1860 was 112,216. The governor elected in Nov. 1862, for four years from Jan. 1863, was William Cannon of Bridgeville; the Secretary of State appointed by the governor elect and holding office for the same time, was Nathaniel B. Smithers, of Dover. At the election on the 2d Tuesday of November, 1862, the Republican Union candidate for Governor, Cannon, received 8,155, while Samuel J. Jefferson, the democratic candidate, received but 8,044. For Congress, William Temple, the democratic candidate, had 8,051 votes, and was elected; the Republican Union candidate, George P. Fisher, having only 8,014. The Senate, composed of 9 members, has 5 democrats and 4 Republican Union members, and the House, which has 21 members, has 14 democrats to 7 Republican Union. The receipts into the State Treasury, for the year ending January 1, 1862 (the last published), were $97,810.50, and the expenditures for the same period were $76,414.04, of which $38,989.05 were for general purposes, and $37,428.99 for education. The State has no debt, but possesses a general fund of $771,750, and a school fund of $431,392. The census valuation of the State in 1860 was $46,242,181. The assessors' valuation in 1862, which omits all property exempt from taxation, was $41,521,498. The total taxes of the State were $121,121.36. There are 14 banks in the State, which in May, 1862, had an aggregate capital of $1,915,010, a circulation of about $1,000,000, and $250,000 in specie. Small as is the territory of the State, it has 137 miles of railroad, which cost for road and equipment $4,312,129; and one canal, the Chesapeake and Delaware, 12.63 miles in length, and having a width and depth sufficient for the passage of vessels drawing 9 ft. of water. The cost of construction of this canal was $3,547,561.

The State has two colleges, St. Mary's (Catholic) at Wilmington, and Delaware College (Protestant) at Newark. The preparatory depart

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ment only of the latter is now in operation. There are 296 public schools in the State. In 1861, 15,036 children attended the schools, which were maintained an average period of 6.97 months. The whole amount expended for school purposes was $85,333.03. Of this sum $33,359.49 was derived from the school fund and $53,485.08 was raised by contribution, and of this $37,731.80 (more than two thirds) was raised in New Castle county. The income of the general school fund is distributed to the counties, according to their population in 1880, and the income of the U. S. surplus fund equally to each county. By this arrangement New Castle county, which has 54,796 inhabitants, receives $12,807.36, and Sussex county, which has only 29,615 inhabitants, receives $12,011.22.

The constitution of the State provides that each county shall have an equal number of Senators and Representatives in its Legislature; a provision fair enough when the constitution was adopted, since at that time the counties varied little in population; but now manifestly unjust, since the population of New Castle county is very nearly double that of either of the other two counties.

According to the census report of 1860, there are in the State 90,589 white inhabitants, 19,827 free colored, and 1,798 slaves. Of the slaves 1,341 (three fourths) are in Sussex county, 254 in New Castle and 203 in Kent; of the free colored, 8,188 are in New Castle, 7,271 in Kent, and 4,370 in Sussex; of the whites, New Castle has 46,355, Sussex 23,904, and Kent 20,330. The aggregate manufactures of the State were $9,920,000, and consisted principally of shipping, flour and meal, steam engines and machinery, railroad cars, carriages, lumber, cotton and woollen goods, and boots and shoes. The war has greatly increased the productive industry of Wilmington, the principal city of Delaware, several of the iron clad and other gunboats having been built there, and the demand for locomotives and cars having been much greater than at any previous period. The cash value of the farms of the State was $31,426,357, which, taking into account the small amount of territory in the State, was as high as most of the other States. Great attention has been paid to fruit growing in the State, and its peach and apple orchards, supply a large part of the demand in the neighboring cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore. The wheat of Delaware has a high reputation, and the flour from its mills is in demand and brings high prices. The State raised its quotas for the vol unteer army under the calls of July and August, 1862, without a resort to drafting. In all about 5,000 men have been furnished by the State.

DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1862. The cor respondence of the Federal Governments with

foreign governments during 1862 was more voluminous than during the preceding year, and embraces some interesting and important subjects arising out of the unusual state of affairs. Great Britain.-As early as November, 1861, the action of the British Consul at Charleston, Mr. Bunch, became a subject of complaint by the Federal Government. This action consisted in communicating, under instructions from home, to the Confederate authorities the desire of her Majesty's Government that the second, third, and fourth articles of the declaration of Paris should be observed by the Confederate States in the prosecution of the hostilities in which they were engaged. The grounds alleged for complaint against this action of the Consul by the Federal Government were, that a statute of the United States forbids, under a heavy penalty, any person not specially appointed, or duly authorized or recognized by the President, whether citizen or denizen, privileged or unprivileged, from counselling or advising, aiding or assisting in any political correspondence with the Government of any foreign state whatever, with an intent to influence the measures of any foreign Government, or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of their Government. The conduct of Mr. Bunch was thus taken to be a wanton violation of the law of the United States, and its Government announced, as the result of the most calm and impartial deliberation, a necessity put upon it to revoke the exequatur of the Consul.

