"And now, if my voice could reach the Southern people, through the journals of our metropolis, I would say to them that in no event can the triumph of the conservative sentiment of New York in the election mean consent to disunion, either now or hereafter. Its true import is restoration, North and South, of that Constitution which had secured every right, and under whose shelter all had been happy and prosperous until you madly fled from its protection. It was your act which began this calamitous civil war. It was your act which disabled us, as we are now disabled, of shaping the policy or limiting the objects of that war. Loyally as we maintained your rights, will we maintain the right of the government. We will not strike down its arm as long as yours is lifted against it. That noblest and greatest work of our wise ancestors is not destined to perish. We intend to rear once more upon the old and firm foundations its shattered columns, and to carry them higher towards the eternal skies. If the old flag waves in the nerveless grasp of a fanatic but feeble faction to whom you and not we abandoned it, we, whose courage you have tried when we stood unmoved between fanaticism and folly from the North and South alike, will once more bear it onward and aloft until it is again planted upon the towers of the Constitution, invincible by domestic as by foreign enemies. Within the Union we will give you the Constitution you profess to revere, renewed with fresh guarantees of equal rights and equal safety. We will give you everything that local self-government demands; everything that a common ancestry of glory--everything that national fraternity or Christian fellowship requires; but to dissolve the federal bond between these States, to dismember our country, whoever else consents, we will not. No; never, never, never!" JOHN A. DIX TO TILDEN "HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY CORPS, "FORT MONROE, VA., _7 Sept., 1862_. "_My dear Sir_,--Your letter by some mischance got among those intended to go by flag of truce to Richmond, and I only received it the day before yesterday. Yesterday I wrote to Judge Pierrepont, saying that I cannot relinquish my position in the field. There is only one condition (and that an impossible one)--a call from the people of New York on me to be their Chief Magistrate for the purpose of carrying, if possible, greater vigor into the conduct of the war. I say this is impossible, because I see clearly that the Republicans will not relax their hold on anything they possess, and that the Democrats are taking the field under their old and everlasting office-seekers. I see no good to the country from such a contest, and I cannot go into it. "Sincerely yours, "JOHN A. DIX." "_Saml. J. Tilden, Esq._ "Consider this confidential." HORATIO SEYMOUR (RECENTLY ELECTED GOVERNOR) TO TILDEN "UTICA, _Nov. 10, 1862_.