Letter

Francis to Count Szogyényi, September 22, 1884

Author

Francis

Recipient

Count Szogyényi

Date

September 22, 1884

Type

Letter

Language

English

Mr. Francis to Count Szogyényi.

Legation of the United States, Vienna, September 22, 1884.

Your Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note, No. 21203, of the date of September 18, 1884, in reply to an inquiry by the Hon. Alphonso Taft, in a note dated August 12, whether an account published by some American papers concerning measures taken by the Austrian authorities against proselytizing for the Mormons were founded on facts.

Your excellency’s lucid statement of the measures adopted by the Government of His Imperial-Royal Apostolic Majesty to suppress all possible recruiting for the Mormons by all lawful means, together with the detailed account of the action taken in March last by the authorities of Prague in the arrest and punishment of the chief agent of the Mormons for Austria, one Thomas Biesinger, from Lehi, Utah Territory, United States of America, affords evidence of the commendable and efficient efforts of His Majesty’s Government in behalf of the interests of peace and morality.

In this sense I am instructed by my Government to recognize the action referred to of His Majesty’s Government, and to express its sincere gratification that such praiseworthy action has been taken.

I avail, &c.,

JOHN M. FRANCIS.

Topics

19th Century Diplomacy Reconstruction

Sources

FRUS u2014 Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the P View original source ↗

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the P.