Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton.
Sir: Your despatches of the 14th of September (No. 345) and the 16th of September (No. 347) have been received. Moreover, I have been favored by Mr. Mercier with a visit, and with a reading of the despatch addressed to him by Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys, of which special mention is made in your communications.
The explanations made by you to him are correct, and they are approved. Despatches from this department, which you must have received after writing your own, not only sustain those explanations, but they also draw very distinctly the line of policy towards France which the President has marked out under the counsels of prudence, and the traditional friendship towards her which prevails in the United States. Any statesman who has observed how inflexibly this government adheres to the policy of peace and non-intervention, would not need to be informed that the report of an alliance by us with Russia for European war is an absurdity. So, also, no one who knows how completely the American people suffer themselves to be absorbed in the duty of suppressing the present unhappy insurrection, and restoring the authority of the Union, would for a moment believe that we are preparing for or meditating a future war against any nation, for any purpose whatever, much less that we are organizing or contemplating a future war against France, whom it is our constant desire to hold and retain as a friend, through all the vicissitudes of political fortune, and all the changes of national life.
You are authorized to say to Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys that his explanations are entirely satisfactory to the President. I may, perhaps, not improperly improve this occasion by saying that the executive government of this country has no organ in the press. Its views and sentiments in regard to France, as to all other countries, can be known always by the language of its diplomatic [Page 786] representatives, for it instructs them minutely, and directs them to speak always frankly and sincerely. The Emperor has an acknowledged organ in the press. Its utterances, if unfriendly or equivocal, necessarily produce distrust among the American people. When they see in the columns of the Moniteur opinions derogatory of themselves, and calculated to give satisfaction and encouragement to their enemies, it is necessarily, but doubtless erroneously, assumed that they are inspired. Several such publications have recently appeared there, and it is not remembered that one, utterance in the spirit of the friendship of old France has been made by that paper since our unhappy controversy exposed us to the intrigues of our domestic enemies in foreign countries.
I have thus laid bare a living and fruitful root of jealousies between France and the United States. We do not claim that France shall be our friend. We do not insist that she shall judge us or our cause favorably or kindly. On the other hand, it need not be said that unfavorable judgments and unkind sentiments invariably produce ultimate alienation. Everybody knows that the United States are the habitual well-wishers of France, as they are of Russia. Everybody knows that Russia is a well-wisher of the United States, but everybody is not satisfied that France is a well-wisher of the United States. I think everybody agrees that the responsibility for this does not rest with the United States. Where, then, does it fall? The Emperor joined Great Britain in recognizing our insurgents as belligerents, and in attempting to derogate us from our position as a sovereign, the treaty friend of both countries, into a position of equality with the seditious disturbers of our peace. We think that this proceeding was unnecessary, as we know it has been injurious. It tries the temper of the American people more severely than we have ever tried that of France in her domestic troubles, which have been more frequent than our own. Is it wise to let the unfortunate act be followed by needless manifestations of French disfavor to our cause in the war which we are so energetically endeavoring to bring to a close?
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William L. Dayton, Esq., &c., &c.