The telegraph announces the destruction of another half dozen American vessels on the high seas by the steamer 290. The President is obliged to regard these destructions as being made by British subjects in violation of the law of nations after repeated and ample notice, warning, and remonstrances had been given by you to the British government. It is presumed that you have already brought the subject in that light to the notice of her Majesty's government. The legal proofs in support of a claim for indemnity will be collected and transmitted to you as speedily as possible. It is hardly necessary to advise one so well acquainted as you are with the working of our system of popular elections against being disturbed by the exaggerations of the political canvass which closes to-day. No apprehensions of any change of the policy of the country in regard to the suppression of the insurrection are indulged here. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. [Copy of an excerpt from newspaper.] NEW YORK, November 2.-Port Royal dates to the 29th ultimo have been received. Two British rebel steamers, the Anglia and Scotia, were captured on the 27th ultimo and taken to Port Royal. The two steamers, with their contraband cargoes, are valued at one million of dollars. Another British steamer, the Minaho, was run ashore and destroyed. It was reported at Port Royal that the rebel ram was coming down the river from Savannah. No. 386.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 3, 1862. SIR: Mr. Dudley, our consul at Liverpool, informs us that two war vessels which are on the stays at Birkenhead are announced by the press as being built ostensibly for the Chinese government, but really to depredate on American com merce, as the 290 is doing. The President hopes that you will make such representations concerning them and all similar enterprises to her Majesty's government, as may induce them to consider whether it can be claimed that a nation is really neutral when vessels-of-war, without restraint and with im punity, are built, armed, manned, equipped, and sent out from its ports to make war on a peaceful and friendly nation. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No. 387.J Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 4, 1862. SIR: Your despatches by the Arabia are received, but there is not time for special notice of them before the closing of the mail. All our land and naval operations are going on with vigor. Those who in Europe have supposed that this government is either idle or ineffective will be undeceived in time, I trust, to abate their desires for measures which would bring the two continents into collision upon a question which belongs chiefly to America, but on which both continents ought to be agreed. SIR: Your despatch of October 17 has been submitted to the President. 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 represen tation, 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 resolu tion 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. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, No. 390.] Washington, November 4, 1862. SIR: Your despatch of October 16 (No. 242) has been received. The Presi dent regrets that he is unable to find in the proceedings of her Majesty's government satisfactory evidence that it proposes to render redress to the United States for the injuries sustained by their citizens in the arming, fitting out, and despatch of the 290 on her errand of commercial devastation, or to prevent injurious enterprises of the same character from being carried into execution. Nevertheless, still trusting that the government of Great Britain may come, after careful consideration, to think the subject worthy of a review, the evidence in the case of the 290, as it shall be received, will be transmitted to you to be laid before Earl Russell. You will, in the meantime, communicate the effect of this despatch to his lordship. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM. H. SEWARD. Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. No. 392.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 10, 1862. SIR: Your despatch of October 24 (No. 24S) has been received. 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. The President trusts that the day is far distant, indeed he hopes a day may never come, when two kindred nations shall consent to apply to purposes of mutual destruction energies which, if combined, are capable of carrying forward to a pitch never yet fully contemplated the improvement in the condition and character of mankind. Such an apprehension could never have entered the American mind if it had not been schooled by the experiences of our unnatural civil war to fear that popular but ephemeral passion and prejudice may sometimes, in any country, over-master all sentiments of national prudence, truth, justice, and humanity. This government does not fail to see what Europe wants, and to see that it is just what the United States want, namely, a speedy and absolute conclusion of the war. Nor does the government fail to see that it is demanded with equal impatience on both continents. It may be possible that greater activity and en ergy than have been exhibited could have been put forth to secure that end. But it is believed that on a calm and critical examination it will appear that, considering the situation of the country, the very popular character, and the very complex republican form of the constitution, the magnitude of the insur rection, the peculiarity of the moral and dynastic principles which are involved, and the foreign influences which have intervened, the progress which the gov ernment has made in suppressing the insurrection is an achievement which has never been surpassed. At the present we are apprehending no insurmountable obstacles to complete success. Our army in Virginia, as you will learn from the newspapers, is already approaching the Rapidan, without having encountered serious opposition. General Grant is advancing into the heart of Mississippi. General Rosecrans