DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



265 



communicate to the British Government the definitive 

 views of the President on the grave subject, if there 

 were not especial reasons for some little delay. 



These reasons Mr. Seward states to be, the 

 information that England and France were pre- 

 paring communications concerning the attitude 

 to be assumed by them, and an interview which 

 it was presumed Mr. Adams had with Lord 

 John Russell. 



The view taken by the Administration of 

 their own position at this time, is described by 

 Mr. Seward in a despatch dated June 8th : 



This Government insists, as all the world might 

 have known that it must and would, under all cir- 

 cumstances, insist, on the integrity of the Union, as 

 the chief element of national iffe. " Since, after trials 

 of every form of forbearance and conciliation, it has 

 been rendered certain and apparent that this para- 

 mount and vital object can be saved only by our ac- 

 ceptance of civil war as an indispensable condition, 

 that condition, with all its hazards and deplorable 

 evils, has not been declined. The acceptance, how- 

 ever, is attended with a strong desire and fixed purpose 

 that the war shall be as short and accompanied by as 

 little suffering as possible. Foreign intervention, aid, 

 or sympathy in favor of the insurgents, especially on 

 the part of Great Britain, manifestly could only pro- 

 tract and aggravate the war. Accordingly, Mr. fiallas, 

 under instructions from the President, in'an interview 

 conceded to him by the British Secretary of State for 

 Foreign Affairs, presented our protest against any such 

 intervention. 



The views of the Administration towards 

 England are thus expressed : 



This Government has no disposition to lift questions 

 of even national pride or sensibility up to the level of 

 diplomatic controversy, because it earnestly and ar- 

 dently desires t (ftnaintain peace, harmony, and cordial 

 friendship with Great Britain. 



Again, he says : 



It is the purpose of this Government, if possible, 

 consistently with the national welfare and honor, to 

 have no serious controversy with Great Britain at all ; 

 and if this shall ultimately prove impossible, then to 

 have both the defensive position and the clear right on 

 our side. 



On the 14th of June, Mr. Adams relates an- 

 other interview had with Lord John Russell. 

 After allusion to the proclamation of the Queen 

 by Mr. Adams, as having been hastily issued, 

 Lord John Russell's reply is thus given : 



He went over the ground once more which he occu- 

 pied in the former interview the necessity of doing 

 something to relieve the officers of their ship's from the 

 responsibility of treating these persons as pirates if 

 they met them on the seas. For his part, he could not 

 believe the United States would persevere in the idea 

 of hanging them, for it was not in consonance with 

 their well-known character. But what would be their 

 own situation if they should be found practising upon 

 a harsher system than the Americans themselves ? 



Here was a very large territory a number of States 

 and people counted by millions, who were in a state 

 of actual war. The fact was undeniable, and the em- 

 barrassment unavoidable. Under such circumstances 

 the law officers of the crown advised the policy which 

 had been adopted. It was designed only as a pre- 

 ventive to immediate evils. The United States should 

 not have thought hard of it. They meant to be en- 

 tirely neutral. 



On the loth of June the British and French 

 Ministers had an interview with Mr. Seward, at 

 which they proposed to read to him certain in- 



structions from their Governments. Mr. Sew- 

 ard declined to hear them officially until he 

 knew the nature of their contents. For this 

 purpose they were left for his perusal. He af- 

 terwards declined to hear them read, or to re- 

 ceive official notice of them. In a letter to Mr. 

 Adams on the 19th, he thus states the contents 

 of this paper : 



That paper purports to contain a decision at which 

 the British Government has arrived, to the effect that 

 this country is divided into two belligerent parties, of 

 which this Government represents one, and that Great 

 Britain assumes the attitude of a neutral between them. 



This Government could not, consistently with a just 

 regard for the sovereignty of the United States, permit 

 itself to debate these novel and extraordinary positions 

 with the Government of her Britannic Majesty ; much 

 less can we consent that that Government 'shall an- 

 nounce to us a decision derogating from that sovereign- 

 ty, at which it has arrived without previously confer- 

 ring with us upon the question. The United States 

 are still solely and exclusively sovereign within the 

 territories they have lawfully acquired and long pos- 

 sessed, as they have always been. They are at peace 

 with all the world, as, with unimportant exceptions, 

 they have always been. They are living under the 

 obligations of tfie law of natio'ns, and of treaties with 

 Great Britain, just the same now as heretofore ; they 

 are, of course, the friend of Great Britain, and they in- 

 sist that Great Britain shall remain their friend now, 

 just as she has hitherto been. Great Britain, by virtue 

 of these relations, is a stranger to parties and sections 

 in this country, whether they are loyal to the United 

 States or not, and Great Britain can neither rightfully 

 qualify the sovereignty of the United States, nor con- 

 cede, nor recognize any rights, or interests, or power 

 of any party, State, or section, in contravention to the 

 unbroken sovereignty of the Federal Union. What is 

 now seen in this country is the occurrence, by no 

 means peculiar, but frequent in all countries, more 

 frequent even in Great Britain than here, of an armed 

 insurrection engaged in attempting to overthrow the 

 regularly constituted and established Government. 

 There is, of course, the employment of force by the 

 Government to suppress the "insurrection, as every 

 other government necessarily employs force in such 

 cases. But these incidents by no means constitute a 

 state of war impairing the sovereignty of the Govern- 

 ment, creating belligerent sections, and entitling for- 

 eign States to intervene or to act as neutrals between 

 them, or in any other way to cast off their lawful obli- 

 gations to the nation thus for the moment disturbed. 

 Any other principle than this would be to resolve gov- 

 ernment everywhere into a thing of accident and ca- 

 price, and ultimately all human society into a state of 

 perpetual war. 



We do not go into any argument of fact or of law in 

 support of the positions we have thus assumed. They 

 are simply the suggestions of the instinct of self- 

 defence, the primary law of human action, not more 

 the law of individual than of national life. 



On the 21st of June Mr. Adams writes : 

 I am now earnestly assured on all sides that the 

 sympathy with the Government of the United States 

 is general ; that the indignation felt in America is not 

 founded in reason ; that the British desire only to be 

 perfectly neutral, giving no aid nor comfort tothe in- 

 surgents. I believe that this sentiment is now grow- 

 ing to be universal. It inspires her Majesty's Minis- 

 ters, and is not without its effect on the opposition. 



The views of the Administration concerning 

 the principle of the law of Congress which 

 authorized the President to close the ports of 

 the seceded States, were set forth with much 

 eloquence by Mr. Seward, in a despatch to Mr. 

 Adams, on July 21st. The occasion for the 



