Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike.
Sir: Your interesting despatch of June 25 (No. 89) has been received. Europe waited patiently for the end of a siege of eleven months at Sevastopol, and a year for a result of a like operation in Mexico. Forty-five days’ delay at Vicksburg, and a similar delay at Port Hudson, have proved too severe an exaction upon the magnanimity of parties in Europe who desire the ruin of the United States. At the moment, when I write, the scene in this country has altogether changed. Vicksburg, with all its defenders and material, has fallen, at last, into our possession. Rosecrans has driven the insurgents of Tennessee within the interior lines. The army of the Potomac has retrieved its fortunes and prestige, and the forces of General Lee are understood to be hemmed in between a flood in their front and a victorious army in their rear. Charleston is again under siege of iron-clads. Our army is being renewed by a levy of three hundred thousand men, which will swell the aggregate to eight hundred thousand, while the insurgent [Page 897] resources are manifestly very much diminished. Under these circumstances, the public mind, impatient of rest, is already agitating the conditions on which peace shall be conceded. While, however, this is the exact condition of affairs in America, we have warnings, apparently authentic, of a purpose on the part of the Emperor of the French to employ all his influence to procure a recognition of the insurgents by other powers; and failing in this, to proceed alone in that injurious policy. We hear, also, of a debate upon recognition in the British Parliament, but the steamer which bore the news of the debate did not wait for the decision. Upon this statement of our case, as it is developed here, you will be able to determine for yourself the probabilities of a new foreign complication, and the spirit in which it will be met, if it must come to embarrass us.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
James S. Pike, Esq., &c., &c., &c.