d genuine force,
that which is breathed through every oracle of Southern popular
sentiment. And this is insisted on by Southern letter-writers and
journalists as demonstrating the impossibility of 'reconstruction.' 'How
can those who hate each other so implacably ever again be one people?
What use in seeking to restore a Union which hereafter can, at best, be
but the result of overwhelming force on the one side, and utter
subjugation on the other?'

But the assumption of _mutual_ hate between the Northern and the
Southern masses is utterly groundless. Nothing in the attitude, the
bearing, the utterances, of the loyal millions affords it any
justification or countenance. So far are they from cherishing any such
aversion to the Southern people, that they can with difficulty, and but
inadequately, comprehend the malignity wherewith they are regarded by
the revolters, without feeling the smallest desire to reciprocate it.
That the Rebellion itself should be regarded with general reprobation
throughout the Free States was inevitable, for, in the first place, it
involves a most flagitious breach of faith. Republican liberty rests on
an implied but essential compact that the result of a fair election
shall be conclusive. If those who lose an election are thereupon to rush
to arms for a reversal of the decision of the ballot-box, then elections
are a stupid sham, whereon no earnest person will waste his breath or
his suffrage. Why should any one devote his time and effort to secure a
political result which those overborne by it will set at defiance the
next hour? It is not merely Jefferson or Adams, Jackson or Lincoln, who
is defied by a revolt like that now raging in this country; it is the
principle of Popular Elections--it is the right of a constitutional
majority to govern. Concede that the Southern States were justifiable in
seceding from the Union because Lincoln (with their connivance) was
chosen President, and it were absurd ever to hold another Presidential
Election, or ask any man to vote hereafter. The North certainly feels
that the principle of government by constitutions and majorities is
assailed by this rebellion, and that to concede its rightfulness is to
displace the very corner-stone of republican liberty.

The North feels also that commercial dishonesty was potent among the
influences which fomented this rebellion. Bankruptcy almost
universal--planters immersed in debt for lands, for negroes, for food,
for