Book^A<5/9 
 
X 
 
STAND BY THE PRESIDENT! 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 NATIONAL UNION ASSOCIATION 
 
 c:f cx±<5-<DX±^i<rj^T: 
 
 MARCH 6. 1'863. 
 
 BY REV. CHARLES G. AMES. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 •' Ltit it alwafyg he remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under 
 ftreumstaniesirCtehichthe ramom, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances 
 fometimesthibiow, vicisitiivdes of fortune often discouragino, in fituations in which not tnifreiiuently want of 
 fticcets has cowiiennnced the spirit of criticism, the ccnstancy of your support teas the essential prop of the 
 tforls, and a guaranty of the plans by which they were effected."— Washington's Farewell Address. 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 JOHNSON, STEPHENS & CO., PEINTERS. 
 
 1-11 WAIN STREET, BELOW FOUKTH. 
 
 1863. 
 
,3 
 
 " As Commander in Chief of the Army and Wauy^ in time of 
 vjar^ 1 suppose J have a right to take any measure which. 7nay 
 "best subdue the enetnyP — Abraham Lincoln, God bless him ! 
 
 "And the hands of the President, tlie chosen aud only head of 
 the nation, must be strengthened by the people. He is striving in 
 this hour of peril, Avith all his strength to save the country. Let the 
 people pledge to him their most generous confidence and support 
 
 and not turn from him in coldness or palsy his efforts with a 
 
 feble and half confidence. Pledge, then, to the President, the lives 
 and fortunes of an united people. Let him be sustained and carried 
 in triumph through the struggle. His patriotism and self-sacriiice 
 deserve it — our duty demands it." — " Call " for a Convention of 
 Massachusetts Conservatives, Sept. 1862. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 My Countrymen and Brothees: — I desire to speak to you a 
 word of encouragement. I believe there is no good reason to 
 despair of the Republic. To be sure, the war has lain bare our 
 weak points, and lias disclosed an uncalculated amount of corrup- 
 tion among our people ; but it has also developed a sterling 
 bravery and patriotism, and given us a marvellous consciousness 
 of power. We are learning wisdom from our own folly ; learning 
 success fiom our own failures, even as children learn to walk by 
 stumbling. And the furnace-fires of our great trial are slowly 
 purifying us of our silly selfishness and partisan bitterness. 
 
 We have at last touched bottom. We know the depth of our 
 difficulties; we have measured the extent of our dangers. We 
 have found out the magnitude of the Rebellion : it is great, but it 
 can never be greater, and it is already perceptibly shrivelling. 
 We have taken the gauge of its pow^er ; we know what work is 
 before us; we can fully count the cost; and we may as well settle 
 down to the war as a man goes to a day's work. 
 
 We were never so strong as to-day. We have found no limit to 
 our resources, nor to our recuperative power under disaster. We 
 have money ; we have munitions ; we have men ; and, above all, 
 thank God we have a righteous cause. We are the appointed 
 guardians of Liberty and Law; we are the trustees of the natural 
 rights of mankind ; we are the body-guard of Christian civilization ; 
 and, for these high and holy services, we hold a commission from 
 Heaven. 
 
 And I trust v:e are getting our eyes open, so that we see the 
 folly of wasting, in quarrels Avith each other and with our rulers, 
 that strength which is needed for the common cause — for the 
 overthrow of murderous treason, and the establishment of rightful 
 authority. The true base for the operations of our armies is in 
 the hearts of the people ; and we can serve the country, or we can 
 betray it, through the newspapers, in legislative halls, in our public 
 meetings, and on the streets, as really as in field or Cabinet. ^ A 
 man can help to save his country at home ; and he can be a traitor, 
 too, without going South. The available force of the Rebellion 
 comprises all who sympathize with it, wherever found; just as 
 the army of the Union comprises all the loyal souls in the Union. 
 For our safety and success, v\^e must, like our brave brothers in 
 arms, stand shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart, seconding and 
 supporting our leaders by every righteous means in our power. 
 
 Let us not delude ourselves with the distracting and pernicious 
 foolery which teaches that the country is to be saved, or can be 
 saved, in some other way than by co-operating with the existing 
 administration in the work of subduing the Rebellion. There 
 must be unity of action : ^and we can have no rallying center for 
 
that unity except the constitutional authorities of the country. 
 There must be a head ; and we can have no other head but the 
 nation's Chief Magistrate and commander. An army must tight 
 under its general, whoever he may be, or not fight at all. There 
 can be disgraceful surrender; there can be bloody mutiny; there 
 can be cowardly desertion ; "But there can be no victory, except 
 through cordial co-operation with those in authority, and loyal 
 obedience to orders. 
 
