Mr. Fish to Mr. Washburne
Sir: Your Government has sympathized deeply with you in the trials and privations and annoyances to which you were subjected during the long-continued siege of the capital to which you were officially accredited, and where a high sense of duty, which is appreciated and commended, induced you to remain in the efficient and heroic discharge of the most difficult and delicate responsibilities that fall within the province of diplomatic service.
The President recognizes that your continuance within the besieged capital after the discretionary permission given you in my dispatch No. 226, of the 24th January last, has been from the promptings of your own conviction that the interests committed to you required the very great sacrifice of comfort; of the separation from your family; isolation from the intercourse of friends, personal discomforts, and risk of health and life. This sacrifice and these trials you have endured, and I desire officially to record the high appreciation and warm approval of your Government. Your have done your duty faithfully and ably, and the President tenders you his thanks for the manner in which you have discharged the delicate duties devolving upon you, and have, on all occasions, maintained the dignity of your position and the rights of your Government.
An acknowledgment is also due to Mr. Hoffman, the secretary of your legation, for his faithful and able service during this long period of trial. You will please express to him the sense of the Department of his conduct.
Herewith you will receive a printed copy of an act of Congress approved March 3, 1871, by the 5th and 6th clauses of which appropriations are made to meet increased expenses incurred by the legation at Paris, (among others,) caused by a state of war, and for extra compensation to the secretaries and messengers of the legation, in conformity with the recommendations made in your dispatches on the subject.
I will thank you to prepare and forward to the Department a statement of expenses that may be fairly charged against these appropriations, to be presented in the form of a special account.
I am, &c.,