NEW YORK, June 10,
1862.
Governor SEWARD,
Secretary of State:
MY DEAR SIR: A gentleman well-informed in the financial
relations of the New Orleans banks has handed me the inclosed memorandum of
what he supposes to be the probable status of the specie found under the
protection of the Dutch consul at New Orleans. I send it to you, thinking it
may be of some service in your investigations.
The idea of this gentleman is that the existence of an
occasion for a remittance of some $800,000 to Hope & Co. has been made a
cause for this deposit, without the least intention of so paying or providing
for the debt, which had, doubtless, been otherwise met.
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Weed yesterday at a very
agreeable dinner given to him by the district attorney. He seems in excellent
health and spirits.
I am, very truly,
yours,
WM. M. EVARTS.
[Sub-inclosure.]
MEMORANDUM.
The Citizens' Bank was chartered by the Legislature of
Louisiana about the year 1836. The State loaned its bonds to the bank to
constitute or raise the capital on which it has been doing business. The bank
indorsed the bonds of the State, and negotiated some $5,000,000 of them through
Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, where the interest and principal are payable. It
is said that $500,000 of these bonds become due and payable at Hope & Co.'s
counting-house this year (1862), which, with one year's interest on the whole
amount outstanding, probably constitutes the sum placed by the bank shortly
before the capture of New Orleans in the hands of the consul of the
Netherlands. It is almost certain that Hope & Co. have nothing at all to do
with any funds intended to be applied to the payment of the bonds negotiated
through them by the Citizens' Bank until they reach Amsterdam; they (Hope &
Co.) acting merely as distributors of the funds when placed there with them,
all risk of transmission belonging to the bank. Such, I know, was the case with
the bonds negotiated by Baring Bros. & Co., issued by the State of
Louisiana to the Union Bank of Louisiana. Moreover, it is very probable that
the Citizens' Bank has ample funds in London to make the payment due in
Amsterdam this year, and will use them for that purpose should the money seized
be given up. It should not be forgotten that the Citizens' Bank, or the
president, or some other person connected with the bank, has been reported as
acting in some way, directly or indirectly, as fiscal agent of the Confederate
Government, and that that Government may have funds in the hands of such agent,
which were on deposit with the Citizens' Bank. It is even probable that a
portion of the gold stolen from the mint in New Orleans at the commencement of
the rebellion was deposited in the Citizens' Bank by some agent or officer of
the Confederate Government. My opinion is that if the money seized should be
delivered up to the consul it will find its way back into the vault of the
Citizens' Bank, and that Hope & Co. will be placed in funds to meet the
bonds and coupons due this year from other resources of the bank. If the money
seized should be found to belong rightfully to Hope & Co., then let the
Government send the equivalent amount from here to Hope & Co. by bills of
exchange on London, and use the specie where it is for their own purposes.
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. 139-40
No comments:
Post a Comment