Mr. Seward to Mr. Thayer
Sir: Your despatch of November 12 (No. 24) has been received. The information of the progress and increase of the cotton culture in Egypt is of such vast significance to our own country that I shall cause it to be published here without delay. The insurrectionary cotton States will be blind to their own welfare if they do not see how their prosperity and all their hopes are passing away, when they find Egypt, Asia Minor, and India supplying the world with cotton, and California furnishing the gold for its purchase.
Your account of the Suez canal is also very interesting, both in regard to the advances Egypt is making under her present enlightened government, and even in the larger relations of an enterprise calculated to benefit universal commerce. Finally, your whole communication has had the effect to increase the desire of this government for the return of peace, so that the United States may renew their commercial career which has hitherto been so eminently successful.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
William S. Thayer, &c., &c., Alexandria.