Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons.
My Lord: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 21st instant, relative to the case of Mr. J. M. Vernon. In reply, I have the honor to acquaint you that I have received from the Navy Department information which raises distinctly the question whether that person is, in fact, a subject of Great Britain.
However this may be, the information further shows that he has been domiciled an indefinite period, if not for his whole life, in this country, claiming to be a citizen and exercising the rights of citizenship; that he has been, and yet is, an open, avowed, efficient, and dangerous confederate of the insurgents in their treasonable rebellion; and that he was actually engaged as such when he was arrested by naval authorities of the United States, with the evidences and instruments of his crimes upon his person.
His case is now under consideration of the War Department, with a view to his trial by a proper tribunal for the crime of treason, or such other crime as the judge advocate general of the United States shall think is constituted by his offences.
I have the honor to be, with high consideration, your lordship’s obedient servant,
Right Hon. Lord Lyons, &c., &c., &c.