You will perceive that Mr. MacHugh denies that “he was domiciled,
residing, and pursuing mercantile business in Savannah when the
insurrection broke out;” and you will observe that he states that he was
arrested on landing from, not in the act of sailing by, the steamer
“City of Washington,” and affirms that no newspapers or letters or
contraband articles were found upon him, and that it appeared, on
investigation, that the bundle of letters supposed to have been in his
possession, were in fact taken from another person.
I request you to be so good as to send the original certificate back to
me.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, your most
obedient humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.
[Untitled]
Extract from a
letter of James MacHugh to Lord Lyons, dated Fort
Lafayette, February 13,
1864.
I avail myself of the earliest possible opportunity to reply
categorically to the charges made against me communicated by your
lordship to her Britannic Majesty’s consul, recently laid before me,
consisting of extract and copy of two letters of mine and summary of
Mr. Seward, Secretary of State of this government, on the same and
other charges respecting that addressed to Mr. Gray, written at
Belfast, and addressed to Mr. Gray, Queenstown, Ireland. I claim as
a British subject the right to communicate with any one in her
Majesty’s dominions on any subject not in violation of her Majesty’s
proclamation and the laws of Great Britain, and as the transaction
referred to about Mr. McCoy simply applies to a contemplated
appointment by a Governor Brown, through the influence of Mr: Gray,
one of whom is at present a belligerent with the United States, and
the other, “ Gray’s,” nationality being
unknown to me, it is difficult to conceive in what way I have
forfeited my right as a British subject, or come under the
jurisdiction of the United States authorities for that act; neither
am I aware that a commercial recommendation to buy or sell any
shares, stocks or bonds, which are openly negotiated on every
exchange in Europe, (as are also the United States securities,)
constitutes an offence punishable by law in either of the
belligerent States, if effected or “recommended to be effected” in a
neutral country. The same remarks apply equally to the sale of a
steamer or steamers referred to in my letter to a Mr. Lamar at
Liverpool, at a price I am justified in selling to any buyer,
whether confederate, United States subjects, or Chinese.
[Page 534]
As a matter of course, the defeat of Rosecrans or the fall of
Vicksburg, alluded to in one and the other communications, affect
commercially the value of the bonds or steamers to be traded in,
and, as such, only enlist my expressed sympathies, as they would
have done in the reverse sense, had I been interested in greenbacks
or other United States securities. I beg leave to represent that I
am a British subject, born in Ireland; also, “that I was not
domiciled, resident, or pursuing mercantile business in Savannah
when the insurrection broke out.” I joined the house of John
Treanors in May, 1861, and left in June, 1861; and his being a
so-called insurgent in noways justifies the application of the same
term to myself. I was a passenger on board the steamer Bermuda,
bound from Bermuda to Nassau, and captured off Abaco light, while
steering for the latter port, and not, as asserted, taken when
attempting to run the blockade. We were brought into Philadelphia in
May, 1862, and I left New York in the following September for
Europe, where I have been until my return here on the 18th December,
1863, when on my landing at the revenue office, where my baggage was
examined, and I was arrested. I was arrested on landing from, “and
not in the act of sailing by the City of Washington.”
Respecting the capture of the Bermuda, I have nothing to say, that
being a matter for the decision of the prize courts; but I do not
see what on earth I have to do with the various agencies of the
shipping agents, Frazer, Trenholm & Co., or the nationality,
insurrectionary qualities, or birth-place of her commander. I was
discharged in Philadelphia as a neutral subject proceeding to
Savannah by the only probable means of reaching the place, and I
have not before heard it alleged, that being a passenger from one
English colonial port to another, even with a view to enter a
blockaded port thereafter, constituted an act of hostility to one of
two belligerent States. It is also avowedly in legislation, that any
one having been discharged, as he was entitled to be in such a case
in May, 1862, should be rearrested and reproceeded against for the
same offence nineteen months afterwards on his return to this
country from Europe on totally different business.
My arrest, as before stated, took place on the arrival of the City of
Washington, and not, as stated, on my intended departure, and no
papers or letters or contraband were found about me. I was therefore
naturally surprised, when examined by the military commission sent
down here to investigate the cases of arbitrary arrests in this
fort, to find myself charged with being carrier of a bundle of
letters, which Mr. Seward alludes to in rather severe terms, and
addressed by disloyal citizens in Baltimore, to officers in the
service of the so-called Confederate States, on examining which,
they proved to be those which had been taken from the person of
Lieutenant Rooke, of her Britannic Majesty’s service, now here, and,
on inquiry, they were identified by him.
The last item on which stress is laid is having in my possession
sundry photographs of so-called insurgents, which Mr. Seward claims
“to be illustrations of, and devotion to, and habitual association
with the same.” If this be so, there must be an immense amount
thereof in all the fancy stores of this city, where they were
purchased.
[Untitled]
To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting
:
I, John Young, consul of the United States of America, for the port
of Belfast, (Ireland,) and its dependencies, do certify and make
known, to whom these presents shall come, that John Lytle is mayor
of Belfast, and that his signature to the annexed document is
genuine.
Given under my hand and the seal of
this consulate, at Belfast, this [l. s.] ninth day of January, in
the year one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-four.
JOHN YOUNG, United States
Consul.
We, the undersigned, residents of Belfast, county of Antrim,
Ireland, being duly sworn, declare and say that we are
acquainted with James McHugh; that he was born in county of
Tyrone, Ireland, about or in the year 1838; that he went to the
United States of America on Wednesday, the 4th day of December,
1863, and that we know him to be a British subject.
HUGH C. CLARKE.
JAMES KAVANAUGH.
Subscribed and sworn to before me,
the mayor of Belfast, by H. C. Clarke
and James Kavanaugh, who are credible witnesses, on this 9th day of
January, 1864, the figures 1863 and also 1864
being just inserted.
JOHN LYTLE. Mayor of
Belfast.
