Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: Your despatch of the 2d of June, No. 705, has been received. The account you give in it of the credulity exercised in political circles in regard to alleged disasters of our armies is fully sustained by the concurrent expositions of the British press. I perceive that it is at last confessed by that press, with entire unanimity, that the sympathies and good wishes of the nation are with the insurgents. The British nation has arrived at this stage only now, at the moment when, for the first time, it is made clear that the success of the Union involves directly the extinction of African slavery throughout the world, while the failure of the Union would reinvigorate and perpetuate that greatest solecism of modern civilization. All popular sympathies and excitements seem to me to run their course briefly in England. British humanitarians no longer appeal to the world for Poland. They dismiss Garibaldi and united Italy with grace, indeed, but still without practical aid. On the contrary, they reason against military demonstration, and hope, without encouragement, for the failure of the American Union. That illusive hope they will not surrender. Nevertheless, they cannot admit even to themselves that the hope which is so precious arises out of ungenerous motives. We can afford to wait. Time, which has so slowly brought to the British politicians sufficient boldness to confess the sympathies with the armed upholders of slavery, which were heretofore denied, will not long leave the sources of those deplorable sympathies undisclosed. Nevertheless, I cannot hold the British nation altogether responsible. It is misled, not unwillingly, indeed, but still it is misled, by that portion of our own citizens who see in the ruin of slavery the removal of the basis upon which a huge fabric of political strength is permanently built. In short, the struggle in which we are engaged, while it is flagrant civil war in the insurrectionary States, is at the same time a political revolution within the States which recognize the Union. In this respect our case is not an exceptional one. It is the experience of every nation that falls into civil war. We did well, however, at the beginning, when we disallowed an appeal to European sympathies, and declared that we should rely exclusively upon ourselves. It has been very difficult to convince many of our citizens of this; but we are vindicated at last. Let us hope that the strange hallucination of the British nation may not, when it ends, be succeeded by lasting resentments and prejudices in either country.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.