No. 58.] Mr. Judd to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: The threatened invasion of the Danish province of Jutland, mentioned in my last despatch, has taken place, and the result was the occupation of the village of Kolding, immediately on the boundary line. Report says that a part of the village is in Schleswig. The advance was made by the Prussian troops. As soon as knowledge of it reached Austria the proceeding was objected to. The utterances of the other great powers, moreover, were so significant that no further advance was made. No other military event of any importance has occurred. The ministerial conference of some of the smaller German powers which assembled at Wurzburg separated without any decided action, saving their evident disagreement or fear under some general resolve to stand by each other and the authority of the Diet against any aggressions by the great powers. The truth is, Prussia and Austria control the Diet. They usually carry with them enough of the smaller states to accomplish what they may desire. If the majority of the Diet ever place themselves upon the record against the wishes of the two great powers, it is sure to be upon a question that in solution will not cause serious disagreement. England, with the consent of France and Russia, proposed to the allied powers a conference with a view to a settlement of the question, and pending the proceedings an armistice should be established. The allied powers assented to that part of the proposition involving a conference, but refused to entertain so much of it as demanded an armistice. To this modification the other powers assented, and it only remains for Denmark to agree to it, and thus remit the Danish Schleswig-Holstein question again to its historical and traditional position, viz., the hands of diplomats. Denmark will be compelled to join in that conference. It cannot resist the combined will of the five great powers, What terms will proceed from that conference can only be judged of in a degree from the position already taken by some of these powers. England had made desperate efforts to have Denmark withdraw the constitution, the effect of which was to consolidate the duchies into the kingdom of Denmark as an integral part. The King of Prussia has declared that he will not sheathe the sword until the duchies are united under a separate administration. Austria does not desire to separate them from Denmark and allow the Prince of Augustenburg to be established as duke. From present appearances, the conference will find the duchies completely Germanized in its interior administration, as the evidences of Danish rule are being set aside as rapidly as possible. The Danish language in official and legal proceedings, and in church and school, has been supplanted by the German, and Danish officials go into retirement with their language. An old law of the duchies, requiring two years' study at the University of Kiel as a qualification of such official positions as involve a collegiate education, has been revived, which act alone vacates all the leading and important offices. These proceedings will have been finished before the conference is ended, and to all intents and purposes the duchies will be an independent state, except on the sole question of who shall be the executive head. The allied powers are opposed to the pretence of the Prince of Augustenburg, and my conviction is that the Danish king will have rule over the duchies, but he will not be allowed to undo what has been accomplished by the occupation of Holstein and the invasion of Schleswig. While his personal position will thus be preserved, it will not add to the power of the kingdom of Denmark. A quasi independent sovereignty annexed to the kingdom through a disputed succession, foreign in its language and laws, hostile from a feeling of wrong and oppression hereto fore suffered, and conscious that the German nation is its protector, it will be a constant source of strife and conflict and weakness to Denmark. The duchies will be in the kingdom, but not of it: Through the official papers of Copenhagen the Danish regulations for the blockade of the German ports have been given to the public "in extenso." I beg leave to annex them as published in the German press. According to these regulations a provisional embargo is to be laid, until the first of April, upon all ships carrying an enemy's flag anchored in the ports or bays of Denmark. After that date such ships may be withdrawn with safe conducts to non-blockaded ports, upon condition that the states to which they belong will exercise reciprocity. As regards the blockade itself it is said: "The blockade is to be held to have commenced when one or several vessels blockade a port in such a manner that merchantmen can neither enter nor issue without running evident risk of capture. Commandants of ships charged with the blockade are immediately to summon neutral vessels anchored in hostile ports to state when they will leave the blockaded port." For the present, the blockade of the Holstein and Schleswig ports alone is decreed; but it is intimated that the blockade of all German ports in the Baltic and North sea is soon to follow. The Paris declaration on the subject