aigns, as in those more glorious ones which are yet destined to
overthrow our enemies and restore our inestimable Union to its former
greatness.

But it is not our purpose to confine these remarks to the loyal States
and the Union armies; nor is it at all paradoxical to extend them to the
region and the population controlled by the rebel government. Every good
citizen, having confidence in the supremacy of right and the destiny of
our country, anticipates the reunion of the States at the conclusion of
the war. The bulk of the Southern army must likewise return to society,
and carry with it such influence as it may derive from the peculiar
character of its cause, the motives by which it is animated, and the
acts, good or bad, noble or mean, which it may perform. It cannot be
denied that the soldiers of the rebel army have exhibited the highest
personal qualities, of daring courage, skilful enterprise, patient
endurance, and the most indomitable perseverance, under difficulties
apparently insuperable. Their cause is bad. The impartial judgment of
mankind will pronounce it so, when the passions of the hour shall have
completely subsided. But the masses of the Southern people evidently do
not take this view of the war they are waging against the Government
which has so long protected them, and under which they have acquired all
the strength they are now ungratefully using to overthrow it. They have
been artfully misled into the belief that they are engaged in a war
altogether defensive--that they are fighting _pro aris et focis_--in
short, that they have given themselves up to the holiest work which any
people can ever be called on to undertake. Doubtless, in frequent
instances, and sometimes among considerable populations, different
sentiments prevail and have been entertained from the beginning. A
glimmering of the truth may occasionally dawn on the minds of those who
went into the contest with entire confidence in the justice of their
cause. But on the whole it is vain to deny the sincerity and the deep
convictions of the Southern people. Nothing less than these could have
sustained them in the appalling difficulties of their position. No
people ever conducted a more brilliant and successful defensive war
against the vast odds, on land and sea, with which they have had to
contend. Let us be sufficiently magnanimous to confess the truth,
unpleasant though it be, and acknowledge that they have hitherto
outmanaged us in the