EARLY MANHOOD-1851-1857 71 



thus given my mind was not spent until the Civil War, 

 which, betraying the ultimate results of sundry Jefferso- 

 nian ideas, led me to revise my opinions somewhat and 

 to moderate my admiration for the founder of American 

 ' l Democracy, ' ' though I have ever since retained a strong 

 interest in his teaching. 



But deeply as both the governor and myself felt on the 

 slavery question, we both avoided it in our conversation. 

 Each knew how earnestly the other felt regarding it, and 

 each, as if by instinct, kept clear of a discussion which 

 could not change our opinions, and might wreck our 

 friendship. The result was, that, so far as I remember, 

 we never even alluded to it during the whole year we were 

 together. Every other subject we discussed freely, but 

 this we never touched. The nearest approach to a dis- 

 cussion was when one day in the Legation Chancery at 

 St. Petersburg, Mr. Erving, also a devoted Union pro- 

 slavery Democrat, pointing to a map of the United States 

 hanging on the wall, went into a rhapsody over the ex- 

 tension of the power and wealth of our country. I an- 

 swered, "If our country could get rid of slavery in all 

 that beautiful region of the South, such a riddance would 

 be cheap at the cost of fifty thousand lives and a hun- 

 dred millions of dollars." At this Erving burst forth 

 into a torrent of brotherly anger. "There was no con- 

 ceivable cause," he said, "worth the sacrifice of fifty 

 thousand lives, and the loss of a hundred millions of 

 dollars would mean the blotting out of the whole pros- 

 perity of the nation." His deep earnestness showed me 

 the impossibility of converting a man of his opinions, 

 and the danger of wrecking our friendship by attempting 

 it. Little did either of us dream that within ten years 

 from that day slavery was to be abolished in the United 

 States, at the sacrifice not of fifty thousand, but of nearly 

 a million lives, and at the cost not merely of a hundred 

 millions, but, when all is told, of at least ten thousand 

 millions of dollars! 



I may mention here that it was in this companionship, 



