CHAPTER XVI.

"THE NEW NATION."

THERE is this difference between the villain and the fool, that while the villain deceives other people, the fool deceives himself. This is also the difference between the hypocrite and the zealot; and these two form the body of every destructive revolution. The revolutionary character of the late war, and the revolution in our theory and form of governments, are as complete as force and purpose make them.

The revolutionists in triumph have called this a "New Nation," not without reason.

This name is significant of the entire abolition of our old civil governments in America.

Since the year 1860 we have had three "New Nations," under their several governments de facto, with such thrilling terminations as startled mankind.

The first of these was the Confederate States, over which Mr. Davis was elected President.

The second, the Mexican empire under the assumed reign of Maximilian, who came from Austria to replant the European system upon the American continent, as the heir of Charles V, and protege of Louis Napoleon.

The third was the usurpation of Abraham Lincoln, which entirely abrogated the Constitution of the United States and ruled the people by arbitrary power.

The fate of these rulers is a most significant vindication of the law of God, that he who takes up the sword shall perish by the sword.

The Confederate States were overthrown; the President captured; imprisoned, chained, tortured and released on bail, after

suffering ten thousand deaths at the hands of torturers, such as would have added cruelty to the reign of the Borgias.

The people of the Confederate States have been abandoned to a system for which neither the history nor the philosophy of government furnishes a name or a parallel.

Under pretence of reconstructing the States of the Union, every vestige of liberty has been destroyed.

The Reconstruction Bill is the most monstrous crime of the Christian era.

It is a crime against free government in this that it disfranchises without indictment, trial, or any other process of law, the learned, intelligent and highly cultivated citizens representing the business, manufactures, commerce, navigation and property of eleven millions of people who, from time immemorial, have been free.

It is a crime against civilization in this—that it transfers the powers of legislation and administration from the violently disfranchised intellect of the country, to the will, passion and violence of the African barbarians among them; who trample down those glorious landmarks and eminent triumphs of progress which have cost centuries of labor and celebrates the genius of ages.

It is a crime against Christianity in this—that it transfers the government of a Christian people to the control of a degraded, imbecile race of heathens, who yet retain the idolatry and superstitions of the most revolting systems of heathen worship.

It is a crime against reason in this, that it places bayonets in the hands of the unreasoning rabble, to destroy life, liberty and property at will, in violation of that established custom, among savage and civilized men, of committing the rule of tribes, nations and kingdoms, to the ablest and purest men.

It is a crime against human nature, which commits its preservation to its most elevated and superior races, and the most eminent and trustworthy of every race, in this, that it degrades the highest type of the human family to a subordination to the very lowest species of the race of man.

The Reconstruction Bill is in its details and execution more atrocious than any usurpation ever exercised by Great Britain over Ireland, by Russia over Poland, by Austria over Hungary,

cruel and abominable as they have been-in this, that the rulers of these conquered people were of the same general race, customs, habits, religion and color, while the voters to whom is committed the rule of the people of the excluded States are of a different race, with no common sympathies, capacities, interests, destinies or hopes.

The Mexican empire was destroyed by the people; the Emperor summarily butchered by his military enemies, and the mongrel savages of the country returned to their native element of anarchy. The third New Nation entirely destroyed constitutional government, introduced conscription, the old machinery of Eastern tyrants, and disintegrated the old State governments until nothing of the past remains.

The wicked and unfortunate President, who declared himself above constitutions and laws, built a pyramidal throne upon bones and skulls, cemented by the blood of our citizens, which was undermined and fell.

The usurper suffered that terrible retribution of God which

no man escapes.

"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man also shall his blood be shed."

How fearfully and how wonderfully has God punished the wicked men who have overthrown our American system of government by consent.

Lovejoy, who led the revolutionary van with a fiery, furious eloquence the ablest of them all-departed in the midst of his years, after having laid down the cross to take up the sword.

Next followed Baker, who left the heavenly avocation and abandoned the sword of the Spirit for "the bubble reputation in the cannon's mouth," was slaughtered on the battle-field, the victim of ferocious military imbecility.

