Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams, April 27, 1861

Mr. Seward to Mr.
Adams.

Sir: A despatch has just been received from Mr.
Dallas, dated the 9th of April instant, the record of which (No. 330)
you doubtless will find in the archives of the legation when you shall
have arrived at London.

In that paper Mr. Dallas states that he had had a conversation with Lord
John Russell, the minister of foreign affairs of her Britannic Majesty’s
government, on the subject of a protest against any recognition of the
so-called Confederate States of America, the protest having been
presented to him by Mr. Dallas, in obedience to a circular letter of
instructions sent to him from this department, under the date of the 9th
ultimo.

Mr. Dallas represents that his lordship assured him, with great
earnestness, that there was not the slightest disposition in the British
government to grasp at any advantage which might be supposed to arise
from the unpleasant domestic differences in the United States; but, on
the contrary, that they would be highly gratified if those differences
were adjusted, and the Union restored to its former unbroken
position.

This, by itself, would be very gratifying to the President. Mr. Dallas,
however, adds that he endeavored to impress upon his lordship how
important it must be that Great Britain and France should abstain, at
least for a considerable time, from doing what, by encouraging
groundless hopes, would widen a breach still thought capable of being
closed; but that his lordshid seemed to think the matter not ripe for
decision one way or the other, and remarked that what he had already
said was all that at present it was in his power to say.

When you shall have read the instructions at large which have been sent
to you, you will hardly need to be told that these last remarks of his
lordship are by no means satisfactory to this government. Her Britannic
Majesty’s government is at liberty to choose whether it will retain the
friendship of this government by refusing all aid and comfort to its
enemies, now in flagrant rebellion against it, as we think the treaties
existing between the two countries require, or whether the government of
her Majesty will take the precarious benefits of a different course.

You will lose no time in making known to her Britannic Majesty’s
government that the President regards the answer of his lordship as
possibly indicating a policy that this government would be obliged to
deem injurious to its rights and derogating from its dignity.

I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant,