admission into the Union. The wisdom of both these measures soon appeared in the defection from the rebellion of thousands of individuals, who hastened to take the oath of amnesty, and in its influence in bringing back into the Union two important States.

While the seceded States were thus manifesting, in consequence of a wise and clement policy, a disposition to return to their loyalty, an equal improvement was exhibited in the tone of Northern sentiment. This was clearly shown in the improved temper of the House of Representatives, as compared with that of the preceding one. A severe and indignant censure of the Secessionist, Harris, of Maryland, and of his sympathizing coadjutor, Alexander Long, of Ohio, passed the House by a decided majority.

On the first day of the session, a joint resolution, reviving the rank of Lieutenant-General in the army, was adopted by both Houses in the last days of February, and approved by the President. All eyes were now turned upon General Ulysses S. Grant, the hero of so many victories, who was seen to be, if not the most earnest and the most unselfish, at least the most successful commander in a war in which so many officers had won a high place in popular regard, as the fit person to receive this chief honour, with its immense responsibilities. He was immediately nominated as Lieutenant-General, and unanimously confirmed on the 2nd day of March by the Senate. Having been called to Washington without delay, he received his commission with a rare modesty, and at once proceeded to organize a grand campaign, embracing the armies of the East and the West in a combined effort for their closing work.

Earlier movements in Florida and in Louisiana,

already undertaken, afforded no very auspicious opening to the campaigning season; Fort Pillow on the Mississippi, and Plymouth in North Carolina, were captured by the rebels, followed by massacres unparalleled in barbarism by the acts of any professedly civilized people since the darkest ages; but the grand armies of Eastern Tennessee and in Virginia, heavily increased in strength by new levies and by the withdrawal of troops from positions in which their action could not be effective in executing the intended advance upon the great central points of the rebellion, were put in condition for striking the last mortal blows upon a tottering conspiracy.

It would serve but little purpose, even had we the requisite space, to chronicle here that terrible series of battles for the possession of Richmond which signalized the fourth year of the war. They are still fresh in the recollection of the whole civilized world. Suffice it to say, that although the bloody fields of Spottsylvania and the Wilderness were thought by many to have been the theatres of a wanton and fruitless waste of human life, subsequent events have proved, that in those terrible conflicts General Grant completely broke the very spinal column of the Confederacy. It was in the summer campaign of 1864 that General Lee put forth his most telling efforts, and showered upon his giant assailant his most vigorous and best-directed blows; but it was, nevertheless, in 1864, rather than in the closing battles of the war, that the contest was lost. The generalship of Grant was hastily condemned because of his attempt to accomplish by brute force what should have been the fruit of strategy; but the event has shown that he comprehended the situation better than his critics.

With these military events Mr. Lincoln was but remotely identified, his only merit being the sagacity exhibited in his appreciation of true military genius, and the appointment of General Grant to the newly-created post of Lieutenant-General of the United States' armies. It will accord more with the scope of this memoir to recur to those civil measures with which he was more immediately connected. Nearly all of these necessarily bore, more or less directly, upon the institution of slavery. He had become convinced that this was the disease which had so long been eating into the vitals of the Commonwealth, and was now threatening it with dissolution. To its eradication he therefore directed all his efforts.

In pursuance of the new policy, we have seen that the initiatory measure of emancipation had been adopted as early as September, 1862. Others, emanating in part from individual States, in part from the nation, now followed. The Fugitive Slave Law, which had been since its first enactment so sore a burden and grief to all right-minded and right-hearted men in America, was abrogated. A law was passed which rendered it impossible that any of the seceding States, even if they were penitent enough to seek reunion, should return to their allegiance in any other condition than the sacrifice of their slave institution. Emancipation was effected in Western Virginia, which remained in the hands of the National Government; also in the State of Missouri, Arkansas, and Maryland, every slave was made and declared free. Provisions were made to admit the Territories of Colorado, Nebraska, and Nevada as Free States. Idaho, Montana, Dacotah, and Arizona-not populous enough to justify their being constituted as States-were nevertheless organized as free Territories.

Another ordinance admitted negroes to equal rights in the United States' Courts, both as parties to suits and as witnesses.

Social arrangements proved responsive to political enactments; and in the District of Columbia the equality of the negro was recognized in the public conveyances. And the industrial problem-declared to be insoluble by the participants in the crime of slavery, and their abettors -was also most successfully worked out. Free labour was established in numerous plantations in South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, and in fact wherever the Federal arms marked their victorious way. While the slave power was yet dominant, to teach the mere elements of learning to a negro involved the penalties of fine and imprisonment, in Virginia, South Carolina, and other States. In these localities schools were set up for the education of freed slaves. The wives and the children of all freed slaves employed in the military or civil service of the United States were declared free. All negroes, whether bond or free, were regarded as citizens, and held eligible for military duty. To these measures a sympathetic response was made even on Southern soil. The loyal people of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Florida, sought a return to the Union on the basis of freedom to all, and of the abolition and prohibition of slavery. A two-thirds majority in the Senate, and an equal preponderance of votes in the other House, decreed the formal abolition of slavery. The Republican party in concerting its programme for the Presidential and other elections of 1864, made the prohibition of slavery the basis of the Governmental administration for the future. The Federal Government formally forbad itself, and its future successors, ever to employ in its

service any person being a slave. To crown the whole, and complete this great edifice, consisting of so many, but so consistent and coherent parts, over a hundred and fifty thousand negroes wore the Union uniform, and gallantly fought under the Union's flag. Such is a brief recital of the chief measures instituted by Mr. Lincoln against that fabric of Anglo-African slavery of which he was the heaven-destined destroyer.

The spring elections of 1864, in New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island, showed still more decidedly than those of the previous year, that the Administration had become strong in the confidence and affection of the people. That this gratifying result had a direct relation to Mr. Lincoln in person, is seen in the fact that the Administration party in each of those States, had committed itself, without dissent, in favour of his re-election, making this a distinct issue of the canvass. In twelve other States, nearly at the same time, the popular voice, as declared through State Conventions or Legislatures, demanded, with like unanimity and enthusiasm, that Mr. Lincoln should continue in the Presidency for another term. A similar current of opinion was seen to exist in every other loyal State. Since the celebrated "era of good feeling," in the days of President Monroe, this manifestation of popular sentiment has had no parallel.

The probable result of the election was apparent for weeks before it was officially announced. General M'Clellan, when first nominated by the Peace Democracy to oppose him, was not without a very fair prospect of success. The further prosecution of the war seemed to be almost hopeless, and was certainly becoming very distasteful to a large body of the Northern people.