god's purposes in the war. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 PIIESBYTEIUAN CHURCH AT CALDWELL, N. J,, 
 
 ON THE DAY OF 
 
 NATIONAL THANKSGIVING, 
 
 J^TJG-XJST 6, 1863 
 
 BY REV. I. N. SPRAGUE, 
 
 (pastor.) 
 
 NEWARK, N. J.: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE DAILY ADVERTISER OFFICE. 
 1863. 
 
GOD S PURPOSES IN THE WAR. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AT CALDWELL, N. J., 
 
 ON THE DAT OP 
 
 NATIONAL THANKSGIVING, 
 
 AUGUST 6, 1863 
 
 BY REV. I. N. SPRAGUE, 
 
 (PASTOR.) 
 
 NEWARK, N. J.: 
 
 PniNTED AT THE DAILY ADVERTISER OFFICE 
 18G3. 
 
ET 
 
 "3 
 
 '^iT 
 
Caldwell, Aug., 10, 18G3. 
 
 Rev. I. N. Sprague, 
 
 Denr Sir : 
 
 Believing that the publication of 
 
 the sermon delivered by you on the day of National Thanksgiving 
 
 will l3e productive of public good, we respectfully ask a copy of the 
 
 same for publication. 
 
 Truly Yours, 
 
 LEWIS C. GROVER, 
 ZENAS C. CRANE, 
 JAMES ORTON, 
 RUFUS F. HARRISON, 
 STEPHEN PERSONETT, 
 EDWIN R. DILLINGHAM. 
 
 
 Lewis C. Grovee, Esq., and others, 
 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 The sermon was written 
 with no other object than of being useful to my own people. You 
 are welcome to make it public if you think it will Ijc of any service 
 to the interests of our common country. 
 
 Yours, &c., 
 
 I. N. SPRAGUE. 
 
SERMOIsr. 
 
 That men may know that Thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most 
 High over all the earth.— Psalm Ixxxviii : 18. 
 
 On days appointed by our rulers, as occasions of thanks- 
 giving and praise, or of fasting and prayer, long-established 
 custom has allowed ministers a large liberty of speech. On 
 such occasions they have been permitted and even expected 
 to choose their themes from a wide range of subjects — to 
 lay aside ordinary gospel themes, and launch out into fields 
 secular and worldly, moral, social, scientific, national or gov- 
 ernmental. It is commonly expected of them that they will 
 then take up some popular topic of the day — some aspect of 
 national or governmental affairs, and that they will give what- 
 ever subject is thus selected, a fair and honest and Christian 
 discussion, not in the light of party politics, but in the light 
 of Bible truth. 
 
 While custom has given this latitude to the pulpit, every 
 right-minded minister will exercise a wise discretion, and have 
 due regard to the principles of propriety and usefulness, in 
 marking out the line of his duty. The apostle said, "All 
 things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient," 
 A minister is not hound to do all things that he may have a 
 right to do. There are some governmental themes, some 
 purely worldly questions, entering into the strife of political 
 parties often, which clearly may not lie, at all, in the lino of a 
 minister's duty to discuss ; but there are others which involve 
 so much of the principles of morality and religion, of duty to 
 
6 
 
 God and duty to man, that no minister can be silent on them 
 and be faithful to his ordination vows. In the consecration 
 to his sacred office, every minister is solemnly sworn " to de- 
 clare the whole counsel of God," according to his best judg- 
 ment, " whether men will hear or forbear." Should a minister 
 feel it his duty to preach on any topic of national affairs, 
 there is one consideration that should give him a wise discre- 
 tion in the exercise of prudence and piety. When a man is 
 elected President of these United States, the moment he takes 
 his seat in the executive chair, he becomes a national and 
 should cease to be a party man, for he becomes then the 
 President of both parties, and should have a supreme regard 
 to the interest, not of his own party, but of the whole nation. 
 So in every Christian congregation, there are persons of dif- 
 ferent political sentiments, whose views and feelings are 
 entitled to respect, in the public services of the sanctuary ; 
 and however strongly a minister may hold his own political 
 views, it would be a manifest breach of Christian propriety 
 and courtesy for him to take advantage of his public position 
 for the purpose of pulling down one party and building up 
 another. He is bound to preach the truth and the whole truth, 
 without regard to any party, remembering that he is the min- 
 ister of both parties and anxious to do good to all. I do not 
 say that even such a ministry, exercised on this principle, will 
 pass along, in times like these, without being found fault 
 with, by what the apostle terms " unreasonable men," — men 
 who always demand silence on all topics that are disagreeable 
 to them ; but I do say, that such a ministry will be acceptable 
 to God and profitable to men, for it is the only ministry which 
 is faithful and true, dividing to every man a portion in due 
 season, neither radical on the one hand, nor time-serving on 
 the other. 
 
 I claim, also, that the views of ministers, respecting the 
 moral and social and religious aspect of our national affairs, 
 
are entitled to respect and a fair consideration on the part of 
 the people, for two reasons : 
 
 1. They are good men. Make liberal exceptions in individual 
 cases, and it has been conceded on all hands that the world 
 has never seen a better class of men than the Protestant min- 
 istry of the present age — pious, honest, self-denying, laborious, 
 and devoted especially to their great work of advancing 
 civilization and saving the souls of men. Highly learned, 
 clear headed and honest minded, they possess the qualities, 
 and are in the fairest position, to take large, clear and right 
 views of all subjects in connection with the great principles of 
 religious morality. If I should find myself disagreeing with 
 such a body of men on moral subjects, I should seriously be- 
 gin to question whether I was not wrong. 
 
