Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 21st of July, No. 751, in which you have detailed the history of the efforts of the insurgent emigrants to procure from her Majesty’s government a recognition of their impracticable confederacy, and their signal failure. I thank you very sincerely for this paper. It goes far to confirm the expectation I have always entertained, that if our foreign affairs could be conducted with a reasonable show of justice, firmness, and prudence, we should be allowed the exclusive responsibility of maintaining through its sanguinary trial our inestimable institution of civil government.
On the other hand, I cannot but fear that our representatives abroad will sensibly feel at the present moment the want of reassurance that the course of domestic affairs here is safe and satisfactory. But this subject is, of all others, the one upon which it is impossible to write freely, and, therefore, to write satisfactorily. Partisan interests and passions enter largely into the discussions of all domestic questions; and while they sometimes undoubtedly affect measures, they always disturb and confuse the public judgment concerning the policy which is adopted.
The military campaign has, as a whole, been very successful; but it has also been attended by disappointments, accidents, and reverses. It has not yet ended, and it either is, or to the public mind seems to be, alarmingly protracted. Judging from the language of the press and of those who engage in debates, one might well believe that the people are deeply despondent, that their resolution is failing, and that new and menacing distractions are imminent. I am not altogether able to dispel this popular gloom from the region of my own mind. Nevertheless, I think it wise to remember that the country is in that peculiar state of agitation which is inseparable from the canvass preliminary to a presidential election—that all the faculties of the public mind are necessarily wrought up to a high pitch of excitement, and, owing to the gravity of affairs, a higher pitch than they ever attained before. Misconception and exaggeration color every opinion on every subject, and individuals and masses are thrown into that political condition wherein faction is so often allowed to begin the work of anarchy. I hear alarms on all sides, but as yet I hear of no formidable movements of disorganization. In such a case I should despair for the safety of free government among any other people. The American people are peculiarly intelligent, thoughtful, and virtuous, and the conditions of their life are especially favorable. We may surely place much reliance on the force of habit among such a people. They have resisted violent revolutionary tendencies and stringent reactionary interests for three years with so much prudence and sagacity, that I think it reasonable to expect that they will preserve their proper temper when they provide, in a constitutional manner, for the continuance of the government, which it is absolutely certain that in their thoughtful seasons they hold at its inestimable [Page 268] worth. If they can do this, there is no reason to apprehend that they will be unable to carry this painful civil war to a safe conclusion. The advantages of resources and means, as well as the logic of reason and morals, are in their favor. The course of events is liable to be much affected by vicissitudes, and these are not to be expected to be divided between the parties disproportionately to their relative advantages and merits.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.