Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: I have received your despatch of May 13, No. 657. The President is especially gratified by the information that, without having yet received my late instructions concerning the Florida, you have addressed a well-considered remonstrance to her Majesty’s government.
[Page 60]The Niagara will go to Europe on Wednesday next, and she will be followed, if necessary, by additional naval force. We have adopted this policy not alone on account of the naval expeditions with which we are threatened from British ports, but also because we have not been able to procure entirely satisfactory assurances from the French government respecting the piratical vessels which Arman, the’ship-builder at Bordeaux, is notoriously preparing for the insurgent service. Judicious correspondents now express a belief that the French government will follow the British government in its measures concerning the toleration of naval expeditions against the United States.
I do not know that you can do anything new to prevent such expeditions, but it may not be unwise to impress upon Earl BusselPs mind that the United States are not less earnest on this subject now than they were last year, when we remonstrated so strongly against the outcoming of the vessels which have since that time been detained at Lairds’ ship-yards.
I see, but no longer with surprise or with profound concern, that the British press and some British statesmen have once more fallen into the habit of assuming that our war for the Union has failed, and that an inglorious end of it is at hand. I confess that we are looking for very different results of the campaign. But whatever the, events of that campaign may be, there has never been less reason than there is now to suppose that the United States will fail either to maintain their integrity against insurgents or to defend themselves against foreign enemies.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.