Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part I

Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons.

Department of State, Washington, April 9, 1863.

My Lord: Adverting to your note of the 7th ultimo, relative to Acting Rear-Admiral Wilkes’s alleged threat to capture a British mail packet bound for a British port, on the sole ground of her carrying to that port officers or other passengers belonging to the so-called Confederate States, and to my reply, I now have the honor to inform you that the report has been brought to his notice, and that he authorizes the Secretary of the Navy to pronounce it entirely erroneous and without any foundation in fact.

I have the honor to be, with high consideration, your lordship’s obedient Servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Right Hon. Lord Lyons, &c., &c., &c.