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

Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Seward

No. 120.]

Legation of the United States, Paris, June 21, 1865.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit to you enclosure No. 1, a copy, and in enclosure No. 2, a translation, of a despatch received from his excellency M. Drouyn de Lhuys, in reply to my communication to him of the 12th instant, a copy of which was communicated to you in my despatch No. 117.

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

JOHN BIGELOW.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, &c., &c., &c.

[Enclosure No. 2.—Translation.]

Mr. Drouyn de L’rnys to Mr. Bigelow

Paris, June 17, 1865.

Sir: I received the letter which you did me the honor of addressing me on the 12th of this month. You were so kind on the occasion of some remarks that were made in the corps legislatif, during the session on the 9th, by the minister of state, and of a note published in the Moniteur of the 10th, to recall to me the declarations which you had formerly made with regard to Mexico, and the withdrawal of the quality of belligerents from the seceded States.

“What I did write,” you say respecting Mexico, “was that now that the experiment had been begun, the Americans wished it to be fully tried under circumstances best calculated to determine finally and forever whether European systems of government suited the Mexican people best. If it should appear that they did, and public tranquillity was restored, no nation was more interested in such a result than her immediate neighbors. I added, that the success of republican institutions in the Spanish American states had thus far not been such as to encourage us to attempt the propagation of them there, otherwise than by our example, and that whatever government was acceptable to the Mexican people would be satisfactory to us.”

In the matter of withdrawing from the confederates the quality of belligerents, the following is, you tell me, the language which you employed in your letter of the 29th of May:

“The United States government in applying for a repeal of the declaration of June, 1861, abandoned any of the rights of a belligerent which it is presumed to have claimed, and became directly responsible for anything it might do in the character of a belligerent.

“If, after the withdrawal of the imperial declaration, it were to visit and search a neutral vessel, it would at once expose itself to reprisals, the same as for any other violation of international comity.”

Feeling as you do, sir, that a theoretic discussion of these two points would now be of no practical interest, I thank you for having recalled to me the exact language of those declarations which you have had the goodness to make me.

Accept the assurances of the high consideration with which I have the honor to be, sir, your very humble and vary obedient servant,

DROUYN DE LHUYS.

Mr. Bigelow, Minister of the United States at Paris.