On the whole, I repeat
that without being at all confident I now entertain better hopes than I
have for some time past done.
_Mr. Livingston to the Secretary of State_.
[Extracts.]
PARIS, _December 22, 1834_.
Hon. JOHN FORSYTH,
_Secretary of State, etc._
SIR: Our diplomatic relations with this Government are on the most
extraordinary footing. With the executive branch I have little to
discuss, for they agree with me in every material point on the subject
of the treaty. With the legislature, where the great difficulty arises,
I can have no official communication. Yet, deeply impressed with the
importance to my fellow-citizens of securing the indemnity to which
they are entitled, and to the country of enforcing the execution of
engagements solemnly made to it, as well as of preventing a rupture,
which must infallibly follow the final refusal to execute the
convention, I have felt it a duty to use every proper endeavor to
avoid this evil. This has been and continues to be a subject of much
embarrassment.
* * * * *
My last dispatch (6th December) was written immediately after the vote
of the Chamber of Deputies had, as it was thought, secured a majority
to the administration, and it naturally excited hopes which that
supposition was calculated to inspire.
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