l men; but is it not equally the duty of the President
to support the people? And have they not supported him,--supported him
with men, with money, with the surrender of the enjoyment of some of
their dearest rights, with their full confidence, with good wishes and
better deeds, and with all the rest of the numerous moral and material
means of waging war vigorously and triumphantly? And if they have
done and are doing all this, who will be to blame, if the enemy shall
accomplish their purpose?

The President and his immediate associates are placed so high by their
talents and their positions that they must be supposed open to the love
of fame, and to desire honorable mention in their country's annals,
especially as they have to do with matters of such transcendent
importance, greater even than those that absorbed the attention of
Washington and Hamilton, of Jefferson and Madison, of Jackson and
Livingston. It is for themselves to decide what shall be said of them
hereafter, and through all future time,--whether they shall be blessed
or banned, cursed or canonized. The judgment that shall be passed upon
them and their work will be given according to the result, and from it
there can be no appeal. The Portuguese have a well-known proverb, that
"the way to hell is paved with good intentions;" but it is not
the laborers on that broad and crowded highway who gain honorable
immortality. The decisions of posterity are not made with reference to
men's motives and intentions, but upon their deeds. With posterity,
success is the proper proof of merit, when nothing necessary to its
winning is denied to the players in the world's great games. Richmond is
worshipped, and Richard detested, not because the former was good and
great, and the latter wicked and weak, for Richard was the better and
the abler man, but for the reason that the decision was in Richmond's
favor on Bosworth Field. The only difference between Catiline and
Caesar, according to an eminent statesman and scholar, is this: Catiline
was crushed by his foes, and Caesar's foes were crushed by him. This
may seem harsh, but we fear that it is only too true,--that it is in
accordance with that irreversible law of the world which makes success
the test of worth in the management of human affairs. If Mr. Lincoln
and his confidential officers would have the highest American places in
after-days as well as to-day, let them win those places by winning the
nation's battle. They