been doe, not to the "Confederate States," but to her alone. Acting under this belief, and knowing that the Government of the United States had never intended to do her any wrong, I did indulge the earnest hope that consideration, "like an angel," would come and prevail on her to listen to terms of Honorable peace, to be communicated by her authority to her sister States.

I had been laboring under the belief that some of the Confederate States had avowed they were at war because they claimed the old Government was a compact between sovereign States, each one of which had a right to secede at pleasure. I know that the people of North Carolina had always repudiated this heresy with as much earnestness and sincerity as I understood you had. But I never imagined to dissolve the connection with "the old Government," and to part with the "mild glories" that adorned her, had, while delusively decked with the tawdry finery of a sovereign State, been so shorn of her strength that her chief magistrate could declare, in substance, that he presided only over a territorial appendage to a confederacy, and could neither negotiate for the exchange of any son of hers taken prisoner, or treat in regard to doing anything to alleviate the evils of war.

When commissioners were sent from other States, making propositions ina should enter into their "compact," though she declined to do so, they were treated respectfully, and not discourteously accused of making propositions based on the supposition that there was baseness in North Carolina.

If there was no supposition of baseness in their proposition, how can there be any in the request made by me, representing the Government of the United States, that I might confer with her "authorities, to see whether some measures could not be adopted which might lead to and Honorable peace?"ying arguments, allow me to call to your attention another instance:

The State of Maryland is inhabited by as noble and brave a race of people as live on the earth. The people believe they are citizens of a great nation. They never dissolved their connection with the "old Government." They believe the doctrine that a State has the right to secede when it pleases is a ridiculous heresy. General Lee, the commander of the forces that made the recent incursion in the State of Maryland, issued a proclamation inviting the people to unite their destinies with the "new government," and to disregard her solemn obligations to the United States.

Did he make a proposition based on the supposition that there was baseness in Maryland sufficient to induce her people to abandon her sister States and leave them to suffer alone? He went with the sword, in contemptuous disregard of the regularly constituted authorities of the State. I come with the olive branch and approach you in the most respectful manner. The one avows an intention to produce civil war, the other asks that he may be allowed to see "whether some measures cannot be adopted which may lead to an Honorable peace," or to do something to mitigate the sufferings that inevitably follow war.

You have allowed many of North Carolina's gallant sons to be dragged away from their homes, their lifeblood poured out upon the soil of Maryland; you approve the conduct of the general referred to, and yet discourteously censure mine.

I will not intruiting other cases, as I have no intention to enter into a controversy, but merely to repel and expose