destroyed. Probably also the hopelessness of their cause and the obvious benefits of the Union, may bring back to it the reluctant oligarchy. But slavery will remain, unless destroyed by the war, and with it the spirit of caste and sectional interests. Is union possible with a people thus alienated and hostile? If with sullen reluctance they yield to necessity and return, will they not for many years be dangerous in peace, and more dangerous in war? Would they not bring back with them all the old feuds and hates, would they not sympathize with an enemy and welcome a foreign invader? Can we conquer them and hold them in subjection by military force? Would that be justice, would it be a real Union, would it not alter the character of our Government, and end in the overthrow of republican institutions? But shall we let them erect an independent nation in the South, and thus rob us of our Southern territory, with its coasts and ports and cotton and the Mississippi, and establish on our border an unfriendly power, ready at any moment to become formidable by European alliances? And what shall we do with slavery? Can we retain and protect it, in the Union, as before? Would it not again become a source of discord, an element of party power, and cause new rebellions and wars? Will it not do this either in or out of the Union? Should the present contest end in separation, where can the line be drawn? If slavery be included in the Northern section, then slavery would always be an element of danger, for it would always be really the ally, as it now is in the Border States, of our Southern enemies. If the line be drawn north of slavery, then the Southern Confederacy would become a formidable rival to the Northern. Is it possible immediately to abolish slavery consistently with justice and humanity, or at all? Is it possible to retain it, and at the same time satisfy Southern demands and Northern opinion? These and other problems the swift hours are bringing to test our prudence and firmness and wisdom. They are more difficult to dispose of than the war. They imply another question graver than any,-has the power to cope with such difficulties been provided in the Constitution? Can they be

dealt with by universal suffrage, nominating conventions and quadrennial Presidents? These have guided us into our troubles; will they guide us out of them?

It cannot be denied that the future is clouded by doubt. We have been for many years sowing the wind, and are now reaping the whirlwind. Not with impunity does a people hasten to be rich, and foolishly, Midas-like, pray that everything it touches may be turned into gold. On truth, justice and knowledge, not on cotton, corn and negroes, must the greatness and glory of a nation be founded. Spiritual causes work in silence and in secret, until at length they reveal themselves in startling and inexorable facts. "The feet of the avenging deities are shod with wool." We have filled our barns with plenty, and said, "Let us take our ease, eat, drink, and be merry;" when suddenly, a voice from heaven has cried, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be demanded of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ?" Whose indeed! Shall they belong to a nation once known as the United States, or be partitioned among several nations, or shall they become the prey of a foreign spoiler ? "The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind to powder."

The punishment, as yet, has chiefly fallen where it was most merited, on the arrogant, overbearing, selfish, sordid and sectional South, slave-trading, slave-breeding, and worshippers of slavery and cotton. But many a Northern home has been clouded by grief, and a heavy load of taxation and debt has been imposed on the Northern people. As a compensation, however, their intelligence and force of character have been developed, their finest emotions have been touched, and they have shown that amid their busy industry, the divine fire of feeling and enthusiasm has not been extinguished in their hearts. The Northern people now know themselves better than they ever did before, their capacity, their strength and courage. They know that they can trust each other. They

know that they have a nation to preserve, and they are determined to preserve it if they can.

It will not be an easy task, and he is a bold man that ventures to predict that it will be accomplished. Our courage is screwed to the sticking-point, yet we may fail, and fail too in spite of victories on fields of battle. It needs no prophetic inspiration, however, to feel sure that this Northern people will, in the Union or out of it, continue to advance in wealth and power, in science and the arts of peace and war; that they will till, cultivate and adorn the vast and fertile regions they possess, and cover them with the works of aspiring civilization; that they will continue to be a free people, and under all changes of form, preserve the scope, the spirit and the action. of Republican Government. They cannot do otherwise. These things are the outgrowths of their race, run in their blood, beat in their hearts, and form the texture of their thoughts. Our Constitution did not give us liberty, but the spirit of liberty, the Constitution. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of worship, security of person and property are in it, and as defences of these, trial by jury, the writ of Habeas Corpus and representative Government. These were put into the Constitution, because they were already in the minds and hearts of those who made it. They have remained in the Constitution, because they have been cherished in the minds and hearts of those who have lived under it. Abolish the Constitution to-morrow and these principles would create another like it, if they remained in the thoughts of the people. Change the sentiments and character of the people, convert them into French Celts or Irish Celts or Russians or Sclavonians, and the Constitution would become a dead letter, without force or meaning. Forms are useful only as manifestations and instruments of the informing spirit. When that spirit dies, forms become the rubbish of the past. Among a progressive people, old ideas like old men, are always passing away, and new ideas rising with new generations. Thus all things change, but always we have both the old and the new, sober age clinging

to the past and restraining rash youth, too eagerly rushing on the future. So should it be in Government. New forms are not easily invented, even when necessary, to serve a growing and advancing people. We should therefore retain the old that have been tested by experience, as long as we can, modify them with caution to suit new conditions, and in interests so momentous as those that depend on the organic laws of Government, "Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good."

APPENDIX.

Note to Page 284.

THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION OF SEPTEMBER 22, 1862.

THE Proclamation issued by the President, September 22d, 1862, is the most memorable, and may prove the most important event of the war. It draws a clear line between the past and the present, and marks the progress of opinion. When the war began, slaves escaping to our lines were returned to their masters. Afterwards, with hesitation, they were received and employed as laborers, but our Generals who proposed to invite them to escape, or to arm them as soldiers in our cause, were disavowed and rebuked. This forbearance, however, produced no effect on the Southern people. Their vindictive hatred increased, and the rebellion waxed in strength. With it grew the determination of the North. At last, slowly, very slowly, men began to say: Slavery was the cause of the war; why should we protect slavery? It gives strength to the rebels, who are endeavoring to destroy our country, who have filled our homes with mourning, and imposed on us a heavy burden of debt and losses; who have not hesitated to lay their hands on any Northern property they could find, to inflict on us every injury in their power. What is there in slavery so sacred or so beautiful, that it should be exempt from the laws or the fortunes of war? Slavery is protected by the Constitution indeed, but men who have cast off the Constitution, who defy it, who seek its overthrow, cannot surely claim its protection. The Southern people have attacked our Government. We are waging against

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