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DIPLOMATIC HISTORY

WAE FOE THE TJNIOI^,

BEIHG THE FIFTH VOLUME

WORKS OF WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

GEORGE E. BAKEB.

BOSTON:

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANT.

New Vork; 11 East Seventeenth Street.

e^ atmsOt Prua, eambrttit.

f

IT PKEFACB TO VOLUME T.

early day publish an edition of the " Diplomatic Corr«ipondeDce of 1861-9 " for the use of coming generations.

The Diary, or Notes on the War, in thia volume, is made from the DiplomMtic Correspondence, being those portions ot Mr. Seward's almost daily despntches to our MinisterB abroad, designed to give them authentic annals of the progress of the war. The ▼lews given were osually those also of the Executive.

The Selections from Diplomatic Coeeespondence embrace ninety-eight of Mr. Sewnrd'e despatches, selected with the desire of giving as fair and ss full a view as possible of Mr. Seward's philos- ophy i as well as a hbtory of the diplomatic relations of the coun- try during the war. The Trent affair, the officious interference of France and England in the forms of recognition and mediation, the rebel cruisers, the Alabama claims, the invasion of Mexico by France, are among the subjects quite fully presented in the "Selec- taons." Questions of international law are discuased.

Under the head of OCCASIONAL Speeches and Miscellaneous Papers the remiiinder of the volume partakes more of a domestic character. Mr, Seward's attention was not wliolly devoted to for- eign affairs. His public speeches made both before and after his retirement from office, are as interesting as they are pertinent. Many of them, in their familiar style, serve to show the cheerful tone and the great versatility of his mind. However impromptu soma of them may appear, none of them will be found lacking in wiae and patriotic counsel.

Documents and Papbbh, identified with our oountry'a history, emanating from, or bearing the name of Mr. Seward, fill the con- cluding pages of the volume.

Tbs Eduob.

Wasmimoton, D. C, ) Jwie 1, 1883. i

CONTENTS OF VOLUME V.

THE DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION.

MEMOIR.

BlOOKAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL : PaOB 1

Mr. Seward, Secretary of State — Frederick W. Seward, Aseistant — WUliam Hooter, Second Assistant — Officers, Clerks and Subordinates of the Department of State — Minister and Consols — Despondency of Ministers and Friends Abroad — Mr. Seward Nerer Despairs — A Similar Feeling in 1 776 — John Adams — Treaties, Large Number and Important — Natnralization — Russia — China — Isthmus Canal - — Rebel Emissaries — Memorandum — Fort Sumter — A Cabinet Opinion — Napo- leon Threatens to Interfere — An Unofficial Mission to Europe — Mr. Seward's Post- don in the Cabinet and in Politics — W. W. Seaton's Interview — Pro-Slarery In- flaences Eradicated — Emancipation in District of Columbia — The Trent Affair — Dangers Averted -^Mr. Seward's Wise Diplomacy — Treaty for Suppression of Slave Trade — Its Snccess — New Orleans Under General Butler, a Provisional Court of Justice Instituted — Emancipation Proclamation of September, 1862 — Amend- ments Suggested by Mr. Seward Adopted iu Cabinet — Proclamation of January 1, 1863 — Resignation Offered — Senatorial Caucus — Presidential Election of 1 864 — Alabama Claims Instituted — Mediation Offered and Sought in Rebel Interest — Ex- tradition — Slave Traders — Arguelles — The Assassination and Calamities of 1865 Tributes of the Nations — Remarkable Thanksgiving Proclamation — Impeachment

— William M. Evarts — Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendnaents — Reconstruction

— Alaska — Immigration — The Monroe Doctrine — Mexico — France — Presiden- kiil Election of 1868 — Speeches — Voyage to West Indies — Annexation of San Domingo and Danish Islands — Treaty with China — Private life — Visits Alaska, Pacific Coast, and Mexico — 1869 — Journey Hound the World — 1870-1 — Auto- biography — Book of Travels — Interoceanic Canal — Treaties — Nicaragua — Da- rien — Colombia — Intercontinental Telegraph — Russian Telegraph — Atlantic Ca- ble— Mr. Seward's Death, October 10, 1872 — Funeral — Tomb — Inscription — The Legislature of New York, Ceremonies, 1873 — Charles Francis Adams — John A- Dix — Eulogies — Statue in New York City — Presentation Ceremonies, 1876 — Conclusion.

PiARY, OR Notes on the War : 39

Sedition Shows Itself — Insurrectionary Movements — Fort Sumter — No Idea of a Dissolution of the Union — Bull Run — Panic — Manassas — Effect in Europe — A Lesson — Captain Wilkes Boards a British Steamer — The Trent Affair — Diplo- macy — Vigor of our Government — 1862 — Campaigns — The French in Mexico — Slaves Emancipated by our Armies — An Emancipating Crusade — Success in the West — Bumside and Pope's Victoriea — Earl Ruwcirs Opinion — Slave Trade Treatj » Lord Ly odi — Important Strokes in the West — Hostile Attitude of Eng-

▼1 CONTENTS OF VOLUME V.

land — Blockade Snccessful — Army Moyeroents and Succesaes — Fremont, Bankd. McClellan and Sherman — Magnitude of Union Forces — Corinth and Richmond — Captjijej^NcsKjJjFl^ans -^f^ect on France and En;;land — Chickahominy — Farra- gulTHnlleck, Goldftborough — Seven Days* Battles — General Butler in New Orlenns

— Military Situation — Large Preparations — Threatening Action of Great Britain

— Antietam — Foi-eign Intervention Rejected — War on the Ocean Contemplated — Recognition Threatened — Alabama Claims Mooted, Nov., 1862 — Armies Advan- cing, Slavery Retreating — Grant, Rosecrans, Curtis — Garibaldi — Proclamation of Freedom — 1863 — Policy Unchan;<;eable — Bumside and Hooker's Repulses — Sher- man at Vicksburg — Congress Diligent — Confidence Reviving — European Credul-

^^y — Neutrality Laws Persistently Violated by Great Britain — Gettysburg — Vicksburg — Charleston — General Meade — Draft Riot< — The Situation — Ke- Buroe — Negro Soldiers — Efforts to Induce British (Government to Prevent Sailing * of " Iron Rams " — Our Prog^cts, Contrasted with those of Enrope — Will soon he no Slavery to Contend with — Absurdity of Building a State on Human Bondage — Mediation of England — Value of Slaves — A New Campaign — Navy Increasing — FaiTagut — l^ecognition — Emigration from the South to the Territories — Public Impatience — Amendment of Constitution — General Grant in Command — Geijoral

^'''Bauks on the Mississippi — Mexico*— The Wilderness — ChancellorRville — GcMieral Butler — Eighth Day of very heavy Fighting — General Sherman in Georgia — General Sheridan — General A verill — Red Kiver — Army of the Potomac — Severe Conflicts — General Sigel — Genenil Hunter — General Canby — Assaults on Peters- burg— Congress — Destruction of the Alabama by the Kearsarge — Comment** — Invasion of Maryland — General Wadsworth — The Capital Threatened — 6th and 19th Corps — Siege of Petersburg and Richmond — Rebel Emi^^saries on the Caniula border — Election of 1864 — Atlanta — General Ivognn — Mr. Seward Visits Gen- eral Grant — Malvern Hill — General Hancock — Molnle — Admiral Farragut — Captain Winslow — Rumors — Cabinet — Armistices — Enlistments Numerous — Shenandoah Valley — Public Credit Good Loans P'reely Taken — The Atlantic • Cable Completed — Brighter Prospects — The Rebel Steamer (icorgia Captund — Winchester — General Sheridan — Gold Falls 30 per cent. — Staunton — Jeffer.»Jon Davis — General Meade — Elections — Steamers Chesinijeake, Philo I'ai-sons, and Island Queen — St Albans Raid — Canadian Conduct — Notice to Great Britain — ; " Sheridnn^s Ride — Cedar Creek — General Rosecrans — Rebel Government Consid- • ering emancipation and Arming of Negroes — General Thomas — The Hebel Khiridn Sunk — Union policy as to Slavery — Counter Revolution Considered — Kel)cl In- trigues — Army Successes — Downfall of Slavery Manifest — Savannah — Adiniral Porter — Fort Fisher — Henry S. Foote — Francis P. Blair, Senior, Visits Rich- mond, Results — lnter\'iews, Conference-* — Stephens, Hunter, and (^amplx'll, Relx-l Commissioners — Amendment of the Constitution — General Terrv — Admiral Duhl- gren — General Schotield — Army of the Potomac — Rebel Debt l)elusi(m — Mili- tary Convention, Grant and Lee — Overtures — General Stoneinan — Richmond Falls — General Weitzel — Fliu'ht — Surrender — Collapse — Assassination of Pres- ident Lincoln — Attempt on Secretary Seward — Mr. Frederick W. Seward Wounded — Mr. Hunter — Mr. Adams — Passports for Rebels — Pardons.

Sklections from Diplomatic Correspow dewce : 1 87

Secretary Black's View of the I^ate Electicm — Mr. Seward's Instructions to Bu- chanan's Minibters — The Paris Declaration — IVivateering — Maritime War — In- structions to Mr. Judd — Nature of the Union — Mr. Sanford — Counteracting the

x^

CONTENTS OF VOLUME V. Vll

of Rebel Agents in Europe — Mr. Sanford'8 Selection as MiniRter to Bras- » — Free Trade — The New Tariff — KcIk'I Arj^utncnts in Europe — Mr. Adams

— Exhaastive View of the Situation — The Inte Klection — Buchnnan's Adminift- tration — Union and Disunion Contrasted — A Physical Impossibility — Tiie Presi- dent's View and Duty — Loyalty and Diligence of Mr. Adams — Urn Cirandfather, John Adams — Recognition — Inten'ention — War — Position of Great Britain — Cirilization. Mr. Burlingarae — Austria — Vienna — The Union — Reply to Rel)el Ar<riiment8 — Lincoln*s Administration — Forbearance and Conciliation — Mr. Day- ton— France — Misunderstanding by the Liiperial Government — The Agents of the Confederacy in Paris — An Elaborate Statement of the Case — Unanswerable Argomeutii — The Crisis — Fort Sumter Attacked — Surrender — Slavery Consid- ered— A Revolution — Foreign Interference — Extent, Progress, and Termination of the War— ^Wr. King — Rome — Sedition and Aliens — Mr. Wood — Denmark — The Cabinet a Unit — Mr. Dayton — France — Our Policy — Mr. Adams — Great Britain -^.A Permanent Policy Developed — Mr. Clay — Russia — Slavery the Cause of the War — Mr. Marsh — Italy — The Union a Necessity — Mr. Fogg — Switzer- land — Recognition to be Prevented — Mr. Dayton — France — Mr. Pike — Nether- lands — Mr. Adams — Great Britain — Mediation Inadmissible — Mr. Dickinson — Nicaragua — Foreign Intervention — Mr. Adams — The Queen's Proclamation — ^*)(,^ Mr. Davton — Framc'e — Mediation Declined — The United States Soverei":n — Mr. Adams — British Views Inadmissible — Foreijjn War — The Blockade — Mr Adams

— Lord John Russell — Reservation —Congress of Pans — The Trent Afiair — Inter- '^ national Law — Lord Lyons — Captain Wilkes — Mr. Mercier — Mr. Thonvenel — Mr. Hnlseman — Mr. Motley — Au>tria — An Emancipating Crusade — Mr. Wood

— Despondency — Faith — Mr. Sanford — Belgium — Slavery and Cotton — Re- Tiew of the Situation — Foreij^i Intervention — Mr. Dayton — French Sceptici>m — Intervention — Slavery and Colonization — Mr. Adams — Slavery Discusseil — In- tervention Considered — Mr. Cameron — Foreign and Domestic Affairs — Procla- mation of September, 1862 — Emancipation — Immigration — Limit to Civil War

— Volunteers in Excess — Mr. Dayton — Detail of a Conspiracy — The Situation Reviewed — Emancipation Policy — Mr. Pike — '1 lie Higlier Law — Tlie Slavery Questii)n iho erperlmentum crucis of Politics. Proclamsuion of January 1, 18G3 — France and the Union — Mediation — Sympathy of British Artizans — Russia — Mr. Dayton — Our Policy of Non-intervention — Th(r British Courts — The Alex-

4

andra — British Aggressions — Indemnities — Review — Mr. Mai'sh — It.ily — Mr. Adams — A Crisis — War with (ireat Britain — Alliance of France and England — Consequences — Serions Toj)ies Di-cussed — Mr. Dayton — France and Mexico — The Emperor — The " Moniteur." Mr. Adams — Rel)el Cruisers — Karl Russell

— Our Navy — The Alabama, 1863 — Claims Presented — Maxinnliau — Mr. Pike — Negro Emigration — The Conduct of the War, 1864 — The War our own Affair — England and the Irish — Relijnon — Mr. Bigolow — France and Mexieo — Mr. Adams — Death of the President — Tributes — Montholon — Intervention — Y French Views — Monarchy in Mexieo — Maximilian — Our Views — Mr. Dronyn del'lluys — Mr. Kilpatrick, Chili — Mr. Wri'jbt. Pru«»sia — Naturalization — Mr. Adams — Alabama Claims — R<'ply to Lord Stanley — The Ri licl Cruisers — Inter- national Law. The Relations of the United States and Great Britain Reviewed at Lengtii — Mr. Adams — The Alabama Claims — I^ord Stanby — A .Inint Commis- sion — A Mixed Commission — Two Comnii>sions — Mexico — France — Mr. Cam^)- bell — Maximilian --Juarez — C>eneral Sherman — Mr. King — Surratt — l)ipb>- matic Duties — Alabama Clainui, delay — The Irish People — Maximilian's Capture

U CONTENTS OF VOLUME V.

— Jnam — Mr. Campbell — InicrcMsion for Maximilian — Mr. Johnson, MLniiiler to Eiiglunil — InitructioDB — Uoiettlcd Qnestinii* CoiiiiilerFj — NBtiinilizatiun — SeriouH CumplaiuM — Ths Iriah — The Atnbama Claima — A Juii

OCCABIONAL SfKI^CHBB IH

Oceaaional Speechw — Tbe FhU of Vicksburg, July 7,1863 — The Progress of the War — 'I'ho Cemetery at Gettynliurg, Noveitiber I B. 1 863 — The Fall of Atlanta. September 3, 1864 — The Allies of Treason — Politics — Purwi-erance in the War — Election — Aubnm, November 7, 186't — Chicngo, London, anil Itithmoml — Ningara — St Albans — The Assurance o( Vicwj — Reelection of Preeidrnt Lincoln — AasHSsiQHtian, 1865 — I'naideiit Johnson nnd hia Cabinet — Sulyoga- tion — Restoration of Union — The PresiJent's Message — Tlie Nervous Man — Joint Committees — Joint Resointiona — The Freedmen'i Bnrcan — The Siluslion /"and the Duty, 1868 — Mexico— Reconstroction — Reconciliation — The ThJr- teenth Amendment — A Hopeful View — Alnska — Speech at Sitka August 13, 1869 — The North Pacific Coust -British Columbia — Our North Pacific SUtcs- Speecheaio Mexico — Reception of the Chinese Embas^'; — Mr. Bnrlingame — The DoHen CHnal -— A Corporation — Peter Cooper — A Visit from Syracuse Friends, April, 1870 — The Destiny of America.

HiaCBLLAHKODI Pafbkb : SM

Proclamation of Emnndpalion, 1863 — Amendmenu of Constitntion- 1S65 — The "Thirteenth Amendment" — Correspondence with Governors o( RecoD^lrocted States — Repudiation of Retiel Debts — Provisional Governors — The Fourteenth Amendment- Fugitive Slaves in tS61 and General McClellou — Thgatibs- Nkt- uralimtion — Alaska — Chinese — Suppression of Slave Trade — Dnrien — Cabinet Paper on the Reinforcement of Fort Sumter, the Arpument — Governor Hicks- Rebel Emissaries — John Forsyth — Immigration, Rights of Aliens — The L'nion and the Church— A Vindication— Dr. Thompson — The Clerks of the Depart- ment — " Sbwabq."

I Ihdsx..

..61T-6H

MEMOIR.

MEMOIR.

Mb. Sbwabd entered upon his duties as Secretary of State on the 5th of March, 1861. His son, Frederick W. Seward, was ap- pointed Assistant Secretary on the 6th.

William Hunter, who had been in the Department of State since May, 1829, was retained as chief clerk, and subsequently made sec- ond Assistant Secretary, which office he still holds.^ At different times during his life he was the acting Secretary of State.

Of the subordinates in the department who began with Mr. Sew- ard, nearly all continned to the close of his second term, eight years. The correspondence ' occurring at the termination of their official relations with Mr. Seward discloses something of the spirit in which the duties of the department were discharged by all, even the humblest, of its officers during those eventful years, as well as the appreciation they received from their venerated and distin- guished chief.

While despising political cant about "economy," Mr. Seward conducted the affairs of the department with an inexpensiveness that attracted the notice of Congress. Its sphere of duties was at the same time greatly enlarged.

Mr. Seward's coadjutors abroad were well chosen for their ability and patriotism, — such men as Charles Francis Adams, Henry S. Sanford, William L. Dayton, Anson Burlingame, George P. Marsh, J. Lothrop Motley, Thomas Corwin, Carl Schurz, and Jolin Bige- low. Their despatches ^ to the Secretary of State, as publislied by Congress, bear ample proof of the fidelity and industry which characterized this important branch of the public service during the war. Mr. Seward never failed to acknowledge and commend the

s 1888. * Sm po«t, pag«614.

• 8m DIploDMitic GoixwpoiMlMiot, M pttbUatiMl by CoogrMt, 18Gl-ld69, 21 voIa.

I

eealous and faithful manner in which they seconded hie efforte to" maintain just and peaceful relations between the United States and all the nutioDS of tlie world. His consular system, which at an early period became self-sustaining, Wiis perfected and made an im- portant branch of foreign intercourse. _

With notable exceptions, the ministeni abroad were itu-linej'l to regard the success of their government despairingly, 'i"heir I despatches to Mr. Seward, reflecting the general sentiment at for- eign conrta, were full of criticisms on the condnct of the war, and weighed down with gloomy forebodings of its final result. Mr. Seward, on the other hand, never despaired. Patiently, and with great ability, he answered the doubting epistles of his correspond- ents, explaining what lo them was dark or seemingly unwise, and re-inspiring them with hope of the salvation of tlie Union; at the same time famishing them with facts and arguments to counteract the plots and misrepresentations of its enemies.

Never for a moment himself doubting the triumph of the Re- public, it was with deep regret that he snw any indulgence of de- spondency among thosii who represented it iii foreign lands. Grave apprehensions of foreign interference were more rife abroad than at home. These Mr. Seward labored constantly to allay, while with DO leas assiduity he sought to remove all grounds for such disheart- ening feara.'

John Adams, during the Revolutionary War, encountered among bis foreign correspondents doubts of the success of the cause of in- dependence not unlike those Mr. Seward so often had occasion to remove or allay. In a letter to the Count de Vergennes, dated July, 1780, Mr, Adams says : " Most people in Europe have wondered at the inactivity ot the American army for these two years past; but it ia merely from want of knowledge or attention." After onr de- feat on Ixing Island, in 177C, Mr, Adams rebuked the despondency of his friends in very similar languagu lo thit used by Mr, Seward. Mr. Adams says : " The panic which is Bpi-ead on ilii^* ticciisioii is weak and unmanly; it excites my shame and iuiliL;u:iti(in. But it is wearing off. If our whole army had been cut to pieces, it would have been shameful to have been so intimidated as some are or pretend to be. Congress I hope will stand firm."

The duties of the Department of State, as we have intimated,

< Sh tepcUh to Ur. Vnt^, IlvtU Zi. IMJ. Ri.c« g1&.

k

THE DEPABTMENT. — TREATIES. 6

were very arduous during the war. Mr. Seward alludes to this in one of his despatches, when he says : —

*' Yoa can readily imagine bow vast a machinery has bean created in the War Department, in the Navy Department, and in the Treasury Department respec- tively. The head of each is a man of busy occupations, high responsibilities, and perplexing cares. You would hardly suppose that a similar change has come over the modest little State Department of other and peaceful days ; but the exac- tions upon it are infinite, and out of all that offers itself to be done, I can only ■elect and do that which cannot be wisely or safely left undone.*'

Mr. Seward, during his administration, negotiated forty-four trea- ties ; among which were those for the suppression of the slave trade, with Great Britain in 1862 ; for the acquisition of Alaska, with Russia, in 1867 ; extending our relations with China, in 1868 ; to facilitate the construction of a canal across the Isthmus, and to se- cure the interests of the United States therein, with Nicaragua, in 1867 ; to secure the rights of naturalized citizens in various coun- tries, in 1808. Three important treaties failed to receive the ap- proval of the Senate : one for the annexation of the Danish islands, one for the cession of the Bay of Samana in San Domingo, and the o^er for the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Darien.

Believing with Lord Bacon that only nations that are liberal of naturalization are fit for empire, Mr. Seward claimed before the goveriunents of Europe, for all persons not convicted or accused of crime, an absolute political right of self-expatriation and a choice of new national allegiance, with all its exemptions and privileges. On these principles he negotiated a number of treaties regulating nat- uralization.

After an experience of nearly ten years, the following tribute to the wisdom and sagacity which negotiated the treaty with Germany in 1868, among others, is found in the annual message of President Hayes of December 3, 1877.

'* Namerous questions in regard to passports, naturalization and exemption from military service have continued to arise in cases of enii<;rants from Germany who have returned to their native country. The provisions of the treaty of Feb- ruary 22, 18HS, however, have proved to be so ample and so judicious that the legation of the United States at Berlin has lieen able to adjust all claims arising onder it, not only without detriment to the amicable relations existing between the two governments, but it is believed without injury or injustice to any duly nat- aralized American citizen. It is desirable that the treaty originally made with the North -German Union in 1S6S, should now be extended, so as to apply equally to ail the states of the £mpire of Germany."

