No. 618.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 15th of July, No. 513, together with the copy of a confidential memorandum from M. Drouyn de l'Huys, on the subject of the imprisonment of Mr. Mansfield, United States consul at Tabasco. It gives me very sincere pleasure to acknowledge the delicacy and good feeling which M. Drouyn de l'Huys has shown in making me acquainted with a view of Mr. Mansfield's conduct entirely at variance with the reports from him upon which my representations to the imperial government in his case were based. I am, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM L. DAYTON, Esq., &c., &c., &c. * * * * * WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No. 619.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, July 28, 1864. SIR: Your despatch of the 15th of July, No. 512, has been received, and its contents have been communicated to the Secretary of the Navy. The weight of information which has been received here favors a belief that the insurgent agents in Europe have become convinced of their failure to build or buy and set up in Europe a navy to break our blockade and revolutionize this governA few weeks, if not days, will verify this conclusion, if it is correct, and in the mean time our forces now in European waters will, if properly displayed, save us from any unlooked for naval accident there. ment. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 8th of July, No. 506. You will please assure M. Drouyn de l'Huys that the President appreciates highly the frankness and the good will with which the Emperor's government has received the proceedings of this government, in attempting to prevent a permanent alienation between Spain and Peru. I give you a copy of my latest despatch to Mr. Koerner for your information concerning our views of the present condition of that interesting question. I am, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: I have your despatch of the 13th of July, No. 510, which recalls the report of an intended new design on the part of the Emperor of the French to propose mediation in our civil war. I approve of the reticence you have practiced on the subject in your communication with M. Drouyn de l'Huys, and of the reasons you assign for that reserve. I have only to say upon the subject itself, that any such proceeding would meet with a prompt and decided answer from the United States. The principal of foreign mediation in our affairs cannot be, in any form or under any circumstances, admitted. You will make this explanation, or refrain from making it, in the exercise of your own discretion. But when you find it necessary to speak upon pretensions of mediation in any quarter, you will be expected to speak not doubtfully in the sense in which I have written. SIR: I have received your despatch of the 18th of July, No. 515, which gives me your views of the complaint of Mr. Chase, United States consul at Tampico, concerning certain notes addressed to him by a French officer on the entrance of a French military force at that place. Your despatch is accompanied by a memorandum concerning the case which M. Drouyn de l'Huys has committed to you for the information of this government. This memorandum is written in a candid and liberal spirit, and induces an expectation that, when the minister for foreign affairs shall have received the explanations which he has asked from the military authorities, he will relieve the case of all its gravity, by showing us that the French officer addressed his offensive notes to the consul, without proper consideration of the respect due to that officer as an agent of the United States, and that the rudeness of the note is disapproved by his Imperial Majesty's government. I freely admit that I concur with you in the opinion that Mr. Chase might, with entire propriety, have consented to the proposed withdrawal of the note of which he complains; and I regret that he did not do so. You are quite at liberty to communicate this opinion of mine to M. Drouyn de l'Huys. This government attaches only as much importance to ceremonial questions as the prevailing state of public sentiment on this class of national issues requires. It has no desire to lift them to the dignity of diplomatic debate. I am, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM L. DAYTON, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No. 629.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 8, 1864. SIR: I have your despatch of the 20th of July, No. 517, together with its accompaniments, namely: a note which was addressed to you by our excellent consul at Nantes, Mr. de la Montagnie, concerning the two clipper ships which are being built at that port. The circumspection and vigilance which the consul practices are deemed worthy of very high commendation, and the information he gives is regarded as meriting attention. At the same time I am so much impressed with the good faith and directness which have been manifested by M. Drouyn de l'Huys, that I feel quite sure that he will at all times promptly answer any inquiries you may find it necessary to make concerning the vessels in question. In the last extremity the naval force now in European waters ought to be ready to capture or destroy them, and I therefore hope that you will take care that the naval commanders are kept well informed. I am, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM L. DAYTON, Esq., &c., &c., &c. No. 520.] WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. PARIS, August 9, 1846. SIR: I have the honor to report to you the arrival of the American war steamer Iroquois at Brest on the 29th of July last. Captain Rogers immediately communicated his presence in French waters, and asked for counsel or instructions. I had in fact none to give. He said he would leave Brest on Monday last, and presume he did so. He has gone in search, I think, of the Kearsarge, with which vessel, for certain purposes, he desires to communicate. I I am much gratified to learn from your despatch, No. 601, that my conduct in reference to all my late proceedings, in respect to the Alabama and Kearsarge, are approved. The Emperor and officers of the government are generally out of town, and M. Drouyn de l'Huys has been so likewise. On two of the late reception days for business at the Foreign Office, we have had notice that the diplomatic corps would not be received. This is, therefore, a slack season for business. SIR: I enclose for your information a copy of a letter which I have received from his excellency Frederick F. Low, governor of California, relative to the rumor there that Mr. William M. Gwin is to be minister of finance under the new government of Mexico, and also concerning the supposed policy of the Emperor of France in regard to indemnity for the expenses of the war. I am, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. WILLIAM L. DAYTON, Esq., &c., &c., &c. Governor Low to Mr. Seward, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Sacramento, July 18, 1864. SIR: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 20th June, enclosing copy of an extract from a letter received by you from Paris, giving information concerning the movements of Mr. William M. Gwin. There is a rumor here that Gwin is to be minister of finance under the new government of Mexico, but I cannot vouch for the correctness of the report. My impressions are that the Emperor of France will require indemnity for the expenses of the war, and in the absence of any revenue which could be applied to that purpose, he will demand and receive from Maximilian certain territory which will comprise the States of Sonora and Sinaloa, probably in lieu of a money consideration. Gwin has probably been sent as an emissary to shape the public mind for such a state of things. In any event, the ports in the gulf of California will most likely be a sort of rendezvous for plotters of treason, bearing a similar relation to the Pacific coast that Nassau does to the Atlantic. The Mexican question is one that is of especial importance to the people of this State, and for any information concerning it, which you may think proper to communicate to me, I would feel especially obliged. I have the honor to be your obedient servant, FREDERICK F. LOW. Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. PARIS, August 19, 1864. SIR: M. Drouyn de l'Huys recently made complaint to me of the conduct of Commodore Craven, of the United States ship Niagara, that when off the port of Cherbourg he failed in discharge of certain courtesies or international civilities due to the French flag, a copy of which letter of complaint is hereunto attached. I immediately addressed a note to the commodore then at Flushing to learn his view of the question, and the reasons he would assign for this conduct, to which I received a prompt answer. A copy of this answer has been by me attached to a note from myself, forwarded to M. Drouyn de l'Huys. A copy of this correspondence is hereunto attached. I am, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, &c., &c., &c. WM. L. DAYTON. M. Drouyn de l'Huys to Mr. Dayton. [Translation.] Memorandum. The minister of foreign affairs of the Emperor has the honor to bring the following facts to the knowledge of M. the minister of the United States. The 6th of this month the federal frigate Niagara arrived in view of Cherbourg. A pilot-boat, as is usual, went alongside to offer her its services for entering into the harbor. Although the commander of the Niagara had not, as it seems, the intention to anchor at Cherbourg, the pilot was retained on the frigate, and a short time afterwards was sent to take an officer on board the federal corvette Sacramento, which had been in free pratique for several days, and was consequently in constant communication with the shore. This officer was afterwards taken back by the same pilot to the frigate Niagara with the captain of the Sacramento, and the American vice-consul, M. Liais. The two latter, after hav ing remained some time upon the frigate, re-embarked in the pilot-boat to return into the harbor. At the moment when they left the Niagara, which was then near the pass between Fort Chaougnac and that on the end of the breakwater, that is to say, in French waters, the American vice-consul was saluted with seven guns, without any salute being paid either before or afterwards to the French flag. M. the minister of the United States will recognize how much there is incorrect and much to be regretted in this manner of proceeding. In communicating with the harbor without making the entry, that is to say, without having his bill of health examined, and without any authorization, the commander of the Niagara, in the first place, violated the sanitary regulations. After this first fault, aggravated still more by this circumstance, of sending an officer on board of the Sacramento, which had obtained free pratique, and was thus in constant relation with the shore, the commander of the Niagara has been wanting in the simplest proprieties in firing cannon within range of the French forts without having previously saluted the French flag. Things passed in such a manner that the guardship, charged to see to the observance of the sanitary regulations at Cherbourg, was able only at the last moment to remark their breach, and was obliged to confine itself to sending out to the boat which was bringing back the American vice-consul and the captain to the Sacramento a boat commanded by an officer, to bring to their notice the serious irregularity of which they had just been guilty. The repetition of similar incidents, which constitute at once an offence against international usages, and a forgetfulness of the regards due to the French flag and to the French authorities, would risk compromising the good relations which these latter are desirous of entertaining with the American officers; and the government of the Emperor, if it was not assured (assuré) that they would not be renewed, might be led to interdict entrance into its ports to vessels which would act as the Niagara has done. The minister of foreign affairs of his Majesty hopes, consequently, that M. the minister of the United States will be pleased to address to the American vice-consul at Cherbourg the blame which he has incurred, and to the commander of the federal navy the observations which the irregularities admit of-only the more difficult to pass over in silence since they have already occurred several times, although we have abstained from noticing them on every occasion. Mr. Dayton to Captain Craven. PARIS, July 27, 1864. SIR: I have received a memorandum or "note verbale," as he calls it, from M. Drouyn de l'Huys, the French minister of foreign affairs, calling my attention to the fact, that on the 6th of this month the Niagara appeared off the port of Cherbourg, and although you did not enter that port or intend to do so, you took a pilot and afterwards sent him with an officer to the Sacramento, which was regularly in harbor. That this pilot-boat shortly returned on board the Niagara, bringing the captain of the Sacramento and Mr. Liais, our vice-consul, who, after remaining on board some time, left. Upon leaving they were saluted by the Niagara with seven cannon, without any salute having been fired to the French flag. He says this was done while in French waters between Fort Chaougnac and the fort at the end of the breakwater. M. Drouyn de l'Huys informs me that a recurrence of these incidents will risk compromising the good relations they are anxious to entertain with the federal officers, and the government of the Emperor, if it was not sure (assuré) they would not occur again, |