We are
therefore involved in a war which does not admit of adjustment by
negotiation. In a foreign war, peace might be secured by mutual
concessions, and preserved by mutual forbearance. In ordinary civil
strife the peace of a state or of an empire might be restored by
concessions to the disaffected, by a limitation of the privileges of the
few, or an extension of the rights of the many. But none of these
expedients meet the exigency in which we find ourselves. The rebels
demand the overthrow of the government, the division of the territory of
the Union, the destruction of the nation. The question is, _Shall this
nation longer exist?_ And why is the question forced upon us? Is there a
difference of language? Not greater than is found in single States.
Indeed, Louisiana is the only one of the eleven where any appreciable
difference exists, and the number of French in that State is less than
the number of Germans in Pennsylvania. Nor has nature indicated lines of
separation like the St. Lawrence and the lakes on the north and the
Rocky Mountains on the west. The lines marked by nature--the Rocky
Mountains, the Mississippi River, and the Alleghanies--cut the line
proposed by the confederates transversely, and force the suggestion that
each section will be put in possession of three halves of different
wholes, instead of a single unit essential to permanent national
existence.
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