Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: Your despatch of March 20, No. 132, is before me.
It brings information of no occurrence requiring especial instructions. On the other hand, I find nothing important to add now, when the mail is closing, to the facts and suggestions contained in my despatches previously written. Our armies, held everywhere in the leash, are at the point of being let loose. Important transactions must occur within a few days. It is the part of wisdom to be neither sanguine of success nor disturbed with apprehensions of failure. If the tide of military success shall continue to flow full and strong, we can consent to wait the reluctant but inevitable return of maritime nations to the fraternal positions they abandoned when [Page 65] faction undertook to undermine their fidelity as the most effectual way to compass our destruction.
I have just signed, with Lord Lyons, a treaty which I trust will be approved by the Senate and by the British government. If ratified, it will bring” the African slave trade to an end immediately and forever. Had such a treaty been made in 1808, there would now have been no sedition here, and no disagreement between the United States and foreign nations. We are indeed suffering deeply in this civil war. Europe has impatiently condemned and deplored it. Yet it is easy to see already that the calamity will be compensated by incalculable benefits to our country and to mankind. Such are the compensations of providence for the sacrifices it exacts.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.