Mr. Motley to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 99, enclosing a copy of a despatch from Mr. Jackson, United States consul at Halifax, in which certain reports are given from Charleston and Halifax newspapers in regard to a supposed scheme for shipping thirty or forty thousand Polish soldiers for the rebel armies. I shall not neglect your instructions to use due vigilance towards thwarting the scheme referred to, but I would observe that so far as Austrian Poland is concerned the state of siege in that country still exists, and it would be extremely difficult for any recruits for this Polish confederate army to cross the frontier in any direction, except with permission of the government, which assuredly would not be given.
I have the honor to remain, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward Secretary of State, Washington.