Mr. Seward to Mr. Geofroy
Sir: On the 30th of April last I had the honor to receive your note, written on the 26th of that month, in which you informed me that a society had been formed in the city of New Orleans, the object of which is to make enrolments and purchases of arms and ammunition destined for Mexico. You further informed me that this association, openly avowed, and known under the name of the club of the “Defenders of the Monroe Doctrine, D. M. D.,” has its regular meetings, duly announced by means of the newspapers, and employs all means of propagandism for raising subscriptions and making proselytes; that at its head are some Mexican refugees, and notably a Colonel De Borden, some number of federal officers also form part of it, and Governor Hahn himself, whose opinions are known, has been received as a member; that transmissions of arms and munitions have already been directed towards the Rio Grande, and that you were assured, although you did not like to believe it, that such transmission of arms and munitions were made with the connivances of some of the authorities of the United States.
I lost no time in bringing the complaints which you thus preferred, in their full effect, to the knowledge of Major General Banks, who is in command of [Page 220] the United States forces west of the Mississippi, and also to the knowledge of his excellency Michael Hahn, the governor of the State of Louisiana.
I have now the honor to inform you that I have received from the governor of Louisiana an official communication in relation to these complaints, of the effect following, namely: that there is a society or club in New Orleans under the name of the “Defences of the Monroe Doctrine;” that his excellency Michael Hahn is not a member of the club, or of any similar association; that the presiding officer of the club is Colonel F. N. D. S. Borden, who is understood to be a loyal citizen of the republic of Mexico; that the only citizens of New Orleans who are known to the governor as belonging to the club are a few young men of no considerable influence; that the object of the club, so far as the governor has been able to ascertain it, is to bring moral influences to bear upon the government of the United States in favor of a maintenance of the Monroe doctrine, but not to act in violation of the law, or of the well-understood governmental policy of neutrality, in the war which exists between France and Mexico; that so far as the governor has learned, there has been neither any enrolment of men, nor any subscriptions of money, by the club, or by any other association, for the purposes of war in Mexico. Nor have any arms, ammunition, or men, been sent there, through any association of persons in the State of Louisiana, so far as the governor knows, or has even heard.
I am further assured by his excellency that he cordially co-operates with the other public officers in Louisiana in carrying out the known instructions and wishes of the President and this department, and in observing and enforcing the provisions of the law relating to the neutrality of the United States in the war between France and Mexico.
It remains only to assure your excellency that this department reposes implicit confidence in the statements of Governor Hahn; and, consequently, that there have been no such violations of the neutrality of the United States in New Orleans, as through misinformation your excellency has been led to represent.
Accept, sir, a renewed assurance of my very high consideration.
Mr. L. de Geofroy, &c., &c., &c.