Mr. Seward to Mr. Morris.
Sir: Your despatch of February 25 (No. 11) has been received.
Seeing no cause to question the justice or the expediency of the provisions of the treaty you have negotiated, I have the President’s instructions to submit the same to the Senate for its consideration.
Your proceedings in the negotiation and the reasons assigned for them in your despatch are approved.
Your suggestions of the desirableness of a naval force in the Levant have been referred to the Navy Department.
It is but too manifest, as you have remarked, that our national prestige is impaired in foreign countries. It would be strange if the Turkish people and the dwellers in the Levant generally, accustomed as they are to wait upon power with respect, and visit weakness with disdain, should have failed to discern this change of our condition.
Happily we know how it has occurred. We are a house divided against itself. But experience of faction is an instruction often necessary to the most generous states. I feel quite sure that the unhappy domestic strife [Page 784] which has so severely shaken the republic, and has betrayed it to the disrespect of even barbarous powers, will soon come to an end.
It may be confidently expected that the adjustment of the balance of political forces of the country, which will result from the present conflict, will be satisfactory and permanent, because it will be determined with reference to the actual condition and anticipated progress of the country, and not with reference to the interests and prejudices of past generations.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Edward Joy Morris, Esq., &c &c., Constantinople.