24 In what position is the Government then placed, and the cause it represents? After liaving attempted to crush the re])ellion, and spent miUions of money, and sacrificed thousands of lives, and almost gained the point, the Government, according to this theory, backs down, and the people back down, and both virtually confess their inability to complete the work, and hence sue* for terms of peace with armed traitors. The treason is triumphant, and the Governmental authority vanquished and defeated. Gracious Heaven ! Shades of the honored and heroic* dead I Ellsworth, Lyon, Kearny, Wadsworth, Sedgwick, McPherson I brave and noble men, mouldering in the patriot's grave—fortunate in having fallen too soon to witness the disgrace of your arms I Has it come to this I Have you given your lives for a nation of braggarts, and a nation of cowards au'l poltroons ? Have you fought for a principle and a cause, and fought them almost into victory, only to have both betrayed and dishonored at last if In the name of the Army and the ISTavy, and by all the sacred memories that cluster around their deeds immortal, I ask more than twenty millions of people whether they will consent to such an infamy ? Better, yes, infinitely better, not to have began the contest at all than to pause now before you finish it. " "We beseech you," say the officers and soldiers at Nashville in their recent address to the American people, "■ beware of any man, or any body of men, who, when success is so near, urges a suspension of hostilities. Such a proposition is either the height of folly or tlie height of treason,—treason all the more hatefnl, because the more cowardly than the treason of those we fight." "We have victory in our hands. If we fail to clutch it and retain it now, we are criminal, false to our past history, false to our nation, false to the age, false to humanity, false to God." These ringing words speak the soldier's heart. Mark well the fact, that this proposed " cessation of hostilities " is to be either temporartj or Jinal. If the former, then you nnist resume fighting in tlie event of failure to agree upon terms of peace ; and if so, I do not see what you gain provided the belligerent parties fail to agree, which, let me tell you, is the overwhelming probability in the case. You will have to sup-
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