Mr. Seward to Mr.
Hovey.
No. 94.]
Department of State,
Washington,
September 30, 1868.
Sir: Your dispatches of the 22d of August, No.
144, and of the 28th, No. 145, have been received. The appalling
calamities which have befallen Peru, and the Spanish American republics,
have deeply moved the sympathies of the President and the people of the
United States. Your own proceedings, in connection with Rear-Admiral
Turner, in
[Page 886]
relieving the
sufferers, are entirely approved and commended. I give you a copy of the
President’s reply to Mr. Garcia, in which the President has alluded to
the sad events you have described.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Alvin P. Hovey, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
President Johnson’s reply to
Mr. Garcia.
Mr. Garcia: I receive with much
satisfaction the letter in which the newly elected President of the
republic of Peru has confirmed and sanctioned your mission in the
United States, and I cordially reciprocate the fraternal sentiments
which you have expressed.
While the condition of internal peace is advantageous to all states,
whatever may be their form of government, that condition is
essential to the safety, prosperity, and welfare of republics. I
sincerely hope that the republic of Peru may henceforth be without a
foreign enemy or a domestic revolution.
Mr. Garcia, we are pained by the reports which reach us of a great
calamity which has fallen, not only upon Peru, but also upon the
adjacent countries of the Pacific coast. It is to be hoped, indeed,
that these first reports may prove to be highly exaggerated;
nevertheless, the calamity, in its lightest possible aspect, is
sufficiently severe to excite universal sympathy, and justly engage
the charity of Christian nations.
I pray you to assure the President and people of Peru of my profound
sympathy with them in these overwhelming afflictions.
