The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Minister in Washington.
Monsieur le Marquis: The United States minister desired that the communication which he made to me of the Attorney General’s letter to Mr. Seward relative to the decrees of the emperor Maximilian concerning immigration and colonization in Mexico should be acknowledged in writing. I consequently addressed such an acknowledgment to Mr. Bigelow. He replied thereto by the letter of which a copy is appended. It would have been easy for me in my turn to continue the correspondence by discussing his reply. I did not consider it necessary to do so. I confined myself, in the verbal explanations which I had on this subject with the United States minister, to dwelling upon two points which I could not allow to pass without observation. I said, first, to Mr. Bigelow that I did not admit the expression “planted” applied to the part taken by the French government in the events which have modified the political system in Mexico. He was sufficiently acquainted with the causes which led us to that country to render it unnecessary for me to revert to them; and as to the present organization of that state, the Mexican people had themselves settled it according to their wishes and interests.
In the second place, I observed to the United States minister that I had declined all discussion with him upon the decrees of the emperor Maximilian in our interview, and that he was not, therefore, justified in attributing to me any opinion whatever upon the subject, as he appeared to do in the last sentence in his letter. I added that if he, however, wished to know my manner of viewing the question, I did not hesitate to say that the measures of the emperor Maximilian so strongly incriminated had not, in our opinion, the character and object attributed to them. It appeared to me advisable that you should not be ignorant of the manner in which this incidenterminated.
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