"You do not know, papa. If they are, you have said all. And there is our old Maria, who has nothing to do with Mr. Edwards; she has no hope nor anticipation which does not go beyond this world; and it is so with a great many of them. They have that hope; but they sing, "I am bound for the promised land!" - in a minor key; and to a plaintive air that makes your heart ache."
"Yours, Daisy," said my father with a somewhat constrained smile.
"Papa," I went on, trembling, but I thought it best to venture, - "if the issue of this war could be to set all those people free, I could almost be glad."
"That will not be the issue, Daisy," he said.
"Papa, what do you think will?"
"It can have but one issue. The Southern people cannot be put down."
"Then, if they succeed, what will be the state of things between them and the North?"
"It is impossible to tell how far things will go, Daisy, now that they have actually taken up arms. But I do not think the Southern people want anything of the North, but to be let alone."
"How would it be, if the North succeeded, papa?"
"It cannot succeed, Daisy. You have heard a different language, I suppose; but I know the men, - and the women, - of the South. They will never yield. The North must, sooner or later."