the wayside inn
Where toil shall cease and rest begin,
Am weary, thinking of your road."

* * * * *

LETTER TO A PEACE DEMOCRAT.

ADDRESSED TO ANDREW JACKSON BROWN.

MY DEAR ANDREW,--You can hardly have forgotten that our last
conversation on the national questions of the day had an abrupt, if not
angry, termination. I very much fear that we both lost temper, and that
our discussion degenerated into a species of political sparring. You
will certainly agree with me that the great issues now agitating the
country are too grave to be treated in the flippant style of bar-room
debate. When the stake for which we are contending with immense armies
in the field and powerful navies on the ocean is nothing less than the
existence of our Union and the life of our nation, it ill becomes
intelligent and thoughtful men to descend to personal abuse, or to be
blinded for one moment by prejudice or passion to the cardinal principle
on which the whole controversy turns.

In view of these considerations, therefore, as our previous discussions
have left some vital questions untouched, and as our past experience
seems to have proved that we cannot, with mutual profit, compare our
opinions upon these subjects orally, I have decided to embody my
sentiments on the general points of difference between us in the form of
a letter. Knowing my personal regard for you, I am sure that you will
not believe me guilty of intentional discourtesy in anything I may say,
while you certainly will not be surprised, if I occasionally express
myself with a degree of warmth which finds its full justification in the
urgent importance of the questions to be considered.

I have not the vanity to believe that anything I can say on subjects
that have so long engrossed the attention of thoughtful Americans will
have the charm of novelty. And yet, in view of the unwelcome fact, that
there exists to some extent a decided difference at the North about
questions in regard to which it is essential that there should be a
community of feeling, it certainly can do no harm to make an attempt,
however feeble, to enlist in the cause of constitutional liberty and
good government at least one man who may have been led astray by a too
zealous obedience to the dictates of his party. As the success of our
republican institutions must depend on the morality and intelligence of
the citizens composing the nation, no honest appeal to th