Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: Your despatch of June 6 (No. 171) has been received.
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The account of public opinion and public feeling in England concerning our affairs which it contains harmonizes in all respects with Mr. Dayton’s [Page 117] report that the statesmen of France, including the Emperor, are no less skeptical about the restoration of the Union since the capture of New Orleans than they were before. You tell me that in England they still point to the delays at Richmond and Corinth, and they enlarge upon the absence of displays of Union feeling in New Orleans and Norfolk. Ah, well! skepticism must be expected in this world in regard to new political systems, insomuch as even Divine revelation needs the aid of miracles to make converts to a new religious faith. Corinth had already fallen on the very day when its supposed possession by the insurgents was deemed by the British public a ground for withholding their faith. A battle had also then been fought at Richmond, which, we think, was preparatory to the surrender or evacuation of that city. Trade has actively begun at New Orleans, and cotton is shipped from Memphis to New York. Unbiased observers would discern no sign of a possible recovery of the Mississippi and its immediate and remote tributaries by the insurgents. Unbiased thinkers would conclude that the authority of the nation whose naval and merchant marine navigate every river in the United States would not long be denied by the people living on their borders, especially if it should be content with defending them against dangers, carrying their mails, and distributing among them rewards and honors, while it left them in the possession of rights of self-government in a degree elsewhere unknown.
The reassurance of the favor of the Commons which the ministry have recently received is probably auspicious to the welfare of their great country. To us it brings the modified gratification that, unsatisfactory as its policy towards this country is, we are taught to believe, I know not how justly, that the party which seeks its overthrow is even more intolerant of a nation which prefers union, independence, and peace under republican institutions to division and subjection to foreign domination, with endless war.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.