PRUYN, Minister Resident of the United States in Japan to Their Excellencies Wakisaka Nakatsaka no Tayu, Midsuno Idsumi no Kami, Itakura Suwo no Kam, June 6, 1862

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While the ambassadors from Japan to the United States were in the city of Baltimore, in June, 1860, a small sword belonging to one of their attendants was lost or stolen.

In the month of November last it was recovered by the deputy marshal of the police at Baltimore, and I now have the pleasure to ask permission to return it to the owner through your excellencies.

The laws of the United States are framed more with reference to the certainty of the detection and punishment of crime, than to severity in the mode or extent of the punishment. The guilty may escape for a season, but the ends of justice seldom fail of accomplishment; and the vigilance of the authorities is never relaxed, when an offence has been committed, until the offender has been arrested, tried and punished. This is occasioned by our abhorrence of crime, and for the vindication of the laws and of the government, which would otherwise cease to be respected; and when this happens, they fail of the purpose for which they were created.

When fraud or violence has been committed on a citizen of a friendly power, then another motive is superadded—the sacred law of hospitality has been violated, and that must be vindicated equally with the law of the land.

With respect and esteem,