Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Your despatch of February 26 (No. 337) has been received, and the hopeful view of European opinion concerning our affairs is happily coincident with a returning calmness and firmness of public confidence at home. Nothing was ever more preposterous than the idea engendered here, and sent abroad to perplex Europe, that an American Secretary of State would employ a plenipotentiary of the Emperor of France to negotiate with American insurgents, and that a plenipotentiary of such a power would accept such a mission. Happily, European credulity is becoming unable to bear the tests enforced upon it. I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.