Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams
Sir: The past week has been characterized by a rapid and uninterrupted series of military successes more momentous in their results than any that have preceded them during the war. Richmond and Petersburg, with all their communications and vast quantities of supplies and material of war, have been captured by our armies. The insurrection has no longer a seat of its pretended government. Its so-called officials are fugitives. Its chief army, after being reduced by repeated defeats and demoralization to less than one-third of its former numbers, has been retreating closely pursued and hemmed in by the victorious forces of the Union, and encountering fresh losses at every step of its flight, until the triumph of the national armies finally culminated in the surrender of General Lee and the whole insurgent army of northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Grant yesterday afternoon at half past four o’clock.
Henceforth it is evident that the war, if protracted, can never resume its former character. Organized operations of campaign or siege, carried on by disciplined and effective armies, are no longer possible for the insurgents. Depredations by marauding gangs, and defence of remote and isolated inland fastnesses, may, perhaps, still be continued; but even these can endure but for a time. Not the least significant feature of these triumphs is the reception extended by the inhabitants to the advancing armies of the Union; their entire acquiescence, and, in many instances, their apparently sincere rejoicings at the return of its protecting authority over the insurgent district.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
(Same, mutatis mutandis, to all our principal ministers in Europe.)