The reply of Earl Russell was, that the United States Government, by quoting this statute as the foundation on which to rest their complaint, seemed distinctly to admit that the Government of the Confederate States at Richmond was, as regards the United States, "the government of a foreign state”—an admission which goes further than any acknowledgment with regard to those states which her Majesty's Government had hitherto made. And if the Confederate States are, as regards the United States, a foreign state, which is implied by the grounds taken by the latter, then the President of the United States has no competence one way or the other, with respect to the functions of the Consuls of other Governments in that foreign state, and the exequaturs of such Consuls can be granted or withdrawn only by the government of such foreign state. The Confederate States cannot be at one and the same time "a foreign state," and part of the territory of the United States.

It had been further asserted by the United States Government that any communication to be addressed to the Government of the Confederate States respecting goods of a belligerent on board of neutral ships, &c., should have been made by diplomatic and not by consular agents, and the only authority in the United States to receive such a communication was the Government of the United States itself.

To this assertion Earl Russell replies, that it is gravely telling her Majesty's Government that an application to the Confederate Government for redress ought to be made through the President of the United States. Her Majesty's Government may well ask whether such a position is seriously laid down, and whether the President of the United States can affirm that, in the present condition of things, he has the power to give effect to any such application which might be made to him. Could the President of the United States restore a British subject impressed into the Confederate service, or could he recover private debts due a British subject and confiscated under a Confederate or State law? It is then declared by Earl Russell to be a principle of international law, that when the persons or property of the citizens or subjects of a state are injured by a de facto government, the state so aggrieved has a right to claim from the de facto government redress and reparation. It may be necessary in future, for the protection of the interests of her Majesty's subjects, to have further communications both with the central authority at Richmond, and with the governors of the separate states, and in such cases communications will continue to be made, but such communications will not imply any acknowledgment of the Confederates as an independent state.

Mr. Adams, in reply, expressed astonishment that he should have given any justification of the view of the statute taken by Earl Russell through ambiguity in his previous communications, and proceeded to explain that the statute was designed to punish all persons, whether native or foreign, citizen or privileged, who knowingly made themselves instruments of foreign states to foment factious disturbances within the United States. In applying the law in a mitigated form to Mr. Bunch, he could not have made so great a mistake as to have assumed that he was dealing with "the government of a foreign state."

Respecting the other position taken by him, namely, that the Government was the only authority to which any diplomatic communication could be made, he urged that otherwise every proceeding was an attempt to undermine the authority to which an agent had been accredited, by his recognizing for any purpose the validity of a domestic antagonism within the limits of that authority. Other arguments were advanced by Mr. Adams, but the subject appears to have then been dropped. More than a year afterward, when an attack on Charleston was about to be made, the British war steamer Cadmus entered that port and took away Mr. Bunch.

The next subject of discussion with her Majesty's Government arose from reports received by the Navy Department, that although the United States had a deposit of coal at Nassau, the Federal steamers were denied the right of taking it for use by the colonial authorities at that place. On the 24th of Feb., Mr. Adams

addressed a letter to Earl Russell stating the disbelief of the President that these proceedings had been sanctioned by her Majesty's Gov ernment, but if they had been, he requested such action in the proper quarter as might lead to a rectification of the error.