 And I hold that the President of the United States, as Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the armies and navies of the nation, has a 
 rightful authority over us all, and a just claim upon our generous 
 and hearty support in the fearful task which Providence and the 
 people have assigned him, of restoring the national sovereignty 
 over the last scjuare inch of the national domain. When he lifted 
 his manly right hand, and solemnly swore, before earth and 
 heaven, that he would preserve, protect and defend the Constitu- 
 tion of these States, he became the representative of us all ; he 
 consented to eml)ody, in his sole person, the highest magistracy 
 and executive power of the nation — the collected sovereignty of 
 the whole people. He swore for us, and on our behalf; and be- 
 tween us and him there is a covenant of God, to which we form a 
 party. If there is any meaning in American citizenship, we all 
 stand pledged, by all that is sacred in loyalty and in honor, to 
 sustain him in the discharge of his public duties, and in the ad; 
 ministration of his mighty trust. 
 
 The President is no despot ; he is simply a public servant. But 
 he is clothed with vast authority, not the less ; and this authority, 
 though delegated by the people for their own use and benefit, is 
 as real as that of any anointed and crowned monarch ; and is as 
 much more worthy ot our respect as our popular government is 
 superior to kingly rule. Disrespect to the authority of the Pres- 
 ident, therefore, is disrespect to the Constitution which creates his 
 office ; it is also disrespect to tile people who created that Con- 
 stitution, and who reaffirmed it in the very act of voting for a 
 President. We are not living together as a mere debating club ; 
 we constitute a government ; and every attempt to abridge or 
 bring into contempt the rightful powers of those who are charged 
 with executing the functions of that government, or to embarrass 
 them in the preservation and defense of that government, is an 
 ofiense against the peace and dignity of the nation, which should 
 be branded as infamous and punished as criminal. 
 
 The right of impeaching a traitorous and perjured President is 
 uncjucstioncd and unquestionable, as it ought to be ; but we have 
 no right to exact or expect an impossible perfection in any of our 
 public servants. An officer keeps good faith with the people — 
 keeps the spirit and meaning of his oath — when he does the best 
 he can ; when he performs his duties as he understands them. 
 Most ofHcers are sworn to discharge their duties " to the best of 
 their ability"' — a clause which recognizes this just limit of their 
 obligation and excuses their inevitable and unintentional mistakes. 
 Men do not become all-wise and all-mighty as soon as we elect 
 them to public station. Chosen from among ourselves, they are 
 
men of like paasiona and infirmities with ourselves. They are 
 what we should be, if we had been so unfortunate as to be in their 
 places : subject to inadvertency, error, the bias of outside influ- 
 ences and the limitations of all human wisdom and practical know- 
 ledge. From Washington down, we have never had a perfect 
 administration and never shall have one.* We have never had a 
 President who was noc charged by his political enemies with 
 violating the Coastitutiou; and we never can have, until we all 
 understand that instrument alike. And yet, probably no nation 
 was ever blessed with sixteen successive adaiinistratioas which 
 were, on the whole, so free from deserved reproach, as those of 
 our sixteen American Presidents. I think nearly all of them have 
 kept the inaugural oath in good faith and with a good conscience. 
 (Of course, we must always except the man who was incapable of 
 good faith, and wlio never had a conscience 1) 
 
 Bat I do not think any one of them all was more thoroughly 
 true and trusty — more loyal and faithful to the Constitution 
 and to the rights of the people — than ABSAHAii Lincoln. [Deafen- 
 ing and long continued applause.] I think, also, the impartial 
 Future — if he can afford to wait for its verdict — will award him 
 the praise of a practical ability an I a wise sratesmaaship, which 
 the ungenerous Present denies. Probably we have had but one 
 or two Presidents who could have navigated the Republio through 
 this stormy sea of difficulties with a steadier hand than the man 
 who now sits at the helm. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln has serious faults for a Chief Magistrate in troublous 
 limes. He is over-amiable toward offenders ; else he would have 
 unhorsed that man McClellan at the beginning of his shameful 
 career of disobedience to superior orders. He does not read men 
 well ; else he would never have entrusted important positions to 
 men of doubtful loyalty. He is sometimes too slow for an emerg- 
 ency, and so lets the enemy steal a march upon him. And he has 
 doubtless made serious mistakes, both of omission and commission, 
 in general policy. Bai^ conceding all this and much more, he ia 
 nevertheless a great man, a strong, wise, sagacious statesman, an 
 incarnaricm of patriotism ; of unimpeachable integrity ; of un- 
 bending hrmness, when once convinced ; of industrious devotion 
 to duty ; of broad views, taking in the vast future as well as the 
 present, and the interests of the whole country as well as of the loyal 
 North. A man less careful in action might have fallen into more 
 hurtful errors. 
 
