'2G4-p ^^§^m^^ %a. OUR COUNTRY. A NATIONAL BOOK. "Our Country! — 'tis a glorious land! With broad arms stretched from shore to shore, The proud Paciiio chafes her strand, She hears the dark Atlantic roar." OUR COUNTRY, IN ITS RELATIONS TO THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. A NATIONAL BOOK, CONSISTING OF ORIGINAL ABTIOLES IN PROSE AND VERSE. CONTRIBUTED BY AMERICAN WRITERS, EDITED BY MRS. LINCOLN PHELPS, UNDER THE SANCTION OP THE STATE FAIK ASSOCIATION OF THE WOMEN OF MARYLAND, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE U. S, CHRISTIAN AND SANITARY COMMISSIONS. BALTIMORE: PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY. 1864. Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1864, By Almira Lincoln Phelps, In the Clerk's Office, of the District Court of Maryland. PREFACE. This volume goes forth freighted with the loyal senti ments of many good and gifted Authors, who have freely given their offerings for "Our Country;" a talisman' which, while it touches the heart, inspires the genius. The Editor has not sought for assistance among men in office, active politicians, or the leaders of cliques or parties. The opinions of such might have less weight than of those who regarding the great national questions from the quiet shades of retirement, or under circum stances which leave the judgment unbiased and the principles uninfluenced, may be supposed better qualified to act as judges. True patriotism demands the re nouncing of self-interest, of tastes, habits and opinions; it leads to a higher and purer atmosphere, where truth, which the mere politician often sees with disordered vision, appears in its proper lineaments and proraj^ions. It has been the object of the Editor to consolidate in the "National Book," a body of thought and senti ment which permeating the floating mass of crude or vill PREFACE. erroneous political principles pervading society, might induce the wavering or the indifferent to renew their fidelity to their Country, and soften that asperity of feeling which would condemn every attempt to win back our erring brethren of the South to their allegiance — at the same time yielding nothing of the stern requisitions of law and government, such as the Fathers of the Country enjoined us to maintain. Every article from a living writer which appears in this volume has been presented by its Author, and, in almost every instance, prepared expressly for this Book. The Editor would return grateful thanks to the many distinguished writers and kind friends, who have aided and encouraged her in the arduous enterprise, which, by their help and God's blessing, is, after much anxiety brought to a successful termination in the finishing of this volume, now ready to go forth on its mission of love, duty and patriotism. Eutaw- Place, Baltimore, Md., March 28tli, ISM. DEDICATION. To the Mothers, Wives and Sisters of the Loyal States, whose Sons, Husbands, and Brothers are periling their lives in the cause of the Country, in the Armies and Navies of the United States, with the prayer that the objects of their affection may, in God's good time, be restored to them, crowned with triumph, and rewarded with the blessings of their grateful fellow-citizens, this volume is affectionately Dedicated by the women of Maryland, through their State Fair organization. CONTENTS. Introduction, xiii Restoration of the Union. Hon. Edward Everett, Massachuselis, 13 Song of the Southern Loyalists. J. H. Alexander, LL.D., Maryland, 44 The Rebellion. Rt. Rev. T. M. Clark, Bishop qf Rhode Island, 45 Stars of Mt Country's Sky.. Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, Connecticut, 52 Our March to Gettysburg. Col. James Wallace, late of Isi Reg. E. S. Vols., Maryland, 54 The Flag. Rev. Thomas Sill, D.J)., Pres. Harv. Vh., Massachusetts, 70 Consequences of the Disooteby of America. Rev. John Lord, Connecticut, 72 The American Ensign. Rev. A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D., New Tork, 87 The Naval Academy in Secession Times. Allan D . Brown, U. S. If., Vermont, 90 National Hymn Mrs. Emma Willard, New Tork, 99 To What Purpose is this Waste? Rei). Prof. A. P. Peabody, D. D., Harv. Un,, Massachusetts, 101 X CONTENTS. PAGK. The Three Eras of the United States. J. H, Alexander, LL,D., Maryland, 109 An Episode op the Florida War. Maj. Braniz Mayer, U. S. A., Maryland, 110 The Mississippi Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, Pennsylvania, 133 The Women op Seventy-Six ....Mrs. E. F. Ellet, New York, 140 Sonnet — A ntietam . Rev. A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D., New York, 148 Drum-Head Notes from Camp and Field. Col. Charles E. Phelps, 1th Reg. Vols., Maryland, 149 The Blue Coat op the Soldier. Rt. Rev. George Burgess, Bishop of Maine, 182 On the Name America Mrs, Emma Willard, New York, 186 A Tale of East Tennessee. Mrs. Anna H. Dorsey, Washington, D. C, 192 What Ode Country Wants. Ex- Gov. E. Washburn, LL.D. Law Prof. Harv. Un. Mass. 206 A Voice Mrs. Sophia May Eckley, Massachusetts, 212 Baltimore Long Ago Hon. John P. Kennedy, Maryland, 214 Flower and Leap Interpreted. Lieut. E. Thornton Fisher, 139M Reg. Vols., New York, 243 True Bond of Union. Charles Eliot Norton, Ei. N. Am. Rev., Massachusetts, 246 "Thy Will Be Done." Mrs. Celia M. Burr, Ohio, 251 Women of the Times. ...Afrs. C. B. W. Flanders, New York, 253 The Opportunity; or the Apotheosis of Pan. Rev. Thomas Hill, D.D. Pres. Harv, Un. Massachuselis, 261 The Four Relics Thomas E. Van Bebber, Esq. Maryland, 263 CONTENTS. XI FAQB. A Battle Eve Mrs. E. J, Ellicott, Maryland, 292 Reminiscences of the Hancocks. Miss Martha A. Quincy, Massachusetts, 295 The Spirit of Maryland m 1794. An unpublished poem of the late Chancellor Kilty, Maryland, 316 Field Lilies Mrs. C. A. Hopkinson, Massachusetts, 319 Needed Reform Mrs. E. F. Ellet, New York, 326 Aime de Mon Cceur Miss C. O. de Valin, Maryland, 329 The Moral Strength of Our Country's Cause. Rev. F. D. Huntington, D D., Massachusetts, 332 The President's Thanksgiving Hymn. Rev. W. H. Muhlenberg, D.D., New York, 344 Universal Peace Mrs. Emma Willard, New York, 347 Sympathy Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, Connecticut, 357 Historical Sketch — With Thoughts on the Present and Future Mrs. Lincoln Phelps, Maryland, 359 APPENDIX. (Jn the Christian Commission. Rev. J. N. McJilton, D.D., Maryland, 387 On the Sanitary Commission, John Ordronaux, M,D., Prof. Medical Jurisprudence, Columbia College, New York, 406 INTRODUCTION. THOUGH DEAD, THEY YET SPEAK. There was a time in the History of our Country when the question of Union or Disunion was fully discussed by the master minds of that period. It would -seem as if the Almighty Ruler of Nations permitted discontent to rise up against the Government, in order to elicit the incontrovertible arguments which must ever stand out, against all attempts to sever the Union of the States. As time goes on, we are in danger of forgetting first principles. Let us then briefly retrace the events which attended the formation of our National Government, as introductory to some quotations from the great Advocates of the Constitution, Washington, Hamilton, Jay and Madison. ' In the second year after the Independence of America, delegates from the thirteen original States assembled at Philadelphia, agreed upon the original Articles of Con federation, known as the "Old Constitution." After ten years had elapsed, there was a general call for a stronger National Government; and on the 17th of September, XIV INTRODUCTION. 