Year: 1865

: know how to direct, give it (in the
r words of your master)


"To WHOM 1T MAY CONCERN -


! Right or wrong, God judge me, not
man. For be my motive good, or bad
of one thing am sure, the lasting COD
demnation of the North.
| love peace more than life. Have
loved the Union beyond expression. For
four years have [ waited, hoped and pray
ed for the dark clouds to break, and for.a
restoration of our former sunshine. To
wait longer would be crime. All hope
for peace is dead. My prayers have,
proved as idle as my hopes. Gods will
be done. 1 go to see and share the bitter
end.


| have ever held the South were right.
The very nomination of Abraham Lincoln
four years ago, spoke plainly, war--war
upon Southern rights and Institutions
His election proved it. "Await an overt
act" Yes, till you are bound and. plum
dered. Wha. folly The South was
wise. Who thinks of argument or pa
tience when the finger of his enemy press
es on the trigger? In Joreign sear I,
too, could say, country, right or wrong"
But in struggle such as ours (where the
brother tries to pierce the brothers heart),
for Gods sake, choose the right. When
country like this spurns justice from her
side she forfeits the allegiance of every
honest freeman, and should leave him,
untrameled by any fealty soever, to act
as his conscience may approve. =.


People of the North, to hate tyranny,
to love liberty and justice, to strike at
wrong and oppression, was the teaching
of our fathers. The study of our early
history will not let me forget it, and may
it never.


This country was formed for the whits
not for the black man. And looking up
on a fricon Slavery from the same stand
point held by the noble trainers of our
Constitution, /, for one, have ever consid.
cred it one of the greatest blessings (both
for themselves and us) that God ever be-
slowed upon favored nation. Witness
heretofore our wealth and power witness
their elevation and enlightenment above
their race elsewhere. have lived among
it most of my life, and have seen less
harsh treatn ent from master to man than
[ have beheld in the North from father
to son. Yet, Heaven knows, no one would
be willing to do more for the negro race
than 1, could | but see way to stW bet
ter their condition. =,


But Lincoln's policy is only preparing
the way for their total annihilation. The
South are not, nor hare they been fight
ing for their continuance of Slavery
The first battle of Bull Run did away
with that idea Their causes SINCE for
aoar have been as noble and greater far
than those that urged oar fathers on
Even should we allow that they were
wrong at the beginning of this contest,
cruelty and injustice have made the
wrong become the right, and. they stand
row fbefore tie wonder and affirmation
of the world) as noble band of patriot
ic heroes Hereafter, reading of their
deeds, Thermopyle will be forgotten.


When l aided in the capture and exc
cution of John Brown, (who was a mur-
derer on our Western border, and who
was fairly tried and convicted, before an
impartial judge and jury, of treason, and
who, by the way, has since been made a
god), [ was proud of my little share in
the transaction, for | deemed it my duty
and that l was helping our common coun-
try to perform an act of justice. But
what was crime in poor John Brown is
now considered (by themselyesl as the
greatest ard only virtue of the whole Re-
publican party. Strange transmigration!
Vice to become virtue, simply because
more indulge in it.


! I thought then, as now, that the Abo-
litionists was the only traitors in the land,
and that the entire party deserved the
same fate Of poor old Brown, not because
they wish to abolish Slavery, but on ac-
count of the means they have ever endea-
vored to use to effect that abolition. If
Brown were living [ doubt whether he
himself would set Slavery against the u
MON. Most or many in the North do,
and openly curse the Union, if the South
are to return and retain single right
guaranteed to them by every tie which
we once revered as sacred. The South
can make no choice 1t is either exter-
mination or Slavery for themselves worse
than death) to draw from. l know my
choice. ,........


| have also studied hard to discover up
on what grounds the right of State to
secede has been denied, when our very
name, United States, and the Declaration
of Independence, both provide for Seces-
sion But there is no time for words
| write in haste. know how foolish
shall be deemed for undertaking such a
step as this, where, on the one side, |
| have many friends and everything to
make me happy, where my profession a,
| lone has gained me an income of more.
than $4,000 year, and where my great
, personal ambition in my profession has
? such great field for labor. On the 9TH
) eer hand, the South has never bestowed
upon me one kind word place now


where have no friends, except beneath
e the sod /; place where l must either be-
/ come private soldier or beggar To