as a political and social
truth.

War passes the power of all chemical solvents, breaking up the old
cohesions, and allowing the atoms of society to take a new order. It is
not the Government but the war that has appointed the great generals,
sifted out the pedants, put in the new and vigorous blood. [Great
applause.] The war has lifted many other people, besides Grant and
Sherman, into their true places. Even Divine Providence, we may say,
always seems to work after a certain military necessity. Every nation
punishes the general who is not victorious. It is a rule in games of
chance that "the cards beat all the players," and revolutions disconcert
and outwit all the insurgents. The revolutions carry their own points,
sometimes to the ruin of those who set them on foot. The proof that war
also is within the highest right, is a marked benefactor in the hands of
Divine Providence, is its _morale_. The war gave back integrity to the
erring and immoral nation. It charged with power, peaceful, amiable,
men, to whose whole life war and discord were abhorrent. What an
infusion of character went out from this and the other colleges! What an
infusion of character down to the ranks! The experience has been
uniform, that it is the gentle soul that makes the firm hero, after all.
It is easy to recall the mood in which our young men, snatched from
every peaceful pursuit, went to war. Many of them had never handled a
gun. They said, "It is not in me to resist. I go because I must. It is a
duty which I shall never forgive myself if I decline. I do not know that
I can make a soldier. I may be very clumsy; perhaps I shall be timid;
but you can rely on me. Only one thing is certain, I can well die, but I
cannot afford to misbehave." [Loud applause.]

In fact, the infusion of culture and tender humanity from these scholars
and idealists who went to the war in their own despite,--God knows they
had no fury for killing their old friends and countrymen,--had its
signal and lasting effect. It was found that enthusiasm was a more
potent ally than science and munitions of war without it. "'Tis a
principle of war," said Napoleon--_principe de guerre_--"that when you
can use the thunderbolt, you must prefer it to the cannon." Enthusiasm
was the thunderbolt. Here in this little Massachusetts, in smaller Rhode
Island, in this little nest of New England republics, it flamed out when
that guilty gun was aimed at Sumter.

Mr. Chairman, standing he