war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war, seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation.

Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would 5 make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish; and the war came.

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but located in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and 10 powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, by war, while government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlarge15 ment of it. Neither party expected the magnitude or the

duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. 20 Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God, and

25

each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing his bread from the sweat of other men's faces.

But let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayer of both should not be answered. That of neither has beer

answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by 30 whom the offence cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of these offences, which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this 35 terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offence

came, shall we discern therein any departure from those

divine attributes which the believers in a living God alway ascribe to him?

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if 5 God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be 10 said that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the 15 nation's wound, to care for him who shall have borne the

battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among

ourselves and with all nations.

[THOMAS BUCHANAN READ was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1822. He is a portrait painter by profession, but has published sev eral volumes of poetry, among which are many pieces of decided merit. He has also edited a work entitled "Specimens of the Female Poets of America."

On the 19th of October, 1864, the Union forces at Cedar Creek, in Virginia, were attacked by the rebels, and driven back for some distance in considerable disorder; but the battle was restored by the opportune arrival of General Sheridan, who hastened to the field from Winchester, and the result was a brilliant victory to the Union arms.]

1 UP from the South at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,

The affrighted air with a shudder bore,

Like a herald in haste to the chieftain's door,
The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar,

Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.

2 And wider still those billows of war
Thundered along the horizon's bar,
And louder yet into Winchester rolled
The roar of that red sea uncontrolled,
Making the blood of the listener cold

As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.

3 But there is a road from Winchester town,
A good, broad highway leading down;

And there, through the flush of the morning light,
A steed, as black as the steeds of night,
Was seen to pass as with eagle flight.
As if he knew the terrible need,

He stretched away with his utmost speed;
Hill rose and fell; but his heart was gay,
With Sheridan fifteen miles away.

4 Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering south,
The dust, like the smoke from the cannon's mouth,
Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster,
Foreboding to traitors the doom of disaster;
The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battle-field calls;
Every nerve of the charger was strained to ful play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away.

5 Under his spurning feet, the road,
Like an arrowy Alpine river, flowed,
And the landscape sped away behind,
Like an ocean flying before the wind;
And the steed, with his wild eyes full of fire,
Swept on to the goal of his heart's desire:
He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray,
With Sheridan only five miles away.

6 The first that the general saw were the groups
Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops.
What was done-what to do—a glance told him both
Then striking his spurs, with a muttered oath,
He dashed down the line 'mid a storm of huzzas.
The sight of the master compelled them to pause.
With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;
By the flash of his eye, and his red nostrils' play,
He seemed to the whole great army to say,
"I have brought you Sheridan all the way
From Winchester down to save the day!"

7 Hurrah, hurrah, for Sheridan!

Hurrah, hurrah, for horse and man!

And when their statues are placed on high,
Under the dome of the Union sky,
The American soldiers' Temple of Fame,
There, with the glorious general's name,
Be it said, in letters bold and bright,
"Here is the steed that saved the day
By carrying Sheridan into the fight,

From Winchester - twenty miles away!"

CLI. WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN COMPARED.

SUMNER.

[The following is an extract from a eulogy on President Lincoln pronounced by Mr. Sumner before the citizens of Boston on Thursday, June 1, 1865.]

From

IN the universe of God there are no accidents. the fall of a sparrow to the fall of an empire, or the sweep of a planet, all is according to divine Providence, whose laws are everlasting. It was no accident which 5 gave to his country the patriot whom we now honor. It was no accident which snatched this patriot, so suddenly

and so cruelly, from his sublime duties. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Perhaps never in history has this providence been more conspicuous than in that recent procession of events 5 where the final triumph was wrapped in the gloom of tragedy. It will be our duty to catch the moral of this stupendous drama.

For the second time in our annals the country has been summoned by the president to unite, on an appointed 10 day, in commemorating the life and character of the dead. The first was on the death of George Washington, when, as now, a day was set apart for simultaneous eulogy throughout the land; and cities, towns, and villages all vied in tribute. More than half a century has passed 15 since this early observance in memory of the Father of his Country, and now it is repeated in memory of Abraham Lincoln.

Thus are Washington and Lincoln associated in the grandeur of their obsequies. But this association is not 20 accidental. It is from the nature of the case, and because the part which Lincoln was called to perform resembled in character the part which was performed by Washington. The work left undone by Washington was continued by Lincoln. Kindred in service, kindred in patriotism, each 25 was naturally surrounded at death by kindred homage. One sleeps in the East, and the other sleeps in the West; and thus, in death, as in life, one is the complement of the other.

Each was at the head of the republic during a period 30 of surpassing trial; and each thought only of the public good, simply, purely, constantly, so that single-hearted devotion to country will always find a synonyme in their names. Each was the national chief during a time of successful war. Each was the representative of his coun35 try at a great epoch of history.

Unlike in origin, conversation, and character, they