be considered,
their judgment may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people now
for the first time heard upon the question. In a great national crisis
like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very
desirable, almost indispensable. And yet no approach to such unanimity is
attainable unless some deference shall be paid to the will of the majority
simply because it is the will of the majority. In this case the common end
is the maintenance of the Union, and among the means to secure that end
such will, through the election, is most clearly declared in favor of such
Constitutional amendment.

The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is derived
through our popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass and its
result, the purpose of the people within the loyal States to maintain the
integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous than
now. The extraordinary calmness and good order with which the millions
of voters met and mingled at the polls give strong assurance of this.
Not only all those who supported the Union ticket, so called, but a great
majority of the opposing party also may be fairly claimed to entertain and
to be actuated by the same purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to
this effect that no candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has
ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union.
There have been much impugning of motives and much heated controversy as
to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause, but on
the distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their
instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people. In
affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one to another and to
the world this firmness and unanimity of purpose, the election has been of
vast value to the national cause.

The election has exhibited another fact not less valuable to be known--the
fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most important branch of
national resources, that of living men. While it is melancholy to reflect
that the war has filled so many graves and carried mourning to so many
hearts, it is some relief to know that, compared with the surviving,
the fallen have been so few. While corps and divisions and brigades and
regiments have formed and fought and dwindled and gone out of existence, a
great majority of the men who composed them are still liv