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The Great Uprising.

There have been revolutions when the whole people arose, as one man, to throw off the oppressive rule of some tyrant. The revolutions in France, and the revolution in this country, are examples of this kind. But the world has seldom, if ever, furnished an example when the whole people have spontaneously and with one common purpose rushed to oppose the enemies of their Government until we find it in our own age and our own country.

The difference is obvious. Revolutions are produced by a long series of outrages and tyrannies committed against the people under the name of rightful authority and just government. When these acts of usurpation and tyranny can be endured no longer, then comes revolution, in which a people gathering together their resources, forced together by a common injustice, and attracted by a common interest, and attracted by a common interest and common danger, prepare to resist oppression, and throw off an unjust government. Such was the history of the beginnings of our own struggle of independence, and such has been the history of revolution in every nation which has rebelled against authority unjustly exercised.

But such has not been the origin of the outbreak against the Government of the United States in the South. The party which stirred up the Southern rebellion had long held possession of the principal offices of the Government, and had administered the affairs of the nation as they chose. The people, in a constitutional and regular manner at the ballot box, decided in favor of a change of our national policy. Then it was that the elements which had been carefully prepared for the present rebellion were set in motion. Hostilities against the Government were set on foot even before the new administration came into power. It was not rebellion against tyranny and oppression, for the new Government had had no opportunity to perform any sets whatever. It was simply an attempt to retain possession of the Government which the people in a constitutional manner had decided should go into other hands. The unanimity which seems to inspire the enemies of the Government in the South, is not the result of choice. It is the outgrowth of long continued and persistent misrepresentations of the real policy and designs of the party which was about to come into power, and a reign of intolerance and terrorism in the South which rendered security of person and property incompatible with freedom of thought and of action. The misrepresentation which misled the people of the South was the work of Northern politicians and newspapers, no less than Southern ones; and the intolerance was the natural result of long education, and of that arrogance and impatience under restraint which Southern institutions are so well calculated to beget.

The unanimity and enthusiasm with which the loyal citizens of this Union are now leaving their business and their homes and rushing to the defense of their Government, is one of the most remarkable proofs of the fitness of the people for self-government. It, more than anything in the history of our country, puzzles the philosophers who have been accustomed to draw their theories of government from the monarchies of the Old World. There is nothing in our present difficulties which should cause any one to despair of the experiment of self-government. On the contrary, only let the people put forth the power necessary to suppress a causeless rebellion, and let that power be so employed and directed by the Government as to insure that result, and the success of our experiment is established.

The grand, spontaneous uprising in the loyal States, which we are just now witnessing will illuminate one of the brightest pages in our future history. Only let our Government be true to the people who are so generously risking their lives and their all in its defense, and the result cannot be in doubt.