451 
 
Book ,/y ^4( ^ 
 
REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS 
 
 OOJIN^OTED WITH THE 
 
 CxREAT UNION MEETING. 
 
 HELD AT THB 
 
 l^cahmji 0f Slusit, 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 DECEMBER 19th, 1859 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 DAYIES & ROBEETS, PRINTERS, 
 
 113 NASSAU STREET. 
 1859. 
 

 SiaJs 
 
 'i*i 
 
J 
 
 s 
 
 THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 
 
 JUSTICE AND FRATERNITY. 
 
 The undersigned, regarding witli just abhorrence tlie 
 crimes of John Brown -a^nd his confederates, desire to 
 unite with our fellows-citizens of New York and vicinity 
 in a public and formal denunciation of that and all sim- 
 ilar outrages, and to declare our unalterable purpose to 
 stand by the Constitution in all its parts, as interpreted 
 by the Supreme Court of the United States ; and we 
 hereby denounce as unpatriotic and untrue, revolution- 
 ary and dangerous, the idea of an irrepressible conflict 
 existing between the two great sections of our beloved 
 Union. On the contrary, we maintain that the North 
 and South were created for each other ; that there is a 
 natural and necessary affinity between them, by parent- 
 age, history, religion, language, and geographical posi- 
 tion ; and that even their different climates, and differ- 
 ent forms of industry, add strength to this bond of 
 union, by enabling them to supply each other's wants. 
 And we hereby solemnly pledge ourselves, from this 
 
 I 
 
hour, by our influence, our example, our votes, and by 
 every other proper means, to discountenance and op- 
 pose SECTioisTALisir in all its forms. Those of our fellow- 
 citizens who share these sentiments with us, are re- 
 quested to join us in a public expression of the same, 
 at such time and place as shall be designated by this 
 Committee. 
 
 In compliance with the above request, which has re- 
 ceived the signatures of nearly twenty thousand per- 
 sons, a Public Meeting will be held on Monday evening, 
 December 19 th, at the Academy of Music, Fourteenth 
 Street, at seven o'clock. 
 
 His Honor Daotel F. Tiema:ntt, l^Iayor of the City, 
 will preside. 
 
 Committee* 
 
 .JAMES W. BEEKMAN, WM. IT. APPLETON, 
 
 GERARD HALLOCK, JAMES T. SOUTTER, 
 
 JOSHUA J. HENRY, JOHN J. ASTOR, Jr., 
 
 E. E. MORGAN, MATTHEW MORGAN, 
 
 HENRY GRINNELL, S. L. M. BARLOW, 
 
 WATTS SHERMAN, WILSON G. HUNT, 
 
 B. M. WHITLOCK, JAMES BROOKS, 
 ALEX. T. STEWART. 
 
 New York, Decemhfr IStk, 1859. 
 
New York, 20th December, 1859. 
 
 The undersigned, being desirous of circulating, as widely as 
 
 possible, both at the North and at tlie South, the proceedings 
 
 of the Union Meeting held at the xicadeniy of Music, last 
 
 evening, intend publishing, in pamphlet form, for distribution, 
 
 a correct copy of the same. 
 
 Will you be so kind as to inform us whether this step meets 
 your approval ; and, if so, lurnish us vath a corrected report 
 of the speech delivered by you on that occasion. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 LEITCIi, BURNET & CO., 
 GEO. ^Y. & JEIIIAL EEAD, 
 BRUFF, BROTHER & SEAYER, 
 C. B. HATCH & CO., 
 DAYIS, NOBLE & CO., 
 
 (FOEMEKLY FUKMAIT, DAVIS & CO.), 
 
 V^ESSON & COX, 
 
 CRONIN, HURXTHAL & SEARS, 
 
 ATWATER, MULFORD & Co. 
 
 New York, Dec. 20, 18S9. 
 
 Gentlemen— The measure you propose meets my entire approval. 
 
 I have long thought that our disputes concerning negro slavery would 
 soon terminate if the public mind could be drawn to the true issue, and 
 steadily fixed upon it. To effect this object was the sole aim of my address. 
 
 Though its ministers can never permit the law of the land to be ques- 
 tioned by private judgment, there is, nevertheless, such a thing as natu- 
 ral justice. Natural justice has the Divine sanciion ; and it is impossible 
 that any human law which conflicts with it should long endure. 
 
 Where mental enlightenment abounds, where morality is professed by all, 
 where the mind is free, speech is free, and the press is free, is it possible, in 
 the nature of things, that a law which is admitted to conflict with natural 
 justice, and with God's own mandate, should long endure ? 
 
6 
 
 Yet all will admit that, within certain limits, at least, our Constitution 
 does contain positive guaranties for the preservation of negro slavery in the 
 old States through all time, unless the local legislatures shall think fit to 
 abolish it. And, consequently, if negro slavery, however humanely ad- 
 ministered or judiciously regulated, be an institution which conflicts with 
 natural justice and with God's law, surely the most vehement and extreme 
 admirers of John Brown's sentiments are right; and their denunciations 
 against the Constitution, and against the most hallowed names connected 
 with it, are perfectly justifiable. 
 
 The friends of truth — the patriotic Americans who would sustain their 
 country's honor against foreign rivalry, and defend their country's interests 
 against all assailants, err greatly when they contend with these men on any 
 point but one. Their general principles can not be refuted; their logic is 
 irresistible; the error, if any there be, is in their premises. They assert 
 that negro slavery is unjust. This, and this alone, of all they say, is capa- 
 ble of being fairly argued against. 
 
 If this proposition can not be refuted, our Union can not endure, and it 
 ought not to endure. 
 
 Our negro bondmen can neither be exterminated nor transported to Africa. 
 They are too numerous for either process, and either, if practicable, would 
 involve a violation of humanity. If they were emancipated, they would 
 relapse into barbarism, or a set of negro States would arise in our midst 
 possessing political equality, and entitled to social equality. The division 
 of parties would soon make the negro members a powerful body in Congress 
 — would place some of them in high political stations, and occasionally let 
 one into the Executive chair. 
 
 It is vain to say that this could be endured ; it is simply impossible. 
 
 What, then, remains to be discussed ? 
 
 The negro race is upon us. With a Constitution which holds them in 
 bondage, our federal Union might be preserved ; but if so holding them in 
 bondage be a thing forbidden by God and Nature, we can not lawfully so hold 
 them, and the Union must perish. 
 
 This is the inevitable result of that conflict which has now reached its 
 climax. 
 
 Amongst us at the North, the sole question for reflection, study, and friendly 
 interchange of thought, should be — is negro slavery unjust ? The rational 
 and dispassionate inquirer will find no difficulty in arriving at my conclu- 
 sion. It is fit and proper; it is, in its own nature, as an institution, benefi- 
 cial to both races ; and the effect of this assertion is not diminished by our 
 admitting that many faults are practiced under it. Is not such the fact in 
 respect to all human laws and institutions? I am. gentlemen, with great 
 respect, yours truly, CHARLES OCONOR. 
 
 To Messrs. Leitch, RuRNi:rk Co.; George W. & Jehial Read; Bruff. 
 Brother & Seaver : C B. H.\^tch & Co.; Davis, Noble & Co.: Wesson 
 ^: Cox . Cronin, Hurxthal & Sears ; Atwater. Mulford & Co. 
 
New Yokk, 2Ut December; 1869. 
 Gentlemen — I have received your favor of yesterday. Fully appreci- 
 ating your anxiety to disseminate widely the proceedings of the Union Meet- 
 ing at the Academy of Music, it will afford me great pleasure to furnish 
 you with a correct copy of my speech. I will do so as soon as I can com- 
 pare the reports in the principal morning papers of yesterday. 
 
 T am respectfully yours, JOHN A. DIX. 
 
 Messrs. Leitch. Burnet & Co.. and others. 
 
 Clarendon Hotel, New Toek, Der. 2?, 1859. 
 Gentlemen — In compliance with your wishes, I now inclose a copy of 
 my speech, delivered in the Union Meeting at the Academy of Music, as re- 
 ported for the New York Express, having rectified such slight typographical 
 errors as seem to require correction. , 
 
 Hoping that the emphatic expression of ihe National and Conservative 
 feeling of this city may exert a salutary influence upon the public mind in 
 all parts of the Union, I remain, gentlemen, 
 
 Very respectfully and truly yours, 
 
 WASHINGTON HUNT. 
 Messrs. Leitch, Burnet & Co.. Geo. W. and Jehial Re.\d, and others. 
 
 New Toek, December 21, 1859. 
 Gentlemen — In reply to your letter, I answer that the Express. Herald. 
 and Journal of Commerce of yesterday each contains a correct and accurate 
 report of my speech at the Union Meeting on Monday last. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 JAMES S. THAYER. 
 Messrs. Leitch. Burnet & Co., and others. 
 
 Office of the New Yoek Express, 1.3 and 15 Park Eow, I 
 December 21, 1859. j 
 
 Gentlemen — Herewith is inclosed a correct copy of my few remarks. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 JAMES BROOKS 
 Leitch. Burnet & Co., and others. 
 
THE MEETING. 
 
 I 
 
 TuE Meeting thus called, was held on Monday evening, 
 19th December, and resulted in the largest and most enthusi- 
 astic assemblage ever congregated upon this continent.^ 
 
 Shortly after seven o'clock— the house being then filled to 
 its utmost capacity— James W. Beekman, Esq., Chairman of 
 the Executive Committee, stepped forward, amid applause, 
 and said : 
 
 Fellow-Citizens— We are assembled to-night in obedience 
 to a call which I will now read. He then read the call, which 
 was received with tremendous cheering. 
 
 Mr. Beekman then nominated Mayor Tiemanu as Chairman 
 of the Meeting. The nomination was confirmed with unani- 
 mous applause. 
 
 Mayor Tiemann came forward amid a storm of plaudits, and 
 addressed the vast assemblage as follows : 
 
 SPEECH OF THE MAYOR. 
 
 Gentlemen— I thank you for the honor you have conferred 
 upon me in calling me to preside over this great meeting of 
 the citizens of New York, to express their devotion to the 
 Union, and their firm adherence to the principles and compro- 
 mises of the Constitution under which all sections of our coun- 
 try have so happily prospered since its adoption. New York 
 has ever been a Union-loving city ; she has ever stood by it, 
 and I believe she would sacrifice any interest to perpetuate 
 
10 
 
 that glorious bond which has for so long a period joined to- 
 gether the different States of our confederacy. As a New 
 Yorker, I am proud of this. I am proud of the Union, and 
 should deplore the event as a calamity to the world which 
 should be the means of dissevering it ; as an American, I 
 know no North — no South — no East — no West, when the 
 Union is in danger. I believe in carrying out all the compro- 
 mises of the Constitution, and of dealing justly with every 
 section of our country. 
 
 Tlie South, as well as the North, the West, as well as the 
 East, have their rights ; and we should be as ready to yield 
 to our brethren of those sections of our country in matters of 
 right and interest, as we are to claim such for ourselves. 
 
 The cry of disunion, come from whatever quarter it may, is 
 to be deplored by every true friend of this country ; and I be- 
 lieve is never raised except by political demagogues or selfish 
 politicians. I am as much an American of the South as I am 
 of the North, and every American who has the good of his 
 country and the perpetuity of the Union at heart, should feel 
 with Andrew Jackson, when he said, "The Union must and 
 shall be preserved." 
 
 The following prayer was then offered by the Eev. Dr. 
 Vekmilye : 
 
 Almighty, ever-living, and ever-blessed God, we adore Thee as the author 
 of life, and of all the bounties we enjoy. Thou art acquainted with all our 
 ways. We adore Thee for the arrangement of Thy providence, by which 
 Thou hast constituted civil society in this world. We bless Thee, O God, 
 for all the kindness Thou hast manifested toward us as a people, in this 
 respect, in the days that are past. O God, we have heard with our ears, 
 our lathers have told us what Thou didst in their days, in times of old ; how 
 Thou didst drive out the heathen that offended Thee. We bless Thee that 
 throughout the whole course of our history in this land. Thy kind providence 
 has been conspicuous, constantly leading our people from day to day. from 
 year to year; surrounding us with the bounties of Thy providence, in the 
 riches of the earth ; giving to us institutions that are calculated to develop this 
 ,land, and bring forth a people who shall stand before all the nations of the 
 earth free, enjoying constitutionnl liberty, worshiping God according to the 
 dictates of their own consciences, and in communion one with another, com- 
 ing forward to higher and higher degrees of civilization. We thank Thee, 
 O God, that Thou hast shown Thy favor to this people, and we look to Thee 
 for the time to come that these same blessings may rest upon us. Oh. wilt 
 
11 
 
 Thou grant that at present (A Voice, " Louder" — smothered laughter), 
 while commotion and agitation are found in the minds of the people in various 
 sections of the land, that Thy kind care may still be over us — that care which 
 Thou didst manifest toward our fathers in the darkest hours of Revolutionary 
 trial, while the Constitution was about being formed, and through all the 
 periods in their past history. We humbly beseech Thee, gracious God, to 
 rebuke any spirit of discord, of violence, of strife, in any portion of our land. 
 Grant, we pray Thee, O God, that all fanaticism North or South, East or 
 West, may subside, and that this people maj' too highly prize the blessings 
 of civil and religious liberty with which God has blessed them, to jeopard 
 them at any moment, or for any vain, idle, or unattainable good. We pray 
 that we may go forth from year to year in the accomplishment of the great 
 purposes of Thy providence, so that the world may be blessed by the ex- 
 ample of a people walking in the enjoyment of free institutions, and honoring 
 God in their religious services. We pray, great God, that thou wouldst mer- 
 cifully look upon the Southern section of this country, and bless our Southern 
 brethren in the midst of the trials to which they are exposed. God grant 
 that His care may be about them, and may the feeling of brotherly accord 
 arise again between the different portions of the Union, and become stronger 
 and stronger than ever it has been in the days that are past. We beseech 
 Thee, great God, to bless those who are in authority over us, in the highest 
 and in the lowest stations, both in the general and in the State governments. 
 Bless Thy servant the President of these United States, and his Cabinet, and 
 grant them wisdom from above to direct them in all the responsible duties that 
 devolve upon them. Bless the Congress at this time assembled, we pray 
 thee, and do Thou grant, O God, that passion may be subdued, and all agita- 
 tion may subside, and under the feeling that we may confide as brethren, one 
 in another, may they go on to the accomplishment of the services for which 
 they have been appointed. We pray Thee, infinitely holy and sovereign God, 
 that the shelter of Thy protection may still be over this nation ; that every one 
 *'n authority, in the highest and lowest stations, maybe taught of God and up- 
 held by him ; that the people may all realize the I'esponsibility which rests 
 upon them to preserve the institutions which have come down to us from our 
 fathers — institutions such as bless no other nation on the face of the globe ; 
 and so may we go on to hand down to coming generations these same bless- 
 ings, that for all time to come the people of this continent and of this nation may 
 be free and happy, prosperous in the enjoyment of civil liberty — prosperous 
 and blessed in the enjoyment of their religious liberties. The Lord preside 
 in the meeting this evening. Grant that they who are to speak may be 
 directed from above, and that the whole tendency and result of this meeting 
 may be such as to satisfy the minds of the people North and South, through- 
 out the whole extent of our land, that we are determined, God helping, to 
 maintaia"the unity that subsiots among us ; God helping, to preserve these 
 institutions for coming time. Hear iind accept, oh, thou infinite God ! bless 
 this people as Thou linst blessed them in time past, and unto the Father, the 
 Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, we will render praise for ever and ever- 
 more. Amen. 
 
12 
 
 A list was then submitted of 232 Vice-Presidents, and 27 
 Secretaries, among wlioni were the following : 
 
 WM. H. ASPINWALL, OSCAR CFIEESEMAN, F. S. LATHROP, 
 
 WM. B. ASTOR, TOWNSEND COX, CHAS. O'CONOR, 
 
 JAMES W. BEEKMAN, JOHN A. DIX, GEO. W. READ, 
 
 AUGUSTE BELMONT, HENRY GRINNELL, A. T. STEWART, 
 
 II. 0. BLIEWER, G. B. HATCH, JAMES S. THAYER, 
 
 JOHN H. BROWER. J. J. HENRY, JOHN VAN BUREN, 
 
 JAMES BROOKS, LUGLUS S. HOPKINS, B. M. WHITLOCK, 
 
 RICHARD B. BRUFF, WILSON G. HUNT, 
 
 who were all chosen with unanimous applause. 
 
 Mr. J. J. Henry then announced the receipt of letters from 
 the following distinguished gentlemen : Ex.-Pres. V.\n Bueen, 
 Ex.-Pres. Fillmore, Ex.-Pres. Pierce, Hon. Dan. S. Uickin- 
 soN, Hon. George Briggs, Hon. I). D. Barnard, and Lieut.- 
 Gen. WiNFiELD Scott. 
 
 Mr. James Brooks was introduced, and said : Mr. Mayor and 
 gentlemen, I am authorized hy the Committee of Arrangements 
 to report the following resolutions : 
 
 Preaiiible and Resolutions adopted at the Union Meeting at 
 the New Yorh Academy of Music, December 19, 1859. 
 
 PREAMBLE. 
 
 Whereas, The People of the United States, " in order to form 
 a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure Domestic Tran- 
 quillity," etc., etc., as set forth in the Preamble of the Consti- 
 tution for the United States, have ordained a Government of 
 non-slaveholding and of slaveholding States : and, whereas, 
 the Government is a Government of compromises and conces- 
 sions — 
 
 1st. In the clause of the Constitution (Art. 1, Sec. 2) recognizing slaves as 
 persons to be represented by their masters, and as property to be taxed upon 
 these masters ; 
 
 2d. la the clause (Art. 1, Sec 8), that Congress shall have power to sup- 
 press insurrections ; 
 
 3d. (Art. 1, Sec. 9.) In prohibiting Congress to suppress the Slave Trade 
 prior to 1808, and in giving Congress the power to impose a tax or duty upon 
 each slave imported before that time, not exceeding ten dollars for each 
 slave ; 
 
 4th. In the clause (Art. 4, Sec. 2), to deliver up, on claim of the party to 
 
13 
 
 whom skve service may be due, the person or slave helu to such service or 
 
 labor; _ t • i 
 
 5th. In the clause (Art. 4, Sec. 4), upon the application of any Leg.sln- 
 ture or Executive of a State, to protect said State against domestic violence ; 
 
 And W/iereas, The Federal Government bus, from its origin, 
 been administered by the Executive, by Congress, and by the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, not only in the letter, but 
 in the spirit of these compacts— 
 
 1st Before and after the old Confederation, in the division of the then 
 unsettled Territories, by declaring all North of the Ohio to be non-slnvehold- 
 ing, and all South of the Ohio to be slavebolding. 
 
 2d. In the Ordinance, July 13, 1787, making free the territory now Ohio, 
 Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, but providing therein, also, for the surrender 
 
 of fugitive slaves. i tt • 
 
 3d. In the acts, President Washington approving, admitting mto the Union 
 the Territory of Kentucky, slavebolding, then the property of Virginia ; and 
 afterward the Territory of Frankland, slaveholdinj, now Tennessee, then the 
 property of North Carolina. 
 
 4th. In the Ordinance, April 7, 1798, John Adams approving, organizing 
 the Mississippi Territory, then belonging to Georgia, now Alabama and Mis- 
 sissippi, in which was especially excepted therefrom the anti-Slavory cause 
 of the Northwestern Territory, in these words : 
 
 " Excepting and Excluding the last article of the Ordinance of 1787." 
 
 5th. In the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, George Washington approving, 
 which passed the Senate unanimously, and the House, ayes 48, noes 7. 
 
 6th. In the purchase of Louisiana (President Jefferson approving), all that 
 vast region West of the Mississippi, stretching to the Pacific Ocean, and to 
 the British Possessions ; all of which was under the laws of Spain or France, 
 slaveholding, and larger in extent at that time than the whole United States. 
 
 7th. In the Treaty of 1783 (9th article), providing against the deportation 
 of slaves, with the official correspondence of Wasiiington, Randolph, Gov- 
 erneur Morris, and John Jay thereon. 
 
 8th. In the Judiciary Act, 1789 (34th section), adopting the constitutiona 
 laws of the several States which recognize slaves as property as well as 
 
 persons. 
 
 9th. In the act enumerating slaves for the purpose of direct taxation, espe- 
 cially the act of 1813, James Madison approving, which assessed taxes upon 
 the land, dwelling-houses, and slaves, at the v:due each of them was worth 
 
 in money. . . 
 
 10th. In the Treaty of Ghent (1814), under which, from Great Britain, 
 our Government received 3fl,200,000, and paid it over to the ownf^rs of de- 
 ported slaves. 
 
 nth. In the purchase of Florida, in 1819, a slaveholding Territory, from 
 
 Spain. 
 
14 
 
 12th. In the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, of the 
 constitutionality of the act of 1793, in Priggs' case, and of the like act of 
 1850, in every case, before any of the high courts, Federal or State, unless 
 in one State Court in Wisconsin — and in divers other decisions upon Laws, 
 Ordinances, and Treaties. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Theeefore, Be it Kesolved, That the Union thus formed, 
 constituting, as it does, the closest, most delicate, and import- 
 ant relation that can exist between communities of people, de- 
 mands from each part a warm and earnest consideration for 
 the safety, prosperity, and happiness of the other ; and that 
 whatever policy tends to subvert these ends, is hostile to the 
 true spirit of the compact. 
 
 That the Constitution, the Treaties, the Laws of the United 
 States, and the judicial decisions thereupon, recognize the in- 
 stitution of slavery, as legally existing ; and that it is our duty, 
 as good citizens of a common government, in good faith to 
 stand by that Constitution, those Treaties, those Laws, and the 
 decisions of that final arbiter of all disputed points, the Siipreme 
 Court of the United States. 
 
 That inasmuch as the proceedings of the Convention which 
 framed the Constitution were brought to a stand, as appears 
 by the declaration of Roger Sherman, one of its most distin- 
 guished authors, until a compromise was agreed to, on the 
 various propositions relating to Domestic Slavery, which com- 
 promise embraced — 
 
 A restriction on the power to prevent the importation of slaves prior to 
 1808. 
 
 A provision binding on each State, and upon the Union, to surrender f'jgi- 
 tives from service. 
 
 A representation in Congress, founded in part on three fifths of the slave 
 population. 
 
 And a guarantee to protect each State against domestic insurrection. 
 
 Thus providing, under the Constitution, for the introduction 
 of slaves for a limited period, and for the protection of the sys- 
 tem. Therefore 
 
 It is the duty of every citizen and State sharing in the great 
 blessings of that instrument, faithfully to fulfill these obliga- 
 tions. 
 
 That we protest against and denounce, as contrary to the 
 
15 
 
 plighted faith on which the Constitution was established, all 
 acts, or inflammatory appeals, which intend, or tend, to make 
 this Union less perfect, or to jeopard or disturb its Domestic 
 Tranquillity, or to mar the spirit of harmony, compromise, and 
 concession upon which the Union was formed by our Fathers, 
 whose records we have cited, and whose legacies we have, in 
 these compacts, laws, and adjudications. 
 
