290 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



and wherever men do mostly congregate, the ques 

 tion has been constantly debated as to what is to be 

 the condition of the rebel States, arid what the atti 

 tude of North and South, when this rebellion shall 

 have been crushed. It is alleged that subjugation 

 will be succeeded by a sullen and scowling submis 

 sion to the laws, a peace in name only that, under 

 this novel dominion of the laws, the South will chafe 

 and fret, and be as intractable and malignant as 

 ever. A real, hearty, lasting peace, a thorough fra 

 ternization, is predicted as impossible. Old associa 

 tions divided by the sword, are presumed to be 

 beyond the hope of reunion. The nation, nominally 

 compacted, will be in reality an enforced association 

 of radically antagonistic elements, liable to be again 

 convulsed by rebellion, and by this liability so 

 weakened as to become dangerously open to foreign 

 aggression. Constantly on guard against domestic 

 treason, it will be impossible to combine against 

 foreign attack. Intercourse between the sections 

 will be greatly diminished business between the 

 two will never revive old friendships will die out 

 no new ones will be established and so general an 

 estrangement must occur as to convert us perma 

 nently into two distinct and hostile communities. 



These are not such views as I either entertain or 

 desire to express. I give them as the utterances of 

 others ; and it may be added that, while they are 

 peculiar to one class &quot;of thinkers, they are in direct 

 conflict with those of another class, whose habits of 

 thought and action entitle their opinions to be re 

 ceived with equal deference. Between the two, let 



