health, prosperity, and happiness. Permit me only to add that the mission near to your Imperial Majesty, with which I have been honored, is one most grateful to my feelings, and without neglecting the interests of my own government, I shall endeavor so to discharge its duties as to make my residence here entirely agreeable to your Majesty. Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. [Extracts.] No. 6.] PARIS, May 27, 1861. SIR: Immediately after closing my last despatch I wrote to Mr. Thouvenel a note apprising him that I was fully authorized to enter into a convention with the government of France in respect to privateering, the rights of neutrals, and the matter of blockade, and requesting him, if disposed to renew negotiations upon these subjects, to name a day for conference. My note was not sent until the 25th instant. A copy is attached, marked letter A. On the same day, to wit, the 25th of the present month, I sent to Mr. Thouvenel a copy of the President's proclamation of the blockade of the ports of Virginia and North Carolina, referring, at the same time, to the previous blockade of the other southern ports. A copy of my note is attached, marked letter C. On the 24th instant I received from the minister of war a note as to certain fire-arms for the State of Virginia, applied for by my predecessor, Mr. Faulkner; a copy of which note, marked D, together with my answer thereto, marked E, is hereunto attached. * * * * * * I recently received from the agent of our Havre line of steamers a request that I would (by application to the government for munitions of war) aid him to put the steamer Fulton in a condition of defence on her homeward voyage; which I did, so far as I could, by presenting his request to the gov ernment. A copy of his request, indorsed by me, is herewith attached, marked H. I presume the request was granted, as I have heard nothing since from the agent, and the steamer leaves her port to-day. I have just received the despatches, by the last steamer, directed to Mr. Sanford, to whom I immediately delivered them; and likewise your circular to me upon the subject of passports, with which I shall carefully comply. Mr. Thouvenel has promptly answered my note informing him I was authorized to enter into a convention as to privateering, &c., and has designated to-morrow, at 4 p. m., for a conference. In my next despatch I shall be able, doubtless, to give you some information as to the views of the French government on this subject. Mr. Marsh has been here, engaged in doing good service by matter communicated for use through the English press. Mr. Burlingame is remaining here for a short time, acting under the advice of his brother diplomatists, owing to matter confidentially communicated from Vienna. With much consideration, your obedient servant, Hon. WM. II. SEWARD, WM. L. DAYTON. Secretary of State. A. PARIS, May 24, 1861. SIR: I have the honor to inform your excellency that I am fully authorized by my government to enter into a convention with the government of France in reference to the subject of privateering, the rights of neutrals, and the matter of blockade. If, therefore, the government of his Imperial Majesty remains disposed to renew negotiations upon these subjects, I shall be happy to have a conference with your excellency at such time as your excellency may indicate. With great respect, I have the honor to be your obedient servant, WM. L. DAYTON. Mr. THOUVENEL, Minister of Foreign Affairs. C. PARIS, May 24, 1861. SIR: I beg to enclose to your excellency a copy of a proclamation issued by the President of the United States on the 27th of April last, establishing a blockade of the ports of the States of Virginia and North Carolina. A prior proclamation, dated 19th April last, established a blockade of the ports of the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, of which your excellency has doubtless had notice. With much respect, I have the honor to be your excellency's obedient servant, Mr. THOUVENEL, Minister of Foreign Affairs. WM. L. DAYTON. D. PARIS, May 24, 1861. SIR: The 27th September, 1860, your predecessor having requested me to have the goodness to deliver to him, from the state arsenal, four fire-arms (4 armes à feu) and two other arms (armes blanches) for the State of Virginia, I authorized the said delivery, with the approbation of the Emperor; and the 22d of October, 1860, I informed Mr. Faulkner that the artillery board of Paris held these arms at the disposition of the Virginia commissioners. Up to this moment there has not been a delivery, and the letters of the director colonel of artillery, as also my despatch of the 21st of March last to Mr. Faulkner, remain unanswered. Interpreting this silence as a renunciation of the request of the State of Virginia, I have the honor to inform you that, unless you intimate a desire to the contrary in the course of a few days, I shall order the director of artillery at Paris to consider the authorization of the 22d of October, 1860, as null. Accept, sir, the assurance of the most distinguished consideration with which I have the honor to be your very humble and very obedient servant, RANDON, Le Marechal de France, Ministre Secretaire d'etat de la Guerre. E. PARIS, May 26, 1861. