ith
one accord united in a grand ovation to do him honor, not as a partisan
leader, but as a pillar and hope of the Republic in its day of mortal
peril. If what I have written shall induce but even a few candid men to
think better of the departed DOUGLAS, as a statesman and patriot, than
they were wont to think, I will be more than rewarded for my own labor
in his vindication. But I have other motives than this.

The time is not far distant, and I would gladly accelerate its advance,
when the conservative sentiment of the nation will revive and have
utterance, and demand the re-enthronement of the spirit of compromise
and peace--the guardian genius of the unity of the nation. Men of
extreme and violent opinions, both North and South, whose fanaticism,
folly and ambition have brought our great American Republic to its
present sad estate, must give way before the incoming tide of a just
public opinion on the relations of the Federal government to slavery.
The people of the United States have neither the heart nor the means for
a protracted warfare with each other in regard to negro slavery. The war
is mainly the result of misunderstandings and erroneous opinions in both
the slaveholding and non-slaveholding sections of the Union, which
dispassionate investigation will remove. When the deluded men of the
South shall come to understand by abundant evidence, which the good
sense and patriotism of true Union men will furnish, that the spirit of
the war on the part of the loyal States is one springing not from hatred
to the Southern people and their institutions, but from earnest love of
the Federal Union, and a determination to defend and re-establish it in
all the integrity of its principles, they will gladly return to their
first love and welcome the protection of the banner which has ever been
the symbol of the power and glory of the United American people. If,
however, the war on the part of professedly loyal men shall be guided by
any other feeling than love for the Union and a sacred regard for all
the obligations of its Constitution, the preservation of the Union will
be impossible. The non-slaveholding States may, perhaps, bind the
seceded States to them by the stern power of military subjugation, as
Poland is bound to Russia, or Hungary to Austria, but the subjugation of
one section of the Republic by another will never unite their people in
the fraternal bonds of a true Federal Union.

The traditions and historic g