(k-scribea the Department of State as

Mr. Sew&ni, in 1856, tlim it theu WAS : ' —

■' It i« ihu di-po«itol7 of the ^enld of tlie K^publiu. It directs ivnd rp;;ulnteii the men'l)r (.-xecutive op«r»Uon9 of ^ovenitneiit at home, aad nil its fureigii 'vistions. It« agent* am Dambered by Uio huDilreJ, and thx/ are dispersed in all eiviliiei] countries of die world. From the eliief here in his bureau lo tliu neL-retariel of legaiinn in Soiilh Amerien, Gn<ut liritHiii, Frnnce, Ku9ii:i, Turliuy, ami Chinn, there ii not one of these agents who lias uver rebuked or eondenini^il tbu exten- sion or aggrnndizenieut of aluvory. There U not one who dues not evi^n ilufeiid and justify it. There i> not one who dims not loiuntiiin thiit tko fliigof ilie Uuited Slates covers with its protection the slaves of the slavelioldiii^ dass on the high

Mr. Seward had been in office but a few days vrhcn funnel over- tures wt're made to bira by the seeesaiouists for negoliatioiis toward ft setlleini.'iit of eKistiiig difficulties.

The CDiu mission ei-s representing the secessionists at first iisked for an una^aial interview with the Secretary of State. Tliis he promptly declined. They subsequently presented at the l)ep;irt- ment a Beiiled com muni cation to which he replied in a " Memoran- dum "' ruvixwing tlieir c:iae with entire frankness, while explicitly repudiating their positions. Tlie subject of " the evacuation or re- toforcvmeiit of Fort Sumter" was closely cunnected with these quiwi uegutiations, and beciime a ni;itter uf gntve dispute.

Mr. Sewai'd expressed liis opinion tlicieon at length in a confi- dential paper submitted to the Preuident in Cabinet Council,^ ou the 16tli of Marcii, 1861.

It wa.1 during the darkest days of the Rebellion, when tiiickening ^astera were befalling our anniea in the field, and tre;iaon was ac- tive at Washington and in the North, with rebel omissaiies and their allies plotting mischief on the Canadian border, and our for- eign relations in their moat critical condition, that Napoli'on com- municated, in an autiigiaph letter, his intention to intiTit'ne in the contest with all the strength he could commiind. Mr. Seward re- plied to this tlireat in decided but becoming ]an[;naj;e.

He furthermore conceived the ide^i uf sending to Eiirupi>, in an unofficial cApacity, three representitive and influential nn'U to ineut the impending danger of foreign interventioa. Ue chose fur this

HIS POSITION IN THE CABINET. 7

mission Archbishop Hughes,^ Bishop Mcllvaine and Mr. Thurlow Weed.a

Mr. Seward, on assuming the responsible duties of bis office, ab- solved himself from all party allegiance that might in any manner embarrass him. He especially renounced all aspirations for the presidency, and surrendered all ambition except that of saving the Union.

Nevertheless, misapprehensions prevailed in regard to his views and his course, and his position in the President's Cabinet. It was never his habit to explain or defend his official conduct in the news- papers before the public. We find him, however, in July, 1862, when the tide of misrepresentation was at its height, departing some- what from his rule, engaging in a converaation with tho editor^ of the " National Intelligencer," in which he gave emphatic contradic- tion to a number of false and mischievous accusations current at that time in the newspaper press.

** The honorable Secretary," says Mr. Seaton, ** freely admitted that he felt, perhaps more sensibly than others, the importance of avoiding misapprehensions in public affairs, because it devolves upon him to daily counteract the effect abroad of publications which often are not more inconsiderately made than they are speedily corrected at home. The armies of the government, which are strong as they are brave, need reinforcements, and the world needs to know that they are promptly coming in response to the call of the government. Every rumor of division of counsels, and of conflict among or about generals, every private jeal- ousy, and even the utterance of every private grief, however unavoidable, tends U) defeat these important objects.

" The Secretary, therefore, felt fully authorized and at liberty to say, that he never exercised nor assumed a power or a duty in the proi^ress of this war with which he was not specially charged by the Prei^ident, and in the perfonniince of which he was not alwavs in free communication with him. That neither to the President nor to any other person has he ever expressed distrust of the Pre>ident or of any of his associates in the government; but, on the contrary, has uniformly supported and defended them all. That he has not been quick or willing to en- tertain complaints against any general, whether Scott or McDowell, Fremont or McCIellan, or Halleck, or Grant, or Buell, orTDix, or Sigel, or Shields, or Banks, or Blencker, but has exerted his best endeavors to sustain ilutu all, more when they encountered defeats than when they achieved victories. That he has neither introduced nor encouraged any test question in the Cabinet concerning men or measures, or even said or thought of insisting on the appointment, or approval, or rejection of any man, or the adoption or rejection of any measure as a condition of a<lherence to the administration, to the war, or to the cause of the country.

< Congram la 1776 Appointed as one of three Commisiionen to C&ua(U, Rer. John Carroll, af terwani Arehbiahopof Baltimore. * 8m Amtobicgn^kp of TkuHow Wu4, * Hon. W. S9. Swtton.

8 MEMOm.

He has never wen any intemperance in debate in the Cabinet, and has discour- aged it in public bodies and journals, equally whether it appeared in favor of his own views or against them, lliat he never pro[)osed or even thought of requiring the removal or the overruling of the propositions of any member of the Cabinet, nor has he proposed or thought of resigning his own place in it, nor has ever one won! of unkindness or distrust pa8se<l between the President or any of his official ndvisers and himself. He is content, as he hitherto has been, to remain where lie is, so long as this causeless and iniquitous war continues, and so long as the chosen chief magi'<trate of the country requires it, even though his advice should l»e overruled, which happens very rarely; and then in cases which his own judg- ment, better informed, i^omftimes approves. At the same time he would not, if he could, for any reason prolong his stay in the place he now hold< one hour beyond the time when the President should think it wise to relieve him. And when he shall retire from it, it will be with the determination he has mon^ than once heretofore expressed, under no circumstances whatever to be a place-holder in the service of his country, even, although, as he most confidently expects, it shall emerge in its full strength and greatness from its present troubles. He hopes no one of his fellow-citizens thinks so unkindly of him as to 8upi)ose that he would be content to exercise power in a fraction of it, if it should consent to be divided."

The substance of this conversation was generally published, and served to allay many floating rumors prejudicial to the administra- tion.

Mr. Seward, in common with all men holding places of power in the government, was subject not only to misrepresentation, but to gross cjvlumny. His friends seemed more troubled by the assaults made on his reputation than he; to one of these friends he ad- dressed the following letter : ^ —

Octobers, 1866.

Sir : — I thank you for the kind attention you have manifested in writing to me your letter of the 4th instant. In that friendly communication you give me art^port of certain speeches made in your neighborhood with a view to affect the private character of the President of the United States, and also uiy own.

I am not ap{)ointed or authorized to vindicate the President against personal calumnies. The entire ex|>erience of the United States thus far shows that cal- umny of the Chief Magistrate is a chronic form of party activity, and that it has a! ways failed of lasting effect.

So far as I myself am concerned, it is only necessary to say that I have no re- membrance of a time durinn: my public life in which less charitable views of my public and private character were taken by those who differed from me than tliose which :irc now piv sented by o[)p(menti) of the policy which it is my duty to maintain.

My first complaint of unkindness at the hands of any of my fellow- citizens re- mains y(>t to be made, and I think it may with safety be still longer deferred.

> To Sumner Stcbbin^, M. D., UnionTille, Chester County, Peon. See also letters to ReT. J. P. •oo, D. D., post, page 618.

INCIDENTS OF PATRIOTISM. 9

Mr. Seward's patriotism was manifested in various ways during the war. In August, 1862, when the needs of the country were pressing heavily upon its loyal citizens, he addressed the several persons holding positions in the Department of State, as follows : —

August 12, 1862.

To THE Assistant Skcrrtaky of State, and other persons in the service of the Department of State : —

There are thirty-two of us now employed in this department, of whom fifteen are between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. I think we should furnish at least that nural»er of volunteers for the military service, citlu^r [MTsonally or by volunteers enrolled through our exertions respectively. I propose to furnish three such volunteers, and I invite your immediate consideration of the means of find- ing the others The places of those who personally volunteer will be retained for them until the expiration of their time of service.^

When asked for " words to encourage enlistments " he responded :

'* I give them, the United States, the greatest of all nations if they stand to- gether— the most miserable if they fall asunder."

The colored men inquired of him as to their duty in view of the fact that the wages offered to them as soldiers were less than those received by white soldiers. He sent them this reply : —

** The duty of the colored man to defend his country whenever and wherever and in whatever form, is tlie same with that of the white man. It does not de- pend on, nor is it affected by, what the country pays us or what position she as- signs us; but it depends on her need alone, and of that she, not we are to judge. The true way to secure her rewards and win her confidence is not to stipulate for them, but to deserve them. Factious disputes among patriots about compen- sations and honors invariably betray any people, of whatever race, into bondage. If you wish your race to be delivered from that curse, this is the time to secure their freedom in every land and for all generations. It is no time for any Amer- can citizen to be hesitating about pay or place.'*

The total eradication of pro-slavery influences from the govern- ment was one of the responsibilities thrown upon the new adminis- tration. One of Mr. Seward's earliest Jicts was to instrnct the recently appointed Marshal of the District of Columbia to cease re-

» A n^wppaper at the time rcrnarkcd : " The clerksi rcjtpondfrl to the proposition with enthusiasm, anJ we undnrtand that twelve of them have already bt-en fnn^llcil, an 1 that the (.thers will bn promptly forthcoming. A little incident which occurred veHtercLiy ^till further illustrate** Secret^iry ^^«!^va^(^l« patriotL<m. During the morning he Kent a note to ('apt. IIarrov«T fwho is engaged in recruiting dlf<trict m>ldicnt), requesting him to pend to hin office eight recruits They were pent, and an«oon h!« they ap- peared before the Secretary iie handed one of them a neat little pif'kftge, upon which they rt-tired and opened the mynterioiu enTvlope, when to their surprise, they dir>covered a fifty-doU-ir treasury note for Cftctiooe of Umou"

I ceiving into the jail of tlie District, fugitive slaves to be delivered ' up to their maaters, according to a long^ tending municipal ordi- nance. The effect of this wiib to relieve the fears of thousands of fugitives from Virginia and Murjlnnd, who flocked to the District and were sustained for a coiisidfrulile time by rutiuna fui-nished by the government. At the siime time he instructed General Mc- Clellan ' that slaves escaping into our lines should receive military protection, and not be liable to arrest. The Mayor of Washington received similar orders.

In 1850, Mr. Seward introduced a Bill into the Senate of the United States, to abolish slavery in the District of Culurabia. It received only five votes' while iis author was denounced as an in- cendiary and a traitor.

Among the early acts of the administration (April, 1862), was the appointment of Ihi-ee commissioners to carry out the Act of Congress for the emancipation, with compensation to their owners, of all the slaves in the District. Tije result left no slave at the seat of Government, and notably fulhlied the predictions of Mr. Seward in 1^50, and put to flight the forebodings of his enemies.'

On the 15lh of April, 1861, the President issued his prooluma- tion calling for 75,000 militia, to suppress the treasonable combln^i- tiuna vhich had become too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of law. To this call, the loyal people prouiplly re- sponded. The troops hastened to the city of Washington to se- cure its poBsesaioH in the hands of the government. In passing through Baltimore, they met with ai-med resistance from a mob. The Governor of Maryland became alarmed and addressed a letter to the President, asking that no more troops be sent through that state. To thb extraoi-dinary request, the Secretary of State replied ill a public letter,* remarkable for its eloquence and patriotism.

On the 8th of NovemWr, 1861, Captain Charles Wilkes, of the U. S. Steamer San Jaiiiito intercepted on the ocean, H. It. M. mail packet boat Tieut, having on board four rebel emissaries bound for England. Having boarded the Trent, an officer of the San Jacinto, with an armed guard, arrested the rebels Mason, Sli- delt, McFarland and Eustis, and transferred them to .ue San Ja-

> 8M0nl«Df DMintHrl. laot.pagtSW.

> tnlSM, tb>ToulDib>Scuh>«»>f<»^, iiii)*U: In lb* Uouh, *r«S3.iwy><ill *BwVdI. I p. Ill; Tol. I>. |>. W. It'llHiu, lul. it. iLlMt.

THE TRBNT AFFAIB. 11

cinto. The Trent then proceeded on her voyage. Captain Wilkes conveyed his captives to Boston, where they were consigned to Fort Warren, then a receptacle for political prisoners. When tliis trans- action became known to the British government, immediate prepa- rations were made for war. In the United States, the act was hailed as a victory. The Secretary of the Navy publicly apphiuded Captain Wilkes, and the House of Representatives did the same. The Secretary of State, upon whom the chief responsibility in the matter rested, saw, more clearly than others, that a breach of inter- national law had been committed by the commander of the San Jacinto. The President coincided with Mr. Seward, and it was at once resolved to restore the rebel captives to the protection of the British flag.i

Mr. Seward's reasons for adopting this course are ably presented in his correspondence with Mr. Adams and the British and French ministers.^

On the publication of the correspondence a complete change in public opinion ensued. Mr. Seward was regarded everywhere as a peace-maker and a wise diplomatist. Great Britain accepted his solution of the threatening difficulty in proper terms, while the other European powers concurred.^

Thus was settled one of the most formidable questions that con- fronted our government during the civil war. Mr. Adams in his Oration * reviews the transaction with a power of eloquence height- ened by his intimate knowledge of the facts and circumstances.

While the excitement caused by the Trent affair was still alive, the British government, through Lord Lyons, asked permission to send a detachment of troops to Quebec across the state of Maine from Portland, Quebec at the time being blockaded with ice. Mr. Seward courteously granted the request although he was aware that these soldiers were probably originally intended to act iu hostility to the United States. The prompt courtesy of Mr. Seward in this case helped to restore good feeling between the two countries.^

> Mr. Webfitear Secretary of State, in 1861, naid " I cannot bring myself to believe that these Govern - menta (England and France) or either of them, dare to search an American merchantman on the high ■eas to aaeartain whether individuals may be on board bound to Cuba and with hostile purposes." PriTate Corm>pondence, p 477.

s See pages 296-810.

* The points of International Law presented ia the '' Trent Case,'* are concisely diitcussed by Dana in his Notes to Wtacaton.

* Seepage 86.

* It is a coincidence in history, that In 1790, Lord Dorchester axkrd leave of President Washington to msxeh a Britisli army from Detroit to the Mississippi River. See Ilamiltou's Worics, vol. iv., page 48.

r2 MKMOIR.

Despite the ezistcDce of the war, and the accumulation of labon it brought upon Mr. Seward, he found time to negotiate a treaty with Great Britain for the suppreBsion of the slave-trade. On tlie -Otii <if May, 1862, it was ratified, and Congress proceeded at once to give eSect to its provisions. Tlie i-eeulc was tlie total eradica- tion of the nefariona traffic. In 1866, Mr. Seward waa able to sug- gpst the withdi'awat of the naval forces, no longer required to en- force the provisions of the treaty. Many attempts had lieietofore been made, ineffecUially. to negotiate a treaty not siiliject to na- tional jealousies nor in conflict with the interests and policy of our slave-holders. In 1817, Wilberforce urged the matter upon the at^ tention of John Quinoy Adams, who, when he became Secretary of State in 1824, negotiated a similar treaty. But it tailed to reeeive the confirmation of the Senate. Tlie subject often wore a threaten- ing aspect. In negotiating the present treaty, Mr. Seward and Lord Lyons removed every embarnissment. " Had such a treaty," said Mr. Seward, "■ been made in 1808, there would have been now no sedition here and no disagreement between the United States and foreign nations." On another occasion he remarked, " The African slave-ti-ade which has been bo long clandestinely ojirried on from American porta whb a mercenary traffic without even the poor pretext that it brought laborers into our country, or that other and worse pretext that it was necessary to the safety or prospei-ity o( any state or section. It was carried on in de6anoe of our laws by corrupting the administration of justice. The treaty contains DO provisions that can embarrass an honest and lawful trade, and none that can InBict a wonnd upon the national pride. It was freely offered by this government to Great Britain, not bought or solicited liy that government. It is in harmony with the sentiments of the American people. It waa ratified by the Senate unanimously, and afterwards distinctly approved with not less unanimity by both houses of Congress. Not a voice has been raiseil against it in the country."

Under Mr. Seward, "corrupting the administration of justice" ceased. Slave-traders were hanged in New York or delivered to their own governments for punishment.' It waa indeed through his very peremptory instructions that the laws of the United States Hgainst this crime, were, for the first time, rigidly enfoi-oed, againak powerful infiuences, and execution carried into effect.

> Sh U» ait of AiiiHllai, |a>f* ID,

J

THE EMANCIPATION PBOGLABIATION. 18

•

After the captare of New Orleans by the Union forces, in May, 1862, a large number of foreign-bom persons, not naturalized, re- siding there, made numerous claims and raised a variety of ques- tions which, through the ministers and consuls of their respective countries, were brought to the attention of the Secretaiy of State. Many of these questions were of an intricate and delicate character. The military authorities in Louisiana failed to render any satisfac- tory solution of them.

Mr. Seward conceived the idea of establishing a provisional court in New Orleans, to be entirely independent, with powers un- limited, and whose decisions should be conclusive in all ciises. An executive order to tliis effect was issued on the 20th of October, 1862, proclaiming that whereas

'* The insurrection which has for some time prevailed in several of the States of the Union, including Louisiana, having temporarily subverted and swept away the civil institutions of that State, including the Judiciary and the judicial author- ities of the Union, so that it has become necessary to hold the State in military occupation ; and it bein^ indispensably necessary that there shall be some judicial tribunal existing there capable of administering justice, I have therefore thought it proper to appoint, and I do hereby constitute a provisional court, which sliall be a court of record for the State of Louisiana, and I do hereby appoint Charles A. Peabody of New York to be a provisional judge to hold said court ... his judgment to be final and conclusive. . . .

By the Presidknt : William H. Seward, Secretary of State,''*

All causes, civil and criminal, including causes in law, equity, rev- enue and admiralty, were within the powers of this court, and no review of its judgments by any other court was allowed. Its au- thority and the validity of its acts were considered in the Supreme Court of the United States and fully sustained.^

The Saint Albans raid added not a little to the duties and re- sponsibilities of the Secretary of State. He sent an agent to Mon- treal and engaged able counsel ^ to endeavor to secure the rights and property of the citizens of Vermont in the courts of her neigh- boring province, but without avail.

The Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862, and that of January 1, 1863, both ^ received the hearty approval of Mr. Sew- ard. At a cabinet meeting held to consider the September prucla- mation, Mr. Seward suggested two important amendments to Mr.

> See Albuiy Law Journal, Vol. Til , pagi« 348. s George F. Edmundf*, now United States Senatoc • 8m poet, pagee 345, 591

14

UBMOIR.

Lincoln's draft of the document. He had at a previous meeting I adyised a delay in issuing the procLimation, foi' the reason that we were tben humbled by repeated defeaEs of our iirmies, and that a Itetter impression would be made if the proclamation came after u victory, when it would not appear as a token of despair. The Pres- ident ivccepted tlie advice and now ' tliat a grand simtess had been achieved at Antietam " the day had come. He called upon the nicinbeis of his Cabinet for their views and criticisms on his impor- tant pMper.

Mr. Seward suggested that it would be better to leave out all referL'Hce to the act being sust^kined during tlie present administra- tion, and not merely say the government " recognizes " but that the army and navy will " maintain" the freedom proclaimed.

Mr. Lincoln characterized the suggestion as " very judicious," and favored its adoption. The modififation was concurred in unan- imously.

Mr. Seward then further proposed that in the passE^ relating to "colonization," it should plainly appear that the coloniz^ition proposed was to be only with the consent of the colonists and the consent of the States in which colonies might be attempted. This suggestion also was adopted. I When the first day of January, 1863, arrived, nearly all opposi- I tion bad ceased, and the public mind was prepared for the great I proclamation. At noon on that day, Mr Sewai-d took the engrossed copy to the executive mansion, where, in the council chamber of the President, it was signed by Mr. Lincoln and Mr, Seward, and after- ward received the seal of the United Slates at the Department of State, and was deposited among the archives. I During the periml of gloom and excitement which succeeded the I appalling defeat of the Union army before Frederiokshurgh, De- cember l3th. 1862, a caucus of Republican senators g;ithered and hastily passed resolutions advising the President to change tlie chief memlx-r of his Cabinet, and appointed a committee to lay the reso- lution before liim.

Learning of the action of the caucus, Mr. Reward instantly wrote his resignation, and placing it in the Presi.lent's hands, withdrew from the department. When the senatorial committee arriveil at the executive mansion they found the President had convened all

I

THE CABINET. — MEDIATION. 15

fche remaining members of the Cabinet to meet them and discuss the question. They were informed that if they proposed to take the untenable ground that Cabinet appointments or changes were to be dictated by Congress or caucuses, it would be making a radi- cal change in the national system, in which the Cabinet were not prepared to acquiesce. The action of the caucus was the more un- reasonable in this case, because the Secretary of State wiis in no wise responsible for the military disasters.

Rather than consent to the proposed change, the whole Cabinet were prepared to resign their seats. The Secretary of the Treas- ury had already placed his resignation in the President's hands, and the others would follow his example.

Meanwhile, as the news got abroad, protests and animadversions upon the uncalled-for action of the caucus began to pour in through the press and the mails. More sober counsels then prevailed, and th >8e who had biken part in the caucus began to explain and modify their course. The following letters show the result : —

Executive Mansion, Washington, December 20, 1862.

Hon. William H. Seward and Hon. Salmon P. Chase.

Gentlemen: — You have respectively tendered me your resignations as Secretary of Stat« and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. I am apprised of the circumstances which may render this course personally desirable to each of you ; but, after most anxious consideration, my deliberate juds^ment is, that the pubHc interest does not admit of it. I therefore have to request that you will resume the duties of your departments respectively.

Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln.

Department of State, Washington, December 21, 1861. Sunday Morning.

My Dear Sir: — T have cheerfully resumed the functions of this department, in obedience to vour command.

m

With the highest respect, your humble servant.

William H. Skward. The President of the United States. ^

Mediation between the government of the United States and the rebels was offered by different foreign pr)wer8, at several stages of the war. The disloyal element of the North encouraged such pro- positions, while the government repelled every offer of the kind. Mr. Seward had promptly rebuked the first suggestion of foreign ar- bitration in his letter to the Governor of Maryland in April, 1861.*

s Bm page 609.

