Mr. Asboth to Mr. Seward
Sir: The latest papers from home have brought the intelligence that the long-talked-of cession to the United States of the Russian possessions in America has become un fait accompli,and has been made public by a proclamation of the President. I now therefore respectfully beg leave, as one of the representatives of the United States government abroad, in the name of my fellow-citizens here, to congratulate you most sincerely upon this very important national acquisition.
We joyfully hail in this an additional triumph of that high and patriotic statesmanship which, whilst it made you the leading spirit in the mighty struggle for the abolition of slavery in our great republic and enabled you to save, during the gigantic contest, our country from a foreign war, opens now the pathway to the peaceful possession of the Pacific coast from Mexico to the Arctic regions.
While recognizing the profound sagacity which has seen in Russian America an acquisition which will prove a material boon to the whole Union, particularly to those States nearer to the Pacific, your fellow-citizens here dwell with greater pride on the political foresight which has looked beyond material advantages and appreciated the opportunity for the further extension of democratic institutions and republican rule in this hemisphere, thus contributing to mould all its peoples into that spirit of liberty, of self-reliance and enterprise, of untiring activity and political and religious generosity which have made the United States prosperous and powerful, and conquered for them the admiration of the world.
[Page 216]When the vestiges of the mighty convulsion through which the great Union has had to pass are effaced, and the work of reconstruction, fully uniting it once more in heart and soul, is thoroughly accomplished, the whole mass of its people and all future generations will bless your name for having by this wise and farsighted policy added one more link to the long chain of patriotic services by which our country is bound to you in everlasting gratitude, and you must kindly allow me thus to record my own sincere thanks as well as those of our fellow-citizens here for the great boon you have conferred upon the whole Union by a treaty which secures such incalculable benefits materially as well as politically.
May you long live to give to the nation’s councils the powerful assistance of your patriotic energy and matured wisdom, and may you have the satisfaction of witnessing to the full the blessings secured by your enlightened and humanizing policy.
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.