u
see you have a work before you," said Mr. Benjamin, with a decided
sneer.

"We have no wish to exterminate you," answered the Colonel. "I believe
what I have said,--that there is no bitterness between the Northern and
Southern _people_. The North, I know, loves the South. When peace comes,
it will pour money and means into your hands to repair the waste caused
by the war; and it would now welcome you back, and forgive you all the
loss and bloodshed you have caused. But we _must_ crush your armies, and
exterminate your Government. And is not that already nearly done? You
are wholly without money, and at the end of your resources. Grant has
shut you up in Richmond. Sherman is before Atlanta. Had you not, then,
better accept honorable terms while you can retain your prestige, and
save the pride of the Southern people?"

Mr. Davis smiled.

"I respect your earnestness, Colonel, but you do not seem to understand
the situation. We are not exactly shut up in Richmond. If your papers
tell the truth, it is your capital that is in danger, not ours. Some
weeks ago, Grant crossed the Rapidan to whip Lee, and take Richmond. Lee
drove him in the first battle, and then Grant executed what your people
call a 'brilliant flank-movement,' and fought Lee again. Lee drove him a
second time, and then Grant made another 'flank-movement'; and so they
kept on,--Lee whipping, and Grant flanking,--until Grant got where he is
now. And what is the net result? Grant has lost seventy-five or eighty
thousand men,--_more than Lee had at the outset_,--and is no nearer
taking Richmond than at first; and Lee, whose front has never been
broken, holds him completely in check, and has men enough to spare to
invade Maryland, and threaten Washington! Sherman, to be sure, _is_
before Atlanta; but suppose he is, and suppose he takes it? You know,
that, the farther he goes from his base of supplies, the weaker he
grows, and the more disastrous defeat will be to him. And defeat _may_
come. So, in a military view, I should certainly say our position was
better than yours.

"As to money: we are richer than you are. You smile; but admit that our
paper is worth nothing,--it answers as a circulating-medium; and we hold
it all ourselves. If every dollar of it were lost, we should, as we have
no foreign debt, be none the poorer. But it _is_ worth something; it has
the solid basis of a large cotton-crop, while yours rests on nothing,
and you owe all the world. As to