Transcription
It is my opinion from present appearances that the Institution of Slavery has received a blow that it will never recover from. Even should we be able to conquer our Independence (for we will never obtain it in any other way) the Institution will be so much crippled and demoralized that it will never recover. The War was got up expressly to put it down, it was not [indecipherable] because the Border States would have gone out with us if it had. The War is now becoming a life and death struggle, when the end will be, God alone can tell.