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Spain is engaged in her proceedings against Mexico. The United States are repressing an insurrection which, while it has attained formidable dimensions at home, reveals itself abroad in efforts to instigate foreign intervention. While it would be eminently desirable to make new friends, or at least to fortify existing friendships with foreign nations, the circumstances are so unpropitious as to make us content with averting new misunderstandings and consequent collisions.

You have correctly interpreted to Mr. Calderon Collantes the public sentiment of this country in regard to Spain. We not only seek no controversy with her, but are desirous to stand in the most friendly relations towards her. We are watchful, as we must be, of every fact or circumstance that seems to indicate a disposition on her part to favor or encourage the insurrection with which we are contending. We know our ability to maintain the integrity of the republic, and we intend to maintain it. We desire that when it shall have been completely re-established it shall be found that nothing has been done in the meantime by Spain, or by any foreign nation, to serve as causes for alienation. We are a peaceful state. Indeed, we think that the American Union is the guarantee of peace to the whole world. But like every other state we are jealous of our rights, and must maintain them.

Mr. Calderon Collantes could hardly have a better assurance of our desire for peace with Spain than the fact, which you might communicate to him, that even the unjust and ungenerous strictures of the Spanish press, which so naturally and so justly drew out your remonstrance, failed to excite the least sensibility on the part of this government.

This government neither has now, nor is likely to have, any schemes, or, indeed, any purpose, of conquest or aggrandizement. It seeks to extend its influence throughout this hemisphere and the world, not by the sword, but by commerce and by postal communication. It has practically guaranteed Cuba to Spain for many years heretofore, and it has no design against that possession or any other possession of Spain now; but it will not look with favor upon any policy that shall make that island the fulcrum of a lever for overthrowing either this Union or the institutions of human freedom and self-government which are identified with its existence.

We want a commercial treaty with Spain, and are willing to adopt a liberal principle of reciprocity to secure it; but we shall not urge such a measure now, when both parties are too deeply engaged to consider the matter with the intense attention necessary to a mutual understanding upon points so difficult.

We should be glad to effect a measure for the adjustment of mutual commercial claims, but we cannot admit that the Amistad claim has any foundation in justice or moral right. It is for Spain to refuse to treat with us upon this ground if she thinks it sufficient. We can only regret it, and wait for ber to reconsider the subject.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

CARL SCHURZ, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

F. W. SEWARD,
Acting Secretary.

Ex. Doc. 1-19

No. 50.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. Schurz.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 9, 1861.

SIR: Your despatch of October 20 (No. 33) has been received.

I trust that, with the good disposition manifested by Mr. Calderon Collantes on the occasion you have described, we shall be able to avert serious embarrassments of our affairs in the colonies of Spain.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

CARL SCHURZ, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Schurz.

No 52.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 11, 1861.

SIR: Your despatch of October 17 (No. 30) has been received. I am surprised at the miscarriage of my despatch No. 30. I have, however, directed a copy of it to be sent to you. Mr. Tassara has shown me certain explanations made to him by the captain general of Cuba, and I have in turn modified the opinion which I had formed concerning his action in relation to the matter complained of by the vice-consul general. I do not think it necessary to press the subject of my despatch No. 30 under these circumstances. With the gradual action of the government in restoring its authority at home, I look to see less disposition to treat it with disrespect abroad.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

CARL SCHURZ, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

ROME.

No. 2.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. King.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, April 29, 1861.

SIR: I am to instruct you what to do, and of course what not to do, as resident minister of the United States at Rome. In order to understand the wishes and expectations of the President, please consider first the condition of Rome, and then the condition of the United States.

Rome, to a degree hardly comprehended in this country, is protected by the veneration of a large portion of mankind for his Holiness as the expounder of faith and the guardian of religion. Nevertheless, his government is surrounded by the elements of political revolution.

The United States are on the verge of civil war. It happens to them now, as it happened to ancient Rome, and has happened to many other republics, that they must make the trial whether liberty can be preserved while dominion is widely extended. What then shall we say or do in regard to Rome, or what ought Rome to say or do in regard to us?

Assure the government of his Holiness that the President and the people of the United States desire to cultivate with it the most cordial and friendly relations; that we will not violate the friendship already so happily existing by any intervention in the domestic affairs of the States of the Church. Assure his Holiness that it is the settled habit of this government to leave to all other countries the unquestioned regulation of their own internal concerns, being convinced that intrusion by a foreign nation anywhere tends only to embarrass rather than aid the best designs of the friends of freedom, religion and humanity, by impairing the unity of the state exclusively interested.

What ought Rome to do in regard to the United States? Just what I have thus said they will do in regard to Rome. We could not ask or consent to receive more, and the government of his Holiness will not propose to do less, for he is a friend to peace, to good order, and to the cause of human nature, which is now, as it always has been, our cause.

