Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward
Sir: On Saturday last I received, at my house, a small number of representatives of the British branch of the International League for Peace, who had expressed a wish to present to me an address on my [Page 175] approaching departure. It had been the wish of the parties at first to make a very large deputation, and to give to the affair an aspect of political as well as of official importance. But mindful of your instructions as conveyed to me in your dispatch No. 1216, of the 31st December, 1864, I insisted upon regarding it as a private communication made to me personally, and answering it in that sense. The proceedings, however, got into the newspapers, and you have doubtless seen a report of them before this time.
I ought, perhaps, to mention that overtures have been made to me from several sources, independent of each other, to accept some public entertainment prior to my quitting this post. This is a step so unusual in the case of a foreign minister, and so likely to be embarrassing as a precedent in possible future cases, that I very promptly but respectfully signified my reluctance to have the matter in any way agitated. The propriety of this course seemed to be ultimately admitted even by those who urged it.
It is certainly in the highest degree gratifying to me, as I trust it will not be unwelcome to the government, to find my labors for a considerable period appreciated here among all classes in so unprecedented a degree, particularly when it has been a chief part of them to reiterate complaints and maintain conflicts of a most critical nature to the pacific relations of the two countries. I have endeavored to impress upon the public mind the fact that in whatever of action they are disposed to give me so much credit for, I have never been in any other than a subordinate position, and that without the full authority and cordial approbation of my government my efforts could have been of little avail. I trust that the effect of this may be to lay the foundations in the future of a better understanding between the countries than has ever yet existed. Their relations can never fail to be very close, and their interests, though often rival, are in substance the same. If I have done anything to open the way to a firmer mutual conviction of this truth, I shall hope for my mission that it will not have been wholly without benefit to the world.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.