Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams
Sir: Your despatch of the 16th of March, No. 893, has been received. I approve entirely of all that you have written therein concerning the expediency of a conciliatory tone on our part towards Great Britain. That tone has [Page 303] been preserved by us to the highest degree which is compatible with the spirit of a nation, that not only is deeply injured in its rights by a prostitution by British subjects of the Queen’s proclamation of neutrality, but is also deeply wounded in its generous national spirit. I reaffirm what you have said to Earl Russell, that the United States are not grasping for Canada, nor are they cherishing any purpose of retaliation or revenge. But I must at the same time ask you to urge upon Earl Russell that every day’s persistence by Great Britain in an attitude of proclaimed neutrality by the government which is violated with impunity, by British subjects, on the ocean and upon our borders, increases, the alienation which both governments justly deplore. The time has come when the United States may not only rightly but with serious earnestness ask relief.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, &c., &c., &c.