It Is The Debtor That Is Ruined

Disunion And Civil War Are At Hand; And Yet I Fear Disunion And War Less Than Compromise. We Can Recover From Them. The Free States Alone, If We Must Go On Alone, Will Make A Glorious Nation. Twenty Millions In The Temperate Zone, Stretching From The Atlantic To The Pacific, Full Of Vigor, Industry, Inventive Genius, Educated, And Moral; Increasing By Immigration Rapidly, And, Above All, Free--all Free--will Form A Confederacy Of Twenty States Scarcely Inferior In Real Power To The Unfortunate Union Of Thirty-three States Which We Had On The First Of November.

I Prefer To Make No New Declarations [on Southern Policy Beyond What Was In The Letter Of Acceptance]. But You May Say, If You Deem It Advisable, That You Know That I Will Stand By The Friendly And Encouraging Words Of That Letter, And By All That They Imply. You Cannot Express That Too Strongly.

We All Agree That Neither The Government Nor Political Parties Ought To Interfere With Religious Sects. It Is Equally True That Religious Sects Ought Not To Interfere With The Government Or With Political Parties. We Believe That The Cause Of Good Government And The Cause Of Religion Both Suffer By All Such Interference.

Let Me Assure My Countrymen Of The Southern States That It Is My Earnest Desire To Regard And Promote Their Truest Interest - The Interests Of The White And Of The Colored People Both And Equally And To Put Forth My Best Efforts In Behalf Of A Civil Policy Which Will Forever Wipe Out In Our Political Affairs The Color Line And The Distinction Between North And South, To The End That We May Have Not Merely A United North Or A United South, But A United Country.

It Could Be Clearly Proved That By A Practical Nullification [by The South] Of The Fifteenth Amendment The Republicans Have For Several Years Been Deprived Of A Majority In Both The House And Senate. The Failure Of The South To Faithfully Observe The Fifteenth Amendment Is The Cause Of The Failure Of All Efforts Towards Complete Pacification. It Is On This Hook That The Bloody Shirt Now Hangs.