Mr. Seward to Mr. Dayton.
Sir: Your despatch of June 12 (No. 160) has been submitted to the President.
The treasury regulations concerning imports at New Orleans do not exclude wines, but only ardent spirits, and this temporarily, for military reasons.
The increased activity of European politicians directed towards effecting some intervention in our affairs, which you have described, has not passed unobserved here. It is to be regretted, because it produces unprofitable resentments among our people, and embarrasses the action of all the governments concerned. The excuses which it employs abroad are not entertained here, because they are unjust in principle, and without ground in fact. If we happen to fail in one of several combined military enterprises, as every belligerent power subject to the chances of war must occasionally fail, it is pronounced abroad to be conclusive against the success of the whole war. If, on the other hand, we gain victory upon victory, with a rapidity and upon a scale such as only the campaigns of the first Emperor of France exhibited, the refusal of the insurgents to reader instant and universal submission to the federal authority renders these successes in foreign eyes ineffectual and valueless.
There can be no harm in asking foreign governments and statesmen, under these circumstances, to consider our position, our interests, our purposes, and our character, as well as their own.
We are rightfully here, a nation lawfully existing, widely extended, and firmly established, with peculiarly beneficent institutions, upon a continent separate and remote from that occupied by the nations whose interference with us is so vehemently and perseveringly urged. In maintaining our own integrity, we are defending the interests and the cause not merely of popular government, but of the very institution of civil government itself We have no hostile or interested designs against any other state or nation whatever, and, on the contrary, we seek peace, harmony, and commerce with them all, and, consequently, in desiring to remain undisturbed by them, we are defending the peace of the world. [Page 372] Our policy in this emergency is a prudent, honest, direct, and generous one. We have raised large armies and a considerable navy. The reduction of Vicksburg, the possession of Chattanooga, and the capture of Richmond, would close the civil war with complete success. All these three enterprises are going forward. The two former will, we think, be effected within the next ten days. For the third we require re-enforcements, which are being rapidly and lavishly contributed at our call. The three hundred thousand additional troops will be in the field in sixty days, and within about the same period we shall have afloat as large an iron-clad fleet as any in the world. The war is becoming one of exhaustion to the insurgents, and they, not we, are hastening forward the rise of a servile population in arms on the side of the government. Under these circumstances, although we deprecate foreign interference, we deprecate it hardly less for the sake of other nations than for our own, and we deprecate it upon considerations of prudence and humanity, not at all from motives of fear or apprehension.
Having always contemplated the possibility of such interference, we shall be found not unprepared for it, if it must come. We have so conducted our affairs as to deprive it of all pretence of right or of provocation. We have interfered with the dominion or the ambitious designs of no nation. We have seen San Domingo absorbed by Spain, and been content with a protest. We have seen Great Britain strengthen her government in Canada, and have approved it. We have seen France make war against Mexico, and have not allied ourselves with that republic. We have heard and redressed every injury of which any foreign state has complained, and we have relaxed a blockade in favor of foreign commerce that we might rightfully have maintained with inflexibility. We have only complained because an attitude of neutrality encouraging to rebellion among us, adopted hastily and unnecessarily, has not been relinquished when the progress of the war showed that it was as injurious as it was ill-advised.
Under these circumstances, if intervention in any form shall come, it will find us in the right of the controversy and in the strong attitude of self-defence. Once begun, we know how it must proceed. It will here bring out reserved and yet latent forces of resistance that can never go to rest until America shall be reconquered and reorganized by Europe, or shall have become isolated forever equally from the industrial and governmental systems of that continent. European statesmen, I am sure, before waging war against us, will consider their rights, interests, and resources, as well as our own. For ourselves, we do not believe that European domination is to be rebuilt here upon the foundation of African slavery.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
William L. Dayton, Esq., &c., &c., &c.