Seward, in replying to Mr. Dallas in a dispatch to Mr. Adams,
dismissed all arguments of policy or consistency, and remarked: '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_.'
So early as May 2d, the British Secretary told Mr. Dallas that _an
understanding existed between the British and French governments which
would lead both to take one and the same course as to recognition_. Mr.
Seward comments upon this in one of the most manly letters ever written
by an American Secretary. It will be preserved upon the same historic
shelf whereon reposes the manuscript of Daniel Webster's letter to the
Chevalier Hulsemann. To Mr. Adams he says, that the communication loses
its value because withheld until the knowledge was acquired from other
sources, together with the additional fact that other European states
are apprized by France and England of the agreement, and _are expected
to concur with or follow them in whatever measures they adopt on the
subject of recognition!_ Great Britain, if intervening, is assured that
she will calculate for herself the ultimate as well as the immediate
consequences; and must consider what position she will hold when she
shall have lost forever the sympathies and affections of the only nation
upon whose sympathies and affections she has a natural claim.
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