Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: I have received your despatch of the 25th of September, No. 503. While our country by its distractions, invites aggression on all sides, it is our difficult task to defeat the intrigues of disloyal emigrants from the United States in the most important courts of Europe. If I seem to confide too much in the explanations which we at any time receive from those courts, I trust that you will not therefore think it either unwise to give or unpleasant to me to receive whatever information you may be able to give to enable me to correct the apparent error. I think it quite probable that there is an inconstancy of policy in some of those quarters which, in some instances, produces demonstrations inconsistent with the expressions which are set down in well considered diplomatic communications. If I am never sure that we shall not have to encounter aggression from certain quarters before we reach the end of this war, I think every day that it is averted witnesses an increase of our ability to meet it, and therefore increases the hope that it may be avoided altogether. For this reason I study the formal expressions which are made to us more carefully than I do the imputed prevailing disposition of the parties by whom they are made.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.