e have had
enough of invective; at any rate the pulpit may spare it. God is my
witness, I feel no vindictive resentment, no bitter hostility against
those who have been swept away by this terrible delusion. Moreover, I
confess to being greatly moved by the circumstance that in some
respects what is true of us is true also of them. They seem to be of
one mind; their religious men appeal with confidence to the righteous
Judge; their women are working day and night to help forward the
cause. If it were a mere question of interest, or passion, or
prejudice between us and them, it might be said that one side is as
likely to be self-deceived as the other. But it is not. By striking at
the principles of all constitutional and free government, and this too
avowedly for the purpose of founding society on the servitude of an
inferior race, on whose toil the more favored races are to live, they
have put themselves in opposition to the settled convictions and the
moral sense of good men all over the world.

To the student of history it is no new thing that a whole community
should be given over "to believe a lie,"--not the less mad, because
all mad together. The process by which this state of things is brought
about is always substantially the same. Egotism, vanity, disappointed
ambition, sectional jealousies, a real or supposed interest or
expediency induce them to _wish_ that a wrong course were the right
one. They try to convince themselves that it is so, and all such
efforts to sophisticate the conscience, if persisted in, are _punished
by entire success_. The spectacle does not inspire me with hate; it
fills me with wonder and profound melancholy. Do these men think that
by altering their opinion of right they can alter the nature of
things, or make wrong come out right in the great and solemn issues
which are before us? We stand where their own great men stood in the
best days of the republic. As regards the leading rights and interests
at stake, our consciences are but the echo of the conscience of the
Christian world. The fathers of the Revolution, one and all, are
looking down with sorrow and indignation on this attempt to break up
and destroy their work.

Nevertheless, it can do no good to begin by overvaluing ourselves, or
undervaluing our enemies. We know that the behests of a righteous
Providence will be accomplished, but we do not know in what way. It is
more than probable that in the troubles and distractions which