Unconditional Loyalty. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY W. BELL0W8, D. D 
 
 \ 
 
 ifV- ia^ 
 
UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY W. BELLOWS, D.D 
 
 NEW YORK: * 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, 
 
 No. 6S3 BROADWAY. 
 
 1863. 
 

 
UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY 
 
 "And tlie Government shall be upon his shouldor." — Isaiau ix. 6. 
 
 This is a part of the famous passage which sacred literature 
 and the half-inspired music of Handel have rendered so familiar, 
 in its application to the mission of the Messiah. Inseparable 
 as it has now become from Chrisfs' person, its original reference, 
 singular as the language may appear in such a connection, was, to 
 an earthly monarch. Isaiah- was predicting a king for Israel, who 
 should be competent to free it from all its political and moral 
 perplexities, and he described him in words not then esteemed 
 extravagant or sacrilegious, whatever might be thought of them 
 now. " For unto us a child is born ; unto us a Son is given ; 
 and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name 
 shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the ever- 
 lasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his 
 government and peace there shall be no end : upon the throne 
 of David and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it 
 with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever." 
 
 It is instructive to bear in mind that this passage is, on Scrip- 
 tural authority, applicable to human governors and to our 
 Divine Master ; that the head of tlie Church and the head of 
 the State, if not united in the same person, are spoken of in 
 these solemn terms of dignity and responsibleness, as if their 
 duties had a similar significance, and their claims a similar, 
 though not equal, importance. It is not, therefore, without 
 reason tliat nations have used tlie most hallowed religious sanc- 
 tions and symbols in consecrating rulers ; that they have ascribed 
 a religious sanctity to a King's office, and employed phrases 
 
4 UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 
 
 which, if literally untrue, were yet profoundly suggestive in 
 describing the King as " reigning by divine right," and incapa- 
 ble of doing wrong. We boast ourselves of having got beyond 
 these political superstitions ; but if we have got beyond the 
 profound trutlis they rudely covered, we have passed out of the 
 sphere of safety and lost the anchorage of all civil security. 
 The head of a nation is a sacred person, representing, for the 
 time he holds his office, the most valuable and solemn rights and 
 duties of a people. " The Government " is " upon his shoulder," 
 — and the Government is the mighty pillar that fastens in order 
 and holds to safety the ten thousand varying interests, rights 
 and obligations of a nation. File at the staple which God fast- 
 ens to his own throne, in the oaths of office which make a man 
 chief ruler of a people, and you loosen thoughtlessly every link 
 in that chain of law and order, which binds society together. 
 There is something in the Chief Magistrate of a people, infi- 
 nitely more important than his personal qualities, his judgment, 
 his intelligence, his rectitude. It is his office, his representative 
 character, as the National Head. He can truly say with Louis 
 XIV., " The State — it is I. Dishonor me, and you disgrace the 
 nation ! Weaken me, and you undermine the country ! Speak 
 or think lightly of my oath, my office, my place, and you cheapen 
 yourselves, your institutions, your hopes and prospects." I know 
 the attempted refinements with which a licentious Press, or a 
 thoughtless public, attempt to evade their duty by distinguish- 
 ing between the njan and his office, despising and abusing the 
 one while affecting to honor and respect the other. But practi- 
 cally — in times of revolution or war, especially — there can be 
 no distinction. The office is so much larger than the man, that 
 any abuse directed at him, hits it in spite of the marksman. 
 You cannot rudely assail the personal character or judgment of 
 a Chief Magistrate without weakening public respect for the 
 office he holds. This fact makes it of the utmost importance to 
 select rulers whose characters and qualifications do not invite 
 disrespect. But however carelessly nominated, once elected, 
 they ought to be thenceforth free from the tongue of light 
 criticism or coarse abuse, for their office-sake. I sin- 
 cerely believe that the free-and-easy tongue of our people in 
 
UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 5 
 
 discussing the personal cliaracter and claims of our Chief 
 Magistrates, while in office, during the last twenty years, has 
 contributed greatly to the demoralization of the nation, has 
 cheapened the standard of qualifications for the Presidency, has 
 lowered and loosened the office itself, and is, at this time, per- 
 haps, the chief danger in our public affairs. If, at this moment 
 we all felt as we ought to feel, that the authority of the Presi- 
 dent of the United States was a sufficient rallying-cry ; that he 
 fully represented both the expressed or constitutional and the 
 reserved rights of the people ; that his oath of office was solemnly 
 binding, not only on him, but also on us for whom he took it ; 
 that his will, in a time of civil war and universal public danger, 
 was a will having an official right to our reverence and obedi- 
 ence, we should escape the only utterly irremediable danger by 
 which we are threatened. To rally round the President — with- 
 out question or dispute — is the first and most sacred duty of 
 loyal citizens, when he announces, not that the Constitution 
 merely, but that the National life and existence are in peril. 
 He is the official judge of this— and if we do not accept his 
 testimony, we have nothing to trust to. Remember that his 
 opinions are not personal but official ; not matters of individual 
 judgment, or taste, or party ; but resultants of the knowledge 
 and counsel and wisdom of his constitutional advisers. That he 
 speaks as the Government, and for the Government, with all 
 the wisdom and capacity the Government has ; that this Gov- 
 ernment is the only Government ice have, or can have, ivhile the 
 present tenure of office holds out; and that, however much wiser, 
 its successor may be, that will not help us now. The ship of 
 state is held for two years more solely by this anchor. It may 
 go to wreck and ruin if that anchor parts, even though a better 
 one be forging for the next term of office. To waste this sacred 
 season, when the nation is in a struggle of life and death, and 
 the Government is the physician alone responsible for applying 
 the remedies for its recovery — with no possibility of calling in 
 any other until too late — in abusing the competency, or weaken- 
 ing the authority and the means of restoration in the hands of 
 the attending surgeon, is the height of thoughtless folly and the 
 source of infinite danger. 
 
6 UNCONDITIOXAL LOYALTY. 
 
 Do not mistake me as undertaking the defence of our present 
 Administration on any party or personal grounds. I am only 
 pleading the sacred cause of Government itself, I regard all 
 party predilections and schemes, at a moment like this, with 
 unutterable sorrow and indignation. The country should have 
 but one thought — the protection of the National life, and the 
 upholding of the constituted authorities, who alone can legiti- 
 mately wield the power and resources of the nation, to effect 
 our salvation. It is not the policy, but the strength of the 
 Government that is to save us ; nor is it now this General or 
 that, this measure or that, this Cabinet officer or that — who 
 either blocks our way or lias power to open it. Our great diffi- 
 culty is the reluctance of the people to trust the Government 
 with all the moral and political powers it requires, in order to 
 wield the whole force of the nation in defence of its life, I do 
 not wonder at this hesitation ; but it is nearly fatal. The 
 people have been so long accustomed to look after their private 
 rights, their personal liberties, tlieir local interests, and have, 
 in a time of peace, acquainted themselves so little with the 
 advantages derived from the National Government — though it 
 has unconsciously all the while been showering blessings on 
 their regardless heads — that they continue in a time of civil 
 war — when a desperate enemy is stabbing at the heart of 
 the nation, the capital, and clutching at the nation's throat, 
 the Mississippi river, and while all the great empires of the 
 world are in ill-concealed sympathy with this domestic foe — 
 discussing questions of sectional and local importance — watch- 
 ing tariffs and bank charters — fighting over petty offices, scowl- 
 ing on necessary measures for incarcerating and arresting 
 traitors, denying a proper legality to the suspension of habeas 
 corpus — and threatening to resist any law of conscription, 
 necessary to secure the military force required to make good 
 the place of our retiring levies. At this present hour the Presi- 
 dent of the United States could not leave the District of Colum- 
 bia without being liable to arrest and imprisonment in a com- 
 mon jail. And for what ? for shutting up in Lafayette, or Fort 
 Henry, men who, before they went there, were spies of the ene- 
 my, and more dangerous each of them than a whole regiment in 
 
UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 7 
 
 tlie field, and who, the moment any clemency visits them, renew 
 their old business and sow dissension and despair at home, and 
 create hope and courage in Eiclmiond ! And all this is simply 
 because the honest people of the United States do not yet feel 
 that all the State Governments and all the city and town Gov- 
 ernments owe whatever is protecting and beneficent in them, 
 to the overshadowing power and greatness of the Federal or 
 National Government ; that terror and suffering does not yet 
 reach them, only because the Federal Government stands bleed- 
 ing, but strong and resolute, between them and harm ; that it is 
 now fighting their battles, protecting their honor and prosperi- 
 ty ; doing, suffering, and daring all things for their sake ! The 
 people seem to think the President's, or the Government's 
 strength may be impaired and they continue strong ; that their 
 local. State, or sectional prosperity, and law and order, here and 
 anywhere, have no vital and necessary connection with the 
 vigor and honor and power of the Federal authority. Alas ! 
 what a terrible, and possibly what a fatal mistake ! Do you 
 suppose that any body disloyal to the General Government is 
 a friend to his own vState ? Are you not seeing what that view 
 of local rights, which makes the States jealous enemies of the 
 National Government has brought upon the Southern members 
 of this Union ? Have they not all, from being only angry 
 watch-dogs and worriers of the General Government, become 
 open traitors to it ? And how far from similar traitors are 
 those who stand now, criticising, sneering at and resisting, as 
 far as they dare, every act of the Federal authorities which 
 looks to vigorous defence of National sovereignty — every 
 measure that puts a thinly-disguised traitor or secessionist under 
 arrest, or seeks to disembarrass the hands of the Government, 
 full of immense responsibilities and cares, from the carping inter- 
 ference of local authorities ? 
 
 These — not the skill and prowess of the enemy, not foreign 
 intervention, not the want of good Generals or good statesmen — 
 are our real perils, — the divisions, the local interference, the 
 partisan jealousies which prevent our whole people from uniting 
 as one man in upholding the Government. The Government 
 has men ; has, or can have, money ; has clear and recognized 
 
8- UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 
 
 duties ; has, I believe, confidence in its own policy, and power 
 and ability to conquer the enemy ; has none of the desponden- 
 cy and despair about military or naval proceedings — none of 
 the internal strifes and divisions which afflict the people. What 
 then does it want? Nothing but the full consent and approbation 
 of the people— nothing but the united loyalty and confidence 
 of the people, trusting it with all the necessary discretion to 
 carry into execution what it judges to be essential to the very 
 preservation of the National life. These discretionary powers 
 Congress is slow to endorse, and not blamably, because Con- 
 gress studies and must study the people, their moods, wishes 
 and prejudices, and these moods I do not so much condemn as 
 lament. Why, after twenty months, is no act legalizing the 
 suspension of habeas corpiis yet passed? I know it is not 
 essential in a legal view, but how necessary for a moral elfect. 
 Why have the elections everywhere indicated a desire to invigo- 
 rate State Governments and private securities and personal 
 rights at such an untimely hour ? Why have thoughtless dema- 
 gogues or selfish politicians seized this moment, when Federal 
 and National interests should rule supreme, to play upon the 
 people's honest prejudices, by alarming them at the alleged in- 
 roads on their local and personal liberties ? As if the man that 
 broke down his neighbor's fence to procm^e a rail to fling to his 
 neighbor's own child struggling in the water, was to be called 
 to account for trespass while the boy was drowning ! Yet this 
 is the precise spirit of local and sectional politicians, seeking to 
 make their political fortunes out of the National distress, as 
 many wretched traders are doing out of the National treasury. 
 It is not one party, or another that is doing this, but many in 
 all. Thousands who helped to put the President in office, are 
 among th'fese local and un-national destroyers of the country's 
 life — assailing the Government they made, because circum- 
 stances have not allowed it to carry out a programme made for 
 peace, and not for civil war. 
 
 I repeat — for it is necessary — that I am very well aware of 
 the specious grounds on which those who choose to assail the Gov- 
 ernment, at a time like this, rest their disloyal behavior. They 
 make the very plea the rebels made when they attempted to 
 
UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 9 
 
 burn down the national temple — a violated Constitution. They 
 are great sticklers for the letter of the Constitution. They re- 
 mind one of the enemies of our Saviour, who were always fling- 
 ing- in his blessed face the authority of the Mosaic law. He 
 could save no life on the Sabbath-day, because the Mosaic Con- 
 stitution forbade it ! He could pluck no corn for his starving 
 disciples, because the Mosaic Constitution made no provision 
 for that ! He could protect and shelter no penitent sinner, be- 
 cause the ]\rosaic Constitution condemned her to be stoned to 
 death ! He could break no yoke of moral and spiritual ignorance 
 any where, because the Mosaic Constitution was thus endan- 
 gered ! In short, the Pharisees and Scribes and learned and 
 acute doctors of the law, blocked the just starting chariot-wheels 
 of the Gospel at every foot of its progress, with some quotation 
 or warning out of the Jewish Constitution ! And what would 
 the Saviour of the world have been able to accomplish, if he had 
 not firmly and boldly taken the ground, " The letter killeth, the 
 spirit maketh alive ! " If the Constitution of this country were 
 what the enemies of the Government make it out — the rebels' 
 best argument, the slave's worst enemy ; the soldier's greatest 
 hindrance, the citizen's darkest foe, — if semi-rebels at home 
 could justly find their chief arguments and protection in it, the 
 sooner it were abandoned the better. But it is no such thins; ! 
 The friends, the true friends of the Constitution, are those who 
 love its spirit too well to allow a few specks in its body to be- 
 come the ruin of its soul. They treat it as a parent treats his 
 child, who, to save his life, suffers the surgeon to cut off a gan- 
 grenous finger or toe. If the Constitution of the United States 
 Avere designed or fitted to obstruct the progress of public en- 
 lightenment, national ethics, and Christian civilization, it would 
 become the curse of the nation. There is not a national charter 
 in all history that has ever been permitted to do this. And is 
 the Constitution of a free, democratic nation to be more wooden 
 and incapable of enlightened moral interpretation than the law 
 of the British Crown, or the French or Prussian Empires ? It 
 is absurd on the face of it. Because, some of our fathers be- 
 lieved in cruel punishments, in the selliug of even white appren- 
 tices into Slavery, in national lotteries, and in other, now uni- 
 
10 UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 
 
 versally condemned immoralities, are we tied to their errors and 
 blindness, by reverence for tlieir services ? Is the letter of the 
 law to over-ride its spirit, and that, too, in dealing with rebels and 
 traitors who are openly seeking to destroy onr national existence ? 
 I yield to no man in reverence for law and order ; nay, in re- 
 spect even for the law's delays, and all the various cliecks and 
 balances by whicli constitutional government is secured. I be- 
 lieve in the immense importance of the proper distribution and 
 segregation of the legislative, judicial, administrative and exe- 
 cutive functions of this Government. No man can tell me any 
 thing I do not now feel of the value of method, order, precedent, 
 rule, in political life ! But there are times when all these things 
 must be subordinated to the primal question of self-preservation. 
 Has a nation less than the rights of an individual ? May it not, 
 must it not defend its own existence at all hazards ? Can any 
 laws, or charter, or constitution mean to rob it of the rights of 
 self-preservation? Is the Constitution really violated when, 
 under such a necessity, the powers of the President are 
 stretched beyond the ordinary reach of his office ? I say 
 the Constitution is preserved, as a life is saved, by despis- 
 ing ordinary precautions and rules. The Spanish law forbids 
 a subject from laying hands, on any pretence, on an Infanta 
 of Spain, under penalty of instant death. Did, then, the peas- 
 ant who rushed into the palace and extinguished the flames 
 that enveloped a royal princess, deserve to die ? Did he 
 break the law ? Yes, in the letter. No, in the spirit. And 
 would he not have deserved to die a thousand deaths if he 
 had regarded the letter of the law, when his liege lady was 
 in instant peril of her life ? It is such fictitious violations of 
 the Constitution as tliis, that Northern sympathizers with the 
 rebellion are now seeking to make grounds of accusation against 
 the true friends of the Nation, and the protectors of its life — 
 such violations as the incarceration of spies, of correspondents 
 with the rebel government ; inciters of revolt in border cities ; 
 editors of rebel newspapers under some thin disguise ; insolent 
 slave-drivers on the now .free soil of the District of Columbia ; 
 of men seeking to sow divisions and disloyalty in the army 
 itself ; to prevent the raising of fresh levies ; to weaken and 
 
UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 11 
 
 bring into contempt the lawful power of tlic country. When it 
 became necessary to reinforce Fort Taylor, a high military au- 
 thority is said to have declared, that unless the act of habeas 
 corpus "svere suspended in the section of the State where the fort 
 now lies, every National soldier could be arrested by the rel)els, 
 under civil process, and the power of tlie National Government 
 be put at> absolute defiance. But it was by some thought nn- 
 constitutional to suspend this act. Then it must be unconstitu- 
 tional to uphold the Constitution, to oppose secession, or to put 
 down rebellion. Let it be deemed unconstitutional, then, by 
 those who hate Union and liberty ; it was none the less neces- 
 sary — absolutely and unconditionally necessary^ — and the Presi- 
 dent, doubtless with some such view, signed the order for it 
 with a full sense of his constitutional responsibility. But he is 
 not yet justified in that act, or in any similar acts, by the oppo- 
 sition. "Would God, would America, would the Future, should 
 we, justify him, if, higgling on the point, he had sacrificed the 
 national spirit, honor, life and hopes to the weak and empty 
 scruples of others about the letter of the law ? He would in- 
 deed have been a coward and a traitor to his country, if he had 
 shrunk from that holy duty, of setting the law of national self- 
 preservation above every other consideration, at that critical 
 moment. Remember that the value of a living ruler is tliat he 
 is alive, and can accommodate action to circumstances. We 
 might as well have presiding over this nation a Maelzel automa- 
 ton, or Babbage's Calculator, wound up by the Constitution to 
 strike certain foregone conclusions, as to have a living repre- 
 sentative of the people — a man whose heart, conscience and will 
 have their legitimate place in interpreting and applying the 
 written law to the nation's exigencies — if these feeble notions 
 of the absolute preeminence in a civil war of every doubt 
 or silence or uncertainty in a Constitution made for peace, 
 are to prevail over the necessities of immediate and decisive 
 action. 
 
 But, after all, no plea is so specious and so dangerous among 
 all those under which disloyalty seeks to conceal its fangs, as 
 that which attempts to distinguish between the Administration 
 and the Government. It is perfectly respectful to the Govern- 
 
12 UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 
 
 ment, for which it is ready to give life and treasure ; but the 
 Administration is imbecile, is false, is destroying the liberties 
 of tlic nation ; is without wisdom, or honesty, or success ! It is 
 to be assailed, despised, resisted, and in every way obstructed, 
 and this is all in the way of sound citizenship and in the exer- 
 cise of inalienable rights — in the character of true and loyal 
 Americans ! It is very like the plea of men who respect the 
 marital relation, but have no allegiance to the wife of their 
 bosom ; or of those who advocate honesty as a general prin- 
 ciple, but make an exception in dealing with their own credi- 
 tors ! Practically, everybody knows that the President is, for 
 two years or more to come, the sole lawful head of this Nation, 
 and his Cabinet, men of his own choice, the arbiters of our na- 
 tional fate. Practically, what these men do or fail to do, through 
 our furtherance or hindrance, settles the fate of this people for 
 a generation, perhaps for ages to come. Practically, their sup- 
 port, encouragement and invigoration, is the only jjossihie method 
 of putting forth our National strength and- ability. Practically, 
 to bring them into suspicion, contempt and distrust, is the great- 
 est injury and peril our cause can suffer ! Practically, the rebel 
 Congress can have no allies more worthy encouragement and 
 pecuniary support, than the men here who attempt to weaken 
 the confidence of the nation in their sole executive representa- 
 tives ; to bring the high officers of the Government into disre- 
 spect and contempt ; to make foreign Powers think us led by 
 pigmies, governed by imbeciles, counseled by knaves, divided 
 among ourselves, and on the verge of despair ; our successes 
 cheap, our prospects cloudy, our resources belittled, our zeal and 
 determination dimmed and dwindled, our national will broken ; 
 our Government despised, sneered at and distrusted by its own 
 children. Nor, alas ! is this wretched policy wholly confined to 
 traitors. Loyal and honest men, in the pride of opinion, un- 
 wittingly perform the traitor's work. Faithless, impatient, sup- 
 erficial, mere partisans, or mere pettifoggers, or mere sectional- 
 ists, or mere mediocrities, they assail the Administration be- 
 cause the Administration does not take their advice, see things 
 their way, jump to their conclusions, adopt their " isms," swal- 
 low their panacea, or force it down the throat of the country. 
 
