m Robert Toombs, who had been charged
with a leaning towards a reconstruction of the Union. A short extract
will suffice to show the spirit of the whole communication. "I can
conceive of no extremity to which my country can be reduced in which I
would, for a single moment, entertain any proposition for any union with
the North on any terms whatever. When all else is lost, I prefer to
unite with the thousands of our own countrymen who have found honorable
deaths, if not graves, on the battle-field." And the recently elected
Governor of Alabama puts to rest all doubts as to his desire for
Southern independence, by saying, "If I had the power, I would build up
a wall of fire between Yankeedom and the Confederate States, there to
burn for ages."

The tone and temper of these extracts--and similar quotations might be
made indefinitely--are exactly in keeping with everything that comes
from the pens or the lips of the leaders of this Rebellion. And even
those Southern statesmen who at the outset were opposed to Secession,
and have never ceased to deplore the fruitless civil war into which the
South has plunged the nation, are compelled to admit, with a
distinguished citizen of Georgia, that "the war, with all its afflictive
train of suffering, privation, and death, has served to eradicate all
idea of reconstruction, even with those who made it the basis of their
arguments in favor of disunion."

Rely upon it, this tone and temper will never be changed so long as the
Rebels have any considerable armed force in the field ready for
service. Unless we are willing to consent to a divided country, a
dissevered Union, and the recognition of a Southern Confederacy,--in a
word, unless we are prepared to acquiesce in all the demands of our
enemies, we have no alternative but a vigorous prosecution of the war.

Fernando Wood and his followers ask for an armistice. An armistice to
whom, and for what purpose? The Rebels, represented by their Government,
ask for no armistice, except upon their own terms, and what those terms
are we have already seen. It is idle to say that there are men at the
South who crave peace and a restoration of the Union. Assume the
statement to be true, and you have made no progress towards a
satisfactory result. Such men are powerless in the hands of the guiding
and governing minds of the conspiracy. The treason is of such magnitude,
its leaders so completely control the active forces of the whole
community, t