Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I acknowledge the receipt this morning of despatches Nos. 68, 69, 70, 71, and 72. Their contents relate principally to the reception of sundry despatches from me, with brief answers, for which I am much obliged. I asked any information that it might be proper to give as to the future course of events in the United States, (beyond what is found in the newspapers,) not from curiosity, merely, but because I am sometimes questioned here by parties in the government, and fear that I indicate an unwarrantable ignorance, for I am constrained to say that I know nothing beyond what is common to all the world; while the government and diplomats here take it for granted that I ought to know a great deal more.
Your despatch (No. 68) informs me of Mr. Adams’s communication of an intended couuter-proposition to be made by England and France to our government in respect to Mexican affairs. Of this I had heard before, and it made me less anxious as to the question here; for the fact that a counter-proposition was to be made and answered would, of necessity, as I thought, occupy time and give the United States a chance for reflection, and perhaps action. The prompt consummation of this matter in London has rather taken me by surprise. I fear that some misunderstanding of each other’s meaning may have occurred upon the part of Mr. Adams and Earl Russell, or one of them. At all events a point has been reached at a much earlier day than an intimation of such intended proposition led me to anticipate.
I am, with respect, your obedient servant,
His Excellency William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.