 2. These ministers hole over the affairs of the luorld from an 
 elevated stand-point. Party men, of both sides, are now look- 
 ing at the affairs of the country from their political platforms, 
 and of course everything appears to wear a peculiar tinge 
 from the positions they occupy. But I verily believe that the 
 great body of the Christian ministry are looking forth from a 
 higher position than any political platform. They take their 
 stand upon the Bible and upon its great revealed principles of 
 truth and righteousness. They measure the length and 
 breadth of every moral question, by the unerring standard of 
 God's holy Word. Is it in accordance with that Word ; then 
 it is right ! Is it contrary to that Word ; then it is wrong ! 
 This is the verdict of God's true ministers the world over, and 
 must be to the end of time. 
 
 Now look at these facts in connection with still another, 
 the wonderful harmony that exists among the great lody of minis- 
 ters of every denomination, at this moment, as to the moral ques- 
 tions involved in the present posture of our national affairs. 
 They are not all of one political party. On many things, like 
 other men, they have party views and preferences ; but if you 
 
8 
 
 note the utterances of Presbyteries, Synods, Assemblies, Con- 
 ferences, Conventions, and even missionary meetings, you will 
 hear, substantially, but one voice, evincing a most wonderful 
 agreement on the great moral questions and fundamental prin- 
 ciples connected with our present national condition. 
 
 In the present struggle for our national life, we are truly a 
 spectacle to the loorld. Political France and political and aris- 
 tocratic England, both governed by the principle of a supreme 
 worldly selfishness, are looking upon our struggle, with a 
 greedy desire that it may eventuate in the final separation of 
 North and South, and the breaking up of our free institutions. 
 In all of their actions towards us, all questions of right and 
 wrong they throw to the winds, and, in obedience to the 
 principle of brute force — that might is right, they will gather 
 from our misfortunes all the advantages they can. But the 
 Christian ministry of those countries have taken their stand 
 upon a higher platform, and, in spite of opposing political 
 influences at home, they have done one of the noblest deeds 
 of Christian brotherhood and sympathy, which the world has 
 ever seen. They did not offer us their material aid, for that 
 we did not need ; but they have given us what is better, 
 their prayers, their sympathy, and their brotherly assurance 
 of a God-speed, in our struggle for life and liberty. While 
 political France was plotting for our ruin, 750 ministers in 
 that empire have drawn up an address, embodying their 
 views on our national affairs ; and they have carried over that 
 address to their English brethren, calling upon them to unite 
 with them in expressing approbation and sympathy for the 
 North, in waging war for the suppression of rebellion. And 
 while English policy is furnishing ships and munitions of 
 war for our enemies, a similar address has been prepared and 
 signed by more than 4,000 of her ministers, and that address 
 has just been brought to this country by a delegation of two 
 able incn, appointed especially for that purpose ; and here in 
 our great metropolis, that address has been received by a 
 
9 
 
 meeting of ministers composed of all denominations ; a suita- 
 ble response, embodying the same sentiments, has been pre- 
 pared and published, signed by Dr. Vinton, Episcopal, as 
 Chairman, and Mr. Duryea, of the Collegiate Dutch Church, 
 as Secretary, calling upon all the ministers of the land to send 
 in their names, if they wish them appended to that response ; 
 the number that have come in and ivill come in^ will only be 
 counted by thousands. This embodying of the views and 
 sentiments of so many ministers, in Europe and America, on 
 the great moral and political questions involved in our na- 
 tional controversy, originating where it did, so harmonious, 
 scriptural and loyal, is a wonderful thing in this wonderful 
 age. 
 
 I have said that ministers are not all of one political creed ; 
 far from it. While they may hold different views in reference 
 to the minor things involved in our national controversy, in 
 the great and important matters they are substantially agreed. 
 In passing the noble and patriotic resolutions of our late 
 General Assembly there was not one negative vote, and yet 
 to my certain knowledge there were men there of opposite 
 political creeds. Among ministers, there may be different 
 views of the mint^ anise and ciLmmin^ while there is one 
 view of the judgment^ faith and mercy. The agreement of 
 ministers on our national affairs, is in reference to great funda- 
 mental principles ; and recent declarations of different eccle- 
 siastical bodies show a very remarkable unanimity on the 
 following points: 
 
 1. On the wicked and causeless character of the rebellion. 
 
 2. On the right and duty of subduing it by force of arms, 
 to preserve the integrity and union and constitution of the 
 government. 
 
 3. The wickedness and impolicy of human bondage, as 
 against the principles of the Bible, and as the primary cause 
 of all our national troubles. 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 4. The apostacy and blindness of Southern ministers and 
 Christians; — apostacy from the principles announced to the 
 world in our Declaration of Independence, from the great law 
 of Christian love and equal rights, and from the declared 
 opinions of even the Southern Chlirch thirty years ago ; — 
 blindness at the idea that the great system of human wrong, 
 which they have made the corner-stone of their new govern- 
 ment, can be at all sustained by the principles of Bible truth, 
 or agreeable to the civilization of the age. And 
 
 5. As to a supreme divine agency in this whole matter 
 of our national troubles, permitting them for the punishment 
 of our sins and yet overruling them for our ultimate good as 
 a nation. 
 
 Now I claim, that this unanimity of sentiment among Chris- 
 tian ministers is entitled to a fair and respectful consideration 
 on the part of the people. I hold that such a body of men, so 
 large, so learned, so sincerely pious, so unselfish, looking forth 
 from the platform of Bible principles, and so raised above the 
 fogs of the political atmosphere, are not likely to be mistaken ; 
 and I expect to see in the future providences of God a logic of 
 events, that will be a clear vindication of the justness of these 
 views. 
 
