The Portland daily press., 1864-12-14
Mr.. Seward and the English Rebel sympa-
4hsDavC ~

H.
4 The letter Of Mr.. Seward to Mr.. Adams, in
relation to the oficious intermeddling Of GER
| tain Englishmen in our affairs, has been pub.
\ lished in our telegraphic columns, but It was
was so imperfect that we reproduce it.
1t seems the English rebel sympathizsrs
held fair to provide funds for the relief Of
rebel prisoners in our Union prisons, and Lord
Wharncliffe applied to Mr.. Adams, our Minis
ter at London, for permission to send an agent
to distribute the funds.
Mr.Adams treated him very courteously
and promised to lay the matter before the Gov
eminent at Washington Mr., Stewards reply
was as Yellowstone of the best things he has
yet written: N ~ars.a l.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
=. WASHINGTON, December 5, 1864. ( Il
SIR: | have received your dispatch of the
18th OF November, No. 807, together with the
papers therein mentioned, namely, a copy of q
letter which was addressed to you on the 18th
OF November last, by Lord Wharnclife, and
copy of y our answer to that letter. d sssdlo
Your proceeding in that matter is approved.
You will now inform Lord Wharncliffe that
permission for an agent OF the committee de-
scribed by him to visit the insurgents detain-
ed in. military prisons Of the United States,
and to distribute among them seventeen thou
sand pounds of British gold is disallowed.-
Here it is expected that your correspondence
with Lord Wharncliffe will end. sdet
That correspondence will necessarily be-
come public. On reading it the American
people will be well aware that, while the Unit
ed States have, ample means for the support
OF prisoners, as well as for every other ext
gency of the war in which they are engaged,
the insurgents, who have hlindly rushed into
that condition, are suffering no privations that
appeal for relief to charity either at home or
abroad.
The American people will be likely TO re-
fleet that the sum thus insidiously rendered
in the name of humanity constitutes no large
portion OF tho profits which its contributors
may be justly supposed to have derived from
the insurgents, by exchanging with them arms
and munitions of war for the coveted produc-
tons of immoral and enervating slave labor.
Nor will any portion of the American people
be disposed to regard the sum thus ostenta-
tiously offered for the relief of captured in
surgents as too generous equivalent for the
devastation and dissolution which civil war,
promoted by British subjects, has spread
throughout States which before were eminent
~ prosperous and happy.
Finally, in view OF this last oficions inter-
~vention in our domestic affairs, the American
people can hardly fail to recall the warning Of
the Father of our Country, directed against
two great and intimately -connected dangers,
namely: sectional faction and foreign intrigue
do not think the insurgents have become de-
based, though they have sadly wandered from
the ways of loyalty and patriotism. think
that, in common with all our countrymen,
they win rejoice in being saved by their con-
siderate and loyal Government from the grave
insult which Lord Wharnclife and his associ-
ates, in their zeal for the overthrow OF the
Uuited States, have prepared for the victims
Of their unnatural and hopeless rebellion.
/ am, sir, your obedient servant, ,
WILLIAM FL. SEWARD.