Another effect of the war is the total destruction of the institution of slavery. The evil spirit which vexed us with continual alarms, which poisoned the very fountain of our National life, which denied and reviled the Declaration of Independence, which degraded us at home and disgraced us abroad, has been put to death by the war. It made the war. It perished by the war. Who now would seek to reanimate its revolting corse as it lies blackened and scathed by those very flames of war which it kindled for our destruction? It is true, we aimed not originally at its destruction. Neither did our ancestors in the beginning aim at independence. Even when in its arrogance and insolence it laid hold of the pillars of the Government and attempted to crush us beneath its falling fragments, we were for a long time too blind to see that its extermination was necessary for our safety. In the opening stages of the war we treated with tenderness and consideration the demon which was even then drenching the land with fraternal blood. But a Higher Power than that of man shapes the destinies of Nations as well as those of individuals. In the proclamation of a fast by the Continental Congress in June, 1775, one of the motives for recommending it was stated to be, “to beseech the Almighty to bless our rightful sovereign King George III., and inspire him with wisdom.” This was after the battle of Lexington, and after the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. But one short year elapsed before the Congress declared of this “rightful sovereign King George III.,” in the immortal instrument, the promulgation of which we celebrate to-day, “A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” In 1775 Congress, in its address to the people of Great Britain, said: “You have been told that we are seditious, impatient of government and desirous of independency. Be assured that these are not facts but calumnies.” In their petition to the king they declared: “We ask but for peace, liberty, and safety. Your royal authority over us and our connexion with Great Britain we shall always carefully and zealously endeavor to support and maintain.” In less than a year they affixed their signatures to the paper which pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to that independence which they had thus so solemnly disclaimed. The commencement of the war and the rapid progress of events drove them to conclusions not embraced or contemplated in their original calculations. Does any one doubt the sincerity of the Continental Congress in their address to the people of Great Britain and their petition to the king? In his Inaugural Address, on the 4th of March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln said: “I declare that I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists;” and his acts and the policy