[13] *Mr. McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury
to Mr. Seward, Secretary of
State.
Treasury
Department,
Washington, February 2,
1867.
Sir: I have the honor herewith to transmit
a copy of a letter from the collector at New York, in reply to a
letter from this Department, on the subject of the alleged fitting
out of a privateer at the city of New York.
As recommended by you a copy of the correspondence on the subject has
been transmitted to the district attorney at New York.
With great respect, I am, sir,
HUGH McCULLOCH,
Secretary of the
Treasury.
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Smythe,
Collector, to Mr. McCulloch,
Secretary of the Treasury.
Custom-House, New
York,
Collector’s
Office, January 30,
1867.
[14]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge
receipt of your letter of the 29th instant, inclosing a
communication of J. R. Savage, esq., to the Secretary of War,
giving information of an alleged fitting *out of a privateer at
New York.
I have the honor to report to the Department that “the eyes of
the revenue,” by which name one of your honorable predecessors
once designated the customs officials of this district, have
neither slept nor slumbered over the movements of the alleged
privateer in question, but that her proceedings have been known
and watched from the beginning; [Page 766] and every preventive precaution taken to
frustrate her designs. As soon as any overt act shall have been
committed in her behalf, it will be promptly met by decisive
action on my part, and a report of all the facts in the case
made to the Department.
I am, very respectfully, &c.,
Hon. Hugh McCulloch,
Secretary of the Treasury.