 No partisan prompting bids me speak in vindication of the ad- 
 ministration. Nor can it be vindicated from any partisan stand- 
 point, as it has refused to be guided by partisan considerations. 
 To advocate its claims upon our confidence and support in the 
 present struggle has ceased, long ago, to be a partisan matter, aud 
 has become a part ot patriotism. More deeply than I can toll you, 
 do 1 feel that the triumph of the nation's cause, and the security 
 
 • Joha A'iiEUi called TVaAijgtoa a "d/U." J^:Ti.-sja cbjir^^ed him with ileji^us againut publio 
 libarcy. Wasbiugion himi«lf, ui hia FarawcU A'Xdctaa, tbaalLs the Americau p^^^ple lur judgiug so 
 kindly of the imp>:neo:igai 01 nii publie s-jrvio^i, aud adiaits that ''aot uairaqiuudy, \f*ai ol 8U<>wm 
 ooBQWiMttted th4 fyint of criti«i<m." 
 
of its very life, depend largely on the degree of confidence which 
 the people repose in their rulers and leaders. An enemy has been 
 sowing tares among us ; and we have unwittingly hurt our own 
 cause and given aid and comfort to the rebel conspirators, by a 
 groundless, wrongful distrust of the Federal Administration — by 
 a heedless habit of scolding about the President, the Cabinet, and 
 Congress, as though they were the real conspirators ! — by an un- 
 generous and unjust way of criticising our public servants, who, 
 amid untold embarrassments and ever-multiplj'ing difficulties, 
 have been doing their honest best to work out the country's 
 salvation. 
 
 We should be candid enough, at least, to make allowance for 
 these difficulties; difficulties which the administration did not 
 create, and for the magnitude and multitude of which it is in no 
 sense responsible. The purest and best government possible to 
 mankind could be broken down and destroyed, if its own friends 
 would credit the slanders of its enemies, and join in their accusa- 
 tions, denunciations and assaults, as we Jiave been foolish enough 
 to do — magnifying every error and blinding ourselves, by passion 
 and pre-judgment, to every excellence. Even if the administra- 
 tion were absolutely faultless in all respects, it would have been 
 simply impossilvle for it to please such a whimsical and distracted • 
 people as we are. In the rush and excitement of a stormy time, 
 w^e have become unreasonable, ^\''hat could be more unreasona- 
 ble than to charge the disorders of the country upon those who are 
 doing their utmost to heal them ' So we have let our own hys- 
 terics disqualify us for judging justly of either men or measures. 
 The more I study our public affairs, and the more I ponder 
 over our recent history, the deeper is my conviction that the 
 present administration has suffered the greatest injustice at the 
 hands of the people, both for what it has done and for what it has 
 not done. Let me recall to your minds the circumstances under 
 which this administration took possession and charge of the 
 machinery of government. 
 
 When Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated — two years and two 
 days ago — secession had already commenced; and the policy of 
 letting the Union go to pieces without attempting to maintain the 
 federal authority — the policy of letting the rebels have every thing 
 their own way, and even of helping them to seize the guns of the 
 Union and turn them against the Union — was already the estab- 
 lislied order, or disorder, of things ; the fatal precedent having 
 been fixed upon us through the weakness and wickedness of a 
 man who was not ashamed to call himself " the last President of 
 the United States." Northern Democratic leaders and presses — 
 deeply embittered by their recent political defeat, and half ready 
 to disavow allegiance to a President whom their party did not 
 elect — were openlj'- and violently opposed to all attempts at co- 
 ercing seceded States. The Southern planting interest might 
 combine to coerce the Soutliern loyalists- -might rob, and imprison, 
 and slioot, and stab, and hang and burn all who bore true and 
 faithful allegiance to the Constitution of their country — might 
 seize the national property, drive out the federal judges, and pro- 
 
claim beforehand its intention to capture and hold the federal 
 capital and dictate terms to the remaining States— but there mus^ 
 be no coercion used in maintaining the federal authority! And 
 6ome of these men declared that if troops were raised in the North 
 for such a purpose, such troops should never reach MaRon and 
 Dixon's line ^vithout marching over dead bodies! The rebels 
 were thus encouraged to believe that nearly half the people of the 
 North would justify, if not assist them, in throwing off the author- 
 ity of the new President, and asserting themselves the masters of 
 American destiny. And the weakness, cowardice and treachery 
 of the Buchanan dynasty had disheartened us all. There was 
 little spirit, courage, hope, or energy in the North. Men's hearts 
 failed for fear, in looking after the things that were coming upon 
 the land. The conspirators alone w^ere bold and defiant ; their 
 reign of terror not only suffocated the Union men of the South, 
 but also overshadowed the continent. 
 
