to be the Government; and if the result be not what he expected, then, in his judgment, it is because his policy was not adopted. Some of us, too, have, at times, felt some degree of despondency as to the final result; and if we have talked as we have felt, we have communicated this feeling to each other. War, especially such as the one in which we are engaged, tries men's hearts; it tries their power of hope; it tries their patience; and there are some men who are not able to bear this trial. They break down under it. If they are not positive croakers themselves they are in a very good condition to listen to this mode of talking, and to be seriously affected by it. There is also among the people an honest dissatisfaction with the method in which the Government has conducted this war. The people are not agreed as to the method; and since we are all generals, and would be glad to be Presidents, there must, of course, be some collision here. Some do not like the Proclamation, and others do like it. Some complain of military arrests, and others think them perfectly justifiable. To the eyes of some there is an unusual amount of corruption at Washington, while others of equal capacity, equal candor, and equal opportunities to judge, see no evidence of any such thing. There is no use in ignoring the fact, that honest men, good citizens, persons who mean to be faithful to their country, do not agree as to the method in which this war has been conducted; and the same fact would exist under any policy which it is possible for the Government to adopt. It need surprise nobody; and if we are a reasonable and a true people, it ought not to harm any body. We may make it the source of a tremendous evil; yet I hope better things of the American people. There is again a class of persons scattered through the loyal States, small as compared with the whole body of the people, of whom one hates to think. They are out-and-out traitors, clearly such in feeling, and, so far as they dare to be so, such in practice. They have no sympathy with the Government in this struggle for life. They rejoice "when the rebels are successful," and are "cast down when victory attends the Federal arms." Some of them are in official positions, and some of them are editors of newspapers. If they were at the South, they would be rebels themselves. They are such in feeling. Their sympathies lie wholly with the enemy. The conduct of such persons is indeed a great trial to the patience of patriotic feeling. It is no slander to call them traitors, since this is their proper title. In addition to this, we have in the loyal States a somewhat violent display of party spirit, instigated and conducted by political leaders, who simply want the places of power, and make the war an occasion for gaining this end. They must, of course, attack the Government. They must denounce its policy. They must do what they can to impair the confidence of the people in our present national rulers. All this is necessary as belonging to the machinery of party tactics. These men, I shall do them the justice to believe, do not actually mean to ruin the country. What they mean, is to place the political power of the country in their own hands. They are partisans when they ought to be patriots. I have thus set before you some of the causes of the present agitation and conflicts in the public mind. Our present position as a people is a state of war with a very formidable foe, somewhat complicated by these causes. We are not to-day as harmonious in the prosecution of this war as we seemed to be twelve months ago. Such is the plain matter of fact. Now, looking the facts squarely in the face, I wish to state to you the positive and absolute necessity of our position. The enemy with whom we are contending, will make no peace with this Government that is not based on disunion. The evidence on this point is so abundant that I do not see how any one can doubt it. You can not propose any other terms of peace with the rebel authorities at Richmond which they will consider for even a moment. So they explicitly say, and so all their actions prove. I believe this to be a fixed fact. I hence come to the conclusion that the Government must actually crush this rebellion by force of arms, and thus conquer a peace, and in this way preserve the Union, or that we must consent to disunion. This is what I mean by the necessity of our position; and let me tell you that I see no possible escape from it. We may regret it; we may deplore the terrible evils of war; we may differ as to the causes of this bloody contest; we may complain of this or that measure of the Government; we may contend among ourselves, and thus divide our strength; but here we are as a whole people, driven right up to this necessity, in a state of war with an armed rebellion which we must conquer, or by which we must be conquered. We must succeed or fail. If we fail, we shall all go down together, Democrats and Republicans, the supporters and the opponents of the war, the politicians and the common people, proslavery men and anti-slavery men, saints and sinners. "We shall all be saved together, or all lost together." We are all in this ship of State, and if it founders we shall all founder with it. Those who can not see the hopeless destruction of the Union by the defeat of the Government in this struggle, seem to me strangely infatuated. Those who suppose that their political enemies are to be the only sufferers in the event of such a disaster are greatly mistaken. We are one people, living under a common government; and as such we must share together in the common prosperity