CLOUE, Commanding the Naval Division of the Mexican Gulf to The General, November 6, 1865

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The following is the correspondence between the American commander and the officer in command of the French fleet:

First Letter.

General: I have been exactly informed as to the events taking place in the surroundings of Matamoras—that is to say, that I am perfectly cognizant of the assistance which the so-called liberals have received and still receive from Texas, and more especially from Brownsville.

The mess stores and munitions of war are furnished by persons under your command. Escobedo’s pieces are worked by gunners from your army who are not mustered out of service.

The wounded are received in the Brownsville hospital.

The officers of Escobedo and Cortinia daily go to that city (armed) to take their meals or to rest during the leisure hours which the siege of Matamoras leaves them. In a word, Brownsville seems to be the headquarters of the Juarists. And it is undoubted that neither Escobedo nor Cortina could undertake anything if they did not have these continually renewed resources from Texas to sustain them.

I will take the liberty to recall to your memory how very different to what is passing here has been the conduct of France during the recent war which has just torn the American Union. France remained loyally neutral. If it had been otherwise—if we had done the one-hundredth part of what is being done in Brownsville or on the banks of the Rio Grande— the American people would have loudly protested, and they would have been right.

The international laws adopted by all civilized nations are obligatory upon all. As they bound us in honor to remain neutral, so do they bind you also; you cannot pretend to be exempt from rules upon which you have leaned under pretext that they are now useless.

After having presented to you, general, the preceding observations, I close my letter by protesting in the most formal manner against the flagrant violation of neutrality on this frontier, and particularly in Brownsville.

Accept, general, the assurance of my highest esteem and most perfect consideration.