have not been broken up, those colleges have not been disbanded-not even closed by war; those churches, though diminished in many cases in the numbers, sent and drawn for the field, are not closed; those seminaries of learning, for the youths of either sex, for agriculture, for preparation in the studies of the professions-law, medicine, divinity, are scarcely even checked in the career of providing for the wants of the next generation.

The nation, in all these things, in all that makes a nation prosperous, is prosperous even amidst, these scenes of war, and there is not now on the face of the globe a land in passing through which a stranger would see everywhere so many evidences of domestic peace, of happy homes, of successful agriculture, of life, and energy, and activity, in the marts of business, or on the wharves of commerce, as in this land, even amidst all that is sad and desolating in war.

We have been enabled to maintain peace with the world at large; to secure the sympathy and kindness of some of them; to check the outrages and wrongs of others; to hold them at a distance when they threatened us: to calm their rage by suc cessful acts of diplomacy and by just explanations when they were ready to make war upon us; to prevent a recognition of the portion of our land engaged in this great rebellion, even when the attempt has been made to show that every interest of foreigners, and all the concentrated hatred of our prosperity and of our institutions, and all the long-cherished desire of our division and our ruin, demanded such a recognition. In future times it will be regarded as among the most memorable things in this year that the independence of the Southern Confederacy was not recognized abroad, and that the affairs of our nation have been so wisely conducted in this respect, that God could properly so interpose and stay the wrath and the desires of interest, and hatred, and of jealousy, as to prevent a recognition which might have severed our Union forever, and which would have involved us in conflicts with the powers of the old world, and perhaps have kindled a universal war.

The power of the government to sustain itself, and the disposition of the nation to sustain it, have been evinced. If during the year now closing, we have not done all that we hoped to do; if there have been mistakes and errors in conducting the war; if there have been sad and mortifying reverses, it is still true that the rebellion has not been successful, and still apparent to ourselves and to the world that this government-this constitution-is settled on a foundation which no mere power of man can overthrow. Never in the history of the world has there been so formidable a rebellion as this, and never has there been a year which so much tried the strength of a government as this year has tried the strength of ours. Extraordinary measures have, indeed, been adopted-measures

regarded by a part of the people, even of the friends of the administration, as perilous to liberty, and not sanctioned by the Constitution; and endured only because they were regarded as necessary for the time, and, therefore, in the willingness to submit to such measures even for a time, furnishing one of the strongest proofs of the true amount of patriotism in the hearts of the people; but none of these things has had power to change the settled purpose of the nation to maintain the Union and the Constitution, and to restore peace by any expenditure of treasure and of blood that may be necessary. On this point there is at present but one voice at the North; and the formation of parties is not based on ihe question whether the war shall or shall not be prosecuted, and whether the government shall or shall not be sustained. I consider this firm purpose to sustain the govercment; to defend the country; to place at the disposal of the government all the money, and all the men that may be necessary to sustain its operations by land and by sea, as one of the most remarkable events in the history of the world, and one of the best evidences of the freedom, and, at the same time, of the vigor of the government. The year which is now closing may yet be regarded as among the most remarkable in the history of the world, as thus testing the power of a Republic, and answering the question so often asked with no friendly spirit abroad, whether republican institutions can be permanent; whether nations have the power of self-government. If this government can go through this war without being overthrown, there is no earthly power that it will have reason to fear, at home or abroad. Foreign nations see this; and with anxiety, and hatred, and hope, they are watching this struggle as decisive of what they have to fear in the working of their own institutions, and what they may have to fear if they provoke a war hereafter with the American people.

Perhaps most of all as adapted to shape the future history of our country, and to make this year remembered with gratitude by those who love the liberty of man, it may be regarded as most eventful in breaking the bonds of servitude, and removing the great evil-the cause of all our troubles. In the din and conflict of battle; in the anxiety which all have felt in regard to the armies summoned from the people-the anxiety of fathers, and mothers, and wives, and brothers, and sisters, about those dear to them exposed to the perils of the camp; in the wail of sorrow which has come up from all parts of the land; in the records of victories and defeats, keeping the attention of the nation fixed most intensely on one object, there may have been scenes enacted which have scarcely attracted attention, which will go more deeply into the future welfare of the nation than any events which have occurred in former times, and which, now occurring almost without notice, could not have been secured before without the danger of a revolution. Twen

ty years ago it required all the talent, the eloquence, and the influence of John Quincy Adams, to dare to present to Congress a petition for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and a law to that effect then would have involved the nation in a civil war. This year it has been done; and so quietly and calmly, that the nation has been scarcely aware of it; and yet it is done; it can not be undone. The Territories-the vast Territories of the nation, hereafter to be great States larger than many of the kingdoms of the old world, are free, and, as territories, they are to be free forever from the tread of the slave; from laws reducing men to chattels; from laws which authorize the traffic in the bodies and souls of men: yet who almost is aware of it? Who has heard the voice of thanksgiv ing for it? Who has reverently paused in the din of arms, and the surges of war, to thank God for it?

