is, none the less in every part our own. We defend it, and we love it with all the affection with which patriotism in every land inspires the human heart. It has the best of institutions - institutions the excellence of which is generously and even gratefully conceded by all men, while they are endeared to ourselves by all national recollections, and by all the hopes and desires we so naturally cherish for a great and glorious future. Studying to confine this unhappy struggle within our own bortlers, we have not only invoked no foreign aid or sympathy, but we have warned foreign nations frankly and have besought them not to interfere. We have practised justice towards them in every way, and conciliation in an unusual degree. But we are none the less determined for all that to be sovereign and to be free. We indulge in no menaces and no defiances. We abide patiently and with composure the course of events and the action of the nations, whose forbearance we have invoked scarcely less for their sakes than for our own. We have not been misled by any of the semblances of impartiality or of neutrality which unfriendly proceedings towards us in a perilous strife have put on. When any government shall incline to a new and more unfriendly attitude, we shall then revise with care our existing relations towards that power, and shall act in the emergency as becomes a people who have never yet faltered in their duty to themselves while they were endeavoring to improve the condition of the human race.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

October 25, 1862. Your despatch of October 10th shows that the President's proclamation has produced in Great Britain an impression similar in nature, and differing only in degree, from the effect which it has had here. Although, for obvious reasons, little was said on the subject in the correspondence of this Department in anticipation of the proclamation, yet you must have well understood that the President did not adopt the sanguine expectations of those who assumed that it would instantaneously convert the foreign enemies of our country into friends. It is not now proposed to discuss with those persons the questions they so ingeniously raise, namely, whether the proclamation has not come too late, whether it has not come too early, or whether its effect will not be defeated by the fact that it is based upon military necessity, and not upon philanthropy. In regard to the first two points, they are raised by

those for whom distasteful events are always unseasonable. In regard to the latter, it may be said that the Christian religion has proved none the less successful and beneficent to Europe, although it must be confessed that the mere charity inculcated by that religion was not the exclusive motive of Constantine in adopting and proclaiming it.

Time advances, and the national power will not lag behind it in bearing the proclamation into the homes which slavery has scourged with the crowning evils of civil war, and the most flagrant of political crimes treason against the best Constitution and the best government that has ever been established among men. There is reason to hope that the proceeding will divide and break the insurrection. The public mind has been disturbed, and the periodical occurrence of popular elections has been attended by extravagant expressions, as usual. But the policy of the administration will be practically acquiesced in and ultimately universally approved.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton.

November 4, 1862. You inform us virtually that those very interpreters of public opinion, who four weeks ago could see no merit in our saving our country because the President seemed to be willing to tolerate slavery to effect that end, now pronounce the preservation of the Union to be equally undesirable because it is contingently proposed to abolish slavery in the insurrectionary states to effect that great end. When inconsistencies like this are practised in the name of enlightened nations in regard to other states, how fortunate is it that the laws of nature leave it to such states alone, under the favor of God, to regulate their own affairs, and work out their own destinies.

Just about one hundred years ago two great political revolutions began, upon which were largely suspended the interests of the human race. The first was the emancipation of this continent from European authority; the second was the abolition of the European system of African slavery. With certain incidental and temporary reactions, such as are common to every great reformatory movement, the United States have persistently and successfully carried forward these two revolutions by gradual means and no others, never acting hastily nor resorting to aggression against any nation, any interest, or any class of men; and at the same time never

shrinking from needful self-defence when they encountered unprovoked violence. Although Europe seems to be falling back to the very ground which it held in regard to both of these revolutions when they began, the United States will, nevertheless, steadily persevere with their habitual energy and moderation in the tasks which the Almighty seems to have allotted to them, conscious that though the labor and the sacrifices are theirs, the benefits will belong to mankind.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

November 4, 1862. It is not pleasant to a loyal American to see a European Cabinet discussing before a European people the question whether they will continue to recognize the existence of this Republic. But this is a part of the painful experience of the evil times upon which we have fallen. While treason goes abroad from among ourselves to invite foreign nations to intervene, we have no right to expect those nations to judge us candidly, much less to judge us kindly or wisely. It would be, above all things, unreasonable to expect such charitable judgments from political parties in foreign countries, intent only on the objects of their own ambition. Fortunately we have the right to be free, independent, and at peace, whether European political parties wish us to be so or not. I . think, also, we have the power to be so. While European parties, according to your representation, are even more hostile to our country now than ever before, it is, on the other hand, a source of much satisfaction to know that this same country of ours not only is but also feels itself to be stronger and in better condition and position to encounter dangers of foreign intervention than it has been at any former period; and that if any additional motive were necessary to sustain its resolution to remain united, independent, and sovereign, that motive would be found in the intervention by a foreign state in the great and painful domestic transactions in which it is engaged.

