Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Fish
Sir: Late on the 16th I received from you the following telegram:
Washburne complains that his dispatches are detained two to three weeks between London and Paris. This is a poor return for his services in behalf of Germans, many hundreds of whom he is protecting and feeding in Paris. Endeavor to have this wrong remedied. We are entitled to prompt communication with our minister.
FISH.
Washington, January 16.
I have not suffered this government to remain ignorant of the faithful and self-sacrificing integrity with which Mr. Washburne discharges his duties as guardian of the Germans in Paris and in France. I obtained, yesterday, an interview with the Secretary of State. So far from knowing anything of any interruption of the correspondence of Mr. Washburne, he testified, on the part of the German government, the greatest readiness and disposition to forward it, and knew nothing of any delays on the German side. On the contrary, every wish exists on the part of this government to make Mr. Washburne’s residence in Paris as comfortable as possible. It has also been established by Count Bismarck that any American in Paris may at any time, under proper authentication from Mr. Washburne, come out of Paris. For explanation of the interruption alluded to by you in the telegram, I am left to a conjecture, aided by what has appeared in the public journals. The French press in Paris complains bitterly that Mr. Washburne alone receives newspapers [Page 372] and communications from abroad, and the complaint, when analyzed, resolves itself into this, that the papers and communications which Mr. Washburne receives give no account of French victories. The same journals complain bitterly against the Government of the United States that it has not interposed effectively in favor of France. There have also been times when intercourse between Paris and Versailles by flags of truce has been capriciously interrupted by the government in Paris.
I will continue inquiry, and will not fail to make a proper representation to this government, should the grievance from which Mr. Washburne suffers be found to proceed from the German side; but I have no doubt that the difficulty has arisen in another quarter.
You may see in the papers a report of terms which Austria is said to propose, mediatorially, as conditions of peace between France and Germany. You may be perfectly certain that this rumor has no foundation in truth. It is a mere fiction of the stock exchange.
Bavaria still lingers outside of the German Federal Union, but no one doubts that within a very few days she will be the twenty-fifth of the United States of Germany.
I remain, &c., &c.,