If I remain in the Republican party,--which can hereafter exist at the South only in name,--I will thereby retard, if not mar and possibly destroy, their future prospects.

Then, you must remember that a man's first duty is to his family.

My daughters are the pride of my home.

I cannot afford to have them suffer the humiliating consequences of the social ostracism to which they may be subjected if I remain in the Republican party.
"The die is cast.

I must yield to the inevitable and surrender my convictions upon the altar of my family's good,--the outgrowth of circumstances and conditions which I am powerless to prevent and cannot control.