proper. Now,
at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations
have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the
great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the
energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The
progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as
well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust,
reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for
the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded
it--all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being
delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union
without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy
it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects,
by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would
make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would
accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not
distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern
part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful
interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of
the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was
the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by
war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to
restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected
for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already
attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might
cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each
looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and
astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and
each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that
any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing
their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge
not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be
answered--that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has
his