November next to administer the Government shall have We know of no other stand in our unfailing support. Christian honesty to take. So it would have been in the past. Had Jefferson Davis, who was sought to be put in nomination at Charleston, been elected President of the United States in 1860, he would have been our President, and we should have given his administration that support always demanded as a Christian duty. It is believed by some,-indeed, we have heard it said by those whose opportunities are good for gaining information, beyond what appears in the papers, about secret organizations against the Government,-that in case Mr. Lincoln should be re-elected, his administration would not be tolerated, and that he would be assassinated. That there are men base enough for this is of course true. That there are secret organizations for this purpose may be also true. That there are men, all through the loyal States, ready for any thing which will destroy the Government and give triumph to the rebellion, is beyond doubt true. But we have not lost faith in the loyalty of the people at large. Desperadoes, in a time of revolution, are ready for any thing. But we do not believe that partisanship has so corrupted the masses of the people who are for sustaining the Government and putting down the rebellion, that they would for a moment countenance a revolution against any Administration which the people, should constitutionally put in power. If Mr. Linco'n is reelected, it will be hailed with joy by his friends, and be quietly submitted to by his foes. If any other candidate is elected, the same result, vice versa, will be seen. Politicians may gnash their teeth, on one side or the other, as the issue shall be determined, and desperadoes, whether within or without the Golden Circle, may organize, and arm, and bluster; but THE PEOPLE have too much at THE PATRIOT'S REWARD. 559 stake to inaugurate or support a revolution, whoever may attempt to lead it, against any Administration constitutionally elected. Their experience with the rebellion now on their hands, convinces them that one thing of this very sort is enough at a time. GOD REIGNS-OUR TRUST. We have said we have not lost confidence in the people. Much less have we lost faith in God. That He presides over the destinies of this nation we know from His word, for He presides over all. And though His word does not reveal the path opened for us in the future, His providence, as we have attempted to show elsewhere, is shaping events, as we believe, through our eventual purification, for a more glorious career for this people. We may yet have to pass through a fiercer furnace than that now glowing. If so, it will be just. We eminently deserve it. But whatever is in store for us, whether greater trials or speedy deliverance, and by whatever means, we know that all events, are in His hand, and that He will do His pleasure. He works through all policies, all men, all events, and reaches His ends infallibly and gloriously. THE PATRIOT'S REWARD. The national contest in which we are engaged, places a stamp upon men and things which time can never efface. Those who are sustaining the Government, the truly loyal, will have their names and their deeds transmitted to posterity with honor. They will go down to coming generations in a grander halo of glory than that which encircles the memory of the patriots of the Revolutionary Era; for, if successful, the good which will be vouchsafed to the nation in its salvation from anarchy, and in the triumph of freedom, will far eclipse that which was secured by its birth and independence. If they fail, their reward in the esteem of the wise and the good will be none the less, for success is not the criterion of merit; and it will still be true, that they battled for right, for law, for order, for freedom, for humanity, against treason and rebellion opposing good government, and forging stronger fetters to body and soul for millions in human form. But they cannot fail. God is in the strong arm will give them the victory. contest, and His All who share in the conflict will share in the reward which a grateful people will bestow upon them. As we have been accustomed to venerate the names of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, and on every anniversary of our nation's birth to honor the surviving representatives of the Revolutionary army, so it will be in the days to come concerning the present war. The men who have led our armies to battle, and the soldier who has stood in the ranks, will alike be honored for acts of greater prowess, for sacrifices in a greater cause, and for securing results of far higher interest to the nation and to mankind. The noble and the brave who have fallen will be honored. Their deeds of valor will be rehearsed by their comrades; they will be cherished in the family circle made desolate by their untimely death; their example will be transmitted as worthy of imitation; every village churchyard, every city cemetery, and the burial places in every rural neighborhood, will exhibit mausoleums of enduring marble, on which their names and their battles shall be inscribed, before which the stranger will pause in mute admiration, and upon which devoted affection will hang garlands of unfading laurel. But the most enduring monument to their patriotism will be erected in the hearts of their countrymen. From the highest commander who has fallen, to the private, each will be held in grateful and THE TRAITOR'S DOOM. affectionate remembrance. 561 Each succeeding generation will embalm their memory, and time will waft its fragrance until time shall be no more! THE TRAITOR'S DOOM. The patriot's reward has its counterpart in the traitor's doom. There are chapters in the history of this contest of loyalty and treason among the darkest in the annals of the human race. If we had an enemy on earth, we could wish for him no sorer punishment than that which is in store in the righteous judgment of posterity for all those who have plotted, instigated, aided, abetted, or in any way, at the South or in the North, helped on this godless and heaven-defying rebellion. Of the two classes,-those at the South who have openly aided and fought for it, and those in the loyal States who have secretly or openly aided it while enjoying the protection of the Government, the latter are infinitely more abhorred, both on earth and in heaven. Posterity will accord with this judgment, now universally entertained among the loyal. Every dictate of human reason and every principle of religion declares it. "The memory of the wicked shall rot," is a saying of Holy Writ. This may prove true of the "wicked" in this rebellion. The Scripture does not state when the process shall begin or when the work shall be finished. We trust the period in this case will be distant. Valuable purposes to this nation and to mankind will be served by holding their "memory" up to the gaze of men. We wish our children and our children's children to know when, how, for what, and by whom, this rebellion. was begun and prosecuted. We wish them to know, from the words of the rebels themselves, that it was begun with no sufficient reason, that it was to overthrow lawful authority, that it was to extend and perpetuate human bondage. We wish them to know the agency of the Church in this work, the zeal of the ministers of religion, and the organic indorsement of ecclesiastical bodies. We wish them to know the truth, and the whole truth, that they may understand the awful guilt of men, and watch more narrowly the interests which God has consigned to their faithful keeping. Future Bancrofts and Prescotts will write the elaborate histories of the rebellion; and we hope some Peter Parley will tell its simple tale in the pages which will be read in every school-house and rehearsed at every fireside. Let its story thus go abroad over the wide earth and among all people, until the sun shall no more rise upon a master nor set upon a slave; let it go down through all the generations of men to the end of time; and then, LET THE MEMORY OF THE WICKED ROT! THE END. |