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every class and age, — can the man be found, who (supposing 

 him to have possessed the power of ordering events according 

 to his own views of what was best), — is there one, I ask, who 

 would have disposed events, just as we have seen them dis- 

 posed ? No : — under your dispensation, or under mine, the 

 defeat of Bull Run would have been a victory, — the invasion 

 of the Peninsula would have ended in the fall of Richmond, — 

 or the rebel army would have found, after Antietam, its grave 

 in the Potomac. And we should have had peace a little 

 sooner. But what peace ? I think we all now feel that any 

 pacification, which would have left the sad cause of the war 

 just where it was at the beginning, would have been only a 

 hollow and short-lived truce. Are we not glad, and should 

 we not be grateful that a wiser mind and a mightier hand 

 compelled us, in contravention alike of our opinions and our 

 wishes, to make thorough work of it ? Need we hesitate, for 

 a moment, to commit the future of our country to Him, who 

 has not only saved it from destruction, but who has placed it 

 on a basis far broader and safer than it had ever before ? 



Although no inconsiderable portion of my pilgrimage has 

 been spent elsewhere, it has been an unfailing source of pride 

 and joy, that life, for me, began, not only in Massachusetts, 

 but in this her county of Essex. Of the old original Shires, 

 whose names have so long graced the map and adorned the 

 history of this matchless Commonwealth, no one shows a 

 fairer record, or holds up a brighter roll of honor,, than the 

 county, which we, my friends, are happy to call our own. 

 In earlier days its leading men were leaders of the State, 

 with an influence throughout the whole Union, which was 

 not only felt, but acknowledged. Other portions of our State 

 may exult in the enjoyment of grander scenery, or of a more 

 productive soil. Yet even in the last particular, the county 

 has no occasion to feel ashamed. She has her share of sand 

 and rock and bog : enough to give variety to the scene — 

 enough to keep the primal curse from total oblivion — quite 

 enough to make earnest, unremitting industry a stern, as it 



