The nomination now of Andrew Johnson from the South tended, in the phrase of the day, to nationalize the Republican party, and this consideration gave it popularity throughout the North.

In advocating an armistice which would involve a practical surrender of the contest he said: "The Administration will not let the shedding of blood cease, even for a little time, to see if Christian charity or the wisdom of statesmanship…

McClellan is guilty of the arrest of the Legislature of a sovereign State.

There were thousands of patriotic Democrats who deeply resented the hostility of the Convention to the loyal sentiment of the people, and who felt that it was as fatal as it was offensive.

The people felt moreover that the deliberate declarations of the Convention and not the individual expressions of the candidate defined the policy of the party.

Lincoln's re-election addressed itself with irresistible force to the patriotic sentiment and sober judgment of the country.

Lincoln would be regarded by the rebels as the condemnation of the war policy and would encourage them to renewed, prolonged, and more desperate resistance.

Mere political feeling largely subsided, and the people were actuated by a higher sense of public duty.

With victory in the field the election will take care of itself." And so it was.

It still existed in the other Border States and in Tennessee, and its abolition in the remaining States of the Confederacy depended upon the validity of the President's Proclamation of Emancipation.

While I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation.

Nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that Proclamation or by any of the Acts of Congress.

The instant restoration to four millions of human beings of the God-given right of freedom so long denied them, depended upon the vote of the House of Representatives.

Each one had to decide for himself whether so far as lay in the power of his own vote he would give liberty to the slave, or forge his fetters anew.

But this was a question of changing the Constitution itself so as to confer upon Congress the express power to enlarge the field of personal liberty and make the Republic free indeed.

It came therefore as an original and a distinct question whether millions of people with their descendants for all time should be doomed to slavery or gifted with freedom.

Here by the converging exigencies of war it became of vast interest to the white race that slavery should be smitten and destroyed.

Its destruction was indeed the deadliest blow that could be given to the Rebellion which was threatening destruction to the Republic.

It was not unfair to say, as was said by many during the crisis, that it was brought to every man's conscience to decide whether he would continue to imperil the fate of the Union by refusing the enfranchise the slave.

Such action by the Federal Government was the one thing which the South had especially dreaded and which all the amendments to the Constitution proposed by the Peace Congress of 1861 aimed to prevent.

It had been borne into the minds of the people that slavery had produced the war, and it seemed a righteous retribution that slavery should end with the war.

It had drawn the sword; let it perish by the sword.

The great act of Liberation, so far as Congress could control it, was complete.

The action was of transcendent importance,--lofty in conception, masterful in execution.

To succeeding and not distant generations its existence in a Republic, for three-quarters of a century, will be an increasing marvel.