Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1871
Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish
Sir: I have the honor to send you herewith a copy of a correspondence I have had with Count de Bismarck, (including one letter to Mr. Motley, and one to Mr. Moran,) on the subject of my dispatch-bag to and from Paris to London.
I have, &c.,
[Translation.]
Sir: The “Daily News” newspaper, of the 24th November, contains an article from its Paris correspondent, stating that the English papers arrive regularly by the dispatch-bag which is sent you each week by the United States legation in England. He adds a detailed account of the eagerness of the French journalists to peruse the English papers, so as to reproduce their contents in the Paris papers.
If the statement alluded to be exact, it would imply relations incompatible with the rules dictated by the interests of military operations during the investment of Paris. The military authorities cannot sanction that foreign papers of recent date should reach the besieged without having been previously examined.
In obtaining for the United States legation the privilege of receiving closed dispatches within a besieged fortress, I allowed myself to be led by the conviction that we had not to fear any inconvenience liable to compromise our interest.
I believed it to be understood that the authorization only applied to official communications between the Washington government and the United States legation at Paris. The King’s ambassador at London is instructed to make the like remarks to your colleague, Mr. Motley, who will, doubtless, know on his side how to put an end to any abuse if there should be such.
Receive, sir, the renewed assurance of my high consideration.
Mr. Washburne, Minister of the United States of America, Paris.
[Untitled]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 6th instant, in relation to the reception of the London papers at this legation.
I took it for granted that a few numbers of the London papers of an old date could do neither good nor harm to any interest, and hence I permitted them to lie upon my table to be perused by people who were sufficiently interested to come and look over [Page 284] them. But, as some of the Paris journals charge that they are sent to me by the Prussian authorities in the hope that the bad news they contain will discourage the French, and as you consider their reception incompatible with the rules dictated by your military operations, I shall decline receiving any more, and I have this day written to London to have no more sent to me.
It is proper for me to say that I received some London papers in the bag which arrived on Saturday last. They will be seen by no person whatever, excepting myself, and I shall most strictly guard their contents. I hope you will find no objection to my receiving, through the bag, the papers from my own country, with the understanding that they are particularly for my own perusal. I would be very glad if you would instruct Count Bernstoff to consult with Mr. Motley on the subject. I shall write to Mr. Motley not to send me even the American journals without the assent of your government, signified by Count Bernstoff.
The bag arriving on Saturday only reached here the sixteenth day after leaving London, and I am curious to know whether the great delay was on account of the French military authorities refusing to receive it. It ought not really to take more than four or five days for the bag to come from London here, and I wish that hereafter I might receive it within that time.
I have, &c.,
His Excellency Count de Bismarck, &c., &c., &c.
Mr. Washburne to Mr. Motley
My Dear Colleague: Count Bismarck writes that my reception of the London journals is incompatible with the interest of their military operations before Paris, and he says you will be conferred with in the same sense. I desire, therefore, that no more London papers be sent to me. I find their reception only a nuisance. It seems now the Prussians object, and some of the French papers have charged that they are sent to me by Bismarck, in the hope that the bad news they contain will demoralize and discourage the Parisians. It is, therefore, best that I should receive no more London papers, but I have written Count de Bismarck that I hope he will not object to my receiving our own home papers, and that he will instruct Count Bernstoff to consult with you on the subject, and if Count B. does not assent to it, you will be good enough not to send me the American papers.
The Prussian authorities having granted me the privilege of having a bag, their understanding of what it should contain must be conformed to, and I do not wish that it should cover anything improper.
Believe me, &c.,
[Translation.]
Sir: I had the honor to receive the letter winch you have kindly addressed to me under date 12 December, in relation to the English papers which reach you by the dispatch-bag forwarded from London, and I hasten to assure you that you have misunderstood the bearing of my remarks.
In addressing you my letter of the 6th December last, I only intended to call your attention to the abuse noted by the correspondent of the Daily News, convinced that you were unaware of it, and that this would be sufficient to put an end to it, if it had existed.
But I had no intention to deprive you personally of the English or American papers which you wish to receive, and you are entirely free to have them come for your own private use. I am persuaded that you will take the necessary precautions, so that no inconveniences shall result incompatible with our military interest.
The King’s embassador at Loudon is instructed to inform Mr. Motley that there is no opposition on our side to his continuing sending you the English and American papers which you wish to receive.
Receive, sir, the assurance of my high consideration.
His Excellency Mr. E. B. Washburne, Minister of the United States of America, Paris.
Mr. Washburne to Mr. Moran
Dear Mr. Moran: Please send me no more London papers; only cut out the telegraphic dispatches from the United States, from day to day, and send them. It is too much to be the only person, in a city of two millions of people, who receives any outside news. It has become a great annoyance, and I prefer being without news to being subject to it. I hope you will receive permission to send all my private letters. I expect you will send me all the American papers as usual.
