ed
themselves. If, therefore, the United States had gone so far as formally
to acknowledge the independence of Hungary, although, as the result has
proved, it would have been a precipitate step, and one from which no
benefit would have resulted to either party; it would not, nevertheless,
have been an act against the law of nations, provided they took no part
in her contest with Austria. But the United States did no such thing.
Not only did they not yield to Hungary any actual countenance or succor,
not only did they not show their ships of war in the Adriatic with any
menacing or hostile aspect, but they studiously abstained from every
thing which had not been done in other cases in times past, and
contented themselves with instituting an inquiry into the truth and
reality of alleged political occurrences. Mr. Huelsemann incorrectly
states, unintentionally certainly, the nature of the mission of this
agent, when he says that "a United States agent had been despatched to
Vienna with orders to watch for a favorable moment to recognize the
Hungarian republic, and to conclude a treaty of commerce with the same."
This, indeed, would have been a lawful object, but Mr. Mann's errand
was, in the first instance, purely one of inquiry. He had no power to
act, unless he had first come to the conviction that a firm and stable
Hungarian government existed. "The principal object the President has in
view," according to his instructions, "is to obtain minute and reliable
information in regard to Hungary, in connection with the affairs of
adjoining countries, the probable issue of the present revolutionary
movements, and the chances we may have of forming commercial
arrangements with that power favorable to the United States." Again, in
the same paper, it is said: "The object of the President is to obtain
information in regard to Hungary, and her resources and prospects, with
a view to an early recognition of her independence and the formation of
commercial relations with her." It was only in the event that the new
government should appear, in the opinion of the agent, to be firm and
stable, that the President proposed to recommend its recognition.

Mr. Huelsemann, in qualifying these steps of President Taylor with the
epithet of "hostile," seems to take for granted that the inquiry could,
in the expectation of the President, have but one result, and that
favorable to Hungary. If this were so, it would not change the case. But
the Ame