rope, American policy
would be exposed to acts of retaliation, and to certain inconveniences
which would not fail to affect the commerce and industry of the two
hemispheres." As to this possible fortune, this hypothetical
retaliation, the government and people of the United States are quite
willing to take their chances and abide their destiny. Taking neither a
direct nor an indirect part in the domestic or intestine movements of
Europe, they have no fear of events of the nature alluded to by Mr.
Huelsemann. It would be idle now to discuss with Mr. Huelsemann those acts
of retaliation which he imagines may possibly take place at some
indefinite time hereafter. Those questions will be discussed when they
arise; and Mr. Huelsemann and the Cabinet at Vienna may rest assured,
that, in the mean time, while performing with strict and exact fidelity
all their neutral duties, nothing will deter either the government or
the people of the United States from exercising, at their own
discretion, the rights belonging to them as an independent nation, and
of forming and expressing their own opinions, freely and at all times,
upon the great political events which may transpire among the civilized
nations of the earth. Their own institutions stand upon the broadest
principles of civil liberty; and believing those principles and the
fundamental laws in which they are embodied to be eminently favorable
to the prosperity of states, to be, in fact, the only principles of
government which meet the demands of the present enlightened age, the
President has perceived, with great satisfaction, that, in the
constitution recently introduced into the Austrian empire, many of these
great principles are recognized and applied, and he cherishes a sincere
wish that they may produce the same happy effects throughout his
Austrian Majesty's extensive dominions that they have done in the United
States.

The undersigned has the honor to repeat to Mr. Huelsemann the assurance
of his high consideration.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

THE CHEVALIER J.G. HUeLSEMANN, _Charge d'Affaires of Austria,
Washington_.

[Footnote 1: Mr. Everett had then resigned the Presidency of Harvard
College.]

[Footnote 2: Whether Mr. Hunter's draft was also sent to Mr. Everett, I
do not know. The internal evidence would seem to indicate that it was;
but the fact is not material.]

[Footnote 3: I have seen, I believe, all the documents in relation to
this matter; viz. Mr. Hunter's dr