LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 HoUinger 
 
 pH8.5 
 
 Mill Run F3-1955 
 
E 458 
 .4 
 
 .U63 
 Copy 1 
 
 r; JD. of ji, 
 GRAND LINCOLN AND JOHNSON 
 
 BBTIMG, 
 
 AT 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY, D. C, JUNE 15, 1864. 
 
 THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE 
 
 SPEECHES OF HON. J. M. EDMUNDS, HON. WM. D. KELLEY 
 
 HON. HENRY S. LANE, HON. J. \V. PATTERSON, HON. 
 
 JACOB M. HOWARD, HOJN. C. B. DENIO, HON. A 
 
 W. RANDALL, and HON. G. ADAMS. 
 

 GRAND LINCOLN & JOHNSON 
 
 AT 
 
 WASHINGTON CITY, D. C, JUNE 15, 1864. 
 
 THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE 
 
 or -a.Ivi:ei^ic.a., iit the fieijIdi 
 
 SPEECHES OF HON. J. M. EDMUNDS, HON. WM. D. KELLE¥, 
 
 HON. HENRY S. LANE, HON. J. W. PATTERSON, HON. 
 
 JACOB M. HOWARD, HON. C. B. DENIO, HON. A. 
 
 W. RANDALL and HON. G. ADAiMS. 
 
 PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 The action of the Baltimore Union Convention by which Abraham Lincoln 
 was placed in nomination for President, and Andrew Johnson for Vice Pres- 
 ident, received the earnest endorsement of the Union League, assembled at 
 Baltimore on the 8th of June last. 
 
 . The National Executive Committee of the League, resident in Washington, 
 City, D. C, assembled on the 10th of June, and after full consideration, 
 deemed it expedient that a ratification meeting should be held without delay 
 in the Capitol of the Nation. 
 
 The following call immediately appeared in the daily papers of the city : 
 
 Ratification Mertinq. — A mass meeting to ratify the nomiaations of Abraham Lin- 
 coln for President, and Andrew Johnson for Vice President of the United States, will 
 be held on the south side of the Patent Office on Wednesday evening, June 15, 1864, 
 under the auspices of the Union League of America. 
 
 Able speakers will address the meeting, and appropriate proceedings be had. All ar« 
 invited to attend. 
 
 Hon. J. M.EDMUNDS, 
 Hon. GREEN ADAMS, 
 
 W. 0. STODDARD, 
 Rev. BYRON SUNDERLAND, 
 
 J. S. BROWN, 
 Hon. JOSEPH H. BARRETT, 
 Hon. A. W. RANDALL, 
 Hon. WM. A. COOK, 
 
 Hon. A 
 
 national exkcdtive committee. 
 
 Hon. J. W. FORNEY, 
 W. R. IRWIN, 
 LEWIS CLEPHANE, 
 Hon. D. P. HOLLOWAY, 
 
 GEORGE W. KELLOGG, 
 Hon. GEORGE W. McLELLAN, 
 Hon. WM. P. DOLE, 
 Hon. EDW. A. ROLLINS, 
 C. RICHARDS. 
 
Appropriate committees were appointed, and every effort put forth to ren- 
 der the meeting one of more than common interest and influence. 
 
 The open space on the south front of the Patent Office was selected as the 
 place for holding it. 
 
 THE MEETING. 
 
 DESCRIPTION AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 The evening of the meeting was fair and beautiful — an immense crowd as- 
 sembled — the proceedings were in the highest degree entertaining — all were 
 delighted. 
 
 The daily Chronicle thus described the locality and assemblage : 
 
 The soutbern front of the Patent OflBce was resplendent with illuminated windows, 
 with transparencies exhibiting mottoes, and with the drapery of flags. The front of the 
 Post Office Building, opposite, was also brilliantly illuminated, and the broad interven- 
 ing space was fi ^ed with a vast multitude of people from an early hour of the evening, 
 where the flight of skyrockets and the superb music of the band notified the people to 
 assemble, until half past eleven o'clock. 
 
 The centre transparency, festooned with evergreens, bore the names of "Lincoln and 
 Johnson." Other transparencies bore these mottoes : 
 
 "Emancipation Proclamation — For this act I invoke the considerate judgment of 
 mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 
 
 " America wants no friend who, in war, condemns the justice of her cause ; all such 
 are traitors." — Douglas. 
 
 "I propose to move immediately on your works." — Grant. 
 
 " If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." — Lincoln. 
 
 " You should be treated as traitors, tried as traitors, and hung as traitors." — 
 Johnson. 
 
 The right hand side of the steps was reserved for the speaker's pla'form, above which 
 sprung an arch made of gas jets, while beneath it, in illuminated jets shone the word 
 " Union." The band occupied the other side of the portico, and around each position 
 were draped national flags and blazed smaller transparencies, with such mottoes as : 
 " Union and Victory ;" " One Nation, one Destiny; "Honor the Dead;" "The Union 
 Forever :" " Sherman and Thomas ;" " Remember the Fallen ;" " Spades to the Rear ;" 
 "Grant;" Meade;" "Farragut;" " Dahlgren." 
 
 The Evening Star, after giving a glowing description of the arrangements 
 and exercises, says : 
 
 There was a lajrge police force in attendance, but so well-behaved was the large crowd 
 that the police did not have much work to do, except to open passages when ladies were 
 passing to and fro. 
 
 The demonstration was undoubtedly the largest and most imposing of the kind ever 
 known in Washington. 
 
 The account of the National Intelligencer is highly eulogistic. It is as 
 follows, viz : 
 
 Ratification Meeting. — A very large — we might say an immense — and animated 
 meeting of citizens and strangers, with a large complement of ladies, took place last 
 night in front of the Patent OfiBce, in pursuance of an invitation of the Union League 
 
8 
 
 Association, to express their approval of the nominations made at the late Baltimore 
 Convention for President and Vice President of the United States. 
 
 Salvos of artillery, the enlivening strains of martial music, and a profuse display o^ 
 rockets announced the time for convening the meeting, which was organized at early 
 candlelight and continued until eleven o'clock. During that time the assemblage was 
 entertained and edified by a number of speeches, which were well received and elicited 
 frequent outbursts of applause. 
 
 An unusual and very striking feature distinguished this occasion in the illumination 
 of the great building before which the meeting took place— the windows of the vast 
 front of the splendid edifice in all three stories being in a blaze of light, which almost 
 paled the brightness of the full moon. It was indeed the most perfect and Btriking 
 illumination we have ever seen. 
 
 The description of the National Republican was in terms no less eulogistic. 
 
 ORGANIZATION. 
 
 The meeting was called to order by Hon. D. P. Holloway, who, in behalf 
 of the Executive Committee, proposed the following officers : 
 
 President — Hon. J. M. Edmunds. 
 
 Vice Presidents — Hon. J. R. Elvans, Hon. A. C. Richards, J. S. Brown, 
 Esq., Hon. D. P. Holloway, Hon. J. H. Barrett, J. F. Sharretts, Esq., Dan- 
 iel Kalbfus, Esq., James A. Magruder, Esq., A. M. Swan, Esq., Hon. Lewis 
 Clephane, Major David Taylor. 
 
 Secretaries — W. R. Irwin, Esq., W. 0. Stoddard, Esq., M. E. N. Howell, 
 Esq. 
 
 They were unanimously elected. 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. J. M. EDMUNDS. 
 
 The President then stepped forward and spoke as follows : 
 
 Ladiks and Gentlemen, and Fellow-Citizens: Under ordinary circumstances I 
 would deem it a higlt honor to be designated as the presiding officer of this vast and 
 intelligent assembly of the loyal people of the United States. That honor is rendered 
 doubly dear to me by the importance of the occasion which has called you together — 
 an occasion which has no precedent in the past, and which, in all its surroundings 
 and issues, cannot be repeatpd in the future. 
 
 Here, in the midst of events which are without parallel in history, in the very vortex 
 of domestic strife, before which all the other contests of modern times shrink into insig- 
 nificance, we have assembled to take part in a movement which, in its results, is to de- 
 termine, once and for all, the strength and flexibility of American institutions, the power 
 and adaptability of our representative system, and the real capacity of man for self-gOT- 
 ernment, and, as a consequence of these, the preservation of true liberty of speech, of 
 the press, and of man. 
 
 What other nation on the globe could, in the midst of a conflict in which a million of 
 men, its own people, are engaged, wisely and peaceably renew or change its civil ad- 
 ministration ? What other nation would attempt it? Yet this is the work upon which 
 we are about to enter. The first step has already been taken, and you are here to-night 
 to say whether, thus far, it meets your approval. 
 
 The representatives of the loyal sentiment of the nation have wisely, as we think, d«- 
 
tertnined to adhere to the great man and statesman who, for three years, has so noMy 
 and ably breasted the storm of rebellion, and lound means, in the thickest of the con- 
 flict, to enlarge rather than diminish the basis and the guaranties of human freedom. 
 
 And with him, on the same platform of principles, they have placed a man of kindred 
 emotions, whose devotion to the Union has never been doubted or surpassed, and whO' 
 boldly asks the sons and daughters of his own, a slave State, "What right have you, 
 what right have I, to hold a fellow-man in bondage, except for crime?" 
 
 But of these representative men and their principles, and the importance of their elec- 
 tion to the position for which they have been nominated, you will hear more fully from 
 the distinguished gentlemen who are to address you. 
 
 Thanking you for your presence and for the honor conferred upon me, the meeting is 
 now prepared to proceed with its proper business. 
 
 Upon the conclusion of this introductory speech, which was listened to 
 with marked attention, and well received, the Hon. J. H. Barrett, on behalf of 
 the Committee on Resolutions, offered the foUowiug, which were received 
 with enthusiatic cheering, and unanimously adopted : 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Resolved, That we heartily approve and will earnestly sustain, by every honGrabl& 
 effort, the nominations made by the Union National Convention, which assembled at Bal- 
 timore on the 7th instant. 
 
 Resolved, That in the renomination of Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, in accord- 
 ance with the clearly manifested will of the loyal people of the nation, an assurance has 
 been given to the world that the destructive civil war, begun by ambitious traitors, shall 
 not end until the rebellion and its cause are utterly and finally overthrown. 
 
 Resolved, That in the nomination of Andrew Johnson for the Vice Presidency, we see 
 not only a just recognition of unshaken fidelity to the Union, but also, as in the presi- 
 dential nomination, a determination that true and reliable Union men, and none others, 
 shall hereafter occupy the high places of the nation. 
 
 Resolved, That we cordially endorse the platform of princples set forth by the Union 
 National Convention, and that on this basis of policy under the banner of Lincoln and 
 Johnson we confidently look for such a popular triumph in November next as will insure 
 the just and legitimate results of decisive victory in the field over armed rebellion. 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. WM. D. KELLEY. 
 
 x^fter the adoption of the Resolutions, Judge Edmunds introduced to the 
 audience Hon. Wm. D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, whose appearance on the 
 platform was greeted with great cheering. 
 
