The date of this remarkable order leaves no possibility for the insinuation that it sprung from any political purpose, or intention. Mr. Lincoln had just been re-elected by an overwhelming majority; his party was everywhere triumphant; his own personal popularity was unbounded; there was no temptation to hypocrisy or deceit. There is no explanation of the order except that it was the offspring of sincere conviction. But if it may be said that this was, after all, an exoteric utterance, springing from those relations of religion and good government which the wisest rulers have always recognized in their intercourse with the people, we will give one other document, of which nothing of the sort can be said. It is a paper which Mr. Lincoln wrote in September, 1862, while his mind was burdened with the weightiest question of his life, the weightiest with which this century has had to grapple. Wearied with all the considerations of law and of expediency with which he had been struggling for two years, he retired within himself and tried to bring some order into his thoughts by rising above the wrangling of men and of parties, and pondering the relations of human government to the Divine. In this frame of mind, absolutely detached from any earthly considerations, he wrote this meditation. It has never been published. It was not written to be seen of men. It was penned in the awful sincerity of a perfectly honest soul trying to bring itself into closer communion with its Maker. "The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both _may_ be and one _must_ be wrong. God cannot be _for_ and _against_ the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party; and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true; that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By His mere great power on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either _saved_ or _destroyed_ the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun, he could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds." The following brief address by Mr. Lincoln appears never to have been published. It was discovered, just as this book was going to press, by Mr. Jesse W. Weik, who hastened to send it to me. It is the shorthand report of a brief address delivered by Mr. Lincoln at a railroad junction near La Fayette, Indiana, a few hours after he had left Springfield on his way to Washington, Saturday, February 11, 1860. W. H. B.