Mr. Seward to Mr. Van Valkenburgh.
Sir: In my No. 51 I had the honor to acknowledge your written dispatches from No. 8 to No. 14, inclusive.
In my No 52 1 acknowledged your dispatch of the 28th of April, which came by telegraph from San Francisco.
I have now to acknowledge the receipt of several of your more recent dispatches, as follows, namely: March 4, No. 24; March 11, No. 25; March 16, No. 26; March 23, No. 27; April 2, No. 31; April 3, No. 32; April 3, No. 33; April 8, No. 35; April 8, No. 36; April 14, No. 38; April 18, No. 39; April 19, No. 40; April 23, No. 41; April 27, No. 44.
These communications continue the narrative of political events and transactions which have occurred in Japan down to the date of your exceptional telegraphic dispatch of April 28, before mentioned. We have thus the proceedings of the Mikado’s government, and the consultation of the representatives of the treaty powers concerning the redress which had been previously demanded for the attack which was made by the soldiers of the Prince of Bezen on the foreigners residing at Hiogo, on the 4th of February last, which proceedings were consummated by the execution of the offending Japanese officer, Taki Zensaboro, and the apology subsequently made by the Mikado’s government to the United States and European ministers; your departure with the other western representatives from Hiogo to Osaka; the condition in which you found that city and the lodgings of the legation there; the visits of ceremony [Page 756] which were received by yourself and other ministers at Osaka from the commissioners and other official agents of the Mikado; the verbal invitation given to you to visit the Mikado at Kioto; your waiver of that visit for a time; the atrocious massacre committed by a band of armed Japanese upon officers and seamen of the French ships of war Venus and Dupleix when peacefully engaged in surveying the Bay of Saki, in the suburbs of Osaka; the consultations of the ministers upon that subject, and the representations mutually made between the French minister and the Japanese government concerning the same painful transaction; your departure from Osaka, and your arrival at Yokohama on the 14th of March; the good condition in which you found the affairs of the legation there; the announcement you received there of the Tycoon’s determination to surrender the city and port of Yokohama to the Mikado when thereafter required; the dismissal of the late Gorogio from office; the march of the Mikado’s troops towards Yedo; the proceedings which you took, in concert with the representatives of the other western powers, to discontinue temporarily the issue of passports to foreigners seeking to enter Yedo; the arrival of a disorderly vanguard of the Mikado’s army at Yokohama, and the measures judiciously taken by yourself, in concert with four associates, for protecting the several legations and the peace of the city during the stay of those troops; the visit made on the 22d of March by the representatives of France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands to the Mikado; the felonious assault made by Japanese fanatics upon the British minister on his way to the same audience; the atonement made for that offense by the Mikado; and also the ample satisfaction which the Mikado’s government so promptly made by executing the persons who had assassinated the French officers and seamen, and paying a money indemnity of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the relief and support of the families of the victims; the Mikado’s proclamation denouncing the Tycoon and his associates as rebels, and depriving them of office and rank; the statement of the Tycoon upon that subject made to the French minister for the information of the western powers; the proclamation of the Mikado’s government forbidding and denouncing all assaults upon foreigners under penalties of degradation, capital punishment, and infamy; the arrival of the advance guard of the Mikado’s army, on the 5th of April, at Yedo; the excitement which followed, and the unconclusive parleys which were had between the belligerents; the precarious condition of the public peace there; the application of yourself and associated foreign representatives made to the Mikado’s government for the appointment of officers by that government for the northern and eastern parts of the island of Niphon, and the proceedings, promising favorable results, which were taken in the direction thus indicated by those ministers; and, finally, the arrival of the Stonewall, under the Japanese flag, and her being placed temporarily under the flag of the United States in the manner which had been suggested by you in your previous communications.
It affords me pleasure to assure you that the President has derived much satisfaction from the methodical and lucid history you have thus given us of internal conflicts in Japan, which otherwise would have remained, in a large degree, unintelligible. I sincerely hope that your expectations of a speedy return of peace, tranquillity, and order in that great empire have been already, or may soon be, realized. Whatever has been done by yourself and the other representatives of the western powers in this relation seems to have been necessarily, as well as judiciously, done; it is therefore approved.
I find, also, little occasion for modifying or enlarging the instructions [Page 757] which have been heretofore given by this department concerning the Stonewall. A statement of the accounts between the two governments concerning that vessel has been prepared, and it will accompany this dispatch.
You will, without waiting special instructions, recognize the authorities which shall seem to be accepted and approved by the Japanese people, proceeding, however, in this respect, as on all other occasions, upon due consultation and in harmony with the representatives of the other western powers. When that recognition shall be made, or shall be ready to be made, you will then apply to the Japanese government for the moneys in arrears to the United States, including all the expenses actually incurred in taking and holding possession of the Stonewall, and, on the payment or fair adjustment of the accounts, you will, without further instructions, deliver the Stonewall to the authorities of the empire.
I give you, also, a statement of what is called the Japanese indemnity fund. It will be expedient, and perhaps necessary, to secure, at the same time with the settlement of the Stonewall account, a recognition, if not an immediate liquidation, of the indemnity debt.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
R. B. Van Vankenburgh, Esq., &c., &c., &c.