Abstract
While the Marcy proposal discussed in Chapter 4 has not received much scholarly attention, some historians at least acknowledged its existence. The same cannot be said for the memorandum on maritime law sent by Marcy’s successor as Secretary of State, Lewis Cass, in 1859. However, it was actually much more successful in influencing British thinking on maritime law. Crucially, it ruled out any attempt to undermine the new rights of neutrals by extending the contraband list. The memorandum also inspired a remarkable campaign to revive the Marcy Amendment started by citizens of the tiny German city-state of Bremen, which would have global implications and facilitate attempts by smaller powers to isolate Britain as the sole opponent to maritime reform.1 Their use of the European congress as an instrument to influence great powers was innovative and — though ultimately unsuccessful — points towards an alternative development of this element of European politics that seemed entirely possible at the time and was supported by most members of what is now called ‘international civil society’. However, the most important theme of this chapter will be the constant and often decisive influence of the USA.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The campaign is largely forgotten, but note a first scholarly reference in Rolf Hobson, ‘Prussia, Germany and Maritime Law from Armed Neutrality to Unlimited Submarine Warfare 1780–1917’, in Rolf Hobson and Tom Kristiansen (eds.), Navies in Northern Waters, 1721–2000, London 2004, pp. 97–116, p. 102. For a more detailed account based on archival sources, see Jan Martin Lemnitzer, ‘A Few Burghers in a Little Hanseatic Town – Die Bremer Seerechtskampagne von 1859’, Bremisches Jahrbuch, Vol. 83 (2004), pp. 85–109.
Hermann Henrich Meier (1808–98) had been a member of the first national assembly in 1849 (Casino party) and later became a national-liberal member of the Reichstag (1867–71, 1878–87). See Heinrich Best/Wilhelm Wege, Biographisches Handbuch der Abgeordneten der Frankfurter Nationalversammlung 1848–49, Düsseldorf 1996, p. 234.
The senator responsible for foreign affairs, Johann Heinrich Smidt, saw no chance of success after his enquiries in London and Washington, Bremen Senate to the Committee for Maritime Law, 9 December 1859, printed in Aegidi and Klauhold, Frei Schiff, p. 61. Smidt (1806–78) officially became Senate Commissioner for Foreign Affairs only in 1874, but attended to the day-to-day operations for Arnold Duckwitz (1802–81), who simultaneously served as President of the Senate. See Tobias C. Bringmann, Handbuch der Diplomatie 1815–1963, Munich 2001, p. 58.
Klaus Peter Schröder, Das Alte Reich und seine Städte, Munich 1991; pp. 90–91; Hans Wiedemann, Die Außenpolitik Bremens im Zeitalter der Französischen Revolution 1794–1803, Breme n 1960, pp. 153–161.
‘Eine Aufgabe für den Congress’, Preußische Jahrbücher, Vol. 4, No. 6 (1859), p. 612. The article was published anonymously but a copy of it in the StAB files bears the handwritten annotation ‘Minister-Resident Geffcken’, SAB, 2-R.11 dd, bound volume ‘Die Seerechtskampagne von 1859’.
Chevalier was an important adviser to Napoleon III and is best known for drafting the 1860 free trade agreement between France and Britain, together with Richard Cobden and John Bright. For the most recent scholarship, see Michael Drolet, ‘Industry, Class and Society: A Historiographic Reinterpretation of Michel Chevalier’, English Historical Review, Vol. 123, No. 504 (October 2008), pp. 1229–1271.
Pourtalès to Schleinitz, 31 December 1859, APP, Vol. 1, No. 559, p. 845. See also William E. Echard, Napoleon III. and the Concert of Europe, London 1983, pp. 115–123, and Edith Saurer, ‘Der Kongreß findet nicht statt. Der Kongreßplan von 1859’, Römische Historische Mitteilungen, Vol. 11 (1969), pp. 110–126.
In 1818, Gentz had referred to the European congress as the ‘European areopagus’. See Eckhart Conze, ‘Wer von Europa spricht, hat Unrecht: Aufstieg und Verfall des vertragsrechtlichen Multilateralismus im europäischen Staatensystem des 19. Jahrhunderts’, Historisches Jahrbuch, Vol. 121 (2001), pp. 214–241, p. 231.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Jan Martin Lemnitzer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lemnitzer, J.M. (2014). ‘The United States Have a Vote in Framing the Maritime Law of this Age’ — The Cass Memorandum and Bremen’s Campaign for the Marcy Amendment. In: Power, Law and the End of Privateering. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318633_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318633_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33738-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-31863-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)