No. 132.] : Mr. Clay to Mr. Seward. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, St. Petersburg, Russia, February 9, 1867. SIR Captain T. Morris Chester, late of the United States volunteer army, being in St. Petersburg, coming well recommended by distinguished citizens of the United States, and being also well educated and of good address, I called upon the minister of foreign affairs and told him that I would not apply in the usual way by note to have Captain Chester, a colored American citizen, presented to his Imperial Majesty, as there was no precedent, and I did not know how his Imperial Majesty would be disposed to act; but I desired that he would approach his Imperial Majesty, in an informal way, and ascertain his wishes in this regard. The assistant minister of foreign affairs, Mr. de Westmann, acquiesced in the proposal, and in a few days wrote me that the Emperor had given orders to have Captain Chester's name put upon the list of persons for the first presentation. To-day being the occasion of a grand review of the imperial guard, the Emperor sent an invitation to Captain Chester to assist in the review, which he did, riding around with his Imperial Majesty's staff, and taking lunch at the winter palace with the staff officers and a portion of the imperial family, who accompanied the Emperor at the lunch. I have made these facts known to you, as I regard the affair of some importance. We have four millions of colored citizens; they are with us, and of us, for good or evil. I think that it is the duty of all good citizens to try and elevate the African race in America, and inspire them with all possible self-respect; and prepare them for that ultimate influence which they must sooner or later have upon the political and economical interests of the United States. These are the views which have influenced my action in this case, which, not partisan in their character, I should hope would be satisfactory to all patriotic Americans. Having, however, discharged my duty, as I ever do, without regard to personal considerations, I submit my action frankly to the judgment of the department. I am, my dear sir, your most obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. C. M. CLAY. Mr. Fox to Mr. Seward. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 25, 1867. SIR: On the 30th September last, I submitted to you a hasty narrative of the reception which I met with in Russia, whilst executing your instructions in delivering personally to the sovereign of that country the resolution of Congress expressive of the feelings of the people of the United States in reference to his providential escape from the hand of an assassin. I have recorded in that narrative the remarks of the Emperor and the various demonstrations of the people, which manifested their gratification at the sympathy felt for them by the American people. I have endeavored in this way to comply with the wish often repeated to me by his Majesty to make known to the government and my countrymen the feelings of friendship which existed in Russia towards America. But all that I have written myself and all that was written for the press, by persons far more capable than I feel myself to be, to describe the manifestations of these feelings, fails to convey any adequate idea of the enthusiasm which pervades the people of Russia towards the United States, and their sincere wishes for the continued prosperity and power of our country. The expression of the sympathy felt by the Emperor for this country in its great struggle for national unity, made by Prince Gortchacoff in 1861, when several of the great powers of Europe were co-operating in the effort to destroy it and taking measures to profit by its destruction, was gratefully appreciated by the govern-" ment and people of the United States as a timely and effective demonstration in our behalf. But it was not until I had traversed so great a part of the Russian empire, and witnessed how cordial and widespread among all classes in that powerful country was the friendship for America, that I appreciated the practical importance of the Emperor's sympathy, in its bearings upon the course of our great contest and in its influence upon the conduct of other nations towards us. The crowds that gathered around us at every social meeting singing the plaintive national songs; the flowers presented by the hands of beauty and innocence; the numerous presents offered upon all suitable occasions; the imperial honor granted at Kostroma of casting down their garments for us to walk upon; the deep feeling which the great mass of the people evinced whenever the name of our country was mentioned, and the very many touching incidents which such sympathies evoked, were not produced by curiosity or instigated by officials. The Russians have been familiar with royal embassies from powerful and magnificent courts for many centuries. It was a heart impulse of the people in favor of our country which occasioned these extraordinary demonstrations towards the messenger of good will, founded on their instinctive knowledge that whilst our countries were widely separated from each other on the globe and in forms of government, there was yet a community of intereston great points which identified the friendships of the people with patriotism itself. It may serve to illustrate the prevailing feeling respecting the relations of the two countries, to state that I saw at the residence of Prince Gortchacoff, in St. Petersburg, a beautiful model in steel of one of Ericsson's monitors, a form of vessel now associated in the popular mind with American genius and power, which had been presented to the Prince as a grateful recognition of the part he had borne as his Majesty's minister of foreign affairs. With great respect, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. G. V. FOX. Prince Gortchacow to Mr. de Stoeckl. [Translation.] PETERHOFF, August 19-31, 1865. SIR: The mission intrusted by the Congress of the United States of America to Mr. Fox, Under-Secretary of State, has met a reception by the imperial court, the public, and I may say, the Russian nation, which you have already been able to appreciate, from the notices in the public journals. I need not dwell on these manifestations of the mutual sympathy between the two countries. It reveals itself in full light; it is one of the most interesting facts of our time, a consolatory fact in face of the recent complications which have just awakened in old Europe