Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 16th ultimo, No. 467, in which you inform me that at a special interview, accorded to you on the 14th of that month, M. Drouyn de l’Huys, his Imperial Majesty’s secretary of state for foreign affairs, had stated to you not only that those two iron-clad vessels now being constructed by Arman, at Bordeaux, under contract with the insurgents, had been positively sold to a neutral power, but that his excellency assured you distinctly that the four clipper ships in the course of construction at Bordeaux and Nantes, under the like contract, should not be delivered to the so-called confederates.
This government accepts these assurances, which relieve them of many and painful apprehensions and inspire lively satisfaction.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
William L. Dayton Esq., &c., &c., &c.