Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: The insurgent army, under Lee, is understood to be either stationary or moving in the valley of the Shenandoah. The army of the Potomac, under General Meade, is in Virginia, preliminarily occupied in observing the proceedings of the insurgents. The first reports of the battle of Gettysburg appear to have been substantially free from exaggeration. It is not doubtful that Lee suffered a loss of more than thirty thousand (30,000) men.
The unconditional surrender of Port Hudson was communicated to you by telegraph. General Sherman’s pursuit of Johnson through Jackson, in Mississippi, is reported as having been crowned with important results. But the details are not yet officially confirmed. We hear that the raid of Morgan into Indiana and Ohio is resulting disastrously to the insurgents. The movements of the national land and naval forces, in approaching Chattanooga, are very vigorous, and thus far reasonably successful.
The riot in New York developed features which impair, at least for the moment, its political effect. It yielded to the presence rather than to the power of the military force which was promptly gathered there by the War Department. There are apprehensions of a renewal of such resistance when the execution of the draft shall be resumed, and a sympathy with the resisters reveals itself in some other cities and towns. It is not easy to discern how far these apprehensions are just. I think, however, that by a firm yet prudent course further distubance will be averted, while the law of Congress will be executed and the national authority fully maintained. I am yet without information of the result of the motion of Mr. Roebuck.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.