.

I have, &c.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

LEWIS CASS, ESQ., &c., &c., &c.

* * * * *

_Mr. F. Webster to General Cass._

Department of State, Washington,
October 11, 1842.

Sir,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 17th of
September last, requesting permission to return home.

I have submitted the despatch to the President, and am by him directed
to say, that although he much regrets that your own wishes should, at
this time, terminate your mission to the court of France, where for a
long period you have rendered your country distinguished service, in all
instances to its honor and to the satisfaction of the government, and
where you occupy so favorable a position, from the more than ordinary
good intelligence which is understood to subsist between you,
personally, and the members of the French government, and from the
esteem entertained for you by its illustrious head; yet he cannot refuse
your request to return once more to your home and your country, so that
you can pay that attention to your personal and private affairs which
your long absence and constant employment in the service of your
government may now render most necessary.

I have, Sir, to tender you, on behalf of the President, his most cordial
good wishes, and am, &c.

FLETCHER WEBSTER,
_Acting Secretary of State_.

LEWIS CASS, ESQ., &c., &c., &c.

* * * * *

_Mr. Webster to General Cass._

Department of State, Washington,
November 14, 1842.

Sir,--I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of
the 3d of October, brought by the "Great Western," which arrived at New
York on the 6th instant.

It is probable you will have embarked for the United States before my
communication can now reach you; but as it is thought proper that your
letter should be answered, and as circumstances may possibly have
occurred to delay your departure, this will be transmitted to Paris in
the ordinary way.

Your letter has caused the President considerable concern. Entertaining
a lively sense of the respectable and useful manner in which you have
discharged, for several years, the duties of an important foreign
mission, it occasions him real regret and pain, that your last official
communication should be of such a character as that he cannot give to it
his entire and cordial approbation.

It appears to be intended as a sort of protest, a remonstrance, in the
form