Agent and Consul General, CHARLES HALE to Cherif Pacha, October 20, 1865

[Translation.]

YOUR EXCELLENCY: At an audience which his Highness, accorded me on the 25th of August last, he was so good as to give me some explanations about the circumstances under which the Egyptian government proposes to send nine hundred negroes to Mexico to replace the troops of the same kind which were sent there in the month of January, 1863.

Having thereupon made report to my government, without failing to set forth the noble frankness with which his Highness expressed himself in giving me on this subject all the details without reserve, I have just received instructions from my government.

I must say to you that the previous expedition in 1863, although it may have made room for many comments, was let pass by the government of the United States of America without remark, because it was at that time very much engaged with exceptionally complicated domestic affairs and with foreign difficulties. But since that epoch the United States have abolished slavery. Our attention is steadily fixed on the course of events in Mexico, a subject which seriously affects the security of republican institutions on the American continent, with which we are accustomed to connect the so-much-desired ulterior consequences of the abolition of all compulsory servitude, civil or military, in the western hemisphere.

I am therefore ordered, Mr. Minister, to bring the affair to your attention, and to say to you that, in the opinion of my government, the repetition of an expedition of Egyptian negroes to Mexico would not be regarded with approval, nor even without profound inquietude by the United States.

I must also inform your excellency that instructions of the same character have been sent to the diplomatic representatives of the United States at Paris and at Constantinople.

I have the honor to renew to your excellency the assurance of my high consideration.