Excerpt from The Civil War: Its Nature and End

As a further proof of the utter impossibility of peace, except under a common government, and at once an illustration of the import of what has just been stated, and the suggestion of a new and insuperable difl'iculty; let it be remembered that this great mountain region, throughout its general course, is more loyal to the Union than any other portion of the Slave States. It is the mountain counties of Maryland that have held treason in check in that State; it is forty mountain counties in Western Virginia that have laid the foundation of a new and loyal commonwealth; it is the mountain counties of Kentucky that first and most ea gerly took up arms for the Union; it is the mountain region of Tennessee that alone, in that dishonored State, furnished mar tyrs in the sacred cause of freedom; it is the mountain people of Alabama, that boldly stood out against the Confederate Gov ernment, till their own leaders deserted and betrayed them. Now, is the nation prepared, under any imaginable circumstances, to sacrifice these heroic men, as a condition of peace conquered from them by traitors? Will the nation sell the blood we will not say of a race of patriots - but of even a single one of them? The Representatives of these men sit in Congress; their Senators are in the capitol. Will the rebel States dismember themselves. That cotton may have peace? Will the nation turn its back on the five Border Slave States - deliver over Western Virginia to the sword - and cover its own infamy under the ruins of the Constitution? Never - never! Our sole alternative - is victo ry. To know this, is to render victory certain.

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