DE RIGNY.
_Mr. Livingston to Mr. Forsyth_.
No. 72.
LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
_Paris, January 15, 1835_.
SIR: Having determined to send Mr. Brown, one of the gentlemen
attached to the legation, to Havre with my dispatches, I have just time
to add to them the copy of the note which I have sent to the Comte de
Rigny. The course indicated by it was adopted after the best reflections
I could give to the subject, and I hope will meet the approbation of
the President. My first impressions were that I ought to follow my
inclinations, demand my passports, and leave the Kingdom. This would at
once have freed me from a situation extremely painful and embarrassing;
but a closer attention convinced me that by so doing I should give to
the French Government the advantage they expect to derive from the
equivocal terms of their note, which, as occasions might serve, they
might represent as a suggestion only, leaving upon me the responsibility
of breaking up the diplomatic intercourse between the two countries if
I demanded my passports; or, if I did not, and they found the course
convenient, they might call it an order to depart which I had not
complied with.
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