On the 25th of March, Earl Russell replied that coal had arrived at Nassau in the schooners Stetson and Perry, which could hardly be described as a deposit of coal existing at Nassau, although it was doubtless the coal referred to. On the arrival of the Stetson, the coal appeared by the vessel's papers to have been shipped by the Navy Department. The governor therefore gave directions that the coal should be admitted to an entry and landing, but that the United States Consul should be informed that it could not be permitted to be used in any manner which might involve a breach of the Queen's proclamation of the 13th of May, 1861, and particularly that the coaling at Nassau of vessels of war of either of the belligerent powers could not be allowed without the express sanction of her Majesty's Government having been first obtained. Meantime the Perry arrived, laden with coal. On the 11th of Dec. the U. S. war steamer Flambeau arrived, and on the next day the American Consul applied for permission to land the cargo of the Stetson, as she was leaking badly, or to discharge a part of it on board the Flambeau. Permission was given to him to land the coal, but not to tranship it to the Flambeau. The coal was not however landed. The Consul then complained that the Confederate vessel Theodora had been supplied with coal by a merchant, to which the governor, in reply, said, that the Theodora was a merchant vessel trading to the port at Nassau, and that being propelled by steam, it was necessary, to enable her to pursue her occupation as a trader, that she should be supplied with coal. The furnishing this necessary article, therefore, for her use by a merchant in the way of trade, was perfectly lawful, and could not be construed into a breach of neutrality. On the other hand, the Flambeau was avowedly an armed vessel in the service of the Federal Government. To supply her with coal might facilitate her belligerent operations, and this would constitute an infraction of the neutrality prescribed by the Queen's proclamation. The object of the authorities at Nassau was to preserve a strict neutrality, and her Majesty's Government could not therefore withhold from the governor the approval to which he was entitled for the course which he had pursued.

It was also pointed out that the cases of the James Adger and the Nashville at Southampton were not parallel cases. Those vessels were some thousands of miles distant from their respective homes, and to them, consequently, coal was an article of real necessity; whereas the Flambeau was within a very short distance of the ports of her own nation, Key West, for instance, where her necessities could

readily be supplied. The application of the United States Consul was not founded on the necessities of the Flambeau, but on the alleged necessities of the Stetson. The view taken of this decision is thus stated by Mr. Seward in a despatch to Mr. Adams, dated April 16: "The approval of the British Government of the proceedings of the governor of Nassau is regarded by the President as unfriendly toward a power that extends unrestricted hospitalities to the naval as well as the mercantile marine of Great Britain in its ports and harbors. The griev ance is not sensibly alleviated by the fact that the Government of her Majesty are able to reeoncile it with a proclamation issued by her Majesty in May last, conceding the rights of a belligerent to the insurgents in arms against the United States. The explanation obliges us to renew the declaration this Government has so often made, that it regards the proclamation itself as unnecessary, unfriendly, and injurious."

The next subject of interest related to the preparation of the steam gunboat Oreto, which has subsequently appeared as a cruiser of the Confederate navy. On the 18th of February, Mr. Adams writes to Earl Russell that he had been informed of the preparation at Liverpool of an armed steamer, evidently intended for hostile operations on the ocean. In reply, Earl Russell stated that the commissioners of the customs at Liverpool reported that she was built for certain parties in Liverpool, and intended for the use of Thomas, Brothers, of Palermo, one of whom had frequently visited the vessel during the process of building-that she had taken nothing on board but coal and ballast--that she was not fitted for the reception of guns; nor were the builders aware that she was to be supplied with guns whilst she remained in England, and the collector at Liverpool stated that he had every reason to believe that the vessel was for the Italian Governmentalso that special directions had been given to the officers at Liverpool to watch the movements of the vessel. Mr. Adams subsequently writes to Mr. Seward-"the nominal destination of the Oreto to Sicily is the only advantage which appears to have been derived from my attempt to procure the interference of the Government to stop her departure."

On the 25th of March, Mr. Adams writes again to Earl Russell, enclosing a letter from the American Consul at Liverpool, stating certain facts relative to the Oreto. Mr. Adams says: "It is with great reluctance that I am driven to the conviction that the representations made to your lordship of the purposes and des tination of that vessel were delusive, and that though at first it may have been intended for service in Sicily, yet that such an intention has been long since abandoned in fact, and the pretence has been held up only the better to con ceal the true object of the parties engaged. That object is to make war on the United States. All the persons thus far known to be most connected with the undertaking are either

directly employed by the insurgents in the United States of America, or residents of Great Britain, notoriously in sympathy with, and giving aid and comfort to them on this side of the water."

On the 8th of April, Earl Russell replied to Mr. Adams, enclosing a report from the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's treasury, which states that the Oreto was registered on the 3d of March in the name of John Henry Thomas, of Liverpool, as sole owner, that she cleared on the following day for Palermo and Jamaica in ballast, but did not sail until the 22d, having a crew of fifty-two men, all British with the exception of three or four, one of whom was an American. She had no gunpowder, nor even a signal gun, and no colors save Marryatt's code of signals and a British ensign, nor any goods on board excepting the stores enumerated in an accompanying copy of her victualling bill.

On the 15th of April, a conference took place between Mr. Adams and Earl Russell. Its close is thus stated by the former:

In the case of the Oreto, upon which I had addressed a note to him, he had directed an investigation to be made, and the authorities at Liverpool had reported that there was no ground for doubting the legality o her voyage.

