Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, For the Year 1887, Transmitted to Congress, With a Message of the President, June 26, 1888

No. 215.
Mr. Bayard to Mr. Dinsmore .

Department of State,
Washington , May 11, 1887.

No. 11.]

Sir: I have received Mr. Rockhill’s dispatch No. 72, of March 31 last, reporting the accidental killing of William McKay, an American citizen, by a Corean on the 8th of that month, at Seoul.

Although interference with the course of municipal law, even though it be to solicit clemency for the author of an injury to a foreigner, is delicate and exceptional, yet, under the circumstances and in view of the wide gulf which separates Corean judicial methods from our own, the appeal of Mr. Rockhill, responding as it did to the widow’s earnest solicitation is most commendable.

I am, etc.,

T. F. Bayard.