Mr. Thayer to Mr.
Seward.
No. 12.]
United States Consulate
General,
Alexandria
November 26, 1861.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of the despatch of October 9, (No. 4,) in which you are pleased
to testify the government’s approbation of my proceedings for the
punishment of the outrage inflicted by the mob of Osint on an agent of
the American missionaries here.
I have also the honor to send herewith the reply of Mohammed Said,
viceroy of Egypt, to the letter of the President of the United States,
accompanying your despatch of October 9, as well as the letter of the
viceroy’s minister of foreign affairs, on the subject of excluding
privateers from the harbors of Egypt. It will be seen that the viceroy’s
order of exclusion applies expressly not to all privateers, but only to
privateers and vessels bearing an unrecognized flag, so that our
domestic enemies are thus deprived of those belligerent rights which are
very properly accorded to ourselves. The government of his highness is
too friendly to the United States to affect not to know the difference
in the status of the two contending parties in
our civil contest. Copies of the letters of the viceroy and of his
minister (marked A and B) are appended to this despatch.
* * * * * * *
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient
servant,
Hon. W. H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
A.
Honorable Sir and Friend: Mr. Thayer,
consul general of the United States at Alexandria, has presented me
the letter you were pleased to write me expressing your feelings of
satisfaction for the punishment which I have inflicted on some
individuals guilty of evil and cruel treatment towards an agent of
certain Christian missionaries in Upper Egypt.
Mr. Thayer, who, I am happy to say, entertains with me the most
friendly relations, had already expressed to me the feelings of your
government.
In this case, honorable sir and friend, I have only executed the rule
which I
[Page 855]
have always
endeavored to follow in protecting in an equal way, and without
consideration of creed, all those who, either by inclination or for
the fulfilment of a duty, sojourn in the country submitted to my
administration.
I am profoundly sensible of the friendly manner in which you express
your sentiments both to myself and to my government, and I pray you,
honorable sir and friend, to accept with this offering of my thanks
my sincere wishes for the success, perpetuity, and integrity of the
American Union, which, I hope, under your able presidency, will soon
see an end of the trials with which the Almighty has been pleased to
afflict it.
Your most devoted friend,
Hon. Abraham Lincoln,
President of the United States of
America,
[Translation.]
Alexandria,
November 21, 1861.
Monsieur le Consul General: In addition to
my private letter in reply to your communication of the 19th of
October last, respecting the foreign vessels which may present
themselves in the neighborhood of Alexandria under an unrecognized
flag, I have the honor to inform you that the order of his highness
the viceroy is that the captain of the port of this city shall
notify them to remain outside of the said port until he can receive
instructions from the local government on the subject; that whether
they conform to that injunction or enter the harbor notwithstanding
such notice, official information shall be taken from each of the
consulates general residing in Egypt, and that if the nationality of
these vessels be not owned by either one of them they shall be
excluded from the port, in accordance with the rules in force.
Be pleased to accept, monsieur le consul general, the assurances of
my high consideration
TOULFIKAE PACHA, The Minister of Foreign
Affairs.
Monsieur Wm. L. Thayer,
Consul General of the United States of
America, Alexandria.