 That we regard the recent outrage at Harper's Ferry as a 
 crime, not only against the State of Virginia, but against the 
 Union itself; and we approve of the firmness by which the 
 treason has been dnlj' punished. 
 
 That, in our opinion, the subject of slavery has been too long 
 mingled with party politics, and as the result^ has been the 
 creation of sectional parties, contrary to the advice, letter, and 
 spirit of the Farewell Address of the Father of our common 
 country— that, therefore, it is the duty of Planters, Farmers, 
 Manufacturers, Merchants, Mechanics, and of every Citizen, 
 North and South, East and West, to discountenance all parties 
 and organizations that thus violate the spirit of the Constitu- 
 tion and the advice of Washington. 
 
 The Eesolutions were unanimously adopted. 
 
 REMARKS OF ME. BKOOKS. 
 
 And now, Mr. Mayor and gentlemen, the duty devolved upon 
 me as the organ of the Committee of Arrangements is exe- 
 cuted, but I have some few words to add upon my own 
 responsibility. There are those who tell us— and they are 
 many—" All this is well, very well ; but there is a law higher 
 than the Constitution, and in conflict with that Constitution, 
 which conscience forbids us to obey." Such are the men who 
 have broken up our missionary stations, thrown the apple of 
 discord into tract societies, and rent the Church of God in 
 twain. If they are right, Constitutions, Compacts, Laws, all 
 are wrong. 
 
 This is not the place, this is not the hour, for theology ; but 
 a word or two are necessary, in my judgment, to make the 
 argument complete. 
 
 When our Saviour was on earth. He was a subject of that 
 vast slaveholding Eoman Empire, which stretched from the 
 Euphrates in the East, beyond the Pillars of Hercules in the 
 
16 
 
 West, and sixty millions of slaves, it is estimated, were in that 
 Empire. Hence, when Ilis eves first opened on pleasant 
 Bethlehem, His feet trod on the shores of Galilee, or on the 
 plain of Jericho, to he baptized in the Jordan, slaves mnst 
 liave ministered, if not unto Ilim and His disciples, unto all 
 about Him. And when, on the Mount of Olives, His foot 
 was la-t printed upon that rock whicli tradition or superstition 
 now shows, as ascending into heaven, His eyes, as they over- 
 looked the great city of Jerusalem, and glanced from the 
 mountains of Moab to the vale of Sharon, must have rested 
 upon thousands and tens of thousands of slaves. Judea, 
 where he was born — Galilee, where He lived — Egypt, that He 
 visited — each and all were slaveholding states. And Abraham, 
 and Isaac, and Jacob, the Fathers and Patriarchs, were hold- 
 ers of bondmen and of bondwomen. And now, if there be in 
 the Holy Bible any such denunciations of slavery or of slave- 
 holders as we daily hear from men calling themselves the 
 servants of God, they are not in King James's or the Douay 
 version of the Bible. (Great cheering.) 
 
 Far be it from me, Mr. Mayor, to speak irreverently of the 
 ministers of God. I respect their high and holy calling. I 
 bow down in humble reverence before their august mission. 
 W'hen first we open our infant eyes in our mother's arms, the 
 man of God takes us to the baptismal font, and there conse- 
 crates us to Heaven ; when, in the full flush of youth, our 
 hearts beat with love, he ties the nuptial knot, and blesses 
 us, with the partner of our bosom, on our voyage of life ; and 
 when that voyage is over, and, on the death-bed, wife, children, 
 all, have given us up, and the spirit is parting from its frail 
 tenement "of clay, our eyes last rest upon him, interceding for 
 us before the throne of Heaven. But, oh, ye Scribes and 
 Pharisees (tremendous applause), who rail against us, publi- 
 cans and sinners, who rail not as ye rail ! Ye men of Sharpe's 
 rifles and Bowie-knife pikes ! Ye Beechers and ye Cheevers 
 (fearful applause), wiser and better than our Saviour when on 
 earth, go ye with your new version of the Bible into all the 
 world, and shoot your gospel into every living creature. (Wild 
 laughter, and prolonged applause.) 
 
 The Bible, then, is not in conflict with the Constitution. I 
 move the adoption of the Kesolutions. (Tliree cheers and a tiger.) 
 
11 
 
 The President then introduced Charles O'Conor, Esq., who 
 addressed the meeting as follows : 
 
 SPEECH OF MR. CHARLES Q-CONOR. 
 
 Mr. Charles O'Conor was received with loud applause. He 
 said : Fellow-Citizens, I can not express to you the delight which 
 I experience in heholding in this great city so vast an assembly of 
 my fellow-citizens, convened for the purpose stated in your Resolu- 
 tions. (Voices— " Louder ! louder!") 
 
 It may be proper to say, gentlemen, that I can not speak any 
 louder than I do at this instant ; and if it be not equal to your de- 
 sires, I can only cease to employ my feeble voice. (Cries of " Go 
 on ! go on !") I am delighted, gentlemen, beyond measure, to be- 
 hold at this time so vast an assembly of my fellow-citizens, re- 
 sponding to the call of a body so respectable as the twenty-thou- 
 sand New Yorkers who have convened this meeting. If anything 
 can give assurance to those who doubt, and confidence to those who 
 may have had misgivings as to the permanency of our institutions, 
 and the solidity of the support which the people of the North are 
 prepared to give them, it is that in the Queen City of the New 
 World— the capital of North America— there is assembled a meet- 
 ing so large, so respectable, and so unanimous as this meeting has 
 shown itself to be in receiving sentiments, which, if observed, must 
 protect our Union from destruction, and even from danger. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 Gentlemen, is it not a subject of astonishment that the idea of 
 danger, and the still more dreadful idea of dissolution, should be 
 heard from the lips of an American citizen at this day, in reference 
 to, or in connection with, the sacred name of this most sacred 
 Union? (Applause.) Why, gentlemen, what is our Union? 
 What are its antecedents ? What is its present condition ? If we 
 ward oflF the evils which threaten it, what is its future hope to us 
 and to the great family of mankind ? Why, gentlemen, it may well 
 be said of this Union, as a Government, that as it is Time's last 
 offspring, so is it Time's most glorious and beneficent production. 
 (Loud applause.) 
 
 Gentlemen, we were created by an Omniscient Being ; we were 
 created by a Being not only all-seeing and all-powerful, but all- 
 wise ; and yet in the benignity and the far-seeing wisdom of His 
 power, He permitted the great family of mankind to live on, to ad- 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 vance, to improve step by step, five thousand years and upwards, 
 before He laid the foundation of a truly free, a truly happy, a truly 
 independent empire. It was not, gentlemen, until that great length 
 of time had elapsed, that the earth was deemed mature for laying 
 the foundation of this mighty and prosperous State. It was then 
 that the inspired, the noble-minded, and chivalrous Genoese set 
 forth upon the trackless ocean, and discovered the region we now 
 enjoy. But a few years, comparatively, elapsed, when there was 
 raised up in this blessed land a set of men whose like had never 
 existed upon the face of this earth — men, unequalcd in their per- 
 ception of the true principles of justice, in their comprehensive be- 
 nevolence, in their capacity to lay, safely, justly, soundly, and with 
 all the qualities which should insure permanency, the foundations 
 of an empire. (Loud cheers.) It was in this country, in 1776, 
 that was seen the first assembly of rational men, who ever pro- 
 claimed, in clear and undeniable form, the immutable principles of 
 justice, and consecrated, I trust, to ail time, in the face of tyrants, 
 and in opposition to their power, the rights of nations and the 
 rights of men. (Applause.) Those patriots, as soon as the storm 
 of war had passed away, sat down and framed that instrument on 
 which our Union rests — the Constitution of the United States of 
 America. (Loud applause.) The question, gentlemen, now before 
 us, is neither more or less than simply this : whether that Consti- 
 tution, consecrated by the blood shed in our glorious Revolution, 
 consecrated by the signature of the most illustrious man who ever 
 lived— George Washington— (applause)— whether that instrument, 
 accepted by the wisest and best of that day, and accepted in Con- 
 vention, one by one, in each and every State of this Union — that 
 instrument from which so many blessings have flown— whether that 
 instrument was conceived in crime — is a chapter of abominations — 
 (cries of " No, no !") — is a violation of justice — is a league between 
 strong-handed but wicked-hearted white men, to oppress, impover- 
 ish, and plunder their fellow- creatures, contrary to rectitude, honor, 
 and justice. (Loud applause.) That is the question, neither more 
 nor less. We are told from pulpits— we are told upon the political 
 rostrum — we are told in the legislative assemblies of our Northern 
 States — not merely by single speakers, but by distinct resolutions 
 of the whole body — we are told by gentlemen occupying seats in 
 the Congress of the Union through the votes of Northern people, 
 that the Constitution seeks to enshrine, to protect, to defend a 
 
19 
 
 monstrous crime against justice and humanity, and that it is our 
 duty to defeat its provisions, to outwit them if we can not other- 
 wise get rid of their eJfect, and thereby to trample upon the priv- 
 ileges which it has declared shall be protected and insured to our 
 brethren of the South. (Applause.) That is the doctrine now 
 advocated, gentlemen ; and I ask whether that doctrine, necessarily 
 involving the destruction of our Union, shall be permitted to pre- 
 vail as it has hitherto prevailed. (Applause.) 
 
 Gentlemen, I trust you will excuse me for deliberately coming 
 up to and meeting this question ; not seeking to captivate your 
 fancies by a trick of words — not seeking to exalt your imaginations 
 by declamation or any effort at eloquence — but meeting this ques- 
 tion gravely, sedately, and soberly, and asking you M'hat is to be 
 our course in relation to it. 
 
 Gentlemen, the Constitution guarantees to the people of the 
 Southern States the protection of their slave property. In that 
 respect it is a solemn compact between the North and South. As 
 a solemn compact, are we at liberty to violate it? (Cries of " No, 
 no.") Are we at liberty to seek or take any mean and petty 
 advantage of it? (Cries of "No, no, we're not!") Are we at 
 liberty to con over its particular words, and to restrict and limit 
 its operation, so as to acquire, under such narrow construction, a 
 pretense of right, by hostile and adverse legislation, to interfere 
 ■with the interests, wound the feelings, and trample on the political 
 rights of our Southern fellow-citizens? ("No, no, no!" from a 
 thousand voices.) No, gentlemen. If it be a compact, and has. 
 anything sacred in it, we are bound to observe it in good faith — 
 honestly, honorably — not merely to the letter, but fully to the 
 spirit, and not in any mincing, half-way, unfair, or illiberal con- 
 struction, seeking to satisfy the letter, and to give as little as we 
 can, and to defeat the spirit. (Applause.) That may be the way 
 some men keep contracts about the sale of a house or a chattel, 
 but it is not the way that honest men observe contracts, even in 
 relation to the most trivial things. (Cries of " No," and applause.) 
 
 A most pernicious course has been pui'sued at the Norths tend- 
 ing fatally to disturb the harmony which should exist between the 
 North and the South, and to break dov.n and destroy the union ex- 
 isting between these States. 
 
 At an early pei'iod the subject of Slavery, as a merely philo- 
 sophical question, was discussed by many, and its justice or injus- 
 
20 
 
 tice made the subject of argument leading to a variety of opinions. 
 It mattered little how long this discussion should last, while con- 
 fined within such limits. If it had only led to the formation of 
 societies, like the Shakers, who do not believe in matrimony ; or 
 like the people of Utah, destined to a short career, who believe in 
 too much of it (laughter) ; or like the strong-minded women of our 
 country, who believe that women are mucli better qualified than 
 men to perform the functions and ofiices usually performed by men 
 (cheers and laughter), and who, probably, if they had their way, 
 would simply change the order of proceedings, and transfer the 
 husbands to the kitchen and themselves to the labors of the field 
 (continued laughter) ; so long, I say, gentlemen, as this sentimen- 
 tality touching Slavery confined itself to the formation of little 
 parties or societies of this description, it certainly could do no 
 harm, and wc might satisfy ourselves with the maxim, that " error 
 can do little harm as long as reason is left free to combat it." 
 (Applause.) But, gentlemen, this sentimentality has found its way 
 out of the meeting-houses, out of the assemblies of speculative 
 philosophers, or societies formed to benefit the inhabitants of 
 Borioboola-gha. (Laughter and cheers.) It has found its way into 
 the heart of the selfish politician ; it has been made the war-cry 
 of party ; it has been made an instrument whereby to elevate, not 
 merely to personal distinction and social rank, but to political 
 power. Throughout the non-slaveholding States of this Union 
 men have been thus elevated who advocate a course of conduct 
 necessarily exasperating to the South, and the natural cff'ect of 
 whose teachings renders the Southern people insecure in their lives 
 and their property, making it a matter of doubt each night whether 
 they can safely retire to their slumbers without sentries and guards 
 to protect them against incursions fi'om the North. I say the 
 effect has been to elevate, on the strength of this sentiment, such 
 men to power. And what is the result — the condition of things at 
 this day ? Why, gentlemen, the occasion that calls us together is 
 the occurrence of an assault upon the State of Virginia by a set of 
 misguided followers of these doctrines, with arms in their hands, 
 bent upon rapine and murder. I call them followers ; they should 
 be deemed leaders, for they are the best, the bravest, the most 
 virtuous of the whole Abolition Party. (Cheers, and cries of 
 " That's so!") Arrayed on the Lord's Day, at the hour of still 
 repose, with pikes brought from the North, they armed the bond- 
 
21 
 
 man to slay his master, his master's wife, and his master's little 
 children. (Groans.) That is the occasion that calls us together. 
 And immediately succeeding it— at tliis very instant— what*' do we 
 find to be the pending political question in Congress ? A book 
 encouraging the same general course of persecution against the 
 South that has been long pursued, has been openly recommended 
 to circulation by sixty-eight members of your Congress. (Cries 
 of " Shame ! shame !") Recommended to circulation by sixty- 
 eight members of your Congress, elected from the Northern States. 
 (Renewed cries of "Shame!" and "We'll put them out!") 
 Everyone, I say, elected from non-slaveholding States. And with 
 the .assistance of certain associates, some of whom hold their offices 
 by your votes (cries of "They shan't be there long!"), there 
 is great danger that they will elect to the chair, where he will stand 
 as a representative of the whole North, a man who united in caus- 
 ing that work to be distributed through the South, carrying poison 
 and death in its polluted leaves. (Groans, applause, and cries of 
 " Kick him out of Congress !") 
 
 Is it not fair to say that this great and glorious Union s men- 
 aced when such a thing is attempted ? Is it reasonable to expect 
 that our brothers of the South will calmly sit down— (cries of 
 " No.")— -will calmly sit down and submit quietly to such an out- 
 rage? Gentlemen, we greatly exceed the people of the South in 
 numbers. The non-slaveholding States are by far the most popu- 
 lous. They are increasing daily in numbers and in population, 
 and we may soon overwhelm the Southern vote. If we continue to 
 fill the halls of legislation with Abolitionists, and permit to occupy 
 the Executive chair public men who declare themselves to be en- 
 listed in a crusade against Slavery, and against the provisions of 
 the Constitution which secure slave property— what can we rea- 
 sonably expect from the people of the South but that they will pro- 
 nounce the Constitution, with all its glorious associations— with all 
 its sacred memories— this Union, with its manifold present and 
 promised blessings, an unendurable evil, threatening to crush and 
 destroy their most vital interests— to make their country a wilder- 
 ness? Why should we expect them to submit to such a line of 
 conduct, and still recognize us as brothers, or agree to the perpetu- 
 ation of this Union ? (Applause.) 
 
 I do not see, for my part, anything unjust, anything unreasona- 
 ble, in the declaration of Southern members. They tell us, " If 
 
22 
 
 you will thus assail us with incendiai'y pamphlets — if you will thus 
 create a spirit in your country which leads to violence and blood- 
 shed among us — if you will assail the institution upon which the 
 prosperity of our country depends — if you will elevate to office over 
 us men who arc pledged to aid in such transactions, and to oppress 
 us by hostile legislation, much as avc revere the Constitution, 
 greatly as we estimate the blessings which would flow from its 
 faithful enforcement, we can not longer depend on your compliance 
 with its injunctions, or adhere to the Union." (Applause.) 
 
 For my part, gentlemen, if the North continues to conduct itself 
 in the selection of representatives in the Congress of the United 
 States, as, perhaps, from a certain degree of negligence and inat- 
 tention, it has heretofore conducted itself, the South, I think, is 
 not to be censured if it Avithdraws from the association. (Cries of 
 " That is so," applause, and " Three cheers for the Fugitive Slave 
 Law.") 
 
 We are not, gentlemen, to hold a meeting, and say that " we 
 love this Union ; we delight in it ; we are proud of it ; it blesses 
 us, and we enjoy it ; we shall fill all its offices with men of our own 
 choosing, and, our bretlircn of the South, you shall enjoy its glori- 
 ous past ; you shall enjoy its mighty recollections, but it shall 
 trample your institutions in the dust." We have no right to say 
 it. We have no right to exact so much ; and an opposite and en- 
 tirely diffiirent course, fellow-citizens, must be ours — must be the 
 course of the great North, if we would preserve this Union. (Ap- 
 plause, and cries of " Good.") 
 
 What must we sacrifice if we exasperate our brethren of the 
 South, and compel them, by injustice and breach of compact, to 
 separate from us and dissolve the Union ? The greatness and 
 the glory of the American name will then be a thing of yesterday. 
 The glorious Revolution of the Thirteen States will be a revolu- 
 tion, not achieved by us, but by a nation that has ceased to exist. 
 The name of Washington will, at least to us of the North — 
 (cheers) — be but as the name of Julius Coesar, or some other great 
 hero who has lived in times gone by, whose nation has perished and 
 exists no more. The Declaration of Independence — what will that 
 be? The act of a State that no longer has a place among the na- 
 tions. All the bright and glorious recollections of the past must 
 cease to be our property, and become mere memorials of a departed 
 race and people. Nor will these be the only consequences. Will 
 
23 
 
 this mighty city, growing, as it now is, with wealth flowing into it 
 from every portion of this great empire, continue to flourish as it 
 has done? ("No.") Will your marble palaces, lining Broadway, 
 and rearing their proud fronts toward the sky, continue to increase, 
 until, as is now promised under the Union, it shall present the most 
 glorious picture of wealth and prosperity that the world has ever 
 seen. (Cheers.) No, gentlemen, no ; such things can not be. I 
 do not say that we will starve — that we will perish as a people if 
 we separate from the South. If the line be drawn, I admit they 
 will have their measure of prosperity and we Avill have ours — but 
 meagre, small in the extreme, compared with what is existing and 
 promised will be the prosperity of each, if that dire event should 
 occur. Truly has it been said here to-night, we Avere made for 
 each other. Let us separate, and though it may not <lestroy either, 
 it will reduce each to so low an ebb that all good men would de- 
 plore the evil courses that brought about such a result. True, wo 
 would have left to boast of our share of the glory won by Revolu- 
 tionary sires. The Northern States sent forth their bands of he- 
 roes, and shed their blood as freely as those of the South. But 
 the dividing line Avould take from us the grave of Washing- 
 ton. (Cheers.) It is in his own beloved Virginia. It is in the 
 State and near the spot where this treason that has been grow- 
 ing up in the North, so lately culminated in violence and blood- 
 shed. We would lose the grave and lose all connection with the 
 name of Washington ; but our philanthropic and pious friends 
 who fain would lead us to this result, would of course comfort us 
 with the consoling reflection that we had the glorious memory of 
 John Brown in its place. (Great laughter and cheering.) Are 
 you, gentlemen, prepared to make the exchange ? (Renewed 
 cheering, intermingled with cries of "No, no.") Siiall the tomb 
 of Washington, that rises on the banks of the Potomac, receiving 
 its tribute from every nation of the earth — shall that become the 
 property of a foreign State — (cries of " No, no") — a State hostile 
 to us in its feelings, and we to it in ours ? Shall we erect a mon- 
 ument among the arid hills at North Elba, and deem the privilege 
 of making pilgrimages thither a recompense for the loss of every 
 glorious recollection connected with our Revolution, and for our 
 severance from the name of Washington ? (Loud cheering.) No, 
 gentlemen, we are not prepared, I trust, for this sad exchange, 
 this fatal severance. We are not prepared, I trust, cither to part 
 
24 
 
 with the memories of our glorious past, or to give up the advantages 
 of our present happy condition. We are not prepared to involve our 
 section in the losses, the deprivation of blessings and advantages 
 which would necossaril}' result to each section from the sentiment 
 of disunion, were it unhappily carried into effect. (Cheers.) We 
 never would have attained to the wealth and prosperity as a nation 
 which is now ours, but for our connection with these very much 
 reviled and injured slaveholders. If a dissolution of the Union is 
 to take place, we must part with the trade of the South, and there- 
 by surrender our participation in the wealth of the South. Nay, 
 more ; we are told upon good authority that in the event of dis- 
 union, we will part not only with the slaveholding States, but that 
 our young sister with the golden crown, rich, teeming California — 
 she who added the last final requisite to our greatness as a nation, 
 will not come with us, but will remain with the South. (Cheers.) 
 Gentlemen, if we allow this course of injustice toward the South 
 to be continued, these are most assuredly to be the consequences — 
 evil to us, evil also to them. Much of all that we are most proud 
 of — much of all that contributes to our greatness and prosperity as 
 a nation, must pass away from us. Is there any reason why we 
 should allow it 1 There is a reason preached to us for permitting 
 it. Wc are told that slavery is unjust. We are told that it is a 
 matter of conscience to put it down, and that whatever treaties, 
 compacts, laws, or constitutions may have been made to sanction 
 and uphold it, it is still unholy, and that we are bound to trample 
 on these treaties, compacts, laws, and constitutions, and to stand 
 by what these men arrogantly tell us is the law of God, and a 
 fundamental principle of natural justice. 
 
 Indeed, these two things — the law of God and the principles of 
 natural justice — are not distinguishable. The law of God and 
 natural justice, as between man and man, are one and the same 
 thing. The wisest heathens gave the rule of conduct between man 
 and man in these few words : Live honestly, injure no man, and 
 render to every man his due. In words far more direct and em- 
 phatic, in words of perfect comprehensiveness, the Saviour gave us 
 the same rule in one brief sentence : " Love thy neighbor as thy- 
 self." (Cheers.) Now, speaking as between us, people of the 
 North, and the people of the South, I ask you to act on this rule 
 — the maxim of the heathen, the command of God : Render to 
 every man his due ; love thy neighbor as thyself. Thus should we 
 
25 
 
 act and feel toward the South. Upon that maxim, Avhich came 
 from Hhn of Nazareth, we are to act toward the South, and with- 
 out putting upon it any new-fangled, modern interpretation. But, 
 gentlemen, the question is, do these maxims justify the assertion 
 of those who seek to invade the rights of the South by proclaiming 
 that negro slavery is unjust? That is the point to which this 
 great argument, involving the fate of our Union, must now come. 
 Is negro slavery unjust ? If it violates that great rule of human 
 conduct. Render to every man his due, it is unjust. If it violates 
 the law of God, which says, " Love thy neighbor as thyself," it is 
 unjust. And, gentlemen, if it could be maintained that negro 
 slavery is thus in conflict with the law of nature and the law of 
 God, I might be prepared — perhaps we should all be prepared — to 
 go with a distinguished man, to whom allusion is frequently made, 
 and say, there is a higher law which compels us to disregard the 
 Constitution and trample it beneath our feet as a wicked and un- 
 holy compact. And this is the question which we must now meet, 
 and which we must finally determine for ourselves, and on which 
 we must come to a conclusion that must govern us hereafter in the 
 selection of representatives in the Congress of the United States. 
 I insist that negro slavery is not unjust. (Cries of " Bravo !") 
 It is not only not unjust, but it is just, wise, and beneficent. (Ap- 
 plause and loud hisses — cries of "Bravo!" and disorder. There 
 being a strong disposition on the part of the audience to eject the 
 offending parties. Mayor Tiemann demanded order, and called on 
 the audience to allow the individuals to remain. Mr. O'Conok 
 did likewise.) 
 
