We Understand Now, We've Been

The Conflict Between The Principle Of Liberty And The Fact Of Slavery Is Coming Gradually To An Issue. Slavery Has Now The Power, And Falls Into Convulsions At The Approach Of Freedom.

All Men Profess Honesty As Long As They Can. To Believe All Men Honest Would Be Folly. To Believe None So Is Something Worse.

There Still Remains One Effort Of Magnanimity, One Sacrifice Of Prejudice And Passion, To Be Made By The Individuals Throughout The Nation Who Have Heretofore Followed The Standards Of Political Party. It Is That Of Discarding Every Remnant Of Rancor Against Each Other, Of Embracing As Countrymen And Friends, And Of Yielding To Talents And Virtue Alone That Confidence Which In Times Of Contention For Principle Was Bestowed Only Upon Those Who Bore The Badge Of Party Communion.

This Mode Of Electioneering Suited Neither My Taste Nor My Principles. I Thought It Equally Unsuitable To My Personal Character And To The Station In Which I Am Placed.

To Live Without Having A Cicero And A Tacitus At Hand Seems To Me As If It Was Aprivation Of One Of My Limbs.