would be a war meeting, at which he was one of the most conspicuous speakers, and a favorite expression of his was, that: "We will put down this unholy rebellion if it takes the last man and the last dollar," etc., he meanwhile drawing as much money from our lean treasury as would maintain twenty private soldiers in the field. I apprehend this person claimed to be a patriot, but he, nevertheless, was practically as harmful to the nation as twenty rebel soldiers, and of no value whatever as, counterpoise; and he, a little more pronounced, was yet but a type of a large class of pseudo patriots.

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were practical, as well as ideal, patriots. The former abjured the otium cum dignitate of a luxurious Virginia plantation for the hardships of the field and the turmoil of a novel political situation, and, as he said to the dissatisfied army at Newburg, he had "grown both gray and blind in his country's service;" while the latter sacrificed upon his country's altar his ease, comfort, the zest and bouquet of his existence, and ultimately his life.

Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were patriotic; but the country to which their allegiance was due, was bounded by state lines; they were loyal to their states, as they understood it; they were traitors to the rest of their country.

The patriotism of Thomas Jefferson was limited and defined by his Kentucky resolutions; that of John C. Calhoun by the autonomy and selfish interests of South Carolina alone.

In Buchanan's cabinet, Edwin M. Stanton and Joseph Holt were earnest patriots,-the patriotism of the latter remained unsullied; that of the former was subordinated to his more powerful sentiment of bitter prejudice against Lincoln's administration in the dark days of 1861; but when he became part of that administration, his patriotism became dominant again, and he gave his remaining years to the service and weal of his country.

There are "old stagers" in our politics to-day, whose chief solicitude has been to "fatten at the public crib" — to pile up millions for themselves by their "coign of vantage" in politics, in some way-while the country was in dire financial straits.

Jesse D. Bright, while an United States senator from a Northern state, sent a speculator to Jeff. Davis with a recommendation for a new and effective gun for the Rebel army. Clement L. Vallandigham, while in Congress from the North, attempted to provoke a war with England; and I knew government officials who, during the war, drew large salaries, and yet speculated in gold in a way to make them desire their country's discomfiture, in order to line their pockets. One of our Generals was convicted of sacrificing a battle by reason of his prejudice against the commander-in-chief. A disinterested moral philosopher will class all these parties in the same category-they are alike traitors.

Mr. Lincoln's administration was contending in behalf of the government-the autonomy-the establishment the institution, of the nation: Jeff. Davis' administration was a contention on behalf of a specific, narrow object, viz.: the institution of slavery; to this object, all proper concerns of a government had to yield; and, so far from being a republic, as it professed, it became a despotism: and, but for the opposition of some of the state governors, would have degenerated into as implacable and relentless a despotism as that of Russia or Turkey.

Property was seized-citizens conscripted-the "cradle and the grave" were robbed; and, in the language of Jeff. Davis, "it thundered all around." It was simply a propulsion of the force of society against its lawful government, in order to encompass the eternal slavery, of the negro race; it performed except incidentally, no other office or attribute of government.

Against this tendency, Alexander H. Stephens, Joseph E. Brown, Zebulon Vance, James A. Campbell and some

others rebelled; they felt patriotic toward their states; the patriotism of Jeff. Davis and his crew, first for the general government, and second for their several states, was totally submerged, and lost sight of, in their greater prejudice and predilection for the baleful institution of barbarians and of a dark age: that of chattel slavery.

Winfield S. Scott, George H. Thomas and Robert E. Lee were each and all Federal officers, educated and nurtured at the expense, and in the school of, the nation.

The former never wavered in his loyalty the latter two did, and one finally proved recreant and traitorous to the nation whose protege and product he was throughout, albeit he was born and lived as a child in that part of the nation which was known as Virginia.

It is probable that, at any period, during this century, South Carolina would have rejoiced to know that Boston had been destroyed in any way, even by English batteries; its prejudices against the Yankees being greater than its patriotism; it is also probable that William Lloyd Garrison and his followers would have preferred the success of the Rebellion, than to have saved the Union with slavery intact; it is probable, likewise, that the McClellan-Pendleton-Vallandigham crowd would have preferred Rebel success rather than a restored Union without slavery; and these sad reflections result, not from any moral deficiency, but because the prejudice of party and against or in behalf of one institution for which the government had some concern, was greater than the prejudice of patriotism.

In view of these things, how sublime the sentiments of Abraham Lincoln in his letter to Horace Greeley;-how supremely exalted his patriotism-over the threats of those on both sides of the line, for whom that letter was designed.

Jackson and old Buchanan were, probably, equally patriotic at heart; but when it came to patriotism in action, the difference was, that one was a hero and the other a coward.