is moving forward in Tennessee. Expeditions by land and water, greater in force than any preceding one, will soon be on its way to the southern coast. The conviction which I have so confidently expressed to you during the last six weeks, that the insurrection is becoming exhausted, and which event seemed so strange at the time and under the circumstances when it was expressed, is now becoming generally accepted, and I see with pleasure that it begins to find favor in England. You did not exaggerate, in your conversation with Earl Russell, the injurious influences here of the speech of the chancellor of the ex chequer. Indeed, no one can even fully appreciate the importance which nations, when excited, attach to the conventional utterances of persons in authority. When it is remembered that a year ago the public mind in Great Britain, and even that of her Majesty's government, was affected by the representation of alleged speeches and conversations of my own, delivered before my coming into my present position, it seems strange that a British minister should be willing to speak, extra-officially and without a government purpose, upon an American question in a sense which might be interpreted as one of intervention, if not of menace. It was to prevent all such unfortunate proceedings on the part of the representatives of the United States that the new restraints upon our ministers and consuls, of which you have already been advised, were imposed. I am, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: It is probable that the ground which the enemies of the Union in Europe will next assume, in prosecuting their war against it, will be an alleged defection of popular support of the government at the elections recently held in the loyal States. The reports of the results of these elections in the forms adopted by the press are calculated, though not designed, to give plausibility to this position. I observe that these reports classify the members of Congress chosen as union and democratic, or union and opposition. Such classifications, though unfortunate, do less harm here, where all the circumstances of the case are known, than abroad, where names are understood to mean what they express. Last year, when the war began, the republicans, who were a plurality of the electors, gave up their party name, and, joining with loyal democrats, put in nomination candidates of either party under the designation of a union party. The democratic party made but a spiritless resistance in the canvass. From whatever cause it has happened, political debates during the present year have resumed, in a considerable degree, their normal character, and while loyal republicans have adhered to the new banner of the union party, the democratic party has rallied and made a vigorous canvass with a view to the recovery of its former political ascendency. Loyal democrats in considerable number retaining the name of democracy from habit, and not because they oppose the Union, are classified by the other party as "opposition." It is not necessary for the information of our representatives abroad that I should descend into any examination of the relative principles or policies of the two parties. It will suffice to say that while there may be men of doubtful political wisdom and virtue in each party, and while there may be differences of opinion between the two parties as to the measures best calculated to preserve the Union and restore its authority, yet it is not to be inferred that either party, or any considerable portion of the people of the loyal States, is disposed to accept disunion under any circumstances, or upon any terms. It is rather to be understood that the people have become so confident of the stability of the Union that partisan combinations are resuming their sway here, as they do in such cases in all free countries. In this country, especially, it is a habit not only entirely consistent with the Constitution, but even essential to its stability, to regard the adminis tration at any time existing as distinct and separable from the government itself, and to canvass the proceedings of the one without the thought of disloyalty to the other. We might possibly have had quicker success in suppressing the insurrection if this habit could have rested a little longer in abeyance; but, on the other hand, we are under obligations to save not only the integrity or unity of the country, but also its inestimable and precious Constitution. No one can safely say that the resumption of the previous popular habit does not tend to this last and most important consummation, if at the same time, as we coufidently expect, the Union itself shall be saved. I am, sir, your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, &c., &c., &c., London. No. 395.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 10, 1862. SIR: Your despatch of the 24th of October (No. 249) has been received. I have lost no time in communicating the information it contains to the Secretary of the Navy, and he will doubtlessly direct an inquiry to be made upon the subject. In the meantime I am authorized to say that the President, while he thinks that possibly some of our naval officers might, in some cases, have practiced greater energy in enforcing the blockade, has had no reason to question either the integrity or the loyalty of any one intrusted with that honorable command. When we consider the number of contraband vessels recently captured or destroyed, it seems probable that the communications which we shall next receive from Europe will be of a character very different from the one now before me. Instead of suggestions for explaining too great laxity, I expect that we shall soon again hear complaints of too great rigor. SIR: Your despatch of the 23d of October (No. 244) has been received. The President regrets that her Majesty's government has not more favorably considered our complaints against the violations of municipal and international law, committed by British subjects under the British flag, in the case of the |