Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 3, 1877

No. 88.
Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States,
Paris, November 1, 1876. (Received November 13.)

No. 1393.]

Sir: On Friday evening last there appeared in a Paris newspaper called the Figaro, a letter signed Du Sommerard, who is the general commissioner of France “pres les Expositions Universelles.” It was stated to have first appeared in a Vienna journal, and it was translated into French, for publication in the Figaro, by the correspondent of that paper in Vienna. I have made a careful translation of the letter into English, and I make it a part of this dispatch, marked A.

I did not see the letter till my attention was called to it late in the afternoon of the same day by several of our countrymen, who. as you may readily imagine, were in a state of great excitement. On the next day, in view of the extraordinary character of the letter purporting to come from a high French official, specially connected with the Philadelphia exhibition, and the monstrous charges contained in it, I deemed it proper to call the attention of the minister of foreign affairs to its contents, and to address him a communication on the subject. I took my letter in person to the Duke Decazes on Saturday afternoon. He had not seen the letter in the Figaro. I handed him a copy of the paper that contained it. He read it carefully and expressed his utmost astonishment at its contents; said that it seemed incredible that any French official could have written it, and that his government would totally disavow all responsibility for it. After further conversation in regard to its character, he said he should take an early opportunity to give me “une réparation éclatante.”

On the same evening I sent you a telegraphic dispatch as follows:

Fish, Washington:

Paper publishes monstrous libel of Mr. Du Sommerard, French commissioner, on exhibition and American people. Intense indignation among Americans. Have addressed Duke Decazes. Shall I telegraph my letter and his answer?

WASHBURNE.

During the night I received the following answer from you:

Minister Washburne, Paris:

Telegraph letter and reply.

FISH,
Secretary.

On the next morning, Sunday, the 29th ultimo, the following notice appeared in the Journal Officiel, which you know is the official government organ:

A letter wounding to a great and friendly nation has been published in a foreign newspaper, reproduced in a French newspaper, and attributed to a high functionary of the Philadelphia exhibition. The government hopes that the document is apocryphal. It has demanded explanation of the functionary, who is at present absent from Paris. It awaits his reply to decide upon this regrettable incident.

On Sunday afternoon I sent you the following telegraphic dispatch:

Paris, October 29, 1876.

Fish, Washington:

I send my letter of yesterday to Duke Decazes. Will send his answer soon as received. The official journal this morning states that a letter wounding to a great and friendly nation, attributed to a high functionary connected with Philadelphia exhibition, appears in a French journal; that the government has demanded explanation, and awaits an answer from him to determine its action on the painful incident.

“Paris, October 28, 1876.

“My Dear Duke Decazes: I have read with amazement the extraordinary letter published in the Figaro of yesterday over the signature of Du Sommerard, who is the general commissioner of France prés les Expositions Universelles. Were this a letter from a private individual, I should deem it utterly unworthy of notice; but being from a high functionary of the French Government, having official connection with the American Centennial Exposition, I should be forgetful of my duty and all the obligations I owe to my government and to the people of the United States did I not hasten to denounce to you the charges contained in the letter touching the exposition, against my country, its magistracy, and even its women, as the most monstrous calumnies. The substance of the letter has not only been already telegraphed to the United States, where it will excite the most profound indignation among all classes, but I shall deem it my further duty to call the attention of Mr. Fish to the outrageous and slanderous-imputations on the American people by the French commissioner.

“I have the honor to be, &c.,”

E. B. WASHBURNE.

On Monday morning the Figaro published the following letter from Mr. Du Sommerard:

Sunday, October 29, 1876.

To the editor of the Figaro:

I arrived this morning in Paris, having only yesterday by chance become acquainted with the letter, signed with my name, which you published in the Figaro of day before yesterday, under the head of “Correspondence from Vienna,” and which is represented as having been sent by me to Baron de W ___ ____, and translated from a German news-paper by the correspondent of the Figaro.

Permit me to affirm that the good faith of the German journal, and consequently that of your correspondent, has been deceived. I declare that the letter is apocryphal, and disavow it in the most formal manner.

I add that if my word does not suffice, I am in a position to prove, documents in hand, the exactitude of my assertion.

Accept, sir, &c.,

E. DU SOMMERARD.

On the afternoon of the same day I telegraphed you as follows:

Fish, Washington:

No reply Duke Decazes yet. Sommerard published denial letter.

WASHBURNE.

Paris, October 30, 1876.

On yesterday morning, the 31st instant, I received from the Duke Decazes the following letter, which I translated and transmitted to you immediately by telegraph:

Fish, Washington:

Duke Decazes replies:

“My Dear Minister: On the 28th instant you did me the honor to signalize to my attention the publication of a letter attributed by a journal to the French commissioner-general near the exhibition of Philadelphia.

“I hastened myself to bring this regrettable incident to the knowledge of my colleague, the minister of agriculture and commerce, and, as early as on the 29th, the note inserted in the Journal Ofriciel has proven to you how much the French Government preoccupied itself to immediately inquire into the facts, and to give you, in case their exactness should be established, a legitimate and prompt satisfaction.

“As I had hoped, the letter published under the signature of Mr. Du Sommerard is apocryphal. That functionary disavows it in formal terms, as you Will see by the protestation here annexed, which he has addressed to the minister with whom he is connected, and which seems to me an answer such as we could desire to the calumny.

“I am pleased to think, therefore, my dear minister, that this categorical declaration closes this regretful incident. No doubt it will seem to you, as to me, ended, and it will have had for principal result to furnish to the French Government an occasion to give, by the promptness with which it received your remonstrance, a new testimony of the sentiments of cordial sympathy by which it is animated for the Government and people of the United States.

