I am sure that your theory is the true one, and, in fact, the only one this Government can consistently follow, and the only one which seems to offer a plain path out of the maze of conflicting legal and constitutional points in which so…

I fully appreciate the difficulty of settling the South after it is conquered.

I don’t see how your plan can be avoided; bon gré, mal gré, it is what we all must come to.

Early in the Rebellion I took the same view of the effect of Secession upon the Rebel States as is set forth in your Resolutions,--suggested it to our Wisconsin Senators, and wrote several articles in support of it, but could find very few…

When your resolutions on that subject appeared, I hailed them with joy, and have been exerting the little influence I have to instil the principle into the public mind.

By their rebellion they have tumbled Slavery right into our bag, and if we shake it out, our life will go for its life.

Hayti is one of the most charming and important islands in the world, possessing remarkable advantages in size, situation, climate, soil, productions, and mineral wealth.

I thought, six months since, that ere this Slavery would have been abolished by the War Power in all the seceded States, but at present I have very little hope of it.

It seems to me incredible that the President and Cabinet should have so much more sympathy for the Rebels than they have for the loyal North.

I hope and pray that this doctrine speaks the mind of Lincoln, and that he will not flinch from its execution with the whole power of the Government.… Oh that Congress may adopt your set just as they came from your mighty pen, and then…

There are thousands ready to see the present Government blotted out in blood and chaos rather than see the old curse reinstated.

We must have and keep them all in our grasp, until they prove themselves, by their good behavior, fit to come again into the Union.

I cannot sleep another night till I have thanked you from the bottom of my heart for your bill resolving Rebeldom into Territorial relations again.

Of all measures ever introduced into Congress, nothing so completely meets the case of the present exigency of our country’s history, and nothing but this can make the confederacy of the whole land stand in safety a single year.

We may continue to win battles, but, so long as the ruins of Slavery exist in the body politic, we shall stand on a volcano.

But the most important commentary on the Resolutions is found in the measures of Reconstruction subsequently adopted, all of which stand on the power of Congress over the Rebel States, which they positively assert, including especially the…

There is no silence with regard to the States, which are expressly prohibited to “emit bills of credit,” or “make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.” Treasury notes are “bills of credit”; and this prohibition…

It is manifest that all these prohibitory clauses, as to coining money, emitting bills of credit, and tendering anything but gold and silver in payment of debts, are founded upon the same general policy, and result from the same general…

Plainly, no inference adverse to the powers of the National Government can be drawn from these prohibitory clauses; for, whatever may be these powers, there will be a fixed and uniform value throughout the United States.

The States are prohibited to issue “bills of credit”; but there is no such prohibition on the National Government, which may do in the premises what the States cannot do.

But I see not how to escape the conclusion, that, if Congress is empowered to issue Treasury notes, it may affix to these notes such character as shall seem safe and proper, declaring the conditions of their circulation and the dues for…

Grant the first power, and the rest must follow.

Careful you will be in the exercise of this power, but, if you choose to take the responsibility, I see no check in the Constitution.

The facility with which paper money is created renders it difficult to withstand the temptation, unless a Government is under the restraint of correct principles of finance, which at that early day were utterly unknown.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.