He certainly was not prepared for this. It
came upon him with no small surprise, and he still feels that you must
have been, at the moment, under the influence of temporary impressions,
which he cannot but hope have ere now worn away.
A few remarks upon some of the points of your last letter must now close
the correspondence.
In the first place, you object to my having called your letter of
October 3d a "protest or remonstrance" against a transaction of the
government, and observe that you must have been unhappy in the mode of
expressing yourself, if you were liable to this charge.
What other construction your letter will bear, I cannot perceive. The
transaction was _finished_. No letter or remarks of yourself, or any one
else, could undo it, if desirable. Your opinions were unsolicited. If
given as a citizen, then it was altogether unusual to address them to
this department in an official despatch; if as a public functionary, the
whole subject-matter was quite aside from the duties of your particular
station. In your letter you did not propose any thing _to be done_, but
objected to what had been done. You did not suggest any method of
remedying what you were pleased to consider a defect, but stated what
you thought to be reasons for fearing its consequences. You declared
that there had been, in your opinion, an omission to assert American
rights; to which omission you gave the department to understand that you
would never have consented.
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