Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. No. 425.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 15, 1862. SIR: The excitement which attended the late political canvass having subsided, the public mind returns again from its wanderings to engage itself with the military situation. The army under General Burnside, which had been some time gathering 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 At the moment when I am writing, however, General Burnside, for reasons not yet explained, has withdrawn his forces to the north side of the river, and the two armies are now separated from each other by its shores. 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 commanding general last 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 re-enforcements 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 descending 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. Generals Curtis and Grant have had satisfactory successes. General Rosecrans, who is in command at Nashville, and is expected to operate against Chattanooga and the passes in East Tennessee, has been less demonstrative than was expected, but we have no reason to apprehend any ultimate failure of his projected campaign. The political atmosphere begins to exhibit phenomena indicative of a weariness of the war, and a desire for peace on both sides. There are suggestions, perhaps as yet all of them visionary, of terms or bases of conciliation. No propositions or intimations, however, have come from the insurgent faction, and of course none have been communicated by the government. The public mind has been recently too much disturbed by incidental and collateral questions to study closely the progress of the war, and to measure the exhaustion of the insurgents. We are, therefore, without any conclusive evidence of their actual temper at this moment. The return of members of Congress from Louisiana, and the holding of elections for the same purpose in North Carolina and Virginia, have nevertheless an undoubted significance. The intended demonstration of iron-clad steamers is yet withheld for want of sufficient vessels. We continually see new vessels launched, and the workmen engaged in preparing them. But we do not find ourselves in possession of the overawing force of that kind which is necessary for watching at Hampton roads, and reaching at the same time Mobile and Charleston. The Passaic, when she arrived at the place of rendezvous, was found to be somewhat incomplete. She was sent up to the navy yard here, and will go out in good condition to-day. The Montauk goes to sea to-day or to-morrow. The "290" still escapes us, but the navy redoubles its exertions for her capture. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward. [Extracts.] No. 275.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Since the date of my last your despatches, numbered from 412 to 416, inclusive, have come to hand. Likewise a printed circular (No. 28) of the 14th of November, relative to the operation of the act of July 1, 1862, on the salaries of public officers abroad. There is no change worthy of note in the state of affairs here during the past week. The tone of the President's message in treating of the foreign relations is regarded with more favor, for the reason that something of a different kind had been anticipated in quarters where it was hoped an interpretation might be made of it to our disadvantage. I continue of the opinion that a gradual reaction is taking place in the popular sentiment, which will be materially promoted by the accounts of the very noble spirit manifested at New York towards the distressed operatives in Lancashire. This reaction may become quite general in the nation, if it should find support in the successful progress of our arms; but without that nothing really beneficial can be expected. On the other hand, the efforts making by the rebel emissaries and their friends continue on the most extensive scale. An association has been formed in this place called the London Confederate States Aid Association, the objects of which are set forth in the little pamphlet, a copy of which is herewith transmitted. An office has been opened in a house in the next street to that in which I am writing, at which place meetings for discussion are held every Wednesday evening. These are not, however, absolutely open to the public at large. A card of admission is necessary, like that I send herewith, needing, however, the countersign of the secretary, Rector Smith, M. D., to make it available. Who this Dr. Smith is I do not know. All that I can learn is that he came originally from Kentucky, but has been settled here for some time as a practicing physician. He boasts of having a brother in southern Illinois, who is an effective ally to the rebel cause, and is frequently sent as far as Chicago on their business. The meetings are held in a room not capable of accommodating many persons. At one of the earlier ones one person appeared who ventured to question some remark made by one of the speakers, for which act he was immediately expelled. A box is placed at the entrance in the nature of a poor's box, intended to receive any anonymous contributions which may be made by Engglish sympathizers without committing themselves. A few small sums are obtained that way. I need not enlarge upon the literal or logical peculiarities of their pamphlet. It is enough to observe that it indicates a degree of despair and distress at home, which I could scarcely have supposed the advocates of recognition here would be willing to confess. The production has been rather cautiously issued only to persons supposed to be inclined to sympathize. I have obtained some copies, which I have not feared to put into the hands of leading gentlemen here. This organization is sanctioned by Mason, Lieutenant Maury, and the rest of the active emissaries in London, though I do not attribute the authorship of the duction to them. Its success thus far has not been much. But I am told they contemplate larger operations presently, when an effort will be made to carry a measure of recognition through Parliament. * * * * * * pro Lieutenant Maury professes to have come here for the purpose of bringing a son out for his education. He is really sent to forward the despatch of five war vessels building at Liverpool and elsewhere for the rebels. I learn, moreover, that as many more are building of iron at Bordeaux and Nantes; but you doubtless have sources of more accurate information as to those from France itself. We are watching the progress of the English ones, and hope to be able to obtain in season the evidence on which to base a new remonstrance to her Majesty's government. In the meanwhile the transmission of supplies goes on with unabated industry. The steamer Princess Royal left last week with a very valuable cargo, including all the armor plates intended for a vessel at Charleston. Her nominal destination is Halifax, to take in coals, but she has a Charleston pilot on board, and will attempt a direct voyage, if the weather and other circumstances prove propitious. The difficulty in preventing ingress and egress at that port seems to have proved so great that I scarcely dare to hope she will be intercepted. From the number of pilots sent out from that point I am led to infer they find it almost their only dependence. Yet, in spite of all their success, the severity of their distress sufficiently proves the general effectiveness of the blockade. It is very much to be desired that within the next three months some further results may be arrived at in obtaining their remaining ports, which will render all the armament they are preparing here to break the blockade of little worth. