that it is to be a Southern rule in the North
or 'Northern' rule over the South--if we may call that 'Northern' which
means simply the principles of the Constitution as applied to all
States, and of justice as recognized by all nations. He must be blind
who can not see that it is to this extreme stage of war to the knife
that we are rapidly advancing, and that its result is far more likely to
be complete conquest than reconciliation.

The nations of Europe are waiting for the crisis of the fever to be
passed before they intervene. The sympathy of England is in great
measure with the South; yet England may well doubt the expediency of any
partial interference. This tremendous North can yet send forth another
million if needs must be, and still leave those who with tears in their
eyes and stern resolve in their hearts would plant and weave and work to
sustain the soldiers a-field. When it comes to this death-struggle--when
we begin to live in the war and for the war alone--where can the foe be?
They have long since sunk in great measure from the social condition of
peace into that olden-time state of full war, when as in Sparta, or
Rome, in her early days all things in life were done solely with
reference to maintaining the army. With us it has been--is as yet--very
different. The voice of the highly-paid opera-singer is still heard in
our large cities--Newport and Saratoga never saw gayer seasons than
those of 1862--splendor and luxury are still the life of thousands, and
even yet there exists in the North a large political party who are so
far from feeling that there is any desperation involved as to still
dally and coquet with the political principles of the enemy, and talk
largely of compromise. When it comes to the bitter end, those trivial,
superficial, temporary men will, we believe, in most cases, be changed
into good citizens, for necessity is a hard master.

For surely as we live it is approaching; the terrible struggle of rule
or ruin, which so few have dared to anticipate. We have ever been so
free from tremendous crises of life and death that even with a war
devouring scores of thousands of our best men, very few have realized
what we _must_ come to with a brave and desperate foe. Union victories
may defer such a struggle--and God grant that they have such
result!--but in case they do not, what hope remains for our foe? They
have fought well, they are willing to hang out the black flag; but what
then? They h