No. 326.
Mr. Blaine to Mr. Lowell.

No. 180.]

Sir: I have postponed a reply to your dispatch No. 163, of the 13th of April last, on the subject of the reported prevalence of swine disease in the United States, until the result of the searching investigation, which was instituted upon the publication of the statements made by Mr. Crump, acting British consul at Philadelphia, should place me in a position to either accept those statements as correct and well founded, or to supply that authentic information in controversion thereof, which Earl Granville’s note of the 8th of April intimates a disposition to recieve.

I transmit herewith copies of the exhaustive report made by the officer of this Department who was ordered to visit the great swine producing and packing centers of the West for that purpose. It does not seem possible to add by mere argument any weight to this cogent exposition of the facts in relation to the pork exports of the United States. This report is confidently laid before Her Majesty’s Government as affording convincing proof that the rumors, which have obtained such wide credence in Great Britian and on the Continent with regard to this great branch of the foreign trade of the United States, were exaggerated and misleading.

I regret to observe that Earl Granville, in his note to you of the 8th of April, treats the representations which my No. 130 of March 17th had directed you to make touching the published statements of Mr. Crump, as a “very serious insinuation against the good faith of that gentleman.”

I beg that you will endeavor to dispel this unpleasant impression from his lordship’s mind. Had this government seriously doubted the personal good faith of Mr. Crump in the premises, it would have lost no time in protecting itself, in accordance with the usages of international intercourse, by the suspension or revocation of its recognition of [Page 535] Mr. Crump’s official character as an authorized subordinate consular officer of Her Majesty’s service.

It believed then and still believes that the insidious operations of designing men, through the widely spread channels of anonymous communications, marked newspaper extracts, and other means of facile application, which for a time deluged the executive departments of this government, had produced their natural effect on Mr. Crump’s mind, and that his statement unconsciously reflected these misleading reports rather than the official data within his reach. My impression in this regard is fortified by the circumstance that neither in the memorandum of Mr. Warrack, the British vice-consul at Chicago, to which his lordship refers in justification of the accuracy of Mr. Crump’s statement, nor in the numerous publications of an authoritative character made by the national and state officers and then accessible to him, is there the slightest warrant for the alarming association which Mr. Crump made between the alleged mortality from the so-called “hog cholera” and the dissemination of the dreaded trichina spiralis. It was this startling and unscientific connection of totally different premises which made Mr. Crump’s report so productive of injury, as my instruction of March 17 to you endeavored to show. As it is, however, I am prepared to cheerfully admit that the very wildness and lack of scientific knowledge shown in this correlation of isolated data, is in itself presumptive proof of the honesty and good faith of Mr. Crump. On the other hand, it must be admitted that there is ample room to doubt the good faith of the sources of information on which he seems to have relied.

I have given to this branch of the subject more attention than it would otherwise have had, in view of the prominence which Earl Granville assigns to the question of Mr. Crump’s good faith as bearing on the merits of the case, and I trust that the frankness of my statements will commend them to his lordship’s judgment as counteracting the impression he seems to have formed. This government has no disposition to meet a great international question, involving vast material interests and affecting the natural course of trade between the two nations, by impugning the personal character for veracity of an officer who has enjoyed since 1864, and still so signally enjoys, the confidence of Her Majesty’s Government.

The question lies much deeper. International good faith throws upon governments the gravest responsibility in all that affects public health. Had the result of this candid and searching investigation been such as to show that one of our great national industries was the means of disseminating disease and horrible death abroad, as well as at home, no admission could have been too prompt, and no repressive measures too imperative, to undo and check the evil. And to the same international good faith we now appeal in submitting to Her Majesty’s Government the proofs set forth in the accompanying report, assured that the matter will be dealt with in that wise and just spirit so confidently to be expected from the British Government.

Your own good judgment will counsel you as to the proper manner of bringing to Earl Granville’s knowledge the views herein expressed and of giving proper publicity to the inclosed report in Great Britain.

I am, &c.,

JAMES G. BLAINE.