le have been proven in a
hundred times and ways during the war, to exist in us. Courage,
forethought, endurance, self-sacrifice, magnaminity, and a noble sense
of honor, are a few of the virtues which we have cropped from the bloody
harvest of the battle field.

It is true that wicked men are among us--for when did a company, godly
or otherwise, engage in any work, and Satan did not also fling his
wallet over his shoulder and set out with them for evil purposes of his
own?--but after all, these are but a small minority, and their efforts
to ruin the republic and bring defeat and dishonor upon the Federal
arms, have not yet proved to be of a very formidable nature. These, the
enemies of America, though her native-born sons, the people can afford
to treat with the contempt which they merit. For the rest, this war will
make us a nation, and bind us together with bonds as strong as those of
the old European nationalities. It will make us great, and loving
patriots also; and root out from among us a vast amount of sham and
political fraud, to the great bettering of society.

We shall have reason in many ways to bless its coming and its
consequences. It was indeed just as necessary to our future national
life and happiness as the bursting out of a volcano is to the general
safety of the earth. It will destroy slavery for ever, and thus relieve
us from the great contention which has so long and so bitterly occupied
the lives of our public men and the thoughts of the world. In reality,
we have never yet given republicanism a fair trial upon this continent.
With that dreadful curse and crime of slavery tearing at its heart and
brain, how was it possible for equality and self-government to be
anything else but a delusion and a mockery? This cleared out of our
pathway, and we have enough virtue, intelligence, and wealth of physical
resources in the land to realize the prophecy and the hope of all noble
thinkers and believes on the planet, and place America first and
foremost among the nations--the richest, the wisest, the best, and the
bravest.

LONGING

The corruption of a noble disposition is invariably from some false
charm of fancy or imagination which has over-mastered the mind with its
powerful magic and carried away the will captive. It is some perverted
apprehension or illusory power of the infinite which causes a man who
has once fallen a prey to any strong passion to devote all his energies,
thoughts, and fe