Mr. Seward to Señor Tassara
Sir: On the third day of November last the Secretary of War called my attention to a complaint which has been preferred by Major General Butler, who was then commanding the United States forces at New Orleans, against certain proceedings of the commandants of Spanish ships-of-war in that port, viz: the Pinta, Mari Galante, and Blasco de Garay. It seemed to me that these proceedings, if truly reported, were manifestly so improper that it could only be necessary for me informally to bring them to the notice of the Spanish government, in order to receive either satisfactory explanations, or some assurances that such proceedings would not be renewed. At the same time it was the earnest desire of this government to proceed, in asking for these necessary explanations, in a manner that would be as little embarrassing or annoying as possible to the Spanish government. I therefore placed the papers in your hands, with a request that you would bestow some attention upon them.
In the papers thus submitted to you General Butler states that he was informed and believed that each of these vessels took on board (at New Orleans) for Cuba passengers, not only Spanish-born persons, but citizens of the United States who had been concerned in the rebellion, and who, against the orders of the commanding general, conveyed themselves and their effects away from the general’s military department, on board of these national vessels-of-war. General Butler added:
“I have claimed the right to search them (the vessels before named) for criminals other than rebels, and, after much difficulty, the privilege was accorded on board the two first-named ships. My police found there many passengers without passes, and who were not Spaniards.
“The decks of the Blasco de Garay were literally covered with passengers, selected with so little discrimination that my detective officers found on board a passenger an escaped convict of the penitentiary, who was in fresh flight from a most brutal murder, with his booty robbed from his victim on board this vessel-of-war.”
In your reply to my aforementioned note of the 5th of November you stated that you declined to believe that the commanders of the vessels referred to had been wanting, at least voluntarily, in the duties of neutrality; but you at the same time assured me that proper investigations would be made, and that I was right in supposing that the satisfactory explanations which the case might call for would be given.
[Page 994]On the 13th of December, after I had placed in your hands additional documents bearing on the subject, I had the honor to receive an unofficial note from you, which was accompanied by a statement that you had received from his excellency the captain general of Cuba concerning the transactions of which I have complained. Your communication was conceived and expressed in the same liberal and friendly spirit which has marked all your intercourse with this government. I do not, on this occasion, draw its contents into review, because it was unofficial. The captain general’s report, however, furnishes a statement of the transactions which occurred at New Orleans, in answer to the case which Major General Butler had submitted to this department. I avail myself of this statement to give precision to the discussion which has arisen, and I purposely leave any disputed feature out of the case.
In the month of September, 1862, the city of New Orleans had been reclaimed by the naval and military forces of the United States from an insurrectionary occupation, and was then held as a military position, in an actual state of civil war. The blockade regulations of the port were relaxed so far as to admit trade under military regulations. The three Spanish vessels-of-war, in conformity with the liberal practice which the United States have adopted towards all the maritime powers, were admitted into the port of New Orleans without question. The city was then in a condition of great distress, and permission was freely given by the authorities of the United States, to any foreign government which should ask it, to receive and remove any of their suffering countrymen who were not compromitted in the insurrection. A number of such persons went on board of the three Spanish vessels with passes from the military authorities, such passes being given to all unoffending persons who applied for them. The commander of the Blasco de Garay, being also in command of the other two vessels, not content with giving passages to persons of the class before mentioned, went further, and knowingly, and without consulting with the military commander of the port, received on board and conveyed away eighty native citizens of the United States who had been compromised in the insurrection, and this in violation of known and well-understood military regulations, which forbid any person without a pass to leave the city. On the 25th day of October the major general commanding called the attention of the captain of the Blasco de Garay to this subject, and then asked to be informed of the names of the passengers, not belonging to the government service of Spain, whom he had taken in his ship, on the voyage before mentioned, to Havana, and especially to state whether one Mr. Roberts, of New Orleans, was a passenger. The commander of the Blasco de Garay declined to comply with this request.
The case at this stage was submitted by you to the government of her Majesty; and on the 5th of the present month you communicated to me the views of that government upon the subject. The conclusions of the Spanish government are, that while that government considers that it is the right of the United States to hinder the departure from their territories of persons not provided with proper passports, yet this government has no right to insist that officers of Spanish ships-of-war shall not receive on board and carry away from New Orleans any persons, unprovided with passes, who may apply to such vessels for passage out of the United States.
Having submitted the question thus raised to the President of the United States, I have now to express to you my regret at the conclusion at which the Spanish government has arrived. It seems to me, in effect, to set up, although unconsciously, a claim that a Spanish ship-of-war, admitted by courtesy into a place actually held in military occupation by the forces of this government, may disregard existing military orders, which are issued with a view to the military situation at that place. This seems, in effect, nothing less than a claim of Spanish sovereignty over American citizens on board a Spanish ship, not merely within the civil jurisdiction, but even within the military lines of the United [Page 995] States, in their own territories. The claim thus understood cannot be conceded I am, therefore, to inform you that the government adheres to its former declaration that no ship-of-war, of whatever nation, will be expected to carry into or out from any port of the United States, which is either occupied by their forces, or is in possession of the insurgents, any person who does not actually belong to the civil, military, or naval service of the country whose flag that vessel carries, and especially that such ships-of-war shall not, without express leave of the military authorities, carry into or out of such ports any citizen of the United States. It can be only on an expected compliance with these terms that any foreign ship-of-war can enter ports of the classes I have designated during the continuance of the present civil war.
I am, sir, with high consideration, your obedient servant,
Señor Don Gabriel Garcia y Tassara, &c., &c., Washington.