Mr. Motley to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatches, Nos. 79 and 80, of July 26 and August 1, respectively.
I thank you for the accurate and interesting intelligence which they convey as to military affairs. I ought to add, however, as further illustration of the. subject of which I have so often spoken, that the despatch of August 1 did not reach me until after telegraphic fragments, such as they were, up to the 10th of August, had been printed in the public journals here.
The failure of General Grant’s efforts to carry the works of Petersburg by assault has occasioned more than usual delight throughout Europe, to judge from the prevailing tone of the press, and has caused the display of more than the usual amount of wisdom in deductions and prophecies. Of course, the campaign is at an end. Washington is to be immediately captured, and the “north” (whatever that may be) is about to beg for peace, which will be granted only on ignominious conditions, and so on. The “negotiations” at Niagara Falls are also gravely commented upon, as if they had been conferences preliminary to a treaty of peace between two independent nations, instead of a shallow electioneering trick.
But I will not weary you with such discussions. We are hoping to hear such news from Atlanta and Mobile, and at a later moment, from Virginia, as will justify to the world the confidence which all loyal Americans feel as to the issue of our great struggle, and which seems overweening to those only who never give themselves the trouble to examine the reasons on which it is founded.
[Page 159]The incident of the past week in Vienna has been the visit of the King of Prussia to his Imperial Royal Austrian Majesty. The King arrived on Saturday, the 20th, at the palace of Schonbrunn. On the 21st there was a play performed at the private theatre in the palace, to which the higher officials and the court society of Vienna, together with the diplomatic corps, were invited. At an interval between the acts a circle was held in an adjoining drawing-room, at which the foreign ministers were presented to the King of Prussia. The visit of his Majesty was prolonged until the 25th, but the diplomatic body had no further part in the festivities in honor of the royal guest.
The relations between the courts of Austria and Prussia are supposed to be very cordial; but it is not believed that any very grave negotiations took place during the stay of the King.
The negotiations for peace between Denmark on the one side, and Austria and Prussia on the other, are slowly proceeding. So far as I am informed, no great progress has been made in settling the question as to the sovereignty of the duchies.
It is no secret, I believe, that the Prussian government is not at present favorable to the claims of the Prince of Augustenburg, and there seems an inclination to bring more prominently forward the pretensions of the Duke of Oldenburg.
Nothing has been settled either by the Bund or between Austria and Prussia, There is an absence of news of all kinds, and I shall not take up your time by speculations as to the future course of events, which do not concern us very nearly, and the development of which we may, therefore, await with patience.
The main question—that of peace or war—has been decided, and Europe at present has a very pacific aspect.
I have the honor to remain, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington.
P. S.—It is, I believe, understood that the administration of Holstein, so long as the question of sovereignty is in abeyance, will be in the hands of four commissioners— one from Hanover, and respectively, (the two powers to whom the “execution” was originally intrusted,) together with one Austrian and one Prussian commissioner. Schleswig and Lauenburg will remain in possession of Austria and Prussia, and be governed by commissioners from those powers.
Among the various conjectures as to the future, the most plausible would seem to be that Austria might acquiesce in the annexation of the duchies to Prussia in return for a guarantee—by force of arms, if necessary—by Prussia of the non-German provinces of this empire. Of course, this is merely mentioned as a conjecture.