Mr. Seward to Mr. Burlingame.
Sir: Your despatch of the 22d of March has been received.
Your appointment of Franklin B. Forbes to be consul at Tien-Tsin will be confirmed.
Your proceedings in paying the awards made under our treaty with the Emperor of China are approved. We wait your suggestions concerning a proper disposition of the surplus of the fund.
You will express the President’s acknowledgments to the Emperor for the seasonable and friendly notice which was given to you by his order concerning his Majesty’s intended demonstrations for the reconquest of Ningpo, then occupied by the rebels.
Also, like acknowledgments for the new facilities extended to trade in the ports of Tung-Chow and New-Chang.
Your account of the operations of the government against the insurgents and the martial disposition of the Chinese are very interesting, as your speculations concerning that war, its cause and its course always are.
It is gratifying to know that the impression concerning this country resting on the national mind of China is so favorable.
The progress of the national arms by land and water in restoring the authority of the Union, although attended by occasional reverses, is, nevertheless, on the whole, entirely satisfactory, and we are already looking forward to a time when we can improve our communications with the East, and claim a due share of its commerce, which, surviving dynasties and empires, not only in Europe but in Asia, continues, as in former ages, to be a chief fertilizer on both continents.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Anson Burlingame, Esq., &c., &c., &c.