officers, and even overtures to supply the country with volunteers, are now being made to the President in all parts of Europe. He appreciates and is grateful for them. They reveal the fact, contrary to the assumptions of even the most careful foreign observers, that all Europe is not prejudiced against and hostile to this representative republic in its struggle for selfpreservation and for free government. Practically, however, such offers cannot be accepted; our own laws do not authorize, and international law forbids, the President to enlist men for military purposes in foreign countries. There is no deficiency of officers, though too many who are in commission seem to be inefficient. The inability of foreign military gentlemen to speak the language familiar to the army has prevented even meritorious gentlemen of that class from attaining positions they have very properly desired, and from rendering the services they so cheerfully tendered. All the requisitions for soldiers which the President has hitherto made have either been filled, or are being filled with promptness and alacrity, from among the resident population of the country. Such large draughts upon the population have, indeed, produced a sensible diminution of laborers in the classes of artisans and manufacturers; the prices of labor in every department have risen; and as there has never been any other country where industry was so well rewarded as in the United States, so those rewards are now greater than at any former period in our history. It is not unlikely that any immigrants who may be attracted by these inducements will find vacancies in the army if they shall prefer military to civil pursuits. But the government cannot stipulate for their employment either in the one form or the other. It is, however, willing, and even anxious, that those inducements shall be understood; because, first, the country would derive important advantages from immigration at the present moment; and because, secondly, it offers to suffering populations in Europe an escape from the evils of poverty and famine. The course of the war, after the close investment of Richmond, was not auspicious. The large volunteer armies of the United States down till that time prosecuted a vigorous and very successful, though a very extensive and elaborate, campaign. But that campaign involved a waste of numbers and means which had not been foreseen, and for the repair of which no provision had been made. The people had begun to assume that the war was coming to a close, and were applying themselves with renewed energy to their industrious pursuits. The army before Richmond, and all the other armies, suddenly called for re-enforcements; but recruiting had either been suspended or enlistments had entirely ceased. The needed re-enforcements were not forthcoming, and it seemed as if they could be raised only with great difficulty and delay. At that very moment the insurgent army was filled by a very sweeping and energetic conscription. It soon became manifest that the insurgents understood the relative condition of the respective military forces. They projected and prepared an aggressive campaign against not only this capital, but also the loyal States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, while yet our forces were in the very heart of the revolutionary region. In this emergency the public mind became deeply disturbed and painfully apprehensive. Although it might have been seen that for a short time at least the attitude of the loyal States must be a defensive one, and must continue so until the national forces should be largely augmented, and the new levies should become effective, it was urged upon the President, as a necessary expedient, to meet the crisis with some form of Executive manifesto, or declaration of a purpose to wage the war with great vigor and with new rigors in the insurrectionary States. He thought, on the contrary, that mere declaration of ulterior purposes and designs in a future and dis tant campaign, while the armies were at the moment retreating towards their bases, would not be calculated to repress the treason or to repel the threatened invasion. The means which he adopted in the emergency were a requisition for six hundred thousand volunteers, with the alternative of a draft if necessary; the bringing together and consolidating of the two sepa rated armies in Virginia upon a line in that State in which they could, in case of need, be the defence of the capital; the augmentation of this consolidated army and of the other national forces, and the placing them in such a position that while we should still retain all the important positions we had already taken, we should be prepared to roll back the threatened tide of invasion, and begin a new campaign on the coast or the Mississippi and in the passes of Western Tennessee. The reverses at Richmond were followed to some extent by the disasters which had been apprehended. The army of Virginia, before it had practically absorbed the army of the Potomac was beaten by the insurgents, and driven back upon the fortifications of this capital. They then proceeded to the fordable passes of the Upper Potomac, crossed the river, occupied Frederick, a quasi capital of Maryland, and invited the people of that State to rise in arms and join the pretended confederacy. While at Frederick they menaced equally this city, Baltimore, and Pennsylvania. In like manner they spread small parties through Kentucky, everywhere raising the disaffected in the rear of General Buell, and marched towards the Ohio river, threatening Cincinnati with invasion. The pretended congress of the insurgents met and solemnly approved this aggressive policy, cheering their traitorous supporters with threats of inflicting all the calamities and horrors of invasion upon the people of the loyal and so-called free States. It was thought that this invasion would alarm and confound the loyal States, and at least induce a recognition of the insurgents by foreign nations. Thus the aggressive policy was inaugurated by the insurgents with an audacity that even lent to it an apparent prestige of success. But in this case, as in others, the bow stretched beyond its power, of tension has broken. The new levies came, and are coming in with alacrity. One hundred and fifty thousand of them are already in the field, and as many more in camp. The prompt massing of a force of seventy thousand loyal troops at Cincinnati disconcerted the plans of invasion in the west, and the insurgents are reported to be retreating. General McClellan rapidly organized a new army here, followed the invaders into Maryland, and gave them battle, and defeated them on the 14th. They are leaving that State undisturbed in her loyalty, and Pennsylvania is relieved from all fears of invasion. It is supposed that these bold and baffled movements of the insurgents have impaired their strength, and taxed their resources severely, while it is thought by our military authorities that the resources of the Union are adequate, as its credit seems to be, to all the exigencies of a vigorous and decisive conflict. I am, sir, your obedient servant, J. LOTHROP MOTLEY, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Motley to Mr. Seward. No. 2.