William H. Seward to Right Reverend Horatio Potter, Bishop of New York, November 23, 1866

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Sir: The President has referred to this department the memorial of the 13th instant, over your signature and that of other clergymen of your denomination, asking a renewal of supposed instructions of my predecessor, William L. Marcy, to the United States representatives in Japan, for the purpose of inducing the government of that empire to repeal the laws which make the profession of Christianity penal. In reply, I have to state that the only passage in the instructions to Mr. Townsend Harris upon the subject is the following, contained in a letter of Mr. Marcy to him, of the 13th of September, 1856. The intolerance of the Japanese in regard to the Christian religion forbids us to hope that they would consent to any stipulation by which missionaries would be allowed to enter that empire, or Christian worship according to the form of any sect would be permitted. Hence, it appears that you are under misapprehension in regard to the instructions referred to. It is evident from Mr. Marcy’s language that he was familiar with the antecedents of Christianity in Japan. You yourselves are no doubt aware that our religion was in a flourishing state there about two centuries ago; that large numbers of Japanese had become converted to it; that consequently the priests of other religions became alarmed at its progress, when, owing to the imprudence, or, as some suppose, the arrogance of the Christian divines, the Japanese rulers, lay and clerical, caused them and their converts to be attacked and massacred, whereby Christianity was at once, as it were, extirpated. The same penal laws against it to which you refer were then enacted, and remain in force to this day. The occasion and the policy which dictated them may be presumed to be still fresh in the memories of the many cultivated people in that quarter. Some of their prejudices against Christians may have been softened by the intercourse with them which has taken place since that country was reopened by us to foreign trade. It is to be feared, however, that any attempt to, induce them to change their policy in respect to our religion would be premature. Still, this department will instruct Mr. Van Valkenburgh, the United States minister in Japan, to make inquiries upon the subject, and if he should find the prospect at all favorable at the present time, to co-operate with her Britannic Majesty’s representative if, as you intimate, that functionary should also be instructed to endeavor to have the disabilities against Christians in Japan removed.

I am, right reverend sir, your very obedient servant,