devise a way for the solution of this complicated problem? Our Constitution, confessedly, gave the National Government no authority to abolish, or modify, or touch the social institutions of the states. If President Lincoln, on his inauguration, had even hinted at the possibility of his interference with slavery; much more, if he had inaugurated a war to abolish it in the Southern States, not only the South but the North, with the exception of a few individuals, would have confronted his administration in a mass. If the wheels of time could be rolled backward, and President Lincoln could commence his administration again, he could not, in the circumstances, do it in a wiser and more perfect manner. Human wisdom could not launch an administration into the midst of so many breakers, with more consummate pilotry than he did. Slavery had a kind of charmed existence. The nation could not touch it-the States would not. God only could, and He did. See how he makes the wrath and the mad ambition of men to praise Him! All those guarantees of slavery in our national constitution, and national legislation, were conditioned, of course, on the obedience of those States to that constitution and to those laws. In fact, all the protection which government gives to the rights of any man, or body of men, is given with this just limitation implied, that they shall remain in loyal subjection to the government. And if the South had still abode peacefully under the shelter of the Constitution and the laws, they would have had their desire, so far as to be let alone; and slavery in the States would have been let alone by the national government, as it had been sacredly up to that time.

See God, then, in His far reaching wisdom, allowing the slaveholders themselves to annul the only condition on which the nation was bound to let slavery alone! They take their own institution out from its peaceful and secure shelter under the Constitution and the laws, to guard and preserve it behind a rampart of bristling bayonets. But further, God allows these infatuated men to enter upon an offensive war-against their government and ours, against our property and our lives. They voluntarily submit their whole temporal destiny to the

arbitrament of war; and in doing this they submit of course to the laws and usages of civilized war-they incur the risks of a confiscation of their "property," and especially such as is contraband of war. The President of the United States, furthermore, by the very Constitution itself, as the leader of our armies, is empowered to strike at everything that subverts the national authority and endangers the nation's life. And he did it. He would have been himself among the chief traitors if he had not done it. This is what God has done by human instrumentality. This is His solution of a difficulty insolvable to all human wisdom.

Take, now, another view of the wonderful things which God has wrought. The people of the loyal States were nearly equally divided into two great and distinctly defined parties. This our enemies took into account in their secret conspiracies. "What can the free States do toward the salvation of the Union, with half of their population in sympathy with us and our institutions? The North can never wage war against us, without a war among themselves. Massachusetts will never be allowed to transport her troops through the intervening territory to the seat of government." And, verily, how could we put down a rebellion, if our hands were thus tied at home? And where is the wisdom that is to extricate us from the embarrassment? "Go to, now,"-we hear a voice saying in the air above us-" I will go down and make, out of those contending parties, one people to fight manfully for a good government. I will allow those conspirators of the South to begin their onset in a way so revolting to all sense of justice, as to shock these two parties into one vigorous and manly people. I will baptize them with a patriotic fire and fervor that shall fuse them into one."

Our enemies prepared for war while we were thinking only of peace. We wanted no war. We were unused to war. They labored day and night; and while we were asleep, were already in arms against an unsuspecting government. We had a little garrison of seventy men in one of our forts, that needed reinforcement. We sent an unarmed vessel to their aid. Some parricidal and traitorous hand then first lit the torch of

war, and fired upon the peaceful steamer, and she turned quietly about and left the garrison in danger and destitution. And now the war has opened. Hostile guns, all skillfully trained to concentrate their fire upon the doomed fortress, belch out fire and smoke, and death-dealing missiles thick and fast. Brave Carolinians! What majestic thunder rolls over the bay! For once, South Carolina has her will and way! Yes, it was God that allowed her to have her way; and that way was so shockingly abhorrent to the multitudes in the free states who would otherwise have stood firm in defense of her interests, that as the thunder of her pride died away, and the smoke lifted from Charleston harbor, her political allies in the free states were shocked into men and free-men, ready to do battle against all enemies, in favor of the old and dishonored flag. Here was the hand of God! One electric peal of divine and startling thunder unified a divided people, and transformed them into men and soldiers.

