Office of the Historian

Mr. Hoffman to Mr. Seward

No. 152.]
Legation of the United States, Paris, November 15, 1867.

Sir: As a matter of interest and of curiosity I have the honor to transmit herewith a translation from the Journal de Paris of yesterday, copied into to-day’s Liberté, relating to supposed instructions from you to the United States minister at this post in reference to the affairs of Italy. This is but a specimen of many articles which have appeared from time to time in the European papers upon the subject of the intervention of the United States in the affairs of Europe; although previous to the late disturbances in Italy such articles have generally referred to the supposed intention of the United States to purchase a naval station in the Mediterranean. The recurrence of these articles appears to me to be the expression of the uneasy and restless condition of public opinion in France.

In this connection I would add that a large number of arrests have lately been made for purely political disturbances; several of them of literary and professional men in good social position.

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

WICKHAM HOFFMAN, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

[Untitled]

[From the Liberté, November 15, 1867]

The Journal de Paris states that the minister of the United States at Paris has received instructions from his government relating to the Roman question. “We are, of course, ignorant,” says this journal, “of their tenor, but the simple fact that the cabinet of Washington has thought proper to give instructions to its minister at Paris upon the affairs of Rome, is of great importance. It is a new evidence that the United States, after having opposed so vigorous a resistance to European intervention in America, have determined to intervene more and more in Europe.”