Mr. Perry to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have had the honor to receive your instruction No. 68, of the 20th February, in reply to my despatch of February 4, No. 162.
The information which had arrived at your department when that instruction was written, as to the character and movements of the rebel pirate ships in this jurisdiction, was still confused, though my telegram of 5th February, through the United States consul at Queenstown, and which announced an iron-clad ram at Ferrol, was intended to correct the misapprehension into which I had been led in my despatch of the 4th, when the new-comer was supposed to be the Shenandoah.
But your instructions are alike adapted to either case, and I have taken especial satisfaction in observing that the view of this subject, which 1 was forced by the pressure of circumstances to adopt on my own responsibility, is not dissimilar from that dictated by your superior judgment.
My first steps in this affair, as reported on the 4th February, are approved by you, while those which were taken subsequently seem to be covered by your instruction with singular precision and forecast, to which I am happy to have conformed.
Having occasion to see Mr. Benavides yesterday on the subject of impeding the thirty men released from the Florida from embarking on the Stonewall, which point was gained as reported in my No. 174, of yesterday, I also put your instruction just arrived into my pocket, and, in the course of conversation, read it to Mr. Benavides.
Much of the conversation in that interview was subsequent to this reading of your instruction, and all that relating to Hayti, as reported in my No. 175, of to-day, and in which Mr. Benavides took occasion to announce the principal features of his policy in American affairs, took place afterwards.
Seeing the opportunity favorable, I did not fail to urge again upon Mr. Benavides the considerations which, in my opinion, ought to separate the policy of Spain in America from that which might guide the conduct of France and England, and to this reasoning Mr. Benavides fully assented in principle, as you will observe by my despatch No. 175. Bringing the matter into a concrete form, I then referred to the late glorious news from our armies and fleet in the Carolinas, and said that the situation of things was to-day undoubtedly very different from that of June, 1861, when the royal decree of neutrality was adopted by Spain in imitation of France and England. Mr. Benavides agreed to this, and rejoiced that it was so. I then said that, as the state of political relations created by those decrees of neutrality was about to terminate at any rate, I was personally desirous that Spain should seize the occasion for an act of prevision which could not fail to be of the best effect in the United States. I wished him spontaneously, in view of the change of circumstances, to review the policy of 1861, in which Spain had followed England and France, and now to take the lead of those powers by abolishing the royal decree of June, 1861, and placing Spain frankly on the footing of a friend to [Page 516] the government of Washington, and recognizing the insurgents as insurgents, and nothing more.
Mr. Benavides assented to all the reasoning by which I arrived at this conclusion, and said he would take the measure I indicated into serious consideration. He would study the point, and we would have another interview concerning it.
I have the honor to remain, with the highest respect, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington.