Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton
Sir: Your despatch of April 9, No. 297, has been submitted to the President.
You have rightly interpreted to Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys our views concerning the issue of letters of marque. The unrestrained issue of piratical vessels from Europe to destroy our commerce, break our blockade of insurrectionary ports, and invade our loyal coast, would practically be an European war against the United States, none the less real or dangerous for wanting the sanction of a formal declaration. Congress has committed to the President, as a weapon of national defence, the authority to issue letters of marque. We know that it is a weapon that cannot be handled without great danger of annoyance to the rights of neutrals and friendly commercial powers. But even that hazard must be incurred rather than quietly submit to the apprehended greater evil. There are now, as you must have observed, indications that that apprehended greater evil may be averted through the exercise of a restraining power over the enemies of the United States in Great Britain. Hopeful of such a result, we forbear from the issue of letters of marque, and are content to have the weapon ready for use if it shall become absolutely necessary.
It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge that, beyond what we deem the original error of France in recognizing, unnecessarily, as we think, the insurgents as a belligerent, we have every reason to appreciate the just and [Page 733] impartial observance of neutrality which has been practiced in the ports and harbors of France by the government of the Emperor. In any case it will be hereafter, as it has been hitherto, a pleasing duty to conduct all our belligerent proceedings so as to inflict no wrong or injury upon the government or the people of the French empire.
You have also done the country a good service in explaining, in your conversations with Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys, the manner in which we have heretofore maintained our neutrality in foreign wars, by enforcing our enlistment laws, which are in all respects the same as those of Great Britain.
The President has received with much interest Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys’s exposition of the policy of the French government in regard to the insurrection in Poland. The Emperor of Russia seems to us to have adopted a policy of beneficent reform in domestic administration. His known sagacity and his good dispositions encourage a hope that Poland will not be denied a just share of the imperial consideration if, as seems now to be generally expected in Europe, the revolution attempted by her heroic people shall be suppressed.
I do not care to speak often upon the war of France against Mexico. The President confidingly believes that the Emperor has no purpose of assuming, in the event of success, the government of that republic. Difficult as the exercise of self-government there has proved to be, it is, nevertheless, quite certain that the attempt to maintain foreign authority there would encounter insurmountable embarrassment. The country possesses immense, practically inexhaustible, resources. They invite foreign labor and capital from all foreign countries to become naturalized and incorporated with the resources of the country and of the continent, while all attempts to acquire them by force must meet with the most annoying and injurious hindrance and resistance. This is equally true of Mexico and of every portion of the American continent. It is more than a hundred years since any foreign state has successfully planted a new colony in America, or even strengthened its hold upon any one previously existing here. Through all the social disturbances which attend a change from the colonial state to independence, and the substitution of the democratic for the monarchical system of government, it still seems to us that the Spanish-American states are steadily advancing towards the establishment of permanent institutions of self-government. It is the interest of the United States to favor this progress, and to commend it to the patronage of other nations. It is equally the interest of all other nations, if, as we confidently believe, this progress offers to mankind the speediest and surest means of rendering available to them the natural treasures of America.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
William L. Dayton, Esq., &c., &c., &c.