Jules Favre to E. B. Washburne stands for Elihu Benjamin Washburne., September 26, 1870

Minister of foreign affairs to Mr. E. B. Washburne.

Sir: You did me the honor to write me on the 24th of this month to inform me of the wish expressed to you by the consuls general and by the consuls of the republics, viz: Dominican, of Uruguay, of Costa Rica, of Ecuador, of Chili, of Paraguay, and of Venezuela, to place under our protection, and to confide to your good offices, the arms, flags, and residences of the consulates, as well as their fellow countrymen residing in Paris.

I hasten to inform you that the government of the national defense, to whom I have submitted this request, has authorized me to receive it favorably. The foreign consuls certainly could not make a choice which would be more acceptable to us than that of the representative of the United States. However, as certain of them are French, it should be understood that (conformably, too, to what is stipulated in their exequaturs) the favor solicited by them is not to have the effect of keeping them personally from the obligations and duties imposed upon them in their quality of Frenchmen. The position in France of the citizens of the republic of South America, in time of war as in time of peace, is settled by treaties. As far as those republics are concerned which have made choice of Frenchmen as consuls, the application of the measures of favor stipulated in those treaties can extend only to the archives of the consulates and to the foreigners depending upon them, and this only for what depends upon the competency or the powers of the French administration.

Receive the assurances, &c., &c.