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatches Nos. 1 to 8. Copies of Nos. 2, 5, and 6, relating to my predecessor, Mr. * * * * * * * Jones, and commending his management of the affairs of the legation, were immediately forwarded to that gentleman. I am happy to bear my testimony, also, to his fidelity to the Union, as manifested in all his conversations with me. I am happy to state, also, that Mr. Jones received me on my arrival with the greatest frankness and cordiality, and did everything in his power to facilitate my induction to office. I arrived in Vienna October 31. On the 3d of November, according to appointment made by Count Rechberg, minister of foreign affairs, in reply to my note requesting an interview, addressed to him the morning after my arrival, I called on that gentleman at his office, accompanied by my predecessor, by whom I was introduced to the minister. Mr. Jones then took leave of Count Rechberg, who assured him that the intercourse between the government of the United States and of Austria, during the period of his mission, had been most satisfactory, and that his Majesty's government were very sorry to part with so excellent and friendly an envoy as he had proved himself to be. He was kind enough to add that, as it was decided to make a change in the mission, they were very glad to receive me as his successor, and that he doubted not that I would do my best to maintain the friendly relations between the two countries which now so happily existed. Mr. Jones then left the room, and I had a long conversation with the minister. He repeated, with emphasis, that the news of my appointment had been received with especial satisfaction by the Emperor and his government, and that I was already well known to them by reputation. He added other observations, personally complimentary, which I do not repeat; but I think it necessary to inform you, even at the risk of being charged with egotism, that my reception by the minister was extremely flattering. At a moment when the leading public journals of many nations are full of vituperation of our country, and of undisguised hilarity at what is thought and hoped by a large portion of the European world-English, French, and German-to be the downfall of the great republic, and when the emissaries of the rebel confederacy are knocking at the doors of foreign powers for admission, and doing their best to poison public opinion as to the character of the great war in which we are engaged, I consider it important that the administration should be informed that its representative here has thus far met with as much courtesy and consideration as could be extended to the minister of any foreign power. Count Rechberg spoke very freely of American affairs, and seemed to appreciate the complications of our position in regard to slavery. To defend the institution, he said, was a matter of life and death to the slaveholders. I told him that the institution, where it legally existed, to wit, in the fifteen slave States, had not been attacked, and that Congress, at its last seesion, had affirmed that which could hardly be seriously disputed by any one, namely: that Congress had no constitutional power to interfere with the domestic institutions of the individual States. The Presidential election of last November, I told him, had, however, decided the question as to slavery in what might be called our colonies or dependencies. A majority of the voters in the free States had proclaimed to the world, in the election of Mr. Lincoln, that the normal condition of our territories was that of freedom, and that no power existed to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States. In regard to those territories half as large as Europe, Congress had power, by the Constitution, to dispose of them, and to make all needful rules and regulations concerning them; and as the vote taken in November proved that Congress would henceforth deal with that common possession of the Union as free soil, and not slave soil, the slaveholders went to war with the United States government with the avowed determination of destroying it, and of substituting their new constitution, with slavery for its corner-stone, over all the States. The war which they had levied was in execution of their previous threat that they would destroy the Union should a candidate nominated on the republican platform be elected. The United States government was engaged in a war of selfdefence, and would have been despised of all men had it not accepted the wager of battle offered by the conspirators against its very existence. I also explained that the word secession was a sham, for the object had been originally to secede in order to reconstruct. The utmost confidence had been expressed by the emissaries of the conspiracy in Europe that all the States, except New England, would accept the new pro-slavery constitution before the end of the year. They had not reckoned on the support given by the democratic minority in each free State to the republican majority. They had relied on distraction and division, and had found unanimity. Now they were doing their best to represent themselves as engaged in a holy war of self-defence, and to persuade the world that their only object in destroying the republic was to inaugurate free trade, and to rid themselves. of the hostile tariffs imposed by the north. To those of us who know the recent history of the country, nothing could be more ridiculous than such pretences. The only free trade the confederates cared for, I said, was free trade in African negroes, and that branch of industry was sure to be reopened on a