from the domain of reason and discussion, and to place its existence under the protection of force.

By skillful and bold maneuvers, they gained the substantial control of the National Government, and caused its judicial head to decide that, though the Federal Government possessed no powers that could be employed to oppose slavery, it had all power necessary for its protection and defense; and then, to increase the security of that which was now declared to be "an institution," the powers reserved to the States for the mere purpose of internal government, and to be employed to influence and moderate the action of the federal system, to check any tendency to consolidation and consequently despotism, were exaggerated and enlarged until each member of the Federal Union became a menace to the peace of all. By such means slavery, that was everywhere else under the ban of civilization, morals, and religion, was made to be an institution of the States that no American could be allowed to condemn, but

that all were required to defend. For its protection the press was suborned, religion was degraded, freemen were threatened and overawed; the Government was revolutionized, and it was formally announced to the free people of the United States that the interest of slavery required that none but its servants should be intrusted with power; and to this was added the haughty declaration that no pledge of fidelity to the constitution and to the faithful enforcement of all the laws would be accepted. It was said, in effect, that unless the citizens of the United States would submit to be governed and dominated by a single section, devoted to one interest, their free constitutional government should be dashed into pieces; and then they were taunted with the imputation that they possessed neither the intellect nor the courage to prevent it.

Selecting the first day of January, 1860, as the culminating point in the growth of the power of the men who had de

termined upon revolution, it may be asserted that on that day all the departments of the Government were under their substantial control; but it must be borne in mind that, though they had really committed themselves to revolutionary measures, they were trusted; because but few believed them to mean more than to test the patriotism and patience of the American people. But they had even then destroyed the constitutional rights and powers of the governments of the slave States, by filling them with creatures devoted to the will of the conspirators, and by subordinating State independence and State interests to the purposes of secession and revolution.

They had succeeded in alienating the people of the Southern States from the Federal Government; and, in place of fraternal regard, they had excited in them the bitterest feelings against the inhabitants of all the non-slaveholding States. They had debauched the morals and perverted the religion of the people to bring them down to the low level required for the defense of human slavery. They had succeeded in arousing a tempest of prejudice and passion, and that the people might be blinded to the danger upon which they were rushing, they were flattered with the idea of their superiority in manhood and courage to the men who would oppose them.

Confident in the completeness of their preparations for the work of disruption and rebellion, and misled by the calmness of the people when, in May, 1860, Mr. LINCOLN was presented as a candidate for the Presidency, his supporters and the country were told with transparent frankness that they might elect him if they chose, but that if they did so the Union was at an end forever; and then, apprehensive that their threats would produce too much alarm, and thus defeat the contingency upon which they depended, they threw off their former political engagements, betrayed and insulted the

formidable organization that was then devoted to one of the greatest modern political leaders, and made the election of Mr. LINCOLN certain, and produced the very result they had professed to deplore.

At once, all the agencies of mischief and ruin were seen to be in motion, and within thirty days after the election of Mr. LINCOLN was known, that State which is now, in vindication of Divine justice, governed by the men who were then its slaves-South Carolina-adopted a parody upon the Declaration of National Independence, and announced its withdrawal from the Federal Union; and it was soon followed by other States, whose Senators and Representatives only remained in their places at Washington to plot against the Government they were sworn to support, to denounce and embarrass it, to aid in guiding the movements of affiliated traitors there and elsewhere; and then, when their work was done, they demanded and received from its treasury the pay for their infamous services, and, exulting in what they fancied to be the ruin they had wrought, they wended their way to Montgomery, the seat of the long-meditated slave republic.

The enemies of human liberty abroad, and the conspirators against constitutional government at home, then vainly imagined their work was completed, and that the great Republic, that they believed had so long rested upon the shoulders of the men who had abandoned it, now that their support was withdrawn, must perish.

There is evidence to be found in contemporary history, that after these ambitious men reached Montgomery, and were surrounded by the victims of their perfidy and selfishness, they amused themselves with dreams of the easy conquest of Northern cities, with the anticipation of lordly possessions, the adulation of servile whites, and retinues of slaves. "Man proposes, but God disposes," and the effect of the war they

provoked has been to dissipate all these dreams. The patriotic people of the United States, who had stood silent so long without believing that the fantastic tricks of the secessionists meant more than empty menace, discovered now that there was work to be done. Indeed, the thunders of hostile artillery, directed against Fort Sumter, awoke the whole North to the conviction that war could not be averted, even by submission to the disintegration of the Republic, for the demagogues who then controlled the councils of the insurgents were so confident of their ultimate triumph that, if everything then demanded had been conceded to them, they would have made a refusal to surrender the capitol at Washington a pretext for bloodshed and strife. It was readily perceived that their plans contemplated more than independence, for they were already, by their influence in the national councils, more than independent. They meditated schemes of conquest and continental domination, so that resistance was made not only a duty, but an imperious necessity.

The freemen of the nation aroused, clothed themselves in the garments of war, and went forth to the field of strife. We smote the Dagon of slavery, so that he died in the very temple dedicated to his worship. We broke the fetters of four millions of bondmen and bondwomen, and made them free. We crushed the conspiracy against the liberties of mankind and the peace of a free continent. We restored free government and national unity, and consumed the aristocratic institutions that demanded the commission of so many crimes against humanity as with fire, and scattered their ashes so that they can be gathered again no more forever. And we re-established republican governments in all the States, and placed their powers under the control of the people; and we have placed the manhood and courage of the people of the whole Union on grounds that will tempt no party hereafter to

engage in war with the expectation that they will not find ready and prompt resistance.

In view of these marvelous changes, who can wonder that our countrymen should feel but little interest in the instruments by which they were produced? And when we remember that we became soldiers merely to vindicate the authority of the Constitution and the laws of the United States, and that Mr. LINCOLN himself would have saved the Union with slavery if he could-would have saved the Union with the partial overthrow of slavery if that had been possible; and that in the warning proclamation of September, 1862, he offered to leave slavery untouched if those in resistance would submit to the laws; and that the insurgents were even then so blindly confident, that the Richmond Government gravely threatened us with "the black flag" if an attempt was made to give effect to emancipation-we must conclude that neither we, nor LINCOLN, nor DAVIS, foresaw the point to which all were tending. And now, that such astonishing results have been realized, it is not surprising that the people of the United States, after devoting a brief time to exultation and rejoicing, should give us a glance of approbation, and then hasten to forgive JEFFERSON DAVIS and his guilty associates and followers, that they might the more quickly forget them, and then hurry on to gather the fruits of the great industrial and social revolution that resulted from the triumphs of the national arms.

And it is consolatory to find in the popular indifference to the events and circumstances of the late civil war, additional, and, indeed, conclusive evidence that the natural and proper condition of the Republic is peace.

A state of war is always pregnant with danger to free institutions. If popular liberty survives the period of actual war, it may afterward perish from the influence acquired by