1787, after much deliberation, the present Constitution was adopted. It was agreed that the ratification of the Convention by nine States, should be sufficient for the establishment of the Constitution between the States so ratifying the same — all other States were to be treated as foreign powers by the United States. Here was an opportunity without war or bloodshed, for secession, which was then freely offered. "Either consent to this stronger government, which we find necessary to uphold our nation, or withdraw from us." After some argument upon "State- Rights," every member of the old family entered the new, under the provisions of that Constitution, which in all its essential features, is the same as the loyal people of the country now con tend for. "The Father of his Country," Virginia's Washington, in his address as President of the Convention, to the Governors of the different States, asking each to call a State Convention to deliberate on the adoption of the Constitution, in his plain and energetic language thus argues : "The friends of the Country have long seen and desired that the power of making war, peace, and treaties : that of levying money and regulating commerce; and the correspondent execu tive and judicial authorities, should be fully and efifectually vested in the general government of the Union. ***** It is obviously impracticable in the Federal government of these States, INTRODUCTION. XV to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest aud safety of all. Individuala entering into society must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance, as ou the object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered, and those which may be reserved; and on the present occasion, this difficulty was increased by a difference among the several States as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular interests. "In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the Consolidation of our Union, in which is in volved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each State in the Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected; and thus the Constitution, which we now present, is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which the peculiarityof our political situation rendered indispensable. That it will meet the full and entire approbation of every State, is not perhaps to be expected: but each will doubtless consider, that had her interests been alone consulted, the consequences might have been particularly disagreeable or 'injurious to others; that it is liable to as few exceptions as could reasonably have been expected, we hope and believe: that it may promote the lasting welfare of that country so dear to us all, and secure her freedom and happiness, is our most ardent wish." If the dead have cognizance of what is passing in this lower world, how must the "Father of his Country" XVI INTRODUCTION. regard the action of his own State, in this day of national calamity. Land of Washington, how hast thou degene rated ! If Virginia had remained true to his teachings, what horrors would she have -spared her own people, and the nation at large ! North Carolina would have remained loyal — for she has had no especial cause to love her pretentious neighbor on the South, who never affected to conceal her contempt for the more honest but plain old North-State. Without Virginia, the Southern Con federacy would have died away, as did the rebellion in South Carolina, in the days of Jackson. But, thank God, the flood waters of rebellion met with a check in Maryland. Like a rock on the ocean, she has breasted the shock, gaining strength as she resisted ! Voices from the dead ! Washington has spoken of the value and absolute necessity of the Union. Let us hear what other great statesmen of that period have to say that may strengthen our patriotism at this evil day, when sectional interests (the interests of slavery) have caused States to set aside our solemn national compact, and to destroy that Union on which Washington solemnly de clared, ' 'depended the safety and welfare of every indi- ' vidual in the whole country." Alexander Hamilton ! a statesman of clear intellect, endowed with almost superhuman prescience in. respect to political events. He speaks — let us listen : INTRODUCTION. XVll "On the existence of the Union, depends the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed; the fate of an empire, in many respects, the most interesting in the world. Among the most formidable obstacle which the new Constitution will have to encounter, we may reckon the perverted ambition of men, who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the confusions qf their country, or will flatter themselves with fairer prospects of elevation from the subdivision of the empire into several partial confederacies, than from its Union under one Government. » « * * * The vigor of Government is essential to the security of liberty." John Jay, the intimate friend of Washington, was associated with Hamilton and Madison in the attempt to influence the people of the country to adopt the new Con stitution. In a publication called "The Federalist," these three great statesmen, jointly put forth the results of their deliberations. The North and the South through them met, and amicably united in the noble work of influencing the country at large to act for their own common interest. To Jay was assigned the office of setting forth the dangers which would accrue to a dis united country from "foreign force and influence." He says: "It has until lately been a received and uncontradicted opinion, that the prosperity of the people of America depended on their con tinuing firmly united, and the wishes, prayers, and efforts of our best and wisest citizens have been constantly directed to that object." xvm INTRODUCTION. Mr. Jay then comments on the new and extraordinary opinions of some who advocate a division of the States, and calls on the people to examine into these dangerous political tenets. "It has often given me pleasure," he remarks, "to observe, that independent America was not composed of detached and dis tant territories, but that one connected, fertile, , wide-spreading country, was the portion of our Western sons of liberty. Provi dence has, in a particular manner, blessed it with a variety of soils and productions, and watered it with innumerable streams, for the delight and accommodation of its inhabitants. A succession of navigable waters forms a kind of chain round its borders, as if to bind it together; while the most noble rivers in the world, running at convenient distances, present them with highways for the easy communication of friendly aids, and the mutual transpor tation and exchange of their various commodities. " With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice, that Provi dence has been pleased to give this one connected country to oue united people ; a people descended from the same ancestors, speak ing the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, and, who, by their joint counsels, arms and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established their general liberty and independence. ' ' This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties. INTRODUCTION. XIX " They who promote the idea of substituting a number of dis tinct confederacies in the room of the plan of the Convention, seem clearly to foresee that the rejection of it would put the con tinuance of the Union in the utmost jeopardy: that certainly would be the case: and I sincerely wish that it may be as clearly foreseen by every good citizen, that whenever the dissolution of the Union arrives, America will have reason to exclaim, in the words of the Poet, 'Farewell! a long Farewell, to all my Greatness.'" »«¦«»«» Another voice from the Shades of the Past! James Madison was a son of Virginia, and one of whom the State, in her days of honest integrity, was justly proud. After triumphantly meeting the various objections to the Union from the great extent of country, the Virginian Statesman says : "I submit to you, my fellow citizens, these considerations, in full confidence that the good sense which has so often marked your decisions, will allow them their due weight and effect, and that you will never suffer difficulties, however formidable in appear ance, or however fashionable the error on which they may be founded, to drive you into the gloomy and perilous scenes into which the advocates for disunion would conduct you. Hearken not to the unnatural voice, which tells you that the people of America, knit together as they are by so many chords of affection, can no longer live together as members of the same family; can no longer continue the mutual guardians of their mutual happi ness; can no longer be fellow citizens of one, great, respectable and flourishing empire. * * » « No, my countrymen, shut XX INTRODUCTION. your ears against this unhallowed language. Shut your hearts against the poison which it conveys. The kindred blood which flows in the veins qf Americam citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defence of their sacred rights, consecrate their Union, and excite horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies.'' Want of space has compeEed us to abridge, (injuriously for the effect,) the testimony of these our venerated Statesmen and patriots; but enough is given to prove their horror and detestation of Secession, disunion, and defiance of tliat Constitution which the united wisdom of our Fathers transmitted to us to Love, Honor and Maintain. THB EESTORATION OF THE UNION. Every good citizen and good patriot looks forward to the earliest possible termination of the war, by an honor able and durable peace, as a consummation devoutly to be wished for. It is, however, a conviction not less univer sal, on the part of the loyal people of the country, that this object can only be attained by the complete prostra tion of the military power of the rebellion, and the re- establishment of the authority of the General Government over the seceded States. Originally there were persons of various shades of political opinion in the free