lic mind. Of course the
concessions are, as they ought to be, if they are to be of avail, at
the cost of the winning, the triumphant party. I do not fear their
displeasure. They will be loyal whatever is said. Not so the defeated,
irritated, angered, frenzied party.... Your case is quite like that of
Jefferson. He brought the first Republican party into power against
and over a party ready to resist and dismember the government.
Partisan as he was, he sank the partisan in the patriot, in his
inaugural address; and propitiated his adversaries by declaring, 'We
are all Federalists; all Republicans.' I could wish that you would
think it wise to follow this example, in this crisis. Be sure that
while all your administrative conduct will be in harmony with
Republican principles and policy, you cannot lose the Republican party
by practising, in your advent to office, the magnanimity of a
victor."[713]

[Footnote 713: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 512.]

Of thirty-four changes suggested by Seward, the President-elect
adopted twenty-three outright, and based modifications on eight
others. Three were ignored. Upon only one change did the Senator
really insist. He thought the two paragraphs relating to the
Republican platform adopted at Chicago should be omitted, and, in
obedience to his judgment, Lincoln left them out. Seward declared the
argument of the address strong and conclusive, and ought not in any
way be changed or modified, "but something besides, or in addition to
argument, is needful," he wrote in a postscript, "to meet and remove
_prejudice_ and _passion_ in the South, and _despondency_ and _fear_
in the East. Some words of affection. Some of calm and cheerful
confidence."[714] In line with this suggestion, he submitted the draft
of two concluding paragraphs. The first, "made up of phrases which had
become extremely commonplace by iteration in the six years' slavery
discussion," was clearly inadmissible.[715] The second was as follows:
"I close. We are not, we must not be, aliens or enemies, but fellow
countrymen and brethren. Although passion has strained our bonds of
affection too hardly, they must not, I am sure they will not, be
broken. The mystic chords which, proceeding from so many battlefields
and so many patriot graves, pass through all the hearts and all the
hearths in this broad continent of ours, will yet again harmonise in
their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian angel of