need never be ashamed, that, in the troubles they may be called to face,
we leave them, as the national and tried cure for _all_ troubles, the
bold, true heart, the willing hand, the strong arm, and faith in the
Lord of Hosts. Shiloh, Stone River, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness, and
a hundred others, are the heroic names that will educate our
grandchildren, as Bunker Hill, Yorktown, and Saratoga have educated
ourselves. Who will say that a heritage of heroism and truth and loyalty
like this, to leave to the land we love, is nothing? Who can count the
price that will sum its value?

Here, at least, are some of the gains of our civil war. We seek not to
penetrate the councils of the Omniscient, or guess His purposes, though
we may humbly hope there are vaster things than these in store for
humanity and the world as the results of the struggle. Believing that He
governs still, that He reigns on the James, as He reigned on the Jordan,
that _He_ decides the end, and not President Lincoln or Jefferson Davis,
and not General Grant or General Lee, we have firm faith that this awful
struggle is no brute fight of beasts or ruffians, but a grand world's
war of heroes. We believe He will justify His government in the end, and
make this struggle praise Him, in the blessed days that are to come. But
we leave all those dim results unguessed at, as we leave the purposes of
the war itself unmentioned, and the ends which justify us in fighting
on. Men, by this time, have made up their minds, once for all, on these
last points. The nation has chosen, and in its own conscience, let
others think as they may, accepts the responsibility cheerfully.

It is enough to indicate, as we have done, some _real_, though
immaterial, results already attained, results which, to the philosopher
or thoughtful statesman, are worth a very large outlay. They do not,
indeed, remove the horror of war, they do not ask us not to seek peace,
they do not dry the tears, or hide the blood of the contest, but they do
show us that war is no unmixed evil, that even honest, faithful war-work
is acceptable work, and will be paid for.

They declare that, after all, war is a means of moral training, that
'Carnage' may be, as the gentlest of poets wrote, 'God's daughter,' that
battles may be blessings to be thankful for in the long march of time.
They bring to our consciousness, once more, the fact that a Great
Battle, amid all its horror, wrath, and blood, is something s