15 Such is the terrible legacy of difficulties which Mr. Buchanan left for Mr. Lincoln to assume, and from which, if possible, to extricate the nation. The task surely was no easy one. A more mournful spectacle can scarcely be found on the page of history. I^othing like it had ever met any previous Administration when coming into power. Howdo the facts now appear ? Every man not willfully blind or grossly ignorant, must concede that we have made a wonderful advance towards the conquest of the rebellion, which, considering the greatness and difficulties of the work, is without parallel in the annals of the world. We have conquered and now hold full three-fourths of the territory claimed by the Rebels in the outset. We have produced an immense Navy, and with it enforced the most extensive and successful blockade known in history. Beginning at Norfolk, and reaching along the Atlantic seaboard into the Gulf of Mexico up to New^ Orleans, we have, witli the exception of Wilmington and Charleston, captured all the forts and naval stations which the Rebels had seized. We have gained military possession of the Mississippi River, and to-day firmly hold all the fortresses on the great Father of Waters, thus bi-secting the rebellion from North to South. We have split the rebellion up into military fragments and patches, and greatly reduced its power of concentration. We have taken from the enemy more than two thousand cannon. Ten of his principal cities, three of them Capitals of States, have fallen into our possession. General Sherman, by one of the most splendid campaigns of any age, has pressed his way into the very heart of Georgia, and captured Atlanta, inflicting an irreparable loss upon the Rebels, and securing an immense advantage to the Union, General Sheridan has recently given them another deadly blow ; and General Grant will in due season, as we doubt not, do the same thing at Richmond, Every sign, too, abundantly shows, and the statistics of population conclusively prove, that the rebellion has been brought to the very last stages of military life by sheer exhaustion in the way of fighting men. So sa}'- the eminent Generals in the field ; so say those who have been prisoners in the hands of the Rebels ; and
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