Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: The honorable Salmon P. Chase, on the 30th ultimo, resigned the office of the Secretary of the Treasury. It was tendered to his Excellency David Tod, late governor of Ohio, but declined by him for want of adequate health. The President thereupon nominated the honorable William Pitt Fessenden, at present the chairman of the Committee on Finance in the Senate of the United States, and the Senate immediately and unanimously confirmed the appointment. Mr. Fessenden is expected to assume his place in the Cabinet on the adjournment of Congress.
After a session of seven months Congress will adjourn at noon to-day. It has in the main responded to the calls of the President for men and money to, continue operations indispensable to suppress the insurrection. Theoretically larger revenues ought to have been levied than those which Congress has imposed; but, practically, those revenues are expected to satisfy the conditions upon which the public credit can be permanently established. The debates have been as loyal and harmonious as could reasonably have been expected in the legislative assembly of a confederate republic, in a great civil war. . Congress has not confined itself to military measures. It has provided for carrying on the work upon the Capitol and other public buildings, for establishing steam mail communications with Brazil, for encouraging immigration, for prosecuting the construction of the interoceanic continental railroad, and has given its sanction to the preparation for building an intercontinental or world’s telegraph line across Behring’s Straits in connexion with Great Britain and Russia.
General Sherman surprised us yesterday with the agreeable information that he has flanked the insurgent forces on Kenesaw mountain, and advanced to Marietta on the way towards Atlanta.
During the last week, Lieutenant General Grant’s operations upon the com munications of the insurgent army now at Petersburg and Richmond have been eminently successful. I am desirous, in my correspondence, to give you only facts, not anticipations. * * * * *
You will read in the papers of a rebel raid at Martinsburg, threatening the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. The movement is not fully developed, but no serious embarrassment to our operations is apprehended from it.
So, also, you will see accounts of insurgent movements on the Mississippi and Red rivers. I am satisfied that our military authorities have in hand counter operations which promise us the needful security for Sherman’s base on the Mississippi.
Upon a careful review of the whole field, the prospects of this great campaign are regarded as auspicious.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
[Same, mutatis mutandis, to other ministers in Europe.]