25 port the ArmJ and the Navy" during this armistice ; you will give the rebellion time to recover itself; you will demoralize and disgrace your own soldiery ; and then you will return to hostilities under the absolute necessity of fighting it out at last, or consenting to a dissolution of the Union. If, however, the armistice be Jkial, then, in the event of failure to agree upon the terms of peace under the same government, the Union is dissolved, and the Southern Confederacy established as an independant nation. It is hence obvious, that, in either aspect of the case, this doctrine of an armistice promises nothing for the national cause, and threatens much against it, I am afraid of it. I think it much safer to conquer a peace first, and apply '• the resources of wise statesmanship " afterwards. Suppose, however, that, by resorting to an armistice, you could bring the Rebels back into the Union ; let this be granted for the sake of the argument ; and what then are likely to be their demands as the conditions of peace, if you go before them in this attitude ? Have you tlionght of this question ? They will virtually dictate the terms of peace. Practically they will be the conquerors. Tliey will have fought you till you cannot or dare not fight them any longer. Elated with their own success, as well they might be, they will demand new guaranties for slavery. They w^ill demand such modifications of our political system as will forever protect them against the growth of the true democratic principle. They will demand the recognition of their favorite doctrine of State Rights, always involving the right of Secession. They will demand a new style of Union. They will demand too, that the nation shall assume the enormous war debt which they have contracted, thus paying the expenses of the rebellion. The men with whom you will conduct this negotiation, if at all, are very desperate men ; they constitute the bone and sinew of the slaveholding oligarchy ; their politic^al necessities as public men commit them to the success of the rebellion, or to something that in their judgment shall be nearly its equivalent ; in the bargain to be made they must come off with flying colors ; and now the very moment that you release these men from the deadly pressure of the military
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