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. [Card of Admission.] THE LONDON Confederate States Aid Association. 3 Devonshire street, Portland Place, W. [Pamphlet referred to.] An Address to the British public and all sympathizers in Europe, from the London Confederate States Aid Association. We most earnestly and sincerely solicit your co-operation. aid, and support to the cause of the Confederate States of America They are now engaged in a war of defence against a most fearful odds of unscrupulous enemies. Their immense coast is blockaded, and their entire communication cut off from the rest of mankind Their harbors have been destroyed, their rivers and waters are in the possession of their enemies. Laws have been passed confiscating their property, and forcing the oath of allegiance under the pains and penalty of death. Their women have been insulted, imprisoned, flogged, violated, and outraged in a most inhuman and savage manner. Their homes and goods have been destroyed, their houses forcibly entered the helpless and unresisting inmates murdered, the fleeing overtaken and cut down in cold blood by their savage soldiery. Respectable and peaceable unarmed citizens have been arrested and imprisoned, others shot or hung in the presence of their families, without a moment's warning, or the slightest pretext or provocation whatever. Their villages, towns, and cities have been destroyed and made desolate plains; their once productive fields laid waste, made barren, and crimsond with their own blood. That their invaders are bent on mischief, robbery, murder, arson, and crimes of the most revolting nature. cannot be doubted. The past history of this war demonstrates but too clearly their fiendish and demoniacal purpose; they destroy everything they come in reach of, both man and beast. They are now glutting their hellish rage against the people they seek to destroy, in inflicting every kind of torture, punishment, and misery that their fruitful minds can invent, upon those that they fain would call fellow-citizens In this raid nothing seems so much to delight them as spreading wild ruin, devastation, destruction, and universal desolation throughout the land they have invaded, for the purpose of revenge and hatred. In their fury, malice, and madness, they have spent millions to destroy the natural channels of the waters that wash southern shores. The atrocities, cruelties, crimes, and outrages committed against the south in this war are without a parallel in the history of the world. Added to these misfortunes and calamities, foreign nations have treated them with unprecedented severity, oppression, unfairness and rigor; they have denied them a voice in their courts, and refuse to have any communication with them whatever. The Confederate States are left without an alternative, either successful resistance or dishonored graves This war can only terminate in the entire destruction of the south and the annihilation of her people, or in her ability to drive the enemy from her territory, and establish and maintain her institutions inviolate. The United States of America, eighteen months ago, declared the entire confederate coast blockaded; the declaration was not worth the paper on which it was written without the approval of the great powers of Europe; and though the law regulating the questi n as to what constituted a blockade, and momentous interest, was in direct opposition, ali questions were waived, the legality acknowledged, the blockade acquiesced in, and made binding, thus cutting off all communication between us and what was heretofore the largest producing, exporting, importing, and consuming market in the world. This has had a most ruinous and destructive influence on our commerce and prosperity, which is beginning to be severely felt by all classes of society, but more especially the manufacturing and laboring portion of the people; all branches of business have been depreciated to ruinous rates, even to suspension. The real necessities and wants of the people cannot be supplied; untold numbers have been thrown out of work, and are wandering about seeking employment in vain, until they are worn out by hunger, thirst, and starvation. Our fundamental sources of wealth, greatness, affluence, power, and independence have been, in a great measure. suspended by yielding to the infamous acts of a haughty tyrant. The importance that we have heretofore attached to the trade of the north has deceived us, and dwindles into insignificance when compared to that of the south; the absurdity of their promise to supply us with cotton through their ports can now be seen by every one. Most strange and extraordinary, every speaker and writer on the subject of the cotton famine is giving the public mind the wrong direction. It can only be found where it is," and can only be produced regularly in large quantities where climate, soil, and geographical position is favorable to its production, and that can only be determined by the experience of a series of years. After a careful and most thorough investigation of the subject, we are irresistibly forced to the conclusion that no other country can produce so good, cheap, and large supply as the old, well-tried fields of the Confederate States of America; therefore we are of opinion that this country cannot rely, with any degree of certainty, on any other market. The emergency, necessity, and real wants of the hour incontestably prove our conclusion to be well founded. We have seen the absurdity and folly of relying on other markets for supplies Almost as soon as our old stock has been worked, our mills have been compelled to stop; though fabulous prices have been offered, no adequate quantity can be had, notwithstanding our old market has abundance and to spare, at the moderate price of threepence per pound, and from that source the United States, and those that sustain them in their policy, bas denied us ur ordinary supplies, the want of