No. 109.
Mr. Washburne to Mr. Fish.
Legation of the
United States,
Paris, April 23, 1873. (Received May
9.)
No. 796.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that all the
boxes containing the silver for the Geneva arbitrators have arrived safely
in Paris. The boxes for Count Sclopis are in the Bank of France, awaiting
directions from Mr. Marsh. The boxes for Mr. Staempfli have been sent to Mr.
Upton, at Geneva.
In accordance with your instructions, I yesterday presented the two cases to
the Viscount d’Itajuba. I beg to inclose you herewith what I said on the
occasion, together with the remarks of the viscount in reply. The
presentation was made at the private residence of the viscount, in the
presence of quite a number of his friends. I was accompanied by my two
secretaries and Mr. Vignaud, as well as by General Schenck, who happened to
be in the city. The whole affair passed off very pleasantly, and the
viscount, his family and friends, were very much gratified and
delighted.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 1.]
Mr. Washburne to
Viscount d’Itajuba.
Your Excellency, Viscount
d’Itajuba: My Government has devolved
upon me the agreeable duty of presenting to you, in the name of the
United States, two cases of silver, as a mark of appreciation of the
dignity, ability, learning, and impartiality with
[Page 252]
which, you discharged your arduous duties
at Geneva, and as an expression of the President’s deep sense of the
unselfishness with which you devoted your time and great abilities to
the solution of the difficult questions which had then arisen between
Her Britannic Majesty and the United States, and which are now so
happily laid at rest by the action of the tribunal of which you were so
distinguished a member.
The friendly relations so long existing between our two governments, and
the pleasant social intercourse which it has been my good fortune to
have with you for the last four years as a most highly esteemed
diplomatic colleague, make my mission in this regard doubly agreeable,
and I beg you to accept the assurance of my sincere friendship and high
personal regard, as well as my fervent wishes for your health,
happiness, and prosperity.
[Inclosure 2.—Translation.]
Viscount d’Itajuba
to Mr. Washburne.
My Dear Colleague: I am deeply touched by the
step which you have just taken in my behalf, in the name of your
Government, of which you are the worthy representative in France, and by
the flattering words you have addressed to me.
It will be for me a never-failing remembrance that I had the honor to
belong to the tribunal of Geneva, which, thanks to the wisdom of the
United States and Great Britain, had the good fortune to settle
peacefully the grave differences which had arisen between the two
countries.
I beg you to transmit to the President, and to your Government, my thanks
and my good wishes for the prosperity and greatness of the United
States, the friend of Brazil. And I pray you to receive for yourself, my
dear colleague, the assurance of my high esteem and of my sincere
friendship.
