HERE let me present you, my son, with an exact portrait of the
distinguished general who is commonly accepted as striking the first
blow of this war. He was kindly educated at the expense of the
nation, and was first among its enemies. For a time his fame ran
high enough, and timid people were inclined to give him the
character of a monster. But it turned out in time that he was a very
peaceable gentleman, and not so much of a terrible warrior, after
all.

But I want to tell you, my son, how it was that the people of this
great nation took to swords and cannon, to settle their differences
of opinion.

The people of the great North, and the people of the great West,
were educated to a very different way of thinking on the question of
slavery; and differed with the people of the South as to what
constituted a national blessing. They were willing, for the sake of
peace, to tolerate slavery, as a great evil it were dangerous to
attempt to remove; but it was too much to ask them to accept it as a
great national blessing. These people were energetic, thrifty,
lovers of right and justice, and had grown rich and powerful by
their own industry. They could not see why the whole people of so
great a nation as ours should be required to bow down and worship
what the rest of the civilized world had stigmatized as the greatest
scourge of mankind. Seeing the power this great wrong was obtaining
over the nation, as well as the danger it was causing us by
corrupting the minds of the people, they consulted together and