Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike.
Sir: Your despatch of the 23d of June, meaning July, (No. 55) has been received
The disappointment of the public expectation of the capture of Richmond by General McClellan produced a shock and confusion here which quite prepared me for the news of augmented prejudice against the cause of our country in Europe which you have sent. It belongs to the nature of popular masses to be profoundly affected by incidental triumphs and failures, but the change from buoyancy to despondency is usually not more rapid than the transition from despair to exultation.
The mails of this date will show you that the hour of sadness and perplexity has passed away here, and that the nation is bringing into the field with alacrity and enthusiasm re-enforcements which will augment the armies of the government to a million men, while naval preparations are going forward with equal vigor and on a proportionate scale.
We do not desire to contemplate foreign war unnecessarily, but we do not shrink from it when that prospect is forced upon us. Looking back through [Page 616] the history of these troubles, I can fix on no instance in which we have failed in our duties to foreign states, while there has been more than one occasion on which we have practiced liberality, which might have been expected to propitiate friendship and favor.
We have some confidence that the governments of Europe may remain satisfied with the practice of justice and of prudence towards us. But this confidence rests upon the conviction that no interference with us could by possibility secure to them any benefits equal to those which they are now deriving from peaceful and friendly relations. We do not build expectations of favor upon the justice and beneficence of our cause, but we are at the same time entirely satisfied that it is a cause which mankind will not willingly suffer to perish, and that those who wantonly attack it will find that they have hazarded as much as its defenders.
You will not fail to express to the government of Holland the satisfaction with which the United States have learned that that government has completed the work of emancipation throughout all its dependencies.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
James S. Pike, Esq.,