" In grave
emergencies, moderation is generally safer than radicalism; and as this
struggle is likely to be long and earnest, we must not, by our action,
repel any who are in sympathy with us in the main, but rather win all
that we can to our standard. We must not belittle nor overlook the facts
of our condition--that we are new and comparatively weak, while our
enemies are entrenched and relatively strong. They have the
administration and the political power; and, right or wrong, at present
they have the numbers. Our friends who urge an appeal to arms with so
much force and eloquence should recollect that the government is arrayed
against us, and that the numbers are now arrayed against us as well; or,
to state it nearer to the truth, they are not yet expressly and
affirmatively for us; and we should repel friends rather than gain them
by anything savoring of revolutionary methods. As it now stands, we must
appeal to the sober sense and patriotism of the people. We will make
converts day by day; we will grow strong by calmness and moderation; we
will grow strong by the violence and injustice of our adversaries. And,
unless truth be a mockery and justice a hollow lie, we will be in the
majority after a while, and then the revolution which we will accomplish
will be none the less radical from being the result of pacific measures.
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