16

E»rl y in 1863, the Emperor of France made a formal pnmnta- UtAi of xlMi ^abject to oar government ihrongfa M. Menaen the Min- MAff <A t'nuieh reisiding at Wa«bington.^

Uskd*fr d^Lt^ ol February 6. l^jo. Mr. Sewazxi prepaired a desr ]/SiU'h^ to Mr. Darton of remarkiible ability, giving the reasons for d«?c'liijiijg tci euter into diplomiitie discaasion with the insur- gentJi.

In the aotumn of lr^4. the canvass for th^ Presidential elecdoii op^rie^l under very trying circumstances. The war was stUl raging With varied fortunes. The Union party nominated Mr. Lincoln Vjt reelection. Tlie opposition presented as their candidate. Gen- eral G«-org»i B. McClell^tn, who had been retired from the com- mand of the Union army two years before. Tlie platform of the opf^'Aition d«rclared the war to be a failure. General McClellan repudiated its treasonable features in accepting his nomination. He nevertheless received the support of the disloyal element of the North and the secret aid of the insurgents. Mr. Seward, in a «{>eech ' at Auburn, November 7, 1864, portrayed the situation in a clear and fXinvincing manner.

The eIe<^;lio(i resulted in the choice of Abmham Lincoln by an e]e<:toral vote of 212, U} 21 for General McClellan. Andrew John- son was elected Vice-President.

Ah <farly as November, 1862, Mr. Seward had directed that reo- laniatioii should be made on the British government for the dam- Mg^fH iniii<'ted up»u American commerce by the Alabama and other vcwm'Ih of Kritish origin. In 1863, propositions for " any fair and t'qiiitabie form of arbitrament '* began to be discussed.

in 1>565 (August 30), Lord John Russell announced that "Her MaJ4'Hty*H government must decline either to make reparation and con}|>enHHtion for the captures made by the Alabama or to refer the queHtion to any foreign state."

On thtf 27th of August, 1866, Mr. Seward presented to the HrttiHli government a list of individual claims on account of the piiatts Alabama. Then followed a series of negotiations and corre- spondence between the two governments which continued until the close of Mr. Seward's administration as Secretary of State.

The several vessels built in Great Britain and devoted to the ser- vice of the confederates were a constant source of anxiety to the

<aMFH«87e. >8Mi»f»87«. /»8mi»c»606.

THE ALABAMA CLAIMS. 17

Department of State, and a frequent topic of correspondence be- tween the Secretary and our ministers abroad. He did not hesitate to denounce all these vessels, their officers and crews, as pirates ^ because they belonged to no nation or lawful belligerent.

The destruction of the Alabama by the Kearsarge in June, 1864, and the capture of the Florida in the waters of Brazil in October of the same year, elicited from Mr. Seward despatches of remark- able interest.

Owing to a change of ministry in Great Britain, during the con- troveray, and to other causes, more or less delay occurred in the negotiations.

The propositions made by Great Britain, through L#ord Stanley, for arbitration were declined by the United States, because they contained reservations and limitations incompatible with the rights, interest and honor of our country. Mr. Seward nevertheless ex- pressed a confident opinion that Great Britain would not finally re- fuse to satisfy our just and reasonable claims which involve the sacred principle of non-intervention — a principle, he added of not more importance henceforth to the United States, than to all other commercial nations.^ On another occasion he said, ^^ I feel bound U> declare my opinion before the world that the justification offered by Great Britain for the course pursued by her ministry cannot be sustained before the tribunal of nations.'* ^

On the 4th of July, 1871, a treaty was proclaimed by Mr. Sew- ard's successor, Mr. Fish, providing for an amicable settlement of \ all causes of diflFerence between the two countries by a joint high commission. This commission instituted a tribunal of arbitration which met at Geneva, in Switzerland, in 1872. This tribunal was \ empowered to determine whether Great Britain had failed to fulfil ' any of its duties toward the United States during the Rebellion, and, if so, to fix the proper sum of money to be paid, in gross, to the

United States in satisfaction of the various claims presented. The

* Mr. Webster, Secretary of State in 1851, defined a pirate thus : " An armed Teasel fitted out obviously and flagauatly for warlike purposeo, found sailing on the high seas without a commission from any acknowledged fOTemment . . . might be regarded as a pirate.'' (Private Correnpondence, p. 477.)

* See Despatches to Adams, August 27, 1866, January 12, 1867, and August 12, 1867.

s During the rebellion of the South American States against Spain and the administration of Jamea Monroe, John Qoiney Adanu being Secretary of State, a similar course of privateering or piracy ema* \ nated from the United States. Baltimore, in 1820, rivalled Ljverpool in 1863, in sending out piraUcal eroiMrs like the Alabama and the Florida. But the vigor of Monroe's administration in efforts to sup- press and restrain ibe onlawfol enterprises was in marked contrast with the feeble attempts of tha BiiUah fofanunant in 1861-1864. Bee Memoixs of John Quinoj Adams, Vols. IV.« V.

S

18 MEMOIE.

tribuiDil awarded liCteen and one half millions of dollars to tlie United StHtes, under the power conferred. The BritiBh govern- ment promptly paid the auin which hiiil been thua awarded. This ended a controveray originated and managed, on Mr. Seward's part, with great ability ^ and uiiwearii^d zeal — met as he often waa, in his demands, by peremptory robuEfs from Lord John Russell.

Mr. Seward, as we have seen, never remitted iiis efforts to secure a settlemeiit of our daims against Great Britjiin. Negotiations of other treaties were vigorously prosecuted about the same time at liome and abroad. The title to the island of San Juan, which was 6Dallj awarded to the United States by the arbitrator, was included in the subjects under discussion. The difficult qneatinns with Great Britain, Germany and other nations relating to naturaliza- tion, were carefully considered, and several treaties thereon were negotiated.

Not only did no act or word of Mr. Seward, during hia admin- istration, ever prolong for one day the existence of slavery, but his hand iind seiil are to be found on the treaty which put an end to the slave-trade throughout the world; on the Emancipa- tion Proclamation, a military measure, and on the constitutional amendment that forever abolished slavery throughout the United States.

The records of the Department of State imder Mr. Seward bear witness to the recognition of Hayti and its blai:k representatives ; the abolitimt of the foreign and the internal slave-trade ; the aboli- tion of slavery in the District of Columbia and throughont the Union. Mr. Seward, ever mindful of human rights, instructed our n]inist«rs abroad, that the decree of emancipation reached even foreign lands. Id July, 1868, he wrote as follows ; ~ ' " The great change of the political relations between the races in this country has made it the duty of tliis government to see that no unjust or unnecessary discriminations are made in foreign countrtes

■ Mr B*uU,u Tgrooto Id Stplcmtier. 197S, tl»n SecncvT ot SuU, In ■ public uldn'', ncvcniml

SnitBtrior, Mr. Savud, a ttml /tit, sdlltllng bin lo Itac (nUIuds el tbc propls ol Bngland, u wcU h ts ths (tBlllad> of the p»pl« ol bit own counlii — [ mtu hli fkllful nuiuciiiwnCol IbanUtioQi b*-

dlplnmu} tamllj mrrtrOiii in bringing about bctman tht lira naUani a niluUon at tht laimi of dUB-

EXTRADITION. — SLAVE-TBADEB8. 19

between citizens of the United States of different birth, extraction, or color."

To such lengths did Mr. Seward's opposition to slavery go, as we have seen in oar progress, that he did not hesitate, the President con- curring, to surrender a noted Cuban slave-trader, named Arguelles, to the Spanish authorities for punishment, notwithstanding there was no extradition treaty existing between Spain and the United States to warrant such a surrender. Although this criminal was a most atrocious offender, and although Mr. Seward's course had the approval of the President, much indignation was manifested in cer- tain quarters and Mr. Seward was bitterly denounced. Resolutions of inquii*y into the matter were introduced into Congress. Mr. Seward in his reply, through the President, vindicates his course in a few words : *' There being no treaty of extradition," he says, " be- tween the United States and Spain, nor any act of Congress direct- ing how fugitives from justice in Spanish dominions shall be de- livered up, the extradition in the case referred to in the resolution of the Senate is understood by this Department to have been made in virtue of the law of nations and the Constitution of the United States. Although there is a conflict of authorities concerning the expediency of exercising comity towards a foreign government by surrendering, at its request, one of its own subjects charged with a commission of crime within its territory, and although it may be conceded that there is no national obligation to make such a sur- render upon a demand therefor, unless it is acknowledged by treaty or by statute law, yet a nation is never bound to furnish asylum to dangerous criminals who are offenders against the human race; and it is believed that if, in any case, the comity could with propriety be practised, the one which is understood to have called forth the resolution furnished a just occasion for its exercise."

The President alluded to this case in his annual message to Con- gress in 1864, declaring that he entertained " no doubt of the power and duty of the Executive, to exclude enemies of the human race from an asylum in the United States."

The case was briefly, this : Jos6 Agustin Arguelles, a slave- dealer, sold in Cuba three hundred negroos, stolen from Africa. He then fled to New York, expecting there to enjoy the spoils of his villany. The Spanish police pursued him. His arrest and trial in Cuba would cause the release from bondage of the three hundred

20 MEMOIB.

negroes. No treaty of extradition existed at the time between the United States and Spain, and no power seemed to be vested in any functionary of the United States government to cause the arrest and surrender of the great criminal, a fugitive from justice. He was, nevertheless, arrested in the City of New York by the United Stiites Marshal. The Spanish Minister at Washington was in- formed by Mr. Seward while the arrest was going on, that if a suit- able officer be sent to New York by the Captain-General of Cuba, such steps as may be proper would be taken to place in his charge, for the purpose indicated in the confidential note of the Spanish Minister, Don Jos^ Augustus Arguelles. The Captain-General ac- cordingly designated one of his aides-de-camp as the person to re- ceive Arguelles, and requested that he be put on board a steamer for Havana. On the 19th of May, 1864, the Captain-General an- nounced the arrival of Arguelles at Havana in charge of a confiden- tial officer.

In the course of the proceedings, Mr. Seward, in an interview with the agents of the Cuban government, remarked that "so far as depends on me, as Secretary of State, Spanish slave-dealers who have no immunity in Havana will find none in New York."

The Captjiin-General requested the Spanish Minister at Washing- ton to convey to Mr. Seward the thanks of the Cuban government for liis services to humanity, in this affair, because he had assisted in the exposure and punishment of a crime totally distinct from any politiccil matter. The result of Mr. Seward's action, said the Captain-General, will be the liberation of more than two hundred human beings, who, but for the return to Cuba of Arguelles, must have remained in slavery. To Mr. Seward they owe the recovery of tiieir freedom.*

The melancholy events of 186> can hardly be more fitly recorded in tins volume, than in the words of the following despatches :

MR. F. W. SKWARD TO MR. ADAMS.

(Circular. No. 1345.)

Dkpartmrnt <if Statk, Wa8Hixoti>x, Aftril 10, 1865. Sir, — I regret to state that a serious accident has occurnMl to the Secretary of State and that his injuries are so severe as to render it impossible, for the pres- ent, th«it he should give any attention to matters of offici:il business.' It is hoped

> Sm Dip. Cor xzxrm Von. 2d S«>n.. Flut 2, p. 60, ISSi. * BaYlog been thrown from biB onrriag*.

THE ASSASSINATION. 21

that in a few days he will so far have recovered from its effects as to be able to rearnne, in some degree, bis official duties. Your recent despatches will then be submitted to him. Until that time their consideration is necessarily deferred. I am, sir, your obedient servant,

F. W. Sbward, Acting Secretary,

MR. HUNTER TO MR. ADAMS.

(Circular. No. 1852 )

Defartmkmt op State, Washington, AprUYI, 1865.

Sir, — The melancholy duty devolves upon me, officially to apprise yon of the assassination of the President at Ford's theatre, in this city, in the evening of the 14th instant. He died the next morning from the effects of the wound.

About the same time, an attempt was made to assassinate the Secretary of State in his own house, where he was in bed sufferinjr from the effects of the late accident. The attempt failed, but Mr. Seward was severely cut, on the face es- pecially, it is supposed with a bowie knife.

Mr. F. W. Seward was felled by a blow or blows on the hea<l from the assassin, and for some time afterward was apparently unconscious. Both the Secretary and Assistant Secretary are better, especially the former.

Andrew Johnson has formally entered upon the duties of President. I have been autliorized tem|)orarily to act as Secretary of State. I am, sir, your obedient servant,

W. Hunter, Acting Secretary »

Mr. Seward's only allusion to the "casualties" which deprived the department of the services of both the Secretary ami Assistant Secretary of State for several weeks, was drawn out by way of ex- cuse for an omission to fully acknowledge the manifold expressions whic*h were transmitted to the department from governments, pub- lic authorities, civic, ecclesiastical and educational corporations iind associations, as well as from public assemblies of citizens, nnd from individual citizens, of their feeling of sympathy and condolence with the government and the people of the United States in the calamity which tliey had suffered in the lamented death of the late President Abraham Lincoln. " Owing," says Mr. Seward, *' to some j>ecnliar casualties, the efficiency of the department was impaired at the time these despatches were received.^ They obtained only a simple and formal acknowledgment from the presiding secretary."

'* Our government, simply constructed, with adaptation to the transaction of necessary affairs in the ordinary course of adminis- tration, found itself (in the condltif^n of this department, which then existed) inadequate to the immediate acknowledgment of

1 See Deipatcb to Mr. AdaniB, Nov. 4, 1866.

22 MEMOIR.

Bucb vai'ious and vast obligatiuna suddenly and unexpectedly i currcd." . . . "Nevertheless the President earnestly deaires that retv ogiiition shall even now be mmle of the synipatlii&i and condolences which were then poured in upon us with a profusion that did honor to human niiture."

Under tiie direction of Mr. Seward all these testimonies were printed in a handsome quartu volume of 9S0 pp., entitled " Tributes of die Nations to Abrahum Lincohi."'

One of the first mental efforts of Mr. Seward, after his convaleft' cence from the terrible wounds of the assassin, was the preparation of the following proclamation of Thanksgiving to be issiitd by the President. In this view, the document has additional interest.

Whereas, it has pleased Almight/ God. during the renr wliich ia now coming to ftn end, to relieve our beloved counlry from the fearful eeourgc of ejvil war, tnd to permit ub to fet^un- the ble?^illyB of j>eaee, uiiitv and humionv, villi a greHt enlargement of civil liberty ; Biid whertas. our Heavenly Fnlli«r has also, during the year, graciously averted from u« the calamities of foreign war, p«?ti- k'tive and famine, while our granaries arc full of the fruita of an abunilant Beason ; ftnd wlicreaii, righti'otiBnesB cxaltelh a nation, wliilu sin ia a reproaeb to any peo- ple : NOW, THEKKfORR, bc it linown, that I, AsniiHW Joii.xsoN, Pnisideut of the United Stalet, do ht'rt'by recommend to the peoplu thereof, that they ilo set apart unit observe the Brst Thuraday of December next as a ilny of national thanlisgiving to the Creator of the Universe for ihese great deli vera tieeii and bleseings. And I do further rei'omniend tlial on lliat oceasion, the wholi' people make confession of our national sins against His Iiiiinile goodness, and nidi one heart and one mind implore the Divine ^idance in the ways of national virtoe and holini'fs.

Dat«d, OeL 2S, IS65.

Mr. Seward and General Scott obtained information, during the winter of 1860-61, that the sissassi nation of President Lincoln was contenipiattid by the enemies of the government, even at that early period. Measures of protection were immediately instituted which to many seemed unnecessary. The reality of the danger and the wisdom of the precautions taken, at the time of Mr. Lincoln's firat iniiugu ration, found a sad verificittion in his death at tlie threshold of his second term.

There is trustworthy evidence that President Buchaniin, acting

IMPEACHMENT. — AMENDMENTS. 28

under the secret advice and counsel of Mr. Seward, contributed not a little to the safe inauguration of Mr. Lincoln in 1861.

John H. Surratt, suspected of being an accomplice in the murder of Mr. Lincoln, fled from the country, and finally found refuge in Italy. The vigilance of the Department of State, through its agents abroad, followed him until he was captured^ and returned to the United States. The Papal government promptly surrendered the fugitive, although no treaty of extradition existed between that government and the United States.^ In the prosecution of Surratt in the courts of the District of Columbia, the Department employed able lawyers and spared no efforts to secui*e a conviction. But the jury in each of the two trials failed to agree on a verdict.

Mr. Seward actively opposed the attempted impeachment of the President. He took high grounds against the proceeding, regarding it as an attempt on the part of the prosecutors to depose the con- stitutional President of the United States, and install in his place one of their own number — a virtual usurpation of executive power under the forms of law by the legislature. He accordingly heartily appi'oved the course of Senators Fessenden, Trumbull, and Grimes who were influential in defeating the ill-advised measure. The argument of Mr. Evarts against impeachment, before the Senate, Mr. Seward pronounced to be worthy of a place in history with the best forensic efforts in the trial of Warren Hastings. To Chief Justice Chase, also, he ascribed high honor for the wise and im- partial manner with which he presided over the High Court of Impeachment.

On the 18th of December, 1865, Mr. Seward issued his proclama- tion announcing that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abol- ishing slavery in the United States, had received the ratification of the requisite number of States, by their legislatures, and was now a part of that sacred instrument, the fundamental law of the Union, a measure which he believed necessary to secure our entire and com- plete national independence. Throughout his life, an advocate of universal suffrage for the exile and the emigrant, and even for the slave, Mr. Seward had the satisfaction also of proclaiming the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which aimed to give the right of suffrage, along with equal civil rights, to all, without distinction of color or previous condition of servitude. This proclamation bears

iNoTtmbttKyiase. > 8m ArgiMllM, page la

2^ MEMOIR.

date July 28th, 1868. Tlie amendment excluded from office all who had before the war held office and afterward engaged in tlic Rebellion ; it made the debt of the United States valid and sacred, while the Confederate debt was repudiated.

Ilis prochmiation ^ announcing the ratification of the 13th Amend- ment may be well regarded as the crowning act of his public life. He had brought all his influence to bear upon Congress to secure its favonible action, and it was especially appropriate that this great ordinance should be proclaimed by him.

The 14lh Amendment also bears liis name and seal.* While this amendment was under consideration in Congress he proposed as a substiiut(» the following, substantially, ''All persons born in the United States after the date of Presiilent Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation shall be entitled to vote on arriving at the age of twentv-one vears, and this should enter into reconstruction."

During the year 1866, the nation was convulsed with conflicting ideas of reconstruction. Mr. Seward, in speeches at Auburn and in New Yoi'k,^ gave full expression of his views.

A convention of citizens who favored '" the restoration of the Southern States and their representation by proper men in Con- gress " was held in Philadelphia, August 14, 1866. Mr. Seward's approval of the call for this convention was solicited. In a favora- ble response to the inquiry, he reitenited the sentiments of his Au- burn and New York speeches.

In a letter dated July 11, 1866, Mr. Seward expressed these views : —

** After more than five years of dislocation by civil war, I it* pjanl a restoration of the unity of tlic country as its most imnitMliate as well as its most vital interest. That restoration will be complete when loyal men arc atlmitted as rfpivscntatives of tin? loyal pi'oplc of the eleven States so lon'^ unrcprcsrntc<l in Con.rrcss. Noth- ini; but this can complete it. Nothinj; more remains to bt* doni-, an<l nothing more is neces.-ary. Kvcry «lay*s delay is attended by multiplyin«j and increasin'j; ineonvenience-;, cmbarr;is>nients, and danjjers a.1 home and abroad. ('on;^ros>« possesse> tlit^ power exclusively. Congress, after a session of seven monlhs, still omiis to exercise that power. What can be done to induce Congress to act? This is the (jurstion ot' the <lay.'*

Mr. Sfwanl, entertaining these views, wt'lcomed every effort made

« g«t» po>t, p•l};^»^ .'!*.'>. .'!»9,

» In a IrffiT to tin* «-«Utor of thi« Tolnme. dat^l Aubuni. Mny 2, 1S70, Mr. S<»wftr(i wyn: " Whfii tht racoiiMt ruction <(ii("«iion aroso about thu 14th Amendment, I pn>poscil one, that all perstmN bom in the Unilcil States afriT thv il»te of 31r. Lincnln'i* proclamation abolishing xlavery tthouIJ be entitled Co onarriTing at the ago of twenty -oue y«ani, and thin Hhould enter into roconatruction.*'

* 8e« po»t, page* 6^1*, Ui».

ALASKA . — IMMIGRATION. 2o

to stimulate the action of Congress. In this light he approved the call of the Philadelphia Convention. Congress, however, occupied different grounds, and an apparent alienation arose between him and his former political associates.

While slavery had the controlling influence in our government, projects for the acquisition of northern territory received litth^ favor. The war of the Rebellion precUided the administration of 1861-65 from giving much attention to the subject, although Mr, Seward during that time did not lose sight of the peaceful enter{)rise. In March, 1867, formal negotiations were instituted for the pur- chase of Alaskci, and before the month chxsed, a treaty for that object was signed by Mr. Seward and Mr. de Sioeckl, the Russian Min- ister.^ The Senate ratified the treaty with but little opposition, and having been ratified by Russia, a proclamation thereof wjis made on the 20th of June, 1867. The appropriation for the sum named as the purchase-money was made by Congress on the 27th of July, 1868. Formal possession by the United States took place in Au- gust, 1868.2

Our Minister to Russia, at the time of the negotiation, although he was intrusted with no part in it, regarded the treaty as " a brill- iant achievement which adds so vast a territory to our Union ; whose ports, whose mines, whose timber, whose furs, whose fisher- ies, are of untold value, and whose fields will produce many grains, even wheat, and will become hereafter the seat of a hardy white population." ^

Immigration was always regarded by Mr. Seward as a chief source of the nation's wealth and prosperity, and as one of the prin- cipal replenishing streams appointed by Providence to repair the ravages of war and the wastes of national strength and health. Congress, in July, 1864, passed an act giving the Department of State supervision of the whole subject. Under the operations of the law immigration w;is encouraged and the welf.ut* of tlie ininiigrant protected. This was consistent with the policy Mr. Seward had all his life advr)cat(*d, and which, like his policy of freedom, had en- countered objections, political, religious, and social. He, early in

> See poflt, pfige601.

* The United Statett (l«'riveA a revenue of nearly half a million from Ala.«ka already. lt» postal rcve* Bue if larger than that fromnny other territory, and excffJs th-it of a few Stat«*8.

* 5e*> Alojika and Its Resources. By W. H. Dall. Lee and SheparU, Botftou. 1870. Also speech in the 8Mi*te, on Alaska, 1867, by Charles Sumner.

