fraud, or with a strong hand, have seized arsenals and forts', 

 have marshaled vast armies, have fought sanguinary battles, 

 have wrought misery and ruin and death, have wasted and 

 desolated the land, — until now the solemn question is, and this 

 is the second great issue, whether we are any longer to have a 

 government, and with power to enforce its laws and protect its 

 subjects, — whether the institutions which have thus far secured 

 to us such moral and material blessings are any longer to shield, 

 protect and preserve us, — whether the Union, hitherto our 

 pride and strength, and the only certain security for our pro- 

 gress and prosperity hereafter, is fuither to endure, — or, 

 whether, on the other hand, our very.national existence is 

 passing away, and -with it all that has made our American 

 citizenship so prized and dear to us, — whether, torn and rent 

 asunder, we are for the long dreary future to be embroiled in 

 strife, and lasting wars are to dwarf our civilization and blast 

 our veiy life, — whether, in fine, we are to be domineered over 

 and trod under foot by rebels and traitors, and mad ambition, 

 and cruel selfishness and unreasoning hate are to engulf alike 

 the cherished memories of the past, the treasured realities of 

 the present, and the once fond hopes for the future, in one 

 common ruin. 



Such are the issues involved in the war which is upon us, — a 

 war which has given new color to all our thoughts and new 

 form to all our actions, — which has filled the land with martial 

 spu-it and the air with the strains of martial music, — ^which has 

 put to flight the well-nigh settled ideas of the beauty of peace, 

 and has smoothed and made glorious the rugged front of 

 ■^var, — which has almost displaced the waving grain and tas- 

 seled corn with serried ranks and bristling bayonets — ^^^hich 

 from town and country, from workshop and farm, from field 

 and fii-eside, from shop and study, from all pursuits of life and 

 all ranks of society, has sent forth armed hosts to fight, and, if 

 need be, to fall in defense of what our fathers fought and fell 

 to establish, and to transmit unimpaii'ed the rich legacy they 

 bequeathed to us. 