 He addressed the audience as follows : 
 
 My first duty, ladies and fellow-citizens, 
 it seems to me, is to thank the committee 
 of arrangements for having given Pennsyl- 
 vania the foremost position in the duties 
 of to-night. However feeble the represen- 
 tative of that State may be, they have done 
 well in giving her the foremost place, for 
 as she goes, so goes the Union. [Ap- 
 plause.] And on the night of the first 
 Tuesday in November next, the banner of 
 Lincoln and Johnson will float over her 
 
 victorious legions. [Great cheering.] 
 Lincoln and Johnson are names that are 
 dear to the people of that Slate. They 
 are well known and highly honored there, 
 and the cause they represent is that lying 
 nearest to the henrt of her people and of 
 the people of the Union — [applause] — uni- 
 versal liberty and union, now and forever, 
 one and inseparable. [Great cheering.] 
 The Baltimore Convention have nominated 
 these gentlemen for the Presidency 
 
*tid Vice-Presidency; did they do right? 
 2[They did — they did.] Ay, they did. 
 Let us ratify it, and pledge ourselves to- 
 tiight that our labors shall be ceaseless 
 until the people of the country, by their 
 sufiFrages, shall ratify and confirm our ac- 
 tion. [Cries of" we will.^' and ap;jlanse.] 
 
 Why should we not do it? We elected 
 Abraham Lincoln President of the United 
 States, and want to know how he will be- 
 have himself when the courts are open in 
 every district of this broad land; we want 
 to know whether he will execute the laws 
 in mercy, but in firmness, upon the con- 
 spirators who have led half a million of 
 our fellow-countrymen to bloody graves in 
 Southern fields. [That's the question.] 
 It is due to h'm that he should administer 
 bis office in peace over the whole country. 
 It is due to the dignity of our nation that 
 he whose election was made the pretext 
 for rebellion should carry on the war until 
 the rebellion is closed [bravo] and its 
 leaders sleep the quiet sleep of death ia 
 felons' graves. [Ap[)laus('.] To have 
 chosen any other man to bear our stand- 
 ard would have exhibited a measure of 
 fickleness disreputable to the intelligence 
 and firmness of a republicaa people. 
 [Right.] 
 
 When or where, my fellow-countrymen, 
 has mortal man been called to bear such 
 responsibilities, to weigh, measure, and 
 decide upon such far-reaching propositions 
 as he has ? What was the condition of 
 our country when we made him its Presi- 
 dent? Go" back to the 4th of March, 1861, 
 and tell me where was your army? Under 
 Twiggs in Texas. Under Canby in New 
 Mexico. Where were your arms ? Gorg- 
 ing Southern arsenals. Where was your 
 navy? Why, of sixty-nine vessels, forty- 
 two were laid up in ordinary or disman- 
 tled in Southern yards, and of the remain- 
 ing twenty-seven all save four, the smillest 
 and lightest, were upon the most distant 
 stations to which our national vessels bear 
 our national flag. 
 
 What were the available resources of 
 your country, and what the condition of 
 its Treasury ? It was bankrupt. Ay, not 
 only was it destitute of coin, but the con- 
 spirators who controlled what is known as 
 Buchanan's Administration, had extin- 
 guished your national credit. So that to 
 pay their last quarters' salaries they pro- 
 posed to borrow $5,000,000 at one per 
 cent, a month, and not all America and 
 Europe combined were willing to lend to 
 this nation whose domain is a continent 
 and whose thirty-odd millions of people 
 are so active, so energetic, so intelligent, 
 so enterprising, the paltry sum of^ 
 $5,000,000 at one per cent, a month. 
 
 Your Senate was depleted of those who 
 had been its leading members, and the 
 chairs were vacant on the floor of half the 
 lower house of Congress. The world 
 looked upon our country as dismembered. 
 Despots shouted at the failure of freedom, 
 and monarchists proclaimed the failure of 
 the last great Republic. There was joy 
 wherever despotism or aristocracy pre- 
 vailed, and there was sorrow among the 
 oppressed millions who had beheld in the 
 effulgent flag of our country the harbinger 
 of hope to themselves and their posterity. 
 In the midst of this anarchy, gloom, and 
 despondency a quiet, unpretending, honest 
 man from Illinois, as President elect, took 
 the inaugural oath of office, and entered 
 upon the government of the country. The 
 terms of that oath bound him to attempt 
 the conquest of 900,000 square miles of 
 territory over which an usurping govern- 
 ment had been established, and the reduc- 
 tion of the people thereof to obedience to 
 the law. 
 
 When, as I have asked, did a man as- 
 sume such duties, involving such responsi- 
 silities, and how has he performed them ? 
 Do you remember how all the avenues, save 
 one, to yonder Capitol were bairicaded? 
 Do you remember how ovens were built in 
 its lower stories, and wells dug beneath its 
 dome? Do you remember how the inva- 
 ders first came to the banks of yonder riv- 
 er, and how the allies and co-conspirators 
 in the city threatened to capture it? Do 
 you remember how bridges were burnt, and 
 the great lines of travel through which the 
 Capitol of the Government had access to 
 the loyal regions of the North were severed? 
 If you remember these things, come with 
 me to the present, and see how wise and 
 efficient a President Abraham Lincoln has 
 been. Who in Maryland will now burn a 
 bridge, or make war on the Union to save" 
 the accursed institution of slavery? Why, 
 a convention to revise the Constitution of 
 that State is now sitting, aud has deter- 
 mined to abolish slavery, and to root out 
 the cause, rebellion. [Applause.] And the 
 people of Baltimore are to night, more rad- 
 ical on the question of human freedom than 
 many of the men of more northern cities.. 
 [Renewed applause.] 
 
 Where now is Missouri, which (Jlaib., 
 Jackson and his les^islature undertook to, 
 carry over to rebellion — the bastard confed- 
 eracy, the offspring of fraud and force ? 
 Whyi it washer radical delegation that .sat 
 in the Baltimore couvention. They advo- 
 cate the immediate abolition of slavery, and 
 the amendment of the Constitution of the 
 United States was to prohibit it forever. 
 [Applause.] The conservatives of their 
 State have passed an ordinance fixing a 
 
6 
 
 day when slavery must die ; but it is too 
 remote to satisfy tiie humane and patriotic 
 Impatience of the masses of her people. It 
 is not our capitol that is invaded to-night. 
 [Great cheering]. 
 
 Grant's forces west calmly on the other 
 bank of the James, and Hunter victoriously 
 thunders to the rest of Richmond. 
 
 Shall we talk of Tennessee where Andrew 
 Johnson rules, and rules in the interest of 
 the Union and universal liberty to man. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 Of the free State of West Virginia, whose 
 star shot through the gloom and darkness 
 of political chaos to dwell forever in the 
 constellation that illumines our flag. [Ap- 
 plause.] Or of Arkansas, whose sovereign 
 convention has revised her constitution, 
 and forever excluded slavery. Or Louisi- 
 ana, who set Arkansas the example she so 
 swiftly followed. Or shall we follow Sher- 
 man and his brave legions in their victo- 
 rious march through Georgia. [Applause.] 
 Or will the booming of the Swamp Angel 
 visit the schools for colored children at 
 Hilton Head and Beaufort ? No, time will 
 not permit us to indulge in the contempla- 
 tion of these evidences of the rapidity with 
 which northern ideas and bayonets have 
 made double conquest of the rebels and 
 their country. 
 
 But all this we have done under the ad- 
 ministration of President Lincoln, and we 
 will go to complete conquest for we have 
 a navy ; we have an army ; we have a trea- 
 
 sury ; and the people cheerfully take all the 
 greenbacks that the printers can make. 
 [Laughter and cheers.] They believe that 
 the world offers no better security than the 
 bonds of the United States. And what is 
 more, we have grown during this vast civil 
 war as no people ever grew. Europe, whose 
 journals teem with expressions of wo nder 
 at the magnitude and fierceness of our al- 
 lies, pours in upon us this year nearly half 
 a million of emigrants. And by the talis- 
 manic power of Abraham Lincoln, exercis- 
 ing the war powers of the President, three 
 million chattels were converted into men 
 and citizens by the stroke of a pen. [Great 
 cheering.] No longer stock, indentured 
 with horses, cows, and other cattle, these 
 poor creatures are looked upon by us, by 
 foreign nations, and by the law, as they are 
 looked upon by the God of Heaven, as men 
 and women, with all the hopes, doubts, 
 and fears, with all the immortal aspirations 
 and longings of humanity. [Applause.] 
 
 And this has all been done in less than 
 three years, under the wise, prudent, and 
 courageous guidance of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Let us show that republics are not fickle 
 or ungrateful. Let us re-elect him trium- 
 phantly ; and let it be the pride of our pos- 
 terity, that while he saved our country we 
 intertwined the name of Abraham Lincoln 
 with that of George Washington on the 
 immortal scrolls of fame. [Enthusiastic 
 cheering.] 
 
 SPEECH OE HON. H. S. LANE. 
 
 Hon. H. S. Lane, U. S. Senator from Indiana, was next introduced by the 
 President to the meeting, with the remark that he was a Lane that had no 
 turnings. The Senator was received with cheers and laughter at this an- 
 nouncement. He said : 
 
 Feiends and Freemen 
 
 OF THE City of Washington : 
 
 I am here to mingle my congratulations 
 with yours upon the auspicious action of 
 the Baltimore Convention. Upon the action 
 of that convention we may, I trust without 
 impiety, invoke the blessing of Almighty 
 God. We live in a day when piety and 
 politics are inseparably united. Patriotism 
 has become religion ; and I desire not the 
 prayers of the Christian minister who does 
 not love his country — sinner as I may be. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 It is but right that I should respond in 
 
 behalf of the noble young State of Indiana, 
 whose brow has been wreathed with the 
 chaplets of victory upon a hundred battle- 
 fields. The neighbor of Illinois, long since 
 our people learned to know, respect and love 
 the honest integrity of character and purity 
 of life of Abraham Line oln. My own State 
 has stood side by side with Illinois in all 
 her industrial pnrsuitsand commercial in- 
 terests. The same free breezes sweep the 
 wide prairies which border both States. 
 Our old pi'imeval forests intertwine their 
 arms over the border that divides us. 
 
 I am proud, then, to-dight in being per- 
 mitted to say one word to response to thp 
 
Baltimore nominations. Your action to- 
 night has a two-fold relation to the action 
 of the Baltimore Convention. It was a 
 noble convention having a grand work to 
 perform, and right nobly, faithfully, and 
 patriotically did they perform that work — 
 they but endorsed what the people had long 
 siace determined upon. 
 
 We have first to endorse the principles 
 enunciated by the Baltimore Convention : for 
 truth is older and mightier than man. We 
 are to endorse these principles enunciated 
 in that convention, for they are truer than 
 truth, and stronger than strength. The 
 eternity of God's truth rests upon the prin- 
 ciples proclaimed in the Baltimore Conven- 
 tion. They are full of the grand utierances 
 of the Sermon on the Mount; full of the 
 grand utterances of the declaration of Amer- 
 ican Independence, and they shall stand 
 long after the hissing cavilings of our op- 
 ponents shall cease to be heard on earth, 
 for " truth is mighty and public justice cer- 
 tain." 
 
