No. 489.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: The citizens of Glasgow, in a public meeting held on the 4th day of February last, adopted, and they have sent through their chairman, William Goven, esquire, to the President of the United States, an address and resolutions expressing just, generous, and fervent sympathies with our country in the great trial through which it is passing for the vindication of self-government and of the cause of humanity. You are authorized to assure the citizens of Glasgow that the President has received their address and resolutions with sincere satisfaction and gratitude. The cause of the United States, seen in the clear, broad light cast upon it by these proceedings, rises to the dignity of one which it would be a crime against civilization to despair of, and much more a crime to forsake or betray. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. No. 490.] Department of State, Washington, March 2, 1863. SIR: It will, I am sure, be an agreeable office for you to present to the committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society the acknowledgments of the President of the United States for the copy of the minute which has been transmitted to him of their proceedings at a meeting held on the 19th of January last, It seems to be in the order of God's providence to combine the welfare of society. which might otherwise be neglected, with the interests of individuals and of nations, which can never be safely overlooked. It was in this sense, as you well know, that the confederated congress of the United States, when surrendering their trust to the agents chosen under the federal Constitution, conjured the American people to remember always that the cause of the United States is the cause of human nature. Deeply cherishing this sentiment, so well calculated to remind this government of its immense responsibility to mankind, the sympathies which are expressed for it by the society whose proceedings are now before me have been accepted by the President with the most profound satisfaction. I am, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: The resolutions of a public meeting which was held at Bradford on the 29th of January have been submitted to the President, who charges me with the pleasant duty of acknowledging the satisfaction he has derived from the just, liberal, and cordial sentiments in regard to our country so earnestly and eloquently expressed in these proceedings. I am also to assure the inhabitants of Bradford that this government sincerely sympathizes with them in the unhappy interruption of their industry, which has resulted, without fault on their part, from an insurrection in this country as causeless as it is injurious, not only here, but wherever its effects are seen or felt. The occasion would be a proper one for acknowledgments to Mr. W. E. Forster, who presided at the meeting to which I have referred. But he justly looks to his own country and to his conscience for the reward of labors which, when the history of these painful times shall be written, will be identified with the agencies which saved human society from a new and anomalous danger, that, but for its actual occurrence, would have been believed forever impossible. You will communicate what I have written to Mr. Forster and to the inhabitants of Bradford in such manner as you shall deem proper. SIR: You will present to Mr. William Trater, who presided over a meeting of the inhabitants of Galashiels held at the Corn Exchange on the 5th of February last, the profound acknowledgments of the President of the United States for the deep interest expressed by the workingmen assembled on that occasion in behalf of the cause of the United States in the painful domestic controversy in which they are now unhappily engaged. The President hopes and confidently trusts that the moral opinion of mankind, now happily awakened to th real nature and character of the contest, will relieve it of every of its past embarrassments, and be productive of benign results, favorable to the interests of all nations. SIR: Your despatch of the 13th of February (No. 321) has been received. It informs us that, on a re-examination of the subject, her Majesty's government have come to a conclusion that the present enlistment law of Great: Britain is sufficient without amendments, and that therefore they have none to propose. It remains for this government, therefore, only to say that it will be your duty to urge upon her Majesty's government the desire and expectation of the President, that henceforward her Majesty's government will take the necessary measures to enforce the execution of the law as faithfully as this govern-ment has executed the corresponding statutes of the United States. In placing before Earl Russell intercepted correspondence of the insurgents, as we learn that you have done by another of your despatches, the President thinks that you have given to the British government ample evidence of the seriousness of our complaint, as well as sufficient information of specific unlawful designs of the parties concerned therein, and the plans of operation, to secure success to any proper efforts for repressing those designs which her Majesty's government may think proper to put forth. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No. 494.