^ LETTERS AND SPEECHES. [PRIVATELY PRINTED,] • • • \ A FEW LETTERS AND SPEECHES The Late Civil War. ^^JLffu.s"\: ^e.lrnon't". NEW \ O R K 1870. t e>^^' This pamphlet, which is privately printed, contains a few letters, chosen from among hundreds, and a few speeches, selected out of many, that were written or uttered by their author during the time that he has had the honor to be intrusted with an official position in the Democratic party — namely, the Chairmanship of its National Committee. ' It was a circumstance incident to any faithful discharge of that responsible duty, during so exciting and momentous an era in the history of the United States as that through which they have but lately passed or are passing, that his opinions and conduct should be often misrepresented and sometimes misunderstood. The following pages will suffice to correct such errors, should they ever approach a lodgment in the minds of those with whom alone such errors now can be of any importance to him, — his children, and his personal or political friends; and will disclose to such of these as care to con- cern themselves about the matter, the ends which, as a citizen and as a member of a noble and time-honored party he has had in view, as well as something of the means by which, in his humble sphere and imperfect way, he has striven to attain them. AUGUST BELMONT. New York, June, 1S70. LETTERS. To JOHN FORSYTH, Mobile^ Ala. New York, November 22, i860. Mv Dear Sir, — I have followed, with the most intense anxiety, the events which the election of Lincoln has called forth at the South. While I fully appreciate the legitimate grievances of your section of the country, I deprecate sincerely the means which a large portion of your citizens seem determined to adopt for their redress. Nobody can regret more than I do the election of Lincoln, and I certainly need not tell you how earnestly I strove to prevent that calamity ; but now that we are defeated, I think that it behooves every good Democrat, North and South, to reflect calmly upon what course it will be most wise and patriotic to pursue, in order to guard against the evils with which a Republican administration threatens our country. I take it for granted that a large majority of our Southern brethren are in favor of the Union, provided they can have their rights secured under the Constitution, and their property protected against the inroads of Northern Abolitionism. I hope and trust that the disunionists per se stand alone in their conspiracv against the Union, which they have labored to undermine for the last twenty years. Unfortunately, they have been able to bring a large number of the patriotic men of the South to the belief that Lincoln's election is a convincing proof of an overwhelming anti-slavery feeling at the North ; but this is by no means the case, and it is evident that the unfortunate result of the late election was mainly owing to other causes. The country at large had become disgusted with the misrule of Mr. Buchanan, and the corruption which disgraced his administration. The Democratic party was made answerable for his misdeeds, and a change was ardently desired by thousands of conservative men out of politics. This feeling was particularlv strong in the rural districts, and did us infinite harm there. To John Forsyth. Had we made an unanimous nomination at Charleston, we should most probably have overcome our opponents ; though, for the reason just named, our struggle must have, in any event, been a severe one. But unfortunate dissensions paralyzed our forces at the very outset. When the delegates of the cotton States, under the leadership of Yan- cey, seceded at Charleston, breaking up the National Convention, they sealed the doom of the Democratic party, and elected Mr. Lincoln. Will the people of the South now allow these very men to reap the fruits ot their reckless course by aiding and sustaining them in their efforts to shatter the magnificent fabric of our Union, which has blessed until now this vast Republic with never-equalled greatness and prosperity? Is Mr. Yancey's programme to precipitate the South into a revolution, to be carried out by those patriots who, with you, have thus far so nobly fought against him and his nefarious doctrines ? Is it statesmanlike, is it manly, to withdraw from the contest when it becomes most fierce, and when victory [not of an ephemeral power and patronage.^ but of lasting guaranties and principles) is within our grasp ? Is it generous and kind to leave the brave and loyal men of the North, who have stood by you and your rights, and have led a forlorn hope against the most fear- ful odds — is it right and just, I say, to forsake them in the hour of need, and doom them to a hopeless minority ? It the Southern character is prominent for any qualities more than others, it is for unflinching courage and noble generosity. These virtues have taught me to cherish and honor the chivalrous South, and I appeal through you to those sentiments, that our Southern friends may pause before leaving the field to their enemies, and abandoning their faithful allies to the mercy of a ruthless victor. But while I implore them to pause, I am far from wishing them to retrace their steps. A firm, uncompromising, and united position must secure to them their rights and equality under the Constitution. The conservative mind at the North is anxious and ready to co-operate with them, and the reaction which has already taken place among thousands who voted for Lincoln, promises most conclusively a satis- factory solution of our troubles. Only, do not allow the violent men among you to force the Southern people under the whip of packed conventions, into any hasty and inconsiderate steps. No convention should be formed unless by a direct appeal to the people, and in such a convention every slaveholding State should be represented. This, I am sure, would, under the recommendation of Congress and local To John Forsyth. legislatures, 'soon be followed by a general convention of all the States of the Union. The faithful enforcement of the fugitive-slave law, and the equal rights of the States in the Territories, must, and will, be guaranteed to the South, — not by any enactments and compromises of Congress, which might at any time be repealed and tampered with, but by amend- ments to the Constitution of such a nature as to silence forever the just apprehensions of the South. Upon the leading national men of the South devolves now the sacred duty of stemming the torrent of terrorism, conjured up by rash politi- cians. The time for a satisfactory settlement of these vital questions has never been more propitious. We have both houses of Congress on our side, and the conservative spirit of the country is appalled at the contemplation of our portentous future. Already, now, the more moderate organs of the Republican party give strong evidence of this feeling. I hand you inclosed an extract from the New York "Times^ of yesterday, recommending measures of compromise and justice to the South. The article receives additional importance from the fact that the editor of the Times is one of the leading lights among the Republicans. Excuse this lengthy epistle ; but the subject is fraught with such deep interest that volumes would not exhaust it. I hope you will find a few moments of leisure to let me hear from you, and I trust that you may, by God's blessing, be able to give me cheerful tidings. To THE Hon. HERSCHEL V. JOHNSON, Speir's Turnout^ 'Jefferson Ciiv^ Ga. New York, November 2Z, i860. My Dear Sir,^ — I have seen with great satisfaction that amidst all the turmoil of passionate madness, fed by the incendiary speeches of Yancev and Toombs, your patriotic voice is loud in favor of the Union. Heaven grant that the wise counsels of such men as you, and the noble Alex. Stephens, may be listened to, and that our Southern brethren may act firmly and manly, but without precipitation. In that case all must in the end come right, and the South will ride triumph- antly through the storm. Mv only fear is that the secession leaders, reckless of patriotic con- siderations, and only bent upon the accomplishment of their trea- sonable ends, may succeed in manufacturing packed conventions in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, for the purpose of precipitating secession without an appeal to the people. This ought to be prevented at all hazards, and I hope that you, and other patriotic leaders, will rouse the people of your State to a full ap- preciation of the nefarious game played by their pretended friends. I have expressed my views more at length in a letter, which I addressed to-dav to Mr. Forsyth, and of which I beg to hand vou a copy. The South has got the game in her own hands, and it is for her to choose whether to give peace and greatness to our common country, ivhile at the same tune securing for herself every Constitutional right^ or whether to bury us all in one desolating ruin, which would be to the enemies of human liberty a vindication of the justice of their uncom- promising opposition to self-government. The dissolution of the American Union is the death-knell of human liberty. To JULIUS IZARD PRINGLE, Charleston^ S. C. New York, November 26, i860. Dear Pringle, — I note the contents of vour note of the 22d inst. The present political and financial crisis will, I trust, soon pass over and every thing turn back to its regular channels. It will then appear clearly a qui la f ante of the calamities which have overtaken us, and to which you allude in your letter. My convictions on that point have never changed. We are cursed with tivo sets of Abolitionists in this country^ and until they are crushed out of political existence, our onward march as a great and prosperous nation must be retarded, and the foundations of the Union and Constitution undermined. They are the fanatical AboU- tionists of slavery^ led by Sumner and other demagogues, and the selfish and short-sighted Abolitionists of the Union^ under -the leader- ship of Yancey, Rhett, and Toombs. If the conservative spirit of our people North and South cannot silence forever the howlings of these false prophets, we are all doomed to leave an inheritance of ruin and blood to our children, who otherwise might have grown up as citi- zens and brethren of the freest and mightiest empire upon which God's sun ever shed its radiant lustre. I have embodied my views on the present crisis in a letter, which I addressed a few days ago to Mr. Forsyth, in Alabama, and of which I hand you inclosed a copy. The hour is dark, but I do not yet despair entirely of the patriotism and good sense oi the American people. To JOHN C. BRADLEY, Hunt svi lie ^ J la. New York, November 28, i86o. My Dear Sir, — I have received your letter of the 23d inst., and am rejoiced to see that the conservative men of your part of the country have moved in the right direction. The patriotic men of the country look to the Douglas and Bell party of the South as their only hope in the present crisis. Yancey and his compeers, by seceding at Charleston, broke up the Democratic party, and were the chief means of Lincoln's election. It is clear now that this was the programme, in order to throw the cotton States into their hands, and force a dissolution of the Union by terrorism and packed conventions. If there is conservative spirit and love of the Union enough left in the South to prevent them from carrying out their treasonable schemes, all may be saved yet. A convention of all the Southern States would certainly save us. It would be followed by a convention of all the States North and South, where the guaranties which the South has a right to demand, would be sure to be granted to her under the Constitution. I inclose you copy of a letter which I addressed a few days ago to John Forsyth, embodying my views on the present crisis. If you think proper you may show it to such friends as are with us in sen- timent. To WILLIAM MARTEN, CharUiton^ S. C. New York, November 30, i860. My Dear Sir, — I have received your letter, and you will have heard from my house, that we are entirely satisfied with the execu- tion of our small exchange orders. The unfortunate state of our politics, which in your State particularly have assumed a most threatening aspect, prevents us, to my great regret, from renewing our orders for the moment. It is also impossible for us to hold out any hopes for the present, as to our being able to do anv thing in your market after the secession of your State, which you pre- dict as certain to take place very shortly. My heart misgives me when I think of the terrible consequences which the present action of your leading men must inevitably bring upon every section of our common country. I have written my views on the subject a few days ago to a friend in Alabama, and beg to hand you a copy of my letter. The idea of separate confederacies living in peace and prosperitv on this continent, after a dissolution of the Union, is too preposterous to be entertained by any man of sound sense, and the slightest knowledge of history. Secession means civil luar^ to'he folloxved hy a total disintegration of the whole fabric^ after endless sacrifices of blood and treasure. If patriotism and love of the Union will not make people pause in their mad ca- reer, I hope they may not lose the instinct of self-preservation. Can you tell me where Governor Aiken is at present ? I ad- dressed him a letter a week ago, to Charleston. Do you think it will reach him ? To Governor WM. SPRAGUE, Providence^ R. I. New York, December 6, i860. My Dear Sir, — The deep solicitude which the events in the South must call forth in the breast of every American citizen induces me to address you these lines. The secession of South Carolina, which must be looked upon now as an accomplished fact, will inevitably very soon be followed by the secession of all the cotton States, and a consequent dissolution of the •whole Confederacy, unless prompt and energetic measures are taken by the leading men of the North, in order to prevent this fearful calamity. Even the most fervent adherents of the Union in the border States despair of the possibility of maintaining their States within the Union, unless the just grievances of the South are remedied by early and prompt action. At this moment the patriotic men in the gulf States are using every effort, in order to bring about a joint convention. In this they are violently opposed by the disunionists, who are for immediate and sepa- rate action. The latter are undoubtedly in the ascendency, and unless some action is at once taken at the N'orth which will strengthen the hands of our friends, no earthly power can save the Union. If the programme of the co-operation men, composed of the Bell and Douglas leaders, succeeds, then South Carolina would for the present be the only State which actually secedes. The other gulf States would declare in this convention the conditions upon which they can remain in the Union, and if these cannot be obtained from the conservative spirit of the North, they will follow South Carolina on the 4th of March next. These conditions are — 1st, The repeal of the unconstitutional personal-liberty bills by those States which have passed them. T^o Gov. Wm. Spragi/c. i^ 2d, The acknowledgment of the equal rights of the South in the Territories. My own impression is that if, by the spontaneous action of the legislatures of even a portion of the Northern States, in repealing these objectionable laws, a spirit of returning justice were evinced, the question of the Territories might be settled by a compromise, to be embodied in the Constitution, based upon the old Missouri line, to be extended to the Pacific. You are in the proud and enviable position to lead this movement, which alone can save our beloved. Republic from utter ruin and deso- lation. The good old State of Rhode Island has been ever foremost in her loyalty and attachment to the Union, and she will, under your guidance, lead her sister States of New England to that path of fraternal equity toward the South, which can alone restore peace and harmony to our distracted country. If your legislature would, at your recommendation, efface from the statute-book of the State the objectionable personal-liberty bill, her example would soon be followed by all the other States, and this spon- taneous act of justice would, I have little doubt, induce Congress to amend the fugitive-slave bill, so as to take from it what is now looked upon by many people of the North as revolting to their feelings. Prompt and efficient action is, however, indispensable ; any delay is fatal in the present state of feeling at the South. My humble sugges- tion to you would be to convene your legislature at as early a day as practicable. You have it now in your power to earn for yourself the eternal gratitude of every American heart, and a name in the an- nals of your country more imperishable than that of the proudest conqueror. I have to crave your pardon for the liberty which I have taken in addressing you these respectful suggestions. The vital importance of the case must plead as my excuse. To Governor WM. SPRAGUE, Providence^ R. I. New York, December 13, i860. My Dear Sir, — I am much obliged for your favor of loth inst., but regret that you take the view that the repeal of the personal-liberty bill, by your State, at this moment could be looked upon as a concession made under the pressure and influence of fear and threats. The secession movement of the South has lost all the character of bluster and threat, which our Northern friends supposed too long was its principal element. The most conservative men have joined in it, right or wrong ; they feel that their institutions and property are not any longer safe within the Union, and that self-preservation commands action before the Federal power passes into hands which they take for granted are hostile to their section. They do not threaten, but they want to be allowed to go out peaceably. The great majority are for immediate action, but the Union men are striving to postpone secession if possible until the 4th of March. In this they can only succeed if aided by the North. The action which I suggested to you would go very far toward paving the way to a satisfactory solution of our present difficulties. You, yourself, think that the personal-liberty bills are unconstitutional. If they are wrong, why then wait one moment to do what is right ? Neither a State nor an individual can ever suffer in public opinion by doing what is right, and the more spontaneous the acknowledgment of an error is, the higher will it be appreciated. Here is what Herschel V. Johnson, one of the most patriotic and able men of the South, writes to me on this subject only a kw davs ago. After giving a most dispassionate description of the present state of affairs, and the dangers which surround us, he savs : — " What is to be done ? The Union is in danger, how can it be saved ? In niv judgment there is but one way, and I fear that may be too late. Those non-slaveholdins States, whose legislatures have -To Gov. Win. Sprugue. \c enacted them, must repeal their personal-Hbeity bills, and all acts of every kind which obstruct and prevent the faithful execution of the fugitive-slave law. "■ I do not say they should do this under the influence of fear .