Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your two circulars of the 8th of August, Nos. 18 and 19.
The mighty preparations of the government to subdue the rebellion, to which you allude in your last despatch, and the extraordinary resources displayed by the country generally, cause involuntary expressions of wonder and surprise among foreigners, notwithstanding the railing of the organs of the ruling classes against the efforts to preserve the great republic.
People in Europe find it hard to understand how the United States have been able to expend eight hundred million dollars in sixteen months in war; endure the sacrifice of hundreds of millions of southern indebtedness; buy back enormous amounts of American securities from foreign holders, (all they desire to sell,) and yet still show unparalleled individual deposits in bank, and a rate of interest that exhibits a general plethora of money.
They are still further confounded at beholding the levy of six or seven hundred thousand men, withdrawn from industrial pursuits for more than a year, followed by no rise in the price of food, but on the contrary by an exhibition of unusual abundance at home after immense and unsurpassed exportations to foreign countries.
Thinking men witness these indications of seemingly unbounded resources with astonishment. Disliking republicanism, execrating the war because of its interference with domestic prosperity here, and because it thus menaces the tranquillity of Europe, the ruling classes, while long since forced by experience to believe in the ingenuity, the enterprise, and the activity of the Americans, had not looked for this remarkable display of wealth and resources. Neither, I may say, had our best friends counted upon it. You may be sure the spectacle produces a great influence upon the opinions of men and the action of governments. With such a country fully roused and determined to destroy the rebellion of the slaveholders, there are few sound judging men venturesome enough to think it will not succeed. It is felt that within the sphere of its domestic action nothing can be safely considered impossible to the government of such a country. Its failures, thus far, are [Page 618] seen to be owing to the accident of incompetent men in responsible places; something which is of temporary duration and comparatively easy of reform. Its real power is properly held to be the only just measure of its ultimate efforts, and this is acknowledged to be apparently overwhelming for the reduction of an insurrection of less than a quarter part of its population. Along with the expression of these sentiments a reaction has recently taken place in American securities on this side, carrying them to as high a point as they occupied previous to the suspension of specie payments by our banks.
Our affairs in Europe are thus in a strong and healthy position, notwithstanding the interested clamor of our enemies through the press and elsewhere, and the solid judgment of the managers of European affairs is not now any more convinced of the final success of the insurgents than it was a year ago.
The recent announcement of the capture of Garibaldi has produced an extraordinary sensation over Europe. Yet he is the wolf whom it is not safe either to hold or to let go.
I have the honor to be your most obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington,