themselves and their families from ruin.  For these, as well as for our liberties and honors are we summoned to war; it were a crime to be inactive.  The Bible is militant.  Christianity is a warfare with sin.  Life is militant,—­a perpetual fight with death.  If our blessings are worth praying for and praising for, they are worth fighting for, and if not to be otherwise secured, must be fought for.

I want this country to live!  I want my children to grow up under its shield!  I want to see constitutional liberty mount above the obstacles of ages, and rise higher and higher here, I want Italy to look toward us now with hope!  I cannot bear to hear the cry of shame that will come over the Atlantic from the vineyards of France, from the glaciers of Switzerland, and from the steppes of Russia, if we permit the walls of our blood-bought inheritance to be broken down.  For the sake of God, liberty, religion, all over the earth, I want our flag to be honored abroad.

In the French revolution of ’48, a deputation came to me to demand the American church at Havre, for the purpose of holding a political meeting, I refused.  They intimated that it would be torn down.  I had only to assure them that I would plant our flag on it, and if they touched it with rude hands, they would have to answer to our government.  That was the last of the matter.  This power we must have still; and to secure this the whole North and West must awake, and act—­for the multitudes who in the Border States demand our aid; for the thousands of laboring, suffering poor who tremble beneath the glance of the proud chevalier; for the sake of our education, our lands, our homes, our Christianity.  We are sure that success on our part now will demonstrate to the world the inherent power of our nation.  They cannot behold the united action and offering of nineteen millions in the free States—­all animated with the spirit of liberty, religion and law, and resolved to crush treason and rebellion at any cost—­without a deeper conviction of our real might, without a new impression of the majesty that reposes in a people’s will!  All Europe approves of this war; and struggling nationalities look with anxious expectancy for the issue.

It is a war for government, for order.  It is against the power and rage of the mob, led on by ambitious men who are mad at the loss of power.  There is nothing more sublime than law; holding unseen the hearts and interests of millions, protecting their rights, and giving them full, happy development.  Our flag represents law, liberty, sublime sacrifice, national life.  It is therefore right even for the Christian to fight for its perpetuity.  If I may defend myself and family, the nation is greater than my family and myself; and calls more powerfully for my service.  And this war, entered on by necessity, and with the grand purpose of protecting order and law, and rescuing a whole population from ruin, is inspiring in its