We should probably differ _toto coelo_ as to the
causes which led to the conflict; but, my excellent Andrew, I think
there are certain facts which after more than two years' hard fighting
may be considered fairly established. Whatever may be your own
conclusions, as you read our recent history in the light of your ancient
and I had almost said absurd prejudices, I believe that the vast
majority of thinking men at the North have made up their minds that a
deliberate conspiracy to overturn this government has existed in the
South for at least a quarter of a century; that the proofs of such a
conspiracy have been daily growing more and move palpable, until any
additional evidence has become simply cumulative; that the election of
Abraham Lincoln was not the cause, but only marked the culmination of
the treason, and furnished the shallow pretext for its first overt acts.
That you are not prepared to admit all this is, I am forced to believe,
mainly because you dislike the conclusions which must inevitably follow
from such an admission. I say this, because, passing over for the
present the undoubted fact, that this nation would have elected a
Democratic President in 1860 but for the division of the Democratic
party, and the further fact, equally indisputable, that Southern
politicians wilfully created this division, I think you will hardly
venture to deny that even after the election of Abraham Lincoln the
South controlled the Supreme Court, the Senate, and the House of
Representatives.
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