All that I have conversed with realize the truth that slavery as an institution is defunct, and the only questions that remain are what disposition shall be made of the negroes themselves.

I confess myself unable to offer a complete solution for these questions, and prefer to leave it to the slower operations of time.

We have given the initiative, and can afford to await the working of the experiment.
As to trade-matters, I also think it is to our interest to keep the Southern people somewhat dependent on the articles of commerce to which they have hitherto been accustomed.

General Grover is now here, and will, I think, be able to handle this matter judiciously, and may gradually relax, and invite cotton to come in in large quantities.

But at first we should manifest no undue anxiety on that score; for the rebels would at once make use of it as a power against us.