might have foreseen the irresistible impulse which has just ended in the
triumph of Mr. Lincoln.

The indignation against slavery, the love of country and of its
compromised honor, the just susceptibilities of the North, the liberal
instincts so long repressed, the desire of elevating the debased and
corrupt institutions of the land, the need of escaping insane projects,
the powerful impulse of the Christian faith, all these sentiments
contributed, without doubt, to swell the resistance against which the
supremacy of the South has just been broken. This, then, is a legal
victory, one of the most glorious spectacles that the friends of liberty
can contemplate on earth. It was the more glorious, the more efforts and
sacrifices it demanded. The Lincoln party had opposed to it, the
Puseyistic and financial aristocracy of New York; the manoeuvres of
President Buchanan were united against it with those of the Southern
States. Many of the Northern journals accused it of treading under foot
the interests of the seaports, and of compromising the sacred cause of
the Union.

To succeed in electing Mr. Lincoln, we must not forget that it was
necessary to put the question of principle above the questions of
immediate interests, which usually make themselves heard so distinctly.
The unity, the greatness of the country, the gigantic future towards
which it was advancing, were so many obstacles arising in the way. Then
came the reckoning of profits and losses, the inevitable crisis, the
Southern orders already withdrawn, the certain loss of money; it seems
to me that men who have braved such chances, have nobly accomplished
their duty.

America, it is said, is the country of the dollar; the Americans think