 This harmony of opinion and action among ministers on 
 the vital questions, connected with our national life and pros- 
 perity, I commend to the people as worthy of their admiration 
 and imitation. I suppose there is no question but that the 
 great body of the people of the North, of both politica> par- 
 ties, are truly and essentially loyal, and intending to give their 
 hearty support in sustaining the government, the constitution, 
 and the free institutions of the country ; and would they con- 
 sent to lay aside their petty differences for the time, and act in 
 vigorous harmony, while the assassin is at the throat of tbe 
 nation, the affiiirs of the country would be placed in a far 
 more promising condition. 
 
11 
 
 That there are some traitors abroad, mingled in and con- 
 cealed among the loyal masses, I suppose no one questions, — 
 men, whose real sympathies and hearts are at the South, and 
 whose bodies ought to be there,— who shout for Jeff. Davis and 
 the Southern Confederacy,— who glory over Federal defeats 
 and Confederate victories, — who show their leaning, by with- 
 holding delicacies from a wounded Union soldier, and impart' 
 ing them with much glee to a wounded rebel,— who clamor 
 for free speech and then use their privilege only to abuse and 
 vihfy and oppose the government,— who would be guides to 
 any Confederate raid, and help them rob and pillage and mur- 
 der their loyal neighbors. We have too much proof that 
 there are such men at the North, concealed under the garb of 
 a professed loyalty, and yet seeking every opportunity to work 
 into the enemy's hands, A Southern Confederate I can re- 
 spect ; sincere and honest, though mistaken, yet identified 
 with the South by kindred and residence, I can respect him. 
 But a traitor of Northern blood no man can respect. Even 
 the Confederates themselves, after they have received all the 
 aid he can give, spurn him contemptuously, as the meanest 
 specimen of humanity. Such a man's name will be surely 
 embalmed, but it will be embalmed, like that of Benedict 
 Arnold, in the odor of infamy. 
 
 But of the great masses of the people of the loyal States, I 
 suppose it may be said that they are far more agreed on the 
 one great question of our national and governmental life, than 
 any one may imagine, from the numerous conflicting political 
 views that are floating so freely in the community, I have 
 frequently seen this matter tested and proved, in individual 
 cases, to my perfect satisfaction. Two neighbors meet They 
 stand on different political platforms — they are aniijJodes in 
 their political position, K their conversation is about the 
 7mntj anise and cummin of our national affairs, they will dis- 
 agree, and the more they talk the wider perhaps will they be 
 
12 
 
 apart ; but if they talk about the vital principles of our na- 
 tional life, tbey are in harmony. They hold different opinions 
 as to the propriety of arbitrary arrests, the policy of emanci- 
 pation, the expediency of conscription and other points, on 
 which loyal men may not agree ; but touch them on the sub- 
 ject of sustaining law and order and government, and putting 
 down rebellion and riots by the strong arm of power, of 
 taking strong measures to prevent the disintegration of a Con- 
 stitutional Union by the heresy of secession, and they are not 
 so far apart as you imagine. Let loyal men of different politi- 
 cal creeds bring out the points on which they agree, and these 
 points are far more important than those on which they differ. 
 
 Thus I have given you a long introduction to my thanks- 
 giving address ; but thus much I wished to say, hoping that 
 it would be well received by those who hold different views, 
 and believing that if thus received, it would do good. In 
 such times as these, we are apt to be in a state of feverish ex 
 citement, too easily yielding ourselves to impulsive feelings 
 and movements, when we specially need the soothing influence 
 of a calm judgment and an unprejudiced mind. It is said to 
 be the little foxes that spoil the vines, by working among the 
 tender grapes ; guard against these, and then we shall have 
 the more strength and union to fight against the more formid- 
 able enemy. When a man's house is on fire, it is folly for the 
 neighbors to stand around idly and angrily discuss the ques- 
 tion, who set it on fire ? Let them go first vigorously to work to 
 put out the fire, and then find out and punish the guilty party. 
 I like the remark of one among us, in politics opposed to the 
 present administration ; said he, "I am going to do all I can 
 to help the government out of this trouble, and then I am 
 going to call them to an account." 
 
 I have said that the great body of ministers, and I may in- 
 clude with them the great body of professed christians, arc 
 united in the belief, that God is in this war — that He permitted it 
 
13 
 
 luhen He might have prevented it — that He has His special reasoiis 
 for this Divine permission^ and that it is His purpose to override it 
 for His oivn glory and the interests of religion and humanity. 
 
 Two things, I think, must be granted by lis all — 1. That 
 God is a luise and holy sovereign ; He never does any thing fool- 
 ish or wrong — that however mysterious His workings are to 
 men, they always turn out well, when the end is reached — 
 that while He gives to none of us an account of any of His 
 matters, we all have reason to confide in Him, as too wise to 
 make any mistake, and too good to do any thing wrong ; and 
 2. In the past history of the ivorld, He has made use of ivarsas a 
 very common means of accompilishing His purposes. In very 
 many cases we see the Divine hand, and trace the evident con- 
 nexion between these terrible conflicts of depraved human 
 passions, and the great and good results that were made to fol- 
 low. Witness the war of the Romans against the Jews, re- 
 sulting in the breaking up of the Jewish establishment, and 
 the publishing of the true religion to the Gentile world ; — our 
 own war in the Revolution, creating a new nation and a new 
 government, in advance of all others in the great principles of 
 human liberty and christian civilization. Wars have been 
 sometimes necessary to break the fetters of long established 
 systems of tyranny, to give freedom and scope to the mind in 
 working out new and improved forms of government and 
 civilization. We have no reason to suppose that the war now 
 raging in our country, the most terrible scourge and evil that 
 we have ever seen, will prove an exception to the general rule 
 of God's sovereignty, as manifested in His Word and Provi- 
 dence. God evidently has His purposes in this war, and His 
 purposes may be very different from ours. The purpose of 
 Joseph's brethren, in selling him into Egypt, was very different 
 from God's purpose in permitting him to be sold. Tlic pur- 
 pose of the Jews in crucifying Christ, was very different from 
 God's purpose in permitting him to be crucified. The purjiose 
 
