ere still remains for
determination the most important question as to the nature of the
conditions which ought to be exacted of the returning States--a problem
of the most difficult character, involving the most delicate of all
considerations, and demanding for its solution the highest practical
statesmanship and the most profound wisdom, based upon moderation,
firmness, liberality, and justice. In this problem several elements
exist in complicated combination, and each one of these must be fairly
considered in the adjustment whenever it may be made. The measures of
safety which the Government has been compelled to adopt in the progress
of the war, and to which it may be committed without recall; the
condition of the rebellious States, and their demands and propositions;
and finally, the interests, rights, and just expectations of the African
race, which has become so intimately involved in this terrible
strife--all these must be weighed accurately in the scales of truth, and
with the impartial hand of disinterested patriotism. No mere partisan
considerations, no promptings of selfish ambition, and no miserable
sectional enmities or fierce desires for revenge, ought to be allowed to
mingle with our thoughts and feelings when we approach this great
subject of restoring peace and harmony to the people and States of this
mighty republic. Awful will be the responsibility of those men in
authority, who shall fail to rise to the height of this momentous
emergency in the history of our country--who shall be wanting in the
courage, the purity, the magnanimity necessary to save the nation from
disunion and anarchy.

What ought to be the conditions upon which the rebellious States are to
be reestablished in their old relations, it is perhaps premature now to
attempt to determine. The war is not yet closed, although we are
sufficiently sanguine to believe that we have already seen 'the
beginning of the end.' But the still nearer approach of the final acts
in the great drama will give a mighty impetus to events, and many great
changes will be wrought in the condition of the Southern people, and in
their feelings toward the Union, against which too many of them are
still breathing hate and vengeance. They have scarcely yet been
sufficiently chastened even by the fiery ordeal through which they have
been compelled to pass. Every day, however, increases the bitterness of
the scourge under which they suffer, and if it does not avail to