1861. COURTESY, Diplomatic.—
Whenever
Mr. Hammond [the British Minister]
applies to our government on any matter whatever,
be it ever so new or difficult, if he does
not receive his answer in two or three days
or a week, we are goaded with new letters
on the subject. Sometimes it is the sailing
of the packet, which is made the pretext for
forcing us into premature and undigested determinations.
You know best how far your
applications meet such early attentions, and
whether you may with propriety claim a return
of them: you can best judge, too, of the
expediency of an imitation, that where dispatch
is not reciprocal it may be expedient
and justifiable that delay should be so.—
To Thomas Pinckney. Washington ed. iii, 583.
Ford ed., vi, 302.
(Pa.,
June. 1793)