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 24th instant, calling my attention to the fact that my predecessor, on the 27th of September last, requested you to have the goodness to deliver to him, from the gov ernment arsenal, four fire-arms (4 armes à feu) and two other arms (armes blanches) for the State of Virginia, and that you authorized the said delivery, with the approbation of the Emperor, on the 22d of October, 1860; and that you informed Mr. Faulkner that the artillery board of Paris held those arms at the disposition of the Virginia delegates; that up to the date of your note to me the letter from the colonel of the artillery staff and your own despatches of the 21st of March last, addressed to Mr. Faulkner, have remained unanswered, &c. I beg to say to your excellency that I am altogether ignorant of the causes of delay on the part of my predecessor in answering the communications referred to, and asking for the delivery of the arms in question. I pray you, sir, to accept for yourself, and convey to the Emperor, my grateful acknowledgments, in behalf of the United States, for the courtesy extended in the expression of a readiness to grant the request of my predecessor; while I deem it proper to say at once that the request for the arms referred to will not, under existing circumstances, be renewed by me in behalf of the State of Virginia. I beg to assure you, sir, of the high consideration with which I have the honor to be your obedient servant, Mons. le Marechal Comic RANDON, WM. L. DAYTON. Minister de la Guerre. H. PARIS, May 23, 1861. EXCELLENCY: The necessity which exists for arming our steamer, the Fulton, against any attack of the privateers of the southern confederacy obliges Captain Walton to provide himself with two hundred rifles. These guns, which we have purchased at Leige, (Belgium,) will be delivered to day or to-morrow at Havre. But we have no cartridges for these guns, and are obliged to buy them in France, and cannot obtain them without an authorization from the minister of war. We are thus obliged to appeal to you, to beg your. powerful influence in obtaining the necessary munitions. We desire that the French government furnish us, delivered on board the steamer Fulton, at Havre, twenty thousand cartouches for hunting rifles, of the calibre 17, for the muzzle of the guns. Either our house, at Paris, or that of Messrs. W. Selim & Co., at Havre, will pay the bills. The steamer Fulton will quit Havre Tuesday morning, 28th instant, and it will be necessary that the munition should be delivered Monday. We pray your excellency to accept, in entram, the expression of the profound gratitude and our distinguished consideration of your excellency's most obedient servants, His Excellency Mr. DAYTON, SHELBERT, KANE & CO., Minister of the United States of America, Paris. Mr. Seward to Mr. Daylon. No. 10.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, May 30, 1861. SIR: Mr. Sanford, who was requested by me to look to our interests in Paris in the interval which might elapse between the withdrawal of Mr. Faulkner and your own arrival, has transmitted to me (in his despatch No. 2) an account of a very interesting conversation which he has recently held with Mr. Thouvenel on our internal affairs. In that conversation Mr. Thouvenel intimated that, in view of the great commercial interests which are involved in the domestic controversy which is now agitating the United States, the French government had felt itself constrained to take measures, in conjunction with the government of Great Britain, to meet a condition of things which imperiled those interests. That it had been decided that communications of a similar tenor should be addressed by both of those governments to the government of the United States, and that those communications would be forwarded in the current week. Mr. Thouvenel kindly foreshadowed the points of those communications. As those papers may be expected to arrive by, perhaps, the next steamer, I shall reserve comments upon the propositions indicated until they shall thus be fully and directly brought to the attention of the President. There are, however, some points in the conversation, or suggested by it, which I cannot properly suffer to pass unnoticed. First. I desire that Mr. Thouvenel may be informed that this government cannot but regard any communications held by the French government, even though unofficial, with the agents of the insurrectionary movement in this country as exceptionable and injurions to the dignity and honor of the United States. They protest against this intercourse, however, not so much on that ground as on another. They desire