The National Interest and the Trent Case
…The British government has rightly conjectured, what it is now my duty to state, that Captain Wilkes, in conceiving and executing the proceeding in question, acted upon his own suggestions […]
The American Doctrine of Nonintervention
This government is profoundly and agreeably impressed with the consideration which the Emperor has manifested towards the United States by inviting their concurrence in a proceeding having for its object […]
The Right of a Nation to Defend Its Existence
. . . Reviewing the whole course of the existing administration, I may safely claim that it shows that, even if the government had been left at liberty to conduct […]
Letter from William Seward to William L. Dayton (1863)
SIR: Your confidential despatch of September 7, No. 342, has been received and carefully considered…. It is well understood that, through a long period, closing in 1860, the manifest strength […]
Letter from William Seward to William L. Dayton (1861)
SIR: Every instruction which this government has given to its representatives abroad, since the recent change of administration took place, has expressed our profound anxiety lest the disloyal citizens who […]