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 D03212469R 
 
MAJOHITY REPORT 
 
 OF tHE 
 
 COMMITTEE ON EOEEIGN AFEAmS, 
 
 To whom was referred the following resolution : 
 
 *' Resolved, That the Committee on Foreign Affiiirs be instructed tO' 
 enquire into the jw'opriety of requesting the President of the- Confed- 
 erate States to recall the Commissioners sent by this Government to 
 certain European States, and to notify all Foreign powers whose Con- 
 suls reside in the Confederate States, and are accredited to the gov- 
 ernment of the United States, that such persons will not be recognized 
 by the Government of the Confederate States as exercising any of the 
 powers or having any of the functions of Consuls within tha limits of 
 the Confederate States, unless appointed by their respective govern- 
 ments as Consuls to the Confederate States of America :" Beg leave to • 
 report, that in the absence of any reference to Foreign Affairs in the 
 message of the President, on the opening of Congress, and without 
 access to the archives of the State Department, your Committee deemed 
 it due to the importance of the subject submitted to them, and respectful 
 to the House, by whom they were charged with its examination, to 
 report that they were uninformed on the matter before them, and to 
 request the Executive, by a resolution of the House, to communicate 
 to Congress such facts regarding the number and character of our 
 Foreign Agents as could be made known, without detriment to the 
 public service. 
 
 The House accordingly adopted the following resolution of inquiry : 
 " Resolved, That the President be respectfully requested to commu- 
 nicate to the House if not incompatible with the public interest, the num- 
 ber and names of all persons engaged in the service of the Confede- 
 rate States in Foreign countries, either as diplomatic, consular or com- 
 mercial agents, or in any other capacity, stating the places to which 
 they have been sent, the date of their appointment, the salaries they 
 receive, the duties they are cxpectc(^ to discharge, and how far such 
 agents have been officially or otherwise recognized by any Foreign, 
 Government ; also what are the number and character of Foreign^ 
 Agents, whether consular, commercial or other, known to our Govern- 
 ment, representing in any capacity Foreign Governments, within the 
 limits of the Confederate States, and whether, in communicating with 
 
this Government they do so under an exequatur from our Government 
 or that of the United States; also whether said agents are subordi- 
 nate or subject to the control and direction in any way, and to what 
 decree, of the ministers of their respective countries accredited to, and 
 residing in the United States ; and the President be further requested 
 to communicate such instructions as may have been given to our For- 
 eign j\gents and such correspondence as may have been had with other 
 Governments, either through the Secretary of State or our Commis- 
 sioners abroad, as will aid Congress in its legislation regarding Foreign 
 nations, and their citizens residing in our midst." 
 
 To this resolution on the 16th instant, the following response was 
 received from the State Department, and referred to the Committee : 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 Department of State, 
 Richmond, Sept. 15, 1862. 
 
 The Secretary of State, to whom was referred a certain resolution 
 of the House of Representatives, adopted on the 1st instant, has the' 
 honor to report to the President: 
 
 That it would be impossible to communicate to the House without 
 very grave detriment to the public interest '* the number and names 
 of ail persons engaged in the service of the Confederate States in 
 Foreign countries, either as diplomatic, consular or commercial agents 
 or in any other capacity, stating the places to which they have been 
 sent, the date of their appointment, the salaries they receive, the 
 duties they are expiected to discharge." It is presumed that the House 
 is acquainted with the particulars called for in the foregoing extract 
 from the resolution, so far as diplomatic agents are concerned, but a 
 tabular statement marked A, hereto annexed may prove convenient for 
 reference. During the pendency of hostilities, the very objects for 
 which other than diplomatic agents have been sent abroad would be 
 exposed to defeat by divulging the details called for in the resolution, 
 and these objects are of great national importance. 
 
 The resolution further enquires how far the agents aforesaid "have 
 been officially or otherwise recognized by any Foreign Government." 
 The extracts of the correspondence of the department hereto annexed 
 marked B' furnish the only information on this subject contained in 
 official communications. 
 
 The -resolution further enquires as to " the number and character of 
 Foreign Agents, whether consular, commercial or other, known to our 
 government, representing in any capacity Foreign Governments, within 
 the limits of the Confederate States, and whether in communicating 
 vith the Government they do so under an exequatur from our own 
 Government or that of the United States." 
 
