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Ex-President Pierce on the war.

--The Boston Post publishes a letter from Ex-President Pierce, which concludes as follows:

‘ The very idea of the dismemberment of the Union has always been to me one of terrible significance. Still, if it holds a place in the inevitable march of time — if the noble fabric must totter to its fall — there is, I humbly hope, no inexorable necessity that its ruins be stained with gore. If our fathers were mistaken, and time has developed in our system, or if the madness of their sons has planted there the germ of an ‘"irrepressible conflict"’ which forbids us longer to live together in peace, then in peace and on just terms let us separate. Fearful will be the responsibility of those who would cast the last element of human woe — that of arms for fratricidal slaughter — into the general chaos. The wisdom of man fails — may God in mercy guide us.

’

The Daily Dispatch: may 16, 1861. Richmond Dispatch. 4 pages. by Cowardin & Hammersley. Richmond. may 16, 1861. microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mi : Proquest. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.

Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant provided support for entering this text.

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