former, which sailed from New Orleans March 28, 1836, for Matamoros was taken on the voyage by the armed schooner Invincible, sailing under the Texan flag and commanded by one Brown, carried to Galveston, and there, with her cargo, condemned and appropriated without trial by persons claiming to act under the authority of Texas. The Durango was seized in Matagorda Bay March 22, 1836, by an armed force under orders of John A. Wharton, adjutant-general of Texas, and Brown, commander of the Invincible. The brig was abandoned by her master. Numerous instructions were afterwards given in relation to the pursuit of Indians by the Texans into the United States. "The undersigned Reply to Mexican * * has had the honor to receive the note of Mr. J. M. de Castillo y Lanzas, chargé d'affaires of Mexico, of the 8th instant, protesting against the appointment by the late Executive of the United States of a diplomatic agent to Texas. "Mr. Castillo's impression as to the incompatibility of that act with the views of the late Executive on the subject of the contest in Texas, as disclosed in his message to Congress, must have been removed if he had reflected on the circumstance that the two branches of the legislative department of the Government, to which the subject has been referred by the late President, concurred as to its propriety. "The independence of other nations has always been regarded by the United States as a question of fact merely, and that of every people has been invariably recognized by them whenever the actual enjoyment of it was accompanied by satisfactory evidence of their power and determination permanently and effectually to maintain it. This was the course pursued by the United States in acknowledging the independence of Mexico and the other American States, formerly under the dominion of Spain. The United States, in recognizing Texas, acted in perfect accordance with their ordinary and settled policy. That act, however, did not proceed from any unfriendly spirit towards Mexico, and must not be regarded as indicative of a disposition to interfere in the contest between her and Texas. "While it is the determination of the Executive to do everything within the scope of his authority to maintain the neutrality of the United States with respect to both those countries, he trusts that the recognition of Texas will not be allowed by Mexico to inspire a doubt of his hearty desire to preserve and improve the relations of amity with her, so far as this can be done consistently with the rights and honor of the United States. Mr. Forsyth, Sec. of State, to Mr. Castillo, March 17, 1837, MS. Notes to a Mr. Forsyth, Sec. of State, to Mr. La Branche, July 22, 1837, MS. Inst., Texas, I. 1. A copy of this note was sent by Mr. Forsyth, May 22, 1837, to Mr. J. M. Ortiz 11. CASE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. § 38. "You are, of course, aware that the election last November resulted in the choice of Mr. Abraham Lincoln; that he was Circular of Mr. Black. the candidate of the Republican or Antislavery party; that the preceding discussion had been confined almost entirely to topics connected, directly or indirectly, with the subject of negro slavery; that every Northern State cast its whole electoral vote (except three in New Jersey) for Mr. Lincoln, while in the whole South the popular sentiment against him was almost absolutely universal. Some of the Southern States, immediately after the election, took measures for separating themselves from the Union, and others soon followed their example. Conventions have been called in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and those conventions, in all except the last-named State, have passed ordinances declaring their secession from the Federal Government. A congress, composed of representatives from the six first-named States, has been assembled for some time at Montgomery, Ala. By this body a provisional constitution has been framed for what it styles the Confederated States of America.' "It is not improbable that persons claiming to represent the States which have thus attempted to throw off their Federal obligations will seek a recognition of their independence by the Emperor of Russia. In the event of such an effort being made, you are expected by the President to use such means as may in your judgment be proper and necessary to prevent its success. "The reasons set forth in the President's message at the opening of the present session of Congress in support of his opinion that the States have no constitutional power to secede from the Union are still unanswered and are believed to be unanswerable. The grounds upon which they have attempted to justify the revolutionary act of severing the bonds which connect them with their sister States are regarded as wholly insufficient. This Government has not relinquished its constitutional jurisdiction within the territory of those States, and does not desire to do so. "It must be very evident that it is the right of this Government to ask of all foreign powers that the latter shall take no steps which may tend to encourage the revolutionary movement of the seceding States or increase the danger of disaffection in those which still remain loyal. The President feels assured that the Government of the Emperor will not do anything in these affairs inconsistent with the friendship which this Government has always heretofore experienced from him and his ancestors. If the independence of the 'Confederated States' should be acknowledged by the great powers of Europe, it would tend to disturb the friendly relations, diplomatic and commercial, now existing between those powers and the United States. All these are consequences which the court of the Emperor will not fail to see are adverse to the interests of Russia as well as to those of this country. "Your particular knowledge of our political institutions will enable you to explain satisfactorily the causes of our present domestic troubles and the grounds of the hope still entertained that entire harmony will soon be restored." Mr. Black, Sec. of State, to all the ministers of the United States, Circular, "My predecessor, in his dispatch, No. 10, addressed to you on the Mr. Seward's Cir- 28th of February last, instructed you to use all proper cular. and necessary measures to prevent the success of efforts which may be made by persons claiming