I replied that this was exactly what gave such unpleasant impressions to us in America. The Oreto, by the very paper furnished from the custom-house, was shown to be laden with a hundred and seventy tons of arms, and to have persons called troops on board, destined for Palermo and Jamaica. The very statement of the case was enough to show what was really in

tended. The fact of her true destination was notorious

all over Liverpool. No commercial people were blind to it. And the course taken by her Majesty's officers in declaring ignorance only led to an inference most unfavorable to all idea of their neutrality in the struggle. It was just such action as this that was making the difficulties of our Government in the way of giving the facilities to the supply of cotton, which they hoped

to furnish in a short time if the whole control of means to put an end to the contest was left to them.

His lordship concluded by a polite expression of regret at these circumstances, at the same time that he could not see how the Government could change its position.

The assertion of Mr. Adams relative to troops &c. is not sustained by the copy of the paper from the custom house contained in this volume of documents. The only part referring to

; guns,

troops and guns is as follows:Men, 52; passengers or troops, -; 178 tons." Again, on the 26th of June, Mr. Seward writes to Mr. Adams that a gunboat called the Oreto, built in England for the service of the insurgents, with ports and bolts for twenty guns, and other equipments, arrived at Nassau; and that the United States Consul, on the basis of the facts relative to her, made a protest upon the subject and she was seized by the authorities. She was, however, released soon after, on the arrival at Nassau of Capt. Semmes, late of the Sumter, and was about to start on a privateering cruise. This release by the authorities of Nassau, Mr. Seward was instructed by the Pres

ident to protest against, as it seemed to be particularly at variance with her Majesty's proclamation of neutrality-and to ask the consideration of her Majesty's Government upon the proceeding as one calculated to alarm the Government and people of the United States. The subject was duly brought to the notice of Earl Russell, who, on the 29th of August, replied that the Oreto had been seized at Nassau, and was to be tried before the admiralty court for a breach of the foreign enlistment act. This was accompanied by the statements of the collector, surveyor and inspector of the port of Liverpool, and the affidavit of the pilot, that the vessel, when she went to sea, had no munitions of war in her, that is guns, carriages, shot, shell, or powder.

No further reference is made to the Oreto in this correspondence, but the 290, or Alabama, is introduced as a more formidable object. On the 23d of June, Mr. Adams writes to Earl Russell, saying:-"I am now under the painful necessity of apprising your lordship that a new and still more powerful war steamer is nearly ready for departure from the port of Liverpool on the same errand as the Oreto. This vessel has been built and launched from the dockyard of persons, one of whom is now sitting as a member of the House of Commons, and is fitting out for the especial and manifest object of carrying on hostilities by sea." Accompanying this was a letter from the United States Consul at Liverpool in confirmation of these and other statements.

The subject was immediately referred to the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's treasury, who, on the 1st of July, report that the fitting out of the vessel had not escaped the notice of the revenue officers, but that as yet nothing had transpired concerning her which had appeared to demand a special report. The vessel was intended for a ship of war, reported to be built for a foreign government, but as yet had neither guns nor carriages on board, and the builders did not appear disposed to reply to any questions respecting the destination of the vessel after she left Liverpool. Their solicitor, however, reported his opinion that there was not at that time sufficient ground to warrant the detention of the vessel, or any interference by the department. The Consul at Liverpool was then instructed by Mr. Adams to lay his evidence before the Commissioners. At the same time, he called Capt. Craven, in command of the U. S. gunboat Tuscarora, to Southampton. To Capt. Craven was given all the information respecting the objects and destination of the 290 in possession of Mr. Adams, who advised him to take such measures as might in his opinion be effective to intercept her on her way out.

Meanwhile evidence was procured of the character and objects of the vessel by the U. S. Consul at Liverpool, which, in the opinion of a Queen's solicitor, was sufficient to justify the collector of the port in seizing the vessel, and

laid before the commissioners. While the sub-
ject was under their consideration the 290
sailed from Liverpool, without register or clear-
ance. The captain of the Tuscarora was im-
mediately notified by Mr. Adams and he started
in pursuit. Earl Russell, in a conference with
Mr. Adams, stated that a delay in determining
upon the case had most unexpectedly been
caused by the sudden development of a malady
of the Queen's advocate, Sir John D. Harding,
totally incapacitating him for the transaction
of business. This had made it necessary to call
in other parties, whose opinion had been at
last given for the detention of the gunboat, but
before the order got down to Liverpool the
vessel was gone.
He should however send
directions to have her seized if she went, as was
probable, to Nassau. Instructions were also
despatched to Ireland to detain the vessel, if
she put in to Queenstown.

