Hitherto recognition has been moved only on the assumption that the so-called Confederate States are de facto a self-sustaining power.  Now, after long forbearance, designed to soothe discontent and avert the need of civil war, the land and naval forces of the United States 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 paragraphs remained as they are here printed.)