Letter

PORTMAN, Chargé d’ Affaires ad interim in Japan to William H. Seward, July 24, 1865

Author

PORTMAN, Chargé d’ Affaires ad interim in Japan

Recipient

William H. Seward

Date

July 24, 1865

Type

Letter

Language

English

Mr. Portman to Mr. Seward

No. 44.]

Legation of the United States in Japan, Yedo, July 24, 1865.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit, No. 1, copy of a letter addressed by me to the Japanese government on the subject of an embassy which recently left for Europe.

Up to this date no reply has been received by me to that letter, and I have no doubt that the delay in giving me the information desired is owing to some secret agreement entered into some months ago with the representative of a treaty power in this country.

Although no engagement, either secret or otherwise, made on behalf of the Japanese government by this embassy with any European power, could in the slightest degree be binding on the United States, yet it might ultimately prove of an embarrassing influence.

I feel confident that at an early day I shall succeed in procuring a satisfactory reply to my letter from the Japanese government.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

A.L C. PORTMAN, Chargé d’ Affaires ad interim in Japan.

Hon. William H. Seward, &c, &c., &c.

Topics

19th Century Diplomacy Reconstruction

Sources

FRUS u2014 Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth C View original source ↗

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth C.