George P. Marsh to General A. La Marmora, May 5, 1865

A.

Your Excellency: I have the honor to enclose to you copies of a proclamation by the President of the United States, dated April 11, 1865, relating to the treatment of vessels-of-war of the United States by foreign powers in the ports and waters of such powers; a proclamation by the President of the United States, dated April 11, 1865, relating to the closing of certain ports of the United States enumerated in said proclamation, and a proclamation by the President of the United States, dated April 11, 1865, declaring that the port of Key West, inadvertently included in the terms of the last-mentioned proclamation, shall remain open.

Your excellency is aware that the government of the United States has, never admitted the validity of the reasons which have induced various foreign powers, during the rebellion of a portion of the lawful territory of the Union, to deny to the armed vessels of the United States the hospitalities reciprocally usual between friendly nations.

It is also known to your excellency that by recent victories of the arms of the Union, the federal government is once more in undisputed possession of nearly the whole of the territory lately occupied by the rebel forces, and that the so-called Confederate States are now without a political capital, without an army, without seaports, and, in fact, without a government recognized even by themselves.

The alleged reasons for the refusal of the usual international comity to our ships-of-war, never, as I have said, sufficient in the eyes of the federal government to justify such refusal, have now, therefore, altogether ceased to exist, and my government confidently expects that all foreign powers, and especially the kingdom of Italy, in whose waters no vessel bearing the rebel flag has ever appeared, and which has always manifested the most amicable sentiments towards the United States, will acquiesce in the justice and propriety of restoring to the armed vessels of the Union the enjoyment of the hospitalities which has been granted by each of the two nations to the navy of the other.

It is proper that I should admit, on this occasion, that the United States have had no occasion to complain of the enforcement, in practice, of the rules prescribed by his Majesty’s government respecting the treatment of foreign armed vessels, and I take pleasure in acknowledging a comity on the part of the Italian government, of which my own is by no means insensible, and which may justly be regarded as a proof that the friendship so long manifested by his Majesty’s government for the government of the United States is in no degree impaired.

I pray your excellency to accept the renewed expression of my high consideration.