A friend of Lincoln writes: Lincoln goes for no compromise with Southern leaders of secession — not at all. I speak advisedly.
Again and again he has said to me, “Compromise is not the remedy — not the cure.
The South, i. e. the leaders, don't want it — won't have it — no good can come of it. The system of compromise has no end. Slavery is the evil out of which all our other national evils and dangers have come.
It has deceived us, led us to the brink of ruin, and it must be stopped.
It must be kept where it now is.”
Such are his views, and calmly he awaits the forty-seven days longer, when, if his life is spared, he will fearlessly tell the millions of the land the line of policy he intends to pursue.
He received a letter from General Wool a few days ago, saying to him, that he (General Wool) was commander of the eastern division of the United States army, and as the times were threatening, he desired Mr. Lincoln to say what forces he desired at the capital on the 4th of March, and they should be on hand.
Mr. Lincoln said to me, “I never saw General Wool; but it was a most comforting letter, and I wrote to him in reply--‘As you and General Scott are as well and better acquainted with the nature and extent of the dangers, and the necessary means to meet them I take pleasure in committing all that to your discretion,’ and so the matter rests.” --Newark Daily Mercury.
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