majesty of perfect proportion, is proclaiming to the world the triumph of an experiment that has no parallel in the recorded history of mankind.

Fellow citizens, have I painted too bright a picture? Is the ship of the Republic safe in port, or is she still tossed on the open sea? Let us not disguise the difficulties of the hour. We have still a great work to do, a work, in some respects, the most complex and difficult ever presented to any people; but is it a work beyond our strength? If I had nothing in which to put my trust but an individual, or a party, I might indeed be filled with apprehension. But ours is not the government of one man, nor the government of one party. I look beyond the mere functionaries to the source from which they derive their powers. I turn from the petty jealousies and miserable bickerings of the servant's hall, to the serene atmosphere of the presence chamber. I build my hopes, not on the tinkering expedients of politicians, but in the sound, unerring instincts of the sovereign people.

No nation that ever existed depended so little as does ours upon its mere form of government. To my mind, the crowning moment in our great conflict was not when the first gun, fired on Sumter, was followed by the magnificent uprising of a great people; when the whole North burned with an enthusiasm that has had nothing like it since the days of the Crusades; but rather that dark, that dreadful hour when, with the nation reeling beneath the blow that smote its beloved chief, the great duties of the State passed without a break or a jar to the hands of his successor. That was the real triumph

of our institutions. I would have all other days, however glorious, be forgotten. I would have all other

pictures fade away, before I would part with that, for not Gettysburg, nor Chattanooga, nor Petersburg, not Hooker fighting above the clouds, nor Farragut lashed to the mast-head, nor Sherman holding his mighty march to the sea that roared and clapped its hands as it sent to the sky the sheen of his terrible banners, was such a spectacle as the calm self-possession of that hour.

With such proofs of national capacity, can we doubt, fellow-citizens, that, with the blessing of Providence, the great problem before us will be solved? that the nation, guided by the great principles which illuminate her history, will march on without faltering, in the path on which the light shineth more and more, that, swayed by the increasing influences of a christian civilization, recognizing no distinction of color or race, extending to all, alike the blessings of liberty and the safeguards of law, the land of our fathers, coming from her baptism of blood, with the dove of divine peace resting upon her, will merit the benediction: "This is the people in which I am well pleased?" By the mercy of God, while Europe rings with sue the nobler arts of peace. be eclipsed by the grander Truth.

arms, we are left to purLet the victories of war victories of Justice and