 Mayor Tiemann — Gentlemen : If anybody hisses here, you must 
 remember that every one has a peculiar mode of expressing him- 
 self, and as the gentleman seems to understand hissing, let him 
 hiss. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 Mr. 0' Conor — Gentlemen : There is an animal upon this earth 
 that has no faculty for making his sentiments known in any other 
 way than by hissing. (Cheers.) I am for equal rights. (A voice : 
 " Three cheers for Henry A. Wise." Loud cheers, followed by 
 groans and hisses.) I beg of you, gentlemen, all of you, at least, 
 who are of my opinion, to preserve silence, and to leave the hissing 
 animal the full enjoyment of his natural privilege. (Cries of 
 " Good.") The first of our race that offended was taught to do so 
 by that hissing animal, the first human society that ever was 
 
26 
 
 broken up through sin and discord had its happy union dissolved 
 by the entrance of that animal. (Great cheering and laughter.) 
 Therefore, I say, it is his privilege to hiss. Let him hiss on. 
 (Cheers.) But, gentlemen, I will not detain you much longer. 
 (Cries of " Go on.") I maintain that negro slavery is not unjust. 
 (Cheers.) That it is benign in its influences, both on the white 
 man and on the black. (A voice — " That is so.") I maintain that 
 it is ordained by Nature — that it is a necessity of both races — that 
 in the climates where the black race can live and prosper, Nature 
 herself enjoins correlative duties on the black man and the white 
 — which can not be performed except by the preservation, and, if 
 the hissing gentlemen please, by the perpetuation of negro slavery. 
 (Voices — " That is right." Cries of " Good," and cheers.) I am 
 justified in this opinion by the highest tribunal in our country — 
 that venerable exponent of our institutions and of our principles 
 of justice — the Supreme Court of the United States. That court 
 has held on this subject what w^ise men will ever pronounce to be 
 sound and just doctrine. There are some principles well known 
 and well understood, universally recognized and universally ac- 
 knowledged among men, which are not to be found written in con- 
 stitutions or in laws. The people of the United States, at the 
 formation of our government, were, as they still are, in some sense, 
 peculiar and radically distinguishable from other nations. We 
 were white men, of what is called, by way of distinction, the Cau- 
 casian race. We were a monogamous people ; that is to say, we 
 were not Mohammedans, or followers of Joe Smith, with half a 
 dozen wives a-piece. It was a fundamental principle of our civil- 
 ization that no State could be tolerated or exist in this Union 
 which would not, in that respect, resemble all the other States of 
 the Union. Some other distinctive features might be stated which 
 serve to mark us as a people distinct from others, and incapable 
 of associating on terms of perfect political equality, or social equal- 
 ity, as friends and fellow-citizens, with certain classes of men that 
 are to be found on the earth's surface. As a white nation, we 
 made our Constitution and our laws, vesting all political rights in 
 that race ; they constituted in every political sense the American 
 people. (Cheers.) As to the negro, we allowed him to live under 
 the shadow and protection of our laws. We gave him, as we were 
 bound to give him, protection ; but we denied to him political 
 rights or the power to govern. We left him for as long a period 
 
2T 
 
 as the community in which he dwelt should order in the condition 
 of bondsman. (Applause.) To that condition the negro is as- 
 signed by nature. (Cries of " Bravo !" and cheers.) Experience 
 has shown that his class can not prosper save in warm climates. 
 In a cold or even a moderately cold climate he soon perishes ; in 
 the extremely warm regions his race-is perpetuated, and with proper 
 guardianship, may prosper. He has ample strength, and is compe- 
 tent to labor, but nature denies to him either the intellect to gov- 
 ern or the willingness to work. Both are denied him. But that 
 same power which deprived him of the will to labor, gave him, in 
 our country, as a recompense, a master to coerce that duty and 
 convert him into a valuable and useful servant. (Cheers.) I con- 
 tend that it is not injustice to leave the negro in the condition in 
 which nature placed him, and for which condition he is adapted. 
 Fitted only for a state of pupilage, our slave system gives him a 
 master to govern him and supply his deficiencies ; and in this there 
 is no injustice. Neither is it injustice in the master to compel him 
 to labor and thereby aiford to that master a just compensation in 
 return for the care and talent employed in governing him. In 
 this way alone is the negro able to render himself useful to himself 
 and to the society in which he is placed. 
 
 These are the principles, gentlemen, which the extreme mea- 
 sures of Abolitionism and its abettors compel us to enforce. This 
 is the ground that we must take, or abandon our cherished Union. 
 We must no longer favor political leaders who talk about Slavery 
 being an evil ; nor must we advance the indefensible doctrine that 
 negro slavery is a thing which, although pernicious, is to be toler- 
 ated merely because we have made a bargain to tolerate it. We 
 must turn away from the teachings of fanaticism. We must look 
 at negro slavery as it is, remembering that the voice of inspiration 
 as found in the sacred volume, nowhere condemns the bondage of 
 those who are fit only for bondage. Yielding to the decree of na- 
 ture and the voice of sound philosophy, we must pronounce that 
 institution just, beneficent, lawful, and proper. The Constitution 
 established by the fathers of our republic, which recognized it, must 
 be preserved and maintained ; and that both may stand together, 
 we must maintain that neither the institution itself, or the Consti- 
 tution which upholds it, is wicked or unjust, but that each is sound 
 and wise, and entitled to our fullest support. We must visit with 
 our execration every man claiming our suffrages who objects to en- 
 
28 
 
 force, with entire good faith, the provisions of the Constitution in 
 favor of slavery, or who seeks, by any indirection, to withhold its 
 protection from the South, or to avoid its obligations upon the 
 North. Let us support no man for public office whose speech or 
 action tends to induce assaults upon the territory of our Southern 
 neighbors, or to generate insurrection within their borders. (Loud 
 cheers, and cries of " Good.") 
 
 These are the principles upon which we must act. This is what 
 we must say to our brethren of the South. If we have sent men to 
 Congress who are false to these views, and are seeking to violate 
 the compact which binds us together, we must ask to be forgiven 
 until we have another chance to manifest our will at the ballot 
 boxes. We must tell the South that these men shall be consigned 
 to privacy — (applause) — and that true men, men faithful to the 
 Constitution, men loving all portions of the country alike, shall be 
 elected in their stead. And, gentlemen, we must do more than 
 promise this — we must perform it. (Loud applause, followed by 
 three cheers for Mr. O'Conor, and a tiger.) But a word more, 
 gentlemen, and I have done. (Cries of "Go on.") I have no 
 doubt at all that what I have said to you this evening will be 
 greatly misrepresented. It is very certain that I have not had time 
 enough properly to enlarge upon, and fully to explain the interest- 
 ing topics on which I have ventured to express myself thus boldly 
 and distinctly, taking upon myself the consequences, be they what 
 they may. (Applause.) But I will say a few words by way of ex- 
 planation. I have maintained the justice of slavery ; I have main- 
 tained it because I hold that the negro is decreed by nature to a 
 state of pupilage under the dominion of the wiser white man in 
 every clime where God and nature meant that the negro should 
 live at all. (Applause.) I say a state of pupilage ; and that I 
 may be rightly understood, I say that it is the duty of the white 
 man to treat him kindly — that it is the interest of the white man 
 to treat him kindly. (Applause.) And further, it is my belief 
 that if the white man, in States where slavery exists, be not inter- 
 fered with by the fanatics who are now creating these disturbances, 
 whatever laws, whatever improvements, whatever variations in the 
 conduct of society are necessary for the purpose of enforcing in 
 every instance the dictates of interest and humanity, as between 
 the white man and the black, will be faithfully and fairly carried 
 out in the progress of that improvement in all these things in 
 
29 
 
 which we are all progressing. It is not pretended that the master 
 has a right to slay his slave ; it is not pretended that he has a 
 right to be guilty of harshness and inhumanity to his slave. The 
 laws of all the Southern States forbid that. We have not the 
 right here at the North to be guilty of cruelty to a horse. It is 
 an indictable offense to commit such cruelty. The same laws exist 
 in the South, and if there is any failure in enforcing them to the 
 fullest extent, it is due to this external force which is pressing 
 upon the Southern States, and compels them to abstain, perhaps, 
 from many acts beneficent toward the negro, which otherwise 
 would be performed. (Applause.) In truth, in fact, in deed — in 
 truth, in fact, in deed, the white man in the slaveholding States 
 has no more authority by the law of the land over his slave than 
 our laws allow to a father over his minor children. He can no 
 more violate humanity with respect to them than a father in any of 
 the free States of this Union can exercise acts violative of human- 
 ity over his own son under the age of twenty-one. So far as the 
 law is concerned, you own your boys, and have a right to their 
 services until they are twenty-one. You can make them work 
 for you ; you can hire out their services and take their earnings ; 
 you have the right to chastise them with judgment and reason if 
 they violate your commands ; and they are entirely without politi- 
 cal rights. Not one of them at the age of twenty years and eleven 
 months even can go to the polls and give a vote. Therefore, gen- 
 tlemen, before the law, there is but one difference between the free 
 white man of twenty years of age in the Northern States, and the 
 negro bondman in the Southern States. The white man is to be 
 emancipated at twenty-one, because his God-given intellect entitles 
 him to emancipation and fits him for the duties to devolve upon him. 
 The negro, to be sure, is a bondman for life. He may be sold 
 from one master to another, but where is the ill in that 7— one may 
 be as good as another. If there be laws with respect to the mode 
 of sale, which, by separating man and wife, do occasionally lead to 
 that which shocks humanity, and may be said to violate all propri- 
 ety and all conscience— if such things are done, let the South 
 alone, and they will correct the evil. Let our brethren of the 
 South take care of their own domestic institutions, and they will 
 do it. (Applause.) They will so govern themselves as to suppress 
 acts of this description, if they are occasionally committed, as 
 perhaps they are, and we must all admit that they are contrary to 
 
30 
 
 all just conceptions of right and humanity. I have never yet 
 heard of a nation conquered from evil practices, brought to the 
 light of civilization or brought to the light of religion and the 
 knowledge of the Gospel by the bayonet, by penal laws, or by ex- 
 ternal persecutions of any kind. It is not by declamation and 
 outcry against a people from those abroad and outside of their 
 territory that you can improve their manners or their morals in 
 any respect. No; if, standing outside of their territory, you 
 attack the errors of a people, you make them cling to their faults. 
 From a sentiment somewhat excusable — akin to self-respect and 
 patriotism — they will resist their nation's enemy. 
 
 Let our brethren of the South alone, gentlemen ; and if there 
 be any errors of this kind, they will correct them. There is but 
 one way in which you can thus leave them to the guidance of their 
 own judgment, by which you can retain them in this Union as our 
 brethren, and perpetuate this glorious Union ; and that is, by re- 
 solving — without reference to the political party or faction to 
 which any one of you may belong, without reference to the name, 
 political or otherwise, which you may please to bear — resolving 
 that the man, be he who he may, who advocates the doctrine that 
 negro slavery is unjust, and ought to be assailed or legislated 
 against, or who agitates the subject of extinguishing negro slavery 
 in any of its forms as a political hobby, that that man shall be de- 
 nied your suffrages, and not only denied your suifrages, but that 
 you will select from the ranks of the opposite party, or your own, 
 if necessary, the man you like least, who entertains opposite senti- 
 ments, but through whose instrumentality you may be enabled to 
 defeat his election, and to secure in the counsels of the nation men 
 who are true to the Constitution, who are lovers of the Union — 
 men who can not be induced by considerations of imaginary be- 
 nevolence for people who really do not desire their aid, to sacrifice 
 or to jeopard in any degree the blessings we enjoy under this 
 Union. May it be perpetual. (Great and continued cheering.) 
 
 Three cheers were given for the State of Virginia. 
 
31 
 
 SPEECH OF EX-GOVERNOR HUNT. 
 
 The Hon. Washington Hunt, ex-Governor of New York, 
 being then announced, rose and said : 
 
 Mk. President and Fellow-Citizens — In obedience to your 
 summons I have come from the interior of our State, and ap- 
 pear before you to-niu;ht to mingle my voice with yours in be- 
 half of American Union and Nationality. A profound sense 
 of duty brings me here to unite with you in new vows of iidel- 
 ity to the institutions we received from Washington, and 
 Adams, and Jefferson, and Hamilton. I come to invoke that 
 spirit of unity and brotherhood which carried our fathers 
 through the dark and trying scenes of the Revolution, and 
 which subsequently enabled them to perfect and establish the 
 most perfect system of federal union and government ever de- 
 vised by the wisdom of man. Let us unite our eiforts for the 
 rescue of our country from impending dangers, and endeavor 
 once more to inspire those sentiments of mutual confidence 
 and good-will, without which, even if union were possible, it 
 were hardly worth preserving. We have reached a crisis in 
 our affairs which demands the sober reflection of every true 
 patriot, and which allows no man to fold his arms in silent in- 
 difference, as an unconcerned observer of passing events. The 
 time has come when every American citizen must declare 
 whether he intends to " keep step to the music of the Union," 
 or lend his voice to swell the dismal chorus of sectional dis- 
 cord and defiance. The time has come for New York to speak 
 and proclaim, in no ambiguous phrase, but in words of energy 
 which can not be mistaken, that whatever others may do, she 
 stands, and will forever stand, by that sacred compact which 
 makes us one country and one people; that come what may, 
 she will be found faithful to its obligations, loyal to its com- 
 promises, and true to its spirit ; and that she will resist to the 
 last extremity all fratricidal efforts, under whatsoever P-uise. 
 or from whatsoever quarter they may proceed, to alienate the 
 people of the two great sections of our country, or to weaken 
 the ties of friendship which bind them together in one common 
 destiny. 
 
 Mr. President, you have rendered a fitting and earnest trib- 
 ute to the value of that Union, and I feel that it is unnecessary 
 
32 
 
 for mc to dwell upon the inspiring theme, especially in this 
 presence, before an audience embracing so large a share of the 
 intelligence and patriotism of the first commercial emporium 
 of the American continent. Under the benignant sway of the 
 Federal Constitution, our advances in strength, prosperity, 
 and power, and in all that constitutes the true greatness and 
 felicit}' of nations, are without a parallel in the annals of man- 
 kind. But seventy 3'ears have passed away, a period within 
 the memory of living men, since the formation of our compact 
 of union. Compare the situations of the infant republic with 
 our present national condition. How. wonderful the contrast ! 
 Instead of the original thirteen, feeble and exhausted, behold 
 thirty-four powerful, prosperous States, united by the bonds 
 of a common nationality ! Instead of a narrow belt along the 
 seaboard, we exhibit a broad continental republic, reaching 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the St. Lawrence 
 to the Gulf of Mexico. We have grown from a population of 
 four millions to thirty millions of people, enjoying constitu- 
 tional liberty and security under the protecting eagle of the 
 national power. New agencies of intercourse have overleaped 
 the most formidable barriers, and brought the remotest parts 
 near together. The national wealth and power of production 
 have increased to an extent which appears fabulous. The ex- 
 pansion of our commerce has excited the wonder, I had almost 
 said the envy, of the world. Already have we taken our place 
 among the foremost nations of the earth, and before the lapse 
 of another century, unless the ties of union shall be dissevered, 
 the United States of America will have become the most pow- 
 erful empire on the globe. Our example will animate and 
 sustain, perhaps our power will protect, the friends of free gov- 
 ernment in other lands. 
 
 Why are all these mighty interests, these inestimable bless- 
 ings, these precious hopes to be put at hazard ? Shall the 
 noblest legacy ever bestowed upon mankind be thrown away, 
 and " counted nothing worth," because the domestic institu- 
 tions of the States are diversified, and can not be molded into 
 uniformity ; or, in other words, because the South continues to 
 hold the negro subordinate, the same as they held him at the 
 formation of the Union ? (" No, no.") When divested of 
 the trappings of sophistry and the exaggerations of fanaticism, 
 
33 
 
 the practical question whicli onr people must consider is — 
 whether the North and South are to be enemies or friends ? 
 What is to be the future relations between these two orreat 
 sections ? Is it peace or war ? (Cries of " Peace, peace.") 
 Shall they continue to move onward together as brethren un- 
 der a common flag, mutually aiding and co-operating in the 
 administration of one common government — or are they to be 
 separated into distinct and hostile political systems, each to 
 pursue its own destiny independent of the other? 
 
 Union means something more than the mere phraseology 
 of a political compact. (Applause.) It vitally includes the 
 idea of friendship and mutual kindness, to be manifested, not 
 by forma] professions, but by unmistakable acts of kindness 
 and respect. There can be no real or permanent union be- 
 tween States hostile in feeling, and incessantly taught to regard 
 each other with hatred and aversion. We have no reason to 
 look for such a phenomenon, without a complete transforma- 
 tion of human nature and human passions. Whether the 
 North and the South are to remain one country, or to be rent 
 asunder and formed into separate confederacies, is a question 
 in comparison with which the schemes of politicians and the 
 ordinary conflicts of parties sink into utter insigniticance. 
 
 I will not attempt to portray the calamities of disunion — the 
 universal bankruptcy and ruin — the scenes of anarcliy and 
 blood — the sundering of kindred ties and cherished attach- 
 ments — and the direful and interminable train of consequences 
 which no human wisdom can foresee. Who can say that in 
 such an event the States of the North and West would remain 
 united? or that New York and New England could adjust the 
 conditions of confederated power? — or even that New York 
 and Philadelphia would consent to one common government? 
 It would be far easier to excite jealousies between the parts 
 than to reunite them, and political agitators would not then be 
 wanting to sow the seeds of jealousy and conflict. Would not 
 these disunited members soon relapse into the incoherent, dis- 
 cordant condition of the fragmentary States of South America, 
 and become the sport of military ambition, to sink at last into 
 the arms of despotic power? 
 
 The agitators of the slavery question ought to remember that 
 African slavery was introduced in the Southern States long 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 before the Kevolution ; tliat the present generation inherited it 
 from their ancestors and are not responsible for its existence, 
 and that they now have a colored population of four millions, 
 which they must be permitted to deal with according to their 
 views of interest and duty. The opinions of Washington and 
 Jeflerson are sometimes introduced to sanction the present sys- 
 tem of slavery agitation. It is true, that they both deplored 
 the existence of slavery, and regarded it as an evil. But even 
 then, when the slave population was less than one sixth of its 
 present number, they perceived that the system was too per- 
 vading and formidable for their powers, and they brought for- 
 ward no definite measures for its eradication. Least of all did 
 they advise or encourage the people of the free States to form 
 theyiselves into anti-slavery combinations to sit in judgment 
 upon their sister communities, and disturb the public tran- 
 quillity by a constant outpouring of sectional animosit3^ On 
 the contrary, their last and most emphatic warnings to their 
 countrymen were intended to arouse them to the danger of 
 sectional jealousies and dissensions. Washington signed the 
 first fugitive slave law. Jefiterson purchased Louisiana, and 
 both sanctioned laws admitting slave States into the Union. 
 Let us briefly consider the difficulties that were encountered in 
 the adjustment of our federal compact, and then contemplate 
 the wise statesmanship and generous patriotism by which they 
 were surmounted. Then, as now, the States had their pecu- 
 liar institutions and prejudices. They were widely dissimilar 
 in climate and position, in their productions, their social or- 
 ganization and domestic policy. There were conflicting inter- 
 ests and opinions which could be reconciled only by the exer- 
 cise of the noble magnanimity and true love of country which 
 shone forth so conspicuous in that bright era of public virtue 
 and patriotic zeal. After the Convention of 1787 had com- 
 pleted its labors, under the auspices of the Father of his Coun- 
 try, it devolved upon him, as president of the body, to com- 
 municate the Constitution to the Congress of the old confeder- 
 ation. After adverting to the difficulties produced "by a dif- 
 ference among the several States as to their situation, extent, 
 habits, and particular interests," he holds the following lan- 
 guage : "The Constitution which we now present is the result 
 of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and conces- 
 
35 
 
 sion which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered 
 indispensable." Yes, Mr. President, the spirit of amity per- 
 fected the glorious fabric — the spirit of amity must be invoked 
 to sustain and preserve it. 
 
 One of the highest objects of the compact then made was to 
 blend conflicting interests, and bind the States together by the 
 ties of mutual benefit and affection. It was intended to com- 
 bine their strength for the common welfare and protection, and 
 insure for all the blessings of free intercourse and commerce 
 on a firm foundation of perpetual friendship and concord. It 
 was wisely decided by the patriots of that day, that the negro 
 should not stand in the way of Union. ("Good.") Then, as 
 now, it was apparent that the very diversities and difterences 
 to which I have adverted, increased the necessity for a national 
 compact which should insure domestic tranquillity, and unite 
 the efi^orts of the States and the people for the attainment of 
 those common objects, which require the exercise of concen- 
 trated national power. Experience has demonstrated that the 
 varied forms of industry and production contribute to the gen- 
 eral strength, and largely augment the benefits resulting from 
 commercial interchange between the difi'erent sections of the 
 country. The notion that the States of the North and South 
 can not co-exist side by side as friends and neighbors, and act 
 together harmoniously in one national system, by reason of the 
 dissimilarity of their domestic institutions, and that partisan 
 warfare between them is either necessary or justifiable, until 
 slavery shall have been abolished in one section or legalized in 
 the other, is an absurd and mischievous fallacy, having no 
 basis of fact or sound argument for its support. 
 
 Our whole history rejects the proposition, and common sense 
 refutes it ; for I emphatically deny that there is any necessary 
 antagonism between African slave labor in the tropical South 
 and free labor in the temperate North. 
 
 It is no more necessary now than in times past, that any 
 State should surrender the control of its internal afi'airs, or 
 that either section should abandon its own to adopt the system 
 or the opinions of the other. It is the unquestionable right of 
 every State to regulate its own domestic concerns, without in- 
 tervention from other parts of the country. (" Three cheers 
 for Governor Hunt.") 
 
