volved, as a moral and religious question, it is undoubtedly true, that in some quarters at the South it was justified as right, per se, right in principle. And yet, it is equally true that New England Puritans were, in the beginning, mainly instrumental, by their personal agency and by their votes, first in stealing and bringing slaves into the country, and then in fastening the institution upon it; and this too, against the remonstrance of Virginia and the Middle States. They only abolished it among themselves, when it ceased to be profitable. This much Mr. Greeley virtually admits in his " American Conflict;" and the facts themselves are capable of absolute demonstration.

So also in respect to the doctrine of State Sovereignty. If the Secessionists planted themselves upon it, in justifying themselves to their own consciences, and before the world, let it be remembered that the most extreme point to which that doctrine was carried at the South, was not a hair's-breadth beyond the ground taken again and again by Northern Puritans, in the previous history of the country, at a time when they had sectional and mercenary ends which they wished to gain. The proofs of this, also, are as clear as the day, and no intelligent man will deny them.

At the present time, however, the destruction of a cardinal fundamental principle in our Government, the Union of the States, is sought in an opposite direction; and few, we believe, are aware how near we have come,-and mainly through the influence of this same class of men,-to such a centralization of power in the hands of unconstitutional agencies and instrumentalities, as shall change the whole character of our Institutions. We have before us a report of a late "Sermon" in the Hall of Representatives by the Chaplain of the House, the Rev. Dr. Boynton, whose fiery rhetoric was only calculated to stir up the bitterest feelings against the entire South, and to prevent the reunion of the States. Here are extracts :

"The war has left the South, alike a material ruin and a moral wreck. The ghastly emptiness, the black desolation of their land, filled only with scorched ruins and graves and dead men's bones, fitly represent the general state of the Southern mind and heart."

"They thought they could murder and torture and starve defenceless prisoners, and set about generally to a devil's work, and not become devils themselves."

"For the present, the South must remain incapable of an heroic or a great idea. The statesman may construct the forms of the State, but to reconstruct a ruined soul is beyond his art. The South has committed suicide upon her moral nature, and she must abide the result."

"She may produce cunning intriguers, wire-working politicians, or a fresh brood of conspirators, but with all this she will remain incapable of a noble thing; she will have no recovering life-power, no true manhood, because she rejects the right and the true, and obstinately clings to evil; and if she persists, she will certainly perish and disappear, and that beautiful land will be recovered by the power of the Northern life. The only choice which God has left the South is, repent or perish."

"By this revealing of the Southern spirit, we are brought face to face with some most solemn questions, and we should thank God that they are raised in time to enable us to decide them aright. Can we afford, by the wholsesale pardon of these plotters and leaders of sedition, by the restoration of their property and their political rights, to declare, virtually, that they have done nothing worthy of punishment, and thus admit their plea that they owed allegiance to their States, and of course secession was neither treason or rebellion ?"

This example of a preacher of the Gospel of Christ degrading himself into a partizan political demagogue, is but one instance of what has been, and still is, going on all over the North. In harmony with such teaching, the proposition has been made in Congress to expunge the very name, "The United States of America," and so to bring the whole country, in disregard of all those rights which belong to a Republic, under the power and dominion of a new party. Thank God, the Republic still exists; its hold upon the hearts of the people is as strong as ever; and it will vindicate its claim to be a tangible, living reality.

With this plan to prevent the reunion of the States, we have the effort already alluded to, to extend Puritanism into the South, and to fasten it upon that portion of the country. Such efforts are not even now abandoned. Puritan preachers have attempted, as President Lincoln characterized it,-"to run the Churches of the South ;"-a scheme which he effectually foiled,

whenever placed within his reach. These preachers, unmindful of what even Pagans hold sacred, the sanctity of Religious places and shrines, have thrust themselves into the consecrated Churches of Southern Christians, only to trample upon the holiest memories and tenderest sensibilities of the human heart. And all this has been chuckled and exulted over as a triumph; and then these men have reported at home that the Southern people, thus goaded to desperation, "hate us Yankees as badly as ever, and are not to be trusted."

