means. However statesmen in other countries may have at the beginning misunderstood the nature and direction of the present civil war, that nature and that direction were not misunderstood by the Government of the United States. It was foreseen here that the seditious attempt to divide the American Union, if not discouraged by other commercial and maritimeot merely produce great commercial and social embarrassment in the United States, but that if it shd in and protracted it must seriously disturb the commerce and industry of other nations. Upon this ground, among others, the Government of the United States earnestly remonstrated with foreign states against their award of unusual commercial and belligerent privileges to the insurgents, in derogation of the sovereignty of the United States. When, however, it was fully disclosed that the insurrection aimed at nothing less than to separate fifteen of these States from the rest and to re-establish them within our own lawful territory, as one, single, independent nation, upon the foundation of African slavery, this Government did not hesitate, so far as authorized by law, to draw upon all the resources of the country and to call into activity all the energies of the American people to prevent so great a crime. It further resolved to devote its best efforts within the limits of international law and the Constitution of the United States, first, to bring African slavery to an end throughout the world, and secondly to strengthen the interest of free labor upon the American continent. It recognized and entered into commercial relations with free states founded on African colonization. It refused a market for slaves, and it pursues the slave-trader on the high seas and denies to him an asylum on our own shores. On the contrary, it invites honest and industrious freemen hither from all parts of the world and gives them free homes and gives them free homes and ample fields, while it opens to them virgin mines and busy workshops, with all the privileges of perfect civil and religious liberty. So far as increase of immigration has resulted from the action of the Government during the present civil war, it is due exclusively to what has thus lawfully been done with those two ends of extinguishing slavery and fortifying freedom always in view. Nor has this Government any reason to be disappointed with the results. The country has sustained a very destructive war for the period of three years. Yet it is not here that national resources or credit fails. It is not here that patriots are wanting to defend the country of their birth or their choice, nor is it here that miners, farmers, merchants, artisans, and laborers lack either subsistence or employment with abundant rewards. The number of slaves is rapidly diminishing, and the number of freemen continues to augment, even during the convulsions of domestic war, more rapidly than ever a free population advanced in any other country or even in our own.

Respectfully submitted.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

[Inclosure Numbers 2.] WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington City, June 27, 1864.

The PRESIDENT:

SIR: In answer to the Senate resolution of inquiry, passed June 24, 1864, and referred by you to this Department I have the honor to reply:

First. That no authority has been given by this Department to any one, either in this country or elsewhere, to obtain recruits in Ireland or Canade for the Army of the United States.