Mr. Clay to Mr. Seward
Sir: We have a telegram to-day that the President has consented to make peace with the south upon the basis only of a restoration of the Union and the abolition of slavery. I rejoice at this resolve, (rejecting all minor terms;) let us give general amnesty; restore the confiscated lands—do anything but yield the Union and allow slavery, without the destruction of which it would be worth nothing, and all our blood would have been shed in vain.
I copy from the St. Petersburg Journal, to-day, a notice of this resolve of the President, concluding: “The struggle then, goes, on; the end cannot be foreseen; it is, however, consoling to observe that, in the interest of humanity and to the honor of the federal government, this last does not intend to abandon the precious fruit of a struggle, so bloody and so long as has actually been the war of the United States, the abolition of slavery upon the free soil of the American republic.”
Such is not only the language of the official journal here, but the sentiment of all true friends of the republic, abroad and at home. Let us stand thereto, live or die! I beg you to lay this before the President.
Your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.