ot destroy the genuine sympathy between the two nations.

_October 4._--The probable majority in the next Congress is the
great object of present calculation and speculation. The
Administration seems to be of the opinion, that a small republican
majority will do as well, because it will be more compact and more
easily to be played upon. God save the country from a majority
_twistable_ by the Administration! If the majority is small, then it
may be unable to drag such dead-weight as was the Administration
directed by its master spirit.

The Administration ought to be dusted and pruned. This
Administration especially needs to be shaken and kept always on the
_qui vive_ by an honest and a patriotic opposition. The opposition
made by Copperheads is neither honest nor patriotic. Opposition is a
vital element of parliamentary government; and as by a curse, the
opposition here is made not to acts of the Administration--the
Copperheads wish to throttle the principle which inspires the best
part of the people. If it was possible to have an opposition strong
enough to control the misdeeds of the Administration, to serve for
the Administration as a telescope to penetrate space, and as a
microscope to find out the vermin: if such an opposition could be
built up, it would have forced the Administration to act vigorously
and decidedly, it could have preserved the Administration from
repeated violations of the rules of common sense, and in certain
Administrative brains the opposition could have kindled sagacity and
farsightedness:--such counterpoise would have spared thousands and
thousands of lives, and thousands of millions of money.

_October 6._--Meade will retreat or already retreats. The choice of
the army, Meade, has not yet greatly justified itself. And Meade,
too, builds up in the army a clique of generals, and therein Meade
begins to imitate McClellan. Likewise McClellan seems to have been
Meade's model at Williamsport, and, McClellan-like, Meade has wasted
precious time.

And thus the month of October sees us on the defensive on the whole
line, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. After two and a half years
of military misdirection, of rivers of blood, of mines of
money--there we are.

Hurrah for Lincoln and for his apostles!

_October 6._--How the world's history is handled, twisted, and
_bungled_. Wiseacres put history on the rack to evidence their own
ignorance. The one invokes England's example during Wellington'