Mr. Gresham to Sir Julian Pauncefote.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 21st instant, informing me that you have been instructed by Her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for foreign affairs to announce to the President that Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to appoint you her first ambassador to the United States of America.

I have communicated this information to the President, who fully appreciates the cordial sentiments of sympathy and friendship that prompt Her Majesty’s Government to oiler this new proof of the regard for the ties of ancestry, speech, and good will which have ever held the United States and England in close relations.

I have the honor to request you to inform the Earl of Rosebery that the President will in due time accredit a representative of the United States at the Court of St. James in the capacity of ambassador, in acceptance and reciprocation of Her Majesty’s friendly action; and in so doing I desire to express the pleasure I share equally with his [Page 334] lordship in view of this important step, as well as the gratification I personally feel that Her Majesty’s choice has fallen upon you as her first ambassador to the United States.

I have, etc.,

W. Q. Gresham.