of privateering, &c., will, in general, be observed by Denmark. SIR: The initiative in the spring campaign taken in the southwest has tended to confirm European belief in the rapid overthrow of the rebellion. General Sherman's movement of his army corps is exciting the admiration of military men here. We have telegraphic news this morning that he has reached Selma. Johnson would seem to be in a position to be "ground out" very soon between the upper and nether millstone. German diplomacy has been busier than their arms since my last despatch. The conference proposed by England for the consideration of the Danish question was acceded to by Prussia and Austria, but the consent carried with it an equivalent to a negative in the condition attached, requiring Denmark to surrender so much of Schleswig as it still possessed, viz: the fortifications of Düppel and the island of Alsen. Denmark has not yet replied to the proposition, and if the reply of that government should follow the will of the people, as exhibited in the late elections, that reply would be a refusal until the allies had evacuated Schleswig. The invasion of the Danish province of Jutland was suspended for some days at the point first seized; during that time the diplomats have been busy. The result is that the allies are again advancing, and, with some fighting, have reached Frederica. This movement is said not to have in view a permanent occupation of that province, being only strategical, to compel the Danes to abandon the fortifications of Düppel and the island of Alsen, by outflanking their position. A direct attack from the front is regarded as doubtful in its result, and even if success ful, would be accompanied by such a loss of life that the allies prefer the political complications growing out of the further occupation to the sacrifice of their Denmark has declared that from and after the 15th instant the following Prussian ports will be blockaded, viz: Comin, Schwinemunde, Wolgart, Greifswalde, Stralsund and Barth. Danish cruisers have already seized a considerable amount of shipping belonging to the different German states. Prussia and Austria have not yet abandoned their attempt to control, on behalf of Germany, this entire Schleswig-Holstein question. For the bold movement of crowding out of Holstein the troops of the Bund, they have substituted diplomacy in the Diet where their proposition to assume the whole control is still undecided. I am prepared to see it adopted, as I have a present conviction that nothing hostile to the views and wishes of the allies will be undertaken by that body. The German people in the beginning had some confidence that the Diet would protect the German nationality in the duchies, even to the extent of quarrelling with Prussia and Austria. They have been undeceived on that point. The last effort of the Diet to rescue itself from the powerless and insignificant state into which the action of the great powers has thrown it, is a proposition to declare war against Denmark, based upon the seizure of ships, blockade, &c. Such a declaration would only be a statement of the actual condition of things, and if it sent into the field the troops of the Bund they will be under the dictation and control of the allies. Every day makes more and more clear the political "rope of sand" that binds Germany together. In this respect the cause of German union has lost one of its crowned champions in the sudden and unexpected death of the King of Bavaria, Maximilian II, who died on the 10th instant, after one day's illness; he was greatly beloved by his people. He was believed to be sincerely attached to the cause of constitutional government and German unity. Bavaria being, next to Austria and Prussia, the largest of the German states, it was to King Maximilian to whom the friends of the independence of the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein chiefly looked for help. His death is a serious blow to the waning hopes and prospects of the Prince of Augustenburg. King Maximilian is followed by King Ludwig II, his son, a youth not yet nineteen years of age. The demise of the aged King of Wirtemberg is also daily looked for. I am, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatches, Nos. 66 and 67, dated, respectively, 9th and 12th of March ultimo. A conference, diplomatic, for the solution of the difficulties in Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein, has been assented to by Denmark, Prussia, Austria, England, France, Russia, and Sweden. The German Diet has been notified of this, and requested to send a representative. No conclusion has yet been arrived at by that body upon the propositions. The delegates, assenting to the agreement, are to meet in Sweden on the 12th instant. As no basis for the negotiations has been passed, and the war is to continue pending the deliberations of the convention, a very general impression here is, that no result will be reached, and some of the members of the corps diplomatic do not believe that it will even assemble. Austria desires to get out of this complication upon almost any terms. This disposition, and the failure as yet to get the Diet to adopt the war on behalf of entire Germany, compels the Prussian government