36 
 
 The recent invasion of Virginia by a band of conspirators, 
 for the avowed purpose of arming the slaves and organizing 
 a servile insurrection, has excited emotions of abhorrence in 
 every mind not incurably distempered by sectional fanaticism. 
 Ouglit it to surprise us that an attempt so nefarious, so diabol- 
 ical, should arouse feelings of intense indignation among the 
 Southern people, or that they should look with such solicitude 
 for an expression of the sentiments of the North in regard to 
 this treasonable assault upon their peace and security ? (Cries 
 of " No, indeed.'') Of course they have not failed to observe 
 that for some years past the discussion of negro slavery has 
 been the leading business of a large number of presses, lec- 
 turers, politicians, and preachers in the North, and that the 
 slave States and slaveholders have been made the standing 
 theme of invective and assault. The slavery question has 
 been made to swallow up every other topic of public interest 
 in the minds of many benevolent but misgnided persons, 
 whose sympathies are most powerfully and singularly excited 
 by those distant evils, real or imaginary, which lie entirely 
 beyond their control. In a healthful state of the public senti- 
 ment, the bloody scenes at Harper's Ferry, and the attempt 
 to arm a servile population with thousands of murderous 
 spears to be bathed in the blood of men, women, and children 
 of our own race and lineage, would have produced but one 
 universal thrill of horror. Yet there are men among us 
 whose minds are so diseased by sectional prejudice that they 
 openly express sympathy with John Brown and his schemes 
 of murder and insurrection. ("Shame, shame!") I regret 
 to add that there are presses in the land which, while feebly 
 expressing a disapproval of his acts, yet do not so much con- 
 demn the atrocity of his intentions as the inadequacy of his 
 plans and the chimerical nature of the undertaking. They 
 appear to be far more malignant with Virginia for executing 
 her laws than with him for violating them. Apparently for- 
 getting that he entered a sister State in the garb of a peaceful 
 settler, professing friendly purposes, that for months his life 
 was a fraud and a false pretense, intended to lull his victims 
 into a fatal security ; that while indulging these false profes- 
 sions, he was secretly preparing to imbrue his hands in the 
 blood of the innocent, and enact barbarities at which human- 
 
37 
 
 ity shudders, they exliibit him to the public as a victim to 
 what they strangely call the aggressive spirit of slavery. It 
 
 is time to proclaim in the most emphatic manner that the 
 great body of our citizens have no share in these detestable 
 sentiments, but on the contrary regard them with alarm and 
 horror, as subversive of law, justice, and humanity. (Ap- 
 
 . plause.) They indignantly reprobate every attempt to endan- 
 ger the peace and security of our Southern brethren. It is the 
 sovereign right and prerogative of Virginia to make and ad- 
 minister her own laws. The people of other States have no 
 lawful concern in the matter. She gave John Brown a fair 
 judicial trial (applause), and the whole country should rejoice, 
 not only that he and his confederates received the punishment 
 80 justly due to their crimes, but that his schemes of wide- 
 spread insurrection and slaughter were so promptly crushed. 
 (Cheers for Virginia.) John Brown was a citizen of our own 
 State, and, as far as he could, he dishonored her by his treason- 
 able violation of the rights of Virginia. It is peculiarly tit- 
 ting, therefore, that the people of New York, of all parties, 
 should make their sentiments distinctly understood, and em- 
 phatically declare their abhorrence of his crime, and the un- 
 governable fanaticism in which it originated, and by which it 
 has been too long encouraged. 
 
 We have not forgotten that New York and Virginia are 
 sister States, and have plighted their mutual faith in the bonds 
 of confederation and union. (Cheers.) Who can ever forget 
 that they stood side by side through the stormy scenes of the 
 Revolution, and that Washington, the noblest son of Virginia, 
 in the darkest hour of despondency defended the soil of New 
 York against the overwhelming force of tlie invader, and the 
 more dangerous machinations of domestic treason? We 
 might also well remember that Virginia, in a spirit of disin- 
 terested patriotism, not surpassed on the brightest pages of 
 History, gave to the Union that vast and imperial domain 
 which now constitutes the prosperous free States of the north- 
 west and the richest nursery of the commerce and prosperity 
 of New York. 
 
 Cherishing these recollections of the past, well may we 
 blush for the decay of national spirit when we hear the need- 
 less insults so frequently aimed at that Commonwealth, for re- 
 
38 
 
 maining in the social and domestic condition transmitted to 
 her by the generations which have passed away. Survey our 
 past history, and tell uie what Virginia has done to us to just- 
 ify these ebullitions of resentment. (" Nothing at all.") Has 
 she ever invaded our territory with spears, or interfered with 
 our internal concerns, or sought to force her institutions upon 
 us? ("No, no.") 
 
 The free States of the North entered into the federal compact' 
 with the slave States of the South, with their eyes open. We 
 knew that they held a large African population in domestic 
 servitude. Yet we chose to unite with them in forming a 
 common government for specified national objects. After 
 contracting these federal relations and adopting the Constitu- 
 tion as the charter of perpetual amit}', is it a friendly proceed- 
 ing, is it consistent with honor and good faith, to turn upon 
 them, and arraign them in language of condemnation and 
 insult, on the question of negro slavery, which belongs wholly 
 to them, and over which we have neither jurisdiction nor con- 
 trol? ("No.") To me it seems an nnwise and ungenerous 
 interference with a subject which is none of ours. It is a vio- 
 lation of the comity of States, which can have no useful effect 
 whatever. It aggravates the evils which it would remedy, 
 and produces increased severity by exciting feelings of irrita- 
 tion and insecurity among the only people who have power 
 over the condition of the slaves. 
 
 Mr. President: In all the sectional collisions which have 
 disturbed the country, my voice has been on the side of mod' 
 eration. (Cheers.) I have never sympathized with factious 
 agitators in the North, nor with disunionists in the South. Al- 
 ways maintaining the just rights of my own section, I have 
 been equally ready to respect the rights and the feelings of the 
 other. When differences have arisen, from whatever cause, 
 I have contended for their adjustment in a friendly spirit, on 
 principles consistent with the rights and the honor of both 
 sections. 
 
 It is not my purpose now to review past controversies, or 
 to discuss their origin or their merits. It would serve no 
 useful purpose. We have all expressed our opinions, and 
 acted an honest part, according to our own sense of patriotic 
 duty. Instead of reviving the disputes which have divided 
 
39 
 
 the North and the South, and interrupted harmonious rela- 
 tions, it is much wiser to consider how they may be termi- 
 nated and banished from our national councils. (Applause.) 
 So far as there was anything practical in the sectional con- 
 tests which have convulsed the country, they are ended al- 
 ready, and belong to the domain of history. The crisis de- 
 mands that we should exercise a spirit of patriotic concilia- 
 tion. It is time that this angry warfare of sections should 
 cease, and that the voice of discord should be rebuked and 
 hushed forever. The present condition of the country calls 
 emphatically for moderation. (Applause.) In national con- 
 cerns, i}o less than the subordinate relations of men, modera- 
 tion is the highest wisdom. By rejecting its couiisels and 
 yielding to the fury of excited passions, most of the free re- 
 publics, ancient and modern, after a brief career of prosperity, 
 perished from the earth. The voice of history warns us that 
 the rivalries, jealousies, and conflicts of confederated States 
 have always resulted in the destruction of free government. 
 If my feeble voice could be heard throughout the land, I 
 would plead for moderation both in the North and the South. 
 I would earnestly appeal to the people of the Southern States, 
 in the present moment of exasperation, to avoid all extreme 
 and unconstitutional measures, and to reject the counsels of 
 any who would hurr}' them forward into the vortex of treason 
 and disunion. Let them be assured that there is no occasion 
 for this fearful and fatal alternative. They may still rely on 
 the justice, and fidelit}', and friendship of the great body of 
 their countrymen in the free States. A vast majority of the 
 people of the North, of all parties, are still loyal to the Union 
 and the Constitution, and so far from intending, they will re- 
 sist every effort to invade, the institutions and the rights of 
 the slaveholdirig States. The old feeling of national brother- 
 hood and affection will revive and assert its resistless power, 
 even in the breasts of thousands who have been momentarily 
 misled by the impulses of sectional feeling and excited pas- 
 sions. Our fellow-citizens in the South ought certainly to re- 
 member that whole communities can not justly be held respon- 
 sible for the ravings of individual fanatics and the wild schemes 
 of sectional agitators and conspirators. 
 
 At the same time, let us appeal to the men of the North to act 
 
40 
 
 a conservative and patriotic part. "Will they not arise in their 
 might and put an end to this detestable and dangerous war- 
 fare between the two great sections of the American Union? 
 (Cries of " Yes.") Every patriot heart must desire the restora- 
 tion of peace and the revival of mutual confidence and kind- 
 ness. I contend that negro slavery ought no more now, than 
 in 1787, to stand in the way of national unity and concord. 
 (Applause.) As that question was not permitted to defeat the 
 formation of the Union, we should not allow it to mar the en- 
 joyment of its blessings. We all know that slavery is regard- 
 ed with different sentiments in the free States and the slave 
 States. It was so from the beginning ; but the Constitution 
 has wisely left each State to regulate the subject according to 
 its own will and pleasure. If the people will bear in mind 
 this fundamental truth, and govern themselves accordingly, 
 sectional controversy and excitement must soon disappear. 
 The constant discussion and agitation of the slavery question 
 in the free States has become an intolerable nuisance. (Tre- 
 mendous applause and cheers.) A portion of the Northern 
 press seem to consider it the only subject of human interest. 
 They will not allow us to lose sight of it for a day. In litera- 
 ture, in politics, in religion, they insist that it is the great 
 moral pivot on which everything must turn. A stranger in 
 the land, ignorant of our history, would infer that for the first 
 time we are about to decide whether slavery shall be permit- 
 ted in this country or not. Of course he would be greatly 
 surprised to learn that New York, New England, and all the 
 free States abolished slavery many years ago, and that no 
 man has yet proposed to restore it. We decided that it is not 
 o-ood for us, and we will not have it, thus fulfilling our duty, 
 and exhausting our jurisdiction over the subject. That should 
 be the end of the matter, so far at least as we are concerned. 
 For what legitimate purpose, then, is an anti-slavery excite- 
 ment to be kept alive in the free States ? Most of the polit- 
 ical agitators of the subject admit that they have no power or 
 disposition to interfere with slavery in the States where it ex- 
 ists, and many of them even repel the idea that they seek in 
 any way to benefit the colored population. But nevertheless 
 they wage an interminable war of words, proposing nothing 
 for the benefit either of master or slave, but leaving the insti- 
 
41 
 
 tution in full vigor, as a perpetual target for political adven- 
 turers. 
 
 But is it urged that their real object is to prevent the ex- 
 tension of slavery into free territory. That was once a pend- 
 ing practical question. It is so no longer. Kansas is free, as 
 many of us maintained that it must be from causes too power- 
 ful to be controlled by the efforts of politicians or propagan- 
 dists. All the territory affected by the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise is free, and must forever remain so. That battle 
 is fought and won, and the troops should be disbanded. There 
 is no territory belonging to the Union in which slavery can 
 be profitably established. Every reflecting man in the South, 
 as well as the North, sees and admits the fact. 
 
 We may be told that there are slaves in Kew Mexico, and 
 that the territorial legislature has made it legal. Bat the 
 notion that slavery can be planted there as a permanent sys- 
 tem is too chimerical for serious discussion. It is no more 
 probable than the introduction of the cotton culture into 
 Maine or Nova Scotia. What is New Mexico ? It is a remote 
 and inaccessible region of mountain ranges and desert plains, 
 vividly and accurately described as a "howling desolation." 
 It is said that a few unhappy army officers have taken slaves 
 into that forlorn wilderness as domestic servants to cook their 
 rations. This may be so, but; it is well known that there is 
 no agriculture there upon which slave labor could subsist* 
 No Southern planter could be induced to migrate there. 
 The whole American continent can not afford to be convulsed 
 from year to year merely to prevent a danger so trifling and 
 so remote. As a matter of fact, the Territories have ceased to 
 be the object of sectional contest. Why then prolong the 
 strife on a mere abstraction after the controversy is decided? 
 The North already holds a large preponderance of strength. 
 She can afford to be just and magnanimous. Texas was the 
 last slave State admitted into the Union. Since that event, 
 the whole Pacific coast has been added to the domain of free 
 territory ; four free States have been admitted, and Kansas is 
 forthcoming. While the public ear is wearied with incessant 
 railings on the extension and the aggressions of slavery, these 
 actual results show that in fact there has been no extension 
 whatever. (Applause.) Mr. President, the age of the Cru- 
 
42 
 
 sades is past, and the country is entitled to repose. The time 
 has come (if it is ever to cotne) for terminating these unhappy 
 and needless sectional dissensions. (Cheers.) There are great 
 national interests in which all the States have a common con- 
 cern, and which the Federal Union was intended to foster 
 and protect. How much more vital and important are these 
 common objects, belonging to all, and necessary for all, than 
 the single point of diversity which has been too long the ab- 
 sorbing source of angry irritation ! It should be the effort of 
 every sincere patriot to recall the public mind from these mis- 
 chievous disputes, to the national concerns which affect the 
 welfare of the whole country, and to those sentiments of 
 mutual regard which prevailed in the better days of the Repub- 
 lic. The interruption of friendly feelings between the States 
 of the North and the South is of itself a great and incalculable 
 evil. It withers and blights the choicest benefits which the 
 Union was intended to secure. It embitters our national 
 councils, obstructs all useful legislation, arrests commercial 
 intercourse, and destroys that feeling of confidence and secu- 
 rity which is one of the highest objects of civil society. Our 
 divisions create well-founded alarm for the stability of our re- 
 publican institutions, and make us a by-word and reproach 
 among the nations. It is a spectacle from which every patri- 
 otic heart must recoil with mortification and dismay. It in- 
 spires the despots of the earth with fresh hopes, and every- 
 where chills the aspirations of the friends of constitutional 
 liberty. I trust that good men throughout the land will unite 
 in the work of peace and conciliation, and proclaim their un- 
 alterable purpose to resist all further efforts to combine section 
 against section in political strife. (" They will.") It was not 
 intended by the founders of our government that one portion 
 of the country should rule or subjugate the other. Far differ- 
 ent, more noble and exalted, were their aims. They sought to 
 frame a constitutional system which should unite the people 
 of all the States into one family of freemen, to participate har- 
 moniously in the responsibilities of power, to share equally in 
 its blessings, and to unite their efforts to uphold the principles 
 of civil and religious liberty. Such was the government 
 which our fathers made, and may it be our happy destiny to 
 preserve it as it came from their hands. 
 
43 
 
 There are those who maintain that the Union possesses a 
 strength superior to human vicissitude, and that its stability 
 can not be endangered by any political contingency. They 
 are disposed to treat with levity and poor attempts at ridicule 
 aU'expressions of apprehension and solicitude. They profess 
 to rely on the strength of mountain chains and navigable 
 waters to hold the parts together. I do not under-estimate 
 the power of material interests and commercial ties as a bond 
 of political connection, but these alone are not sufficient. The 
 excited passions, the determined will of States and communi- 
 ties, are not to be controlled by geographical or commercial 
 channels of intercourse. Popular feeling, when deeply 
 aroused, disdains the barriers of physical nature. 
 
 Neither rivers, nor seas, nor mountain ranges, nor laws of 
 trade or financial interests affecting the public prosperity have 
 proved sufficient to save republics from dismemberment and 
 destruction. The voluntary affection and loyalty of the people 
 is the only sure basis for a free government. A love of the 
 Union must be cherished in the hearts of the whole American 
 people. We must continue to regard it as the greatest politi- 
 cal blessing ever conferred upon mankind. Let us this night 
 send forth a declaration which shall assure our brethren in the 
 South that the people of the North are ready to put away 
 strife, and lay fresh offerii gs upon the altar of our common 
 country. I see and feel that the heart of this metropolis glows 
 with patriotic fervor. Its generous pulsations will be felt to 
 the remotest extremities of our vast continental republic. Be 
 it proclaimed and understood from this time forth that New 
 York will never falter in her loyalty to the Union and the 
 Constitution ; that she still cherishes a proud recollection of 
 the united efforts and common sacrifices by which our national 
 independence was secured, and that she will never cease to 
 foster those sentiments of national brotherhood and affection 
 which animated the fathers of our country, and which bind us 
 together by the most sacred and indissoluble ties. (Great ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 In the progress of human events it has been reserved to the 
 people of this country to decide by their conduct and example 
 whether societies of men are capable or not of maintaining a 
 system of free representative government, and whether States 
 
44 
 
 differing in climate and institutions can be permanently united 
 under a common confederation. A more sacred charge was 
 never committed to any nation. Tlie warnings of history 
 should not be lost upon the freemen of America. Once n\ore 
 I would invoke them all, in the North and the South, the East 
 and the West, to be faithful to the mighty interests intrusted 
 to their hands. May they cultivate that broad and generous 
 patriotism which embraces the whole country in its affections. 
 May they ever look with patriotic disdain on the poor partisan 
 arts which, for selfish ends, would undermine the glorious 
 fabric of our united nationality, but with clear heads and 
 honest hearts ever resist the ruthless and sacrilegious efforts to 
 rend asunder those grand communities which the great Archi- 
 tect of nations has so graciously joined together. (Long and 
 enthusiastic applause and cheers.) 
 
 ADDRESS OF JAMES S. THAYER. 
 
 Jas. S, Thayer, Esq., was then introduced, and apologized 
 for the non-appearance of ex-Governor Seymour, in conse- 
 quence of sudden illness, and then proceeded to say : 
 
 " Know thyself" is a maxim as instructive to states as to 
 individuals. Tiie principles that enlighten and make free, the 
 causes of growth, and the sources of prosperity to a state, 
 wherever they are allowed to have play, are palpable, and 
 similar under all forms of government. But the causes that 
 weaken and undermine are secret and insidious — the accidents 
 that end dynasties and produce revolutions are frequently 
 slight and inconsiderable, and the events that overturn gov- 
 ernments and dissolve confederacies break in upon a fancied 
 security, that startles and bewilders, and leaves no time for 
 wise counsel and patriotic effort to avert the crisis. No people 
 were ever more liable to fold their hands in the face of im- 
 pending danger, or to lie down on the brink of a dissolution 
 of the government than we are. 
 
 When men are busy and prosperous, following their ordi- 
 nary occupations without interruption, and the ample protec- 
 tion of state and municipal law shields them in the enjoyment 
 of every right and privilege, they forget the larger and higher 
 duties and responsibilities they owe to the confederacy. Their 
 
45 
 
 homes unmolested, their hearth-stones secure, and they kneel 
 in faithful devotion to their houseiiold gods. But their foot- 
 steps are seldom seen in the wide and open temple of a nation's 
 worship, where are enshrined the sacred memorials and em- 
 blems of our nationality". They bear no offerings to that all- 
 protecting genius of our Union and liberty, which exalts us 
 from the sovereignty of petty states, without a name, where 
 men have only their rights and well being — to the regal char- 
 acter and power of an empire that commands the respect and 
 admiration of the world — whose citizens are proud of the 
 heritage of a great and common country, and affluent in the 
 hopes of a common destiny and glory. (Cheers.) 
 
 Let those who choose revile Union meetings and Union 
 movements, whether the alarm be false or real — if there is but 
 the sign or appearance of danger, I shall rally with those who 
 gather close around the national flag. (Applause.) And who 
 would not rather be there, renewing his vows of fidelity to 
 the Constitution and the Union, than with the mocking band 
 who begin with impugning the motives and deriding the ac- 
 tions of all who would uphold the government, and will end 
 in joining those who would overthrow if? (Applause.) 
 
 I think this meeting to-night, unparalleled as an imposing 
 popular demonstration in the city of New York, deserves at 
 least the respect of all fair-minded men, and I trust that in its 
 spirit and expression it will come fairly up to the requirements 
 of the occasion, and meet the expectation of the country to 
 the fullest extent. If propriety requires that names and par- 
 ties should not be mentioned, truth and candor demand that 
 things should be called by their right names, and that princi- 
 ples should be dealt with according to their nature, tendency, 
 and effects. (Applause.) To come, then, squarely up to the 
 issue, to grapple with it fearlessly and without parley — what 
 is the present aspect and position of the Slavery question be- 
 tween the North and the South ? 
 
 I think it is comprehended in this — that whenever the anti- 
 Slavery sentiment is introduced into politics, and made the 
 sole hasis of party organization and action, it becomes aboli- 
 tionism,. (Prolonged applause.) It may not be altogether 
 such in the outset, but that is its tendency, and must of neces- 
 sity be its ultimate result. (Applause.) 
 
46 
 
 The anti-slavery sentiment, as a moral conviction and opin- 
 ion in the minds and consciences of men, no matter how- 
 strong, is a passive sentiment, and remains such until intro- 
 duced into politics. It then becomes an active agency, and if 
 it alone constitutes a party — if there is nothing of the party 
 but what is based on this — then we must see what is its antag- 
 onism — what it is directed against — for every party is an active 
 and opposing force, formed for positive an d aggressive action. 
 Now, will you tell me what there is for a party based solely 
 on anti-slavery to oppose, to fight against? Not certainly the 
 extension of slavery in Territories — that contest is ended. 
 (Applause.) Not the revival of the slave trade, for this finds 
 too few advocates to make an issue. (Applause.) Then cer- 
 tainly it must oppose slavery as it exists, or its ofiice is at an 
 end — " Othello's occupation's gone !" (Applause.) 
 
 There will, of course, be many classes under this generic 
 liead — as many dififerent shades of Abolitionists aa there are 
 of color in the African race — varying from the real jet of 
 Mrs. Stowe's " Uncle Tom" to the "Octoroon" of Bourcicault. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 Some— only a few, I hope— if they do not engage in, would 
 countenance an insurrection, would furnish arms, if they did 
 not use them. 
 
 Many will intensify and inflame the bitter hatred to slavery 
 and slaveholders, till the very weight of animosity and aver- 
 sion engendered will make the Union unbearable. 
 
 A large class openly proclaim that the fugitive slave law 
 should not be executed, and that the decision of the Supreme 
 Court in the Dred Scott case is a nullity. 
 
 The largest number strenuously insist that they would not 
 in any way encroach upon the constitutional rights of the 
 South — no, no, not that. Their method is one of moral sua- 
 sion. They would convince the South that they are morally 
 and economically wrong, and by a mild administration of 
 such effective and healing doctrines as are contained in the 
 Helper compendium (laughter), the evil will be speedily 
 eradicated. These are the varied and delicate threads which 
 are to supply the spindle that is weaving the " bond of cable 
 strength" that will drag us to the very brink — if not into the 
 pit itself — of disunion. 
 