 Barely escaping assassination, the new President sat down 
 gloomily in the empty mansion, with an empty treasury, a swarm 
 of traitors in all offices, spies about his very person, the atmos- 
 phere of Washington hissing with venomous secession serpents. 
 His first work was to organize his administration — a work always 
 difficult and delicate, now doubly so on account of the general 
 distraction and dangers. Before he had time to complete the 
 appointments, the thunder of rebel cannon startled the whole 
 nation. Seventy devoted men, shut up in Fort Sumter, besieged 
 by seven thousand rebels, and by starvation, were forced to sur- 
 render. 
 
 Thus war began by the act of the South. That sovereignty 
 which the President had sworn to protect and defend was assailed 
 by force of arms. But his hands v\^ere tied. The nation owned 
 forty-two ships of war: all but six of them had been purposely 
 sent beyond his reach, cruising in the Mediterranean and other 
 distant waters. The nation had a small standing army of some 
 twenty regiments. They were away to the Kocky Mountains and 
 beyond. Washington itself was menaced on every side, and the 
 Plug Ugiies of Baltimore needed but a word to stir them to deeds 
 of horror. 
 
 What if Abraham Lincoln had been a coward then ? 
 
 He calmly appealed to the loyal masses of the country, saying, 
 "This is your government as much as mine. I have sworn to 
 defend it,' and I shall try. Give me men and means!" Then 
 came that sublimest scene in our annals, which a friendly French- 
 man has called ''• The uprising of a Great People." O it was a 
 spectacle for the ages! There were heroic periods of Roman and 
 Grecian history, and there have been stirring events in the life of 
 many another nation ; but you and I have lived, and are still living, 
 in a peerless time ! 
 
 The President committed the safety and honor of the IvepubUc 
 to the people; and the cold, dying embers of hope in their hearts, 
 swept by tiie breath of patriotism, glowed like living coals of fire. 
 The men of the North rushed to arms, and to the rescue, with a 
 
8 
 
 unanimity which seemed to indicate that political animosities and 
 old party fends were buried and foro'otten. The cowardly sympa- 
 thizers with treason in these free States were awed into silence, 
 and not a dog wagged his tongue except to give in a professed 
 adhesion to tlie loyal cause with well dissembled insincerity. I 
 never trusted these men; I always felt that they were as snakes in 
 the grass ; I continually expected just what has since taken place : — 
 a cunning, sneaking, hypocritical, diabolical attempt to assasinate 
 the government by stabbing it in the back, while the bolder, man- 
 lier foe should strike in front. But alas ! I did not dream that 
 such multitudes of loyal men would be hoodwinked into aliance 
 and dalliance with them ; nor that so many of us would ever be 
 found foolishly playing into their hands, by slandering our own 
 rulers out of the confidence of the people. 
 
 But from that day to this, the administration has steadil}-, 
 honestly, and earnestly, pursued its original purpose of putting- 
 down the rebellion and restoring the federal authority. And, 
 with all our complaining, it has moved far on in the path toward 
 ultimate euccesB. See Vvdiat has been accomplished! Beginning 
 without an army — Vv'ithout guns, accoutrements, means of trans- 
 portation, tents, or comm.issariat, and, what was worse, beginning 
 without experience in any of these matters, imd with much of the 
 best educated military talent arrayed on the rebel side ; it has 
 raised, equipped, mobilized, and found means of sustaining an 
 aggregate of nearly a million soldiers, who, with all their just and 
 grievous grounds of complaint in many cases, have been better 
 paid, belter fed, better clothed, and better cared for when sick and 
 wounded, than was ever an army of similar dimensions before 
 since the world was made. 
 
 Beginning with so small a fleet, it has created a navy of more 
 than four hundred vessels, including an iron-clad flotilla outnum- 
 bering all the wooden war-ships we had two years ago, so that 
 America " rules the waves" — the wonder and dread of all unfriend- 
 ly nations. 
 
