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Alabama Claims
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The Alabama Claims were a series of claims for damages by the United States government against the government of the United Kingdom for the perceived covert assistance given to the Confederate cause during the American Civil War.
ng the American Civil War, Confederate commerce raiders (the most famous being the CSS Alabama) were built in Britain and did significant damage to the Union Navy and merchant marine.
British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, and Foreign Secretary Earl Russell had allowed the Alabama to put to sea from the shipyards of John Laird Sons and Company in Birkenhead despite the explicit objections of the American Legation in London, and charges from the American Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams that the ship was bound for the Confederacy.
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Encyclopedia
The Alabama Claims were a series of claims for damages by the United States government against the government of the United Kingdom for the perceived covert assistance given to the Confederate cause during the American Civil War.
The CSS Alabama
During the American Civil War, Confederate commerce raiders (the most famous being the CSS Alabama) were built in Britain and did significant damage to the Union Navy and merchant marine.
British political involvement
The British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, and Foreign Secretary Earl Russell had allowed the Alabama to put to sea from the shipyards of John Laird Sons and Company in Birkenhead despite the explicit objections of the American Legation in London, and charges from the American Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams that the ship was bound for the Confederacy. Though both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary were thought to favor the Confederacy slightly at the time of Alabama's construction this position was against British public opinion and MPs such as Richard Cobden campaigned against it. The subsequent release of the Alabama proved to be publicly embarrassing when both were later forced to admit that the ship should not have been allowed to depart, despite the opinion of the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales that her release did not violate neutrality.
Even so, the next year two ironclad warships under construction in Birkenhead and bound for the Confederacy were detained after their completion but before their launch. As a direct consequence of the flap over the Alabama rather than turn the ships over to Monsieur Bravay of Paris, who had ordered their construction as intermediary for Confederate principals, Palmerston instructed the British Admiralty to tender an offer for the purchase of the ships.
The claims
The United States claimed direct and collateral damage against Britain, the so-called Alabama Claims. United States Senator Charles Sumner originally requested $2 billion, or alternatively the ceding of Canada to the United States.
In the particular case of the Alabama the United States claimed that the United Kingdom had violated neutrality by allowing the Alabama to be constructed, knowing that it would enter into service with the Confederacy.
The tribunal
The tribunal was composed of representatives:
The tribunal session took place in a reception room of the Town Hall in Geneva. This room is since named salle de l'Alabama.
The final award of $15,500,000 in 1871 formed part of the Treaty of Washington.
Legacy
This established the principle of international arbitration, and launched a movement to codify public international law with hopes for finding peaceful solutions to international disputes. The Alabama claims was thus a precursor to the Hague Convention, the League of Nations, the World Court, and the United Nations.
See also
- Samuel Taylor Suit, whose Suitland estate was the scene of some of the Alabama Claims negotations
Bibliography
- (see external links)*, reprinted in the Michigan Historical Reprint Series, ISBN 1418129801*
External links
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