Mr. Seward to Mr. Bigelow
Sir: I have received your interesting despatch of the 23d of February, No. 37, and I approve of your proceedings therein mentioned.
I trust that the course of events in this country is such as to warrant you to say, in answer to inquiries about peace, that the end of the war is believed to be at hand, and that it will be attended with the extirpation of slavery and the salvation of the Union.
In regard to apprehension of aggression by the United States on the restoration of peace, you are authorized to say that no such policy is entertained by [Page 242] this government, and that just so far as such apprehensions prevail, by reason of a belief that the national will, under high excitement, may overrule the peaceful purposes of the executive government, each European state has the control of the question in its own hands. A due concession of our national authority over all our territory and all our citizens would disarm all popular animosities against any foreign state.
Friendship tendered to us will, in any case, be reciprocated as it always has been.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
John Bigelow, Esq., &c., &c., &c.