Year: 1866

We are entering upon a new epoch /


our history. The period of struggle fc
the national existence is ended, and W


have celebrated our Thanksgiving to Go


for deliverance. The war administration


of both Nation and State have gone by


and we have begun a new era of peac


with its new duties and new responsible


ties. We have proven that our Govern


ment was strong enough to resist tn


most formidable efforts to destroy it b


force, and we are now to show whether


has such vitality that it can assimilate tn


different elements comprised under it


rule, and harmonic the antagonists nee
> esSarily remaining after so fierce a strife


For years all our energies and all our re


sources have been devoted to the simpl,


duty of subduing great rebellion; anC


what was demanded of US was undaunteC


courage and obstinate determination, con


centrating our will and power upon the


single purpose before us, and refusing tC


be turned aside for any other object unit


that was thoroughly accomplished. Now


we have put off the harness of war; the


grand army which saved the Republic i;
dishanded: its veterans have been quiet
lly absorbed into the mass of their fellow


citizens, and all are intently studying the


problem of changing a Union restored by
force, into one whose permanence shall


be guaranteed by mutual good will and
common interests, and be based upon


universal freedom and genuine republi-


canism. To do this will demand quail
ties of the head and heart quite as high
as anv that have been called into eXer-


else hitherto, and if we succeed in finding
the solution we seek we shall prove that
the victories of peace are far greater than
those of war. On the one hand are the


dangers of receiving into full participa-
ton in the Government those who have
been stalking everything upon its over
throw. and on the other, the obligations


we are under to the whole world to ad-


here to those doctrines of democratic


liberty and equality which lie at the
! foundation of our system whilst our re-


lations to the unfortunate African race.


whose slavery we have abolished, and


whose freedom we are sacredly bound to


protect, come in to complicate both
/ classes of difficulties.


! Congress and the President are now at


work upon the details of complete resto-
ration of civil government III the States
1 lately rebellinus, and we. in common with
! the whole country, are watching their
progress with the most earnest hope that
/ they may speedily agree upon a national
policy which shall thoroughly accord
with the highest interests of the whole
land. l do not regard this a proper time


to discuss specific measures which are be-
fore our federal legislatures and authori-
ties, but all our public acts in our State
organizations, as we'll as in our National
ha mara op 1ocS modified
by circumstances shaped by the great
war in which we have been engaged, and
it seems necessary therefore, as prepar-
alton for every species of public duty,
that we should look with special care at
have developed and recall the general
principles which should guide our actions
as servants of the people.


1t is in the excitement of great strug-
g.e that the institutions of a country are
in the most danger of change, and per-
haps no nation has ever passed through
such a convulsion as ours and then re-
turned to the principles of government
and exact form of constitution which it
had before. The maxim that revolutions
do not go backward, has seemed to have
even a wider and deeper significance
than has been popularity given it. The
same law of progression which has made
the commissions of monarchial govern
ments tend toward the development of
popular liberty, has in republics too often
led to despotism of classes or of factions,
and thence by easy stages to anarchy and
utter disruption. A victorious majority,
flushed with triumph, finds it easy to for
get the rights of minorities and it re-
mains for US to prove whether, IN our
day, the old cry of "Woe to the conquer
ed " may be silenced by a truly republi.
can determination to administer the goY-
eminent for the real advantage of all
Of the defeated rebels as well as of the
loyal victOrs.


The war was not waged by US, who re
manned faithful to the government, to
subvert any of the principles of human
liberty upon which that government was
based, but to confirm and establish them |
The one great doctrine which has been
settled by the war is that the National
Union cannot and shall not be destroyed
by the action of any of the States COM
posing it; but its continuance, its modif- |
cation, OF its dissolution shall be deter |
mined by the whole people acting as one
nation under the forms of the federal |
constitution. The one great social change |
which has been determined by the same !
event, is the abolition of slavery, the ex-
istence of which was staked upon the |
success of the rebellion, of which it was |
the cause.


These things have been decided in the |
dread court of last resort for peoples and |
nations. BY as much as the shock of arm |
ed hosts is more grand than the intellect |
ual tilt of lawyers as the God of battles /
is a more awful Judge than any earthly |
court; by so much does the dignity Of
this contest and the finality of this decis-
ion exceed that of any human tribunal. |
If we have not been right in pledging |
our lives and our fortunes to save our /
country, then the blood of the myriads |
of heroes who have fallen rests with muir
derous guilt upon our souls, and we
should never consent that the justifcs- |
ton or condemnation of this great people |
should rest, now or hereafter, with any
bench of judges, however learned, espee-
tally when each judge must determine
his own case, since he must have been for
or against the country in the truggle.-I
There are some things to which courts of
law can add no sanction, and q nations
appeal to God when it seizes the sword is
one of them. We may, when necessary,
try individual traitors, and the people of
the United States will appear as prosecu-
tors, but not as defendants.


Being conqueror, the Government has
the undoubted right to impose terms up
on the conquered, but in the statement
of what should limit and define those terms
difficulties arise. We are apt, indeed, to
listen with impatience to any limitation
of our control over those who are subject
to US. The pleasures of rullership snd
the joy which is felt in the exerciIe of
power have always appealed with peculi-
ar force to the frsilties of human nature,
and professed republicans have been as
subject to their temptations IS other
men. In time like this most of us feel
the necessity of checking our impulses
and passions, challenging the motives
and consistency of our actions, and of
our attention, by effort of will,
upon principles of governments and of
human rights which have been axioms to
us during the period of the growth of our
and of conflicts between us
and rorverfuI foreiOn nowera HoweVar