Mr. Mercier to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have the honor to send you herewith the copy of a complaint which Mr. Frangois Bougére, an old French resident of New Orleans and honorably known in that city, has just laid before the manager of the consulate of the Emperor, in relation to an act of spoliation of which he has been the victim on the part of the federal authorities.
The steps which Mr. Bougére has tried with the military governor of Louisiana have up to this time led to no result; and I therefore proceed to call the kind attention of the government of the United States to an affair whose gravity could not have escaped it, and the consequence of which has been to reduce in a single day to the most absolute destitution a Frenchman whose antecedents have been represented to me as excellent in all respects, and who appears to have never departed from the strict neutrality which the Emperor’s government has not ceased to recommend to its citizens under existing circumstances.
I embrace this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my high consideration,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.