borne, and floated some leagues
onward towards the fair haven of the Future.

The first uprising of the nation, when its existence was assailed, was
truly a sublime spectacle. But the last uprising of the same, to confirm
with cool deliberation the judgment it pronounced in its heat, is a
spectacle of far higher moral sublimity. That sudden wildfire-blaze of
patriotism, if it was simply a blaze, had long since had time to expire.
The Red Sea we had passed through was surely sufficient to quench any
light flame kindled merely in the leaves and brushwood of our national
character. Instead of a brisk and easy conquest of a rash rebellion,
such as seemed at first to be pretty generally anticipated, we had
closed with a powerful antagonist in a struggle which was all the more
terrible because it was unforeseen. The country had soon digested its
hot cakes of enthusiasm, and come to the tougher article, the
ostrich-diet of iron determination. If we were a race of flunkies, ample
opportunities had been afforded to have our flunky-ism whipped out of
us. If Jonathan was but another blustering Sir Andrew Aguecheek, he
would long before have elicited laughter from the world's aristocratic
dress-circle, and split the ears of the groundlings, by turning from the
foe that would fight, and bellowing forth that worthy gentleman's
sentiments:--"An I thought he had been valiant, and so cunning in fence,
I'd have seen him damned ere I'd have challenged him!" But those who
looked hopefully for this conclusion have been disappointed. Even Mr.
Carlyle may now perceive that we have something more than a foul chimney
burning itself out over here:--strange that a seer should thus mistake
the glare of a mountain-torch! We have not made war from a mere
ebullition of spite, or as an experiment, or for any base and temporary
purpose; but this is a war for humanity, and for all time. That we are
in deadly earnest, that the heart of the nation is in it, and that this
is no effervescent and fickle heart, the momentous Tuesday stands before
the world as the final proof.

True, in that day's winnowing of the national grain, which had been
some four years threshing, plenty of chaff and grit were found. The
opposition to the Administration was made up of three classes. The
smallest, but by far the most active class, consisted of reckless
politicians,--those Northern men with Southern principles (if they have
anything that can properly be called principles