Year

Letters from 1861

3,413 letters
Letter

“henry Sawyer.” to Immediately on the receipt of it I addressed the following note to the minister of foreign affairs. [Untitled] “ The Hague , October 8, 1861 . “ Sir : I have just received a communication from the American consul at Paramaribo under date of the 4th of September last, which I lose no time in laying before your excellency. “The consul states.” [See above.] “The reappearance of the Sumter in a port of the Netherlands, after so brief an interval, seems to disclose a deliberate purpose on the part of the persons engaged in rebellion against the United States government to practice upon the presumed indifference, the expected favor, or the fancied weakness of the Dutch government. “During a period of forty-six days, during which we have heard of this piratical vessel in the West Indies, it would appear that she had been twice entertained and supplied at Dutch ports, and spent eighteen days under their shelter. “This can be no accidental circumstance. “In the multitude of harbors with which the West India seas abound, the Sumter has had no occasion to confine her visits so entirely to the ports of one nation, especially one so scantily supplied with them as Holland. And the fact that she does so is, in my judgment, not fairly susceptible of any other interpretation than the one I have given. “I feel convinced that the government of the Netherlands will see in this repeated visit of the Sumter (this time, it appears, without any pretext) a distinct violation of its neutrality according to its own views, as laid down in your excellency’s communication to me of the 17th of September last, and a case which will call for the energetic assertion of its purpose expressed in the paper referred to, namely, not to allow its ports to be made the base of hostile operations against the United States. For that the Sumter is clearly making such use of the Dutch ports would seem to admit of no controversy. “In view of the existing state of the correspondence between the United States and the Netherlands on the general subject to which this case belongs, and of the questions and relations involved therein, I shall be excused for the brevity of this communication upon a topic of so much importance and so provocative of comment. “The undersigned avails himself,”, October 9, 1861

From “henry Sawyer.”
To Immediately on the receipt of it I addressed the following note to the minister of foreign affairs. [Untitled] “ The Hague , October 8, 1861 . “ Sir : I have just received a communication from the American consul at Paramaribo under date of the 4th of September last, which I lose no time in laying before your excellency. “The consul states.” [See above.] “The reappearance of the Sumter in a port of the Netherlands, after so brief an interval, seems to disclose a deliberate purpose on the part of the persons engaged in rebellion against the United States government to practice upon the presumed indifference, the expected favor, or the fancied weakness of the Dutch government. “During a period of forty-six days, during which we have heard of this piratical vessel in the West Indies, it would appear that she had been twice entertained and supplied at Dutch ports, and spent eighteen days under their shelter. “This can be no accidental circumstance. “In the multitude of harbors with which the West India seas abound, the Sumter has had no occasion to confine her visits so entirely to the ports of one nation, especially one so scantily supplied with them as Holland. And the fact that she does so is, in my judgment, not fairly susceptible of any other interpretation than the one I have given. “I feel convinced that the government of the Netherlands will see in this repeated visit of the Sumter (this time, it appears, without any pretext) a distinct violation of its neutrality according to its own views, as laid down in your excellency’s communication to me of the 17th of September last, and a case which will call for the energetic assertion of its purpose expressed in the paper referred to, namely, not to allow its ports to be made the base of hostile operations against the United States. For that the Sumter is clearly making such use of the Dutch ports would seem to admit of no controversy. “In view of the existing state of the correspondence between the United States and the Netherlands on the general subject to which this case belongs, and of the questions and relations involved therein, I shall be excused for the brevity of this communication upon a topic of so much importance and so provocative of comment. “The undersigned avails himself,”
October 9, 1861

Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward. No. 20.] United States Legation,The Hague, October 9, 1861. Sir: Since my last (under date of October 2) I have received a letter from the…

19th CenturyCivil WarDiplomacy