General Benjamin Butler And the Dutch Consul

A native of Dusseldorf, Germany, Dr. Manfred C. Vernon has lived in this country since 1939. He has taught at the University of Michigan, was connected with the United States Department of State, and is now Professor of Political Science at the University of Alabama. Dr. Vernon received his J.D. degree in Germany and his Ph.D. at Stanford University. General Benjamin Butler And the Dutch Consul· MANFRED C. VERNON during the years of the War between the States, the United States government was quite often faced with international and diplomatic problems. One of these clashes, probably by now forgotten because of its happy ending, took place in New Orleans after General Benjamin Butler's Federal troops entered the city in the late spring of 1862 and involved the Consulate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. New Orleans then had a very cosmopolitan population, of which one-third was foreign; most of the non-citizens were Irish, French, and German. When the war moved closer to the city, many of these foreigners grew fearful and asked their consuls to safeguard their valuables. In fact, so many things were entrusted to the consuls that some of them were compelled to rent large buildings for storage space. (General Butler suspected that some of the city's American citizens had tried to avail themselves of these facilities, hoping to exploit diplomatic and consular immunity for their own selfish ends. ) The presence of a large foreign element in the city caused Butier many problems. One was the existence of the so-called European brigade , which had been formed after Confederate military units were ordered out of the city to join General P. G. T. Beauregard. The brigade accepted the duty of repressing riots and preventing upheaval and ? This article is the result of work on a research project on "Netherlands-United States Relations" sponsored by the Research Committee of the University of Alabama. 263 264MANFRED C. VERNON plunder in the city. Accordingto Butler's correspondence with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, these troops "reported for service" to Confederate generals, and many of the officers "took the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States."2 Butler had been received in New Orleans with contempt and outspoken expressions of hostility. On his arrival the crowd which gathered to see him leave the transport "Mississippi" shouted such threats as "you'll never see home again," and "Yellow Jack [yellow fever] will have you before long." The General's very repressive actions strengthened this hostility and generally met with popular defiance. The famous "Woman Order" of May 15, for example, brought open expressions of disapproval from the foreigners in the city. Since many of the New Orleans women wore Southern flags on their persons and publicly expressed contempt for Union troops, Butler proclaimed that in the face of repeated insults from these women (calling themselves ladies) ... it is ordered, diat hereafter, when any female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of die United States, she shall be regarded and held bable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation.3 The greatest trouble for the General, however, was to come from the foreign consuls. These men were important to New Orleans since the city existed largely by import and export and depended heavily not only on its foreign population but also on its foreign capital. Consuls naturally regarded themselves as custodians of their countries' interests and considered their primary duty the protection of their nationals from any kind of injustice.4 Butler's suspicions that consuls had given aid 2 Butler pointed out also that the commanding general of the brigade, Paul Juge, "a naturalized citizen of the United States, but bom in France, renounced his citizenship, and applied to the French government to be restored to his former citizenship as a native of France, at the very time he held the command of this foreign legion." Butler also reported that the Prussian consul, now General Reichard , had left the city for Virginia to join the Confederate forces there. For more detail on Buder's evaluation of the situation, see James Parton, General...