Annotation
[1] NH, VII, 299-300. Belmont, the New York financier, replied on August 10, ``I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your esteemed favor. Its contents bear the stamp of that statesmanship and patriotism which I know to have guided all your actions. . . . I share entirely your views with regard not only to the duty, but also the policy of the revolted States to return to their allegiance without allowing their unequal struggle . . . to increase in violence. . . . The words conquest and subjugation have been used to good effect by our opponents. . . . while the rebel leaders can keep up . . . the idea that the North means conquest and subjugation, I fear that there is very little hope for any Union demonstration in the revolted States. . . . My own conviction has always been, that . . . we would have to come to a national convention for the reconstruction of one government over all the States. . . . My impression is, that such a solution would, at the proper time, be acceptable to a majority of the Southern people, and I sent to Mr. Weed the letter which procured me the honor of receiving your note, for the very reason that I saw in it an indication of the writer's desire for a reconstruction of the Union. He is a very wealthy and influential planter. . . .'' (August Belmont, A Few Letters and Speeches of the Late Civil War, privately printed, New York, 1870, pp. 71-72).