The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Minister at Washington.
Monsieur le Marquis: I have seen with satisfaction, by your last despatches, that the efforts made in the United States to organize an armed emigration into Mexico continue to lose their importance, and I approve of the terms in which you proposed to treat that question with Mr Seward, when it shall be possible for you to open your relations with him in a regular and consecutive manner. It was a matter of great interest to us, in presence of the projected expeditions to Mexico so loudly announced in the United States, to remind the cabinet at Washington that the legislation of the country afforded it the means of opposing an obstacle, if such were its wish, to enterprises of that kind. But, having done this, our further measures must depend on circumstances, and you rightly thought the present moment inopportune for demanding that the federal government should publish a new proclamation in conformity with that of 1818.
The feelings with which the cabinet at Washington showed itself animated on this point, and of which I have recently received further proof, are moreover of a nature to satisfy us. On the 29th of last month Mr. Bigelow communicated to me a letter which he had just received from Mr. Seward, and the first which that minister had written, or rather dictated, since the events of which he was one of the victims. In it Mr. Seward protests against the apprehensions which the hasty language of certain American journals had given birth to in France. He affirms, in the most formal terms, that the existing government maintains the policy adopted by the previous administration relative to Mexico, and on which the representative of the Union had been many times charged to transmit explanations to me. The Washington cabinet is still resolved to observe neutrality in this matter. It is persuaded that the instructions given by the Attorney General to the district attorneys will suffice to prevent illicit armaments; and that if, in spite of the efforts of the government, some few irregular acts should occur, such acts would have no importance, and could not trouble either France or Mexico. I have received these declarations with pleasure, and I am happy to know that the facts related in your correspondence confirm the assurances which were spontaneously given by Mr. Seward.
Accept, &c.,