ed to the most alarming proportions, and with,
results but partially developed. Here we of the North stand, with a
still invincible army, loyal to the cause nearest to the heart of every
patriot, and confident in the ability to withstand and overcome the
machinations of the enemy. Here, too, we--ay, _we_ of the South stand,
bound together in a common aim, an ardent hope, and a proclaimed and
omnipotent impulse to action. _This is the only proper view to take of
the case_--to regard our opponents as we regard ourselves, and to give
due credit where credit is due for valor, for motives, and for
principles of action. The North believes itself to be engaged in a
strife forced upon it by blinded prejudice and evil passion, and fights
for that which, if not worthy of fighting, ay, and dying for, is unfit
to live for, namely, national integrity. The South claims, little as we
can understand it, the same ground for rising against the land they had
sworn to protect, and whose fathers died with our fathers to create. We
at the North would have been pusillanimous and weak indeed had we
silently submitted to that which is in our view against every principle
of national right and renown. To have acted otherwise would have been to
bring down upon our heads the scorn and contempt of our enemies and of
every foreign power, from the strongest oligarchy to the most benevolent
form of monarchical government. Hence it is that while certain foreign
powers have not failed to improve the opportunity of our weakness, as a
divided nation, to insult and sneer, to preach peace with dishonor, and
advocate separation, which they know to be but another word for
humiliation, yet have they not failed to see and been forced to confess
that, divided as we are, we have shown inherent greatness and power,
_which, united, would be a degree of national superiority which might
well defy the world_. Nothing is more striking at this moment than this
great fact, and no topic is more worthy of the serious consideration of
our countrymen, North and South, than this. No time is fitter than now
to suggest the subject, and to see in it matter which is pregnant with
hopes for our future. If nothing but this great truth had been developed
by the war--this truth, bold, naked, defiant as it is, _is worth the
war_--worth all its cost of noble lives, of sacred blood, of yet
uncounted treasure. We stand before the world this day divided by the
fearful conflict, with malignan