This was
done the next day, and being forwarded to us as ultimately signed, and
found to contain no allowance of time nor any intimation that there was
any stipulation but what was in the public treaty, it was supposed that
the Bashaw had, in fine, abandoned the proposition, and the instructions
before mentioned were consequently given to Mr. Davis.
An extract of so much of Mr. Lear's communication as relates to this
circumstance is now transmitted to the Senate, the whole of the papers
having been laid before them on a former occasion. How it has happened
that the declaration of June 5 has never before come to our knowledge
can not with certainty be said, but whether there has been a miscarriage
of it or a failure of the ordinary attention and correctness of that
officer in making his communications, I have thought it due to the
Senate as well as to myself to explain to them the circumstances
which have withheld from their knowledge, as they did from my own,
a modification which, had it been placed in the public treaty, would
have been relieved from the objections which candor and good faith can
not but feel in its present form.
As the restoration of the family has probably been effected, a just
regard to the character of the United States will require that I make
to the Bashaw a candid statement of facts, and that the sacrifices of
his right to the peace and friendship of the two countries, by yielding
finally to the demand of Mr.
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