Mr. Dayton to Mr.
Seward
No. 396.]
Paris,
January 2, 1864.
Sir: You have probably seen the within
correspondence between Mr. Davis and the Pope before this; but as it is
translated and printed in the Moniteur of this morning, I herewith
enclose it to you.
The design of this quasi recognition of Mr. Davis, who is addressed as
“illustrious and honorable president,” is manifest. It is a last effort
to get up some feeling against the north among the Catholics, and to
use, perhaps, the influence of the Holy Father to stop his Irish
votaries from volunteering. I had learned some short time since that an
effort was being made to get up a correspondence for some such purpose,
and spoke to the Pope’s Nuncio here on the subject, but he attached no
importance to it, and did not, as he said, believe it. Of Mr. Slidell he
spoke as an entire stranger, saying he had never seen him but once in
his life, and then casually only.
The correspondence does not, it is true, amount to much, but it
illustrates the unceasing activity of the rebel chief in reaching for
aid to every possible source.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward
Secretary of State, &c., &c.,
&c.
[Extract from the Paris Moniteur—Translation.]
AMERICA.
The Havre Correspondence publishes the following letters from Mr.
Jefferson Davis and from his Holiness Pius IX:
Richmond,
September 23, 1863.
To his Holiness the Pope, Pius IX:
Most venerable chief of the Holy See and sovereign pontiff of the
Catholic, Apostolic and Roman church:
The letters which your Holiness has addressed to the venerable chiefs
of the Catholic clergy of New Orleans and New York have been
communicated to me, and I have read with emotion the terms in which
you have been pleased to express the deep sorrow caused you by the
carnage, the ruin, and the desolation, which are the consequences of
the war now waged by the government of the [Page 14] United States to the States and peoples who
have chosen me to preside over their government, in which letters
you command these chiefs and their clergy to exhort the people and
the authorities in the exercise of charity and the love of
peace.
I am deeply sensible to the Christian charity and sympathy which have
inspired your Holiness in the reiterated appeal made to the
venerable clergy of the Catholic church, to induce it to use all its
authority in behalf of the restoration of peace and
tranquillity.
I therefore deem it my duty to express to your Holiness personally,
and in the name of the people of the Confederate States, that we are
deeply sensible of the sentiments of love and of Christian charity
which have guided your Holiness on this occasion, and to assure you
that this people, threatened, even within its very hearthstones, by
a cruel oppression and by a fearful carnage, desires now, as it has
always fervently desired it, the termination of this impious war;
that we have manifested in our prayers, addressed to our Heavenly
Father, the same sentiments as those with which your Holiness is
animated; that we do not wish any evil to our enemies; that we do
not covet any of their possessions; but that we only contend that
they may cease to desolate our country, to shed the blood of our
people, that they permit us to live in peace under the ægis of our
institutions and of our laws, which protect every one, not only in
the enjoyment of his temporal rights, but also in the free exercise
of his worship.
I therefore pray your Holiness to accept, on my part, and on that of
the people of the Confederate States, our sincere thanks for your
efforts in behalf of peace. May the Lord prolong the days of your
Holiness, and have you in His holy keeping.
JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the
Confederate States of America.
[Translation.]
The Pope has made the following reply to President Jefferson
Davis:
Illustrious and honorable president,
greeting:
We have just received with all the proper benevolence the persons
sent by you to deliver to us your letter under date of the 23d
September last. We have experienced no ordinary pleasure on learning
from those persons, and through this letter, with what sentiments of
joy and gratitude you have been animated, illustrious and honorable
president, so soon as you had knowledge of our letters to our
venerable brothers, John, archbishop of New York, and John,
archbishop of New Orleans, under date of the 18th of October of the
last year, and in which we have, with all our power, excited and
exhorted these venerable brothers to the end that, in their piety
and their episcopal solicitude, they should endeavor, with the most
ardent zeal, and in our name, to put an end to the fatal civil war
which has broken out in those countries, in order that the American
peoples should finally come to a common peace and concord, and to
love one another charitably.
It has been particularly agreeable to us to learn that you,
illustrious and honorable president, and these same peoples, are
animated with the same desires of peace and tranquillity which we
have, in our letters hereinbefore referred to, inculcated upon our
aforenamed venerable brothers. May it at the same time please God
that the other peoples of America, and their directing powers,
considering seriously how grave a civil war is, and how great are
the evils it entails, may be willing finally to listen to the
inspirations of a more calm spirit, and adopt resolutely the cause
of peace.
[Page 15]
As to ourselves, we shall not cease to address the most fervent
prayers to the all-powerful God, that he may bestow upon all the
peoples of America a spirit of peace and charity, and that he may
withdraw them from the very great evils which afflict them.
We supplicate at the same time the good and merciful God to bestow
upon you the lights of His grace, and to attach you to us by a
perfect union.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter, this 3d of
December, 1863, in the 18th year of our
pontificate.
PIUS IX.