14 
 
 of a proud Eastern king, in making war against the Jews, wfis 
 to extend his empire and add to his -worklly glory ; but God's 
 purpose, in permitting that war, was to use that king as a rod 
 of chastisement against His people, and humble them for their 
 sins. Our purpose, in carrying on this present war, is to pre- 
 serve the government, sustain the constitution and restore the 
 Union, as it was established by our fathers. God's purpose 
 may be very different. He may care very little for our pur- 
 pose, but He will never lose sight of His own. We may be 
 doomed to a sad disappointment in relation to our purposes, 
 but God's purposes will most surely be accomplished. The 
 Union, the Constitution and the Goverment, which we esteem 
 so highly, and for which we are willing to make such great 
 sacrifices, God may not think so much of; indeed, He may see 
 fit to set them all aside, and allow us to be broken up, that He 
 may break up established forms of evil and bring out some- 
 thing new and better. In moments of unbelief, when I look 
 on the human side, I am filled with fear and dismay and ap- 
 prehension ; but when I have faith in God, in His character 
 and wisdom and overruling providence, then I am strengthen- 
 ed, because I can see His purpose to make all things work 
 together for good. Whether my purpose is accomplished or 
 not, I am sure that God's will be, and His purpose is wiser and 
 better than mine. The Lord reigns : He makes even the wrath 
 of man to praise Him, and the remainder He restrains : let us 
 rejoice in and submit to His wise and holy sovereignty. 
 
 In human events there is sometimes a foreshadowing of the 
 Divine purposes. The Psalmist says — Tlie meek loill He guide 
 i7i judgment ; the meek ivill He teach his ivay. If we are meek 
 and humble and submissive and pious, watching God's hand 
 in the movements of His providence, I think we can learn 
 something of what are the Divine intentions and purposes. If 
 we arc anxious to do Ilis will, we shall be likely to knoio His 
 will. Of course no one can tell what shall be on the morrow 
 
15 
 
 — no one can calculate that his views respecting the Divine 
 purposes are certainly the right views. But providences, as 
 they come along, do unfold the will and purposes of God ; and 
 from what we know of the past and see of the present, we can 
 sometimes get a foreshadowing of future events. And it 
 seems to me, that in our present condition, there are some 
 data, some positive facts in providence and some evident prin- 
 ciples at work, by which we can, at least, form some probable 
 conjecture of what are the Divine purposes respecting us as a 
 nation in the issues of this war. These data, which I think 
 we can make the basis of our reasoning in forming our judg- 
 ment, consist of the three following things : 
 
 1. The known principles of God's Word, the revealed pre- 
 cepts of righteousness and truth, in accordance with which 
 God always acts in His dealings with men and nations. Right- 
 eousness exalteth a nation, and brings prosperity in the Divine 
 blessing; but sin is a reproach to any people^ and incurs the 
 Divine displeasure and punishment. 
 
 2. The principles evidently at work in our national affairs — 
 the vital principle of a free government with the power resting 
 in the people, in opposition to the Divine right of kings and 
 the usurpation of privileged classes ; — the principle of a man's 
 ownership of himself and possessing a free personal responsi- 
 bility, or of being a serf, a mere chattel at the disposal of 
 another. 
 
 3. The leadings of God's providence in connexion with our 
 national affairs — what things He is forcing upon the public at- 
 tention — about what particular points He is concentrating pub- 
 lic interest — where is the particular battle-field on which the 
 conflicting moral forces are at work — what are the questions 
 of right and wrong, of truth and righteousness, which arc 
 prominently in debate, which toill come up, notwithstanding 
 every effort to put them down. 
 
 These are the data — these are the things for us, as a nation, 
 
16 
 
 to consider and study. They must be looked at — they will 
 not be put aside — they will come up, it is impossible to avoid 
 them — they appear in every phase of our national affairs ; if 
 you laij them in one form, like the ghosts of Macbeth, they 
 will come up in another. It is coming to be an admitted 
 point, that these principles embody our national destin}'' — that 
 under God's hand they will issue in our ruin or salvation, just 
 as we work them. If we adopt these principles of God's 
 Word, of righteous government, of just and equal privileges 
 in a common manhood, then we insure our national life and 
 prosperity, because we secure the Divine approbation and 
 blessing. If we disregard these principles and give ourselves 
 over to the dominion of self-will and a worldly self-interest, 
 then I apprehend we shall be swept away with the besom of 
 destruction, just as God for the same reasons swept away the 
 mighty cities and kingdoms of ancient times. 
 
 I hold that we are a religious nation. We acknowledge the 
 true God, We adopt His word as our highest law. I expect 
 we are going to act as a religious nation, and I expect, as we 
 do this, that God will open a way for us through our sea of 
 difficulties, and bring us into a large place, improved 'by our 
 discipline, and destined, probably, to stand in a higher posi- 
 tion than ever before. I should not wonder if God means to 
 accomplish, by means of this war, some great and good ob- 
 jects, by a quick process, which it would have taken scores of 
 years to accomplish in the ordinary course of events. In this 
 matter the light is only just beginning to break in upon us, 
 but as we jjrogress that light will become clearer and stronger. 
 Already the enquiry is raised, WaicJijnan, what of the night ^ 
 and already the answer is heard. The morning cometh. 
 