 Would that 1 could give to-night my 
 feeble voice that volume that would enable 
 all this vast assembly to hear me ; for I de- 
 sire to be heard not in ray own behalf, but 
 in behalf of the grand principles for the ad- 
 vocacy of which we have this night assem- 
 bled. And what, my fellow citizens, are the 
 principles we have met to-night to endorse ? 
 I am proud that we can here to-night preach 
 righteousness to all nations, and universal 
 emancipation to all the people, beginning at 
 Jerusalem. (Laughter and cheers.) I lay 
 my finger to-night upon the pulse of the 
 nation, as it beats in the great metropolk 
 of the Republic, and I feel that every puli- 
 ation, that every heart-beat, is in favor of 
 Union and universal emancipation. (Pro- 
 longed applause.) 
 
 The principles to which I shall first 
 briefly direct your attention as enunciated 
 by the Baltimore Convention, are that they 
 pledge themselves to the country to main- 
 tain the Union against all enemies, and to 
 do this as patriots and not as partizans. Is 
 there a loyal heart that does not respond 
 to that? Is there a loyal man who would 
 not preserve the Union by the application 
 of force until the rebellion shall be sup- 
 pressed, and suppressed forever ? 
 
 True there are false prophets arising now 
 in the country who cry peace! peace! when 
 there is no peace, and can be no peace ex- 
 cept at the end of a successful war, and the 
 entire subjugation of the rebels in arms. 
 (Applause.) I am not afraid of the word 
 subjugation. It is my duty ms a patriot, it 
 js my duty as a lover of my country to in- 
 sist upon the entire subjugation of every 
 g'ngle rebel in arms. I want no peace short 
 
 of that. This would be my utterance'if it 
 were to be my last. If thunderbolts were 
 ready to burst on my head and crush me, 
 I would still say, there can be no peace with 
 rebels, while with their red right hand they 
 clutch at the throat of the nation. 
 
 My fellow citizens, you can have no peace 
 unless you subdue the rebels. Unless you 
 subdue the rebels they will subdue you ; 
 and if they succeed in the dismemberment 
 permanently of this Republic, the last hope 
 of free government on earth will expire. 
 The last votary of freedom will die in blood 
 at her altar ; for the last hope of freedom is 
 inseparably connected with the Stars and 
 Stripes — with that flag under whose glori- 
 ous folds protection is given to every cit- 
 izen, wherever he may be, in whatever part 
 of the earth. (Applause.) The sentiment 
 then of that first resolution, I take it, you 
 endorse, and from your enthusiasm I catch 
 the inspiration of prophecy, and feel that a 
 greater triumph and a louder shout awaits 
 us in the November election. 
 
 The next resolution proclaims no com- 
 promise with traitors in arms. Nothing 
 short of the unconditional surrender of 
 rebels. Can we accept anything short of 
 that? (Cries of " no ! no !") If you were 
 inclined to-night to be recreant to your 
 trust and the important duties devolved 
 upon you, I should need only to appeal to 
 the memories of the past to re-invigorate 
 your waning patriotism. 
 
 Look at the history of the last three 
 years. Visit the graves of the hundred 
 thousand martyred heroes, who have died 
 that this Republic might live. Shall they 
 have died in vain, or will you carry on the 
 war to the bloody, bitter end, to the entire 
 supremacy of the laws and vindication 
 of the Constitution ? I know not how it 
 may be with you, but for myself 1 do not 
 desire to outlive the life of the Union. I do 
 not desire to survive the Union of the States, 
 or the liberties of the people. I prefer a 
 o-rave in the land of freemen to life in the 
 midst of slaves. '^Applause.) 
 
 The third resolution calls for the total 
 extirpation of slavery and the support of 
 the President's proclamation. At the be- 
 ginning of the rebellion no one perhaps 
 contemplated so speedy an end to slav- 
 ery. The suppression of the rebellion 
 was the end. The calls for troops, the 
 President's proclamation, the confiscation 
 act, and all these acts of legislation 
 were merely incidental to the great object 
 sought to be accomplished. But when 
 slavery sought to overthrow the institution^ 
 of the country, it wrote its own doom ; and 
 let no one expect me to be a mourner at 
 that funeral. (Cheers and laughter.) The 
 
rebellion was inaugurated in the interests 
 of slavery. Slavery was to be the great 
 corner stone of the Confederacy. They 
 risked all upon the rebellion, in the hope 
 of perpetuating this God-accursed, unholy 
 institution. They in their madness threw 
 off ihe only power which ever could protect 
 slavery — the Government of the United 
 States — and slavery and the slave power, 
 like Acteon of old, have been torn in pieces 
 by their own dogs. (Laughter and cries of 
 " served him right.") 
 
 Then let slavery be extirpated. Let a 
 new era dawn upon the world — upon this 
 great nation. Let the principles of the 
 Declaration of Independence and of Christ's 
 Sermon on the Mount, begin now to have 
 their first realization upon earth. I am for 
 the extinction of slavery now, as a means 
 to an end. It was not primarily the object ; 
 but as it is necessary that slavery should 
 triumph and the Union go down, or the 
 Union remain forever and slavery die I am 
 for the total extinction of slavery. And so 
 are you, so are the people, so God wills. 
 
 We are beginning now and here to in- 
 augurate a new epoch in the world's history, 
 when we declare that man shall assume his 
 proper position in the economy of God, re- 
 gardless of all conventional laws, prejudi- 
 ces, or usages, and in the true spirit of the 
 Constitution. The loyal people of the 
 country will endorse that sentiment every- 
 where. You have heard already of the 
 progress made in Maryland, Missouri, Ten- 
 nessee. Everywhere, where the blighting 
 effects of this institution have been felt, the 
 loyal people desire its extinction. One 
 grand mission of the Union party is, to ed- 
 ucate the conservatives to a proper point. 
 (Cheers.) We have been educating them 
 for the last few years, until now the con- 
 servatives of the Border States, noblemen 
 and patriots as they are, are to-night biv- 
 ouacing under the midnight sky, beside the 
 Northern soldier, and both have sworn an 
 oath, recorded above, that slavery shall 
 perish and the Union survive. (Great ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 The fourth resolution of th*^ Baltimore 
 Convention is one of thanks to your noble 
 soldiers who have gone to the battle-field 
 in behalf of our free institutions. I have 
 had occasion all my life to admire the 
 Government and people of the United 
 States. Imperial Rome in her palmiest 
 days never exercised such a power, never 
 wielded such institutions for the benefit 
 of mankind. But to-night I am prouder 
 of my people, I am more grateful for what 
 I have seen than I have ever been before. 
 The brave soldier and true citizen have 
 illustrated the fervor of their patriotism 
 
 upon an hundred battle-fields. Wherever 
 they have been called into service they 
 have distinguished themselves, and the 
 victorious hosts of Lieutenant General 
 Grant to-night shake the traitorous old 
 commonwealth of Virginia to its founda- 
 tions. [Great cheering.] And soon, I 
 hope, as an act of God's retribotive justice, 
 salt may be sprinkled over the a^hes of 
 her iniquitous capital — a city to-night 
 readier for destruction than were Sodom 
 and Gomorrah when the Lord rained fite 
 and brimstone upon them. [Enthusiastic 
 cheers.] 
 
 The Baltimore Convention voted to 
 thank our noble sailors who have done so 
 much to burnish the honor of the American 
 navy — that honor so richly and so bravely 
 won in the war of 18 1 2, when the gallant 
 Lawrence and Perry, with all their com- 
 peers, saved the threatened honor of the 
 nation from reproach. Those sailor boys 
 of ours, 
 
 "TVhose march is on the mouutain ware, 
 Whose home is on the deep," 
 
 deserve to be remembered by the people. 
 They have secured for themselves the im- 
 mortality of history. 
 
 The fifth resolution endorses the Presi- 
 dent of the United States. You have 
 heard, too often to make it necessary that 
 I should repeat it, of the distinguished ser- 
 vices and the signal triumphs of that 
 pure, honest, patriotic man, Abraham Lin- 
 coln, President of the United States. The 
 nomination was a compliment to him well 
 deserved ; but that nomination has a 
 higher and deeper significance. We en- 
 dorse him not simply as a pure patriot, as 
 a distinguished statesman, as a tar-seeing 
 politician alone, but we endorse the grand 
 principles for the support of which he is 
 irrevocably pledged. [Cheers.] I endorse 
 his administration, I endorse his acts. I 
 have voted to arm, equip, and call into the 
 field every single soldier be has demanded. 
 I have voted for every measure of revenue 
 thought necessary to support the Govern- 
 ment, and I shall still vote every dollar 
 necessiiry to that purpose, even though it 
 bankrupt every individual and every cor- 
 poration in the land. Ob, you should 
 never forget that this war debt is the price 
 yon pay for the union of the States, the 
 liberty of the people, and the hopes of 
 mankind. [Applause.] 
 
 The sixth resolution is in reference to 
 the unity of the Cabinet. The Cabinet 
 should be a nnit. I do not say the Cabi- 
 net is not a unit, but if any member of it 
 now, or at any time, stands between the 
 
President and the people and their high 
 purposes to redeem the nation, they should 
 be swept away as dust in the balance, and 
 let all the people say amen. (Prolonged 
 cheers.) 
 
 The next resolution is in favor of the 
 Pacific railroad, that grand scheme already 
 inaugurated : the grandest scheme of hu- 
 man conception, which is to revolution- 
 ize the trade of the whole world, which is 
 to pour into the lap of this great republic 
 the wealth of the Indies, and make tribu- 
 tary to our commercial enterprise all the 
 nations of the earth. And it is one of the 
 grandest and most sublime moral spec- 
 tacles the history of the world has ever 
 presented, that in the midst of this terrible 
 wasting contest we are able to project and 
 carry on such a scheme as this. A scheme 
 which will do what built up Palmyra in 
 the wilderness, and which has enabled 
 England for the last hundred years to con- 
 trol the political destinies, and commer- 
 cial interests of the whole world. 
 
 The tenth resolution re-affirms the Mon- 
 roe doctrine ; and what was that doctrine ? 
 It was enunciated by James Monroe in 
 1820 and 1821 that hereafter the conti- 
 nent of North America should not be de- 
 voted to European interests or coloniza- 
 tion, or European interference. That 
 hereafter the institutions and effete despo- 
 tisms of the old world should not he 
 allowed to faint the atmosphere that should 
 pervade free republics, the happiest home 
 for freedom that God in his mere}- has 
 ever vouchsafed to mankind. We shall in 
 a short time be able not only to suppress 
 the rebellion, but to assert the Monroe doc- 
 trine, and make these frog-eatin? French- 
 men leave Mexico on the double-quick. 
 (Great laughter and applause.) And we 
 shall also be able to take care of our 
 northern and northeastern boundaries. 
 T he very moment that we are free from 
 this great firey trial through which the 
 country is now passing — and I shall live 
 to see the time as you will — this great 
 model republic, representing the only free 
 government upon earth, will be supreme 
 upon the continent. (Bravo.) This is as I 
 believe the proud mission of our noble 
 republic 
 
 I am afraid, my fellow citizens, I have 
 occupied vour attention too long with ref- 
 erence to the resolutions of the Baltimore 
 Convention. I know the whole people en- 
 dorse them. I know our soldiers on the 
 tented fields will endorse them ; those men 
 who are -ready to lay down their lives for 
 their country ; who have sacrificed happy 
 homes that you and yours might he happy 
 
 and prosperous. But after all the death of 
 a soldier is a proud death, 
 
 I " Whether upon the scaffold high. 
 
