as well do it betimes with a good grace, for it is very
doubtful if those who venture to oppose the settlement of our soldiers
in the South, will not stir up such a storm of trouble as this country
never saw. An army of half a million after a year or two years of
battle-life, will not calmly return to its wonted avocations,
notwithstanding all that has been said to that effect. A warrant for
Western lands, which will possibly bring a hundred dollars, will seem
but a small matter to men who have seen unlimited paths to competence in
the rich fields of the South. They will not comprehend why the enemy
should be allowed to retain his possessions while they themselves have
been thrown out of employment. There is to be some end to this
protecting the rights and property of rebels. And it is very certain
that a vast number of those who were non-combatants will perfectly agree
with them.

It is pleasant to see the process of reconstruction going on so well in
New-Orleans under the bayonets of our troops. But neither in New-Orleans
nor elsewhere has it any vitality save under Northern direction, aided
by Northern industry. The hatred of the South for the old Union is
insane, terrible, and ineradicable. The real secessionists will never
come back, they will never be conciliated. They will oppose Union,
oppose free labor, hinder our every effort to benefit them, and be our
deadly foes to the last. We might as well abandon now and forever any
hope of reconstruction to be founded on reformed secessionists. A large
party there is--and it will, if properly protected, become much
larger--who will join the Union for the sake of preserving their
property. _But this party will not be increased a single man by our
neglecting to punish those who have been active rebels_, while on the
other hand it will dwindle to nothing if left exposed to temptation and
enmity. We must proceed with the utmost energy, and our only hope is in
a complete reoerganization of the South, by infusing into it Northern
blood, life, ideas, education, and industry. And the only effective
means of doing this will be to settle our army in the South. The task
before us is a tremendous one, but so is the war, and we must not flinch
from it.

We have come to an era of great ideas and great deeds, such as rarely
overtake nations in history, and which when they do, either crush them
to the dust or elevate them to the topmost pinnacle of glory. Petty
expediency, timid meas