^ nor even because the South may demand it., but because it is right ; it will be but a voluntary return to a correct sense of Constitutional obligation, and a renewal of that spirit of brotherhood from which the Union sprang, and without which it cannot be perpetuated. Such zct'ion^ voluntarily taken, will be far more salutary upon the popular mind of the South, than if taken at the end of a bitter contest," etc. I can assure you, my dear sir, that all the leaders of the Republican party in our State and city, with a few exceptions of the ultra radicals, are in favor of concessions, and that the popular mind of the North is ripe for them. A prompt action by you will be universally hailed with joy and gratitude, while a tardy compliance with the popular will can but have comparatively small merit. Public men, placed as promi- nently as you are, must lead and not follow^ if they want to make their mark. To Governor WM. SPRAGUE, Providence^ R. I. New York, December 19, i860. My Dear Sir, — I have been confined to my bed for the last few days, and therefore was unable to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of 1 6th inst. before this. I hail with the most heartfelt satisfaction the expression of your intention to call at once your legislature together for the purpose of having the personal-liberty bill of your State repealed, and I hope sin- cerely that mature reflection will have confirmed you in that wise and patriotic resolve. You must see all around you evidences of a healthy reaction in the Northern sentiment, and a return to that spirit of equity and justice which alone can keep the two sections together. In Boston, and throughout Massachusetts, the leading men of both parties are loud in their clamors for a repeal of the personal-liberty bill of that State. Last evening I was present at an informal meeting of about thirty gentlemen, comprising our leading men, Republicans, Union men, and Democrats, composed of such names as Astor, Aspin- wall, Moses H. Grinnell, Hamilton Fish, R. M. Blatchford, etc. They were unanimous in their voice for reconciliation, and that the first steps have to be taken by the North. A very strong memorial, to be signed by all the leading men of both parties who are for the maintenance of the Union, is now preparing, and will be forthwith sent to Washington. I think I speak advisedly in saying that Governor Morgan will take very decided grounds in favor of concessions in his annual message, on the 2d of January. The ball is moving, and our public men must take their choice of three alternatives, viz. : to lead, to follow, or to be left behind with a small and despised faction of fanatics, who never will be able to stand up against the torrent of public indignation which is sure to overtake them. To Go'c. If m. Spragiie. \-i I need not point out to you the course which lies before you. Your high intelligence and patriotism are your sate guides, and 1 trust im- plicitly to them, that they will, with God's blessing, make you a prominent instrument in the salvation of our country. To THURLOW WEED, Jlbatiy^ N. K New York, December 19, i860. My Dear Sir, — Allow me, though a comparative stranger, to ex- press to you the heartfelt satisfaction with which I have read your very able and patriotic article of last Monday. The statesmanlike view which you take of our present difficulties, and the wise and conciliatory course which you, with so much truth, counsel as the only remedy which can save this great Republic from untold calamities, must command, not only the warm support of your friends, but also the unqualified respect and admiration of your opponents. As one of the latter, it gives me much pleasure to convey to you my sincere assurances of these feelings. I have fought to the last against the great party, of which vou have proved so formidable a leader, but I shall never regret our defeat if your wise counsels prevail, and with God's blessing peace and con- cord are restored, under Mr. Lincoln's administration, to our dis- tracted country. To JOHN FORSYTH, Mobile, Ala. New York, December 19, i860. My Dear Sir, — Your favor of 8th inst, reached me a i&^N days ago, but I was prevented by indisposition from replying to it before. It was very gratifying that vou should have deemed my last letter to you of sufficient import to give it a place in your journal, but I regret deeply that so far from advocating the policy of co-operation, and de- liberate, united action by the Southern States, for which I appealed to your support, I find your paper as warmly and uncompromisingly for immediate and unconditional secession as ever Yancey has been. When we Douglas men of the North stood by our colors against the combined onslaughts of the Black Republicans and the adminis- tration, we were upheld in our struggle by the consciousness that we were fighting the battle of the Union and the Constitution against fanaticism North and sectionalism South. We fought to the last, and hopefully to the end, because we trusted that our friends at the South would never forsake that glorious cause, even in defeat, which our noble banner-bearer had so fearlessly defended during the canvass in every Northern and Southern State. Douglas declared repeatedly in that memorable campaign, that the election of Mr. Lincoln was not, in his judgment, a justifiable ground for secession. How do those stand now before the country, who, after having been the most prominent instruments of his nomination, and having adhered to him after this declaration, and now, because he is defeated, forsake the Union-loving principles which were the main hold he had upon the American people ? I know that the disunionists at the South taunt those who counsel the more wise, efficient, and patri- otic course of seeking redress within the Union, by calling them '•'■ sub- missionists ,• " but I, for one, would most certainly rather submit to the constitutional election of an opponent than to the terrorism evoked by a faction whose treasonable designs mv best efforts had been exerted to defeat. 2o To John Forsyth. Both Mr. Bell and Mr. Douglas have, since the election, spoken warmly and manfully for the Union. Their adherents at the North, in the middle States, are proud and rejoiced at the stand these states- men have taken ; but how can our friends in the cotton States recon- cile their actions of to-day with their professions only a few months back ? I have read with great attention the leader from your paper, which you sent me, but I am sorry to say that I cannot in any way coincide with your views. I do not, and never will, believe that Lin- coln's election is an evidence of the overwhelming anti-slavery feeling at the North. The principal battle was fought in our State ; had we succeeded here, Mr. Lincoln could not have been elected. Now, it is well known that until within one short fortnight of the election, we were hopelessly divided, with the whole power of the administration against us. Disorganized, and whollv without means for even the most es- sential expenses of a campaign, we were forced into a fusion on the very eve of battle. With no earthlv possibilitv of electing either of our three candidates, with a hastv and incomplete organization, and with the baneful influence of the October elections in Pennsylvania, Maine, and Indiana, brought about by the treacherv of the adminis- tration, against us, with a great want of the necessary pecuniary means (the whole sum raised for the fusion ticket did not amount to $50,000 all told), with all these difficulties against us what did we do ^ Whv, we polled 317,000 votes in our State for the fusion ticket, 30,000 more votes than were ever given before bv the united Democratic partv, when we gave the State to Pierce by 23,000 majority. \n a vote of 700,000, a change of 26,000 votes, sav less than four per cent., would have given us the State. More than four per cent., by far, were made up of men who voted for Lincoln because they were disgusted with the administration, while thousands and thousands were led into the mistake of voting with the Republicans, though not holding one single principle in common with them, because thev knew that Lincoln was the only candidate who could be elected by the peo- ple, and considered that the greatest e\il which could befall the coun- try would be an election by the House. Hundreds of men holding sound principles on the Constitutional rights of the South, were, to my certain knowledge, led into that mis- take. Thev had been told bv a distinguished Senator from one of the cotton States, as late as last Mav, in a speech delivered in the halls or To John Forsyth. 21 Congress, and sent in hundreds of thousands all over the country, that Mr. Lincoln had proved himself, in his controversy with Douglas, in 1858, a very conservative and unobjectionable man to the South, as compared with the latter. Why should they not vote for him now, and so prevent the terrible excitement and prostration of all material interests, which a contested election in Congress, dragged on until next March, would inevitably bring upon the country ? I have had to fight these arguments over and over again before the election, and meet daily now with men who confess the error they have been led into, and almost with tears in their eyes, wish they could undo what they helped to do. No, my dear sir, the evidence is too clear ; we owe the election of Lincoln only to the misrule of the present administration, and to the unfortunate dissensions in our own party. If, as you say, the public mind had become vitiated by the incendiary teachings of the Abolition press, there can be, on the other hand, no denying that a healthy re- action is overtaking us with giant steps. Look at the late scenes in Boston, hitherto the sanctum sanctorum of Abolitionism ; look at their municipal elections. If I only could have you here for a few days, I am sure you would be convinced, and agree with me, that the surest redress for the South is within the Union. The ball is in motion, and nothing can stop it ex- cept the inconsiderate and hasty action of the South herself. If it has taken the Abolition press and pulpit forty years to poison a portion of the public mind at the North, do we ask you too much by entreating you to give us only three months, in order to remedy this evil ? Mr. Toombs himself proposes now that Georgia should not secede from the Union until the 3d of March, and I certainly think that no- body can be charged vv'ith lukewarmness in the South by following his advice. If Georgia and Alabama will leave South Carolina to pursue her own mad career alone, and declare in convention that they will secede on the 3d of March, unless their rights in the Territories are guaranteed to them, under the Constitution, and the personal-liberty bills of some of the Northern States are repealed, I have a strong hope that we may save the Union, and place Southern rights on a sound and lasting footing. I know that powerful agencies among the Republican leaders in our State, and elsewhere, are now at work, which look to that end. Weed is out boldly and fearlessly for such a policy, and I 22 To John Forsyth. have every reason to believe that he will ere long be powerfully sup- ported. Now, one more point which I cannot leave unnoticed in the article which you send me, and then I will not trouble vou anv longer. You charge the desire for concessions, on the part of the North, to mercenary motives. I think this is unkind to your friends, and cer- tainly unfair as regards my own State and city. We are actuated by principles of right and justice, but above all rises the warm and undying attachment to the Union, which with me, and all those who unite in my efforts for the good cause, is unsullied by one mean or sordid motive. If it were otherwise, and it we did only look to our own material interests, and those of our city, we should not de- plore the dissolution of the Union. New York, in such a catastrophe, would cut loose from the puritanical East, and her protective tariff, and without linking her fortunes with our kind but somewhat exacting Southern friends, she would open her magnificent port to the com- merce of the world. What Venice was once on the sluggish lagoons of the small Adriatic, New York would ere long become to the two hemispheres, proudlv resting on the bosom of the broad Atlantic, and I am afraid sadly interfering with the brilliant but fallacious hopes of the Palmetto and Crescent cities. I prefer, however, to leave to my children, instead of the gilded prospects of New York merchant princes, the more enviable title of American citizens, and as long as God spares my life I shall not falter in my efforts to preserve to them that heritage. To THE Hon. S. A. DOUGLAS, Washington^ D. C. New York, December ;6, i860. My Dear Sir, — I have not written to you during all the troubles which have overtaken us since the unfortunate result of the election. You, whose patriotic heart beats warmly for our beloved Union, must feel deeply the terrible situation into which we have been thrown bv fanatical sectionalism. I did not like to add to your anguish by any expressions of the dark forebodings with which I look to the future. I cannot, however, re- frain from expressing to you my warm and heartfelt admiration for the able and patriotic position which you have taken on Mr. Crittenden's propositions. In giving to them your support, and in voting for the restoration of thp Missouri compromise line to be carried out to the Pacific, you have given an example of heroic and patriotic self-denial which entitles you to the gratitude of the whole American people. I have heard your conduct commended in the warmest terms by those who opposed your nomination and election during the late cam- paign. Your friends are proud to see the man of their choice rise above every other consideration but that of devotion to the Union, and regret only that your noble example has not yet been followed by any of the leaders in whose hands are now the destinies of the Republic. If your propositions, which I have read with great interest, or those of Mr. Crittenden, could but receive the unanimous support of the Sena- torial committee of thirteen, the Union might be saved, otherwise I cannot see one rav of hope. The Republican leaders seem utterly blind to the dangers which they have begirt us all with, and though a few of the more conserva- tive ones hold out fair promises, I do not believe that the party in- tends making any concessions. To THE Hon. J. J. CRITTENDEN, United States Senate^ IVash'ington, D. C. New York, December 2.6, i860. My Dear Sir, — Please accept my respectful thanks for the copy of your compromise propositions, which you were kind enough to send me under your frank. I have yet to meet the first conservative Union-loving man, in or out of politics, who does not approve of them, and consider them as a most efficacious, if not the only remedy, which can save this great countrv from ruin and destruction. Your patriotic course is warmly commended bv the good men of all parties, and though your noble efforts may prove of no avail against the sectional fanaticism conjured up by designing politicians, the lasting gratitude of every American citizen, who has the greatness of his country at heart, is due to your statesmanlike stand in defense of the Union and the Constitution. I am afraid that no human power can stay the evil, since the Re- publican leaders, by their vote in the committee of thirteen, have proved that they are determined to remain deaf to the dictates of justice and patriotism. Will the American people permit their country to be dragged to ruin by a handful of puritanical fanatics and selfish politicians. It cannot, it must not be ! We can only look for help now to the conservative spirit of the border and middle States, and I trust that prominent and leading men, like yourself, mav find early means to make a direct appeal to that spirit by a convention of those States. I have read with much interest the pamphlet, entitled The Border States^ which is attributed to the Hon. J. P. Kennedy, of Maryland. Its suggestions are practical and statesmanlike, and I hope they may find an echo in your State, and in Virginia. To THE Hon. HERSCHEL V. JOHNSON, Speir's Turnout^ 'Jefferson County^ Ga. New York, December 30, i860. My Dear Sir, — Since I wrote you last, I have seen, with much pleasure, that you have been elected a member of your State conven- tion. Your eloquence and popularity will give you great influence in that body; I still have hopes that your wise counsel will be listened to, and that the empire State of the South will not allow herself to be dragged into a precipitate and hasty action by the example of South Carolina. It is impossible to contemplate the events which are now enacting in Charleston without feeling, as a true friend of the South, the deepest regret and the most fearful apprehensions. Never was a good and righteous cause so much damaged as the just claims of the whole South for its Constitutional rights are at this moment by the revolutionary movement of South Carolina. Mr. Gorter showed me, a few days ago, a letter of yours, recently written to his father-in-law. You give, indeed, a gloomy picture of the state of feeling in Georgia. If your anxious forebodings should really prove true, and the advocates of immediate and separate secession should carry the day in your convention, then this great and prosperous Republic is doomed to pass under all the horrors of anarchy and civil war. To us conservative men of the North, who have fought the battles of the South for many years, and though defeated now, are still uncon- quered, it is a sad and incomprehensible spectacle to see the ferocity with which your great State rushes into the secession movement, at the example, nay, I may say, under the dictation of South Carolina. We cannot understand that the same policy should be pursued bv two States whose vital interests are so different, and whom we have learned to look upon as rivals, just as their seaports. Savannah and Charleston, are rivals, for commercial supremacy. 