Karl Marx

[“Die Presse”, No. 332, 4 December 1862]

London, 29 November 1862

The negotiations between the Cabinet here and the government at Washington concerning the corsair
“Alabama”
are still pending, while fresh negotiations have already begun over the renewed fitting out of Confederate warships in English ports. Professor
Francis W. Newman,
one of the theoretical representatives of English radicalism, publishes a letter in today’s “Morning Star”, in which he says, among other things:

“After the American consul at Liverpool had assured himself, through an English lawyer, of the illegality of the ‘Alabama’, he sent a formal denunciation to Lord John Russell. The Crown lawyers were consulted upon it and likewise declared the fitting out of the ‘Alabama’ to be illegal; but the investigation was dragged out until the pirate found an opportunity to slip away. At this very moment a fleet of more or less ironclad ships lies fully ready in Liverpool, prepared to break the American blockade by force. Besides, a swarm of piratical vessels is poised to follow the ‘Alabama’ in its infamous career. Will our government shut its eyes a second time and give the successors of the ‘Alabama’ a free pass? I fear it. Mr.
Gladstone,
in his speech at Newcastle, said he had been informed that the rebel President, whose panegyrist he acted,
would soon possess a fleet.
Was this an allusion to the fleet his Liverpool friends have built? ... Lord Palmerston and Russell are, like the Tories, animated by a hatred of republicanism which breaks through all considerations and scruples, while Mr. Gladstone, perhaps the prime minister of the future, openly declares himself the admirer of the perjured usurpers who have conspired to perpetuate and propagate slavery.”

Among the American papers that arrived today, the organ of the Confederates, the “Richmond Examiner”, is perhaps the most interesting. It carries a detailed article on the situation, the most important points of which I summarise in the following extract:

“The extraordinary and sudden increase in the enemy’s naval power threatens with gloomy prospects. This weapon has attained such dimensions that in many respects it appears more dangerous to us than the enemy’s land power. The Yankees now command upwards of 200 warships more than at the outbreak of the war. Great preparations have been made for naval operations during the coming winter, and besides the ships already in service, about 50 ironclad warships are still under construction. We have every reason to believe that the Yankee fleet which will descend upon our coast this winter far surpasses its predecessors in the armament and construction of the vessels. The purposes of the impending expeditions are of the highest importance. What is at stake is the capture of our last seaports, the completion of the blockade, and finally the opening of points of invasion in southern districts, in order there, with the beginning of the new year, to carry the Emancipation Act into practical effect. It would be foolish to deny the advantages that must accrue to our enemy from the capture of our last seaports, or to dismiss such a misfortune lightly with the consolation that we can still defeat the enemy by warfare in the interior ... With Charleston, Savannah and Mobile in the enemy’s hands, the blockade would be enforced with a strictness of which even our sufferings to date could give no inkling. We would have to abandon every thought of building a fleet on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, and once more submit to the humiliation of handing over our ship constructions to the enemy or destroying them ourselves. Our great system of railway connections in the cotton states would be more or less broken up, and we might learn too late the lesson that the land war, on which such great hopes are built, would have to be carried on under circumstances which forbade the maintenance, provisioning and concentration of large armies ... These disastrous results of a capture of our seaports, however, vanish before a greater danger, the greatest danger of this war – the occupation of points in the cotton states from which the enemy can carry out his emancipation plan. Great exertions are naturally being made to secure this favourite measure of the abolitionists against miscarriage, so that the spirit of vengeance which Mr. Lincoln has bottled up until 1 January may not fizzle away in harmless soda-water fizz ... The attempt will now be made on our most defenceless side; the heart of the South is to be poisoned ... Prophecies of future misfortune sound ill in the ears of the masses, who blindly believe the government and mistake boastfulness for patriotism ... We do not assert that
Charleston, Savannah
and
Mobile
are not in a defensible condition. Of course there is a whole host of military authorities in the South, according to whom those ports are more impregnable than Gibraltar; but military men and their mouthpieces have too often lulled our people into false security ...

We heard

the same phrases with reference to New Orleans. According to the description, its defence works surpassed those of Tyre against Alexander. Nevertheless the people awoke one fine morning to see the enemy flag flying from its harbour ... The state of defence of our ports is a secret of official circles. But the signposts of the recent past are not comforting. A few weeks ago
Galveston
fell into the enemy’s hands almost without a struggle. The local newspapers had been forbidden to write about the means of defence of the town. And no cry for help, moreover, was raised that reached the deaf ear of the government. The people were not agitated. Their patriotism was entreated to remain ignorant, to trust the leaders and to submit to the decrees of Providence. In this way another prize fell into the enemy’s lap ... The method of shrouding all military affairs in the cloak of secrecy has borne bad fruit for the South. It may have silenced criticism and veiled the errors of the government. But it has not blinded the enemy. He always appears to be precisely informed about the state of our defence works, while our people only learn of their weakness when they have fallen into the hands of the Yankees.”