Elihu B. Washburne to Jules Favre, September 7, 1870

Mr. E. B. Washburne to M. Jules Favre.

Sir: I have the honor to state that your communication of the 5th instant was received at this legation at 11 o’clock last night, in which you inform me that the government of the national defense has, by a resolution of its members, confided to you the department of foreign affairs.

It affords me great pleasure to advise you that I have this morning received a telegraphic dispatch from my Government instructing me to recognize the government of the national defense as the government of France.

I am, therefore, ready to put myself in communication with that government, and, under your permission, to transact all such business as may properly appertain to the functions with which I am charged.

In making this communication to your excellency I beg to tender to yourself and to the members of the government of the national defense the felicitations of the Government and the people of the United States. They will have learned with enthusiasm of the proclamation of a republic in France, accomplished without the shedding of one drop of blood, and they will associate themselves in heart and sympathy with that great movement, confident in the hope of the most beneficial results to the French people and to mankind.

Enjoying the untold and immeasurable blessings of a republican form of government for nearly a century, the people of the United States can but regard with profoundest interest the efforts of the French people, to whom they are bound by the ties of a traditional friendship, to obtain such free institutions as will become to them and to their posterity the inalienable rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

In conclusion, I desire to say to your excellency that I congratulate myself that I am to hold relations with the government of the national defense through a gentleman so distinguished as your excellency, and one so well known in my own country for his high character and his long and devoted services in the cause of human liberty and free government.

I take this occasion to assure your excellency that I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,