GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy to William Hunter, August 3, 1865

Mr. Welles to Mr. Hunter

Sir: I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 26th instant, enclosing a copy of a despatch from the United States minister in Peru “relative to the forcible abduction, by Commodore Colvocoresses, of the United States sloop-of-war St. Mary’s,” of a deserter from his vessel, from the English ship Star of Hope,

The department has no hesitation in disapproving the conduct of Commodore Colvocoresses in the matter referred to, and I enclose herewith a copy of a letter addressed to that officer on the subject.

Although the department deems the course pursued by Commodore Colvocoresses in a high degree censurable, there does not appear to be an entire absence of palliating circumstances in the case.

It is evident, beyond question, that the man was an American citizen and a deserter from a United States ship-of-war; that the master of the merchant vessel was determined to harbor and employ the deserter, knowing him to be such; that the British vice-consul, Mr. Dartnell, after ascertaining the facts of the case, readily assented to his surrender, but was unable to enforce this decision; and that Commodore Colvocoresses, not being well versed in public law, was thus naturally led to infer that in doing himself what the vice-consul, would promptly have done for him had he possessed the necessary power, he committed nothing more than a nominal aggression. Neither of them appears to have had sufficient capacity to comprehend that, in the manner of arriving at substantial justice in this case, an important principle was overlooked; a principle which this government has so often, in other days, had occasion most strenuously to contend for, and would still be among the last to disregard.

Very respectfully, &c.,