Right Honorable the Earl of Clarendon to Charles Frances Adams, December 2, 1865

The Earl Clarendon to Mr. Adams.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th ultimo, having reference to the letter which, my predecessor addressed to you on the 3d ultimo.

There are many statements in your letter which I should be prepared to controvert if it were not that her Majesty’s government consider that no advantage can result from prolonging a controvery of which the topics are generally exhausted, but which might possibly, if continued, introduce acrimony into the relations between this country and the United States, two nations who, from kindred origin and mutual interests, should desire to be knit together by bonds of the closest friendship. Such a desire is strongly felt by the government and people of this country, and her Majesty’s government do not doubt that it is shared by the government and people of the United States.

While abstaining, therefore, from any discussion of the passages in your letter to the correctness of which I am unable to subscribe, it is nevertheless my duty, in closing this correspondence, to observe that no armed vessel departed during the war from a British port to cruise against the Commerce of the United States, and to maintain that throughout all the difficulties of the civil war by which the United States have lately been distracted, but in the termination of which no nation rejoices more cordially than Great Britain, the British government have steadily and honestly discharged all the duties incumbent on them as a neutral power, and have never deviated from the obligations imposed on them by international law.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient humble servant,