Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 15th of February, No. 1151. I have taken pains to recur to the despatch in the Blue Book of Lord Clarendon to Sir Frederick Bruce, to which you have now referred me. I find that in that publication it bears the date of December 26, not December 28, as you have described it. Either Sir Frederick has, in the exercise of his discretion, refrained altogether from bringing the despatch to my notice, or else he has done so only in so purely a conversational and informal manner as to leave no real impression upon my mind. Whatever I may have said upon the matter to him has been in exactly the same terms in which I treated the same suggestion now found in the assumed despatch when it was presented by you in your confidential note. I see now no reason for apprehending that we shall at any time or under any circumstances be willing to negotiate for future contingences without having first due regard paid to our past injuries and damages. I shall make Sir Frederick Bruce acquainted with the contents of this paper. He is frank and honorable, while he is discreet and devoted to his government.
[Page 75]I will not anticipate the possibility of extreme suggestions by other maritime powers for consultation. Cuch proceedings have a certain attraction for minds of a doctrinal character. The idea of a congress of the maritime powers held a considerable preoccupation of a portion of the press last summer, but exhausted itself then, and has not since revived.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.