Mr. Seward to Mr. Van Limburg.
Sir: The honorable Reverdy Johnson, who, as you have heretofore been informed, was appointed by this department a commissioner to proceed to New Orleans and investigate, among other affairs, transactions which occurred there affecting the consul of the Netherlands, and certain subjects of the King of the Netherlands, under the direction of Major General Butler, has performed that duty, has submitted his reports concerning the same, and they have been approved by the President. I have thought it not improper to present you, for the information of your government, a complete copy of so much of those reports as relates to the transactions herein above mentioned. As a result of the approval of Mr. Johnson’s proceedings in the premises, I have now the honor to inform you that the eight hundred thousand dollars in coin which was taken by Colonel Shepley, under direction of Major General Butler, from the possession of Amedee Conturié, the consul of the Netherlands at New Orleans, and which was claimed to have been deposited with him to the use of Messrs. Hope & Co., of Amsterdam, and which is more particularly described in the correspondence which has heretofore taken place between yourself and this department, will be restored by the major general, or the United States officer commanding at New Orleans, to either Mr. Conturié, the consul of the Netherlands, or to Mr. Forstall, as the agent of Messrs. Hope & Co., or to the Citizens’ Bank of Louisiana, whichsoever of them you may designate. I refer the designation of it to yourself, because your government has intervened in regard to the transaction, whereby its consent to the designation has become necessary, and it will of course be conclusive.
Secondly, I proceed to speak of the articles of property other than coin described specifically by part number two in a statement of the said consul, Mr. Conturié, dated May 13, 1862, and which was submitted to this department by you, as follows: One tin box, to which was given the name of a bank box in this city, locked, containing first, ten bonds of the consolidated debt of the city of New Orleans for one thousand dollars ($1,000) each, making the nominal value of ten thousand dollars; second, eight bonds of the city of Mobile of the value of one thousand dollars ($1,000) each, the nominal value of which is eight thousand dollars, ($8,000,) claimed by Mr. Conturié to have been deposited with him on the 12th day of April last, by Edward I. Forstall, esq., in the capacity of agent, and as the property of Messrs. Hope & Co.; third, divers papers, being titles and deeds, the consular commission of Mr. Conturié and his exequatur No. 3, six other tin boxes, marked with the name of Amedee Conturié, containing private deeds, silver ware, &c, which boxes are claimed to be the property of divers persons for whom he was acting [Page 637] as agent; fourth, two or more tin boxes, the property of the Hope Insurance Company of the city of New Orleans, which occupied a portion of the premises in which the consulate was located. The extracts from Mr. Johnson’s report will show you that, under his direction, all this property would have been delivered to Mr. Conturié if he had not declined to accept it for reasons specified by him in a letter to Mr. Johnson. Upon his thus declining, the eighteen bonds were delivered by Major General Butler, under Mr. Johnson’s direction, to Mr. Forstall, as agent for Messrs. Hope & Co. A copy of his receipt for the same is herewith transmitted to you, and the original will be handed to you or given to whomsoever you may indicate. The other articles named in said statement No. 2 will be delivered by Major General Butler, or other officer commanding at New Orleans, to Mr. Conturié, unless you shall designate some other person to receive them.
In your note of the 28th of July last you informed me that your government shared the satisfaction which you had expressed when, on a previous occasion, I announced to you that the President and government of the United States viewed the conduct of the military authorities at New Orleans, in regard to the transaction in which Mr. Conturié, the consul of the Netherlands, was concerned, as a violation of the law of nations, and that they disapproved of it, and disapproved the sanction which had been given to it by Major General Butler. You added, however, that your government flattered itself that the United States would go further, and that, in the view of the government of the Netherlands, the gravity and publicity of the outrage (as you are pleased to call the transaction) demand that the government of the United States give public evidence of its regret, for example, by manifesting, by some public act, its dissatisfaction with Major General Butler. You further add that the government of the Netherlands, conceiving, until proof is made to the contrary, that Mr. Conturié, its consul, has acted in good faith, expects that the government of the United States will not refuse to do likewise, and that it will please, consequently, to invite the consul, who, on the avowal of the American government itself, has been ill used, to resume his consular functions. I cannot avoid thinking that these requests are made by your government under a mistaken idea that the United States, for some reason, desire in some way to cover or conceal from the world the proceedings which they have taken in regard to these questions. If this be true, your government has fallen into a serious error. The whole of the proceedings have been direct, frank, and unreserved. The United States, as you are aware, did not only express their regret for the transaction, and their dissatisfaction with General Butler in the premises, in the language you have quoted, but they also sent an agent to ascertain the extent of injuries which were complained of, to the end that they might promptly be redressed, and that restitution might be made. That redress has been made, and the restitution ordered, immediately upon the facts on which it depended having been established. Moreover, you were advised in my former communication that simultaneously with the appointment of Mr. Johnson as commissioner, Major General Butler was relieved of his functions as military governor of New Orleans, and Brigadier General Shepley was appointed military governor of that city; the military authorities were at the same time directed to invite Mr. Conturié to resume his consular functions. These proceedings fully appear in the official correspondence which has taken place between yourself and this department. This correspondence is not a private but a public one, which your government is at entire liberty to promulgate without reserve whenever it shall please to do so, and whether your government shall think proper to so promulgate it or not, it will, according to our national habit, be communicated without any reservation to Congress, on their assembling here, on the first Monday of December next. Nor is it all a matter of reserve on the part of this government that the dissatisfaction with Major General Butler’s precipitancy and harshness, in the transaction [Page 638] concerned, were among the causes for transferring the administration of public affairs at New Orleans to General Shepley. It is very true, sir, as you remark, that Mr. Conturié has been very ill used, and upon that ground General Shepley will be directed to invite him at New Orleans to resume his consular functions, if, indeed, he has not done so already under previous instructions. But I must nevertheless accompany this instruction with the declaration that, in the judgment of this government, Mr. Conturié has acted throughout the transaction, which has been reviewed, and even throughout the investigation, after what has taken place, in a manner that was very indiscreet, and calculated, though I presume not intended, to embarrass the relations between your country and our own; and that unless his conduct hereafter shall exhibit more of consideration for the authority of the United States, it must not be expected that the President will be content with his remaining in the consulate at New Orleans. I trust, sir, that your government will be satisfied that the United States have resolved the questions which have been discussed between us in a spirit not only of good faith, but also of friendship and good will towards their ancient and esteemed friend the Netherlands.
I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, sir, the assurance of my very high consideration.