bellion, under the guise of Secession, sought to sever the bond, to cut the thread of the national life. We grasped the sword to vindicate the Constitution, to save the national unity. Never was the sword drawn in a holier cause. Never was a war more just or more strictly defensive. It was not only the sacred right and duty of government to wage it, but the necessity of its being. That right, in its length and its breadth, is the right to enforce the laws. Within the pale of the Constitution, States and people may be held to obedience. Outside of that pale, the whole struggle is revolutionary. I put the plain question to every honest conscience, How can I, by force of arms, by fire, and the sword, compel obedience to a law I do not respect myself? How can I vindicate the law with the sword in my right hand, and break it with the hammer in my left? No subtlety of logic, no refinement of casuistry, can evade or conceal the answer. The right of revolution remains intact; but this Government has never pretended that it was waging a war of revolution. Its claim, thus far, has been to wage a war under the Constitution for the Constitution. This plain view of the struggle I have taken from the beginning. The progress of events has served to deepen my conviction of its soundness. I never doubted that the Constitution clothed the Government with all powers necessary to the efficient prosecution of the war. I never doubted that fidelity to that Constitution was our safety and strength, and that every way that diverged from it was the way to death.

The common mode of argument is to assume that a certain policy is necessary, and then to infer that it is

within the Constitution. Take, for example, the policy of confiscating the property of non-combatants, outside of the conflict of arms, and without conviction of the owner. The measure is, in my judgment, in direct conflict with the Constitution; but it is also in conflict with the law of nations, and with every principle of justice and humanity. The judgment and conscience of every Christian nation condemn it. Such a law is not a source of strength, but of weakness. With all deference to the judgment of others, I feel it my duty to say, that the unconstitutional measures passed or proposed by the Radical party in Congress have done as much to protract the war as all the treasure that has been spent, and all the blood that has been shed, have done to end it. They shook the public faith and confidence. Men cannot be taught to understand, that, in enforcing the law, it is necessary to break it; or, in upholding the Constitution, it is necessary to violate it. These measures weakened our cause in the Border States, which every practical man has seen, from the beginning, to be the battle-ground of this contest; retaining which, our ultimate triumph was almost certain; losing which, there was no solid ground of hope for the Union. The policy, moreover, cost us the few friends we had in the rebel States. It kindled into greater intensity the hatred of the foe, and nerved him to a yet more desperate and bitter struggle. It divided the public sentiment of the North, and wounded the Government in the house of its friends. My policy in this struggle is the vigorous prosecution of the war, with careful adherence to the Constitution, and the maxims of moderation and humanity with which civilization and

Christianity have tempered the ancient iron rules of war. Whenever decisive victories are achieved, I would issue a general proclamation of amnesty and pardon, excepting only a few of the leaders most deeply steeped in guilt. Under all circumstances, I would cling to the Constitution, as the bond of unity in the past, as the only practical bond of Union in the future; the only land lifted above the waters on which the ark of Union can be moored. From that ark alone will go out the Dove blessed of the Spirit, which shall return bringing in its mouth the olive branch of peace.

The policy of the Abolitionists is expressed in the phrase, the Union as it should be, or the Union without slavery. No policy could be more attractive. But let us probe the words, and get at the depth of their meaning. An Union without slavery implies not merely that the slaves in rebel States shall be emancipated, and in the Border loyal States; but that the States shall be deprived of the power of upholding slavery, now or in the future. The emancipation of slaves now in the rebel States would be but one step in the process. To abolish slavery by the power of the National Government involves a fundamental change in the Constitution of the United States, by force of which "the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions, according to its own judgment," is taken away; a right which the Republican party has declared "was essential to that balance of powers on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends." This power of the State to regulate its internal police and domestic institutions is a vital, essential feature of our civil polity.

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If it may be taken from the States to abolish slavery, it may be taken from them for any purpose. tion of power, and not merely of its use. involved is a change in the whole structure ernment. The States and the union of States are gone. The result is, one State, one vast central power, a republic in name only. This fundamental change in our system of Government is to be wrought by the power of the sword, without action of States or people. This is the inauguration of a war of revolution wholly outside of the Constitution; a war, practically, for the entire subjugation and permanent conquest of fifteen States: for an attempt to destroy slavery by a revolution will unite the entire South against it. These fifteen States must be reduced to military colonies, and held in subjection by vast standing armies and by vast navies. If the thing were practicable, it would be at the cost of national exhaustion and the loss of our own freedom. You cannot maintain your conquest over fifteen subject States, covering so vast a territory, except by a military despotism. But the thing is impracticable. Every dollar spent for such a conquest would be wasted; every drop of blood shed for it would be spilt on the ground. The talk of a war of utter extermination is mere passion, which reason and conscience alike condemn. The only war the people desire is a war of restoration. If we go beyond this, we embark on a sea of strife and blood, without chart or compass; a war of vengeance and hate, of carnage and desolation, physical and moral, compared with which, all we have seen in the war thus far are ministrations of mercy.

Let me not be misunderstood. It is my firm conviction, that, in the prosecution of this war, the power of slavery will be broken; if the war shall be prolonged, utterly broken. Practically, the question of emancipation is one of possessio pedis. The Union army will not leave slavery behind it. Emancipation will not precede, but follow in its footsteps.

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Ponder on these things, fellow-citizens. Stand by the Constitution; stand by the Union; stand by their glorious emblem, the banner of our love and pride. Give yourselves freely to the service of your country. thought of her is in every heart, and on every lip; breaks into prayer, melts into tears, kindles into flame; the last thought at night, the first thought of morning: our country, perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but not destroyed; wrestling with adversity, as Jacob with the angel, to wring from it its blessing; veiled and eclipsed as the sun, to come forth again with life and light and healing in its beams. Fellow-citizens, at an hour of such extreme peril as this, principles are every thing; parties and individuals, nothing. I have not taken, for many years, an active part in politics. My judicial position forbade it. I have had no direction of the "People's" movement; but I believe it had its origin in dissatisfaction with the existing condition of public affairs, in a natural and wise dread of any attempt to change the objects and purposes of the war, and in distrust of political cliques who have used the party in power for their own ends, and not for the country's. I cordially approve of the spirit and general objects of this movement. I know well, and respect and honor, gentle