States, who, recoiling from the evils of civil war, were willing that the cotton-growing States should try the experiment of separation, of course on admissible conditions as to boundaries, the possession of the national fortresses, and the command of the great inlet into the interior of the continent. But no person, whose authority is of any considerable weight in the country, has expressed the 2 14 OUR COUNTRY.' opinion, that any concession can now be honorably or safely made to the rebel leaders of those States, who avowedly plunged the country into this desolating war, not from any military necessity, but for the sake of draw ing the Border States into the conspiracy. Looking for ward to a future of indefinite extent, and contemplating the relation in which the two sections of the country would stand to each other, if the dominant oligarchy of the South should be permitted to carry their point and come out of the struggle triumphantly, it may be said to be the unanimous sentiment of loyal men, that the rebel lion must be put down. A peace on any other basis would be but a precarious truce, and hold out a standing encouragement to the leaders of the revolt and their suc cessors, to decide all future controversies by the sword. We must never forget, in this connection, the purely unprovoked and aggressive manner in which the war was commenced. The United States occupied a fort in Charleston harbor with a single company of soldiers; far too few even to man the imperfect armament of the place. There were no guns in Sumter by which the city could be reached; the President of the United States had distinctly stated, that he did not propose to re-inforce the garrison; and, notwithstanding the outrage of firing upon the pro vision ships, sent with supplies of food, — acts themselves of overt treason and war, — no measure of retaliation or RESTORATION OP THE UNION. 15 punishment was threatened or contemplated. Nay more, it was admitted by General, then Major, Anderson, in conference with the Confederate General that, unless sup plied with provisions, (which the rebels had shown them selves fully able to prevent,) he could not hold out more than forty-eight hours. It was under these circumstances, that General Beauregard commenced a cannonade from eleven batteries on a fortress built by the United States, on an island which had been ceded by South Carolina to the General Government, and which was lawfully occupied by an officer in their service, in obedience to his orders. This, of course, was an act of aggressive war, as flagrant and unprovoked, as it was, in the absence of all urgency and the monstrous disproportion of forces, mean and cruel. Had any of Major Anderson's men been killed, it would not have been a casualty of honorable war, but it would have been, both by the law of the land and the law of nations, a murder at the door of General Beaure gard and his confederates in crime. If the United States, in addition to all the other outrages they had endured during that dismal winter of 1861, had tamely submitted to this last intolerable insult, they would have shown themselves utterly destitute of self-respect; and would not only have stood disgraced in the eyes of the nations, inviting encroachments from every foreign power, but 16 OUR COUNTRY. they would have taught the rebellious States, in what way all future controversies were to be settled. If these remarks required any illustration, it might be found in the conduct of Great Britain in the case of the "Trent." That steam-packet, a private neutral vessel, was, in the exercise of the undoubted belligerent right of search, detained on the high seas by an American frigate, and two persons taken from her. If, in addition to this, half her ship's company had been transferred for safety to the San Jacinto, if a prize crew had been placed on board the "Trent," and she had then been sent to a port of the United States for adjudication, the whole proceeding would have been within the undisputed limits of belligerent right under the law of Nations. The disposition to be made of the vessel would have been a question for a Court of Admiralty, and the disposal of the persons captured in her a fair subject for discussion between the two govern ments. On the ground that this formality was neglected, (which was done in part from regard to the convenience of the passengers on board the "Trent,") the detention of the vessel and the arrest of the rebel emissaries were re garded by the British Government as a cause of war. Formidable military preparations were instantly set on foot for its declaration, unless satisfactory atonement should be made for "the affront." Such were the views entertained, all but, unanimously, by the Government RESTORATION OF THE UNION. 17 and people of Great Britain, as to what constitutes a just cause of war. But contrast this provocation, under any view of the affair of the "Trent," with that given by the rebel leaders in the attack on Fort Sumter. The actual violence done to that vessel consisted in a detention of three hours, without a harsh word on the part of the boarding officer,* a gentleman as courteous and mild as he is firm and fear less, a model of a Christian officer, holding a commission under a Government, recognized by every other civilized nation, and in the exercise of an indisputable belligerent right. Sumter was cannonaded for thirty-six hours with red hot cannon balls, by men, who held commissions from no acknowledged authority, and whose pretended Govern ment had not yet even been recognized as belligerents by any power on earth. The American officer who detained the "Trent," acted in good faith, without instruction from his superiors, but in what he believed to be the discharge of his duty, and the exercise of his right under the law of nations, as expounded and enforced by the British Gov ernment and British Tribunals. The officers who bom barded Sumter, knew that the validity of the ordinance of secession, under which they were proceeding, was utterly denied by the Executive, the Legislative, and Judicial authorities of the United States, and that they were com- * Lieutenant, now Captain, Fairfax. 2* 18 OUR COUNTRY. mitting acts that would be regarded by the Government, which they had themselves sworn to support, not only as acts of war, but as acts of treason. Finally, instead of being an unpremeditated and a solitary affair like that of the ' 'Trent," it was but one of a series of outrages on the forts, custom-houses, arsenals, mints, and other establish ments and property of the United States, any one of which, if unatoned for, would have been regarded by every Government in Europe, as a justification of war. In this state of things, no English statesman or citizen, who re garded the affair of the "Trent" as a justifying cause of hostilities, could entertain any different opinion of the attack on Sumter. To make this a little clearer, let us put a case, as nearly as may be parallel. Granting, for the sake of argu ment, the right of South Carolina to secede, (which how ever, is of course utterly denied;) although in virtue of that right, she might take herself out of the Union, she could not take with her the forts, nor the islands upon which they were built; for the islands had been formally ceded to the United States, and at their expense and by their authority, the forts had been constructed. It is, therefore, saying little, to say, that they belonged to the United States, as much as Gibraltar belongs to England. Now suppose that Spain, feeling as she does keenly that this encampment of a foreign power upon her soil is a RESTORATION OP THE UNION. 