14 our armies—the men of skill and the men of pluck—the men who were absolutely true to the flag and would fight for it. Such leaders as Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Farragut, and others of like stamp, were to be founds and in a certain sense made by the actual trial and experience of war. We have found the men at last : we have laid aside the military heroes on paper ; and today we have greatly the advantage over the Rebels in the line of skilled, able, and earnest commanders. England and France too, though professing to be neutral, have been practically the allies of this rebellion. They have given it a powerful moral support ; and England certainly has aided it very largely in the way of war-materials. They have desired its success; and this has strengthened the cause of the Rebels, and proportionately increased the labors and perils of the defenders of the Union. I have stated these several circumstances that you may take them into the account, as I now proceed to the question of actual RESULTS. What are the facts ? We all know that when the present Administration came into power, the Federal Government was practically expelled from all the country south of the Delaware, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers. It had no Army and no Navy, at all adequate to the purposes of even a small war. A treasonable Confederacy, embracing seven States, had already been organized. North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas were just on the brink of joining themselves to the Rebel forces, as they did in a very short time. The danger was innninent that Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky would follow in the same line. Multitudes of traitors and spies swarmed in the piiblic oflices of the Government. Large quantities of war material had been transported from the North to the South, and nearly all the Southern forts had been seized by the Rebels. The peoj^le at the North were divided in opinion ; they looked on with amazement ; the}' were stricken down with a terrible paralysis ; and in fact, they did not know what to do, or whitlier they were drifting. Such was the state of things when the Executive Administration of the Government passed into the hands of Abraham Lincoln.
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