I have the honor to enclose you the reply of the minister of foreign
affairs to my note of the 22d of last month, a copy of which I forwarded
to you in my last.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient
servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington.
Mr. Van Zuylen
to Mr. Pike.
[Translation.]
The
Hague,
October 29, 1861.
Sir: I have had the honor to receive your
letter of the 22d of this month, relative to the affair of the
“Sumter,” and it has been gratifying to me to learn from its tenor
that you have received with satisfaction the information as to the
measures adopted by the government of the Low Countries to prevent
the return or the prolonged stay in its ports of vessels which, like
the “Sumter,” seemed to desire to use them as the base of their
operations against the commerce of the adverse party.
You regret only that the government of the King should have adopted
the same treatment towards the war vessels of the seceding States
and those of the United States.
Without entering here into an extended discussion, rendered,
moreover, almost superfluous by my two preceding communications, I
shall merely permit myself, sir, in referring to their contents, to
cause you to observe that, agreeably to the doctrine of the best
publicists, neutrality imposes upon those nations which desire to
enjoy its benefits a complete abstention from all that could
establish a difference of treatment between the belligerent parties,
and that this principle applies as well to the cases of civil war,
or even of rebellion, as to that of an ordinary war.
[Page 386]
Your government having desired that measures should be taken to
prevent a prolonged stay in our ports of the Sumter, or of other
vessels-of-war of the seceding States, we have admitted the justice
of this claim. But these measures could not reach exclusively one of
the two parties; they were to be general, and the consequence of it
is that the new instructions given to the governors of Curaçoa and
of Surinam neither permit the vessels-of-war of the United States,
except in the case of being compelled to put into a port, to sojourn
in the ports of the Netherlands, in the West Indies, for a longer
time than twice 24 hours, (and not for only 24 hours, as you seem to
believe.)
Nevertheless, the privateers, with or without their prizes, are, as
heretofore, excluded from the Netherland ports, and it is by an
oversight, which I hasten to rectify, that the words “and the
privateers” have been introduced into that part of my communication
of the 15th of this month which calls your attention to the
instructions transmitted to the colonial authorities.
Be pleased, sir, to accopt the renewed assurance of my high
consideration.
Mr. Pike,
Minister Resident of the United States of America.
