my having called your letter of
October 3d a "protest or remonstrance" against a transaction of the
government, and observe that you must have been unhappy in the mode of
expressing yourself, if you were liable to this charge.

What other construction your letter will bear, I cannot perceive. The
transaction was _finished_. No letter or remarks of yourself, or any one
else, could undo it, if desirable. Your opinions were unsolicited. If
given as a citizen, then it was altogether unusual to address them to
this department in an official despatch; if as a public functionary, the
whole subject-matter was quite aside from the duties of your particular
station. In your letter you did not propose any thing _to be done_, but
objected to what had been done. You did not suggest any method of
remedying what you were pleased to consider a defect, but stated what
you thought to be reasons for fearing its consequences. You declared
that there had been, in your opinion, an omission to assert American
rights; to which omission you gave the department to understand that you
would never have consented.

In all this there is nothing but protest and remonstrance; and, though
your letter be not formally entitled such, I cannot see that it can be
construed, in effect, as any thing else; and I must continue to think,
therefore, that the terms used are entirely applicable and proper.

In the next place, you say: "You give me to understand that the
communications which have passed between us on this subject are to be
published, and submitted to the great tribunal of public opinion."

It would have been better if you had quoted my remark with entire
correctness. What I said was, not that the communications which have
passed between us _are to be_ published, or _must_ be published, but
that "it may become necessary hereafter to publish your letter, in
connection with other correspondence of the mission; and, although it is
not to be presumed that you looked to such publication, because such a
presumption would impute to you a claim to put forth your private
opinions upon the conduct of the President and Senate, in a transaction
finished and concluded, through the imposing form of a public despatch,
yet, if published, it cannot be foreseen how far England might hereafter
rely on your authority for a construction favorable to her own
pretensions, and inconsistent with the interest and honor of the United
States."

In another part of your let