MESSAGES, DESPATCHES, ETC., ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS Message to the Senate on Canadian Boundary Dispute. MARCH 16, 1861. On February 21, 1861, President Buchanan referred to the Senate for advice thereon a proposition from the British Government to submit the Vancouver boundary dispute to the arbitrament of the King of Sweden and Norway, or the King of the Netherlands, or the Republic of the Swiss Confederation. In the present message President Lincoln endorses the course of President Buchanan in the matter and resubmits the proposition to the Senate for its counsel. Message to Congress upon London Industrial Exhibition. JULY 16, 1861. The President transmits correspondence between the Secretary of State and the British Minister relative to an international industrial exhibition to be held in 1862 at London, and recommends legislation that will give American exhibitors facilities commensurate with the country's proficiency in industrial arts. Message to Congress on Fisheries Commission. JULY 19, 1861. The President transmits correspondence between the Secretary of State and the British Minister relative to the latter's proposition that a joint commission be appointed to investigate the subject of the preservation and development of the Newfoundland fisheries; and he asks for enabling legislation to provide for the American member of the commission. Reply to the Tycoon of Japan on Opening of Treaty Ports. AUGUST 1, 1861. To His Majesty the Tycoon of Japan. Great and good Friend: I have received the letter which you have addressed to me on the subject of a desired extension of the time. stipulated by treaty for the opening of certain ports and cities in Japan. The question is surrounded with many difficulties. While it is my earnest desire to consult the convenience of your Majesty, and to accede, so far as I can, to your reasonable wishes, so kindly expressed, the interests of the United States must, nevertheless, have due consideration. Townsend Harris, minister resident near your Majesty, will be fully instructed as to the views of this government, and will make them known to you at large. I do not permit myself to doubt that these views will meet with your Majesty's approval, for they proceed not less from a just regard for the interest and prosperity of your empire than from considerations affecting our own welfare and honor. Wishing abundant prosperity and length of years to the great state over which you preside, I pray God to have your Majesty always in his safe and holy keeping. By the President: Your good friend, A. Lincoln. William H. Seward, Secretary of State. Letter to the Viceroy of Egypt on His Punishment of Persecutors of a Missionary Agent. OCTOBER II, 1861. His Highness Mohammed Said Pacha, Viceroy of Egypt and its Dependencies, etc. Great and good Friend: I have received from Mr. Thayer, consul-general of the United States at Alexandria, a full account of the liberal, enlightened, and energetic proceedings which, on his complaint, you have adopted in bringing to speedy and condign punishment the parties, subjects of your highness in Upper Egypt, who were concerned in an act of criminal persecution against Faris, an agent of certain Christian missionaries in Upper Egypt. I pray your highness to be assured that these proceedings, at once so prompt and so just, will be regarded as a new and unmistakable proof equally of your highness's friendship for the United States, and of the firmness, integrity, and wisdom with which the government of your highness is conducted. Wishing you great prosperity and success, I am your friend, Abraham Lincoln. By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State. Message to Congress on Treaty with Great Britain to Suppress Slave Trade. JUNE 10, 1862. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit to Congress a copy of a treaty for the suppression of the African slave-trade, between the United States and her Britannic Majesty, signed in this city on the 7th of April last, and the ratifications of which were exchanged at London on the 20th ultimo. A copy of the correspondence which preceded the conclusion of the instrument, between the Secretary of State and Lord Lyons, her Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, is also herewith transmitted. It is desirable that such legislation as may be necessary to carry the treaty into effect should be enacted as soon as may comport with the convenience of Congress. Abraham Lincoln. Message to the House of Representatives on Relations with the Rival Governments of New Granada. JANUARY 14, 1863. In response to a request from the House for information concerning diplomatic relations with the rival Mosquera and Ospina governments of New Granada (now United States of Colombia), the President recites the acts of continuous recognition by the United States of the Granadian governments of which the Ospina government, represented at Washington by General Pedro Alcantára Herran, is the unchallenged successor. He goes on to say: Previous to the 4th of March, 1861, a revolutionary war against the republic of New Granada, which had thus been recognized and treated with by the United States, broke out in New Granada, assuming to set up a new government under the name of the "United States of Columbia." This war has had various vicissitudes, sometimes favorable, sometimes adverse, to the revolutionary movements. The revolutionary organization has hitherto been simply a military provisionary power, and no definitive constitution of government has yet been established in New Granada in place of that organized by the constitution of 1858. The minister of the United States to the Granadian Confederacy [political title assumed by New Granada in 1858] who was appointed on the twenty-ninth day of May, 1861, was directed, in view of the occupation of the capital by the revolutionary party and of the uncertainty of the civil war, not to present his credentials to either the government of the Granadian Confederacy or to the provisional military government, but to conduct his affairs informally, as is customary in such cases, and to report the progress of events and await the instructions of this government. The advices which have been received from him have not hitherto been sufficiently conclusive to determine me to recognize the revolutionary government. General Herran being here, with full authority from the government of New Granada, which had been so long recognized by the United States, I have not received any representative from the revolutionary government, which has not yet been recognized, because such a proceeding would in itself be an act of recognition. |