S.P.CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury.
Sir: Your letter of August 2d, just received, invites my discussion of the cotton question.
I will write plainly and slowly, because I know you have no time to listen to trifles.

This is no trifle; when one nation is at war with another, all the people of the one are enemies of the other: then the rules are plain and easy of understanding.

Most unfortunately, the war in which we are now engaged has been complicated with the belief on the one hand that all on the other are not enemies.

It would have been better if, at the outset, this mistake had not been made, and it is wrong longer to be misled by it.

The Government of the United States may now safely proceed on the proper rule that all in the South are enemies of all in the North; and not only are they unfriendly, but all who can procure arms now bear them as organized regiments, or as guerrillas.