sentiments of hate, of ambition, of rivalry, bloody struggles, appeals to force, so little in harmony with the progress of humanity-a fact which sows between two great people, almost between two continents, the seeds of mutual good-will and friendship which will bear fruit, become traditional, and inaugurate between them relations founded on a real spirit of Christian civilization. In a letter which our august master addresses to the President of the United States-and which I request you to transmit to its destination-his Imperial Majesty begs Mr. Johnson to convey to Congress the assurance of the sentiments which he has already expressed to Mr. Fox. I annex hereto a copy of the letter for your information. * For this enclosure see Diplomatic Correspondence, 1866, vol. 1, page 416. You will, sir, express yourself to the same effect, both to the President and to the members of the federal government, as well as to other influential personages. In face of a movement of national sympathy so spontaneous on both sides, the task of the governments is simply to fall in with the current, to promote it, and to direct it in actual practice to the good of both countries. In this aim we count upon the co-operation of the federal government, as it may count upon ours. The Emperor has been most favorably impressed by Mr. Fox. The tact with which he has acquitted himself of his mission has been highly appreciated in our official circles, as well as by the public of all classes with which he has come in contact, and he has been ably seconded by the distinguished personnel who accompanied him. It would have been difficult to commit to better hands the measure of cordial courtesy prescribed by Congress. You are directed to bear witness to this sentiment. Receive, &c., &c., Mr. DE STOECKL, &c., &c., &c. GORTCHACOW. Mr. Seward to Mr. Fox. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 25, 1867. SIR: I have received your interesting letter of this date, giving an account of the manner in which you have executed the instructions of this department with reference to the presentation to the Emperor of Russia of the resolution of Congress congratulating him upon his escape from an attempted assassination. In reply, I have to inform you that your proceedings upon the occasion referred to are entirely approved. I am, sir, your G. V. Fox, Esq. obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Clay to Mr. Seward. No. 135.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, St. Petersburg, Russia, March 20, 1867. SIR: Your despatches to 235 inclusive are received. Though I have not written you anything as yet upon the Greek or "Oriental question," I have not been an inattentive or indifferent observer of events. The published “blue books" of England and France, and the despatches of Prince Gortchacow in the St. Petersburg Journal, you have no doubt seen. It only remains for me to give you my ideas of Russian policy. That there are some persons in Russia who would desire the possession of Constantinople and the straits, I doubt not. But I think the ruling minds look upon that project not as a thing to be contended for, or bought at a great price of money and blood, but acceptable, if good fortune should throw it into their power. Russia does not now desire war; neither her transition state of labor, nor her rail-walls, nor finances generally, make it now desirable. She does not desire, however, nor would she permit in my opinion, any great power to take Constantinople without a great war. She can carry on a great war even with all her backsets if the nation was much in earnest with it, and such a war would be that, ostensibly at least, for the protection of the Sclave and the Greek Christian. What Russia now attempts is to secure the permanent good will of the Greeks and Sclaves, to make herself their patron and protector; and if a Greek empire should have the good fortune once more to be established on the Hellespont and Black sea, Russia hopes to find in it a permanent and grateful ally, and not a jealous enemy. And this may be the ultimate and peaceable solution of the eastern problem. First the gradual autonomy of the Sclave and Greek provinces, till the Turkish rule ceases; and then the straits in the hands of a petty power, protected by all the great rivals, or ultimately a respectable Greek empire or kingdom, absorbing all the Greek and Sclave subjects now belonging to Turkey. Such a power would give protection and peace to the Greek peoples, and not be a menace or danger to any one. Such I think are the events to which Russia is looking and shaping her policy. In the mean time she advances in Asia; and should her Teyars ever court the direct possession of the Sultan's capital, they will "flank" it by a march from Asia, and not through Europe, I think. SIR: I give you herewith a copy of a correspondence which has taken place between this department and the Western Union Telegraph Company, in relation to the suspension of the important enterprise of connecting the two continents by telegraph through Behring's Straits. You will please present a copy of the correspondence to Prince Gortchacow. You will assure him that while I regret the untoward fact which is thus announced, I cannot withhold an acknowledgment that the Western Telegraph Company has acted throughout in entire good faith, and has succumbed, after much reluctance, to a necessity which it did not anticipate and which it had not the ability to remove. Certain negotiations between Russia and the United States, with regard to Russian America, which are pending here, may have a result which would necessarily modify the measure which ought to be adopted in regard to the telegraphic undertaking in the present emergency. I do not, for this reason, make any suggestion in regard to such measures, but I shall be happy to be assured that the subject engages the attention of the Emperor. