Mr. Marsh to Mr. Seward.
Sir: At a very early hour yesterday morning I received a telegram from Mr. Perry, of the American legation at Madrid, announcing the arrival of [Page 578] the privateer Sumter at Cadiz, with a number of prisoners taken from American ships captured and destroyed at sea by that vessel.
I immediately communicated the fact, by telegraph, to the legation at Constantinople, to the consulate at Trieste, and to the consuls at all the principal ports in the kingdom of Italy, and addressed to the minister of foreign affairs a communication on the subject, a copy of which will be sent with my next despatch. I learn by late intelligence that, in spite of the protestations of the American consul at Cadiz, the Sumter was admitted into that port. I presume she will be allowed to coal and refit, and otherwise prepare herself for depredations on American shipping in the Mediterranean, and I fear the British authorities at Malta and Corfu, as well as the Greek government, will prove equally indulgent. There is, I imagine, no danger that the Italian government will allow any countenance to be given to confederate cruisers by its local authorities at present, but the fact cannot be disguised that the almost universal disapproval by European jurists of the seizure of the rebel commissioners on board the Trent, and the treatment of the subject by the American government, so far as it is yet known, combined with the malignant misrepresentations of the English press, and the impression produced by the insidious efforts of the British government to create a belief that the United States are seeking a quarrel with England, and, above all, the alleged want of evidence that the federal government intends or desires to take advantage of the present crisis for putting the question of the perpetuation and extension of domestic slavery on a more satisfactory footing. All these considerations are doing much to alienate from us the confidence and good will of that portion of European society whose favorable opinion has been always regarded as both in itself of most worth and practically of greatest value.
In no part of the continent was the sympathy with the government of the Union at the commencement of the rebellion so strong or so universal as in Italy. Although that sympathy is greatly weakened, it is not yet lost, and I trust that events are near at hand which will restore it to its original strength and confirm this government in its disposition to show no favor to our rebellious citizens. The alarm of piracy excited some weeks since by the suspicious conduct of an American schooner off the southern coast of Italy created a great panic among our navigators, but, injurious as it was for the time, it may perhaps have been of service by preparing American shipmasters for the real danger which now threatens them. Many American ships have been sold to Italian subjects, and some are engaged in freighting on European account between Mediterranean and Atlantic ports. So far these vessels are safe, but our own proper commerce in this sea must suffer severely. The Sumter, and the other pirates which will follow her from America or be fitted out here by her officers, will be openly or secretly aided by the citizens of every state which has possessions bordering on the Mediterranean, except, I trust, Italy and France; and the many American ships now navigating this sea must either rot in harbor or expose themselves to imminent risk of capture, unless one or more armed vessels of sufficient speed and force to cope with the Sumter be sent out for their protection. This, I suppose, the necessities of the home service will render difficult, if not impracticable; but I doubt not that the wisdom of the government will devise a proper remedy as soon as the means for its application are at hand.
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I have the honor to be, sir your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.