Viscount de Santo-Thyrso to Mr. Sherman.
Your Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the note which Mr. Adee addressed to me on the 28th ultimo, during your excellency’s absence, with regard to the Monterey affair, and I am much obliged for the explanations which it contained, and which I hastened to transmit to His Majesty’s Government.
Permit me, your excellency, to avail myself of this opportunity to correct a slight mistake which appears to have been made in the State Department as to my intervention in this matter.
I only heard of the occurrence through the accounts in the newspapers, and subsequently through the report which was sent to me by my order by the person in charge of the consulate at San Francisco.
I have received no complaint from Manuel Ortins, nor, as he is now an American citizen, would I in any case presume to interfere in his behalf. Still, the Portuguese flag can never be regarded as a mere ornament; it is always a national emblem. When a friendly Government permits it to be raised in its territory by its own citizens, it naturally guarantees it the respect to which it is entitled. It was only upon these principles that I called your excellency’s attention to the matter, and I am confident that the explanations which have been interchanged in so candid and friendly a manner between His Majesty’s legation and the American Government will tend to strengthen the feelings of reciprocal esteem and mutual respect which have so long uninterruptedly united the two Governments.
I avail myself, etc.,