Price Edwards to the commissioners of customs, February 26, 1864
Mr. Edwards to the commissioners of customs.
Honorable Sirs: I have this morning received your order of the 25th instant, enclosing the copy of a letter from the Foreign Office, dated the 24th instant, respecting a statement alleged to have been made by me concerning the shipment of guns on the Gibraltar, and directing me to report whether the statement correctly represents what I said to Messrs. Klingender & Co.; and if not, what I really did say.
I beg to report that, pursuant to your order of the 15th June last, I called upon Messrs. Klingender & Co. for an explanation as to the necessity of and reason for placing the guns and gun-carriages on board the ship in question, and placed a stop in the clearing of the ship until further orders. In consequence of this Mr. Klingender and his solicitor called upon me, and in the course of conversation inquired whether there would be any objection to the shipment of such guns to New York. Before replying to the question I sent for the principal office searcher, whose report I annex, and ascertained from him that shipment of all kinds of arms and guns to New York was continually going on, and I then answered there would be no objection to the exportation of such guns to New York.
I may add that shipments of this kind to New York have been continually going on since the commencement of the war between the federal and confederate States, and that on the 16th last February I transmitted to Sir Thomas Fremantle, for the information of the War Office, an account of the shipment of arms, &c., to America, showing the quantity, description, and value. No opinion was given by me as to the facility of shipping arms, either for the federal or confederate government, as I had nothing to do with reference to the ultimate destination of the goods, but merely to reply to an inquiry whether they could be shipped to New York; nevertheless the inference was a very natural one, that if arms were forwarded to New York they would be for the use of the federal government, and hence possibly Mr. Klingender, whom I have not seen since, and of whom I had no knowledge previously, may have formed his conclusions. I herewith return the copy of the letter from the Foreign Office.