47 
 
 The growth of political anti-slavery in the last ten years has 
 been rapid and formidable. The breaking up and division of 
 parties has furnished ample material for recruiting and 
 strengthening it. Able and adroit leaders, with unceasing toil 
 and marvelous skill, have wrought of these materials a struc- 
 ture, large and imposing, but frail and unsubstantial — a struc- 
 ture inhabited by many unwilling occupants, who sought it 
 only for a temporary abode, for a special purpose — already 
 accomplished (applause) ; old conservative Whigs, for instance, 
 who will soon leave it when they find the company they are in 
 (applause), men who have no notion of making their perma- 
 nent home in a house that opens only to tlie North, and is 
 founded on the shifting sands of sectional strife and animosity. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 In 1844, out of 480,000 votes in the State of New York, 
 there were only 16,000 Abolition votes pure, and simple. 
 That small cloud, then no bigger than a man's hand, has in 
 fifteen years overspread the whole Northern sky; its dark and 
 angry folds curtain the farthest horizon of the East and the 
 West; the roll of its loud thunder shakes the whole heavens 
 from side to side, and eyes that never before quailed in storm 
 or tempest now turn with dismay from the blinding glare of 
 its lightning. (Sensation.) But this shall not always last — 
 light is already breaking through the darkness of night, and 
 before another twelvemonth has passed, the sun of our liberty 
 will purple with a soft and tranquil glow the Eastern and 
 Northern hills — and holding on his course through a serene 
 and unclouded pathway, will usher in a day as bright as when 
 the morning stars of our Union first sang together, and rose in 
 that galaxy that is now radiant with so many added glories. 
 (Prolonged and enthusiastic applause and clieers.) 
 
 That the anti-slavery sentiment, when made the sole basis 
 of party organization, becomes what I have stated, is evident, 
 not only as a logical deduction from what that sentiment is, 
 and necessarily becomes, when subjected to the uses of a party 
 that professes no other principle of action, but from the avowed 
 sentiments of anti-slavery leaders. The doctrine of an " irre- 
 pressible conflict" is now the received and accepted one. Let 
 us look a little at this doctrine — its nature and meaning. The 
 distinguished author of it foreshadowed it fifteen years ago, in 
 
48 
 
 a letter written, I think to a Committee in Philadelphia, who 
 had invited liim to be present on some public occasion. In 
 the year 1845, he said, "The distinctions in parties are being 
 measurably lost sight of, and must in the end be wholl}' so, 
 and merged in the inevitable conflict between slavery and the 
 democratic principle." I quote from recollection, and may 
 not be precisely accurate in the language, but that is the sen- 
 timent. So, the doctrine is not new ; it has been long aimed 
 at and waited for. Fifteen years ago it was " inevitaUe'^ — 
 that is, sure to come. We now see the beginning of it. 
 Events have favored its advent, old issues have died out, par- 
 ties have been broken up, the way has been cleared for it, and 
 the " irrepressible conflict" is upon us. In 1845, the Aboli- 
 tionists only asked that what was " inevitable" should take 
 place. It has taken place, and they are content — satisfied, as 
 all Abolitionists should be, and as none but Abolitionists can 
 be. (Applause.) If this sentiment is not the extreme doc- 
 trine of rank abolitionism, I do not know where to find it. 
 And yet this doctrine is widely indorsed, it is inscribed on 
 banners, and is rung out loudly and approvingly by the prom- 
 inent men and leaders of a great party. There are some who 
 attempt to soften the phrase — to dilute the doctrine, by assign- 
 ing it a place in the dull, cold category of "abstractions," 
 " general philosophical truths," and gravely ask, if there has 
 not been for 3,000 years a conflict between free and slave 
 labor, and must not always be. As if all arguments drawn 
 from history or analogy do not proceed on the fact or assump- 
 tion, that where there is such a conflict, free and slave labor 
 exist in the same community, side by side, under the same in- 
 stitutions, and governed by the same laws, assuming forms of 
 competing labor and rival industry. This is the essence of 
 the whole thing. And there can be no such conflict in this 
 country, unless it be from overt and aggressive action on the 
 part of free labor. (Applause.) For the reason, first, that 
 slave labor exists in a distinct and separate community ; is 
 created, regulated, and controlled by the laws of the States in 
 which it exists ; is recognized and protected from interference 
 and molestation by the Constitution of the United States. 
 (Applause.) And we of the North have no right to meddle 
 with it — peaceably or forcibly — directly or indirectly — polit- 
 
49 
 
 ically or socially— in any form or manner. (Prolonged ap- 
 plause and cheering.) It is hardly necessary for us, fellow- 
 citizens, to say that we do not believe that any considerable 
 portion of the North, of any party or class, approve of the at- 
 tempt of John Brown and his confederates to excite an insur- 
 rection of slaves in Virginia. (Applause.) That there should 
 be any, is a disgrace to a Christian age and country. But 
 while those who approve the act are only a handful, revilers 
 of all human laws and blasphemers against God, there are 
 those— too many— who, while they condemned the act, sym- 
 pathize in some degree with the man, and attempt to invest, 
 with something of heroic features, crimes of the most cold- 
 blooded atrocity, which, if they had been fully consummated, 
 would have opened up scenes of fire, blood, and desolation 
 without a parallel in the annals of human woe. (Applause.) 
 ^ It has been said— and it is true— that this meeting and all 
 similar demonstrations are a delusion and a snare, unless they 
 are followed by some corresponding healthful action. We 
 should not rest with a simple declaration of our sentiments. 
 Let us act, as well as speak. (Applause.) Let us unite, or- 
 ganize, and by a united and consolidated movement assume a 
 a position that shall hold the balance of power in the politics 
 of the country. (Great applause.) Let us place in the coun- 
 cils of the nation statesmen— real statesmen— not men of one 
 idea, but men of enlarged views— (applause)— men whose 
 comprehension will take in the whole country (applause), 
 who, measuring its great wants and high destiny, will come 
 up to the standard of the statesmanship of other and better 
 days. (Hearty cheers.) When we find the popular voice ap- 
 proving, and sixty-eight lileral-7ninded, national representa- 
 tives in Congress with the Helper compendium in their 
 pockets, as a text-book, is it not time to reform our politics? 
 (Cries of " Aye, aye," and applause.) Let this meeting, to- 
 night, be the first movement in that direction. (Applause.) 
 Let the popular mind be educated, brought up to a careful 
 and full appreciation of the high responsibilities and duties of 
 a citizen. Let the historical element of our o-overnment be 
 unfolded— brought plainly into view, and impressed upon the- 
 understanding of the people ; impart to them the knowledge 
 that shall discern relations purely political, separating them 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 from the encroaclimeiits of personal conscience, and assigning 
 to the State a legitimate and nndivided authority that the in- 
 dividual has no right to question, unless he abandons his cit- 
 izenship, and renounces the government whose protection he 
 enjoys. (Applause.) With an elevated and well-directed 
 popular opinion, our politics may be reformed, and men placed 
 in the councils of the country who will brinp^ to the uphold- 
 ing and preservation of our free institutions the same calm 
 wisdom and temperate thought and purpose that presided 
 over their foundation and early administration. (Applause.) 
 Then, indeed, will our peaceful and happy country, in ever- 
 enduring cycles of abundant joy and prosperity, fulfill her 
 glorious destiny. Then the Constitution, in this day of secure 
 enjoyment and repose, folded in as close and cherished an em- 
 brace as when our fathers, in the hour of their greatest need 
 and most imminent peril, cradled it into life and being — fear 
 no enemy, but live 
 
 " In the affections of the general heart, 
 And in the wisdom of the best." 
 
 And every arrow from that full quiver of anti-slavery wrath, 
 whether winged from the press, the pulpit, or the forum, fall 
 blunted on the impenetrable shield of a nation's love and rev- 
 erence. (Great applause.) 
 
 Hon. John A. Dix was introduced and enthusiastically 
 cheered. He spoke as follows : 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. JOHN A. DIX. 
 
 Fellow- Citizens — At this late hour of the evening, and 
 after the eloquent addresses you have heard from the distin- 
 guished speakers who have preceded me, I fear the few plain 
 words I wish to say to you may fall coldly upon the ear ; but 
 such is the importance of the subject that it will bear some 
 repetition, and I will throw myself upon your indulgence for 
 a few moments. 
 
 I consider the occasion which has called us together as the 
 very gravest in our history as a nation. It involves the mo- 
 mentous problem of the continued existence of the States of 
 
51 
 
 this Union in the bonds of harmony, in which they were united 
 by the wisdom of our forefathers after years of bloody conflict 
 with one of the most powerful nations of the earth. The tri- 
 umphant issue of the war of the Kevolution did not put an 
 end to the embarrassments which obstructed the formation of 
 a stable government. They continued after the cessation of 
 hostilities during nearly nine years of doubt and uncertainty, 
 and almost of despair, on the part of some of the most sober- 
 minded men of that day. The foundations of the government 
 under which we live were laid in peril from within and with- 
 out ; and it required on the part of the men who framed the 
 Federal Constitution a fund of patriotism and sagacity trans- 
 cending all previous example to rescue the confederacy from 
 the danger of disorganization with which it was threatened. 
 Under the government they at last succeeded in establishing, 
 we have lived in harmony and fraternal friendship for seventy 
 years. From a feeble confederation of independent States 
 held together by the loosest political bonds, M^e have become 
 a powerful and united people. We need not fear to measure 
 our physical strength with any of the great empires of the 
 Eastern Hemisphere. (Applause.) Our prosperity and our 
 progress have no parallel in the history of the past. Freedom 
 from all unnecessary personal restraint, the right of every 
 individual to the unrestricted use of his property, and his 
 intellectual resources in all the departments of industry have 
 developed the genius of our countrymen in a thousand forms 
 of physical and social improvement, giving energy to our own 
 advances, waking up the drowsy faculties of the Old "World, 
 and contributing to liberate them from the shackles in which 
 they have been held for centuries by narrow systems of policy 
 and government. Above all, our people are prosperous in 
 their vocations of business, happy in their social relations, and 
 respected in every quarter of the globe for their boldness, 
 their enterprise, and their indefatigable perseverance. (Cheers.) 
 Are not these great results to have been achieved in less 
 than three quarters of a century? In this short period (for it 
 is short in the life of a nation) we liave spread ourselves, with 
 our improvements in government, in industry, and in art, over 
 the American Continent. The same sun, vrhich the fathers 
 in tlie old States see in the morning rising out of the turbulent 
 
52 
 
 Atlantic, the children on the opposite shores of California and 
 Oregon see at night going down into the placid bosom of the 
 Pacific. Fellow-citizens, it was four hundred and eight3'-six 
 years after the foundation of the Roman Republic before it 
 succeeded in extending its dominion by force of arms over all 
 Italy. In seventy years we have by the unoffending arts of 
 peace covered and subdued a continent. In the rise and pro- 
 gress of empires there is nothing to compare with ours. (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 The question which presses on us (a question the settlement 
 of which can not be safely postponed) is whether we will, by 
 a faithful discharge of our constitutional obligations, and by 
 a scrupulous performance of the duties of good neighborhood 
 — duties which have their foundation in natural law, and 
 which are precedent both in the order of time and in moral 
 force to all social organizations — preserve what of honor, 
 prosperity, and power we have gained, or whether we will 
 permit all to be swept away by the tide of fanaticism, and the 
 Union, the source of everything valuable we possess, to be 
 resolved into its constituent elements. This is the question 
 presented to us. It can not be evaded. It ought not to be 
 evaded. It should be met manfully and disposed of as pati^- 
 otism and justice dictate. (Cheers.) 
 
 Fellow-citizens, a combination having for its purpose to dis- 
 turb the quietude of the Southern States, and to liberate their 
 slaves held in bondage under their own laws, and recognized 
 as thus lawfully held by the constitution of the United States, 
 has recently been disclosed : not disclosed by accident — not by 
 the infidelity to each other of any of the parties implicated in 
 it, but by the failure of the initiatory enterprise undertaken 
 with force of arms, and sealed with blood; an enterprise hav- 
 ing for its object to excite insurrection in a portion of the 
 Union, and to break up its social organization with fire and 
 sword. 
 
 Great efforts have been made to underrate the importance 
 of this movement, to obscure the public judgment by measur- 
 ing it by its results, and by deriding it as an enterprise too 
 insignificant for sober comment or for serious consultation 
 among ourselves. Insurrectionary movements, conspiracies 
 against the public order, either general or local, armed com- 
 
53 
 
 binations against the supremacy of the law, treason in peace 
 or in war, are to be judged by their purposes and not by their 
 issues. Schemes the best concerted, which, if successful, 
 would have led to consequences the most momentous, often 
 fail in the execution. The treason of Arnold, if it had not 
 been detected, would have delivered the stronghold of the 
 Revolution into the hands of the public enemy, and proved 
 most disastrous to the cause of American Independence. The 
 world has judged the criminal attempt by its intention, and 
 not raeasui-ed its enormity by its discomfiture. Those who 
 sympathize with tlie authors of the Harper's Ferry treason 
 would have the country regard it as the insane vagary of a 
 fanatic acting on his own individual impulse, and w^ithout 
 preconcert, except with a few followers as insane as himself. 
 The facts prove the very reverse of all this. They sliow a 
 deliberate purpose running through a series of years, or at 
 least of months, to invade the Southern States by force for the 
 purpose of liberating slaves, and so stir up a servile insurrec- 
 tion against their masters. Arms and ammunition have been 
 accumulated, money contributed, and a military organization 
 formed, or at least attempted to be formed, to carry out the 
 object of the conspiracy. Finally, a successful attack was 
 made on one of the public arsenals, and the authority of the 
 general government set at defiance ; and it was not until after 
 the shedding of blood and the sacrifice of life on both sides 
 that the conspirators were dislodged, and either killed or cap- 
 tured. Here are all the elements of a conspiracy of the nio&t 
 treasonable character ; and if tlie movement had been re- 
 sponded to as was anticipated by tlie leader of the enterprise, 
 no man can doubt that the district of country against which 
 it was directed would have been a scene of devastation and 
 bloodshed, and that it would have been in its consequences 
 most disastrous to the peace of the Union. The movement 
 is to be judged, then, like all other treasonable enterprises — 
 not by its failure, but by its design and its possible conse- 
 quences. 
 
 In this point of view it would be most important to ascer- 
 tain, if we could, to what extent the purposes of those con- 
 cerned in it were known to, and how far they had the concur- 
 rence of, prominent men in the non-slaveholding States. I 
 
54 
 
 accuse no one of complicity in tlie transaction. Every man 
 is entitled to the presumption of innocence until bis guilt is 
 proved. But it is not necessary, in order to convict an indi- 
 vidual of moral complicity in this trea8onal>le enterprise, that 
 ho should have been previously apprised of the particular act 
 in which the general purpose was to manifest itself. It is not 
 necessary that he should have known and encouraged the in- 
 tention of Brown and bis followers to attack Harper's Ferry 
 and seize the national armory by force. In that case he would 
 have been an accessory before the lact to a criminal act, and 
 might have been held to the same responsibility as the princi- 
 pals. But there is a moral responsibility, which, though it may 
 not be amenable to punishment by human law, is in ever}' just 
 sense as real as that of him who is guilty of the overt act of trea- 
 son. (Applause.) Knowledge of the treasonable design in its 
 general purpose without disclosing or discountenancing it ; doc- 
 trines publicly proclaimed, the direct tendency of which is to 
 inflame the passions and to incite to acts subversive of law, 
 injurious to the interests and destructive of the tranquillity 
 of the Union, though they may not fall within the pale of the 
 criminal jurisprudence of the country, are amenable to the 
 tribunal of public opinion, and should find there the highest 
 punishment it can award (applause) — the condemnation of a 
 commuiiity looking to the preservation of the public order as 
 the only security against anarchy and despotism. No man, 
 thus marked, can ever rise high up in the scale of political 
 preferment. (Applause.) lie may attain a local notoriety 
 and distinction, but when measured by the national standard, 
 he will be found even by his own political associates to fall far 
 short of the moral and intellectual dimensions essential to the 
 highest ])re-eminence. (Applause.) 
 
 Does any thinking man suppose that the Union can be pre- 
 served, if aggressions like this, contrived and set on foot in one 
 section of the Union against the security and peace of another 
 are continued ? It is impossible. One of the declared objects 
 of the formation of the Constitution, as is stated in the Reso- 
 lutions, " was to insui'e domestic tranquillity." Does anyone 
 believe that the common government established under it can 
 be upheld when it has ceased to secure any one of the great 
 objects for which it was instituted ? What are the obliga- 
 
55 
 
 tions of one community to another ? To respect its rights of 
 sovereignty and property, to abstain from all that is calcu- 
 lated to°disturb its peace or foment discord among its inhab- 
 itants ; in a word, to do no act which shall be prejudicial to 
 its weltare. If there be any higher law for the political gov- 
 ernment of men than that which is' contained in the written 
 constitutions they have framed for themselves, it is the Chris- 
 tian rule of doing to others as we would have others do to us. 
 Every community is answerable for the conduct of its citizens, 
 and if it refuses to punish acts of aggression committed by 
 them, against the citizens of another, it becomes an accom- 
 plice, aiid may be held responsible for the injury. Between 
 independent nations such acts of aggression unredressed would 
 constitute justifiable cause of war. It is not necessary to go 
 to the books for authority for these obligations. They are the 
 dictates of common reason ; they are written in the hearts and 
 consciences of men, and they rise above all the conventional 
 arrangements of human society. If these are the imperative 
 duties' of independent States, should they not be deemed 
 equally sacred by States living under a common government 
 and holding their liberties, their property, and their domestic 
 peace by the same tenure ? (Cries of " Yes, yes.") How 
 have we fulfilled these obligations? Kay, how have we dis- 
 charoed the common offices of good neighborhood ? 
 
 FeUow-citizens : The Constitution of the United States recog- 
 nizes the existence of slavery, and the Eesolutions which have 
 been read to you present with great conciseness the practical 
 interpretations the provisions containing the recognition have 
 received. The Constitution provides for the representation in 
 Congress of persons not free. It provides for the delivery of 
 persons held to service or labor and escaping therefrom, to the 
 party to whom such labor or service is due. This was one of 
 the fundamental compromises of the Constitution, and it was 
 finally adopted in the Federal Convention over which Gen. 
 Washington -presided without a dissenting voice. The sur- 
 render of a slave, who has escaped from his master, is as much 
 a duty as it is to yield obedience to any other provision which 
 the Constitution has made for the general welfare and securi- 
 ty. And yet it is not only evaded, but boldly violated and 
 set at defiance by large numbers of the citizens of the non- 
 
56 
 
 slaveholding States. Slaves are not only assisted when fleeing 
 from servitude, but they are enticed away from their masters 
 by emissaries sent among them to seduce them from their 
 allegiance. I do not stop to inquire into the origin of slavery, 
 its compatibility with natural law, or its influence on the 
 social condition of a community. Tliese are questions alto- 
 gether foreign to the issue in hand. It is enougli that slavery 
 existed among us, here as well as at the South, when the Con- 
 stitution was framed ; that it is recognized and made the 
 basis of certain political duties which we can no more evade 
 or violate than we can throw off" our allegiance to the govern- 
 ment itself while claiming or enjo3'ing its protection. AVe 
 ni'ist take the Constitution as a whole, or reject it as a whole. 
 We must remain in the Union and fulfill all the duties inci- 
 dent to it or go out of it. There is no middle course for hon- 
 est men. Between these alternatives there can be no hesita- 
 tion in the choice. I am sure I speak the feelings of every 
 individual here when I say we are for the Union, and for a 
 scrupulous fulfillment of all the duties and obligations it im- 
 poses on us. (Applause.) We are in favor of surrendering 
 fugitive slaves, as enjoined by the Constitution. Fellow-cit- 
 izens, we should go farther, and punish with the severest pen- 
 alties all attempts to seduce slaves from their obedience, to 
 disturb the peace, or interfere with the domestic arrangements 
 and institutions of our sister States. (" Yes, yes.") This is not 
 only an obligation, founded on those intuitive principles of 
 natural justice which sIkuiM find a response in every heart; 
 but the surrender of fugitives is a conventional duty agreed on 
 by our fathers as one of the conditions on which the govern- 
 ment they framed was accepted by the thirteen original States, 
 and put in operation for the common benefit. It is a duty we 
 can not refuse to perform without repudiating the fundamental 
 compact and committing an act of infidelity to the govern- 
 ment and people of the United States. 
 
 1 have thus far, fellow-citizens, looked at this question from 
 our own point of view. Let us change positions with our 
 Southern brethren, and see it from the point at which they 
 stand. They are living in peace with their slaves, the latter 
 contented, as a general rule, with their condition. No better 
 proof of the fact can be adduced than the failure of the Harper's 
 
5T 
 
 Ferry inroad to seduce a single one from his allegiance. (Ap- 
 plause.) Thej find emissaries from the North coming among 
 them to sow the seeds of dissension in their families, to excite 
 their slaves to insurrection, to break up their homes, destroy 
 the value of their property, and put their lives in peril. Is 
 there a man within reach of my voice who can find fault with 
 them for any measure of resentment with which these aggres- 
 sions are repelled ? (" No, no.") Would we ourselves submit 
 to them peaceably, if our places were reversed ? ("No, no.") 
 No, fellow-citizens, they are wrongs not to be patienlly en- 
 dured — wrongs, under the sting of which even the horrors of 
 disunion may be fearlessly encountered as an alternative, with 
 wdiich, if all else be lost, honor and self-respect may be pre- 
 served. (Applause.) 
 
