otion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died
in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom;
and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth."

2. _Conscription and the Politics of 1863_.

The events of our day may tempt us to underestimate the magnitude of the
American Civil War, not only in respect of its issues, but in respect of
the efforts that were put forth. Impartial historians declare that "no
previous war had ever in the same time entailed upon the combatants such
enormous sacrifices of life and wealth." Even such battles as Malplaquet
had not rivalled in carnage the battles of this war, and in the space of
these four years there took place a number of engagements--far more than
can be recounted here--in many of which, as at Gettysburg, the casualties
amounted to a quarter of the whole forces engaged. The Southern armies,
especially towards the end of the war, were continually being pitted
against vastly superior numbers; the Northern armies, whether we look at
the whole war as one vast enterprise of conquest or at almost any
important battle save that of Gettysburg, were as continually confronted
with great obstacles in the matter of locality and position. In this
case, of a new and not much organised country unprepared for war, exact
or intelligible figures as to losses or as to the forces raised must not
be expected, but, according to what seems to be a fair estimate, the
total deaths on the Northern and the Southern side directly due to the
war stood to the population of the whole country at its beginning as at
least 1 to 32. Of these deaths about half occurred on the Northern and
half on the Southern side; this, however, implies that in proportion to
its population the South lost twice as heavily as the North.

Neither side obtained the levies of men that it needed without resort to
compulsion. The South, in which this necessity either arose more quickly
or was seen more readily, had called up before the end of the war its
whole available manhood. In the North the proportion of effort and
sacrifice required was obviously less, and, at least at one critical
moment, it was disastrously under-estimated. A system of compulsion, to
be used in default of volunteering, was brought into effect half-way
through the war. Under this system there were in arms at the end of the
war 980,000 white Northern so