650 



NEW ORLEANS. 



power. M. Mercier also laid before the Secre- 

 tary of State the substance of a letter from 

 Count Mejan, the French consul at New Or- 

 leans, who complained that domiciliary visits, 

 without the authority of written orders, were 

 made at all hours of the day and night ; that 

 arbitrary arrests and imprisonments were fre- 

 quent and unseasonable ; and that several 

 keepers of bars, restaurants, billiard rooms, and 

 similar establishments, had been compelled by 

 Gen. Butler, who claimed to act by virtue of 

 martial law, to take out annual licenses in ad- 

 dition to those previously paid by them. In 

 view of these representations, the Hon. Reverdy 

 Johnson was early in June appointed a special 

 commissioner to proceed to New Orleans and 

 inquire into the transactions, involving any 

 question of the violation of consular privileges, 

 which had taken place there, and to report his 

 decision to the Government. 



The case of M. Conturie was the most im- 

 portant which came under Mr. Johnson's 

 notice, and soon after his arrival in New 

 Orleans a complaint was preferred by the French 

 consul that ho had been interrogated by Gen. 

 Butler with respect to a large amount of coin 

 deposited at the consulate for safe keeping, and 

 had been compelled to promise not to part with 

 it until the matter could be investigated. As 

 both transactions were similar in character, 

 they were examined together, and the follow- 

 ing statement of facts was reported by the com- 

 missioner : 



The sum in the hands of the consul of the 

 Netherlands, amounting to $800,000, was, under 

 a resolution of the Board of Directors of the 

 Citizens' Bank of New Orleans, of Feb. 24, 1862, 

 paid to Mr. Edward J. Forstall of that city, the 

 agent of Messrs. Hope & Co. of Amsterdam, 

 to be transmitted at the first opportunity to 

 that house, to enable it to protect the credit of 

 the bank and of the State of Louisiana, by pay- 

 ing, as it accrued, the interest on certain bonds 

 of the State, long before loaned to the bank, un- 

 der an agreement that, before disposing of them, 

 the bank should indorse them, and stipulate 

 to meet punctually the interest and principal. 

 The bonds were negotiated in Europe many 

 years since by the bank, through the agency of 

 the Amsterdam house, and the interest that had 

 fallen due from time to time, up to the period 

 of the advance to Mr. Forstall, had been regu- 

 larly paid through the same agency. Mr. For- 

 stall, having no safe place of his own for so large 

 an amount of coin, deposited it for security 

 with the consul of the Netherlands, taking his 

 receipt for it at the time of the deposit. The 

 transaction on the part of the bank was in no 

 respect a secret one. The resolution which de- 

 termined upon it was unanimously adopted at 

 a full meeting of the Board of Directors, and 

 inserted in their journal of proceeedings, and 

 all the corresponding and necessary entries 

 were made in their appropriate places in the 

 books of the bank. 



The same bank, having occasion for a further 



credit in Europe on "which to draw exchange, 

 purchased of Messrs. Dupasseur and Co., a 

 French house in the city, bills on Paris for 

 about $750,000, paying for them as agreed in 

 coin. The amount was delivered to the house 

 by the bank and deposited by them, they being 

 French subjects, with the French consul, until 

 it could be shipped to Paris, to cover the bills. 

 At the same time the bills were handed to the 

 bank, which transmitted them as soon as it 

 could to its correspondent in Europe, to be 

 at the proper period presented for acceptance 

 and payment. It was a part of the understand- 

 ing that the Paris bankers were not to accept 

 until they were advised of the shipment of the 

 coin. Before that could be effected, Maj.-Gen. 

 Butler, hearing that the coin was in possession 

 of the consul, and conjecturing that the trans- 

 action was illegal, requested him to retain it. 



From these facts Mr. Johnson concluded that 

 the transaction was a purely mercantile one, 

 in perfect good faith, and that the United States 

 could have no interest in the coin except upon 

 the ground of forfeiture, for which there had 

 never been any pretence. " If it be alleged," 

 he observed, " as matter of suspicion (the proof 

 is all the other way) that the purpose of the 

 bank was to place so much of its funds beyond 

 the control of the United States, that, if true, 

 would be no cause of forfeiture, there being no 

 law, State or Congressional, to prohibit it. If 

 it be alleged that the purpose was to place the 

 fund in Europe for the advantage of the rebels, 

 the answer is, there is not only no proof of the 

 fact, but the proof actually before me wholly 

 contradicts it." In a published card in reply to 

 statements in the newspaper press as to the ul- 

 timate destination of the money, he denied em- 

 phatically that it had been sent in whole or in 

 part to Havana to purchase arms and clothing 

 for the Confederate Government, or that it had 

 been employed for any purpose connected with 

 secession. His report was approved by the 

 President, and in the latter part of August in- 

 structions were sent to Gen. Butler t(P relin- 

 quish all claims on behalf of the United States 

 upon the funds in question. 



On two other occasions Gen. Butler was 

 brought into conflict with the consuls under 

 circumstances which produced an unusually 

 acrimonious correspondence. In a communi- 

 cation dated June 11, the British, French, and 

 Greek consuls complained that certain sugars 

 bought by Covas & Co. and Ralli, Benachi 

 & Co., foreign houses in New Orleans, on 

 foreign account, in the usual manner in which 

 such business is carried on, were prohibited 

 by the commander-in-chief to be removed. 

 " But," they added, " as the undersigned are 

 disposed to waive all past proceedings, they 

 beg that the order not permitting the removal 

 of the produce in question be rescinded and the 

 sugars left at the disposal of the purchasers." 



In reply Gen. Butler stated that he had in- 

 formation that Covas had sold sterling exchange 

 for Confederate treasury notes, with which he 



