466 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1861, 



the rest, and help it along. Virginia will not take 

 hold and second Kentucky and Tennessee, fighting 

 nobly by Johnson, Crittenden, etc., declare against 

 treason first, and then arrange terms, which are all 

 ready, all they want, for composing the difficulties. 



But Cottondom will not have peace and union, and 

 Virginia, etc., are foolish enough to help their game. 

 That the border Southern States will be the principal 

 sufferers will be only a righteous retribution for their 

 guilt. 



If, in fact, we only belong to a partnership which 

 any of the partners can dissolve at will, then the 

 Union is not worth having. We must do the best we 

 can without it, and if Missouri would prosper, she 

 should stay with us. 



If peace is wanted, the reasonable proposition, " no 

 more territory to be acquired without a majority of 

 two thirds of the States," would give it. With that 

 you may do what you like, or rather what you can, in 

 the present Territories. No more of the continent is 

 worth having, either for North or South. 



Posterity will judge rightly, and Toombs, Cobb, 

 Floyd, etc., will go down to their graves as base, dis- 

 honored traitors. 



My fighting days are over, anyway. I have had 

 the misfortune to lose the end of my left thumb, by 

 an accident, just at the base of the nail. 



May 25, 1861. 



I am very glad to hear from you. I believe I have 

 a former letter from you unanswered. Lately I mailed 

 to you some botanical pamphlets, one containing the 

 Xantus California plants. 1 But in these times I had 



1 L. J. Xantus de Vesey. Collected at Fort Tejon in 1857-1859 for 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



