I am not a politician and have always been a strenuous friend of the Union.

I am now in favor of a separation, unless you immediately retrace your steps and give the necessary guarantees by the passage of appropriate laws that you will faithfully abide by the compromises of the Constitution, by which alone the slaveholding States can with honor or safety remain in the Union.

But that this will be done, I have very little hope, as "madness seems to rule the hour;" and as you have thus constituted yourselves our enemies, you must not be surprised at finding that we are yours.
[Footnote 26: A critic said of this: "It is the most faultless presentation of the question to which I have listened.

Mr.Curtis takes the broadest view of the subject, his logic in its sweep is convincing as demonstration itself.

His satire is cutting, but not bitter; his wit keen as a Damascus blade.