INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

THE greater part of the contents of this division of the work is de rived from the separate volume, which appeared in 1848, under the title of the "Diplomatic and Official Papers" of Mr. Webster. Such official letters as have been published since Mr. Webster returned to the Department of State in 1850 have been added in this collection. Among these is the letter to the Chevalier Hülsemann, of the 21st of December, 1850. The volume published in 1848 contained, besides the letters of Mr. Webster, numerous letters from the American Minister in London, from the Commissioners of Massachusetts and Maine relative to the northeastern boundary, from the British Minister, and from General Cass. Of these such only have been retained in the present work as seemed necessary to the full understanding of Mr. Webster's letters, and the subjects treated in them.

21 *

THE CASE OF ALEXANDER MCLEOD.*

Mr. Fox to Mr. Webster.

Washington, March 12, 1841. THE undersigned, her Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, is instructed by his government to make the following official communication to the gov ernment of the United States.

Her Majesty's government have had under their consideration the correspondence which took place in Washington in December last, between the United States Secretary of State, Mr. Forsyth, and the undersigned, comprising two official letters from Mr. Forsyth to the undersigned, dated the 26th and 30th of the same month, upon the subject of the arrest and imprisonment of Mr. Alexander McLeod, of Upper Canada, by the authorities of the State of New York, upon a pretended charge of arson and murder, as having been engaged in the capture and destruction of the steamboat "Caroline," on the 29th of December, 1837.

The undersigned is directed, in the first place, to make known to the government of the United States that her Majesty's gov ernment entirely approve of the course pursued by the undersigned in that correspondence, and of the language adopted by him in the official letters above mentioned.

And the undersigned is now instructed again to demand from the government of the United States, formally, in the name of the British government, the immediate release of Mr. Alexander McLeod.

The history of this case will be found in the fifth volume of this collection, in Mr. Webster's speech of the 6th and 7th of April, 1846, in vindication of the treaty of Washington.

The grounds upon which the British government make this demand upon the government of the United States are these: that the transaction on account of which Mr. McLeod has been arrested, and is to be put upon his trial, was a transaction of a public character, planned and executed by persons duly empowered by her Majesty's colonial authorities to take any steps and to do any acts which might be necessary for the defence of her Majesty's territories and for the protection of her Majesty's subjects; and that, consequently, those subjects of her Majesty who engaged in that transaction were performing an act of public duty, for which they cannot be made personally and individually answerable to the laws and tribunals of any foreign country.

The transaction in question may have been, as her Majesty's government are of opinion that it was, a justifiable employment of force for the purpose of defending the British territory from the unprovoked attack of a band of British rebels and American pirates, who, having been permitted to arm and organize themselves within the territory of the United States, had actually invaded and occupied a portion of the territory of her Majesty; or it may have been, as alleged by Mr. Forsyth, in his note to the undersigned of the 26th of December, "a most unjustifiable invasion, in time of peace, of the territory of the United States." But this is a question especially of a political and international kind, which can be discussed and settled only between the two governments, and which the courts of justice of the State of New York cannot by possibility have any means of judging or any right of deciding.

It would be contrary to the universal practice of civilized nations to fix individual responsibility upon persons who, with the sanction or by the orders of the constituted authorities of a State, engaged in military or naval enterprises in their country's cause; and it is obvious that the introduction of such a principle would aggravate beyond measure the miseries, and would frightfully increase the demoralizing effects of war, by mixing up with national exasperation the ferocity of personal passions, and the cruelty and bitterness of individual revenge.

Her Majesty's government cannot believe that the government of the United States can really intend to set an example so fraught with evil to the community of nations, and the direct