against the Spanish Government. I have also appended a letter from the Spanish was vessel, the Pinta, which will show the manner in which our quarantine has been conducted, and that his only complaint is that I have not obeyed some law of Louisiana regulating time of quarantine.

Mr. Tassara in his communication of the 28th of June wishes the Secretary of State to require me to treat the consuls of friendly nations with more consideration, and that I m expression which are not suited to give security to trade or maintain friendly relations between the authorities of that island, Cuba, and those of the United States. It will be seen by examination of the letter of the commander of the Blasco de Garay, hereto annexed, under date of August 13, that the complaint there is, that my acts do not come up to the profession of friendship and courtesies of my language. I have, therefore, appended all the more important of my correspondence with the Spanish authorities here, so that the Department may see whether either in manner or matter of that correspondence there is anything which should be a casus belli between two otherwise friendly nations.

That I answered somewhat sharply the letter of the captain of the Blasco de Garay, who seized the occasion in replying to a note wherein I offnce and courtesy, to read me a lecture on my duties, I admit. I thought, and still think, I was justified in so doing. A nation may be friendly and its consul quite the reverse, as witness the late Prussian consul, who is now a general in the rebel army, for which he recruited a battalion of his countrymen. When, therefore, I find a consul aiding the rebels I must treat him as a rebel, and the exceptions are very few indeed among the consuls here. Bound up with the rebels by marriage, commercial and social relations, many of the consular offices are only asylums where rebels are harbored and rebellion fostered.

Before I close this report, which pressure of public duties more urgent has delayed till the departure of the mail on the 6th of October, allow me to repeat, that with the blessing of God, to whom our most devout thanks are daily due for his goodness, that fell scourge, the yellow fever, has been kept from my command and the city of New Orleans till now, when all danger is past, by the firm administration of sanitary and quarantine regulations, in spite of complaints or difficulties, and if my acts need justification I point to the results as an unanswerable vind the honor to be, your obedient servant,

BENJ. F. BUTLER,

Major-General, Commanding.

[First indorsement.]

WAR DEPARTMENT,

October 18, 1862.

Respectfully referred to the Secretary of State for his information. By order of the Secretary of War:

P. H. WATSON,

Assistant Secretary of War.

[Second indorsement.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington City, October 28, 1862.

The Secretary of State has the honor to return to the Secretary of War the report of Major-General Butler, upon complaints of Spanish