Mr. Fogg to Mr. Seward.
Sir:Yesterday being the day fixed by the Swiss constitution for the inauguration of the new president of the confederation, all the heads of the legation made it, as is customary, the occasion of calling upon the president, at the Palais Federal, to felicitate him upon his accession, and to exchange the salutations of the new year.
In my interview the president took occasion to speak of the profound interest with which not only himself but all the members of the Swiss government had watched the great struggle in the United States. There was, he said, but one sentiment, in truth, among the whole Swiss people, that was a sentiment of repugnance to the rebellion and of earnest sympathy with the efforts of the government to maintain the Union. He added that it gave him great satisfaction to congratulate me on the military successes which had lately attended the armies of the Union—successes which rendered it, in his judgment, more than probable, that the year just commenced would witness the re-establishment of the authority of the federal government over all their territory.
Every Swiss, he said, looked with aversion upon the institution of slavery, which they could not but regard as utterly irreconcilable with any just pretensions to republicanism. The system as it had existed in the United States had justly been our great national reproach, which no European republican could defend, and in view of which the most despotic princes could point at us the finger of scorn. The system was not only a disgrace and a curse to America, but it was, as a product of almost exclusively republican growth, a stumbling block in the path of liberal ideas and popular institutions all over the world. Great and appalling as were the sacrifices of the present war, the overthrow of that system would repay them all, and make of our contest a holy war for the rights of man in all lands.
In conclusion, he spoke of the high appreciation with which the public sentiment and conscience of all Europe was gradually coming to regard the character and person of the President: of. the United States, whose name, he predicted, would one day, and that not far hence, be enrolled among those rulers who have done most for the advancement of human progress.
Above I do not pretend to give the president’s words with verbal exactness. Indeed I could not, as the conversation was in French. But I give the substance with entire accuracy.
[Page 392]Begging to add my own gratulations on the present hopeful aspect of our great straggle, I have the honor and the pleasure to subscribe myself, with sincere regard and the highest esteem, your obedient servant.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States of America.