to represent those States of this Union, in whose name a provisional Government has been announced, to procure a recognition of their independence by the Government of Spain. "I am now instructed by the President of the United States to inform you that, having assumed the administration of the Government in pursuance of an unquestioned election and of the directions of the Constitution, he renews the injunction which I have mentioned, and relies upon the exercise of the greatest possible diligence and fidelity on your part to counteract and prevent the designs of those who would invoke foreign intervention to embarrass or overthrow the Republic. "When you reflect on the novelty of such designs, their unpatriotic and revolutionary character, and the long train of evils which must follow directly or consequentially from even their partial or temporary success, the President feels assured that you will justly appreciate and cordially approve the caution which prompts this communication. "I transmit herewith a copy of the address pronounced by the President on taking the constitutional oath of office. It sets forth clearly the errors of the misguided partisans who are seeking to dismember the Union, the grounds on which the conduct of those partisans is disallowed, and also the general policy which the Government will pursue with a view to the preservation of domestic peace and order, and the maintenance and preservation of the Federal Union. "You will lose no time in submitting this address to the Spanish minster of foreign affairs, and in assuring him that the President of the United States entertains a full confidence in the speedy restoration of the harmony and unity of the Government by a firm, yet just and liberal, bearing, cooperating with the deliberate and loyal action of the American people. "The United States have had too many assurances and manifestations of the friendship and good will of Her Catholic Majesty to entertain any doubt that these considerations, and such others as your large experience of the working of our Federal system will suggest, will have their just influence with her, and will prevent Her Majesty's Government from yielding to solicitations to intervene in any unfriendly way in the domestic concerns of our country." tion. Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, circular to all the ministers of the United States, The legation of the United States at Madrid reported, April 22, 1861, the * * to Mr. Perry, May 20, 1861, MS. Inst. Spain, XV. 272.) "To recognize the independence of a new state, and so favor, possibly determine, its admission into the family of nations, Failure of Attempts is the highest possible exercise of sovereign power, to Obtain Recogni- because it affects in any case the welfare of two nations, and often the peace of the world. In the European system this power is now seldom attempted to be exercised without invoking a consultation or congress of nations. That system has not been extended to this continent. But there is even a greater necessity for prudence in such cases in regard to American states than in regard to the nations of Europe. A revolutionary change of dynasty, or even a disorganization and recombination of one or many states, therefore, do not long or deeply affect the general interest of society, because the ways of trade and habits of society remain the same. But a radical change effected in the political combinations existing on the continent, followed, as it probably would be, by moral convulsions of incalculable magnitude, would threaten the stability of society throughout the world. "Humanity has, indeed, little to hope for if it shall, in this age of high improvement, be decided without a trial that the principle of international law which regards nations as moral persons, bound so to act as to do to each other the least injury and the most good, is merely an abstraction too refined to be reduced into practice by the enlightened nations of western Europe. Seen in the light of this principle, the several nations of the earth constitute one great Federal Republic. When one of them casts its suffrages for the admission of a new member into that Republic, it ought to act under a profound sense of moral obligation, and be governed by considerations as pure, disinterested, and elevated as the general interest of society and the advancement of human nature. "The British Empire itself is an aggregation of divers communities which cover a large portion of the earth and embrace one-fifth of its entire population. Some, at least, of these communities are held to their places in that system by bonds as fragile as the obligations of our own Federal Union. The strain will some time come which is to try the strength of these bonds, though it will be of a different kind from that which is trying the cords of our confederation. Would it be wise for Her Majesty's Government, on this occasion, to set a dangerous precedent or provoke retaliation? If Scotland and Ireland are at last reduced to quiet contentment, has Great Britain no dependency, island, or province left exposed along the whole circle of her Empire, from Gibraltar through the West Indies and Canada till it begins again on the southern extremity of Africa?" Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Adams, minister to England, April 10, 1861, Oct. 25, 1862, Mr. Seward instructed Mr. Adams, with reference to a negotiation Sir G. C. Lewis "is supposed to have maintained that England would not be entitled to recognize the Southern Confederacy until the Federalists had previously done so. But the secretary of war is far too accurate a thinker and speaker to have laid down any such doctrine. The rule he propounded was precisely that acted on by Mr. Canning in the case of the South American Republics, viz, that where a doubtful and bona fide struggle for supremacy is still maintained by the sovereign power, the insurgents jam flagrante bello can not be said to have established a de facto independence." (Historicus, 8.) A report in 1864 that "a person in Montreal" had in his possession "a recognition of the so-called Southern Confederacy by the Pope written on parchment," led Mr. Seward, though he considered the report "incredible in itself, and improbable from circumstances attending it," to instruct Mr. King, then minister to the Papal States, to make "a categorical |