26 MEMOTB.

the war, inaed a circular to our consuls abroad, calling tbeir atten- tion to the Homestead Act, and requesting them to make public that in no country in the civilized world are such opportunities offered as in the United States, to active, industrious, and intelli- gent men, for the acquisition of abundant means of support and corafoitable homesteads for themselves and their families.^

In 1868, Congress failed to make the necessary provision for the sup[)ort of the Bureau of Immigration, which Mr. Seward had or- ganizf'd in 1864, and it was discontinued. Some of its duties have sina> been assumed by the Bureau of Statistics in the Treasury De- partment.

Consistently with his efforts to encourage immigration he stead- ily op|>osed all schemes for the cohmization in foreign lands of colored men, and discoumged the emigration of the emancipated rare. In this he differed from President Lincoln.

Having advocate<l the recognition of the independence of Hayti and Liberia, he had the satisfaction of receiving Ministers from those countries on equal terms with those of other foreign powers *

The return of peace seemed only to increiise the arduous duties of the Department of State. An increasing number and a greater variety of questions pressed for consideration.

The Paris Exposition of 1867 was, to our countrymen especially, a great success. Under the management of the Department of State, exhibitors from the United States enjoyed facilities which lightened their labors and relieved them of many embarrassments. A ecmference for the establishment of uniform coinage was held in Paris, the same year, in which the Department was actively inter- ested.

In 1866, Mr. Seward was able to congratulate the country that, while sentiments of reconciliation, loyalty, and patriotism had in- creased at home, a more just consideration of our character and rights, as a nation, had been manifested by foreign governments.

The somewhat mysterious course of France toward Mexico was a subject of much anxiety to Mr. Seward. The introduction, into a neighboring Republic, of a monarchical form of government, under a European prince supported by French arms, could but excite the gravest apprehensions. Mr. Seward had plainly indicated to the

t Bee Vol. I., p. 289.

* Ilajtf , Murtrh 3, 1868 : LiberU, Mmj 18, 18M.

THE MONROE DOCTRINE APPLIED. 27

French government (September 26, 1863) that such a proceeding must lead to war between France and the United States. The French Minister intimated that if war must be the result^his gov- ernment would naturally select their own time to commence hostil- ities, which would be the present, while the United States was burdened with domestic difficulties. No such intimidation moved Mr. Seward. Striving ever to maintain a strict neutrality with France and Mexico while the war between the two nations had a legitimate character, he maintained that the United States could not renounce the doctrine that the continuance of free republican in- stitutions throughout America was required for the safety of our own institutions, and for the attainment of that destiny to which we as a nation aspire. This was the sentiment of the people.^ Con- gress attempted to give it expression in a resolution which passed the House of Representatives, but received no action in the Senate. This action served to increase the sensibilities of the French gov- ernment on the subject, and to renew the correspondence between its Minister of Foreign Affairs and Mr. Seward, who took occasion to say that the question in its decision rested with the executive branch of our government, and not with Congress, and that the President did not at the present contemplate any change in the policy so far pursued.

Mr. Seward's positions were controverted by the House, and res- olutions adverse thereto were adopted. The Senate took no action and expressed no opinion in the matter. The original declaration of the House was regarded by France as a menace of hostilities. Mr. Seward's explanation served to relieve the question of its war- like character, and to renew the peaceful relations of the two coun- tries.

After the war had been declared to be at an end (on the 2d of April, 1866), the occupation of Mexico by the French was no longer to be tolerated. Mr. Seward had already repeatedly notified the imperial government of France that the presence of a foreign army in an adjacent and sister Republic was inconsistent with the poli(^y of the United States and with th»^ doctrine proclaimed by President Monroe. On the 9th of April, 1866, assurances were

> The "Monroe Doctrine,*' which had hitherto been a cheriHhed theory, became, under Mr. Seward, ■a irreTersible fact. See Mr. Seward's speeehee in Senate on Clayton and Bulwer treaty, Vol. I., page 876. CHobt App.

28 HEMOIB.

given by the French government that its troops should, ii^ithin a reiisonable time, be withdrawn from Mexico. Many delays oc- curred io the fulfilment of this promise, and it was not until March 19, 1867, that it was fully accoinplislied. Maximilian was captured and shot on the 19th of June, 18G7, by the Mexicans, notwithstand- ing the earnest efforts of Mr. Seward to save his life.^

The Republic of Mexico, having been delivered from foreign inlervention, soon reestablished her constitutional system of gov- ernment.

In 1868, General Ulysses S. Grant was nominated by the Re- publican party as its candidate for President. Horatio Seymour was his opponent. Neither the candidate of the Democrats nor the platform on which he stood were such as to claim the support of the true friends of the Union and its restoration.

Mr. Seward, in a speech '^ of great solemnity, on " the situation and the duty," at Auburn, a few days before the election (October 81, 1868), made the path of duty very clear for those who had been accustomed for many years to follow his counsels in political af- fairs.^ This was the twelfth presidential canvass in which he had participated, and he felt tliat it might be his last. His words, on this occasion, reached bc^yond the approaching election, and became the farewell address of his political life.

In January, 1866, Mr. Seward made a voyage to the West In- dies, visiting St. Thomas, Santa Cruz, San Domingo, Hayti, and Cuba, in all of which places h(» was received with demonstrations of hospitality rnd respect on the part both of the people and the authorities. In addressing the Presid<*nt of the Republic of San Domingo, he said that " the ITnited States regarded the neighbor- ing Republics founded, like tliat of the United States, upon the principle of the equal rights of man, as buttresses, which it wa^ in the interest of the American people and government to multiply and strengthen as fast as it could be done without the exercise of fraud or force."

Mr. Seward's policy of extending the jurisdiction of the United States over the North American continent received a signal illus- tration in the acquisition of Alaska. Believing that a further step

> See dwpfttchfla to Mr. Campbell, U. S. Minister to Mexico.

s 8ee page 640.

* General Grant waa elected Praaident, racelTing 214 eleetorml rotea. Mr. Sejinour reeeifed 80.

THE DANISH ISLANDS — TREATY WITH CHINA. 29

in that direction could be wisely taken, he entered into negotiations in January, 1866, with the Danish Minister, General Raasloff, for the purchase of the islands of St. Thomas and St. John in the West Indies. Neither the Minister nor his government at first listened to Mr. Seward's proposals with favor, but rejected them. lie re- newed them as opportunity offered, and in October, 1867, Denmark consented to part with her islands for the sum of seven million five hundred thousand dollars. In January, 1868, the cession was approved by the people of the islands, almost unanimously.^

Both houses of tlie Danish Rigsdag ratified the cession, and the treaty was signed at Copenhagen on the 30th of June, 1868. The Senate of the United States, however, withheld its approval, and the whole negotiation failed.

Mr. Seward likewise favored the annexation of San Domingo and Hayti to the United States. He was convinced that the time had arrived when such a proceeding would receive the consent of the people interested, and also give satisfaction to all foreign nations.

In bis desire to obtain a foothold for his government in the West Indies, as well for defence in time of war as for the interests of com- merce in time of peace, he early in 1868 laid before the Committee on Foreigi\ Relations, in the Senate, an offer he had received, from San Domingo, of the sale of the Bay of Samana, one of the finest harbors in the world. He strongly advocated the purchase, and took some important steps toward securing it.

Tlie interests of the South American States and of the Republic of Mexico received much attention from Mr. Seward, during the last year of his administration.

In the summer of 1868, Mr. Anson Burlingame, who had left the service of the United States, appeared in Washington with a Chi- nese Legation. They were introduced to the President, wlio wel- comed them to the capital in a speech prepared by the Secretary of State. After a few days' stay in Washington, the embasisy, with Mr. Seward, proceeded to his home in Auburn, where a treaty with China was concluded. Mr. Burlingame being the recognized chiet of the Chinese Legation, the negotiations were carried on by him and Mr. Seward. The treaty was signed by Mr. Seward, Mr. Bur- lingame, and his Chinese associates, and, in time, duly ratified. By it the United States gained great commercial advantages, while,

^ ^le Tote was 1,244 for anaezation to the United States, and 28 against.

80 HEMOTB.

prospectively, four hundred millions of people were emancipated from the bondage of a subtle combination of false philosophy and traditional conceit.^ The negotiation of this great treaty was, in some degree, made more easy and successful through the influence of our treaty with Russia, whereby Alaska had been acquired, and some troublesome international questions had been settled.

Ml*. Seward retired from the Department of State on the 4th of March, 1869.

In August of that year he visited Utah, California, and Alaska, delivering a speech at Sitka ^ which attracted, everywhere, much at- tention.

He also made interesting speeches ^ at Victoria in British Colum- bia, and at Salem in Oregon, on the route.

He spoke of his journey as a visit to " Our North Pacific States " — a term full of prophecy.

While in California, in 1869, he did not hesitate to protest against the ahnost unanimous feeling pervading that community against Chinese immigration. He condemned the policy of exclusion, and persistently maintained that immigration wsis an element of civili- zation, especially to the Pacific coast, and that the attempt to sup- press its *' invigorating forces " would ultimately prove a failure.*

In the autumn of 1869, it became known that Mr. Seward was about to visit Mexico. The government of Mexico, represented by President Juarez, was anxious to honor the man who had done so much, while he was Secretary of State of the United Stiites, to up- hold the Republic of Mexico when its life was menaced by foreign intervention, and through whose instrumentality victory at last crowned her efforts for independence. He was therefore received and entertained as the guest of the nation during the entire period of his stay in the Republic — nearly three months.

Commissioners were appointed and an escort provided to accom- pany Mr. Seward across the continent. SeRors Rendon and Ca&edo had charge of the party from Manzanilla to Guadalajara, where they were met by Mr. Bossero, who was the special commissioner during the remainder of the journey and the stay at the capital.

Not only the general government of the Republic, but the gov-

> SecKt&ry Seward*i tIvws of Chinwe immigration are found in Article V of tlie treaty.

* See pagv) 660. ^ d^ P«g^ 6^.

< See Chtnfu Immigration, by O«oise V. Seward, late Minister to Chiiu. Seribners, Publiihers. 188L

MR. Seward's visit to Mexico. 81

emments of the several States through which he passed, greeted him with hospitalities and courtesies, while there were many spon- taneous and touching marks of popular enthusiasm and gratitude. Passing through the States of Coliroa, Jalisco, Guadalajara, Gua- najuato, and Queretaro, he made a short stay at the capital of each.

After leaving the city of Mexico, like cordial demonstrations of welcome and hospitality greeted him in each of the States through wliich he passed on his way to the Gulf — Puebla, Tlascala, and Vera Cruz.

The following sketch of this remarkable tour appeared in the " New York Times " at the time : —

** Mr. Seward and party left San Francisco by steamer and landed at Man- zanillo in November, 1869. Thence the party, including Mr. F. W. Seward and wife, went to Colima, Guadalajara, Leon, Guanajuato, and Queretaro, which will ever be memorable as the spot where Maximilian met his death. Mr. Seward spent some time at this historical place, and then proceeded by slow stages onward to the city of Mexico. At a distance of about two miles from the city, he was met by the Minister of Foreign Relations, President Juarez, Minister Romero, Hon. Thomas H. Nelson, United States Minister to Mexico, and an escort of about four hondred soldiers. The reception was enthusiastic, and the greetings extended to the distinguished American were extremely gratifying to him. He was conducted in all the pomp of military display to the capital, and there formally installed in one of the handsomest houses in the city, which had been especially prepared for hi.s accommodation. He was here bidden to make himself perfectly at homo during his stay at the capital, and the freedom of the city was heartily extended fo liim.

" Mr. Seward visited Chapultepec, and surveyed the battle-field wliereon the Mexicans and the Americans contended in 1845; also the palace of Maximilian, which was occupied by him durinfj liis brief rei«^n in Mexico. Mr. Seward was everywhere followed by admiring thrones, who expressed their gratification at his visit in the most enthusiastic manner.

" From the 15th of November to the 20th of December, Mr. Seward was en- tertained with all manner of ovations and fetes throughout Mexico. His recep- tion was admitted to have been the frrandest ever given to any foreigner. He was regarded everywhere with the utmost respect and veneration.

"His health was excellent, and he bore the fatigues of the journey remarkably well.

**• At a grand dinner given at the palace, speeches were made by Mr. Seward and other distinjruished gentlemen, and toasts were drank to the honor and pros- perity of the two Republics.

** On the 18th of December, 1869, Mr. Seward left the city of Mexico by spe- cial train. He was escorted out of the city and bidden farewell by President Juarez, his Cabinet, and the principal dignitaries of the capital."

Mr. Seward in his journey through Mexico had frequent calls to

82 MEMOIR.

address the people and authorities of that interesting and recently distracted Republic. A few of these occasional speeches * find a place in this volume, illustrating his views of the country and its government, and their claims to the good will and confidence of our own Republic.^

In 1870, Mr. Seward conceived and csirried out the idea of mak- ing a voyage around the world, notwithstiinding his infirmities, the effects of his injuries in 1805, and his advanced age, — threescore years and ten.^ Several of his speeches on the route were full of vigor and interest.

On this extended and interesting journey, he received many cour- tesies at the hands not only of the officers of his own government, but from those of the various nations through which he passed. Sovereigns and ministers welcomed him and convta-sed with him as one Avith whom they had lield long and friendly olficial intercoui*se. Many enthusiastic demonstrations of popular feeling and affecting marks of individual regard greeted him in almost every clime.

Arriving at home in October, 1871, he remained at Auburn dur- ing the ensuing months, surrounded by his neighbors and friends and frequent visitors from abroad. He commenced the preparation of his autobiography, and proceeded on it as far as the year 1834. Learning of the popular desire and impatience for an account of his travels around the world, he concluded to take up that literary task first, postponing the completion of his autobiography to a later pe- riod/* The volume of travels thus prepared, indited by his adopted daughter, Olive Risley Seward, was published by D. Appleton & Company in 187o, and was widely read.

Mr. JSeward, while Secretary of State, on rare occasions went be- fore the pi(»pl.* to reiterate in public speeches those great principles which it had been his life work to proclaim and defend.

It was, however, his uniform habit to address his fellow-citizens of Auburn on the night before election. His words on these occasions, more or less studied or ex temjwre^ were always gathered up and cir-

» See p. 679-^7.

« A Tolumo entitled Our Sitter Rejmblir^ a Qala Trip through Tropical Mexico in 196^70, etc., by Cul. AnM*rt .s. KvaoA, published by the Columbian Book Co., lUrtford, Conn., given an extendei account of Mr. Seward^H plea.<«ant experience in that country.

s He r(>l4»bnited bin MTcntieth birthday (May 16, 1871), on hii Journey, in Egypt.

* Tbtt niiroliitv^r.iphy thu« left unflniithcd in 1871 waa subsequently printed. It forms the commence* ment of the voiuiiip eutitlod Autobiography, Lift aitd LtUtn ^f WiUiam, H. Stward, publUhed by hit son, Frcdrnck W. b«%iranL

INTER-OCEANIC CANAL. 83

Ciliated throughout the Union in newspaper and pamphlet. The speeches of 1864 and 1868 — years of presidential elections ^ — are preserved in this volume. His speeches in 1856 and 1860 may be found in previous volumes. In 1872, he was too infirm to speak in a public assemblage, but in several letters, made public, he left no ground for any charge of a waning interest in the triumph of Re- publican principles.

Horace Greeley, whose name had been for so many years associ- ated with Mr. Seward's, was the candidate adopted by the Demo- cratic party to defeat the reelection of President Grant.

The tdection resulted in the choice of President Grant for the second time. He received 278 electoral votes. Mr. Greeley died before the electoral votes were cast. Thfere were eighty votes di- vided among the opponents of President Grant.

Mr. Seward's labors were heavily increased during the war in thwarting the efforts of influential but disloyal citizens, at home and abroad, to involve the country in foreign war.^ By wise and vigorous measures he was able to counteract their best laid plans. In some cases he was compelled to resort to imprisonment of prom- inent offenders, who, at the close of the war, instituted against him suits at law.

In the project of a canal between and connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the Isthmus, Mr. Seward had for many years been deeply interested. In 1850 he had sustained the Clayton and Bulwer Treaty ^ which attempted to define the relations of the two powers to the enterprise.

In 1856, Mr. Seward, in the Senate, said, " We are the centre of one system, an American one; Great Britain is the centre of an- other, an European one. Almost in spite of ourselves we are stead- ily extending and increasing our control over these continents. Not- withstanding her tenacity, she is constantly losing her dominion here. This is within the order of nature. It was for three hundred years the business of European nations to colonize, discipline, and educate American nations. It is now the business of these nations to govern themselves. The decline of European power here prac-

' See poBt, pp. 505, 640.

< '^Sotnecitiienn, whose disaffection to our form of govemment has lost them the puhlic confldenoe^ preferring everything to insignificance, have in their despair talked of a dissolution of the Union. Thes^ howerer, are so few that our madhouses will hold them, should acts follow their words of insanity." — Jtfftnon.

* 8e» VoL I., p. 876, Vol. III., pp. 606, 628.

3

84 MEMOIR.

.Ily began with the fall of Oan;ida uiit of the control of FrancBi J in 1763. It has steadily continued, until now only some relics, ] Besaing little vitality, vemain. Without any war ou our part, Gi Britain will wisely withdraw and diaiippear fi-om this continent ' within a quarter of a century, or at least within a half a centnry." ' In 1862, lie made the canal a subject of correspondence with our

IMinisterH to England and France. In 1863 he had overcome all the diERculties heretofore presented | by the government of Nicaragua iu the matter. In 1868 he projected a treaty with the United States of Colum- ^tia, and was so desirows of securing sume satisfactory arrangement with that goverumetit that he sent Mr. Caleb Gushing, as a speciiU iRgent, to join oar Minister at Bogota in the negotiations. A treaty, enibmlying the Monrrxj Doctrine, was agreed upon and | signed by the Ministers. It met Mr. Seward's approval, and on the I 16th of February, 1869, he transmitted the same to the Senate of | the United States. In its 6th Article, it secured Co the United States absolute control of the proposed inter-oceunic canal at tha I Darien crossing.

The treaty was rejected by the Senate of Colombia thi'ougfa . French and English influences, and for unknown renisons failed to Hfeceive the approval of the Senate of the United States.^

A company was organized in New York to construct the ainal. The corporators met at the house of Peter Cooper, who with J Messrs. Roberts, Garrison, Schell, and others had, through the influ- [• «nce of Mr. Seward, become interested in the pi-oject. Mr. Seward [ aod Mr. \Vm. M. Evarts were also present at the meeting.

The remark's of the former, to be found among the "Occiisional Speeches" of Mr. Seward, in this volume,* beside their intrinsic I interest, have an historical valne.

The priiji'ct of an *' Inter-continental Telegraph " engaged the at- ' tentioii of Mr. Seward in the year 18t)2. On the 14th of May, 1864, be submitted his views thereon to Congress.

The submarine cable between Cape Clear and Cape Race on the Atlantic was not yet in successful operation. Mr. Seward urged

OMr. AjiiunJii, vnL xxxiv.. p. n.

amAFiMon-, (V^p/wMh rorlUS. pp. ids, ni4; ■;« i>ii>F-Or»iiic (^iJ, I8«n, Putnuu, Publl«b. I tlto Sfcf. SbvW Jt9VI,lUnliS,UIBII,XLD(i>.lla. m,S«uU>UU>CiiDf.,3dllH.

RUSSIAN TELEGRAPH. — DEATH. 85

upon Congress the construction of a line of telegraph from some point in one of our Northwestern States or Territories across the border of the United States and through British Columbia and Rus- sian America ; thence across Behring Strait ; and thence by an in- land route to the mouth of the Amoor River, and thence to Irkontsk in Siberia. This, with the completion of the Atlantic cable, would perfect a circuit around the earth.

Congress granted, July 1, 1864, in accordance with the recom- mendation of Mr. Seward, to Mr. Perry McDonough Collins, the right of way through the public lands of the United States, with other important facilities for the extension of the line.

Mr. Seward's letter to Hon. Z. Chandler, Chairman of the Com- mittee on Foreign Relations, produced a marked effect.

The completion of the Atlantic cable, however, caused the sus- pension of the Inter-continental.^

Mr. Seward died on the 10th of October, 1872. His remains were followed to their last resting place by thousands of sincere mourners. They were deposited in the Fort Hill Cemetery at Au- burn. The tomb is of white marble supporting a cross horizontally, upon which rests a wreath of oak and laurel leaves. At the head is a cinerary urn of classic design, around which twines a vine of ivy. On the face of the tomb is the simple inscription

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Born Mat 16, 1801. Died October 10, 1872.

On the base of the urn is the only inscription ^ which he desired for his grave, —

He was Faithful.

The Legislature of New York, in January, 1873, made becoming arrangements to commemorate the death of Mr. Seward. The day fixed for the memorial proceedings was the 18th of April, 1873. On that day the Legislature, the Governor, John A. Dix, the Lieu- tenant-Governor, the Speaker, and other distinguished persons, as- sembled in the North Reformed Church of Albany, where an address was delivered by Hon. Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, the late Minister to England. Appropriate religious services, with music, formed a part of the proceedings.

1 8m DMpatchM to Claj, Bowl*, liaxeh, 1807- * A^ vol. i pp. Ixxx.,409.

86 MEMOIR.

Governor Dix, on introducing Mr. Adams, made the following remarks : —

** A quarter of a century ago, this very month, and within these walls, William H. Seward delivered a memorial discourse on the character and public services of John Quincy Adams.^ And to-day the son of Mr. Adams is here to pronounce a similar discourse on Mr. Seward. Thus, with thest*. two kindred ceremonies are associated the names of three eminent statesmen, who have shared larjrely in the confidence and respect of their countrymen, and who, by their distinguished talents and the purity of their lives, have contributed as largely to their country's welfare and reputation."

Governor Dix, presiding on this occasion of honor to Mr. Seward, was a quarter of a century before in the Senate of the United States, and in 1849 retired from that body to give place to Mr. Seward then his political opponent.

