Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by SHELDON &CO., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes movedto the end of the article. Table of contents has been created for the HTML version.
ADMINISTRATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
ART'S LIMITATIONS.
APPLIED SCIENCE.
THE MURDER OF MARGARY.
THE LETTERS OF HONORÉ DE BALZAC.
LOVE'S REQUIEM.
STORY OF A LION.
A WOMAN'S GIFTS.
THE MODERN PYTHIA.
ALNASCHAR.
AUT DIABOLUS AUT NIHIL.
ON READING SHAKESPEARE.
THE PHILTER.
MISS MISANTHROPE.
DRIFT-WOOD.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
CURRENT LITERATURE.
NEBULÆ.
The second session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, from its commencementto its close, tested the strength of the Government and the capabilityof those who administered it. Disappointment, in consequence of nodecisive military success during the first few months of the war, hadcaused a generally depressed feeling which begot discontent and distrustthat in various ways found expression in Congress. Democrats complainedmore of the incapacity of the Executive than of the inefficiency of thegenerals, and the entire Administration was censured and denounced bythem for acts which, if not strictly legal and constitutional in peace,were necessary and unavoidable in war. Republicans, on the other hand,were dissatisfied because so little was accomplished, and the factiousimputed military delay to mismanagement and want of energy in theAdministration. Indeed, but for some redeeming naval successes atHatteras and Port Royal preceding the meeting of Congress in December,the whole belligerent operations would have been pronounced weak andimbecile failures. Conflicting views in regard to the slavery questionin all its aspects prevailed; the Democrats insisting that fugitivesshould be returned to their masters under the provisions of law, as intime of peace. The Republicans were divided on this question, oneportion agreeing with the Democrats that all should be returned,another claiming that only escaped slaves who belonged to loyal owners,wherever they resided, should be returned; another portion insisted thatthere should be no rendition of servants of rebel masters, even in loyalor border States, who, by resisting the laws and setting the authoritiesat defiance, had forfeited their rights and all Govern