 Or ill the armies' van ; 
 The fifte.st j'lace for hian to die, 
 Is where he dies for niau I" 
 [Applause.] 
 
 I have little to say In reference to the 
 nomination of Governor Johnson, of Ten- 
 nessee. He is known to the people of the 
 country for his truth and fidelity in public 
 life, and for the purity of his conduct in 
 private life. He has breasted treason in 
 the Senate Chamber of the United States. 
 When the slave masters were threatening 
 to distroy the Government, he stood faith- 
 ful among the faithless, and since that time 
 he has stood unflinching like a bulwark 
 against treason in his own State. The peo- 
 ple of the mountains of East Tennessee, are 
 to day free, and they owe their freedom 
 more to Andrew Johnson, than to any other 
 man on earth. The mountain fastnesses 
 have always been the chosen homes of 
 freedom. The mountains of Eastern Ken- 
 tucky, and of Western Virginia, to day con- 
 tain a loyal people. The inhabitants of the 
 mountains and valleys of Eastern Ten- 
 nessee, of Northern Georgia, of Northern 
 Alabama, are to day free, "and the last 
 lingering ray of freedom and sunshine upon 
 earth will gild the mountain top." It has 
 always been so. The only free banner in 
 Europe, gleams to night from among the 
 Alps ; so it has always been in history and 
 it will never be otherwise. 
 
 Now, my fellow citizens, we commence 
 this canvas under most favorable auspices; 
 true, there are obstacles to be overcome, 
 obstacles we shall have to contend with. 
 The peace party are to make a nomination 
 at Chicago, and what will that nomination 
 be? They will either nominate a war man 
 upon a peace platform or they will nomi- 
 nate a peace man upon a war platform. 
 [Laughter and Cheers.] But the people 
 are right now and they will be then. Tliia 
 peace party will come before y^u and tell 
 you of our enormous debts, and of the ar- 
 bitrary acts of the Administration; they 
 will insist upon the withdrawal of your ar- 
 mies ; they will insist upon peace, upon any 
 terms; a peace which would degrade your 
 manhood and make your children and your 
 childrens' children to the last syllable of 
 recorded time execrate and curseyour mem- 
 ory. These miserable temporizers and truck- 
 lers, if they could succeed, would allow 
 themselves and their descendents to be- 
 come the servant of servants, and the slave 
 of the devil. [Laughter.] That is what 
 they promise you in their platform. Yoa 
 
10 
 
 fcear it everywhere, you hear it in their 
 speeches, read it in their papers, .nd it is 
 an ignoble, cowaidly, disgraceful ? irrender 
 ■which you will never sanction. 1 le coun- 
 try has already poured out too nn eh of its 
 heart's blood and expended too rai ch of its 
 treasure to abandon the contest new. For 
 what have you called a million m n to the 
 field? For what have you pernitted a 
 hundred thousand soldiers to acl ieve " a 
 martyr's glory and find a martyr's g -ave" on 
 the battlefield? Has it been to t,:ive the 
 countrj' again into the hands of *ae slave 
 power which has ruled it for the 1 .st sixty 
 .years with a rod of iron ? 
 
 These men in the front of Grint and 
 Sherman are your open enemies ; ' ut there 
 •are other covert enemies which } ou inaj' 
 be called upon to meet. There was a Cleve- 
 land convention most significant! niimed, 
 for whatever its object may have i een, the 
 effect of tlat convention is to cleave, in ^un- 
 der the Union party, if it is to 1 ave any 
 effect. But, my fellow-citizens, G. n. John 
 C. Fremont, the i-'athfinder, has no .v struck 
 oat upon a path which will never lead him 
 to the Presidency ot the United i: tates. — 
 (Applause.) I undertook faithful!;' to car- 
 ry his standard through the camuaign of 
 1856, but upon that standard were emblaz- 
 
 oned " free epeech, free press, free men 
 free labor," and all that could animate the 
 heart of the true patriot. Those principles 
 are eternal; they live to-night, and they will 
 be perpetuated in the grand Union party of 
 this country. If the standard bearer is 
 struck down, a million hearts will erect 
 that standard and bear it forward. 
 
 My fellow-citizens, I thank you ; I thank 
 my personal friends through \Thom i have 
 been enabled for the first time to address 
 the citizens of Washington. How changed 
 the circumstances which surround us now 
 from those which surrounded us three years 
 ago when treason was rampant in the Con- 
 gress of the United States, when a coward- 
 ly, traitorous old man held reign in the 
 White House, surrounded by a Cabinet 
 whose only object was to assist him in 
 jilundering the cuuntr}-, and in subverting 
 the liberties of the people. How changed 
 is Washington to-night! Whatever may 
 be done heretofore she is now sound to the 
 core. Her great heart beats responsive to 
 the cause of the I nion, and her step 
 throughout the victorious campaign on 
 which we have entered will be to the mu- 
 sic of the Union. 
 
 The speaker as he took his seat was 
 greeted with enthusiastic cheers. 
 
 SPEECH OF H(}N. J, W. PATTERSON. 
 
 At the conclusion of the rer larks of Mr. Lane, the President said : 
 " Yotx will next hear from t le Granite Hills of New Hampshire. I have 
 the honor now to present to y 'U the Hon. J. W. Patterson, of New Hamp- 
 shire." 
 
 Mr. Patterson, on coming fc ward, said : 
 
 Fellow-citizens, we have come tiiis even- 
 ing as members of a great national party 
 to ratify and approbate the actio i of the 
 Convention of the Union men of *be loyal 
 States that lately assembled at B;.ltimore! 
 We have met to accept their pla form of 
 principles, and to ratify their non inations 
 for the Presidency and the V'ice Fre'^idency ; 
 and for one, I do not regret that ve meet 
 here as partisans, for parties are issential 
 in all free States. 
 
 Rational liberty. Constitutional law, and 
 constant, absolute progress in civilization, 
 will soon perish where parties hav.' ceased 
 to exist. Imminent peril, or an all pervad- 
 ing enthusiasm, may and has, foi a brief 
 space, fused all differences and impelled a 
 whole people into some great and sublime 
 movement, like that for the rescve of the 
 Holy Sepulchre, or like that witi essed at 
 
 the outbreak of this great struggle of the 
 slave power against the tide-wave of uni- 
 versal emancipation, but it cannot extend 
 through long periods, and would not be safe 
 if it could. 
 
 The moral force generated by the contact 
 of parties is absolutely necessary to carry 
 forward measures of national and perma- 
 nent importance on the one hand, and on 
 the other to stay the tendency of society 
 when it would be borne away to its lasting 
 injury by weak or unscrupulous leaders. 
 It will be understood, of course, that I am 
 not speaking of temporary but of perma- 
 nent parties, such as the whigs and tories 
 in England, the tederalists and republicans, 
 whigs and democrats in our own political 
 history, and the conservatives and radicals 
 of all time. 
 
 Revolutionary periods more than all 
 
11 
 
 others demand both the impulses and the 
 restraints of parties. Great power is de- 
 uiand='d to give the proper momentum, but 
 when the nation has acquired the swift 
 flight of these heated epochs, it must feel 
 the brealis of conservatism pressed home, 
 that society may not be precipitated into 
 the gulp of anarchy. 
 
 While we should be quick to discover 
 and inexorable in our purpose to bring to 
 light any treason lurking beneath the folds 
 of party, we should from a regard to public 
 safety give a large liberty to the exercise of 
 private judgment within the limits of loy- 
 alty. 
 
 The central principles which give life and 
 cohesion to political organizations, and 
 which they seek to realize in laws and in- 
 stitutions, should be vital, comprehensive, 
 and worthy to be perpetuated through all 
 time. 
 
 History tells us that parties which have 
 their birth in revolutionary periods are 
 more elevated in purpose and pure in ac- 
 tion than those that have their origin in the 
 quiet, piping times of peace. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, how is it in respect to 
 our platform of principles? 
 
 I say nothing about the platform of our 
 opponents, for that is known, and read, and 
 despised of all men. (Laughter and ap- 
 plause.) It is a platform of paradoxes. 
 They profess great economy, but stand 
 ready in every legislature of tl)e land, to 
 vote away the people's money by millions, 
 if by so doing they ean break down and 
 ruin the Administration which God has set 
 for the preservation and perpetuation of 
 our institutions of liberty. They clamor 
 for a more vigorous prosecution of the war ; 
 but in Congress and out of Congress, in 
 season and out of season, they oppose every 
 measure looking to an increase of the 
 army, or designed to give it greater effi- 
 ciency. They resolved and re-resolved that 
 it is our duty to get down on our bellies, 
 and crawl as though the curse of God was 
 upon us, up to the perjured traitors who 
 have covered the land with suffering and 
 sorrow, that we may lick their hands and 
 beg for peace. They claim to be the friends 
 of liberty, and yet they " compass sea and 
 land" that they may make one more slave, 
 and pledge the divine government to the 
 perpetuation of the bondage of black men. 
 
 Let us now turn from this mosaic of con- 
 tradictions, this patch-work creed of men, 
 
 " That bawl for freedom in their genseleBs mood, 
 And still revolt when truth would set ihem tree," 
 
 to the platform which the civilization of 
 the age has built for us, and which will 
 
 hereafter be held in a proud historic re- 
 membrance by our children. 
 
 We have selected for the suffrages of the 
 nation, statesmen of experience who have 
 i'lustrated the genius of our institutions, 
 and represent the common industry and 
 common sense of tlie masses of our popula- 
 tion. Their ability and patriotism have 
 been developed and tested by the severe 
 discipline of practical life. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson 
 were born and reared among the people, 
 and have entered into their labors and sac- 
 rifices. They appreciate the popular wants, 
 sympathies, and modes of thought, and 
 are destined to be the chosen rulers of those 
 who are now redeeming from the grnsp of 
 treason with their treasure and their blood, 
 the institutions of Government which our 
 fathers laid upon the foundations of liOerty. 
 
 Men of more brilliant genius and more 
 profoundly versed in the philosophy of 
 government than our Chief Magistrate may 
 be found, but few possess in higher degree 
 that wisdom which results from a rare com- 
 bination of qualities, and which fits men to 
 guide the affairs of a great nation in times 
 of imminent peril than he. His integrity is 
 a part of his statesmanship. 
 
