Mr. Stuart to Mr. Seward.
Sir: The painful nature of the letters which have reached me by this day’s post from British subjects residing in the United States renders it absolutely necessary that I should request you to have the kindness to take prompt and energetic measures for their protection.
I shall proceed to state, as briefly as possible, a few of the cases which have been brought to my notice, and which, although I cannot for a moment believe that such extravagant threats as those to which allusion is made would be carried into execution, are sufficient to show that a system of intimidation is being established in some places which may lead to most disagreeable results.
Mr. Christopher Cleburne, a British subject, with a consular certificate of his nationality, writes that he was imprisoned at Newport, Kentucky, by the provost marshal, for refusing as an alien to report for military duty. His mother, [Page 287] writing on the 4th instant, informs me that on that morning the option had been tendered to him of falling into the ranks or of being shot.
Mr. Robert McMillan writes from his place, near Whitewater, in Wisconsin, that his son, Andrew McMillan, whilst on his way to fulfil an engagement in Canada, was arrested and kept in prison at Cleveland, Ohio, for fifteen days, when he was induced to enlist by a captain who told him that he must either do so or be sent to Columbus and put to hard labor. The young man is at present serving in Captain Vale’s company, 103d regiment Ohio volunteers, Cleveland, and his father reports him to demand his discharge.
Mr. James Brown, writing from Cincinnati, (197 Vine street,) alleges that after examination before the provost marshal, he was assured that as being an alien his name would be removed from the military list, but that three soldiers subsequently came to his house, and refusing to pay any attention to his protestations that he was a British subject, they would have dragged him out had he not happened to have a sore arm, on account of which they respited him for a few days. They, however, took out by force a British subject who was with him, a young man named Andrew Hardie.
Mr. Alexander Mettwen, another British subject, informs me from Cincinnati, that on the 4th instant he had been forced to join a company, and that he wishes to be restored to his wife and children, who are in Clay county, Illinois.
As such proceedings are in direct violation of your own declaration that aliens are exempt from military service, I need not represent them to you on any other grounds, knowing that you will at once see that reparation is made in each of the cases to which I have alluded.
It is probable, however, that the evil will increase and be extended to other places, unless measures are promptly taken to check it in its infancy, and I would therefore suggest that a circular from you to the different governors of States, as well as to the federal military authorities or provost marshals, defining the rights of aliens in the present emergency, might be the means of preventing much injustice, intimidation, and hardship.
Lest you may suppose that in calling your attention to the subject in question I have not sufficiently considered the difficult and exceptional circumstances in which this country is unfortunately placed, I shall state, in conclusion, that I have no desire that British subjects should be exempted from all the obligations ordinarily incident to domicile, such as service in the local police, where imposed by the municipal law, or in companies formed exclusively for the maintenance of internal peace and order and for the protection of property.
But no further military service can be required of them without compelling them to violate the Queen’s proclamation of neutrality by taking part in the war, and I must therefore appeal to you to afford them proper protection against any compulsory service beyond that which I have admitted above to be properly due from aliens to the locality in which they are domiciled.
I have the honor to be, with high consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.