The effect of a war to sustain our government would be to plant the seed of true patriotism in the breast of every law-abiding and liberty-loving citizen of America. We should be able to contrast the two extremes of our unheard of prosperity and the miseries and horrors of civil war--which of itself would do much towards insuring peace for centuries to come. Let those who expect that we love peace so well, or dread war so much as to allow them to bid defiance to all laws, learn that they are mistaken; that we are not the degenerate sons of a noble ancestry, but knowing our rights and loving our country, we are determined to defend them against every encroachment, and we will hear no more threats about disunion or rebellion in consequence of a political defeat. We shall then have established beyond a controversy that the minority must and shall submit to the constitutional acts of the majority. We will then have established in the minds of the civilized world that our government is not one of straw, but that it is not only capable of vindicating its honor in defiance of foreign foes, but it is equally able to chastise those who rebel against its authority at home. War would be to our political system, what the thunderstorm is to the atmosphere. Its purifying influences would be manifested by inspiring new life, vigor and purity into everything that surrounds us. Political demagogues will be cast aside as unfit for public confidence, and better and more patriotic men will spring up from among the masses who will have before them the history of the troubles through which their country has passed as lesson and a warning to shun a like calamity. We have heretofore shown ourselves to be equal to our undertakings, and now when the great crisis in our national affairs is at hand, and the eyes of the friends of liberty throughout the civilized world are gazing upon us with the deepest anxiety, shall we be found unworthy of the liberties we enjoy? Should we be found unfaithful to the trust imposed on us by our forefathers? We would be the just object of scorn and contempt, and the historian who shall undertake the task of writing the true history of the rise and fall of the American government, will have the painful duty of drawing the contrast between the noble and patriotic heroes who established it, and the cowardly, selfish and unprincipled traitors who became its destroyers. SHALL THE PEOPLE RULE?