Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit to you copies of the Daily News and the Morning Post, of the 24th instant, containing a report of the speeches made in the House of Lords the previous evening on American affairs. * * *. The reply of Lord Russell will doubtless attract much more of your attention. I think it, in spirit, the most satisfactory of all the speeches he has made since I have been at this post. Had he commenced in the same tone in May, 1861, when I arrived, things would have been now in a much more satisfactory state between the two countries than they are. The fact that not a word more was uttered in an assembly not less than four-fifths of whom may be fairly regarded as no well-wishers to, anything American is not without significance. In this connexion it may be advisable for you to glance at the comments made on this debate by the London Times of the following morning. It will not escape your observation that the question is now felt to be taking a shape which was scarcely anticipated by the managers when they first undertook to guide the British mind to the overthrow of free institutions in America.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washigton, D. C.