time in making your inquiries, which should be as through and impartial as circumstances may permit.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

[Inclosure Numbers 1.] HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, New Orleans, May 16, 1862.

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: Since my dispatch of May 8* I received information that a large amount of specie was concealed in the liquor store of one Am. Couturier, who claims to be consul for the Netherlands. upon applying to him, he denied all knowledge of it; claimed all the property there as his own. Upon examination, however, there was discovered to be $800,000 in Mexican coin bearing the mark of the Citizens" Bank of New Orleans, the specie capital of which had been belonged before the occupation of the city. Of this I took possession. This money was immediately claimed by Hope & Co., of Amsterdam. A copy of the claim of the agent is herewith transmitted, marked A. But the whole transaction seems to be tinctured with bad faith, as the steel dies and plates of the bank were found in a box amongst this very specie, which is said to have been paid to Hope & Co. before it was due, while the bank was refusing to redeem their bills at home in coin. I hold the specie subject to the orders of the Department. I send also copies of the correspondence between the consul of the Netherland and myself, and also of the other consul, upon the same subject, marked B, C, D, E, F, [G].

Indeed, the claims of these consular gentlemen are most extravagant. Men who have lived here all their lives now claim perfect immunity from the ordinary laws of war for themselves and all property which they can cover, although they have been in arms against the United States. Many of these pretensions are too absurd to be for a moment entertained. Amongst other things it is claimed that the consulate flag and consulate have all and more than all of the privileges accorded to residence of a minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary by the laws of nations.

Almost all property, therefore, useful to the United States which has not been burned or carried off will be found to be held here by persons who have lived in Louisiana all their lives, but now claim to be foreigners. Every schooner and fishinnot venture raises a foreign flag. All wood for steamers for miles up the river has been burnt, except isolated yards, and in one instance the owner refused to sell one of my boats any wood, and when the officer went to take it hoisted the French flag over it. The steamer wooded up, however.

May I ask direction of the Department on this subject? I call attention in this communication to the correspondence between a person claiming to be acting British consul her and myself relative to the British Guard, the military organization that sent their arms and equipments to General Beauregard after the city was taken. The whole facts are set forth in that correspondence, marked H. I have neither doubt nor hesitation in regard to may action in the premises.

---------------

*See Series I, Vol. VI, p. 506.

---------------