Mr. Clay to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I am in the regular receipt of your late despatches, including the lost No. 30. The late responses of the three powers to Prince Gortchacow have [Page 876] not yet been made public, but it is generally admitted that no war will be the result, at least this year. In the mean time Russia does not relax her defences by land and sea, and the Emperor has made himself popular anew with the disaffected nobles, by the spirit with which he defends the integrity of the empire.
All Americans with whom I have conversed agree that it is more important to carry out the conscription ordered by Congress and the President than to put down the southern rebellion. The power of the national government “to raise and support armies,” so clearly given to Congress by the Constitution, is all-important to our national existence, without which we would relapse into the impotency of the “old confederation,” and weakness of the Germanic confederation.
It is the part of the southern rebels, their northern and foreign allies, to strip us of this essential national vitality, which would ultimately insure disunion, and reduce us to Mexican imbecility before foreign subjugation. With intense interest, then, have we watched the action of the President; and much do we rejoice to believe that he will go on with the conscription, without fear or compromise. It will settle the fatal heresy of state rights forever, and make our nationality a fixed fact before the world. * * * * *
I am, truly, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, &c., &c., &c.