inconsistent with the indiscriminate charges of cruelty, injustice, and
wrong, preferred by his enemies,--traits that have inexpressibly endeared
their possessor to every officer and soldier in his late army. Said an
officer, but just returned from New Orleans, to me a few days since,--"I
have heard of the infatuation of the Army of the Potomac to its earlier
leader, but I do not believe their devotion is near so deep and earnest as
that of the faithful men who followed General Butler from New England and
the Northwest, through the campaign of New Orleans."

Not one of us who have been closely associated with him but watches with
intense interest for the opportunity to arrive when he shall prove himself
to be (as every one of us believes him to be) among the foremost of those
predestined to lead our country through its baptism of blood and fire to a
higher and grander destiny and glory than the most ardent dared even to
hope for before the war.

Happy then shall I be, if in these few pages I have conveyed to the
indulgent readers of this article some idea of the inner life and
character of OUR GENERAL.

* * * * *

THE CLAIMS TO SERVICE OR LABOR.

Some persons look upon the veneration with which the people of these
United States regard the Constitution as savoring of superstition. It is
at least a wholesome superstition, which cannot be disturbed without risk.

When a man, in calm moments of deliberate reflection, has settled and
adopted the principles of ethics and morality which ought to govern his
life, and when, under the pressure of urgent exigency, or in moments of
eager excitement, his view of their truth or value undergoes a sudden
change, it is not safe to give way to such influence. He would evince
wisdom in calling to mind, that, in hours of tranquil judgment, with no
passion to blind and no impulse of the moment to urge beyond reason, he
_had_ adopted certain principles of action, for guidance and safety.

Doubtless age may correct, and ought to correct, the errors of youth. But
when we change a life-rule, it should be from a matured conviction, that,
on general principles, the correction is just and proper; not because it
would afford relief or satisfaction for the time being, or prove
convenient for some special purpose.

So of the Constitution of the United States. Of fallible because human
origin, it is imperfect. A rule of political action in a progressive