15 They spake and it was done. They wished and we were willing. They planned, we executed. They sketched the programme of the drama, and the obliging and many-sided North played every part from hero down to harlequin. But this was in piping times of peace and party, and the dramatis personas were only politicians. They represented Northern character to the lordly patrons of the scene, and how should the supercilious natures who knew us only in this scenic character of easy subserviency, ever dream of the deep and solemn soberness with which the Northern conscience held to its patriotism and its loyalty, as a drowning wife clings to her husband’s waist, her last and only hope of life. They feel now how cruel their mistake has been; and we, who are nearer to it, know how complete it was. We know that the party sympathy they leaned upon is not only a broken reed but a reed split in twain from top to bottom. We know how the grand voice of the people which, when it is thoughtful and well advised, is onlv second in its magnificent autho- rity to the voice of God, has pronounced upon that sympathy; has pronounced that fellowship with rebellion is treason to the nation ; and we know by the prophetic light of history that the politician who, in a time of his country’s war, is in sympathy with her foes, seals in advance the doom of his own discomfiture. A dignified retirement into an
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