Harispe to [Here follows General Butler’s order and Collector Dennison’s certificate, both in English.], September 16, 1862

No. 2.

Sir: By the Spanish steamboat Cardenas, which arrived a few days ago from Havana, my mercantile firm, Castillo & Harispe, received 250 bundles marked [C], containing 500|¼ reams of white printing paper (1) of double size and American manufacture, purchased at New York and sent to the mart of Havana, to be thence forwarded here.

This paper was sent, as usual, to the custom-house, and while my clerk, Mr. Justin Durel, was getting it insured, or secured, he was accosted by Lieutenant Colonel Brown, of the eighth regiment of Vermont volunteers, invested with the direction of the newspaper “The Daily Delta,” who asked him if the paper was for sale. On his answering in the affirmative, he asked him the price of it. Not being able to tell him, he referred him to me.

On the next day Mr. Brown came to my counting-room. I told him that I asked nothing better than to sell him the paper, but that my friends having failed to transmit certain documents which were necessary in order that it might be entered for consumption without paying the customs duties, I could not dispose of it unless, through his influence, the custom-house would consent to deliver it to me on condition that I should furnish, as soon as possible, the documents that were wanting, to which I was quite ready to bind myself. Mr. Brown made some objections to my proposition, but seemed desirous to have the paper. Having received by the preceding trip of the steamer Cardenas another lot of 100 reams of printing paper, and wishing to oblige Mr. Brown I offered it to him. He answered me that he supposed that that paper was not in the customs warehouses. I told him that it must be there, and that I had just sent a clerk to the custom-house to pay the duties on it. Mr. Brown insisted on having the lot of 500 reams. I requested him to return on the next day so that I could tell him the price of each of the lots, because that of 500 reams came included in an invoice with several other articles of merchandise, and that, besides the difficulty above mentioned with the custom-house, it was not easy for me to fix the price right away.

On the next day Mr. Brown returned and asked me if I had ascertained the net cost of the 500 reams. I answered him that I had not been able to do so in a satisfactory manner, but that I could sell him the lot of 100 reams at $5 50 the ream, according to a minute calculation which I showed him. He answered me, as on the evening before, that that paper was not in the custom-house, and, changing his tone, he told me that he wanted the 500 reams, and to tell him a price. I answered him that, seeing that he insisted so much, I would sell him the paper at $9 50 the ream, he answering to the custom-house for the duties. This price was 50 cents a ream lower than that which he had paid a few days before for a lot of 75 reams, which one of my friends, Mr. Jules Sazerac, of New York, had sold to him. Nevertheless he found my price excessive, and seeing that I was unwilling to make any concession to him, he told me that he could dispose of my paper if he so wished, I told him that I did not doubt but he could do so, but that I warned him that I was a foreigner, and that the paper was also foreign property. He withdrew without saying another word.

Two days afterwards I learned that the 500 reams of paper had been taken from the custom-house by Lieutenant Colonel Brown in virtue of an order from Major General Butler, of which a copy has been handed to me by the collector of customs.

Desirous of settling this affair without making it the subject of a reclamation, I presented to Lieutenant Colonel Brown, conformably to what is directed in the order of seizure of General Butler as regards payment, the invoice of the 500 reams, at the rate of $9 50 the ream, taken at the custom-house, the price at which I had offered to sell them to him before the seizure. He refused to pay it, under the pretext that he could not do so without a special order from General Butler.

I had been to see General Butler, who, contrary to the condition made by himself, has signified to me that my paper will not be paid for until I shall furnish a certificate showing that it is an American production, so that it can be imported for consumption free of duties, since, otherwise, its price would be much too high. The general added, that meanwhile my paper was as safe in the possession of the department of the Gulf as in the customs warehouses.

The said invoice amounted to $4,752 37—the value on the 13th instant when the paper was seized.

Having in vain exhausted the means in my power to recover this sum, I proceed to protest before you against the proper parties, and to request you immediately to give to this affair such results as you may deem suitable for duly indemnifying my firm for the injustice of which it has been the victim.

I have the honor to be, Mr. Consul, &c,