has been used as a deposit for arms and munitions of war intended for the insurgents in the United States.

You are charged with the duty of laying this subject before the British government. The legislative and executive authority of the United States having been exerted towards preventing similar proceedings by persons within our jurisdiction during the insurrection in Canada in 1837, we may claim on this ground at least a reciprocity from the British government. I am, sir, your obedient servant,

SIR: Your despatch of June 12 (No. 172) has been received. * * I have also communicated to the Secretary of the Navy the valuable facts which it presents concerning the effect in Europe of the success of the blockading squadron in capturing vessels engaged in supplying the insurgents with contraband material of war, and also your important suggestions upon that subject.

Since I last discussed the military situation no event palpably affecting it has occurred. Our military and naval forces at Charleston were kept at figures only necessary to aid in maintaining the blockade while conflict has been challenged at some important strategic points. We learn that our generals, perhaps too impulsive, have, without instructions, made an attack and have been repulsed at Charleston. While the affair may serve to encourage the languishing hopes of the insurgents, it no more than Jackson's late raid in the Shenandoah valley affects the actual progress of the war. The operations against Richmond continue to go on to the satisfaction of the military department.

Through many difficulties the work of pacification and revival of commerce at New Orleans and at Memphis is successfully advancing. The destruction of cotton by the insurgents seems to have come to a pause, and considerable shipments of that staple are coming from Memphis and Nashville. The Secretary of the Treasury is advised that large quantities of sugar are coming from New Orleans.

With the President's permission, I have interposed between Major General Butler and several foreign consuls to save possible complaints and prevent unnecessary complications from arising there at a juncture so important, and even so critical. These matters have been harmoniously arranged, as far as possible, here, with the representatives of those concerned, so as to relieve yourself and other ministers in Europe.

I have carefully considered the information you give us concerning specu lations and schemes entertained in London and Paris about what is there called mediation by one or more powers on that continent in our affairs.

Moreover, I have not neglected to collate this information with the remarks made by British ministers and statesmen, and by the influential partisan British press, although I am not accustomed to draw such remarks into this correspondence.

I notice with pleasure that Earl Russell spoke reassuringly to you in a late conversation to the effect that no change of counsels had been adopted,

and certainly the statements made by himself and Lord Palmerston in Parliament are sufficiently decisive on that subject. Moreover, notwithstanding all sinister rumors, the President is satisfied that the French government has at present no design or purpose of changing its attitude for one that would give any new embarrassment to the United States.

For the rest I may say that if anything could be contrived to warm to an intenser heat the fires of the national patriotism beyond the events occurring in our own country every day, it would be these perpetual demonstrations of wishes in Europe for the dissolution of the American Union.

SIR: In the absence of the Secretary of State, I transmit to you a resumé of the military situation according to the advices last received. In regard to other subjects, left to be treated of by him upon his return to the capital, he will communicate with you by the steamer of next week.

The reports from the army near Richmond concerning the events of the past few days are somewhat imperfect, owing to a temporary interruption of telegraphic communication.

General McClellan, at the commencement of his operations in the vicinity of Richmond, used for his supplies and communications the line formed by the York and Pamunkey rivers, and the railroad from the point where it crosses the latter stream at White House to his camps on the Chickahominy. At the period when this line was adopted the James river had not yet been opened by our gunboats.

In carrying out his plan of operations against Richmond, General McClellan has been, as rapidly as practicable, transferring the greater portion of his force to the south side of the Chickahominy. This, on the one hand, left his line of communication by way of the White House more or less exposed, but, on the other, brought him nearer to the James river, and enabled him to open a new line of communication there. On Thursday and Friday of last week, not unexpectedly to him, the enemy assailed the force which still occupied the north side of the Chickahominy, thus precipitating the movement above described as in progress. A severe engagement ensued, with considerable loss of life, but little or none of material. He succeeded, however, in completing the transfer of his troops and supplies to the south side of the Chickahominy and in opening communication with our fleet on James river. His position now, therefore, as compared with his previous one, is advanced nearer to Richmond, and covers ground hitherto held by the enemy, and he has exchanged one main line of communication for another.

From the west all accounts are satisfactory. The power of the enemy to attempt offensive demonstrations of any magnitude is practically destroyed. The fortifications at Vicksburg are the only obstacles remaining to our complete control of the navigation of the Mississippi river, and in view of the preparations now making no doubt is entertained of their early reduction. The loyal sentiment is becoming gradually developed in the regions occupied by the troops of the United States. Numbers of persons are daily

abandoning the insurgents and returning to their loyalty to the government, some attesting their sincerity, not merely by taking the oath of allegiance, but by proffering their military service in the armies of the Union.

SIR: I take advantage of the absence of any despatches this week which call for reply to give you an account of a conversation which I had with an unofficial person last Saturday morning at his request.

He began by alluding to the excitement taking place in the cotton market, and the sudden increase of the demand growing out of a conviction that the supply was likely soon to fail. The effect of this upon the population of the manufacturing region was becoming more and more perceptible. It was therefore desirable to ascertain as far as possible what the prospect was of obtaining any considerable quantity from the southern States. He wished me to tell him what I could from such sources of information as were open to me.