 I desire to put this question on the single ground of duty to 
 our fellow-citizens in other States, and to the common com- 
 pact by which our reciprocal relations are governed and de- 
 lined. I should be very sorry, in a question of duty, to think 
 it necessary to appeal to an}'^ considerations of a lower charac- 
 ter. But it is right to look to the interest we have in the pres- 
 ervation of the Union, in order to understand with what fatal 
 effect these assaults on the slaveholding States may rebound 
 on us. I do not believe there is to be found in any other sec- 
 tion of the country an equal number of people who would be 
 more disastrously affected by a separation of the States than 
 the million of inhabitants who live in and around this city. 
 It is the great emporium of the Union, the centre of its com- 
 mercial and financial transactions, the focal point, from which 
 the chief currents of business radiate for the distribution of 
 the necessaries of life, and to which they re-flow with the sur- 
 pluses of our productive labor. Every year makes it more 
 manifest that the time is not far distant when it will become 
 the financial centre, not of this continent alone, but of the 
 commercial world. The great mart of a continent lying mid- 
 way between Europe and Asia, it must ere long draw to itself 
 the exchanges of both, and become the common medium for 
 the adjustment of commercial balances. Nothing is wanting 
 to accomplish this result but a communication which shall 
 place New York and San Francisco within ten daj^s of each 
 other, and this can not be long postponed. It is only as the 
 
58 
 
 commercial und iinaucial centre of a united, empire on this 
 continent that New York -can maintain her pre-eminence. A 
 blow struck at the Union through the vitals of another State 
 is a blow struck at her prosperity, I had almost said at her 
 very existence. (/Vpplause.) Let us bear these things in mind 
 — not as incentives to the performance of a duty, not to 
 strengthen obligations which the Constitution makes impera- 
 tive, and which, with honest men, can derive no additional 
 efficacy from considerations of self-interest — but to enforce on 
 us the conviction that the cause of the Southern States in this 
 issue is our cause, that infidelity to them is not only infidelity 
 to the Constitution and to all the dictates of honor and good 
 faith, but infidelity to ourselves and to the noble city which 
 looks to us for the vindication of her national character, and 
 for the assertion of her loyalty to the Union. (Great ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 I wish, fellow-citizens, that those who are accustomed to 
 talk lightly and flippantly of disunion, would tell us how some 
 of the problems a separation of the States would bring with it, 
 are to be solved in practice. Where shall the Eastern and 
 Western line between the two great JNorthern and Southern 
 empires be drawn ? Would dissolution stop there, or should 
 we have an Eastern and a Western empire, with a Northern 
 and Southern line between them ? How would the common 
 property and the common indebtedness of the political associa- 
 tion be divided between the dissolving partners? Look at the 
 condition of your credit in the stock markets of the Old World. 
 Your government securities bear a higher price on the great 
 exchanges and bourses of most of the European states than 
 their own. Who would become the sponsors for their redemp- 
 tion, or should they be shamelessly discredited, and the igno- 
 miny of repudiation be superadded to the sickening catalogue 
 of evils which would follow in the train of disunion ? (Ap- 
 plause.) How long would the dissevered States remain at 
 peace with each other ? Not, in all probability, a single year. 
 The very act of separation, founded, as it w^ould be, on a sense 
 of injustice and injur}^, would be a virtual declaration of inex- 
 tinguishable hostility and hatred. It would be the f-ignal of 
 collision and conflict, which would have no end till one of the 
 parties should be subjected to the other; and with the proud 
 
59 
 
 spirit of our countrymen, tins issue would never be readied 
 till the fields, which have been consecrated by the common 
 toils and perils of Washington and Greene, and Marion and 
 Gates ("Good," and cheers), and made glorious by their valor, 
 had been stained again and again by fraternal blood. But, 
 fellow-citizens, I turn away from all these loathsome pictures 
 of disunion. Like the statistics of mortality, ^l^^y would be 
 but the gloomy records of disease and death. Although the 
 political horizon is overspread with darkness, I look with con- 
 fidence for returning light. (Applause.) I believe that nine 
 tenths of the citizens of the non-slaveholding States condemn 
 the outrage at Harper's Ferry and all expressions of sympathy 
 with its authors. (Great applause.) They regard it as a blow 
 struck at the Constitution and the Union. (Renewed ap- 
 plause.) We are here so to declare it, and to denounce it as 
 disorganizing, incendiary, and nefarious. (Loud applause.) 
 Some of the evils it has caused_the bloodshed and domestic 
 disturbance-have been expiated by the punishment of its 
 authors. For that which remains-the ill-feeling and distrust 
 -the remedy is in our own hands. Let us pledge ourselves 
 to a faithful discharge of the obligations the Constitution im- 
 poses npon us. Let us meet with scrupulous fidelity the en- 
 gagements entered into with our sister States-engagements 
 sanctioned by Washington and Franklin, and Madison and 
 Adams, and their illustrious associates— engagements we have 
 ourselves assumed by accepting the Constitution, and which 
 we tacitly acknowledge every day and every hour by living 
 under its protection. In a word, let us do what justice and 
 eood faith demand. Then may we hope, with the confidence 
 a consciousness of rectitude imparts, that the dark clouds 
 which hover over us will be dispersed, and, with the favor ot 
 that Divine Providence which has carried us in safety through 
 all the dangers of the past, that the sunlight of union and har- 
 mony will revisit us, to be withdrawn no more. (Applause.) 
 
 Fellow-citizens, on the 14th of June, 1777, less than a year 
 after the Declaration of Independence, the flag above us was 
 adopted by the Federal Congress as the banner under which 
 the armies of the Eevolution were to be marshaled for con- 
 flict. (Applause.) They resolved " that the flag of the IJnited 
 States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white : that the 
 
60 
 
 union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a 
 new constellation." Three quarters of a century and more 
 have gone by, and the constellation is no longer new. But the 
 thirteen stars are all there, undiminished and undimmed, and 
 with them twenty others of equal magnitude. (Loud cheer- 
 ing.) During the eighty-two years that banner has floated 
 over us, no act of national dishonor or injustice has stained it. 
 (Applause.) It has never gone to the battle-field except for 
 the redress of wrong. (Renewed applause.) No armies liave 
 been enrolled under it to carry on wars of ambition, cupidity 
 or aggression. It has never been trailed in the dust b}^ foreign 
 enemies (great applause), or torn down by fratricidal hands 
 among ourselves. (Immense cheering.) Shall it be soiled and 
 dishonored now by fanaticism and by foul conspiracies against 
 the peace and the integrity of the Union? ("No, no.") 
 Swear it. 
 
 YoicES. — '• We do. Long may it wave." 
 
 Shall the constellation of 1777 be exploded by domestic con- 
 flict, to be seen no more among the nations, like lost stars, 
 which, in the lapse of ages, have faded out of the firmament 
 above us? No, fellow-citizens, no matter whether that ban- 
 ner, dear to every patriotic heart, be assailed by enemies from 
 without or traitors within, let us uphold and defend it as the 
 representative of the embodied sovereignty of the thirty-three 
 States, and the sign of their common allegiance; and, with the 
 blessing of God, it shall continue, through centuries to come, 
 to be borne aloft, with every star still blazoned on its azure 
 
 field — THE TEIUMPnANT EMBLEM OF UNION AND EEATERNITY, PROS- 
 PERITY AND POWER. (Loud and long-continued cheering.) 
 
 Mr. Dix's speech was interrupted by frequent applause, and 
 at the close, he was tremendously cheered. 
 
61 
 
 REMARKS OF PROFESSOR MITCHELL. 
 
 Amid loud calls for " Brooks, Brooks," and others, Prof. 
 Mitchell was introduced. He said that he was born in Ken- 
 tucky, and full blooded, as both his parents were born in Vir- 
 ginia. Although he had lived, he said, half a century, he had 
 never opened his lips before in a popular assembly, but he 
 came here to-night to lift his humble voice in behalf of his 
 own mother; he did not desire her to be strangled and dragged 
 in the dust. He had stood outside of party, and never voted 
 a party ticket, but for the best men with the best principles. 
 He did not deny that he was ambitious, but the political par- 
 ties had long been such that he could not occupy any place 
 anywhere in them. He denied the power of any present party 
 man to give a fair independent vote. There were tens of 
 thousands who never go to the polls, because an honest man 
 could not come in competition with those who were unscrupu- 
 lous in the means they use to gain power. We were a power- 
 ful people, and should extricate the country from its present 
 predicament. But this could not be done through any present 
 party organization. The yeomen of the soil did not under- 
 stand this question of agitation, nor participate in it, neither 
 did the workmen of the country. There was nothing to fear 
 from them. It was the professed politicians who were to be 
 feared. Now, what was it that turned out so many honest 
 men to follow the lead of these trickstering politicians? Ask 
 one of these young fellows why he carried the torch in the 
 torch-light procession, and he will tell you nothing of what he 
 is fighting for, except to secure the election of their candidate, 
 whom he hardly knows by name. Now, all present admitted 
 the country was in danger, or they would not have been here. 
 But all they were doing for the Union would do no good, un- 
 less they went one step further, and gave proof of their faith 
 by action- He would ask first, whether in this country the 
 majority should rule? ("Yes, yes.") Would they agree to 
 devote one day next year to their own interests and the inter- 
 ests of the country? ("Yes, yes.") But, my friends, said 
 he, I want to know how many of you are candidates for ofiice. 
 
62 
 
 (Loud and prolonged langliter.) Then came the question, 
 " Are you willing to abandon all hope of office for ten years?" 
 (A voice — " Ask the gentlemen on the stage." Loud applause 
 and prolonged laughter.) For himself, he would pledge him- 
 self not to take office of any kind whatever in the country. 
 Was there any one who would stand with him in such a 
 pledge? (Cries of "Yes, yes.") Now the only way was 
 to form a patriotic party, resolved to forego office for the good 
 of his country. He had preached that doctrine for ten years, 
 and organizations on such a basis would run like wild-fire. 
 Of all tliose who take the most interest in elections there were 
 not five per cent, who were not candidates for office, and such 
 a state of things must be destroyed. In conclusion, he ap- 
 pealed to every man who cared anything for himself or fam- 
 ily, or state or country, to make some such sacrifice as he pro- 
 posed, which would give life and liberty to the whole civilized 
 world. 
 
 Lnmediately after the conclusion of Professor Mitchell's 
 speech, the two following resolutions were proposed and 
 unanimously adopted, with applause: 
 
 Resolved, That in the present "crisis," the true " way to meet it" is, for 
 the friends of the Constitution and the Union throughout all the land to con- 
 vene Union meetings, and to form Union organizations, in the spirit and tone 
 that called this meeting and have inspired its proceedings. 
 
 Jiesohed, That the Committee of Arrangements be authorized to corre- 
 spond with such Union organiziUions as may he formed, and to take such 
 measures as they may deem proper for the promulgation and maintenance 
 of the principles of this meeting. 
 
 Amid loud cries for " Bethune," Rev. Dr. Bethune came for- 
 ward and addressed the meeting. 
 
 SPEECH OF DR. BETHUNE. 
 
 I rise, sir, not because I have the presumption to think that I 
 can preserve the attention of this vast assembly, after all the ex- 
 cellent things that they have heard this evening, at this late hour. 
 But, sir, I come before this audience to shoAv myself. (Great 
 cheering.) Insignificant as I personally may be among the mil- 
 lions of this land, and weak in influence as my voice may be, when 
 
63 
 
 that voice is called for, and there is a question where I stand, I 
 wish to be reckoned with the Union now and forever. (Loud 
 cheers.) Yes, sir, I love the Union, and when I say that, it is 
 with the wish that if that Union is to perish, I may die first. 
 (Applause.) And, sir, there 'are many things which have been 
 said here this evening, with some of whicli I may frankly say I 
 could not coincide. I am not going to read law to you, sir. It is 
 not my province, and I must be excused from accepting the theol- 
 ogy of some gentlemen who have invaded mine. (Laughter.) Sir, 
 when I saw the call of this meeting, I said I must be there. 
 (" Good.") Never have I attended a public meeting in any way 
 political before in my life. (Cheers, and cries of " Good.") And 
 I can say with a clear conscience that no man has ever heard me 
 utter in public a single word of party politics. (Applause.) I 
 belong to a higher service. (Renewed cheering.) I am, by my 
 calling and my vows, a minister of the Gospel of Peace (cheers), 
 and it is as a minister of peace that I am among you to-night. 
 (Applause.) It is high time, when the pulpit is desecrated by 
 appeals to the wildest fanaticism (loud cheers, and a remark, 
 " The right man is in the right place this time !") — when men, by 
 voice of ecclesiastics, are canonized because they have shown the 
 pluck of a bull-dog with the bloodthirstiness of the tiger (ap- 
 plause) — it is high time, I say, that one who, humble as myself, 
 believes that the Gospel is " Peace on earth and good-will toward 
 man," should act upon his principles. (Loud applause.) I will 
 not enter into any of the disputed questions that have been foisted 
 into our meeting to-night. I have seen a discussion about the call 
 of this meeting — that there was first one call, then it was altered 
 for another call — that the same people who signed one could not 
 have signed the other. I never read either one call or the other 
 through (laughter); all I saw in the call was the word "Union" 
 (continued cheering), and that was enough. (Renewed cheering.) 
 I remember an honest Governor of Pennsylvania, whose ancestry 
 was traceable in his broken speech, Avas appealed to for the pardon 
 of a man Avho had murdered his wife, but the honest old man said, 
 " What ! pardon a man for such crime as that — a man who could 
 take a woman, and promise to nourish and cherish, and den kill 
 her? Vy, he ought to be 'shamed of himself." (Uproarious 
 laughter and cheers.) So I say hero to-night, if any man in get- 
 ting up this meeting, or in coming to tliis meeting, has bad a 
 
64 
 
 thought of Democrat, or Republican, or Native American higher 
 in his mind than Union, he ought to be ashamed of himself. 
 (Loud applause.) Nor shall I have sympathy with him, except he 
 repent in sackcloth; and ashes. (Laughter and applause.) You 
 talk of the Union being dissolved. Sir, there has been deep feel- 
 ing in most of the speeches that I have heard this evening. They 
 say '?y this Union is to be dhsohed—wheii the Union is dissolved. 
 Why, sir, that is what we logicians call an impossible hypothesis. 
 (Laughter and applause.) The Union is 7iot going to be dissolved. 
 Do you remember, sir, that once in old Rome there was a gulf 
 opened across the city; it was widening and widening, until it 
 threatened to engulf the whole of that splendid capital, when one 
 Marcus Curtius mounted his steed, fully armed and equipped, and 
 rode toward the chasm, and leaped into it, a willing victim to save 
 his Rome. Sir, should such a chasm happen in our Union, there 
 is not one, but there are a hundred Curtii — a hundred times ten 
 thousand — that are willing to leap into it. Divide the Union ! 
 Where are you going to divide the line 1 (A voice — " Mason and 
 Dixon's line.") iVlason and Dixon's fiddlesticks ! (Loud laugh- 
 ter.) Do you want to go 1 Which side do you mean to go ? I 
 know where I should go. It would be with that section which 
 holds fastest to the Constitution as it is. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 Sir, if any man has a right to be proud of his native place, per- 
 haps it is the man who speaks to you, for I was born in New York. 
 But, sir, what is New York ? What is the North ? What is the 
 South ? What is the East ? What is the West ? Take away 
 this Union, and we are nothing — worse than nothing — a con- 
 flicting, jostling chaos of rude, crumbling fragments. It 
 is not for me to enter into this question ; but, I repeat, 
 where will you draw a line? W^ill you split the Missis- 
 sippi? Try it. Are you going to divide by the assumed or 
 imputed evil of Slavery. Where does Slavery stop 1 They grow 
 cotton at the South, but where do they manufacture it ? (Tre- 
 mendous cheering.) I beg your pardon, but I have not time to be 
 cheered. I have read a story of Cook, the drunken player, who 
 once, in Liverpool, came upon the stage to act, and his condition 
 being evident when he approached the footlights, they hissed him. 
 His indignation restored him for a moment, and he looked at the 
 Liverpudlians as he called them, saying, " You hiss George Fred- 
 erick Cook, you people of Liverpool, with the sweat and blood of 
 
65 
 
 the slave between ever}' two bricks of your house ?" It was so. 
 There never was a slave in Liverpool, if I remember, but they 
 profited by the slave. They bought and sold him. Yes, sir, there 
 exists, if I mistake not, in the Plate Room of Windsor Castle, a 
 splendid service of gold, given to one of the royal dukes by Liver- 
 pool merchants, for his eiforts lo prevent the abolition of the slave 
 trade. But I wander from my purpose, in recalling that historical 
 reminiscence, which was to say, that, in some sections of our land, 
 where the loudest cry is heard upon this question, men have gi'own 
 rich upon the manufacture of the cotton which was grown by these 
 slaves (loud cheers) ; that the blood and the sweat of the slave is 
 between evory two bricks of their sumptuous palaces. Now, people 
 may call this what they please ; I call it hypocrisy. (Tremendous 
 cheers.) Where will you draw this line 1 I will tell you where 
 you must draw it. If you draw it at all, you must draw it across 
 and through our dearest aifections. We are one people. The man 
 who lives on the x\roostook has his brother on the Rio Grande. 
 The Northern mother has given her child to the Southern planter, 
 and the Southern planter bows in thankfulness to God for the 
 daughter of the North to cheer his home. (Loud cheers.) Will 
 you dissolve this Union ? (Cries of " No, no," and cheers.) 
 
 I tell you, you need not ask the question. You can not — you 
 can not. It will be far better than the Sabines and the Romans. 
 You have not taken violently the women of the South to be your 
 wives. You have exchanged consanguinity. You can not separate 
 them. What God hath joined together let no man put asunder. 
 (Prolonged applause, the whole assembly, on the platform, floor, 
 and galleries all rising, waving hats, cheering, and shouting in wild 
 enthusiasm.) A word or two more. I will not say that I have 
 said all I wish to say. (Cries of " Go on, go on !") There are 
 many things which I could say, and in another condition of circum- 
 stances might be glad to say, which I shall not inflict upon you 
 now. This is not a time for dry metaphysics. But I believe, sir, 
 that we inherit from our fathers some degree of that honesty and 
 truth for which they were distinguished, and for which their God 
 and our God blessed them. Our fathers made the compact of this 
 Union — our fathers made the Constitution as the mighty bond that 
 should hold it together. And I have one belief, that this gift has 
 of itself proven, with its checks, its balances, and its securities so 
 good, that any alteration would be for the worse — (cheers, and cries 
 
 5 
 
66 
 
 of " Good !") — that it contains within itself a perfect remedy for 
 ever}' evil, if our people will faithfully apply it and wait for the 
 operation of the remedy. (Cheers.) There is, therefore, no room 
 for revolution in this country ; and it may be said of all those 
 who hesitate about its principles — he that doubteth, is worthy of 
 condemnation. (Cheers.) But, sir, -vvhy should we not keep to 
 this, our fathers' faith ? We should know that we are bound by 
 that deed. Has it not been in the faith of that compact that this 
 country has grown to its present prosperity, and shall we, the in- 
 heritors of all the blessings, break the vows of even political bap- 
 tism, which, as our sponsors, they made for us? No, no! Let 
 us keep this. Let all our people learn that they are bound by ties 
 which none can break. The bones which are how moldering to 
 kindred dust are sacred with the memories of their patriotism. 
 We shoukl be violaters of the vows they made if we suffer one stone 
 of the Union reared by them to be pulled down. Sir, I agree in 
 many respects with my good friend the Professor, who spoke before 
 me, and 1 have great regard for him, but I can not help thinking 
 that he got among the stars to-niglit. (Laughter.) I believe in a 
 a system of government which is maintained by working men, men 
 who work in their primary meeting";, and who are not afraid of get- 
 ing their coats torn by a rowdy? men who are willing to take their 
 places and scuffle if it be necessary, to see that the voice of the 
 people is attained. (Cheers and applause.) Men who, if their 
 countrymen call them to office, do not mistake cowardice for mod- 
 esty, and refuse to serve. No matter where the man is, there he 
 should be faithful to God, faithful to man, faithful to his country, 
 faithful to the world. I am thankful that I can not be a candidate 
 for office. I once held an office under the general government, and 
 I was offered another. The other I did not like (laughter), but 
 the first I did. It kept me five hours, and I was allowed my 
 expenses as emolument. But as there was no omnibus riding in 
 that direction, I did not get a sixpence. I am no candidate for 
 office, sir, I belong to a king. I am a monarchist. I belong to 
 another king — one Jesus. (Applause.) But I know no greater 
 recreant to the principles of his faith, and no more dangerous 
 agitator than he, who, under the pretense of serving the religion of 
 Christ, uses his sacred office to urge men into riot and sedition. 
 (Cheers.) I am no candidate for office, because I hold an office so 
 high that no other on earth can approach it. I am content with 
 
67 
 
 my lot — content to bo simply a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus, 
 and ask no higher reward than to help men toward heaven when 
 they die, and keep them in peace while they live on earth. But, 
 sir, there is one thing I never neglect to do, and that is, I do not 
 forget, because I am a Christian and a minister of the gospel, that 
 I am an American citizen ; I always vote ; I prepare my ballot 
 with the same conscientiousness, and for which my friends fre- 
 quently laugh at me, as if I thought my ticket was to elect. This 
 is the way, I think, we ought to Avork ; and one thing is certain, 
 that, if I retain my reason — whicli God grant I may — I will never 
 vote for any man, be he Democrat, Whig, Native, or — or — oi' — 
 what do you call him? (A voice — "Republican.") I beg par- 
 don, that class have had so many names that I can not recall them 
 at once. (Loud laughter.) I say I never will vote for any man, 
 no, not if he were my own brother, not if he lay with me in my 
 mother's womb, as did Esau with Jacob, on whose history, or ante- 
 cedents, or associations there is the slightest stain or suspicion of 
 DISUNION. (Tumultuous cheering, long and enthusiastic, and re- 
 peated.) I know a man may make a mistake and repent. The 
 drunkard may reform from drink. Very well, let him reform — but 
 keep the brandy bottle out of his way. I would not give him a 
 chance to relapse. I believe that this is a true rule. Vote for a 
 man who loves his country, and who shows he has good sense and 
 considers what his country's good is. 
 
 Talk of incendiary documents. The most incendiary document 
 is a thing that wears a coat and breeches, writes " Honorable" be- 
 fore his name and " M.C." after it (laughter), and goes to Wash- 
 ington to do anything else than take care of the people and the 
 whole people. Let us stick to this, sir. 
 
 And while the grass grows on the liill, 
 
 And the stream runs through the vale. 
 May they still keep their faith, 
 
 Nor in their covenant fail. 
 God keep the fairest, widest land 
 
 That lies beneath the sun. 
 Our country, our wliole country, 
 
 Our country ever one. (Loud cheering.) 
 
 The great meeting then adjourned — about ten minutes before 
 midnight — with a volley of cheers. 
 
OUTSIDE OF THE ACADEMY. 
 
 The gathering in the street was immense, the crowd numbering 
 about fifteen thousand. In Union Square tv,'o large bonfires were 
 lighted at an early hour, and a six-pounder thundered forth its 
 salute, drawing a large crowd about the statue of Washington. 
 Three stands were erected in the vicinity of the Academy, hung 
 with lights, and in care of a committee. The first was located 
 over the Academy walk, and a meeting was organized about seven 
 o'clock, by appointing C. W. Moore, President. 
 
 John Goulde was the lirst speaker who addressed the assem- 
 blage. His remarks were brief, and at the conclusion he was fol- 
 lowed by Judge Dean, of this city. Paul P. Bradley, J. C. Mer- 
 ritt, Philip Tomelsen, and others, followed, the speaking being con- 
 tinued until a late hour. 
 
 At the second stand, located on the opposite side of the street, 
 a similar demonstration was manifested. E. D. J. Brown was 
 called upon to preside, after which a series of resolutions were read 
 and adopted in support of the Union. Speeches were made by Mr. 
 John F. Jones, Judge Vanderpoel, Mr. Grandville, and others. 
 Their remarks were greeted with frequent applause. 
 
 At the third stand, stationed at Irving Place, the crowd num- 
 bered about two thousand. Here the meeting was called to order 
 about half-past seven o'clock. Gen. John Lloyd was appointed 
 president, and J. B. Wilkes, secretary. Speeches were made by 
 Mr. Jonas T. Drumgold, D. W. Savage, J. F. McSweeny, Gen. 
 
10 
 
 Lloyd, Col. Armstrong, Henry J. Irving, and John L. Rilcer fol- 
 lowed, all strongly denouncing John Brown and his followei's, and 
 supporting the Union. 
 
 Had there been other stands, there is no doubt but that speak- 
 ers could have been found to cover the whole street. Considerable 
 feeling was exhibited among the crowd, and there was nothing 
 but one continued cheering throughout the whole evening. 
 
Itfttrrn IRrrriuft 
 
 The following are tlie letters announced as having been re- 
 ceived from distinguislied cilizeus who wei'e unable to atfend, 
 
 LIEUT. -CxEN. SCOTT'S LETTER. 
 
 New Yoke, Dec. 17, 1859. 
 To the Hon. J. W. Bkekman, Chairman, etc., etc. : 
 
 Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge your invitation to be present at the 
 Union meeting to be held in this city on Monday next, for the holy purpose 
 of allaying the distrust which is now sowing discord among brethren. 
 
