sooner or later intervention and conquest by foreign powers. There is no friendship of one nation towards another that can survive the sacrifice of that nation's self-respect and self-sustaining power. Let us be thankful that we have gained the time which was necessary to combine so large a people as ours, spread over so vast a continent, and bring them to the necessary conviction of the dangers from which the country is to be saved. Since your despatch was written a series of successes of the Union arms has been opened, which is regarded as auspicious of a speedy end of the insurrection. We have therefore dismissed, at least for the present, our apprehensions of foreign danger. Felicitating you upon this pleasing condition of affairs, I remain, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: Your despatch of March 30 (No. 46) has been received. Your treatment of the subject of our present relations with Spain, as represented by you, is approved by the President, and he has received with very cordial satisfaction the friendly explanations which Mr. Calderon Collantes has authorized you to convey to this department. I think that you may be able to satisfy that eminent minister that the largest term which can readily be claimed for the present civil war is a period of two years from its date. It ought to have been expected that not less than one year would be occupied with the most flagrant and effective demonstrations of the insurgents, and that a government heretofore exempt from practical acquaintance with treason, and of course destitute of any machinery for resisting or counteracting it, would require no period less than the whole of that year to organize the military and naval forces for its safety. A year might then be reasonably allowed for the unavoidable trial at arms. The American people have feared that the reserve practiced in some quarters might be deemed indicative of a disposition, if not to aid the insurgents, at least to sympathize with and encourage them. The country has not been able to reconcile such tendencies with a generous and liberal spirit; Spain, however, has been eminently just and generous. We have now entered upon that second year. It seems to the President that the conflict hurries on towards a conclusion in favor of the Union. He is desirous that Spain may be sufficiently informed of the condition of affairs to enable her to resolve upon an attitude favorable to future harmony and friendship between the two countries. I am, sir, your obedient servant, HORATIO J. PERRY, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Madrid. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Seward to Mr. Perry. No. 31.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, May 29, 1862. SIR: Your despatch of April 17 (No. 48) has been received. It is very interesting as a considerate and guarded exposition of Mr. Calderon Collantes's views on the subject of Mexican affairs. I find no occasion to add to the frank and full explanations of the views of this government on that subject I have already given. Matters have indeed assumed a new and unexpected complication. Before we can engage in discussing them under their new aspect, we need to have some more light concerning the probable course of events in Mexico. We the more readily defer the discussion because a hopeful state of affairs at home seems to call for our best exertious to bring our unhappy civil war to an early close. Nations no more than individuals can wisely divide their attention upon many subjects at one time. On one point, however, you may express yourself as strongly as you think needful, namely: the disposition of the United States to cultivate at home and abroad respect for the sovereignty and the independence of nations as the most effectual security for peace and the progress of civilization. SIR: Your despatch of May 25 (No. 57) has been received. It is very interesting, and the debate in the Cortes upon Mexican affairs which you have extracted for us is very instructive. Mr. Calderon Collantes appears very advantageously in that discussion. His speech is temperate and loyal, and no one can read it without being satisfied that the Spanish government has acted with eminent honor and good faith. You may say this to Mr. Calderon Collantes, and may add that this government is very favorably impressed by the deportment of the Spanish government on this occasion. It is not deemed necessary that beyond these assurances you should at present make or seek any further explanations at Madrid concerning the state of Mexican affairs. The President hopes that the course of events may be such as to relieve this government from further debate upon them, notwithstanding the present singular complication. Should this expectation be disappointed, we shall then have the advantage of a clear knowledge of the actual situation of that subject, which, at present, we could only anticipate, and might, by anticipating erroneously, increase, instead of preventing embarrassment. Your assiduity and zeal in the matter are fully appreciated; Mr. Carl Schurz has resigned the mission to Spain, and entered the military service. Mr. Gustavus Koerner, of Illinois, has been appointed and has accepted the mission I learn from him that he will not take his departure until the expiration of about six weeks. I am, sir, your obedient servant, HORATIO J. PERRY, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Madrid. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No.34.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Perry. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: Your despatch of May 30 (No. 58) was duly received. It gives us a full and interesting account of your conversation with Mr. Calderon Collantes on the subject of the change of position of the late European allies in Mexico. I have, however, in a previous despatch communicated the views of the President on that subject so far as it is deemed wise to expose them at the present moment. is We are in a crisis in our own domestic affairs indicative of a close of the struggle. Events in Mexico are only at their beginning. We shall see more clearly and be able to determine more fully after a little time. Meantime it proper that you should know that Mr. Corwin lately negotiated a treaty for a loan of eleven millions of dollars with Mexico; that this treaty was made in the absence of any instructions, and that it may perhaps be thought by the Senate to conflict with the policy that it has heretofore indicated. The treaty, however, has been submitted to the Senate for its information and consideration without an expression of opinion upon it by the President. It is hardly necessary to repeat on this occasion the former expressions of satisfaction with the loyal and enlightened course of the Spanish govern SIR: Your despatch of July 8 (without a number) has been received. Long before this reply shall reach its