26 To Ho/1. Herschel F. Johnson. It appears to me very probable that the government, being averse to adopting any aggressive action against South Carolina, will most likely, upon her taking possession of the custom-house, annex Charleston to Savannah as a port of entry. This course plainly could be adopted onlv in the event that Georgia delays the final act of secession. 1 he impetus which such a state of things would give to the growth of Sa- vannah would be lasting, while its immediate effect would be to open the eyes of the people of Georgia to the advantages of adhering to the Union. The second sober thought and the practical sense of the American people would undoubtedly unite the whole of Georgia upon the policy of co-operation tuith all the slaveholding States^ if a free discussion ot these vital questions were possible at this moment. It is, however, verv clear to us here at the North, that a 7-eign of terror exists at the South which silences the voice of every conservative patriot, and ren- ders it impossible for the people to arrive at a correct judgment. The members of the convention have been elected under this state of things, and I fear the worst unless you and Stephens can stem the torrent. I hope that your united influence will be exerted to the effect ot having the final action of the convention submitted to the people for their final ratification. This would not be asking too much, or any thing to which the people are not tully entitled. It is the course which has been generally pursued by all conventions for the amendment or for- mation of a constitution, in nearly all the States. It seems to me that when a convention passes an ordinance of secession, it takes a step fraught with the most fearful consequences, and it cannot hesitate to submit that act to the people for their ratification. It would be no more than fair to the people, although very disa- greeable to \.\\e precipitate gentlemen of the Yancey school. It would give time to reflect, and as the vote would be simply yea or nay^ would be free of that acti\e and partisan canvass which existed upon the election of rival delegates. Pray let me know whether, in your judgment, this should jiot be attempted, and whether you think it could not be carried. Every day which can be gained is of immense importance. Though the Repub- lican leaders in Congress have thus far disappointed m\- expectations, I have strong hopes that they will be compelled to yield under the pressure of public opinion. In our own city and State some of the most prominent men are To Hon. Hersrhel J\ Johnson. 27 ready to follow the lead of Weed, and active agencies are at work to bring about a compromise. Last week the governors of seven Repub- lican States were here in caucus, and I am credibly informed by a leading Republican, that they will all recommend to their legislatures, in their opening messages next month, the unconditional ?iV\A ^(?r/y repeal of the personal-liberty bills, passed by their respective States, without waiting for any amendment of the fugitive-slave law by Congress. In regard to the Territories, the restoration of the Missouri line, extended to the Pacific, finds favor with most of the conservative Republicans, and their number is increasing daily. I sent you the day before yesterday a pamphlet, entitled The Border States. It is written bv John P. Kennedy, of Maryland, and evinces great statesmanship and elevation of thought. I recommend it to your attentive perusal. It seems to me almost impossible that such appeals should remain unheeded by so intelligent, high-toned, and patriotic a people as our Southern brethren. Do they not see that secession is exactly what the Abolition party desires most to see, in order to perpetuate the reign of their party, and its nefarious principles. They know that they can never attain this in the present Union, and are therefore content to have their sway in the remaining; half, sure to crush the national Democracy when once de- prived of its Southern support. I hope you will find leisure to let me hear from vou, etc. To THE Hon. S. A. DOUGLAS, IVashington^ D. C. New Yokk, December 31, i860. My Dear Sir, — Your kind favor crossed with the letter which I had the pleasure of addressing you last week. I have read carefully your resolutions for a conference, and they meet my entire approval. The South cannot ask for more, and the dominant party of the North ought certainly to acquiesce in a plan of settlement, which, in my opinion, would not add a foot of slave territory to the Union, except where climate and soil render it more profitable than free labor. Several of the ultra men of the South whom I have seen lately, are loud in their praises of the stand which vou have taken, and approve the mode of settlement proposed by your resolutions. I see, howe\'er, with great regret, bv the papers, that the committee of thirteen have rejected them. Now, it you will allow me one suggestion, dictated only by my warm attachment to you, I would advise you to support a compromise which has for its basis the restoration of the Missouri compromise, carried to the eastern frontier of California. I have good reason to know that the conservative portion of the Republican leaders are in favor of it, and it can only add to your high position as a patriotic and a Union man, if you support actively and energetically the restoration of the Missouri line. It will forever silence the clamors of your enemies at the North, who have tried to lay the repeal of that act at your door, forgetting the refusal of the North to carry that line to the Pacific rendered that repeal necessary. The self-denial and sacrifice of your favored doctrine of popular sovereignty, when the salvation of the Union requires it, would place you higher in the affections of the American people than you have ever been before. I am told by Republican leaders that they will not vote Ti? Hon. S. J. Doi/gliis. 29 for Crittenden's amendment because they will not accept the Missouri line for future acquisitions of territory. They say this would be holding out a premium for filibustering against Mexico and Cuba, in order to make new slave States. If you could hit upon some plan of compro- mise by which to get over this difficulty, there might be some hope of saving the country. I have written, yesterday, to Governor Johnson, of Georgia, urging upon him the policy of getting the convention of his State to submit their final action to the ratification of the people, and showing how incompatible with the best interests of Georgia it would be to follow in the wake of South Carolina. I beg to hand you inclosed copy of my letter, and if you approve of my suggestions, I hope you will find leisure to recommend them to the earnest consideration of Stephens and Johnson. My own impressions are very gloomy indeed, and I fear nothing will be done to save the sinking ship of state. We must, however, do our duty as men, and stand by the Union to the last. To THE Hon. W. H. SEWARD, United States Senate^ IVash'ington^ D. C. , New York, January 17, 1861. My Dear Sir, — I had intended for the last few days to express to you my sincere admiration of your patriotic and statesmanlike speech in the United States Senate, on Saturday last, but have been prevented by indisposition until to-day. The graphic and masterly manner with which you depict the bless- ings of the Union, and the inevitable calamities of its dissolution, will, I trust, open the eyes of the extreme men on both sides to the mad- ness of their course. In paying to your patriotism a willing tribute of the gratitude of a political opponent, for the manly stand which you have taken, may I also be allowed to express the hope that we may look forward to your leading your party further on in the path of moderate and conciliatory measures, which alone can save us from all the hor- rors of dissolution and civil war. Without wishing for a moment to defend the revolutionary pro- ceedings of South Carolina, and some of the other cotton States, I may be allowed to express my intimate conviction, based upon infor- mation from the most conservative men in the border States, that nothing can prevent Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Ken- tucky, from joining the movement of the cotton States, unless com- promise measures, based upon the propositions ot Senator Crittenden, can be carried by a sufficient majority through Congress, to insure their embodiment in the Constitution. I know that many, if not most of the Republican leaders are, until now, opposed to these measures, but do they represent the real feeling of their constituents ? I think not ; the large masses of our Northern people are, by an overwhelming majority, devotedly attached to the Union. They are ready and anxious to bring every sacrifice for its preservation, and will, to a man, abide by your doctrine: '•'' Republi- canism is subordinate to the Union^ as every thing else is^ and ought to be^ To Hun. // . H. Se-icufcL qi If we could get at the true sentiment of our people throughout the North, I think we might get over our present difficulties ; in fact, I do not see any other means of saving the Union. I therefore approve most cordially of your suggestion for a general convention, and hope only that you could be induced to modify your recommendation, so as to make this appeal now, and not in two or three years. It, by a tardy action, the tobacco States are allowed to cast their lot with the seceders, and thus form a powerful Southern Confederacy of fifteen States, as they will most assuredly do unless an equitable com- promise on the territorial question can be obtained, I fear that a recon- struction of our confederacy would be utterly hopeless hereafter. Providence has assigned to you a position of great and fearful responsibility in this crisis. You can preserve this great Union, with all its untold blessings, not only to the millions of freemen who con- gregate under its protecting wing, but to the oppressed in every portion of the inhabited globe. The downfall of our government would be the death-knell to political and religious liberty in both hemispheres. You have the sympathies of every patriot with vou in the course which you have initiated by your great speech. The manifestations, on the part of prominent men of both parties, are most unequivocal in their sincere approbation of the stand which they hope to see you take. Your efforts will entitle you to the gratitude of the whole American people, and vou will change the proud position of the great leader of a victorious party for the more exalted and honorable one of the bene- factor and savior of your country. To Baron LIONEL de ROTHSCHILD, M. P., London. New York, May 21, 18 61. Dear Baron, — The telegraphic report of Lord John Russell's declaration in Parliament, on the 6th inst., concerning Southern pri- vateers, has created a painful surprise and disappointment throughout the whole North. In placing them upon the footing of belligerents.^ the English government takes an initiative step toward recognizing the Southern Confederacy, because the letters of marque of an unauthorized and unrecognized government, in rebellion against the constituted authori- ties, can, under the law of nations, only be regarded by every maritime power as pirates, and treated accordingly. If Ireland or Scotland should revolt against the British crown, or Canada attempt to dissolve her allegiance to the mother countrv, would the United States be justified in recognizing the privateers fitted out by the rebels, as belligerents ? I am sure that our government would not assume such an unfriendly position, and give so material a support to a rebellious province, in endangering the trade of its allies, and of the world at large. With the blockade of the Southern ports, which before a fortnight can have elapsed will be an effective one, from the Chesapeake to the Rio Grande, the privateers of Jeff. Davis would have soon disappeared from the ocean, even if they ever made their appearance, had the dec- laration of Lord John not opened to them the British ports in the West Indies, Canada, and Great Britain. It may be that the British government will not condemn any prizes brought by the privateers into its ports, but the fact of their being allowed to run in for supplies and coal, and to escape into the many ports and inlets of the West Indies, where our ships of war cannot follow them, will attract numerous lawless adventurers under the oiratical flag of the Southern rebels. Ti? Baron Lionel de Rothschild^ M. P. 33 The position which your government seems inclined to take in the contest, is, in my opinion, a very unfortunate one. It will complicate matters, must prolong the struggle, and result in a very bitter feeling between this country and England. The whole North, without distinction of party, is determined not to allow our government and our Union to be destroyed, and I am sure the sword will never be laid down until the American flag floats again from Maine to the Mississippi. The people feel that they are fighting for their national existence, and that no sacrifice can be too great in order to maintain and preserve that boon. What the South claims now is for us to give up every port, from the Chesapeake to the Mississippi, to a foreign power, which has shown sufficiently within the last few months how far public and private property and obligations are to be respected by it. In the struggle which is before us we had hoped for the sympathy of Europe, and particularly of England. Your statesmen and your press have at all times taken the most violent and uncompromising stand against slavery, and it is more than strange to see the British government now give its moral countenance to a power which, under the declaration of its Vice-President (Alex. Stephens) is based upon slavery as its principal fundamental strength. That basis will most probably require the reopening of the slave trade, as soon as England shall have recognized the Confederacy, and should in that event the sympathy of the British cabinet stop short, and not allow the cotton- growers to strengthen the foundations of their government, then Mr. JefF. Davis will of course put an embargo upon the export of cotton, in order to compel England to consent to the nefarious traffic in human flesh. He could certainly not be charged with a want of logic, by reasoning that the same power which induced England to throw her weight into the scale of a rebellious slave power, trying to overthrow our free institutions, would also be sufficiently potent to compel her to consent to the Confederacy drawing its supplies from Africa, of an element which the founders of that Confederacy had openly declared to the civilized world to be the basis of this young creation, claiming rank among the civilized nations of the world. Some few months back there were many conservative men at the North, and I was among the number, who, when all attempts at com- promise had failed against the blind ultraism of both sections, advocated a peaceable separation of the cotton States. This was, however, to be 5 34 T'f? Baron Lionel de Rothschild^ M. P. confined to them alone, and was then considered the surest means of an early reconstruction, when the Union feeling in the misguided States would have had time and opportunity to develop itself, by showing to the people of those States how fatally they were mistaken in their hopes of prosperity outside of the Union. Things have, however, changed very materially since. The attack upon Fort Sumter, the lawless acts of the Southern Confederacy, the treason in