PORTMAN, Acting chargé d’Affaires of the United States in Japan to Harry S. Parkes, K. C. B., Her British Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and, April 16, 1866

[Untitled]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, No. 45, of the 14th instant, informing me that you had received the entire approval of the Queen, your august sovereign, of the recent negotiations at Osacca, and that her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for foreign affairs had been pleased to express his appreciation of the co-operation it has been my good fortune, in concert with my colleagues, to render on that occasion.

I cannot sufficiently express to you how gratefully obliged I feel for this graceful acknowledgment of my share in those proceedings, and for the manner in which you were pleased to convey it.

I cordially reciprocate your wishes for the maintenance of that perfect unanimity of action between the foreign representatives in this country, which has been productive of so much benefit. Apart from its undoubted usefulness in promoting general interests, I beg to assure you that to contribute to its maintenance is a most congenial duty to me.

At a great distance from our governments, and frequeutly obliged to act before instructions can have been received, or which, upon their arrival, may have been rendered partly inapplicable by altered circumstances, it is chiefly from that happy unanimity that relief is derived for the severe anxieties often experienced, and for the grave responsibility it may occasionally be necessary to assume.

The day, I trust, is not far distant when the great western powers shall be as cordially united in all matters of common interest in every part of the world as they are now in Japan, and it will then be highly gratifying for us to reflect that in some measure, however humble, we have contributed to so grand a consummation.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,