Delaware, to the
penalty of having his tongue bored through with a red-hot iron for
blasphemy. Happily the spirit of progress is of higher authority than
the letter of outworn laws, and statutory enactments are not so
inelastic but that they relax and change with the general advancement of
peoples in the path of tolerance.

The simple fact that thousands of Israelites to-day pursue their
callings unmolested in St. Petersburg, under the shadow of ancient
proscriptive laws, is in itself an eloquent testimony to the principle
of progress. And so, too, in Spain, where the persecution and expulsion
of the Jews is one of the most notable and deplorable facts in history,
and where the edicts of the earlier sovereigns remain unrepealed, we see
to-day an offer of protection and assured right of domicile made to
Israelites of every race....

I had the honor in my letter of the 20th ultimo to Mr. Bartholomey to
acquaint him with the general views of the President in relation to this
matter.

I cannot better bring this instruction to a close than by repeating and
amplifying those views which the President so firmly holds, and which he
so anxiously desires to have recognized and responded to by the Russian
Government.

He conceives that the intention of the United States in negotiating the
treaty of December 18, 1832, and the distinct and enlightened reciprocal
engagements then entered into with the Government of Russia, give us
moral ground to expect careful attention to our opinions as to its
rational interpretation in the broadest and most impartial sense; that
he would deeply regret, in view of the gratifying friendliness of the
relations of the two countries which he is so desirous to maintain, to
find that this large national sentiment fails to control the present
issue, or that a narrow and rigid limitation of the construction
possible to the treaty stipulation between the two countries is likely
to be adhered to; that if, after a frank comparison of the views of the
two Governments, in the most amicable spirit and with the most earnest
desire to reach a mutually agreeable conclusion, the treaty stipulations
between the United States and Russia are found insufficient to determine
questions of nationality and tolerance of individual faith, or to secure
to American citizens in Russia the treatment which Russians receive in
the United States, it is simply due to the good relations of the two
countries that the stipulations