either to assent to the conference, or find itself isolated in the war against Denmark. The military operations are now confined to the attack upon the fortifications at Düppel, and appearances are that they can only be taken by the slow operations of a regular siege. From all the information that I can obtain, it will be found, as a defensive position, almost a second Sebastopol. If Denmark had troops enough to re-enforce the place as the exigencies of the defence place hors du combat the present garrison; even the present numerical odds of four or five allies to one Dane would not enable them to take the position. The allies have been before it for some three or four weeks, and a Prussian officer, just from the theatre of war, told me he thought it would require two months more to reduce it. SIR: Your despatch, No. 68, dated March 14, is received. I enclose herewith copies of letters between Mr. Sundell, consul at Stettin, and myself in relation to the blockade of the port of Swinemünde. I hope that the advice I gave Mr. Sundell will meet your approval. Respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. N. B. JUDD. No. 1.] Mr. Sundell to Mr. Judd. CONSULATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Stettin, April 2, 1864. HON. SIR: In order to be prepared, should an American vessel be under way for this port, which I have reason to believe, I would pray for your kind instructions how to proceed in case the vessel, in passing the sound, should be notified by the Danes that Swinemünde is blockaded, and the captain therefore, perhaps, run into some other port, not included in the so-called blockade, and desire to discharge his cargo there. 14 c *** The consignees here would, then, probably, as has been done in like cases already, where vessels of neutrals were concerned, apply to me for instructions to the captain of such vessel to proceed here, to which place he has been chartered, as long as no "legal blockade" exists, and up to this evening there has been "no actual presence of a blockading force" at Swinemünde. A squadron of Danish vessels-of-war has been in sight for an hour or so at different times—that is all; but the same has not been " stationary, nor sufficiently near" at any time, so as to effect a "valid blockade" of that port. Should this state continue, I think, myself, no neutral vessel is bound to respect either the notification from the Danish admiral, of which I have had the honor to inform you, and which was sent in by a British merchantman from a place in the open sea about fifty miles distant from Swinemünde, nor the notices of the pretended blockade given by Danish pilots to vessels passing the sound or the belts; but in order to be sure, what to do when applied to, respectfully ask for your instructions on the subject the earliest day possible, and the more so as my opinion thereon is frequently asked by other foreign consuls here, and I am somewhat uncertain as to (my way of reading) Wheaton being right or not. I have the honor to be, sir, yours sincerely obedient servant, CHARLES J. SUNDELL, Hon. N. B. JUDD, United States Consul. Minister Plenipotentiary of the U. S. A., at Berlin, &c., &c. No. 2.] Mr. Sundell to Mr. Judd. CONSULATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Stettin, April 4, 1864. HON. SIR: Yours, greatly esteemed, of the 2d instant, I have had the honor to receive, and in regard to the notified blockade, by Danish vessels of-war, of the six seaports in this consular district, of which I had the honor to report under the 29th of last month, I now beg to state, in addition, that it is being generally considered here that no such blockade as notified by the Danish government under the 12th, and again by the commander of the Danish squadron somewhere in the Baltic, under the 18th of same month, has at any time, up to this present, ever existed de facto. In support of this opinion, which, as stated in my last, is also cherished by most of the consuls of the neutral powers residing at this place, the enclosed exposé has been gotten up here for circulation in Great Britain, and which, as I feel bound to admit, gives the nature of the case exactly as it exists, leaving the arguments therein contained at what they are worth, and to be considered separately. The greatest strength of the notified blockade has hitherto been in the notification itself, and in the fact also of the Danes commanding the sound and the belts, where every neutral vessel passing is being officially notified that the ports named are blockaded, and the captains believing therein, in order to avoid supposed dangers, run into some other port, not among the pretendingly blockaded, to discharge or dispose of their cargoes. Concerning the irregularity in notifying the consuls of the neutral powers of the blockade, the matter stands thus: When, after the naval engagement on the 17th of March, the Prussians returned to Swinemünde, and the Danes to Möen, a British merchantman fell in with the Danish squadron when at sea, and was induced to appear on board the flag-ship Szalland, where he received a permit to proceed on his voyage to Stettin, and at the same time Contre Admiral von Dockum handed him six sealed letters for delivery when in port, |