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the subject, and to ask him for such explanation concerning the crew's statement attributed to him as he may be able to give.

You may, if you think expedient, show this despatch to Lord Palmerston, as nothing would be further from the desire of this government than to do him or the government over which he presides injustice in any form

whatever.

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To the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States in foreign countries : GENTLEMEN: You will receive by the post which conveys this despatch evidences that the aggressive movement of the insurgents against the loyal States is arrested, and that the renewed and reinvigorated forces of the Union are again prepared for a new and comprehensive campaign. If you consult the public journals you will easily learn that the financial strength of the insurrection is rapidly declining, and that its ability to bring soldiers into the field has been already taxed to its utmost. You will perceive, on the other hand, that the fiscal condition of the country is sound, and that the response to the calls for new levies is being made promptly, without drawing seriously upon the physical strength of the people.

I have heretofore indicated to our representatives abroad the approach of a change in the organization of society in the insurrectionary States. That change continues to reveal itself more distinctly every day. In the judg ment of the President the time has come for setting forth the great fact distinctly for the serious consideration of the people in those States, and for giving them to understand that if they will persist in forcing upon the country a choice between the dissolution of this necessary and beneficent government or a relinquishment of the protection of slavery, it is the Union, and not slavery, that must be maintained and preserved. With this view the President has issued a proclamation in which he gives notice that slavery will be no longer recognized in any State which shall be found in armed rebellion on the first of January next. While good and wise men of all nations will confess that this is just and proper as a military proceeding for the relief of the country from a desolating and exhausting civil war, they will at the same time acknowledge the moderation and magnanimity with which the government proceeds in a transaction of such great solemnity and importance.

I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

By the President of the United States of America.

A PROCLAMATION.

I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and commander-in-chief of the army and navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States and each of the States and the people thereof, in which States that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed.

That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave States, so called, the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States, and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent with their consent upon this continent or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the governments existing there, will be continued.

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by procla mation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.

That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled "An act to make an additional article of war," approved March 13, 1862, and which act is in the words and figure following:

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the following shall be promulgated as an additional article of war for the government of the army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such:

"ARTICLE. All officers or persons in the military or naval service of the United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor who may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall be dismissed from the service. "SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect from and after its passage."

Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled "An act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved July 17, 1862, and which sec tions are in the words and figures following:

"SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them, and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves.

"SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service."

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act and sections above recited.

And the Executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States and their respective States and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Wash[L. s] ington this twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

No. 356.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 23, 1862.

SIR: Your despatch No. 219, of the 5th instant, with the papers which accompanied it in relation to the case of the steamer Oreto, has been received and communicated to the Secretary of the Navy.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c, &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

[Circular-No. 24.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 25, 1862.

To the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States in foreign countries: The following additional regulations respecting passports are deemed necessary and advisable:

When husband, wife, and minor children expect to travel together, a single passport for the whole will suffice. For any other person in the party a separate passport will be required.

A new passport will be expected to be taken out by every person when ever he or she may leave the United States, and every passport must be renewed, either at this department or at a legation or consulate abroad, within one year from its date.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

No. 225.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, September 25, 1862.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the reception of despatches from the department numbered from 335 to 338, both inclusive, of a circular of the 4th instant, enclosing a printed letter of the Postmaster General, and of two notes of the 9th instant relating to the release of Major Foley, and to a letter sent from here to Mr. Griffin at Williamsburg, in Virginia.

The most important of these documents is No. 338 and its enclosure, which I perused with the closest attention. I was particularly glad to learn from it that the rumors set afloat in the continental newspapers of the probable retirement of Mr. Dayton were not well founded. The testimony borne to his official conduct by M. Thouvenel has given me the highest satisfaction, for it entirely accords with the impressions which I had myself formed of it. Indeed, it has been one great source of consolation to me in the midst of the trials to which the country has been subjected in Europe during the present struggle to be able to rely upon the capacity and the discretion of that gentleman in that responsible post. I trust that he will remain at least so long as the critical condition of our affairs may render the continuance of either of us of any importance in the eyes of the gov

ernment.

It is not easy for me to determine how far M. Mercier must be regarded as having acted in his official capacity. The result of his somewhat similar prior experiment in visiting Richmond seems to have been only to produce the conviction that nothing useful could then be done. Perhaps the same effect may have followed your conversation. In any event no material change in the policy of France has yet made itself visible on this side of the water. Here things remain much as before the late news of our further reverses. If anything, the impression made of the power of the rebel arms rather breeds more indifference to the extending of any active sympathy. There are vague hopes that the war is approximating some termination or In the meantime the distress in the manufacturing districts is rather

on the increase, and the demand for cotton more imperative. Much discussion is had of the probable sources of future supply outside of America, without eliciting any very satisfactory answer. That a great expansion of the cultivation is going on is certain, but whether it will produce early supplies at all adequate to the demands is very much doubted. Over all the efforts making in other quarters hangs the dread of a sudden restoration of the American production. At this moment it cannot be disputed that the total destruction of all expectation from that source, at least for several years to come, would be a better safeguard for the future than the present state of suspense. The whole question, then, resolves itself into the maintenance of the slave institutions of the southern States. And the position of Great Britain and France, so far as it has yet been defined, is in direct conflict with the principles which they profess; for a recognition of the present rebel government of those States, so far as it goes, would help to establish a supply of cotton furnished by the labor of an expanding slave population, which would inevitably annul all efforts to establish the culture. elsewhere in the hands of freemen. Far better would it be for those countries, as well as for the interests of the whole civilized world, if the present difficulty were met at once by a demand for unconditional emancipation.

In the meantime the interest taken in American affairs has been somewhat diminished by the growing agitation of all the countries of Europe conse quent upon the situation of Garibaldi. The pressure brought to bear upon the Emperor of France to induce him to withdraw his support of the Pope is met by a corresponding pressure of the Catholic interests of Europe on the opposite side. As yet there are no indications of a disposition on his part to modify in any way his late policy. The consequence is not favorable to the prospect of consolidation in Italy. There are many symptoms of disintegration appearing which may prove too much for the strength of any ministry the King will be able to organize. This dubious condition of affairs, together with the large increase of expenditure occasioned by the Mexican expedition seriously adding to prior financial complications, may have the effect to deter the Emperor from all idea of action in America, especially if not seconded by any of the other powers of Europe. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

No. 227.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, September 26, 1862.

SIR: I have not been quite satisfied with the way in which my remonstrances respecting the outfit of the gunboat No 290 had been left. In consequence I seized the first opportunity in my power to remind Lord Russell that no written answer had been given to me. This has had the desired effect. I have the honor to transmit copies of the two notes which have passed between us. In former days it was a favorite object of Great Britain to obtain from the United States an admission of the validity of claims for damage done by vessels fitted out in their ports against her commerce. This was finally conceded to her in the seventh article of the treaty of 1794. The reasoning which led to that agreement may not be

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