Winter Davis, who led the rabble mob of Baltimore for years, played spy upon his neighbors, until Baltimore ran red with blood, and in Chicago announced and advocated the horrible doctrine of negro voting to retain political power, consumed by the vindictive fires of his own vengeance, is no more.

Poor old Giddings was smitten down in a billiard saloon in a foreign land.

Gen. Lane, who ravaged Missouri, and kindled the first fires of the civil war, haunted by the apparitions of his murdered victims, who followed him day and night, blew out his own brains, and sought refuge in the midnight of eternity, where sunless regions would hide him from the frown of Heaven.

Preston King sat guard at the portals of the White House on the day of the carnival which concluded the saturnalia of Lincoln's horrible reign of crime and terror.

Poor Anna Surratt fell upon the door-steps of the Presidential mansion, praying admission to pour her flood of tears upon the feet of an Executive, sworn to give every human being a fair trial according to law, and plead in the ear of God for justice through His appointed vicegerent upon earth.

The poor girl was thrust away from the outer door by the servant, who, smiling upon every one else, frowned upon her. In the inner chamber, sat King and the President, deaf to the appeals of law, justice, mercy, and human nature.

Mrs. Surratt was arrested, insulted, manacled, shackled, tortured, murdered without law, without evidence, without a court, without trial. Florence, Turkey or Russia, in their darkest days, might well have blushed at these proceedings. Only the Indians, Negroes and Chinese had given precedent for this new and horrible style of things. When on the scaffold, the cowardly soldier appointed to the sickening, bloody work, thrust himself between her and her priest, to suppress her dying declaration of innocence. She was entirely exculpated by Powell, who stabbed Seward. She brought up from the altars of God the testimonials of a devoted ministry to a spotless Christian life from childhood. Even the military commission, with cruel fanatics like Hunter, malignant creatures like Bingham, miserable, sinister wretches like Eakin, and the abortionist and village-burner Harris, recommended her to mercy. The coldblooded murderer Stanton, kept from the President the paper. The hypocritical villain Holt, all smeared with innocent blood, was ashamed of the murder of the woman. Preston King made the White House merry as on the day when Willie Lincoln mingled the suppressed groans of his last hours with the revelry of the ball-room beneath. This proved too much for King.

When wine no longer inflamed his passions into hilarity, nor beclouded his understanding, his soul was seized with amaurosis. The rattling chains that bound her to the damp, gloomy cell; the coarse, rough voice of the mercenaries, mellowed by contact with the silvery, innocent tones of the martyr; the grating of the prison doors; the rattling of musketry; that last, sweet word whispered in the ear of her spiritual father, "I am innocent," sounded like the last awakening trumpet of God in his ear. Night after night the manacled victim of perjury and arbitrary power would alternate the apparition with her heavenly vestments, as she stood before his bedside, or paced his room, or aroused him from his sleep, to hear the piteous cries of the beautiful Anna, standing by the Presidential mansion, or kneeling upon the cold stone, begging the Saviour to intercede with the Heavenly Father to move the stony hearts of tyrants to pity, and save her mother. Scarcely had the swooning sleep of opiates quieted his broken rest, until the murdered woman would stalk forth from the unconsecrated grave, and point the sleeper to the scars upon her body, the coarse habiliments and unhallowed scenes of the execution. The innocent, unprotected, homeless daughter would again join her mother in the scene. He awoke, arose, dressed himself, sought comfort in society; fled to the busy scenes of office, but there still stood by his side the phantom of the martyred woman and her lovely child. The cruel stories of provost guards, the distress created by the tax-gatherer, the revelry of political victories, only intensified his suffering. The pronunciation of the names of these injured people startled his nervous system and shook his frame.

The apparitions accompanied him to the table, followed him on the streets, mingled in the crowds of the ferry-boat; as one pursued by a legion of demons, he fled; and in his delirium, sought a hiding-place on the ocean, only to awake up to meet his victim face to face, before the judgment-seat of God.

Many of these wicked men, pursued by their crimes, sought refuge in their own destruction. Others, more guilty, remain among us, only to flee to other lands, endure the punishment provided by law, or receive pardon for their crimes at the hands of a merciful, injured people.