The New York Times, May 17, 1860
We take from the Augusta Constitutionalist the following letter, or part of a letter, from Mr. STEPHENS, addressed to the editor of that paper. In announcing it, the editor remarks that it was received too late for insertion entire, and will publish the whole on the following day. It was written in reply to one from Several gentlemen in Bibb County, and in it he reviews the exciting questions of the day:
“There is a tendency every where, not only at the North, but at the South, to strife, dissension disorder, and anarchy. It is against this tendency that the sober-minded and reflecting men everywhere should now be called upon to guard.
“My opinion, then, is that delegates ought to be sent to the adjourned Convention at Baltimore. The demand made at Charleston by the seceders ought not to be insisted upon. Harmony being restored on this point, a nomination can doubtless be made of some man whom the party everywhere can support with the same zeal and the same ardor with which they entered and waged the contest in 1856, when the same principles were involved.
“If in this there be a failure, let the responsibility not rest upon us. Let our hands be clear of all blame. Let there be no cause for censure at our door. If in the end the great national Democratic Party — the strong ligament which has so long bound and held the Union together, shaped its policy, and controlled its destinies, and to which we have so often looked with a hope that seldom failed, as the only party North on which to rely in the most trying hours when Constitutional rights were in peril —- let it not be said to us, in the midst of the disasters that may ensue, “You did it!” In every and any event let not the reproach of Punic faith rest upon our name, If everything else has to go down, let our untarnished honor at least survive the wreck.”