I had confidently hoped that the first erroneous
impression of the character of that event, imposed upon the mind of the
United States Government by partial and exaggerated representations,
would long since have been effaced by a more strict and accurate
examination of the facts. Such an investigation must even yet,
I am willing to believe, lead the United States Government to the
same conviction with which Her Majesty's authorities on the spot
were impressed--that the act was one, in the strictest sense, of
self-defense, rendered absolutely necessary by the circumstances of the
occasion for the safety and protection of Her Majesty's subjects, and
justified by the same motives and principles which upon similar and
well-known occasions have governed the conduct of illustrious officers
of the United States. The steamboat _Caroline_ was a hostile vessel
engaged in piratical war against Her Majesty's people, hired from
her owners for that express purpose, and known to be so beyond the
possibility of doubt.
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