the nature of the case, must have befallen the churches, and every interest of religion; and the inevitable condition of the South, in all these respects, for many years to come, which no pen can portray;-together with the blighting influence upon both sections of the country which must ever attend such a war, in the burdens of taxation, which must be felt for generations to come; in the social demoralization of the people at large, the corruption of public men, the familiarizing of the mind of the nation, and especially of the young, with scenes of bloodshed and carnage, and the desire for other wars, all which are the common fruits of all such conflicts; the like destruction, in the North as in the South, of the thousands of the noble and the brave who have fallen in battle, with the agony which has been brought upon the households of the whole territory of the Union; and the social alienation and bitterness which the strife has engendered, not only between the two sections of the country embroiled, but in many instances between those of the same household, both North and Sonth.

This is but the bare mention, and by no means all,— of that heritage of woes, now pressing, and long to be continued, every one of which is justly chargeable to this rebellion.

IT AIMED TO USURP THE GOVERNMENT.

8. Another characteristic of the rebellion is seen in what it aimed at first to accomplish.

Much declamation has been expended by public men and public journals, in both sections of the country, because the people in rebellion are not allowed to have their independence and separate nationality. But it was not for a separate Confederacy that the rebel leaders first inaugurated secession. They aimed to prevent the instal

IT AIMED TO USURP THE GOVERNMENT.

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lation of the present Administration, to seize the Government and the public offices and archives at Washington, and by a coup de main to establish themselves in power as the legitimate succession to the present Government, and to impress upon it that character which they have given to their own Constitution; while their independence, as a separate nation, was resolved upon only in the event and as the result of the failure of their original plan.

That this was the programme laid down by the rebel leaders is the very general conviction of the intelligent and loyal people of the country, and many facts fully warrant this conclusion. It was the opinion freely expressed by members of Congress and other public men in their pri vate circles, during the last two months of Mr. Buchanan's administration; and it is believed that to General Winfield Scott, more than to any other man, is the country indebted for the frustration of the scheme. The scattering of the small forces then composing the army of the United States to distant military posts, and the sending of the vessels of the navy to distant seas, by the respective Secretaries of the War and Navy Departments; the speedy gathering of a few hundred regulars, with several batteries of artillery, at Washington, by order of General Scott, when he apprehended danger, especially at the time the electoral votes were to be opened and counted; the wrathful speeches of Senator Mason, of Virginia, and other Southern statesmen, when they saw their plans foiled, because "the two Houses of Congress were surrounded by armed soldiers, as though they were sitting in an Austrian capital;" the subsequent well-matured plot to assassinate the President elect, as he should pass through Baltimore ;*

In a speech in the United States House of Representatives, April 8, 1864, Mr. Long, of Cincinnati, said: "A little over three years ago, the present occupant of the Presidential Mansion, at the other end of the Avenue, came into this city under cover

the vigilant preparations deemed essential at the time of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, when the troops were stationed at different points in the city, and Generals Scott and Wool and other officers stood ready to mount at a moment's warning; these are all well-remembered facts, and the measures then taken by the illustrious head of the army reveal his sagacity and patriotism, and illustrate, in their warding off the threatened evil, the debt of gratitude due him from his countrymen.

