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"Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the government of the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them, and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves.

"SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other State, shall be deliv ered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the service."

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act and sections above recited.

And the Executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion. shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States and their respective States and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including the loss of slaves.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Wash[8] ington this twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

By the President:

WLLLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

No. 356.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 23, 1862.

SIR: Your despatch No. 219, of the 5th instant, with the papers which accompanied it in relation to the case of the steamer Oreto, has been received and communicated to the Secretary of the Navy.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c, &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

[Circular-No. 24.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 25, 1862.

To the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States in foreign countries: The following additional regulations respecting passports are deemed necessary and advisable:

When husband, wife, and minor children expect to travel together, a single passport for the whole will suffice. For any other person in the party a separate passport will be required.

A new passport will be expected to be taken out by every person when ever he or she may leave the United States, and every passport must be renewed, either at this department or at a legation or consulate abroad, within one year from its date.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

No. 225.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, September 25, 1862.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the reception of despatches from the department numbered from 335 to 338, both inclusive, of a circular of the 4th instant, enclosing a printed letter of the Postmaster General, and of two notes of the 9th instant relating to the release of Major Foley, and to a letter sent from here to Mr. Griffin at Williamsburg, in Virginia.

The most important of these documents is No. 338 and its enclosure, which I perused with the closest attention. I was particularly glad to learn from it that the rumors set afloat in the continental newspapers of the probable retirement of Mr. Dayton were not well founded. The testimony borne to his official conduct by M. Thouvenel has given me the highest satisfaction, for it entirely accords with the impressions which I had myself formed of it. Indeed, it has been one great source of consolation to me in the midst of the trials to which the country has been subjected in Europe during the present struggle to be able to rely upon the capacity and the discretion of that gentleman in that responsible post. I trust that he will remain at least so long as the critical condition of our affairs render the continuance of either of us of any importance in the eyes of the gov

ernment.

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It is not easy for me to determine how far M. Mercier must be regarded as having acted in his official capacity. The result of his somewhat similar prior experiment in visiting Richmond seems to have been only to produce the conviction that nothing useful could then be done. Perhaps the same effect may have followed your conversation. In any event no material change in the policy of France has yet made itself visible on this side of the water. Here things remain much as before the late news of our further reverses. If anything, the impression made of the power of the rebel arms rather breeds more indifference to the extending of any active sympathy. There are vague hopes that the war is approximating some termination or other. In the meantime the distress in the manufacturing districts is rather

on the increase, and the demand for cotton more imperative. Much discussion is had of the probable sources of future supply outside of America, without eliciting any very satisfactory answer. That a great expansion of the cultivation is going on is certain, but whether it will produce early supplies at all adequate to the demands is very much doubted. Over all the efforts making in other quarters hangs the dread of a sudden restoration of the American production. At this moment it cannot be disputed that the total destruction of all expectation from that source, at least for several years to come, would be a better safeguard for the future than the present state of suspense. The whole question, then, resolves itself into the maintenance of the slave institutions of the southern States. And the position of Great Britain and France, so far as it has yet been defined, is in direct conflict with the principles which they profess; for a recognition of the present rebel government of those States, so far as it goes, would help to establish a supply of cotton furnished by the labor of an expanding slave population, which would inevitably annul all efforts to establish the culture elsewhere in the hands of freemen. Far better would it be for those countries, as well as for the interests of the whole civilized world, if the present difficulty were met at once by a demand for unconditional emancipation.

In the meantime the interest taken in American affairs has been somewhat diminished by the growing agitation of all the countries of Europe consequent upon the situation of Garibaldi. The pressure brought to bear upon the Emperor of France to induce him to withdraw his support of the Pope is met by a corresponding pressure of the Catholic interests of Europe on the opposite side. As yet there are no indications of a disposition on his part to modify in any way his late policy. The consequence is not favorable to the prospect of consolidation in Italy. There are many symptoms of disintegration appearing which may prove too much for the strength of any ministry the King will be able to organize. This dubious condition of affairs, together with the large increase of expenditure occasioned by the Mexican expedition seriously adding to prior financial complications, may have the effect to deter the Emperor from all idea of action in America, especially if not seconded by any of the other powers of Europe..

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

Mr. Adams to Mr. Seward.

No. 227.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, September 26, 1862.

