22 cannot the politicians at home imitate their good example ? For mere party I care nothing at this time, but for the maintenance of the r\ giit priuci/ples I go to all lengths. Principles viewed in their relation to policy are now everything with me. In the thikd place, the Rebel AuTHOKrriES declare in the MOST unequivocal MANNER, THAT THEY WILL CONSENT TO NO ARRANGEMENT NOT BASED ON THE RECOGNITION OP THE CONFEDERATE Government, and of course the dissolution of the Union. —'' Say to Mr. Lincoln from me," says Jefferson Davis, " that I shall at any time be pleased to receive proposals for peace on the basis of our independence. It will be useless to approach me with any other." So says the Southern press. The Rebel chiefs, the men in power, the men who control the armies of the rebellion, tell you distinctly that they mean to fight this thing through to victory or military failure, unless you yield to their terms of peace. The only interest they feel in our approaching Presidential election arises from the hope, that it may in some way change the policy of the country, and thus the more certainly facilitate their end. Is it then your purpose to preserve this Union, not a Union, but this Union as it is under the Constitution —this Government with its full, untarnished, and undiminished complement of national authority —is this your purpose? Then, in the premises existing, you must Jight for it. You are shut right squarely up to this necessity. You cannot do it by negotiation. You cannot persuade these Rebel chiefs to alter their position by conciliating talk. No party can do it, whether in power or out of it. It is, on the one hand, Victaty, Union, and Peace, or on the other. Submission, Disunion, and Peace ; and between these you must make your choice. I have already made mine : I go for the first ; and hence I go for fighting the battle through to the end, seeing nothing to be gained, but very much that may be lost, by consenting to " a cessation of hostilities.''' In the fourth place, as matters now stand, we can in a short time, if we will, have peace, and also dictate its terms as the fruit of victory. The past success of our arms and the present state of the rebellion make this proposition certain. A fewmore
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