TO THE READER.
This statement was prepared in March, shortly after the debate in the Senate, but was withheld at that time, from unwillingness to take part in the controversy, while able friends regarded the question of principle involved as above every personal issue. Yielding at last to various pressure, Mr. Sumner concluded to present it at the recent called session of the Senate, but the Treaty with Great Britain and the case of the Newspaper Correspondents were so engrossing as to leave no time for anything else.
Washington, June, 1871.