"But there is an aspect of the war which transcends every other: the possibility of success. The prospect of success will not justify a war in itself unjust, but the impossibility of success in a war of conquest of itself suffices to make it unjust; when that impossibility is reasonably proved, all the horror, all the bloodshed, all the evil passions, all the dangers to liberty and order with which such a war abounds, come to lie at the door of the party which refuses to hold its hand and let its neighbor be. "You know that in the opinion of Europe this impossibility has been proved. It is proved by every page of this book, and every copy of this book which circulates will carry the proof wider and stamp it more clearly. Depend upon it, to place the matter upon a single issue, you cannot conquer and keep down a country where the women behave like the women of New Orleans, where, as this author says, they would be ready to form regiments, if such regiments could be of use. And how idle it is to talk, as some of your people do, and some of ours, of the slackness with which the war has been carried on, and of its accounting for the want of success! You have no cause to be ashamed of your military character and efforts. You have proved what wanted no proof--your spirit, hardihood, immense powers, and rapidity and variety of resources. You have spent as much money, and have armed and perhaps have destroyed as many men, taking the two sides together, as all Europe spent in the first years of the Revolutionary war. Is not this enough? Why have you not more faith in the future of a nation which should lead for ages to come the American continent, which in five or ten years will make up its apparent loss or first loss of strength and numbers, and which, with a career unencumbered by the terrible calamity and curse of slavery, will even from the first be liberated from a position morally and incurably false, and will from the first enjoy a permanent gain in credit and character such as will much more than compensate for its temporary material losses? I am, in short, a follower of General Scott. With him I say, 'Wayward sisters, go in peace.' Immortal fame be to him for his wise and courageous advice, amounting to a prophecy. "Finally, you have done what men could do; you have failed because you resolved to do what men could not do.