States stands at the political zenith; the confederate States at
the political nadir. The Southern confederacy denies the truth of our
system, and asserts that political equality is a fiction and
foolishness. To it, indeed, political equality is a stumbling block; for
the confederate constitution bases itself openly and unblushingly on the
principle of property in man. It has been blasphemously announced that
this is the stone which the builders of our government refused, and that
it is now become the headstone of the corner of a divinely instituted
nation. The blasphemy that hesitated not to declare John Brown equal
with Jesus Christ, is hardly worse than this; for John Brown was, at
least, an honest fanatic. The traitorous chiefs of the Southern
rebellion are neither fanatics nor honest men. They have stifled the
voice of conscience, and are bad men.

If their scheme of society is true, then our faith in God, and our faith
in man as the child of God, are false faiths; 'and we are found false
witnesses of God.' For it has been common hitherto to believe in the
loftiest capacities of man, as the child of God, and made in the divine
image; and this belief has had the sanction of all ages. Cheered and
strengthened by such a belief, men have struggled bravely and steadily
against priestcraft and kingcraft, against the absolutism of power in
every form. The magnificent ideal of a government which the masses of
mankind should themselves establish and uphold, has been the quickening
life of all republics since time began. It is the noblest of optimisms;
and, like religion, has never been without a witness in the human soul,
ever inspiring the genius of prophecy and song, ever moving the great
instincts of humanity. Science, fathoming all things, gave expression to
this instinct and hope and belief of the ages in the principle of
political equality as a basis of government. It is, in other words, the
science of political self-government. It was reserved for the nineteenth
century to develop the idea, for the American nation to illustrate its
practical power and its splendid possibilities. The question of man's
capacity for self-government in at issue now in the contest between the
North and South, and its champion is the North.

II. THE IDEA OF NATIONALITY.

There is another idea involved in this war; and, unlike the idea of
political equality, it is sanctioned by the precedents of all ages and
all nations, so as to preclu