Mr. Johnson to Mr. Seward
Sir: As you will have seen before this reaches you, your cable cipher dispatch of the 11th instant was duly received. The one of the next day was also duly received.
Lord Stanley will not be in London before Wednesday or Thursday next, and until then I shall not be able to inform you whether Washington will be substituted for London as the place for the meeting of the claims commission.
As stated in my cipher dispatch to you of the 12th instant, I agreed to London as the place for two reasons: first, because what are known as the Alabama claims against this government, involve a much larger amount than all the other claims of our citizens, and the evidence in support of them, as well as any other that may be called for by the commissioners or the umpire, is in England; and, second, because I suppose it to be almost certain that the umpire in relation to these claims will be the head of a European state, to whom the claimants and the agent of our government could have much more speedy access than if the commission was in Washington; and I cannot help thinking that the proposed change, if effected, will operate to their injury, or at least to their inconvenience. If, however, I had been instructed to insist upon Washington as the place of meeting, or had understood that such was the wish of yourself and the President, I should have insisted upon it. But I was not so instructed nor did I so understand.
Your original instructions to me of the 20th of July, 1868, are altogether silent upon the point, as are also everything which you have forwarded to me since, prior to your cipher dispatch of the 11th instant; and, before signing the convention, I referred to your dispatch No. 375, of 21st October, 1862, to Mr. Adams, in which I found that although the evidence on which the then “British claims,” or the most of them, rested, was said by you to be in the United States, a suggestion doubtless made with a view to induce this government to agree to Washington as a place for the meeting of the commission you then desired. You informed Mr. Adams that, if it was strenuously objected to by this government, it was “a matter not of sufficient importance to be insisted upon.” Although I cannot say that Lord Stanley strenuously objected to the change—and I hope he will not now—yet he urged me to agree to London as the place best suited for the interest of all claimants, British and American, and as being much more convenient and less expensive. I thought this view was the correct one, and acted upon that impression. Under these circumstances I hoped that the President and yourself will not think that I committed any great mistake. It may be true that at home there exists “a highly disturbed national sensibility,” which for a moment would influence the public judgment upon the subject, yet I have such confidence in the good sense of our people as to believe that when all the facts are known and the reasons which have governed me are disclosed, that judgment would be satisfied with what I have done. But, however this might be, I will now do whatever I may be able to get Washington instead of London made the place for the meeting of the commission, and will, at the earliest moment, advise you of the result.
I have the honor to remain, with high regard, your obedient servant.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.