Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: Your despatch of October 3 (No. 229) has been submitted to the President.
He is gratified by the information it brings, that a reaction in Europe in regard to our affairs, which was anticipated here, has actually occurred.
[Page 212]It was the policy of the insurgents to surprise the government by their invasion of the loyal States, and at the same time to raise the most sanguine expectations in foreign countries of its success. The manoeuvre was scarcely developed here before it was ostentatiously avowed that that success was expected to bring to pass the recognition of their sovereignty by European states. The President was therefore prepared for the information which your despatches and other correspondence give of the deep impressions which have, during the last month, been made in Europe in favor of the insurgents.
It is not, however, now doubted here that the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, followed by the retreat of the insurgents from Maryland, and by the President’s proclamation of warning to the insurgent States, have well sustained the reaction abroad which has been already mentioned.
At the same time you will need to know the present military and political conditions of the country and the expectations of the President based upon them. I do not think that I can better describe these conditions than by saying, on the whole, that there has been only this change since the month of June last, namely, that whereas at that time it was believed here that the government had virtually suppressed the revolt, the reverses and successes of our arms within the period that has intervened have now brought about the conviction that the revolt, practically speaking, has failed. The battle of Corinth was a great conflict, and it has produced large results. It leaves us but little trouble to relieve the Mississippi river of insurgent forces, and we are rapidly preparing the land and naval expeditions necessary for that purpose.
The invasion of Kentucky seems to have virtually come to an end with the defeat of the insurgents at Corinth and at Perryville. They are leaving the State with as much haste as they rushed through it towards Louisville and Cincinnati. Their demonstrations against Missouri have been equally unsuccessful. General McClellan is being rapidly re-enforced, and reconnoissances which he has made truly indicate a new trial of strength between his army and that of Lee near Winchester. Only the impossibility of finding room for more workers upon our iron-clad navy delays the despatch of vessels of that class believed to be sufficient without the present navy to recover all the ports of the country which are yet remaining in the possession of the insurgents. Charleston and Mobile will be early visited with that view, and thus we may reasonably expect to relieve ourselves of the inconveniences which result to the national cause from the success of British built and equipped vessels in carrying arms and supplies to the insurgents, since we are compelled to despair of any other correction of that great wrong.
You are well aware how long political controversy has been wearing a gulf to divide opinion in our country on the subject of interference with slavery in the slaveholding States. You know how deep that gulf has become, and how confessedly impassable it is except under the pressure of absolute, immediate, and irretrievable danger to the Union itself. Notwithstanding many respected counsellors at home, and all our representatives abroad, have long and earnestly urged an earlier adoption of such a measure as the President has at last accepted, it was nevertheless wisely delayed until the necessity for it should become so manifest as to make it certain that, instead of dividing the loyal people of the Union into two parties, one for and the other against the prosecution of the war for the maintenance of the Union, it would be universally accepted and sustained. It is now apparent that the measure will be thus sustained.
The popular discussion which preceded the resolution, concurring with the spasmodic action of that portion of public opinion which, under the [Page 213] influences of excitement, reasons to final results from ephemeral events, has somewhat disturbed the public mind during the last three months, and elicited in many quarters hasty and inconsiderate expressions which, doubtlessly, will be interpreted by our adversaries abroad as indicating a want of devotion to the war and of popular determination to give it success. Nothing, however, could be more erroneous than any such impressions, in whatsoever way produced. Virtually, the six hundred thousand men whom the government called for have come into the field as volunteers Within the short space of ten weeks. I mention, by way of illustration, the fact that New York alone has sent into the field within that period eighty thousand men, and she is now sending in the balance of her quota, thirty-seven thousand. All the other States have done and are doing equally well. From one end of the loyal [region to the other, including even the border States, and notwithstanding supposed disfavor resulting from the President’s proclamation, there does not come up to the ear of the government a suggestion or a whisper of discontent with the determination it manifests to maintain and preserve the Union, at whatever cost, with whatever measures, and in whatever event.
On the other hand, there are manifest symptoms of not only exhaustion but of reaction in the insurrectionary region. The language of defiance there is hushed, while a desire for peace is very freely and generally expressed. It is manifest, from the tone of insurgent organs, that the proclamation of the President is filling the insurrectionary region with serious apprehensions, and this circumstance sufficiently indicates a failure of expectation of repelling the national arms from the home and haunts of African slavery. If we correctly understand the affairs of the insurgents, their last available forces are already in the field, and are very inferior to the Union armies in numbers and efficiency, while their leaders have not yet done, and are not able to do, anything to establish a system of revenue that could enable them to maintain the struggle in which they have already lavished so much of their wealth and strength. It would seem to result from this view that the crisis of the insurrection has come, and that its last hopes are staked upon foreign intervention.
Upon that point nothing has been left unsaid by this government. If there have been intimations from abroad of the possibility of such a course, they have been met with the reply that this nation will not consent to be divided, nor to recognize relations of friendship with any power that shall lend its aid to such a dangerous purpose. To this determination the President adheres. He feels confident that he is right in believing that even foreign intervention could not now endanger the Union that he is sworn to maintain and preserve.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &., &c., &c.