inclose you,* it will be perceived that the President has reserved to himself the appointments refered to, and in order, therefore, to entitle these gentlemen to command, it would be essential that they should be appointed by the President and be confirmed by the Senate. The high character and eminent abilities of the gentlemen assigned by you to these positions are fully known to and appreciated by this Department, and I am sure that it would have afforded me great pleasure if in the organization of the forces they could have been assigned to the positions for which you have designated them and for which I doubt not they are fully qualified; yet to have suspended the order in this case would have required the President to surrender the appointments to the State authorities in nearly or quite every other case.

I am, very respectfully, yours,

SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, June 4, 1861.

Honorable SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: I have the honor herewith to inclose two extracts from private letters of the 12th ultimo, addressed to me by Mr. Sanford, our minister resident at Brusels, and to call your attention to the subject to which they relate.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

[Inclosures.]

Mr. Sanford to Secretary of State.

I have vainly expected orders for the purchase of arms for the Government, and am tempted to order from Belgium all they can send over immediately. Colonel Fremont, who leaves next week, wishes to buy for the Government on some provisional contracts he has made in England, but Mr. Dayton seems to fear taking the responsibility of directing him to do so on behalf of the Government. Meanwhile the workshops are filling with orders from the South. I have taken steps to find what we can get here and in Belgium, and may get the newly-arrived diplomat to join me in a purchase, to be paid for on delivery. It distresses me to think that while we are in want of them, Southern money is to take them away to be used against us.

Mr. Sanford to Secretary of State-Interview with Mr. Thowvenel.

One of the objects of my interview was to be informed concerning large sales of arms which it was said were being made at the Government arsenals at Toulon to agents of the Southern States. M. Thouvenel assured me, in reply to my question, that no such sales had been made to such agents. I went on to say that he would give a practical proof of his sympathy for the Union by refusing to supply arms to such agents or permitting the export of arms or munitions of war to those States. He said that since my former residence here they had changed their legislation with respect to traffic in arms, in consequence of the competition of Belgium and England, and it was now absolutely free, and no

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*See p. 151.

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