INTEODTJOTION. 21 



record will be the best possible commentary on the 

 Great American Rebellion, and the best possible re- 

 buke to the numerous tribe of croakers and prophets 

 of evil abroad, who have so long and steadily been 

 gloating over the approaching dissolution of our 

 Union. 



That the citizen soldiers of this country, after bring- 

 ing to a successful close a civil war so formidable and 

 terrific, should have laid aside promptly, in the very 

 hour of triumph, the arms which they had covered 

 with glory, and gone back quietly to their cherished 

 homes, and to the beneficent occupations of peace; 

 that a class of men notoriously ardent and susceptible 

 should abandon at once and with complacency, the 

 exciting scenes of martial life, and the fields of all 

 their fresh renown, satisfied with a sense of duty per- 

 formed and a country saved ; that so soon after turn- 

 ing their backs upon the field of battle, they should 

 exhibit to the world a countless array of harvest fields 

 stretching over a thousand hills and valleys, and cov- 

 ering a land redeemed by their valor and now embel- 

 lished by their toil this indeed is a moral spectacle 

 instructive to the world, and more to be prized than 

 all the material prosperity and affluence which it in- 

 dicates. 



CAi A }"< ; : ., \ \ \ 9 



