2

The Bolt Fallen.

President Lincoln has at last hurled against rebellion the bolt which he has so long held suspended. The act is the most important and the most memorable of his official career — no event in the history of this country since the Declaration of Independence itself has excited so profound attention either at home or abroad.

While its justice is indisputable, we may well suppose that the step has been taken reluctantly. A people waging a causeless and unholy war against a mild and just Government have forfeited the right to protection by that Government. No principle is clearer. Yet the President has repeatedly warned the people of the rebellious States to return to their allegiance without effect. He now employs the power with which Congress and the Constitution have clothed him. There can be but one opinion among all true friends of the country. The President must and will be sustained. That extremists will condemn one class because emancipation is not immediate and unconditional: the other because it is proclaimed even prospectively, is to be expected. But those who refuse to support the Government in the exercise of its necessary and just authority are traitors and should be so treated, whatever name they may wear. True patriots of every name rally around the President, determined that the Union shall be preserved and the laws enforced.