er before," on the 15th of July. On that theory, they went
through the canvass to the end. What was the fact? On the 15th of
July, 1863, Grant had captured Vicksburg. That gallant, glorious
son of Ohio, who perished afterward in the Atlanta campaign, and
whose honored remains now sleep near his old home on the lake
shore, General James B. McPherson, on the 4th of July, had ridden
at the head of a triumphant host into Vicksburg. On the 7th of
July, Banks had captured Port Hudson. A few days afterward, a party
of serenaders, calling upon Mr. Lincoln, saw that good man, who had
been bowed down with the weight and cares of office; they saw his
haggard face lit up with joy and cheer, and he said to them: "At
last, Grant is in Vicksburg. The Father of Waters, the Mississippi,
again flows unvexed to the sea."

On the 15th of July, what else had happened? The army of Lee,
defiantly crowding up into Pennsylvania, and claiming to go where
it pleased, and take what it pleased, only doubting whether they
would first capture Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New
York, and concluding finally that it was a matter of military
strategy first to capture the Army of the Potomac--that army, which
had invaded Pennsylvania under such flattering auspices, was, on
the 15th of July, when Mr. Vallandigham's letter was written,
straggling back over the swollen waters of the Potomac, glad to
escape from the pursuing armies of the Union, with the loss of
thirty thousand of its bravest and best, killed, wounded, and
captured, and utterly unable ever after during the war to set foot
upon free soil except in such fragments as were captured by our
armies in subsequent battles. That was the condition of the two
great armies when Mr. Vallandigham uttered that sentiment; and on
that sentiment my friend, Judge Thurman, argued his case through
all that summer.

But wisdom was not learned even at the close of 1863 by this peace
party. Things were greatly changed in the estimation of every loyal
man. We had now not merely got possession of the Mississippi
river--we had not merely driven the army of Lee out of
Pennsylvania, never again to return, but the battle of Mission
Ridge and the battle of Knoxville had been fought. That important
strategic region, East Tennessee, was no