The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-26 00:00:00

*-4•4 ( V 7
-AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC CORRES-

PONDE.N C E.

The selections from the correspondence between
Mr. Seward and the representatives of the Federal
Government in Europe, reprinted by the Amerioam
journals, would alone fill a tolerably sized volume.
After reading these official despatches, even in the
form of extracts, it is difficult to understand why
the greatest portion of the documents were ever
Written, and still less easy to perceive any motive
for publishing them. We presume, however, that
the Department of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs,
having less to do directly with the management of
the war than any other, had not attracted so much
of the public notice during the excitement caused by
domestic events, and at the close of the year Mr.
Seward felt bound to prove he had not been idle
during that period. Nor has he. We doubt whether
Mr. Chase or Gen. Halleck will leave so much of
their individual ideas, beliefs, and predictions be-
hind them in the archives of Departments of Fi-
nance and War.
In the opening months of the present year Mr.
Seward was full of confidence that the rebellion was
on the point of being crushed. The material power
of the North, organised during the preceding win-
ter, was immense, while that of the Confederacy
was already becoming exhausted. In his despatch
to Mr. Adams of Feb. 10 the Foreign Secretary
says :

"Only 11 of the slave States are practically subject to
the insurgents, and already the flag of the Union stands, as
we think, irremovably fixed upon some points in every one
of the 34 States, except Texas, Alabama, and Arkansas.
Congress has come fully up to the discharge of its great re-
sponsibility of establishing the finances of the country on a
safe and satisfactory foundation. Notwithstanding the pro-
testations of the insurgents that the people of the insurgent
States are unanimous in their determination to overthrow
the Government, we have the most satisfactory evidence
that the Union will be hailed in every quarter, just as fast
as the army shall emancipate the people from the oppression
of the insurgent leaders."
On the 17th of the same month he informs Mr.
Adams that the operations of the campaign by land
and sea had begun, and is sanguine of success.
The great preparations which have been made so
carefully, in defiance of popular impatience at
home, and political impatience abroad, are now
followed by results indicative of a complete and
even early decision of the contest in favour of the
Government." On the 19th of February he was
about to write probably a long despatch, instruct-
ing Mr. Edams " how to answer the querulous
complaints in Parliament," which the representa-
tive of the Federation had anticipated, " the chief
of which is the assumed incompetence of the Go-
vernment to suppress the insurrection," when
chance turned up a bit of evidenee so convincing as
to render any arguments superfluous. " A very
shrewd observer, a loyal, and at present exiled,
Virginian, fell in at the moment, and expressed to
me the opinion that the end of the war is in sight ;
that there will be a short and rapid series of suc-
cesses against a disheartened conspiracy, and then
all will be over." Fortified by the testimony of this
shrewd observer, Mr. Adams was urged to claim
on this side of the water " a suspension of judg-
ment." If the assurance of the exiled Virginian
was repeated here, when received, it must have
misled Mr, Adams into some rash predictions—as
after events so completely falsified them, it is im-
possible to conceive why they are preserved in an
official volume, published so lately in the month of
December. Throughout the year, and especially in
the last months, Mr. Adams must have found it
very difficult to impress Mr. Seward's sanguine
anticipations and " rosy views" of the war on any
section of English society, in the face of the ad-
verse events that pursued the despatches across
the Atlantic so relentlessly.

In the middle of March Mr. Seward's confidence
had, if possible, increased; so much so, indeed, that
he thought the time had come when the Govern-
ments of France and England might be asked to re-
consider the policy that recognized the Southern
states as " belligerents." They were now evidently
only a " dwindling faction," and if the rights con-
ferred by the recognition were withdrawn all the
European trouble caused by the war " would come
to a speedy end." On the 15th of March Mr.
50Walra. Bays :

6, 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 wo so
clearly see how much of its strength was derived from the
hope of foreign aid, we are brought to lament anew the pre-
cipitancy with which foreign Powers so unnecessarily con-
ceded to it belligerent rights. The President trusts that
you are sparing no efforts to convince Earl Russell that the
time has come when that concession can be revoked with
safety to Great Britain and advantage to the great material
interests of that country."
On this point Mr. Adams is compelled to differ
from his chief. He admits that a time may come
when " such a proceeding might be of use," but con-
fesses he " does not see it yet," and doubts the ex-
pediency of proposing such a measure. Events, if
propitious, would do much :
" Indeed, shOuld it so happen that the existing indica-
tions of an early termination of the struggle continue to
multiply, there wii be little occasion for further remon-
strance of any kind here; for the disposition to help a party
once that it is felt to be certainly sinking is not very com-
mon among either political or commercial men; and there
are no others in Great Britain who would stop to shed a
tear over the fallen fortunes of the quasi-belligerent of their
own creation."

ry
As the war grew in magnitude, and great battles
fought proved at least the existence of armies able
to 13ht them, it must have become evident, even to
the Americans, that England and France had only
recognised a material fact that could not be dis-
puted. We could not reduce an immense army to
an abstraction; and reason one party in a gigantic
conflict dewn to a legal fiction. Gradually the irri-
tation excited by the European "recognition" of
the state of war died out ; but at one time there was
great confusion in the popular mind of America on
this subject. It is reflected even in the above de-
spatch of Mr. Adams. It seems to have been a
general conviction that in some indefinable man-
ner, by recognising the fact of the South having
armies in the field, we placed them there. Even as
late as the 27th of March Mr. Adams speaks of the
South as "a quasi-belligerent"—only a kind of foe
or fictitious enemy ! And even that simulacrum is
one of "our own creation." We sincerely wish it
had been, for by this time we should have unmade
it in our interest. Unhappily for us all, the sword
of the South was not the "air-drawn dagger" of
an European delusion. We have had to feel too
much of its stroke, and the "recognition' was a
neees,:ity. We cannot understand the importance
Mr, Seward attached to it, indicated by the perti-
nacity with which he urged Mr. Adams to attempt
procure a revocation from the English Govern-
Inent- On the 3d of April Mr. Adams acknow-
ledges the receipt of three separate despatches, all
referring to one
r " therevocation by Great
Britainller recognition of the insurgents as
belligerents"
pre But Mr. Adams adheres to and
repeats his :ons opinion that formal discus-
sion on such
South should beP:fit would be useless. If the
defeated in the field the ques-
tion would be
disposed
Infof without further diffi-
culty. If the current events turned the other
'way, any representation
needless mortification of Would only insure the
a
i‘
a little pressure was brourßehrtusal." However,
to bear on the
English Cabinet through the Government- of France.
o,n April 11th Mr. Adams states that had re-
turn ed from Paris, where he had had tt
with 11_fr. Diyton on this question. In
atoeuoference
tion with
Mr. Dayton the Emperor had alludeda to-
the increasil.,g difficulties in France, caused by the
failure of the cotton -apply. Mr. Dayton, in reply,
dwelt on the effects of the Emperor's recognition
of the belligerent right of the rebels in prolonging
the war, and pressed for the withdrawal of it." The
Emperor was not averse to entertam ingthe ques-
tion, but pointed out that the recognition could only
Cle revoked in concert with England. Mr. Adams,
thorgore, determined again to propose the measure
in London, with a hope that, even should the Eng-
lish Gover:lment meet it with a refusal, some ad van-
" The
tage would be derived from its negative.
effort (he says; will be to concentrate the responsi•
bility for any furti;gr protraction of the struggle, as
much as possible, on tilt.' Government here." The
tietermination of American politicians to fasten the
rE ‘sponsibility for their civil war on England amounts
to 0 mania. On April 16th, accordingly, Mr. Adams