have been put
in motion to repress the insurrection. The true character of the pretended
new State is at once revealed. It is seen to be a power existing in
pronunciamento only, It has never won a field. It has obtained no forts
that were not virtually betrayed into its hands or seized in breach of
trust. It commands not a single port on the coast nor any highway out from
its pretended capital by land. Under these circumstances Great Britain is
called upon to intervene and give it body and independence by resisting
our measures of suppression. British recognition would be British
intervention to create within our own territory a hostile state by
overthrowing this republic itself. [When this act of intervention is
distinctly performed, we from that hour shall cease to be friends, and
become once more, as we have twice before been forced to be, enemies of
Great Britain.]

As to the treatment of privateers in the insurgent service, you will say
that this is a question exclusively our own. We treat them as pirates.
They are our own citizens, or persons employed by our citizens, preying
on the commerce of our country. If Great Britain shall choose to recognize
them as lawful belligerents, and give them shelter from our pursuit and
punishment, the laws of nations afford an adequate and proper remedy
[and we shall avail ourselves of it. And while you need not say this in
advance, be sure that you say nothing inconsistent with it.]

Happily, however, her Britannic Majesty's government can avoid all these
difficulties. It invited us in 1856 to accede to the declaration of the
Congress of Paris, of which body Great Britain was herself a member,
abolishing privateering everywhere in all cases and forever. You already
have our authority to propose to her our accession to that declaration. If
she refuse to receive it, it can only be because she is willing to become
the patron of privateering when aimed at our devastation.

These positions are not elaborately defended now, because to vindicate
them would imply a possibility of our waiving them.

1 We are not insensible of the grave importance of

1 (Drop all from this line to the end, and in lieu of it write, "This
paper is for your own guidance only, and not [sic] to be read or shown to
any one.")

(Secretary Seward, when the despatch was returned to him, added
an introductory paragraph stating that the document was strictly
confidential. For this reason these last two paragr