Mr. Harvey to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, No. 129, and to express my acknowledgments for the courteous and complimentary terms in which you have conveyed the “President’s approval and commendation” of my conduct in the matter of the apprehended equipment of certain rebel cruisers in Portuguese ports.
[Page 300]Your suggestion of a reconsideration of the policy of his Most Faithful Majesty’s government in regard to our unhappy strife involves various difficulties which deserve to be well considered before moving in that direction. The first duty to which I addressed myself, after entering upon this mission, was to procure a proclamation prohibiting the insurgents from bringing prizes into Portuguese ports, or using them for hostile purposes against the commerce and interests of the United States.
Although that proclamation was issued soon after the leading and several of the minor powers had conceded belligerent rights to the insurgents, and although Portugal, from her ancient alliances, her necessities, and her traditions, has been accustomed to regard such examples as almost obligatory upon her own action, that document stopped far short of the length to which the others had gone. It is true that the proclamation was not in all respects what I desired it should be in terms, but it is certainly more friendly in fact, more liberal in substance, and more becoming in form, than that of any other government, as will be readily seen by instituting a comparison. Neither the moral nor the material influence of Portugal has been thrown into the scale before the world to lift up a revolutionary party to the rights and dignity of a belligerent power, and no restriction of any kind has been imposed upon our ships-of-war. On the contrary, they have been welcomed by the authorities of this kingdom everywhere with respect and good feeling, and recently, upon an important occasion, in a manner that deserves our cordial recognition.
To the extent of good dispositions and of limited resources we have had all the advantage of the effective influence of this government, even when it was pressed hard from without, when suffering much for the loss of an accustomed commerce within, and, I may add, whilst a fabricated and selfish European opinion was brought to bear strongly against our cause and country.
It is my foremost desire, as it is my greatest ambition, in the position which I now occupy, that Portugal should not give even the slight sanction of a nominal neutrality to the enemies of free institutions, who, in this enlightened century, have inaugurated the most terrible of civil wars, with its horrid train of blood and carnage, to plant more deeply the foundations of a despotic oligarchy, to overthrow the noblest work of human wisdom in the way of free government, and to arrest the progress of a mighty social development, because it threatened their too long continued political ascendency.
You may be quite sure that no effort will be spared on my part to attain that object whenever a fitting opportunity may be presented, but I shall regard any agitation of the subject, at this particular time, not only inopportune, but rather calculated to defeat than to aid the purpose. There are various reasons for this opinion, with which it is unnecessary to trouble the department now. Suspicious cruisers are hovering about this and the neighboring coasts, and all my present efforts are required for the protection of our exposed commerce.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.