Page:Proceedings at the second anniversary meeting of the Loyal publication society, February 11, 1865.djvu/8



has completed the second year of its existence. The creature of a painful necessity and coming into existence at a period when the affairs of the country were in a dark and threatening state, its first year was a year of labor, of trouble, and anxiety. Nor has the season through which it has just passed been without its difficulties and trials. The season of a Presidential Election is always one of excitement and intellectual activity, and in proportion as its issues are momentous the passions of men are quickened, and their slumbering prejudices aroused into antipathy and hate. The Society has not been wholly exempt from the influence of this universal rule. It could hardly have hoped to pass through the excited canvas without exciting strong animosities, yet it may congratulate itself that it has been able to carry on its operations with so little inconvenience, and in such quiet, peace, and security. Nor is this true alone of its position with regard to the politics of the country; it is equally true of its position with regard to the divisions of sentiment in the loyal ranks. Much of this is due to the fidelity with which it has adhered to the policy resolved upon at the last Annual Meeting.

Governed by fixed principles, and devoting its entire energies to their wide propagation, the Society has paid little attention