 The continued exaltation of the President 
 will be due, under God, to the general and 
 abiding confidence of the country in his 
 honesty and his policy, and to the peril of 
 change in the midst of civil war. 
 
 There may have been mistakes and even 
 wrongs under his administration ; the vul- 
 tures of trade may have fattened on the 
 treasures of the people, and the innocent at 
 times suffered violence, but these are attri- 
 butable to the extent of the operations, not 
 to a want of integrity or efficiency in the 
 Government. We may as justly charge 
 such abuses upon the Divine Government, 
 as upon our civil Administration. The ac- 
 cidents due to gravitation do not impugn 
 the wisdom of the law, and the same prin- 
 ciple holds in the administration of civil 
 afl'nirs. 
 
 We of the East should have been glad to 
 have had one of our own sons put in nom- 
 ination for the second place of trust, but 
 these are no times for bickering about 
 places and honors, and as a New Hamp- 
 shire man I pledge the nominees, not 
 only the vote of my State, but the cordial 
 and multitudinous support of all New Eng- 
 land, for she is 
 
 True to the last of her kith and her kin. 
 
 But, to return to the platform from which 
 we have wandered, we oppose the estab- 
 lishment upon this continent of monarch- 
 
12 
 
 fcai institutions through fraud or ijrce by 
 any power whatever. [Loud and pr )longed 
 applause.] We claim that we are impelled 
 to this action by a decent respec to the 
 rights of sister republics, as well a b^' the 
 instinct of self-preservation. This western 
 continent of ours was concealed f >r more 
 than five thousand years by the God of 
 nations, in the wide wastejof wate: , to the 
 end that it might be the home of he last, 
 best birth of civil and religious libc ty, and 
 that it might furnish a broad and :ntram- i 
 •melled arena witliin which the bi leficent 
 triumphs of a christian civilixatio . might 
 unfold their glories among the lal 'st gen- 
 erations of our children. And we cannot 
 innocently, we cannot safely suffer the foot 
 of any foreign despot to pollute thi ; inher- 
 itance of freedom. [Applause.] Again, i 
 we claim in our platform to be tne con- ] 
 stanl friends of the soldier, and to have per- 
 petual sympathy with those brave boys and 
 brothers of ours who have gone forth from 
 their queit homes, and now stan'! in the 
 panoph'ofthe Union on the slippery field 
 ■of battle, or lie in bloody graves and nar- 
 row trenches, dug by the hand of traitors. 
 Nor shall our sympathy spend i'self in 
 heartless, fruitless words of prom'^e; but 
 we will give to tliem support and uiccour 
 till victory crowns their efforts. Living 
 their deeds shall be honored, and dying 
 their memories shall be cherished in our 
 literature and monuments, for 
 
 Oh. if there he on this earthly sphere 
 
 A boon, an offering. Keavcn holds dear, 
 
 'Tis the last liljation liberty draws 
 
 Irora the heart that bleeds and breaks in ! er cansp. 
 
 Again, gentlemen, we go for t e utter 
 annihilation of slavery, the moth* r of all 
 our woes. [Great applause.] \V« go for 
 this by the repeal of fugitive sla\ ^ laws. 
 We go for this in bills of reconstiuction. 
 We go for this in presidential pr clama- 
 tions of emancipation. [Applause.] And 
 above all, and over all, we go for this by 
 such an amendment of ihe Constit' tion as 
 ehali secure freedom upon every for t of the 
 republic, from the Lakes to the Gul '; from 
 the storm beaten coast of the Atlantic to 
 where the Pacific sleeps on the golden 
 sands of California. [Loud appla'ise.] 
 
 But, gentlemen, we are told that we have 
 no constitutional right to do thi . Oh! 
 That is the plea of tyrants in ev ?ry age, 
 when they wish to strengthen themi 'Ives in 
 oppression. Men wielding irres' onsible 
 power and conscious of wrong, alwa; s skulk 
 behind letters patent, iiarchment fo -ms and 
 prescriptive rights, and there taking sanctu- 
 ary claim to be beyond the reach < f civili- 
 Jiation. 
 
 But fortunately the forecast of OUf fil* 
 thers, enlightened by experience, antici- 
 pated this refuge of arbitrary power, and 
 placed in the Constitution itself a provis- 
 ion for its amendment. 
 
 There are but two exceptions to the 
 power thus conveyed, and they prove the 
 right to change that instrument in other 
 particulars. 
 
 But if we had no such legal right given 
 to us in the organic law, the people of this 
 country to-day have the same right to 
 amend the Constitution so that it may con- 
 form to the moral life of the nation, and to 
 the changed conditions of the limes, that 
 our fathers had originally to adopt the old 
 " articles of confederation," or to transform 
 them into the present fundamental law. 
 [Loud applause.] 
 
 Let those gentlemen who oppose an 
 amendment to the Constitution remember 
 that that instrument was made by men who 
 had set aside both the law and the Consti- 
 tution of England, and who based their ac- 
 tion in these high matters upon an inalien- 
 able birthright. 
 
 Revolutions are a law unto themselves. 
 Laws, like language and science, must 
 change so as to express the prevalent ideas 
 of an advancing civilization. Why, the 
 tongue of Chaucer is not to-day the lan- 
 guage of England. The laws of Edward 
 and Anne are not the laws of Queen Victo- 
 ria. The science of Bacon is not the sci- 
 ence of the 19th century; and we should 
 remember also that the undisputed princi- 
 ples of the common law of England, that 
 our liberties and privileges as Englishmen, 
 were at successive epochs opposed as vio- 
 lent innovations upon the iron code of pro- 
 scription, and have been consecrated by the 
 blood of men whom English law condemned 
 and executed as the enemies of society. 
 Maxims of law and precedents of history, 
 have been drags upon the chariot of time 
 before our day, and must not be suffered to 
 arrest its progress here. 
 
 Yes, gentlemen, we have the right to do 
 this thing, and is it not high time that it 
 was done ? (Cries of " Yes, yes," and ap- 
 plause.) Have not we suffered enough 
 from this curse of slavery ? (Cries of " Yes, 
 yes.") What has it done for us? It has 
 been the apple of discord in all our na- 
 tional life, and now it has ])lunged us in 
 the saddest, bloodiest war known to his- 
 tory. It has squandered our hard earn- 
 ings, and laid in untimely graves hun- 
 dreds of thousands of onr brave boys. It 
 is high time that we should cast out this 
 f"iul fiend. Why, don't tell me that it >s 
 slavery that has brought on the war — it 
 was " firing on Fort Sumter," they say. 
 
18 
 
 (Laughter.) Firing on Fort Sumter was 
 simply an incident, the antecedent of the 
 war, not the underlj'ing cause. Go back 
 to the history of the revolution of 1776. 
 Now, in that revolution it was not the 
 writs of assistance, or the stamp act, or 
 the tax of a few pennies on tea that 
 brought about that great struggle. These 
 were only the incidents that preceded it. 
 Our fathers saw in these simple incidents, 
 however, an effort of the British ministry 
 to deprive them of their old, traditional, 
 inherited rights and liberties as English- 
 men They saw in those measures a pur- 
 pose of the British ministry to tax them 
 without representation, and that was the 
 outrage that led to the war. But what did 
 that little handful of saintly heroes do 
 when at length they had been once plunged 
 into the war? Did they sit down and fold 
 their arms and count tiie cost of liberty, 
 and conclude that they had belter com- 
 promise? Thank Heaven, not ihey ! That 
 meanness never entered into any man's 
 heart but the tory's. No, they determined 
 to expel tiie tyrant that would enslave 
 them from the land, and they made them- 
 selves strong in God by gathering up, in 
 language as imperishable as the eternal \ 
 hills that stood around them, the ripe 
 fruits of all past revolutions ; an J under- 
 laying the struggle with that sublime de- 
 claration, that " all men are created free and 
 equal," that "they are endowed by their 
 Creator with certain inalienable rights, 
 among which are life, liberty, and the pur- 
 suit of happiness." On those principles 
 they went through the revolution. May 
 we not learn a lesson from them ? 
 
 Now, standing as we do, their children 
 in this republic, which we have inherited 
 from them, and with those lights of his- 
 tory flaming all around us, what interpre- 
 tation must we give to this great struggle 
 which for three years has " walked in 
 darkness and wasted at noonday." I Re- 
 lieve no man pretends that it is a people 
 struggling for freedom, and employing the 
 extreme right of revolution. The South 
 does not claim that we have deprived her 
 of any of her rights, or laid upon her any 
 unequal burdens. No, the historic charac- 
 ter of this struggle is and can be nothing 
 else than a gigantic rebellion of the spirit 
 of slavery against the spirit of universal 
 freedom. That is what it is, and nothing 
 else. It is an effort to overthrow the re- 
 public on more than half its territory. 
 And Southern men honestly and frankly 
 confess it. No Northern man, no North- 
 ern fanatic even ever pronounced denun- 
 ciations more strong and sweeping against 
 slavery, or ever i)ut on record nobler and 
 
 sublime • utterances for liberty than did 
 Madiso? , Jefferson, Randolph, Henry, and 
 all the rominent statesmen of that early 
 period i f the republic. 
 
 Spea> ing of Jefferson, Stephens, the- 
 Vice P esident of this factitious confede- 
 racy, s; id : "The prevailing ideas enter- 
 tained 'Dy him and most of the leading 
 statesm n at the time of the formation of 
 the old Jonstitution were, that the enslave- 
 ment of the African was in violation of the 
 laws of nature ; that it was wrong in prin- 
 ciple, socially, morally, and politically." 
 Madison " thought it wrong to admit in^ 
 the Constitution the idea that there should 
 be prop rfy in man." And in a discussion 
 in Congi'ess upon a memorial introduced 
 by Dr. i^'ranklin for the abolition of sla- 
 very, h. said: "The dictates of humanity^ 
 the principles of the people, the national 
 safety, and, perhaps, prudent policy, re- 
 quire it of us." Required what? Why, the 
 abolitio-i of slavery ; [loud applause,] and 
 that Ci me from a slaveholder, and the 
 father ( !" the Constitution. It was the uni- 
 versal rentiment of that day. We have- 
 made r ) progress in this matter since '7& 
 and 87 fanatics as we are. I will admit 
 that so ;e men have exercised with a great 
 deal of rcedom the liberty of the press and 
 the lib '.rij of speech guarantied by the 
 Constit 'tion to all in defending the faitb 
 once d livered to the saints; but I claim 
 that it ■ i a wrong done to history, a wrong 
 done tc the nnghty dead, to give to Garri- 
 son am; to Phillips the glory which belongs- 
 to Jeffe son and Madison. 
 
