Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin
Sir: I have submitted to the President your very interesting despatch of the 11th of March, (No. 39,) with its accompaniments.
While the misapprehension by the government of Mexico of the proceedings of the United States in regard to the question of shipments for Mexico, which you describe, is regretted by the President, he does not suffer himself to doubt that it will give way before the clear explanations which have been made upon the subject to the representative of Mexico here, and of which you have been advised.
[Page 1254]Your proceedings with relation to the request of the late Prussian minister at Mexico, that you would assume the protection of subjects of the King of Prussia and of other European powers in that republic, during the suspension of the several European legations there, are approved by the President. The first responsibility of a minister is to practice fidelity to the interests of the state whose credentials he bears; the second is the exercise of perfect good faith, respect and courtesy to the government of the country to which he is accredited. A minister is not only at liberty, but he is morally bound, to render all the good offices he can to other powers, and their subjects, consistently with the discharge of those principal responsibilities I have described. But it belongs to the state where the minister resides to decide, in every case, in what manner and in what degree such good offices shall be rendered, and, indeed, whether they shall be tolerated at all. No abridgment of this sovereign right can be insisted upon, unless, indeed, the government of that state manifestly refuses to acknowledge or to give effect to some of the entirely admitted principles of morality, recognized as constituting the basis of the laws of nature and the law of nations. Not only has this government no such complaint to make against Mexico, but, on the contrary, in all its intercourse with that republic, it has been impressed with the evidences of a high degree of virtue and enlightenment. That government deservedly enjoys not only the respect but the good wishes, and, so far as natural affections are allowable, the sympathy of the United States in its present unhappy embarrassments with foreign powers. The President, therefore, remits you, for your government in regard to the questions presented, to the rules you have prescribed to yourself, so long as they shall be satisfactory to the government of Mexico.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Thomas Corwin, Esq.