tions; and ever and anon a woe-begone messenger, such as

Drew Priam's curtain at the dead of night,
And told him half his Troy was buried,'

breaks from the sequestered thicket, with a tantalizing tale of the fierce, sanguinary, but indecisive shock and recoil of embattled hosts. What weeks of heart-rending surprise! But finally, from the saturnalia of death and butchery, long rampant in its sombre and haunted recesses, he of the iron will and inflexible tenacity at length emerges in the resplendent robes of victory, and day after day for persistent months, unmoved by clamor, undismayed by failure, unwearied by resistance, slowly tightens an irresistible coil round the wailing capital of sin, until, faint and gasping, it falls into the arms of a negro brigade. City after city, harbor after harbor, succumb. The coast is hermetically sealed from Norfolk to Galveston, and the magazines and arsenals of England and France no longer pour their strengthening tides into the decaying veins of the worn-out Confederacy. Sheridan rolls up the Confederate right like a scroll, and hangs on its flying flank with the scent of a hound and the snap of a terrier. Lee surrenders his decimated horde; and over the old, endeared, precious inheritance, from the Rappahanock to the Sabine, up flies the banner, down droops the rag."*

A more eloquent description of the events which transpired from the dawn of freedom for an enfranchised race, to the dawn of peace for a redeemed nation, could scarcely be penned. And, all the while that these events were transpiring, President Lincoln was sending up from the White House his fervent prayers, and forth to our

* Hon. H. C. Deming.

brave soldiers his earnest sympathy. All the while the Government was upheld, and unfaltering hearts kept close to the national flag, though it was torn and

gory.

"Is there an element of stress and pressure that could be brought to bear on any Government that was not brought to bear upon ours? Confessedly there was a stress upon it which no other Government could have borne. Upon a people, all whose habits and interests and tastes were those of peace, there was suddenly sprung a war, and not merely that, but a civil war, and one unprecedented in its gigantic proportions. Then at a moment, and under circumstances of the greatest disadvantage, came the call for men; and they went. It came for more and more,-'six hundred thousand more;' and the men were ready. Next, and to a people always charged with loving money over-much, came the call for money; and the money was ready. Taxes came in new forms; but not only were they paid, the people were clamorous for them. Money was poured out like water, and as never before, for bounties, as a loan to the Government, for the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, for the refugees and freedmen. Meantime battles were disastrous; faint-heartedness, and even treason, were not wanting in the North; our English friends pronounced our cause hopeless, and did what they could to make it so; homes were desolated; the wounded and maimed walked our streets, and the sickening wail of exposure and starvation came up from Southern prisons. In the midst of all this came a new and unheard-of trial, — the popular election of a Chief Magistrate by a great nation in time of civil war. How solemn, how grand, how quiet, how decisive, was that day! It was the noblest

triumph of the war,

its turning-point, -the turningpoint in the destiny of our country."*

The presidential election took place on the 8th of November, 1864, and resulted in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln in every loyal State except Kentucky, New Jersey, and Delaware. In some of the States, their soldiers in the field were allowed to vote; and the military vote was almost invariably cast for Lincoln and Johnson. The official returns for the entire vote polled summed up 4,034,789. Of these, Mr. Lincoln received 2,223,035, and McClellan received 1,811,754; leaving a majority of 411,281 on the popular vote. Mr. Lincoln was elected by a plurality in 1860. In 1864, his majority was decided and unmistakable.

At a late hour on the night of the election, the President was serenaded by a club of Pennsylvanians, and he thus responded:

"FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, -Even before I had been informed by you that this compliment was paid me by loyal citizens of Pennsylvania friendly to me, I had inferred that you were of that portion of my countrymen who think that the best interests of the nation are to be subserved by the support of the present Administration. I do not pretend to say that you who think so embrace all the patriotism and loyalty of the country; but I do believe, and, I trust, without personal interest, that the welfare of the country does require that such support and indorsement be given. I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's work, if it be as you assume, and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting advantage, if not to the very salvation, of the country. I can

*Rev. Mark Hopkins, D.D.

not at this hour say what has been the result of the election; but, whatever it may be, I have no desire to modify this opinion,—that all who have labored to-day in behalf of the Union organization have wrought for the best interest of their country and the world, not only for the present, but for all future ages. I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; but, while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one; but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity."

On the 6th of December, 1864, the President sent to Congress his usual annual message. How little any one dreamed that it was his last! It spoke of unchanged views in regard to the slave, and expressed a desire for peace in these decisive words: "In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it."

66

On his way to Washington to fill the chair of the Presi dent, Mr. Lincoln spoke at Steubenville of the fact, that, if a President should adopt a wrong policy, the opportunity to condemn him would occur in four years' time: Then," he added, "I can be turned out, and a better man, with better views, be put in my place." But the people were satisfied. They, the majority, knew of no better man; and so he, whom God had appointed took the chair a second time. The following is his second inaugural address:

"FELLOW-CITIZENS,-At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion

Then a

for an extended address than there was at first. statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and place of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies, of the nation, little that is new could be presented.

"The progress of our arms upon which all else chiefly depends-is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hopes for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war, seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide the effects by negotiation.

"Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish; and the war came.

"One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but located in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.