shall we find in past records the tale of such a struggle ɛɔ enormous in extent, so nearly matched at the outset, so desperately contested, so effectively decided? Through what a course of uninterrupted victory did he proceed from the earliest engagements to a complete dominion of the vast catastrophe! Nor should it be forgotten, he fought no barbarians, ill-equipped, undisciplined, not commanded by educated skill; but against soldiers of the finest spirit, armed with the best weapons, standing on their own familiar ground, and led by v teran Generals of well-trained science, one of whom, at least, was never overmatched on his chosen field before.

Spare, in pity, the poor brain which cannot see, in this career, more than a dogged pertinacity! Out upon the unjust prejudice which will consciously disparage the true meed of genius! Leave it where his reliant silence leaves it; leave it to history! leave it to the world.

But in the great cause, so well understood, and the great results to men, so well accomplished, the basis of his renown is justly broadened. For the salvation of this Government of freedom for mankind we took up arms. When liberty was safe they were laid down again. Risen to the highest seat of power, he has descended as a citizen of equal rank with all. This goes to the soul of American liberty, ennobling individual citizenship above all servants in office. His is indeed the noblest grandeur of mankind who can rise from the grasp of overtopping power above the ambition of self to exalt the ambition of humanity, denying the spoils of the brief time to the lasting guerdon of immortal honor. The judgment of immediate contemporaries has been apt to rise too high or fall too low. But let not detraction or calumny mislead. They have ever been the temporal accompaniments of human greatness. That glory cannot rise beyond the clouds, which passes not through the clouds. We may confidently accept the judgment of the world. It has been unmistakably delivered. But lately, as he had pressed his wandering course about the round earth, mankind have everywhere bowed in homage at his coming, as the ancient devotees of the East fell before the sun at rising. These honors were not paid to his person, which was unknown; they were not paid to his country, for which he went on no errand, and whose representatives never had the like before; they were not paid to him as to some potentate of a people, for he journeyed not as a man in power. They have been the willing prostration of mortality before a glory imperishable.

"His memory shall, indeed, be in the line of the heroes of war, but distinctive and apart from the greater number. Not with the kind of Alexander, who ravaged the earth to add to mere dominion; nor of Belisarius, who but fed the greedy craving of an imperial beast of prey; not with Marlborough, Eugene, Wellington, who played the parts set them by the craft of diplomacy; not with the Napoleons, who chose "to wade through slaughter to the throne, and shut the gates of mercy on mankind;" not with Cæsar, who would have put the ambitious hand of arms on the delicate fabric of constitutional freedom. America holds a higher place in the congregation of glory for her heroes of Liberty, where sits in expectation, her majestic Washington. In nobler ambition than the gaining of empire, they have borne their puissant arms for the kingdom of man, where Liberty reigneth forever. From the blood poured out in their warfare, sweet incense rose to Heaven; and angels soothed, with honorable pride, the tears which sorrow started for the dead.

“Home again now, our first commander, after the journey of the world! Here, here again, we greet him, at our social board, where with recurring years, we regale on the deeper-ripening memories of our soldiership for Freedom. Partakers of the labors, the perils, the triumphs, which were the beginnings of his glory, we join now, with exultation, in the welcoming honors by which his grateful countrymen tell their foreknowledge of the immortality of his renown. Long and many be the years, illustrious leader, before your hour of departure come! Green and vigorous be your age, undecayed every faculty of mind and sense, in full fruition of the well-earned joys of life; happy in the welfare of your native land, the love of your countrymen, the admiration of the world!"

COL. W. F. VILAS

LITTLE BREECHES.

(A Pike County view of special Providence.)

I don't go much on religion,

I never ain't had no show;

But I've got a middlin' tight grip, Sir
On the handful of things I know.

I don't pan out on the prophets,

And free-will, and that sort of thing;

We found it at last, and a little shed
Whar they shut up the lambs at night;
We looked in, and seen them huddled thar,
So warm, and sleepy, and white.

And thar sot Little Breeches, and chirped,
As peart as ever you see,

"I want a chaw of terbacker,

And that's what's the matter of me."

How did he git thar? Angels.

He could never have walked in that storm,
They jest scooped down and toted him`

To whar it was safe and warm.
And I think that saving a little child
And bringing him to his own,
Is a derned sight better business
Than loafing around the Throne.

JOHN HAY.

NO MORTGAGE ON THE FARM.

Mary, let's kill the fatted calf, and celebrate this day,
For the last dreadful mortgage on the farm is wiped away.
I have got the papers with me, they are right as right can be,
Let us laugh and sing together, for the dear old farm is free.

Don't all we Yankees celebrate the Fourth day of July?
Because 'twas then that freedom's sun lit up our nation's sky;
Why shouldn't we then celebrate, and this day ne'er forget?
Where is there any freedom like being out of debt?

I've riz up many mornin's an hour before the sun,

And night has overtaken me before the task was done;

When weary with my labor 'twas this thought that nerved my arm;

Each day of toil will help to pay the mortgage on the farm.

And, Mary, you have done your part in rowin' to the shore,

By takin' eggs and butter to the little village store;
You did not spend the money in dressin' up for show,

But sang from morn till evening in your faded calico.

And Bessie, our sweet daughter—God bless her loving heart!
The lad that gets her for a wife must be by nater smart,—
She's gone without piano, her lonely hours to charm,
To have a hand in payin' off the mortgage on the farm.

I'll build a litle cottage, soon to make your heart rejoice,
I'll buy a good piano to go with Bessie's voice;

You shall not make your butter with that up and down concern,
For I'll go this very day and buy the finest patent churn.

Lay by your faded calico, and go with me to town,
And get yourself and Bessie a new and shining gown;
Low prices for our produce need not give us now alarm;
Spruce up a little, Mary, there's no mortgage on the farm.

While our hearts are now so joyful, let us, Mary, not forget
To thank the God of heaven for being out of debt;
For He gave the rain and sunshine, and put strength into my arm,
And lengthened out the days to see no mortgage on the farm.

JOHN H. YATES.

STAND BY THE FLAG.

(Letter to Kentuckians written from Washington, May 31, 1861.)

Let us twine each thread of the glorious tissue of our country's flag about our heart strings, and looking upon our homes and catching the spirit which breathes upon us from the battle-fields of our fathers, let us resolve that come weal or woe, we will in life and in death, now and forever, stand by the Stars and Stripes. They have floated over our cradles; let it be our prayer and our struggle that they shall float over our graves. They have been unfurled from the snows of Canada, to the plains of New Orleans, to the halls of the Montezumas, and amid the solitude of every sea, and everywhere, as the luminous symbol of resistless and beneficent power, and they have led the brave and the free to victory and to glory.

It has been my fortune to look upon this flag in foreign lands, and amid the gloom of an Oriental despotism, and right well do I know by contrast, how bright are its stars, and how sublime its inspirations! If this banner, the emblem for us, of all that is grand in human his