 Beginning tvith a people of no military habits or tastes — with a 
 people who never felt the burden of government, and who hardly 
 knew that they had a country — a people chiefly devoted to the 
 dollar and far more intent on private advantages than on the 
 public welfare — it has made us a nation of soldiers, capable of 
 giving and taking the hardest blows of war; and it has put us 
 well on the way to become also a nation of Spartan patriots. 
 
 "True," says an objector, "the administration has got together a 
 multitude of soldiers; but it has made miserable work of organ- 
 izing and managing tiiem." I answer, this was an unavoidable 
 consequence, considering the material with which the government 
 had to deah In officering so large an army, and in organizing it 
 by joint action with the governors of twenty states, was it to be 
 expected that no unworthy men would receive commissions? 
 There might have been wiser selections ; but only through the 
 terrible trial by battle could real merit be discovered: only thus 
 could cowardice and incompetence be made manifest. Slowly 
 and at terrible cost, we are finding out and weeding out the un- 
 worthy officers. The process is exceedingly delicate and diflicult ; 
 
9 
 
 and it is not unattended with danger that worse ones may be put 
 in their places ; but the path of imprOTement is now fairly 
 entered upon, and every day adds something to the efficiency of 
 onr legions. 
 
 There is an apolog}^ for the appointment of unworthy men to 
 both civil and military positions, which it shames me to present. 
 Commissions are given to men because they show good recom- 
 mendations. How should a Presitlent or governor know that the 
 applicant is unworthy, when prominent and respectable citizens 
 are his vouchers ? And if a knave or a fool get a commission on 
 the s.rength of your testimonials or mine, who is most to blame? 
 Two conditions are necessary to secure an honest administration 
 of onr government, viz., An honest President, and an honest peo- 
 ple. Gentlemen, we have the honest, President; but do not tell 
 me the people are honest, so long as they knowingly help unwor- 
 thy men into places of power and trust. 
 
 There is laxity and disorder in the army ; there is recklessness, 
 waste and fraud in the civil departments ; and I am ready to say 
 it is a shame that the President doesn't " strike somebod}''" for 
 these things, and insist on a purib'cation and a straightening. 
 But then I am compelled to consider the enormous weight of 
 cares which press upon him ; the prodigious multiplicity of details 
 involved in carrying forward such complicated operations over so 
 wide an extent of territory ; the chances that in employing so 
 many agents to perform such various business there will be some 
 unlit and some unfaithful. The remedy is partly with the Pres- 
 ident, partly with the heads of departments, partly with the field 
 commanders, still more with tiie people. When we become intel- 
 ligent and virtuous, matters will move more smoothly. Till then 
 no power out of heaven can save us, and no power in heaven 
 save us, from jars and jargons, disorders and disasters. As 
 for the President, poor man 1 he has never learned to split rails 
 without beetle and wedges ; and with knotty, gnarly, cross-grained 
 timber and bad tools, the work must go slowly, and the rails, when 
 split, must be as crooked and unhandsome as himself. 
 
 Consider in another aspect the kind of material with which the 
 administration has be^n obliged to deal, and you will see good 
 cause to think gently of its errors, and to speak well of its work. 
 Perhaps no man was ever endowed with a higher or more active 
 sense of general justice than Mr. Lincoln. He could never be 
 the President of a party nor of a section ; and those who so con- 
 sider him have surely mistaken their own prejudices for proofs. 
 He is perpetually conscious of his obligation to the whole coun- 
 try and to all classes of its people ; and he respects and wishes to 
 serve every community and every man — every local and separate 
 interest, as well as the general mass. This is one of the strongest 
 points in his character. There are a few dozen "born democrats" 
 in the country; and he is one of the intensest kind. He reverences 
 the rights of all, and wishes to promote the welfare of all, so far 
 as circumstances will permit, i wish he had more of that kind 
 of individuality and Jacksonian independence which would enable 
 him to impress himself upon the nation's character and life, so 
 
