Mr. Webb to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt on the 20th, by the steamer South America, despatches Nos. 174 and 175, of the date of July 30, and also despatch No. 176, in relation to the Nebo claim. Their contents will, of course, receive my immediate attention.
The news from the river Plate is not as satisfactory as this government could wish, but they make the most of it in their newspapers. The great attack on the fortress of Humaita is supposed to have taken place about this time. On the result of that attack necessarily depends the great question of the termination of the war, so utterly ruinous to the financial resources of Brazil, and at the same time so directly affecting the labor question, which is more vital to the welfare of the state than any other.
What Brazil requires most is labor—free labor. All her laws, as I have heretofore taken occasion to show, intended to encourage emigration from Europe, are so defective as to have proved failures. And yet, within the last two years not less than twenty thousand, probably more than thirty thousand of her free laborers, have fallen victims to battle and disease. In the mean time, her credit in the money markets of Europe has ceased, and in consequence an unlimited amount of paper money is being issued, without any apparent means of its ever [Page 325] being redeemed. As a consequence, labor and all the necessaries of life are advancing at a fearful rate, and nothing but peace can cause a change for the better, although all parties admit that the war is not only just in itself, but was forced upon Brazil, equally without cause and without notice. * * * *
Brazil’s difficulties are increased by the protest of Peru against the treaty of the allies in relation to their war with Paraguay, and her apprehensions that the United States may indorse that protest.
* * * * * * *
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.