Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part II

[Extract.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

No. 978.]

Department of State, Washington, June 3, 1864.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your interesting despatch of the 19th of May, No. 694. It is to be very sincerely regretted that the ministry failed to avail themselves of the occasion offered by Mr. Thomas Baring to set itself upright on the appeal for the enforcement of neutrality in regard to naval expeditions from British ports. Should our campaign prove fortunate, the ministry, if it survive the present crisis, will probably regret their short coming even more profoundly than we do. The speech of the attorney general was very unsatisfactory to the people of this country. I doubt whether it will, in the end, be any more satisfactory to the people of Great Britain.

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I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Charles F. Adams, Esq., &c, & c., &c.