Thursday, May 28, 2020

Theodorus Marinus Roest van Limburg to William H. Seward, June 9, 1862

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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