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 2, 1863. SIR: You are authorized to inform Jerome Murch; esquire, who presided at a meeting of the citizens of Bath, which was held at the Guildhall on the 2d of February last, that the proceedings of that meeting have been submitted to the President of the United States, and that he is deeply affected by the fervent sympathies with our country, and the cordial wishes for its peace and prosperity, which the citizens of Bath have thus kindly expressed. You will add that, if the peace of the world shall be further disturbed in consequence of the unhappy insurrection now existing in this country, that painful result will happen through no fault of this government, which has no other purpose but to maintain the integrity of the United States and their free institutions—an object, as it believes, only in degree more important to them than to all other nations. I am, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: The resolutions of a meeting of the inhabitants of South London, held in Southwark on the 3d day of February, 1863, have been submitted to the President of the United States. You will avail yourself of a proper occasion to make known to Mr. J. Serrell, who presided at the meeting, the President's grateful acknowledgments for the good wishes expressed for the welfare and happiness of our country by that respectable assembly, and assure him, in return, of the best wishes of this government for the preservation of a perpetual and cordial friendship between two nations whose common responsibility for the cause of civilization requires that they shall remain in that relation. SIR: Your despatch of February 12 (No. 320) has been received, and your proceedings in regard to the President's reply to the workingmen of Manchester are approved. Proper acknowledgment will be made of the resolutions and proceedings of other meetings, copies of which your despatch has transmitted. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. No. 497.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 2, 1863. SIR: The resolutions concerning American affairs which were adopted at a public meeting held in the borough of Leeds on the third of February last have been received. You will make known to Mr. Edward Baines, the chairman of that assembly, the President's grateful appreciation of the recognition made by those proceedings of the important fact that the cause in which the United States are now engaged is entitled to be regarded as the cause of freedom and humanity. You will further inform Mr. Baines of the sincere sympathy of the American people with the sufferings of their brethren in the manufacturing districts of England, and of the earnestness with which this government desires a speedy return of their accustomed prosperity and happiness. I am, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: Your despatch of February 5 (No. 315) has been received. I send you brief replies or acknowledgments, in behalf of the President, to the addresses and resolutions transmitted to me by the inhabitants of Stroud, Glasgow, Galashiels, Bath, Leeds, South London, Bradford, and the committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, respectively. You will modify these papers in your discretion, and use them in making acknowledgments or not, as you deem advisable. In any case you will seek through an informal conference with Earl Russell to ascertain that the acknowledgments made will not be regarded as wanting in respect to her Majesty's government. SIR: Your despatch (No. 332) of the 13th ultimo, relative to remonstrance which you addressed to Earl Russell, based upon the intercepted correspondence, a copy of which accompanied my No. 454, has been received. That proceeding is approved. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. [Extracts.] No. 339.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: This morning I received despatches from the department, numbered from 473 to 482. With respect to the instructions contained in Nos. 475 and 476, I shall, for the reasons already given in my former despatches, No. 327 and No. 334, delay acting upon them until the President shall have an opportunity to act on a full survey of all the addresses that are on their way. My own suggestion would rather be that I should have instructions to publish one brief and general reply, the form of which may be furnished to me at the same time. * * I now transmit addresses or resolutions of the same tenor as those heretofore sent, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne on the 10th ultimo; from the Liverpool meeting on the 19th ultimo; from Huddersfield on the 24th ultimo; from Ashford, in Kent, and from Ashton-under-Lyne, on the 26th ultimo; from the Union and Emancipation Society of Manchester on the 3d instant; from Massley, near Ashton-under Lyne, on the 4th; and from Leeds on the 24th of February. From these examples you will perceive that the current of sentiment continues to run strongly in the direction lately taken. * I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Ilon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, * * * CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. [Enclosures.] 1. Address from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, February 10, 1863. 2. Address from Liverpool, February 19, 1863. 3. Address from Huddersfield, February 24, 1863. 4. Address from Ashford, in Kent, February 26, 1863. 5. Address from Ashton-under-Lyne, February 26, 1863. 6. Address from Union and Emancipation Society, Manchester, March 3, 1863. 7. Address from Massley, March 4, 1863. 8. Address from Leeds, February 24, 1863. RESOLUTIONS FROM NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. First resolution. "That the revolt of the southern States of America against the federal government, having avowedly originated in the determination not only to maintain but to extend slavery, and having been followed by the organization of a confederacy based upon the denial of human rights to the negro race, this meeting indignantly repels the assumption that the English people sympathize with a rebellion that thus violates every principle of political justice, or with institutions framed in defiance of the moral sense of civilized mankind, and which are an outrage upon the religion whose sanction has been claimed in their support." Second resolution. "That in the election of President Lincoln, and in the principal acts of his administration-the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the prohibition of slavery in the Territories, the recognition of the republics of Hayti and Liberia, the concession of the right of search for the suppression of the slave trade, the scheme of compensated emancipation, |