Such are the limitations of the common mind, and so thoroughly engrossing are the cares of common life, that only the few among men can discern through the glitter and dazzle of present prosperity the dark outlines of approaching disasters, even though they may have come up to our very gates, and are already within striking distance.  The yawning seam and corroded bolt conceal their defects from the mariner until the storm calls all hands to the pumps.  Prophets, indeed, were abundant before the war; but who cares for prophets while their predictions remain unfulfilled, and the calamities of which they tell are masked behind a blinding blaze of national prosperity?

It is asked, said Henry Clay, on a memorable occasion, Will slavery never come to an end?  That question, said he, was asked fifty years ago, and it has been answered by fifty years of unprecedented prosperity.  Spite of the eloquence of the earnest Abolitionists,—­poured out against slavery during thirty years,—­even they must confess, that, in all the probabilities of the case, that system of barbarism would have continued its horrors far beyond the limits of the nineteenth century but for the Rebellion, and perhaps only have disappeared at last in a fiery conflict, even more fierce and bloody than that which has now been suppressed.

It is no disparagement to truth, that it can only prevail where reason prevails.  War begins where reason ends.  The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.  What that thing is, we have been taught to our cost.  It remains now to be seen whether we have the needed courage to have that cause entirely removed from the Republic.  At any rate, to this grand work of national regeneration and entire purification Congress must now address itself, with full purpose that the work shall this time be thoroughly done.  The deadly upas, root and branch, leaf and fibre, body and sap, must be utterly destroyed.  The country is evidently not in a condition to listen patiently to pleas for postponement, however plausible, nor will it permit the responsibility to be shifted to other shoulders.  Authority and power are here commensurate with the duty imposed.  There are no cloud-flung shadows to obscure the way.  Truth shines with brighter light and intenser heat at every moment, and a country torn and rent and bleeding implores relief from its distress and agony.

If time was at first needed, Congress has now had time.  All the requisite materials from which to form an intelligent judgment are now before it.  Whether its members look at the origin, the progress, the termination of the war, or at the mockery of a peace now existing, they will find only one unbroken chain of argument in favor of a radical policy of reconstruction.  For the omissions of the last session, some excuses may be allowed.  A treacherous President stood in the way; and it can be easily seen how reluctant good men might be to admit an apostasy