on and ill-concealed chagrin at the growing strength we
exhibit with every day's experience in the mighty contest. They are
disappointed that we are not overwhelmed by every slight check we
suffer, and astounded that we are not at all discouraged even by serious
disasters to our arms. We derive renewed energy and courage from our
very reverses, which give us the inestimable advantage of experience,
and enable us finally to turn misfortune into good. Our determination
becomes more fixed and immovable with every demand upon our fortitude;
and thus the power of the nation advances steadily through all the
varying incidents of the struggle, so that now, after these two years of
sanguinary civil war, with the gigantic rebellion still wrestling and
warring in the bosom of the republic, we yet stand before the world an
object of respect and fear to those who hate us and wish us evil, while
the masses of men in all countries, who love liberty and desire to
escape from despotism, still seek our shores as the very Canaan of
promise and the asylum of freedom, even in the midst of our grand
struggle for existence as a nation.

It is the people, in their national capacity, as distinguished from the
mere agents of Government, who present this sublime spectacle to the
view of mankind. The Government for the time being may commit blunders
and follies innumerable; yet behind all these, there is the solid and
enduring judgment of the nation, which will eventually correct all
errors, and bring back the wandering statesman to the paths of common
sense and ultimate safety. Two years have not sufficed to teach us what
we require to know in order to bear ourselves altogether nobly and
calmly in so grand an emergency. We have not yet been sufficiently
schooled in war, and especially in the bitter experience of civil war,
to be able to resist the pressure of great dangers and difficulties,
and, at the same time, to maintain undisturbed all the ordinary
operations of civil life, and to secure due respect for personal rights
and liberties. The mighty and unexampled convulsion of the whole nation,
consequent on the rebellion of a wealthy and powerful section, which
constituted the bulk of one great political party in the country, and
which necessarily had connections of interest and sympathy with large
numbers in all the States, has tended to develop party political
animosities to the highest pitch. This terrible excitement, continued
without inte