TheAlabama Claims were a series of demands for damages sought by thegovernment of the United States from theUnited Kingdom in 1869, for the attacks uponUnion merchant ships byConfederate Navycommerce raiders built in British shipyards during theAmerican Civil War. The claims focused chiefly on the most famous of these raiders, theCSS Alabama, which took more than sixty prizes before she wassunk off the French coast in 1864.
Afterinternational arbitration endorsed the American position in 1872, Britain settled the matter by paying the United States $15.5 million, ending the dispute and leading to a treaty that restored friendly relations between Britain and the United States. That international arbitration established a precedent, and the case aroused interest in codifyingpublic international law. The case too resulted in the warming of relations between Britain and the US, which had begun the 1800s as rivals, and ended the century as something of partners.
TheBritish Prime MinisterLord Palmerston andForeign SecretaryLord John Russell failed to stop theAlabama from putting to sea from theshipyards ofJohn Laird Sons and Company inBirkenhead. The United States Legation in London had explicitly opposed this, and theAmerican Minister to Britain,Charles Francis Adams, charged that the ship was bound for the Confederacy, where it would be used against the United States.
Though both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary were thought to favor the Confederacy at the time ofAlabama's construction, British public opinion was divided on the issue, and MPs such asRichard Cobden campaigned against it. The subsequent departure of theAlabama proved to be publicly embarrassing, and Palmerston and Russell were later forced to admit that the ship should not have been allowed to depart. The Government had requested advice from theLord Chief Justice of England and Wales,Sir Alexander Cockburn, who ruled that her release did not violate Britain's neutrality, because she was not outfitted with guns at the time that she left British ports.[1]
In the next year, Britain detained twoironclad warships constructed inBirkenhead and destined for the Confederacy. As a result of the uproar over theAlabama, Palmerston instructed theBritish Admiralty to tender an offer for the purchase of the ships. They had been bought by a go-between, Monsieur Bravay ofParis (who had ordered their construction as an intermediary for Confederate principals).
In what were called theAlabama Claims, in 1869 the United States claimed direct and collateral damage against Great Britain. In the particular case of theAlabama, the United States claimed that Britain had violated neutrality by allowing five warships to be constructed, especially theAlabama, knowing that it would eventually enter into naval service with theConfederacy.
Other particulars included the following: In the summer of 1862, the British-built steam warshipOreto was delivered toNassau in theBahamas with the secret understanding that it would be later transferred to theConfederate States Navy. Upon transfer, it was commissionedCSSFlorida. BritishRoyal Navy AdmiralGeorge Willes Watson (1827–1897) aided the transfer, and Watson's actions were reviewed by the tribunal.[2]
Other warships included theCSS Shenandoah (built atAlexander Stephen and Sons in Glasgow),CSS Lark (built at John Laird and Sons, like theAlabama), andCSS Tallahassee (built atJ & W Dudgeon in London).
SenatorCharles Sumner ofMassachusetts, the chairman of the U.S.Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also demanded that "indirect damages" be included, specifically the British blockade runners.[3]British blockade runners played a pivotal role in sustaining the war effort of the Confederacy, smuggling through theUnion blockade thousands of tons of gunpowder, half a million rifles, and several hundred cannons to the Confederacy.[4] Such acts may have lengthened the Civil War by two years and cost 400,000 more lives of soldiers and civilians on both sides.[5][6]
Sumner originally asked for $2 billion in damages, or alternatively, the ceding ofCanada to the United States. When American Secretary of StateWilliam H. Seward negotiated theAlaska Purchase in 1867, he intended it as the first step in a comprehensive plan to gain control of the entire northwest Pacific Coast. Seward was a firm believer in "Manifest Destiny", primarily for its commercial advantages to the United States. Seward expected the West Coast Province ofBritish Columbia to seek annexation to the United States and thought Britain might accept this in exchange for theAlabama claims. Soon other U.S. politicians endorsed annexation, with the goal of annexing British Columbia, the central CanadianRed River Colony (laterManitoba), and easternNova Scotia, in exchange for dropping the damage claims.[citation needed]
The idea reached a peak in the spring and summer of 1870, with American expansionists, Canadian separatists, and British anti-imperialists seemingly combining forces. The plan was dropped for several reasons: London continued to stall, American commercial and financial groups pressed Washington for a quick settlement of the dispute in cash,Canada offered to have British Columbia enter the Canadian Confederation on very generous terms, which bolstered nationalist sentiment in British Columbia that already favored fealty to the British Empire, Congress became preoccupied withReconstruction, and most Americans showed little interest in territorial expansion after the long years, expenses and losses of the Civil War.[7][8]
In 1871,Hamilton Fish, PresidentUlysses S. Grant's Secretary of State, worked out an agreement with British representativeSir John Rose to create a commission in Washington comprising six members from the British Empire and six members from the United States. Its assignment was to resolve theAlabama claims, refinancing, and other international disputes between Canada and the United States by treaty.[9] On March 8, 1871, theTreaty of Washington was signed at the State Department and the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on May 24, 1871.[10] In accord with the treaty, an internationalarbitration tribunal met in Geneva. The treaty had provisions regarding the settlement process for theAlabama Claims but did not include "indirect damages", settled disputed Atlantic fisheries and theSan Juan Boundary (concerning theOregon boundary line). Britain and the United States became perpetual allies after the treaty, with Britain having expressed regret over theAlabama damages.[11]
The tribunal was composed of representatives:
Negotiations had taken place inSuitland, Maryland, at the estate of businessmanSamuel Taylor Suit. The tribunal session was held in a reception room of the Town Hall inGeneva,Switzerland. This has been namedsalle de l'Alabama.
The final award of $15,500,000 formed part of theTreaty of Washington[13] and was paid out by Great Britain on September 8, 1873.[14] This was balanced against damages of $1,929,819 paid by the United States to Great Britain for illegal Union blockade practices and ceded fishing privileges.[15]
This established the principle of internationalarbitration and launched a movement to codifypublic international law with hopes for finding peaceful solutions to international disputes. The arbitration of theAlabama claims was a precursor to theHague Convention,[16] theLeague of Nations, theWorld Court, and theUnited Nations.[17] The Alabama Claims inspired international juristGustave Moynier to pursue legal arrangements to enforce international treaties in the 1870s.[18] TheSoviet Union carefully studied theAlabama claims when assessing whether it could claim damages in response toAllied intervention in the Russian Civil War.[19]
According toVladimir Nabokov, the core incident has a legacy in literary reference, being used as a plot device inAnna Karenina, byLeo Tolstoy. In one early passage, Stiva Oblonsky has a dream that may show his having read of the Alabama Claims through theKölnische Zeitung.[20] And in theJules Verne novelAround the World in Eighty Days Inspector Fix warns Phileas Fogg that the riot they encounter in San Francisco may be connected to the claim.[21]
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