 The annexed list marked C, shows the names of the only agents of 
 Foreign Governments known by the department within the limits of 
 the Confederate States. All of these agents except one had been re- 
 cognized by the Government of the United States by exequatur as the 
 
duly authorized agents of tho Foreign Governments by which they "^ ' 
 were respectively appointed, at a period antecedent to that when the 
 several Confederate States revoked the powers previously delegated to 
 the United States, and under which the Government of the United 
 States controlled the relations, whether diplomatic or commercial 
 which grew up between those States and Foreign countries. According 
 to weH recognized principles both of public and private law, these 
 agents of Foreign Governments having been recognized as such by 
 the agent of the several Confederate States, prior to the revocation of 
 the powers delegated to that agent, remained so recognized after the 
 revocation. 
 
 It was, and is undoubtedly within the power of this government, as 
 it is within that of all Governments, to decline permitting the above 
 mentioned agents to remain within our limits, but for obvious reasons 
 the exercise of such a power has been deemed unwise and impolitic. 
 
 The one agent who is excepted from these remarks, is Ernst Raven, 
 Esq., who was appointed Consul for the State of Texas, by his Hi^i- 
 ness, the Duke of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, and who applied to this 
 Government for an exequatur, on the 30th July, 1861, which was is- 
 sued to him on the 21st of August, 1861. 
 
 It is proper to add that a short time ago it came accidentally to the 
 knowledge of the Department, that a certain Baron de Saint Andre, 
 had assumed the functions of Consul or Consular Agent, for the 
 French Government, at the port of Charleston, since the establish- 
 ment of the Confederate Government, and Avithout applying for an 
 exequatur to this Department. But just at a time when this informa- 
 tion was received, intelligence was also received that Baron St. Andre 
 had left Charleston, with his family for the United States, with 
 the probable intention of returning in the autumn. In the event of 
 such return, proper action, will be promptly taken by the Department 
 to repress the oftensive assumption of consular functions by a foreign 
 agent without the sanction of this Government. 
 
 The resolution further inquires, whether said agents "aresubor-* 
 dinate or subject to the control and direction in any way and to v/hat 
 degree of the ministers of their respective countries accreditedrand 
 residing in the United States." The Department has no information 
 on this subject, but it is thought not improbable that the instructions 
 sent by foreign governments to tlieir Consular Agents within the Con- 
 federacy are transmitted through diplomatic agents residing in Wash- 
 ington. It is not thought probable that the foreign consuls within the 
 Confederacy are under the control and direction of foreign ministers 
 accredited to the United States in any other manner than is above in- 
 dicated, but no positive information on the subject has reached the 
 Department. It is known to the Department, that the foreign Con-suls 
 within the Confederacy communicate with their governments in Europe 
 by sending dispatches to the care of the JMinistersof their respective go- 
 vernments residing in Washington, and the Department has thus been 
 enabled, on different occasions to cause corr^^ct information to reach 
 foreign countries on matters which it was highly important to the pub- 
 lic interest should be widely disseminated and properly understood. 
 
The resolution of the House further requests the President "to 
 communicate such instructions as may have been given to our foreign 
 agents, and such correspondence as may have been had with other 
 governments, either through the Secretary of State or our Commis- 
 sioners abroad, as will aid Congress in its legislation, regarding for- 
 eign nations and their citizens residing in our midst." 
 
 The accompanying document, marked B contains all the communi- 
 cations called for, not hitherto submitted to Congress, except such as 
 cannot for the present be divulged without injury to the public 
 service. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 J. P. BENJAMIN, 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 To THE President. 
 
 Your committee have examined carefully this letter of the Secreta- 
 ry* of State, with the documents accompanying it, and are not 
 prepared, upon the data furnished, to recommend either the adoption 
 or rejection of the original proposition submitted to them, and with- 
 out entering at large into the reasons that have induced this conclu- 
 sion, state briefly, that the facts communicated are so limited and of 
 such a character as to have aided them but little to their investigation. 
 They consist simply of a statement already known to the country of 
 the names of our Commissioners and their Secretaries abroad with 
 some extracts from their correspondence and instructions from the 
 State Department, accompanied by an incomplete list of the agents 
 of foreign governments residing in our midst. Your Committee are 
 well assured that it was not the desire of the House to trench in any 
 manner upon the province of the Senate as the constitutional advisers 
 of the Executive in matters relating to foreign affairs, by the adoption 
 of its resolution of inquiry; nor is there any disposition to complain 
 of the Executive exercising a just discretion in withholding the com- 
 .munication of such facts in relation to foreign aifairs, and our secret 
 agents abroad, as he may deem it detrimental to the public interest to 
 make. Your committee feel, however, that as the recognition of our 
 independence by foreign powers, has not yet been secured, nor our 
 foreign relations established with other governments, and as it is by 
 virtue of direct legislation on the subject, and not merely of a consti- 
 tutional provision, the President has felt himself authorized to send 
 •Commissioners, and commercial agents abroad, and as Congress has 
 before it for legislation, matters affecting our commercial relations 
 with other governments, and the security of the rights of our citizens 
 abroad, and those of foreigners in our mid^t, this House in no way 
 transcends its powers, when it seeks of the Executive through the 
 proper channel, a knowledge not only of the number and names of 
 our diplomatic agents; but also, a statement of the fact, whether 
 ■consular or commercial agents have been sent abroad, and if so, to what 
 countries; and whether they have been permitted by the govern- 
 ments to which they have been sent to exercise the customary 
 powers of such agents, or have been forced to forego entirely the 
 
