d States, both foreign and domestic, will have
been changed materially. At the present moment, however, the condition
of the country is unpromising enough; yet not so gloomy as to preclude
the hope of a fortunate issue. The sacrifices and sufferings of the
people are greater in civil than in foreign wars, and the ultimate
advantages and benefits are proportionately large. We speak now of those
civil wars which have occurred between people inhabiting the same
district of country,--as the civil wars of England. Other contests, as
the revolutions of Hungary, Poland, and Ireland even, were not, strictly
speaking, civil wars. The parties were of different origin, and had
never assimilated in language, customs, or ideas. The struggle was for
the reestablishment of a government which had once existed, and not for
the reformation or change of a government that at the moment of the
conflict was performing its ordinary functions.

The civil war in America does not belong to either of the classes named.
To be sure, in Missouri, Kentucky, and Western Virginia, the contest has
been between the inhabitants of the several localities, aided by forces
from the rebel States on the one hand, and forces from the loyal States
on the other. But those States, as such, were never committed to the
rebellion; and the struggle within their limits has demonstrated the
inability of the so-called Confederate States to command the adhesion of
Missouri, Kentucky, and Western Virginia by force; but it does not, in
the accomplished results, demonstrate the ability of the United States
to crush the rebellion. The border States were debatable ground; but the
question has been settled in favor of the government so far, at least,
as Western Virginia and Missouri are concerned.

In the eleven seceded States there is no apparent difference of opinion
among those in authority, or among those accustomed to lead in public
affairs. The sentiment of attachment to the old Union has been
disappearing rapidly since the secession of South Carolina, until there
are now no open avowals of adherence to the government, unless such are
made by the mountaineers of Eastern Tennessee and Western North
Carolina. These men are for the present destitute of power. Should our
armies penetrate those regions, the inhabitants may essentially aid in
the reestablishment of the government. Still, for the present, we must
regard the eleven States as a unit in the rebellion. Thus we are c