re, whether a ruler be
exercising the civil power in times of peaceful national life, or
whether, in times of rebellion, he wields the military authority
essential to security, he is alike, at either time, a despot or a
republican, accordingly as he exercises his power without regard to the
will of the people, or as he exercises such power only as the national
voice delegates to him.

Wendell Phillips said in his oration before the Smithsonian Institute:
'Abraham Lincoln sits to-day the greatest despot this side of China.'
The mistake of Mr. Phillips was this: He confounded the method of
exercising power with the nature of the power exercised. It is the
latter which decides the question of despotism or of freedom. The
methods of the republican governor and of the despot may be, in times of
war _must_ be, for the most part, identical. But the one is,
nevertheless, as truly a republican as the other is a despot. Freedom of
speech, freedom of the press, the right of travel, the writ of _habeas
corpus_--these insignia of liberty in a people are dispensed with in
despotic Governments, because the ruler chooses to deprive the people of
their benefits, and for that reason only; they were suspended in our
Government because the national safety seemed to demand it, and because
the President, as the accredited executive of the wishes of the people,
fulfilled their clearly indicated will. In the former case it is lordly
authority overriding the necks of the people for personal pride or
power; in the latter, it is the ripe fruit of republican civilization,
which, in times of danger, can with safety and security overleap, for
the moment, the mere forms of law, in order to secure its beneficial
results. They seem to resemble each other; but are as wide apart as
irreligion and that highest religious life which, transcending all
external observances, seems to the mere religious formalist to be
identical with it.

But how is the Executive to ascertain the behest of the people? In
accordance with the modes which they, as a part of their behest,
indicate. But as there are two methods of fulfilling the wishes of the
people, one adapted to the ordinary routine of peaceful times, and
another to the more summary necessities of war, so there are two
methods, calculated for these diverse national states, by which the
Government must discover the will of the people. The slow, deliberate
action of the ballot box and of the legislative body is a