ict neutrality--is all that the United States
Government can claim[181]."

While the burden of American criticism was thus directed toward the
British recognition of Southern belligerency, there were two other
matters of great moment to the American view--the attitude of the
British Government toward Southern privateers, and the hearing given by
Russell to the Confederate envoys. On the former, Seward, on May 21,
wrote to Adams: "As to the treatment of privateers in the insurgent
service, you will say that this is a question exclusively our own. We
treat them as pirates. They are our own citizens, or persons employed by
our own citizens, preying on the commerce of our country. If Great
Britain shall choose to recognize them as lawful belligerents and give
them shelter from our pursuit and punishment, the law of nations affords
an adequate and proper remedy[182]." This was threatening language, but
was for Adams' own eye, and in the next sentence of his letter Seward
stated that avoidance of friction on this point was easy, since in 1856
Great Britain had invited the United States to adhere to the Declaration
of Paris everywhere abolishing privateering, and to this the United
States was now ready to accede.

What Seward really meant to accomplish by this was not made clear for
the question of privateering did not constitute the main point of his
belligerent letter of May 21. In fact the proposed treatment of
privateers as pirates might have resulted in very serious complications,
for though the Proclamation of Neutrality had warned British subjects
that they would forfeit any claim to protection if they engaged in the
conflict, it is obvious that the hanging as a pirate of a British seaman
would have aroused a national outcry almost certain to have forced the
Government into protest and action against America. Fortunately the
cooler judgment of the United States soon led to quiet abandonment of
the plan of treating privateers as pirates, while on the other point of
giving "shelter" to Confederate privateers Seward himself received from
Lyons assurance, even before Adams had made a protest, that no such
shelter would be available in British ports[183].

In this same letter of May 21 Seward, writing of the rumour that the
Southern envoys were to be received by Russell "unofficially,"
instructed Adams that he must use efforts to stop this and that: "You
will, in any event, desist from all intercourse whatever, unofficial