William H. Seward to Right Hon. Lord Lyons, November 28, 1863

Mr. Seward to Lord Lyons.

My Dear Lord Lyons: I have taken the President’s instructions upon the suggestion, communicated in your note of October 15, of Earl Russell concerning a joint or concurrent appeal to be addressed to the government of Spain for an amendment of her law which tolerates the bondage of imported Africans landed in Cuba after they have become in form the property of an owner of an estate in that island. If Earl Russell, with his large experience of this evil and of the difficulty of obtaining a correction of it, will prepare the draught of such a communication as he shall think may properly be addressed to the Spanish cabinet, the President will, with great pleasure, authorize me to communicate with the Spanish government in the same sense and spirit with those which shall be adopted by her Britannic Majesty’s government. I shall be thankful if you will inform Earl Russell that the President appreciates very highly the liberal and humane sentiments which have inspired the suggestion to which I have thus replied.

I am, my dear Lord Lyons, very truly yours,