19 standing reminder of her weakness and decline, — in fact a great territorial and political eyesore, — should first propose to buy Gibraltar of the British Government, and send Commissioners to London to negotiate the purchase, as South Carolina sent agents to Washington in 1860-'61, to negotiate the purchase of Moultrie and Sumter. England, would of course, reject the offer; she would as soon sell to Spain, the harbor of Plymouth, or the dock-yard at Woolwich. Spain disdains to prolong the negotiation; recalls her Commissioners in disgust; lays siege to Gibral tar by land and sea; fires upon an unarmed supply-ship sent by England, to provision the fortress; and at length, in a time of profound peace, without a shadow of provo cation, and for no other reason than that she wants Gibraltar for her own purposes, bombards it, and, more successful than in 1782, reduces and captures it. How many hours would elapse, after the news reached London, before every available ship in the British navy would be ordered to the coast of Spain, and every available soldier in the British army would be embarked, to wash out this intolerable insult in blood? But this is the precise counterpart of the bombardment of Sumter, except that the outrage, instead of being confined to one Gibraltar, was followed up by the surprise and seizure of half a dozen other Gibraltars, belonging to the American Government, 20 OUR COUNTRY. and scattered along our coasts and at the mouths of our rivers. So far then, is the war from being a war of aggression, on the part of the United States, as is pretended by the South and its sympathizers, it is a war forced upon us; which could not, without an entire sacrifice of manhood and national honor, have been avoided; and any other end of it than the utter prostration of the military power of the rebel leaders, instead of conducing to perfect har mony and peace, would result either in the establishment of two rival and hostile powers engaged in eternal border war with each other, or in the breaking up of both sec tions into groups of petty States, forever flying at each other's throats. We may, without being uncharitable, believe that the foreign writers and speakers who dwell, at one moment, on the overgrown magnitude and strength of this country as a menace and a danger to other powers; and at the next, denounce the injustice of the present war on the part of the United States, desire that it should end in one or the other of these two forms of national ruin. It is enough to say here, that the cause of humanity and peace is the last, which would be bene fitted by either result. But it is objected, that eventual harmony and recon ciliation cannot be produced by the continuance of the war, even if it is successfully prosecuted by the United RESTORATION OF THE UNION. 21 States; that all the victories gained by the Union arms, and all the disasters suffered by the Confederates, instead of tending toward the restoration of a good understand ing, embitter and exasperate those who thus suffer by the operations of the war, and so tend to render a reconcilia tion hopeless. This however, though a plausible, is a superficial view of the subject, without foundation in rea son, history, or experience. There are various grounds on which the precisely opposite view can be maintained con clusively. One great cause of the readiness of the Southern leaders to rush into the present war, was their entire misappre hension of the character both of the South and of the North. The social system of the slave-holding States, the temper and habits engendered by the exercise from the cradle of irresponsible power, often over large num bers of fellow-men; the idleness and dissipation of planta tion life; the practice of wearing concealed arms, and the exaggerated code of false honor, all united to produce a corrupting influence on the Southern character. It was largely tinctured with the conceit of a fancied superiority over the laborious, ingenious, and frugal North. For getting the most notorious facts in their early history and ours, they imagined themselves to be cavaliers, and derided us as round-heads; not bearing in mind, even if that comparison were better founded in fact, that it was 22 OUR COUNTRY. not, in the light of history, a very safe ground, on which to lay claim to a greater aptitude for statesmanship or arms. By the side of great courtesy in private life, (not without an occasional tinge of condescension on the part of individuals,) there was, almost from the foundation of the Government, an arrogant and masterful tone in the political intercourse of the South with the North, which, long indulged, led too many of the former to think them selves at last, wiser, better, and braver than their North ern brethren. There were, of course, wise and good men at the South, who did not share this delusion; but they themselves, for more than thirty years, have been, on account of their liberality and moderation, too often dis credited and set aside. The genuine Southern aristoc racy, that of morals, manners, and culture has, for a full. generation, been to a considerable degree, ostracized and kept in private life by the gentry of the race-course, the jurists of the County Court, and the statesmen of the cross roads. This state of things had at length become an intolera ble evil. Under the arrogance and self-eoneeit of the popular leaders of the South, the Government was degen erating. That mutual respect of the different sections of the country, which is so essential to the harmony of a family of States, was rapidly disappearing, and dictation and menace on the one side, and acquiescence on the RESTORATION OF THE UNION. 23 other side were passing into an angry and irritable- an tagonism. It is doubtful whether any milder discipline than war would have sufficed to take the conceit out of our Southern brethren; and even that will fail of the beneficial effect, it would otherwise produce, if remitted before the military power of the rebels is utterly broken. They must be effectually taught once and forever, that we are in all re spects their equals, and that a "few disappointed aspirants to office" are not to be allowed now, or at any time here after, to destroy the life of a great nation, because they cannot continue to monopolize the Government. The North, in her turn, required a lesson. She had allowed the busy round of her pleasant and gainful pur suits; the varied agriculture of her small farms, owned by those who tilled them; her matchless manufactures and her commercial enterprise, moving with the mighty force of voluntary and amply compenKated labor; the thousand forms of her material prosperity and refinement; her suc cessful cultivation of science and the arts; her vast educa tional system; the distribution and employment of her life-giving capital throughout the length and breadth of the land; — she had allowed these objects of absorbing interest, and the occupations connected with them, to engross her time and thoughts.- The vulgar wranglings of the Capitol, and the tawdry splendors and tasteless 24 OUR COUNTRY. dissipation of Washington life, were unattractive to her. There she allowed the South, who found it an agreeable change from the dreary solitude of her plantations, to bear a scarcely disputed sway, to play off the factions of the free States against each other, and thus to monopo lize the control of the Government. With a little greater moderation in wielding this somewhat invidious power, it might have been submitted to for an indefinite period. But the intelligence of the free States was fatigued by the audacious theoretic absurdity of the doctrines of nul lification and secession, (intended only when proposed, to frighten the North into continued compromise,) and its patience was exhausted by the abrogation of the Missouri line and the alternate frauds and outrages in Kansas. Accordingly a President was at length chosen without the aid of Southern votes. This was the unpardonable sin, the crimen Icesce majestatis australis, which is now under going expiation by the best blood of both sections of the country. They will come out of the struggle better acquainted with each other. The South, probably with a radical change in her social system, will have learned to respect the North; and the North to vindicate her pro portionate share in the government of the country. The idea that a civil war, in consequence of the sup posed embittering effects of its ravages, must necessarily terminate in the dismemberment of a country, is prepos- RESTORATION OP THE UNION. 25 terous, and without any foundation in the teachings of history. If it were so, there never could be for any great length of time, an extensive Empire or a powerful Gov ernraent, inasmuch as a civil war, in some stage of its progress, will be found in the annals of every nation. Those who hold the opinion in question, are probably misled by the analogy of the American Revolution, which was in some sense a civil war, and which did end in separation. But the separation was induced by great physical and political causes which prevented the mother country from prolonging the contest; such as the vast distance and the intervening ocean, which threw diffi culties almost insuperable in the way of military expe ditions, and the superadded burden of war with France, Spain and Holland, under which England was compelled to succumb. In addition to this, the United States had manifestly outgrown the limits of Colonial Government as then understood and practised. When it is passionately declared that the South in con sequence of the injuries inflicted upon her, by the opera tions of the war, will never consent to a re-union with the North, it is forgotten, that in many respects the North has suffered at the hands of the South, as much as the South has suffered at the hands of the North. In any j«st view of the subject, the North has infinitely the most to forgive. It is true her pride has not been so deeply wounded by 3 26 OUR COUNTRY. the capture of her ports, the