[68] cause of the slaveholding rebels. The Times could not obtain an endorsement of its sentiments in any open meeting in the city of London or elsewhere, where an opportunity was afforded of speaking the truth. The mention of its name invariably calls forth ‘a groan.’ It should always be remembered, too, that our people are very imperfectly acquainted with the powers of your Federal Government. They know little or nothing of your Constitution—its compromises, guarantees, limitations, obligations, etc. They are consequently unable to appreciate the difficulties of your President, or to comprehend the caution, forbearance, and tenderness which he displays when speaking of slavery, slaveholders, slave States, etc. Then, again, our anti-American journals have been careful to conceal the truth. They have exposed every blunder; blazoned every pro-slavery act of general or officer in the army; have republished the harsh criticisms of Abolition speakers, and, above all, the repeated declarations of members of the Republican party, that the war was not for the abolition of slavery. . . .None know better than you and I how much the Northern people themselves have done to furnish occasion to the adversary, and to justify the taunts and reproaches he has hurled against them. You can understand the difficulty of my position during the first year of the war, when so many ugly facts came out illustrating the pro-slavery tendencies of your public men. You know how many plagues it has needed to bring the North to hear the command,—which is not even yet obeyed,—‘Let my people go!’ You know how impossible it is at this moment to vindicate, as one would wish, the course of Mr. Lincoln. In no one of his utterances is there an assertion of a great principle —no appeal to right or justice. In everything he does and says, affecting the slave, there is the alloy of expediency. The slave may be free—if it should be ‘ necessary,’ or ‘convenient,’ or ‘agreeable to his master.’ What we want to see him do is, to take his stand upon the doctrine of human equality, and man's inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All else is paltering with conscience and with truth. . . . I firmly believe that Mr. Lincoln might, if he would, extirpate, root and branch, the accursed system; and that both God and man would support him in the deed. Oh, that he would do it— and thereby secure the peace of his soul, the blessing of the slave, the applause of mankind, the verdict of posterity, and the approbation of Heaven!
