Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish
Sir: During the past week the people of Paris have been patiently and quietly awaiting the ravitaillement, and agitating the question of the election of members to the national assembly which is to convene at Bordeaux on the 12th instant. Small quantities of provisions have commenced coming in to-day.
The first train contained supplies sent by the population of London to the population of Paris. These supplies have been distributed among the twenty arrondissements in proportion to their respective population, and are to be given out only to the most necessitous. It will be but a short time I hope before all can be reasonably supplied. The lower classes in the city have during the last months of the siege suffered untold miseries of cold and hunger, and with a patience and fortitude which does them great credit. Indeed the suffering of all classes has been very great, and it might be said that all classes have sustained the sufferings and privations of the siege in a manner that must excite the wonder and admiration of the world. * * * *
Now that the siege is over I am thankful that I have remained through it all, for I believe that I have been of some service to the interests with which I have been charged. It is with pleasure that I am enabled to state that I have succeeded in protecting all American property in Paris, and that no harm has come to any of our Americans who have remained here. This statement must be qualified, however, so as not to apply to the young American, Mr. Swagar, who lost his life by having his foot torn to pieces by a Prussian shell, and to the two young men whose property was destroyed by the bursting of a shell in their apartment in the Latin quarter.
Several attempts were made to interfere with American property at different times, but I must do the government of the national defense the credit to say that they have treated all such matters as I have [Page 297] deemed it necessary to bring to their attention with the utmost fairness and consideration. In the first place it was proposed to quarter the garde mobile in the American apartments, but upon an application to Gambetta, then minister of the interior, he gave an order that it should not be done. Afterward the city authorities proposed a special tax upon the apartments of the absent, which bore very heavily upon our countrymen. I had a correspondence with M. Jules Favre upon that subject, which I had the honor to transmit you and by which you will have seen that the city authorities were overruled and the tax not enforced. Then it was proposed to put the refugees from the neighboring villages, who had come into Paris, into the apartments of some of the Americans. I resisted that, and the intention was not carried out. And when the bombardment took place, and the people from that part of the city exposed to the shells were driven out, it was proposed to shelter them in the vacant apartments in the other parts of the city. Many of the apartments of the Americans were threatened in this way, but I gave orders that in no case would I consent to have the furnished apartments of Americans occupied in this manner, and I am happy to say that no apartment has thus been occupied. And lastly, after the armistice was declared, and all the troops came into the city, another attempt was made to quarter soldiers and officers also in the vacant apartments of Americans, but I protested against that, and no apartment has yet been occupied in that way. I hope, therefore, that when our country people return to their homes in Paris they will find everything in as good condition as when they left.
Very little damage has been done to the property of the people of other nationalities with whose protection I have been charged. At an early period the home of a German, Mr. Hedler, was invaded by the garde mobile in search of Prussian spies, and some damage was done to the furniture. Upon my representation of the matter to the government, Count de Kératry, who was then the prefect of police, took the affair promptly in hand, brought the offending parties to punishment, and permitted agents selected by me to assess the damages, which were promptly paid. Immediately after the breaking out of the war I took under my protection the magnificent hotel of the Prussian embassy in the Rue de Lille. All the persons who had charge of it, even down to the concierge, had been expelled from France, and as it seemed to be the objective point of the hostility of the Prussian population, I had great fears of its safety. I at once placed it under the charge of an American friend in Paris, who has exercised a most vigilant guardianship over it, and protected it from all harm. While there has been a good deal of hostility against me among a certain number of the population of Paris during the siege, and while I have been assailed in the clubs and in the newspapers on account of my protection of the Germans, I have no cause whatever for complaint against the government of the national defense, but have been treated by them with the greatest kindness and with all the consideration due to me as the diplomatic representative of our country.
I have, &c.,