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CASSIUS M. CLAY, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Western Union Telegraph Company to Mr. Seward. EXECUTIVE OFFICE, WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY, SIR: This company having, after a careful examination of all the facts in the case, deter mined to suspend work on the construction of the Russian American (Collins's Overland) telegraph, deem it due alike to our own honor and to the services you have so generously and intelligently rendered us in this international undertaking, frankly and fully to state the causes which have led us to such a decision. This seems the more demanded of us, since, in the primary arrangements for prosecuting this vast work, this company has, to some extent, appeared to stand in the place of the American government, in the reception of grants, concessions and courtesies from other nations; and which your commendation of the enterprise to national and governmental approbation has largely served to secure. Of all the initiatory arrangements connected with the Russian telegraph, you are fully informed. The grants of the British and Russian governments were complete and satisfactory. A general and thorough examination of the entire route, chiefly by the inspection of the company's agents, was made. The aid of governmental surveys, the records of explor ers, the testimony of the government officers in the regions to be traversed, had established the absence of physical obstacles to its construction, and the work was commenced with everything to indicate success. Acting upon all the information thus obtained, and satisfied of the public need of connec tion with Europe, which this route seemed to all minds to most certainly secure, stimulated moreover thereto by the feeling of disappointment created by the failure of the Atlantic cable in 1858, the work was immediately commenced. Men of experience and enterprise were despatched, with large bodies of assistants, to different points of the American and Asiatic coast, and, until a recent date, the work was prosecuted with all the vigor which capital and intelligent labor could secure. The lines of this company having been completed to New Westminster, the capital of British Columbia, that city became the starting-point for the line to Russia. With greater case than the building of the line from Chicago to San Francisco, 850 miles of line were erected, and the wires connected to the banks of the Simpson river. Beyond, it only needed a vigorous and intelligent commissariat to overcome the difficulties of transportation, and push the construction of the line to the Behring's sea and on to the terminal point at the mouth of the Amoor. Such was our confidence in the success of the undertaking, in the favorable reports made by our own explorers and the topographical engineers of Russia, Great Britain and our own country, that the material for the whole line was purchased and distribution at various convenient points commenced, and such progress made on both continents as would have secured the completion of the entire structure within the present or succeeding year. Indeed, at every forward step made in this great work, difficulties diminished as resolute hands approached them, and were found to be fewer than were contemplated. Not only so, but most important information respecting the navigable character of the northern rivers has been secured. The Steekern has been found to be navigable for boats of considerable size, for 150 miles from its mouth, and steam vessels can ascend the Kvitchpack and Yokon river for probably 1,000 miles from the Pacific-two facts of great importance, and furnishing unexpected aid in the distribution of material. On the Asiatic side our explorations have also proved that the Anader river can be navigated at least 250 miles from the sea, and that there is abundance of timber on its upper waters suitable for our purposes. Everything conspired to render the whole scheme more and more practicable as the labor upon it progressed; no want of capital, no physical difficulty, no doubt of our ability to complete the work contemplated, led to our recent determination to suspend operations thereon. The cause of that suspension we now proceed to state. The successful laying of the Atlantic cable in 1866 developed, in process of time, several important facts, as unexpected to the company who laid it as to the public who took interest in such matters. 1. The ability of a cable of two thousand miles in length, sunk in the ocean, to convey the manipulations of the telegraph successfully, and for any length of time, through it, was a matter of almost universal doubt. Nothing aided more to strengthen that impression than the record kept by the electricians on board the government vessels which bore the respective portions of the cable in 1858 from mid-ocean to the shores of the two continents. Weak, variable, uncertain, there seemed no exhibition of a power to predicate the supply of commercial communication thereon, at least so far as public knowledge of that interesting voyage was received. And when it reached the shores, and all the world seemed eager to talk through it, it was found that outside of a few feeble utterances, which to this day are erroneously believed by many never to have been made, the cable was simply a success of engineering skill in stretching a dumb bond between the Old World and the New. Experiments in Europe with subterranean and extended submarine lines were unsatisfactory and discouraging They generally revealed such a detention of the electric fluid, such a want of ability to perform prompt and accumulated service, as to discourage their general use. The current through the cable was known to be of such tenuity that the human eye could not catch the motions of the mechanism, except by the aid of a strong light applied to the motive part, revealing by radiation on the wall the pulsations which the finger could not feel and the eye could not detect. To satisfy European commerce by such means seemed impossible. Even had the cable continued to work, it was reasonable to presume that with so slow a process of transmission there was business enough for the quicker manipulation of a telegraph by land, although it was obliged to shoot its messages over three-fourths of the surface of the globe. 2. The character of our population and commerce gave every assurance that the business between America and Europe would be immense. With several millions of our resident population united by the closest ties, and bound up in affections even stronger than our own with the firesides of the fatherland; with a commercial intercourse so active that the mariner on the Atlantic can seldom scan the stormiest horizon without sight of a friendly sail or the cloud of a passing steamer, it was fair to presume that the intercourse would be vast and pressing. And to the Russian line were added other incentives. No doubt existed of the completion of arrangements by which, on reaching eastern Asia, lines from China and India, |