“I do not like to be arraigned by some who can get up handsomely rounded periods, and deal in rhetoric, and talk about abstract ideas of Liberty, who never perilled life, liberty, or property. This kind of theoretical, hollow, unpractical friendship amounts to but very little. While I say that I am a friend of the colored man, I do not want to adopt a policy that I believe will end in a contest between the races, which, if persisted in, will result in the extermination of one or the other.” The idea of “a contest between the races” recurred in stronger language, when, alluding to the colored man, he spoke of “the sacrifice of his life and the shedding of his blood.… I feel what I say, and I feel well assured, that, if the policy urged by some be persisted in, it will result in great injury to the white as well as to the colored man.… The query comes up right there, whether we don’t commence a war of races.… I do not want to be engaged in a work that will commence a war of races.… I feel a conviction that driving this matter upon the people, upon the community, will result in the injury of both races, and the ruin of one or the other.”[205] Shortly afterwards he was reported in the press as saying to a colored delegation of North Carolina, “I suppose Sumner is your God”; to which the spokesman replied, “We respect and love Mr. Sumner, Sir, but no man is our God.” Then came the incendiary speech of the 22d February, when the President, standing on the steps of the Executive Mansion, threw away all reserve. “I am opposed to the Davises, the Toombses, the Slidells, and the long list of such. But when I perceive, on the other hand, men [_A voice, “Call them off!”_]--I care not by what name you call them--still opposed to the Union, I am free to say to you that I am still with the people. I am still for the preservation of these States, for the preservation of this Union, and in favor of this great Government accomplishing its destiny.” Here the President was called upon to give the names of three of the Members of Congress to whom he had alluded as being opposed to the Union. “The gentleman calls for three names. I am talking to my friends and fellow-citizens here. Suppose I should name to you those whom I look upon as being opposed to the fundamental principles of this Government, and as now laboring to destroy them. I say Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania; I say Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts; I say Wendell Phillips, of Massachusetts.” Becoming excited in speech, the President followed the charge of opposition to the fundamental principles of this Government with an accusation of a different character.