10 so much as to the persistent efforts and foresight of a few men who felt the force of Washington’s maxim,— “In peace prepare for war.” It is not improbable that the wisdom acquired in this war will lead to such action, such preparation for war, as will be the most effectual peace measure possible. For this hard-gained wisdom, we may be thankful. IV. This war is making us pure, as a nation. By this I do not claim that it is augmenting the piety of individuals. A nation is a unit. It has its birthday. Its growth to manhood. It may have its time of decline and death. It has its own virtues and its own sins. As a nation has no hereafter, God looks upon it as an individual ; reproves, rebukes, exhorts, approves, blesses or punishes it here in this world. This nation had, in its inception, on its birthday, the sin of slavery. It was its original sin. Like all sin, its tendency was to increase and perpetuate itself. It permeated all the government. It infected every function of the government. The trail of the serpent was over all. It was over the seat of our national government. A group of our Northern representatives, in John Quincy Adams’s Presidency, were standing by the gates of the capitol, when a stalwart black, who had just
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