763.72/1862½
The Counselor for the Department of State (Lansing) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: I have received the draft of the note to Germany, prepared by the President,96 and also your statement of his [Page 439] request that I should go over the note for form and validity of statement and claim.
This note is of such grave importance to this country that I do not feel I can comply with the President’s request properly at the Department, or within a short time. I desire to take the draft home with me and study it tonight and tomorrow, unless the President is desirous that it should be sent tomorrow. I think, in justice to myself, as well as to my duty to you, that I should have this time for consideration of the matters submitted to me by the President.
Faithfully yours,
- For this draft, embodying Mr. Lansing’s suggested changes, see p. 441; for text of the note as sent, see Foreign Relations, 1915, supp., p. 436.↩