 The )Outh began the agitation of this 
 questio i. They sought to counteract pub- 
 lic opin.on and establish slavery from mo- 
 tives self-interest. They first promul- 
 gated t le foul dogma, that slavery was the 
 normal condition of the black man from 
 the sar e consideration. It was their agi- 
 tation rf the question which led to the war 
 with M xico, that resulted in the independ- 
 ence ol Texas. It was that which brought 
 Texas nto the Union. It. was their agita- 
 tion tl it filibustered in Central America. 
 It was '.his that led to the Compromise of 
 1820, and abrogated that compromise in 
 1854. It was this that led to the war with 
 Mexico, which put us in possession of Cali- 
 fornia. And when California, one bright 
 mornin ^, came rapping at the doors of the 
 Rppubi'c, and asked to be admitted as a 
 free Stite, what happened then? Why, 
 the tra tor Toombs, rising in his place in 
 the Hoi se of Representatives, and swinging 
 his lor g skinny finger about his black, 
 curly ]■ cks, invoked the God of Discord to 
 reign ii, the Hall until the South should ob- 
 tain its rights ; and what were they ? The 
 
14 
 
 right to bring California into this Union 
 against the wishes of its people as a slave 
 State in order to give the preponderance to 
 the South for all time to come in the na- 
 tional councils. But at length the long 
 contest has passed from the arena of de- 
 bate to the arbitrament of arms, and now 
 it rests with you and with me to say whether 
 we will stand up for the Union as it was 
 and the Constitution as it is, in spirit to 
 the glorious end, against those who would 
 break up the Union for the sake of trans- 
 forming the Constitution into a fundamen- 
 tal charter of a great slavo-cratic aristoc- 
 racy. 
 
 It is the old struggle over again above 
 the very ashes of the men who fell in the 
 first great conflict for liberty. It is a con- 
 test between a christian civilization and a 
 barbarism. Some men express great fears 
 of the passions of parties, and the policy of 
 administrations, but, gentlemen, we need 
 not fear, for the policy of God will [)revail 
 in this contest. If there is a God of nations 
 who moves on the pathway of history, he 
 is an infidel who does not see him "riding 
 upon the whirlwind and directing the 
 storm." 
 
 If you and I would become co-laborers 
 in the grandest ejioch of human history, 
 then let us cast in our lot in this great effort 
 to exorcise the foul fiend from the Republic. 
 Absolute conquest, complete subjugation, 
 my friend has styled it, is the shortest, the 
 simplest, and in my judgment the only so- 
 lution of this difficult problem, which, like 
 the ghost of Banquo, would never down at 
 our bidding, and which has bafiied the 
 genius of our wisest and best statesmen in 
 times past, and rested like a mildew and a 
 blight upon the prosperity of tl'e country 
 from the inception of the Government. 
 
 Some men talk about compromise. Com- 
 promise ! Why, you may compromise with 
 the plague, with the cholera, with a typhoon 
 in mad fury, but you cannot compromise 
 with a revolution midway in its progress. 
 The thing is not known to history. It can- 
 not be done. The English people attempted 
 to compromise the great revolution of 
 1640, and what happened? Why, the 
 smothered elements of that revolutiou burst 
 out again in 1680, and the purpose of 
 Providence was then realized ; and so will 
 it always be. 
 
 Our path lies straight onward through the 
 sea. Beyond, the land lies broad and rich 
 and beautiful. The wealth and population of 
 the country have increased during these 
 years of waste and blood, and in this we 
 have a prophecy, a vision rising out of the 
 fire-mist that envelops us, of the unparal- 
 leled prosperity, strength and grandeur 
 
 which will open upon our eyes, when the 
 untrammeled enterprise of free labor is 
 turned upon the resources of the land. 
 
 Why should any man wish by compound- 
 ing with treason to saddle upon the indus- 
 try of the loyal States, uncounted millions 
 of southern debt? Why should any man 
 wish to emasculate the industrial forces of 
 the country by leaving the dry rot of slavery 
 in the framework of society ? 
 
 If one half of the wealth, the phj'sical 
 force, and the intellectual power which has 
 been expended in efforts to bolster up this 
 miserable institution had been expended in 
 developing the resources of our country, 
 the Atlantic and the Pacific would long 
 since have been locked in an embrace of 
 iron; long since would our country have 
 been the rich centre of a vast and civilizing 
 commerce between Asia and Europe; long 
 since should we have been the acknowl- 
 edged head of nations in all that makes a 
 people great and glorious. But all this and 
 more is possible to us in the not distant 
 future, if we will but purge the veins of the 
 body politic of this consumption, this scrof- 
 ula, which is dragging it down to death. 
 
 The most vigorous imngination would 
 fail in an attempt to foreshadow the happi- 
 ness and glory of an intelligent !>nd pop- 
 ulous Republic, stretching over half a con- 
 tinent, filled with churches, charities and 
 schools ; harmonious in the application of 
 its capital and industry, and devoting its 
 unmeasured resources to the uplifting of 
 the children of sorrow in every clime. 
 
 Wish we. dare we, to go forth from this 
 baptism of fire into the light of a peaceful 
 age, without accomplishing the work which 
 Providence has set for us to do? 
 
 Our fathers made themselves free in the 
 first great struggle for liberty. Shall we 
 make no progress in this ? We are sometimes 
 pointed to the sufferings of our soldiers and 
 of our people. Why, have you forgotten the 
 sorrows of Valley Forge? Do we not re- 
 member how our fathers walked for nine- 
 teen miles with naked feet, staining the 
 spotless snow with their blood at every 
 foot-fall ? And how they fell dead as they 
 stood around their watch-fires ; and when 
 the spring of that midnight of the revolu- 
 tion dawned upon them, and the British 
 Government offered to compromise, do you 
 remember how they spurned with ineffable 
 contempt the offer from the British throne. 
 
 They had spent their money. They had 
 buried their dead out of sight; and they 
 were determined themselves to die or be 
 free. They teach us lessons of fortitude 
 and heroic endeavor in the cause of free- 
 dom. Shall not those who are suffering 
 and battling for liberty in the Old World, 
 
u 
 
 as they turn their eyes with the " star of 
 empire" westward, behold here a people free 
 in deed as in word? Why, suppose that 
 you settle this contest by compromise, and 
 not by conquest, what then ? Would Bull 
 Run be piled with monuments to dead 
 traitors? Would Gettysburg lift marbles 
 that would speak the glories of your chil- 
 dren fallen for liberty and Government ? 
 Would the shafts reared to the dead of both 
 sections rise side by side at Antietam to 
 nurse the smothering, rankling liate that 
 ere long would burst forth and renew the 
 bloody conflict of to-day? Whose history 
 of the contest would be accepted by both 
 sections? Who would claim the ashes 
 of your dead fathers that sleep beneath 
 the ashes of your brothers and children 
 at Yorktown, and other old batttle fields 
 of the Revolution ? 
 
 I tell you, my fellow-citizens, there is but 
 one course left to us. We must fight — I 
 repeat it, we must fight. [Applause.] 
 
 I do not claim here and now for the illit- 
 erate, untutored African all the privileges 
 and rights wliich have been wrought out 
 for us. as we were prepared to receive them 
 by revolutions and many generations of 
 an intelligent and christian ancestry. What 
 purely political privileges it maj^be wise to 
 bestow upon four millions of beings just 
 lifted from the ignorance and degradation 
 of servitude to the light of liberty in the 
 very heart of the republic, is a problem 
 which the logic of events will soon solve, 
 as it has solved other problems past find- 
 ing out by our puny powers. 
 
 But what I do claim here and now is this : 
 that the law of natural justice, as laid down 
 both in the civil and divine code, gives to 
 every being the largest measure of liberty he 
 is capable of improving. Less than that is 
 despotism ; more than that is anarchy, and 
 anarchy is despotism. I am perfectly well 
 
 aware t' at rational liberty must be secured 
 to any )eople by laying upon them such 
 restrain s of law as their want of moral and 
 intellect lal culture may demand ; but that 
 does no justify slavery, and least of aU 
 slavery .s it exists among ourselves ; for it 
 is not a form of civil government, but sim- 
 ply and nurely a domestic and social insti- 
 tution. Laving its origin and support in self- 
 ishness. It abrogates the marriage con- 
 tract, ai d the right of property ; it ignores 
 those nutural prerogatives and primal vir- 
 tues which are the essence of all law, and 
 the foui dation stones on which rests the 
 whole f; brie of social and civil institutions. 
 It seeks to perpetuate its own existence, 
 not by the ministrations of learning, justice, 
 and reli; ion — the first duty of every State — 
 but by ignoring the moral and intellectual 
 being o'' its subjects, and attempting to 
 crush 01. t all their manhood and woman- 
 hood b," its cunning inventions of diabol- 
 ism. 
 
 I clai 1, therefore, now that the South has 
 put the .orch to its own magazine of infer- 
 nal pyrt technics, that the black man shall 
 have th right to nossess his own wife and 
 cliildrer to enjoy the fruits of his industry, 
 to advarce in civilization according to the 
 measure of his capacity. (Loud applause.) 
 And if 
 
 " in the lowest deep 
 A lo' ar deep still threatens to devour," 
 
 it is du( to those from whom we have in- 
 herited lur liberties, it is due to those to 
 whom V e hope to transmit them, it is due 
 to those who have already fallen in this 
 great st uggle, it is due to the cause of civil 
 liberty .md the unity of history, to the liv- 
 ing, — tL it we should plunge this foul fiend 
 of disco 1 into that wide woml) of uncreated 
 night. [The speaker retired amid great 
 applaus.T.J 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. J, M. HOWARD. 
 
 Senator Howard, having been introduced ij the President of the meeting, 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens: As 
 one of the representatives of the great 
 Northwest, I greet you. A region of country 
 which at the formation of the Constitution 
 possessed scarcely a thousand white set- 
 tlers, speaking the English tongue, now, in 
 1864, with tlie united voices of its seven 
 and a half millions of free inhabitants, in- 
 
 vokes the rest of the nation to stand firmly 
 by the o'd Union ! The genius of the North- 
 west is .3 Take. Never doubt her. Her love 
 of libert , her love of nationality, her love 
 of the T iiion will prove too strong for all 
 temptat ons. She has been insolently and 
 arrogm ly promised by the rebels the free 
 navig^t'jn of the Mississippi, and other 
 
16 
 
 commercial advantages, if she would with- 
 draw her powerful hand from the present 
 combat with traitors. You have read her 
 firm reply in the heaps of her martyred 
 sons at Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Port 
 Hudson, and other fields, where they sealed 
 with their blood their fidelity to the great 
 cause. 
 
 I onl}' speak worthily of their character 
 when 1 predict the continued display of the 
 same heroic devotion until this base-born 
 slaveholders' conspiracy shall be totally 
 overthrown, and its tyrant leaders be made 
 to bite the dust. I only speak worthily of 
 their character when I say they will for- 
 ever look with abhorrence upon every at- 
 tempt to break up the Union of the States, 
 as they do with disdain upon the offer of 
 thieves to give what the true owners have 
 abundant power to retain and hold, not 
 onl}^ against a set of crazy plunderers, but 
 against the world in arms. They will make 
 no terms with traitors, but those of uncon- 
 ditional surrender. 
 