 If we are to succeed in this war, judging from the known 
 Divine principles already announced, I am inclined to think 
 that God 'intends to accomplish the following objects by means 
 of the war, and if so, it is fair to presume that lie will not let 
 
17 
 
 the war cease till there is a providential certainty that they 
 will be accomplished : 
 
 1. He means to let this imtion hioio that He reigns. While we 
 have been, virtually, a religious nation, we have made no na- 
 tional religious profession. He is not acknowledged, as He 
 should be, in our constitution ; there is not a clear and dis- 
 tinct and humble acknowledgment of Him in many of our na- 
 tional acts. Our legislation has often been on the principle of 
 a mere worldly policy, and not in accordance with the revealed 
 precepts of truth and righteousness. These matters have gone 
 on and God has winked at them, as He did at the sins of good 
 men in olden times ; but He has now taken them in hand and 
 is bringing Himself up to view as the supreme ruler. In His 
 dealings with men and nations, he does certain things that 
 they may know that he is Jehovah, and the Most High over 
 all the earth. He is^now making just such a revelation of Him- 
 self to this nation. We thought we were strong and mighty, 
 and we were inviting other nations to see and admire our 
 greatness, and God is just letting us see how terribly He can 
 shake us by'touching us with His little finger. Before He gets 
 through with us, I apprehend that he will compel from us such 
 an acknowledgment of His being and justice and government, 
 as we have never yet made. We are fast coming into that 
 position, as His hand is stretched out over us in anger. 
 
 2. He is terrihly rebuking us and punishing us for our sins. 
 Hitherto we have prospered and lived in peace in spite of our 
 sins, and He has borne with us and held back His chastising 
 rod ; but there is a limit even to the Divine forbearance. If 
 we, as a nation, had conducted our affairs on the principles of 
 truth and righteousness, the evil of this war would never have 
 come upon us ; but now for our sins God has come out against 
 us in judgment. With one hand He is lifting the rod over us, 
 and with the other He is pointing us to our sins and letting us 
 see that they are legion. " Look," says He, " at your pride; 
 your extravagance, your worldlinessj your worship of mam- 
 
 8 
 
18 
 
 mon, your irreligion and profanity ; look at your decay of the 
 virtue of patriotism, your demagogueism, your bitter, hateful 
 party spirit, your wrongs to the Indian, and your greater 
 wrongs to the African." " Shall not I visit for these things, saiih 
 the LordV It was in view of the oppressive power of the 
 strong over the weak, in wringing toil from sable hands with- 
 out wages, and degrading the image of God to a beastly chat- 
 tel, that Jefferson, that wise and noble statesman, has left the 
 following memorable words recorded in his Notes on Virginia, 
 " I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just, 
 and that His justice cannot sleep forever." The very time 
 he foresaw has now come. God's justice has waked up. Our 
 iniquity has found us out, and He is dealing with us for it. He 
 is smiting us with blow upon blow, and His smitings will either 
 break us or bend us. In these very smitings I can gather a 
 ray of hope for the future. They are a token of His remem- 
 brance of us and of His interest in us. He wounds that He 
 may heal. If we penitently accept the punishment of our 
 iniquities, then He will turn and remember His covenant with 
 us. We are just now in such a condition, and G(5d is dealing 
 with us in such a manner, that we ought to be like the men of 
 Nineveh, when Jonah entered that wicked city and began to 
 cry in the name of the Lord, " Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall 
 be destroyed." From the king downward every man began 
 to search for his sins and put on sackcloth and humbled him- 
 self, to avert the threatened judgments of God. So should we 
 do as a people. Our sins, social, political and personal, have 
 drawn down upon us the Divine curse, and are threatening our 
 ruin. I7i the times of our ignorance God ivinked at these sins, hut 
 He now commands all men every where to repent. The time has 
 come, when our refusal to see our sins and to turn from them 
 will prove our destruction. I have sometimes feared that we 
 have gone too far already in our impiety as a nation, and in 
 our disregard of the righteous principles of that higher latv, of 
 which God Himself is the executive power, and in comparison 
 
19 
 
 witli which all our human laws are as nothing. Certain I am 
 that our only hope is in God. If we take such a position, 
 that He turns His anger away from us and leaves us His bless- 
 ing, then we are saved, and that position I think we shall take, 
 and are now taking, under the leadings of His providence. 
 Let it be our desire and our prayer that such may be our 
 position. 
 
 3. It may he a part of the Divine purpose connected with this 
 ivar, to rekindle and revive thai true spirit of patriotism, ivhich 
 originated this government^ and ivhich is indispensible to p)reserve 
 it. Ours is a government of the people. Every voter is a 
 sovereign, in the sense that he assists by his own chosen repre- 
 sentatives, in shaping the government and in making and ex- 
 ecuting the laws. To preserve such a government, to hinder 
 it from becoming the tool of intriguing political demagogues, 
 there must be kept alive in the hearts of the great masses of 
 the people, a true spirit of patriotism, which our fathers had 
 when they framed the government, and which gave up every 
 thing, interests, preferences and party feeling for the sake of 
 the country. 
 
