The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-02-25
THE UNION.
THE CORRESPONDENTS BETWEEN MR..
KING AND MR.. GUIZOT.

this city in extra of the Baltimore Sun, contained
the following paragraph, copied from wilmer AM
Smiths European Times" not altogether compli
nentary TO our minister at Paris, in relation to
correspondence which had taken place between hin
and the French Minister Of Foreign Affairs:
"Mr. King, the American minister at the Tuil
enes, has been drawn into correspondence with Mr.
GuLot, for the purpose of rebuttng charge prefer
red against him by the London Times, of garbline
the views Of The French government the subec
Of Texas, and producing thereby the explosive mis-
sive in the Presidents message, which has caused
such sensation in France, and such protracted dis
cussions in the chambers MIR. King is sadly toe
thn-skinned; and he has not bettered hiI position
by appealing, through Mr.. Guizot, to the public
against the structures Of newspaper. high diplo
matte funclIOnaTy ought To be above this. The
Times returns to the charge, and scaTIfes Mr. King
numerically. Mr.. Kings letter IL rhetorical and
lnnaLed-thut Cf MIR. GulZOt brief, cold and 10 the
point"
Well, We now have the correspondence ITSELF and
does not, we must confess, tend to give very ia
yorabe opinion Of the fitness Of the European
Times" to pass Judgment upon such subjects Be-
fore laying the letters before our readers We will re
mind them that IN Mr.. Calhoun's despatch to Mr..
King Of August ~, 1874, communicated to Con
year. the following passage occurs:
IL have laid your despatch before the Pres
dent, who mstructS me to make known to
you that he has read it with much pleasure,
especially the portion which relates to your cor
dial reception by the king, and his assurance
of friendly feeling towards the United States
The President in particular highly appreciates
the declaration Of the king, that IN no event roII
any Step, be taken by his government IN The slightest de-
LaaI.l ILL.,. Al
cause Of complaint IL was tho more gratifying from
the fact that our previous information was cacula-
ted to make the impression that the government Of
France was prepared to unite with Great Britain IN
a joint protest against the annexation OF Texas"
The declaration Of the king here referred TO- as
having been made to minister, and by him report
ed to his government, related, is seen, to the in
tentIons Of the French government respecting the an.
nexaton of Texas. We have marked in italics
the words in which this declaration is expressed in
this reference to it, We bcspcak attention to these
words, and also to the words which we shah ind.
cate in the same way, contained in the reply of Mr.
Guizot to Mr.. King, which will be found below.
This declaration, thus reported and thus publish
ed to the world, has, on various occasions, been a
ouuJsSb VI IoHuSHNi upbH lHOIt IMAM one OC-
cason, the English journals, in their ordinary
course OF procedure towards our country, have in
dulged in bold ussertions charging our minister at
Paris and our Secretary OF State with deliberate
fasehood in regard to what had passed at the inter-
view of the latter with the King OF the French.
The calumny, so long it made its appearance
only in the shape of British newspaper trades,
could ri, of course, be noticed by Mr., King. At
length however it veutured present itself Paris
with pretended official endorsement, in the shape
Of AN article of the London Times, transplanted into
the Journal DIS Debais. When we say that the
of the calumny into this paper did
give it "pretended official endorsement" we say
what the whole world knows to be true; for the
Journal de, Debats is the source upon which the
wheIe world relies for true information in regard to
the views and the statements having bearing upon
prevail of the French cabinet.
Presenting itsefin this imposing shape, it became
a totally difercn, thing from what it had been down
to this moment. Until then seIf-respect forbade that
he should notice it. But now, silence on h., part
could not fail to be construed into tncit ackn WI
edgement Of the genuinencss Of what we have called
the pretended official endorsement and Of the right
of the caumny to which it affixed TO stand IN
the eyes Of the world as a truth.
Under these circumstances, Mr.. King did not hes
itae as to the course which it became him to adopt
That course and the result TO which it led pre-
sented in his correspondence with Mr.. Guizot.
the course the result be Of a nature to
elicit from any candid mind the remark that "Mr
King is sadly too thn-skinned" or that che has
not be,tered his POSITION we leave to every man
to Judge for himself after reading in Mr.. Guzots
reply the acknowledgment Of the strict and literal
truth Of the statement which the London Times had
had the hardihood to brand with falsehood, and the
Journal des Debas the efronery to display a thing
descrvedly so branded
There is one thing which strikes us with me sur
prise: the length Of time-as shown by the dates of
the letters which seems TO have been requisite to
Mr.. Guizot to write his reply.
As for the remark contained in the above extract
from the European Times, that the alleged "garbling
of the views of the French government on the sub
iect of Texas" had produced what it calls ",he
explosive missive in the Presidents message which
has caused such a sensation in France" this be-
trays great want Of familiarity with the subject.
There is, in truth, no earthly connexion between
these two things. The language of the President 8
message had no reference whatever to, no bearing
whatever upon, any declarations which had or had
not been made to our minister at Paris by the
French king any Of his cabinet. 1t related to the
course pursued by them in regard to the annexation OF
Texas; to their endeavors to prevent the oplc OF
Texas from uniting themselves with us. The pre-
else nature Of these endeavors it is unnecessary
bring into view here. But that they and they alone,
constituted the subject of the remarks contained
in the Presidents message is obvious to any one
who reads 1t is equally manifest that the report
made by Mr.. King to his government could not, by
any possibility, have been instrumental in elictng
those remarks.
Our readers will peruso with interest the following
correspondence between our minister at Paris and
the French premier:
LEGATION OF THE UNIrEp STATES,
paris, January 4, 1916.