_Paris, January 15, 1835_.
SIR: Having determined to send Mr. Brown, one of the gentlemen
attached to the legation, to Havre with my dispatches, I have just time
to add to them the copy of the note which I have sent to the Comte de
Rigny. The course indicated by it was adopted after the best reflections
I could give to the subject, and I hope will meet the approbation of
the President. My first impressions were that I ought to follow my
inclinations, demand my passports, and leave the Kingdom. This would at
once have freed me from a situation extremely painful and embarrassing;
but a closer attention convinced me that by so doing I should give to
the French Government the advantage they expect to derive from the
equivocal terms of their note, which, as occasions might serve, they
might represent as a suggestion only, leaving upon me the responsibility
of breaking up the diplomatic intercourse between the two countries if
I demanded my passports; or, if I did not, and they found the course
convenient, they might call it an order to depart which I had not
complied with. Baron Rothschild also called on me yesterday, saying that
he had conversed with the Comte de Rigny, who assured him that the note
was not intended as a notice to depart, and that he would be glad to see
me on the subject. I answered that I could have no verbal explanations
on the subject, to which he replied that he had suggested the writing
a note on the subject, but that the minister had declined any written
communication. Rothschild added that he had made an appointment with the
Comte de Rigny for 6 o'clock, and would see me again at night, and he
called to say that there had been a misunderstanding as to the time of
appointment, and that he had not seen Mr. de Rigny, but would see him
this morning. But in the meantime I determined on sending my note, not
only for the reasons contained in it, which appeared to me conclusive,
but because I found that the course was the correct one in diplomacy,
and that to ask for a passport merely because the Government near which
the minister was accredited had suggested it would be considered as
committing the dignity of his own; that the universal practice in such
cases was to wait the order to depart, and not by a voluntary demand
of passports exonerate the foreign Government from the odium and
responsibility of so violent a measure. My note will force them to take
their ground. If the answer is that they intended only a suggestion
which I may follow or not, as I choose, I will remain, but keep aloof
until I receive your directions. If, on the other hand, I am told
to depart, I will retire to Holland or England, and there wait the
President's orders. In either case the derangement will be extremely
expensive and my situation very disagreeable. The law was not presented
yesterday, but will be to-day, and I have been informed that it is to be
introduced by an exposé throwing all the blame of the present state of
things on Mr. Sérurier and me for not truly representing the opinions of
our respective Governments. They may treat their own minister as they
please, but they shall not, without exposure, presume to judge of my
conduct and make me the scapegoat for their sins. The truth is, they
are sadly embarrassed. If the law should be rejected, I should not be
surprised if they anticipated our reprisals by the seizure of our
vessels in port or the attack of our ships in the Mediterranean with a
superior force. I shall without delay inform Commodore Patterson of the
state of things, that he may be on his guard, having already sent him a
copy of the message.