resources: we do not lack for arms or
ammunition, and we have still a wide territory from which to gather
supplies. So, you see, we are not in extremities. But if we were,--if we
were without money, without food, without weapons,--if our whole country
were devastated, and our armies crushed and disbanded,--could we,
without giving up our manhood, give up our right to govern ourselves?
Would _you_ not rather die, and feel yourself a man, than live, and be
subject to a foreign power?"

"From your stand-point there is force in what you say," replied the
Colonel. "But we did not come here to argue with you, Mr. Davis. We
came, hoping to find some honorable way to peace; and I am grieved to
hear you say what you do. When I have seen your young men dying on the
battle-field, and your old men, women, and children starving in their
homes, I have felt I could risk my life to save them. For that reason I
am here; and I am grieved, grieved, that there is no hope."

"I know your motives, Colonel Jaquess, and I honor you for them; but
what can I do more than I am doing? I would give my poor life, gladly,
if it would bring peace and good-will to the two countries; but it would
not. It is with your own people you should labor. It is they who
desolate our homes, burn our wheat-fields, break the wheels of wagons
carrying away our women and children, and destroy supplies meant for our
sick and wounded. At your door lies all the misery and the crime of this
war,--and it is a fearful, fearful account."

"Not all of it, Mr. Davis. I admit a fearful account, but it is not
_all_ at our door. The passions of both sides are aroused. Unarmed men
are hanged, prisoners are shot down in cold blood, by yourselves.
Elements of barbarism are entering the war on both sides, that should
make us--you and me, as Christian men--shudder to think of. In God's
name, then, let us stop it. Let us do something, concede something, to
bring about peace. You cannot expect, with only four and a half
millions, as Mr. Benjamin says you have, to hold out forever against
twenty millions."

Again Mr. Davis smiled.

"Do you suppose there are twenty millions at the North determined to
crush us?"

"I do,--to crush your _government_. A small number of our people, a very
small number, are your friends,--Secessionists. The rest differ about
measures and candidates, but are united in the determination to sustain
the Union. Whoever is elected in November, he _must be_ co