George Bancroft to Von Balan, October 24, 1872

Mr. Bancroft to Mr. Von Balan.

Mr. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: I have communicated to my Government the Award of the Imperial Arbitrator, received last evening, relating to the northwestern boundary of the United States of America. In return the President of the United States has charged me, in the name of the people of the United States, to express to His Majesty the German Emperor their thanks for the great pains and attention which His Imperial Majesty has devoted to the question submitted to him for adjudication.

The definitive, friendly settlement of the difference has a peculiar interest and importance. It is now exactly ninety years since the King of Great Britain first formally recognized the existence of the United States of America as an independent State, and from that time to the present controversy regarding the boundaries of their respective possessions in America has never ceased even for a single day. During this period the two countries have been repeatedly on the verge of war, growing out of their opposing claims to jurisdiction. After an unrelenting strife of ninety years, the award of His Majesty the Emperor of Germany closes the long and unintermitted, and often very dangerous, series of disputes on the extent of their respective territories, and so for the first time in their history opens to the two countries the unobstructed way to agreement, good understanding, and peace.

I gladly seize this occasion, &c.,