The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-13 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA

The following further correspondence relating to
the civil war in the United States of North America
has just been printed;--

No. 1.
MR. ADAMS TO EARL IttiSSELL—(Reinived June 21.)
Legation of the United States, London,
June 20, 1862.
My Lord,—l have the honour to transmit to your
lordship a copy of the despatch from the Secretary
of State to me of the 28th ult., which I was desired
to read to you in my interview of yesterday, but
which Ifound I had accidentally left at home.—Re-
Lowing, &c.,
(Signed) CHARLES FRANCIS ADAAIS.

Inclosure in No. 1.
MR. SEWARD TO MR. ADAMS.

Washington, May 28, 1862.
Sir,—Your despatch of the Bth of May has been
received.
'There is a statement in the public journals that
30 vessels which had left British ports with a com-
mon design to run our blockade, have gathered at
Nassau, and that they are now remaining there
awaiting the relaxation of the blockade at some of
the Southern ports Which the President has per-
mitted to take place on the Ist of June, preferring
to avail themselves of that lawful privilege rather
than persevere in their prohibited operations. I
think, th.erefore, that we may congratulate our-
selves o.pon having advanced to a new stage in our
intercourse
with maritime powers affecting the pre-
sent troubles in the United States, a stage at which
motives of sympathy in foreign countries with the
insurgents derived from the pressure of the block-
ade will disappear.
This stage is also marked by another improve-
ment of the case, namely, the withdrawal from the
ocean of the pirates who have occasionally sought
shelter and protection in friendly ports while com-
mitting depredations on American commerce.
Under the President's instructions I desire to
improve the position thus obtained, to confer, if our
representatives abroad should think it discreet,
with the friendly nations upon the prospects of the
war and their future course in regard to it.
By way of introduction, I beg to recall to your
recollizetion the facts, that at the earliest proper
moment I set forth most distinctly the opinions
of ;this Government that the mutual interests,
present and permanent, of all maritime na-
tions, including this country, require the pre-
servation of harmonious relations between them,
and that the same interests demand that, so far as
possible, peace shall prevail throughout the world,
and especially in the United States and upon the
American continent.
In explanation of these views I set forth the opi-
nion that the industrial systems of Western Europe
and the United States, including their agriculture,
manufactures and commerce, are in some respeets to
be rewarded less as distinct national systems than
as one general combination ofagricultural, man ufac-
turing, and commercial agencies, in which a jar in
one country necessarily produces disturbance in all
others, so that a serious disorganisation of the ma-
chinery employed in production here cannot fail to
result in derangement, probably in disaster, every-
where abroad.
There aro now some painful evidences that these
speculations were not unsound. There is distress
among the peasantry of Ireland, in the manufactur-
ing towns of Belgium, and the wine presses and
silk looms in some parts of France seem to be corn-
ing to a dead stand. All the sufferers—l will not
stop to Inquire how justly—tracetheir misfortunes
to the civil war of the United States. It is manifest
that what the European nations want is an end of
th at war as speedy, and leaving the industrial sys-
tem of this country as little disorganised, as possi-
ble. It would seem impossible for any considerate
person to doubt that this is the very consum-
mation which the Government of the United States
must want even more than it can be desired by the
European States. This Government has expressed
that want earnestly, decidedly, sometimes perhaps
even impatiently. Nevertheless the war has con-
tinued a whole year, against the wishes of Europe
as well as of America. A new campaign is even
beginning. In order to determine whether it is
'likely to reach the desired end, it may not be un-
profitable to consider the causes of its prolongation
to the present period. This Government at the be-
ginning assumed, and it has constantly insisted,
that the Union could, must, and should be pre-
served. On the other hand, the European nations,
when they saw the storm burst upon the country ,
either doubted, or actually disbelieved, the pos-
sibility of that great salvation. Europe had but a
subordinate and indirect interest in the great pro-
blem, and it supposed that if the United States
could only be convinced that the Union could not
in the end be preserved, they would at once forego
the contest, and consent to a national dissolution,
which it was erroneously thought would be followed
by peace, while we knew that it would only be the
beginning of endless war. Thus European opinion
has practically favoured the insurgents, and encou-
raged them with ephemeral sympathies and unreal
expectations of foreign intervention, and has thus
protracted the war to the present time.
Certainly this government and the American
people are even more confident of the preservation
of the Union now than they were a year ago, and
are therefore even less likely now than they were
then to accept peace, with the inconceivable pains
and perils of dissolution. Can it be presumptuous,
then, for us to ask European statesmen to review in
the light of the events of the war the opinion which
they formed at so early a stage of it, that the opinion
itself might, perhaps, properly be deemed a preju-
dice ?

Of course, in such a review, the observer would
not overlook the contrast between the position
which the Federal Government held a year ago and
its present situation. Then it had been practically
expelled, with all its authorities, civil, military, and
naval, from every State south of the Potomac, Ohio
and Missouri rivers, whilst it was held in close siege
in this capital, cut off from communication with
even the States which had remained loyal. Now, it
has virtually
retaken all the positions it so early
lost on the seaboard ; it possesses the Mississippi
and all the other great natural highways, and has
forced the insurgents to battle in the most inacces-
sible part of the insurrectionary district. The forces
and resources of the Gayer
nment are unexhausted
and increasing. Those of the insurgents are dimi-
nished and becoming nearly exhausted.
No one, either here or in Europe now contests
these simple facts. The only argument oppo
not tosed to
ned
them is, that the insurgents
have deterroi
acknowledge the authority of the Union. The evi-
dence of this is a certain resolute and defiant tone

maintained by their organs. --
Certainly, so long as the insurgents have any hope
of ultimate success, they could not be expected to
discourse otherwise than in just such a tone, nor
will they fail to cherish such a hope so long as
they find a willingness to meet it with sym-
pathy in Europe. The very last advices which
came from that quarter previous to the arrival
there of the news of the fall of New Orleans and

Norfolk were full of speculations about some newly
conceived form of intervention.
But it must be remembered that the insurgents
are men, and that they may reasonably be expected
to speak and to act like other belligerent factions
under similar conditions. So al'ao being men and
subject to the laws which determine the economy
of society, they must in all cases conform them-
selves, however unwillingly, to the circumstances

by which they are surrounded. They cannot, more

than other masses of men, determine for them-

selves, under one state of circumstances what they
will do under a different one. A writer upon war
advises brave men never to nail their colours to the
staff, remarking that if they shall be able, and find
it desirable, they can maintain it there without
nailing, while it will be more convenient to lower
it if they shall find themselves unable or no longer
desirous to keep it eyin
g• But speaking practi-
cally,
what has been the result thus far in the pre-
sent case'? Has disloyalty been found an indomi-
table sentiment in this War ? It pervaded even this
capital and this district at the beginning of the
strife. It no. logger exists here. It divided Mary-
or flint there. The Union is
land, and provoko