No. 131.
Mr. Fish to Mr. Washburne.
Washington, July 22, 1872.
Sir: It has been suggested to this Department, and the suggestion is concurred in, that, if the sympathy which we entertain for the inhumanly persecuted Hebrews in the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were made known to the government to which you are accredited, it might quicken and encourage the efforts of that government to discharge its duty as a protesting power, pursuant to the obligations of the treaty between certain European States. Although we are not a party to that instrument, and, as a rule, scrupulously abstain from interfering, directly or indirectly, in the public affairs of that quarter, the grievance adverted to is so enormous as to impart to it, as it were, a cosmopolitan character, in the redress of which all countries, governments, and creeds are alike interested.
You will consequently communicate on this subject with the minister for foreign affairs of the French Republic in such way as you may suppose might be most likely to compass the object in view.
I am, &c,