at the labor of two generations has accumulated.
Better a desert and universal poverty than disunion; better the
war of the French Revolution than an oligarchy founded upon the
labor of slaves. But, sir, there is no need of this. The resources,
wealth, and labor of twenty millions of freemen are amply sufficient
to meet not only the physical, but financial, difficulties of the
war. Thank God! the test to which all nations in the course of
their history are subjected, is applied to us when we have a
insignificant national debt; when our resources were never more
manifest; when the loyal states are so throughly united; when our
people are filled with a generous enthusiasm that will make the
loss of life and burden of taxation easy to bear. If we conquer
a peace by preserving the Union, the constitution, our nationality,
all our ample territories, the rebound of prosperity in this country
will enable a single generation easily to pay the national debt,
even if the war is protracted until desolation is written upon
every rebel hearthstone."

This, I believe, expressed the spirit and determination of the
loyal states of the north, at the beginning of the war. With
opinions so widely divergent in the two sections, and with a fixed
purpose of each to stand by them, there was no way that poor frail
human nature could devise to decide the controversy except to fight.

From the graves of the dead, who fought on opposite sides for their
country of their state, there has been a resurrection, honorable
to both sections, a Union stronger, more united and glorious than
the Union established by our fathers, and with a rebound of prosperity
greater than we could conceive of in 1862. This war, though fearful
in the sacrifice of property and life, has resulted in a better
understanding among the people of both sections. Each has for the
other a higher respect and regard. I sincerely hope and believe
in the good time coming when sectional lines will not divide
political parties, and common interests and a broader nationality
will have destroyed sectional feeling and jealousy.

As the result of the war we command the respect of all foreign
nations. The United States, as a great republic, has become an
example already followed by European nations. It has at least
secured the respect and forbearance of the ruling class in Great
Britain, who never forgot or forgave the rebellion of our ancestors
against King George III and the pa