[Translation.]
Viscount Treilhard to Mr. Seward.
Legation of France in the United
States, Washington,
August 29, 1862.
Sir: I have had the honor to address to you
heretofore verbal remarks in regard to certain acts which have marked
the beginning of the administration of General Butler at New Orleans. I
cannot leave you without a knowledge of how those acts have been
estimated by the Emperor’s government; and I consequently have the honor
of communicating herewith to you an extract from a despatch of Mr.
Thouvenel on this subject. I doubt not that the federal government,
which has, in a spirit of lofty justice, instituted the mission of the
honorable Mr. Reverdy Johnson at New Orleans, will receive in the same
spirit observations relative to acts of domestic administration, of
which the French residents at New Orleans may have justly
complained.
I embrace this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my
high consideration.
For the minister, and by authority:
VTE. JULES TREILHARD, First Secretary of the
Legation.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
Extract of a despatch from Mr. Thouvenel to Mr.
Mercier.
[Translation.]
It would be a subject of much regret if the federal government were
to regard now otherwise than it seemed to do at first the acts of
General Butler; and if the sending of Mr. Reverdy Johnson to New
Orleans should not have the results which we expected from it, I
cannot suppose that the cabinet at Washington will refuse to admit
how just and natural are the remarks which you have already
addressed to it in regard to the situation in which General Butler’s
administration was calculated to place our countrymen and other
foreign residents. It is not a question, in fact, of treating them
as privileged, but merely of taking into equitable account the
difference of position. We assuredly do not intend to investigate
whether the federal government is right or wrong in subjecting the
communities which it places again under its authority to impositions
of war or to fines, with a view of punishing them for their previous
attitude. What we limit ourselves to asking is, that these measures
of reprisal may not reach our countrymen, who are only armed for the
maintenance of public order, and who have, in fact, lived so foreign
to all the political events which were taking place around them that
no kind of resentment should be
[Page 434]
evinced towards them. It is therefore by good
right that you have protested, and that you may still protest, if
necessary, against measures like that, for instance, which sought to
compel certain French retail dealers, who had already paid the State
of Louisiana the sum established by the law of the land for their
licenses, to pay the amount a second time.
