bolt had fallen. Stars that till then had continued
to shine in our political canopy, are suddenly dark-
ened by the yet gathering and increasing clouds of
war that now darken the whole horizon of the South,
and madly roll and toss in the Southern heavens.
And as they roll their dark and threatening volumes
toward the North, darker and yet more dark they
grow-portending such a tempest as the world has
rarely witnessed, and the like of which I hope
America may never be doomed to witness again.
It was not until the red, crashing thunder-bolts of
war were rending the heavens that the lion of the
North was roused from his lair. Terrible was the
danger, and terrible was the power of the loyal peo-
ple of the loyal states, and terrible their firm and
resolute resolve to strike for God and their country.
Men and money and lives were given without stint
to save the country from disruption, and to preserve
the priceless heritage of American freedom. The
result is before the world.
  I have done; and if, in the discussion of these
questions, I have seemed to go beyond the province
of the minister of the sanctuary into foreign terri-
tory, it was because those whose cases I have been
considering had fled there for refuge; and I had to
pursue them to their fastnesses, to show that the de-
fenses behind which they have entrenched thein-
selves are wholly untenable.



82



ADDRBBS.