[Extract.]
Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Seward.
No. 63.]
Consulate of the United States,
Paris,
September 19, 1862.
Since the publication of circular No. 19, relating to emigration, I have
had numerous applications from persons desiring to emigrate, and also to
take service in the army. The latter require information as to the
places and terms of enlistment, the bounty, wages, &c. Could I be
furnished with a short statement of the particulars on these points, I
think I could so use it as to encourage some to go. It would be easy to
raise whole regiments here, if any one had authority to pay the
transportation, which is the great obstacle.
Yours, very respectfully,
JOHN BIGELOW, United States
Consul.
[Circular, No. 19.]
Department of State, Washington,
August 8, 1862.
To the Diplomatic and Consular officers of the
United States in foreign countries:
At no former period of our history have our agricultural,
manufacturing or mining interests been more prosperous than at this
juncture. This fact may be deemed surprising in view of the enhanced
price for labor, occasioned by the demand for the rank and file of
the armies of the United States. It may, therefore, be confidently
asserted that, even now, nowhere else can the industrious laboring
man and artisan expect so liberal a recompense for his services as
in the United States. You are authorized and directed to make these
truths known in any quarter and in any way which may lead to the
migration of such persons to this country. It is believed that a
knowledge of them will alone suffice to cause them to be acted upon.
The government has no legal authority to offer any pecuniary
inducements to the advent of industrious foreigners.
