would I do it, whatever the consequences of a refusal might involve in such a case. As I before stated, I have a motive, and an honorable and just policy to be effected by the position I have assumed on this question, and that policy must be accomplished through the issues arising out of this great revolution, or rebellion, as you may choose to style it. I can realize the necessity of a brother even shooting a brother, or of a father shooting a son, in behalf of the government, among the whites—for with them it is like Absalom’s rebellion against the house of King David. The South, and all who aid them, are fighting for a principle that anticipates the subversion of every principle of justice, and the overthrow of the best and most liberal government the sun ever shone upon. It is the right, therefore, of all white men who love government and the blessings guaranteed to them by the government of the United States, and who believe that “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” to defend it even with the shedding of their own kindred blood, to put down treason and rebellion, and maintain the Constitution and the laws. With us it is different—it is different with the slaves and free people of the South—and it is equally so with us. There can be no comparison of the patriotism required to produce such a feeling in us, and that which actuates white men in the same direction. Finding myself greatly deficient when measured by such a standard, and learning that this was the one by which white men measured for us, I have chosen to make known my devotion to the government, and my willingness to serve it in any just and honorable way. But to set myself boldly in the way of any principle or theory, originating from whence it may, that might serve to decoy my brethren, and lead them indiscriminately into the field, with no other motive or purpose than to serve the doubly rapacious desire of unworthy and unjust, hatefully prejudiced men against ourselves, as well as those poor, friendless men they would have us fight, and who, by a proper appreciation of the government paid to their defenceless and unhappy condition, would settle half the bill with their masters, and leave them an easy prey to the popular government, instead of being compelled by the menacing attitude of both North and South, to take sides against the former, even though they should have to settle with masters whom they well understand afterwards—in such an event, I will never, nor will a single man of the hundreds of my acquaintances, take sides with the milk-and-water policy now manifested by the leaders of the United States forces, though it is evident that they neither reflect the popular sentiment of the people, or the policy of the Administration, only so far as that policy is modulated by circumstances brought about by the long reign of Hunker Democracy, whose demagogues early sought for place and position in the army, since they could not get them by the voice of the