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, ete., 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, ete., 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 
ilt. 
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, ete., 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.!_ But in these times I had 
1L. J. Xantus de Vesey. Collected at Fort Tejon in 1857-1859 for 
the Smithsonian Institution. 