Yours, truly,
[Untitled]
Sir: The reception of the London journals may involve me in trouble, and I write Mr. Moran by General Read not to send me any more, only inclosing me the telegraphic dispatches from the United States which appear in them. Some Paris papers represent that I have given out news; others say that I give out nothing, because the news is favorable to the French arms; and attempts have been made to bribe my servants to get hold of them. I conclude the only safe way is to receive no more English papers. I shall expect to receive my home papers as usual, and hope also to have permission to receive my private letters.
I have the honor, &c.,
His Excellency Count be Bismarck, &c.
[Untitled]
Sir: I beg to inclose extracts of three letters addressed by persons residing in Paris to correspondents abroad. They are taken out of a balloon sent up in Paris and captured by our men. You will see from the copied passages that the facilities we have accorded to the correspondence of the American legation in London are known to private persons, some of them French, and made use of by them in order to carry on a clandestine correspondence with other people, some of them French, Those extracts further prove that Mr. Hoffmann is expected to lend a helping hand to an epistolary intercourse of that kind. I trust your excellency will effectually prevent the members of your legation from lending themselves to a practice, the continuance of which would make it imperative for me not to allow any letters to pass, except those bearing the seal of the State Department of Washington. It is the possibility of occurrences like these that makes the military authorities indisposed to favor a prompt expedition of your correspondence. Having reluctantly acceded to the whole arrangement, they would have preferred sending your dispatch-bag not to London, but directly to Washington; and now the question may he raised by them of cutting off any correspondence between you and London. In that case the best way, in my opinion, of obtaining a prompter expedition with the least inconvenience to you, would be to have the dispatch-bags for you made up and sealed, not in London, but in Washington, and to send private letters addressed to you personally together with, but not inclosed in, the bag.
Please let me know if such an arrangement would eventually suit you.
I remain, with the highest consideration, your excellency’s, &c.,
His Excellency Mr. E. B. Washburne, Minister of the United States at Paris.
[Untitled]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit to your excellency the dispatch-bag received from London. In accordance with the wish expressed in your letter of the 13th instant, I have, on my personal responsibility, immediately forwarded your dispatch-bag to London. In so doing I acted against the principle adopted by the general staff, that no sealed packages or letters shall be allowed to pass through our lines in either direction without a stoppage of several days. The motive of this rule is the apprehension of the general staff that even the most scrupulous loyalty and attention on the part of the responsible chief might not always exclude the possibility of missives being, by irresponsible parties, introduced into an official cover.
However much I may, from personal consideration, feel inclined to oppose this restriction in all cases where you are concerned, I cannot help perceiving that all my [Page 286] endeavors will be fruitless after the impression produced upon our general staff by the balloon letters which form the subject of another communication.
I therefore regret to state that it is out of my power to establish the present instance of immediate transmission as a precedent.
I remain, &c.,
His Excellency E. B. Washburne, Minister of the United States at Paris.
[Untitled]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your two letters, both under date of the 15th instant, relating to matters connected with the transmission of the United States dispatch-bag to and from this city. One of those letters incloses extracts from those letters said to have been addressed by persons residing in Paris to correspondents abroad, such letters haying been sent out in a balloon which was captured by your men.
There is no doubt but the facilities for correspondence which the legation of the United States at Paris has had are known in London and elsewhere, and that certain persons have sought to abuse those facilities, and, in order to accomplish their purposes, have attempted to make an unwarrantable use of this legation. A good many letters have found their way to our legation here. Many have been sent by your excellency, some by Count Solms, and some by Count d’Hatzfeldt. These letters having, as I have assumed, passed through your hands, I considered that I had a sufficient guarantee that they contained nothing compromising to either belligerent, and I caused them all to be delivered to the parties to whom they were addressed, without examination.
Of the letters that have found their way into my dispatch-bag, coming from London, some were addressed to my compatriots who have been detained in Paris. Such letters, after having been examined and found to contain no allusion to military or political matters, have been delivered.
A very few letters have come to me addressed to people of nationalities other than French, and after examining them and finding that they contained no allusion to military events, I caused them also to be delivered. Perhaps in half a dozen cases I have delivered some very brief notes to French people well known to me, but only after the most scrupulous examination which showed them to contain absolutely nothing but reference to family matters. And I may say that nine out of ten of the small number of letters I have received through my dispatch-bag have not been delivered by me at all, as I considered that it was not in accordance with your understanding of what the bag might contain. I have to remark, therefore, that no letters, received through my dispatch-bag from London, have ever gone out of this legation which contained anything in regard to military or political events, or containing anything in the least degree compromising to either of the belligerents; and I beg to say further, that I have equally guarded the contents of my outgoing bag.
In this connection permit me to observe that you will find inclosed herewith an envelope, containing certain letters addressed to persons in Paris, and which you sent to me by the last parlementaire. I know nothing of these persons, and I know no reason why I should deliver the letters. I therefore have the honor to return them to you.
