scabbards. Appealing in the preamble of their Constitution, with a blasphemy that knows no parallel, "to the favor and guidance of Almighty God," they rushed into the unholy strife. Laying the bloody foundations of their government in the despotic and guilty assumptions of slavery, they established their own selfish purposes with reference to Legislative Power and arbitrary Personal Rights; the appointment of a President and Vice-President; the Judiciary; the validity of Public Acts and Records; exclusive Slaveholding Citizenship; the admission of New States on an invariable Slaveholding Basis; and the Ratification and Amendment of their Constitution. Prosecuting this outrage on humanity in detail, they proposed to levy and collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce with foreign nations and with the Indian tribes in their borders, to prosecute internal improvements, establish uniform laws of naturalization, coin money and regulate the value thereof, establish a postal system, promote science, constitute courts, punish crimes, declare war, raise armies and a navy, call forth the militia, secure the exclusive jurisdiction of a national capital, and make all other necessary laws and regulations for the upbuilding to all ages of a nation of slaveholding despots, whose corner-stone was to be laid in the perpetuity of human bondage.

So stands the record of the so-called Confederate States, fairly judged by the constitution and public

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acts of their own Government. On this basis, and on this alone, the armed rebels of America seceded, in 1861, from the American Union. Such, at last, will be the impartial verdict of mankind.

The United States, however, were not at first equally one in the object they had in view. They were not as entirely one in favor of human liberty as the seceded States were in favor of human slavery. It was necessary, therefore, that disaster should follow disaster, outrage be added to outrage on the part of this combined, greatest slave power of the world, before the sincere friends of the American Union could be brought clearly to see that the real foe to its continued existence and prosperity was American slavery; and that, therefore, one or the other must perish.

As the war progressed it was at length seen that the jealousy of foreign governments was superadded to the attacks of the slave power from without and of its allies within. Our commerce was assailed on the ocean; our finances were tampered with; the prices of the necessaries of life inflated by unprincipled speculators; secret organizations were formed, moneys raised by them and expended in the support of disloyal publications; men in public stations, especially in Congress, bitterly attacked every measure of the National Government, without exception, thereby giving aid and comfort to enemies abroad and traitors at home.

It was precisely the same with the Republic at this crisis as it was witl. the Colonies in the war of the Revolution, and with the patriots of 1812. The artificial prices of gold, silver, breadstuffs, fuel, clothing and other indispensables of society were the same then that they were at the opening of the year 1864. Notwithstanding all that had been done by the patriots of our day, in spite of their vast sacrifices of blood and treasure, the military and naval movements of the hour began in the midst of a chill in the hearts and a lack of general confidence in the minds of the people. As in the days of Washington, however, there were those engaged in active duties for the nation who felt that not only the hour for renewed exertion but that of ultimate triumph was at hand.

The proclamations of the President, the concurrent acts of Congress and of the State Legislatures, the popular suffrages of the citizens at their elections, the subscriptions of the capitalists and others to the public stocks, the vast increase of warlike material and the gathering of the largest volunteer army ever marshalled on earth, the prospect that the final crisis was nigh at hand, all conspired to render the aspect of our national affairs one of momentous and thrilling import.

It was at this solemn and eventful crisis that Lieut.Gen. Grant was called to take the field. What a responsibility for any man at such an hour! Not only the destiny of this great Republic but the hopes

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of constitutional liberty throughout the world hung trembling in the scale. If he was doomed to failure, fearful disasters must follow that no tongue or pen could portray. If he were granted success by benignant Heaven the blessings of untold millions would fall on his head, and he would be hailed by the side of Washington as the second savior of his country.

It was in such times and under such responsibilities as these that he moved forward to the front. His master-mind grasped the whole issue at a glance. He was placed in such command that he became the Field-Marshal of the Republic. There was no limit to his power except his obligation to report to the delegated authority of the Government, and, through that, to the people. Now let us read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the carriage of this man.

But to

He was well aware that on the last anniversary of the birthday of Washington, President Lincoln had issued an order, as Commander-in-Chief of the national forces, for a general and simultaneous movement on the entire line of the Rebellion. him, as well as to others, the time was not propitious. Our councils were too divided. Our separate commands were too far apart. The master military spirit was wanting. As the spring campaign of 1864 opened on the country and the world it seemed as if the Almighty had given us that spirit in Ulysses Grant. Let us follow his record and see.

CHAPTER XXXI.

I

ON TO RICHMOND.

MMEDIATELY after his modest reception of his distinguished title of Lieutenant-General Grant established his headquarters at Culpepper Court House, Virginia. This was in the immediate centre of his theatre of active operations. His gigantic plans were now gradually developed. The presence of the master-spirit was soon felt. General Meade,

at the head of the Army of the Potomac, was ordered to move on the enemy at Richmond, by crossing the Rubicon at the Rapidan River. General Butler received his orders to march up the Virginia peninsula, also toward the rebel capital. General Sherman was to push down from the heights of old Chattanooga to the rebel posts in Georgia. General Sigel, with a large reserve, was to occupy the Valley of the Shenandoah. The hour and the man had come. The whole central force of the Republic was in motion. It was all guided, for the first time, by a single hand. Unity of purpose and action, like the full-orbed sun bursting from behind a cloud, lit up the scene and fixed the eyes of the nation on a single point. The