Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth Congress

Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley

Department of State, Washington, January 25, 1865.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the20th instant, which is accompanied by a copy of a despatch from the lieutenant governor of New Brunswick on the subject of the recent passport regulations of this government. With regard to the inconveniences to which persons residing in the provinces are subjected, as mentioned by Mr. Gordon, I have the honor to state, in reply, that the disadvantages arising from the observance of the regulations referred to result from the limitation of the number of United States consuls in the British provinces, which was insisted upon by her Britannic Majesty’s government, and I regret to add that the inconvenience does not admit of remedy by the government of the United States.

I have the honor to be, with high consideration, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

J. Hume Burnley, Esq., &c., &c., &c.