"LISBON, _June 5, 1861_.
"MY DEAR TILDEN,--I have not yet a word from you, and should feel
more angry than I do at such a cruel silence were it not that I fear
you must be sadly harassed and occupied with your private affairs,
superadded to the afflictions of the patriot. Since my last letter
I have seen in the papers reason for some mitigation of the extreme
disgust and indignation I had before felt in regard to the conduct of
the Democratic party at the North. I had all but forsworn it, supposing
that it had all gone over, bag and baggage, into this worst form of
Republicanism, which consists in the support of this insane and wicked
war, and that, consequently, no possible place remained for me, even
in a corporal's guard, left of it. But I see in the newspaper letter
from New York the cheering expression that 'the _Daily News_, by taking
a strong Southern view, has largely increased its circulation, which
shows that people like to see what can be said against the war, if they
do not agree with the opinions expressed.' This assures me at least
that even though I might be myself hung for a traitor in the streets of
New York, for my sentiments on the subject, there would still remain
somebody willing to cut me down and give me decent burial. I now look
with great anxiety for the Democratic State convention called for the
4th of July, though what it can do to resuscitate the suicided body of
the old party I do not see. I beg you to go to the office of the _News_
and subscribe for their weekly paper for me, with the back numbers for
the period since the beginning of the war. Do the same in regard to
the _Day Book_. Let them be directed to the U. S. Legation, Lisbon,
through care of John Miller, U. S. Despatch Agent, 26 Henrietta Street,
Covent Garden, London. Subscribe, also, for the _Weekly Post_. I must
get you to advance the payment for these subscriptions for me, which
I will repay. The _Herald_ I see here through another channel. The
_Post_ I want only, of course, for the object of seeing the talk of
the enemy. Do tell me all _your own mind_ on the subject. I am frankly
and decidedly with the South now in their stand of resistance against
subjugation and for independence. Whatever antecedents may have led up
to it, that stand is now rightful and honorable, and submission would
be pusillanimous and base, while in those very antecedents four-fifths
of the wrong has been on the Northern side. This war against States
constituting nearly half of the Union is an entire violation of the
whole spirit of the Constitution, as well as of that of the law of
'95, under which it is made. It is the South which is now fighting
in defence of all the principles and rights of American liberty, for
self-government and the dignity of man, and even though it should be
conquered and subjugated the Union of force and military centralization
thence to result would be in itself a worse political evil, and
more pregnant with future mischief, than would be _now_ a confirmed
separation. However, therefore, I may deplore, with heartbroken grief
and shame, all the disasters of these fratricidal battle-fields, yet
truth and justice and conviction extort from me the avowal that I hope
the South will be successful in beating back from their own rightfully
defended soil this most fatal and iniquitous invasion; and for this
sentiment, though it may be the extreme of treason, I am willing to
stand responsible before God and man.
"God bless you, my dear old fellow, whether you now go with me the full
length of my opinions, or whether I may have to regret, as a sensible
addition to all the rest of my present affliction, that we no longer
stand united in our old accord of sentiments. _Eadem sentire de re
publica._ Just as I would have shouldered a Northern rifle to unite in
the defence of Washington against menaced invasion from the South, so
would I now, were I at home, stand up in aid of the rightful defence
of the Southern soil against this equally unjustifiable invasion from
the North; and this, were I on that side of the Atlantic, or were it
possible for me to get there, I would do, unless I could do better
service to the cause of the right by speaking, writing, and acting for
it at the North. It is only the foolish and mad co-operation of the
deluded Democracy that has enabled the Republican administration to
undertake this war, and now enables it to carry it on. In that sense
the Democratic party is, though secondarily, as much responsible for it
as the Republicans. If it were now to draw back and insist on peace, it
has the power to enforce that policy. This is what I would labor for,
and it is with a view to this that I have written to urge my views upon
you and upon the public, so far as you may have consented to publish my
letters, every word of which I should be glad to see in the columns of
the _News_ or of the _Day Book_.
"Ever faithfully Yours,
"J. L. O'SULLIVAN."