hat the passive strength of Union sentiment cannot now be
taken into the account. It would be a farce too absurd to be gravely
considered, to treat with men who, whatever their disposition or numbers
may be, are utterly helpless, unable to make any promise which they can
fulfil, or to give any pledge which can bind any but themselves.

We must deal with an armed and powerful rebellion; and so long as it is
effectively armed, and powerful enough to hold in subjection the whole
Southern population, it is moral, if not legal, treason for a Northern
man to talk of peace. What avails it to talk of the blessings of peace
and the horrors of war? It is a fearful thing to take the life of a
human being; but we can easily conceive of circumstances when homicide
is not only justifiable, but highly commendable.

Permit me here to quote, as most pertinent to this view of the subject,
an extract from a speech of Mr. Pitt in 1797, defending his refusal to
offer terms of peace to the Directory of France. Alluding to some
remarks of Sir John Sinclair, in the House of Commons, deprecating war
as a great evil, and calling on ministers to propose an immediate peace,
Mr. Pitt says,--"He began with deploring the calamities of war, on the
general topic that all war is calamitous. Do I object to that sentiment?
No. But is it our business, at a moment when we feel that the
continuance of that war is owing to the animosity, the implacable
animosity, of our enemy, to the inveterate and insatiable ambition of
the present frantic government of France,--not of the _people_ of
France, as the honorable baronet unjustly stated,--is it our business,
at that moment, to content ourselves with merely lamenting, in
commonplace terms, the calamities of war, and forgetting that it is part
of the duty which, as representatives of the people, we owe to our
government and our country, to state that the continuance of those evils
upon ourselves, and upon France, too, is the fruit only of the conduct
of the enemy, that it is to be imputed to them and not to us?" Now does
not this correctly describe our position? We make no question about the
calamities of war; but how are these calamities to be avoided? This war
has been forced upon us, and we must wage it to the end, or submit to
the dismemberment of the Union, and acknowledge, in flat contradiction
of the letter and spirit of the Constitution, the right of Secession.
The true motto for the Government is precisel