10 
 
 that we could all look to him as a fountain of both policy and 
 power; but no! his own sense of justice forbids, because this 
 would then be his oovernment and not ours. It is in his very 
 nature and his conscience to look to the people, and to ask what 
 is their will, that he may be their servant. So he consents to 
 consult those who hold every phase of opinion, with a view to 
 conciliate and gratify tliem so far as possible. Not from timidity ; 
 not from weakness, or want of will ; not because he has no mind 
 of his own; not because he is easily influenced, as some wrongly 
 imagine ; not from a wish to make himself agreeable or popular ; 
 but rather from a desire to be just to every body, to give all inter- 
 ests a fair representation, and to allow all classes a share in the 
 practical management of affairs, so that this may be in truth a 
 government hy the people. That is my reading of Abraham Lin- 
 coln's character; and it explains to me the riddles which have so 
 puzzled the critics of all parties. It explains the apparent inde- 
 cision, the long halting at the forks of the roads — the no-policy — 
 which for so long a time characterized his administration in the 
 conduct of the war, and which came so frightfully near to making- 
 shipwreck of the army and the country, simply because it drove 
 the impatient people frantic, and left the ship to drift for a time 
 without a helmsman. The whole crew were in council : he was 
 consulting their will as to the best method of safety. 
 
 The President was ready to take at j9«.;' every body's profession 
 of loyalty; and he regarded it as both justice and sound policy 
 to share the management of affairs with ail American citizens — all 
 who would help to save the Union. Thus lie filled the first vacancy 
 in the cabinet, after the war broke out, with a Democrat; thus he 
 filled the chief places in the army with Democratic generals ; thus 
 also he lent a patient ear to all that might be said about public 
 policy, about the conduct of the war, and about the disposition to 
 be made of the slavery question, by men of all opinions ; by men 
 from Louisiana and men from Massachusetts, and especially by 
 men from the border States, whose precarious attachment to the 
 Union lie was, with good reason, solicitous to strengthen and con- 
 firm, as there seemed ample need. 
 
 And so the war must wait, the nation must wait, the commerce 
 of Christendom must wait, till he had given all sides a fair hearing, 
 submitting with miraculous fortitude to an irruption of advisers 
 more trying to the patience than the eruptions of Job. But when 
 at last he is ready for a decision — when the responsibility comes 
 homo to him alone of choosing between several lines of policy of 
 which only one can be followed — then the positive qualities of his 
 character came out; and he shows us the strength with which he 
 can grasp a conviction, the boldness with which he can announce, 
 and the firmness with which he can maintain a principle of duty. 
 Ilis eye sweeps over the vast territory of the Union and down the 
 nation's future. He sees that slavery is the arch-enemy of our 
 peace; tliat slavery is the arch-traitor to the Constitution; that 
 slavery is the only cause of this terrible Rebellion, and its chief 
 support; thai slavery is the viper which the Republic has warmed 
 into life, and which has stung its unwise benefactor; and then, 
 
11 
 
 obedient alike to his inaugural oath, to his view of the public 
 emergency, and to the command of eternal justice, he "puts the 
 foot down firmly" on that viper's neck ! God bless him ! and God 
 blast the viper ! [Thundering applause.] 
 
 As was to be expected, the President has been very widely and 
 severely censured : by one class of citizens for not reaching this 
 conclusion sooner, and by another class for reaching it at all. 
 These very censures prove how utterly impossible it would have 
 been for him to adopt any principle or policy, or measure, which 
 we could all approve ; and that if the nation is to be saved at all, 
 some of us must consent to waive our preferences and stand by 
 the government, notwithstanding it has not seen fit to adopt our 
 policy. 
 
 I think the long delay, the willingness to give a fair hearing 
 and trial to other plans, and the manifest reluctance of the Pres- 
 ident to meddle needlessly with the old order of things, have been 
 amply justified by the course of events. His policy has arrested 
 the progress of secession in the border States, and has given the 
 people of those States time to consider how much more desirable 
 to them is the Union without slavery than slavery can be without 
 the Union. His policy has probably given to the national armies 
 a quarter of a million of Northern Democrats who would never 
 have enlisted in what their leaders would have denounced as an 
 " abolition war ; " but who, having once had a taste of what seces- 
 sion means, have lost all scruples about striking rebellion in the 
 most vital parts. 
 
 Gen. Mitchell stated a short time before his death, that while in 
 Northern Alabama, his troops had been engaged in guarding the 
 plantations of men who were absent in the rebel army, thus em- 
 ploying federal forces to keep slavery alive while the slave mas- 
 ters should finish the work of destroying the Union ! And if 
 pro- slavery counsels had prevailed, the President might have 
 retained an uncertain hold upon the sympathy of a semi-disloyal 
 people ; but he would surely have lost, and would have deserved 
 to lose, a measure of the confidence of that very large, somewhat 
 respectable, and wholly loyal body of citizens who do not believe 
 that armed traitors have any claim to protection under a Constitu- 
 tion which they disown and seek to destroy. Yet even in that 
 trying case, yery few indeed of these loyal citizens would have 
 withdawn their support from the government ; they would never 
 have deserted the banner of che Union, though forced to fight in 
 discouragement and despair. 
 
