Sir F. Bruce to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 27th ultimo, relating to the sentences of death passed on R. B. Lynch and J. McMahon in Canada, and stating the views entertained by the government of the United States on the various considerations of law, policy, and humanity which might be expected to arise in the course of the trials of the individuals concerned in the raid committed on Canada last spring.
Immediately on receipt of that note, I transmitted a copy of it to her Majesty’s government, and I await their instructions before entering at length upon the several and weighty subjects contained in it.
The course pursued by the Canadian government in bringing these cases before the regular tribunals of justice, thus securing to the prisoners the full protection the law affords to the accused, and the readiness shown by them to communicate all such documents to the consul of the United States as may throw light on the justice of the sentences and the regularity of the proceedings will, I trust, satisfy the government of the United States that, while vindicating, the majesty of the law, the authorities do not conduct the prosecutions in any vindictive or harsh spirit. I am, moreover, authorized to state that the whole question of the disposal of such of the prisoners as may be convicted has been referred for decision to her Majesty’s government, who will certainly be animated by the desire so to deal with it as to secure peace and harmony between populations living in such immediate proximity and separated by along frontier so easily traversed.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.