SIR: I have not been quite satisfied with the way in which my remon strances respecting the outfit of the gunboat No 290 had been left. In Consequence I seized the first opportunity in my power to remind Lord Russell that no written answer had been given to me. This has had the desired effect. I have the honor to transmit copies of the two notes which have passed between us. In former days it was a favorite object of Great Britain to obtain from the United States an admission of the validity of claims for damage done by vessels fitted out in their ports against her commerce. This was finally conceded to her in the seventh article of the treaty of 1794. The reasoning which led to that agreement may not be

without its value at some future time, should the escape of the gunboat 290 and of her companion, the Oreto, prove to be of any serious injury to our

commerce.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

Mr. Adams to Earl Russell.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
London, September 4, 1862.

MY LORD: I have the honor to transmit the copy of a letter received from the consul of the United States at Liverpool, together with a deposition, in addition to the others already submitted with my notes of the 22d and 24th of July, going to show the further prosecution of the illegal and hostile measures against the United States in connexion with the outfit of the gunboat No. 290 from the port of Liverpool. It now appears that supplies are in process of transmission from here to a vessel fitted out from England, and now sailing on the high seas, with the piratical intent to burn and destroy the property of the people of a country with which her Majesty is in alliance and friendship. I pray your lordship's pardon if I call your attention to the fact that I have not yet received any reply in writing to the sev eral notes and representations I have had the honor to submit to her Majes ty's government touching this flagrant case.

I beg to renew to your lordship the assurance of the highest consideration with which I have the honor to be, my lord, your most obedient servant, CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

FOREIGN OFFICE, September 22, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 4th instant, enclosing a copy of a letter from the United States consul at Liverpool, together with the deposition of Henry Redden, respecting the supply of cannon and munitions of war to the gunboat No. 290. You also call attention to the fact that you have not yet received any reply to the representations you have addressed to her Majesty's government upon the subject. I had the honor, in acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 22d of June, to state to you that the matter had been referred to the proper department of her Majesty's government for investigation. Your subsequent letters were also at once forwarded to that department, but, as you were informed in my letter of the 28th of July, it was requisite, before any active steps could be taken in the matter, to consult the law officers of the crown. This could not be done until sufficient evidence had been collected, and, from the nature of the case, some time was necessarily spent in procuring it. The reports of the law officers was not received until the 29th of July, and, on the same day, a telegraphic message was forwarded to her Majesty's gov ernment, stating that the vessel had sailed that morning. Instructions were then despatched to Ireland to detain the vessel should she put into Queenstown, and similar instructions have been sent to the governor of the Baha mas, in case of her visiting Nassau. It appears, however, that the vessel

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did not go to Queenstown, as had been expected, and nothing has been since heard of her movement.

The officers of customs will now be directed to report upon the further evidence forwarded by you. I shall not fail to inform you of the result of the inquiry.

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

RUSSELL.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.

No. 359.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 26, 1862.

SIR: Your despatch of the 12th of September (No. 221) has been submitted to the President. It gives evidence of deep research among the springs of political action in Europe, as it is also far-reaching in its grasp of the peculiar interests of this country. In this official paper I must write with less freedom than you have done on both subjects.

In the beginning of our domestic troubles, all the outside world was apparently in a state of profound and permanent peace. It seemed as if, unavoidably, irritation was produced in several foreign countries by the derangement of our national commerce, and they were not only entirely free to combine against us and enforce a dissolution of the Union, but were even being impelled by very powerful influences to enter into such a combination. Perhaps the most portentous incident which has occurred in the progress of this unhappy strife was the announcement made to us by the governments of Great Britain and France that they had agreed to act together in regard to the questions which it should present for their consideration. Every one knows the influence that the united wills of these two great maripowers carry in the councils of other states. It has been for us of late a relief to perceive that although European cabinets still maintain their conventional accord, yet the fundamental political interests of the states they represent are forcing themselves into notice and tempering, if not modifying, the proceedings of their governments.

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It is, as you suggest, very plainly the interest of all the members of this federal Union to arrest their civil war, reconcile their differences, reorganize the government on its constitutional basis, and thus maintain themselves equally against possible foreign war and the still more dangerous inroads of foreign influence. But the faction which has gotten up the insurrection builds its hopes of success chiefly upon foreign intervention, and it has not thus far been sufficiently exhausted to open the way for serious reflection in the revolutionary States. This whole nation, when united, was a greater and stronger power than it was believed abroad, and even greater and stronger than it supposed itself to be. The insurgent portion of it, though very unequal to the loyal, are not deficient in strength and wealth available for treason. An ambitious spirit, perhaps it would not be severe to say a malignant one, has imparted much energy to the insurgent arms. But it no longer admits of doubt that there has been a visible process of exhaustion of men and money in the insurgent States. The waste of armies in war was unforseen by them, as it was by the government. It is now visible on both sides. Practically, it is not difficult to renew our armies, but the wasted forces of the insurgents cannot be replaced. They have spent three hundred

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