Kirkham to Hamilton Fish, November 14, 1872

General Kirkham to, Mr. Fish.

Sir: I have come from Abyssinia as the special envoy of the Emperor Yourness to the Emperors of Russia, Germany, Austria, the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland ancl the President of the French Republic.

Before quitting the Abyssinian capital I had frequent conversations with His Majesty the Emperor Yourness concerning the United States. The Emperor Yourness is a keen man, but he knows more of his own cherished antiquities than he does of the institutions which have wrought out your American prosperity. He could not exactly understand a republic. For this reason I am not a bearer of an autograph letter from His Majesty to the President of the United States, yet I was authorized by the Emperor to solicit aid and sympathy from the Christian world, because I have been for four years his commander-in-chief, and I am proud to know from my travels in your country that Americans voice is both potent and sincere.

In all of Abyssinia we have nearly 8,000,000 Christians. They are the prey of Mussulmans, and are sought as slaves. For many centuries the Turks and Egyptians have succeeded in seducing or coercing them into bondage, and the function of Christian Abyssinia in Africa is now considered to be the slave-mart for the Turkish Empire. Egypt, in order to further her schemes against Abyssinia, undertook a hostile expedition against the Emperor Yourness when His Majesty was absent in the Azobo-Galla country endeavoring to suppress a rebellion.

The Viceroy of Egypt has seized a great province called Bogos, and now holds it by the power of conquest. The Emperor considers this forcible and unjustifiable occupation of his territory as a crime. The Emperor Yourness is a progressive ruler. He saw by the Magdala campaign that progress was necessary for his people, and he has ever sought to establish it in Abyssinia, but he has not been encouraged. The Christian powers know nothing of his country, though Bruce and Salt wrote of its vast resources a century ago. My mission is therefore threefold:

• First. To prevent Egypt from an aggressive movement against Abyssinia.
• Second. To give Abyssinia a port on the Red Sea, in order that she may communicate with the outside world.
• Third. The establishment of a commercial treaty.

While the United States are nobly looking for the development of heathen Japan in the West, it does seem to me that they may cast a sympathetic glance at Christian Abyssinia in the East. America has lately given freedom to 4,000,000 of slaves; can she not also give her moral support to 8,000,000 of Christians honestly struggling out of African bondage and barbarism? If the Government of the United States can give to Abyssinia moral if not material support, we promise them we can extinguish one of the great fountains of the African slave-trade in the Walla-Galla country, from which land is recruited 90,000 slaves a year.

Abyssinia is the true highway to Central Africa, and to the solution of all natural and geographical problems now surrounding that unknown region. If, when the Abyssinian rulers applied to the Portuguese kings, those monarchs had listened to the entreaties of Abyssinia, I believe Africa would not have required Dr. Livingstones or Sir Samuel Bakers to-day. The whole continent would have been well known and in a fair state of civilization. I address you, therefore, as Secretary of State, knowing that by your distinguished qualities as a statesman you can appreciate the aspirations as well as the miseries of a people who, if they are not great, are yet the pioneers of Christianity in Africa.

I respectfully ask that these and any statements I may address to you may be laid before the Congress of the United States, and that an acknowledgment of this dispatch may be sent to Henry Samuel King, esq., 65 Cornhill, London.

Any further and special information will be cheerfully forwarded to the Government of the United States.

I remain, sir, your humble and obedient servant,