of national regeneration and entire purification Congress must
now address Itself, with full purpose that the work shall this time
be thoroughly done. The deadly upas, root and branch, leaf and fibre,
body and sap, must be utterly destroyed. The country is evidently
not in a condition to listen patiently to pleas for postponement,
however plausible, nor will it permit the responsibility to be shifted
to other shoulders. Authority and power are here commensurate
with the duty imposed. There are no cloud-flung shadows to obscure the way.
Truth shines with brighter light and intenser heat at every moment,
and a country torn and rent and bleeding implores relief
from its distress and agony.

If time was at first needed, Congress has now had time.
All the requisite materials from which to form an intelligent
judgment are now before it. Whether its members look at the origin,
the progress, the termination of the war, or at the mockery of
a peace now existing, they will find only one unbroken chain of argument
in favor of a radical policy of reconstruction. For the omissions
of the last session, some excuses may be allowed. A treacherous
President stood in the way; and it can be easily seen how reluctant
good men might be to admit an apostasy which involved so much
of baseness and ingratitude. It was natural that they should seek
to save him by bending to him even when he leaned to the side
of error. But all is changed now. Congress knows now that it must
go on without his aid, and even against his machinations.
The advantage of the present session over the last is immense.
Where that investigated, this has the facts. Where that walked by faith,
this may walk by sight. Where that halted, this must go forward,
and where that failed, this must succeed, giving the country whole
measures where that gave us half-measures, merely as a means of