CAPTAIN WILKES ON THE TRENT AFFAIR.

Colonist, Volume V, Issue 468, 18 April 1862, Page 3

CAPTAIN WILKES ON THE TRENT AFFAIR.

Captain Wilkes, ofthe San Jacinto, has made the following report to the Secretary of tho Navy respecting the Trent affair : —

United States stetuner San Jacinto, at Sea, Nov. 1G

Sin—-In my despatch by Commander Taylor I confined myself to the reports ofthe movements of this ship aiid the facts connected with the capture of -Messrs. Mason, Slideli, Eustis, and M'Farland, as 1 intended to write you particularly relative to the reasons which induced my action in making these prisoners.

When I heard at Cienfuegos, on the south side of Cuba, of these commissioners having landed on the island of Cuba, and thafc they were at Havannah, and would depart in tho English steamer of tho 7th November, I determined to intercept them, aud carefully examined all tlie authorities on international law to which I had access—viz., Kent, Whe<iton, Vattel, besides various decisions of Sir William Scott and other judges of tho Admiralty Court of Great Britain, which bore upon the rights of neutrals and their responsibilities. Tho Governments of Great Britain, France, and Spain having issued proclamations that the Confederate States were viewed, considered, and treated as belligerents, and knowing that the ports of Great Britain, France, aud Spain, and Holland, in the West Indies, were open to their vessels, and that they were admitted to all the courtesies and protection vessels of the United States received, every aid and attention being given them, proved clearly that they acted upon this view and decision, and brought them within the international law of search, and under tho responsibilities. I, therefore, felt no hesitation in searching and boarding all vessels of whatever nation I fell in with, and have done so.

The question arose in my mind whether I had the right to capture the persons of these commissioners—whether they were amenable to capture. There was no doubt I had the right to capture vessels with written despatches; they are expressly referred to in all authorities, subjecting the vessel to seizure aud condemnation if the captain of the vessel had the knowledge of their being on board : but these gentlemen were not despatches in the literal sense, and did not come under that designation, and nowhere could I find a case in point. That they were commissioners I Irad ample proof of their own avowal, and bent on mischievous and traitorous errands against our country—to overthrow its institutions and enter into treaties and alliances with foreign States, expressly forbidded by the Constitution. They had been presented to the Captain-General of Cuba by her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General, but the Captain-General told me he had not received them in that capacity, but as distinguished gentlemen and strangers. I then considered them as the embodiment of despatches, and as they had openly declared themselves as charged with all authority from the Confederate Government to form treaties and alliances tending to the establishment of their independence, I became satisfied that their mission was adverse and criminal to the Union, and it therefore became my duty to arrest their progress and capture them if they had no passports or papers from the Fefleral Government, as provided for under the law of nations, viz.—•' That foreign ministers of a belligerent on board of neutral ships are required to possess papers from the other belligerent to permit them to pass free.' Report and assumption gave them the title of Ministers to France and England • but inasmuch as they had not been received by either of these powers, I did not conceive they had immunity attached to their persons, and were but escaped conspirators plotting and contriving to overthrow the Government of the United States, and they were therefore not to be considered as having any claim to the immunities attached to the character they thought fit to assume.

As respects the steamer in which they embarked, I ascertained in the Havannah that she was a merchant vessel plying between Vera Cruz, the Havannah, and St. Thomas, carrying the mail by contract. The agent ofthe vessel, the son of the British consul at Havannah, was well aware of the character of these persons, that they engaged their passage and did embark in the vessel; his father had visited them, and introduced them as Ministers of the Confederate States, on their way to England and France. They went in the steamer with the knowledge and consent of the captain, who endeavored afterwards to conceal them by refusing to exhibit the passenger list and tho papers of the vessel. There can be no doubt he knew they wero carrying highly important despatches, and were endowed witli instructions inimical to the United States. This rendered his vessel, a neutral, a good prize ; and I determined to take possession of her, and, as I mentioned in my report, send her to Key West for adjudication, whero I am well satisfied she would have been condemned for carrying these persons and for resisting to be searched ; the cargo was also liable, as all the shippers were knowing to the embarkation of these live despatches and their traitorous motives and actions to tho Union of the United States. I forbore to seize her, however, in consequence of my being so reduced in officers and crew and llie derangement it would cause innocent persons, there being a large number of passengers who would have been put to great loss and inconvenience as well as disappointment from the interruption it would have caused them in not being able to join tho steamer from St. Thomas for Europe. 1 therefore concluded to sacrifice the interests of my officers and crew in the prize, and suffered the steamer to depart after the necessary detention to effect the transfer of the commissioners, considering I had obtained the important end I had in view, and which affected the interests of our country aud interrupted the action of that of the Confederates.

I would add that the conduct of her Britannic Majesty's subjects, both official and others, showed hut little regard or obedience to her proclamation, by aiding and abetting the views and endeavoring to conceal the persons ofthe commissioners.

1 have pointed out sufficient reasons to show you that my action in this case was derived from a firm conviction that it became my duty to make thfse parties prisoners, and to bring them to the United States.

Although in my giving up this valuable prize I have deprived the officers and crew of a well-earned reward, I aw assured they are quite

content to forgo any nd vantages wliich might have accrued to tl.em under the circumstances. I may add that, having assumed the responsibility, I am willing to abide the result.—l am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Cn miles Wilkes, Captain. Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary ofthe Navy.