SIR: Your letter of the 3d instant has been received. The surprise you
express that the information contained in the letter of Mr. Greely which
accompanied your former communication was not considered sufficient
to enable the President to make a formal application to the British
Government for his release has probably arisen from your not having
adverted particularly to the defects of his statement. It was not
expressly mentioned for what offense the arrest was made nor where it
took place--upon the territory in dispute between the United States and
Great Britain or beyond it. The character of the charge and the place at
which the offense was committed might have been inferred from what was
stated, but you must perceive the impropriety of a formal complaint
from one government to another founded upon inference when the means of
ascertaining and presenting the facts distinctly were within the power
of the party complaining; but although this Department felt itself
constrained by these considerations to delay a formal application to
the British Government for the release of Mr.
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