I have said, sir, that we are on the wrong tack.  Nothing but ruin, utter ruin, to the North, to the South, to the East, to the West, will follow the prosecution of this contest.  You may look forward to countless treasures all spent for the purpose of desolating and ravaging this continent; at the end leaving us just where we are now; or if the forces of the United States are successful in ravaging the whole South, what on earth will be done with it after that is accomplished?  Are not gentlemen now perfectly satisfied that they have mistaken a people for a faction?  Are they not perfectly satisfied that, to accomplish their object, it is necessary to subjugate, to conquer—­aye, to exterminate—­nearly ten millions of people?  Do you not know it?  Does not everybody know it?  Does not the world know it?  Let us pause, and let the Congress of the United States respond to the rising feeling all over this land in favor of peace.  War is separation; in the language of an eminent gentleman now no more, it is disunion, eternal and final disunion.  We have separation now; it is only made worse by war, and an utter extinction of all those sentiments of common interest and feeling which might lead to a political reunion founded upon consent and upon a conviction of its advantages.  Let the war go on, however, and soon, in addition to the moans of widows and orphans all over this land, you will hear the cry of distress from those who want food and the comforts of life.  The people will be unable to pay the grinding taxes which a fanatical spirit will attempt to impose upon them.  Nay, more, sir; you will see further separation.  I hope it is not “the sunset of life gives me mystical lore,” but in my mind’s eye I plainly see “coming events cast their shadows before.”  The Pacific slope now, doubtless, is devoted to the union of States.  Let this war go on till they find the burdens of taxation greater than the burdens of a separate condition, and they will assert it.  Let the war go on until they see the beautiful features of the old Confederacy beaten out of shape and comeliness by the brutalizing hand of war, and they will turn aside in disgust from the sickening spectacle, and become a separate nation.  Fight twelve months longer, and the already opening differences that you see between New England and the great Northwest will develop themselves.  You have two confederacies now.  Fight twelve months, and you will have three; twelve months longer, and you will have four.

I will not enlarge upon it, sir.  I am quite aware that all I say is received with a sneer of incredulity by the gentlemen who represent the far Northeast; but let the future determine who was right and who was wrong.  We are making our record here; I, my humble one, amid the sneers and aversion of nearly all who surround me, giving my votes, and uttering my utterances according to my convictions, with but few approving voices, and surrounded by scowls.  The time will soon come, Senators, when history will put her final seal upon these proceedings, and if my name shall be recorded there, going along with yours as an actor in these scenes, I am willing to abide, fearlessly, her final judgment.