Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 29th of July, No. 756, which is accompanied by a report of a debate that occurred in the House of Commons, on the 28th ultimo, upon the subject of the existing emigration from Great Britain to the United States.
[Page 269]I observe with some satisfaction that the tone of that discussion was less inimical and less disrespectful to the United States than that which marked a late debate npon the same subject in the House of Lords. Nevertheless, portions of the debate were very unjust to this government, and the subject seems to have been examined through a thick mist of exaggeration. One hundred and fifteen thousand persons have, within the last six months, thrown off their allegiance to European states and incorporated themselves with society in the United States. Of these persons a very large proportion came from the British islands. Out of the whole number first mentioned a few, perhaps one hundred, after arriving in the United States, and after having enlisted in the military service, and accepted the advance paid to all soldiers alike, have regretted that proceeding, and represented to the British consuls and ministers residing here, not that they had been forced into the army, but that they had been circumvented, not by agents of the government, or with its knowledge, but by corrupt and fraudulent individuals, often their own countrymen, acting from mercenary motives, and in fraud and in violation of the laws of the United States. These representations invariably involved a confession that those who made them were drunkards, and rested upon their own unsupported oaths, which in almost every case were found to be false in material or collateral points. Every representation thus submitted was received with respect, and immediately made the subject of investigatipn through the War Department, under orders reaching to the camps scattered throughout the continent. These investigations have been unweariedly pursued, and careful reports thereon have been made while the armies were in the field, on the march, or lying in siege. In the few instances where complaints proved to be well founded all the redress that was possible has been given. In all the others the result has been respectfully and courteously made known to the governments by whom the complaints were presented. On the other hand, the mass of European emigrants, not sensibly diminished by the abstraction of the few recruits to whom I have alluded, dispersed as soon as they arrived on our shores, and may now be found prosperously and happily employed in our commercial marts, wheat fields, manufactories, forests, and mines, or, if they have preferred it, in the army and navy, which are maintaining the integrity and freedom of the country which they have adopted as their own. Every enterprise in which men engage is attended by some disappointments, losses, and sufferings. The world has never before seen an emigration attended by so few and so unimportant casualties as the one now under consideration. Nevertheless, the misfortunes which have overtaken the few recruits, always through their own imprudence or vices, were made by the parliamentary orators to stain the whole face of a movement which is alike honest and beneficent. It is as if one should declare that the sun has lost its whole effulgence, because, on looking through the telescope, he has discovered a few small, dark spots on its surface.
This emigration is erroneously treated in the British Parliament as if it were new and anomalous. On the contrary, it is only a continuation of a process begun in the sixteenth century, by which society in Europe is relieved, and civilization in America is instituted. If the emigration has been increased during our present civil war to the inconvenience of Europe, the maritime states of that continent are responsible for the increase. They unnecessarily adopted a policy of recognition of the insurgents as a belligerent, which was expected to produce a dissolution of the Union, whereby they have caused the insurrection to be continued with more vigor and effect than under other circumstances would have been witnessed. If the insurgents could compass the end which the European maritime powers are thus favoring, the principle of property in slaves, hitherto confined to the slaveholding States, would be re-established sooner or later by law throughout the whole of the continent of North America and its islands. With that reactionary change must come the restoration [Page 270] of the African slave trade. This government, well aware that the struggle in which it is engaged involves nothing less than the question whether freedom or slavery shall prevail in America, hails every free European emigrant as increasing the moral as well as the material force of true civilization. If the statesmen of Great Britain could consent to take an enlarged view of the Question, they would see that that country is hardly less interested than our own in the success of the emigration which, under mistaken views, they are so apt to condemn.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
C. F. Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.