I replied that the supply was, in my opinion, somewhat dependent on the progress of the war. So long as there was a formidable power in the field which left open the possibility of a maintenance of the rebel authority, there was scarcely a likelihood that the timid class of planters, at heart well disposed to the Union and not disinclined to convert their cotton into money, would take the risk of an open committal. As to the duration of the war, it was a matter of opinion, in regard to which he must form his own as well as I. Much would depend on the turn it might take before Richmond. The pinch was at that point, and it seemed to me that such were the necessities of the rebels, some positive result could not be very long delayed.

He said that the case was becoming very grave in Europe. A failure of this staple so vitally necessary to the subsistence of a numerous population could not take place without the risk of much difficulty. There were symptoms already of a disposition to get up agitation and to give to the discontent of the distressed operatives a political direction. He then intimated quite broadly that the governing power, as well in France as in England, was not in a condition to withstand any great severity of pressure from this quarter. I understood him as speaking from good sources of information. Indeed I can readily conjecture precisely what they are. The result might be some joint representation to the government of the United States, the nature of which he rather hinted at than described.

To this I observed that the possibility of such a proceeding had been within my contemplation. But I could not help thinking it would only have the effect of complicating the embarrassment of the parties that might undertake it. Thus far the policy of my government had been carefully conservative. Its object to save the country, and especially the madmen of the south, from the dangers growing out of a precipitate treatment of the real cause of the war-the political abuses of the slaveholding system. But the

The

time might come when forbearance would cease to be a virtue, and every other consideration would yield to the instinct of self-preservation. government had already been compelled to go so far as to examine and explain the possibilities of its action in certain contingencies. I had communicated a despatch to Lord Russell, within a few days, which had, for the first time since I had been here, entered into a grave exposition of its views on that subject. Any action of foreign nations like that suggested could be viewed only as imparting a moral strength to this dangerous element in our social system in America, and therefore requiring a more immediate and radical extermination of it. The consequence might be a social convulsion in the southern States, which, so far from yielding relief to the necessities of Europe, would put an end to all the prospect of obtaining any from that quarter for years. I had always thought that the great error of these gov ernments had been in not seeing at the outset that their best interests were involved in the earliest possible restoration of the authority of the United States. Had they acted in that sense the war would have been at an end before this. But their actual policy had done just enough to give a sort of moral sanction to resistance, which had kept it dragging along until now. And now they were debating the expediency of a course which might, indeed, very much aggravate the distresses of all parties, but which, so far as I could see, would not end in any attainment of those objects for which it was to be professedly undertaken.

He said that this was his own view, and that he had urged it strongly elsewhere. In his opinion, the policy towards America should have been different, and the moral support of Europe so far assured to the government of the United States as to preclude any hope among the insurgents of possible assistance. But all that was over. There had been, from causes which he enumerated, a good deal of sympathy entertained for the rebel cause. Somebody had said that English people always sided with rebellion. (I might have added, but did not, except in cases of their own.) The difficulty now was serious. He was still in hopes that at least a half million bales might come to relieve the pressure. I said that I saw great cause for believing that it would, and the late rapid rise in price would, in my opinion, do much to hasten it. At all events, he resumed, the idea had occurred to him that some manifestation should be made by the government, he did not care in what form, of its consciousness of the nature of this distress among foreign nations, and of its desire to aid in relieving it. In short, his opinion seemed to be that some rather careful friendly exposition of the whole question, as bearing upon the policy of other countries, might be of use to check the direction of popular opinion against us in Europe; for he was not sure that most of the nations of Europe would not join in some way or other in a representation. He wished me to write thus much to you.

I promised to report the substance of the conversation, and you have the result.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

No. 287.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

[Confidential ]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, July 5, 1862.

SIR: Your despatch of June 20 (No. 176) has been received.

It is a satisfaction to know that a copy of my despatch 260 has been received and read by Earl Russell. The subject it presents is one of momentous import. It seems as if the extreme advocates of African slavery and its most vehement opponents were acting in concert together to precipitate a servile war-the former by making the most desperate attempts to overthrow the federal Union, the latter by demanding an edict of universal emancipation as a lawful and necessary, if not, as they say, the only legiti mate, way of saving the Union.

I reserve remarks upon the military situation for a day nearer to the de parture of the mail.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

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

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

No. 288.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, July 7, 1862.

SIR: I fear that the press, speaking as it does under the influence of a hundred various forms of excitement arising out of the incidents of the last ten days, will bewilder, if it does not for the moment confound, our representatives abroad.

The military situation is, however, clearly intelligible, and ought to be satisfactory to the cool and candid judgment of the country.

From the Mississippi we learn that after a long and vigorous bombardment of Vicksburg, Commodore Farragut passed the batteries at that place from below, and joined himself to the fleet which lay above it. Thus the last obstacle of the navigation of the Mississippi has been overcome, and it is open to trade once more under the flag of the Union from the headwaters of its tributaries near the lakes and Prince Rupert's Land to the Gulf of Mexico.

White river and the Yazoo have been cleared of all hostile armaments. We have a rumor that Vicksburg has actually been taken. But the report is premature, although we have no doubt but the capture has, before this time, occurred.

The fleet under Commodore Goldsborough has been efficient in seizing and bringing into port many British vessels carrying contraband, and insured at Lloyd's against the perils of the blockade. So that it may be expected risks of this kind will sensibly diminish. On the coast all is safe and well.

In the west General Halleck is pushing a force from Corinth eastward with out any show of organized resistance to capture Chattanooga, and close the only remaining railroad communication between Richmond and the valley of