duty[973]. If this
were so similar precautions and secrecy would prohibit official
interference in the issue from British ports of a whole fleet of
Southern war-vessels. Russell might himself feel that a real offence to
the North had taken place. He might write, "I confess the proceedings of
that vessel [the _Alabama_] are enough to _rile_ a more temperate
nation, and I owe a grudge to the Liverpool people on that
account[974]," but this was of no value to the North if the governmental
decision was against interference without complete and absolute proof.

It was therefore the concern of the North to find some means of bringing
home to the British Ministry the enormity of the offence in American
eyes and the serious danger to good relations if such offences were to
be continued. An immediate downright threat of war would have been
impolitic and would have stirred British pride to the point of
resentment. Yet American pride was aroused also and it was required of
Seward that he gain the Northern object and yet make no such threat as
would involve the two nations in war--a result that would have marked
the success of Southern secession. That Seward was able to find the way
in which to do this is evidence of that fertility of imagination and
gift in expedient which marked his whole career in the diplomacy of the
Civil War[975].

In that same month when Adams was beginning his protests on the "290,"
June, 1862, there had already been drawn the plans, and the contracts
made with the Laird Brothers at Liverpool, for the building of two
vessels far more dangerous than the _Alabama_ to the Northern cause.
These were the so-called Laird Rams. They were to be two hundred and
thirty feet long, have a beam of forty feet, be armoured with four and
one-half inch iron plate and be provided with a "piercer" at the prow,
about seven feet long and of great strength. This "piercer" caused the
ships to be spoken of as rams, and when the vessels were fully equipped
it was expected the "piercer" would be three feet under the surface of
the water. This was the distinguishing feature of the two ships; it was
unusual construction, nearly impossible of use in an ordinary battle at
sea, but highly dangerous to wooden ships maintaining a close blockade
at some Southern port. While there was much newspaper comment in England
that the vessels were "new _Alabamas_," and in America that they were
"floating fortresses," suitable for attack upon defen