Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: I have no despatches from you since the date of my last acknowledgments. The events of the week have been striking and significant:—The capture of Newbern by Burn side, with the consequent evacuation of Beaufort and Fort Macon by the insurgents, and the destruction by themselves of their own piratical steamer Nashville; the rout of the insurgents, on their retreat from Winchester to Strasburg, by Shields; the victory of General Pope at New Madrid, and the bombardment of Island No. 10, in the Mississippi, by Commodore Foote.
A movement of the main army of the Potomac down the river to Fortress Monroe is quietly going on, and demonstrations will soon be made against Norfolk and Richmond.
We suppose our ocean expedition against New Orleans must, at this time, have reached the mouth of the Mississippi.
There are some indications of reviving loyalty in Virginia and Tennessee.
The bonds of the insurgents are now understood to be everywhere at a discount of seventy-five per cent. While it seems impossible that their [Page 53] organization can be longer maintained, there are abundant indications that they will find guerilla warfare even more hopeless than privateering has proved to be, How much longer can the European states resist the ideas concerning this war which we submitted to them a year ago, and which they then so inconsiderately rejected ?
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.