Mr. Dix to Mr.
Seward
No. 35]
Legation of the United States,
Paris,
February 19,1867.
Sir: I enclose a translation of the parts of
the annual exposition of the condition of the French empire, presented
by the government to the Senate and Corps Legislatif, relating to the
United States and Mexico. The expression of good feeling in respect to
the former and the unconditional abandonment of the latter are a true
index of the more general feeling which exists here on both subjects.
The paragraphs referred to will be found on pages 302 and 303 of the
“Exposé” which I will send you in the despatch bag on Friday. It is too
bulky for the mail.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Page 234]
[Extract from the annual exposition of the condition of the French
empire.—Translation.]
In the United States the work of constitutional reconstruction
continues. France sincerely applauds the wonderful activity with
which that great nation is repairing the calamities of civil war. In
the condition of the relations which exist between the different
countries of the globe, the sufferings which are produced at one
point are necessarily felt at all others. We have experienced the
shock of the events which distracted the Union, and we are profiting
by the revival of its industrial and commercial energies. No subject
of disagreement exists at this moment between the two countries; on
the contrary, everything is contributing more and more to bring them
nearer to each other in their policy. His Majesty has received on a
recent occasion the assurance of sentiments of friendship, which
were expressed to him in the name of the United States, and which
correspond perfectly with our own feelings. We take pleasure in
arguing favorably into the future relations of the two governments,
in respect to the different questions on which their interests may
be found to coincide.
We need not recur at this time to the necessity which caused us to
undertake the expedition to Mexico. We sought the redress of
grievances of every description and denials of justice from which
our people had suffered for many years; and, animated by that
generous sentiment, which will always induce France to render her
intervention useful wherever she shall be led to carry her arms, we
did not refuse to unite in an attempt at regeneration, by which all
interests would have profited. But in lending its co-operation to
this work, the government of the Emperor had assigned beforehand a
limit to its sacrifices, and the Emperor had fixed the end of the
present year as the extreme term of our military occupation. The
evacuation was to have been made in three detachments, the first
leaving in the month of November, 1866, the second; in March, and
the third in November, 1867. These arrangements, conformable to our
previous intentions, had been made in the fullness of our liberty of
action, and anything which had partaken of the nature of external
pressure could only have placed us in the position, in spite of
ourselves, of prolonging a state of things which we wished to
abridge. Reasons arising out of our military situation determined
the Emperor to modify the first arrangement by substituting for a
partial evacuation at succeeding periods of time the simultaneous
transportation home of our whole corps d’armée in the spring of the
present year. These measures are now in a course of execution, and
in the month of March next our troops will have left Mexico. Far
from desiring to free itself from engagements which it has
contracted on its own account, and which it has publicly announced,
the government of the Emperor will thus hasten their fulfilment.
