INTRODUCTION.

HE writer of the chapters which follow this

TH

introduction, the REV. ABRAHAM R. HowBERT, has enjoyed special facilities for presenting to the public an interesting, instructive and valuable book. He was Chaplain of the 84th Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, during its service of a little over three months in 1862, at Cumberland, Maryland, and New Creek, West Virginia. When it was mustered out of service at Delaware, Ohio, in September of that year, he became the Confidential Agent of David Tod, Governor of Ohio, to visit and report on the condition of the Ohio Regiments, and the Chaplain service for each, wherever they might be found scattered through the wide fields of military operations during the war for the suppression of the rebellion. When Governor Tod had served out his term, and John Brough became Governor in 1864, Mr. Howbert continued the

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same character of service until the close of the war. The value of his able and efficient services was fully appreciated by these distinguished War Governors of Ohio. In addition to this, Mr. Howbert was entrusted with important duties by the "Christian Commission" and the "Sanitary Commission," two of the humane agencies for ameliorating the conditions of soldiers in the ser. vice; and in the execution of his duties in this connection, while also acting under the authority of Governors Tod and Brough, he not only ren. dered great service to the soldiers, to the country and to the cause of humanity, but also had opened to him many sources of information, valuable to him in the preparation of this volume, for which work his observation, his reading, his learning and ability have eminently qualified him. At his request this introduction has been prepared, presenting some historical facts, some views, and some principles of constitutional law and of the laws of war, which it is hoped may be found useful, especially to the young men who have been born or reached- manhood since the war closed in 1865.

Since the President's proclamation of August 20, 1866, referring to the great rebellion, declared the "insurrection at an end,” a vast number of those who were intelligent observers or actors in the events of that period have passed away, and a new generation of men has appeared on the stage of action. To them the rebellion and its stirring incidents are matters of history, of which they know nothing from observation, or from information acquired during that eventful period.

Whatever will throw light on these must be of deep interest to thoughtful minds at present, and for all future time.

They impart lessons, and are fraught with results, which should be understood by every citizen of the United States.

War legislates. The supression of the rebellion has settled questions of constitutional law which neither congress nor courts could effectually and finally determine. †

* See Lawrence's Law of Claims, being House Rep., No. 134, 2d session, 43d Congress, page 208.

Jefferson's Works, vol. 9, page 474; vol. 7, page 229; vol. 4, pages 258, 305; 4th vol. Writings of Madison, 506, 555, 166.

The Kentucky resolutions written by Jefferson, and the Virginia

The lessons and results of the war can be appreciated only by an adequate knowledge of the causes, or alleged causes of, or pretexts for, the great insurrection; the grounds so vainly urged to justify it, and the change made in the interpretation of the Constitution, and the structure of the Government, as a consequence of and following the suppression of the rebellion.

Some of these will now be briefly stated.

By the Declaration of July 4, 1776, it was pro claimed by "the representatives of the United

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resolutions by Madison, contained the germ of secession and rebellion. They laid the foundation of all our political woes. As a sample of their heresies, the Kentucky resolutions deny that the Government of the United States is one and indivisible, and assert that it is a "compact; they assert contrary to Article 3, Sections 1 and 2, and Article 6, clause 2, of the Constitution, that as against the action of Congress, and the Courts of the United States, each State "has an equal right to judge for itself as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress." This declaration is the basis of the assumed right of "nullification" and of "secession." Writings of Madison, vol. 4, p. 225. The motto of the United States is "e pluribus unum," signifying that the government is one; that it is not composed of States as integral parts, but is within its sphere, for all purposes of its jurisdiction, composed of and operating on "we the people of the United States," and is a unit, as fully as is each State for all purposes of its subordinate jurisdiction. Any other construction of the motto is erroneous, as shown by the source from which it is taken, fully illustrating the significance of its intense unity. It is from a Latin writer, by whom it was employed to signify the utter annihilation of the separate indentity of various herbs when mixed and blended into one medicinal preparation. So far