Mr. Evarts to General Santo Domingo.
Washington, February 15, 1881.
My Dear General Santo Domingo: I have the pleasure to introduce to you the Hon. William H. Trescot, who has received from me instructions and authority to continue, on the part of the Department, the conferences which have engaged our attention up to the moment of your leaving Washington.
However much I may regret that you have thought yourself obliged to leave this capital with our conferences not advanced to a conclusive result, I deem myself fortunate in being able to confide the further treatment of the matter to so experienced and accomplished a representative of the views of the Department as Mr. Trescot. He has become fully possessed of the whole posture of the two governments, as it has appeared in the treatment of the subject between us, and of the views [Page 372] which I should further have pressed upon your attention had you remained in Washington. He will, I hope, receive the same confidence on your part in meeting these views in the same frankness that you would if offered by myself.
I venture to anticipate that you may be able to come to such an accord as may furnish the material of a preliminary protocol, if not of a definitive convention.
Wishing you a prosperous voyage, I am, my dear general, yours, very truly,