Let the government of Rome set this example and exercise its great influence in favor of a course of natural justice among nations, and the United States will still remain at peace with the whole world, and continue hereafter, as hitherto, to be the home of civil and religious liberty, and an asylum for the exiled and the oppressed.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

RUFUS KING, Esq., &c., &c., Rome.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

No. 13.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. Stockton.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, April 30, 1861.

SIR: An instruction, numbered 2, and dated the 29th instant, has been addressed to your successor, Mr. King, of which, as it relates to a subject of present moment, I have deemed it expedient to send you a transcript, which you will find enclosed. It is thought desirable that the views therein expressed should be communicated to the Papal government without delay. I am, sir, your obedient servant,

JOHN P. STOCKTON, Esq., &c., &c., Rome.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Stockton to Mr. Seward.

WASHINGTON, September 14, 1861.

SIR: I have the honor to inform you that I left my post of duty on my return home on the 6th day of June last. But before doing so, according to the tenor of my despatch, (No. 48,) I communicated the contents of the instructions of the department to Mr. King (No. 2) to the government of his holiness.

I translated all those points of the despatch which I thought necessary into Italian, and left it with his eminence as a memoranda. I informed his eminence, the secretary of state, that although the despatch was addressed to my successor, I should be most happy to take charge of a reply, as Mr. King had not yet arrived in Rome. His eminence said that he could not know the contents of instructions of the government of the United States to Mr. King except privately. Officially Mr. King should be received before any communication directed to him could be noticed. It was impossible for him to reply; a reply was not appropriate to the occasion.

I suggested that he could state to me privately his views, which I would communicate to the government, although my official position was ended. His eminence consented to this, and then said, in substance, as follows: He said that the Catholics of the United States, as Catholics, as a church, would take no part in the matter; it would not be proper for them to do so. As citizens he had no doubt they would all feel a great concern at our internal dissensions. He added, you are aware that the government of his holiness concerns itself mainly in spiritual matters, but we are the supporters of law and order everywhere. He said he regarded the United States as a great and free country, and he hoped that I would be assured that the kind sentiments of our government to the Holy See were appreciated and reciprocated.

I do not pretend to give either the words or a verbal translation of the expressions of his eminence, but I am sure that I have fairly stated the substance of the conversation.

Perhaps it is not improper for me, in concluding my mission, to say that I parted from his holiness with a profound sense of the kindness and consideration I had always received from him, and with sentiments of the highest regard and esteem for his character.

I have the honor to remain, very truly yours,

JOHN P. STOCKTON,

Late United States Minister at Rome.

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

RUSSIA.

No. 3.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. Clay.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, May 6, 1861.

SIR Nations, like individuals, have three prominent wants; first, freedom; secondly, prosperity; thirdly, friends.

The United States early secured the two first objects by the exercise of courage and enterprise. But, although they have always practiced singular moderation, they nevertheless have been slow in winning friends.

Russia presents an exceptional case. That power was an early, and it has always been a constant friend. This relationship between two nations, so remote and so unlike, has excited much surprise, but the explanation is obvious.

Russia, like the United States, is an improving and expanding empire. Its track is eastward, while that of the United States is westward. The two nations, therefore, never come into rivalry or conflict. Each carries civilization to the new regions it enters, and each finds itself occasionally resisted by states jealous of its prosperity, or alarmed by its aggrandizement. Russia and the United States may remain good friends until, each having made a circuit of half the globe in opposite directions, they shall meet and greet each other in the region where civilization first began, and where, after so many ages, it has become now lethargic and helpless. It will be your pleasing duty to confirm and strengthen these traditional relations of amity and friendship.

Assure his Imperial Majesty that the President and the people of the United States have observed with admiration and sympathy the great and humane efforts he has so recently made for the material and moral improvement of his empire by the extension of telegraphs and railroads, and by removing the disabilities of slavery.

Make it your duty to inquire whether the sluggish course of commerce between the two nations cannot be quickened, and its volume increased. Russia is capable of receiving cotton and tobacco from us in much larger quantities than we now send. The former is not a staple of that country, and although it produces tobacco, yet not of so high a quality as that which we send abroad, and of which Russia consumes more than any other nation. We can well receive from that country increased quantities of hemp and flax, tallow, and other productions in exchange.

Russia is liberal to our inventors, engineers, and machinists; but vicious adventurers too often abuse this generous encouragement by fraudulent practices. See if you can devise a plan for correcting this evil. I suggest that it might be done by effecting free interchange of newspapers and scientific journals.

A Russian landing at New York can cross this western continent without once being required to exhibit a passport. Why will not Russia extend the same hospitality to us, and enable the American citizen, when he debarks at Revel, to cross the eastern continent_in_like manner unquestioned. The American abroad is not more than the Russian a propagandist, and while Russia pursues the general policy of the present reign it can have nothing to fear from American influences.

In another paper which accompanies this your attention is especially di

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