Mr. Seward to Mr. McCook.

No. 36.]

Mr. McCook, etc.:

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch of the 5th of August, No. 31. The President is gratified with the information that His Majesty the King of the Sandwich Islands approves of the reciprocity treaty, and that he took measures to call an extraordinary [Page 144] session of the legislature for the purpose of a formal ratification. Since the receipt of your dispatch we have received a report by the telegraph from San Francisco that the treaty has been finally and fully ratified by the Hawaiian Government.

I refrain altogether from treating upon the subject of the irritation which has been manifested at Honolulu in connection with the visit of the Lackawanna at that port. No conceivable good could result from engaging in diplomatic debate upon that subject.

I am, etc.,

William H. Seward.