Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: Your despatch of January 15 (No. 296) is received only now, after a lapse of nineteen days.
The results of military operations during the last three months are sufficiently manifest to have a determinate value. The reverses were the repulse at Fredericksburg and the repulse at Vicksburg. Each of these reverses was practically fruitless to the insurgents. The successes were the battle at Murfreesboro’ and the capture of the post of Arkansas. Each of these not only weakened the insurgents, but enlarged the field of federal authority. It is understood that the expeditions at Charleston and Vicksburg are now in full activity, and we shall not long wait for important results.
It is never easy to know what value to put upon popular expectations and popular fears as omens of ultimate success. It could not be concealed that there has been a season of deep anxiety since the reverse at Fredericksburg. It is apparent that there is now a measured return of public confidence. The last change is probably not more reliable than the one which preceded it. However this may be, it is certainly cheering to perceive that the idle speculations upon mediation and the spasmodic demands of certain impulsive politicians for armistices and concessions have failed to pervert the public mind, and that there remains the same firm determination to maintain the Union that was everywhere manifested at the beginning of the contest.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.