"I regret to hear it," he said.
"Why so, Mr. S.?"
For a few moments he was silent, his eye scanning the figures of the beautiful carpet upon the floor; then calmly raising his face and fixing his full eyes, that looked nigh unto bursting, upon us—such was their intense earnestness, indicating the struggle of soul within, the play of emotions, honest and transparent; and holding the gaze upon us, while as yet no word from his eloquent lips had broken or changed the potent spell thereof—suddenly those eyes suffused with tears incontinent, the requisite power of speech had come, and he replied fervently:
"You ask why I regret to hear it; I will tell you why. We are friends, and have been friends for many a long year, and that, too, on terms of more than ordinary meaning, and sacred beyond the degrees of worldly friendship. The tie that hath bound us, you know, has been that of a deep and ardent Christian faith, which, though seeming to part asunder at times under the severe strain of mutual fault and criticism, producing the while outward non-affiliation, yet the substratum of unity is there, and its brotherly elasticity is too great to be snapped in twain. And however far apart the forces of the world may swing us, on the pendulum of time, still the return movement is certain and sure."
Thus spake a friend. And then, laying his hand upon his heart, he proceeded to say:
"Mr. N., I have loved you"—and pressing his heart said—"I have loved you here. It was years agone we learned to love each other as brother-friends, in earnest truth. You are still in my heart, and I believe I am in yours. You know my motto—'once in grace, always in grace'—once in friendship, always in friendship—once in love, always in love. We would not change it if we could, and could not if we would. I have never turned you out of my heart, never can, and never shall. My heart knows and bows to no destroying vicissitudes. Our friendship has no mere worldly cast, breathing the common atmosphere of self-interest, and putting on the offensive airs of self-righteousness; nay, it endures while witnessing the death-struggles of all such moral and social littleness in ourselves and in others.
"And now," continued he, "from these considerations, permit me to state further why I regret your contemplated move. My regard for the personal welfare of yourself and yours is too warm and deep, not to regret seeing you float to the Southern extreme of American society at the present juncture of our National affairs.
"The loud blast of secession is already heard in the South, and I am impressed that the Southern sisterhood of States will unite in a desperate effort to dissolve this Union and destroy the General Government. And that no renewal of compromise effort can save the tremendous shock of war, between the North and South, that portends in the political heavens. And I now feel bound to say to you, though in confidence, what for wise political reasons I have not dared to utter to any political friend, that I more than fear—I believe—this Government is going to ruin! Presaging wrath is borne on every breeze, and tells of the coming woe!
"To me, this is no chimera of an overwrought imagination, but the serious, sober tone of destiny that comes thundering along the pathway of nations, and having shattered many nations, and buried them in the dust of the sepulchral past, no better fate may await ours. God save us! if that be possible; but it seems otherwise to me.
"And, friend N., if the half of my forebodings shall prove historic verity not far in the future, which side the division line do you wish to be found? To ask the question, I know is to answer it. You and I both hail from adjoining counties in the old Empire State as our fatherland, and are now citizens of the Empire State of the great Northwest. The one gave us birth, and nursed us to the years of early manhood. The other is our adopted State, where we have reached the strength and vigor of intellectual manhood. There we knew and enjoyed the blessings of freedom—freedom of opinion and of speech. Here the same, and not one degree north or south of the same latitude."