CAMP PIERPONT, VA., December
9, 1861.
Most persons here pooh-pooh the news from England, but I
think it very serious, as it confirms my apprehension that England would feel herself
compelled to intervene in our domestic troubles, and would seize the first
plausible pretext for doing so. There is no earthly doubt but that we were
justified by the laws of nations in arresting Mason and Slidell. It is,
however, a question whether it was done in the right mode, and whether Wilkes
ought not to have captured the vessel and carried it into port, where an
admiralty judge could have settled the legal points involved, and have ordered
the release of the prisoners, in case their arrest was contrary to national
law. This I understand is the point England now makes, viz.: that no naval
officer is empowered to decide on the spot questions of international law — which
can only be settled by admiralty courts.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 234-5
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