Obviously, at this moment, the great difficulty is that people do not see clearly what ought to be done.

Fellow-citizens, as peace seems about to smile on our country, convulsed by most cruel and costly war, there is one simple duty on which all can unite, when it is understood.

Who can repair the shattered and mutilated forms returned from the terrible battle with Slavery?

There are no possible accumulations of wealth that would not be exhausted before its first instalment was counted out.

And the very vastness of our sacrifice is an irresistible reason why this should be fixed beyond question, so that the appalling judgment shall not visit us again.

Indemnity we renounce; but security we will have.

This is at once corner-stone and key-stone of that reconstructed Union to which we look for tranquil peace and reconciliation.

There are none so high, and there are none so low, as not to be concerned in obtaining this security; for without it all that we hold most dear will be in jeopardy.

What is government, or country, or home, or life itself, without security?

No nation can be powerful enough to disregard this sacred bond.

Character, fame, and prosperity itself are all dependent on its observance.

Repudiation of our bonds, whether to the national creditor or to the national freedman, would be a shame and a crime; and the national faith is irrevocably plighted to the two alike.

Such are the supreme objects now at heart: the National Security and the National Faith, or the two absorbed into one,--Security for the Future.

We, too, must have our dikes, with engineers to keep them strong, with watchmen to patrol, with alarm-bells to ring; and we, too, must have our storks to destroy the vermin that weaken and sap our embankments.

Towers, ramparts, and buttresses are impotent against our vindictive tide.

The security we seek must be found in irreversible guaranties, coëxtensive with the danger.

It becomes us, then, to consider carefully the elements of danger,--bearing in mind always that a danger clearly foreseen will not happen, unless prudence has ceased to prevail.

They rose against a paternal government simply for the sake of Slavery, planting themselves upon two postulates furnished by John C.

Calhoun,--first, State Rights, and, secondly, the alleged falsehood of our fathers, when, at the birth of our nation, they declared that all men are born equal.

Who does not know that the South is full of spirits who have sworn undying hatred, not only to the Union, but to reason itself, and whose policy is a perpetual conspiracy against the principles of our Government?

The freedmen are trodden down, and the land is filled with tragedies.

History stands aghast at the Massacre of Glencoe in a retired Scotch valley, and our sympathies overflow at the murder of a solitary traveller by the merciless Indian; but these scenes are now repeated.

Life is of little value, if it beats under a colored skin.

Citizens in the national uniform are insulted, mutilated, murdered,--especially if in command of colored troops.

A trustworthy traveller, who has just visited Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, with which he was already familiar, writes me: “The former masters exhibit a most cruel, remorseless, and vindictive spirit towards the colored people.