e year ago done what we are even now
doing--had we sprung up like a grizzly bear on a buffalo, and given it
for its insolent kick a sudden, tremendous blow, tearing through its
very heart, we should not have dragged out a year of doubt. It is our
curse that we are always 'just a little' behind the enemy in enthusiasm.
In due time we shall be in the struggle for life--the faster we advance,
the better it will be for us.

On and on and on! We are marching on, and will we, nill we, must conquer
or perish.

'Ye mountains that see us descend to the shore
Must view us as victors or view us no more!'

It is written that North-America is to rise purified, regenerated, and
perfectly free from the most tremendous and probably exhaustive struggle
in history. Believe it, you who live in it--_premonitus,
premunitus_--'forewarned is to be forearmed.'

* * * * *

If President Lincoln were to call out _every_ man in the North capable
of bearing arms--according to medical judgment--between the ages of
sixteen and sixty, there would be less difficulty in assembling them
than in drafting a minority. If it were once realized that _all_ must
go, all _would_ go, and with rare exceptions, right cheerfully. It is
not so much the dread of battle and the trials of camp-life which keep
men back as the idea that there should be any exempt. Unless the six
hundred thousand be speedily brought into the field, and unless when
once there, they secure us a speedy victory, the voice of the whole
country will cry out for a general and unexcepted conscription.

And if so--why, then, hurrah for it! Let us show Europe and history how
far a great nation can go for a great truth and for its rights. Why
should we not _all_ arise in tremendous power as whole races rose of
old, and trample to the dust this insolent, slaveholding,
liberty-defying foe to us and to the holiest rights of man? Such an
uprising would be worthy of us--it would rank as the noblest deed of
history--it would cast fresh lustre on the name, already great, of our
noble President--it would be unparalleled in grandeur, in daring, and in
majesty. Its very greatness would thrill the people and inspire them to
do each man his utmost. Hurrah for the onward march of the millions!

Watch the times well, Father Abraham--and the instant that the time
comes, call for us _all_. _You_ are not afraid of great
measures--neither are your people. What a thing it woul