We believe that in the safety of the Union is the safety of the States.
And we rejoice that "the gorgeous ensign of the Republic is still full
high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster,
not a stripe polluted or erased, not a single star obscured, bearing for
its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What is all this worth?'
Nor those other words of delusion and folly, 'Liberty first and Union
afterwards,' but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living
light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and
over the land and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other
sentiment, dear to every true American heart, 'Liberty and Union, now
and forever, one and inseparable.'"

But while entertaining these sentiments, we can not, we will not, forget
our glorious dead. The brave men against whom we fought neither expect
nor desire such unnatural conduct. Whether the cause for which they died
was just or not it would be idle to discuss. It is enough for us to know
that--

They were slain for us,
And their blood flowed out in a rain for us--
Red, rich, and pure, on the plain for us;
And years may go,
But our tears shall flow
O'er the dead who have died in vain for us.

After the cessation of hostilities Gen. LEE resumed the occupations of a
farmer on the old plantation which he had left in 1861. The implements
of warfare were exchanged for those of the husbandman, and following the
plow on the furrows he commenced the work of repairing the losses he had