Mr. Geofroy to Mr. Seward
Sir: Colonel Woodford, who commands Charleston, published on the 6th of this month an order which you are doubtless acquainted with, and in virtue of which “authority to carry on trade after the first of April will not be granted except to individuals who shall have taken the oath of allegiance to the United States, and obtained, in consequence, a permit.” This order having been applied to a number of French subjects, retail traders who reside at Charleston, the consul of his Majesty at that city went to Colonel Woodford’s quarters to represent to him the ruinous consequences which would fall upon them; to which the colonel replied that, in publishing his order of 6th March, he had done nothing but obey the instructions of General Sherman, that citizens of the United States alone would be authorised to carry on trade, and even upon condition that they should arm for the defence of the city, should it be attacked by the confederates, and that this condition of things would be prolonged so long as martial law should be in force at Charleston. He added that it would be impossible for him to modify the orders of the general-in-chief, but that he was disposed to offer to the French the facilities they should wish for leaving Charleston.
The consul of his Majesty has represented that many of these French, on the one hand, would be ruined if they were to leave Charleston under existing circumstances, and that, on the other hand, they cannot subsist there without working. He has added, and affirms, that the conduct of any of them during the war has not been of a nature to justify the harsh treatment to which it is sought to subject them. The individuals to whom permits have been refused were not engaged in trade in articles imported in vessels which forced the blockade; they have in their stores only some tobacco of Virginia and Florida.
I, in turn, beg your excellency to be so good as to let me know whether the government of the United States approves the order of General Sherman, and whether it intends that it is to be applied without distinction to all foreigners as a natural consequence of the state of siege; in a word, to give precision to the question whether the peaceable foreigner, not having taken part in hostilities, and having always observed the duties of neutrality, has no longer the right to [Page 356] remain and live in Charleston without renouncing his nationality, which is the consequence forced upon him by the oath of allegiance.
I should have the honor in this case to observe to your excellency, first, that Charleston is not a besieged city, and that the existing state of things does not cause the presage that it would be. Even admitting that this were so, I would remind you that in analogous cases, especially after the occupation of Memphis, the legation of the Emperor, desirous to anticipate difficulties, and to yield as much as possible to the hard necessities of war, consented last year, by way of exception, and without inducing any consequence, to the authorizing of the subjects of his Majesty to join the urban militia, and even, in case of attack, contributing to the defence of the city, saving always the reservation that it would claim their exemption if this militia should go into the field, and had to do outside the duty of regular troops. But such concession is evidently the extreme limit to which it could go without entire abandonment of its countrymen. It is also, in my opinion, the last which the law of war and the necessities of defence permit the government of the United States to claim from foreigners. To seek, besides, to force these to abjure their nationality, or to be sent away, that is to say, ruined and reduced to want, would be to press, even to inhumanity, the application of the axiom that everyone is master of his own home.
I therefore please myself with the hope that the government of the United States will modify, in respect of what is absolute, the measure taken by the military commanders, and seize this occasion to offer to your excellency the fresh assurance of my high consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.