pportunity of making
itself acquainted minutely with the highly conciliatory sentiments of
His Majesty's Government, may contribute to restore good understanding
between the Cabinets of Paris and Washington, I have the honor to
transmit to you a copy of the Duke de Broglie's dispatch and to request
you to place it under the eye of the President.

I embrace this opportunity, sir, to renew to you the assurance of the
high consideration with which I have the honor to be, your most humble
and most obedient servant,

A. PAGEOT.

No. 10.

_Mr. Forsyth to Mr. Pageot_.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

_Washington, December 3, 1835_.

M. PAGEOT,

_Charge d'Affaires, etc._

SIR: I had yesterday the honor to receive your note of the 1st instant,
with the accompanying paper, purporting to be a copy of a letter
addressed under date of the 17th of June last by His Excellency the
Duke de Broglie, minister of foreign affairs of France, to yourself.

After referring to what occurred in our interview of the 11th September
in regard to the original letter, and expressing your regrets at the
course I then felt it my duty to take, you request me to place the copy
inclosed in your letter under the eye of the President.

In allowing you during that interview to read to me the Duke de
Broglie's dispatch, which I cheerfully did, you were enabled to avail
yourself of that informal mode of apprising this Department of the views
of your Government in the full extent authorized by diplomatic usage.
The question whether or not I should ask a copy of that dispatch was
of course left, as it should have been, by your Government exclusively
to my discretion. My reasons for not making that request were frankly
stated to you, founded on a conviction that in the existing state of the
relations between the two countries the President would think it most
proper that every communication upon the subject in difference between
them designed to influence his conduct should, before it was submitted
to his consideration, be made to assume the official form belonging to
a direct communication from one government to another by which alone
he could be enabled to cause a suitable reply to be given to it and to
submit it, should such a step become necessary, to his associates in the
Government. I had also the honor at the same time to assure you that any
direct communication from yourself as the representative of the King's
Government to me, embracing the cont