 I marvel at what the administration has been able to a,ccom- 
 l)lish, in this combination of embarrassing and distracting circum- 
 stances. I marvel that it has been able to disarm Northern oppo- 
 sition and hold it at bay so long and so well. I marvel at its 
 success in retaining Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri in the 
 Union ; and still more that their stay in the Union luis at last 
 been made the decided choice of the people of those States. 
 Equally do I marvel at the wisdom, moderation, and display of 
 power, which have hitherto made it impossible or impolitic for 
 either England or France to shake hands witli the Confederacy 
 
12 
 
 except behind the door — a state of things which the Emancipation 
 Proclamation has done much to confirm. 
 
 Two years ago, I trusted Abraham Lincoln with trembling. To- 
 day I trust him without trembling, but with a growing belief that 
 God has gathered the power of twenty millions of freemen into 
 the right arm of a single man for no unworthy purpose. If he 
 will only fulfil his pledges and follow up the work he has so well 
 begun of " saving the Union in the siiortest way, under the Con- 
 stitution," we shall all be ready to join in the acclaim, "Well 
 done, good and faithful servant I" and posterity will weep tears of 
 gratitude over the tomb of one who accomplished a greater work 
 than Washington. 
 
 Citizens 1 as true Union men, it is now an important part of our 
 work to frown upon the slanderers of the administration, and to 
 enlighten and correct a public opinion which those slanderers 
 have bewildered and perverted. We must go before our coun- 
 trymen and say, Let us stand by the President of the United 
 States, as he stands by us ! Let us give him men and money, and 
 generous sympathy in his trying duties, and words of cheer through 
 whatever days of darkness and disaster may yet await the Republic. 
 Let us be free to speak words of counsel and of criticism ; but 
 always with a view to help and strengthen, and never with a view 
 to hinder and embarrass. Let us count that man a public enemy 
 who would hreak the force of any hlovj which is meant to crush 
 the rebellion, or loho would weaken the arm of any officer who 
 strikes at treason. 
 
 But our natural impatience has made us unjust. The govern- 
 ment needs not only men and money, but time also, for the per- 
 formance of a great work. No war goes fast, especially wlicre the 
 operations are extensive. Great armies watch each other for 
 months, hoping to secure favorable combinations or desirable 
 positions, by various strategic manoeuvers. Our fathers fought 
 eight years to secure a beginning for our national existence ; and 
 we never reproach them for paying too high a price for our liber- 
 ties. We have fought less than than two years. Are our patri- 
 otism and pluck and courage so soon played out? Surely, the 
 fortunes of war thus far have not been against us, that we should 
 now lay down our arms. We have fouglit over a hundred battles, 
 and have driven the enemy within much narrower limits. \]'e 
 have lost nothing : we have gained much / and we hold all we 
 gai7i. We have acquired, and still maintain, strong positions on 
 the Atlantic coast, and on the Gulf, giving us a base of opera- 
 tions in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and 
 Texas. We hold Fort Pulaski, watching the entrance of Savannah. 
 We control the Mississippi, except at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, 
 although sixteen months ago, it was in the hands of the rebels 
 from its mouth nearly to St. Louis. We have taken New Orleans, 
 the metropolis ol the South ; we occupy the capitals of two of 
 the seceded States; on the sacred soil of Virginia, Norfolk is 
 again ours, and Fortress Monroe is our great military and naval 
 depot. Every considerable force of rebels has been driven out of 
 Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Western Virginia, and a large 
 
13 
 
 part of Tennessee; the heroic Rosecrans has a well-appointed 
 and hopeful army of a hundred thousand men far down in the 
 heart of the enemy's country; Washington is safe, and all is 
 quiet on the Potomac ! 
 
 Besides all this, we have maintained, along the extended coast- 
 line, a blockade so effective that every nation under heaven has 
 been compelled to respect it ; a blockade which, co-operating with 
 onr land forces, hugs the Confederacy like an iron band. 
 
