umphant path would, in a few months at most, end by precipitating them into the Gulf of Mexico. This was a great delusion no doubt; but it was not more so than that other sentiment which has arisen as the natural reaction after the rude shock this hope received—the error as to the indefinite prolongation of the war. The one fallacy is as pernicious as the other; for if the first was a great bar to the efficient execution of the duty of putting down the rebellion (and there is doubt that our illusions as to the ease and speediness with which the v vor^ would be accomplished was a serious hinderance to the very prepay ^ons needed to make it short,) the other is an error ■ equally fatal; paralysis of effort produced by the sentiment of the probable k ^ngness of the war is sure to make it much longer than it would other. be- There is no higher duty, therefore, than for patriotic men to k themselves and others by the consideration of all the elements m* hope and confidence which a retrospect of past progress and a survey ’ of ,the Presenfc situation inspire. Such a survey ik ratifies the conclusion that the end of the war—the crushing of the armx 'd forces of the rebellion is not only not far off; but that it is near at k ,and» and that is in our Power to bring it about almost at a blow. It will show the outlix '®$ a war continental in its proportions, waged on a theatre equal C° the size of all Europe. It will show armies the ^Tl'eatest the world ever saw, raised and sustained by the spontaneous patriotism of a free people. It will show how, by the pnj^®88 our arms, the area of the rebellion has, step by step, been sk,orn three-fourths of its proportions. It will show the insurgent territory cut on from communication with the outside world by a blockade .which dwarfs any on record, and at the same time the most perfect of a ny on record. It will show how every stronghold oir the coast has either been captured or is now closely invested. It will show the-interior of this territory cut UP by our great Jines of conquest, bisected latterally and longitudinally;- and the dominion of the confederacy left a kingdom of shreds and patches. It will show a succession of battles of colossal magnitude, in three fourths of which the Union arms have triumphed, and all of which, whether victories or reverses, in a purely military point of view, have redounded to the advance of the great cause. It will show the manhood of a population defending free institutions, vindicating itself against years of the gibes and insolence born of the plantation. It will show the fighting population of the insurgent States reduced, by battle, by disease, and by captures, from three fourths of a million to between a hundred and a hundred and fifty thousand men. It will show this foree—the forlarn hope of the rebellion—separated by an interval of a thousand miles, divided into two armies, the one of which driven from Chattanooga to Atlanta, has at length been compelled to give up that point, the material capital of the confederacy, while the other is shut up in Richmond, the political capital of the confederacy. It will show that the annihilation of both these armies is a mathematical certainty, if we put forth the strength at our command.
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