[excerpt] I doubt the expediency of any general convention on the subject of slavery at the present time [2] Especially if it were to be got up by abolitionists. We have an agency at work for the abolition of slavery in the pending war more powerful than all the Conventions we could assemble - & for the successful prosecution of the war we need the unanimous support of the North - Let [struck: the] it [struck: once] [inserted: now] be believed by the Northern masses that the war is being waged to abolish slavery - & not to preserve the Union, [3] and the Government will find it difficult to procure either men or money to the Extent it can today command them. Every battle fought will teach our soldiers & the nation at large that slavery is the great cause of the war, that it is slavery which has brutalized & barbarized the South & that slavery must be abolished as our army advances as a military necessity - & that slavery must be either abolished or utterly paralized to enable us to conclude [4] a peaceful settlement of this rebellion, in such a manner that the industry & prosperity of the North shall never more be imperilled by it - ...I should prefer that a general movement for the abolition of slavery [struck: when] if made, during [5] the war should come from the old pro-slavery democrats & from others heretofore opposed to abolition, & made to rest upon the absolute necessity of the Extinction of the System for the general welfare & peace of the Country... Every hour that the war continues, [6] Every outrage upon our prisoners taken by the rebels - or upon the wounded left upon the field, Every attempt now frequently dedicated to poison our troops, Every lying proclamation from the secession officers slandering the Union men - & denouncing the whole North as abolitionist, strikes a blow at the infernal system - & there blows begin to fall hot & heavy - And the tone of our Northern press is being [illegible] affected by it. I look presently see [7] the entire north...demanding the abolition of slavery not from their Christian regard for the rights of the slave but from motives [struck: of] that partake rather of self-interest - & from a conviction induced not only by arguments but by facts that it is slavery alone that has reduced us to our present straits. The continuance of the war, with the unanimous [inserted: & hearty] approval of the whole North, is so infinitly important that I would not run [8] the risk of weakening it by an active Antislavery Movement. Let us [possess] our [souls] in patience - for I think we have already seen the beginning of the end. ...There is another argument that will occur to you - If slavery is abolished by Congress it can only be by its exercise of the war power - not on moral ground.