Virginia and Tennessee, have placed every loyal citizen to the choice between a firm and manful support of our government, or a disgraceful drifting of our nationality into a state or anarchy and disso- lution, similar to the fate of Mexico and Central America. Lord John Russell draws an analogy of the Southern rebellion to the struggle for independence by Greece, and asserts that because England recognized Greece then as a belligerent, the South has to be recognized now by her in the same character. Greece was a conquered and en- slaved province of a semi-barbarous despotism, and had never been completely subjugated. It was a Christian people, tyrannized by fanatical Moslemism, and had the warm and active sympathy of the whole civilized world on its side. The Southern States, who are now in a state of rebellion against the Federal government, were free and voluntary parties to a compact of union, which was declared to be perpetual. They cannot point to a single right guaranteed to them by the Constitution, which has been violated, and the only ground upon which they justify their rebellion, is the fear that their peculiar institution of slavery may hereafter be interfered with by the party which put Mr. Lincoln into power. I am free to say that the simile of Lord John is as unfortunate as the position which he has initiated for his government in this crisis. The British cabinet will, if this course should be persisted in, commit the fatal error of losing the good will of the party ivhich in the end must be successful^ in order to gain the friendship of those whose defeat can only be*a question of time. We have three times as large a pop- ulation, as united and brave as theirs ; we have a navy, we have money and credit, in which latter they are most sadly and justly deficient. Already, Davis is again in the market with a loan of fifty millions of dollars. Who will loan a dollar to a confederacy of States, of which four have already repudiated their debts, while the remaining five will in less than three months be in default of their semi-annual dividends, unless it be that the name of JefF. Davis, notwithstanding his advocacy To Baron Lionel de Rothschild^ M. P. 35 of repudiation in his own State, Mississippi, should have a sweeter sound to European capitalists, than I think he will ever acquire. In less than a year the Confederate States will pay their obligations in treasury warrants, which will have the same ultimate value as the French "assignats." You know that I have never been in favor of the party which is now at the head of our government, and my convictions on this point have in no way been changed. I am, however, convinced that the whole North, to a man, will stand by the administration in the present struggle, and that come tuhat ?nay^ the integrity of the Union, and the inviolability of our territory, will be maintained to the bitter end. Civil war is now upon us ; no human power can prevent it. A vigorous and gigantic effort, on the part of the North, may, and 1 am confident will, shorten its horrors and disastrous results. An inter- ference or one-sided neutrality, such as is foreshadowed by Lord John Russell's speech, can only prolong the fratricidal war, and entail ruin, not only upon both sections of our country, but upon the material interests and commerce of the world. To Baron LIONEL de ROTHSCHILD, M. P., London. New York, May 28, 1861. Dear Baron, — Since my letter by the Jfrica steamer we have received the proclamation of the Queen, commanding a strict neutrality to her subjects in the struggle in which the government of the United States is now engaged against a portion of its citizens, now in rebellion against their constituted authorities. It would be difficult for me to convey to you an idea of the general feeling of disappointment and irritation produced in this country, by this manifesto of the British government, by which a few revolted States are placed, in their relations with Great Britain, upon the same footing as the government of the United States. People naturally compare the position which England takes now against us, to her stand during the Carlist war in Spain. The rebellion in the South has not the same chances of success as there existed cer- tainly at one time for the cause of the Spanish pretender. Yet it certainly never occurred to the British crown for one moment to acknowledge Don Carlos in the light of a belligerent. On the con- trary, we saw a British legion, armed and equipped in England, and commanded by an English general officer, fight for the cause of the constitutional and rightful sovereignty. When Hungary, some years later, made an heroic effort to reconquer her nationality and independence, England did not cease to consider her as a revolted province, although the sympathies of the majority of the English people were on the side of the rebels, and though nothing but the powerful intervention of Russia prevented a success of that revolution. Recently, again, on the other hand, we have seen men and arms equipped by British subjects, leave the English ports to assist the cause of Italian independence under Garibaldi. The people of the United States had certainly a right to hope and T^o Baron Lionel de Rothschild^ M. P. on expect the same support in their struggle for their national existence against the unjust and unwarrantable revolt of an unprincipled oligarchy, based upon the most odious domestic institution, and against which no government has heretofore taken so decided a stand as Great Britain herself. If not an actual violation of international law, it must certainly be considered an act of extreme unfriendliness on the part of any govern- ment to place itself on a footing of neutrality between a power with which it entertains intimate diplomatic and commercial relations, and a revoked portion of that nation, unrecognized by any civilized gov- ernment, and having so far in no way shown any evidence that it will be able to maintain the position which it has assumed against its legit- imate government. I fear that the very cordial good-feeling which, notwithstanding the delicate questions arising, from time to time, between the two govern- ments, has pervaded all classes of our people toward the British nation, and of which, as well as of their deep-felt veneration for the Queen, they have given such a unanimous and striking evidence on the occasion of the laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable, and the recent visit of the Prince of Wales, will make room to sentiments of bitter resentment and animosity if the British government should persist in its present attitude. Even upon the point of strict neutrality the proclamation goes further than international law and comity would seem to require. While the prohibition of equipment and enlistment of armaments and troops by British subjects in British ports is a measure of neutrality, it is certainly stretching the point to prevent British merchant vessels from carrying arms, military stores, etc., etc., to our ports or those of the Confederate Stares. The ports of the latter being blockaded by our navy, this restriction is entirely aimed against us, and is, therefore, an actual assistance to the rebels. During the Crimean war, notwithstanding the strict neutrality of our government, which forbade enlistments, etc., etc., our vessels carried troops, arms, and military stores from English and French ports into the Crimea. The American ship-owners did this at their own peril in case of capture by Russian vessels of war, but our gov- ernment did not prohibit it, notwithstanding that, as in the present case, it only was done to the advantage of one of the belligerent parties, Russia being blockaded then as the South is now. 38 To Baron Lionel de Rothschild, M. P. My fears that the position of England would only complicate matters, are, unfortunatelv, very likely to be realized. The sympathy of the British government for the South, so far from lessening the determination of our government and people, has only increased their ardor. It is now a question of national existence and co?n?nercial pros- perity^ and the choice can, of course, not be doubtful. I have, within the last few days, seen the best informed and most influential men in our administration, and I am more than ever con- vinced that the war will be carried on with energy and vigor. Large numbers of troops are concentrating around Virginia and Maryland, and our navy is at once to be increased by the building of fifty steam gun-boats and several large vessels of war. The only chance for the peace of the world and the immense interests which are at stake in this struggle, is its early termination by the overshadowing power of the North. England's position threatens to prolong the war by giving hope and comfort to the rebels. The requirements of the cotton-spinners in Lancashire have, of course, a good deal to do with the unexpected attitude assumed by your government, but my conviction is, that if the North should be pushed to the wall by these hostile influences, and the war last more than a year, it will end in the complete destruction of the South, because what is now a war for the reconstruction of the Union, in which all the Constitutional rights of the South would be secured, would then lead to the utter annihilation of the slavery interest. The short-sighted policy of the gentlemen in Manchester, who now allow cotton to outweigh their anti-slavery professions, may therefore end in much worse consequences for them than the shoit supplies of one or two years. The Morrill tariff would most assuredly have been modified, if not entirely repealed, at the next session of Congress, which is to assemble on the 4th of July next. The requirements of our revenue and the general feeling of the North called for it. I am, however, very much afraid that the unfriendly position assumed by England will produce a revulsion here, and that no modification can be obtained, unless pre- ceded by a change in the tone and policy of your press and govern- ment. I hope your influence and that of all those who wish to see a speedy end of our present calamities, will be exerted toward bringing about such a change. ... To THE Hon. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State^ IP'ashington^ D. C. New York, May 29. 1S61. My Dear Sir, — I am extremely obliged to you for the verv kind and flattering manner with which you speak of a letter of mine to Baron Rothschild, of which a copy had been handed to you by Mr. Weed. The Baron is a very intimate friend of Lord John Russell, both representing the city of London in Parliament, and he is on equally friendly relations with Lord Palmerston. I know that his personal views and sympathies have been, and are, still, with the North, and I have no doubt but what he will communi- cate my views to his ministerial friends. As you have given a favorable consideration to my views on the unfriendly attitude assumed by the British Crown, I beg to hand you the inclosed copy of another letter which I wrote yesterday to Baron Rothschild on the proclamation of the Queen, and which I hope you will find leisure to peruse. To THE Right Hon. Lord DUNFERiMLINE, House of Lords ^ London. New York, June 3, 1861. My Dear Lord Dunfermline, — The friendly relations which have existed during several years between us, and which I shall always cherish among the bright recollections of my sojourn at the Hague, induce me to address you this letter, for which I crave your kind and favorable consideration. The unfortunate position into which a few reckless and selfish politicians, aided by the weakness of our late national administration, have thrown this country, is at this moment directing the serious at- tention of the British government and people toward us. Knowing your warm and active sympathy, and that of your noble and influential family, for the cause of constitutional libertv, I am sure that vou are among those who watch with intense interest the phases of the dark drama which is now enacting on this continent, between the United States, struggling for their national existence, and a rebellious faction, attempting to overthrow our free institutions, in order to plant slavery on the whole American continent. From the tenor of the English press, and the debates in Parliament, I am inclined to believe that there exists a serious misapprehension in the minds of your government and people in regard to the nature of the Southern rebellion, and the chances of its success. If you allow me, I will give you my views on the present position of affairs here, in as short a space as the form of a letter, and my de- sire not to bore you with a lengthy epistle, will permit. I may claim that these views, however erroneous and imperfect thev mav prove, have at least the merit of fairness and impartiality. My politics have always been opposed to the party now in power, the advent of which has been used by the leaders of the Southern conspiracy as a watch- word for an overthrow of our government. I was, and am, opposed to an useless agitation of the slavery question, and any infringement of To Right Hon. Lord DunfcnnUne. 41 the Constitutional rights of the South, under a tairand liberal construc- tion, and am equally hostile to the anti-free-trade proclivities of the present administration. You are doubtless aware that the so-called Republican (anti-slavery) party which is now in power, was first able to claim the position of a national party in 1854, in consequence of the daily increasing aggres- sions and demands of the pro-slavery oligarchy, which had gained the control of the executive and legislature of the Federal (jovernment. The dastardly assault upon Senator Sumner, from Massachusetts, pro- voked as it undoubtedly was bv the violent language of that senator, and the fraud and violence with which the pro- slavery party attempted to force a slavery constitution upon the new State of Kansas, drove hundreds of thousands throughout the North into the ranks of the new party. In 1856 that party, for the first time, put a candidate for the Presi- dency in nomination, upon the avowed doctrine of preventing the extension of slavery to our western Territories. Mr. Fremont was then defeated by Mr. Buchanan, who enjoyed the confidence of a very large majority of the conservative and influential portion of the country, and in whose sagacity, experience, and familiarity with public afi^airs, everybody hoped for a strong government, and for the suppression of the seditious cry of disunion which had been raised by the political leaders of the South ever since the formation of the Republican party. In these expectations the country was sadly disappointed. Mr, Buchanan threw himself from the very outset into the arms of the very men who are now the rebel leaders of the South. His cabinet, chosen under such influences, sympathized, with one single exception, and was in secret league with the conspirators, giving them during the last four years ample time, means, and influence, in order to prepare their treasonable machinations. The Secretary of War, convicted since his retirement of actual treason and fraud, had placed all the Federal forts in the South, and an immense quantity of arms, within their reach, so that when the time had come for them to throw down the mask they were enabled to give to their movement an appearance of strength and probability of suc- cess, which evidently has deceived public opinion in England. Upon the first outbreak of secession, and when it was confined to the cotton States, there was also a large party at the North which was 6 42 I'o Right Hon. Lord 'Dunfermline. in favor of compromise measures, in order to bring the seceding States back to their allegiance. When these failed against the uncompromi- sing attitude of the extremists South and North, they even went so far as to advocate a peaceable separation of the cotton States, convinced that the latter, when once out of the Union, would soon discover how fearfully they had been deceived by their selfish and designing leaders, and that they would be but too glad after a year or so to return into the confederacy. The attack against Fort Sumter, the treacherv of Virginia and North Carolina, and the conduct of JefF. Davis, have, however, since then, produced a revolution in the public mind of the North, of the strength^ intensity^ and unanhn'ity of which it would be impossible for me to con- vey to you even the faintest idea. The people of the North see now revealed to them, in all their hor- rid nakedness, the treasonable schemes of the slavery oligarchy, who, while pretending to battle for their threatened Constitutional rights, have dragged the country to this fearful condition, for no other purpose but to insure to themselves the continuance of that power which they have wielded for the last forty years, and to fasten slavery^ as a political element^ upon this country. The North feels that to admit the right of secession claimed by the revolted States, would be forever to re- nounce our existence as a nation, and that a peaceful separation of fifteen slave States on one side, and seventeen free States on the other, divided only by an imaginary geographical line, must soon be followed by war and strife, however much treaties and diplomacy might attempt to prevent it. Besides, can it be expected that the powerful North and Northwest, with a hardy and industrious population of twenty- one millions of freemen, would quietly relinquish the mouth of the Mississippi, and all the seaports, from the Chesapeake to the Rio Grande, into the possession of a foreign nation, ruled by unscrupulous and reckless politicians, who, for the sake of their odious domestic institution, and upon the strength of their cotton monopolv, would dis- regard and violate treaty-stipulations, whenever it would suit their con- venience. With a due appreciation of these considerations, it cannot be doubt- ed that no sacrifice will be too great for the people of the North in support of their government, and the maintenance of the integrity of their country. We are all united, while we know that in Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama, a very considerable portion of the inhabi- T'o Right Hon. Lord Di/nferm!