ith the
potential right of rule under the Constitution, and the great principle
of constitutional liberty in his election and elevation stood justified.
It mattered not then, nor matters it now, to us, what may be individual
opinion of his merits or demerits, his ability or his disability. There
he is, not as a private citizen, but as the head of our Government: his
individuality is lost in his official embodiment. This principle being
acknowledged, and party opinion being buried, in theory at least, at the
foot of the altar of the Government _de facto_, whence is it that at
this time creeps into our council chambers, our political cliques, our
social haunts, our market places, ay, our most sacred tabernacles--a
spirit adverse to the principles for which we are fighting, laboring
for, and dying for? Let us--a people anxious for peace on honorable
grounds, anxious for a Union which no rash hand shall ever again attempt
to destroy--look, with a moment's calm reflection, at this alarming
evil.

It is very evident to most men that, in spite of temporary defeats and
an unexpected prolongation of the war, the loyal States hold
unquestionably the preponderance of power. Nothing but armed
intervention from abroad can now affect even temporarily this
preponderance. As events and purposes are seen more clearly through the
smoke of the battle fields by the ever-watchful eyes of Europe, armed
intervention becomes less and less a matter of probability. The hopes of
an honorable peace, therefore, hang upon the increase and continuance of
this military preponderance. With the spirit of determination evinced by
both combatants, the unflinching valor of both armies, and with the
unquestioned resources and ability to hold out of the North, it appears
evident that the strife for mastery will in time terminate in favor of
the loyal States. There is but one undermining influence which can
defeat this end, and still further prolong the war, or, what is worse,
plunge the North into the irretrievable disaster of internal
conflict--and that undermining influence is _dissension among
ourselves_. Such a consummation would bring joy to the hearts of our
enemies and lend them the first ray of real hope that ultimate
separation will be their purchased peace. We will not here draw a
picture of that fallacious peace, that suicidal gap, whose festering
political sore would breed misery and ruin, not only for ourselves, but
for our posterity, for ages