Alabama Claims

Though both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary were thought to favor the Confederacy at the time of Alabama's construction, British public opinion was divided on the issue, and MPs such as Richard Cobden campaigned against it.

The Government had requested advice from the Lord 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.

Other particulars included the following: In the summer of 1862, the British-built steam warship Oreto was delivered to Nassau in the Bahamas with the secret understanding that it would be later transferred to the Confederate States Navy.

When American Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the Alaska Purchase in 1867, he intended it as the first step in a comprehensive plan to gain control of the entire northwest Pacific Coast.

Seward expected the West Coast Province of British Columbia to seek annexation to the United States and thought Britain might accept this in exchange for the Alabama claims.

The idea reached a peak in the spring and summer of 1870, with American expansionists, Canadian separatists, and British anti-imperialists seemingly combining forces.

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.

[17] According to Vladimir Nabokov, the core incident has a legacy in literary reference, being used as a plot device in Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy.

[18] And in the Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days Inspector Fix warns Phileas Fogg that the riot they encounter in San Francisco may be connected to the claim.