discharge of the very important duties pertaining to such appoint- 
 ments and made to occupy the character of extraordinary or special, or 
 secret agents. The necessity of such information is apparent to the 
 discussion of the resolution before the House, in its t^Yofold character : 
 First, whether it would be polite to recall our Commissioners sent to 
 European States ; and second, whether it would be wise to refuse to 
 recognize the consular agents of other governments, openly exercis- 
 ing their privileges in our midst, under an exequatur from a govern- 
 ment with whiqh we arc at war. 
 
 Without further remark upon the reserve of the State Department 
 on this subject, your committee will_j^merely add that they are not al- 
 lowed to be ignorant of the fact made known by the published official 
 correspondence of foreign governments and the debates in the British 
 Parliament, tliat sopie such agents of our government in some capa- 
 city, either consular or commercial, do exist abroad ; but of their 
 number or the countries to which they have been sent, or the 
 powers they are permitted to exercise, your committee are igno- 
 rant, and the communication of the Secretary of State gives no in- 
 formation on the subject. We are, however, incidentally made aware 
 of the fact that a regular correspondence is carried on between the 
 Consuls of foreign powers, residing in our midst, and the ministers of 
 those powers, accredited and residing at Washington, through a regu- 
 lar established channel of communication, which the United States 
 Government has succeeded in inducing those powers, notwithstanding 
 the remonstrances of our Secretary of State, to close eflfcctually 
 against all correspondence of our Government with its agents abroad. 
 It is also made known by the communication from the State Depart- 
 ment that one of our Commissioners, Mr. Rost, has resigned his posi- 
 tion, and that, before doing so, he submitted to the President Avhether 
 it was consistent with our self-respect and the dignity of the country, 
 '■'■ to keep longer abroad Commissioners who arc under no circum- 
 stances to be received or listened to." 
 
 Another, Mr. Mason, dated June 23d, M'rites : " I have conferred 
 frequently and freely with Mr. Slidell on the expediency of making a 
 renewed request to the Governments of France and England or to 
 either for recognition of our independence, and I am happy to say 
 that a cordial understanding exists between us to act independently or 
 simultaneously as our joint judgments may approve. My own strong 
 conviction is that it Avill be unwise, if not unbecoming in the attitude 
 of the ministry here to make such a request now, unless it were pre- 
 sented as a demand of right, and, if refused, as I little doubt it would 
 be, to follow the refusal by a note stating that I did not consider it 
 compatible with the dignity of my Government, and, perhaps, with 
 my own self-respect, to remain any longer in England, but should 
 retire to the Continent to await the further instructions of the Gov- 
 ernment tliere. I do not mean to say that I contemplate such an im- 
 mediate step, but only if the demand be made and refused, to remain 
 longer in England, as the representative of the Government, would 
 seem' to acknowledge the position of a suppliant; and, therefore, the 
 step is not to be taken without the most grave and mature delibera- 
 
6 
 
 tion. I have earnestly consulted the judicious and enlightened friends 
 here among the public men, who are earnestly with us, and they advise 
 against a renewed demand at present, whilst they admitit might place 
 me under such necessity." 
 
 Our other Commissioners express themselves less decidedly, but no 
 one of them seems to anticipate our early recognition, although all 
 unite in the expression of the confident belief, that had it not been 
 for the fall of New Orleans, with the consequent loss of the Missis- 
 sippi river, we would havg been before this recognized by foreign 
 powers. 
 
 Your committee, in conclusion, repeat that without recommending 
 either the adoption or rejection of the resolution submitted to them 
 they are of the opinion that it would be, under present circumstances, 
 unwise for the House to advise the immediate rec|-ll of our Commis- 
 sioners, uninformed, as it is, what other agents of communication 
 with foreign powers would remain to us abroad, or what may be the pos- 
 sible effect of recent events upon the disposition or policy of foreign 
 Governments ; nor would they recommend the dismissal from our 
 midst of the Consuls of foreign nations, except in the event of their 
 persisting to discharge their duties under exequaturs of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, without any reciprocal right of consular 
 protection being extended to our citizens visiting or residing and 
 owning property in the countries they represent. 
 
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