A single example of this kind may be given as a specimen. A plan was lately formed and inaugurated, to establish a Puritan "Church," and Puritan Schools, for whites and blacks, in the City of Richmond, Virginia; the very heart of the South, and, with perhaps a single exception, the most intensely Southern city on the continent. The attempt was to be made, under the protection of United States troops, and by the aid in part, indirectly, but not less effectually, of funds drawn both from the National treasury, and from public charities; to which not a few nominal Churchmen have contributed. Providentially, and as it would almost seem, by a special interposition, this particular effort was unexpectedly thwarted. But the ground was carefully surveyed. Buildings for the experiment were selected,—and here the whole project was suddenly abandoned. All this was attempted, too, let it be remembered, after the War was formally closed; and when every consideration which can appeal to the heart of patriotism, philanthropy, magnanimity, and Christian charity, should have dissuaded from such interference.

There is a serio-comic aspect in which this effort of the Puritan propagandist may be regarded, which, if daguerreotyped by Dickens, would make a funny picture. At present, not one of his characters fairly represents it. In the visit of the Puritan missionary to the Capital of Virginia, he seems to have caught a glimpse, of course from the outside, of the elegance, dignity, and refinement of character and manners, which have always graced society in that old State. Notwithstanding the vulgar taunts at the F. F. V.s, by snobs and parvenues, it has not been altogether by accident that Virginia has been the

Mother of Presidents, while New England has swarmed with clock peddlers and the venders of patent medicines.

There is no mystery in all this. It is the result of natural law. The religious element is the strongest of all elements in shaping the character of a people. The two leading ideas of New England Puritanism as a System, to wit: individual unconditional Election, and Independency in the form of Government, foster great individuality of character; and all those traits which spring from, or admit of, such a form of Religious development, may exist under such conditions in a high degree of perfection. There may be persistence, even to dogged obstinacy. There may be tenacity of memory, and power of mental application, such as grows book-worms and scholars of a certain sort, and as can turn out books of any grade, from a Spelling-book to a Dictionary. There may be ingenuity, such as can construct anything, from a penny whistle to a steam. engine. There may be thrift and economy, such as will amass and hoard a fortune. There may be imagination and fancy, within a limited sphere, and artistic culture. But all these cannot make Statesmen. Statemanship is formed of nobler stuff, and grows on richer soil. It requires a reach of vision and breadth of sympathy which looks beyond the individual; which regards man as a social being, linked, by the very constitution of his nature, in a bond of brotherhood with his fellow men. George Washington was a representative man. The Church theory which prevailed in Virginia, and the Puritan theory which prevailed in New England, formed two distinct casts of character. A shrewd friend of ours persists in maintaining that he can detect, at a glance, these types of character, even in the physiognomy of the individual.

We honor New England, for what she is, and for what she has done. We estimate her still higher, for what she has it in her power to do. There are nobler elements in New England even now, than those to which we have alluded;elements which, if diffused as they ought to be and as they may be, amid the prevailing wreck of their modern Creeds, would diffuse the leaven of a broad, generous Catholicity through the New England mind, and convert a clannish, narrow, mischiev

ous sectionalism, into a genial, conservative principle in our national character.

Our Puritan adventurer at Richmond seems to have had good sense and sagacity enough to think it a question, whether, after all, the sharp-visaged nasal Pilgrims did really possess quite a monopoly of all the social virtues; and as he was unexpectedly prevented from inflicting, by military force, his Puritanism upon these proud people; and as the prospect presented itself, instead of playing the hero, of figuring in altogether another sort of role, and as the man at the White House at Washington happens to have a mind and will of his own, he found it entirely convenient to quit the field. Had he succeeded in carrying out his plans, it would, of course, have been a proud feather in the cap of the Roundhead, thus to plant his banners and wave his flag upon the very Gibraltar of the Cavalier.

The effect of all such Puritan intermeddling with the private affairs and personal responsibilities of the Southern people, is precisely what might be anticipated. The intensity of bitter alienation, which has taken deep root in the hearts of the prominent Religious Sects, North and South, it will require a whole generation to eradicate. A New England Puritan divine, who lately visited the South, thus publicly reported his experience.

"It is frequently remarked, that the Religious people at the South are more obstinate than any other class of people there; and the Ministers are more obstinate than their congregations. We cannot coöperate with you, they say. Ask the Old School Presbyterian, or the New School, if they see the way open? Ask any denomination, if you can approach them, on this matter; and you will receive the same reply. There is no coöperation. They do not love us

a bit better than they did in 1860; and why should we expect it?"

The Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina, lately assembled at Fayetteville; and among their official declarations was the following:

"The guilt of Schism is not on us. We protest our desire for union, if it can be effected without a compromise of truth, and of our loyalty to Christ's crown and covenant. Those who may come among us to carry out the unscriptural and Schismatical purposes avowed by