LEGATION OF THE UNITED
STATES,
London, October 3,
1862.
Sir: Since the date of my last I have received despatches
from the department numbered from 339 to 349, both inclusive.
The telegraph intelligence so far outstrips the ordinary
course of communication that the accounts of the result of the invasion of
Maryland and Pennsylvania followed close upon the mention in your No. 349 of
General McClellan's first success. As yet we are not in possession of the
details, but the effect upon the popular mind of what is known has been already
very considerable. So strong had the impression become that all power of
farther resistance by the government was for the moment destroyed, that many
people confidently counted upon the possession of the national capital by the
rebels as an event actually past. The surprise at this manifestation of promptness
and vigor has been quite in proportion. The great stroke which was to finish
the war, that had been early announced here as about to take place in
September, seems to have failed, and to have left its projectors in a worse
condition than ever. The prevalent notion of the superiority of military energy
and skill on the part of the insurgents in the field has been weakened. As a
consequence, less and less appears to be thought of mediation or intervention.
All efforts to stir up popular discontent meet with little response. The
newspapers of the day contain a report of a decided check just given to a
movement of this kind at Staley Bridge, near Manchester. On the whole, I am
inclined to believe that perhaps a majority of the poorer classes rather sympathize
with us in our struggle, and it is only the aristocracy and the commercial body
that are adverse. Perhaps it may be quite as well for us if this should be the
case. For the present ministry sufficiently reflects the popular side to be in
little danger of precipitation so long as no impulse from that quarter shall be
manifested against us.
Great interest continues to be felt in the Italian question.
There are symptoms of movement of some kind on the part of the Emperor of
France, but nobody pretends to foretell what it will be. The position of
Garibaldi rouses stronger interest now that he is in prison than it did whilst
he was quietly at home. The difficulty of bringing him to trial, in the face of
the popular sympathies of half of Europe, is very serious. On the other hand,
religious feelings are strongly appealed to in behalf of the Pope. A serious
riot took place in Hyde Park on Sunday last, where a meeting in favor of
Garibaldi was attempted. All this contributes to divide the attention heretofore
so much concentrated on America.
The distress in the manufacturing region rather increases in
severity, but I am inclined to believe that the further closing of the mills is
no longer made imperative by the diminution of the material. Large supplies of
cotton of the old crop were received from India last week, and three hundred
thousand bales are announced as far on their way. The new crop will soon
follow. What remains is to adjust the proper relation between the prices of the
raw material and the manufactured product, which, owing to the great previous
excess of the latter, is yet unsettled. In the meantime much attention is given
to the invention of substitutes, and some resort had to other materials. More
industry is enlisted in the making of commodities from wool as well as flax.
There is also a quickening of the products of which silk is a component part.
All these things will, I hope, combine to reduce from this time forward the
amount of distress in the indigent classes. I judge that the cotton famine has
passed its minimum, and that unless the governments of England and France
should be so infatuated as to interrupt the natural progress of events, the
great risk to the civilized world of future dependence upon an imperious and
false organization of society in America will have been permanently averted. In
the midst of all this, I wish I could see at home any prospect of a termination
of this deplorable struggle. But the infatuation of the dominant class in the
south seems to have reached its highest pitch when it dreams of dictating its
own terms in our capital cities. There is no dealing with such persons
excepting with their own weapons. Here is the conflict of two ideas which
cannot be harmonized by reasoning. Much as it may cost, the struggle must go
on, and modern civilization triumph, or America will forfeit all further claim
to be designated as the land of the free.
I have the honor to
be, sir, your obedient servant,
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
SOURCE: United States Department of State, Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Part 1,
Communicated to Congress December 1, 1862, p. 205-6
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