e the battle-fields. Our people, divided among
themselves, maddened by the struggle, and blinded by the smoke of
battle, invited upon our soil contending armies--the one to destroy the
Government, the other to maintain it. The consequence to us is plain.
The shock of the contest upturns Society and desolates the Land. We
have made sacrifices, but at last they were only the sacrifices demanded
by duty, and unless we are willing to make others, indeed any that the
good of the Country, involved in the overthrow of Treason, may expect at
our hands, our title to patriotism is not complete.

"When you submitted your proposition to Congress, in March last, 'that
the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may adopt a
gradual abolishment of Slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to
be used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the
inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system,'
I gave it a most cheerful support, and I am satisfied it would have
received the approbation of a large majority of the Border States
delegations in both Branches of Congress, if, in the first place, they
had believed the War, with its continued evils--the most prominent of
which, in a material point of view, is its injurious effect on the
Institution of Slavery in our States--could possibly have been
protracted for another twelve months; and if, in the second place, they
had felt assured that the party having the majority in Congress would,
like yourself, be equally prompt in practical action as in the
expression of a sentiment.

"While scarcely any one doubted your own sincerity in the premises, and
your earnest wish speedily to terminate the War, you can readily
conceive the grounds for difference of opinion where conclusions could
only be based on conjecture.

"Believing, as I did, that the War was not so near its termination as
some supposed, and feeling disposed to accord to others the same
sincerity of purpose that I should claim for myself under similar
circumstances, I voted for the proposition. I will suppose that others
were actuated by no sinister motives.

"In doing so, Mr. President, I desire to be distinctly understood by you
and by my constituents. I did not suppose at the time that I was
personally making any sacrifice by supporting the Resolution, nor that
the people of my State were called upon to make any sacrifices, either
in considering or accepting the proposition,