Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress

[Extract.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams

No. 1823.]

Department of State, Washington, August 2, 1866.

Sir: Your interesting despatch of the 19th of July, No. 1242, has been received. We are yet without information of the details or even of the bases of the pacification which is so unexpectedly announced as having already taken place in Europe.

The most interesting reflection which it awakens here is that the political combinations of European states, which grew out of the Crimean war, are not unlikely to give way with the result of new rivalries, between Italy, France, Prussia, and Russia.* * * * * * *

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c. &c.