eks earlier would have given ample time for deliberation and decision
in season to have it known at Washington on the 1st of December.

The necessity of giving time to the new members to inform themselves
of the nature of the question and the old ones to recover from the
impression which erroneous statements had made upon their minds I
understand to be the remaining motive of His Majesty's ministers for
delaying the meeting; but this was a precaution which, relying on the
plain obligation of the treaty, the President could not appreciate, and
he must, moreover, have thought that if a long discussion was necessary
to understand the merits of the question it was an additional reason for
hastening the meeting where those merits were to be discussed. The delay
that occurred between the meeting of the Chambers and the 1st of January
need not have entered into the discussion, because, not long known at
Washington, it could not have had any influence on the message. It is
referred to, I presume, in order to show that it was produced by a
desire on the part of His Majesty's ministers the better to assure the
passage of the law. Of this, sir, I never had a doubt, and immediately
so advised my Government, and informed it (as was the fact) that I
perfectly acquiesced in the delay; first, because of the circumstance to
which you allude; secondly, because the statements originally intended
to be ready by the 1st of January were not yet prepared. There is a
slight error in this part of your excellency's letter; the delay was
not made at my request, but was fully approved of, for the reasons
which I have stated.

I have entered into this detail, sir, not for the purpose of
recrimination, which, in most cases useless, would in this be worse, but
with the object, as was my duty, of showing that although the ministers
of the King, under the interpretation they seem to have given to Mr.
Serurier's promise, may have considered themselves at liberty to defer
the presentation of the law until the period which they thought would
best secure its success, yet the President, interpreting that promise
differently, feeling that in consequence of it he had forborne to do
what might be strictly called a duty, and seeing that its performance
had not taken place, could not avoid stating the whole case clearly and
distinctly to Congress and detailing to them all the remedies which the
law of nations would allow to be applied to the case, leaving to the