LEGATION OF THE
NETHERLANDS,
Washington, June 9, 1862.
Hon. Mr. SEWARD,
Secretary of State of the United
States of America:
SIR: In your note bearing date the 7th of this month,
through which you do me the honor to reply to my second note of the same day,
you have been pleased, with a frankness which I appreciate, to inform me that
your communications on the subject of the affair in question have been drawn
from the report which Major-General Butler made to you of his general conduct
at New Orleans up to the 16th of the last month; and that this document not being
accompanied by any proof of the allegations against the consul, it is not in
your power to comply with my request “to be pleased to communicate to me the
papers justificative (proofs) of the accusation of the consul and of the
seizure of the deposit.”
Your frankness, sir, could not but increase my esteem for
the Government whose organ you are, and this frankness encourages me to be
equally frank. You will appreciate it on your part, convinced of the respect
which I bear for the President and Government of the United States, as also of
the confidence which I place in their spirit of justice. Well then, Mr.
Secretary of State, since you acknowledge to me that you are not in possession
of the proofs, is it not natural to conclude therefrom that these proofs do not
exist? For, was it not the duty of Major-General Butler to submit them to you,
without delay, to justify the seizure of funds of which you now know that they
were in deposit at the house of the Netherlands consul, for account of the
honorable house of Hope & Co., of Amsterdam?
Thus, from the moment it shall appear that Major-General
Butler has actually seized, without having had well-founded reasons and proofs
to justify a step so serious as the carrying off (removal) of a deposit which
was at the Netherlands consulate, I expect from the justice of the Government
of the United States that the values shall be restored without further delay to
the consul or the house of Hope & Co.
I therefore permit myself to request you, sir, to be pleased
to call for as soon as possible and to communicate to me the proofs which I have
had the honor to request of you in my note of the 7th of this month.
I have the honor, sir, to reiterate to you the assurances of
my high consideration.
ROEST VAN LIMBURG.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume
2 (Serial No. 123), p. 138-9
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