which has been the direct cause of the starvation and distress in Lancashire. It is hard that the innocent should suffer to aid the cause of cruelty and tyranny in a crusade against the unoffending south. Every impartial mind must be convinced that if the south had had the same facilities of obtaining war material from abroad as the north, the war would have ended long since. We are of opinion that peace can only be obtained by the success of confederate arms, and that all the embarrassments thrown in their way will only prolong the contest. To what extent individuals and nations are responsible for permitting the destruction of life and property that they could in their own lawful right prohibit, is a question worthy the attention and consideration of the civilized world. The indifference manifested in the immense interest that we have at stake and involved in this war is well calculated to alarm our fears, and awaken in us emotions of the gravest character. The indications are certainly very clear that our government intends to persist in the policy that they have seen proper to adopt towards the belligerents, and it is equally clear to our minds that, under that policy, the war will continue for many long years. Under all their difficulties the confederate government has grown stronger and stronger every day; unaided by any one, their onward march to power and greatness seems inevitable under perhaps the greatest sufferings that humanity was ever called to pass through; heroically and nobly have they fought through many bloody battles; undaunted and undismayed in defeat; calm, mild, and unexulting in victory; and have shown themselves worthy of a place amongst the nations of the earth. We are persuaded that it is only necessary here to call your attention to the great sufferings of our own people, and the identity of interest that we have with the south in the war, and the lamentable and desperate condition of the people of the Confederate States of America are owing principally to the enormous unfairness exerted against them, and the disadvantage that they labor under in obtaining war materials to defend themselves against vastly superior numbers, to awaken you to a sense of the importance of arresting the horrors of the blood-stained march of tyranny, and the reign of crimes and terrors now carried on against the confederates by the federals, and restore to them liberty, peace, and happiness to our country. To the accomplishment of these ends and purposes we turn to you in the name of suffering Lancashire, civilization, justice, peace. liberty, humanity, Christianity, and a candid world; and by the highest considerations that can call men to action, we beg you to come forward to aid, contribute, and support a brave and valiant people that are fighting for their homes, firesides, birthright, lives, independence, sacred honor, and all that is near and dear to mankind. By all the sorrows, deprivations, bereavements, losses, hardships, and suffering that now ingulph the confederate people, we appeal to you to arouse and rush to their aid with your pence, shillings, and pounds; give them your sympathy, countenance, and influence to hurl the tyrants from their country, and obtain the greatest boon to inan-self-government. Fairest and best of earth, for the sake of violated innocence, insulted virtue, and the honor of your sex, come in woman's majesty and omnipotence, and give strength to a cause that has for its object the highest human aims, the amelioration and exaltation of humanity. At a meeting of the Confederate States Aid Association, held at their rooms on the evening of Wednesday, the 20th of August, 1862, the following report was unanimously adopted. It is notorious from the history of the late United States for the last fourteen years that the laws of the land were not enforced throughout a great portion of the northern section of the country. It is undeniable that the government of Washington was wholly impotent to compel obedience; and that the enactments of the federal legislature, indorsed and expounded by the Supreme Court of judicature, were in most of the northern States of the late federal Union become a dead letter. Ohio, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, and others of the western States, by a formal act of their legislatures, made it positively penal to execute within their districts the federal laws of the land, and forbade the officers of the federal government to execute them within their borders. The message of President Franklin Pierce, issued in 1856, proves this to demonstration. The plain consequence of this action on the part of the northern States amounted to a virtual dissolution of the Union, and absolved the southern States from allegiance to the national compact, the Constitution of which indispensably provided for the administration of the general laws enacted for the benefit of all. For the whole of that period the southern States suffered much and long the deprivation of their national rights for the sake of preserving their common nationality, and from fear of the disruption of the ties which bound the several States in a common national federal Union They found themselves without a government, save that of their own individuak States; neither lite nor property was secured to them by law outside their own borders, nor did the national government possess power to protect either the one or the other, as by the common laws of mankind the supreme government is bound to be enabled to do. The south held firmly to all the conditions of the national federation, and religiously performed all the duties which were consequent upon a partnership under a union of States, in a federal government, by the common consent of such States, and formed upon the basis of their mutual interests. Such consent was destroyed by the regular and organized action of a political conspiracy to contravene the obligations of the common and national Union. The party now in power at Washington are the persons who undeniably organized this conspiracy. With systematic disloyalty to the federal laws, vigilant committees were formed in the northern States to resist the law, until they became strong enough to nominate the chief officer of the nation the head of vigilant committeeism, under a higher law than the laws of the lind, acknowledging no other restriction or obligation than that imposed by their own conscience, and violently and successfully resisting the plain terms of the compict of the national Union. Having made every possible concession to the north for the sake of preserving such Union, the south consented to the imposition of tariffs which were seriously detrimental to their commercial interests; they allowed the north to monopolize the whole of their shipping and carrying trade; they submitted to be shut out from free |