March 1862

War, the searcher of character, the test of men, has tried already so many reputations, has pricked so many bladders. 'Tis like the finan- cial crises, which, once in ten or twenty years, come to try the men and institutions of trade ; " using, like them, no ceremony, but plain laws of gravity and force to try tension and resistance. Scott, McDowell, McClellan, Fremont, Banks, Butler, and I know not how many more, are brought up, each in turn, dragged up irresistibly to the anthropometer, measured and weighed, and the result proclaimed to the Universe.

Whiggery. Its doctrine is, — Better endure tyranny according to law a thousand years than irregular and unconstitutional happiness for a day. Of course, he had rather die in the hands of a physician than be cured by a quack.