Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: The Arabia has not yet arrived at her destination, and her mails can hardly be expected before the hour appointed for the departure of this communication.
The military transactions which I have to relate are not striking, although they are not unimportant. The navy have reduced to occupation two new positions on the southern coast—Sabine Pass and Galveston. The blockading fleet has captured three of the steamers which were fitted out in England and despatched from British ports with arms and other supplies from the insurgents.
The Spanish authorities in Cuba make reclamation (justly if the facts sustain it) for a violation of their sovereignty in the driving ashore of and destruction of a British steamer, the Blanche, upon that island loaded with cotton. But on the other hand statements are made which show that the so-called Blanche was none other than the insurgent steamer General Rusk, freighted with four hundred slaves carried from Texas to Mulata, and that her loss was an act of self-destruction.
General McClellan’s army has crossed into Virginia, and its advance has already had some skirmishing with the insurgents in the rear of Leesburg, which is again reoccupied by the national forces.
You will notice the statements of the press concerning an emeute of the colored population in the island of Saint Vincent. It is now said to have not merely a social but even a political signification. There are rumors, I know not how accurate, of uneasiness among the slaves in Cuba. The question becomes a serious one whether the political sympathies with slavery in the United States, which have been so universally cherished in Great Britain, are producing discontents among the whole African population, the free as well as the enslaved, in the West Indies. It is always dangerous for any people to abet treason in another country, and especially dangerous to force revolution in opposition to the progress of humanity.
[Page 230]The telegraph announces the destruction of another half dozen American vessels on the high seas by the steamer 290. The President is obliged to regard these destructions as being made by British subjects in violation of the law of nations after repeated and ample notice, warning, and remonstrances had been given by you to the British government. It is presumed that you have already brought the subject in that light to the notice of her Majesty’s government. The legal proofs in support of a claim for indemnity will be collected and transmitted to you as speedily as possible.
It is hardly necessary to advise one so well acquainted as you are with the working of our system of popular elections against being disturbed by the exaggerations of the political canvass which closes to-day. No apprehensions of any change of the policy of the country in regard to the suppression of the insurrection are indulged here.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
WILLIAM H. SEWARD.
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
[Copy of an excerpt from newspaper.]
New York, November 2.—Port Royal dates to the 29th ultimo have been received.
Two British rebel steamers, the Anglia and Scotia, were captured on the 27th ultimo and taken to Port Royal. The two steamers, with their contraband cargoes, are valued at one million of dollars.
Another British steamer, the Minaho, was run ashore and destroyed.
It was reported at Port Royal that the rebel ram was coming down the river from Savannah.