/ne. 43 tants are openly in favor of the Union, and we have good reason to suppose that a very numerous minority in the other cotton States, with the exception, perhaps, of South Carolina, is opposed to secession. The contest must end in the victory of the government, but I fear that the position of neutrality taken by your government, which raises the rebels to the dignity of belligerents, will give them a moral support only calculated to prolong the war and its horrors. We had hoped for the active sympathy and support of the British government and people, in our struggle against the spread of the insti- tution of slavery, and against a rebellion, which, by the confession and boast of its leaders, is based upon that institution as its principal element of power. We could not, of course, expect a direct interference of your gov- ernment in our intestine quarrel, but we thought that, as they had here- tofore done in the case of Greece, Italy, and Spain, the British people would be allowed to follow their noble instincts for freedom and con- stitutional liberty, and that the anti-slavery cause, which had always been so warmly advocated in England, would now find means, money, and men, in its dark hour of trial, to assist us against the most unjus- tifiable and criminal rebellion which has ever disgraced the annals of history. These hopes have been most sadlv disappointed by the proclamation of the Queen, declaring strict neutralitv between the government of the United States and a portion of its citizens in rebellion against that government. It has, however, in no way lessened the determination of the United North to fight for the restoration of the integrity of their government to the last man. With the preponderance of men and resources which we possess over the South, the final result can only be a question of time ; but if the British government desires, as it undoubtedly must, to see the length and horrors of this fratricidal war diminished, its true policy must be to avoid any thing which in the remotest way can give aid and comfort to the seceded States. Our government has given, by one of the first acts of the new administration, its consent to the first article of the declaration of the Paris Conference on the right of neutrals, abolishing privateers. With its consent, all the maritime powers of the world have now united in declaring privateering piracy, and I hope sincerely that this progress in civilization and humanity will be secured bv the acceptance of the 44 Tna to proceed to sea, and they are determined, at all hazards, to stop the sailing of the iron-clads. Laird has put in a plea, first, that they were destined for a French house, and then that they were for the Pasha of Egypt — the government has proofs in hand that both these statements are false. Lord Russell will probably ask for more ample powers from Parlia- ment immediately after its meeting, to enable him to stop these ves- sels and enforce a strict observance of neutrality by British subjects. Both he and Mr. Villiers, brother of Lord Clarendon, and one ot Her Majesty's Privy Council, have expressed themselves in very flattering terms with regard to Mr. Evarts, whose mission, they said, was very beneficial and useful, as he gave them very valuable information about many points bearing upon our neutrality laws. Your friend and agent has evidently left a very good impression in the government circles. I am informed by people who are apt to know, that, with the excep- tion of Gladstone and Palmerston, the members of the cabinet are all in favor, of the North. Still, we must not shut our eves to the fact that 92 To Hon. IV. H. Seward. the taking of" Vicksburg, and our successes last summer, have a good deal to do with this attitude of the British cabinet, and that any serious reverses of our armies in Virginia or Tennessee would be followed by a strong pressure on the ministry for recognition, not only by the oppo- sition at home, but also by France. There is one point in connection with this which I wish to recom- mend to your earnest consideration. The sensitiveness on the part of Englishmen of all ranks, with reference to everv thing which is said, done, and written in America, is most extraordinary, and the attacks in our papers against the British government have not only the effect to estrange the good-will of our friends, but also to strengthen the hands of the opposition. Even the small matter of the discussion in regard to our invitino; the French and Eniilish officers to the ban- o o t quet lately given in New York to the Russians, had ruffled the temper of every Englishman I came in contact with. To give you an instance of the interest with which everv information from America is received, I will only mention to you that upon the arrival of Sir Henry Holland, about ten days ago, Lord Palmerston immediately sent him a telegraphic dispatch inviting him to Broad- lands, and within an hour afterward he received a similar invitation to Pembroke Lodge, from Earl Russell. I am told that Sir Henry speaks in the kindest terms of the reception he received, and that he is very much pleased with his interview with you and the President. My object in mentioning to you these details is to suggest to vou how far it might appear practicable and advisable to you to exert the influ- ence of the government with our leading papers to adopt a more con- ciliatory tone toward England — ^this Lshould think you could easily accomplish with such papers as the New York Times and other organs of the Republican party. The London Times continues its bitter vituperations against us, but it docs not represent its government and its party, and the best way to neutralize its pernicious influence is not to notice its attacks. I have not been in Paris long enough to form a correct opinion of what is going on here, still, thus far all confirms me in the impression which 1 had formed during my last residence here, viz., that the French Emperor is the principal person from whom danger to us is to be apprehended. Luckily, it seems as if he was to have his hands full in Europe. The Polish question has assumed a very threatening as- pect, and I don't see how it can be solved without a war. Thus far ^0 Hon. IV. H. Seward. 93 the British government seems determined not to join France in a war, but the Enghsh people are all very strongly in favor of Poland, and public opinion may force the Palmerston ministry as it did, seven years ago, that of Lord Aberdeen. Apart from the Polish cloud, the Em- peror finds his policy in Mexico to become daily less popular with the French people, and I have no doubt but what he has already, ere this, very much modified his brilliant aspirations of French trans-atlantic power. Added to this is the deficit in the budget, which will make a resort to a new loan more than probable, a measure not at all desirable in the present state of the money market and the low prices of the *' Rentes." Nearly all the governments on the Continent are likely to want money very soon, and so a general uneasiness pervades finan- cial circles. With such a state of things there is not much danger that Napoleon will think of interfering with us. The government has stopped the further construction of the four war vessels which were being built in French ports for the Confederates. Notwithstanding all this the Secessionists here, and their number is legion, are very confident of an early recognition and assistance on the part of France. It is said that their Vice-President, Stephens, is ex- pected here, when he will make the most liberal offers for recog- nition and alliance. He will even, it is expected, go so far as to agree to a gradual emancipation of slavery, on the part ot the Rich- mond authorities. It is impossible to trace these rumors to any trustworthy source, but it is certain that the rebel agents here are as active as they are numerous and unscrupulous. SPEECHES SPEECH AT JONES'S WOOD, NEW YORK. SEPTEMBER 12, i860. Fellow Democrats, — I thank you most cordially for the honor which you confer upon me by permitting me to preside over your deliberations on this occasion. It is an occasion the importance of which cannot be impressed too much upon our minds. We have come together in order to pledge our sup- port to the nominations of our National and State Conventions, determined to withhold the thirty-five electoral votes of the great Empire State from Abraham Lincoln, and thus to save the glorious Republic from the horrors of disunion and anarchy. We have come together to listen to the heart-stirring eloquence of our noble and gallant standard-bearers, Stephen A. Douglas, the bold and fear- less champion of the Constitution and the rights of the people, and Herschel V. Johnson, the patriot and the statesman. In order to share this rare privilege with you, I have sacrificed the pleasing duty of attending the celebration by which the city of Cleveland honored this week the memory of an illus- trious kinsman of my family. It is forty-seven years since the gallant Perry fought and conquered, after a most bloody struggle against fearful odds, the enemies of his country on Lake Erie. Let us this day pledge our united and unwavering energies to fight and conquer the enemies of the Constitution and the Union, arrayed against us by sectional fanaticism North and South. We are fighting for the maintenance of our beloved and blessed Union, and the sacredness of our cause should give us the victory. Let us, then, advance to the charge, and the lion-hearted Democracy of this vast Republic, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, will in November next inscribe on its banners the memorable words of Perry, ** We have met the enemy and they are ours." 13 SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK. NOVEMBER 4, i860. Fellow Citizens, — In thanking you for the honor which you have conferred upon me, I cannot refrain from addressing you a few brief remarks at this criti- cal juncture of our political affairs. In less than four days you will be called upon to record your votes at an election, upon the result of which depends not only the preservation of your property, and the prosperity of your native city, but also the very existence of this great and vast Republic. Whatever the Republican leaders may say to the contrary, I fear that the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidential chair must prove the forerunner of a dissolution of this confederacy amid all the horrors of civil strife and blood- shed. I know that Mr. Lincoln's friends claim for him sentiments of patriotic and conservative attachment to the Union. But of what avail can these senti- ments be, even if they do exist, from the moment that he consents to become the standard-bearer of a sectional party holding principles incompatible with the sacred obligations of the Constitution, and arrayed in open and unrelenting hos- tility against the property and the institutions of the fairest portion of our com- mon country. But, my friends and fellow-laborers in the cause of the Union, with God's blessing we must not give our opponents a chance to carry out their fair prom- ises, or their boasting taunts, I do not believe the great State of New Y'ork, which under the beneficent influences of our institutions has grown up to a mighty empire in herself, will ever give her casting vote in favor of fanatical sectionalism. I will not believe that the City of New York, which owes her proud position as the first commercial emporium of the world to the blessings of our Union, can ever be unmindful of her duty to the Union. I have an abiding faith in the unflinching courage of our indomitable Democracy, which has carried its victorious banner tlirough many a hard-fought battle. And last, though not least, my friends, 1 place implicit trust in the energetic co-operation of those patriotic and conservative men, the members of the time-honored Whig party, who, forgetting all past differences, and only mindful of their speech at Cooper Institute^ N . T. qq unwavering attachment to the Union, have united with us to fight the common enemy. When in 1850 the hydra of sectionalism and disunion first raised her hideous head, we saw the great statesmen of the Republic lay aside all differences on minor topics of internal or foreign policy, and by one united efitjrt crush the treasonable monster. Then the immortal Webster stood side by side with the eloquent and Union-loving Henry S. Foote ; then the patriot and statesman, John Bell, fought shoulder to shoulder with the honored veteran of Democracy, Lewis Cass ; and the cherished idol of the American heart, the great Henry Clay, was linked hand in hand with the unflinching and patriotic champion of the Constitution, Stephen A. Douglas. The work then so nobly begun by our great leaders is now to be com- pleted by the united efforts of the American people. From the snow-clad hills of the far North to the blooming savannahs of the sunny South, from the roll- ing waves of the Atlantic to the golden shores of our empire on the Pacific, the hopes and fears of every American patriot are centred at this moment in New York. Will you allow these hopes to be disappointed? No! before another week shall have passed away I trust that the mighty Empire State will have redeemed herself from Republican misrule, and preserved the Union from the calamities of a sectional administration. L.ofC. SPEECH TO FIRST N. Y. REGIMENT OF RIFLES. MAY 15, 1861. Colonel Blenker and Gentlemen of the First Regiment of Rifles, — I have the honor to present this stand of colors to your regiment. It is the flag which for three-quarters of a century has been hailed in every quarter of the inhabited globe as the emblem of Constitutional liberty, and the beacon of hope to the oppressed of all nations. In rushing with generous ardor to the rescue of our flag, you have given to your fellow-citizens a most gratifying proof of the patriotism and the devotion of our German population to the land of their adoption and choice. A large number of you have fled from oppression and tyranny in the Old World, after- having in vain shed your blood for the liberties of your country on many a hard- fought battle-field in Hungary and Germany. You have found on these hospitable shores protection, freedom, and loving hearts, and in offering now the sacrifice of your lives on the altar of your adopted country you pay a debt of gratitude for the blessings vouchsafed to you under our liberal institutions. Our most fervent prayers follow you to the path of duty and honor which you have chosen. May the Almighty, who has thus far showered His choicest blessings upon our cherished Union, protect her brave defenders. May He watch over you in the hour ot danger, and may He grant you to return in safety to your homes and firesides after every star in this bright constellation shall have been restored, to abide with its sisters in union and peace to the end of time. SPEECH AT TAMMANY HALL, NEW YORK, JULY 4, 1 8 6a. Mr. Grand Sachem and Gentlemen, — I am extremely obliged to you for the high honor you bestow upon me, and the cordiality with which you wel- come me home. I am deeply impressed and entirely taken by surprise ; how- ever, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I have been absent from my country for the last ten months, compelled to a temporary residence abroad by illness in my family. It was a source of heartfelt regret for me to be away from home, and from my friends in their dark hour of trial. I cannot describe to you the anxiety and sorrow with which I watched the progress of our gallant army and navy, but when I saw from month to month the energy and patriotism of our people rise stronger and higher under every adversity, anxieties were relieved, and my fervent hopes and conviction in the ultimate reconstruction of the Union confirmed. I come home at a dark and gloomy moment of the struggle in which we are engaged. It seems as if Providence had decreed this momentary reverse of our heroic army in order to admonish us, on this anniversary of our National Inde- pendence, that it will require the whole energy of our people it we mean to leave to our children the blessed inheritance bestowed by the fathers of our Republic. We have to deal with an enemy arrayed in relentless strife against our institutions, and the best interests of humanity, and it will require the un- divided and gigantic efforts of an united people to save our country and our Union. There is no sacrifice too great, none which we should not most cheerfully make in order to help the government at this moment. We want more troops, more money, and every thing good and loyal citizens can give to their country in this hour of danger. Allow me, Mr. Chairman, to conclude by giving the following sentiment: — "Our country, the object of our dearest affections; may she ever find her sons worthy of her, and ready to sacrifice their lives and their treasure in her defence, against domestic traitors or foreign foes." LETTER TO UNION MEETING AT NEWPORT, R. I. Bellevue Avenue, August 9, 1862. My Dear Sir, — I regret extremely that