Soon after Mr. Seward's death, prominent citizens of New York originated the project of a monument to his memory, which took the form of a statue. A committee conferred with Mr. Randolph Rogers, the sculptor, then on a visit in this country, as to the charac- ter of the proposed memorial. Subsequently, steps were taken to initiate the enterprise. A commission was given to Mr. Rogers in 1874, and he at once set to work upon his model. The result of his labors is the fine bronze statue which was presented to the city on the 28th of September, 1876. The sculptor, it is thought, has per- formed his work admirably. In pose^ the work is dignified, and although the upper portion of the figure is singularly erect, there is no suggestion of stiffness. Mr. Seward is represented in a sitting position. He hiis just be»»n writing, and the hand holding the pen hjxs fallen to his side, while he looks forward witli an expression suggestive of deep thought. These are the main features of the work, but the details are in no way neglected. The base of the pedestal is of New England granite, and the upper portion of van<»- gated Spezzi:i marble. The inscription is simple. In the upper tablet, fronting the plaza formed by the junction of Hroadway, Fifth Avenue, and Twentv-third Street, is the name *' William II. Sew- ard;" and on the larger tablet beneath is inscribed *' Governor, United Stat(»s Senator, Secretary of State of the United States."

The presentation and unveiling was witnessed bv thousands of people. Mr. William R, Martin, the president of the Department

1 See Vol. lU., p. 76.

HIS STATUE. — CONCLUSION. 37

of Public Parks, made the introductory speech. Hon. John Bigelow made the fornuil presentation of the statue, on the ]>iirt of the citi- zens, and it was received by the Mayor, Hon. W. H. Wickhara, on behalf of the city of New York. The orator of tlie day was the Hon. William M. Evarta The arrangements which had been made for the ceremonies were carried out under the control of the De- partment of Parks. The southwestern angle of Madison Square, where the statue is erected, was suitably enclosed ; a spacious stand, draped with American flags, was there for the accommoda- tion of the speakers and principal guests; the statue was veiled with the nation's ensign. '* The sculptor has executed a life-like portrait statue of tlie late eminent American statesman, Mr. Seward. The statue is in every way naturalistic; there has been no attempt to make it anything but a portrait of the man, and this it may fairly lay claim to. He is seated in an attitude of meditation, and in a cobtume such as, in all probability, he was daily accustomed to wear." ^

** Called to the Department of State," says a friendly writer, **at a period when our foreii^ii relations were fraii;rlit with peril and environed with diflieuhy, Mr. Sfward so administered them that, while calmly maintaininir the internal f»overei«inty and the external rights of the government which he reprcsenti'd, the jealous ministers of rival nations pnbliely acknowledged his fairness and his can- dor, and were ahle only to cavil at those assertions of the nnai>ate«l power and dignity of the llepnhlic whieh. made with unflinching confidence in an hour of un[)recedented trial, touched the hearts of his countrymen as tlie expression of a faiih which was then in very deed the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen, but which events have since sliowii to have been well foun<led.' Just men may have misunderstood Mr. Seward, but bis only enemies have been the cmMiiies of riixht and of the co'iiitrv. At tlu- bands of some of these he stiffen-d in common with our f^ood l*re>iilent, whose death the whole worM mourned.

*' That his life was soujrht with the Pn^sident*s was an additional testimony to his faithfulness and ubility. Men seek to kill oidy whom they feai- and bate. That Mr. Seward escapt»(l the nnn*tlerous al tempts made by the assassins, wbo struck at his eountry tbrnu'jrii him, was ;in occasion of rejoicing tbrou^boul the land.

*' TbrouLdi all bis j)ubli(! life, Mr. Seward was the unrelcntiicj f<'<' uf wrong and ojipressi(»n, and one of the earliest and most earnest advocates of tbe cause of free- «lom; a statesman wbo recognized his responsibility to a higher law than that of ."tate neci'ssitv, aiul who vet endeavored to secure the blcssiniis of lilxrtv to all by peaeeful mi'tbods, and to obtain for all the protection of the law without the violation of the law."

1 The London Art Journal of September, 1877.

DIARY,

OB

NOTES ON THE WAR.

DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR.

April 10, 1861. — The presidential election took place on the 6th of November last. The canvass had been conducted in all the Southern or slave States in such a manner as to prevent a perfectly candid hearing there of the issue involved, and so all the parties existing there were surprised and disappointed in the marked result. That disappointment was quickly seized for desperate purposes by a class of persons until that time powerless, who had long cherished a design to dismember the Union and build up a new confederacy around the Gulf of Mexico. Ambitious leaders hurried the people forward, in a factit)us course ; observing conventional forms, but vio- lating altogetlier the deliberative spirit of their constitutions. When the new federal administration came in on the 4th of March last, it found itself confronted by an insurrectionary combination of seven States, practising an insidious strategy to seduce eight other States into its councils.

April 22, 1861. — F'ive months ago sedition showed itself openly in several of the Southern States, and it has acted ever since that time with boldness, skill, and energy. An insurrectionary govern- ment, embracing seven members of this Union, has I )een proclaimed under the name of " the Confederate States of America." That pretended authority, by means chiefly of surprise, easily seen here to liave been unavoidable, althougli liable to be misunderstood abroad, has possessed itself of a navy yard, several fortifications and arsenals, and considerable quantities of arms, ordnance, and mili- tary stores. On the 12th of April, instant, its forces commenced an attack upon, and ultimately carried. Fort Sumter, against the brave and heroic resistance of a diminutive garrison, which had been, through the neglect of the former administration, left in a condition to prevent supplies and reinforcements.^

> Bet despatch to Wood, May 1, 1861.

42

DIARY, OB NOTES ON THE WAR,

The President improved the tfinipm-ary misfortune of the fall of F"i't Sumter by calling on the militiu •}( the States to reinforce the Kedcriil itrmy, and summoning Congress for its counsel and aid in the emei^ency. On the other hand, the iiiiiiirreiitionists have met those measures with an invitation to privateers from all lands to come forth and commit depredations on the commerce of ttie country.

^/a^ 4, 1861. — The insurgents have instituted revolution with open, flagrant, ilendly war to compel the United States to acquiesce in the dismemberment of the Union. The United States have ac- cepted this civil war as nn inevitable necessity. Tiie constitutional remedies for all the complaints of the insurgents are still open to them, and will remain so. Itut, on the other band, the land and naval forces of the Union have been put into activity to restore the Federal authority and to save the Union from danger.

There is not now. nor has there been, nor will there be any, the least idea existing in this government of suffering a diesolutioa of tilts Union t.i) take place in any way whatever.

Juli/ 26, 18fil. — Our army of the Potomac on Sunday last met a revei-se equally severe and unexpected. For a day or two the panic which had priHluced the result was followed by a panic that Becnied to threaten In dernnralize the country. But that evil has ceased. The result is already seen in a vigorous reconstruetinn on a scale of greater magnitude and increased enthusiasm. The ex- Hggeratioim of the result have been as gi'eat as the public impa- tience, purhaps. which brought it abnut. But the affair will not produce any serious injury. The strength of the insurrection is not broken, but it is not formidable. The vigor of the government will bo iiieivaseil, and the ultimate result will be a triumph of the Con- Btitution. D.I not be misled by panic reports oE danger appre- hended for the capital.

Julif 30, 1861. — You will be pained by the intelligence of a re- verse of our arms near Manassas Junction, ami I fear it will, for a time, ii|B»r:iie to excite appreliensinns and encourage the enemies of the Uiii'in inj^lurope; but the blow has already spent its force here wiihont producing any other effect than renewed resolution and L'Onliden<re in the success of the government. The lesson that war cannot lie waged successfully without wisdom aa well as patriot- ism has been received at a severe cost ; but, perhaps it was neoefr ' sary. It is certain that we ai:e improving upon it.

^

DIABY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR. 43

J^ly 30, 1861. — You will receive the account of a deplorable reverse of our arms at Manassas. For a week or two that event will elate the friends of the insurcrents in Europe as it confounded and bewildered the friends of the Union here for two or three da vs. The shock, however, has passed away, producing no other results than a resolution stronger and deeper than ever to maintain the Union, and a prompt and effective augmentation of the forces for that end, exceeding what would otherwise have been possible. The heart of the country is sound. Its temper is now more favorable to the counsels of deliberation and wisdom.

August 12, 1861. — The shock produced by the reverse of our arms at Bull Run has passed away. The army is reorganized ; the elections show that reaction against disunion has begun in the revo- lutionary States, and we may confidently look for a restoration of the national authority throughout tlie Union.

If our foreign relations were once promptly reestablished on their former basis, the disunion sentiment would languish and per- ish within a year.

August 15, 1861. — We learn, in a manner which obliges us to give unwilling credit, that the Sumter, an armed steamer, well known through all the American seas to be a piivateer fitted out for and actually engaged in depredations upon the commerce of the United States by some disloyal citizens, under the command of an officer named Semmes, on or about the 17th of July last entered the jx)rt of Cura^oa, and communicated directly with the local author- ities of that island.

September 2, 1861. — Steadily for the period of four months our forces have been coming into the field at the rate of two thousand a day, and the same augmentation will go on nearly at the same rate until 500,000 men will be found in the service. Our supplies of arms are running low.

We have now reached a new and im|>ortant stage in the war. The enemy is directly before us, invigorated and inspiiiied by a victory, which it is not the part of wisdom for us to undervaliu^ But that victory has brought with it the necessity for reinnve*! and decisive action with proportionate n^sults. Tiie demoralization of our forces has passed away. I have already stated that tliey are increasing in numbers. You will learn through other channels that tliey are equally perfecting themselves in discipline. Commander

44

DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR.

Stringham and GeDenil Bullet's siicceas at HHtttifts was not mereT^ » hrilliaiit iiffair. It brings nearly the whole coast of North Caro- lioa under the surveillance of our blockade. . , . Disunion, by sur- prise and impetuous passion, took the 6rst successes, and prufited by Uiem to make public opinion in Europe. Uniim comes forward more slowly, but with greater aiiJ mmti enduring vigor. This na- tion, like every oth»^r, in the present iis in all other cases, stands by its own strength. Other powers will respect it so long as it exhibita its ability to defend and suve itself.

Srptember .5, 1861. — Reports grossly exaggerated a disaster whii-h was sufheiently afflicting in its real proportions. The ex- ultation fif persons and classes in foreign nations prejudiced against our country and its institutions is one of the penalties we pay for the civil discord into which we Lave fall<-n. But even a very limiied experience of human nature will enable us to practise the necessary equanimity in siielj a cnsis. Changes of habit and policy Hie necessary to national growth and progress. We have hud little reasim to expect that bhiOi changes in our case should always be effected without the oceurrence of some disorder and violence. Let lis be content that the country has virtue enough to pass the ordeal snfi^ly, and that when it is passed our prosperity will be greater and more assured than ever.

Snj'temher 5, 1861. — I can well understand the depression yon experienced on hearing of the reverse of our arms at Bull Run, and the unfavorable comments on our course which this misfortune elicits in Europe. There is, however, no occasion for apprehension of an unfavorable issue uf the present civil contest.

Whatever speculations on the subject may be made at home or abro'id, you may be assured that it is not in our day that treasou is to prevail against the government of our country, based as it is on the rights of man and his cnpadty of self-government.

Siptemberl, 1861, — We have already forgotten the reverse of our arms at Bull Run, which affected you so deeply, and the pros- pt-ct of the i-estonition of the authority of the Union is entirely sutia- fnutiiry. Our volunteer army will, \ have no doubt, vindicate its <'hunu;ter and win buck the confidenee of the country and its friends.

November 22, 1861. — It is a matter of regret that we cannot consistently ofTer special inducements to military gentlemen in Italy who are unable to defray their own expenses in coming to join our

J

DIABY, OB NOTES OK THE WAR. 45

armies; bat we are forbidden to do so by argent considerations. First, we do not need to solicit foreign aid, and we naturally desire to avoid the appearance of doing so. Secondly, we wish to abstain from intrusion into the domestic concerns of foreign states, and, of course, from seeming to do so. Thirdly, our own countrymen are coming forward with just claims upon all positions requiring skill in the art of war, and we must avoid jealousies between native and foreign defenders of the Union. Already the forces in the field exceed half a million, and the officers charged with organizing them report to us that those recently recruited will swell the qumber to seven hundred thousand. If the insurrection should continue, it would be more difficult to keep them down to a million than to lift them up to that figure.

November 23, 1861. — I have regretted quite as much as you have my inability at this moment to give advices to you and each other of our representatives abroad of the course of events occurring at home, and of the general drift of our correspondence with other nations; but this domestic commotion has ripened into a transac- tion so vast as to increase more than fourfold the labors of adminis- tration in every department. You can readily imagine how vast a machinery has been created in the War Department, in the Navy Department, and in the Treasury Department, respectively. Tho head of each is a man of busy occupations, high responsibilities, and perplexing cares. You would hardly suppose that a similar change has come over the modest little State Department of other and peaceful days ; but the exactions upon it are infinite, and out of all that offers itself to be done, I can only select and do that which cannot be wisely or safely left undone.

November 30, 1861. — Captain Wilkes, in the Steamer San Ja- cinto, has boarded a British colonial steamer, and taken from her deck two insurgents who were proceeding to Europe on an errand of treason against their own country.^ Lord Lyons has prudently refrained from opening the subject to me, as, I presume, waitinjx instructions from home. We have done nothing on the subject to anticipate the discussion, and we have not furnished you with any explanations. We adhere to that course now, because we think it more prudent that the ground taken by the British government ahould be first made to us here, and that the discussion, if there

^ MofemberS.

I

DIATtT, OR NOTB8 ON THE WAB.

must be one, shall be had here. In the capture of Mesara. Mason and Slidell on board a Britiah vessel, CapUin Wilkes having acted without any inBLriictions from the government, the subject is there- fore free from the embairaasment which might have resulted if the act hjid been specially directed by ua.>

January 14, 1862. — You will have learned already of the action of this government in the case of the Trvnt, and you will be able to calculate aa wisely aa we upon the signs of peace between us and Great Britain.

It hardly can be necessary to say that the counsels of prudence will be pursued here until the point of national sjifety and honor compel a change of disposition. The condition of atfiiirs is that the insurrection does not advance, while the cause of the Union steadily gains important advantnges.

Our arms continue to be steadily successful, and when we shall have completed our financial arrangements I trust that the ciiuae of the Union will become aa hopeful as it is just.

January 20, 1862. — We havti reason to be satisfied with our course in the Trent affair. The American people cnnid not have been united in a war which, being waged to maiiitiiiu Captain Wilkes's act of force, would have practically been a voluntary war against Great Britain. At the same time it would have been a war in 1861 against Great Britain for a c;iuse directly the oppo- site of the cause for which we waged war against the siime power in 1812.

January 20, 1862. — The tone of the public virtue is becoming sounder and stronger every day. Military and naval operations go on witl) success, hindered only by the weather, which, for almost a month, has rendered the coasts unsafe and the roads itnpasaable,

I have observed that the British people were satisfied with the vigor and the energy of the preparatiouB which their gnvemment made for the war which they expected to occur between them aud ourselvHS,

It may be profitable for us all to reflect that the military and naval prepiirutionB which have been mude by this government to put (Inwii the insurrection have, every day since the first day of May last, etiualied, if not surpassed, the daily proportion of those war preparatioua which were regarded as so demonstrative in Great

J

DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR. 47

January 23, 1862. — Practically, the whole coast of the insurrec- tionary States is falling into the possession of the Federal forces. The expedition under Burnside is in Albemarle Sound, and we trust that it will produce some decisive results.

The government is cooperating with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in restoring this important communication be- tween Baltimore and the Ohio, which will soon be effected.

But the great events of the day are, first, the determined vote of Congress to sustain the government by a tax of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, which will be adequate to preserve the na- tional finances during the vigorous prosecution of the war.

And secondly, the removal of the obstructions raised by the in- surgents on the banks of the Cumberland River, to prevent the entrance of Federal columns into Eastern Tennessee. ^ The victory of General Thomas at Mill Spring was a very gratifying affair; but its brilliancy is surpassed by its strategic importance. You will see at once that it opens the way to Eastern Tennessee, and so to the cutting off of supplies and reinforcements for the insurgent army of the Potomac. You will not err in assuming that this great move- ment is one having no isolated purpose, but that it is a part in a general system which contemplates the bringing of all the Federal forces promptly into activity, with a view to the complete restora- tion of the Federal authority throughout the country.

It is not in our power to control the policies of European cabinets. They acted precipitately in May last, and thus aggravated and prolonged our troubles. It is to be hoped that they will allow them- selves now to understand the resources and the energies which have enabled us to recover from those injuries and to hem in the insur- rection on all sides, so that it njust be soon exhausted and defeated. The spirit of the nation, however, is suflBciently roused so as to en- able us to meet and overcome all adverse designs, of whatever kind, from whatever quarter.

February 10, 1862. — Cloudless skies, with drying winter winds, have at last succeeded the storms which so long held our fleets in embargo and our land forces in their camps.

The Burnside expedition has escaped its perils, and is now in activity on the coast of North Carolina. The great victory at Mill Spring, in Kentucky, has been quickly followed by the capture of Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, and the interruption of the

48

DLART. OR NOTES OS THE WAR,

railroad by whieh the inBurgenta have kept up tlieir com m an i cations between Bowling Green and Columbus; and the divisions in the West are all in activity with prospects of decisive achieveraenta.

It is now nearly one year since the insurgents began their des- perate anJertaking to establish a confederacy of the fifteen slave States. At some time within the previous six months thity had virtually displaced the flag of the Union in thirteen of lliose States by strntagern or by force, and it stood in apparent jeopardy in the fourteenth State.

But the process of preparation has steadily gone on in the loyal States, while that of exhaustion has been going on in the disloyal. Only eleven of iht? aUivn Stitt-s are practically suliject to the insur- gents, and already the flag of the Union statiils. as we think, irre- movably fixed upon some points in every one of the thirty-four States, except Tex^ia, Alabama, and Arkansas. Congress has come fully up to the dischai^e of its great responsibllliy of establishing the finances of the counti-y on a safe and satisfMctory foundation.

What is the operation of the war? We have entered Virginia, and already five thousand sUves, emancipated simply by the ap- pertrance of our forces, are upon the hands of the Federal govern- ment there. We have hinded on the coast of South Carolina, and already nine thousand similarly emancipated slaves hang upon our c:imp!t.

Although the war has not been wnged against slavery, yet the army acts immediately as an emancipating crusade.

Fthruary 17, 1862. — I am not prepared to recognize the right of other nations to object to the measure of placing artiticial obstruc- tions in the chamiels of rivers leading ti> ports which have been seizi'd by the insurgents in their attempt to overthrow this govern- ment.

The active campaign of our land and naval forces has begun. The great preparations which have been made so diligently and BO carefully, in defiance of popular impatience at home and political impatience abroad, are now followed by results indicative of a com- plete and even early decision of the contest in favor of the govern- meot.

Fthruarjf 28, l!^62. — The successes of the Uninn army in the West hnvine brought the whole of Missouri and a large portion of Tennessee under the authority r>f the United States, and having

DIAKY, OR NOTES ON THE WAB. 49

already opened u passage for us into Alabama^ Mississippi, and Arkansas, it has been determined to-day to permit the restoration of trade upon our inland ways and WMters under certain limitations and restrictions, which may continue until the pacifleation of the country shall take place.

March 8, 1862. — You will have noticed our successful advance down the Mississippi and along its banks. Next week we shall ascertain the strength of the obstructions at Memphis. After pass- ing that port the river will be entirely open to us to New Orleans. I suppose I hazard nothing of publicity here by informing you that General Butler with an adequate land force, and Captain Porter with a fleet, are already in motion to seize and hold New Orleans. The armies on the Potomac are also expected to try conclusions soon.

You will, I am sure, need no instructions to use this information in the way best calculated to free our unhappy domestic strife from its European elements of mischief. When that shall be done, all will be well.

I learn that the insurgents have withdrawn from their fronton the Potomac, above and below this city, and are breaking up their camps and retreating before our army toward Richmond. Thus ends the siege of Wasliington, and thus advances the cause of the Union.

March 10, 1862. — Attention has been directed to the extraordi- naiy proceedings which are taking ])lai?e in Mexico. We shall be just to ourselves, and at the same time* shall practise the prudence that will avert any new complication in our afifairs.

To-<lay the insurgent army is retreating from the position it has so long and so uselessly held in front of the capital. The war is retiring within the limits of the States which began it with reck- less haste, and which have hitherto carried it on with intemperate zeal, under the expectation that they would escape from the scourge it was inflicting upon States less disloyal than themselves.

March 15, 1862. — Since the date of my last despatch the Union forces have gained decided advantages. The financial and moral as well as the physical elements of the insurrection seem to be rapidly approaching exhaustion. Now, when we so clearly see how much of its strength was derived from the hope of foreign aid, we are brought to lament anew the precipitancy with which foreign powers so unnecessarily conceded to it belligerent rights.

60 DIAEY, OR NOrES ON THE WAR.

March 17, 1862. — The occupation of so many of the Southern ports liaving been efTectt»d by our forces, and all of the others being now effectually invested, I apprehend that the illicit traffic which has been so flagrantly carried on from Biitisli ports will come to an (mkI.

March 25, 1862. — The events of the week have been striking and significant : the capture of Newbern by Burnside, with the cons<*(juent evacuation of Beaufort and Fort Macon by the insur- gents, and the destruction by themselves of tlieir own piratical Kteamer Nasliville ; the rout of the insurgents, on their retreat from Winchester to Strasburg, by Shields; the victory of General Pope at New Madrid; and the bombardment of Island No. 10, in the Mis- sissippi, by Commodore Foote.

A movement of the main army of the Potomac down the river to Fortress Monroe is qiiii'tly g«>ing on, and demonstrations will soon be made against Norfolk and Richmond.

We suppose our ocean expedition against New Orleans must, at this time, have reached the moutli of the Mississippi.

