For myse'f I concedes now, though I sort o' smothers
my feelin's on that p'int at the time, seein' we-all could look
right over into the state of Ohio, said state bein' heatedly
inimical to rebellion an' pawin' for trouble an' rappin' its horns
ag'in the trees at the mere idee; for myse'f, I say, I now concedes
that I was heart an' soul with the South in them onhappy ruptures. I
breathed an' lived with but one ambition, which is to tear this
devoted country in two in the middle an' leave the fragments that a-
way, in opposite fields. My father, stern, ca'm, c'llected, don't
share the voylence of my sentiments. He took the middle ag'in the
ends for his. The attitoode of our state is that of nootrality, an'
my father declar'd for nootrality likewise. My grandfather is dead
at the time, so his examples lost to us; but my father, sort o'
projectin' 'round for p'sition, decides it would be onfair in him to
throw the weight of his valor to either side, so he stands a pat
hand on that embroglio, declines kyards, an' as I states is nootral.
Which I know he's nootral by one thing:
"'"Willyum," he'd say that a-way when he'd notice me organizin' to
go down to the village; "Willyum," he'd say.
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