Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley
My Dear Sir: Your communication of the 28th of January last, and your letter of yesterday, relative to the joint invitation to powers to declare the slave trade piracy, has been received. I regret to inform you that the pressure of business at the short session of Congress rendered it impossible to submit the papers to them. It will be taken into consideration by the President when another Congress is about to assemble. You may assure her Britannic Majesty’s government that the disposition is good to effect an absolute and universal suppression of the trade in human beings.
Believe me to be, my dear sir, very faithfully yours,
J. Hume Burnley, Esq., &c., &c., &c.