March 20, 1862. — We have aheady, with a strong hand, reooy- ered tlie control of n<»arly all of the coast of the insurrectionary Statics, and we liave recaptiinul four of the <^reat ports which were wrested from us by tlie insurirents, or betrayed into tlifir hands before the government assumed its attitude of s<»lf-defenee. Wliile doing tliis we have effected a release of all our land and naval forces from the sieges in which they were held by the r<'bi*l8. All tliese forces are, as is supposed, safely acting aggressivoly. Our means are ample, our forces numerous, our credit sound, and our spirit buoyant and brave. The reverse of all this is the true con- dition of the insurgents. They are reduced from aggression to defence. Distra<'te(l between many exposed points, they have con- sumed most of their lesources ; their credit is nearly prostrate; their forces, always t»xa<;gerated, are now very feeble; and they are considering:, not so much how th<*v shall carrv on the war they so recrklessly begjin, as how they shall meet and endure the calamitios it is bringintx i»p()n them. It is under these cintnmstaiices that our army of the Potoniai*, under General McC^leiian, to-dav, is descend- ing that river, jin hundred thousand stron<Xito attack :»n<l carry Nor- folk and Richmond ; that anotiuM* army, under General Fremont, 18 moving upon Cuml>erland (lap, to cut off the communication of

DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR. 61

the insurgents with the more southern States ; that a third army, under G*^neral Hulleck, equal in numbei-s and eflRtiieney with that of the Potomac, is descending both banks of the Mississippi, flank- ing what has hitherto proved to be an irresistible naval force, which is making its way upon the river itself to New Orleans; while a fourth column of land and naval forces, under General Butler and Captain Porter, deemed adequate to any emergency, is already believed to be ascending the river from the Belize to attack New Orle.ins. Burnside has really left nothing to be done to rescue the ports between Norfolk and (vharleston. Charleston cannot long hold out; and the fall of Savannah is understood to be only a ques- tion of days, not of weeks. Mobile cannot stand after tha fall of these and of New Orleans, and all the ports between those cities are already in our possession.

April 1, 1862. — Earl Russell, in the House of Lords, expressed n/ the belief that this country is large enough for two independent nations, and the hope that this government will assent to a peaceful separation fronc the insurrectionary States. A very brief sojourn among us, with an observation of our mountains, rivers, and coasts, and some study of our social condition and habits, would be sufficient to satisfy him, on the contrary, that the country is not too large for one such people as this, and that it is, and nuist always be, too small for two distinct nations, until the people shall have become so de- moralized by faction that they are ready to enter the course which leads through continued subdivision to continued anarchy. All the British specidations assume that the political elements which have been brought into antagonism here are equal in vigor and endurance. Nothing, however, is more certain than that freedom and slavery are very unequal in these qualities, and that when these diverse elements are eliminated, the former from the cause of sedi- tion, and the latter from the cause of the government, then the government must prevail, sustained as it is by the cooperating sentiments of loyalty, of national pride, interest, ambition, and the permanent love of peace.

April 3, 1862. — The late achievement of the Merrimack in Hampton Roads at first perplexed and alarmed all our naval agents and officers. They have, however, made preparations for her com- ing out again, and they express entire confidence in their ability to master her. Meantime the blockade is actually becoming a si^e,

i

52 DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAE.

wbich we trust will looti result in uccupation of the insurrectionary portfl.

April 8, 1862. — Our at'inies, held everywhere in the leash, ure at the point of being let loose. Important transactions must occur witliiii H few days. It is the part of wisdom to be neither saiigniiie of Bucci'ss nor disturbed with apprehi'nsions of fniUire, If the tide of military success Bhwll continue tn flow full nnd strong, we can consent to wait the rehictant but inevitable return of maritime natiims to the fraternal positions they abiuidoned wheu faction un- dertook tu undermine tlieir fidehty as the most effectual way to compass our d<^struction. ^ I have just signet), with Lord Lyons, a treaty which I trust wiH be approved by the Senate and by the British government. If rat- ified, it will bi-iiig the African slave-trade to an i-nd immediately and forever. Had such a treaty been maila in lti08, there would now have been no sedition here, and no disagreeinent between the United States and foreign nations. We are indeed sitlTering deeply in this civil war. Europe has impatiently condemneJ and deplored it. Yet it ia easy to see already that the calamity will be compen- sated by incalculable benefits to our country and fci mankind. Such are the compensations of Providence for the sacrifices it exacts,

April 14, 1862. — It is known that all the free States are loyal to the Union ; that the insurrection had its spring in the slave States, and that it aims to separate them all from the Union, and embrace tiiem in a new sovereign confederacy. There is not one regiment or battalion, or even company of men, which was organ- ized in, or derived from, the free States and Territories, in arms anywhere against the Union. Some regiments derived from the border slave States are found in the slave States in hostilities against the Federal autliorities, while others equally or more numer- ous arts supporting them there. Missouri, Kentucky, T'-nneasee, and Virginia, all boider slave States, respeclively. have ■■■aitribiiti-d large bodies of men to the armies of the Union. Missouri, a Uirder ■lave State west of the Mississippi, h;Ls been cleared of all orgaiK ized military bodies of Insurgents, and for some time past haB ceased to be troubled by gueriHiis. The battle of Tea Ititlge, in which General Curtis heat Van Dorii, Pnc, Meiiitosh. and McCul- loiigh, has firndy established (ieiieral TurtiB ^nd the n iiional colors in the northwestern part of Arkansas:, an interior slave State. No

DIARY, OB NOTES ON THE WAB, 68

msurrectionary forces remain in Kentucky, also a border slave State. All the foHified positions of the insurgents have been abandoned, and the southern border of Tennessee, an interior slave State, has been crossed by the advancing armies of the nation, which, after the victories of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, the occupation of Bowl- ing Green, Nashville, Murfreesborough, and Columbus, a few days since captured the fortified position of Island No. 10, in the Missis- sippi, with one hundred heavy guns, thirty pieces of field artillery, six thousand prisoners ; and on the same day, after a two days' con- test, repulsed and beat the insurgent army, said to be eighty thou- sand strong, at Pittsburg Landing, with the loss of their chief. General A. S. Johnston. Four days afterwards General Mitehell, with a column of the same Federal army, by a forced march, occu- pied, without loss, Huntsville, in the State of Alabama, one of the Gulf slave States, and captured some two hundred prisoners, fifteen locomotive engines, and many railroad carriages, which will be very useful in future operations. Immediately afterwards he captured Decatur and the Chattanooga Junction, and thus got possession of one hundred and ten miles of the railroad. This stroke is impor- tant, as it cuts off the great artery of connection by railroad be- tween Memphis and Richmond and the southeastern slave States. Jacksonville, in Eastern Tennessee, has been visited by our forces, and thus it is seen that they are approaching Knoxville, the prin- cipal city in that always intensely loyal part of the State of Ten- nessee.

April 19, 1862. — All the grievances which disturb our people and tend to alienate them from Great Britain seem deducible from the concessions made by her to the insurgents at the bt^ginning of this civil war. All the explanations we receive from Great Britain seem to imply a conviction that this civil war must end in the over- throw of the Federal Union. The ultimate consequence of such a calamity would be that this great country would be divided into factions and hostile states and confederations, as Greece and Italy and Spanish America have been.

You can do no more in the present conjecture than to give his lordship, from time to time, fresh and accumulating evidence of our purpose and our ability to pursue to a successful end the course which we have learned from our British ancestry, namely, to hold the constituent States of our great realm in perpetual and indissol- uble union.

DLABY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR.

The western part of Virginia liaa been cleared of iiiBiirgente and General PriSniont hiia put his army in motion. From Monterey and Moorfield two colnmna are advam-ing. General Banks is ascending the valley of the Slienandoah, while General Blenker's division is on the march from VViirrenton towards Strasburg, to unite with Gen- eral Banks in the moment which promises to cut the Virginia and C-ovingtnn Railroad firet, then the Southwestern Valley Riiiirwid of Vil^inift, and thus sever communication wliich connects Ricliniond, the seat of the insurrection, and Knoxville, before nami'd. Gen- eral McDowell, with the army covering Washington, occuijiea the region between Washington and the Rappahannock, and the news oomes to-day that the insurgents are abitndoning their entire line on that river and retiring to the vicinity of Richmond. The Enst- em Shore of Virginia has been relieved by General Lockwood'a brigade from the smali insurgent force which early orgaiiizfd itself there. General McCleilan on the York River, and General Wood at Fortress Monroe, with the main body of the army of the Poto- mac, lay siege upon Yorktown, which is defended by the insurgent leaders Lee, J. E. Johnston, and Miigruder.

Geueral Burnside occupies the cities and sounds and coasts of eastern North Camlina. and besieges Fort Macon, which is cut oft from rfll succor. These forces have cleared all the insurgent bodies out of a slave territory once occupied by them, containing one hun- dred and fifty thousand square miles and a population of three mil- One half of the coast of South Carolina, the whole coRst ot Georgia, and the hurboi-s. cities, and OOfistS of Eiwt Florida, are occupied by the army which lately was under the command of Gen- eral Sherman, who has been replaced by General Hunter ; and the fortresses of the Florida i-eef, situate ut Key West, ihn Tortugaa Islands, and at tliH harbors of Tampa Bay and Ced^ir Keys; Fort Pickens, commnndin;; the entrance to Pensacohi ; Ship Inland, Bi- loxi, and Pass Christian, on the cnast of Mississippi, as well as the head of the delta of the Mississippi River, all are occupied and ae- eui'i-iy held by national forces. Fort Pulaski, on the Savannah River, aftjfr a bombardment of several days, surrendered yi-sterday. Thei-e is scarce a harbor on the whole const, from the Cliesnpeake to the Mississippi, which is not hermetically sealed by a force occu- pying some island or headland, as well as by the blockading squad-

DIABY, OB NOTES ON THE WAB. 55

ron* Charleston, St. Mark's, Apalacbicola, and Mobile, although not yet occupied by troops, are closely blockaded by our fleet. New Orleans is threatened by the bomb fleet of Captain Porter, who is ascending the Mississippi River, and by the iron-clad flotilla of Captain Foote, which has just sailed from the lato investing stronghold of No. 10, and is now with General Pope's army under convoy, descending the same river. A few days, we think, will complete the opening of the Mississippi, and restore to the north- western States that natural passage for their immense commerce with the other States and with foreign countries which the insur- gents have so insanely attempted to close, in violation of all the laws of trade and even of nature itself.

The national forces, among whom there is not one conscript or involuntary soldier, according to tlie official returns, consist of seven hundred and eleven thousand men. They are amply provided with arms of precision, with artillery, with wagons, and other transports ; horses, tents, clothing, and all the provisions and apparel of war. Provisions are cheap and abundant. The magazines contain cloth- ing and tents for several months' supply, and the people still press upon the quartermaster-general their offers of additional supplies.

An order from the Secretary of War to receive no more volun- teers is bringing back upon him remonstrances and entreaties, not only from individuals but from states, under which he is constrained to accept regiments newly filled. Twenty-five thousand prisoners, carefully guarded in the loyal states, are astonished at finding them- selves better fed, better clothed, and more humanely treated than when bearing arms against their country at the call of factious and treasonable chiefs. These chiefs have for months past been resort- ing to levies en masse^ or to drafts, forcing the young and the aged, loyal and the disloyal — all alike, and however unwilling — into their unlawful service.

Perhaps a million of men, thus variously brought into the field, are now in arms in a country which, one year ago, had a military force of only twelve thousand men. All the troops of the Union are well equipped, well drilled, and disciplined ; they are good marksmen, and have patriotism and courage. They make much and skilful use of the bayonet, and always with success. They are everywhere advancing. They have taken every position they have approached, and have won, with an important exception, not only

66 DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR.

every battle but even every skirmish in which, within the last three months, they have engaged.

Missouri, Kentucky, a great part of Tennessee, Western Virginia, and Eastern Florida, have been abandoned by the insurgent leaders. The national flag has been planted securely at one or more points in every state except Texas. The richest part of the territory claimed by the revolutionists for the seat of their pretended con- federacy lias been reclaimed from their rule and their attempts at taxation ; and there is left to support the enormous expenses of the insurrection only the states which produce little else than cottou ; and what cotton they now have on hand the insurgents threaten to burn, because they have no outlet for its exportation, and no hope of rescuing it from the returning allegiance of the people to the na- tional Union.

It is believed that this survey of the military position of the gov- ernment may serve to satisfy Great Britain that those statesmen here and abroad who, a year ago, mistook a political syncope for na- tional death and dissolution, altogether misunderstood the resources, the character, and the energies of the American Union. The blood that at first retreated to the heart is now coursing healthily through all the veins and arteries of the whole system ; and what seemed at first to be a liopeless paralysis, was in fact but the beginning of an organic change to more robust and vigorous health than the nation has ever before enjoyed.

April 22, 18G2. — Mr. Mercier proposed in a very proper manner that he would visit Richmond if we should not object. Of course the President approved, being satisfied that he would not in any way ccimproinit the relations existing between the French govern- ment and our own. It is impossible not to see now that the insur- rection is shrinking and shrivelling into very narrow dimensions. I hope that Mr. Mercier may come back prepared with some plan to alleviate the inconveniences of his countrymen in the south, who are not acting against this government, and, in that way, against the peace and harmony of the two countries.

The real dilHculty is, that the southern ports are, and even the whole southern country is, now actually in a state of siege, and com- munication in anything like a normal manner is iniposiible.

General Mt^Dowell has entered Fredericksburg, and General Banks is marching successfully quite through the valley of Virginia.

DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR. 57

We have reason to expect Savannah to come into our possession within the next ten days, and Fort Macon to fall about as soon. The insurrectionary leaders have made a conscription of all between eighteen and thirty-five. They issue new paper which sells for gold at the rate of one hundred dollars for twenty.

April 26, 1862. — Our generals are crowding the insurgents be- fore them in northern and western Virginia. We hear, at last, of course through insurgent organs, of the beginning of the bombard- ment of the forts on the Mississippi, below New Orleans, by Cap- tain Porter. We constantly expect the surrender of Fort Macon. But the exciting care of the hour is divided between Yorktown and Corinth. Battles there are imminent. The gain of either of these fields would have a decisive effect. The loss of both seems hardly possible, although calculations upon particular results in war are always uncertain.

April 28, 1862. — To-day the country is assuming that the fate of this unnatural war is determined by the great event of the cap- ture of New Orleans, which was effected by a naval expedition on the 24th instant. I trust that the anticipation will be sustained.

Captain Bullock, of Georgia, is understood to have written that he has five steamers built, or bought, armed, and supplied with ma- teriel of war in England, which are now about leaving or are on their way to aid the insurgents.

We are prepared to meet tliem. But the reflection occurs, are the maritime powers of Europe willing that the suppression of this insurrection shall be forever associated in the memory of mankind with the conviction that the sympathies of Europe were lent to the abortive revolution ?

May 5, 1862. — I advised you by telegram, sent out by the last steamer, of the capture of New Orleans. I have now to inform you that Fort Macon has surrendered to our siege, and that Yorktown has just been relinquislied to our army on the eve of an anticipated bombardment. General McClellan is marching up the Peninsula towards Richmond, and General McDowell is opening his way downward towards the same capital from Fredericksburg.

If our information is correct, the insurgent army is evacuating Corinth. The spurious congress of the insurgents has suddenly ad- journed. Their fiscal system must by this time have exploded, and their military connections are everywhere broken. It is a very

V.

58

DIART, OR NOTES ON THE WAK,

: addition to ttiis news t)iat two of the Britieli steamers lati'ly fitted out at Liverpool with iiin munition and arms for the ia- surgfnts have been captured by our bioL'kading fleet. Thus the tide iif gucoeaa seems to be Hosving full and strong. Acting upon the confidence which it has prndiieed, we have opened New Orleans to correspondence, and we are faking meaaiires for an early opening of that and some other ports to trade under necessary limitiitions.

These concessions occur simuttaneoualy with our ratification of a treaty with Great Britain designed to effect the suppression of the African slave-trade.

May 12, 1862. — The prioress of the national arms continues so auspiciously as to excite the insurgents to desperation and to require of their abettors in Europe extreme activity and diligence to rescue a cause which, witiiout foreign intervention, seems aUvady lost. You may now assume thut the Mississippi in its whole length ta restored to the Federal authority. Richmond is pmctically held in eli>se siege by General McCli-llan. Norfolk, with all the coasts and tributaiies of Hampton Roads, is cleared of insun-ectionary land forces and naval forces. Our navy, already large and effective and daily increasing, ia now released from two very arduous and ex- hausting sieges in which it has been so h)ng eng-aged,

I enclose a copy of a proclamation of the President, o£ this date, opening the ports of Beaufort, Port Royal and New Orleans, which have recently been blockaded. The treasury regulations to which ■ t refers will immediately follow.

May 19, 18152. — The principal military event of the past week has been the recovery of the important port and town of Pensacola.

Of our seaports there yet remain in (he occupation of the insu> gents only Wilmington, in North Carolina, Charleston, in South Carolina, Mobile, in Ahibamit, Galveston, in Texas — all of which are, nevertheless, very efteclually blockaded.

Preparations are made for their immediate recovery. Thus we expect ihat, within tlie next four weeks, the authority of the Unioa will be entirely restored along the whole Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the country. Trade resuming its legitimate cliaracter will begin Hnew on the first of June at the several ports of Beaufort, Port Royal, and New Orleans, and we shall not be slow in extending the Bttme benefits to other ports. The temptations to cnntniband trade are rapidly pastting away, and it is l<> he hoped that that great and

J

DIABT, OE NOTES ON THE WAE. 69

distarbing annoyance will speedily cease to irritate at home and abroad.

The conflict henceforth will be between land forces in the interior of the country, and perhaps the battles impending at Richmond and Corinth may close the unnatural war. It would be idle to speculate on the probabilities of the results of those combats.

May 26, 1862. — The defeat of General Banks at Winchester yesterday, and his withdrawal across the Potomac, are just now the prominent incidents of the war. A careful consideration of the affair results in the satisfi^ctory conclusion that the movement of the enemy was one of merely energetic strategy. We suffer by it, however, only a temporary and local inconvenience, not at all likely to work any serious or extensive injury to the national cause. Abundant provision has been made for repairing the losses sus- tained, and recovering the little ground that has been given up.

June 2, 1862. — My despatches of last week gave information of the surprise and capture of Colonel Kenley's small force at Front Royal, and of an attack by Jackson with a superior force upon General Banks, and his well-conducted retreat from Winchester across the Potomac, at Williamsport. I mentioned that all du« preparations had been made to retrieve these misfortunes, and that 1 thought they would be ft)llowed by no serious results. The week which began so iiiauspiciously was filled with events indicative of a general and speedy triumph of the Union armies.

First. Recruiting, except under heavy restrictions, had been suspended for some months by order of the government. The re- verses alluded to favored a removal of those restrictions, and an order for renewal of enlistments, with a view to reinforce our army in Virginia and supply the waste which had occurred in all the armies. The country responded at once, with even greater enthu- siasm than a year ago. This is a third uprising of the people in behalf of the Union, inspired by confidence in the administration and in the land and naval forces.

General Banks*s army, which was reduced to six thousand men, and so unfortunately put hons de combat, swelled in the course of the week to twenty thousand men, and it is now, in its turn, pursu- ing the enemy who had driven it out of the valley of Virginia. Large forces were also sent into the valley from the east, the south, and the west, to meet the retiring insurgents, and, as we trust, to bring the war in that quarter to a prompt conclusion.

60

DIAKY, OB NOTES ON THE WAR.

Wliile these transactions of minor importance were engaging the most careful consideration of the government, the attention of the nation, »ud of the world, so far as it occupies itself with our aSuirs, vaa all tlie time fixed upon two points, Corinth and Kichmond, where battles seemed imminent, which, resulting in our favor, must be decisive of the painful controversy. The insurgents, demor- alixed and broken, on the 2Stli day of last month, evacuated the former position ^vith all its advantages and its prestige, and thus the war in the Mississippi valley may be deemed virtually ended.

During the early part of the week General McClellaii fought battles iind won advantages at Richmond of great moment. On Saturday the insui'geuts, availing themselves of a severe storm which, flooding the valley of the Chickahominy, seemed likely to divide our forces, attacked our left on the south side of that river with a superior force and caused it to break, with some loss of ordnance and stores. Reinforcements, however, were soon brought forward, and the position lost was regained. The two armies bivouacked on the field at night. The battle was renewed the next morniiig with the result of a repulse of the insurgents at every point. Tliearmy of General .McCh'llan will be rapidly strengthened, although it is already deemed adequate to the capture of Richmond.

A wholesome moral sentiment is already rapidly revealing itself in the insurrectionary region. It shows itself somewhat slowly indeed, but nevertheless distinctly at Norfolk. Regiments for the Federal army are forming in North Carolina.

In Arkansas, Alabama, and Louisiana there are unmistakable signs of returning loyalty. No American now indulges any doubt that the integrity tif the Union will be triumphantly maintained.

•June 6, 18(}2. — During the past week General Pope has cut off the railroads on which Beauregard's army was retreating from Corinth, and has made captures of prisoners, arma, vehicles, &c., on a scale so large that that great force may be considered as no longer existing. With these successes the entire commands of the Missis- sippi and its banks must by this tirue have been abandoned by the insurgents.

Jackson, with the forces which expelled General Banks from the valley of Virginia, was met and repulsed at Harper's Ferry, and is now, in his turn, harassed by the Union forces in his flight from Northern Virginia.

J

DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR. 61

A fearful battle — the greatest and the most desperate one in the whole war — was fought at Fair Oaks, seven miles in front of Richmond, on Saturday and Sunday last (May 31 and June 1). The enemy was driven at all points, and the Federal advance now rests within four miles of that city. A final combat is expected to take place within a few days. I forbear to speculate upon its probable result or consequences, since certainty must so soon bo developed.

June 9, 1862. — You will receive herewith information of a naval conflict at Memphis, resulting in the surrender of the city and in the restoration of the national commerce throughout the whole navigable courses of the Mississippi and its tributaries.

Of all the important ports and towns, only Mobile, Savannah, Charleston, and Richmond remain in the hands of the insurgents. The investment of the three former is going on successfully. Floods have swollen the Chickahominy, which, in ordinary seasons, is only a few yards wide, into a river two miles in breadth. This inunda- tion now for a few days delays the operations against Richmond, but they will be prosecuted with vigor as soon as the condition of the field shall permit.

