Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: Your despatch of the 16th of July has been received and has been submitted to the President.
The remonstrance you have presented to Earl Russell in regard to the preparation of the new steam rams is approved. It is with pleasure that I find you have thus anticipated, and have executed in so effective a manner, the chief part of the instructions contained in my despatch addressed to you on the 11th instant, and numbered 651. Nor is it less gratifying that you have expressed yourself in the very spirit of that instruction.
No one can absolutely foresee the vicissitudes of any war, especially if it be a civil conflict. Yet statesmen and governments must deal with events as they occur, and allow them the significance they seem to wear. I think, therefore, that you will do well to inform Earl Russell that, in the opinion of the President, the recent military and naval operations justify an augmented confidence that the insurrection, if it do not receive new and extensive foreign aid, must fail. Should it receive such aid, and thus renew its vigor, then the war, hitherto a civil war, will become a foreign and aggressive invasion. We are sure that her Majesty’s government has no purpose or desire that the conflict shall take that form by means to be derived from Great Britain, because it would be unjust in itself, and perhaps not less injurious to that country than to the United States. Moreover, the law of nations is made up of the principles which are settled in the conflicts of states. What is done and tolerated in this conflict is likely to be accepted as a standard for determining what may be done and tolerated in civil wars in other countries. In connexion with this subject, I send you a copy of an instruction of this date, which has been sent to Mr. Dayton. You will make its contents known to Earl Russell.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.