) who sympathize with the
Rebels in arms,--who hold the interests of party to be supreme, and
shrink from no acts that bid fair to advance those interests. They are
the grit in the machine. The second class comprised the sheep which
those bad shepherds led,--sheep with a large proportion of swine
intermixed, and many a fanged and dangerous cur, as ignorant as they,
doing the will of his masters,--the brutish class, without enlightenment
or moral perception, goaded by prejudice, and deceived by lies so
shallow and foolish that the wonder was how anybody could be duped by
them. Side by side with these, and often mingling with them, was the
third class, the so-called "Conservatives," whose numbers and
respectability could alone have kept the warlike young Falstaff of the
expedition in countenance, and induced him to march through Coventry (or
rather into it, for he got no farther) with his motley crew of
followers.

This last-named class, when analyzed, is found to be composed of a great
variety of elements. The downright "Hunker" Conservative, who is very
likely to pass over to and identify himself with the first class, hates
with a natural, ineradicable hate all political and spiritual
advancement. He takes material and selfish, and consequently low and
narrow views of things,--and having secured for himself and his wife,
for his son John and his wife, privilege to eat and sleep and cohabit,
he cannot see the necessity of any further progress. If he is
enterprising, it is to increase his blessings in this world; if devout,
it is to perpetuate them in the next: for sincere religion he has
none,--since religion is but another name for Love, inspiring hope,
charity, and a zeal for the welfare of all mankind.--Others are
conservative from timidity, or because they are wedded to tranquility.
"Oh yes," they say, "no doubt the cause you are fighting for is just;
but then fighting is so dreadful! Let us have peace,--peace at any
cost!" Good-hearted people as far as they go, but lacking in
constitution. To them the fiery torrents of generosity and heroism are
unknown. Numbers of these, it is true, were swept away by the flood of
enthusiasm which prevailed during the first days of the Rebellion; but
when it appeared that the insurgents were not to be overawed and put
down by noise,--that making speeches and hanging out flags would not do
the business,--they became alarmed: the thought of actual bloodshed, and
taxes, and a disturb