being called by pressing engage- ments to New York, it will not be in my power to comply with your kind invitation to address the mass meeting to be held in Touro Park on Monday next. It would have been a source of sincere gratification to me to meet my fellow- citizens of Newport on this momentous occasion, and to raise my feeble voice in aid of the sacred cause of the Union and the Constitution, for which the Presi- dent has made so well-timed and earnest an appeal to the patriotism of our people. The South, misled by the teachings of reckless politicians, has in its mad efforts to destroy our common country, shown an energy and determination worthy of a better cause. Throughout the revolted States every able-bodied man, from the age of 1 6 to 60, is at this moment in arms against those glorious institutions bequeathed to us by the fathers of the Republic, and which until now had rendered our country the admiration and envy of the civilized world. If we mean successfully to withstand their wicked onslaughts, if we intend to preserve to our children the precious inheritance of Constitutional liberty, if we hope to save from disgrace and defeat the sacred symbol of our greatness and our liberties, that banner which floated victoriously over every battle-field until betrayed and attacked by its own children, then we must at once obey the call of duty, and rush without a moment's delay to the support of our government. Whatever may be thought or said by our domestic and foreign foes, in order to exaggerate our losses in the late battles before Richmond, and generally to underrate our gallant army and navy, we can proudly point to numerous vic- tories, and immense advantages which we have gained over the rebels in last year's campaign. We hold New Orleans and the Mississippi, the very artery of their existence, and the Federal flag has a stronghold in every one of the revolted States. I am firmly convinced that with the additional forces which the government intends to put into the field, and which the people will cheer- fully and promptly place at its disposal, we can and will crush the rebellion before the end of the year. Letter to Union Meetings Newport, R. I. 103 Once the Confederate army conquered and dispersed, and we shall see the South cast loose from their wicked leaders, and returning eagerly to share with us the blessings of that Union to which alone we chiefly owed our former greatness and prosperity. Rhode Island has ever been foremost in the defence of our national liberties, and I have no doubt your meeting will prove a new incentive to her sons to follow the noble example of their fathers and brothers, who on many a battle- field have sealed with their blood their undying love for their country. Incapacitated by lameness from bearing arms in the defence of our country, I am still desirous to do my share as a good citizen in the hour of our national trial. I beg to suggest to you that a fund be raised by subscription for the sup- port of the needy families o{ the soldiers from this city or State. If this propo- sition meets with the approval of our citizens, I am prepared to give $i,coo to the committee which your meeting may deem proper to appoint for the col- lection of subscriptions and the judicious distribution of funds. The brave soldier will fight with a better heart when he knows that those whom he has left behind are cared for by those who cannot share his danger and his glory. Yours, very truly, (Signed) AUGUST BELMONT. To William H. Cranston, Mayor of Newport. , SPEECH AT MEETING IN NEWPORT, R. I. SEPTEMBER, 1862. Fellow-Citizens, — It is with extreme diffidence and hesitation that I com- ply with the flattering invitation of your worthy Mayor to address you this evening. I feel, however, that it is the duty of every good citizen, at this moment, to exert what influence he may be able to command, and so I will also raise my feeble and inexperienced voice in the good cause of the Union and the Constitution. We meet here to-night in the midst of the most fearful crisis of our nation's history. A century has not passed away, and the magnificent edi- fice raised by the fathers of the Republic to last for all time, and which already spreads its protecting dome from ocean to ocean, is tottering to its very founda- tions. A deep-laid conspiracy, fanned by sectional passion and reckless leaders into open rebellion, has at last assumed the proportions of a gigantic revolution, against which the immense resources placed by our people at the disposal of the government, have thus far proved powerless. When the rebellion first broke out, the North, conscious of its strength and the righteousness of its cause, thought that it could, with a slight efix)rt and in a short time, crush it and vindicate the superiority of the law. Our army, hastily collected, full of bravery and patriotism, but badly armed, drilled, and commanded, was, by the insane clamor of meddling politicians, hurled against the fortified stronghold of the rebels, selected and defended by skilful and expe- rienced generals. We suffered a most disastrous defeat — our army was deci- mated and demoralized, and hardly could claim any longer the name of an army. The battle of Bull Run was a sad and terrible blow to the Union cause, but we derived one great benefit from it. The government and people awoke to the conviction that political partisans and editors, however meritorious and talented they may be in their sphere, were not the men to lead our brave soldiers to victory. They had to stand aside to make room for the young chieftain called by the President to save the Republic, threatened at the very seat of the Federal government. George B. McClellan came. Out of chaos and utter confusion he created one of the finest armies of modern days, and that in a space of time not longer than it took military France, with a standing army of five hundred thousand men, to prepare for her last Italian campaign. Then we saw Burnside in the speech dt Newport^ R. I. loC South, and Halleck in the West, drive the rebels like chafF before them ; then, under the well-matured plans of our young commander-in-chief, success followed for months our arms, wherever our brave army and gallant navy carried the stars and stripes. But here again political meddlers and ambitious demagogues step in and arrest our victorious progress. They stop recruiting when men were more than ever wanted to finish up the good work so well begun ; they deprive McClellan of the chief command; they interfere with his plans; they reduce his forces, and thus doom our brave Army of the Potomac to defeat and disaster, when months ago Richmond would have been ours had McClellan been left untrammelled. Congress, instead of contenting itself with voting supplies for the vigorous prosecution of the war, and declaring, by an unequivocal attitude, that this war is carried on solely and purely for the Union, the Constitution, and the maintenance of the laws, again throws the apple of discord among us by ill-timed and ill-advised legislation on slavery. Military commanders in Missouri, South Carolina, and Louisiana follow the pernicious example, and instead of attending to their duties as soldiers, issue unauthorized and unconstitutional proclamations calculated to irritate and embitter the South, and estrange it still more from the Union. It is true Mr. Lincoln, whose good and conservative intentions nobody can doubt, disavows these proclamations, but Fremont, Hun- ter, and Phelps were kept in command by the influence of their Abolition friends, and soon we see the unhappy results of all this. The South, where, only a few months back, more than one-third of the popula- tion was utterly opposed to secession, becomes united as one man ; they follow blindly those very leaders against whom so many had battled to the last, but whose predictions that this war was waged by us for abolition and destruction of Southern property, they see now on the eve of being verified. On the other hand, the North, which, with unexampled unanimity and total oblivion of all party distinctions, had rushed to the defence of our flag, becomes, now, distracted and divided. It was, and is still, ready to fight for the Union and the Constitution, but it is not ready to initiate a war of extermination, and to plunge the South into all the horrors of a servile insurrection. You have seen the fearful consequences of these dissensions and the intermeddling of ignorant politicians and demagogues ; our brave soldiers given up to the com- mand of inefficient generals, the flower of our army sacrificed to their ignorance and incapacity, Washington in danger, Maryland invaded, and Pennsylvania threatened. And now again, as a year ago, the government has to call upon McClellan to save the sinking fortunes of the Republic. For months past he had been tra- duced and vilified in the halls of Congress and on the floor of the Senate ; his capacity and courage — nay, even his loyalty — questioned by a large portion of the Abolition press; the brave troops, who almost worship him, had been, regi- 14 1 o6 Spcccit at Neivport^ R. /. ment after regiment, withdrawn from his command, until the man who had created the Army of the Potomac was left with barely a corporal's guard, while his veteran soldiers were slaughtered by the reckless ignorance of spurious heroes pushed forward by clamorotis politicians. He bore all with the fortitude and resignation of a true patriot ; he did not issue vaunting proclamations, and he treated the attacks of his enemies with the silent contempt which thev merited. Upon the call of his government he quietly and modestlv assumed again the hieh and fearfully responsible position assigned to him. His advent was hailed by the army, and every true lover of the Union, with hopeful joy. Victory, which seemed to have forsaken us forever, perches again upon our glorious banner, and in less than a fortnight from the day on which he assumed command over a beaten and disorganized army, he drives the hungry hordes of Jefferson Davis from the soil of loyal Maryland, upon which they had fallen like a swarm of devastating locusts. We have now, at the head of our army, Halleck and McClellan, the two men whom the veteran Scott, the hero of a hundred battles, had designated as his worthy successors. Under their leadership our brave army will march on to victory, but it we mean to bring this terrible war to a speedy end, we must furnish more men to fill up our ranks. My own conviction is, that in order to crush the rebellion we must have one million of men in the field — one-half to be employed in Virginia to beat and disperse the rebel army, the other half to sweep down the Mississippi with an overwhelming force which would make all further resistance hopeless. The ' rebel Congress has just called out every able-bodied man in the Confederate States between thirty-five and forty-five years old. They expect, thus, to raise three hundred thousand more men, in addition to the three or four hun- dred thousand whom they have already under arms. This is their last throw- in tlic fearful game in which they are engaged, and you may depend on it they will play it to the bitter end with the recklessness of despair. The crisis is at hand which is to decide whether we are ever again to be a free and powerful nation, or whether this most wicked and causeless rebellion shall succeed in destroying our liberties and lowering our country to the level of Mexico and Central America. Shall history record that twenty millions, defending the most sacred cause for which nation ever drew the sword, were overcome by one-third their number who had raised their fratricidal hands against the best of governments .'' No, it cannot, it must not be I Men of Rhode Island, the Republic is in danger ! Our free institutions, the memory of the past, the hopes of the future, all call upon you to march forth in your country's cause. Leave your wives and children trustingly behind— a grate- ful people will protect and care for them. Do not allow demagogues and fanatics to distract you from the legitimate and holy purpose for which alone this war is to he carried on. Inscribe on your banner that you fight tor the " inion as speech at Neivport^ R. I. 107 ?t tvas, and the Constitution as it is,''' and God will bless your arms and give you the victory. And to you who, like me, are deprived bv age or physical incapacity of the privilege ot drawing your swords in the defence of our liberties, to you I appeal to contribute your money liberally to the good cause which we have all so much at heart. Many a brave and loyal man is only deterred from joining our army by the fear that in his absence his family might suffer want. I have already, on a former occasion, suggested the raising of funds by subscriptions for the purpose of providing for the families of soldiers in this city. I now again renew my suggestions and my offer to subscribe for such a fund. If carried into effect in a judicious and energetic manner, it will do much toward swelling the ranks of the Union defenders. SPEECH AT THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. AUGUST 29, 1864. Gentlemen of the Convention, — We are assembled here to-dav as the National Democratic Convention, for the purpose of nominating candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the United States. This task, at all times a most important and arduous one, has, by the sad events of our civil war, assumed an importance and responsibility of the most fearful nature. Never, since the formation of our government, has there been an assemblage, the pro- ceedings of which were fraught with more momentous and vital results than those which must flow from your action. Toward you, gentlemen, are directed at this moment the anxious fears and doubts, not only of millions of American citizens, but also of every lover of civil liberty throughout the world. In your hands rests, under the rul- ing of an all-wise Providence, the future of this Republic. Four years of misrule, by a sectional, fanatical, and corrupt party, have brought our country to the very verge of ruin. The past and present are sufficient warnings of the disastrous consequences which would befall us if Mr. Lincoln's re-election should be made possible by our want of patriotism and unity. The inevitable results of such a calamity must be the utter disintegration ot our whole political and social system amidst bloodshed and anarchy, with the great problems of liberal progress and self-government jeoparded for generations to come. The American people have at last awakened to the conviction that a change of policy and administration can alone stay our downward course ; and they will rush to the support of your candidate and platform, provided you will offer to their suffrage a tried patriot, who has proved his devotion to the Union and the Constitution, and provided that you pledge him and yourselves to main- tain that hallowed inheritance by every effort and sacrifice in your power. Let us, at the very outset of our proceedings, bear in mind that the dissensions of the last Democratic Convention were one ot the principal causes which gave the reins of government into the hands of our opponents ; and let us beware not to fall again into the same fatal error. We must bring to the altar of our country the sacrifice ot our prejudices, opinions, and convictions — however dear and long cherished they may be — from the moment they threaten the harmony and speech at the Chicago Convention. ] 09 unity of action so indispensable to our success. We are here, not as war Demo- crats, nor as peace Democrats, but as citizens of the great Republic, which we will strive to bring back to its former greatness and prosperity, without one single star taken from the brilliant constellation that once encircled its youthful brow. Let pure and disinterested patriotism, tempered by moderation and forbearance, preside over our deliberations, and, under the blessings of the Almighty, the sacred cause of the Union, the Constitution, and the Laws must prevail against fanaticism and treason. SPEECH AT THE NEW YORK RATIFICATION MEETING. SEPTEMBER 17, 1S64. Fellow Citizens, — I thank you for the honor which you confer upon me. This enthusiastic uprising of the Democracy of the Empire City, for the pur- pose of ratifying the nomination of General McCIellan and George H. Pendle- ton for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the United States, is a sure in- dication of what New York intends to do on the 8th of November next. While at Chicago as a delegate from our State, I pledged New York City to roll up a majority of 50,000 for our candidates. I am now sure that I did not promise too much, and that you will redeem my pledge. We are engaged in a great and noble contest. It is not only the election of a favored candidate, but it is the sal- vation of the Republic, the restoration of the Union, and the vindication of the Constitution and the laws, which will be the fruits o{ our victory. Four years ago, when I had the honor to preside at the last Democratic meet- ing held before the presidential election, I predicted that Mr. Lincoln's election would be the forerunner o[ a dissolution of the Union amidst war and bloodshed. How terribly have events verified my fears. The issue before the American people is just as grave and momentous now as it was then. The electors through- out the loyal States will have to choose between war and disunion, which must be the inevitable results of Mr. Lincoln's re-election, or an early, honorable, and lasting peace, based upon the Union and the Constitution, which can only be secured under tlie conservative, Democratic, and