On Thursday last, on occasion of the thanksgiving appointed by
the President for the success of the United States, Mr. Adams made a really remarkable speech on Mr. Lincoln's achievements. When the President came into office, a man utterly without official experience and political authority, he found every foreign ambas- sador the United States had in conspiracy against his Government, and doing what he could to discredit it with foreign Powers. He found the Treasury so low in credit that it was with difficulty he could borrow the most temporary resources. He found the army either in revolt or utter disorganization, the navy so full of rebellion that ships had even to be destroyed to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy ; and on the critical question of slavery he found the North as sceptical and distrustful as the South was con- tumacious. In two years he has got at least a united diplomatic service,—a Treasury on which popular loans are absolutely pressed, —an army of 500,000 soldiers,—a navy the match of any navy ex- cept the French and our own, and a people, who even a year ago were united in thwarting his anti-slavery policy, now quite as earnestly united in supporting it. And these results, as Mr. Adams truly says, he has achieved certainly not by transcendant, scarcely even by great ability, but "because he has from the beginning to the end impressed upon the people the conviction of his fidelity to one great purpose."
