found statesmen grant her the right to act thus, in the name of the national sovereignty proclaimed by 8,ooo,ooo of free men, and she has maintained this right by existing for two years as a nation.
St. Louis, April 24, 1863.
Most Dear PAUL
I must essay to write to you a letter in English. I wish you to study and apply yourself to acquire the knowl edge of that beautiful and almost universal language. Let me know how you make it out, which will decide the course of my writing. I will here sketch you a little view of the actual state and condition of the country and the principal cause of the war without entering into minor details.
As I have written before, slavery is the undoubted cause of the war at present raging in the country. Perhaps no other cause could have produced it; for though there have been sharp disputes between the different sections of the Union on the subject of the tariff, they were easily settled. Not so with slavery. Here, what one party looked upon as of divine origin and every way right, another party regarded as barbarous and wrong. There was and is no room for compromise on such a question. Still the institution of slavery in the slave States was in no immediate danger, for the Constitution of the United States guaranteed its protection and the General Government would never have set the Constitution aside - indeed it has no power to do so.
But the difficulty was about the Territories belonging to the United States. There is an immense territory sufficient
to form several large States yet unsettled. The anti-slavery party, or Freesoil party, as it is called, concluded that slavery should not be extended to the Territories, though protected in the already formed States. The pro-slavery party demanded the right of carrying slavery to every foot of the