 In this genuine feeling of true patriotism there has been a 
 great decay in the land, and in the place of it there has 
 sprung up a spirit of partyism, the tendency of which is 
 always, to lose sight of the government in the stronger attach- 
 ment to a particular party. Against this great danger Wash- 
 ington warned the country in his Farewell Address. He says, 
 " That to a popular form of government like ours, this spirit 
 is its worst enemy ; that it is in itself a frightful despotism and 
 that it leads at length to a more formal and permanent despot- 
 ism ; that the disorders and miseries which result, incline the 
 minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute 
 power of an individual ; that sooner or later, the chief of 
 some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his 
 competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own 
 
20 
 
 elevation on the ruins of public liberty; it serves always to 
 distract the public councils and enfeeble public administration ; 
 it agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false 
 alarms ; foments occasionally riot and insurrection." Such 
 are the words of warning left by him, who is styled by all 
 the " Father of his Country." Into that very error of an 
 overheated spirit of party ism have we fallen, and while it 
 shows our defection from the true feeling of patriotism, it 
 threatens to be the ruin of our free government. A man must 
 now follow the file leader of his party ; in the language of 
 political parlance, " he digs his grave," if he dares to vote 
 even for a good man out of his party ; and some are so blind- 
 ed as to imagine that partyism is only one form of patriotism. 
 
 What is patriotism ? It is a whole-hearted love of country, 
 prefering its welfare to any thing and all things else. It is 
 not party or section, or even preference ; it is country. It is 
 a whole-souled loyalty, yielding every thing for the good of 
 the whole. It is much more than allegiance. Allegiance is a 
 cold, passive obedience to law, a kind of reluctant refraining 
 from disobedience; but patriotism is an active, out-spoken 
 love of country, always willing to lay precious things on that 
 country's altar. You can swear a man into allegiance, but 
 you can't swear him into patriotism. Allegiance is compelled ; 
 but patriotism is voluntary ; the one you must watch to see if 
 it does not break over bounds ; the other is all the time watch- 
 ing for the good of the country ; allegiance will do nothing ; 
 but patriotism acts on the principle that ceaseless vigilance and 
 activity are the price of liberty. Other forms of government 
 can be sustained by allegiance, but ours by the spirit of patri- 
 otism only. 
 
 In the beginning of this century, patriotism began to de- 
 cline and mere allegiance began to take its place, and even 
 that allegiance has degenerated, till it has become a bitter party 
 spirit, that is always in danger of sacrificing country to faction. 
 
The events and discussions of these times are opening our 
 eyes to these evils, and letting us see that in the decay of 
 patriotism, we are, like Sampson shorn of his locks, losing 
 both our beauty and our strength. If it is the Lord's inten- 
 tion, as we may hope, to bring to the surface once more that 
 true and genuine love of country, that is above all parties ; 
 that regards the existing administration as the government for 
 the time being, without regard to any party — the government, 
 whose acts and measures must be sustained, because they are 
 of the government, then I can see that we can come out of 
 our fiery trial purified as gold. 
 
 4. / have an idea also, that God intends, out of the disorder and 
 confusion of the past and present, to work an entire reconstrnction 
 in our social system, that in all i^arts of the country ive may he a 
 homogeneous people. The terms North and South among us 
 have become very significant terms — significant, not more of 
 difference in locality, than difference in habits, manners, cus- 
 toms, employments, sympathies and character. And when I 
 consider the many points of this difference and their influence, 
 I do not wonder that the North and South have failed to live 
 in harmony. Nor do I believe that they can live in harmony 
 in the same government, unless they become more homogene- 
 ous in their civil and social state; and all the indications of 
 providence are that God intends to work out homogeneousness 
 from the existing disturbances. I do not allude here to the 
 mere fact of slavery only, but to other things, things that have 
 not been so generally known and understood. Let us look at 
 some of these things by way of contrast in the two sections of 
 our country. 
 
 Nothing strikes a Southerner with more surprise in first 
 traveling over the North, than to see our dense population and 
 the comparatively equal distribution of the land among that 
 population, almost every man living in his own house and 
 owning the ground which he cultivates. We are so accus- 
 
22 
 
 tomed to this feature of our social state, that we do not duly 
 consider and estimate its immense advantages over a different 
 state. 
 
 At the South there is not this equal distribution of the land 
 into homesteads, owned by the great body of the people. 
 Thei'e, is a system of large land ownerships, one man owning 
 thousands of acres, and of course lording it over all that live 
 on those acres ; while, perhaps, nine out of ten own not a 
 single rod. This system of large landed proprietors has been 
 the curse of every country where it has existed. The Irish 
 and the Germans among us can tell us how it has worked in 
 their " fatherland," raising the rich into a proud, overbearing 
 aristocracy, and binding down the poor to a state of hopeless 
 poverty, shutting them out from the privileges of education, 
 and oppressing them with a heavy burden of rents and taxes. 
 In the Jewish economy God made express provision against this 
 evil of large land ownerships. Every fiftieth year was to be a 
 year of Jubilee. In that year not only was every bondman 
 to go out free, but every piece of land sold was to revert to 
 the family of its original owner. No land could be bought 
 out of any family with a perpetual title — the purchase could 
 only run to the year of redemption ; then it must go back to 
 the family which originally held it ; and however low the 
 family might have been reduced, this reversion of land brought 
 them up again. This Divine arrangement preserved equality ; 
 it effectually prevented the existence of large, oppressive land 
 ownerships. The comparatively equal distribution of land 
 among the great body of the people is one of the richest 
 blessings of the North, and the want of it is one of the great- 
 est calamities of the South. I should not wonder if God 
 intends to break up this Southern system of lordly ownership, 
 and divide out among all, the land which he created /or all. 
 
 At the North labor is honorable, and industry a virtue. He 
 that said, six days shall thou lahoi\ has so arranged matters as 
 
23 
 
 to make that labor a necessity for our comfort and happiness. 
 Every branch of lawful industry among us is regarded as an 
 honorable calling. Where all feel the necessity and the obli- 
 gation to work, no one is despised for being a working man. 
 