blockade of her coasts, and the occupation of her territory; but the loss which out weighs all others, by the side of which no other form of suffering deserves a name, — the loss of her children whom she has sent to the wars, — is, to the full, as great as that of the South. The South indeed claims that it is far greater. To punish the free States for choosing a President without their votes, the South has levied a war, which has cost the North largely over st hundred thousand precious lives. Again there has been a large destruction of private property, at the seat of hostilities in the rebel States. This is a deplorable, but I fear, an unavoidable incident of war. Neither Governments nor Commanders are able wholly to prevent it. But on the other hand, the Union men in the Border States have suffered the same losses wherever the Confederate armies have pene trated, while in the rebel States to be loyal to the Govern ment of the Union has been to insure imprisonment and confiscation, and in many districts the most cruel personal outrage. Then, too, there are the ravages of the rebel corsairs. It is probable that the destruction of private property by these sea-rovers, is quite equal to that which has been caused in the Confederate States, by the direct operations of the war. In addition to this, it is calculated that the Sonth was indebted to the North at the outbreak of the rebellion, from four to five hundred millions of RESTORATION OP THB UNION. 27 dollars. In fact, the repudiation of this debt was one of the inducements for plunging into the contest. In conse quence of the rebellion, the North has suffered this heavy pecuniary loss, as it will long have to suffer the burden of debt, which the war has thrown upon the country. In these various ways, it is plain, as I have observed that the North has as much to forgive to the South, as the South has to forgive to the North. The evils they have inflicted upon us, as we think without a cause, are as great as those which we have inflicted upon them, as they think without a cause, and this relation of the two parties to each other, is, by the very constitution of our natures, a practical basis of reconciliation. The leaders of the rebellion indeed, are in no condition to take a sober view of the state of affairs. Originally spurred by ambition to the commission of the most aggravated crimes, of which men in civil society can be guilty; with the fearful re sponsibility upon their consciences of all the sufferings and sorrows of the war, an avenging demon drives them forward. They cannot retrace their steps. The restora tion of peace to their bleeding country would, probably, be at best to them, ignominious and life-long exile from its shores. But no such frenzy possesses the body of the people. It is not in human nature, that they should not feel the folly and the wickedness of the contest; and the unutterable madness of persevering in it. There is not 28 OUR COUNTRY. the least reason to doubt, that the bold utterances of the "Raleigh Standard" express the real sentiments of the great majority of the Southern people. They will feel more and more that they are by no means the passive victims of Northern violence, as they are told by their profligate leaders. They know that they have been and are inflicting on us evils analogous to those which they suffer; and that the time has come, when as Christians it is their duty to throw off the yoke of the bold bad men who have brought these measureless calamities upon all parts of the country. The entire adult generation among them knows full well, that under the Government of the United States, in which the South at all times was clothed with power far beyond her proportionate share, she enjoyed a degree of prosperity never before vouchsafed to the children of men; while they know equally well, that the rebel government has been from its inauguration a burden, a scourge, and a curse. How can this comparison fail to produce its natural effect, not upon the minds of infuriated leaders, but upon the masses of a people en dowed with average intelligence? Much as we have suffered by the war, there is no bitterness or exasperation on the part of the North; why should we suppose the angry passions are forever to rage at the South? There are many interesting facts connected with the progress of the war, which show that there is no bitter- RESTORATION OF THE UNION. 29 ness on the part of the people. North or South, notwith standing the pains taken by the rebel leaders, in their proclamations and addresses, and the rebel press in its editorial columns, to inflame the minds of the South. There are Union citizens of the highest social position on the Mississippi river, who have been reduced frora afflu ence to straitened circumstances, and in some instances to absolute poverty, by the desertion of their slaves, or their enlistment in the Union armies. Instead of being shaken in their loyalty, they know that these results are unavoid ably incident to war carried on in regions burdened with slavery. They do not even allow the abuses which occasionally take place on the part of the authorities, civil and military, in the present ^ necessarily confused and abnormal state of things, to swerve them from their attachment to the Union. We could give the names of noble and patriotic citizens, to whom this remark applies. They do not, because the war has prostrated their own fortunes, throw the blame of its existence on the Govern ment of the United States. They know too well the insidious arts, by which the Southern mind was deluded and prepared for secession, and the ambitious motives, on the part of the leaders, for which the war has been levied, and they prefer exile and poverty in the free States to the iron sway of the selfish chiefs of the Confederacy. 3* 30 OUR COUNTRY. Take another most significant fact in the State of North Carolina. The entire seaboard of that State, (with the exception of one rigorously blockaded port), has been occupied by the Union forces. Her ancient capitol of Newbern, the home of the Gastons and Stanleys, has been for more than two years in our possession. All its promi nent inhabitants were necessarily compelled by the rebel armies to fall back with them into the interior, and immense losses have consequently accrued upon the deserted estates alike of the loyal and disloyal. But in no one of the States in secession, has the old Union sentiment been more boldly uttered than in North Caro lina. The press at Raleigh might be advantageously taken as a model, by many a journal in the loyal States. Men whose plantations near the coast have been desolated, and whose old family mansions are occupied as barracks by the Union armies, are, at this moment, denouncing tho leaders of secession, and demanding the restoration of peace. The mountains on the western border of JS'orth Carolina are filled with Union men who have fled from the conscription, where from their fastnesses, they defy the rebel government. A similar state of things still further developed, exists in Arkansas, notwithstanding its suffer ings by the war. It was claimed by the rebels, as boldly as falsely, that Maryland is in heart with the Confederacy. Two in- RESTORATION OF THE UNION. 31 vasions by armies of one hundred thousand men have failed to receive the slightest aid from the masses of the people. Notwithstanding the attempts, throughout the South, to enlist the people, as in a common cause, in what is truly called "the slaveholders' war;" Maryland is marching with rapid strides toward emancipation. Missouri, Tennessee, and Louisiana are moving steadily toward the same goal; more earnestly since the emancipation proclamation than before. So little foundation is there for the idea, indus triously propagated, that this measure would render the restoration of peace impossible. In the conduct of the war itself, there has been a remark able absence of bitterness. With armies of such magni tude on both sides, acts of violence are unavoidable. It is impossible to restrain the outrages of stragglers, and deserters, and the lawless banditti, who always hang upon the skirts of a camp or a moving column. Some atro cious cruelties have been committed by guerillas, for which the rebel government is justly responsible, in consequence of the countenance it insists upon extending to this un principled description of force. But even Quantrell is not wholly inaccessible to the pleadings of humanity. He spared one cottage in Lawrence because it was "too pretty to be burned." In Calabria, French prisoners were roasted alive. In Spain, guerillas placed their captives between boards and sawed them asunder. In the Spanish 32 OUR COUNTRY. American States, on every turn of their wretched politics, the leaders who fall into the hands of the enemy are taken out and shot through the back. In India, re bellious Sepoys are blown from the cannon's mouth. No such enormities have marked the progress of our war. Southern prisoners of war are treated with the utmost humanity in the free States. I visited Camp Douglas near Chicago, at a time when eight thousand Confederate prisoners were confined there. They had an area of fifteen or twenty acres, where they were allowed to take such recreation as they thought best, and their food in quantity and quality was equal to that of the Union regi ments which guarded them. The best of Western hams were emptied by the wagon load into their barracks. They were unquestionably faring better than before their capture. The same is the case at Johnson's Island on Lake Erie. I have lately conversed with an officer of rank just returned from that Island, and he assures me that ample provision is made for their health and comfort. Mr. Jefferson Davis, in his last annual message, endeavors to make a grievance of the confinement of Southern priso ners on an Island so far to the North. He may not be aware, that St. Pauls, in Minnesota, which was a favorite resort for invalids from the South, summer aud winter, is three and one-half degrees further North than Johnson's Island. It might possibly also occur to him that the RESTORATION OF THE UNION. 