ecorum and with a
proper respect for the opinions of their adversaries? Why then do we or
they employ, through the press and in rhetorical bombast, opprobrious
epithets, fit only for the pot-house or the shambles? Shall we men and
citizens, each of us a pillar upholding the crowning dome of our
nationality, be taught, like vexed and querulous children, the impotence
of personal abuse? Why seek to lay upon the head of this Cabinet officer
or that, this Senator or that, the responsibility of temporary military
defeats, when we are no more able to command and prevent reverses than
are they? Or if in our superior wisdom we deem ourselves to be the
better able to direct and administer, why do we forget that others among
us, inspired by the same love of country, and equally ardent for its
safety and advancement, hold exactly contrary opinions? It is not a
matter of opinion--it is not a matter for interference, it is simply and
only a matter for untiring unflinching confidence and support. We have
done our duty as a people, and elected our Administration--let us, in
the name of all that is sublime and fundamental in republican
principles, support and not perplex them in the hard and complex problem
which they are appointed to solve. These are principles, which, however
trite, need to be kept before us and practically sustained at a period
when, as is often the case in long and tedious wars, the dispiriting
influence of delays and occasional defeats work erroneous conclusions in
the minds of the people, leading to unjust accusations against the men
in power, and an unwillingness to frankly acknowledge that the evil too
often originated where the result most immediately occurred. In other
words, our armies have often suffered simply and for no other reason
than that they were outgeneralled on the field of battle, or overpowered
by military causes for which no one is to blame--least of all, the
President or his advisers.

And here let one word be said against the arguments of those
well-meaning and patriotic men who attempt to prove that certain acts of
the Government have been injudicious and unwise--such, for example, as
the suspension of the habeas corpus, the alleged illegal arrests, and
the emancipation policy. It is not the purpose of this paper to enter
into additional argument to sustain this opinion or to disprove it. But
in justice to the Government--simply because it is a Government--let it
not be forgotten that when e