 At the South it is totally different. Thei-e there is only one 
 class that works, and that the class held in bondage, and who 
 are owned and sold and driven and beaten like our horses. 
 There the white man that works is despised, because by thus 
 working he is considered as bringing himself down to the 
 level of the negro in the social scale. Hence labor among the 
 whites is disreputable, and hence the great body of the whites 
 are trying to live without labor. Of course this can be done 
 by the 300,000 men who own their labor ; but what is the 
 condition of the rest of the population ? Suppose in all the 
 Southern States there are 4,000,000 of colored laborers be- 
 longing to less than half a million of owners ; then there are 
 besides between five and six millions of whites, who are to 
 have a living somehow in food and clothing and shelter. 
 They own no slaves to work for them; as a general thing 
 they own no land ; they consider it disreputable to work, and 
 acting on the principle of doing just as little as they can and 
 live, is it strange that immense numbers of them have got the 
 name of " poor whites," and that the negroes themselves call 
 them " poor white trash," and that these names significantly 
 point out their exact social position ? They call us " mud 
 sills," because we work for a living, and " hirelings," because 
 we v/ork in the employ of others, and " white slaves," because 
 our labor is performed so many hours to the day and under 
 the inspection of master workmen ; but they regard themselves 
 as honorable, because they are in no man's employ, and live 
 in the dignified leisure of stealing and hunting and keeping 
 and training hounds to be put in chase of poor runaways. It 
 is one of the worst features of the Southern social system, that 
 it has this degrading influence on the poorer classes of the 
 
24 
 
 whites. It puts them and keeps them in a state of terrible 
 bondage and degradation, by causing them to despise that 
 course of honest and industrious labor, which God has made 
 honorable by enjoining it on all as a duty. Whatever God 
 may please to do with the slaves, I should not wonder if He 
 intends to liberate these poor whites, and so overturn the state 
 of society as to bring them out of their degradation and raise 
 them to the dignity of an honest industry. 
 
 I might present the same contrast between the North and 
 South on the subject of general education ; here almost uni- 
 versal, there very partial and limited. Here knowledge is one 
 of the grand fruits of our social equality ; there ignorance is 
 the result of their social inequality. Here the school house 
 springs up in every neighborhood; there, with their present 
 social system, they never can have the successful working of 
 our common schools. Our social system invites knowledge ; 
 theirs shuts it out. The great mass of the Southern mind is 
 enveloped in darkness, and God is making a mighty overturn- 
 ing to let in the light, and when He says, " Let there be light," 
 there will be light. 
 
 5. / thiyik, also, that the providences of God in this war are 
 giving" to us some clear foreshadowing s of what He intends to do 
 tvith the vexed question of slavery. It has always been to us a 
 subject of tangled difficulties. It has been a Gordian knot 
 that no man could untie. The wisest of our statesmen have 
 not known what to do with it. Congress has fought over it ; 
 almost every branch of the church has fought over it, and 
 now the nation has got to fighting over it. We have puzzled 
 our brains and exhausted our wits over it in vain. We have 
 tried to let it alone, and we have been calling to each other to 
 let it alone, and yet it would come up more and more like the 
 plague of frogs in Egypt. When a matter is so persistently 
 put forward, notwithstanding every effort to keep it down, I 
 am accustomed somehow to feel that the hand of the Lord is 
 
25 
 
 in it. There is every providential indication that the Lord 
 has now taken this long-perplexing and difficult subject into 
 His own hand, and we wait to see what disposal He will make 
 of it. Alex. Stephens, now Vice President of the Southern 
 Confederacy, in a speech he once made against secession, de- 
 clared " that if we had war, it would break up their institu- 
 tion of slavery ;" and it now looks very much as if his words 
 were going to prove a true prophecy. As God has evidently 
 taken this matter into His own hands, I am willing to leave it 
 there for the unfoldings of His will in providence. 
 
 It is very certain that 'passing events are rapidly icorking a 
 great change in public opinion loiih regard to the colored race. 
 They have been among us, but they are not of us. Their 
 natural home is in another section of the globe, and among us 
 they are not in their natural position. But this is no reason 
 why we should deny them a common brotherhood with us, 
 when God has told us that He has made of one blood all the na- 
 tions of men ; no reason why we should despise and ill-treat 
 them, because God has given them a skin not colored like our 
 oion. They are the weak, and God always sympathizes with 
 the weak to avenge their wrongs ; they are strangers, and God 
 has commanded us specially to be kind to the stranger. The 
 Irish made a grand mistake in their recent murderous assault 
 upon this dependent, defenceless class — an assault that will 
 react to their own great detriment, and call out a special sym- 
 pathy for the oppressed. Such a course of persecution will 
 most assuredly cause the Irishman to sink and the colored man 
 to rise. 
 
 It is smgular how the progress of events in this war is 
 rapidly overturning all our pre-conceived ideas about the col- 
 ored race and placing them in an entirely new attitude before 
 the world — making them the subjects of a deep public interest 
 notwithstanding all our efforts to the contrary, and weaving 
 their welfare into the very w,eb of our national life. Respcct- 
 4 
 
26 
 
 ing their character and their course, different and opposite 
 opinions were entertained in the event of a war between the 
 North and South ; and yet how completely have these opinions 
 been upset, and we stand confounded and corrected by the 
 development of events ! When we saw the storm gathering, 
 we all thought that when it burst, the slaves would take ad- 
 vantage of it and show themselves a savage and brutal race, 
 rising in insurrections and committing such horrid butche- 
 ries of women and children as to deluge cities and plantations 
 with blood, and how we all shuddered at the bare possibility 
 of such atrocities ! The war has now continued over two 
 years, and not one single insurrection has occurred, not one 
 single family has been butchered by their servants. As a 
 class they have showed themselves more civilized and humane 
 than we thought. 
 
