all the Territories of the
United States, cut the 'Confederacy' in two equal parts, holding the
western division at our mercy, opened the Mississippi and all its
tributaries, and crowded the rebellion into the five States nearest the
Atlantic coast. In the east we have fought a score of battles with the
most formidable army ever marshalled on this continent, composed of the
flower of the rebel soldiery led by their best generalship, and, spite
of frequent repulses, have forced it from the Potomac and below the
Rappahannock to the James, away from the smell of salt water, holding
firmly every seaport from Washington to Wilmington, North Carolina, and
a belt of land and water commanding the approach to the interior of
every Atlantic State. The military force of the rebellion is rapidly
being crowded into one army, not exceeding two hundred and fifty
thousand men, against which the mighty power of the Union can be
marshalled in overwhelming array. I know well enough that the decisive
moment will really come when we confront that desperate and veteran
host, on which the fate of aristocratic government upon this continent
depends. But we shall then have a great army of veterans, marshalled
under commanders fit to lead them in the name of liberty and the people.

It is not strange it has taken us three years to find who can fight
among us. The Germans fought fifty years against religious despotism
before they found Gustavus Adolphus to lead them to victory. The English
fought ten years before Cromwell took command of his Ironsides. The
French blundered ten years before the 'little corporal' led the army of
the republic over the Alps to dethrone half the monarchs of Europe. The
people had but one great general in the Revolutionary War. Until 1860
the aristocracy had furnished the only great American commander. But
great generals have now appeared among the people; and if we fight
stoutly and treat men fairly, our commander will appear when his army of
veterans is ready.

The aristocracy at first moved armies faster than the people, for the
same reason that the Tartars, the Cossacks, the Arabs, the Indians, and
all semi-barbarians move more rapidly in war than a civilized people. A
semi-barbarous oligarchy fights because it loves war; a civilized people
fights to _establish civilization and peace_. The Southern army carries
little along, lives on the food and wears the dress of the semi-savage,
and overruns vast spaces, leavin