Unknown to C. J. McRae, February 14, 1864

Hon. C. J. MCRAE: My Dear Sir: I cheerfully comply with your request to state what I know of Major Huse in connection with certain rumors respecting his mode of living, &c. I have seen much of Major Huse since I have been in Europe, and everything that I have seen has impressed me most favorably in his behalf. He lives with great simplicity and economy in the suburbs of Paris, occupying a house belonging to Messrs. Erlanger & Co., for which I have always understood that he pays no rent. He has always seemed to me to be animated by an anxious desire to perform most scrupulously and consistently the duties intrusted to him. Very truly, yours,

PaRIs, February 13, 1864. C. J. MCRAE, Esq.,

DEAR SIR: In the correspondence published in the New York Herald, and attributed to Mr. Charles Lamar, I read that Major Huse is said ” to have received from his English friends a country house at Auteuil, near Paris, where he lives in great style.” Now, I think it my duty to inform you that the country house where Major Huse lives is mine; that I am the owner of several country houses in Auteuil which I do not like to let, and that I have offered Major Huse and Colonel Bulloch the use of one of these houses, which is furnished, during their stay in Paris and as long as I should not want the house myself. Iam not called to express any opinion on the character of Major Huse, but I will say so much that, when in our early negotiations about the loan we desired Major Huse to take out the proposition for the Confederate States (which he was willing to do), and offered him for the danger he would be exposed to by running the blockade a compensation, he declined it, saying that in his capacity as a Confederate officer he thought he had no right to accept it.

A man’s character is easily stained by false assertions, and I think it a duty to establish truth whenever to my knowledge false statements have been made.

Believe me, dear sir, very truly, yours,