19th December, '60.
No, I did not speak in Philadelphia, because the mayor thought
he could not keep [the peace], and feared a desperate personal attack upon me.
The invitation has been renewed, but I have declined it, and have recalled
another acceptance to speak there. It would be foolhardy just now. I am very
sorry for the Mayor.
There must be necessarily trouble of some kind from this
Southern movement. But I think the North will stand firmly and kindly to its
position. If the point shall be persistently made by the South, as it has been
made so far, the nationalization of slavery or disunion, the North will say,
and I think calmly, Disunion, and God for the right. The Southerners are
lunatics, but what can we do? We cannot let them do as they will, for then we
should all perish together.
SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p.
138-9
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