Mr. Sanford to Mr. Seward.
Sir: The King, in his audience to-day, after expressing the gratification with which he had perused the letter of the President to his Majesty in reply to his award in the Macedonian case, and requesting me to communicate the same to him personally, spoke with a good deal of earnestness of the desire he had to have a line of steamships established between Antwerp and the United States. He expressed the hope that we would, on our side, lend our aid to this end. His Majesty seemed to count more upon American enterprise for such an undertaking than upon that of Belgium. I said to the King, in reply, that I thought it very possible, if the project of aiding emigration to the United States should be realized, that Antwerp, the natural outlet for a large portion of the continent, might be made the seat of a bureau of emigration, and a point of departure for emigrants. This would greatly promote the creation of a steamship [Page 253] line, and, I added, that when the war was over, some of our national vessels, which had been purchased from the merchant service, and were adapted for such purposes, would possibly be employed in the transportation of mails to countries with which we had not now direct communication. Under our new postal convention, providing for special transit privileges through Belgium for correspondence, Antwerp or Ostend would be the most favorable point on the continent for the distribution of mails, and consequently for the terminus of such a line. While our present practice was not to grant subsidies to mail ships otherwise than the allowance of the postage earned, his Majesty might be assured that there would be on our part every desire to aid in making still closer and more intimate friendly relations between the two countries in the way he had indicated.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, &c., &c., &c.