LEGATION OF THE NETHERLANDS,
Washington, June 7,
1862.
Hon. Mr. SEWARD,
Secretary of State of the United
States of America, &c.:
From the first interview which I had the honor to have with
you in regard to the lamentable events which took place in the course of last
month at the consulate of the Netherlands at New Orleans, you have evinced a
spirit of conciliation, the extent of which I take pleasure in acknowledging.
You have assured me that all which I could reasonably ask of you would be
accorded to me.
I submitted to you the information and reports which I had
received. These were sufficient to induce you to take the initiative in the
reparation which at first seemed to you to be due.
But from the note which to this end you were pleased to
address to me day before yesterday, and from the answer which I made to it on
the day following, it appears that you cannot at present decide as to the
allegation of Major-General Butler, whilst I, until the contrary be proved,
must consider our consul as acting entirely in good faith and as being
perfectly in the right to receive from the hands of the agent of the firm of
Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, a deposit for that firm. There was not, according
to the law of nations and universally received usages, any obligation on the Government
of the United States to verify the contents of the kegs, which the agent of the
house of Hope had declared to him to contain 800,000 Mexican dollars.
In this state of affairs, which your sense of justice will
hasten, as you have assured me, to put an end to as soon as possible, our
consul would find himself, without some new proof of conciliation and equity on
your part, in a false position. Your note of the 5th says that his consular
commission and the exequatur of the President (improperly taken out of his
possession by Major-General Butler) will be returned to him immediately, and
that he will be “permitted” to resume his functions. I have no reason to
suppose, sir, that you have used this term with any positive intention;
therefore I flatter myself that, while reserving to yourself any ulterior
action against the consul, you will not object to considering him, as I do, and
as justice considers every man against whom nothing has been proved, as
honorable and as acting in good faith; and that consequently you will not
refuse to "invite" him, through my interposition, to resume his
functions, while adding that you cannot consider him otherwise than as acting
in good faith and as honorable until the contrary be proved, and while waiting for
the report of the commissioner whom you are going to send to New Orleans.
I have the honor, Mr. Secretary of State, to request you to
be pleased also, as soon as possible, to honor me with your reply in this
regard; and I profit by this new opportunity 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. 136-7
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