Charles Francis Adams to his son
London, August 24, 1863
I am sure I heartily join you in the wish that this fearful conflict was over. No more wanton and wicked struggle was ever initiated by profligate and desperate men than this against a government which had only been too lenient and generous to them. A terrible retribution has fallen upon them, it is true; but the mischief is that it has brought with it much of calamity to those who had no share of the responsibility for bringing it on. I cannot now see how the war can be safely ended until the motive which led to its commencement is made to vanish. I am made an abolitionist as earnest for immediate action as any one. The President can really effect the thing under the war power, as a condition of pacification in the ultimate resort. He can bring on that resort by a general arming of all the blacks. He has the power in his hands. There is no time to be lost, for he may be anticipated by a combination of the repentant class of slave owners with their old democratic allies of the north to attempt to re-establish the Union as it was. This is the last avenue of escape from the natural consequences of the war. I fancy these men will not have the shrewdness to avail themselves of it in season. Not that I doubt the fact that in any event slavery is doomed. The only difference will be that in dying it may cause us another sharp convulsion, which we might avoid by finishing it now. . . .