June 24, 1862. — " The statesmen of France, including the Em- / peror, are no less skeptical about the restoration of the Union since the capture of New Orleans than they were before. In Englund they still point to the delays at Richmond and Corinth, and they enlarge upon the absence of displays of Union feeling in New Or- leans and Norfolk." Ah, well ! skepticism must be expected in this world in regard to new political systems, insomuch as even Divine revelation needs the aid of miracles to make converts to a new religious faith. Corinth had already fallen on the very day when its supposed possession by the insurgents .was deemed by the British public a ground for withholding their faith. A battle had also then been fought at Richmond, which, we think, was prepara- tory to the surrender or evacuation of that city. Trade has actively begun at New Orleans, and cotton is shipped from Memphis to New York. Unbiased observers would discern no sign of a possible recovery of the Mississippi and its immediate and remote tribu-* taries by the insurgents. Unbiased thinkers would conclude that the authority of the nation whose naval and merchant marine navi- gate every river in the United States would not long be denied by

DIARY, OB NOTES ON THE WAB.

jld be contenC^H

tlie people living on their bortlers, especially if it should I

vith defending them ngiiiiist dangers, carrying tlieir mails, and dis-

tribntiiig among them rewards and honors, while it left them in the

posae^itiu of rights of self-government in a. degree elsewhere un-

bnown,

June 27, 1862. — Our military and naval forcee »t Charleston were k>'pt ut figures only necessary to aid in maintaining the blockade while eonllict has been Lliiilk'nged at some important Btiati-gif points. We learn that our generals, perhaps too impul- sive, havi-, without instructions, made an atUick and have been repulsed at Charleston. While the affair may serve to encourage the languisiiing hopes of the insurgents, it no more than Jackson's late raid in the Shenandoah valley affects the actual prioress of the war. The operations against Richmond continue to go on to the satisfaction of the military department.

June 30, 1862. — The reports from the army near Richmond concerning the events of the pist few days are somewhat imperfect, owing jp a temporary interruption of telegraphic communication.

General McClellan, at the commencement of his operations in the vicinity of Richmond, used for liis 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 tlie Chickahominy. At the period when this line was adopted the Jamt^s Kivur had not yet been opened by our gun- boats.

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 Rivi'r, and enabled him to open a new line of oonimuntcation there. On Thursday and Friday of last week, not anexpecledly to him, the enemy assailed the foi-ce which still occu- pied the north side of the Chickahominy, thus precipitating the movement above descrilw^d as in prepress. 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 BOpplies to the south side of the Chickahominy and in opening com- ^^L muuicatioo with our Qeet on James River. His position now, therstJU

DIABY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR. 63

fore, 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.

July 7, 1862. — 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 intt^lligible, 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 batter- ies at that place from below, and joined himself to the fleet which lay above it. Thus the last obstacle of the navigation of the Mis- sissippi has been overcome, and it is open to trade once more under the flag of the Union from the head waters 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 arma- ments. 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 contra- band, 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 east- ward without any show of organized resistance to capture Chatta- nooga and close the only remaining railroad communication between Richmond and the valley of the Mississippi. This achievement will efl'ect deliverance of eastern Tennessee^ distinguished for its loyalty, and so crown the pacification of the whole r^ion west of the Alle-

64 DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR.

ghany mountains, north of Geoi'giii and Aliibama, and south of T Obio River. But it ia the vicinity of Richmond tliat has been the scene of military events of the intensest interest during the last two weeks, and it is that quarter that now ehiefly engages the iittention of the government.

General McClellan's original design for the capture of Richmond embraced a march up the peninsula from Fortress Monroe and Yorktown, supported by naval forces on both the York and the James River. The sudden appeaninoe of the Merrimack, with her terrible power of mischief, obliged bim to confine liis march to the bank of the York River, with the aid of a fleet in that river alone. He had, then, the Cbickahominy, with its variable flow, and its almost impassable swamps, between him and Richmond. The Pamunkey, the chief tributary of the York, afforded him navigation only to the White House, where he held his fotces, twenty miles from Riclimond, without any other coiiperatioii from our naval force on both rivers there than protection they afforded to his rear. A large force that was intended to l>e auxiliary to the army of the Po- tomac was retained in front of Washington, necessarily, as it was thonglit, witli a view to the safety of the capital against forces sent to menace it from Richmond. While General McClellan was thus obtaining a foothold on the peninsula north of tlie Cliickahoininyi tlie insurgents succeeded in obstructing the James River a distance of seven niilea below Richmond, and in constiticting fortifications at Fort Darling, up a precipitous elevation on the south bank of the James River, which rendered it impossible for the fleet on that river to remove the obstructions without the iiid of a land force to carry that fort. General McClellan was steadily, and. as it seemed, suc- cessfully, moving his army across the Chickahominy to clntnge his base to the J.imes River, below Fort Darling, on Wednesday last, when the insurgents concentrated large forces upon what was yet the front of the moving column, and a series of battles began which filled up seven successive days, at the end of which the general, with his army, and substantially all his material, had readied and estab- lished himself at Harrison's Bar, upon the bank of the James River, in full cooperation with the fleet of seventeen gunboats, white the insurgents have not one man-of-war. This movement, which was it meditated, prepared one, undoubtedly became a retreat when the enemy pressed upon the withdrawing forces. The chauge of base

DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR. 66

involved a loss of commanication for a time between the array and the government and the country. During this suspense, which lasted seven days, extravagant reports of disasters and losses, and the wildest alarm for even the safety of the army itself, obtained currency, and oppressed the public mind. At length we have the results so far as they affect the military situation. There have been immense losses, but more severe on the part of the insurgents than on that of the Union. The efficiency of the army of the latter is improved. That of the former, it is believed, is even more reduced. Every one of the battles was a repulse of the insurgents, and the two last, which closed the series, were decided victories. The army of the Potomac is rapidly receiving reinforcements from several sources, while the fleet is thought already equal in effect to an ad- ditional army. General Pope, having taken command of all the troops in Virginia, is pushing them forward from the north to cut off the railroad communication beyond the Rappahannock, and threatens them on the approach from the northwest. Within the next thirty days our navy, already large, will receive an augmenta- tion of ten new iron-clad vessels, each equal to the Monitor. At the same time the President, upon the invitation of the governors of twenty of the thirty-four states, has called out three hundred thousand men, a force amply sutficient to save all that has been gained, and speedily close the civil strife.

You will read with interest and admiration General McClellan's modest conduct ; his firm and decisive despatches and proclamation. The government and popular bodies who have heretofore been so efficient in filling up the armies are already in activity, and the prompt success of the call is deemed assured. The destruction of human life which has occurred is a sad and painful theme. But it brings its compensation in a military and in a political view, as- pects in which it is now our stern duty to contemplate it. The delusion that the soldiers of the Union would not fight for it with as much courage and resolution as its enemies will fight against it, has been one of the chief elements of the insurrection. It has now been effectually dispelled.

Secondly. If, as fatalists argue, a certain quantity of human blood must flow to appease the dreadful spirit of faction, and enable a discontented people to recover its calmness and its reason, it may be hoped that the needful sacrifice has now been made.

5

6G DIAET, OR NOTES ON THE WAB.

Tliiidly. If the representative parties had now to choose whether tbey wuuld have the national army where it is and as it is, or back agiiia where it was and as it was, it is not to he doubted that the insurgents would prefer to it the position and condition on the Par muiikey, and tiie friends of the Union the one now attained on the bitnk of the Jaines.

Fourthly. U'he insurgents and the world abroad will see that the virtue of tlie people is adequate to the responsibilities which Providence has cast upon them.

July 9, 18<32. — Mr. Stuart,' in a very courteous manner, verhidly expressed to me the opinion of her Majesty's government, that Majiir-Geueral Butler's order concerning the females in Kew Orleans ■who giive offence to the Union soldiers was an improper one in respi'Ct t-o the expressions employed in it, whatever constructions might be placed upon them, and their hope, therefore, that it might be disapproved.

I answered him that we must ask his government, id reading that proclamation, to adopt a rule of construction which the British nation had elevated to the dignity of a principle and made the molto of their national arms, " Moni toit qui mal y pvn»e." Tliat it was not until a gross construction of the order was brought to the knowledge of this government ttiat we saw that tiie proclamation contained un diiuHe entendre. That gross meaning the government of course rejected, and it regretted that in the haste uf composition a phraseology whiiih could be mistaken or pervei-ted bud been ut^ed. 1 was happy, however, to inform him that all sensibility about the OT^er seemed to have passed away, and no complaints were now heard of any impropriety of conduct on the piirt of ihe ladies at New Orleans. I explained also to Mr. Stuart the ground of the sensibility of our army to female discourtesy. Our soldiers are mainly young American citizens of education and respectability. Chivalrous resjvect lo the sex is a nattounl sentimi'ut, llitherto it has been met by gentle and respectful courtesy by those to whom the homage ia so properly paid. It has not been expected that dis- loyalty to the common government of both jiarties would be refjiirJed S8 a plea for a change of national manners. Hiippily all chisses ot citizens easily learn to meet the changes which this unhappy ciTil war brings upon us.

> Ortbo Brltlih Lf^UoD. IaM Falnwntau aU»i Mi. AiUcu' ktMDlJDD lo

t|)wt. ^H

DIABY, OB NOTES OK THE WAB. 67

Jviy 12, 1862. — We have carefully ascertained the character and the results of the recent battles before Richmond, and have considered and adopted such measures as the new exigencies have seemed to us to require. What I have before written to you is in the main confirmed. The seven days* battles were accepted by our army upon a compulsory change of base. Our losses were large, but much less than the first reports represented. They amount to about 12,000 men. Tho losses of the insurgents were greater. Each battle was, in fact, a victory of our army, although the fiank movement from the field towards the new base gave the whole series the character of a retreat. The result is that the new base is a safer one, and the new position an impregnable one. The Federal army, with General McCIellan, now tlms safely lodged on the north bank of the James River, twenty-five miles below Richmond, num- bers eighty thousand to ninety thousand, and a force which is not very much disproportioned to the insurrectionary army which occu- pies that city. The Federal army, however, has the cooperation of a very large naval force. The Federal army in front of this city, adding those which will probably be consolidated with it, is nearly equal in numbers. This last force is now under command of Major- General Pope, who has achieved great successes in the western states, and is esteemed an officer of great ability. A general mili- tary command over all the land forces of the United States will be given to Major-General Halleck, who will come from the western department to this capital.

July 28, 1862. — Our assault upon Richmond is for the moment suspended. No great and striking movements or achievements are occurring, and the. government is rather preparing its energies for renewed operations than continuing to surprise the world with new and brilliant victories. The tone of the insurgents has been sud- denly emboldened, while recent expressions of grief and sorrow, which naturally and justly follow battles attended by great losses of cherished lives, for the moment have seemed to indicate that the friends of the Union are less resolute and hopeful than heretofore. Cotton, the great want of Europe, has not flowed out of the ports which we have opened as freely as was unreasonably expected by the manufacturers, and their disappointment seems ripening into despondency.

It is not upon isolated events, much less upon transitory popular

68 DIARY, OB NOTES ON THE WAE.

impiilseH, that governmeats are expected to build tlieir polic regard to foreign countries.

Augimt 8, 18G2. — At no former period of our history have our agricultural, manufacturing, or mining interests been more pros- perous than at this juncture. This fact may be deemed surprising in view of the enhanced price for labor, occasioned by the demand for the rank and file of the armies of the United States. It may, therefore, be confidently asserted that, even now, nowhere else cun the industrious laboring man and artisan expeet so liberal a recom- penae for his services as in the United States.

Auffutt 13, 1862. — We are at the present moment in a state of uncertainty in relation to the renewal of military operations. Ex- aggeration of the forces of the insurgents and depreciation of our own have been the busy occupation of too many among us since the disappointment of our espectntions at Kichmond. It was una- voidable, because it is iiatuml for men, and especiidly for masses, to be disturbed and demoriilized, at least for a time, by the failure of sanguine expectations. You are entitled, however, to the informa- tion that in my opinion our forces in the field, although nut dem- onstrative, are adequate to the tusk of holding the Viist territories we have recovered. The new volunteers, 300,000 in number, are beginning to move to-day for the places of rendezvous to reinforce the army in the field, and forty days will suffice to bring forward also the 300,000 militia which have been called for by the President, Within the same time our naval preparations will begin to show important results. Much, however, is dependent on the military operations of the hour, while the preparations for a vigorous cam- paign are going forward, It is impossible to speculate with cnnfi- dence on the chances of the war movements which are taking place to-day. The construction of iron-clad ships is going on, on a scale and with a vigor that promisee as complete a naval defence as any other lUktion possesses.

When I have told you of our lat^ preparations, I haVe told you all that is important to be known, except that Genenil Hidlcck evinces great skill, activity, and grasp, in reorganizing our forces for renewing military operations. Richmond is at this moment the centre of our anxieties. Our plans for operations against it me not so settled and decisive as to iiltow me to cnmmuiiicale them, fur the reason that they may be modified by discoveries of the plans of the

DIABY, OR NOTES ON THE WAB. 69

insurgents. General Pope had on Saturday, the 9th, a successful engagement with a portion of the insurgent army. There is every reason to expect important military occurrences, and, perhaps, a de- velopment of the plan for a new campaign before the departure of the next steamer.

All that can be said now is, that the popular spirit is sound, and we expect that the tone of public confidence will be highly improved as the new levies, now moving from their homes, reach and join and reinforce the apparently sedentary forces in their camps.

August 15, lb62. — This government, when it considers the mili- tary and naval forces that it has at its control, the success that it has achieved already in the present unhappy civil war, and the favorable prospects of the campaign which it is now preparing, is not disposed to be disturbed by apprehensions of interference by foreign powers. Doing all that it ought and can to preserve peace with foreign nations, it will not suffer itself to be alarmed by fears of wrong on their part, whether victory continually attends our arms, or at times manifests its habitual caprice.

August 18, 1862. — General Halleck, upon taking command of the army, made a careful survey of the entire military position, and concluded thereupon to withdraw the army of the Potomac from the Peninsula, and to combine all our forces in front of Richmond. The measure was a diflScult and delicate one. It is believed to have been substantially accomplished without any casualty. Our new levies are coming in in great numbers and in fine spirits. The gloom has passed away from the public mind. Although our ar- rangements for resuming offensive operations are yet incomplete, we have much confidence in being able to do so speedily and with decisive effect.

The disturbed condition of affairs in New Orleans is giving way slowly, and commerce is reviving there.

Discontents, which naturally enough found utterance in the loyal states in a brief season of despondency through which wo have passed, have died away already, and with them the apprehensions of organizations to embarrass the Union. It is represented to us that the popular determination to maintain the war has at no time been as unanimous and as earnest as it is now.

August 23, 1862. — The tide of military success which had been so strong, and had continued in our favor so long, was checked at Richmond, by what has practically proved a drawn battle.

70 DIAEY, OR NOTES ON THE WAB.

The country for a time, unaccustomed to reveraea, seemed at firet to be coufounded by their disappointment. Disputes about respon- 8ibiliti(>s for the failure, apprehensions, iiiultifariuus and passionate counsels, succeeded, encouraging the insurgents and their agents and sympathizers abroad. The period that lias iutervfued since that event has been marked by few exciting or striking events, Gueiilla bands have been embuldened, but have not effectetl any niat(;riHl change in the military position. The fall of the Miasia- sippi has obliged the aea-going part of our fleet that w;l8 eiig<iged nt Vit^kaburg to fall duwii the river, and owing to the same cause the canal that had been made to divert the stream has not yet proved effective. The assault upon Vicksbui^ has, tliereforf, been tempiirarily suspended. A combined land and uaval attack by the insurgents upon Baton Rouge lias been successfully resisted. The casualties of the service insensibly reduced our armies so much that, after tlie battles before Richmond, we found ourselves obliged to let them remain comparatively inactive. The period of inactivity has, nevertheless, been well im)>roved. The President, early in July, called for six hundred thousand troops. The country has responded with earnestness and alacrity. The new levies begiin to enter into the field a week ago. During that period about thirty thousand of them have joined tlie different armies, and the increase is now going on, and will continue, at the ntte of five thousand or more daily. The army of the Potomac became divided in the battles before Richmond. The large body under the command of General Mc- Clelliin has rested on the banka of the James River, unable to renew the attjick without reinforcements, while the small body under General Pope was not deemed competent to march sonthward, and it was even doubtful whether it would be strong enough to protect this capitid if the insurgents should abandon Richmond. General Halleck, the new commander of all the forces, therefore, de- termined to withdraw General McClellan's army from the James River, and to combine it with Pope's on the line of the Rappahan- nock, and in front of Richmond, The operation was one of ad- mitted delicacy and difficulty. It is not yet fully completed. The first part of it has been accomplished with consummate ability and entire success. The whole of General McClellan's forces — 100,000 strong — have evacuated their position on the James River, and are now OD their way to the new front on the Rappahannock. Whethu

M

DIAST, OB NOTES ON THE WAR. 71

the janction sball be saccessfolly effected is the question which remains andecided, but which will be solved probably before this despatch will have left the Department.

Our condition may be summed up in the few words, that we are reorganizing and preparing for a new campaign, which we believe will be successful, and which, we trust, will close the war, with the return of the authority of the Federal Union.

Rumors of intrigues abroad for foreign intervention or mediation reach the government continually, but they do not at present pro- duce any real uneasiness.

August 28, 1862. — It is a day of uncerttiinty and suspense, but not altogether nnmingled with apprehension. General McClellan iiaa safely retired his great army from the James River, and is rap- idly moving it around to reinforce the small force with which Gen- eral Pope is holding the Rappahannock, midway between this capi- tal and Richmond. The insurgents have brought their main force from Richmond up to confront General Pope, with a purpose of attacking him before he can be joined by General McClellan and by the new levies now coming into the field. The telegraph reports skirmishes, but as yet no battle. The question is, or seems to be, which side can practise superior energy and despatch.

You will read of guerrilla demonstrations and pai-tial successes in the west. But the disturbers will find themselves obliged to en- counter the volunteers now pouring into that region from the loyal western States, and it may be expected that the Union arms will again be everywhere assuming the offensive within the coming month. Our naval force has destroyed all the insurgents' iron-clad vessels which have thus far appeared, and have just now been aug- mented by the addition of the Ironsides.

September 6, 1862. — Recruiting here is now. very rapid, and there is likely to be no deficiency of volunteers which will not be supplied by a light draft, or if the time be extended the army will be filled with volunteers without draft. At the same time it is very manifest that labor has advanced and is advancing in price, and there was never before a time when this country presented so great inducements to emigrants.

Our two armies in Virginia, which were so long and so unfor- tunately separated, have been brought together at last in front of thiff capital, but not without a loss of some six thousand or eight

72 DIARY, OE NOTES ON THE WAR.

thousand men, and, for the moment, the gathering of the msurreo- tionary forces on the Virginia side of the Potomac, seeming to threaten Maryland and even Pennsylvania.

September 8, 1862. — You will have learned, before this despatch shall reach you, that our late campaign in Virginia has failed ; that the insurgent forces, escaping our armies, have returned to the oc- cupation of northern Virginia; and have even crossed the upper Potomac and taken up a position at Frederick, in Maryland, where they seem to be threatening alike Washington, Baltimore, and Har- risburg. In a correspondence like this, which, however confidential in its character, still wears an aspect of being addressed to foreign governments, it would be indiscreet and injudicious to attempt to explain the causes of this very serious reverse. I must be content, therefore, with saying that it seems to have resulted from the fact that our two reunited armies in Virginia were only partially com- bined and not at all consolidated. There has been, at least, mili- tary error somewhere, and an inquiry has been instituted to ascer- tain where it lies, and with whom the responsibility for the reverse belongs.

Our information from the west is that the insurgents are equally bold and adventurous in that quarter, and that although no great disaster has occurred there, new energies of the govei;nment are necessary to save the states of Tennessee and Kentucky for the Union, if not to prevent inroads into Ohio.

It is not deemed necessary or even practicable, in an emergency where every hour may bring reiisons for changes of measures before adopted, to attempt to give you a programme of intended military operations. I confine myself, therefore, to the statement, in general terms, that our armies in Virginia are at last fully consolidated, and that they are already in the positions deemed most advantageous for the restoration of the fortunes of the war. The same is true of our f(»rees elsewliere. The three hundred thousand volunteers called for by the President h.ive already been mustered in the service, and near half of them are in the field. Recruiting still goes on with the utmost spirit, and a considerable porti(»n of the three hundred thou- sand men expected to be raised by draft are already coming forward as volunteers. The draft will fill up the complement without great delay. Nowhere, either on the part of the army or of the people, does there appear the least sign of indecision or of despondency,

DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR. 78

although, of course, the country is, for the moment, filled with deep anxiety.

We hear, oflBcially and unofficially, of great naval preparations \/^ which are on foot in British and other foreign ports, under cover of neutrality, to give to the insurgents a naval force. Among these reports is one that a naval armament is fitting out in Enghind to lay New York under contribution. I think that the vigor of our naval department in building a navy upon a sudden emergency can hardly be surpassed ; nevertheless, its progress seems slow to us, under the circumstances. In addition to the Monitor and other iron vessels, already knowu to you, we have the Ironsides now ready for duty, and a new Monitor is expected to be put into service within the next ten days. Others will soon follow, and we are doing what we can to be prepared for every possible adverse contingency that can affect the situation of the country either at home or abroad. We cannot but regret that the course of administration in Great Britain \^ is such as to render our relations with that country a source of con- stant and serious apprehension. But it is not perceived here what more can be done than we are doing to preserve an international peace, which, perhaps, cannot be suiiiciently valued until, without fault on our part, it shall have been broken.

September 13, 1802. — Military affairs here have taken an un- favorable direction during the last three weeks. The army of the Potomac, which was in command of General McC'lellan, having evacuated its position on the James River, reached the Potomac, near Alexandria, unpursued and in safet3\ The army of Virginia, under General Pope, which was advanced to the liappahannock, through some mistake on his part was flanked by the insurgents in large force, and retired to Manassas. Here it became involved in a series of severe engagements, in which it was not supported by the army of the Potomac, as it is supposed it might have been. B«)th armies, thereupon, returned to this city. An inquiry has been instituted to ascertain wliere the responsibility for these unnecessary reversrs be- lonirs. In the mean time the insurgents, exeeutinix a l<)n<^eherished design, advanced on the south side of the upper Potomac, wliicli at this season is fordable at many places, and, crossing it at and above Edward's Ferry, occupied Frederick. When there, menacing equally Washington, Baltimore, and Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, they put forth an appeal, on Wednesday last, to the people of Maryland to

74

DIABY, Olt XOTE8 ON THE WAH.

ti the ii

ivered from fl

rtectioti. Our troops Itaving recovei temjHjrarj' disorganization, an army was im mediately organized and despatched, under General McClellan, to meet the insui^ents at Frederick. The last informaiion we have is that tiiey have prompt- ly evacuated Frederick and advanced westward to Hagerstowu. TliU retreat ia supposed to indicate aii abandonment of any designs to strike HaUimore or to advance on the north side of the river to the Potomac, while it slill leaves them a choice of enteiing Penn- sylvaniii or of recrossing into Virginia at or above Harper's Ferry.

