long, O Lord, how long, wilt thou not avenge?” And, then, these guiltiest and most remorseless traitors, these high and cultured men,—­with might and wisdom, used for the destruction of their country,—­the most accursed and detested of all criminals, that have drenched a continent in needless blood, and moved the foundations of their times with hideous crimes and cruelty, caught up in black clouds, full of voices of vengeance and lurid with punishment, shall be whirled aloft and plunged downwards forever and forever in an endless retribution; while God shall say, “Thus shall it be to all who betray their country”; and all in heaven and upon the earth will say “Amen!”

But for the people misled, for the multitudes drafted and driven into this civil war, let not a trace of animosity remain.  The moment their willing hand drops the musket, and they return to their allegiance, then stretch out your own honest right hand to greet them.  Recall to them the old days of kindness.  Our hearts wait for their redemption.  All the resources of a renovated nation shall be applied to rebuild their prosperity, and smooth down the furrows of war.  Has this long and weary period of strife been an unmingled evil?  Has nothing been gained?  Yes, much.  This nation has attained to its manhood.  Among Indian customs is one which admits young men to the rank of warriors only after severe trials of hunger, fatigue, pain, endurance.  They reach their station, not through years, but ordeals.  Our nation has suffered, but now is strong.  The sentiment of loyalty and patriotism, next in importance to religion, has been rooted and grounded.  We have something to be proud of, and pride helps love.  Never so much as now did we love our country.  But four such years of education in ideas, in the knowledge of political truth, in the love of history, in the geography of our own country, almost every inch of which we have probed with the bayonet, have never passed before.  There is half a hundred years’ advance in four.  We believed in our institutions and principles before; but now we know their power.  It is one thing to look upon artillery, and be sure that it is loaded; it is another thing to prove its power in battle!  We believe in the hidden power stored in our institutions; we had never before seen this nation thundering like Mount Sinai at all those that worshiped the calf at the base of the mountain.  A people educated and moral are competent to all the exigencies of national life.  A vote can govern better than a crown.  We have proved it.  A people intelligent and religious are strong in all economic elements.  They are fitted for peace and competent to war.  They are not easily inflamed, and, when justly incensed, not easily extinguished.  They are patient in adversity, endure cheerfully needful burdens, tax themselves to meet real wants more royally than any prince would dare to tax his people.  They pour forth without stint relief for the sufferings of war, and raise