WASHINGTON, _January 27, 1836_.
The undersigned, His Britannic Majesty's chargé d'affaires, has been
instructed to state to Mr. Forsyth, the Secretary of State of the United
States, that the British Government has witnessed with the greatest pain
and regret the progress of the misunderstanding which has lately grown
up between the Governments of France and of the United States. The first
object of the undeviating policy of the British cabinet has been to
maintain uninterrupted the relations of peace between Great Britain and
the other nations of the world, without any abandonment of national
interests and without any sacrifice of national honor. The next object
to which their anxious and unremitting exertions have been directed has
been by an appropriate exercise of the good offices and moral influence
of Great Britain to heal dissensions which may have arisen among
neighboring powers and to preserve for other nations those blessings of
peace which Great Britain is so desirous of securing for herself.
The steady efforts of His Majesty's Government have hitherto been,
fortunately, successful in the accomplishment of both these ends, and
while Europe during the last five years has passed through a crisis of
extraordinary hazard without any disturbance of the general peace, His
Majesty's Government has the satisfaction of thinking that it has on
more than one occasion been instrumental in reconciling differences
which might otherwise have led to quarrels, and in cementing union
between friendly powers.
But if ever there could be an occasion on which it would be painful to
the British Government to see the relations of amity broken off between
two friendly states that occasion is undoubtedly the present, when a
rupture is apprehended between two great powers, with both of which
Great Britain is united by the closest ties--with one of which she is
engaged in active alliance; with the other of which she is joined by
community of interests and by the bonds of kindred.
Nor would the grounds of difference on the present occasion reconcile
the friends and wellwishers of the differing parties to the misfortune
of an open rupture between them.
When the conflicting interests of two nations are so opposed on a
particular question as to admit of no possible compromise, the sword may
be required to cut the knot which reason is unable to untie.
When passions have been so excited on both sides that no common standard
of justice can be found, and what one party insists on as a right the
other denounces as a wrong, prejudice may become too headstrong to yield
to the voice of equity, and those who can agree on nothing else may
consent to abide the fate of arms and to allow that the party which
shall prove the weakest in the war shall be deemed to have been wrong
in the dispute.
But in the present case there is no question of national interest at
issue between France and the United States. In the present case there
is no demand of justice made by one party and denied by the other.
The disputed claims of America on France, which were founded upon
transactions in the early part of the present century and were for many
years in litigation, have at length been established by mutual consent
and are admitted by a treaty concluded between the two Governments.
The money due by France has been provided by the Chambers, and has been
placed at the disposal of the French Government for the purpose of being
paid to the United States. But questions have arisen between the two
Governments in the progress of those transactions affecting on both
sides the feelings of national honor, and it is on this ground that the
relations between the parties have been for the moment suspended and are
in danger of being more seriously interrupted.
In this state of things the British Government is led to think that the
good offices of a third power equally the friend of France and of the
United States, and prompted by considerations of the highest order most
earnestly to wish for the continuance of peace, might be useful in
restoring a good understanding between the two parties on a footing
consistent with the nicest feelings of national honor in both.
The undersigned has therefore been instructed by His Majesty's
Government formally to tender to the Government of the United States the
mediation of Great Britain for the settlement of the differences between
the United States and France, and to say that a note precisely similar
to the present has been delivered to the French Government by His
Majesty's ambassador at Paris. The undersigned has, at the same time,
to express the confident hope of His Majesty's Government that if the two
parties would agree to refer to the British Government the settlement of
the point at issue between them, and to abide by the opinion which that
Government might after due consideration communicate to the two parties
thereupon, means might be found of satisfying the honor of each without
incurring those great and manifold evils which a rupture between two
such powers must inevitably entail on both.
The undersigned has the honor to renew to Mr. Forsyth the assurance of
his most distinguished consideration.