sense of right and justice? If he intended to act in accordance with the Constitution-if he intended to deal impartially between the North and the South-if he did not design to force upon the country the peculiar policy of the minority by which he was elected, why did he not boldly, and frankly, and manfully enter the capital of the nation? Ah! that beginning, without significance as it may appear in the eyes of some, was painfully suggestive to all who desired the future happiness, prosperity, and freedom of the country.

Such was the advent of Mr. Lincoln into Washingtona city where his illustrious predecessors in office were in the habit of appearieg in public unattended except by admiring friends, but where he the latest (and we hope not the last) President seldom makes his appearance in public except under the protection of an armed guard.

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His inaugural informed the country that he would conduct the affairs of the Government on national principles -that he would not interfere with the peculiar institution of the South. Apprehension," said he, "said he, "seems to exist among the people in the Southern States that, by the accession of a Republican Administration, their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. I do but quote from one of my speeches when I declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."

* * * *

This is pretty plain; there is no misunderstanding its meaning, that is if words have not changed their signification. Mr. Lincoln then said that he had no intention to interfere with the institution of Slavery; but how have his subsequent acts redeemed his promise to the people? Did he give any encouragement to the objects of the Border State Convention? Did not the party by which he was supported and placed in office refuse to agree to any terms of conciliation or compromise with the South? Did they not treat with scorn and contempt the policy of the greatest statesmen of the country who knew and who stated again and again that the Republic could never be held together except governed by the spirit of mutual con

cession and forbearance? Were they not aware that the Constitution itself was a compromise? and were they so blind as not to see that a President elected on the princi ple of geographical distinctions and sectional considerations must pursue a thoroughly constitutional and national course if he would preserve the integrity of the nation? All this was patent to the most superficial observer, and yet with all this knowledge in their possession-with all these self-evident facts before them-they have pursued a course at once subversive of the Constitution under which they have pretended to act, and ruinous to the interests of the great nation which they so falsely claim to represent. It was through their machinations that the objects of the Border State Convention were defeated. They were such firm and fast adherents to abolition principles, that they would not compromise with slavery, although no men knew better than they that the immortal Washington himself was a slaveholder. With a pharisaical assumption of superior moral excellence, they haughtily declined to make any compromise with their Southern fellow-citizens; and in their acts, if not in their words, they scouted the memory. and the truly national policy of the great man who had in his day saved the country through such conciliatory measures. What more did the leaders at the South require than this-than the proof thus afforded-that the party which supported the Administration was inimical to everything that looked to a friendly adjustment of the great questions in controversy? What, let us ask, could the North lose by compromising with the South? Was she asked to give up any of her rights? Was any material injury to be inflicted thereby upon Northern interests? Certainly not. In giving to the South all that section demanded, we should only yield that to which she was justly entitled. What, then, was the great obstacle in the way of compromise? "Principle !" The Northern representatives at the Border State Convention were actuated solely by their adherence to principle! If it were not for the terrible tragedy which has formed the historical sequel to that Convention, this pretension to principle might be laughed at as farcical. But there is blood on their hands, and the dread and horrible picture of tens of thousands

slain upon the gory battle-field, and of the myriads of sad, weeping mourners in Northern and Southern homes, who shall look in vain for the beloved ones that will never more return-all those should haunt their imaginations, if they have heads to think and hearts to feel. They had a glorious and noble opportunity to save their country; but like an inhuman and unnatural parricide who flings his father into the foaming torrent, they made no effort to escue it from destruction.

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The Border State Convention was a mockery, a delusion, and a snare," and the majority of the men who went there from the Northern States did so with the determination to oppose every measure that was calculated to re-establish friendly relations between the two great sections of the country. It might have saved the Republic, but it failed, miserably, ignominiously failed.

