Leopold to Edm. van Eetvelde , Administrator-General of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Independent State of the Congo. Ostend , August 1, 1885, August 1, 1885

The King to the President.

Very Dear and Great Friend: The Government of the Republic of the United States of America was pleased to recognize the flag of the International Association of the Congo as that of a friendly nation. At the time of the signing of the general act of the conference of Berlin, the president and the members of that high assembly, on receiving the adhesion of the Association to the acts of the conference, manifested their sympathy for its enterprise. To-day that the position of the Association is fixed in an international point of view, that its territorial constitution is established, and that its mission has received valuable encouragements, I am prepared to bring to your notice and to that of the Republic of the United States of America that the possessions of the International Association of the Congo will hereafter form the Independent State of the Congo. I have at the same time the honor to inform you and the Government of the Republic of the United States of America that, authorized by the Belgian Legislative Chambers to become the chief of the new State, I have taken, in accord with the Association, the title of Sovereign of the Independent State of the Congo.

The union between Belgium and that State will be exclusively personal. The new State, I am firmly convinced, will fulfill the expectations of those powers which have in a measure greeted in advance its entry into the family of nations. I shall endeavor to guide it in that course, and I entertain the hope that you will be pleased, as well as the Government of the Republic of the United States of America, to facilitate my task by giving a favorable reception to the present notification.

I eagerly seize this occasion to offer you the expression of the high esteem and of the inviolable friendship with which I am,

Very dear and great friend, your sincere friend,