 Some even took the opposite extreme, "that the slaves 
 were so contented with their condition and loved their masters 
 so well, that they would never leave them, but fight for them," 
 and yet, as a general thing, no sooner has the Federal army 
 appeared in sight than they have literally left all and fled, 
 showing that they had the same love of liberty as other men ; 
 and Southern editors have made sad lamentations over all 
 this, as evincing the basest ingratitude on the part of their 
 servants toward their kind and indulgent masters. 
 
 It was said also by the ultra abolitionist of the John Brown 
 order, " Only begin the war and the whole body of the slaves 
 will at once leap to arms and carry it on ;" and yet this senti- 
 ment has been belied in the fact that the slaves have quietly 
 continued in their usual employments till, in the approach of 
 our armies, they could obtain their freedom by fleeing and 
 not fighting. 
 
 In each of these particulars, the negro has evinced noble 
 traits of genuine humanity, showing his freedom from that 
 savage, brutal nature which we have been so ready to ascribe 
 
2Y 
 
 to him. I question whether he has not acted with much more 
 forbearance and generosity than any race of white men would 
 have done under the same circumstances. 
 
 When the question was first mooted about incorporating the 
 negro into the army, and letting him bear his share in the 
 hardships of war, as he had as much at stake as the white 
 man, how wide was the prejudice, how deep rooted was the 
 objection ! It was said of him, " he won't fight ; he is a pas- 
 sive and cowering creature, accustomed to cringe and submit ; 
 he has no fighting qualities, no nerve and bravery to meet the 
 perils of the battle-field, and white soldiers will not be willing 
 to fight by his side." Yet how are all these opinions fast dis- 
 solving away like a vapor, before the stern, hard facts of some 
 of our recent battles, where this despised race have been as- 
 signed the post of greatest danger, and acquitted themselves 
 most nobly ! Truly did the Latins say, " Tempora mutantur, 
 et mutamur," times change and we change with them. Our 
 old dogmas and opinions are giving way. We know but 
 little ; we are coming to know more, and we have a good 
 teacher in the providences of God. Let us be willing to sit at 
 His feet and learn. I should not be surprised if God has much 
 to teach us on the subject of this much abused race. I should 
 not be surprised if God intends to give this race a prominent 
 part to act in our great national drama — to give them such a 
 position of prominence and usefulness, as to call forth the na- 
 tion's admiration and gratitude. 
 
 In all these providences, it seems to me that I can see the 
 shadow of coming events, the earnest of a reconstruction of 
 our whole social fabric, and not unlikely on the principle of 
 that grand truth, proclaimed to the world by our fathers in 
 their Declaration of Independence, " We hold these truths to 
 be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are 
 endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that 
 among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." 
 
28 
 
 If this is to be so — if God is to bring this order out of the 
 present confusion, which we all must ardently hope, then I 
 look for glorious things to be done for Africa. I have said 
 that the natural home of the negro is not on this continent. I 
 do not say this, because I have any prejudice against him, or 
 any objection to his having a permanent home and equal 
 rights among us, if he desires to stay with us under all the 
 disadvantages of his position. God's government over the 
 world has always been a "wheel within a wheel"-- an over- 
 turning and overruling for some great end. In His govern- 
 ment there is also a principle of compensation — a compensa- 
 tion that comes sooner or later as the result of things borne 
 and suffered. If this compensation is due any where in this 
 world, it seems to me that it is due to Africa and from Chris- 
 tian America. I apprehend that the time will come when we 
 shall acknowledge this debt and begin to pay it When this 
 war is over and society settles down on the principles of this 
 new construction, then I think there will commence a move- 
 ment, partly missionary and partly civil and commercial, a 
 tide of emigation in Africa's sable sons toward the land of 
 their fathers, carrying with them all the humanizing institu- 
 tions of an enlightened christian civilization. Long has Ethio- 
 pia stretched forth her hands unto God, in the character of her 
 own heathenism and in the wrongs she has suffered, and for 
 aught we know, God may be answering her prayers in the 
 present upheaving of our nation. 
 
 As for the future of our own nation, it seems to me that 
 God has in store for us greater blessings and a higher position 
 than we have ever enjoyed. I say not this in the spirit of 
 pride and power, but as my reading of the great principles of 
 God's righteous government in connexion with passing provi- 
 dences. It may be that, as a nation, we have outlived our 
 day of grace — that God has weighed us in the balances and 
 found us ivanting. It may be that He will let loose against us 
 
29 
 
 so many foreign elements as to crush us ; and it may be that 
 these very elements are to be the means of our greater union 
 and efficiency of action. Under all the circumstances of our 
 past successes and our present position, I am hopeful, more 
 than hopeful, of complete final success. I cannot but look 
 upon the late splendid victories, which *are the occasion of this 
 day of thanksgiving, as a Divine pledge in our favor. When 
 I look and see what there was to be done, and what has already 
 been done — when I consider how utterly unprepared we were 
 at the beginning of this civil contest, and how formidable is 
 the array at present, with the ample resources of the country 
 behind — when I see how the public mind is rapidly drifting 
 into views more and more in accordance with Bible principles ; 
 and especially when I consider that God is on the throne, 
 and remember that Jefferson said that the Almighty had no 
 attribute ivhich could take side luith slavery against freedom, I 
 have a strong confidence that the Lord is on our side, and that 
 when he has sufficiently chastised us and humbled us, and 
 brought us to repentance and to the abandonment of our sins, 
 then He will give us peace and prosperity ; and that the glory 
 of the latter house will be greater than the former. Let us 
 then be thankful and hopeful — thankful for the past and hope- 
 ful for the future. 
 
LiBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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