places its author so far above human approach that human envy cannot reach him, I carry you for one moment to our Foreign Relations. The convulsion here was felt in the most distant places as at the great earthquake of Lisbon, when that capital seemed about to be submerged, there was a commotion of the waters in our Northern Lakes. All Europe was stirred. There, too, was the Slavery Question in another form. England, in an unhappy moment, under an ill-considered plea of “necessity" which Milton tells us was the plea by which the fiend "excused a devilish deed"-accorded to rebel Slavery the rights of belligerency on the ocean, and then proceeded to open her ports, to surrender her workshops and to let loose her merchant ships in aid of this wickedness;-forgetting all the relations of alliance and amity with the United States-forgetting all the logic of English history-forgetting all the distinctions of right and wrong and forgetting also that a new Power founded on Slavery was a moral monster with which a just nation could have nothing to do. To appreciate the character of this concession, we must appreciate clearly the whole vast unprecedented crime of the Rebellion, taking its complexion from Slavery. Undoubtedly it was criminal to assail the Unity of this Republic, and thus destroy its peace and impair its example in the world; but the attempt to build a new Power on Slavery as a corner-stone, and with no other declared object of separate existence, was more than criminal, or rather it was a crime of that untold, unspeakable guilt, which no language can depict and which no judgment can be too swift to condemn. The associates in this terrible apostasy might rebuke each other in the words of an old dramatist : Thou must do, then, What no malevolent star will dare to look on, That have outgone all precedents of villains [Massinger. Duke of Milan. Act I. To recognize such a Power; - to enter into semialliance with it; - to invest it with rights; -to open ports to it; to surrender workshops to it; -to build ships for it;-all this, or any part of this, is positive and plain complicity with the original guilt, and must be judged as we judge any other complicity with Slavery. England led in the concession of belligerent rights to rebel Slavery. No event of the war has been comparable to this concession in encouragement to this transcendant crime or in prejudice to the United States. It was out of English ports and English workshops that rebel Slavery drew its supplies. It was in English ship yards that the cruisers of rebel Slavery were built and equipped. It was England that gave to rebel Slavery belligerent power on the ocean. The early legend was verified in our day. King Arthur was without a sword, when suddenly one appear ed, thrust out from a lake. "Lo!" said Merlin, the enchanter, "yonder is a sword; it belongeth to the Lady of the Lake; if she will, thou mayest take it; but if she will not, it will not be in thy power to take it." And the Lady of the Lake yielded the sword, so says the legend -even as England has since yielded the sword to rebel Slavery. The President saw the painful consequences of this concession, and especially that it was a first step towards the acknowledgment of rebel Slavery as an Independent Power. Clearly, if it were proper for a Foreign Power to acknowledge Belligerency, it might, at a later stage, be proper to acknowledge Independence; and any objection vital to Independence, would, if applicable, be equally vital to Belligerency. Solemn resolutions, by Congress, on this subject were communicated to Foreign Powers; but the unanswerable argument against any possible recognition of a new Power founded on Slavery was stated by the President, in a paper which I now hold in my hand, and which has never before seen the light. It is a copy of a resolution drawn by himself, which he gave to me, in his own autograph, for transmission to one of our valued friends abroad, as an expression of his opinion on the great question involved, and a guide to public duty. It is in these words: “Whereas, while heretofore States and Nations have tolerated Slavery, recently, for the first [time] in the world, an attempt has been made to construct a new nation upon the basis of Human Slavery, and with the primary and fundamental object to maintain, enlarge, and perpetuate the same, therefore "Resolved, that no such embryo State should ever be recognized by, or admitted into, the family of Christian and civilized nations; and that all Christian and civilized men everywhere should, by all lawful means, resist to the utmost such recognition or admission." You will see how directly any recognition of rebel Slavery as an Independent Power is assailed, and how "all Christian and civilized men everywhere" are summoned "to resist to the utmost such recognition." Of course, had such a benign spirit entered into the counsels of England when Slavery first took up arms against the Republic, this great historic nation would have shrunk at every hazard from that fatal concession of belligerent rights, which was in itself a plain contribution to its early strength, and opened the way to infinite contributions, without which the criminal pretender must have speedily succumbed. But Divine Providence willed it otherwise. Perhaps it was necessary to the recognition of its boundless capacities, that the Republic should stand forth alone, in sublime solitude, warring for Liberty and Equality, and thus become an example to mankind. Meanwhile the war continued with the proverbial vicissitudes of this arbitrament. Battles were fought and lost. Other battles were fought and won. Rebel Slavery stood face to face in deadly conflict with the Declaration of Independence, when the President, with unconscious power, dealt it another blow, second only to the Proclamation of Emancipation. This was at the blood-soaked field of Gettysburg, where a year before the armies of the Republic had encountered the armies of Slavery, and, after a conflict of three days, had driven them back with destructive slaughter-as at that de cisive battle of Tours, on which hung the destinies of Christianity in Western Europe, the invading Mahomedans, after a conflict of three days, were driven back by Charles Martel. No battle of the present war was more important. Few battles in history can compare with it. A year later, on the anniversary of this day, there was another meeting on that same field. It was of grateful fellow-citizens, gathered from all parts of the Union to dedicate it to the memory of those who had fallen there. Among these were eminent men from our own country and from foreign lands. There too was your classic orator, whose finished address was a model of literary excellence. The President spoke very briefly; but his few words will live as long as time. Since Simonides wrote the epitaph for those who died at Thermopylae, nothing equal to them has ever been breathed over the fallen dead. Thus he began: "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. The truth which he had so often vindicated and for which he was willing to die, is thus heralded, and the country is again called to carry it forward, that our duty may not be left undone. It is for us the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last measure |