destination you will have learned that the treaty negotiated by Mr. Corwin with Mexico was submitted by the President to the Senate for its consideration without any expression of opinion on his part, and that the Senate decided that it would not act upon the subject. This government takes no interest whatever in the changes of ministries which so frequently occur in states with which it maintains friendly relations. It regar s such changes as being matters purely of domestic concern in the countries where they occur. It does not confess to a solicitude that bias in favor of the United States shall exist in any foreign cabinet. It concerns itself as little about debates which the European states may hold among each other in relation to our affairs. It practices upon the principle that each state is just, prudent, and friendly in its purposes towards us as we are towards them, and thinks it will be time enough to change its habits in regard to any state when that state shall unmistakably manifest a different spirit towards the United States. While, however, this is the tone of our sentiments, it is not improper for me to say that the present ministry of Spain and the minister of that country now in the United States have, by a loyal, frank, and honorable conduct of the affairs in which we have been concerned, won the respect and esteem of this government, and secured not only for themselves, but for her Catholic Majesty and the Spanish people, the most generous sentiments and best wishes on the part of the American people. If we might indulge ourselves in criticising domestic affairs of a foreign state at all, we should think it would be an unfortunate change which should deprive Spain of the services of so enlightened and honorable a cabinet. SIR: Your despatch of July 11 (No. 69) has been received. The African slave trade which has been so long clandestinely carried on from American ports was a mercenary traffic without even the poor pretext that it brought laborers into our country, or that other and worse pretext that it was necessary to the safety or prosperity of any State or section. It was carried on in defiance of our laws by corrupting the administration of justice. The treaty to which you refer contains no provisions that can embarrass an honest and lawful trade, and none that can inflict a wound upon the national pride. It was freely offered by this government to Great Britain, not bought or solicited by that government. It is in harmony with the sentiments of the American people. It was ratified by the Senate unanimously, and afterwards distinctly approved with not less unanimity by both houses of Congress. Not a voice has been raised against it in the country. I send you a copy of it for Mr. Calderon, as you have requested. I am, sir, your obedient servant, HORATIO J. PERRY, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Madrid. WILLIAM H. SEWARD Mr. Seward to Mr. Perry. No. 41.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 5, 1862. SIR: I have received and have read with much interest your despatch of the 7th of July, (No. 68,) giving a detailed account of a recent conversation between Mr. Calderon Collantes and yourself on the subject of the affairs of Mexico. In view of what I have so lately written to you in relation to this subject, I do not deem it necessary or important at this time to do more than assure you of my approval of the part taken by you in the conversation referred to. You were quite right in assuming and in stating, as you did to Mr. Calderon Collantes, that this government has not the least purpose or desire to extend its jurisdiction. It needs no more territory, and it will scrupulously respect the rights of other nations, as it purposes to maintain its own. I am, sir, your obedient servant, HORATIO J. PERRY, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Madrid. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No. 2.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Koerner. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 18, 1862. SIR: Our relations with Spain at the present time are fortunately not of a character to render it necessary that I should give any detailed or specific. instructions for your government on assuming charge of the mission at Madrid. Those that were given to your predecessor, and which will be found on the files of the legation, were sufficiently ample, and are not less applicable to present circumstances than they were to those which existed at the time they were written. The fierce civil strife which then convulsed our country still rages, and is carried on by those who provoke it with a recklessness characteristic of their desperate fortunes. Thus far the nations of Europe, resisting the insidious appeals of the insurgents through their emissaries abroad, have stood aloof from the contest, though in somewhat varying attitudes. That of Spain has given no cause of complaint, and has been consistently maintained. We have no apprehension that it will be changed. The government of her Catholic Majesty knows that, while insisting on our own rights, we scrupulously respect the rights of other nations; and the high sense of honor for which Spain has ever been distinguished forbids the belief that she would ever practice less justice than ourselves. Neither can we believe that her sympathies will ever be given to those who, without cause and without even a reasonable pretext, have sought to subvert a government founded on law and order, and with which the government of her Catholic Majesty has always maintained unbroken relations of amity and good will. There are, as you are no doubt aware, questions between the two_governments concerning claims, &c., which still remain unadjusted. It is deemed expedient that those should, for the present, be suffered to rest in abeyance. I am, sir, your obedient servant, GUSTAVUS KOERNER,, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Seward to Mr. Koerner. No. 3.] Department of STATE, Washington, August 25, 1862. SIR: Mr. Perry's despatch of August 1 (No. 73) has been received. It brings information of the appointment of Don José de la Concha to be ambassador at Madrid, and Mr. Perry infers from that proceeding and other events a probable combination by the government of Spain with that of France in the war waged by the Emperor against Mexico. That war, regarded in the light of the explanations of it which have been given to this government by that of the Emperor, is a foreign affair, and the new phase of Spanish policy in regard to it, for that reason, does not require any special notice on the part of the United States. It is believed here that the maritime powers, if indeed they have heretofore entertained doubts, are now becoming satisfied that proceedings on their part, injurious or hostile to the United States, would be productive of no results advantageous to European interests. Certainly this government |