 While the credit of the South must be rapidly wasting, we have 
 a masterly system of tinauce, under which we can triple our 
 enormous public debt without dangerous depreciation. Every one 
 of our State governments is in good running order ; the constable 
 with his writ, is respected in every Northern village ; the courts of 
 justice are unimpeded; no scliool house is shut up; nearly all 
 branches of industry are alive and thrifty. Men lash themselves 
 into a fnry, and talk like fools and maniacs about the "despotism of 
 the Lincoln government," and then they put in bids for federal 
 contracts, and ask for commissions in the army ! The new and 
 important questions of Constitutional law which have been sud- 
 denly sprung upon the government, under circumstances requiring 
 speedy action, may or may not have been wisely decided ; but in 
 very rare instances have these decisions operated to the inconven- 
 ience of any except those who have forfeited the right to com- 
 plain — men who ought to be hanged, but who certainly could not 
 be expected to feel — 
 
 " the halter draw, 
 
 With good opinion of the law." 
 
 But why am I at such pains to vindicate the administration ? 
 Because confidence in our rulers and leaders is one link in the 
 chain of our national safety ; and because it is the weakest link, 
 and our cunning enemies are trying to sever it, so that we may 
 all fall down together in one general ruin, while bloody treason 
 triumphs over us. We must be saved through co-operation with 
 the administration, or not saved at all. Even 3'ou who do not re- 
 gard the administration as entitled to so much confidence as 1 
 have here bespoken for it, must allow that, the weaker the gov- 
 ernment is, the more the people must do to strengthen and sustain 
 it. No possible good can come from divisions and distractions ; 
 we can only succeed through unity of action ; and there can be no 
 unity except on the basis of supporting the constituted authorities. 
 No change of President is possible for two years to come ; and 
 two years is time enough to lose our cause^ either through that 
 foreign intervention which is encouraged and invited by our fool- 
 ish quarrels with the administration, or through the disgraceful 
 surrender of our armies, which may be discouraged, broken up, 
 and perhaps starved, for lack of a suitable moral support, a con- 
 tinuous reinforcement of new troops, and that suppl}- of their 
 wants which must come from the people at home. Before another 
 President can he elected, the Confederacy may he recognized and es- 
 tahlished^as the first poioer on this cojitinent, unless loe prevent it 
 hy a united and unfaltering support of the present President of 
 the United States^ in whatever loar policy his convictions may 
 
14 
 
 require him to adopt. If this policy fails to unite us, what reason 
 is there for supposing that we shall be able to unite on the policy 
 of a successor, chosen amid the din of armies and the storm of 
 maddening passions ? It is appalling to think that any considera- 
 ble portion of the people of the North may be either so blind or 
 so unpatriotic as to risk the ruin of the Republic for the sake of 
 carrying an election, and restoring their political party to power. 
 And yet, the attempt, for partisan purposes, is now being made to 
 alienate the nation's confidence from its own patriotic s<"andard- 
 bearer, by an unscrupulous and malignant system of slander; and 
 this too in the face of an armed and powerful foe ! Do the men 
 who made James Buchanan President so soon forget that the 
 country was involved in its present disorders through the criminal 
 folly and pro-slavery servility of their own statesmen ? — or why is 
 it that they have so far lost all modesty as to claim for their party 
 and their public men a monopoly of administrative wisdom ? To 
 me, it is a minor question by what man or men, by what generals 
 or statesmen, l^y what party or policy, my country be saved, if it 
 be only truly and wholly saved. Perish parties ! perish personal 
 ambitions ! perish poor private interests and preferences ! — but 
 God save the Republic ! 
 
 And the Republic will be saved! The blood of our brave 
 soldiers is not to be slied in vain ; but it shctll wash out the nation's 
 sin and shame. There is to be no great Slave Empire to darken and 
 damn the continent for ages ; there is to be no divided and war- 
 ring people ; but there is to be " Liberty and Union, now and 
 forever, one and inseparable." The tides of patriotic enthusiasm 
 are rising again, with ever resounding swell, like the voice of 
 many waters and mighty thunderings. The kingdom of heaven is 
 at hand ; Babylon is falling; the old serpent must die. A sad 
 waste of grave-clothes, the old fogies will think it ; but Lazarus 
 must come forth. Much tearing, and wallowing and foaming of 
 the patient ; but the devil must come out. The Great Rebellion 
 writhes, and rages, and threatens, and spits fire ; but One stronger 
 than the strong man armed has taken it in hand. There are terri- 
 ble scenes yet to come ; ponderous burdens yet to be borne ; 
 agony on agony to be endnred ; angry tempests to sweep the 
 sky ; — but, as the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, tliis land shall 
 be redeemed and our children shall eat their bread in peace. 
 With tears and songs will they honor the memory of the wise in 
 counsel and brave in fight who carried the Republic through its 
 great peril, and strangled forever the mighty Demon. 
 
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