-.^^. TtXlliter is a believer in the Divine authority of the Scriptures—he acknowledges no standard of right and wrong but the Will of God, and denies the expediency of any act which is forbidden by laws dictated by Infi- nite AVisdom and Goodness. This avowal will prepare the reader to find in the following pages many opinions not ha\ing the stamp of public approbation. Patriot- ism, honor, glory, and national prosperity, are terms to which the Christian and the mere politician attach dif- ferent ideas, and estimate by different standards. He who admits the authority of the Bible will not readily acknowledge that whatever is "highly esteemed among men" must be right, nor that what is unpopular is, of course, wrong.
In the following Review, the public conduct and opinions of public men are freely and fearlessly can- vassed, but in no instance, it is hoped and believed, at the expense of truth. In justice to the writer, the reader is earnestly entreated to bear in mind the dis- tinction between the statement of a fact, and the ex- 4 INTRO DrCTTON.
pression of an opinion. Conscious of his own anxious and often laborious efforts to secure accuracy of detail, and of quotation, the author flatters himself that his facts will be found incontrovertible—for his opinions he claims no infallibility, and anticipates no general assent.
The Review has far loftier objects than those of an historical record. It aims to recommend and enforce the duty of preserving Peace, by exhibiting the wickedness, the baseness, and the calamitous consequences of a victorious War, effecting all the ends for which it was waged. It seeks to warn the country against that ad- miration of military prowess, which, by degrading in the public estimation the virtues which