t is only
criminal stubbornness and passion which induce us to continue the awful
conflict.

Of one thing, at least, there is no shadow of doubt. The people of the
loyal States, who, by an immense majority, have just emphasized their
determination to sustain the war, are firmly convinced that they are not
laboring and suffering in vain. It is no spasmodic impulse of blind
passion, or even of useless though just resentment against wrong, which
impels them, after nearly three years of ruinous war, to redouble their
sublime efforts to conquer the treason that still obstinately resists
the lawful authority of the Union. Whatever else may be truly said of
this great conflict and its terrible results, it cannot be questioned
that the people of the loyal States are profoundly impressed with the
inestimable value of their free institutions and of the constitutional
integrity and unity of the Government which shall administer them on
this continent. They have faith in the exalted destiny of their country.
They at least do not admit that the Union is irrecoverably lost; on the
contrary, they believe, with a religious sincerity, which no temporary
disaster can shake, in the certainty of its speedy restoration. This
earnest faith is not merely the result of education and national
prejudice. While it is to some extent an instinctive or intuitive
insight of the American people, prophetically anticipating the future,
it is also a matter of sober judgment, founded upon the most substantial
and convincing reasons.

In the first place, the loyal people of the United States plainly see
that the true interests of both sections demand the restoration of their
old connection under one free and benign Government. Having originated
and developed a mighty republican government, until it became
continental in its dimensions, and having through it achieved results
unexampled in history, with the promise of future prosperity
immeasurably grand and imposing, the lovers of the Union would hold
themselves utterly unworthy of their lineage and of their inherited
freedom, if they could consent, in the presence of whatever dangers and
difficulties, to see the glorious destiny of their country defeated.
They would justly consider themselves traitors, not only to their
country, but also to the highest interests of humanity itself; and they
would feel the ineffable shame of imprinting the brand of their
degradation upon their own brows. Partakers of the