The President has decided that the Treaty shall be ratified & transmitted for exchange immediately and in my opinion he has decided right.1 I regret that this was not done long since, as I presume much of the party spirit which has been excited would have been prevented.

A government like ours can rarely take a middle course on any point which interests the public feelings—delay for whatever reason would be construed into a dislike of the Treaty itself, and this opinion diffusing among the people would generate the most inveterate factions. Circumstances have happened tending to incite a distrust of the sincerity of this Govt, in the British Cabinet, which can be no otherwise explained than by a ratification.

I am with sincerity yours