President answers suggestion in letter addressed to August Belmont, New York financier, that "Mr. Lincoln must take a decisive course" as to restoration of Union. Lincoln writes that such a course is declared "in the inaugural, in each of two regular messages to Congress, and in many, if not all, the minor documents issued by the Executive since the inauguration." Those in rebellious states "must understand that they cannot experiment for ten years trying to destroy the government, and if they fail still come back into the Union unhurt. If they expect . . . to ever have the Union as it was, I join with the writer in saying 'Now is the time'." Abraham Lincoln to August Belmont, 31 July 1862, CW, 5:350-51.