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ter and nature of the contest in this country, which so largely engages the attention of foreign nations. The question which is being decided in arms is, as they have truly said, whether a nation. shall be built and established, even here in the heart of this hitherto free country, and upon this yet new and imperfectly reclaimed continent, upon the principles that labor shall be not free and compensated, but involuntary and unpaid; and that African men, women, and children, once made captive on their native coasts by fraud or force, and imported here, thereby shall lose at once all the rights of manhood, and forever thereafter, through all generations, shall be merely lawful goods and chattels, wares, and merchandise. It is not, however, the President, nor yet the loyal people of the United States, who have raised this issue, or brought it to the trial of civil war. Lawfully standing under, and solemnly bound by, the public will and laws of the Union, to uphold a Constitution which was established with the concurrence of the insurgents themselves upon the broad foundation of human rights, this government and the American people have accepted the fearful issue only when that Constitution itself must be surrendered, if the conflict should be longer declined. We occupy at one and the same time the position of lovers of peace and defenders of humanity. The President has not for one moment believed he refuses to believe against all expositions of British and of European opinion to the contrary, no matter how assuming or how authoritative they may appear, that the deliberate judgment of the British nation has been or can vell be pronounced against the American people.

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Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton.

May 11, 1863. This government is profoundly and agreeably impressed with the consideration which the Emperor has manifested towards the United States by inviting their concurrence in a ceeding having for its object the double interests of public and humanity. Nor is it less favorably impressed with the setiments and the prudential considerations which he Emperor has n sc becoming a manner expressed to the court of St. Petersburg, They are such only as appeal to the justemotions and best. sympathies of mankind. The enlightened and humane character of the Emperor of Russia, so recently illustrated by the enfranchisement

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1 Mediation with Russia in regard to the Poles.

of a large mass of the Russian people from inherited bondage, and the establishment of an impartial and effective administration of justice throughout his dominions, warrant a belief that the appeal will be received and responded to by him with all the favor that is consistent with the general welfare of the great state over which he presides with such eminent wisdom and moderation.

Notwithstanding, however, the favor with which we thus regard the suggestion of the Emperor of the French, this government finds an insurmountable difficulty in the way of any active coöperation with the governments of France, Austria, and Great Britain, to which it is thus invited.

Founding our institutions upon the basis of the rights of man, the builders of our Republic came all at once to be regarded as political reformers, and it soon became manifest that revolutionists in every country hailed them in that character, and looked to the United States for effective sympathy, if not for active support and patronage. Our invaluable Constitution had hardly been estabished when it became necessary for the government of the United ates to consider to what extent we could, with propriety, safety, beneficence, intervene, either by alliance or concerted action friendly powers or otherwise, in the political affairs of foreign

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An urgent appeal for such aid and sympathy was made in f of France, and the appeal was sanctioned and enforced by the then existing of mutual alliance and defence, a treaty without it may even now be confessed, to the honor of France, our overeignty and independence could not have been so early seSo deeply did this appeal touch the heart of the American , that only the deference they cherished to the counsels of the of our Country, who then was at the fulness of his unaphable moral greatness, reconciled them to the stern decision n view of the location of this republic, the characters, habits, sentiments of its constituent parts, and especially its complex unique and very popular Constitution, the American people st be content to recommend the cause of human progress by the dom with which they should exercise the powers of self-governht, forbearing at all times, and in every way, from foreign allies, intervention, and interference.

t is true that Washington thought a time might come when, our titutions being firmly consolidated and working with complete

success, we might safely and perhaps beneficially take part in the consultations held by foreign states for the common advantage of the nations. Since that period occasions have frequently happened which presented seductions to a departure from what, superficially viewed, seemed a course of isolation and indifference. It is scarcely necessary to recur to them. One was an invitation to a congress of newly emancipated Spanish-American states; another an urgent appeal to aid Hungary in a revolution aiming at the restoration of her ancient and illustrious independence; another, the project of a joint guarantee of Cuba to Spain in concurrence with France and Great Britain; and more recently, an invitation to a coöperative demonstration with Spain, France, and Great Britain in Mexico; and, later still, suggestions by some of the Spanish-American states for a common council of the republican states situated upon the American continent. These suggestions were successively disallowed by the government, and its decision was approved in each case by the deliberate judgment of the American people. Our policy of non-intervention, straight, absolute, and peculiar as it may seem to other nations, ha thus become a traditional one, which could not be abandoned wit out the most urgent occasion, amounting to a manifest necess Certainly it could not be wisely departed from at this mon when the existence of a local, although as we trust only a tran disturbance, deprives the government of the counsel of a porti the American people, to whom so wide a departure from the policy of the country must in any case be deeply interesting.