 After a long life spent in devotion to the glorious Union which has already 
 made us great among the nations of the earth, and which, if happily pre- 
 served with all its compromises and compacts, can not fail to make us first 
 among the great, your Committee does me but justice in assuming that I feel 
 the liveliest sympathy in the object of the meeting. This city is certainly in 
 the right to take the lead in the cause of conciliation; and, animated by like 
 patriotic sentiments, there are, I am confident, in every State a vast majority 
 of citizens who, in any serious outbreak, would he found ready to join in the 
 national cry, " The Union — it must and shall be preserved." Except in such 
 a case, I beg to decline, as I have now done for many years, taking part in 
 any public meeting — remaining a minute man with the great reserve of mil- 
 lions. I have the honor to be, with great i-espect, 
 
 Your fellow-citizen, WIN FIELD SCOTT. 
 
 LETTER FROM EX-PRESIDENT VAN BUREN. 
 
 LiNDENWALD, DcC. 17, 1S59. 
 
 Gentlemen — I have received the invitation to attend the Union meeting, 
 to be held at the Academy of Music, in the city of New York, with which 
 you have been pleased to honor me. 
 
 Although, since my retirement from the Presidency, I have declined to 
 attend political meetings of every description, I would not hesitate to make 
 
T2 
 
 yours an exception, on account of its freedom from partisan views, and as an 
 evidence of my appreciation of the liigh and sacred objects it is designed to 
 promote, if it were in my power to be witii you. which, I regret to say, it 
 will not be. 
 
 Fully concurring in the views you have taken in respect to the existing 
 crisis in our national affairs, I can only express my earnest hope that this 
 great State will meet it in a way which will remove all doubts from the 
 minds of our brethren of the slaveholding States that the great body of her 
 people regard with unmixed abhorrence the crimes of John Brown and his 
 confederates, and that they will cordially approve of the adoption, as well 
 by our own constituted authorities as by those of the general Government, 
 of adequate measures to prevent the recurrence of future outrages of like 
 character. 
 
 Accept, gentlemen, my sincere thanks for the gratifying expression in your 
 letter, and believe me, with anxious wishes for the success of your most 
 commendable efforts, respectfully, your friend and obedient servant, 
 
 M. VAN BUREN. 
 
 Messrs. Barlow, Hunt, and Brooks. Committee, etc. 
 
 LETTER FROM EX-PRESIDENT FILLMORE. 
 
 Buffalo, Dee. 16, 1859. 
 Gentlemen — Your letter of the 13th reached me yesterday, inclosing a 
 call for a public meeting in New York city, headed 
 
 " The North and the South — Justice and Fraternity,^'' 
 
 and inviting me to be present on the occasion. As no time is specified, I 
 hasten to respond by saying that the objects of the meeting have my most 
 hearty approval, but I have long since withdrawn from any participation in 
 politics beyond that of giving my vote for those whom I deem the best and 
 safest men to govern the country; and I have uniformly, since I was at the 
 head of the government, declined all invitations to attend political meetings ; 
 yet. in view of the present stormy aspect and threatening tendency of pub- 
 lic events, did I feel that my presence at your meeting could in the least tend 
 to allay the growing jealousy between the North and the South, I should, at 
 some personal inconvenience, accept your invitation, and cordially join you 
 in admonishing the country. North and South, to mutual forbearance toward 
 each other; and to cease crimination and recrimination on both sides, and 
 endeavor to restore again that fraternal feeling and confidence which have 
 made us a great and happy people. 
 
 But it seems to me that if my opinions are of any importance to my coun- 
 t rymen, they now have them in a much more responsible and satisfactory 
 form than I could give them by participating in the proceedings of any 
 
T3 
 
 meeting. My sentiments on this unfortunate question of slavery, and the 
 constitutional rights of the South in regard to it, have not changed since 
 they were made manifest to the whole country by the performance of a pain- 
 ful official duty in approving and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law. What 
 the Constitution gives I would concede at every sacrifice. I would not seek 
 to enjoy its benefits without sharing its burthens and its responsibilities. I 
 know of no other rule of political right or expediency. Those were my 
 sentiments then — they are my sentiments now. I stand by the Constitution 
 of my country at every hazard, and am prepared to maintain it at every 
 sacrifice. 
 
 Here I might stop ; but since I have yielded to the impulse to write, I will 
 not hesitate to express, very briefly, my views on one or two events which 
 have occurred since I retired from office, and which in all probability have 
 given rise to your meeting. This I can not do intelligibly without a brief 
 reference to some events which occurred during my administration. 
 
 All must remember, that in 1849 and 1850, the country was severely 
 agitated on this disturbing question of slavery. That contest grew out of 
 the acquisition of new territory from Mexico, and a contest between the 
 North and the South as to whether slavery should be tolerated in any part 
 of that territory. Mixed up with this, was a claim on the part of the slave- 
 holding States, that the provision of the Constitution for the rendition of 
 fugitives from service should be made available, as the law of 1793 on that 
 subject, which depended chiefly on State officers for its execution, had become 
 inoperative, because State officers were not obliged to perform that duty. 
 
 After a severe struggle, which threatened the integrity of the Union, Con- 
 gress finally passed laws settling these questions, and the government and 
 the people for a time seemed to acquiesce in that compromise as a final set- 
 tlement of this exciting question; and it is exceedingly to be regretted that 
 mistaken ambition or the hope of promoting a party triumph should have 
 tempted any one to raise this question again. But in an evil hour this Pan- 
 dora's box of slavery was again opened by what I conceive to be an unjusti- 
 fiable attempt to force slavery into Kansas by a repeal of the Missouri Com- 
 promise, and the flood of evils now swelling and threatening to overthrow 
 the Constitution, and sweep away the foundation of the government itself, 
 and deluge this land with fraternal blood, may all be traced to this unfortu- 
 nate act. Whatever might have been the motive, few acts have ever been 
 so barren of good, and so fruitful of evil. The contest has exasperated tho 
 public mind, North and South, and engendered feelings of distrust, and I 
 may say, hate, that I fear it will take years to wear away. The lamentable 
 tragedy at Harper's Ferry is clearly traceable to this unfortunate centre - 
 verly about slavery in Kansas, and while the chief actor in this crimina. 
 invasion has exhibited some traits of character that challenge our admiration, 
 yet his fanatical zeal seems to have blinded his moral perceptions, and hur- 
 ried him into an unlawful attack upon the lives of a peaceful and unoffend- 
 ing community in a sister State, with the evident intention of raising a ser- 
 viFe insurrection, which no one can contemplate without horror; and few, I 
 believe very few, can be found so indifferent to the consequences of his acts, 
 
74 
 
 or po blinded by fanatical zeal, as not to believe that he justly suffered the 
 penalty of the law which he had violated. I can not but hope that the fate 
 of John Brown and his associates will deter all others from any unlawful, 
 attempt to interfere in the domestic affairs of a sister State. But this tra- 
 gedy has now closed, and Virginia has vindicated the supremacy of her laws, 
 and Khown that she is quite competent to manage her own affairs and pro- 
 tect her own rights. And thanks to an overruling Providence, this question 
 about slavery in Kansas is now also settled, and settled in favor of freedom. 
 The North has triumphed, and having triumphed, let her, by her magnan- 
 imity and generosity to her Southern brethren, show that the contest on her 
 part wa.s one of principle, and not of personal hatred, or the low ambition 
 of a sectional triumph. 
 
 Finally, if I had the power to speak, and there were any disposed to listen 
 to my counsel, I would say to my brethren of the South: Be not alarmed, 
 for there are few, very few, at the North, who would justify in any manner 
 an attack upon the institutions of the South which are guaranteed by the 
 Constitution. We are all anti-slavery in sentiment, but we know that we 
 have nothing to do with it in the several States, and we do not intend to in- 
 terfere with it. And I would say to my brethren of the North : Respect the 
 rights of the South; assure them by your acts that you regard them as 
 friends and brethren. And I would conjure all. in the name of all that is 
 sacred, to let this agitation cease with the causes which have produced it. 
 Let harmony be restored between the North and the South, and let every 
 patriot rally around our national flag, and swear upon the altar of his coun- 
 try to sustain and defend it. I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 MILLARD FILLMORE. 
 
 Messrs. Samuel L. M. Barlow, Wilson G. Hunt, and James Brooks, 
 Committee, etc. 
 
 LETTER FROM EX PRESIDENT PIERCE. 
 
 Hartpoed, Conn., Dec. "ilth, 1859. 
 
 Gentlemen — T have only time, before the departure of the next mail, to 
 acknowledge the reception of your note of yesterday, and to express regret 
 that it is not in my power to join the great assemblage of patriotic citizens 
 who will throng the Academy of Music on Monday evening. 
 
 It would be a great relief to believe that you over-estimate the dangers 
 which threaten the continued union of these States or the urgency of the 
 occasion, which, to use your own language, calls upon us all to '-solemnly 
 pledge ourselves, from this hour, by our influence, our example, our votes, 
 and by every other proper means, to discountenance and oppose sectionalism 
 in all its forms." 
 
 It can hardly be necessary to say that to this noble resolve I give my can- 
 
75 
 
 did approval and earnest support. Let us hope that those who p^ofe^s to 
 love the Union, whether present at your meeting or absent, will uniic with 
 you in spirit, and make their action a prompt and manly response to your 
 declared sentiments and purposes. Thus and thus only may we re-esiablish 
 with our Southern brethren the relations which existed through so many 
 peaceful, happy, and prosperous years between their fatiiers and ours — rela- 
 tions with which this Union is incomparably above all eartlily blessings, and 
 without which it can not be pre.'-erved, and. I may add, would not be worth 
 preserving. Will an overmastering public opinion, stronger than fanaticism, 
 whether the latter assist the Constitution and obedience to law from the 
 pulpit, the platform, or the press, assert and maintain, in a crisis like this 
 the supremacy of its power and authority? The Empire City and Empire 
 State have great responsibilities involved in this question. 
 
 You niwmount Ike clasped hands over the public call which you inclosed to 
 me, with the words ''justice and fraternity." They are suggestive, signifi- 
 cant, and in the right order. Between political communities, as between 
 individuals, there can be no fraternity without justice. But what does 
 justice enjoin? Clearly, that if we will enjoy the benefit which the Con- 
 stitution confers, we must fulfill the obligations which it imposes? 
 
 How strange is it that, with truths so obvious and obligations so undeni- 
 able, a large portion of our people should praclically and habitually deny 
 their authority ! We can not go on in this way. The present States can no, 
 be maintained. The condition of affairs must, of necessity, soon become a 
 great deal better or a great worse. The causes which are stirring the hearts 
 and minds of our people everywhere are at this moment instinct with force 
 and working with unwonted energy. It may be easy for those, who have 
 never slept an hour the less because treason was abroad, who have never in- 
 curred a personal sacrifice nor encountered a personal danger for their country, 
 to assure us of tranquil serenity. But of what value is such assurance? 
 It is vain to avert our eyes from dangers which are patent. Thoughtful men 
 can not do it if they would ; and in view of the state of things now present- 
 ed to them, they ought not to desire to patch up a temporary pacification, to 
 be disturbed, it may be, by a more serious cause, under circumstances of 
 more alarming aggravation. 
 
 If we will enjoy repose and security ourselves, and if we will give repose 
 and security to others, we must return not merely to the opinion and doc- 
 trines of the Revolutionary fathers of the North and of the South, but we 
 must cultivate their sentiments, emulate their comprehensive patriotism, 
 and imitate their just and manly example. They gave no countenance to 
 the heresies of sectionalism. They lent no listening ear to denunciations 
 of the people and institutions of one half of the States of the confederation. 
 They never turned aside from curiosity, or from any motive less worthy, to 
 listen to the preaching of treason against the Constitution and the Union. 
 No. Far from it. Having fought the battles of Independence — having 
 framed the Constitution, and secured its adoption, they addressed themselve 
 to a duty, if possible, still higher. They obeyed the common bond, and they 
 cherished the common brotherhood. 
 
76 
 
 Is not such an example, baptized in blood and signally blessed of God 
 through these eighty years of our history, one safe for us to follow? 
 Your fellow-citizen and friend. 
 
 FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 S. L, M. Barlow, Wilson G. Hunt, Svtb-Committee, City of New York. 
 
 LETTER FROM THE HON. D. S. DICKINSON. 
 
 BiNGJiAMTON, December \1th, 1S59. 
 
 Sir — I have this day received your invitation of yesterday, in behalf of 
 the Committee of which you are a member, to attend the meeting at the 
 Academy of Music, in New York city, on Monday, called to denounce the 
 late violations of law at Harper's Ferry, and to declare an unalterable pur- 
 pose to stand by the Constitution in all its parts, etc. I approve of the ob- 
 ject expressed, and would most gladly attend, but the late day at which your 
 invitation was sent does not permit me. The last day-train of cars which 
 would enable me to reach New York in season will soon pass here, and I can 
 not consistently arrange my business to leave upon so short a notice. 
 
 But while I shall, much to my regret, be deprived of the pleasure of meet- 
 ing the patriotic assembly, my absence will not be material, for there has 
 been, in my judgment, speaking enough on the subject, and quite too much 
 in proportion to the acting. The subject is by no means a new one to me, 
 and I have nothing to say upon it, except w"hat I said years since, in a re- 
 sponsible position ; but perhaps some of the sentiments will bear repeating. 
 Although recent events have aroused the public mind from its lethargy, they 
 have rather revived than increased the alarms which I have long experienced 
 for the security of our institutions, and quickened, in the same manner, the 
 indignation which I have long felt for all violators of law and disturbers of 
 the public peace. The peace of the Southern people depends upon the peace 
 of the existing relations between the races, and they can not be expected to 
 submit tamely to that officious and offensive interference which destroys and 
 degrades them. 
 
 This nefarious sectional spirit can never be arrested by mere public 
 gatherings, by well-wrought figures of rhetoric, nor by paeans to the glorious 
 Union, for all these have been stereotyped and set to music, and recited and 
 repeated by good performers ; but, if we would have peace, we must do 
 justice with a practical hand — we must act as well as talk, and extract and 
 crush out forever the insidious worm which grows like a canker at the very 
 root of the Constitution. We must attend to our own concerns, take care of 
 our disturbers, and leave other States, in all that relates to their domestic 
 policy, '"free and independent." 
 
11 
 
 The Southern States are numerically the weaker, but they are so because 
 Virginia, the prolific mother of States and patriotism, voluntarily ceded the 
 great Northwest, now forming a large portion of the "free North," to the 
 general government, for the benefit of all. The institution of domestic slavery, 
 which exists with them, is from its nature and interest peculiarly sensitive, 
 and before we can do them or ourselves justice, we must take our stand- 
 point with them, and feel what they have felt, and bear what they have 
 borne ; we must see that the Colonies, in casting off the tyrannous exactions 
 of the British Crown, were baptized in blood at their birth, as " free and 
 independent States," and that the Constitution which united these States 
 was framed and adopted, as declared in its preamble, '"to form a more per- 
 fect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the 
 common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of lib- 
 erty to ourselves and our posterity." How far one portion of the States 
 has treated another as free and independent, and under the practice of the 
 last few years, how far justice has been established, domestic tranquillity 
 insured, or the general welfare promoted in the relations of States with each 
 other, let impartial history answer. 
 
 Scarcely had we completed emancipation in our own States, before a 
 clamor was raised for the repeal of the law permitting the citizens of other 
 States, passing through this State, or sojourning in it. upon business or plea- 
 sure, for nine months, to bring with them the servants of their household, 
 and retain them and return with them, and the act was repealed without 
 advantage to a single human being, in derogation of State comity and good 
 faith, in a spirit of menace and hostility, in violation of all social propriety 
 and commercial interest and commerce. 
 
 Churches, North and South, which had long formed a strong band of 
 Union in their general associations, and had taken sweet counsel together, 
 in their conferences and organizations, became severed. The serpent of sec- 
 tional discord had crawled into this Eden, where songs of redeeming grace 
 and dying love were sung by children of a common Father together, when 
 if there had been one single spot on earth exempt from the influences of this 
 fell sectional spirit, it should have been there: and representatives from free 
 States, with true pharisaical sanctity, thanked God that they were not as 
 other men, and dissolved the connection, because of the great sin of slavery ! 
 Publications for many years have been sown like dragons' teeth over the 
 land, calculated and intended to disturb the relations between master and 
 slave — societies have been organized and endowed — funds raised and accumu- 
 lated, arms and deadly weapons and munitions have been gathered together 
 in buildings consecrated to the service of the Almighty, to crusade against 
 slaveholders. 
 
 Pulpits have been desecrated to the base service of sectionalism : mission- 
 aries have been sent forth to war upon slavery ; strong combinations for the 
 stealing and running off of slaves, and to prevent the reclamation of fugi- 
 tives, have been formed : personal liberty bills, to defeat federal laws and 
 override the Constitution, have been passed ; all right of equality, in theory 
 or in practice, in the common property of the Union, has been denied them, 
 
IS 
 
 and one incessant tone of denunciation has been heaped upon slavery, and 
 slave States, and slaveholders, from one end of flie free States to the oilier, 
 until it has become incorporated into our whole system. It has not only fur- 
 nished the virus for party inflammation in our political contests, where 
 demagogues furnish the staple, and ignorance, and prejudice, and passion, 
 and fanaticism construct the fabric, but it enters largely into our religious 
 and social organizations. 
 
 Last, though not least, comes the foray of John Brown at Harper's Ferry, 
 ushered in with stealth, fraud, robbery, murder, treason, and attempted in- 
 surrection. This miserable man and his associates liave paid Ibe highest 
 human penalty for crime, and were it not for those who are as guilty as liim- 
 self. but less manly and courageous, his ashes might rest in peace. But 
 his history remains, and when it is attempted to invest it with saimly and 
 brave and heroic virtues, the truth should be told, even though we would be 
 gladly spared the recital. His course in Kansas was marked by every spe- 
 cies of wrong and violence, his pathway can be traced by bloody footprints 
 along his whole career, from theft to murder. He went to the neighborhood 
 of his exploits under a false name, and gathered arms and implements w^here- 
 with to enable infuriated blades, if he could arouse them, to murder master 
 and mistress, and children, and the peaceful, unsuspecting inhabitants gener- 
 ally ; and then, at the dark and silent hour of midnight, when not even the 
 pale moon and trembling stars looked out, when honest men were sleeping, 
 when thieves and murderers prowl, and evil hearts roam for their prey, the 
 assassin whet his knife and brandished his bloody pike, and murdered the 
 unsuspecting and delenseless; and for this, his crime is invested with ro- 
 mance and sugared over with panegyric, and he is called brave and heroic 
 by those whose evil counsel and more evil sentiments urged him on, and by 
 ihose who furnished the sinews for this unnatural and wicked war. What 
 would have been a dastardly murder in others, was heroism in him, and the 
 sentimental struggle for the privilege of clasping his hand, yet dripping with 
 the blood of his victims; anti-slavery woman, gentle, kind, and virtuous, 
 pa.<!Ked by all other sorrow and destitution and suffering, that she might be 
 permitted to go to the felon's cell and nurse the murderer who had sought 
 to arm and turn loose at midnight the ignorant, and lawless, and licentious 
 upon her terrified, shrieking, and defenseless sex. 
 
 He has been canonized by the blasphemous orgies of those who demand an 
 anti-slavery Bible and an anti-slavery God. as a second St. John in the wil- 
 derness of Harper's Ferry, who was to prepare the way for their grim deity, 
 and make his paths straight, by an •underground railroad.'' When the 
 culprit, after a fair, impartial, and patient trial, had been condemned, and 
 was expiating his crimes, bells were tolled, minute-guns were fired, and 
 gatherings were invoked, as though the spirit of a patriot or a sage was 
 about to pass from earth to heaven, and it was declared that the gallows 
 ^ould henceforward be more glorious than the cross and crucifixion : and 
 could he have been executed behcecn two of tlie^e instigators and apologists, 
 it certainly would have borne otie resemblance to that event, and but one only. 
 His unfortunate family are now made the recipients of a noisy, ostenta- 
 
Y9 
 
 tious. and vulgar charity, that the mischief of his example may be increased 
 and porpetuatred, when, had relief to them have been the object, no such 
 parade-day would have signalized it. 
 
 The people of the Southern States have felt, and that most deeply, what 
 every reflecting and patriotic mind has seen, and they have a right to demand, 
 and will demand of us, not mere lip-service, but a practical fulfillment of 
 constitutional obligations, that we retract and repeal our hostile legislation, 
 that we return fugitives from service, and that we meet them in the true 
 fraternal spirit of constitutional equality. This we must do, and do promptly, 
 and when it is done we shall again witness pacific relations. 
 
 The Federal Government is bound to protect each of the States against 
 invasion; and if forays and armed bands from one section are to hover upon 
 the borders of States, for the purpose of invading their territory, to murder 
 their citizens, destroy their property, and subvert their government, the Slate 
 thus menaced and assailed, however powerful and ample in her own re- 
 sources, may demand the security provided, and that with propriety, though 
 no amount of force can ever maintain the Union. 
 
 This sectional strife, as wicked as it is wanton and disgraceful, if per- 
 mitted to proceed, can not fail to produce more serious consequences than it 
 has ever foreshadowed ; and when its votaries shall have subverted all con- 
 stitutions and all laws, except such as conform to their own mad standard, 
 they must close their career of blood and violence, with knives at each 
 other's throats, which have been blunted at the throats of honest m«n and 
 their wives and children. 
 
 I have the honor to be. etc, sincerely yours, 
 
 D. S- DICKINSON. 
 
 Samuel L. M. Barlow, one of the Committee. 
 
 FROM THE HON. GEORGE BUIGGS. 
 
 House of Eepkesentatives, Washington, Dec, 19, A, 1S59. 
 To the Hon. James Brooks, and others. Committee, etc.. New York : 
 
 Go on with the Union movement. All success to it. I approve of the 
 call, and were I in New York I should be prei^ent at the meeting to-night. 
 I am constrained to bear witness, by my vote at least, in the House of Repre- 
 .sentatives; for a National North in conjunction with a National South. I 
 shall nevertheless give my heart to the New York Academy of Music during 
 your demonstrations therein, purposed unalterably to stand by the Union, the 
 Constitution in all its parts, as expounded by our supreme judiciary, and the 
 enforcement of the laws— the platform for these times as hud down by that 
 great Union leader, Henry Clay— and resolved inflexibly by my influence, 
 my example, my votes, and by every other proper means, to discountenance 
 and oppose sectionalism in all its forms. I am cordially with you, and may 
 
add that, as a New York representative, I am greatly encouraged by so many 
 of my fellow-citizens assuming a position corresponding with and sustaining 
 my own. Its effect upon me is as that of light bursting through cloud and 
 darkness, and will animate me as I pursue persistently, without the shadow 
 of turning, the national course which T have chosen, while upon the country 
 it must be decidedly salutary in quieting agitation and restoring confidence 
 between sections. Again, therefore, I bid you success. 
 
 GEORGE BRIGGS. 
 
 LETTER FROM HON. D D. BARNARD. 
 
 Albany, Decemlier \1th, 1859. 
 Sir— Your letter of invitation to attend a " Union Meeting" at the 
 Academy of Music, in New York, on Monday, was received at so late an 
 hour to-day that I have only time to express my regret at my inability to 
 attend that meeting, and my most hearty concurrence in its objects. 
 
