before, the conflict
itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a
result less fundamental and astounding. _Both read the same Bible
and pray to the same God_, and each invoked His aid against the
other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just
God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other
men's faces; but let us 'judge not that we be not judged.' The
prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been
answered fully.

"The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because
of offences. For it must needs be that offences come; but woe to
that man by whom the offence cometh.' If we shall suppose that
American slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence
of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His
appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both
North and South this terrible war, as the woe to those by whom the
offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those
divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe
to Him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray that this mighty
scourge of woe may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it
continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondsman's two hundred
and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every
drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn
with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it
must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether.'

"With malice toward none, with charity for all; with firmness in
the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care
for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and
his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and
lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."

(111) _Hist. of Rebellion_ (McPherson), 508-520.

(112) He was, as Lieutenant-General, June 14, 1864, killed by a
shell, at Marietta, Ga., while reconnoitering the Union lines.

(113) _Hist. of Rebellion_ (McPherson), pp. 460-508.

XXV
PROPOSED CONCESSIONS TO SLAVERY--BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION AND
CONGRESS--1860-1

The manner of receiving and treating the secession of the States
by the administration of Buchanan and the Thirty-Sixth Congress
can only here have a brief notice. There was a pretty general
di