86 would seek to stifle the breath of prayer, if it could uot be impressed into asking the benedictions of the God of justice upon the most flagrant inhumanity and crime that stains the page of human history. And while this demoniacal indus try is exerted to poison the mind by the press, the same assiduity is seen in efforts to prevent the communication of intelligence calculated to shake the confidence of the blinded rebels as to their ultimate success. Prisoners brought into our lines within the last two weeks, deny that New Orleans, Memphis, or Nashville are held by Union troops, and tenaciously assert that a Union gunboat cannot pass the guns of Lovell on the Mississippi ! And no matter how well a man may know the facts, he dare not, as he values his life, hint that the lies framed for the deception of the masses, are other than the truth they .claim. The palpable, physical elements of this contest, on the part of the enemy, are truly stupendous. The entire population of the South, in a military sense, are impressed into the service ; every kind of property in the rebel States which can be used for any military purpose, is seized ; and the sole hope of replevin, is predicated upon the permanence of the Confederate government. The entire currency of these States is dependent for its redemption upon the success of the rebellion ; while they now hold ample territory with abundant natural resource^ for an empire, and awaiting only the ever precarious caprices of European diplomacy for foreign recognition with ths practical sympathy annexed. My past, I trust, preserves me from suspicion of disloyalty while I thus speak of the power of the rebels ; and I believe it is best to be frank, even if it should savor of compliment, as the first [thing toward a successful contest is to squarely face the enemy. Then let me add, what is the fruit of ample opportunities of knowledge, as my conviction, that until the power of this rebellion is crushed with a gauntlet hand, you cannot call the ground upon which you now stand either free or independent ; for, chimerical as it may seem to you, still the scheme is entertained with a lively hope by the rebels, of invading the cities of NewYork and Philadelphia, to repay with their plunder the losses incurred by the desolation of Virginia ; and while you repose in a security, based upon the vast population and resources of these cities, you must remember, that military success depends in some cases entirely upon organization. Ridgeley, in his account of Buena Vista, says, there were Mexicans enough to bind every American and carry him into Mexico, but they lacked organization ; and to those familiar with military operations it does not look like phantasy altogether, (in the absence of energetic action on the part of the North.) when we hear the apparently wild menace of the rebels dictating peace before the walls of Philadelphia and New-York. Thus I have glanced briefly at the elements, strength, and purposes of the rebel conspiracy. I have purposely refrained from the discussion of the agencies which contributed to bring this scourge upon us as a people. I feel, however, constrained to state one fact, elicited from a variety of sources namely, that the course of some of the public men of the North, in the past, has inspired the rebels with the conviction that they have allies in the North, whose overt co-operation is only prevented by fears of mob violence, and who, at the sight of the three barred flag would break the union of that North which now brings pallor to the cheek of treason. And at different times, while urging intelligent rebels by the terrors of the national arm, and pleading with fraternal earnestness in view of the traditions of the glorious old Flag, to induce them to abandon the heresy and crime of secession, I have been met with the speeches, resolutions, and platforms of Northern political leaders, giving promises to justify every claim of the rebels even to bloody isolation, as a remedy for the alleged wrongs of the South ; and this blighting stultification paralyzes even now, in a great measure, all attempts to convince the rebels that the North and nation are verily in earnest. These are some of the facts in view of which we must act. If any man doubted that we are fighting practically an aroused nation, the march from Fortress Monroe to Richmond, presenting seventy miles of desolated homesteads and abandoned plantations, is calculated to correct and convince him. And under
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