The wheel of political fortune makes rapid revolutions. It is less than three years since all Great Britain manifested itself desirous of the friendship of the United States. A similar desire may, before the lapse of a long period, occur again. Neither politicians nor statesmen control events. They can moderate them and accommodate their ambitions to them, but they can do no more.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike.

November 5, 1862. I know not how profitable it might be for, me to examine the very sagacious and patriotic views you have presented on the subject of the war, and the policy with which it is carried on by the government. It is to be remembered that the country, so far from remaining in a normal state, is undergoing all the agitation of an attempted revolution. Measures and men, even at home, are harshly judged under the influence of the hopes and apprehensions of the hour; and these are exaggerated by interests, ambitions, and passions which varying occasions stimulate. The like haste of judgment upon the same questions necessarily reveals itself in Europe, for the relations of nations are too intimate to allow a disturbance in any one state to be confined within its own limits. Perhaps it is not unwise to believe that the agitation here, which has been going on for thirty years, and which broke out into open rebellion eighteen months ago, has at last reached its crisis. The exigencies have been met, and a rapid process of exhaustion of the material as well as the moral elements of the war has been going on, and the time cannot be distant when the nation will, from necessity, seek repose. Nothing can be more difficult than it is to mark the time when this condition begins to discover itself in any conflict. But if I am correct in supposing it has been reached in the present case, then I think we have occasion to congratulate ourselves upon the good position in which the cause of the Union stands. The strength of the government was never greater, its means never more completely at command, its present vigor in applying them has at no time been surpassed. Our military and naval expeditions are now on the eve of their departure, and we look for success equal to that which attended the campaign of the last spring. On the other hand, we see that the material strength of the insurgents has been much reduced, while they have not yet gained any permanent advantage anywhere. It can hardly be presumed that the European states will interfere to complicate the strife under these circumstances. Such apprehensions are the more unreasonable

consider how difficult these states would find it to adjust new and beneficial relations with this country if divided into intensely antagonistical republics, to say nothing of such states reversing their previous policies in regard to the termination of

slavery in their colonies. Who can tell what would be the questions which would arise in the British colonies lying northward of us if this Union of ours is divided? What shall come up in place of our existing relations of amity and commercial reciprocity? What shall become of the policy of extinguishing slavery in the West India colonies of Europe after a slaveholding nation shall have been established on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico? What is to be the effect of such an establishment upon the African slave trade when the new slaveholding nation desires to grasp not only Mexico, but also even the islands of all the European states within. the Gulf. I know that these questions have not yet presented themselves in Europe, but it is quite another thing to suppose that they will be left to sleep while the question of intervention is considered by the governments concerned.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton.

November 10, 1862. It is hardly necessary to inform you that this government has not attached any such importance to the speculations of the European press as to apprehend that the government of France combines any hidden design against the United States with the military operations it is carrying on in Mexico. To speculators in the political field everything seems probable. But those who know how much of talent, wealth, energy, and force any single military movement, however simple, either at home or abroad, exacts, and how wrong and how dangerous it is to undervalue obstacles and resistance, will be able generally to presume ninety and nine out of one hundred of all the designs attributed to any great power improbable because they are impracticable. There are many people in every country who are reckless of war, its costs, its hazards, and its sufferings. I think that, on the other hand, there is no one enlightened state on either continent that does not desire to avoid war so long as it can safely preserve peace.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

November 10, 1862.- It is a source of satisfaction to know that the expectations that Great Britain would speedily give her aid to sustain the failing insurrection here, which disloyal citizens at home and abroad had built upon the extra-official speeches of the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, were unreal and purely imaginary.