re severe and exacting. Congress proceeded as if the war
were still to continue for years. Nothing was neglected, nothing
relaxed. But every one could see that the Confederacy was tottering
to its fall. Sherman's magnificent march across Georgia, to which
the President referred as in progress when he sent his message to
Congress, had been completed with entire success, with an _eclat_
indeed which startled Europe as well as America. He had captured
Savannah, and was marching North driving the army of General Joseph
E. Johnston before him. General Grant meanwhile was tightening
his hold on Richmond and on the army of General Lee. From his camp
on the James he was directing military operations over an area of
vast extent. The great victory which General Thomas had won over
Hood's army in the preceding December at Nashville had effectually
destroyed the military power of the Confederacy in the South-West,
and when Congress adjourned on the day of Mr. Lincoln's second
inauguration there was in the mind of the people everywhere a
conviction that the end was near.

The President himself spoke guardedly in his Inaugural address.
He simply said that "the progress of our armies is reasonably
satisfactory and encouraging. With high hope for the future, no
prediction in regard to it is ventured." The tone of the address,
so far from being jubilant as the mass of his hearers felt, was
ineffably sad. It seemed to bear the wail of an oppressed spirit.
The thought and the language were as majestic as those of the
ancient prophets. As if in agony of soul the President cried out:
"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge
of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue
until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty
years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of
blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another drawn with
the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must
be said that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether."

The fall of the military power of the rebellion was in the end more
rapid and more complete than the most sanguine had dared to expect.
The month of March was one of great activity with our military
forces. Three weeks after his inauguration the President went to
City Point, Virginia, partly to escape the pressure of duty at
Washington and party to be near the scene of the final triump