Mr. Seward to Mr. Geofroy
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 12th nstant, by which I am informed that the imperial government of France has earned from various quarters that the president of the United States of Mexico by you described as ex-president) has not abandoned the project of issuing etters of marque against French commerce, and that there are being constructed [Page 252] in the ports of the United States, especially at New Orleans and at San Francisco, vessels designed to cruise for his account.
In reply, I am at liberty to inform you that this government has no knowledge of the design which is thus ascribed to the president of Mexico, nor has it any information that any such vessels are building, as is supposed, in either of the two ports you have specially designated, or in any other port of the United States. The vigilance of public officers is such as to inspire a confident belief that the information which the Emperor’s government has received is erroneous. Nevertheless, for greater security of the present neutrality of the United States, that information will be specially submitted to the proper agents in New Orleans and San Francisco, with renewed injunctions for the discovery and prevention of the arming or fitting out of vessels-of-war to depredate on French commerce. Similar proceedings will be adopted in relation to other ports upon my receiving any information of unlawful designs or enterprises afoot therein.
It seems unnecessary to discuss the question you have raised, whether the president of Mexico has a right, by the law of nations, to grant letters of marque, inasmuch as this government peremptorily exacts perfect neutrality from citizens of the United States in the Mexican war.
Accept, sir, a renewed assurance of my high consideration.
Mr. L. de Geofroy, &c., &c., &c.