to maintain the most cordial relations with the government of France, and would therefore, if possible, refrain from complaint. But it is manifest that even an unofficial reception of the emissaries of disunion has a certain though measured tendency to give them a prestige which would encourage their efforts to prosecute a civil war destructive to the prosperity of this country and aimed at the overthrow of the government itself. It is carnestly hoped that this protest may be sufficient to relieve this government from the necessity of any action on the unpleasant subject to which it relates. Secondly. The United States cannot for a moment allow the French govcrnment to rest under the delusive belief that they will be content to have the confederate States recognized as a belligerent power by States with which this nation is in amity. No concert of action among foreign States so recognizing the insurgents can reconcile the United States to such a proceeding, whatever may be the consequences of resistance. Thirdly. The President turns away from these points of apprehended difference of opinion between the two governments to notice other and more agreeable subjects. The tone of Mr. Thouvenel's conversation is frank, generous, and cordial; and this government feels itself bound by new ties to France when her Emperor avows his desire for the perpetual union of the States. Especially does this government acknowledge that it is profoundly moved by the declaration of his Majesty, that he would be willing to act as mediator in the civil strife that unhappily convulses our country. These expressions of good will are just what have been expected from the Emperor of France. This government desires that his Majesty may be informed that it indulges not the least apprehension of a dissolution of the Union in this painful controversy. A favorable issue is deemed certain. What is wanted is that the war may be as short, and attended by as few calamities at home and as few injuries to friendly nations, as possible. No mediation could modify in the least degree the convictions of policy and duty under which this government is acting; while foreign intervention, even in the friendly form of mediation, would produce new and injurious complications. We are free to confess that so cordial is our regard for the Emperor and our confidence in his wisdom and justice, that his mediation would be accepted if all intervention of that kind were not deemed altogether inadmissible. This govcrnment perceives, as it thinks, that the French government is indulging in an exaggerated estimate of the moral power and material forces of the insurrection. The government of the United States cheerfully excuses this error, because it knows how unintelligible the working of the American system and the real character of the American people are to European nations. This government knows, moreover, and painfully feels, that the commercial interests of European states are so deeply involved in the restoration of our domestic peace as to excite the highest anxiety and impatience on their part. But it desires the French government to reflect that our commercial interests involved in the issue are even greater than their own; and that every motive that France can have for desiring peace operates still more powerfuily on ourselves, besides a thousand motives peculiar to ourselves alone. The measures we have adopted, and are now vigorously pursuing, will terminate the unhappy contest at an early day, and be followed by benefits to ourselves and to all nations greater and better assured than those which have hitherto attended our national progress. Nothing is wanting to that success except that foreign nations shall leave us, as is our right, to manage our own affairs in our own way. They, as well as we, can only suffer by their intervention. No one, we are sure, can judge better than the Emperor of France how dangerous and deplorable would be the emergency that should intrude Europeans into the political contests of the American people. I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, WILLIAM L. DAYTON, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward. PARIS, May 30, 1861. SIR: Since the date of my despatch No. 6 I have had an interview with Mr. Thouvenel. I told him I was authorized to accept the propositions adopted at the congress of Paris in 1856, but with the desire expressed by the President that the provisions should be added exempting private property afloat, unless contraband, from seizure and confiscation. I did not say, nor did he ask, whether the four propositions would be accepted without amendment. He said nothing could be done except by conference with the other powers, but if I would submit the proposition in writing, which I shall at once do, he would immediately address the other powers, and we would probably receive an answer in ten or twelve days. I have been induced to suggest again the adoption of this amendment |