 As a Northwestern man, I hail the occa- 
 sion as one of high import. It vindicates 
 not only the wisdom and justice of the 
 fathers of the Republic, but, what is cer- 
 tainly' not less worthy of our regard, the 
 justice of Heaven. Seventy-seven years 
 ago those revered ancestors, by the famous 
 Jeifersonian ordinance, consecrated that 
 vast territory to freedom. In the language 
 of Mr. Webster, "they impressed upon the 
 very soil an incapacity to bear up any but 
 free men." The demon of slavery made 
 open war upon the beneficent Government 
 of our fathers the moment the President 
 was elected from the same old Northwest. 
 Its imps sought to entrap and assassinate 
 him on his way to the capital, but a pro- 
 tecting God shielded his days from the 
 knife of the assassin, and enabled Abraham 
 Linco^i to show to the world that the prin- 
 ciples of that ordinance of freedom had 
 sunk deep into his heart. The proclama- 
 tion of emancipation was but a natural out- 
 growth of those principles. Was it not the 
 justice of Heaven that thus snatched up the 
 representative of the free Northwest, and 
 made him the standard-bearer and apostle 
 of the friends of free government against 
 slave-driving treason? Was it not a re- 
 cognition that the ordinance of 1787, like 
 its prototype, the Declaration of Independ- 
 
 ence, was an inspiration of divine justice in 
 the hearts of our fathers, and of the pur- 
 pose of Heaven, that the people distin- 
 guished by it should, as they have done, 
 act a leading part in maintaining its prin- 
 ciples? Else, why was an humble peasant 
 boy, born in slaveholding Kentucky, pen- 
 niless and friendless, transferred to the old 
 Northwest, to become there the high, if not 
 the highest illustration of the political as 
 well as the social fruits of those principles? 
 And why, else, has it happened that the pre- 
 sent heroic leader of our armies, [cheers,] 
 before the point of whose sword the rebel 
 hosts are slinking .iwaj' — how has it hap- 
 pened that the gallant, wise, and fearless 
 Grant is also a child of the old Northwest ? 
 [Great applause.] 
 
 With these striking signs before you, do 
 not doubt that those States will remain 
 true to the cause we have in hand; do not 
 doubt that they will stand faithfully by 
 him who in the midst of unparalleled diffi- 
 culties, has for the last tbree-and-a-half 
 years born our standard onward with an 
 eye single to the good of his country and 
 the permanent maintenance of the free prin- 
 ciples which constitute its true glory ; do 
 not doubt that Mr. Lincoln will again re- 
 ceive the votes of the Northwestern States, 
 as he did in 1860. Let not the rebels, let 
 not not those who sympathize with them 
 at home or abroad, indulge the delusion 
 that the Northwest will ever fail or falter 
 in maintaining the honor of the flag and 
 supporting those faithful public servants 
 who defend the Constitution and the Union. 
 Let them not indulge the dream that she 
 will, in the coming crisis, forget the debt 
 of gratitude the whole country owes to the 
 tried, sagacious and honest Lincoln, or to 
 the almost martyr life of the true-hearted 
 and resolute Johnson ; but let them be pre- 
 pared to see those elder daughters of the 
 old Union coming hand in hand with their 
 fair sisters from the other side of the Mis- 
 sisippi to the Capitol in 1865, and, by their 
 votes, saying to our chosen candidates, 
 "Well done good and faithful servants ; we 
 confide to your honor, we entrust to your 
 patriotism the Government of the United 
 States, and toe enjoin upon you to see to it 
 thai the war for the popular Government be 
 prosecuted to a speedy and successful close!" 
 
17 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. C. B. DENIO. 
 
 The Hon. C. B. Denio, of California, was the next speaker. 
 
 The President, on introducing Mr. Denio, said: Gentlemen, I have now 
 the pleasure of introducing to you a gentleman from the Pacific coast, one 
 whom we formerly knew on the Mississippi as the Mississippi Bricklayer. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 Mr. Denio, on coming forward, said: 
 
 Ordinarily, fellow-citizens, I should feel 
 that I could say somethings in favor of rat- 
 ifying the nomination of Abraham Lincolo, 
 and something connected with the great 
 and momentous issues that are to-day being 
 cnncted upon the theatre of the world, lint 
 we have been so long in the habit, fellow- 
 citizens — at least here in the Ciipitul — of 
 hearing the greasy meclianics and mudsills 
 talked about, that some of us have begun 
 to think that perhaps it was time that " we 
 had no rights," as was said of the black 
 men, " that the lords of creation were bound 
 to respect." 
 
 Three years ago the working men of this 
 nation nominated Abraham Lincoln. We 
 took him from among the laboring men. 
 We elected him in a constitutional way to 
 be President of the United States. Since 
 that time he has been President of Dut a 
 part of it, and we propose to renominate 
 him and re-elect him until he is in fact Pres- 
 ident of the whole United States. I heard 
 a gentleman a i'aw moments since, before I 
 got on the stand, saying, we had better 
 make hiiu Dictator, and appoint him per- 
 petual President. I do not think we will 
 do that; but it is the resolution, the firm 
 and fixed purpose of the masses of this na- 
 tion to continue renominating Abraham 
 Lincoln until he is Presiilent of the entire 
 United States. (Lo'td ap[)lause.) And at 
 the end of four years, if that modern Ulys- 
 ses of ours has not penetrated to the heart 
 of the rebellion — but I guess he will — 
 (Laughter and applause,) — if there is a 
 solitary or lone county down in South Car- 
 olina with the secession rag still floating, 
 we will renominate " Old Abe" again. 
 (Loud applause.) And we will continue 
 renominating him, and electing him too, 
 (renewed ajiplause) until he is President of 
 the United States, and then we will let him 
 retire to Springfield, and we will then take 
 General Grant, or some other good man — I of slavery and the prosecution of the war. 
 
 I have been now some three years from 
 the Atlantic States. 1 have been over to 
 that glorious. Union-loving California, 
 where the Copperhead never hisses now. 
 (Laughter and applause.) We have drivea 
 the Biglers and the Wellers up into the ter- 
 ritories. They are now doing what that 
 great personage who first started a seces- 
 sion movement about which old blind Mil- 
 ton wrote, did, when he was cast over the 
 battlements of Heaven. He didn't try to 
 fight in the old place, but he heard of a new 
 Republic on earth here, and a new class of 
 beings, and he concluded to strike there. 
 
 California will give Abraham Lincoln not 
 less than 25,000 majority. (Great applause.) 
 If you do not believe it, look at the Repre- 
 sentatives that we send from California. 
 Who are they ? They are men like John 
 Conness. A merchant from the mountains 
 of that glorious State, who loving his coun- 
 try more than party, could sever all party 
 ties when those ties were leading hiiu away 
 from the cause of that country ; a man who 
 was accustomed to listen to the bugle notes 
 of the Democratic chieftains, when to be a 
 Deinocrat was — excusable. (Laughter and 
 applause) When the knights of the party 
 still lived, when the plumed leaders like 
 Douglas lived; but when this rebellion 
 broke out, when these traitors sought to 
 sever this nation and blast the hopes of the 
 world, tlien they were no longer heeded. 
 
 Look at our Representatives in the other 
 branch of our National Congress. Dem- 
 ocrats, all but one ; Cole, the life-long Re- 
 publican from Santa Cruz, becomes almost 
 a conservative when placed beside those two 
 old Democrats, old Douglas men — Shannon 
 the tinner and miner from our mountains, 
 and Higbee from the plains. But as they 
 express it themselves, and as is customary 
 among California miners, they are both 
 " down on the bed rock" on this question 
 
 forGrant wonldacceptof a nomination from 
 us, but he would not touch a nomination 
 from that thing — that copper-colored con- 
 cern — which is going to assemble in Chi- 
 cago next month. (Laughter and applause.) 
 
 (Laughter and applause.) I have heard 
 Copperheads in this city say, (for I am sorry 
 to say you have such even here) that some 
 great reaction is going to take place ; and 
 they are mourning over these young men 
 
18 
 
 who are coming back in such a maimed 
 condition, and those fallen heroes who 
 slumber on the banks of our rivers. We 
 are not complaining over these men. Much 
 as we love them, the}' are willing sacrifices 
 offered in a holy cause, filling as they are 
 falling; others will take their places. We 
 will wear out the young men, and then the 
 old men will go; and let it now be under- 
 stood by these men that we propose fighting 
 as long as there is a particle of hope left. 
 
 Yes, Mr. Chairman, when there is no 
 hope, and when these small men who 
 have broken into Congress at a moment, 
 as it would seem, when God had for- 
 gotten the world, (laughter,) or they never 
 could have got there, [renewed laughter,] 
 raise Constitutional quibbles against the 
 Government, under the shallow pretense 
 that they are in favor of these men, let 
 us do as the pale-faced brother, Thomas 
 Starr King, on the Pacific, said, " Wade 
 through the Constitution, crush the re- 
 bellion, and attend to these matters after- 
 wards." 
 
 I have no doubt, fellow-citizens, of the 
 triumphant election of Mr. Lincoln. I 
 shall do what I can to elect him. I shall 
 do it upon the Pacific coast. I shall do 
 it in Illinois. I shall do it in Wiscon- 
 sin. The people are all ready to do it. 
 
 I am expecting to leave your city with- 
 in three or four days, but before I leave 
 it I am expecting to hear that Grant has 
 taken Richmond, and that he has sent 
 Brute Butler in there to be the military 
 governor. [Laughter and applause, and 
 cries of " Amen."] 
 
 And so say all the people, "Amen." 
 [Renewed laughter and applause.] 
 
 We are fighting, fellow-citizens, for 
 something more than an ordinary dispute. 
 The world is interested in this contest, 
 and he is a coward and an ingrate who 
 does not step forward and face the music. 
 I noticed the other day a scene which 
 made a deep impression upon me. While 
 a company of these noble fellows, who 
 were ordered to the front, were passing 
 through your streets on their way, they 
 were met by a train of ambulances con- 
 veying those who were returning from the 
 battle in a wounded condition, after hav- 
 ing faithfully served their country. Ad- 
 ditional patriotic fervor seemed to light 
 up the countenances of these men as they 
 gazed on the mangled bodies of their 
 comrades; and as for myself, I then 
 prayed that there might be no cessation 
 of this war until the last rebel was dis- 
 armed. It will soon be done. That old 
 banner has got to wave over all this na- 
 tion, and as one of the speakers to-night 
 
 has said, when it does I am for having it 
 wave all over this continent. [Vociferous 
 applause.] 
 
 A voice. — Over Mexico, sure. 
 
 Mr. Denio. — Yes, sir, I am for driving 
 Maximilian out if he ever comes here to 
 stay, which I doubt. 
 
