have found out the infinite worth of freedom, and how
much they love it, by being called on to defend it. We have seen how
our contest has been watched by a breathless world; how every humane
and generous heart, every intellect bold enough to believe that men may
be safely trusted with government as well as with any other of their
concerns, has wished us God-speed. And we have felt as never before the
meaning of those awful words, "Hell beneath is stirred for thee," as we
saw all that was mean and timid and selfish and wicked, by a horrible
impulsion of nature, gathering to the help of our enemies. Why should
we shrink from embodying our own idea as if it would turn out a
Frankenstein? Why should we let the vanquished dictate terms of peace?
A choice is offered that may never come again, unless after another
war. We should sin against our own light, if we allowed mongrel
republics to grow up again at the South, and deliberately organized
anarchy, as if it were better than war. Let the law be made equal for
all men. If the power does not exist in the Constitution, find it
somewhere else, or confess that democracy, strongest of all governments
for war, is the weakest of all in the statesmanship that shall save us
from it. There is no doubt what the wishes of the administration are.
Let them act up to their own convictions and the emergency of the hour,
sure of the support of the people; for it is one of the chief merits of
our form of polity that the public reason, which gives our Constitution
all its force, is always a reserve of power to the magistrate, open to
the appeal of justice, and ready to ratify the decisions of conscience.
There is no need of hurry in readmitting the States that locked
themselves out of the old homestead. It is not enough to conquer unless
we convert them, and time, the best means of quiet persuasion, is in
our own hands. Shall we hasten to cover with the thin ashes of another
compromise that smouldering war which we called peace for seventy
years, only to have it flame up again when the wind of Southern
doctrine has set long enough in the old quarter? It is not the absence
of war, but of its causes, that is in our grasp. That is what we fought
for, and there must be a right somewhere to enforce what all see to be
essential. To quibble away such an opportunity would be as cowardly as
unwise.

THE PRESIDENT ON THE STUMP

1866

Mr. Johnson is the first of our Presidents who has descen