Mr. Foster to Baron von Ketteler.

Baron: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your verbal memorandum of yesterday’s date, by which, under orders of His Majesty, the Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia, you express to the President, on this 21st day of October, devoted to the universal celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, His Imperial Majesty’s most sincere congratulations and wishes for the welfare of this country.

It afforded me much pleasure to convey to the President the Imperial message thus communicated, and I am instructed by him to request that you will kindly transmit to His Imperial and Royal Majesty the feelings of pleasure with which he receives this manifestation of the good will of His Majesty, and the gratification with which he expresses, in the name of the Government and people of the United States, their cordial friendship for the German Empire and their wishes for the prosperity and happiness of the peoples over whom His Majesty has been called to rule.

Accept, Baron, etc.,

John W. Foster.