Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward.
[Extracts.]
The Hague, June 8, 1861.
Sir: I hasten to inform you that his Majesty the King of Holland received me to-day in private audience, agreeably to the prescribed ceremonial, and that I delivered to him in person my credentials as minister resident of the United States at this court.
I arrived here on the first day of the present month and have waited till now for my audience. In my interview with his Majesty I took occasion to express the earnest desire of the President to maintain and cultivate those friendly relations that have so long and so happily subsisted between the United States and Holland, and especially with his Majesty’s government. [Page 350] I further observed that it would be my cherished aim, as it would be my most pleasing duty, in the discharge of my official duties, to foster and promote the good understanding now existing between the two countries. The King received me graciously, and promptly came forward to receive my credentials, and at once entered upon some friendly inquiries as to whether I had been in the country before or had been elsewhere in the diplomatic service. I replied that our American diplomatists generally were not educated after the European method, and that we labored under some disadvantage in consequence. His Majesty remarked that he had had the pleasure to meet Mr. Buchanan in Holland after he had served in Russia and in England. After some further brief conversation, in which the King expressed his pleasure at making my acquaintance, the audience terminated.
I found, on my arrival here, your despatch, No. 2, of the date of the 10th of May, covering a circular of the 6th of that month, in relation to agents of insurrectionary assemblages sent to Europe on errands hostile to the peace of the United States; also a copy of a despatch of the 24th of April, addressed to the several ministers of the United States accredited to the maritime powers whose plenipotentiaries composed the congress at Paris the 16th of April, 1856, calling their attention to the importance of endeavoring to negotiate with those powers conventions upon the subject of the rights of belligerents and neutrals in time of war; also the draft of a convention in reference to the subject therein discussed, with a full power and instructions to execute the same with the government of the Netherlands. I shall lose no time in communicating with the Dutch government upon the subject. Meantime I will observe that in an informal conversation with the minister of foreign affairs, since my arrival, I learned from him that Holland was the first power, not present at the convention referred to, to acquiesce in the propositions there laid down.
* * * * * * * *
I cannot learn that any agent or agents of the seceding States have appeared in Holland for any purpose connected with their revolutionary or warlike plans, and from what I see and hear I conclude that no countenance would be given to them if they should.
The death of Count Cavour, the news of which reached here the morning of his decease, has created a profound sensation in diplomatic circles and is deeply deplored by the friends of Italy as an irreparable loss to that country.
I beg to add that I have found my predecessor, Mr. Murphy, unceasing in his endeavors to facilitate my labors here, and it gives me unfeigned pleasure to bear this testimony in his behalf, and to the highly honorable position which I believe him to hold among his colleagues.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.