岩倉具視の慶喜公評

　孝明天皇と家茂将軍が相次いで没したが、将軍後継者の慶喜は有能な人物であったから、天皇を上に頂く政府が絶対に必要とよく理解できた。
　慶喜は今の政治的難局を打開する唯一の道という誠実な確信に立って、単なる贈り物としてではなく政権を天皇へ奉還したのである
――岩倉具視

アーネスト・サトウ『一外交官の見た明治維新』 35章

Then both the Mikado and the Shôgun died, and the latter's successor, a man of ability, was able to see the absolute indispensability of a government directed by the Mikado. Sincerely convinced of this, he surrendered the power into the hands of the Mikado, not as a mere gift, but because it was the only way of solving the political difficulties which existed.
--- Iwakura Tomomi

Ernest Mason Satow "A DIPLOMAT IN JAPAN" CHAPTER XXXV, 1869—AUDIENCE OF THE MIKADO AT YEDO, 1921, p.404
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