Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.
A.
Mr. Yeaman’s remarks.
I have the pleasure and the distinguished honor of presenting to your
Majesty the letter of your friend, the President of the United
States of America, accrediting me as minister resident of that
government to reside near the government of your Majesty. In doing
this, I beg to assure your Majesty that to me it is cause of extreme
self-gratulation to have been designated as the representative of my
government to a power which has always manifested so much friendship
towards the American republic, and which has especially tendered so
many proofs of that regard entirely through the terrible ordeal to
which the union of the States was exposed for four years. I am happy
to say that that contest has been decided in favor of the
government, and its success has not been merely a triumph of arms.
That success and its consequences are valuable in other and more
important lights. It has demonstrated and secured in matter of fact
and practice what was always true in law, that the Constitution of
the United States is the framework of a government, a political
nationality, invested with the most important attributes of
sovereignty erected by citizens, and to which the citizen in turn
owes allegiance and obedience, and that the Union is not merely a
league or confederation of separate and independent sovereignties,
from which any State or local government may retire at its own
discretion or caprice. Happy it. is, in this sense of our
nationality, that all parties with us, even the lately insurgent
forces and people, now accept the solution of the issue submitted by
them to the arbitrament of the sword. The States which assumed to go
out are rapidly and voluntarily resuming their places in the Union
and under the Constitution; and those who were brave soldiers
against the republic are promptly returning to their allegiance and
to the walks and pursuits of private life, becoming loyal citizens
under the wise policy adopted by the President. Your Majesty will
excuse me for dwelling so long on these points, when you reflect
that they are matters about which there has been so much
misunderstanding in Europe.
Another result of that contest, and in which both parties to it seem
to concur as a fact, is, that a race of some four millions of people
recently held in slavery have been freed from bondage. The system of
unpaid coerced labor is come to an end with us, and this change, in
fact, will probably soon be incorporated as a declaration in the
Constitution, the supreme law of the Union, so that the relation of
master and slave may never again exist within the jurisdiction of
the republic. In this particular, I am persuaded, we will secure the
congratulations of nearly all governments, since there is no point
of political economy and the morals of natural right upon which
Christian people and the lessons of modern civilization are more
nearly agreed than that it is not well that any man should be a
slave and his labor the property of another.
With profound wishes for the continued health and happiness of your
Majesty, and for the success and prosperity of your government, and
with the hope, well assured, that no circumstance may ever occur to
mar the very cordial relations subsisting between your government
and my own, I thank you for the polite and friendly attention
bestowed on me, a personal stranger, in consideration of the power
which I am deputed to represent in your presence.
[Page 183]
THE KING’S REMARKS IN RESPONSE.
To the observations upon the friendly relations subsisting between
the two governments, and the hope that they may be perpetuated, the
King responded at that moment with the most earnest and kindly
reciprocation. Of the views expressed as to the result of the war,
in establishing our nationality and bestowing freedom on a race, he
manifested a clear appreciation and approval, and further remarked
that the contest had been very deplorable, and, for so great a one,
very protracted; that it had cost us innumerable and very valuable
lives, and he hoped we would now forever remain one people and one
nation. He expressed the surprise and horror he felt on hearing of
the assassination of President Lincoln, and spoke of him as a very
great and a very kind man. He spoke of the agreeable and
satisfactory relations that had existed between himself and my
predecessor, Mr. Wood, and wished me an equally agreeable residence.
He then asked in a most friendly way about my family, if we were
comfortably situated, hoped we could stand this northern climate,
and concluded by asking me to express his thanks to the
President.