large scale as soon as the confederacy was established. For the present the scheme was denied, even by those who had been loudest in its favor, because it was necessary to throw dust in the eyes of Europe on the one hand, and to conciliate the negro-breeders of the border States on the other. I took pains to go very fully into these matters in my first interview with the minister, because I doubt. if he has ever before heard any such exposition of our polity, and because it seems so difficult for the European mind to comprehend the distinction between a constitutional and lawful prohibition of any further extension of negro slavery in America and an unconstitutional and precipitate proclamation of universal abolition. The efforts of such journals as the London Times and other organs of the slaveholders have hopelessly confused the issues in this respect. He asked me what would be the fate of slavery in the States as the war went on. I told him I did not know what would be the ultimate policy of the administration; but of one thing I felt convinced, that there was no possibility of retreating or flinching on our part. The whole people of the free States, with a considerable portion of the southern population, were determined that the Union should stand. If it came at last to the issue shall the republic of the United States of America die, or shall negro slavery die, it would not be the republic that would perish. Thus far we felt confident that we could suppress the insurrection without resort to the extreme measures which the war power placed within our reach, and the possibility of negro insurrections and massacres, as the result of violent and sudden emancipation of the slaves, was a terrible thing to contemplate. If such catastrophies did occur, the guilt was on the heads of the slaveholders, who, in their insane fanaticism for their peculiar institution, had aimed this wicked blow at the heart of our common country; had plunged the land in war and desolation, and were thus doing their best to destroy from the face of our whole country everything for which civilized man has respect or affection. Count Rechberg agreed with me that the insurrection was most unjustifiable, and that the United States government was bound to do its utmost to preserve its existence. He said he knew that our resources were greater, and our population more numerous, than those of the confederates, but he feared that a war of invasion and of conquest would prove a very difficult enterprise. I told him that it would be so if it were the case of a foreign nation carrying war into the territory of its enemy; but that the United States government were as much at home in Georgia and Louisiana as in New York or Illinois, and that he must not accept too hastily the conclusions of our English enemies as manifested in the leading journals; that every feeling of attachment to the flag, and of pride in our nationality, was extinguished in regions where these sentiments so short a time ago were intense. Our whole action proceeded on the theory that the national sentiment, surprised and suppressed by armed and desperate treason, would revive where it could be protected. America was too impatient, and Europe was still more so. An army could not be created in a few months. It was much to inspire pride and confidence that the men and money had been supplied by the people to an unlimited extent. Time, skill, and labor were necessary to construct out of these materials an army; but that when the time, skill, and labor had been applied, an invincible army would be the result. We were in no hurry; if the rebels could wait, so could we. It was to be hoped that popular impatience would never succeed in bringing about another Bull Run; and that, for my part, I felt convinced that the people would wait patiently for the development of the plans of the administration, aided by the skill and energy of General McClellan and his able supporters. He alluded to the blockade, and to the great suffering caused in England and France by the want of cotton, and expressed some doubts as to the continuance of the forbearance of those governments in this respect. I told him that I had recently had very long and full conversations with Lord John Russell on the subject, and that I was perfectly sure, from a long and intimate acquaintance with that statesman, that he was sincere when he assured me, as he had done, with earnestness, that there was no disposition on the part of the English government to interfere with us in any way: to infringe our blockade, one of the most undeniable of belligerent rights, would be an unjustifiable act of hostility on their part, and one which they were incapable of committing. I told him that I had received similar assurances from other members of the English cabinet, and that I was confident, so long as the present administration held their places, that there would be no hostile action on the part of England. Should the tories succeed to power we might have trouble. There would be much big_talking in Parliament, no doubt, next winter, and, I feared, in Congress also; but that I still felt convinced that by no act of ours, or of the present English government, would the confederates be supplied with such powerful auxiliaries as the fleets and armies of England would be for them. He asked me what I thought of the attitude of France, and I told him that M. Thouvenel had assured me, in a recent interview, as strongly as words could give such assurance, that there was no thought on the part of the imperial government of interfering with our blockade, or of committing any other unfriendly act towards us. It was arranged by Count Rechberg that an early day should be named for the ceremony of presenting my credentials to the Emperor. In the interval I paid the usual visits to the various members of the diplomatic corps, by all of whom I have been received with the utmost cordiality. Lord Bloomfield, the English ambassador, gave a dinner to Mrs. Motley and my self, at which the new French ambassador, Duc de Grammont, the Belgian minister, the Bavarian minister, the Swedish minister, the Danish minister, the Saxon minister, and others, were present. I may mention, too, that more than one person took occasion to express the warmest sympathy with the cause of our government and of the north. We met with nothing but civility and good wishes on all sides; but I cannot say that confidence is expressed |