The scheme of seizing the Government was not abandoned on the successful inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. On the evening of the 12th of April, 1861, when the citizens of Montgomery, then the rebel capital, were rejoicing in the prospect of Fort Sumter's speedy fall, the bombardment being then in progress, General Walker, the rebel Secretary of War, made the following declarations in a public speech: "That before many hours the flag of the of night, disguised in plaid cloak and Scotch cap, lest, as was feared by his friends, he might have received a warmer greeting than would have been agreeable, on his way through Baltimore, at the hands of the constituents of the gentleman from Maryland." Mr. Long is one of the opponents of the present Administration. The Albany Evening Journal speaks of the contemplated assassination, and of the measures taken to prevent it, on the part of the President's friends, as follows: "They employed a detective of great experience, who was engaged at Baltimore in the business some three weeks prior to Mr. Lincoln's arrival there, employing both men and women to assist him. Shortly after coming to Baltimore, the detective discovered a combination of men banded together under a solemn oath to assassinate the President elect. * * It was arranged, in case Mr. Lincoln should pass safely over the railroad to Baltimore, that the conspirators should mingle with the crowd which might surround his carriage, and by pretending to be his friends, be enabled to approach his person, when, upon a signal from their leader, some of them would shoot at Mr. Lincoln with their pistols, and others would throw into his carriage hand-grenades filled with detonating powder, similar to those used in the attempted assassination of the Emperor Louis Napoleon. It was intended that in the confusion which should result from this attack, the assailants should escape to a vessel waiting in the harbor to receive them, and be carried to Mobile, in the seceding State of Alabama." Then, speaking of Mr. Lincoln, the Journal says: "The party then took berths in the sleeping-car [at Philadelphia], and, without change of cars, passed directly through to Washington, where they arrived at the usual hour. Mr. Lincoln wore no disguise whatever, but journeyed in an ordinary travelling dress."

*

IT AIMED TO USURP THE GOVERNMENT.

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Confederacy would float over the fortress; and no man could tell where the war this day commenced would end, but he would prophesy that the flag which now flaunts the breeze here, would float over the dome of the old capitol at Washington before the first of May." This speech of General Walker struck the key-note which was immediately echoed by the newspapers throughout the seceded States. Though Virginia had not yet seceded, the papers of that State sounded it. The Richmond Enquirer of April 13th, the day of the fall of Fort Sumter, had the following: "Nothing is more probable than that President Davis will soon march an army through North Carolina and Virginia to Washington. Those of our volunteers who desire to join the Southern army as it shall pass through our borders, had better organize at once for the purpose." This was published nearly a week before the Virginia Convention passed the ordinance of secession, and forty days before the people were to vote on the ordinance. This was also two days before President Lincoln issued his Proclamation (dated April 15th), calling for troops, and before it was known, either North or South, how the intelligence of the taking of Fort Sumter would affect either the Government or the people. Mr. Stephens, the rebel Vice-President, soon afterwards uttered the same sentiment respecting the taking of Washington, in a public speech at Richmond, on his arri val there before the secession of Virginia, and before the ordinance had passed the Convention, when on a mission to conclude a "military league" between that State and the Southern Confederacy.

There is nothing clearer in the early history of the rebellion, than that the primary plan of its leaders was to overthrow the Administration at Washington, to usurp its power and authority, and to install the rebel Government

as its legitimate successor.

This from the first was the

battle-cry of their rulers, their armies, and their people. It is only because they were foiled in their original purpose that they have been content to seek to establish their separate independence.

POPULAR GOVERNMENT UNIVERSALLY ENDANGERED.

9. Another thing settled in the character of this rebellion, is, that its success would have destroyed the hope for popular government throughout the world.

A successful rebellion resulting in the overthrow of any other government on earth would be of little consequence in the great scale of human interests when poised against such a result to the Government of the United States. This is illustrated in the deep anxiety with which the contest has been watched on both sides of the Atlantic and by the people of every nation. The aristocracies of the Old World have aided the rebellion as far as they have deemed it safe, and have earnestly desired our dismemberment and downfall. They have felt that in such an issue their own power would be more secure. From the great heart of "the peoples” alone has there been for us a single genuine throb of sympathy. The only notable exception to this among the rulers in the monarchies of Europe is that of the Russian Empire. Even many of the middle classes of the nations of Western Europe, and among them many of the merchant princes of her marts of commerce, have given their good wishes and their active aid and their stores of gold to the rebellion, making a gain out of our national peril.

But the millions of the real people have desired our success and deserve our grateful remembrance. They feel that their own interests are bound up in our triumph. When, therefore, the nation shall come out of this strife