24 separate and odious chapter of every traveller's account of the United States, are about to be extended to four millions of men.” You will answer them by putting an end to these indignities in the North, and preventing them in the South. They have said, ££ Freedom will kill the negroes ; because it will be a lying, inconsistent, and murderous freedom.” You will answer them by conferring on the negroes a sincere and guaranteed liberty. To do this, to save a race, and to defend the honor of the country, you have a single moment. This moment past, the force of a situation irretrievably imperilled will be more powerful than you ; for want of not having been reconciled in the bosom of the law, the races will be impelled to antagonism. A conflict will then begin which will yield neither in horrors nor in disastrous consequences to that from which you have scarcely emerged, and which might have been your last. VII. Is it not true, Mr. President, that I am right in counting on the generosity of your fellow-countrymen ? They will not desire to repeat in the South (and on a frightful scale) what has unhappily been done in the North. Alas ! the example of the North shows what are the conflicts of races. But outside the common law, where pause ? Those who are contemned become worthy of contempt; those who are degraded become debased. In this manner oppression justifies itself, and the more iniquitous it is, the more excusable it seems, until it arrives at the point of considering it very natural not to treat as men those whom it has degraded beneath humanity. It is proposed to you to aggravate your conflict of races, instead of nobly putting an end to it! I shudder on seeing how far your valiant army has sometimes carried violence and disdain towards the colored regiments since the recurrence of peace. Great God ! what would happen if war between the whites and the blacks should be proclaimed, and immensely aggravated by your own hands !
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