nent
journalist give him, in many respects, excellent facilities for the
accomplishment of his delicate and by no means easy task. Nor is he less
admirably qualified for its execution by the native bent of his mind,
and his experience as one of the leaders of a great political party.
With an instinctive passion for freedom, a profound faith in social and
humanitary progress, and an ardent devotion to the interests of the
masses, irrespective of artificial and temporary distinctions, he has
long watched the conflict of opinions and the development of ideas with
reference to their bearing on the great American principle of political
justice and individual right. Without following the lead of any special
class of reformers, he has been keenly sensitive to the wrongs and
outrages which, under the semblance of freedom, have blended themselves
with the institutions of the country. His clear-headed sagacity has
enabled him to foresee the perilous consequences of political
inconsistencies. For many years he has anticipated the disastrous
effects of the social anomalies for which our statesmen of all parties
have sought a remedy in compromises and concealment. He has adhered to
the policy of attacking political evils with political weapons. The
institution of Slavery, in his view, was one of the crying wrongs for
which the cure was to be found in the ballot-box. Not so much by
denouncing and exhorting as by giving effect to popular sentiment
through the elections, has he aimed at social regeneration. To this
principle he has steadily adhered throughout his public life. His
political relations have been formed in accordance with this idea. The
character and tendency of parties have been judged by this standard.
Hence the present work is eminently the record of his personal
experience. It presents in vivid outlines and with striking
illustrations the action of political causes with which he has been as
familiar as with the alphabet of his mother-tongue. The principles of
the great rebellion are traced back to the little germs which have since
expanded into a tree of such mighty proportions and of such baleful
character. Few men, we may perhaps safely say no man, among us, could
bring to the composition of a work with this intent such a rich fund of
observation, such intimate knowledge of the practical working of
parties, such true insight into the aims and motives of the conspicuous
American statesmen, such accurate judgment in reg