a good
education (to which every tax-payer contributes) should claim 'nothing
from any body,' and that the less use is made of such phrases as 'lower
orders,' 'aristocracy,' and 'social nobility,' the more creditable will
it be for man or woman, let their 'position' be what it will.

This war has inaugurated a new era when earnest, honest thought, and
bold straightforward speech alone can effect any thing. It is the time
for fearlessness and straightforwardness if there ever was one in our
history. We have a great war in hand, and great political reforms and
measures of tremendous importance are crowding thickly around it, while
others, not less mighty, are looming dimly behind them. The great
principles of Republicanism, of man's capacity for self-government, of
freedom and of progress, have been brought to 'the struggle for life,'
and it depends upon our national American energy and _honesty_ to
determine whether they shall live. If they _are_ to live, we shall be
first among nations, not in the narrow, wretched sense of old-fashioned
diplomacy, but in the high Christian sense of aiding all oppressed
humanity in their hopes of attaining their rights. But if these
principles are to perish--better would it be for this whole land to
become a wilderness, and every life a death, than that we should survive
the degradation. We have not yet sunk so low that there is no truth left
worth dying for. There was a time when men, women, and children were
martyred by countless thousands for their fidelity to the faith that
extended the same religious rights to all, and now that time has come
again to us, calling for fresh sacrifices to the same principle as
regards earthly rights and the common happiness of mankind.

But we believe that the truth will prevail, after a sore trial, and that
we shall be rewarded to the full. 'No cross, no crown.' But there is a
crown after the cross, and God will give it to us. We are passing
through the baptism of fire--and verily we needed it, both South and
North. The South had become mad with vanity and aristocracy; the North
was, is still, corrupt and rotten beyond all healthy life, with such
villainy in 'politics,' and such indifference to all that was noble and
honorable through the greed of gold, that honest and able men were cast
aside, or at best, used as mere tools by the 'intelligent.' Now we are
in the struggle for life, and rascals, whether of the Union or of the
confederacy, will sooner