“Accept, &c., Decazes.”

WASHBURNE.

The letter of Duke Decazes inclosed the letter of Mr. Du Sommerard to the minister of agriculture and commerce, the translation of which is as follows:

Paris, October 29, 1876.

Mr. Minister: I arrived to-day from Havre, where I had gone to attend to the shipping of the workmen and the articles of packing we are sending to Philadelphia in order to prepare the return of the French products admitted to the exhibition, and it was only at the last moment that I became acquainted with the letter published under my name in the journal Le Figaro of day before yesterday, under the title of “Correspondence from Vienna,” a letter which I am supposed to have addressed to Baron _________, and which is said to be translated from a German, paper published at Vienna.

The wording of this letter, the terms which are attributed to me, ought to have been sufficient to enlighten the German paper, and consequently the Figaro’s correspondent. I confess that even the idea of supposing it might be taken for serious would not have occurred to me. But I learn on my arrival in Paris that such has not been the case, and that Mr. Washburne has been moved by this publication. I consider it therefore as an imperative duty of mine to affirm that the good faith of the German journal, as well as that of the Figaro’s correspondent, has been deceived. I never had with Baron ______ any correspondence of this nature. I have never written to any German paper. I declare apocryphal the letter published over my signature, and disavow it in the most formal manner. I add that I have asked this day of the director of the Figaro to publish my declaration, and that I have reasons to believe that the German paper will hasten, if the thing has not already been done, to publish a rectification of the same kind. I am ready besides, should you /think it proper, to telegraph in the same sense to our commissioner at Philadelphia.

I think it useless to go further. I would have much to say on the authors of this unpleasant incident by which I am brought in, and which does not happen for the first time; but I think you will approve my reservedness, and that my affirmation will be sufficient to establish the facts in all their correctness.

I have the honor. &c.,

E. DU SOMMERARD.

Public attention being more particularly called to the inculpated letter by the sharp notice in the official journal, quite a sensation has been created here, and nearly all the newspapers have had articles on the subject, a large number of which I inclose herewith. The general tenor thereof is of a spirit friendly to our country, though Le Pays, a leading Bonapartist organ, says whether the letter be genuine or not, it believes the statements therein to be true. You will also find a slip containing the letter addressed to the Figaro by the Marquis de Talleyrand, who was an attaché to the Philadelphia Exhibition, protesting in the strongest terms against the statements in the letter published as coming from Du Sommerard. The promptness with which the marquis came forward and the handsome manner in which he vindicated our countrymen were in the highest degree honorable to him and very gratifying to the American colony in Paris.

In closing this dispatch, it affords me much pleasure to bear testimony to the prompt action taken by the Duke Decazes in this matter. I am certain that you will be gratified at the spirit of his letter to me, so friendly to the United States, and particularly when T add that its tenor is in accordance with the cordial feeling that he has always expressed for our country, and with the pleasant and agreeable official and personal relations which have always existed between us.

I have, &c.,

E. B. WASHBUBNE.

[Inclosure.—Translation.]

October 1, 1876.

My Dear Friend: I am at ———, the home of my cousin, the Marquise de Talhouet, one of the most beautiful chateaux of France. I hunt, I fish, I rest, or I think of my friends. However, I profit of this delightful sojourn to give you a sign of life, to tell you that I am not entirely dead, as you might, perhaps, believe; and I pray you not to complain of me for not giving you news of myself for so long a time, but I was so much taken up with that cursed exhibition at Philadelphia that it is only since a short time that I have been able, to my great satisfaction to gain a little liberty. Of course, I refused to go myself personally to America, and I am convinced that you approve my action. I put in my place a special commissioner, who has enjoyed, and still enjoys, all the ennui with these amiable Americans, whom we wish always to take as models. I have blessed the fortune which made me resist the measures taken to have a bridge built for me to cross the ocean. I do not know what the Austrian commissioners say there, but the reports which are daily made to me by my representative are desolating, and gives us a too just idea of the greed (aviditè) of the Americans. I have done everything to prevent our government from engaging in this exhibition, but the bumming of certain American enthusiasts has prevailed over my personal views in the chamber of deputies, and if I had not taken extreme measures to cover our responsibility, I belive that interesting ourselves in the American centennial would have cost us dear.

The Americans themselves set fire to the building which contained our empty cases and they hoped that our exhibition would be entirely destroyed if their good star had permitted the fire to extend to the galleries. The pompiers, nevertheless, did their duty, and the fire was kept under.

The 9th of last month there was yet another fire, this time in the shops and taverns which were contiguous to the principal building, but happily the wind turned to the north, so that only the shops were destroyed. But the third time how will it be?

The worst is that the police of the exposition is composed of the worst elements of the United States; that the guards rob, that the judges, in default of witnesses, acquit them, and what is still worse, the thieves count upon the judges themselves to give the signal of pillage.

All this is so singular that I considered it my duty to send a brigade of our police to watch the goods of our exhibitors; the English sent twenty-five men, also the Spanish and Belgians.

If one at least had found any compensation in the women of Philadelphia, but it appears that the American women, whom we admire so much at Paris, are chosen expressly for this purpose, and that those over there are not worth a charge of powder.

Our government, always ready to be in the advance of the desire of the great mass, gave a credit of one hundred thousand francs to send workmen there. I chose them with the greatest attention; many towns and many manufactories have sent a certain number at their own expense, very worthy of toasting with their brothers of the New World. But all of these men have returned very dissatisfied, and it was the same with all our members of the jury, of whom about twenty had been chosen from the highest spheres of science, arts, and literature. All these tell me equally upon their return that nothing could induce them to return there.

* * * * * * *

DU SOMMERARD.