Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: You are probably aware that Mr. P. McD. Collins, the commercial agent of the United States at Amoor river, on the Pacific, has for several years past been engaged in negotiations with the Russian government with the view to the construction of a line of telegraph between St. Petersburgh and his post on the Amoor, thence to the Russian settlements in America, by the way of Behring’s strait, and thence southward across British America, on the Pacific, to San Francisco. In a despatch to the department from St. Petersburgh of the 18th ultimo, Mr. Collins represents that he had brought his negotiations with the Russian government to a satisfactory close, and was about starting for London in order to make arrangements with that of Great Britain for the transit of the line through British territory. He asks that he may have your assistance in the matter. This you are authorized and directed to give in such way and to such an extent as to you may seem most likely to compass the object desired.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.