Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: Your despatch of May 22, No. 164, has been submitted to the President. He regrets that her Majesty’s government does not deem it important to reconsider its attitude towards the United States.
You will receive herewith information of a naval conflict at Memphis, resulting in the surrender of the city and in the restoration of the national commerce throughout the whole navigable courses of the Mississippi and its tributaries.
Of all the important ports and towns, only Mobile, Savannah, Charleston, and Richmond remain in the hands of the insurgents. The investment of the three former is going on successfully. Floods have swollen the Chickahominy, which, in ordinary seasons, is only a few yards wide, into a river two miles in breadth. This inundation now for a few days delays the operations against Richmond, but they will be prosecuted with vigor as soon as the condition of the field shall permit.
The condition of our relations with maritime powers is becoming a subject of popular debate, and is likely to be agitated in the House of Representatives. It is impossible here to understand the policy by which the British government is persuaded that the sensibilities of this country, upon [Page 110] the subject of its sovereignty and true independence, in such a crisis as this, are wisely disregarded.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.