The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

STATE PAPERS OF ABRAHAM LIN.COLN.

On the 21st of September, Mr. Seward instructed Mr.
Dayton to call the attention of the French Minister to thll
apparent deviations of the French in Mexico from the
tenor of the assurances uniformly given by tho Frencl
Government that they did not intend permanent occupation of that country, or any violence to the sovereignty of
its people. And on the 26th of the same month Mr.
Seward set forth at some length the position of our Gov
ernment upon this question, which is mainly embodied in
the following extract:The United States hold, in regard to Mexico, the same principles that
they hold in regard to all other nations. They have neither a right nor a
disposition to intervene by force in the internal affairs of Mexico, whether
to establish and maintain a republic or even a domestic government there,
or to overthrow an imperial or a foreign one, if Mexico chooses to estalblish or accept it. The United States have neither the right nor the disposition to intervene by force on either side in the lamentable war whlich
is going on between France and Mexico. On the c,)ontrary, they practise
in regard to Mexico, in every phase of that war, the non-intervention
which they require all foreign powers to observe in regard to the United
States. But notwithstanding this self-restraint this G;overnment knows
full well that the inherent normal opinion of Mexico favors a grovernilent
there republican in form and domestic in its organization, in lIreference to
any monarchical institutions to be imposed from abroad. This Governtlment knows also that this normal opinion of the people of Mexico r.sulted largely from the influence of popular opinion in this country, and
is continually invigorated by it. The President believes, moreover, that
this popular opinion of the United States is just in itself and eminently
essential to the progress of civilization on the American continent, which
civilization, it believes, can and will, if left free from European resistance,
work harmoniously together with advancing refinement on the other continents. This Government believes that foreign resistance, or attempts to
control American civilization, must and will fail before the ceaseless and
ever-increasing activity of material, moral, and political forces, which
peculiarly belong to the American continent. Nor do the United States
deny that, in their opinion, their own safety and the cheerful destiny to
which they aspire are intimately dependent on the continuance of free
republican institutions throughout America. They have submitted these
opinions to the Emperor of France, on proper occasions, as worthy of his
serious consideration, in determining how he would conduct and close
what might prove a successful war in Mexico. Nor is it necessary to
practise reserve upon the point that if France should, upon due consideration, determine to adopt a policy in Mexico adverse to the American