Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth Congress, Part III

Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward

No. 515.]

Paris, July 18, 1864.

Sir: Herewith I beg to enclose to you the translation of a note received from M. Drouyn de Lhuys in reference to the complaint by Mr. Chase, our consul at Tampico.

This note, like some others that M. Drouyn de Lhuys has written to me, is unsigned, and a mere substitute for an informal verbal communication, but, being in writing, is the more satisfactory as the less liable to be misunderstood.

Our consul in this case may be, and doubtless is, right in his complaint of rudeness on the part of French officials, but it does seem to me be would have shown more judgment if he had accepted the offered withdrawal of the notes complained of, (which was an implied apology,) rather than made this rudeness the subject of a serious diplomatic correspondence.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WM. L. DAYTON.

Hon. William H. Seward, &c.

[Translation.]

M. Drouyn de Lhuys to Mr. Dayton

Memorandum—July, 1864.

The minister of foreign affairs of the Emperor has examined the two despatches of the American consul at Tampico, relative to the threats of imprisonment to which he has been subjected—despatches which M. the minister of the United States has been directed to communicate to the government of his majesty. It is not possible to answer Mr. Dayton definitively upon this subject before receiving the explanations requested of the cammander-in-chief of the French forces in Mexico. The attentive perusal of the second despatch of Mr. Chase cannot fail, however, to suggest to M. Drouyn de Lhuys some reflections, which it seems to him proper to offer at once to M. the minister of the United States. The circumstantial details given in regard to this affair by the American consul in his last report are in effect of a nature to lessen very much its gravity.

According to the declaration of Mr. Chase himself, he had already in his hands the two letters of the superior commandant of Tampico, which now cause his demand for satisfaction, when he went to this officer to represent to him that he could not answer for the good conduct of any one who might enter Tampico.

The commandant excused himself for having written as he had done, in alleging that he had been led into it by the alarming rumors which were at that time in circulation.

A short time afterwards Mr. Chase made a second visit to this same officer, to present, with a view to preventing any disquieting remarks, the captain of an American ship-of-war which had arrived, in the mean time, at Tampico.

The incident seemed then completely void, when the French commandant learnt from the manager of the imperial consulate that Mr. Chase, having re-read his second note, had manifested an extreme dissatisfaction with it. The commandant of Tampico hastened then to send back the French agent to the American consul to offer to withdraw the letters by which he felt himself wounded. Mr. Chase answered to this offer by requiring written apologies, in order to transmit them to his government, and the French officer refused them.

These are the facts, as Mr. Chase himself states them. Now it appears from this recital that the misdoings of the superior commandant of Tampico would consist in having written to the American consul in terms assuredly much to be regretted, but that he hastened, upon learning the impression which they had made upon this consul, to offer him spontaneously the withdrawal of his notes. He no doubt thought that would suffice Mr. Chase, since the two visits of the latter did not allow him to suspect the importance which the incident might take in the eyes of this agent. It is not to be admitted for an instant, as the Tatter gives it to be understood, that it was the appearance of a federal ship which brought the commandant of Tampico to the more correct proceedings, for he had, before the arrival of this vessel, very courteously received the observations of Mr. Chase, and, to speak the truth, it is rather singular that it was only after the satisfactory explanations exchanged, and after a second visit to the French officer, in order to present to him the federal captain, that Mr. Chase thought it useful to re-read more attentively, or to cause to be more faithfully translated, a note of six lines which had been the cause of all his previous proceedings.

So, by the very terms of the despatches of the consul of the United States, if there were for a moment a fault in the proceedings on the part of the superior commandant of Tampico, this officer seems to have wished, by his after conduct, to have effaced its impressions upon Mr. Chase.