Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: Your despatch of January 31, (No. 109,) has been received. I was just about instructing you how to answer the querulous complaints in Parliament which you have anticipated, the chief of which is the assumed incompetency of this government to suppress the insurrection. But a very shrewd observer, a loyal, and, at present, exiled Virginian, fell in at the moment, and expressed to me the opinion that the end of the war is in sight; that there will be a short and rapid series of successes over a disheartened conspiracy, and then all will be over. I give you these opinions as entitling us to what is sometimes granted by candid tribunals, namely, a suspension of judgment.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.