of the status of freedom united with loyalty, until, by the
growth and stability of the new order of things, the conquered territory
shall dispense with its continued intervention. The plan devised by the
President is admirable, and symptoms already exist that, like so many
other of his leading measures, it is destined to meet with unbounded
acceptance and popularity, from even the most diverse and disharmonious
quarters. Trusting, therefore, that the practical administration of the
war is drifting into the right policy, based on the true theory of its
causes and legitimate termination, we may leave these merely political
and military questions, and revert, in conclusion, to the possible
remaining eventualities of the war. These may be, for the time, (1.)
Seemingly prosperous and fortunate, or, (2.) Seemingly accompanied with
disaster, discouragement, and dismay--ulterior even to the eventual
triumph of our arms over the open enemies of the existing order of
things.

Firstly, then, it may happen, that from this time out we shall be more
and more decisively triumphant over the 'rump' of the rebellion still
extant in the South; that the new policy of emancipation now so
favorably inaugurated may work like a magical charm, and that among the
happy and startling surprises to which we are daily becoming addicted,
may be that of an unexpected readiness in the exhausted and repentant
South to acquiesce in the new order of things; that our new financial
scheme may develop germs of commercial prosperity more than adequate to
compensate for all the strain upon our national energy and resources
imposed by the war; that an immense and unparalleled expansion of
national prosperity, hardly marred by the ripple of our financial
encumbrances, may be in waiting for the future United States of America,
and lie spread out in the immediate future before us; that untold wealth
may be unearthed from our mines, marvellous discoveries and inventions
made to increase our manufactures and means of locomotion, and new
sources of learning and art and practical action be opened.

Suppose even less brilliant and rapid results. Suppose that the war
lingers; that numerous and desperate battles have yet to be fought, and
some reverses to be endured; but that we continue to hold the heart of
the South up to our present lines in Georgia and East Tennessee; that
the new system of things is gradually established and becomes solidified
within the States al