A blow has been given to the slave-trade this year such as has never been struck before. It was indeed piracy by our laws, and by the laws of other nations; but it was piracy on paper only. In our principal marts of commerce, and under the influence of men most prominent for station, and wealth, and enterprise, vessels were freely fitted out for this traffic, and the infamous men engaged in the traffic were allowed to go at large with impunity. It needed an example to show that any thing was meant by our paper laws, and that we were not dealing falsely with mankind in proclaiming the traffic to be piracy; and it needed, and it found, one man who had firmness enough to carry out the principle, and to show what the nation understood by the term as applied to that species of commerce, and at last one guilty man for this crime has suffered the just penalty of the law. A great movement, such as this nation has never before seen, has been suggested and recommended on the subject of emancipation. Never before has a suggestion on that subject been made by a President of the United States; never before commended to Congress; never before received the sanction of the Representatives of the people: and yet it was so wise, so calm, so free from any attempt at compulsion; it so left it to the States themselves; it offered such a fair compensation; it would have such ultimate influences if acted on, as, in the very form in which it was submitted, to constitute an epoch in the history of our country. It was an epoch in the history of England when a member of Parliament ventured to suggest the idea of Emancipation in the British colonies: it was much more when a President of the United States ventured to use the term, and to suggest the idea, as a practical one. And then this year will be still more remarkable for things not yet recorded; whose bearings are not yet seen; whose influence on this subject is to go far into fature times; things which, whatever may be the issue of the present conflict, will make new adjustments necessary. Slavery is not what it was; it will

never be what it was again. The Fugitive Slave Law is not what it was; it can never be what it was again. The slave all along the Border States is a different being from what he was; is more of a man; is less a chattel" and a "thing;" is of less. value as "property" than he was, or ever will be again. The power springing from this souree, which once, and so long, controlled the nation, is broken, and, whatever may be the issue of this struggle, is not to be a controlling power again. Thousands and tens of thousands, have tasted of freedom who never knew it before, and we begin to look on to times when the land shall be free. Could we now see what the future patriot will see; could we see all the secret influences at work this year for the good of the nation; could we see all those deep and broad streams of liberty and happiness which will flow out to future times to fertilize and bless the land and the world: no language which we can now use would be such as would properly express the praise due to God for what may spring out of the events. of this year. Our minds are indeed pensive and filled with sadness. Our eyes "pour out tears unto God." But there is light beyond; and those who will live in the future may see, even in what gives us sorrow now, reasons for adoration and praise in a land made more happy; a land without our conflicts and troubles; a land where man shall be every where recog nized and treated as a man; a land that shall be truly free.

The past is fixed; and we should be grateful to-day. The future is to us now the great source of solicitude and anxiety. This dreadful war! When will it end? How will it end? What good will be accomplished by it? What compensation can there be for all this blood and treasure-for all these woes and sorrows? What will be the condition of our country when it is ended? Shall we be one, or two, or many; a people with one government, one constitution; one purpose; or a broken people with no government, and no constitution; a people destined to perpetual border wars, or a people, all our liberties gone, to be collected into one, if ever one again, under a military despotism? We can not but ask these questions with anxious hearts; we can not answer them; we can not find any thing that will calm the mind but in the belief that there is a God, and that the God of our Fathers, having now, as he had in their troubled days, his own plans, can and will interpose as he did then. At His feet we are safe; and at His feet we may be calm, and there, with humbled hearts, having learned great and valuable lessons in regard to our pride, and self-sufficiency, and dependence, it is His manifest purpose to bring us. When we are actually brought there, with right feelings, then, and not till then, may we "look up," for then we may feel that "the day of our redemption draweth nigh."

But can we see nothing now to inspire hope? Can we see nothing that may be changed for the better by the war? Can

we see no evils in the past that this fearful struggle is likely to correct? Can we not see what would conduce to permanent peace, and what would prevent a recurrence in future times of such fearful and bloody conflicts? Valuable above. what our fathers left us, rich as was that inheritance, will be the legacy which we of this generation shall leave to aftertimes, if we can leave a government, a constitution, where the causes of collision will be removed, and those evils which have been culminating for eighty years will exist no more.

There will be peace. This war, among a people of the same language, the same religion, the same interests, will not last always; it will not last long. All men must see that it mustcome to an end; all see that it must come to an end at no dis-. tant period.

There will be great results that will come out of the war. It is indeed true that war, not always, perhaps rarely, affects the great points immediately at issue; but it is also true that there are other results invaluable to mankind that spring indirectly out of war. There are few great principles of liberty in our institutions, or in the world, whose establishment has not been effected as the result of bloody wars; principles that are worth to mankind all which they have cost; whose influence in promoting the happiness of the world is more than a compensation for all the treasure and blood expended--as the blessings of Christianity are more than an equivalent to mankind for all the toils of apostles, and the sufferings of martyrs.

But can any one suggest now what would be the conditions of a permanent peace; what would remove forever the causes of war and alienation; what would be equal justice to all, to the North and the South; to humanity; to the world? May we venture to suggest, to what point things are tending; can any one venture to paint and describe some of the " shadows" which coming events are forming, and of which the outlines may begin to be apparent?

It can not be the recognition of the Southern Confederacy. In such a recognition, under any form, and with any conceivable arrangement, there must remain the occasions for war, for constantly recurring appeals to arms. Apart from the principle, the asserted right of secession which this would involve, and which might be as proper in any other case as the pres-ent; apart from the public recognition as right of all the treason in high places, the robbery and the wrongs done to the nation's property and the nation's honor, there would be things which could never be adjusted to the idea of peace and concord. With fifteen hundred or two thousand miles of coterminous territory, requiring vigilance at every mile in collecting the revenues, and every where furnishing occasions of collision; with different views of trade and commerce; with great rivers flowing across any possible boundaries, and whose navigation