Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: The resolutions, of a public meeting which was held at Bradford on the 29th of January have been submitted to the President, who charges me with the pleasant duty of acknowledging the satisfaction he has derived from the just, liberal, and cordial sentiments in regard to our country so earnestly and eloquently expressed in these proceedings. I am also to assure the inhabitants of Bradford that this government sincerely sympathizes with them in the unhappy interruption of their industry, which has resulted, without fault on their part, from an insurrection in this country as causeless as it is injurious, not only here, but wherever its effects are seen or felt.
The occasion would be a proper one for acknowledgments to Mr. W. E. Forster, who presided at the meeting to which I have referred. But he justly looks to his own country and to his conscience for the reward of labors which, when the history of these painful times shall be written, will be identified with the agencies which saved human society from a new and anomalous danger, that, but for its actual occurrence, would have been believed forever impossible.
You will communicate what I have written to Mr. Forster and to the inhabitants of Bradford in such manner as you shall deem proper.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.