a great nation, famed for the liberties of its citizens, the triumphs of peace, and the conquests of its commerce. We felt that you were doing honour to the Mother Country. When, therefore, this unfortune War began, our hearts were more inclined towards you than towards your sister States, because we believed with you that the action of the South was but the work of a faction. The events of the struggle, however, have convinced us that a more united people than those of the Southern States never rose up in defence of their rights.
"When you asserted that Secession was the work of disappointed ambition, and promised to quell it within sixty days, we accepted your assurances in good faith, and looked for the speedy restoration of Peace. We did not wish to see the American Union broken up.
"But so far from this promise being fulfilled (and your efforts to accomplish it have been great). Peace and the restoration of the Union are apparently as remote as ever.
"Surely there must be many now among you who share with us the conviction that it is utterly impossible to subdue the South, or to restore the American Union, as it was in the past days of the Republic.
"You have tried sufficiently, and found the gulf between you and the Seceded States to widen with the effort that is made to subdue them.
"Is it not time then to pause, and after calmly reviewing all that you have accomplished, the distance which you have travelled from your well-known landmarks, and the difficulties and dangers that are yet before you, is it not time, we ask, that you should take counsel together as to the best means of restoring Peace?
"We cannot forget that the question of Peace or War was never submitted to you for your serious consideration before