and glory, or the common disgrace and ruin of our common nationality. the national sense, we shall die together, or live together. In Having thus stated the case, as I have desired to do, with plainness and candor, I come now to inquire into the great and urgent duty of the hour. What ought we to do, as a people, in "such a time as this ?" The answer which I shall give to this question, and earnestly commend to your consid eration, is this: WE OUGHT BY EVERY MEANS IN OUR POWER TO SUSTAIN THE GOVERNMENT OF THESE UNITED STATES IN THE PROSECUTION OF THIS WAR. This I hold to be the cardinal duty of the hour. Let me in a word explain its meaning. By the Government I mean the agency for which the Constitution has provided, and which the people, acting under this Constitution, have created for the enactment and enforcement of national laws. This is the Government; and of this Government Abraham Lincoln is now the Constitutional Executive. He is also the "Commander-in-Chief" of the Army and Navy. Not long since I saw in one of the New-York papers this phrase: “The Government, as it is called." What did the editor mean by the clause " as it is called”? I will not answer the question; yet any man of common-sense will readily detect the spirit of the clause. I am of opinion that Abraham Lincoln is the President of these United States, bound by the duties of his office, and entitled to all that respect which the laws of God confer upon the civil ruler. Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, in a recent article on the war, remarks: "That the government to which our allegiance is due is the National Government at Washington, of which Abraham Lincoln is the constitutional head." The Administration is now the Executive Government, and will be during the period of its constitutional service. There is no other; and you can have no other without a revolution. This Administration, for at least two years to come, must conduct this war; and during this period the salvation of the nation will be in its hands. If this rebellion is to be crushed by force, please to remember that this can only be done through the constituted authorities at Washington. By supporting this Government, I do not mean that the people should surrender the right of private judgment, or decline in a proper way to express their opinions of its policy. But I do mean that the people should so exercise this right as not to abuse it, and bring themselves into conflict with the duties they owe to the national authority. They ought not to slander their own Government. They ought not to speak disrespectfully of their civil rulers. They ought to sustain the financial credit of the nation. They ought to obey the laws, and sustain those who are engaged in their execution. They ought cheerfully to bear the burdens which are imposed upon them. In the time of war, especially such a war as the present, they ought to adjourn all minor questions, to frown upon all factious opposition, to lay aside the collisions of party strife, and unite as one man in supporting the national authority. They surely ought not to cripple and break down the very authority which is their only defense and safety, at the very moment in which the enemy is upon them. The Government should be wise; it should be efficient; it should remember that the people are thinkers; but when the Government, in such a crisis, taking counsel of its own wisdom, and all the wisdom it can bring to its aid, has enacted its laws and fixed its policy, then the people must sustain it, or civil society is a failure. I know that there are extreme cases of conscience, and enormous oppressions justifying a popular revolution, that qualify these statements; but no man of candor will pretend that in the loyal States we have reached any such extremities. Parties are quite apt to see such extremities where they do not exist; traitors always see them; yet I think this is a time when the people should not allow either politicians or traitors to spread confusion and discord in their own ranks. I have thus stated as clearly as I can what I mean by the Government, and also what I mean by supporting it. The Government intends to prosecute this war to final victory; such is its public declaration to the world; and I ask you to give it your earnest and hearty support for the following reasons: THE FIRST IS THE FACT THAT IT IS A GOVERNMENT, NOT ONE SO "CALLED," BUT ONE IN FACT AS WELL AS RIGHT. Allegiance of both sentiment and practice to government is a religious obligation. The Bible makes it such. "Government is a divine institution." Obedience to the powers that be is a moral duty. Disloyalty is both a crime against the State and a sin against the God of Heaven. Traitors, whether Northern or Southern, pro-slavery or anti-slavery, Democratic or Republican, editorial or political, traitors in public or private life, are sinners against God; they break the law of Heaven; and those who countenance or aid them, designing to do so, are partakers with them in this guilt. Have we a Government in this time of war-a legislative, executive, and judicial authority still existing in this nation? We certainly have; the action of this authority, moreover, is the supreme law of the land, and by the laws of God we are required to obey it. There is not a man in this whole land, whose property or services the Government may not command for the purpose of conducting this war. Some people talk about resistance, if this or that measure should be adopted, if conscription should be resorted to as the means of filling up the ranks of the army. Let me tell you that this means