No. 116.
Mr. Read to Mr. Fish.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 60, with inclosed copies of telegrams forwarded to me by the Department. I have the honor also to reply to the instructions contained in your dispatch, as follows:
1. The several dispatches and telegram have enabled me to satisfactorily arrange the monetary affairs connected with this consulate general.
2. The Department may feel entirely sure that I will keep the extraordinary expenses connected with the care of the North German consulate “within reasonable bounds,” and that, while using my utmost personal exertions, I will carefully abstain from creating or allowing any unnecessary expenditures whatever.
3. I have declined in every instance to receive the property of French citizens, except that in the case of the grandson of the Marquis de Lafayette I consented to take charge of certain relics of that illustrious Frenchman, in remembrance of the services which he had rendered to our country when she was struggling for her liberty. But I distinctly informed Mr. de Lafayette that these matters were deposited in this consulate general at his own risk.
[Page 149]4. I have received the valuables of certain American citizens, most of whom were ladies, and who had no one to whom they could turn for protection. But I have notified each person in writing that they deposited their effects in the consulate general at their own risk, and that neither the Government nor the consul general would or could accept any responsibility in thus receiving them.
While taking the utmost care to relieve the Government of all responsibility and myself from personal liability, I have spared no pains to defend and protect the property of American citizens. As a means to this end I have placed in several newspapers a notice requesting all Americans, resident in Paris, to come to this consulate general and register their names, their addresses in this city, with a slight description of the character of their property, and also their exact addresses in the United States. With this record at hand, I will be enabled to give a certain sort of useful information to their relatives or representatives, in case of loss of property or life.
I had the honor to address to you on the 12th instant the following telegram:
Fish, Secretary of State, Washington:
Prussians within twenty-eight miles. I shall remain in Paris to guard our interests. Have instructed consuls throughout France, send official correspondence through Stevens, when communications are cut. Transferred ten thousand francs to Barings Saturday. My family safe at Granville. Please notify Judge Read.
READ, Consul General.
As I have received no reply to this message, I presume that my course is approved.
The Prussians are very near Paris, and it is possible that no mails after to day will reach their destination.
Referring to my determination heretofore expressed, I wish the Department to distinctly understand that I shall remain here not only in ease of a siege, but also in case the city is bombarded. In my judgment it is my duty to adopt this course, and I shall have no hesitation in doing so.
In view of the immediate possibility and necessity of providing places of refuge for American citizens in times of danger and popular tumult, I have established branch offices of this consulate general at my residence in the Avenue d’Antin, and at the residence of the vice-consul general in the Place de Batignolles. It gives me the utmost pleasure to state that, in all my efforts in this and in every other direction, I have the faithful coöperation of Mr. Olcott, vice-consul general, Mr. Thirion, consular clerk and secretary, and Mr. David T. S. Fuller, clerk and messenger.