What was their next step? The war having commenced with the attack on Fort Sumter-which was nothing more nor less than the culmination of Northern abolitionism and John Brownism-a requisition was a requisition was made upon the country for seventy-five thousand men with which to put down about one third of the population, and to accomplish this in the remarkably brief period of three months. The Government issued a political promissory note payable in ninety days, in the shape of a submissive and repentant South, and one of its cabinet officers indorsed the paper to render it acceptable to the shrewd money-lenders of the country. Unfortunately, however, the promise to pay was not redeemed. The end of the three months beheld the South more defiant and less submissive than at the commencement, and so a further extension of time was required. Three months more were necessary, and the country, again deluded, once more yielded. The six months flew by-the seventy-five thousand men were increased to five hundred thousand, and the Congress which has so fearfully misrepresented the people voted five hundred millions of dollars-for what? The abolition of slavery and the overthrow of State rights. The five hundred thousand men and the five hundred millions of dollars "have gone in the wind." The country is more di vided than ever. The South has assumed the form of

a compact nationality, and the confidence of the loyal people of the North has been so far betrayed and imposed upon by the men who have ruled only to ruin, that they have lost all trust in, and have long since learned to look upon, the authorities at Washington only with contempt and distrust. What followed the immense outpouring of the people into the ranks of the volunteer army? Nothing but defeat and disaster. That grand army was broken up and scattered in detachments along the line of the war; it was defeated at several points; but the greatest disaster of all befell it close by the capital of Virginia, and subsequently in the near vicinity of Washington. The South was a unit in its opposition to the illjudged invasion from the North. Its people had been forced into a unanimity of feeling by the abolition legislation of a sectional Congress. That Congress, with an inhuman disregard to the lives of the brave men who believed they were fighting for the whole country and not for the success of the principles of a party, was engaged meanwhile' in the enactment of laws inimical to the interests of the South, and calculated only to provoke the most embittered feelings of sectional animosity and hatred. It passed a bill for the emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia, although there were not more than two thousand of them in that section. This, we do not hesitate to say, was, considering its result, the most atrocious and the most ruinous legislative act that could have been adopted in the then condition of the country. It revealed the animus of the men who had got into power; it created dismay in the ranks of the conservative men who sincerely loved their country and who had been flattered by the vain hope that Congress would not push its sectional policy to an extreme degree.

But what was the course of the Administration during this period? What return did it make to the loyal North for the immense army and vast sums of money which had been placed at its disposal? What return did it make for all this? Let us enumerate: Freedom of speech and of the Press placed under censorship; the arbitrary arrest and incarceration of loyal citizens; the conversion of forts, which were intended for defense against invasion by

a foreign foe, into bastiles for the imprisonment of freemen; the overthrow of State rights, and the breaking down of State boundaries; the flagrant and unnecessary violation of constitutional guarantees; the fiendish frauds practiced upon men who volunteered for the defense of the Union and the Constitution, but who had been sacrificed to Abolition designs. These are some of the returns which have been made by the Administration to the people for the trust and confidence which was so freely given, but which has been so vilely abused.

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Having failed, even through the aid of a draft which increased our army to eight or nine hundred thousand men, to bring back the South, the President resorted, in the last extremity, to his Emancipation Proclamation, threatening the seceded States with all the horrors of a negro insurrection in the event of their continued obstinacy. It was a desperate expedient, and could have its conception only in the brains or the perverted imagination of an Abolition fanatic.

It declared the slaves of all the States in rebellion free after a hundred days; but his declaration of freedom has had no more effect on them than that mythical "bull against the comet," which, with the jocularity that characterizes even his most serious moments, he compared it with.

But this was not all; for that "bull" which he issued against the South has only returned to gore its owner. It was not enough, however, that he should increase the bitter feeling in the South, he must also insult the loyal North by placing it under martial law, and annulling, thereby, the supreme law of the land. We say that this was not only an insult, but it was worse; it was the subjection of Northern citizens to military authority; it was the overthrow of State rights, and the beginning of a system of consolidation which, if permitted by the people, must inevitably result in the establishment of a permanent military despotism.

We ask any candid reader if, in the foregoing review, we have not presented a truthful statement of the policy of the Administration and its ruinous effects upon the present condition and future prospects of the country. Is it possible, after the sad experience of the past two years,