the signal for the opening of the outer gates of every temple of treason
in the land.

From that inauspicious moment forward to the present, no mask has hid from
the scorn of the Christian world treason's hideous visage, but that
blear-eyed monster, armed with every weapon of iniquity which devilish
invention could devise, has alternately, with rage and despair, rushed to
and fro across the continent, spilling the blood of innocence.

When, upon the occurrence of the Presidential election in 1860, it was
found that the kernel planted by Calhoun had been fostered to maturity by
secret organization, the blood and treasure of seven states was at once
staked upon the fearful result, and the disruption of the Republic and the
erection of a slave-driving despotism upon the ruins solemnly declared. In
the outset, it was thought by leading political minds at the North, that
but little sincerity could be attached to the assertion of independence by
the Southern people. But as time elapsed and the contest grew more
formidable and bloody, Northern men began by degrees to comprehend the
magnitude of a chronic conspiracy which had cost the life-long labors of
its ablest advocates to prepare. And though the hosts enlisted in the
execution of this conspiracy for a time won the prestige of victors upon
fields of blood, knowledge of their sincerity of purpose and the extent of
their carefully collected resources at length came to every loyal man in
the country, and vigorous measures, corresponding to the necessity, were
at once devised, the effects of which are now seen in the capture of
Richmond and the surrender of Lee.

Earlier than this date in the progress of the struggle, however, it became
manifest that the wheel of fortune would eventually turn against the cause
of the South in consequence of her comparative weakness to contend against