Mr. Seward to Mr. Burnley
Sir: In reply to your note of the 16th of March, I have the honor to say, that it would be useful if it could be shown that the Mr. Adderly who moves the application to this government for a favor in behalf of John Warrington is not, as is inferred from his name, an enemy to this government.
[Page 109]I do not see what would be gained by suppressing the name of Mr. Adderly, for the request for the soldier’s discharge would then be without such special foundation as to distinguish it from any similar request that might be made to discharge any other British subject from a voluntary enlistment. It seems hardly necessary to say that the discharge of any soldier weakens by just so much the national forces at the very moment when the greatest activity is required in the field. I will, however, make the inquiry upon the grounds upon which, in your memorandum of the 17th instant, you rest the case.
I wish I could accept the fact of Mr. Adderly’s being a member of Parliament and a privy councillor as conclusive against the prejudice that his name excites. But I remember that the mayor of Liverpool is a blockade-runner, and so is the late mayor of Hull. Lord Brougham, Mr. Lindsey, Mr. Roebuck, Sir Henry Houghton, Lord Wharncliffe, Lord Clanricarde and Lord Campbell are members of Parliament. I do not know how many of these are privy councillors. I should hardly suppose that it would be expected of this government that an appeal by either of them to the United States for a favor upon personal grounds would be impulsively granted.
I have the honor to be, with high consideration, sir, your obedient servant,
J. Hume Burnley, Esq., &c., &c., &c.