Mr. Seward to Mr. Bigelow
Sir: I have received your despatch of the 28th of February, No. 39, which is accompanied by a copy of Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys’s reply to your communication to him upon the case of William Horace Castaned, of Mobile, an inmate of the work-house of Gaffenstaden.
As you have already been informed, I have taken such measures as are possible to bring the condition of young Oastaned to the knowledge of his friends and family at Mobile, if he has any there. A flag of truce was resorted to, because the town was yet in the possession of the insurgents. Neither the Constitution nor the laws of the United States authorize this government to bring home or to incur expenses for bringing home any of our citizens not seamen from a foreign country, merely because of their having fallen victims to poverty or sickness, or other adversity there. I do not know upon what ground Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys assumes that all foreign governments have set us the example of at once furnishing citizens or subjects who may come to want while in foreign countries with the means to return to their native country. If any nation has given us such a precedent it was at least voluntarily done. Practically no such example has come to our knowledge, and yet our land is always filled with emigrants and exiles from all parts of the world. Our several States minister unhesitatingly to the wants of those classes just as liberally and as promptly as they do to the wants of native citizens. In our almshouses the question of birth or parentage is never raised. We send no mendicants back to their native shores because they are poor, and we never ask their government to relieve us of the charge we incur by supporting them. I will hot inquire, on this occasion, [Page 249] whether under these circumstances our charity is less catholic, or our charitable charges are less expensive, than those of states which practice upon the different principle which is commended to us by Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
John Bigelow, Esq., &c., &c., &c.