Acting u|M)n the same general aggressive policy, the insnrgents art) advanuiug towards and threatening CiucinnatL These buld movements very naturally piodnce much exL-itement and considera- ble alarm. On the other hand, the armies of the Union are receiv- ing iinnieuae reinforcements, and oui- military authorities express much con&dence in their ability to retrieve the losses sustained and prosecute a vigorous and decisive campaign. Although cheerfully indulging these expectations, I do not think it profitable to dwelt upon them.

I might give you more details of the military position, but it is lifeely to change any day. Our forces are being lai^ly augmented, and our generals are confident of their ability to retrieve our losses and restore the former fortunes of the war. While the government indulges this expectation we must abide by results, and news of these will probably reach you sooner than this despatch.

Just at the moment when the mail is about to close authentic in- formation reaches the government that the insurgent forces which have been approaching and menacing Cinciimati and Louisville have receded, and are retreating in Kentucky. The alarm in that quar- ter has passed.

The insurgent army, whjch has been threatening Washington, Bal- timore, and Pennsylvania, evacuated Frederick on the 12lh instant. I now give you a despatch wliich has just been received from Major General McClellan, which shows the position of the two armies at the present moment.

September 16,1862. — Yesterday we had information that the insurgents in tlie west had receded and were retreating without Waiting to confront the forces prepared to receive them, and to-day we have General McClellan 's report of a decisive battle fought by him with the insurgent army in Maryland, with the

DIART, OR NOTES ON THE WAB. 76

results of their retreat and flight, panic stricken and demoralized. ^ It is especially cheering to know that the new volunteers which had been incorporated into McClellan's army without having previously been under fire, and without even having been at all drilled, disci- plined or exercised, exhibited a perfect courage and steadiness in the conflict. The nation will acquire new courage, and its persevering resolution to preserve its integrity will be fortified by this great and auspicious victory.

Since my previous despatches were put into the mail General Mc- Clflhin reports that the battle yesterday mentioned in his telegram proves to have been a complete victory. The enemy was routed, and he fled during the night. MeClellan is in pursuit.

A report recently received from General Shepley, Governor of Louisiana, shows the entire freedom of the cotton market in New Orleans.

September 16y 1862. — At the time when your application was received here the efficiency of our armies had been impaired in a vig- orous though eminently successful campaign. It soon became prob- able, and more lately it unhappily was proved, that we must fail in the pending movement upon Richmond. Such a disappointment was not unlikely to be followed by positive disasters, the extent of which could not be foreseen. That failure was sure to encourage the emissaries of insurrection in Europe, and the public mind too readily yielded to apprehensions of intervention in some form which must increase the national embarrassment. Under these cir- cumstances, popular remedies were suggested and urged upon the President. Chief among them was some sort of Executive mani- festo or declaration of a determination to make the war more ener- getic, severe, sanguinary, and destructive in the insurgent States. At the same moment a change long clamored for in the insurgent councils was adopted there, namely, that of withdrawing their arm- ies from their own region, and rapidly throwing them forward upon not this capital alone, but the loyal States of Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. For the moment the war on our part, which had until now been an aggressive one, was to be one of defence, attended with all the alarms and apparent if not real dangers of invasion.

The President, in this emergency, decided to bring together the armies of the Potomac and Virginia, and consolidate them on some

1 At Astietam.

76 DIARY, OE NOTES ON TBE WAR. ^U

]ine in that state between this capital and Richmond; to relnfonj^ and augment not only that consolidated ui'my but also ail the other fuives at his command with si<c hundred thousand men, to be raised as volunteers, with a draft, if necessary, and be thus prepared to meet Hud, with promptness and without display of woi-ds, to roll back the tide of inviision and compk'tc the war by a vigorous campaign on the eoasts, on the Mississippi, and through the mountain passes of east- frn Ti-niiessee.

The disasturs which were threatened in Virginia actnnlly occurred. The insurgents drove the army of Virginia back upon the line of fortilic:Ltiona and tlie capital, but not without losses probably equal to our own. They then advanced from M:inassas to the fordable passes of the Potomac, crossed that river and entered Frederick, and invited Maryland to rise up and join the treasonable coufederacy. There they threatened equally Washington, Baltimore and Pennsyl- vania. In like manner they gathered forces in Kentucky, in the rear of the army of General Bneil, who was investing Chattanooga, and advanced towards the Ohio River, thus threatening the loyal States of Ohio and Indiana, which lie on the north bank of that river. The insurrectionary congieas recently assembled approved these aggressive movements, and solemnly proclaimed a purpose to carry the wjir into the loyal states and inflict upon them, with increased severity, all the rigors of desolating warfare.

Under such changed circumstances, which could not have been foreacen, when you applied for leave of absence, the President thought the national interests required the watchful care of all our trusted repivsentatives in Europe, and he thought it might be es- pecially unfortunate if the mission at St. Petersburg were left with- out the presence of a Minister of the highest gradij and authority known in the diplomatic service. Hence his reluctance to accede to your wishes. It is now hoped that your absence will not be produc- tive of injury to the public service.

Having thus related the military events culminating in the inva- sion of the loyal states, it is only just that I should bring the narra- tion down to this point. The vohmteera are coming in as freely as was expected. More than seventy thousand have reached this city ; ten thousand or more are in Baltimore and its vicinity. Sixty thousand have joined the army of the west, and the whole proposed augmentation will be rapidly effected. The insurgents have ri

DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR, 77

and are retiring from their late advance towards the Ohio. General McClellau has just met the invaders of Maryland and driven them back towards the Potomac. The loyalty of Maryland has not been disturbed, and Pennsylvania is freed from the apprehensions of danger. With steadiness of purpose, prudence in council, and activ- ity and energy of execution on the part of our commanders, great advantages may be derived from recent misfortunes, and the reck- lessness of the insurgents may result in the speedy ruin of their always desperate cause.

September 19, 1862. — On the 6th instant Robert E. Lee, claim- ing to be general commanding all the insurgent armies, startled the country by appearing in Fredericktown with a force, as he alleged, of two hundred thousand men. He immediately proclaimed deliv- erance to the people of Maryland, and invited them to join the treasonable confederacy which he served. To-day without having gained a hundred adherents in the state, and after being defeated in two pitched battles, he is recrossing, under the fire of the Federal troops, into Virginia. This result is indicative of the moral sound- ness of the Union cause, as well as of the physical strength which it commands.

September 19, 1862. — Your despatch in which you [Mr. Day- ton] express so much confidence in the stability of the Union, has arrived just at the moment when General McClellan is driving the combined insurgent armies from the Maryland bank of the Potomac back into Virginia. A republican education has, indeed, made all of us |X)liticians ; but it must now be confessed that the same edu- cation has also made us soldiers, as cheerful to fight the battles of our country as we are bold to discuss its affairs. I think no nation has ever exhibited such voluntary armies.

September 22, 1862. — Tiie aggressive movement of the insur- gents against the loyal states is arrested, and the renewed and rein- vigorated forces of the Union are again prepared for a new and comprehensive campaign. The financial strength of the insurrec- tion is rapidly declining, and its ability to bring soldiers into the field has been already taxed to its utmost. On the other hand, the fiscal condition of the country is sound, and the response to the calls for new levies is being made promptly, without drawing seriously upon the physical strength of the people.

78

DIAHV, OB MOTEB OS THE WAB.

It htis never be«ii expected by the President that the iiisui^entafl should prutnict tliiti wur until it should exhaust nut only themselves but the lujal st^tt-ii, uiid hriug foreign armies or navies into tlie conflict, and utill be uiluwud to retuiii in bunda^, with the conaent of this govern ineut, the slaves who constitute the laboring und pro- ducing iniiases of tin: Iiisurrcctioiiiiry states. At the same time, the eiuanoipiition of tlie shives could be eSL-cted only by exii-utive uatliority, and on the gvound of tailitiiry necessity. As a pie- liminai-y to the exercise uf that ^reat puwer, the President must have not only the exigency, but the general consent of the loyal people of thi: Uuion in the border slave states where the war was Filing, i^ well as iii the free states which haye escaped the scoui^, which conld only be obtained through a clear conviction on their part that the military exigency bad actually occurred. It is thus seen that what has been discussed so earnestly at home and abroad as a question of morals or of humanity has all the while been prac- tically only a niilitaiy question, depending on time and cireum- stauces. The order for ernancip!ttion,' to take effect on the first of January, in the states then still remaining in rebellion against the Union, was issued upon due deliberation and cunsuientious consider- ation of the actual condition of the war, and the state of opinion in the whole country.

No one who knows Iiow slavery was engrafted npon the nation when it was springing up into existence; how it has grown and gained strength as the nation itself has advanced in wealth and power ; how fearful the people have hitherto luen of any change which tuiglit disturb the parasite, will contend that the order comes too bite. It is hoped and believed that after the painful experience we have had of the danger to wliich the Federal connL-ciion with slavery ia expotilng the Kepublio there will bt- few indeed who will insist that the decree which brings the connection to an end either oould or ought to have been further deferred.

The interests of humanity have now become identified with the canse of our country, and this has resulted not from any infraction of constitutional restraints by the government, but from persistent un constitutional and factious proceedings of the insurgents, have opposed themselves to both.

DIABY, OB NOTES ON THE WAB. 79

You are well aware how long political controversy has been wearing a gulf to divide opinion in our country on the subject of interference with slavery in the slaveholding states. You know how deep that gulf has become, and how confessedly impassable it is except under the pressure of absolute, immediate, and irretrieva- ble danger to the Union itself. Notwithstanding many respected counsellors at home, and all our representatives abroad, have long and earnestly urged an earlier adoption of such a measure as the President has at last accepted, it was nevertheless wisely delayed until the necessity for it should become so manifest as to make it certiiin that, instead of dividing the loyal people of the Union into two parties, one for and the other against the prosecution of the war for the maintenance of the Union, it would be universally accepted and sustained. It is now apparent that the measure will be thus sustained.

September 27,1862. — The law of compensation, which makes reaction always follow effort, and which measures progress by the balance between advance and retreat, applies as well in war as in peace. We had a series of brilliant and most effective victories during the months of February, March, April, May and June. On the first of July we incurred a failure at Richmond, which was fol- lowed by considerable reverses during that month and the following months. This change in the tide of the war produced some popu- lar consternation and alarm. Our new levies, however, began to come in about the first of September, and we have since that time been able to meet successfully an invasion of the loyal states, which Wiis projected with much deliberation by the insurgents during the summer, and assumed a menacing form with the opening of the autumn. None of our really important positions have been lost, and we expect soon to resume aggressive movements with vigor and effect.

October 8, 18G2. — Your despatch of September 17 has been received.

Tiie unfavorable aspect of our affairs under which it was written has given place to another which illustrates the strength and vigor of the Union and the loyalty and enthusiasm of the people.

The repulsion of the insurgents from Maryland, Cincinnati, and Ohio, with the recent triumphs of the national arms in Missouri and Mississippi, need no explanations to show their importance.

October 13, 1862. — There is an opinion in foreign circles that

80 DIARY, OB NOTES ON THE WAB.

does appear unaccountable, namely, that this government, with the loyal people that are sustaining it, are desiring, or being prepared to desire, a compromise with the insurrection. No country in the world has ever poured out, in an equal period, so much of its treas- ure and its blood to save its integrity and its independence. These precious streams have flowed from springs as free as they are abundant. They are renewed now as freely and as plentifully as before. Temporary and partial disappointuients not only produce no despair or despondency, but they stimulate and invigorate. Our cause is now, as it was in the time of our great revolution, tlie cause of human nature. It deserves and it vet will win the favor of all nations and of all classes and conditions of men.

October 13, 1862. — I do not dwell upon the militiiry situation of our own country and its prospects. They are changed much for the better since your despatch was written. But this is so appar- ent as to need no special effort on my part to make it manifest. Careful and candid observers, I think, would agree that the civil war is at its crisis, and that the country is not likely to be either divided or to lose its invaluable institutions.

October 18, 1862. — The military and political situations in this country are in perfect contrast with the imaginary ones which were expectt'd to win the advantages of European intervention. Instead of being in possession of or threatening Philadelphia and New York, and occupying Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, Balti- more, and Washington, the invading armies of the insurgents in the east, in the west, and in the south, are in the retreat before the national forces, and as rapidly as possible evacuating all the loyal border Stat(»s.

October 18, 1862. — It is not now doubted here that the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, followed by the retreat of the insurgents from Maryland, and by the President's proclamation of warning to the insurgent States, have well sustained the reaction abroad which has been already mentioned.

At the same time you will need to know the present military and political conditions of the country, and the expectations of the Presi- dent based upon them. I do not think that I can better describe these conditions than by saying, on the whole, that there has been only this change since the month of June last, namely, that whereas at that time it was believed here that the government had virtually

DIARY, OB NOTES ON THE WAR. 81

suppressed the revolt, the reverses and successes of our arms within the period that has intervened have now brought about the convic- tion thiit the revolt, pmctically speaking, has failed. The battle of Corinth was a great conflict, and it has prbduced large results. It leaves us but little trouble to relieve the Mississippi River of insur- gfr»nt forces, and we are rapidly preparing the land and naval expe- ditions necessary for that purpose.

The invasion of Kentucky seems to have virtually come to an end with the defeat of the insurgents at Corinth and at Perryville. They are leaving the state with as much haste as they rushed through it towards Louisville and Cincinnati. Their demonstrations against Missouri have been equally unsuccessful. General Mc- Clellaii is being rapidly reinforced, and reconnoissances which he has made truly indicate a new trial of strength between his army and that of Lee near Winchester. Only the impossibility of finding room for more workers upon our iron-clad navy delays the de- spatch of vessels of that class believed to be sufficient without the present navy to recover all the ports of the country which are yet remaining in the possession of the insurgents. Charleston and Mobile will be early visited with that view, and thus we may rea- sonably expect to relieve ourselves of the inconveniences which result to the national cause from the success of British-built and equipped vessels in carrying arms and supplies to the insurgents, since we are compelled to despair of any other correction of that great wrong.

October 21, 1862. — The present military situation here may be described in a few words. Our spring campaign, so fruitful in vic- tories, closed with reverses in the last weeks of July. An insurgent invasion of the loyal states began with successes in August and was arrested in September. Our armies are now renewed, our naval force increasing, and a decisive campaign will soon be opened. The insurgents excited in European capitals the most sanguine hopes of the success of their campaign of invasion, promising nothing less than the capture and capitulation of Washington, with the occupa- tion of Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Phila- delphia. They built high hopes of recognition upon this magnifi- cent, though precarious, foundation. From Europe we hear little that is definite, but there is manifestly some diflBculty there in digesting disappointments. The abuses of the neutrality proclaimed

6

82 DIAET, OR NOTES ON THE WAR.

by the govemmeDt, wliioli nre daily committed by Britisli eubjef in British ports and on tlie high st-as, biivfi become not merely annoying, but deeply injunouB. We are doing everything possible to prevent a, ripening of tliese disturbances into a war upon the ocean, which would probably leave no nation free from its desolat' iiig effi'cta.

October 25, 1862. — Kentucky and Missouri, like Marybmd, are free again. The war retires into Tennessee, us it baa into Vii^nia. Expeditions up and down the Mississippi are nearly in readiness. General McClelUn is preparing operations in Virginia, not so rapid- ly as our imimtience demands, but, doubtless, with his customary care and comprehensiveness. General Mitchell will not long be idle before Charleston.

The delays of our new iron-clad vesat'ls iiro painful and mortifying, but one cannot see where to charge fault.

October 27, 1862, — The military events which aeem toreqiiii-e a notice, when the mail is departing, are, first, the escape of the insurg- ents from Kentucky back into the mountiiins of Tennessee. Gt-neral Buell's proceedings are, in some military quarters, thought to have been unnecessarily dilatory ; be baa been relieved, and General Rose- ci'ans, a very vigorous and accomplished officer, assumes the vacated command. Second, General Schoiield has defeated the insurgents in Arkans.is, in which state they were attempting to make a stand after their second expulsion from Missouri. Third, General Mc- Clellan is on the eve of crossing the Potomac to challenge the insurgents as u beginning of the new campaign in Virginia. Fourth, reinforcements are going to our forces in North Carolina, South Carolina, and New Orleans. These reinforcements will have all needful naval cooperation. There are viu'ious prdilical manifesta- tions in North Carolina, Virginia, and Louisiana, which are not des- titute of signifioancy, but it would be premature, perhaps, to specify them. It must enSice to say that it is a mistake to assume, as schema to be so freely assumed in Europe, that the President's proclamation of warning to the insurgent states will be either unfruitful or even unheeded.

Novevibir 3, 18C-, — The military transactions which I have to relate are not striking, although they are not unimportant. The n&vy have reduced to occupation two new jwaitions on the southern coast — Sabine Pass and Galveston. The blockading tleet has cap-

DXABT, OR NOTES ON THE WAB. 83

•

tared three of the steamers which were fitted out in England and despatched from British ports with arms and other supplies for the insurgents. i

General McClellan*s army has crossed into Virginia, and its ad- vance has already had some skirmishing with the insurgents in the rear of Leesburg, which is again occupied by the national forces.

The telegraph announces the destruction of another half dozen American vessels on the high seas by the steamer 290. The Presi- dent is obliged to regard these destructions as being made by British subjects in isolation of the law of nations after repeated and ample notice, warning, and remonstrances had been given by you to the British goveiiiment. 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 [ Mr. Adams ] are with the working of our system of popular elec- tions against being disturbed by the exaggerations of the political canvass which closes to-day. No appreliensions of any change of the policy of the country in regard to the suppression of the insurrection are indulged here.

November 10, 1862. — At the present we are apprehending no in- surmountable 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 Rose- crans is moving forward in Tennessee. Expeditions by land and water, greater in force than any preceding one, will soon be on their way to the southern coast.

November 18, 1862. — The military movements, though import- ant, ai-e not striking. Major-General Bumside, now in command of the army of the Potomac, has put it in motion, and events of some significance may be expected within a few days. A part of Major- General Banks^ expedition is already afloat, and the whole will probably reach the important destination within a week. Some suc- cessful movements have been made in North Carolina and in Louisiana. Major-General Grant is advancing with apparent suc- cess in Mississippi, and additional columns to move by land and water and proeeediug towards the Gulf from Cairo and St. Louis.

84 DIART, OR NOTES OX THE WAR.

General Rosecrans is advancing towards the enemy in East Tennes- see, and an iron navy is nearly ready to reduce the last remaining insurrectionary ports into Federal occupation. Of all the insurgent menaces which lowered upon us so thickly in September and Octo- l>er there is only one that now gives us anxiety, and that is the in- vasion by iron-clad vessels, which are being built for the insurgents by their sympathizers in England.

November 28, 1862. — More iron-clads are necessary for the taking of Charleston. The building of them has seemed slow, but they are now beginning to move to their proper field of duty. The Ironsides and the Passaic have gone there, and eight more, I think, will reach Charleston in time to anticipate the fleets that are now fitting out in Europe.

November 30, 1862. — I have expected to be able to inform you that General Burnside has advanced across the Riippahannock. His preparations are ready, and the movement is imminent. He has a large and fine army.

General Banks' latest day assigned for embarkation has passed. I trust he will be on his way when this despatch leaves the coast. The Passaic has at last left her port. The Secretary of the Navy re<*kons confidently on the rapid completion and despatch of sufli- cient iron-clad auxiliaries to reduce Charleston.

The gold sj)eculati()n seems to have passed its zenith, and to be dec'hledly declining.

More of moderation and self-reliance is manifested by the people now than at any time since the war began.

Congress has come together in, I think, a good, practical, and patriotic temper. The President's message grasps the subject of slavery earnestly and confidently. It would be unbecoming even if it were possible, to predict the reception which his bold suggestion of gradual and compensated emancipation will meet. It is some- thing to know, perhaps it is all that can be known now, that the great problem of the civil war maintains its importance, and secures the consideration it deserves. While the j)eople hesitate, doubt, and divi(h» upon ea<'h new suggc^stion that is made for the solution <>f the problem, they no longer shrink from contemplating and studying it. If they seem to the world to be slow in reaching it, the worhl ought to be reassured of their success bv the reflection that no nation ever advanced faster in a task so complicated and so difficult. The great

DIARY, OR NOTES ON THE WAR. 86

question heretofore has been : Can th(^ constitutional Union endure through the trial ? There is no longer any ground for despondency on that point. When we compare the military and naval conditions of the country now with what they were when Congress came to- gether a year ago — when we compare the condition of our foreign relations now existing with that which prevailed when Congress as- sembled a year ago — we see evidences of strength, power, and stability which then it would have seemed presumptuous to expect.

December 15, 1862. — The excitement which attended the late political canvass having subsided, the public mind returns again fnmi its wanderings to engage itself with the military situation.

The army under General Burnside, which had been some time gjithering upon the north bank of the Rappahannock, crossed that river on Friday and Saturday last in perfect order, and with signal exhibitions of heroism. The insurgents were dislodged from the town, and retired to their defences upon the hills beyond it. At the moment when I am writing, however, General Burnside, for reasons not yet explained, has withdrawn his forces to the north side of the river, and the two armies are now separated from each other by its sht)res. General Burnside had, when he commenced crossing the river, one hundred and thirty thousand men under his command. The addition of General Sigel's corps gave the com- manding general hist night fifteen thousand more, and to-day he will receive still another fifteen thousand. It is not easily understood how a general could handle a force larger than this.

Major-General Banks sailed from New York fifteen days ago with reinforcements for New Orleans, and we suppose that he must before this time have reached and taken command in that city. With the additional forces which are now descendinc: through the valley of the Mississippi under Generals Grant and Curtis and a very large land and naval expedition that is waiting at Cairo, as I understand, only for a slight rise of the river, it is expected that the Mississippi will be entirely freed from the insurgents, and become a base for operations eastward through Alabama and westward to the Rio Grande. Genenils Curtis and Grant have had satisfactory suc- cesses. General Rosecrans, who is in command at Nashville, and is expected to operate against Chattanooga and the passes in East Ten- nessee, has been less demonstrative than was expected, but we have no reason to apprehend any ultimate failure of his projected campaign.

86 DIARY, OR NOTES OS THE WAR.

The political atmosphere begins to exhibit phenomena iiKlicatf of a weariness of tbe wiir, and a desire for peace on both aides. There ar