5 It will reveal, finally, as the result of all this, the radiant figure of Peace hovering not afar off, and plainly visible through the cloud of war that still overspreads the land. If this be the magnificent result which we have to show for the three years of war for the Union, it will give the people of the loyal States a criterion of action in the great issue now before the country— an issue that will determine whether by the maintenance of the Art ministration under which the war. has been conducted to these results, and which can alone carry it through, we are willing to crown and justify all that has been done by a Peace that will vindicate and establish forever the unity and integrity of the nation ; or whether we shall surrender our destinies into the hands of a party committed to a peace which makes the war for the Union amockery—a party whose creed throws to the winds all that has been achieved by the toil arid blood, the faith and the self-sacrifice of this nation, in the most terrible war in the world’s history, whose creed casts disgrace on every soldier under the sod, makes the heroic bones that on a hundred battle fields render the continent sacred the monuments oi folly, which makes every sailor that has gone down at his guns for the love of the old flag a fool, and every man who wears the insignia of a glorious wound a poor simpleton; a creed, finally, the ..elusive peace resulting from which can only be the beginning of unending war. n. THE TASK LAID UPON THE ADMINISTRATION BY THE WAR. When overt war, begun by the firing on Fort Sumter in April, 1861, and brought to a head in the battle of Bull Run is the July following, had fairly inaugurated the rebellion against the constituted authorities of the United States, the Administration found itself committed to a struggle conti nerMbin its proportions. The task imposed upon it, as described in PresidSfet Lincoln’s inaugural, was to “ repossess the forts, places and property, which had been seized from the Union.” But to do this it was needed that the embodied power of the Government should sweep armed resistance from the whole territory of the insurgent States. It is the nature of war like that of a conflagration to involve and swallow up everything within its reach. The Southern heart “ fired ” by a few powerful leaders, plunged into the war with a recklessness akin to madness, and from the Ohio to the gulf, from the Potomac to the Mexican border was all aglow with red-hot rebellion^ The Government accepted the task put upon it, for the people willed it, and it was the people’s war. Conscious of its strength, arousing itself as a giant from slumber, the nation accepted the gage of war for the Union. There are, however, certain considerations which, little thought of at the time, entered so deeply into the militaty problem then pre-' sented, have so influenced the course of war and count for so much in a proper estimate of what has been accomplished aS to demand immediate statement here. They all go to show that the task of quelling the rebellion was much mpre difficult than was conceived at the I time or than is commonly apprehended even now. ft is common fallacy in estimating the amount of force the Goy-
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