Mr. Seward to the ministers for foreign affairs of Japan.
To their excellencies the ministers for foreign affairs of his Imperial Majesty the Tycoon of Japan:
Your communication of the fourth day of the eleventh month of the first year of Runkin has been submitted to the President.
I cannot express strongly enough the satisfaction he has derived from the testimony you bear to the good character and wise conduct of Townsend Harris, our late minister in Japan.
It is a deserved crown of his long period of public service that the same high appreciation of his merits and usefulness is entertained by the government which sent him abroad and by the government near which he has been accredited.
It was the President’s deliberate purpose to continue him in his mission, but Mr. Harris, by pleading increase of years and the failure of health, obliged this [Page 823] government to accede to his desire to be recalled. Doubtless his successor has already arrived at Yedo, and Mr. Harris is on his return to the United States. The change has been reluctantly made, but knowing Mr. Pruyn very well, and having the highest confidence in his ability and virtue, I feel entirely assured that he will soon render himself acceptable to the Tycoon, and will succeed in preserving the good relations now so happily existing between the United States and Japan.
I pray your excellencies to accept the assurance of my highest consideration.