arious systems
and customs that were prejudicial to the prosperity of the island. Among
these may be mentioned the Encumbered Estates and Absenteeism; and it is
worthy of remark that whatever has been done by the British government
for the promotion of the prosperity of Ireland, and the pacification of
its people, has been by a reformation of the institutions of the
country.

Rebels in arms may be overthrown and dispersed by superior force, but
the danger of rebellion will continue so long as the disposition to
rebel animates the people. This disposition can not be reached by
military power merely; the exciting cause must be removed, or, at least,
so limited and modified as to impair its influence as a disturbing force
in the policy of the country. As we have failed to trace this rebellion
to any of the causes that have led to civil disturbances in other
countries, it only remains to suggest that cause which in its relations
and conditions is peculiar to the United States. All are agreed that
slavery is the cause of the rebellion. Yet slavery exists in other
countries,--as Brazil, for example,--and thus far without exhibiting its
malign influence in conspiracy and rebellion. This is no doubt true; but
it should be borne in mind that, in the United States, slavery has power
in the government as the basis of representation, and that the slave
States are associated in the government with free States. If the
institution of slavery had not been a basis of political power, or had
all the States maintained slavery, it is probable that the rebellion
would never have been organized, or, if organized, it could never have
attained its present gigantic proportions.

We have now reached a point where we can see the error of our public
national life. The doctrine announced by President Lincoln, while he was
only Mr. Lincoln, of Springfield, that the nation must be all free or
all slave, was not new with him. The men who framed the constitution
acted under the same idea, though they may not have so distinctly
expressed the truth. There is, however, abundant circumstantial evidence
that they so believed, and that their only hope for the country was
based on the then reasonable expectation that slavery would disappear,
and that the nation would be all free. It was reserved for modern
political alchemists to discover the idea on which the leading
politicians have been acting for thirty or forty years, that one half of
a nation might be