33 climate of Columbia, S. C. may be as trying in summer to the Northern prisoners confined there as Johnson's Island is to the Southern prisoners in winter. But the most curious fact in this connection is, that, owing to the greater provision against cold in the North, twice as many persons are reported in the census returns as freez ing to death in the Southern, as in the Northern States. Of the prisoners confined at Johnson's Island, it is beyond question that fewer die there than would have died, sum mer or winter, had they remained at home in the Gulf States. The accounts differ as to the treatment of Northern prisoners at the South, especially at Richmond. Many that have been exchanged return to the North wasted to shadows, and dropping into the grave. Mr. Foote in the Rebel Congress denounced the manner in which they were treated as cruel ; and one officer at least, employed to superintend the prisoners at Richmond, was discharged for "irregularity," meaning defrauding them of their pittance of food. The charge of ill-treatment is, how ever, indignantly repelled by the Confederate Government and press, and as a sufficient refutation of the charge, it is passionately maintained, that they are fed as well as the soldiers of the rebel army. But the same nominal ration may differ greatly in the quality of the article, the time and manner of distribution, and the means of prepa- 34 OUR COUNTRY. ration as food. Besides, if the allowance is not adequate for the healthful support of the prisoner, it is no excuse that their own soldiers fare no better. That argument would equally justify an enemy in slaughtering prisoners which he could no longer feed. The belligerent who cannot afford to give his prisoners a fair allowance of wholesome food, is bound by the law of nations, not less than by the dictates of common humanity, to release them on parole. There is one class of prisoners at the South, with respect to whom there are grave apprehensions of the most cruel and atrocious wrong. There is much reason to fear, that quarter has, in some instances at least, been refused to colored soldiers, and that, when captured, they have been mercilessly scourged, shot or hung. If this charge against the rebel government and rebel leaders is well founded, it is but another illustration how completely the moral sentiments maybe stifled in the hearts of men, and the feelings of humanity crushed, by "damned custom." If it were possible that we could, for any reason, derive satisfaction from the perpetration of inhuman acts by the enemy, we might remember, that nothing will so effectu ally put the European sympathizers with rebellion to shame, and lead them to abandon the cause of the South, as this denial of the rights of war to colored prisoners. The conduct of the opposing forces in the field is, I am RESTORATION OP THE UNION. 35 happy to say, by no means indicative of the bitterness and ferocity which usually characterize civil wars. Soldiers on pipket duty, it is said, have generally given up the murderous practice of firing upon each other. When not expressly forbidden, they exchange, good natured banter, newspapers, and small stores. The wounded in battle, as they lie side by side, forget that they are enemies, and remember only that they are brothers in suffering. Many a poor youth from the South has found in our hospitals the tender care of mother and sister, replaced, if such a thing were possible, by the ministering angels of charity that know no distinction of friend or foe. The records of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions afford the most touching illustrations of this remark, as far as concerns the wounded prisoners from the South, who have fallen into our hands. That similar kindness has been shown to our wounded at the South has been sometimes reported. I am not aware of any sufficient evidence that this is generally the case, though willing to believe and hope that it is so. That the experience of mankind everywhere proves the transient nature of the feuds engendered by civil war, will be admitted by every diligent student of history. On this subject, I venture to add a few paragraphs from the address delivered by me at the consecration of the Soldiers' Cemetery at Gettysburg. In that discourse, I 36 OUR COUNTRY. tried to show that the gracious Providence which over rules all things for the best, from seeming evil still educ ing good, has so constituted our natures, that the violent excitement of the passions in one direction is generally followed by a reaction in an opposite direction, and the sooner for the violence. If it were not so — if anger pro duced abiding anger, if hatred caused undying hatred, if injuries infiicted and retaliated of necessity led to new retaliations, with forever accumulating compound interest of revenge, — then the world, thousands of years ago, would have been turned into an earthly hell, and the nations of the earth would have been resolved into clans of furies and demons, each forever warring with his neigh bor. But it is not so. All history teaches a different lesson. The wars of the Roses in England lasted an entire generation, from the battle of St. Albans, in 1455, to that of Bosworth Field, in 1485. Speaking of the former, Hume says: "This was the first blood spilt in that fatal quarrel, which was not finished in less than a course of thirty years; which was signalized by twelve pitched battles; which opened a scene of extraordinary fierceness and cruelty ; is computed to have cost the lives of eighty princes of the blood ; and almost entirely anni hilated the ancient nobility of England. The strong attachments which, at that time, men of the same kindred bore to each other, and the vindictive spirit which was RESTORATION OF THE UNION. 37 considered a point of honor, rendered the great families implacable in their resentments, and widened every mo ment the breach between the parties." Such was the state of things in England under which an entire genera tion grew up; but when Henry VIL, in whom the titles of the two houses were united, went up to London after the battle of Bosworth Field to mount the throne, he was everywhere received with joyous acclamations, "as one ordained and sent from Heaven to put an end to the dis sensions'' which had so long afflicted the country. The great rebellion in England of the seventeenth century, after long and angry premonitions, may be said to have begun with the calling of the Long Parliament, in 1640, and to have ended with the return of Charles II., in 1660, — twenty years of discord, conflict-, and civil war; of confiscation, plunder, havoc; a proud hereditary peer age trampled in the dust; a national church overturned, its clergy beggared, its most eminent prelate put to death; a military despotism established on the ruins of a monarchy which had subsisted seven hundred years, and the legiti mate sovereign brought to the block; the great families which adhered to the king proscribed, impoverished, ruined; prisoners of war — a fate worse than confinement in Libby — sold to slavery in the West Indies; — -in a word, everything that can imbitter and madden contending fac tions. Such was the state of things for twenty years, and 4 38 OUR COUNTRY. yet, by no gentle transition, but suddenly, and "when the restoration of affairs appeared most hopeless," the son of the beheaded sovereign was brought back to his father's blood-stained throne, with such "unexpressible and universal joy," as led the merry monarch to exclaim, "He doubted it had been his own fault he had been absent so long, for he saw nobody who did not protest he had ever wished for his return." ' 'In this wonderful manner," says Clarendon, "and with this incredible expedition, did God put an end to a rebellion that had raged near twenty years, and had been carried on with all the horrid circumstances of .murder, devastation, and parricide, that fire and sword, in the hands of the most wicked men in the world [it is a royalist that is speaking] could be instruments of, almost to the desolation of two kingdoms, and the exceeding defacing and deforming of the third. . . . By these remarkable steps did the merciful hand of God, in this short space of time, not only bind up and heal all those wounds, but even made the scar as undiscernible as, in respect of the deepness, was possible, which was a glo rious addition to the deliverance." In Germany, the wars of the Reformation and of Charles V. in the sixteenth century, the thirty years war in the seventeenth century, the seven years war in the eighteenth century, not to speak of other less celebrated contests, entailed upon that country all the miseries of in- RESTORATION OP THE UNION. 