But let us turn back to the time just prior to Mr. Lincoln's election. Look over the South. Take the wings of an angel and pass over that sunny land. Look down upon four millions of a swarthy race at work under the fear of absolute power. They have toiled, and cried, and groaned, and prayed, many of them, for deliverance; and in all submission they have waited for the Lord. One generation cometh, and they toil on to the end and pray, saying, How long, O Lord, how long! They pass away, not having received the promises; and another, more numerous than they, arises, and they, in turn, toil on, and weep, and wait, and hope, and they take up the sad refrain, How long, O Lord, how long! On the side of their oppressors is power; all the power of society around them is against them. We wish not to overdraw the picture, nor do any injustice to kind and merciful masters. These slaves are not all conscious of oppression. But many a father and mother among them would be glad to live and die with each other and with their children, and labor for themselves alone; but they must come and go, and never return, perhaps, at the bidding of absolute power. They would willingly accept the deliverance they pray for, but whence is it to arise?

In the fastnesses of the mountains, in the thickets of the swamps, in the friendly darkness of the night-robbing their weary and toil-worn sinews of needed repose-they meet to pray to a Master who is above all. Many of them, with a keen sense of injustice and wrong, lay their complaints before a just God, and wait, and groan, and cry, How long, O Lord, how long! Is there no God? Or is He, too, on the side of the oppressors? The sorrows of death compassed them, the floods of ungodly men made them afraid. They cried unto the Lord in their distress, and their cry at length came into his ears! Then the earth trembled and shook; the foundations, also, of the hills moved and were shaken because of his wrath. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured. He bowed the heavens, also, and came down. He rode upon a cherub and did fly. The Lord, also, thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice. Yea, he sent out his arrows against their oppressors and scattered them. He shot out lightnings and discomfited them. Their lands are laid waste, their houses are empty and desolate. Their masters are, many of them, fugitives from their own slaves. Their land is filled with blood and smoke, their industry is paralyzed, and their social system itself utterly destroyed.

And what is the meaning of all this? Ask the oppressed. its meaning, and they will tell you, almost with one voice,This is the work of God! We have waited for Him and He has come to us. This is the justice of God, coming down in its majesty to avenge the wrongs which men either could not or would not avenge. But not on the South alone has God poured out his indignation. In almost every village throughout the land has been heard the voice of lamentation and woe over the slain in battle. The nation has provoked His wrath, and the nation has suffered and mourned. Yes, this is the work of God.

Let us turn to another scene in the great drama of this rebellion, and see if we cannot recognize another instance of a divine intervention in our affairs. Here, before our vision, are two great European nations-the leading nations of

the earth-looking on with deep interest at the progress of our civil war. They inwardly rejoice (outwardly, too!) over our adversities. They have long been jealous of our growth and of our power. They hate and fear all the principles and peculiarities of our republican government. For many years they have predicted our overthrow, and upon the first outbreak of the rebellion they are ready to attend our funeral obsequies and write our epitaph. We could live and flourish in peace, while commerce flourishes, but we never could do much in a war; or, if we could battle with a foreign nation, the first outbreak of a rebellion was sure to prove our ruin. The fabric of our government was loose and disjointed. Its very nature necessitated its overthrow. And now, as they imagine, our time has come. Their hostility to our government, and desire for its termination, are brought out with fearful distinctness, in the day of our calamity. Next to the destruction of our republican government, they would have rejoiced most at the disruption and division of the Union. Besides, the public sentiment of England and France, in favor of the rebellious portion of our people, had been carefully preëngaged and secured by Southern emissaries, prior to the outbreak of the rebellion. The representatives of the Confederacy were received everywhere in those countries with demonstrations of pleasure, and the professed neutrality of those nations was, in reality, a studied coldness toward the government of the United States. Every monarchy of Europe would have stood the stronger for the triumph of the Confederates, and the division of the Republic. In addition to this, the military power and heroism of the Confederates were enough, and more than enough, to justify their adoption into the family of nations. Why, then, is it that this Southern power, which really performed wonders of heroism in the way of fighting, and of endurance during four years of warfare sustained on the most lavish and gigantic scale, with so many powerful motives at work in England and France to secure their recog nition, were not recognized as a nation? This, too, is plainly the work of God. It is an evidence of his power, and of his mercy toward our nation. He will not allow a power which in