[Extract.]

Mr. Morris to Mr. Seward

No. 38.]

Sir:* * * * * * * * * * * *

A few days since I waited on Ali Pacha, the minister of foreign affairs, and communicated to him the President’s congratulations on the restoration of peace and order in the troubled provinces of the empire, and also his assurances of his appreciation of the promptness and vigor which the Ottoman government had exercised in bringing to punishment the assassins of the Rev. Mr. Merriam and the Rev. Mr. Coffing.

His highness received these declarations of friendship and gratitude with unusual emotion and gratification. He said the government of his Majesty the Sultan cherished a sincere friendship for the United States; that it always desired to cultivate the most friendly relations with the United States, and would avail itself of every occasion to manifest the sincerity of its good will; that what had been done in the murder cases, had been done not only under a sense of duty, but also with a desire to show to the President the vigor and impartiality of Ottoman justice in the vindication of the security of American life in the Turkish empire. He desired me to convey to the President his earnest wishes for the maintenance of the Union and prosperity of the American republic.

I am enabled, sir, at last to inform you that the sentence of death pronounced against the three assassins of the Rev. Mr. Merriam by the court of Adrianople, after having been confirmed by the supreme council of justice, has received the sanction of the Sultan. I deemed it my duty to stimulate action on this subject, and the result has been, that instead of lying for weeks unacted upon in the cabinet of the Sultan, it received his approbation within forty-eight hours after it reached him. The Turkish government, both metropolitan and provincial, has nobly done its duty in this case.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

E. JOY MORRIS.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.