39 testine strife for more than three centuries. At the close of the last named war, which was the shortest ofall, and waged in the most civilized age, "An Officer," says Archenholz, "rode through seven villages in Hesse, and found in them but one human being." More "than three hundred prin cipalities, comprehended in the empire, fermented with the fierce passions of proud and petty States; at the com mencement of this period the castles of robber counts frowned upon every hill-top; a dreadful secret tribunal, whose seat no one knew, whose power none could escape, froze the hearts of men with terror throughout the land; religious hatred mingled its bitter poison in the seething caldron of provincial animosity; but of all these deadly enmities between the States of Germany, scarcely the memory remains. There is no country in the world in which the sentiment of national brotherhood is stronger. There are controversies in that country, at the present day, but they grow mainly out of the rivalry of the two leading powers. In Italy, on the breaking up of the Roman Empire, society might be said to be resolved into its original elements;-7-into hostile atoms, whose only movement was that of mutual repulsion. Ruthless barbarians had de stroyed the old organizations and covered the laud with a merciless feudalism. As the new civilization grew up, under the wing of the Church, the noble families and the 40 OUR COUNTRY. walled towns fell madly into confiict with each other; the secular feud of Pope and Emperor scourged the land; province against province; city against city; street against street waged remorseless war against each other from father to son, till Dante was able to fill his imaginary hell with the real demons of Italian history. So ferocious had the factions become, that the great poet-exile himself, the glory of his native city and of his native language, was by a decree of the municipality, ordered to be burned alive, if found in the city of Florence. But these deadly feuds and hatreds yielded to political influences, as the hostile cities were grouped into states under stable govern ments; the lingering traditions of the ancient animosities gradually died away, and now Tuscan and Lombard, Sardinian and Neapolitan, as if to shame the degenerate sons of America, are joining in one cry for an united Italy. In France, not to go back to the civil wars of the League in the sixteenth century, and of the Fronde in the seventeenth, — not to speak of the dreadful scenes through out the kingdom which followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes, — we have, in the great revolution which commenced at the close of the last century, seen the bloodhounds of civil strife let loose as rargly before in the history of the world. The reign of terror established at Paris, stretched its bloody Briarean arms to every city RESTORATION OP THB UNION. 41 and village in the land, and if the most deadly feuds which ever divided a people had the power to cause per manent alienation and hatred, this surely was the occasion. But far otherwise the fact. In seven years from the fall of Robespierre, the strong arm of the youthful con({ueror brought order out of this chaos of crime and woe; Jaco bins; whose hands were scarcely cleansed from the best blood of France, met the returning emigrants whose estates they had confiscated and whose kindred they had dragged to the guillotine, in the Imperial antechambers; and when, after another turn of the wheel of fortune, Louis XVIII. was restored to his throne, he took the regicide Fouche, who had voted for his brother's death, to his cabinet and confidence. These illustrations could be greatly multiplied, and all history warrants the grateful conclusion, that, when the authority of the General Government shall be happily re-established over the States in rebellion, an era of good feeling will return, and the different sections of the country, now so sadly estranged from each other, will be bound together more strongly than ever, by the ties of mutual respect and affection.* * It was on the 19th of November, 1863, that Mr. Everett, ever prompt to respond to the call of his country, having come from his distant horae to assist in the consecration of the National 4* 42 OUR COUNTRY. Cemetery, delivered the address here alluded to, and which is destined to live in the National archives. It was a day, (we quote from our Diary of that date.) calm and glorious. From the second story of our friend's house, we had a full view of the grand procession as it moved towards Cemetery Hill. After an imposing military array, appeared the Executive and Legislative branches of our National and State Governments with a grand military escort; then came various delegations and associations from the most remote, as well as nearer, portions of our great empire But no part of this grand display was so touching as the sight of a band of invalid aud maimed soldiers, remnants of different brigades of the army, clad in their blue overcoats, and slowly following the immense and brilliant cavalcade, to the plaintive air of "When this cruel war is over" — Ah I and what then, my suffering braves? to you, there remains but a life of decrepitude and suffering. May your country see to it that poverty too shall not be in your future loti After the entire procession had passed, accompanied by Mr. B., we drove to the Cemetery. As carriages were not allowed to enter the enclosure, we walked in, directing our course towards the table-land in the centre, but the crowd was so dense as to forbid our progress, and we returned to our carriage, where, upon a commanding eminence, we had a panoramic view of the scene around us. A solenin stillness per vaded the immense assemblage, broken only by the sound of the speaker's voice, which was occasionally borne to our ears by a favoring breath of air. What a contrast to the roar and thunder of battle of July 2d, when the possession of Cemetery Hill was so hotly contested by the contending armies! From the sight of the thousands of living men who had come together to do honor to those who had so lately died for their country, the imagination RESTORATION OF THB UNION. 43 turned to that Thursday (for this too was Thursday) when the dead and dying lay strewed around the hill sides, the valleys and the open fields, like leaves scattered by the autumn blast. These are events too momentous for language to express; the imagina tion fails before the awfully moral sublime, — and such we felt to be the scene before us, in ita relation to the past, present and future of our country. Editor. SONG OP THE SOUTHERN LOYALISTS. Up with the Old Flag; fling out its folds: Stand by to witness it wave once more: Gather round readily, lift it up steadily; Braver it looks than ever before. Not a Star vanished, — each one is there; Not a Stripe faded, no where a stain: Welcome it merrily, speak of it cheerily; God bless the day for the Old Flag again ! Sad was the season when it was struck; Darker, still darker, days languished on; Trampled down forcefully, touch it remorsefully; Love it the more, because lost and won. Up with the Old Flag; long may it float. Never a Pleiad lost from its plain; Lift it up lovingly, shout all approvingly, God bless the day for the Old Flag again ! THE REBELLION. We have experienced a strange revolution in our habits, during the last three years. Before this time, there was not a nation on the face of the earth in which there was so little to remind one of military power. Our standing army consisted of some twelve or fifteen thousand men, scattered here and there on the outposts; in our navy- yards, unfinished ships had been rotting on the ways for more than