ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 115 



reaped no longer ; that fine virtue which sent up messages of 

 courage and security from every sod of it would have eva 

 porated beyond recall. We should be irrevocably cut off 

 from our past, and be forced to splice the ragged ends of our 

 lives upon whatever new conditions chance might leave 

 dangling for us. 



We confess that we had our doubts at first whether the 

 patriotism of our people were not too narrowly provincial to 

 embrace the proportions of national peril. We felt an only 

 too natural distrust of immense public meetings and enthu 

 siastic cheers. 



That a reaction should follow the holiday enthusiasm with 

 which the war was entered on, that it should follow soon, and 

 that the slackening of public spirit should be proportionate 

 to the previous over-tension, might well be foreseen by all 

 who had studied human nature or history. Men acting gre 

 gariously are always in extremes ; as they are one moment 

 capable of higher courage, so they are liable the next to 

 baser depression, and it is often a matter of chance whether 

 numbers shall multiply confidence or discouragement. Nor 

 does deception lead more surely to distrust of men, than self- 

 deception to suspicion of principles. The only faith that 

 wears well and holds its colour in all weathers is that which 

 is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of ex 

 perience. Enthusiasm is good material for the orator, but 

 the statesman needs something more durable to work in; 

 must be able to rely on the deliberate reason and consequent 

 firmness of the people, without which that presence of mind, 

 no less essential in times of moral than of material peril, will 

 be wanting at the critical moment. Would this fervour of 

 the Free States hold out? Was it kindled by a just feeling 

 of the value of constitutional liberty ? Had it body enough 

 to withstand the inevitable dampening of checks, reverses, 

 delays ? Had our population intelligence enough to compre 

 hend that the choice was between order and anarchy, between 

 the equilibrium of a government by law and the tussle of 

 misrule by pronunciamiento ? Could a war be maintained 

 without the ordinary stimulus of hatred and plunder, and 

 with the impersonal loyalty of principle? These were serious 

 questions, and with no precedent to aid in answering them. 



At the beginning of the war there was, indeed, occasion for 

 the most anxious apprehension. A President known to be 

 infected with the political heresies, and suspected of sym- 



