If circumstances did not render it certain, it would have been obvious
from the language of Mr. Bankhead's note to the undersigned that the
Government of His Britannic Majesty, when the instructions under which
it was prepared were given, could not have been apprised of all the
steps taken in the controversy between the United States and France.
It was necessarily ignorant of the tenor of the two recent messages of
the President to Congress--the first communicated at the commencement of
the present session, under date of the 7th of December, 1835, and the
second under that of the 15th of January, 1836. Could these documents
have been within the knowledge of His Britannic Majesty's Government,
the President does not doubt that it would have been fully satisfied
that the disposition of the United States, notwithstanding their
well-grounded and serious causes of complaint against France, to
restore friendly relations and cultivate a good understanding with the
Government of that country was undiminished, and that all had already
been done on their part that could in reason be expected of them to
secure that result.
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