l persuasions of philanthropists have been superseded by
the shock of contending armies spreading desolation through your
land,--_now_ we stand afar off, viewing coldly that awful contest, and
sending, instead of cheering words of sympathy and faith, only doubts
and lamentations over a 'fratricidal war,' and regrets partitioned with
strange impartiality between the sufferers in the cause of free America,
and those who have, in their own audacious words,' founded their
commonwealth on the institution of Slavery.' You retort our old appeal
in the face of these things, and you say to us, 'Sisters, you have
spoken well; we have heard you; we have heeded; we have striven in the
cause, even unto death; we have sealed our devotion by desolate hearth
and darkened homestead,--by the blood of sons, husbands, and brothers.
In many of our dwellings the very light of our lives has gone out, and
yet we accept the lifelong darkness as our own part in this great and
awful expiation, by which the bonds of wickedness shall be loosed, and
abiding peace established on the foundation of righteousness. Sisters,
what have _you_ done, and what do you mean to do? In view of the decline
of the noble anti-slavery fire in England, in view of all the facts
and admissions recited from your own papers, we beg leave, in solemn
sadness, to return to you your own words:--

"'A common origin, a common faith, and, we sincerely believe, a common
cause, urge us at the present moment to address you on the subject of
the fearful encouragement and support which is being afforded by England
to a slave-holding Confederacy. We appeal to you as sisters, as wives,
as mothers, to raise your voices to your fellow-citizens, and your
prayers to God, for the removal of this affliction and disgrace from the
Christian world.'

"Madam, in answering this solemn appeal, we do not desire to detail the
causes which may, in a measure, explain or palliate this failure in
our national sympathy, whose existence (in so far as it is true) we
profoundly deplore. Enough, and more than enough, debate has been
already held on the complicated motives which have blended in your
war, as in all other human concerns, and on the occasional acts of
questionable spirit which must inevitably attend the public policy and
sentiments of a nation engaged in deadliest conflict and bleeding at
every pore. Somewhat you may perhaps forgive to those who have withheld
their full sympathies, jealous that