If Maryland Had Gone, The Capital
Would Have Gone.
If the government had resolved to yield, Virginia
to the east would assuredly have gone, and I think there can be no
doubt that Missouri, to the west, would have gone also.
The feeling
for the Union in Kentucky was very strong, but I do not think that
even Kentucky could have saved itself. To have yielded to the
Southern demands would have been to have yielded everything. But no
man now presumes, let the contest go as it will, that Maryland and
Delaware will go with the South. The secessionists of Baltimore do
not think so, nor the gentlemen and ladies of Washington, whose
whole hearts are in the Southern cause. No man thinks that Maryland
will go, and few, I believe, imagine that either Missouri or
Kentucky will be divided from the North. I will not pretend what
may be the exact line, but I myself feel confident that it will run
south both of Virginia and of Kentucky.
If the North do conquer the South, and so arrange their matters that
the Southern States shall again become members of the Union, it will
be admitted that they have done all that they ought to do. If they
do not do this - if instead of doing this, which would be all that
they desire, they were in truth to do nothing; to win finally not
one foot of ground from the South - a supposition which I regard as
impossible - I think that we should still admit after awhile that
they had done their duty in endeavoring to maintain the integrity of
the empire. But if, as a third and more probable alternative, they
succeed in rescuing from the South and from slavery four or five of
the finest States of the old Union - and a vast portion of the
continent to be beaten by none other in salubrity, fertility,
beauty, and political importance - will it not then be admitted that
the war has done some good, and that the life and treasure have not
been spent in vain?
That is the termination of the contest to which I look forward. I
think that there will be secession, but that the terms of secession
will be dictated by the North, not by the South; and among these
terms I expect to see an escape from slavery for those border States
to which I have alluded. In that proposition which in February last
(1862) was made by the President, and which has since been
sanctioned by the Senate, I think we may see the first step toward
this measure. It may probably be the case that many of the slaves
will be driven South; that as the owners of those slaves are driven
from their holdings in Virginia they will take their slaves with
them, or send them before them. The manumission, when it reaches
Virginia, will not probably enfranchise the half million of slaves
who, in 1860, were counted among its population.
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