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

No. 20.

Earl Russell to Mr. Mason.

Foreign Office, September 25, 1863.

Sir: I have had the honor of receiving your letter of the 21st instant, informing me that your government have ordered you to withdraw from this country, on the ground that her Majesty’s government have declined the overtures made through you for establishing, by treaty, friendly relations, and have no intention of receiving you as the accredited minister of the Confederate States at the British court.

I have on other occasions explained to you the reasons which have induced her Majesty’s government to decline the overtures you allude to, and which have hitherto prevented the British court from recognizing you as the accredited minister of an established state.

These reasons are still in force, and it is not necessary to repeat them. I regret that circumstances have prevented my cultivating your personal acquaintance, which in a different state of affairs I should have done with much pleasure and satisfaction.

I am, &c.,

RUSSELL.