for which it was undertaken cannot now be accomplished, but that all these grand schemes of treason and disunion must be abandoned. Success on our part in battle does not demonstrate this. We leave the States the same, the institutions the same, the people the same, chastened to some extent, but rendered vindictive also by defeat, as well as taught by experience to pursue a career in the future similar to that which they have pursued in the past. Is it hoped that the spirit and purpose of this rebellion can be controlled by the punishment of the leaders? Justice demands that heavy penalties be visited upon these men. I trust that the demands of justice will be met; but was ever a country pacified, or a numerous people intimidated, by such means? If you leave to treason the same sphere of action; the same motives for action; hopes strengthened, rather than weakened, by the belief, universal under the circumstances, that former errors might be avoided, then you reserve for the country and the next generation a repetition of our own experience.

The overthrow of nullification seemed, for the moment, disastrous enough to the leaders: yet Mr. Calhoun, the apostle of the heresy, came afterwards into the Senate, was promoted, by the consent of that body and of the country, to the chief seat in the Cabinet of President Tyler, promulgated his pernicious opinions in State papers, corrupted the mind of the South concerning the true theory of our government, and, more than any other man, contributed to the disasters which have befallen the republic. Did any man doubt about Mr. Calhoun's

opinions, that they were hostile to the Union? And, after this experience, is it reasonable to expect that all the leaders even of the rebellion are to be excluded from public employments? But, if this were possible, there will not be wanting those who, nurtured under similar influences and entertaining similar opinions, will organize a new rebellion, which, in another generation, will menace the existence of the country.

I come now to a proposition which has, as I believe, the general support of history and experience. Whenever a rebellion is based upon a dissimilarity of institutions, the rebellion is finally to be controlled only by a modification of the institutions themselves. To the substance of this proposition I think the country must ultimately come. If, in the prosecution of the war, there is developed a strong Union sentiment, I should much prefer to rest upon that than upon any policy of our own. But, in the exigency that I anticipate, we shall be obliged to address ourselves to the question of slavery, so far, at least, as to render the national capital secure, and to demonstrate to the slaveholders, by a loss of power on their part, that slavery cannot control the government; that its positive and relative force, which can be applied to the work of dissolution, is less than ever; and that a renewal of the contest is likely to be followed by a further loss of power and consideration in the country.

By the Constitution, authority is given to Congress "to suppress insurrections." It does not follow that military force is the only means by which

insurrections are to be suppressed; indeed, we might well infer that other means are to be resorted to when practicable. If Congress finds Maryland and Virginia in a state of insurrection, and especially if the insurrection is carried on by the governments, as in Virginia now, such means must be used as, in the judgment of Congress, are adequate to secure a permanent peace. Nor can Virginia say, that, by the Constitution, the question of slavery is reserved to the States themselves. It is true of the Constitution; but the difficulty is that the people of Virginia have repudiated that instrument, made open and treasonable war, and hence it is our province to decide whether or not we will deal with them as though they were true citizens of a loyal State.

Having rejected the Constitution, they render inevitable the arbitrament of war. If, by the fortunes. of war, the national troops occupy and possess Virginia, and this occupation is not followed by evidence of returning loyalty on the part of her people, Congress must consider whether any means exist for the suppression of treason, for the suppression of the insurrection. Or are we to admit that the power of the government to suppress the insurrection is exhausted when the territory of the rebels is occupied by a military force?

The idea of the rebels, high and low, seems to be that the national government is solemnly bound to secure to them all the rights and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution, while they make war upon the Constitution, the Union, and the right of the nation to exist. And I know not but that there

are some among us who believe that this war, with its vast expenditures and gigantic appliances, is to be carried on for months, or even years, for the twofold but inconsistent purpose of protecting the government against rebel slaveholders, and of protecting the rebel slaveholders against rebel slaves.

If your victories are not followed by a revolution in public opinion, if your authority is not re-established in the seceded States by the assent thereto of a majority of the people, if they still regard themselves as aliens and beyond your legitimate jurisdiction, then, inasmuch as the enjoyment of the right of the nation to exist is the supreme necessity of all, as the safety of the capital is essential to the enjoyment of that right, as the presence of slavery in Maryland and Virginia is inconsistent with the safety of the capital, no alternative remains but to provide for the extinction of slavery in those States at such times and upon such conditions, always including compensation to the masters who are not under the ban of the law of treason, as may be compatible with the welfare of the States themselves and the preservation of the Union.

By so doing, we wrong no man in his right of property, we give safety to the capital of the nation, we demonstrate to the South that slavery no longer has power to rule or to ruin the country, and we thereby take most ample security for the future peace of the republic.

I am aware that the prosecution of the war will develop a policy. Necessity is a stern master; and our exigencies are likely to be such that we shall yield private opinion to the public good. Let us all

remember, as a bond of union between us, that the struggle in which we are engaged is for the existence of the government, and does not relate to questions of administration.

Our strength is in the justice of our cause, and in the fact that the interests of all sections. are concerned in the preservation of the Union. Whether reason will be consulted by the Southern leaders we cannot foresee. Our course is plain. There must be a vigorous prosecution of the war, the restoration of all public property, the possession of the Mississippi River and of the principal commercial points on the seaboard. Moreover, the loyal citizens of the several States are entitled to, and must receive, the protection of the national government. The war on the part of the rebels is for the doctrine that the nation has no right to exist, if a single State, at any time or for any purpose, withholds its assent.

The war on their part is against all government, -that which they have attempted to set up, as well as against that which they inherited from Washington and Jefferson.

We maintain the right of the nation to exist, not in the favor of any State, small or great, Florida or New York, but by the will of the people of the whole country, acting in the light of our traditions and history, and in obedience to our necessities. The nation, the Union indeed, existed long before the Constitution was formed. The Constitution itself was framed to form a more perfect Union. This is a war for national existence.

It is now nearly two centuries since the weak