national administration of General McCIellan. Our candidate pledges himself and his administration to such a result in his admirable letter of acceptance, and he has proved to the American people that he knows how to keep his promises. Two years ago to-day he redeemed his pledge to save Washington and the Northern States from the victorious army of Lee, on the bloody battle-field of x\ntietam. Hardly a week before, the hero of the Peninsula, the man who had created the Army of the Potomac, the general under whose wise and far-seeing combinations Roanoke, Fort Donclson, and New Orleans fell into our hands, had been left without the command of a single man, and had offered to his enemies in power to share the ftte of his comrades as a common soldier in the defence of our Union. Jl was only when Lee's forces thundered at the gates of \\ ashington, tliat Lincoln, speech at N. /'. Rati fie ation Meeting. in Stanton, and Halleck, that glorious trio of military science and genius, called upon the man whom they had so disgracefully treated to save them. The capital they were willing to give up ; but McClellan knew the cost of the loss of Washington ; once in the hands of the rebels, an immediate recognition of the Richmond usurper by the foreign governments, and the inevitable indepen- dence of the South. He took command of a beaten, discouraged, and shattered army; his heroic followers knew their leader, and within three w'eeks from the day that he assumed command, the remnant ot Lee's beaten army had to seek safety in flight. And how was McClellan rewarded for this brilliant campaign ? By being again deprived of his command, in the most unjustifiable and arbitrary manner, and by a system of persecution from that day forward, of which history shows hardly a more disgraceful example. It was my good fortune to see General McClellan shortly after his last campaign, and when I expressed to him mv astonishment that he consented again to take command with Halleck and Stanton in the War Department, after the shameful manner with which they had ruined his plans in the Peninsula, he replied to me : " I knew to what 1 was exposing myself, but the country was in danger, and I had no right to make conditions." And this is the man who, for two years past, has been traduced and vilified by every Republican paper throughout the land, and who has been represented to the American people as disloyal to the Union and the Constitu- tion, and sympathizing \vith the rebels of the South ! We are told that the Democratic party is the party of disunion, and that we are the friends of Jefferson Davis and his rebel government. Hundreds of thousands of brave Democrats who have bled on the field of battle for the sacred cause of the Union and the Constitution have not been sufficient to silence this foul calumny ! But what do the Southern Secessionists say of the Northern friends whom Seward and Greelev persist in attaching to their interest? Ever since the nomina- tion of McClellan, the organs of Jeff. Davis throughout the South, are loud and earnest in their denunciations of his election. They see in it a sure forerunner of a division at the South, which must pave the way to a speedy return of the revolted States to their allegiance to the Union, and they dread the name of McClellan as our banner-bearer more than they do that of Grant and his army. The Richmond Enquirer of the 6th instant, after reviewing the candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties, concludes by saying : "Thus, whether we look at this nomination in the light of peace or of war, we prefer Lincoln to McClellan, for we can make better terms of peace with an anti-slavery fanatic than with an earnest Unionist. Our best hope is from the honest fanatics of the North ; such men, when they see their people are tired of the war, will end it by peace that sacrifices territory to freedom, and will let the South go, provided she carries slavery with her." 1 12 Speech at N. T. Ratificahon Meeting. Yes, gentlemen, the election of General McClellan will be a more severe blow to Jefferson Davis than the fall of Richmond. Let every one, therefore, aid in the great and good work before us. We have fearful odds to overcome. The Secessionists of the South and the fanatical disorganizers of the North are both arrayed against us ; but with the Union, the Constitution, and the laws inscribed on our banner, and McClellan as our leader, the victory must be ours. SPEECH AT MEETING, COOPER INSTITUTE. NOVEMBER 2, 1864. Mr. President and Gentlemen, — I am deeply grateful for this kind and flattering reception, which I feel is more due to the patriotic work in which we are all engaged than to any personal merit of my own. Four years ago I stood on this very place pleading the cause of the Union and the Constitution against the combined efforts of Northern Abolitionists and Southern Secessionists, and advocating the election of the patriot and statesman, the lamented Douglas, against the then obscure candidate of a sectional party. The Democracy was defeated, and our country given up to civil war and desolation, because we had become divided by the selfish machinations of Southern Secessionists, aided by their misguided friends of the North, who broke up the Charleston convention. Permit me to discuss for a few moments the present political position of some of these former champions of Southern rights. I will not speak of the Southern leaders, who, under Jeff. Davis, are waging an unholy war against our government. Grant, Sherman, and Farragut will take care of them. Our business is with their former friends at the North. Here we have, first and foremost, Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, who, at Charles- ton, gave, during fifty-two ballots, his vote for Jeff. Davis, the only vote cast for him in the convention, and then left that body to sit in council with the Southern traitors. Then we have Daniel S. Dickinson, who denounced the Northern Democracy for not re-admitting, at Baltimore, the seceding delegates who, under the leadership of Yancey, had broken up the convention at Charles- ton. On our bended knees we ought to have entreated them to return — that was Mr. Dickinson's advice ; and I am compelled to add here that estimable gentleman, John A. Dix, who, in i860, advocated in an elaborate address to the convention more ultra Southern views than the Breckenridge platform itself, and who, as postmaster of James Buchanan, was the head and front of the Breckenridge organization in this city. The Abolition papers of this morn- ing contain an address of General Dix of a very difi^erent character than the one just alluded to. Without entering here into the merits of that extraor- dinary document, permit me only to point your attention to the following proposition contained in that address : — 15 1 1 4 Speech at Meeting, Cooper Institute. "An amendment of the Constitution which shall render the President ineligible after one term of service." In the face of this, Mr. Dix and his friends intend to vote for a second term of Mr. Lincoln. The general, after opposing in 1848 the regular Democratic nomination of General Cass, and in i860 that of Stephen A. Douglas, will now show his consistency by voting for Lincoln in opposition to the principle laid down by himself Thus we find these gentlemen in the ranks of the Republican party arrayed under the black banner of Abolitionism against the party of the Union and the Constitution. The allurements of power and office are as irresistible to them under Lincoln as they were under Buchanan. They, and some lesser lights of the same stamp, are now joining with all the zeal of neophytes in the mad outcry raised by their new allies against the Democratic party and its noble leader, George B. McClcllan. In the wake of these more prominent renegades from the Democratic faith, we have seen a call for a mass meeting, signed by a number of disappointed politicians, and a few nabobs of our city, who have added a few more millions to their wealth by this terrible war. Those gentle- men call themselves Democrats — Democrats of the Jacksonian school — and allege as the reason for not supporting our ticket, the wording of our platform and the character of our candidates. Now, permit me to detain you for a few moments in order to see by what right those gentlemen call themselves Democrats, and how much the Chicago platform has had to do with their sup- port of Abraham Lincoln. Here we have in the first instance ex-Judge Pierrepont, who for the last three years has been the confidential friend and agent of Secre- tary Stanton, the bitter enemy of General McClellan ; and it is said by those who profess to know, that this friendship has proved quite lucrative to the honor- able ex-judge. Is it to be wondered that he should wish its continuance for four years more ? Is it to be wondered that in his speech of last evening, reported in all the Abolition papers, he should assail, in a spirit of the bitterest partisan- ship, the character and services of General McClcllan ? His patron of the War Department has for the past two years persecuted with the most malignant hatred the man to whom the country owes the Army of the Potomac, — the general who twice saved the capital from the invading rebel forces, and who offered to share the fate of his comrades as a common soldier, when deprived of his command by the intrigues of Halleck and Stanton. Judge Pierrepont could not show his gratitude for past favors and favors to come more effectually than by his most unfair, personal attack on General McClellan. I had looked for this first public demonstration of the judge with a good deal of curiosity, as I had hoped to obtain by it some explanation in reply to a statement contained in the following article of The World newspaper, which I have not yet seen contradicted : — Speech at Meetings Cooper histitute. 1 1 " Judge Pierrepont and the Bogus War Democrats. "The following letter comes to us indorsed by the signature of a gentleman whose name is at the service of Judge Pierrepont, if he desires a voucher for its authenticity. We confess our own surprise at its statements, and, in com- mon with the public, should be glad to know what considerations have worked such a change in Judge Pierrepont's mind since September. " Philadelihia, October 25. " To the Editor of the. World : — " My attention has been called to a manifesto addressed to 'War Democrats, and published in the New York Tiibune, — a very singular medium of com- munication, one would suppose, with Democrats of any shade of opinion. Among the names of the signers to this document I perceive that of 'Edwards Pierrepont ;' I have a few remarks to make touching him. We chanced to be fellow-passengers in the Persia^ Cunard steamship, from Liverpool, in the month of September. We had not, upon our departure on September 10th, as yet learned who was the nominee of the Chicago Convention, and, of course, we were all very much excited upon the subject. There seemed to be but one or two administration men on the ship, out of some 180 or 190 passengers, the Democrats being very generally in favor of General McClellan for the nomina- tion. This Judge Pierrepont, after holding back for some tim-e, finally declared himselt a Democrat of the strictest school. He said, however, that there was no tzr i\\\y cluDice o^ the nomination of General McClellan; that the Demo- cratic party zcould not stultify itself by nominating any moM who had any connection ivith this zvar : that the war was an utter failure; that the only prospect of the salvation of the nation, or the restoration of the Union, lay in a cessation of hostilities, and a general convention of all the States. He said that none of these purposes could be accomplished without a change of admin- istration, and that, therefore, it was the solemn duty of every patriot to labor for that primary and fundamental -object, without which all efforts were fruit- less, all hope vain of the salvation of our republican government. He said to me in conclusion : ' With a change of administration there might yet be a way to save the Republic entire ; without it, it was past praying foi\' " This was the substance of a conversation of two hours or more, in the presence of my wife, in all of which, as general propositions, I concurred, except that General McClellan could not be nominated. I assured the judge that he could and would, and should be, as he was, above and beyond any living man, the embodiment of the political necessities of the American people. Now, you may imagine my surprise to see the name of this same ' Edwards Pierrepont ' in four short weeks after the earnest expression of the above-recited views, giving his name, and any influence he may possess, to the prolongation ot that very policy, and the support of that identical administration, which he thus pub- licly declared would insure the downfall of the Repubhc. '• Viator." What do you say to these sound principles of a war Democrat ot the new school, who cannot support the Chicago platform, and must bolt the regular Democratic nominee to vote for Abraham Lincoln ? Then you have the Il6 Speech at Meetings Cooper Institute. member of Congress from the First District, the Hon. Mr. Stebbins, who has just resigned his seat, because he says that his opinions are no longer in unison with those of his constituents. I doubt very much if there ever existed any such unison between him and them. He was elected two years ago by the loyal Democracy of the Firs: District, who, then, as they are now, were for the " Union at all hazards ;" but were not in favor of Mr. Lincoln or the financial policy of his Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Stebbins, for many months after his election, was the avowed advocate of an immediate and un- conditional peace, and I could cite here many good Democrats, personal friends of his, who had to use all their influence in order to make him withhold those pernicious views. I believe they succeeded so far as to make him, for a short time at least after he took his seat in Congress, as near to the mark of a sound Democrat as he ever was or ever will be. But we find him soon fascinated by the transcendent statesmanship of Mr. Lincoln's Secretary of State and the financial genius of Mr. Chase. So much so that his great effort in Congress is a grandiloquent eulogy of the irredeemable paper issue of the Secretary of the Treasury. And the Republican papers of this morning, selected for the first lime for the diffusion of Democratic principles, contain a letter of his, in which he lectures the Democratic party for not doing justice to the effi- ciency and talent of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet. It will be refreshing to Messrs, Stanton and Welles to read praises from a Democratic pen, which their own party has not been willing to accord to them. Is it strange, after all this, that Mr. Stebbins does not agree in sentiment with his constituents ? They seem to have come to that conclusion some time before he did, when they refused to put him in re-nomination for Congress. The Hon. F, B. Cutting can hardly claim that he leaves the Democratic party on account of our platform. Nobody can entertain personally a more sincere regard for that gentleman than I do ; still we all know that he has not been with us since 1862, when we did, what we intend to do next Tuesday, elect Horatio Seymour governor of this State. Then you have the eccentric and venerable Mr. Peter Cooper, who appears in the character of a war Democrat, after having voted, in 1856, for Fremont, and in i860 for Lincoln. Both Mr. Moses Taylor and Mr. A. T. Stewart signed, last spring, a circular in favor of Mr. Lincoln's re-election, and they probably forgot that circumstance, when they now profess to abandon our ban- ner, because they profess to see lurking in its folds a disgraceful peace, notwith- standing that McClellan and Pendleton have inscribed on it : " The Union and the Constitution at all hazards; peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." The political antecedents of the other signers of that call are of the same ques- tionable character : there is, for instance, Mr. William H. Webb, a wealthy ship-builder and government contractor, who builds magnificent vessels, for which he receives still more magnificent prices from Mr. Welles, but who has not voted a Democratic ticket for manv a year. speech at Meeting, Cooper Institute. 