On the 30th of Sept. Mr. Adams wrote to Earl Russell, relating the injuries done by the 290 or Alabama, saying, "I have strong reasons to believe that still other enterprises of the same kind are in progress in the ports of Great Britain at this time. Indeed they have attained so much notoriety, as to be openly announced in the newspapers of Liverpool and London." Earl Russell, acknowledging the letter, in reply said: "I have to state to you that, much as her Majesty's Government desire to prevent such occurrences, they are unable to go beyond the law, municipal and international."

On the 9th of October Mr. Adams enclosed to Earl Russell the following intercepted letter, "as substantiating the allegations made of the infringement of the enlistment law by the insurgents of the United States in ports of

Great Britain." He also added: "In the

repre

sentations which I have had the honor lately to
make, I beg to remind your lordship that I
base them upon evidence which applies di-
rectly to infringements of municipal law itself,
and not to anything beyond it.”

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA,
NAVY DEPARTMENT, RICHMOND, July 12, 1862.

SIR: Your letter of the 29th of March last reached me this morning.

The department notified you, on the 11th of January last, that you would receive orders to command the second vessel then being built in England, but for reasons satisfactory to the department, you were subsequently assigned to the command of the first vessel, the Florida (Oreto), now at Nassau, and any just ground for "the surprise and astonishment" in this respect at the department's action is not perceived.

A commission as commander for the war was sent you on the 5th of May, and your failure to follow the Oreto, which left England about the 21st of March, and to take command of her, as was contemplated, and as you were apprised by Captain Bullock, on the 26th of March, is not understood, and has been productive of some embarrassment.

Captain Bullock was nominated by the executive for his position in the navy under existing law, and was duly confirmed by the Senate, and your protest to this department against the action of these coordinate branches of your government is out of place.

Upon the receipt of this letter you will turn over to Lieutenant G. F. Sinclair the instructions which you

.

may have received, together with any public funds in
your hands, and return to the Confederate States in
such manner as your judgment may direct.
Should you not be provided with funds for this par
pose, Commander Bullock will, upon your application,
supply them.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. H. MALLORY, Secretary of the Navy.
Commander JAS. H. NORTH,

C. S. N., London, England.

On the 16th of October Mr. Adams writes

home to Mr. Seward that, "It is very manifest that no disposition exists here to apply the powers of the Government to the investigation of the acts complained of, flagrant as they are, or to the prosecution of the offenders. The main object must now be to make a record which may be of use at some future day."

Among the papers laid before Earl Russell by Mr. Adams was an affidavit of a person who sailed from Liverpool in the 290, stating that arms were furnished to her in or near Augra Bay, part of the Azores. To which Earl Russell replies that the transaction does not appear to have taken place in any part of the United Kingdom, or of her Majesty's dominions, but in part of the Portuguese dominions. No offence, therefore, cognizable by the laws of the country, appears to have been committed by the parties engaged in the transaction. Respecting a statement in a letter of the American consul at Liverpool, that a bark was to take out a cargo of coals, either from Cardiff or Troon, near Greenock, for the 290, Earl Russell replies that "there would be great difficulty in ascertaining the intention of any parties making such a shipment; and we do not apprehend that our officers would have any power of interfering with it, were the coals cleared outward for some foreign port in compliance with the law." No further correspondence relative to the 290 and the Oreto took place. (See NAVY, CosFEDERATE.)

ments relating to these vessels were also extended to the subject of furnishing supplies to the Confederate States by means of vessels fitted out in English ports to run the blockade. On the 11th of March, Mr. Seward wrote to Mr. Adams that information had been received that insurance companies in England were insuring vessels engaged in running the blockade, and even vessels carrying contraband of war. This, he said, "was, in effect, a combination of British capitalists, under legal authority, to levy war against the United States. It is entirely inconsistent with the relations of friendship, which we, on our part, maintain toward Great Britain." Earl Russell, in reply to the representations of Mr. Adams, said:-"The matter shall have the due consideration of her Ma jesty's Government." On the 25th of March, Mr. Adams writes to Earl Russell as follows:

The discussions between the two Govern

It is obvious that just in proportion to the success of the efforts made by the ill-intentioned people of foreign countries to violate the blockade must be the endeavors to enforce it with increased stringency. So, also, in proportion to the success of such persons

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