Mr. Harvey to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have had the honor to receive your despatches No. 66 (special circular) and No. 67, and general circulars Nos. 18, 19, and 21.
The views expressed in your No. 66 upon the subject of foreign intervention or mediation in the unhappy strife which now convulses the Union cannot fail to commend themselves to the full approval of the American people, and to all others who are willing to admit the right which every independent nation possesses of regulating its internal concerns in its own way. Civil war and all its sad consequences have been forced upon the government by an organized conspiracy of desperate and designing men, without any other pretext than the loss of political power and its resulting advantages, which their section of the Union had almost uninterruptedly enjoyed for two-thirds of a century to the exclusion of the other section, having two-thirds of the whole population. Continued possession of power had made them arrogant, and when ejected by a fair expression of the popular will, instead of submitting to the decision, as the majority section had for a long series of years uncomplainingly done, in the madness of defeat they revolted, and with defiance and arms attempted to subvert the laws and overthrow the Constitution.
The proportions which the rebellion has assumed does not and cannot alter its character, and the passing chances and changing events of a war conducted upon so large a field of operations in no way affects the ability of the government to suppress the rebellion in good time, and to bring its authors and abettors to the condign punishment which their unprovoked and unparalleled crime deserves.
We abstained as a government and as a people from all interference in the civil wars which, during our national existence, have afflicted the states of Europe, and upon occasions, too, where sympathy was justly excited, and when any token of action answering to such feeling might have been eventful and decisive. The higher sense of duty, however, prevailed over generous emotion, and in our whole history there is not one recorded act inconsistent with this unswerving policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of other nations. Surely the rigid observance of respect for the rights of others ought, if there were no other reasons, to exempt us from interference in our day of vicissitude and trial. We can claim it justly and proudly before the world, and, if needs be, we must maintain the immunity, cost what the vindication may; for if that dark hour should ever lower upon the republic, which I pray God devoutly to avert, when foreign powers may dictate the manner and the terms of administering our government, there will be nothing left worth preserving. Rather than that, let all perish, for when liberty is sacrificed to despotism those only should survive who wish to be slaves.
The domestic difficulties which beset the administration in dealing with this unnatural strife at home are necessarily grave and embarrassing. If the impulsive advocates of particular theories and policies would but reflect that the war itself is, in every second of its continuance, more quickly and effectually working out a solution of the great social problem which lies behind it, and before it, and everywhere around it, than their concentrated efforts could do if persisted in with the same unreasoning exaction for centuries, they might learn how much wisdom there was in present forbearance, and that any attempt to precipitate events which seem sternly foreshadowed [Page 588] as inevitable would only turn aside the current which is already rushing rapidly to a certain destination. No observer of the mighty forces now in commotion who, amidst the angry and deafening din of civil war, can think at all can fail to perceive that great social changes must follow its conclusion, whatever that may be—changes, let us humbly hope, that may be wisely ordered and better directed than any now proposed by self-sufficient empiricism.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.