 T rejoice in these public and timely manifestations now being made 
 throughout the North, bringing out the true sentiment and the true loyalty of 
 so large a portion of our common country, which has, for some time past, and 
 of late more than ever, through the efforts of a partisan press and a prostituted 
 pulpit, been made to wear too much the stamp and badge of an odious and 
 dangerous sectionalism. I regard the condition of the country as specially 
 critical from recent occurrences ; and if the eternal warfare of words, tending, 
 as events have shown, directly to a warfare of deeds, and the engendered spirit 
 of deep animosity between portions of the people of the States of this Union, 
 North and South, so long indulged and fomented, and never so hot and 
 furious as now, can not be arrested, it is driveling folly to look for anything 
 even in the near future, but the worst and most disastrous results. 
 I have the honor to be, sir, your fellow-citizen and servant, 
 
 D. D. BARNARD. 
 Samuel L. M. Barlow, Esq.. Chairman Sub-Committee. 
 
CarampntB nf t|)r presin 
 
 From the Journal of Commerce., 20tk Dec, 1859. 
 
 The largest public meeting ever held in tlie city of New York, 
 or on the American continent, took place last night, in and about 
 the Academy of Music. The vast concourse was worthy of the 
 cause — the noble one comprised in the single phrase, " Justice to 
 the South." Long before six o'clock, before the business hours of 
 the city were fairly over — before people had taken their dinner — a 
 crowd began to assemble in Irving Place, or the western front of 
 the^Academy. As they arrived rapidly from every portion of the 
 city, they took their places in front of the three great doors, and 
 waited patiently, and in perfect order, for the opening of the house. 
 The Third and Fourth Avenue cars, and all the lines of stages 
 leading to the neighborhood of the Academy, were packed full of 
 citizens, all going up or down for the same pui'pose — to aid, by 
 their presence and voice, in this sublime spontaneous demonstra- 
 tion in behalf of the Constitution and the Union. Before six 
 o'clock there were at least five thousand persons standing in Irving 
 Place. This immense throng, though terribly squeezed together 
 (each new comer on the outside contributing his weight and mo- 
 mentum to the general jam), was exceedingly quiet and well-be- 
 haved. Presently Noll's band, which was stationed in the balcony, 
 commenced playing patriotic airs. The crowd were further enter- 
 tained by the deep bass music of thirty guns, and by a very hand- 
 some pyrotechnic display under the direction of the Messrs, Edge. 
 Among the fireworks was one superb and highly appropriate sym- 
 bolical piece, representing " Union and Fraternity," with the 
 American spread eagle soaring above. 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 Inside, on the stage, a beautiful scene had been prepared by the 
 sub-committee on decorations. The great stage had been trans- 
 formed into a gigantic tent of pure white, with a deep lower fringe 
 of American flags, and gracefully curtained folds of the national 
 colors in front. In the back ground was the single sentence — 
 
 "JUSTICE AND FRATERNITY." 
 
 Washington. 
 
 Upon a broad, white banner, stretching clean across the stage, 
 near the ceiling, were the words : — 
 
 " Indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every at- 
 tempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or 
 to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various 
 parts." Washington. 
 
 Beneath this were the mottoes 
 
 "The Union must and shall 
 be preserved." 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 '•I shall stand upon the Con- 
 stitution. I need no other plat- 
 form." Webster. 
 
 On the private boxes in front of the stage were exhibited the 
 names of 
 
 JEFFERSON, JACKSON, WEBSTER, 
 
 CALHOUN, CLAY, WRIGHT, CHOATE, BENTON, 
 
 MADISON, MONROE. 
 
 The chairman's desk was draped with American flags. 
 Simultaneously with the rush in Irving Place, there was a lively 
 squeeze at the stage-door in Fourteenth Street, by the fortunate 
 
83 
 
 holders of officers' tickets. Most of these gentlemen came earl}', 
 and long before six o'clock there were some half-dozen rows of the 
 stage-chairs occupied. The large area behind the footlights, capa- 
 ble of accommodating nearly a thousand persons, was soon thronged 
 with representatives of all classes of citizens. Doctors of divinity, 
 merchant princes, eminent lawyers, farmers, manufacturers, deal- 
 ers in all kinds of wares and fabrics, artisans and mechanics — all 
 picked men, whose names are known all over the United States ! 
 Such a collection of representative men, illustrating all the inter- 
 ests of this great metropolis, was never seen together in this city, 
 on any previous occasion. 
 
 About a quarter before seven, the Irving Place doors were opened, 
 and the immense, long-compressed and aching crowd poured rapidly 
 into the house. Of course, there was a great deal of struggling 
 and jostling at the doors, and persons were lifted off their legs by 
 the rushing throng behind, and sent through the doorways into the 
 Academy, almost as if shot out of a gun. The croAvd continued to 
 be marvelously good-natured, and it is believed that no one was 
 hurt in the scramble. 
 
 As the people poured into the building, they rapidly filled, first 
 the parquette, then the first and second tiers of boxes, then the 
 far-up family circle, and lastly the lofty amphitheatre. The seats 
 were all taken in a few minutes, and then the aisles began to be 
 crowded, and the entries and doorways, and every accessible nook 
 and corner, and perch, of the house were soon occupied. Seen 
 from the stage, the house, in all its vast and noble proportions, ap- 
 peared to be completely filled. It seemed as if another man could 
 not have been squeezed in anywhere. And this magnificent audi- 
 ence, numbering six thousand or seven thousand men, was small 
 compared with the multitude who came too late to get in, and were 
 obliged to remain outside. 
 
 Dodworth's Band, which was stationed on the stage, performed 
 some excellent selections of music — among them the immortal airs 
 of the nation, which were vociferously applauded. 
 
 The temper of the meeting throughout was most excellent. Al- 
 though several thousand persons Avere obliged to stand, many of 
 them in uncomfortable positions, during the entire evening, the 
 monster audience was remarkably amiable, and easily controlled by 
 the chairman. There probably never was a meeting which exhib- 
 ited a better spirit, and was more united and intelligent in express- 
 
84 
 
 ing its applause, which was invariably in the right place. All the 
 good points of the speeehes were quickly caught and fully appreci- 
 ated. Applause, which at frequent intervals burst forth from the 
 audience, had its repetition and echo in the cheers which were con- 
 stantly sent up by the three distinct and immense meetings outside. 
 
 From the New York Express, 20th Dec, 1859. 
 
 Pursuant to the notification, the people of the city of New York, 
 irrespective of party, turned out last evening in imposing numbers, 
 not only i7i, but oittside the Academy of Music, in Fourteenth 
 Street, Irving Place, and Union Square. Long before the hour 
 appointed for the meeting, crowds of citizens began to assemble, 
 and as the evening drew on, every street and avenue was thronged 
 with people hurrying to the common rendezvous. Soon the entire 
 neighborhood was completely blocked up with a compact mass of 
 human beings. Unavailable means of locomotion were used ; the 
 cars for up and down town were packed, and the omnibuses for 
 once did a good business. In fact, from all parts of the great me- 
 tropolis, and from over the two rivers, the multitude were on the 
 march, as if all were animated by a common impulse. Bonfires 
 blazed in the streets, serving as beacons to indicate, at once, the 
 locality of the vast gathering, and to symbolize the enthusiasm 
 which everywhere prevailed. Outside the building, on the balcony 
 in Fourteenth Street, was an excellent band of music, which played 
 several spirited airs, amidst the enthusiastic plaudits of the people. 
 
 THE SCENE INSIDE. 
 
 Inside the Opera House, the entire of the extensive stage was 
 thrown open, the drop curtain having been raised and the proscenia 
 removed, so as to render every foot of space available. In front 
 of the stage were placed the tables for the members of the Press ; 
 immediately behind were seated the officers of the meeting, and a 
 number of gentlemen, who took a prominent part in the proceed- 
 ings. Still farther back was stationed Dodworth's Band, consisting 
 
85 
 
 of thirty-three pieces, by "which the meeting was enlivened before 
 the organization by a variety of choice airs. 
 
 The stage and stage-boxes were decorated with a number of ap- 
 propriate mottoes. In front, just before the drop curtain, was 
 the followino; : 
 
 " Indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every at- 
 tempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or 
 to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various 
 parts." 
 
 " Tlie Union must and shall 
 be preserved." 
 
 Jackson. 
 
 " I shall stand upon the Con- 
 stitution. I need no other Plat- 
 form." Webster. 
 
 JUSTICE AND FRATERNITY." 
 
 Washington. 
 
 Below the stage-boxes, to the right and left, were the following 
 names : 
 
 CLAY, MONROE, 
 CHOATE, MADISON. 
 
 JEFFERSON, WRIGHT, 
 WEBSTER, BENTON. 
 
 THE ANXIETY TO GAIN ADMISSION. 
 
 On the opening of the doors of the Academy, there was a great 
 rush on the part of the immense multitude, who had been waiting 
 outside impatient for admission, and soon the entire house was 
 filled from parquette to ceiling. There could not have been fewer 
 than ten thousand persons present. 
 
 From the New York Express, 20lh Dec, 1859. 
 
 The Great Meeting a Great Success. — The august demon- 
 stration of the New York public, last night, we need not say at the 
 Academy of Music, but in all the streets leading to or radiating 
 
86 
 
 from it, we have but room and time to say here, surpassed the 
 most sanguine anticipations even of those who never doubted it 
 would be a great success. It was one of those grand events which 
 will live on the page of history. Whether as regards numbers, 
 spirit, honest enthusiasm, and downright genuine feeling, we 
 think we speak within the bounds of moderation when we say, that 
 no such spectacle was ever witnessedin the commercial emporium 
 hefore. There was heart in it. It was all earnestness, from be- 
 ginning to end. There was not the least color of party spirit 
 about it ; not the remotest symptom of a desire, that we could de- 
 tect, on the part of any who took part in it, to convert it to the 
 smallest political or personal account. And yet, it so happened, 
 that men of all parties were there ; men who, hitherto, have but 
 seldom been seen in public together — and probably never on the 
 same platform — but all animated, now, as if by a common desire 
 to show mankind — for once — that when the Republic is in danger, 
 her sons know how to come up, as one man, to the rescue. We 
 can not think of a single important interest in all this vast me- 
 tropolis which was not represented in the multitude, and which 
 did not find free utterance on the stage inside, or on the platforms 
 out in the open air. 
 
 There was no diversity of sentiment, no diiforence of opinion, in 
 regard to the business in hand. Never did speakers and listeners 
 seem to us to be so in accord, in demanding that the Union SHALL 
 be preserved; that the Constitution, in all its parts, SHALL be 
 faithfully executed ; that the decisions of the Courts, in reference 
 to the institution of slavery, SHALL be scrupulously respected ; 
 that such outrages as those of Harper's Ferry, SHALL be viewed 
 and punished as ci'imes, against the North as well as the South ; 
 and that the idea of an " Irrepressible Conflict" between the two 
 sections is held — as it ought to be held — in utter and unqualified 
 abhorrence. 
 
 The moral effect of such a manifestation as this, on the part of 
 the leading city of the Union, can not but result in much good. 
 It will help to pour oil on the troubled waters ; and while tending 
 to calm the misgivings in tne Southern mind, will do something to 
 convince the demagogues of the North that there is a certain point 
 beyond which the people are determined their atrocious doctrines 
 shall not be pushed. 
 
8T 
 
 From the New York Herald, Dec. 20th, 1859. 
 
 The Union Meeting at the Academy of Music last night was 
 an immense demonstration of the conservative sentiment of the 
 metropolis. Not only was the capacious building completely filled, 
 but in the adjoining streets several meetings were organized, while 
 martial music, the roar of artillery, brilliant fireworks, and blazing 
 bonfires added interest to the occasion and impressiveness to the 
 scene. We give full reports of the proceedings, including the 
 speeches of Charles O'Conor, Mayor Tiemann, Washington 
 Hunt, James S. Thayer, and Professor Mitchell, and letters from 
 Gen. Winfield Scott, ex-Presidents Fillmore, Van Buren, and 
 Pierce, and other distinguished citizens. 
 
 From the New York Times, Dec. 20th, 1859. 
 
 The Union Meeting.— The Union Meeting last night was 
 immensely large, decidedly enthusiastic, and entitled to weight and 
 consideration as an expression of the substantial sentiment of the 
 people of New York city concerning the Union, and those features 
 of the Slavery agitation which threaten its peace. The general 
 drift of the, proceedings— speeches, letters, and resolutions — was 
 in harmony with public sentiment in this city. Ex- Gov. Hunt 
 rehearsed the political history of the country, and urged modera- 
 tion and the calm exercise of reason and judgment in the political 
 struggles of the day. Gen. Dix dwelt upon the responsibility of 
 public men whose doctrines lead to such invasions as that at Har- 
 per's Ferry, and drew a picture of the ruin in which a dissolution 
 of the Union would involve this city and the country at large. Mr. 
 Thayer made, perhaps, the sharpest and most practical speech of 
 the evening, though the tenor of its argument will be contested by 
 the Republicans. He insisted that any party which makes opposi- 
 tion to Slavery the basis of its action, must, now that the territo- 
 rial controversy is settled, run into Abolitionism, and make war 
 upon the institutions and the rights of the Southern States. 
 
 The influence of the meeting will, doubtless, be hostile to the 
 Republican Party, partly from the fact that the teachings and en- 
 
deavors of that party were represented as leading directly to the 
 invasion of Southern rights, and partly from the fact that the 
 Republican organs have assumed this result in advance, and have 
 labored, therefore, to make it certain. But apart from all party 
 considerations, the meeting is entitled to respect, at the South as 
 well as the North, as an expression of public sentiment in this 
 city on the subject of the Union, and the influences that tend to 
 disturb its peace, and ought to dispel the suspicion, if it has been 
 entertained anywhere, that the people of this city are indifferent 
 to the Union, or disposed to countenance or excuse any trespass 
 upon the rights of the Southern States. 
 
 From the New York Times, Dec. 20th, 1859. 
 
 The grand demonstration of the citizens of New York in favor 
 of Constitution and the Union, which had been announced for sev- 
 eral days, took place last night at the Academy of Music. Long 
 before the hour for meeting, the spacious Academy was thronged 
 from pit to dome. Even in the spacious amphitheater every 
 seat was occupied, and throughout the house standing room within 
 hearing distance was eagerly sought. Not less than five thousand 
 persons were assembled within the walls, and a number perhaps 
 equally large congregated without, and listened to addresses from 
 the different stands erected there. 
 
 The Academy had been appropriately decorated for the occasion. 
 The Stars and Stripes hung in graceful folds about the stage, and 
 at different points were mottoes and inscriptions, and the names of 
 those who in the past had consecrated their lives to the formation 
 and perpetuation of the institutions of our country. Among them 
 were the following : 
 
 " Indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate 
 any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which 
 now link together the various parts." — Washington. 
 " The Union must and shall be preserved." — Jackson. 
 " I shall stand upon the Constitution— I need no other platform." — Web- 
 ster. 
 
89 
 
 Justice and Fraternity. 
 
 Washington. 
 
 Jefferson. Webster. Clat. Choate. 
 
 Madison. Jackson. Calhoun. Wright. 
 
 Benton. Monroe. 
 
 A salute of thirty-two guns was fired, and from the balcony of 
 the Academy one branch of Dodworth's Band discoursed their 
 music, while the other occupied a position on the platform within, 
 and entertained the assemblage while it was gathering. 
 
 It would be useless to attempt to note, personally, the names of 
 distinguished citizens present. From every profession, calling, 
 and trade were present their highest representatives, and until 
 near 12 o'clock, when the meeting adjourned, nearly all present 
 remained, submitting to the discomforts of a crowded audience and 
 inconvenience of situation. 
 
 Numerous delegations of citizens from other cities were present, 
 and participated in the enthusiasm of the occasion, and throughout 
 the proceedings Avere characterized by most perfect harmony and 
 good feeling in favor of the object which had called the vast assem- 
 blage together. 
 
 From the Neio York Herald, Dec. 21st, 1§59. 
 
 The Union Meeting — The Great Conservative Move- 
 ment OF THE Day. — The Union Meeting at the Academy of 
 Music on Monday evening opens a new era in the political history 
 of the country. It was the largest, the most enthusiastic, the 
 most singular, and most instructive meeting ever held in New 
 York. Some twenty thousand persons, of all ranks and parties, 
 must have assembled in and around the building, the three outside 
 meetings exceeding by far in numbers the meeting within. It was 
 a grand and decisive demonstration as to the strength of the Union 
 sentiment in this imperial city — the same sentiment which elected 
 Fernando Wood Mayor of New York a fortnight before. It will 
 have an important influence throughout the country, not only by 
 kindling the flames of enthusiasm and suggesting similar meetings, 
 
90 
 
 but on account of its practical character. It differs from all the 
 Union meetings that have been previously held, both in what was 
 said and what was done. 7' .. 
 
 From the Journal of Commerce, Dec. ^Ist, 1859. 
 
 Enthusiasm. — Eloquent and earnest as were the speeches at 
 the great Union meeting, they were not above the sentiments of 
 the audience. No words could have expressed a loftier patriotism, 
 a more devoted love for the Constitution and the Union, an intenser 
 hatred of sectionalists and agitators, than lived and burned in that 
 vast concourse of citizens. They caught and applauded ideas be- 
 fore they were half out of the speakers' mouths. No claquer was 
 needed to give the signal from the stage or other conspicuous part 
 of the house. There was no little picked chorus about the speak- 
 ers' stand, to do the plaudits of the evening. At the talismanic 
 words, " Union," " Constitution," " Fraternity," " Justice to the 
 South," at every expression of love for our common country, and 
 for our Southern brethren, there was a spontaneous burst of ap- 
 plause all over the house, breaking out in the parquette, the boxes, 
 family circle, and the amphitheatre at the same moment, leaping 
 from six thousand throats in one vast volume of sound. Of all 
 the excellent sentiments that received the immediate and unani- 
 mous approval of this great popular tribunal, none were more en- 
 thusiastically applauded than those in which the tribe of Abolition 
 preachers were rebuked and denounced. The cheers at these 
 points were always fierce and protracted, indicating beyond a doubt 
 the deep hatred and disgust with which the preachers of a political 
 gospel are regarded by the intelligent, industrious, law-abiding 
 masses of the people — such people as were packed into the Acad- 
 emy of Music on Monday night. It would appear from the evi- 
 dence on that occasion that, outside of the fanatical congregations 
 which these preachers of the " Sharpe's rifle" school have collected 
 about them, the " Cheevers," the " Beechers," and the humbler 
 specimens of their class, are justly despised and execrated. The 
 strong, healthy, well-regulated public mind rejects and resents the 
 
91 
 
 monstrous teachings of such men. Instead of making converts to 
 their atrocious theories in this most conservative city, they are 
 building up, day by day, an indignant opposition to them and their 
 churches. 
 
 Frojii the Weekly Day-Book, 2Uh Dec, 1859. 
 
 The Great Meeting at the Academy of Music. — The meet- 
 ing at the Academy of Music, last Monday evening, was one of 
 the largest, most important, and in its consequences, perhaps, will 
 have a greater effect upon the politics of this country than any 
 public meeting held in the North for a quarter of a century. When 
 this meeting was started under a different call than that first is- 
 sued, we feared it might result only in the old stereotyped expres- 
 sion of attachment to the Union and the Constitution. In such an 
 event it could have done no good, for the time has arrived in our 
 history when every man must tell just what he means by uphold- 
 ing the Constitution. We are, however, most agreeably disap- 
 pointed in the result ; for while the preamble and resolutions do 
 not, in all respects, meet the requirements of the case, the opening 
 and leading speech of the evening, by Charles O'Conor, Esq., does. 
 With a boldness and honesty which places this gentleman far in 
 advance of any public man at the North, he has taken hold of this 
 " slavery" question in the only effectual way. He has throttled 
 the vile monster of Abolitionism in its very den and with the 
 weapons of truth, philosophy, and justice has denied the very 
 fundamental heresies of the delusion. This is what has long been 
 needed at the North. It was imperative that some man of posi- 
 tion, of great reputation, and of unsullied patriotism should head 
 this movement. Charles O'Conor has shown himself to be that 
 man, and his telling speech of last Monday evening will rever- 
 berate to the very remotest corners of this wide confederacy. 
 Here 'is a Northern man that dares to openly defend and up- 
 hold negro " slavery" as it exists at the South — who claims that 
 the negro race neither is nor can be the equal of the white race 
 — who declares that its subordinate position is the one Nature 
 intended it to occupy, and that this is not opposed to " the higher 
 
92 
 
 law," but in exact accordance with it. For this doctrine this 
 journal has been long contending ; and it was with emotions of 
 pleasure, which can not be expressed in words, that we heard these 
 sentiments last Monday evening indorsed in the Academy of Mu- 
 sic by six thousand of our fellow-citizens. When Mr. O'Conor 
 first announced that he believed negro " slavery" just and right, 
 hisses arose from nearly all quarters of the house, and for a mo- 
 ment we trembled lest the mighty truths he was uttering were fall- 
 ing upon a generation not prepared to receive them ; but this 
 doubt existed only for a moment, for cheer after cheer — three times 
 three, in fact — reverberated through the noble and spacious build- 
 ing, until all opposition was drowned. Nothing was left but a 
 spontaneous burst of enthusiasm for the bold speaker who thus 
 dared to face, what it has been presumed was public opinion, but 
 which, as we have often contended, is not the case. It only needed 
 a bold man, a true man, a patriotic man to stem this tide of Aboli- 
 tion delusion. Charles O'Conor has done it. Without his speech, 
 the meeting would have been a failure. Mr. Hunt's remarks were 
 well enough in their way, and if delivered ten years since, would 
 have been very good. Mr. Thayer's speech was eloquent and full 
 of good points, but still, when analyzed, it lacked the kernel nec- 
 essary to give it vitality. Gen. Dix's speech was excellent, but 
 not in all respects sternly to the point. Prof. Mitchell's remarks 
 were simply ridiculous and absurd, and we wonder why the Com- 
 mittee should have invited such a man to have anything to say. 
 Rev. Mr. Bethune's closing address was telling and to the point. 
 He is a glorious specimen of the true Christian minister, and 
 though the hour was late when he spoke, the audience listened to 
 him with rapturous attention. On the whole, the meeting was a 
 great and glorious success. The speech of Mr. O'Conor will give 
 tone to the entire affair, and it may be mentioned that Avhile none 
 of the speakers came up to Mr. O'Conor in boldness and phi- 
 losophy, yet there was not a whine uttered by any one about the 
 evils of " slavery," or a hope expressed that it would be done 
 away with. We ask our readers. North and South, who know 
 how we have labored to see this day, whether there is not hope and 
 encouragement in this meeting to every faint-hearted, doubting 
 friend of truth, that public opinion at the North can yet be 
 changed, and Abolitionism forever driven from our soil 1 
 

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 EEPORT OF PROCEEDINGS 
 
 CONNECTED WITH 
 
 HELD AT THE 
 
 ACADEMY OF MUSIC, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 CITY OF ]SrE\A^-YORK, 
 
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