Mr. Marsh to Mr. Seward.
[Extracts.]
Turin, July 6, 1861.
Sir: Having heard a report that Mr. Patterson, consul of the United States at Genoa, expects a commission from the Southern Confederacy to act as consul of the rebel States at that port, I called on Baron Ricasoli yesterday morning, and protested against the recognition of Mr. Patterson, or of any other person, as a consular agent of the confederacy.
Baron Ricasoli assured me that, under present circumstances, at least, no such agent would be recognized at any Italian port, and he took occasion to repeat, in strong language, the expression of his own warm sympathy with the federal government of the United States, and his earnest hope that the present contest between the government and the seceding States would end in the re-establishment of the lawful authority of the Union, and be settled on terms which would secure the triumph of the principles of freedom, and [Page 323] the ultimate extinction of human slavery. He added that, in these expressions he was speaking the sentiments of his Majesty and of the entire government of which he was a member.
I then referred to apprehensions which had been expressed in America of the fitting out of privateers in remote Italian ports under the confederate flag. He replied that the government officers would endeavor to prevent such violations of the laws, but that it would be difficult to exercise a vigilant supervision over all the remote and unfrequented ports of the peninsula and islands, and he advised the appointment of American consuls at points favorable for observation along the coasts, as a good means of detecting and preventing such movements.
I had, on the same day, an audience of the Prince of Carignano, who expressed opinions and feelings similar to those of Baron Ricasoli with respect to our present national difficulties, and I may add that every member of the government, and almost every gentleman in public life, with whom I have conversed at Turin, coincides in these sentiments.
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The favorable sentiments with which the present administration of the federal government is regarded by most continental statesmen, are founded (independently of the high personal regard felt for the President and his constitutional advisers) partly on the opinion that it is sustaining the cause of constitutional authority, of the entirety of nationalities and of established order against causeless rebellion, violent disruption of a commonwealth essentially a unit, and disorganizing and lawless misrule; but still more, I think, on the belief that the struggle in which it is now involved is virtually a contest between the propagandists of domestic slavery and the advocates of emancipation and universal freedom. If the civil war be protracted, I am convinced that our hold upon the sympathy and good will of the governments, and still more of the people of Europe, will depend upon the distinctness with which this issue is kept before them, and if it were now proposed by the federal government to purchase the submission of the south by any concession to their demands on this subject, or by assuming any attitude but that of, at least, moral hostility to slavery, I have no doubt that the dissolution of the Union would be both desired and promoted by a vast majority of those who now hope for its perpetuation.
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I am, sir, respectfully yours,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.