42 THANKSGIVING SERMON. greater evil; that a Southern Empire, extending to Cuba and Mexico, with the slave-trade as its basis, is not a greater evil; that the extinction of our national life, in which so many precious hopes for ourselves, for posterity, for the world, are bound up, is a greater evil. We reluctantly take up the sword in defense of the rich heritage God has given us, and most cheerfully will we return it to its scabbard when this heritage js secure. We feel no responsibility resting upon us as friends of the federal government but that of self-defense. In resorting to this stern arbitrament of the sword, there is fearful responsibility somewhere. And we call the nations of the earth to witness—nay, we call the God of nations to witness that, instead of seeking, we not only did not desire it, we did not expect it; we were utterly unprepared for it; it came upon us like the lightning in a midsummer day. It will be the joy of our hearts and the thank-offering of our lips to sound the retreat the moment the voice of rebellion is silent. We have no bitterness against the South. We do not wish to reign over them, but to reign with them, and wish them to reign with us, and to participate equally with us, as they ever have done, in all the rights and immuni
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=