UNITED STATES. 



711 



that the President, Congress, and people of the Con- 

 federate States earnestly desire a peaceful solution of 

 these great questions ; that it is neither their interest 

 nor their wish to make any demand which is not 

 founded in strictest justice, nor do any act to injure 

 their late confederates. 



The undersigned have now the honor, iu obedience 

 to the instructions of their Government, to request you 

 to appoint as early a day as possible, in order that 

 tht-v may present to the President of the United States 

 the credential! which they bear, and the objects of the 

 mission with which they are charged. 



Three days afterwards, the Secretary pre- 

 pared a reply, which was entitled a " Memo- 

 randum," and was as follows : 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE, ) 

 WASHINGTON, March 15, 1S61. ) 



Mr. John Forsyth, of the State of Alabama, and Mr. 

 Martin J. Crawford, of the State of Georgia, on the 

 llth hist., through the kind offices of a distinguished 

 Senator, submitted to the Secretary of State their de- 

 sire for an unofficial interview. This request was, on 

 the 12th inst., upon exclusively public consideration, 

 respectfully declined. 



On the 13th inst., while the Secretary was preoccu- 

 pied, Mr. A. D. Banks, of Virginia, called at this De- 

 partment, and was received by the Assistant Secre- 

 tarv, to whom he delivered a sealed communication, 

 which be had been charged by Messrs. Forsyth and 

 Crawford to present the Secretary in person. 



In that communication, Messrs. Forsyth and Craw- 

 ford inform the Secretary of State that they have been 

 duly accredited by the Government of the Confederate 

 States of America as Commissioners to the Govern- 

 ment of the United States, and they set forth the ob- 

 jects of their attendance at Washington. They ob- 

 serve that seven States of the American Union, in the 

 exercise of a right inherent in every free people, have 

 withdrawn, through conventions of their people, from 

 the United States, reassumed the attributes of sover- 

 eign power, and formed a government of their own, 

 aud that those Confederate States now constitute an 

 independent Uion de facto and dejure, and possess a 

 government perfect in all its parts, and fully endowed 

 with all the means of self-support. 



Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, in their aforesaid 

 communication, thereupon proceeded to inform the 

 Secretary that, with a view to a speedy adjustment of 

 all questions growing out of the political separation 

 thus assumed, upon such terms of amity and good 

 will as the respective interests, geographical contiguity, 

 and the future welfare of the supposed two nations 

 might render necessary, they are instructed to make 

 to the Government of the United States, overtures for 

 the opening of negotiations, assuring this Government 

 that the President, Congress, and people of the Con- 

 federate States earnestly desire a peaceful solution of 

 these great questions, a'nd that it is neither their in- 

 terest nor their wish to make any demand whjch is 

 not founded in strictest justice, nor do any act to injure 

 their late confederates. 



After making these statements, Messrs. Forsyth 

 and Crawford close their communication, as they say, 

 in obedience to the instructions of their Govern- 

 ment, by requesting the Secretary of State to appoint 

 as early a day as possible, in order that they may pre- 

 sent to'the President of the United States the credentials 

 which they bear, and the objects of the mission with 

 which they are charged. 



The Secretary of State frankly confesses that he 

 understands the events which have recently occurred, 

 and the condition of political affairs which actually 

 exists in the part of the Union, to which his attention 

 has thus been directed, very differently from the as- 

 pect in which they are presented by Messrs. Forsyth 

 and Crawford. He sees in them, not a rightful and 

 accomplished revolution aud an independent nation, 

 with an established government, but rather a perver- 

 sion of a temporary and partisan excitement to the 



inconsiderate purposes of an unjustifiable and uncon- 

 stitutional aggression upon the rights and the author- 

 ity \e.-ti-d in tin- Federal Government, and hitht-nn 

 benignly exercised, as from their very nature tln-v 

 always must so be exercised, for the maintenance of 

 the I'liion, the preservation of liberty, and the secu- 

 rity, peace, welfare, happiness, and aggrandizement nf 

 the American people. The Secretary of Stair, there- 

 fore, avows to Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford that he 

 looks patiently but confidently for the cure of evils 

 which have resulted from proceedings so unnec* 

 so unwise, so unusual, ana so unnatural, not to irregu- 

 lar negotiations, having in view new aud untried re- 

 lations with agencies unknown to and acting in dero- 

 gation of the Constitution and laws, but to regular and 

 considerate action of the people of those States, in 

 cooperation with their brethren in the other States, 

 through the Congress of the United States, and such 

 extraordinary conventions, if there shall be need there- 

 of, as the Federal Constitution contemplates and au- 

 thorizes to be assembled. 



It is, however, the purpose of the Secretary of State 

 on this occasion not to invite or engage iu any discus- 

 sion of these subjects, but simply to set forth his rea- 

 sons for declining to comply with the request of Messrs. 

 Forsyth and Crawford. 



On the 4th of March inst., the newly elected Presi- 

 dent of the United States, in yiew of all the facts bear- 

 ing on the present question, assumed the executive 

 Administration of the Government, first delivering, in 

 accordance with an early, honored custom, an In- 

 augural Address to the people of the United States. 

 The Secretary of State respectfully submits a copy of 

 this address to Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford. 



A simple reference to it will be sufficient to satisfy 

 those gentlemen that the Secretary of State, guided 

 by the principles therein announced, is prevented al- 

 together from admitting or assuming that the States 

 referred to by them have, in law or in fact, withdrawn 

 from the Federal Union, or that they could do so in 

 the manner described by Messrs. Forsyth and Craw- 

 ford, or in any other manner, than with the consent 

 and concert of the people of the United States, to be 

 given through a National Convention, to be assembled 

 in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution 

 of the United States. Of course the Secretary of State 

 cannot act upon the assumption, or in any way admit 

 that the so-called Confederate States constitute a for- 

 eign Power, with whom diplomatic relations ought to 

 be established. 



Under these circumstances, the Secretary of State, 

 whose official duties are confined, subject to the direc- 

 tion of the President, to the conducting of the foreign 

 relations of the country, and do not at all embrace 

 domestic questions, or questions arising between the 

 several States and the Federal Government, is unable 

 to comply with the request of Messrs. Forsyth and 

 Crawford", to appoint a day on which they may present 

 the evidences of their authority and the objects of 

 their visit to the President of the United States. On 

 the contrary, he is obliged to state to Messrs. For- 

 syth and Crawford that he has no authority nor is 

 h"e at liberty to recognize them as diplomatic agents, 

 or hold correspondence or other communication with 

 them. 



Finally, the Secretary of State would observe that, 

 although he has supposed that he might safely and 

 with propriety have adopted these conclusions with- 

 out making any reference of the subject to the Execu- 

 tive, yet so strong has been his desire to practise 

 entire" directness and to act in a spirit of perfect respect 

 and candor towards Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, 

 and that portion of the Union, in whose name they 

 present themselves before him, that he has cheerfully 

 submitted this paper to the President, who coincides 

 generally in the views it expresses, and sanctions the 

 Secretary's decision declining official intercourse with 

 Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford. 



This communication remained in the Depart- 

 ment of State until the 8th of April, when it 