anarchy, and that anarchy means perdition. Let there be an anti-war party in the loyal States, forcibly resisting the national authority, or undertaking to do any thing of a compulsory nature in opposition to that authority, and you will have two civil wars instead of one. The national authority is the interpreter of its own rights and duties, as it must be if it be the supreme Government of the land; and no action of individuals, no resolutions of State Legislatures, no Conventions of Commissioners, must forcibly cross its path. You may at the proper time change the persons who wield this authority; but you must not touch the authority itself. This is sacred by the laws of God. To this, you and I, and all the people, owe the duty of loyalty; and by this I mean "the allegiance and service which the law requires of a citizen to his country, or of a subject to his sovereign." I have always been a law and order man. I am so to-day. For this reason I denounce treason as an atrocious crime. I believe it to be such. I can have no sympathy with men who make light of the sanctity of law. My Bible teaches me that the civil ruler is the minister of God. THE SECOND REASON WHICH I OFFER FOR SUPPORTING THE GOVERNMENT, CONSISTS IN THE FACT THAT THE NATION IS IN A STATE OF WAR. I do not now decide what kind of a war it is, or whether it be just or not. I simply declare it to be a state of war. We have armies in the field, that have gone forth at the call of the Government, to fight the battles of their country. They are facing the enemy, and the enemy facing them. They are to win victories or suffer defeats. Now, what will you do in such a state of things? Will you desert the Government and army of your country in the presence of an armed foe, break down the one and starve the other, and thus force a peace upon the nation that will be its disgrace, and perhaps its ruin? Will you be indifferent to a struggle in which your own country is involved? Are you going to act the part of traitors yourselves by giving aid and comfort to the enemy? Surely not. I think better of you. I think better of the people of the loyal States. There is a principle of patriotism involved, which must every noble and generous mind. It is for this reason have influence with that an anti-war party, that in the time of war seeks to embarrass and perplex the Government, when it comes to be fairly understood by the people, is quite sure to seal its own fate. The Hartford Convention was so regarded in the war of 1812, I think undeservedly, yet it was so regarded; and the very name has ever since been a stench in the nostrils of the nation. War is an hour of peril; it is an hour of trial and suffering; it is an hour when the powers of a nation are put to the test; it is an hour when the national honor and safety are at stake; and hence I insist that the state of war gives special emphasis to the doctrine of allegiance. This surely is not the time for the people to desert their own flag, and seek to embarrass the Government which affords them protection. Then, if ever, a man should stand up for his country, and give to its public authorities his earnest support. He may desire peace; he should do so; but until the Government can safely make a peace, patriotism requires him to sustain it in prosecuting the war. This is always the surest road to a safe peace. Peace purchased at the price of dishonor, especially the inglorious prostration and ruin of one's country, is always too dearly bought. It is a greater evil than war. "I am amazed, says General Rosecrans, in a recent letter to the Legislature of Ohio, “that any one could think of 'peace on any terms.' He who entertains the sentiment is fit only to be a slave. He who utters it at this time is moreover a traitor to his country, who deserves the scorn and contempt of all honorable men." These are earnest words. They come from one who has a right to speak to the people, and urge them to support the Government in this terrible contest. In times likes these every man ought to uphold the national authority. This is our only safety. AS A THIRD REASON FOR SUSTAINING THE GOVERNMENT, I NAME THE OBJECT OF THIS WAR. By object, I mean the declared purpose of the Government in its prosecution. Upon this question there ought to be no mistake in the public mind. There surely is no occasion for it, since this purpose has been proclaimed in the most distinct and complete manner. Both houses of Congress have said to the people and said to the world, that the sole and only object of the war is to suppress the rebellion and restore the Union. In his Inaugural Message the President declared that it would be his purpose to execute the laws, with paternal tenderness beseeching the Southern people to return to their allegiance. In his Messages to Congress the President has announced the same purpose. The diplomacy of the Government with foreign nations bears the same stamp. In his Proclamation of September last, the President declares "that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relation between the United States and the people thereof, in such States as that relation is or may be disturbed." It is easy to say, for political and party purposes, that the war has become an Abolition war, a war to put down slavery, a war for the negro, and not for the Union; this is the current slang of many newspapers; yet, so far as the Government is concerned, there is not the first word of truth in the statement. ernment prove it to be absolutely false. have the means of knowing it to be false. Government, is the one maintained to-day. The declared purposes of the Gov- |