The President will not allow himself to think for a single mo that the Emperor of the French will see anything but respect friendship for himself and the people of France, with good for the preservation of peace and order, and the progress of h ity in Europe, in the adherence of the United States on this oc to the policy which they have thus far pursued with safety not without advantage, as they think, to the interests of n kind.

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Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

July 11, 1863. Your despatch of the 26th of June has b received, together with three paper books containing a report the trial of the Alexandra.

In giving you the President's views in regard to that case a

the questions depending upon it, I labor under some embarrassments, resulting from an ignorance of what may have occurred in Europe since the date of your despatch. It is known here that at that time a movement in the House of Commons demanding a recognition of the insurgents by her Majesty's government was set down for the 30th of June, and that you were not altogether without apprehension that the movement, aided by a moral effect of the verdict in the case of the Alexandra, and backed by a supposed patronage in France, might prevail. Secondly, we have not altogether been able to disregard the rumors of a design of the Emperor of France to recognize the insurgents, with or without the concurrence of the government of Great Britain. Thirdly, that movement was to be based upon the ground of the demonstrated failure of the armies of the Union; but while it was going on, those armies have achieved victories which here are regarded as warranting an expectation of a complete and rapid extinguishment of the insurrection. These brilliant and important victories, howeyer, are as yet unknown in Europe.

uder these circumstances, I shall assume that no act has been

by the government of France or by the government of Great ain, especially by the latter, to change the relations that have tofore existed between those countries, respectively, and the ed States, and I shall confine myself to the duty of explaining ly the opinions of the President, and the policy which he will sue in regard to maritime questions in view of the result in the case of the Alexandra.

First. You are authorized and expected to assure Earl Russell that this government is entirely satisfied that her Majesty's government have conducted the proceedings in that case with perfect good faith and honor, and that they are well disposed to prevent the fitting out of armed vessels in British ports to depredate upon American commerce and to make war against the United States.

Secondly. This government is satisfied that the law officers of the crown have performed their duties in regard to the case of the Alexandra with a sincere conviction of the adequacy of the law of Great Britain and a sincere desire to give it effect.

Thirdly. The government of the United States does not descend to inquire whether the jury in the case were or were not impartial. It willingly believes they were so, and it accepts the statement

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made with so much unanimity by all the reporters of the case, that the judge who presided at the trial made the bench responsible for the verdict by the boldness and directness of his rulings against the prosecution.

Fourthly. Great Britain being a free and constitutional country, and the proceedings in the case of the Alexandra having been thus far conducted by the government in good faith and according to law, the United States would not be justified in deeming the verdict rendered by the jury a cause of national complaint, provided that the government prosecutes an appeal to the higher courts until it be determined in the court of last resort whether the law is adequate to the maintenance of the neutrality which her Majesty has proclaimed, and provided also that in the mean time the Alexandra and other vessels which may be found violating or preparing to violate the law be prevented, so far as the law may allow, from leaving British ports to prosecute their work of devastation.

The President is not prepared to believe that the judiciary of Great Britain will, with well-considered judgment, render nugator and void a statute of the realm which, with its counterpart in own legislation, has hitherto been regarded by both nations guarantee of that mutual forbearance which is so essential t preservation of peace and friendship. Nor shall I incur the h of producing irritation on either side of the ocean by criticisin reasoning by which the learned judge who tried the case c Alexandra justified his conclusions thereon, or by which tuas portion of the British press which approves the verdict labors to defend it.

The position in which the case of the Alexandra is left by the recent trial renders it necessary to contemplate a possible affirmation of the rulings of the Chief Baron in the court of dernier resort. You are entitled to know, and it seems proper that you should be able to communicate to her Majesty's government, the views which the President has taken of the rights and duties of this government in that unlooked for and deeply to be deprecated event. I trust that I shall be able to express those convictions calmly and dispassionately without wounding the just self-respect of her Majesty's government. If the rulings of the Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the case of the Alexandra shall be affirmed so as to regulate the action of her Majesty's government, the President will, as he

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