As you suggest that the extracts of the balloon letters prove that Colonel Hoffmann was expected to lend a helping hand to the epistolary correspondence, I am authorized by him to state that he has no idea of the parties who wrote two of the letters in which his name has been used, and he denies in the most emphatic manner that they could have been authorized to use his name in any way. As to the other party, Mrs. Chandor, an American lady, whom he says he found in great distress on account of the sickness of her children with the small-pox, in Brussels, he consented to have information sent to him in regard to them. He had no conception that this act of pure kindness would be taken advantage of to get in a letter to the gentleman therein named, whom he had never heard of. I make haste to speak of Colonel Hoffmann as a gentleman of the most unquestioned loyalty and honor, a man who thoroughly appreciates his duties and obligations, and holds to a most rigorous observance of them. I have no idea who the writer of the letters is who speaks of receiving news by the “intermediary of Mr. Washburne,” but I do know that he never had any authority from me to use my name in that way, and in doing so was guilty of a gross impertinence and a gross outrage.
I beg to thank your excellency for your prompt transmission of my bag to London, in accordance with the request of my letter of the 13th instant.
In relation to the suggestion which your excellency makes, that my dispatch-bag shall be sent directly to Washington, not to be opened in London, I have to state that [Page 287] such an arrangement would deprive me of communicating with the United States legation in London, and through that legation, in case of need, with the Washington Government by telegraph.
In regard to sending my dispatches from Washington in a bag made up there to be transmitted directly to me here, its practical operation at the present time would be to deprive me of all communication from my Government. My weekly dispatches from Mr. Fish for the last four weeks are now on their way from Washington to Paris. If I am deprived of a bag from London, those dispatches, therefore, could not reach me under the seal of my Government, which is the only way that I would feel authorized to receive them. Independent of that, it will take between three and four weeks for me to get a letter to Washington, requesting that the bag may be made up there directly for Paris. In the mean time, dispatches to me would be coming weakly to London, with the expectation that I should receive them in the usual manner. And further, after my letter should have finally reached Washington, requesting that the bag should be made up there for Paris, it would take the contents of such bag three or four weeks more to reach me.
Hence, your excellency will perceive that if I should receive no bag from London I should be deprived of hearing from Mr. Fish for a period of some three months.
With a knowledge, therefore, of the views of my Government on this subject, and its opinion that it has a right to promptly communicate with me as its representative near the government of France, it is impossible for me to acquiesce in the arrangement which you have done me the honor to recommend. I have concluded, therefore, to send you by the parlementaire, which I hope to obtain for Tuesday next, my dispatchbag addressed in the usual way to the United States dispatch agent in London. If you should feel constrained to decline sending it forward without an unreasonable delay, I will thank you to return it to me here by the first parlementaire. And also, if you should feel constrained to retain my bag sent to you from London to Versailles beyond a reasonable time, I will thank you to return it to London.
Out of respect, due alike to myself, as well as to the Government which I have the honor to represent, I should feel compelled to decline receiving or transmitting any dispatch-hag or any communications through your military lines upon terms and conditions which might be construed as implying a distrust of my good faith and of the loyal manner in which I have discharged my duty toward both belligerents and to my own Government, to which I am alone responsible for my official action.
Before closing this communication, I trust your excellency will pardon me a further observation. For the period of six months I have been charged with the delicate, laborious and responsible duty of protecting your countrymen in Paris. Of the manner in which those duties, having relations to both belligerents, have been performed, I do not propose to speak; I am content to abide by the record made up in the State Department at Washington. But I can state that there has never been a time when these duties have involved graver consequences and responsibilities than at the present moment. As I have expressed to you before, I have been astonished at the number of Germans who, as it turns out, were left in the city when the gates were closed. Having exhausted their last resources, and finding themselves in a state of the most absolute destitution, they have applied to me for protection and aid, which I have so far been enabled to extend to them from the funds placed in my hands by the royal government. The number of these people amounts to-day to two thousand three hundred and eightyfive (2,385,) and it is certain, had there not been some one here to protect and aid them, many must have inevitably perished of cold and starvation. My position in relation to these people, and to your government, is known to the people of Paris, and as the siege wears on and the exasperation is intensified, I now find myself exposed to the hostility of a certain portion of the population of the city. While your military authorities seem to be agitated by the gravest fears in relation to my dispatch-bag, I am daily violently assailed by a portion of the Paris press as a “Prussian representative,” and a “Prussian sympathizer,” and a short time since it was proposed in one of the clubs that I should be hung—rather a pleasant diversion in these dreary days of siege through which we are passing.
I will only add that, so long as I am the diplomatic representative of ray country in Paris, I shall discharge every duty, even to the end, and in the face of every circumstance, that I owe to my own Government, and every duty that I have by its direction assumed towards the subjects of the North German Confederation.
I have, &c.,
His Excellency Count de Bismarck, &c., &c., &c.