Mr. Seward to Mr. Bigelow
Sir: Your despatch of November 30, No. 209, was duly received, and it has been submitted to the President.
Your proceeding in reading my despatch, No. 300, to Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys is approved. The general tenor of the remarks made by you to the minister of foreign affairs on that occasion is likewise approved. It is not the executive department of this government alone which is interested and concerned in the question whether the present condition of things shall be continued in Mexico. The interest is a national one, and in every event Congress, which is now in session, is authorized by the Constitution and is entitled to direct by law the action of the United States in regard to that important subject.
It has been the President’s purpose that France should be respectfully informed upon two points, namely:
First. That the United States earnestly desire to continue and to cultivate sincere friendship with France.
Second. That this policy would be brought into imminent jeopardy, unless France could deem it consistent with her interest and honor to desist from the prosecution of armed intervention in Mexico, to overthrow the domestic republican government existing there, and to establish upon its ruins the foreign monarchy which has been attempted to be inaugurated in the capital of that country.
In answer to an exposition of our views which was thus made, the suggestion was offered to you by Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys that the government of the United States might favor the express desire of the Emperor to withdraw from Mexico, by giving to him some formal assurance that, in the event of his withdrawal, this government would recognize the institution of Maximilian in Mexico as de facto a political power.
It was my desire, in framing the despatch No. 300, to express in behalf of the United States a decision that the recognition which the Emperor had thus suggested cannot be made, and to assign, by way of explanation, the grounds upon which that decision was based. I have carefully considered the arguments against that decision which were presented to you by Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys in the interview referred to, and I do not find in them any sufficient reasons for modifying the views which the United States have expressed.
It remains now only to make known to Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys my profound regret that he has thought it his duty to leave the subject, in his conversation with you, in a condition that does not authorize an expectation on our part that a satisfactory adjustment of the case can be effected on any basis that has thus far been discussed.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
John Bigelow, Esq., &c., &c., &c.