petuity of the United States of America. In the three quarters of a century during which the evil of slavery has existed under the American Constitution, a process of amelioration has been going on, which, if unchecked, will inevitably secure its final removal. It required several centuries to eradicate human bondage from the ancient Christendom; but fifty years more of such influences and tendencies as were at work when the North and the South met in a harmonious Congress, and the great questions of the country were discussed in a comprehensive and national style and temper, would result in the substantial emancipation of the African race. This blessed consummation now hangs upon the restoration of the Union. If the country is dismembered, and a Southern Confederacy is established, the future of the slave is overhung with black darkness. But if the North and the South shall be again united upon the ancient constitutional basis, the Federal Government being acknowledged as supreme within its sphere, while yet the rights reserved to the several States are not infringed upon in the least, then "the era of good feeling" will dawn once more, the difficult problems will be examined in that conciliatory temper which characterized the discussions that accompanied the formation and adoption of the Constitution, and a way of escape out of his bondage will be discovered for the African, that will cause no exasperation, and shed no human blood. It is matter of devout thanksgiving to God, in whose hand are the hearts of all men, that the American people and Government are standing upon this position. Thomas Jefferson, after describing the evil nature and influence of the system of human bondage, enforces all that he has advanced upon this point, by the remark, "I tremble for my country when I remember that God is just." Well might every American tremble for the result of this civil war, if the people and Government stood before God and the world, as do the leaders of the Southern rebellion, affirming the inherent righteousness of human bondage, and laying it down as the corner stone of a political edifice. But they are no such advocates of a system which has been condemned and rejected by all the other civilized nations of the world, and upon which the frown of Divine Providence manifestly rests. They desire its removal, they look to its removal, and they are ready to pour out their treasure without stint to accomplish it. At the same time they remember that it is not like an individual sin, which, because it is confined to a single person, can be put away by a volition. It is an hereditary corruption, organized into human societies and relationships, which it requires time and long-continued effort to perfectly eliminate. They also bear in mind that the States most directly concerned should have a voice in respect to the ways and the means, should come into the common councils of the nation and deliberate, and should then legislate upon it precisely as did the States of New York and Massachusetts when they put away the evil from among them. Such, then, are some of the reasons for thanksgiving in this time of rebellion and civil war. Such are some of the grounds for hoping and believing that that Supreme Arbiter, who sets up and pulls down the nations of the earth, as it pleases him, is upon the side of the American people and Government in their endeavor to prevent a dissolution of their Union, and the long-continued wars and anarchy that must result from such a catastrophe. The consciousness that we are, and must continue to be, one nation and people, has been evoked and strengthened by the conflict. Our armies are not seeking to conquer any foreign country, but simply to preserve the boundaries of the United States intact. They are battling solely to maintain the authority of the Constitution—an instrument of remarkable political wisdom, well adapted to secure the interests of all sections of the land, and under whose benign influences all sections have enjoyed a singular peace and prosperity for seventy-five years. And, lastly, they are not fighting to perpetuate forever the system of human slavery, but to preserve a Government and an order of things, under which that system has been gradually waning in power and influence, and through which alone it can be ultimately abolished. If these things are so; if we have not erred in our judgment, may not every loyal American take up, humbly yet confidently, the utterance of the Psalmist: "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear what can man do unto me? taketh my part with them that help me The Lord therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me." While the people and their rulers ought to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, for the pride, the vain-glory, and the self-confidence which have brought these terrible judgments upon them, we verily think that they should give thanks to God, that so far as the principles that underlie this civil war are concerned, they are in the right, and their enemies are in the wrong. We believe that the time will come when our Southern fellow countrymen will see that this rebellion was needless, was reckless, was unrighteous; that the Constitution which their fathers adopted, and to which they themselves had sworn allegiance, had power and virtue enough in it to secure the rights of all sections of the nation; and that they needed only to bide their time, and give it a full trial, to find it what Washington denominated it, "the palladium of their political safety and prosperity." * We believe that the time is coming, when the sentiments of the Father of his country, as enunciated in his "Farewell Address," respecting the sacredness of the Constitution, and the obligation of all the people to respect its provisions, will be read in the light of this rebellion with calm joy by those who have stood by the Union, and with shame and sorrow by those who have struck at its life. "The Constitution," says Washington, "which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all." † Confessing with deep humility our national sins, we may nevertheless be thankful, upon this day, *Farewell Address. + Idem. |