48 And why not speak my whole thought ? God is there. He guarded you, he led you day by day, he taught you by disasters ; then, the very instant after you finally broke with the national crime of slavery, he sent you the victory. It is against Gf)d that they propose to you to enter into conflict, who ask you to leave your work unfinished, and to abandon four millions of freedmen to the caprices of the South. The cries of these men would rise to heaven, after resounding throughout the earth. I marvel at those who make a distinction between the interests of the blacks and the interests of the whites ! Far from being antagonism, there is harmony between them. Or, rather, the interests of the South agree, in the most striking manner, with the interests of the North. What is the true interest of the South, if not peace ? Now, for it as for all, peace is the price of the termination of the negro question. If, to its misfortune, the South- should enter Congress unconditionally ; if, to its misfortune, it should succeed in forming a coalition against negro suffrage, what would evidently be the result ? The struggle would be continued, the hatred would be rekindled, and the way would be paved for social convulsions in each of the cotton states. The sensible men of the South should be the first to desire, as a relief and a benefaction, that necessary interval which should separate sanguinary combat from deliberation in common. Where would be cause for complaint, if the South, treated with a generosity and mildness met by no rebellion on earth since the world existed, should have besides the admirable good fortune of receiving from the hands of Congress a final solution of the negro question ? What a guarantee would this be of tranquillity ! The South has just made a disastrous experiment. It cannot now be ignorant of the value of those fine promises, flashed before its eyes by the men who urged it to war, of the fabulous prosperity of a new confederation founded on slavery. It seems to rne that it ought to wish to try another policy,
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