somewhat strange, therefore, that the Austrian
Cabinet did not perceive that, by the instructions given to Mr.
Huelsemann, it was itself interfering with the domestic concerns of a
foreign state, the very thing which is the ground of its complaint
against the United States.

This department has, on former occasions, informed the ministers of
foreign powers, that a communication from the President to either house
of Congress is regarded as a domestic communication, of which,
ordinarily, no foreign state has cognizance; and in more recent
instances, the great inconvenience of making such communications the
subject of diplomatic correspondence and discussion has been fully
shown. If it had been the pleasure of his Majesty, the Emperor of
Austria, during the struggles in Hungary, to have admonished the
provisional government or the people of that country against involving
themselves in disaster, by following the evil and dangerous example of
the United States of America in making efforts for the establishment of
independent governments, such an admonition from that sovereign to his
Hungarian subjects would not have originated here a diplomatic
correspondence. The President might, perhaps, on this ground, have
declined to direct any particular reply to Mr. Huelsemann's note; but out
of proper respect for the Austrian government, it has been thought
better to answer that note at length; and the more especially, as the
occasion is not unfavorable for the expression of the general sentiments
of the government of the United States upon the topics which that note
discusses.

A leading subject in Mr. Huelsemann's note is that of the correspondence
between Mr. Huelsemann and the predecessor of the undersigned, in which
Mr. Clayton, by direction of the President, informed Mr Huelsemann "that
Mr. Mann's mission had no other object in view than to obtain reliable
information as to the true state of affairs in Hungary, by personal
observation." Mr. Huelsemann remarks, that "this explanation can hardly
be admitted, for it says very little as to the cause of the anxiety
which was felt to ascertain the chances of the revolutionists." As this,
however, is the only purpose which can, with any appearance of truth, be
attributed to the agency; as nothing whatever is alleged by Mr.
Huelsemann to have been either done or said by the agent inconsistent
with such an object, the undersigned conceives that Mr. Clayton's
explanation ought to be d