Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I felt very much obliged to you for the careful and thorough survey of the military situation in your despatch, No. 946, of the 17th of May. It came most opportunely to rectify the unfavorable impressions made by the public telegram that reached this country simultaneously.
I am informed that at no time during the period of the struggle has the excitement in the Commons ran so high about it as during the last week on the occasion of the successive arrival of the news by the steamers on Tuesday and Friday. The first of them announcing General Grant’s successes, coming as it did upon a fully established conviction that he had been defeated and driven back, created as profound a disappointment as the event at Gettysburg did last year. The second, as it appeared greatly to qualify the preceding account, was hailed with a corresponding degree of exultation. The hopes are now nearly as high as they were before. The intelligence expected by the steamer now due is awaited with corresponding impatience, under the idea that the interval of three days may have determined the question.
Pending this result, Mr. Lindsay has thought it proper to postpone his motion for recognition, which he had assigned for to-morrow, to the 17th of the month. It is plain that he keeps it along in the hope of the happening of some event which might enable him to push it in at a moment of sudden excitement, with some prospect of carrying it at once. It is only in some such way that anything could possibly be done with it. The fact that the sympathies of the majority lean in that direction cannot be doubted. Whether they can be counted upon to such an extent as to produce the desired result is another question. It would, at least, require a complete defeat and dispersion of the government forces to render it probable.
In view of possibilities, it would be well that I should, for the present, be placed in possession of the latest possible authentic information, in order that I might have it in my power promptly to correct false rumors. One of the contrivances of the rebel emissaries is always to have from Baltimore some private telegram, later than the latest, which communicates things that never happened.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.