"As to the blockade," wrote the Secretary, "you will say that, by the laws of nature and the laws of nations, this Government has a clear right to suppress insurrections." For the phrase "the laws of

nature," the President wrote "our own laws."

already revoked the exequatur of a Russian consul who had enlisted in the military service of the insurgents, and we shall dismiss or demand the recall of every foreign agent, consular or diplomatic, who shall either disobey the Federal laws or disown the Federal authority.

As to the recognition of the so-called Southern Confederacy it is not to be made a subject of technical definition. It is, of course, direct recognition to publish an acknowledgment of the sovereignty and independence of a new power. It is direct recognition to receive its ambassadors, ministers, agents, or commissioners officially. A concession of belligerent rights is liable to be construed as a recognition of them. No one of these proceedings will pass unquestioned by the United States in this case.

Hitherto recognition has been moved only on the assumption that the so-called Confederate States are de facto a self-sustaining power. Now, after long forbearance, designed to soothe discontent and avert the need of civil war, [Page 8.

No one of these proceedings," wrote the Secretary, "will be borne by the United States in this case." The President first substituted "unnoticed" for "borne," and then corrected his own word by writing "will pass unquestioned."

E

the land and naval forces of the United States have been put in motion to repress the insurrection. The true character of the pretended new State is at once revealed. It is seen to be a power existing in pronunciamento only. It has never won a field. It has obtained no forts that were not virtually betrayed into its hands or seized in breach of trust. It commands not a single port on the coast nor any highway out from its pretended Capital by land. Under these circumstances, Great Britain is called upon to intervene and give it body and independence by resisting our measures of suppression. British recognition would be British inter[Page 9.

vention to create, within our territory, a hostile State by overthrowing this Republic itself.

*

As to the treatment of privateers in the insurgent service you will say that this is a question exclusively our own. We treat them as pirates. They are our own citizens, or persons employed by our citizens, preying on the commerce of our country. If Great Britain shall choose to recognize them as lawful belligerents, and give them shelter from our pursuit and punishment, the laws of nations afford an adequate and proper remedy. [Page 10.

After the words "overthrowing this Republic itself," Mr. Seward added this sentence, which Lincoln eliminated: "When this act of intervention is distinctly performed, we, from that hour, shall cease to be friends, and (become once more as we have twice before been), be forced to be enemies of Great Britain." Here the President seems at first to have decided to strike out only the words

that are italicized, but subsequently he erased the entire sentence.

66

After the last sentence on the page, following the words “proper remedy," the Secretary had written ' and we shall avail ourselves of it. And while you need not say this in advance, be sure that you say nothing inconsistent with it." "Out," wrote the

President.

Happily, however, her Britannic Majesty's Government can avoid all these difficulties. It invited us, in 1856, to accede to the declaration of the Congress of Paris, of which body Great Britain was herself a member, abolishing privateering everywhere, in all cases and forever. You already have our authority to propose to her our accession to that declaration. If she refuse to receive it, it can only be because she is willing to become the patron of privateering when aimed at our devastation.

These positions are not elaborately defended now, because to vindicate them would imply a possibility of our waiving them.

*

We are not insensible of the grave importance of this occasion. We see how, upon the result of the debate in which we are engaged, a war may

[Page 11.

After the second paragraph on this page the President wrote: "Drop all from this line to the end, and in lieu of it write This paper is for your own guidance only, and not to be read or shown to any one.'"

ensue between the United States and one, two, or even more, European nations. War in any case is as exceptionable from the habits, as it is revolting from the sentiments, of the American people. But if it come, it will be fully seen that it results from the action of Great Britain, not our own; that Great Britain will have decided to fraternize with our domestic enemy either without waiting to hear, from you, our remonstrances and our warnings, or after having heard them. War in defence of national life is not immoral, and war in defence of independence is an inevitable part of the discipline of nations.

The dispute will be between the European and the American branches of the British race. All who belong to that race will especially deprecate it, as they ought. It may well be believed that men of every race and kindred will deplore it. A war not unlike it, between the same parties, occurred at the close of the last century. Europe atoned by forty years of suffering for the error that Great Britain committed in provoking that contest. [Page 12.

For our "remonstrances and wrongs," on this page, the President substituted "our remonstrances and our warnings."

"Europe atoned by forty years of suffering for the crime," wrote Mr. Seward; "forty years of suffering for the error," wrote Lincoln.

If that nation shall now repeat the same great error, the social convulsions which will follow may not be so long, but they will be more general. When they shall have ceased it will, we think, be seen, whatever may have been the fortunes of other nations, that it is not the United States that will have come

out of them with its precious constitution altered, or its honestly obtained dominion in any way abridged. Great Britain has but to wait a few months and all her present inconveniences will cease with all our own troubles. If she take a different course, she will calculate for herself the ultimate as well as the immediate consequences, and will consider what position she will hold when she shall have forever lost the sympathies and the affections of the only nation on whose sympathies and affections she has a natural claim. In making that calculation, she will do well to remember that, in the controversy she proposes to open, we shall be actuated by neither pride, nor passion, nor cupidity, nor ambition, but we shall stand simply on the principle of self-preservation, and that our cause will involve the independence of nations, and the rights of human

nature.

I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

[Page 13.

The subtile corrections on this page have already been noted.