Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward
Sir: I read to Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys to-day your despatch No. 380, expressing the sentiment of the President in reference to the explanation in the “Moniteur” of the views and purposes of the Emperor in respect to the south, and his conversation with Messrs. Roebuck and Lindsay.
I furthermore reminded Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys of the fact that your despatch, which stated that our government would consider the acknowledgment of the south as an unfriendly act, was but the re-assertion of that which had been said to him before. In answer, he said that any discussion of this subject was now “academic” only, leading to nothing practical; but that he would submit the contents of your despatch to the Emperor. For this purpose I left with him, at his request, a copy.
Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys took occasion again to say that he much regretted that that private conversation had been made public. I told him that I feared the [Page 761] effect had been to occasion an unpleasant distrust among my countrymen as to the feelings and purposes of his Majesty, and that this publication in the “Moniteur “was calculated not to diminish, but to strengthen that distrust. I told him it looked very much as if the Emperor were prompting Great Britain to acknowledge the south, by suggesting that France would follow; it was a sort of informal offer of alliance for a purpose unfriendly to us. He said that this was not, in fact, so, though the explanation in the “Moniteur” might possibly bear such a construction; but he said the Emperor had been answering Mr. Roebuck’s averment that England would not acknowledge the confederates because she feared France would not follow. His intended answer was, in substance: England has no right to say so, because my proposition for mediation is all that has been done, and that was declined by her. He meant, in what he said, to imply that each country should bear its own burdens. But Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys then added, this all grows out of the wrongful publication of a mere private unofficial conversation. There is no doubt, said he, that in such conversation the Emperor would, through a natural courtesy, rather lean towards the views or prepossessions of the parties with whom he was talking, and when it became necessary for him to explain in the “Moniteur” what the conversation actually was, “he would not falsify.” But, said Mr. Drouyn de l’Huys, if propositions had been made in an official shape, calling for action, he would probably have been more guarded, and given to them a different, or, at least, more grave consideration; he might have said no, these things demand reflection.
The above is the substance of the conversation on this point, although more passed, but nothing of an importance demanding or justifying my reducing it to writing in the form of a despatch.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, &c., &c., &c.