nothing worse as a system--lifts men above the natural license of savage
existence. Consider all this, and much more, that I may not stop to utter,
and you cannot--you _do_ not--no sane mind _can_ question the supreme
excellence--I had almost said the _divine_ excellence--of our
government. And if there were need of other proof, we have only to remind
you with what promptness the call of our noble Chief Magistrate was
answered from every free State--from the city and the hamlet; from the
bank, the bar, the press and the pulpit; from the workshop and the soil;
from the calm and comfort of home and ease and affluence, and from the
cottage of the poor, as if the pulse of the government were beating in
every vein, and the will of the Cabinet had its home in every bosom!
Strong men, young men, aged men, men of leisure, Christian men--all ready
to march under the stars and stripes, or to pour out their treasure for
others. Mothers and wives and sisters, with breaking hearts and tremulous
benedictions, bidding the heroes go--offering them on their country's
altar. Oh, it would not be thus but for the true manhood which our
government infuses into loyal citizens. It would not be so, but for the
Christianity it protects without dictation, and acknowledges without
ostentation.



II. We come now to the question, _What constitutes rebellion against good
government_?


There may be criminal rebellion even against a wicked and oppressive
government. The people may take the law into their own hands, and put to
death, or imprison their rulers, without _first_ having tried
constitutional methods of redress. But I speak of rebellion against _good_