d have about the same
chances of success as attended the unfortunate cat which ventured
without claws among panthers. Measure such men by their moral worth and
by the good they do, and do not require of the hard-shell Methodist
preacher and tough polemical grappler with Satan in his most bristly and
thick-skinned Western incarnations that he display too much delicacy.
Those who will read his book may gather from it, beyond the interesting
personal and political narrative of which it consists, many useful and
curious hints as to the social development of America and of what men
the country is truly made. It is a _real_ work--one of value--interesting
to all, and very truly one of the monuments of this war and
of the scenes which preceded it in Tennessee.

EDITOR'S TABLE

The proclamation of President Lincoln in reference to General Hunter,
and the bold measures of the latter calling forth Executive
interference, form one of the most interesting episodes of the war of
Freedom. Regarded from the high standpoint whence acts are seen as
controlled by circumstances and formed by events, the conduct of the one
public functionary, as of the other, will appear to the future historian
in a very different light from that in which it has been presented by
either the radical or democratic journals of the day. He will speak of
the one as a military chieftain under the influence of worthy motives,
cutting a Gordian knot which the higher and controlling diplomatic and
executive superior wished should be cautiously untied. The one has acted
with a view to promptly settling a great trouble within his own
sphere--the other wisely comprehending that the action was premature,
has decisively countered it. By attempting to free the slaves, General
Hunter has shown himself a friend of freedom and a man of bold measures;
by annulling his acts Mr. Lincoln has availed himself of an excellent
opportunity of proving to the South and to the world that he is not, as
was said, a sectional or an Abolition President, and that with the
strongest sympathies for freedom, he is determined to respect the rights
even of enemies, and leave behind him a clear record, as one who did
nothing wrongly, and who with keen and wide comprehending glance took in
the times as they were, and acted accordingly.

Meanwhile to the most prejudiced vision it is apparent that the great
cause of Emancipation has gained vastly by this little struggle between
the shephe