I shall, therefore, give a frank answer to your question.

In my judgment, if that bill had become a law the defeat of the Republican party throughout the country would have been a foregone conclusion.

We could not have saved the South even if the bill had passed, but its passage would have lost us the North; indeed, I could not have carried even my own State of Maine, if that bill had passed.

In my opinion, it was better to lose the South and save the North, than to try through such legislation to save the South, and thus lose both North and South.

I believed that if we saved the North we could then look after the South.
If the Southern Democrats are foolish enough to bring about a Solid South the result will be a Solid North against a Solid South; and in that case the Republicans would have nothing to fear.