Mr. Fogg to Mr.
Seward
No. 102.]
United States Legation,
Berne,
October 16, 1865.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that my
successor, Mr. Harrington, reached Berne last Friday, the 13th instant.
The same day I called upon the president of the confederation to ask as
early a day as convenient for the [Page 223] reception of the new minister. The president named
Monday, the 16th instant, at noon, as the day and hour. Accordingly,
precisely at noon to-day I accompanied Mr. Harrington to the executive
chamber in the Palais Federal, where we were received by the president
and the chancellor of the confederation.
On presenting my letter of recall I addressed some brief remarks to the
president, agreeably to the general tenor of your instructions. I send
you herewith copies of my address to the president and of the
president’s response. I also send, by permission of Mr. Harrington,
copies of his remarks and of the president’s response.
As the train is waiting which takes me to Paris on my way home, you will
please excuse the brevity of this despatch.
Your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State of the United States of
America.
Mr. Fogg’s address to President Schenk
Mr. President: I have the honor to present
to your excellency the enclosed letter from Mr. Seward, Secretary of
State of the United States, advising you of my proposed retirement
from the mission with which I have been honored for several years
near the government of the Swiss Confederation In performing this
duty it gives me pleasure to assure your excellency, as I am
instructed to do, of the friendly sentiments of the President of the
United States towards the government and people of Switzerland, and
of his determination to lose no opportunity to improve and
strengthen the relations of sympathy and good will so long and so
happily subsisting between the two countries. I should do injustice
to my own feelings, Mr. President, if I did not, in this hour of
parting, say something more. When I entered upon my mission here, my
country was just entering upon the most fearful crisis that can try
a nation—a civil war—in which two diverse and hostile civilizations
are contending for the mastery, and where, the sword once drawn, the
one combatant or the other must perish. I need not tell you that
this great crisis is happily passed, the government and republican
institutions of the United States, emerging from their baptism of
blood, stronger than ever. Slavery, our great national reproach, has
perished in the conflict it provoked; and henceforth no incubus
remains to cripple the influence or stay the advancement of liberal
principles and popular government upon the American continent.
Many new and important questions will undoubtedly arise out of the
armed conflict which has just closed, and whose solution will tax
the wisdom of the wisest. Of their peaceable solution, however, in
accordance with the demands of reason and justice, I have no
doubt.
Mr. President, I have alluded to this subject because I know how
profound is the interest which the republicans of Switzerland feel
in regard to all that concerns their great sister republic on the
other side of the Atlantic. I shall never forget the friendly
sympathies with which our long struggle with rebellion was watched,
and the joyful enthusiasm with which the triumph of the government
was hailed in every portion of the Swiss Confederation. Still less
can I forget the universal expression of indignation and mourning
which followed the assassination of our great and generous
President, whose fidelity, wisdom, and moderation had been so
conspicuous as, even in a bloody war, to extort the admiration of
the world.
Mr. President, I bid you, and through you, all your colleagues of the
federal council, farewell. I return to my country to find it more
happy than when I left it. I shall carry with me precious memories
of your free and beautiful land, and of your people, whose
independence and liberties may God preserve.
[Translation. ]
President Schenk’s response to
Mr. Fogg
Mr. Minister: By the letter you have just
now communicated to us, we have learned that you are going to leave
our country, and to retire from the mission with which you were
charged by your government near the Confederation during late
years.
During this time the eyes of the Swiss people and of the whole world
were fixed almost exclusively on the great events of your country.
We saw—not spring into existence, for it existed and was in
preparation through a decade of years—but burst into action, the
rebellion, which tended to nothing less than to tear asunder the
glorious Union of North America. We saw it suddenly plunged into a
war, which became from year to year more vast and more [Page 224] formidable. We saw the
star-spangled banner of the republic surrounded by enemies and by
dangers; but we saw also that it was protected by a heroic nation,
and that the greater the danger, and multiplied force of enemies,
the more did strength, unity, confidence, and patriotism increase.
During this time, the Swiss people—I dare will aver it—shared with
you, Mr. Minister, in the sorrow, indignation, fears, hopes, trust,
and, at last, also in the joy, when humanity triumphed over slavery,
and the republic over its enemies within and without. The Swiss
people felt only too well that the fate of the great republic
involved also a portion of their own destinies. That period will
remain inscribed with all those emotions on our memories, and we
cannot remember them without calling to mind at the same time the
worthy representative of the United States who has become so united
in feeling with and so dear to us.
Carry with you, Mr. Minister, our thanks for the assurances of good
will you have been pleased in the name of your government to renew
to us, and please to say to your government how happy we are to
witness the continuance and the strengthening of the relations of
sympathy which so happily exist between the two republican
nations.
Mr. Harrington’s address to
President Sckenk
Mr. President: In presenting to your
excellency my letter of credence as minister resident of the United
States near the Swiss Confederation, I am instructed by the
Secretary of State to assure you of the friendly sentiments
entertained by the government and people of the United States
towards the Swiss Confederation.
I am further authorized to say that the United States in their recent
struggle for unity and for the supremacy of the national government,
have, among other adverse influences, had to contend with a
disposition, at least on the part of some foreign powers, to
interfere in the contest. In opposing this disposition they have not
been unmindful that the integrity of the Swiss Confederation was
under similar circumstances externally threatened, but the Swiss
nation, by prudence and firmness, successfully averted the danger.
The recollection of that successful achievement of Swiss wisdom and
virtue had no small effect in cheering us and enabling us to
persevere in the same course.
It will be my pleasure, Mr. President, as well as my duty, to
preserve, and, if possible, to strengthen the friendly relations so
happily existing between the two republics.
[Translation.]
President Schenk’s response to
Mr. Harrington
On receiving the communication which you have just made to me, I must
at once express our great satisfaction that the government of the
United States has not allowed any interval in the representation in
Switzerland. We see therein, with great pleasure, proof positive of
the interest it feels for the Swiss people and government, of which
we are happy now to receive new assurances. We also attach great
importance to the continuance of this friendship, and will not
forget on our part to do all that depends on us to keep up and add
to the friendly relations which exist between the two countries. You
have pleased to tell us that in the recent contest the government
and people remember the partially analogous position in which
Switzerland was placed some years ago, when a part of the cantons
took arms against the confederation, and foreign powers menaced us
with their interference. You remark that the people of the United
States found encouragement in the recollection of the course which
in that condition had been followed by the confederation, and the
success which had crowned that course. Allow me to reply, Mr.
Minister, that the encouragement which the United States may have
found in our recent history is but little in comparison with the
fresh impulse and additional strength which our thoughts and our
republican convictions have drawn out from your magnificent history
of recent years. When after the terrible assassination of President
Lincoln, happening at a most critical moment, the republic, without
being shaken for an instant, continued its course with a sure and
firm step, that was for us, as for you, a triumph of republican
institutions, and powerful strengthening of all hearts in the love
of these institutions.
Accept, Mr. Minister, the assurance of our deep sympathy in the
happiness of your country, for the President and his government who
have sent you to us, and be convinced that we will endeavor to
facilitate, as much as will depend on us, the accomplishment of the
mission with which you are charged.
