who greeted him loudly thus far are surprised and overawed: a new
audience is found in the heart of the assembly,--an audience hitherto
passive and unconcerned, now at last so searched and kindled that they
come forward, every one a representative of mankind, standing for all
nationalities.

The extreme moderation with which the President advanced to his
design,--his long-avowed expectant policy, as if he chose to be strictly
the executive of the best public sentiment of the country, waiting only
till it should be unmistakably pronounced,--so fair a mind that none
ever listened so patiently to such extreme varieties of opinion,--so
reticent that his decision has taken all parties by surprise, whilst
yet it is the just sequel of his prior acts,--the firm tone in which he
announces it, without inflation or surplusage,--all these have bespoken
such favor to the act, that, great as the popularity of the President
has been, we are beginning to think that we have underestimated the
capacity and virtue which the Divine Providence has made an instrument
of benefit so vast. He has been permitted to do more for America than
any other American man. He is well entitled to the most indulgent
construction. Forget all that we thought shortcomings, every mistake,
every delay. In the extreme embarrassments of his part, call these
endurance, wisdom, magnanimity, illuminated, as they now are, by this
dazzling success.

When we consider the immense opposition that has been neutralized or
converted by the progress of the war, (for it is not long since the
President anticipated the resignation of a large number of officers in
the army, and the secession of three States, on the promulgation of this
policy,)--when we see how the great stake which foreign nations hold in
our affairs has recently brought every European power as a client into
this court, and it became every day more apparent what gigantic and
what remote interests were to be affected by the decision of the
President,--one can hardly say the deliberation was too long. Against
all timorous counsels he had the courage to seize the moment; and such
was his position, and such the felicity attending the action, that he
has replaced Government in the good graces of mankind. "Better is virtue
in the sovereign than plenty in the season," say the Chinese. 'Tis
wonderful what power is, and how ill it is used, and how its ill use
makes life mean, and the sunshine dark. Life in America had