1 1 y But I have already dwelt too long on these proselytes to the Abolition faith. The great Democratic party cannot suffer from the attacks of this or any other set of men. It is the party which, by its unwavering adherence to the Constitution, and by its unflinching firmness and strict regard to treaty stipu- lations in all our domestic and foreign relations, had brought our country to a greatness and prosperity which had rendered it the admiration and envy of the nations of the earth, until, in an evil hour, the madness of sectional fanaticism placed Abraham Lincoln in the presidential chair. It was a Democratic administration which carried us triumphantly through the Mexican war, giving us the golden empire of the Pacific, soon to become the highway of the commerce of the East. It was a Democratic administration which resisted firmly and successfully British pretensions in Oregon and Central America. It was under a Democratic administration that American influence compelled Denmark to abandon the feudal Sound dues which for centuries she had imposed upon the commerce of the world. It was under a Democratic ad- ministration that Kozta was liberated from the claws of Austrian tyranny, prov- ing to the world that our proud flag gave protection to the martyrs of liberty of all nations who sought asylum under its folds. I had the honor to represent our country abroad when Mr. Marcy wrote the Kozta letter, and my heart swelled with pride and gratitude that I could claim the title of an American citizen. How do we stand now, under Mr. Lincoln's administration, in our relations with the great powers of Europe — how are American rights respected and protected abroad ? We all remember, with shame and indignation, the case of Arguelles, a Spanish refugee, who was seized in this city by the Federal officers, and, without even the form of a trial, given up to the Cuban authorities. We have no extra- dition treaty with Spain, so that no possible excuse could exist for this arbitrary act of Mr. Seward. Of whatever crime Arguelles may have been accused in Cuba, I doubt whether modern history can point to a grosser outrage against the sacred right of asylum. Place the case of Kozta alongside that of Arguelles, and you obtain an idea of the difference between a Democratic and Republican ad- ministration. Had an occurrence like the famous Trent affair taken place when a Marcy or a Cass was at the head of the State department, those prisoners would have been surremlered at once, and by our free action, sent to England before they were claimed, if their capture was illegal ; but if they were lawfully taken, the whole power of France and England could not have obtained their release from those Democratic statesmen, and the American people would have sustained them, if every city on our sea-board had been laid in ashes by the combined fleets of those great powers. Look at our commerce, the sails of which, four years ago, whitened every sea of both hemispheres — our commercial flag chased from the ocean by a few paltry privateers of the Confederates, who, if we had a competent Secretary of the Navy, should long ere this not have had 1 1 8 Speech at Meetings Cooper Institute. a single port either on the Atlantic or the Gulf. Can anybody doubt that, with an efficient navy under such men as Farragut, Dupont, Rogers, and Porter, we could have taken Charleston, Mobile, Savannah, and Wilmington within six months after the war began. But Mr. Welles, notwithstanding the immense resources placed at his disposal, gave to the rebels all the time they could possi- bly desire to make those ports the strongholds they now are. The tact is, the present administration did not know how to preserve peace, nor does it know how to conquer it, notwithstanding the many victories gained on land and sea by our gallant navy and army. We have been told over and over again that the rebellion was on its last legs, that the people of the South are tired of the war, that their armies are demoralized and on the point of dispersing. Are we, for all this, any nearer to an honorable peace within the Union than we were three years ago ? Has the administration tried to profit by the blood-stained laurels of McClellan, after the battle of Antietam ; of Grant, when he took Vicksburg; of Farragut, when he took New Orleans, and placed Mobile at our mercy; of Sherman's glorious capture of Atlanta; of Meade's overwhelming victory at Gettysburg? No attempt at negotiation, no proffer of an honorable settlement which (even if under the military terrorism of Jeff. Davis it should not have led to immediate peace) would, at least, have strengthened the Union party at the South, and given them power, with the aid of the strong arm of the Federal forces, to free themselves of their tyrannical leaders. And this, gentlemen, is the only way in which we can ever hope to restore the Union, and bring peace and prosperity to our common country. Give to the South the choice of an honorable peace under the Union and the Constitution, or a fruitless struggle against the irresistible power of a united North, and you will see State after State leave the confederacy of Jefferson Davis, and return to their allegiance under the Union. But who can doubt that the South will fight to the last extremity if the fatal policy of confiscation and forcible emancipation is to be persisted in, and that is the policy to which Mr. Lincoln and his party are pledged, should they be able to keep themselves in power. Thus the war is to become a war of subjugation or extermination — and do you know what it means to conquer and subjugate a nation of six mil- lions of freemen .? It took the ablest generals of republican France more than ten years before they could subjugate the small departmentof the Vendee, which was only finally pacified by the great Napoleon himself The whole power of Russia, with its colossal military despotism, was nearly half a century before conquering the small province of Circassia. Poland and Hungary were not subjugated by the sword of Russia and Austria alone, but tardy concessions had to assist in their pacification. Look at what we have achieved ourselves in three and a halt years, with a sacrifice of nearly tour hundred thousand men and the accumulation ot a speech at Mee////g\ Cooper \ustiUik. 1 1 9 national debt of $2,000,000,000. Our army and navy have earned immortal glory and the lasting gratitude of their countrymen hy their devotion and heroism, and yet, though we hold the Mississippi and several important points on the Atlantic and the Gulf, we are far from having the conquest of the South within our grasp. Grant, whose bravery is only equalled by his stubborn tenacity, has, with the largest and best army ever placed under one man on this continent, and with the power and resources of a patriotic people to back him, not yet taken Richmond, after six months, and the sacrifice of over one hundred thousand of our best troops. Can any one, after all these heart-rending experiences, have any doubts as to the fearful calamities in store for us, if Mr. Lincoln should succeed in having himself re-elected — a war to the knife between the two sections, until the weaker is exterminated, and the other left in the agonies of exhaustion ; a whole generation swept away; a national debt accumulated, such as few nations have ever been burdened with, and entailing the disgrace and miseries of national bankruptcy, or else, for generations to come, a load of taxation which must undermine our labor and industry, and reduce our laboring classes to poverty and pauperism. In the face of all these evidences, clear as the light of day to every mind which is not blinded by corruption or fanaticism, the Democratic party, as well as its candidates, are denounced by an unscrupulous party press as disloyal, and as the open allies of the rebels, because we expect to conquer an honor- able peace within the Union and the Constitution, instead of following the mad career to ruin under the lead of sectional fanatics. While the Democratic generals are fighting our battles, while Grant, Meade, and Hancock are pushing on toward Richmond, and while the gallant Sherman is driving Beauregard before him, and the dashing Sheridan is gathering fresh laurels, we see some Republican generals of Mr. Lincoln try their prowess on a more peaceful field of battle. Hooker, when last heard from, was operating in Illinois, in the new character of a stump-speaker ; General Burnside is busy here making speeches in favor of Lincoln and abolition, both undoubtedly hoping for a better result in November than they were able to achieve at Chancellorsville and Fredericks- burg. Thus the Democratic party and its leaders stand where they have always stood — "for the Union, the Constitution, and the law" — alike opposed to Southern Secessionists and Northern fanaticism. A leading journal in this city, which has maintained in this presidential contest a strict neutrality — a neutrality in which, I am sorry to say, my humble self does not appear to have been included — has found fault with our party for not having declared in favor of a more vigorous foreign policy, and the re-afiirnration of the Monroe doctrine. I need not tell you, my Democratic fellow-citizens, that the Democratic party does not undertake more than one great task at a time. Let us first restore the Union 120 Speech at Meeting^ Cooper Institute. and the Constitution, and then we will settle our other accounts. General McClellan has pledged himself and the party "for the Union at all hazards." Our candidate for the Vice-Presidency has declared for the restoration of the Union and the Constitution, "peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must." On that platform we intend to elect them, and redeem their pledges to the American people and the world, and when once again we shall, by the bless- ing of the Almighty, be a reunited and powerful people of freemen, then the Democracy of this mighty Union will say to the powers of the earth, that the North American continent was intended for Republican institutions, and that the temple of liberty raised by the fathers of the Republic must span its dome from ocean to ocean, and from the lakes to the isthmus. And now, gentlemen, let me entreat you, in conclusion, to use every honor- able means within your power in order to accomplish the great work before us. In six days from now the life or death of this great Republic will be decided. Let the Empire City be, as ever, true to the Union and the Constitution ; let us roll up a majority of forty thousand for McClellan and Pendleton, that the sun of the 8th of November may, under a benignant Providence, set upon a free and redeemed people, and a new era of greatness and prosperity follow the dark days through which we are now passing. SPEECH AT THE NEW YORK CONVENTION. JULY 4, 1868. Gentlemen of the Convention, — It is my privilege to-day to welcome you here in this hall, constructed with so much artistic taste, and tendered to you by the time-honored Society of Tammany. I welcome you to this magnificent temple, erected to the Goddess of Liberty by her staunchest defenders and most fervent worshippers. I welcome you to this good city of New York, the bulwark of Democracy, which has rolled back the surging waves of radicalism through all the storms of the last eight years, and I welcome you, gentlemen, to our Empire State, which last fall redeemed herself from Republican misrule by a majority of nearly fifty thousand votes, and which claims the right to lead the vanguard of victory in the great battle to be fought next November for the preservation of our institutions, our laws, and our liberties. It is a most auspicious omen that we meet under such circumstances, and are surrounded by such associations, and I share your own confident hope of the overwhelming success of the ticket, and the platform which will be the result of your deliberations. For it is to the American people that our appeal lies. Their final judgment will be just. The American people will no longer re- main deaf to the teachings of the past. They will remember that it was under successive Democratic administrations, based upon our national prin- ciples, the principles of Constitutional liberty, that our country rose to a pros- perity and greatness unsurpassed in the annals of history ; they will remember the days when North and South marched shoulder to shoulder together in the conquest of Mexico, which gave us our golden empire on the Pacific, our Cali- fornia and our Oregon, now the strongholds of a triumphant Democracy ; they will remember the days when peace and plenty reigned over the whole Union, when we had no national debt to crush the energies of the people, when the Federal tax-gatherer was unknown throughout the vast extent of the land, and when the credit of the United States stood as high in the money marts of the world as that of any other government ; and they will remem- ber, with a wise sorrow, that, with the downfall of the Democratic party, in i860, came that fearful civil war which has brought mourning and desolation into every household ; has cost the loss of a million of American citizens, and has left us with a national debt, the burden of which drains the resources, crip- 16 122 Speech at the New 'Fork Convention. pies the industry, and impoverishes the labor of the country. They will remember that, after the fratricidal strife was over, when the bravery of our army and navy and the sacrifices of the people had restored the Union, and vindicated the supremacy of the law, when the victor and the vanquished were equally ready to bury the past, and to hold out the hand of brotherhood and good-will across the graves of their fallen comrades, it was again the defeat of the Democratic candidates in i86:|. which prevented this consummation so devoutly wished for by all. Instead of restoring the Southern States to their Constitutional rights, instead of trying to wipe out the miseries of the past by a magnanimous policy, dictated alike by humanity and sound statesmanship, and so ardently prayed for bv the generous heart of the American people, the Radicals in Congress, elected in an evil hour, have placed the iron heel of the conqueror upon the South. Austria did not dare to fasten upon Hungary, nor Russia to impose upon conquered Poland, the ruthless tyranny now inflicted by Congress upon the Southern States. Military satraps are invested with dictatorial power, overriding the decisions of the courts, and assuming tne functions of the civil authorities, the whole population are disfranchised or forced to submit to test oaths alike revolting to justice and civilization; and a debased and ignorant race, just emerged from servitude, is raised into power to control the destinies of that fair portion of our common country. These men, elected to be legislators, and legislators only, trampling the Constitution under their feet, have usurped the functions of the executive and the judiciary, and it is impossible to doubt, after the events of the past few months, and the circumstances of the impeachment trial, that they will shrink from an attempt hereafter to subvert the Senate of the United States, which alone stood between them and their victim, and which had virtue enough left not to allow the American name to be utterly disgraced, and justice to be dragged in the dust. In order to carry out this nefarious programme, our army and navy are kept in times of profound peace on a scale which involves a yearly expen- diture of from one to two hundred millions, prevents the reduction of our national debt, and imposes upon our people a system of the most exorbitant and unequal taxation, with a vicious, irredeemable, and depreciated currency. And now this same party, which has brought all these evils upon the coun- try, comes again before the American people, asking for their suffrages. And whom has it chosen for its candidate ? The general commanding the armies of the United States. Can there be any doubt left as to the designs of. the Radicals, if they should be able to keep their hold on the reins of govern- ment ? They intend Congressional usurpation of all the branches and func- tions of the government, to be enforced by the bayonets of a military despot- ism. speech at the New fork Convention. 1 23 It is impossible that a free and intelligent people can longer submit to such a state of things. They will not calmly stand by to see their liberties subverted, the prosperity and greatness of their country undermined, and the institutions bequeathed to them by the fathers of the Republic wrested from them. They must see that the conservative and national principles of a liberal and progressive Democracy are the only safeguards of the Republic. Gentle- men of the Convention, your country looks to you to stay this tide of disor- ganization, violence, and despotism. It will not look in vain, when next November the roll shall be called, and when State after State shall respond, by rallying around the broad banner of Democracy, on which, in the future, as in the past, will be inscribed our undying motto, " The Union, the Consti- tution, and the Laws." INDEX. PAGE Preface 3 LETTERS. To John Forsyth 22 Nov., i860. 5 " Herschcl V. Johnson 12 " " 8 « Julius Izard Pringle 26 " " 9 " John C. Bradley a8 « " 10 « William Marten 3° " " " " Governor Wm. Sprague 6 Dec, " 12 a u a " 13 " " 14 (( u <( " 1 9 " " 16 " Thuilow Weed 19 " " '^ " John Forsyth 19 " " 19 " Hon. S. A. Douglas 26 " " 23 " '• John J. Crittenden 26 " " 24 " " Herschel V. Johnson 30 " " 25 " " S. A. Douglas 31 " " ^^ «' " Wm. H. Seward 17 Jan., 1861. 30 " Baron Lionel de Rothschild, M. P 21 May, " 32 u u « " " 28 " " 36 « Hon. Wm. H. Seward 29 " " 39 '< The Right Hon. Lord Dunfermline 3 June, " 40 " Hon. Wm. H. Seward 6 " " 45 " N. M. Rothschild & Sons 7 " " 47 « 11 " '< II " " 49 <' Hon. S. P. Chase 18 " " 5^ " Bavon James de Rothschild 18 " " 53 « " Lionel de Rothschild 18 " " 55 " Hon. Wm. H. Seward 24 " " 56 « " S.P.Chase 24 " " 57 " Baron James de Rothschild ... 25 " " 61 " Hon. Wm. H. Sewaid 3° J"ly- " ^3 « Thurlow Weed ^o " 1862. 66 « President A. Lincoln 10 Aug., " 71 " Baron Lionel de Rothschild, M. P 25 Nov., " 73 «< Colonel E. G. W. Butler 6 Dec, " 75 1 26 Index. PAGE To Baron Lionel de Rothschild, M. P 3 April. 1863. 77 " «' " <' «' , 14 " " yo " Lord Rokeby, Lieutenant-General, B. A 7 May, " 83 " Hon. Wm. H. Seward 18 " « 87 " " " " 6 Jaly, " 88 <' " " «' 20 " " 89 " «' " " 29 Nov., " 91 SPEECHES. At Jones' Wood 12 Sept , i860. 97 " Cooper Institute 4 Nov., " 98 To First N. y. R.egiment of Rifles 15 May, 1861. 100 At Tammany Hall 4 July, 1862. 101 To Union Meeting, Newport, R. \. (Letter) 9 Aug., " 102 At Newport, R.I Sept., " 10+ " Chicago Convention 29 Aug., 1864. 108 " New York Ratification Meeting 17 Sept., " no " Coojfer Institute 2 Nov., " 113 " New York Convention 4 Jul)- 1868. 121 31^-77-2