Mr. Seward to Mr. Johnson
Sir: Your dispatch of the 23d of November, No. 61, has been received; it is accompanied by an “additional article” which on the 23d of November you signed with Lord Stanley, to have the same force and effect as if it had been inserted word for word in the convention of claims which you signed with his lordship on the 10th of November last. By this additional article Washington is substituted for London as the place for the meeting of the convention, and the provision for the appointment of a secretary has been changed so as to adapt it to that amendment.
This transaction on your part is in accordance with the suggestions of this department, and is approved. In regard to the whole subject, we are now waiting for the answer of her Majesty’s government to the propositions which you have been instructed to submit for further amendment of that convention. The examinations and reflections which have been bestowed upon the matter of the claims convention have fully confirmed the opinion expressed in that instruction, that the further amendments thus proposed are necessary to secure the approval of the convention by the Senate of the United States.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Reverdy Johnson, Esq., &c., &c., &c.