UNCOKDITIONAL LOYALTY. 13 
 
 I was lately very much struck by the remark of an. honest 
 New England radical Abolitionist, who stated to me witli an 
 evident expectation that I sliouhl receive it as a proof of the 
 President's total lack of intelligence, that a Committee of the 
 leading representatives of his sect had just waited on the Presi- 
 dent, and had three hours of conversation with him ; and that 
 they had no evidence that they liad produced the least eflect on 
 his mind ! As they were all very excellent and eloquent gen- 
 tlemen, of their school, I confess I felt a new increase of respect 
 for the President's firmness and many-sided wisdom ! I Imvc 
 too often had my own hasty views and wishes opposed and 
 thwarted liy the Administration and high officers, not to have 
 learned that it does not prove them to be wrong that they do 
 not uniformly agree with even their honest and earnest advi- 
 sers ! And, taking advantage of whatever name for frankness 
 and simplicity, in speaking the unqualified convictions of my 
 own mind, I may here enjoy, I solemnly declare in the interests 
 of the nation and cause, that, with more than ordinary oppor- 
 tunities of seeing and practically co-working with the Govern- 
 ment, every month of study of ovu' Administration has given 
 me a greater estimate of its integrity, ability and fitness to 
 meet the crisis ; a higher respect for the President ; a deeper 
 persuasion that faith and confidence in him would be repaid by 
 full success in our cause. I believe that the very common opin- 
 ion that intestine quarrels rend the Cabinet ; that no harmony 
 of views or purposes prevails ; that the high officers distrust, 
 and are jealous of each other ; that they are chiefly animated 
 by political ambition, or are sacrificing the country to their own 
 self-seeking objects, is a most entire and a most pernicious mis- 
 take ; that the difierences among them are honest and healthy 
 differences, not touching vital points, and that their perplexities 
 spring not from their own divisions, but from ours ; their lack 
 of sharpness of policy to the blunted, because widely-extended, 
 interests and wishes of a greatly scattered people. I believe 
 no set of men ever lived, that were more idly, hastily and igno- 
 rantly judged and abused, than our existing Administration ; 
 that they need only to be closely and personally known to be 
 •wholly respected ; and that any general disaffection or distrust is 
 
14 UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 
 
 caused wholly by the poisonous malaria sent up from the marshes 
 of public prejudice, from the foul-mouthed calumnies of a portion 
 of the public press, or the idle gossip of tlioughtless story-tellers. 
 When I think of the extent to which the falsest calumnies can 
 go, without one particle of truth to travel on — things I personally 
 know to be not only untrue, but the precise reverse of truth — 
 I am in despair of correcting public prejudice. To take an 
 illustration, below that of a Cabinet officer, whom I will not 
 criticise — ^iio man in the whole country, for instance, has suffered 
 greater wrongs, from the causes alleged, than General McDowell 
 — a wise and good man, a patriot and brave soldier, simply un- 
 fortunate, but despised and hated as a traitor and a drunkard 
 by millions, many of whom are not worthy to loose his shoe- 
 latchet. This man, who has been styled a drunkard, on the 
 most incontestible evidence, by men and women of the highest 
 character, in my presence, I positively know never so much as 
 touches a drop of intoxicating drink — is a total abstinent, and 
 always has been so ! And I believe there are generals and 
 Cabinet officers now under suspicion of drunkenness and opium- 
 eating, and fraud and falsehood — on testimony that would hang 
 a man in many courts — who are as innocent of each and every 
 one of these charges as the purest man in this assembly. 
 
 It is a reckless way of discussing the personal character of 
 public men, in the press and in popular assemblies, that has led 
 to this atrocious depreciation of men, whose characters and 
 reputation ought at this time to be under the shield of every 
 patriotic citizen's allegiance and gratitude. I am persuaded 
 that it is a sacred duty to urge this point everywhere ; and I 
 rejoice, that in the best faith in the world, I am able to begin 
 a reform in this direction, at least in my own small sphere. I 
 have from the beginning thought it my duty everywhere to sup- 
 port the Government and to support the Administration as the 
 practical representative of the Government. I think it your 
 duty, your religious duty — the duty of every loyal citizen, and 
 that no duty is so urgent and imperative at this moment, as to 
 restore a well-deserved confidence to our President and his 
 advisers. If they did not merit it in their personal character 
 and talents, I should still claim that they deserved it in their 
 
UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY. 15 
 
 oflBcial position ! But I verily believe they merit it in their 
 own persons, and only the more where they do not represent 
 the partisan wishes of those of us who elected them. They 
 came in a party-administration. Civil war has converted them 
 into National patriots. Tlie lightning of God has touched 
 them, and rendered them sacred. Yes ! Can we measure their 
 trials, anxieties and difficulties — the necessary sorrows and cares 
 of their vast and complicated responsibility — and be willing to 
 add to their burdens the needless grief of misinterpretation, 
 slander, gossipping criticism and personal abuse ? A more 
 ungrateful public was never known than that which could will- 
 ingly assail the personal character of these slaves and conscripts 
 of our public necessities — the present Government of the coun- 
 try ! Let us reform our ways altogether ; begin a new style of 
 speech about our pul^lic men in office. Let us support, encour- 
 age, cheer and trust the Government. It is all they need to 
 carry us triumphantly through. 
 
 Thus, brethren, do I commend to you the cause of uncondi- 
 tional loyalty. I have pleaded it as a son pleading for a parent's 
 life ! Would to*God that none needed this earnest pleading more 
 than you do. I know your hearts, and liow warmly and cor- 
 dially as a congregation you approve and practice upon these 
 principles. I make you, then, the missionaries of them, where- 
 ever you go, and with whomsoever you are conversant. Let 
 our women and children become the propagandists of uncondi- 
 tional loyalty. The country needs not only the fealty of her 
 sons, but of her daughters also. Sing the songs of patriotic de- 
 votion at your hearth-stones. Let your country have your ear- 
 liest and your latest prayers. Frown on every syllable of dis- 
 trust, of wavering, of disrespect, that pollutes the air you breathe. 
 Eequire of all your friends to be first the friends of the nation ! 
 Have nobody's love that does not love the country more ! Make 
 a religion of patriotism. Let not the devotion of rebel fathers 
 and mothers, of rebel sons and daughters, shame your luke- 
 warmness, your selfishness, your coward fears. If error and 
 treason can find such willing, uncomplaining martyrs and pro- 
 pagandists, what ought liberty, union, and lawful government 
 to have ? It is this holy spirit of devotion on the part of the 
 
16 UNCONDITION'AL LOYALTY. 
 
 whole people, this jealous patriotisni, this unconditional loyalty 
 that can alone save the land. Let it not be your fault if from 
 this hour it docs not prevail in every home, in every heart, in 
 every place of business, in every church throughout this nation 
 — struggling, as it is, for the most sacred and valuable rights 
 of our common humanity, a lawful Government, and the right 
 of Cliristianity and civilization to triumph over barbarism and 
 Slavery. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 012 028 295 
 
 RECENT PAMPHLETS. 
 
 How a Free People Conduct a Long War. 
 
 A t'hapter from Eiigliyh History. 
 8vo. Paper, 15 cents. 
 
 Bv Charles J. Stills. 
 
 " We trust that tliis pamphlet may be very widely read. It is a most timely 
 utterance, and we are sure, that wherever it is read it will infuse new courage 
 and hope into loyal hearts. It shows that the scenes througli which we are 
 passing, the state of public feeling toward the government, the disputes in 
 reference to public men and public measures, have nothing in them at all strange 
 or unusual, but are in fact the almost universal and inevitalile accompaniment 
 of long wars — wars which in the end are entirely successful. The writer illus 
 trates the whole by an ext( iided reference to what took place in the Peninsular 
 War, under the leadership of Wellington." 
 
 The American War. 
 
 A Lecture delivered in London, (Jctober, 
 Newman Hall, D. D. 15 cents. 
 
 1862. By Rev. 
 
 Report of Louis H. Steiner, M. D., 
 
 Inspector of the Sanitary Commission. Containing a Diary 
 kept during the Rebel Occupation of Frederick, Md., during 
 the Campaign in Maryland, September, 1862. 8vo. Paper, 
 15 cents. / ' 
 
 Published by 
 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, 
 
 IVo. 6?^3 13i"oacl>va5 . 
 
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