No. 146.

Mr. Fish to Mr. Bancroft.

No. 246.]

Sir: Your dispatch No. 133, of the 12th instant, has been received.

The reasons which you present against an American intervention between France and Germany are substantially among the considerations which determined the President in the course and policy indicated to you in the cable dispatches from this office on the 9th instant, and in rejecting all idea of mediation unless upon the joint request of both of the warring powers.

It continues to be the hope of the President, as it is the interest of the people of this country, that the unhappy war in which France and North Germany are engaged should find an early end.

This Government will not express any opinion as to the terms or conditions upon which a peace may or should be established between two governments equally sharing its friendship, but it is hoped that the prolongation of the war may not find its cause either in extreme demands on the one side, or extreme sensitiveness on the other side.

So far as you can consistently and without my official interposition of advice or of counsel, it is hoped that you will lose no proper opportunity to indicate the wishes and hopes of the President and of the American people as above represented, and to contribute what you may to the presentation of such terms of peace as befit the greatness and the power which North Germany has manifested, and as shall not be humiliating or derogatory to the pride of the great people who were our earliest and fast ally.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

HAMILTON FISH.