Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the reception of despatch from the department numbered 1635, dated 23d December of last year.
There is little or nothing deserving of notice in the events of the last week.
Some little excitement has been occasioned in commercial circles by the appearance of a leader in the Times attributing the singular fluctuations in the financial condition of this country to the sudden expansion of the export trade to the United States, which was assumed to be all of it based on long credits rather than on any exchange of positive values. This new demonstration might have been less noticed had it not been marked by a revival of the malignant spirit which animated the direction of that paper throughout the war. The value of all discussions upon abstract questions of currency and exchange, depends so much upon the entire absence of feeling or imagination, that it is a [Page 58] cause of surprise to find the subject rarely treated in that paper in connection with the United States without the manifestation of ill temper enough to destroy the force of its arguments. Had the statements made of the facts been true, to the extent alleged, it is not impossible that a panic might have ensued, well adapted to aggravate the difficulties in the money market here instead of alleviating them. As it is, the effect was, for the moment, to depress the price of the American securities, until buyers made their appearance on orders from Germany. And further, it has led to remonstrance and correction from so many influential quarters, that to-day the Times has been compelled to relieve itself, by trying to shift its position. It is now the probable adoption of a prohibitory tariff in the United States which is going, in spite of themselves, to save English traders from madly rushing to their own ruin. The likelihood of such a policy, in the face of the absolute necessities of the treasury to command a supply of gold for the payment of the interest on the public debt, might seem to be worth considering before assuming this new position. It is difficult to comprehend how a newspaper, no matter how strongly intrenched within the prejudices of a community, can venture to hazard such reckless representations on questions of material importance to large domestic interests, without materially undermining its authority. This has been a problem for constant study with me, during my term of residence here, without as yet an arrival at any satisfactory solution. For the rest, I am not sure that this policy, so far as it will check the extension of credits to America, may not be really most beneficial to it. For it will diminish the tendency to an unfavorable rate of exchange, and thus prevent the interposition of another block in the way to the great and most desirable of all objects—a resumption of a stable basis for the domestic currency.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.