reception that the speech was a "failure," but he was quickly disabused of that idea by evidences coming from every part of the Union of the deep impression it had made on the hearts of his countrymen.

"THESE DEAD SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN"

SPEECH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate-we cannot consecrate we cannot hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The declaration that "the war is a failure" was embodied in the next national platform of the Democracy [1864], but the party's candidate for President, General George B. McClellan, virtually repudiated it. Lincoln was triumphantly reëlected, and in his second inaugural address, on March 4, 1865, justified the prosecution of the war until slavery, the curse from which it sprang, should forever be abolished.

"THE ALMIGHTY HAS HIS PURPOSES"

SECOND INAUGURAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the

LITTLE MAC. IN HIS GREAT TWO-HORSE ACT, IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS OF 1864

From the collection of the New York Historical Society

same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we may be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered-that of neither has been 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 whom the offence cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those 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 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 always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope fervently do we pray-that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if 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 said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

With malice toward 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 nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan-to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.

CHAPTER XI

CONSCRIPTION

Henry Wilson [Mass.] Proposes in the Senate Bill to Draft Soldiers-His Speech on the Bill-It Is Passed-Debate in the House on the Bill: in Favor, William M. Davis [Pa.], James H. Campbell [Pa.], John H. Bingham [O.]; Opposed, Charles J. Biddle [Pa.], Chilton A. White [O.], Clement L. Vallandigham [O.], James C. Robinson [Ill.], Samuel S. Cox [O.], Daniel W. Voorhees [Ind.]-Bill Is Passed-Conscription by the South.

Ο 3

N February 16, 1863, Henry Wilson [Mass.] brought before the Senate a bill for a draft of soldiers between the ages of twenty and fortyfive to prosecute the war.

It was passed upon the same day after considerable debate and amendment. After a long and heated discussion in the House it was passed by that body, with various amendments, on February 25. The House amendments were accepted by the Senate on March 2, and the bill was approved by President Lincoln on March 3.

In its final form its preamble read as follows:

Whereas there now exist in the United States an insurrection and rebellion against the authority thereof, and it is, under the Constitution of the United States, the duty of the Government to suppress insurrection and rebellion, to guarantee to each State a republican form of government, and to preserve the public tranquillity; and, whereas, for these high purposes, a military force is indispensable, to raise and support which all persons ought willingly to contribute; and, whereas, no service can be more praiseworthy and honorable than that which is rendered for the maintenance of the Constitution and Union, and the consequent preservation of free government; be it enacted, etc.

THE CONSCRIPTION ACT

CONGRESS, FEBRUARY 16-25, 1863

SENATOR WILSON.-The needs of the nation demand that we should fill the regiments now in the field, worn and wasted by disease and death, by enrolling and drafting the population of the country under the constitutional authority "to raise and support armies."

That grant of power carries with it, in the language of "The Federalist," "all the powers requisite to the complete execution of its trust."

Sir, this grant to Congress of power "to raise and support armies" carries with it the right to do it by voluntary enlistment or by compulsory process. If men cannot be raised by voluntary enlistment then the Government must raise men by involuntary means, or the power to raise and support armies for the public defence is a nullity. James Monroe said, in a letter to the chairman of the Military Committee of the House of Representatives, in 1814, that

"It would be absurd to suppose that Congress could not carry this power into effect otherwise than by accepting the voluntary service of individuals. It might happen that an army could not be raised in that mode, whence the power would have been granted in vain.''

It is a high and sacred duty, resting alike upon all the citizens of the Republic, upon the sons of toil and misfortune and the more favored few, to labor, to suffer, ay, to die, if need be, for their country. Never since the dawn of creation have the men of any age been summoned to the performance of a higher or nobler duty than are the men of this generation in America. The passage of this great measure will clothe the President with ample authority to summon forth the sons of the Republic to the performance of the high and sacred duty of saving their country, now menaced, and the periled cause of civilization and freedom in America, and of winning the lasting gratitude of coming ages, and that enduring renown which follows every duty nobly and bravely done. The enactment of this bill will give confidence to the Government, strength to the country, and joy to the worn and weary soldiers of the Republic around their camp fires in the land of the rebellion.

There was unanimous acceptance by the Senate of the principles of the bill, the discussion being upon its