I will not ignore the issue, I have no death wish for this Union. I am a proud Virginian, but my loyalty is to the Union first. I will compromise where compromise is possible and do my best to preserve the Union should I become president, and if the war proves inevitable I will not fight for the North or South, but for the Union. I will use every method, every skill, every scrap of strngh I have to hold this Union together, till death do me part.
You may not ignore the issues, but unless you act upon information acquired from lack of ignorance as you have so pledged then you may as well live in ignorance, at least then you are given an excuse when your inaction causes disaster.
I do not question your love of the Union, however I resent your use of that love as a sheild for the defense of your political impotence on the issue of slavery.