Mr. Seward to Mr. Koerner
Sir: The despatch of Mr. Perry, written at Marcia on the 26th of October and numbered 89, has been received. The account which it contains of the favor with which her Catholic Majesty and her ministers were welcomed on their recent progress through the kingdom is very interesting and gratifying to the President, who desires nothing in regard to Spain but a continuance of her peace and prosperity.
The attention of European states seems just beginning to be arrested by the fact that they are not merely isolated spectators of this civil war. They are coming to realize that it involves the solution of a problem in which, in one way or another, every European nation is concerned. Beyond a doubt, a change of the political relation of slavery to our own country will have bearings upon the like relation of slavery towards Spain. She has a right to regulate that relation for herself and colonies. Manifestly, therefore, Spain is deeply interested in our being left alone to deal with that question here in the way that shall be most conducive to the safety and welfare of our own country. Any other course would tend inevitably to enlarge this domestic strife into an unnecessary and dangerous international and universal war of opinion concerning African slavery.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Gustavus Koerner, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Madrid.