forty years; our military musters had become such a farce, that the militia were every where disbanded. War was regarded as a thing of the past; we read the histories of old time and wondered at the infatuation which led the men of those days to settle their disputes by arms; the farmer, plodding behind his plough, some times found in the sod a blackened musket-ball, and then he thanked God that the days of bloodshed were over for ever; the artisan stood by the anvil, and with a song on his lips of ' 'the good time coming," beat the swords into plough-shares; the merchant sent his vessel off upon the seas, thankful that there were no more pirates or priva- teersmen to obstruct the highway of nations; ministers of 46 OUR COUNTRY. the Gospel denounced all war as unchristian; Carlylean philosophers ridiculed the notion of settling points of equity with lead and saltpetre; political economists figured up the awful cost of war, and startled the world by their arithmetic; Peace Congresses held their sessions and scattered abundant rose-water as a sovereign disinfectant; Non-Resistants met in council and protested against the contest of arms with a horrible strife of tongues; West Point Cadets by scores entered the ranks of the Christian ministry — some of them have gone back to the old ranks now; and our poets sang jubilantly of the reign of uni versal amity and concord. They tune their harps to a wilder song to-day. For, what a change ! The drum rattles in our ears from morn ing till midnight; ponderous cannon rumble in our streets; all around our cities, acres of tents whiten the sward; the nation has been decimated to furnish soldiers; the only news that we care to read is that which comes from the seat of war; every where our tool-shops are making rifles and our foundries casting cannon; the basement of our Capitol has been turned into a mammoth bakery; — better use, perhaps, than it was put to, when loyal and rebel Senators became fraternal there, over the cup which inebriates as well as cheers. How strange it is to walk over the beautiful Arlington Heights, and see the culti vated grounds cut up into streets, labelled by the New THE REBELLION. 47 York boys, Broadway, Bowery, Wall Street, Fifth Avenue; and then, entering the house, to find a U. S. Quarter-Master sitting at General Lee's writing-desk, with the old family portraits looking down reproachfully upon him. Strange associations were quickened at find ing a venerable spinnet still standing in a dark corner, cob-webbed, mouldy and silent, which made music after its fashion years ago, touched in the evening twilight by fair fingers that have long since lost their cunning. But darker shadows crowd upon the picture. A hun dred thousand men now lie upon their beds in our hos pitals, or crawl out into the sun to see if the fresh breath of heaven will give them any new life; thousands upon thousands are sleeping, where the morning reveille will waken them no more; children ask every evening when their father will come home, who will never feel the warm pressure of his hand again; and "there is not a house, where there is not one dead." What does it all mean? What has happened, to bring all this misery upon us ? What is it, which has called into being the largest army in the world, revolutionized all our habits, deranged our currency, burdened us with taxation, arrayed father against son, brother against brother, broken the ties of ancient friendships, and con verted the land into an Aceldama of blood? We are in a state of civil war. Of civil war? 48 ' OUR COUNTRY. Between whom? Men of the same lineage, the same interests, the same religion. A little more than eighty years ago, the New Englander and the Georgian stood side by side in the battle field, fighting to achieve for themselves one, free and inde pendent nationality. When they fell, the child of the South pillowed his aching head on the bosom of his Northern brother; heart to heart, hand in hand, they grappled with the stern agonies of death, and passed away together to the land of spirits. To-day, the children of those men stand face to face on the bloody field, and each drives his bayonet in the other's heart. Three years ago, and one flag floated at the mast-head of every American vessel on the seas; on every fortifi cation in the land, the morning breeze kissed the glorious old stars and stripes, under which our fathers made us free; and whenever or wherever in foreign lands, an American saw that banner given to the winds, he felt that he was safe, and his heart bounded with loyal pride. To-day, that flag lies trailing in the dust, torn and dis honored; and in many of our States, another banner, which our fathers knew not, with ten of the old stripes gone, and most of the stars blotted from the escutcheon, droops over the national forts, which rebels have stolen, the badge of sedition and infamy. THE REBELLION. 49 What is the stake at issue, in this awful civil war ? The question to be determined is, shall we henceforth and forever cease to be a nation? Shall our past history, with all its sacrifices and all its heroic deeds, of which we have been so proud, go for nothing? Shall the great experiment of constitutional freedom, with which God has charged us, come to a miserable and disgraceful end? If we fail in this contest, it will be because we deserve to fail; because we are not in earnest. But we must not fail. The nation must not die so soon. "Our fathers' blood cries to us from the ground." I hear the war-worn veterans of the Revolution, speaking out of the depths of eternity, and they say, "Remember us! remember what we endured; remember our sad defeats and our dear- bought victories; remember the long dreary days of discouragement, defection, disorder, secret and open treason, through which we passed, to make you a nation; and now will you suffer all this to be lost? Shall a wretched faction, which has for its one main object, the everlasting perpetuation of human bondage, be allowed to destroy the noblest political fabric ever erected on earth?" There £tre those amongst us who plead for peace; for peace, on almost any terms. Sometimes they hang out their white flags, when the Stars and the Stripes ought to be waving in the breeze, — and there they droop ingloriously, winding-sheets, pale shrouds, emblems of 5 50 OUR COUNTRY. national death. They say, humanity calls upon us to put an end to this hideous war. And so it does; it calls upon us to end the war, by conquering a peace. They say, it is a political war: and so it is, but not a party war. What question is there before the nation to-day, but that of life or death ! They say, we never can subjugate the South. We do not wish to subjugate the South, but only to crush this wicked rebellion. We wish to give the loycd men of the South freedom to utter their real sentiments; freedom to act in behalf of a cause, which is still dear to their hearts, although there is a padlock of steel on their lips. These men want peace. God knows we all want it. We long for peace, as the sick man longs for the light of the morning. We are weary of strife; weary of sending our brave boys to the war, and having them returned to us sick, maimed and dying. Our hearts are very weary of this work of death; weary of all the ghastly horrors of the battle-field; our children lying there, with their pale faces turned to the pitiless moon, and no man to bury them; gray hairs brought down in sorrow to the grave; mothers refusing to be comforted; the first-born, whom they once rocked in his little cradle and who used to put his arms around their neck and nestle in their bosom, as he slept so sweetly through the long winter nights, — now, these winter nights, sleeping the sleep which knows THB REBELLION. 51 no waking, under the cold shroud of snow, — 0, it is too awful, will there never be an end of this horrible butchery? Shall we never have peace? Yes, we can have peace whenever we say the word; on the condition of national suicide. We can have peace, on the condition that all the sacrifices we have already made, shall be naught. We can have peace, by consent ing to national dismemberment; the end of which none can foresee,— which cuts the arteries of the land, and allows the life-blood to fiow, till there is nothing left but a corpse. We can have peace for a year, on the condition of border wars, that will last for generations. For, wherever you draw the line, which divides the two nations, there must be a hundred miles of territory on both sides that will be a perpetual waste. We can have peace, on conditions that will put back the progress of the world for a century. We can have peace, by surrendering every thing that we have fought for, and giving our destiny into the hands of demagogues and tyrants. Is such a peace desirable? Is it not better, that we should suffer a little longer, if