 Let me say, lellow-cit'zens, that I nm 
 anticipating a brilliant victory in Novem- 
 ber, and another long before that on the 
 sacred soil of Virginia. The determina- 
 tion showed by tlie people to re-nominate 
 Abraham Lincoln is equal to an army of 
 100,000 men in weakening the backbone 
 of the rebellion. (Loud applause.) They 
 know that Uucle Abe, unlike some dis- 
 tinguished men, never changes base. 
 They know that Uucle Abe has placed a 
 man at the head of the army of the Po- 
 tomac who orders the " spades to the 
 rear." (Ajiplause.) They know that »hut 
 leader has crooked teeth, and that when 
 he gets hold he can't let go. (Laughter 
 and applause.) 1 knew General Grant in 
 Galena years ago, and from what 1 knew 
 of him then I can say he will take Rich- 
 mond, and continue taking every point 
 between him and the last traitor. (Ap- 
 plause.) That is the destinj' of the array 
 of the Potomac. (Renewed applause.) 
 That is the man of that armj'. (Applause.) 
 While our brave boys were storming the 
 heights of Fort Donelson, the army of the 
 Potomac was comparatively idle. But 
 now, when Vicksburg is taken, when the 
 Mississippi river is open, when the com- 
 merce of a grateful and an industrious 
 nation is floating up and down that great 
 artery of commerce. General Grant as- 
 sumes command of the army of the Po- 
 tomac, and that army is now moving. 
 Noble fellows will fall. I see you have 
 one motto here — " Honor the dead." I 
 too would honor the dead. It matters 
 not from what State, or country, or clime 
 may come the brave soldier who goes 
 forth heroicallj to fight our country's 
 battles, imbued with patriotic love for 
 and faith in the justice of her sacred 
 cause, in his devotion, nobly daring to 
 die and offering his life as his last and only 
 contribution on the altar of his country. 
 
 And although, possibly, he may not be 
 accomplished in education or polished 
 with the graces, yet if he falls, expiring 
 with his face toward the foe, though 
 grimmed with smoke and covered with 
 bloody wounds, yet every scar will contain 
 the lines of beautj" fairer than Apollo's, 
 and his memory, with Washington's, be 
 faithfully enshrined in the hearts, of hig 
 countrymen forever. 
 
 I would erect a monument to every oaa 
 
1© 
 
 eft^e>irave leaders who have fallen ; but 
 the monument of all others which should 
 come nearer reaching Heaven, I would say, 
 should be the monument erected in honor of 
 the unniimed heroes that have fallen in this 
 fiifht. (Great applause.) Men whose names 
 will never be known in history ; whose 
 names will never, no never, be heard again, 
 save when uttered in the little private cir- 
 cle, it may be by the feeble widowed mother, 
 or the husbandless wife, or the orphan 
 boy. There, in those circles, is where these 
 heroes are known. Let our country erect 
 such a monument to them. Let these peo- 
 ple at the Capital inaugurate th"? move. 
 Let it spread and ramify all over the broad 
 extent of our nation ; and we will send gold 
 from the golden shores of California. We 
 will rear a pile to the unnamed heroes. 
 (Applause.) To the brave boys who have 
 left their workshops, and others, who have 
 gone forward to assert the dignity of the 
 poor laborer. (Renewed applause.) Le 
 us erect that monument, and let there be a 
 plain inscription upon it: "Erected to the 
 memury of the Unnamed Heroes, by their 
 grateful country ;" and that is a sufficient 
 in3cript!on. We will have to go to building 
 this monument soon, for this thing of seces- 
 sion is about played out. (Laughter.) 
 
 Jt is said to be the custom of all nations 
 to pay tribute to their dead and to their 
 living heroes. The ancient Republic of 
 Greece erected a magnificent temple called 
 a pantheon, which travelers tell us, exists to 
 this day. In it the inhabitants of that 
 country delighted to inscribe the names of 
 those heroes and statesmen that had ren- 
 dered service in their day and generation. 
 The sentiment which leads to such action, 
 which leads men to build those temples, is 
 one of the most lofty which has a home in 
 the human doul. Other nations have done 
 it. England has done it ; France has done 
 it ; Russia has done it — indeed, all civilized 
 and christian nations have done if. They 
 have all erected their temples to the mem- 
 ory of the patriotic, illustrious dead. 
 
 We, too— this our own beloved land — this 
 great Republic has also her pantheon, where 
 she delights to perpetuate the memory of 
 such men as Washington, JeSerson, Jack- 
 son, Clay, — God bless his old name, — (ap- 
 plause,) and Webster, and where she will 
 delight to perpetuate the memory of honest 
 old Abe Lincoln, the workingmeu's friend, 
 but when Grant wears out this rebellion 
 when its backbone is broken, in what tem- 
 ple will the memory of their great men be 
 found ? Echo answers where ? 
 
 A voice. " Down in Liuby Prison." 
 
 Mr. Dknio. No, not even in Libby Prison. 
 No country on the wide extent of tbi>i globe 
 
 will dare appropriate them, or sing pains 
 of praise to their memory. But there is a 
 place, i\ pantheon, beneath — far down in 
 the lowest depths and realms of the universe 
 — built from the foundation of the world, 
 for such spirits as fell from the battlements 
 of Heaven. There, where the atmosphere 
 does not grow cold, (laughter and applause,) 
 where the worm dieth not ; (renewed 
 lau>.'hter,) there will the inhabitants delight 
 to inscribe the names of Jefferson Davis, 
 John B. Floyd, (laughter,) Mason and Sli- 
 dell, Wm. L. Yance.v, (renewed laughter,) 
 and that little man Wigfall, and " leading 
 all the rest" the name of Clement L. Vallan- 
 dighani,and along list (renewed laughter,) 
 of lesser lights — lesser because less brave — 
 Copperheads skulking around loyal com- 
 munities, and hissing out their poison. 
 Their names will be found there; their 
 busts will be placed in prominent niches, 
 (laughter,) and the inhabitants will ut- 
 ter screams of fiendish delight to know that 
 here on this earth, and in this great Re- 
 public of ours, there has existed spirits — he- 
 roes if you please to call them so — of vaster, 
 more infernal malignity, and whose birth- 
 right to eternal infamy is immeasurably 
 greater than their own. There these men's 
 names will be found. I am waiting for it, 
 though I never expect to read their names 
 in that place, because / arti a Unien man. 
 (Great laughter and applause.) 
 
 But we have got some members of Con- 
 gress yet here, who will read their names, 
 newed laughter and applause.) I believe 
 there are some eight or nine from Illinois. 
 Renewed laughter.) 1 used to know them 
 in days of yore. I have met them in legis- 
 lative council ; but some of them — I thank 
 you — have got considerably converted. 
 (Laughter.) I was talking to one of them 
 the oUier day. Says I, " How do you stand 
 I on the Union question ?" " Why," says he, 
 "Denio, Ihave got to be a decent man." 
 I am down on the bed rock on this aboli- 
 tion question. I got to be an abolitionist 
 when they commenced firing on Fort Sum- 
 ter; and I commenced going from hoaseto 
 house among my neighbors and told them, 
 ' Now for once the Democrats have an op- 
 portunity to prove to the world that they 
 are decent men ; and told them that I was 
 going to try to be one.' " The result was 
 he was sent to Congress, but not by Peace 
 Democrats, and I am glad he was. He is 
 a noble fellow, (applause,) and we are going 
 to send him back again from Illinois. (Re- 
 newed applause.) We are going to take up 
 such men, and no other will ever be sent 
 back here again. [Applause.]) 
 
 Fellow-citizens, send out your influence 
 from the capital here. Remember that we 
 
20 
 
 are at work not only for ourselves to-day, 
 but our boys are growing up around us. 
 And those who have not boys growing up 
 around them, ought to have as soon as pos- 
 sible. [Great laughter and applause.] 
 
 If we are brave fathers we will put a 
 termination to this war. We will do it now, 
 60 that our boys may have peace and quiet. 
 Do it so effectually that no one will ever 
 dare <ngain to raise his sacrilegeous hand 
 agaiust that banner. I have an abiding 
 faith in that banner; it is a good one as it 
 is, but it is going to be altered a little. 
 That blue spot is not large enough to con- 
 tain the stars. As we Lave got to enlarge 
 that, we will have to enlarge both parts 
 of the flag. We have got to make the 
 stars smaller; we have got to do some- 
 thing, for stars are being added to it almost 
 every month. 
 
 We are told by the Apostle John, in his 
 apocaliptic vision, that he saw a mighty 
 angel come down from Heaven, clothed in 
 a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, 
 and his face shone as the sun, and his feet 
 as pillars of fire; and he held in his hand 
 a little book open, and he placed one foot 
 upon the sea, and the other upon the land, 
 and he cied with a loud voice to the na- 
 tions of the earth. So shall we, fellow-citi- 
 zens, soon see this dark and damning cloud 
 of war roll away, revealing the fair genius 
 of our 'country, clothed with flowers, re- 
 splendent with glory, her brow encircled 
 with the cloud of victory, attended by peace, 
 Heaven-born peace, and placing one foot 
 upon the sea and the other on the land, 
 and she, too, will open the volume of her 
 political creed, and from that volume she 
 will thunder forth to the nations of the 
 world the sublime doctrine of peace on 
 earth, and good will to all nations and peo- 
 ples, to every man, to every inhabitant over 
 all her vast domain, liberty and union, 
 now and forever, until time shall be no 
 more. 
 
 One word about that proclamation, and 
 I am done. Some of the friends of Mr. 
 Fremont, the Pathfinder — who, by the way. 
 has taken the wrong path to the Presi- 
 dency — have claimed for him that he was 
 the author of that great Proclamation of 
 Freedom to a down-trodden race, and that 
 Lincoln has stolen his thunder. Allow me 
 to say, that neither Fremont nor Lincoln 
 was the author of the Emancipation Proc- 
 lation: God himself was the author. He 
 
 works by agents here on earth. Abraham 
 Lincoln is but the instrument in his hands— 
 iiis Commanding General, and the toiling 
 millions not only of this land, but of the 
 world, aie on his staff. The war is waged, 
 the line of battle is formed. On the one 
 side stand the stalwarth laborers of the 
 world ; on the other, the aristocracy, the 
 slave-owners, the men who contemn the 
 sons of toil, the proud and haughty of the 
 world ; and as sure as God is just, the issue 
 will be determined upon the side of Justice 
 and of freedom. The thackl< 3 will be 
 stricken from the last slave, and the slave- 
 owning aristocrat will be drafted by the 
 great dispenser of justice into the ranks of 
 the laborers. No three hundred dollar ex- 
 emption clause in that law. 
 
 He must shoulder the axe, and take up 
 the implement of toil, and if he fails behind 
 in the workshop and the field, and is not — 
 in the dny of labor — equal to the Freed 
 Slave of ihe South, or the sturdy and intel- 
 ligent mechanic of the north, be must meet 
 the consequences, for the fiat of Jehovah 
 and not of Abraham Lincoln has determ- 
 ined his destiny. To accomplish this end — 
 this justice — many a brave man will fa'l. 
 They will not be forgotten, for of each it 
 will be written, in the language of one of 
 our fair country-women : 
 
 ITo lored his country : when she called, went forth— 
 
 llis strong, yonng, manfol life within his hand — 
 
 To save her honor, or to bravely die 
 
 Between her and Iho foe. Our l>aimered hosts 
 
 Are still ndvancinfr; still the hmd lesimnris 
 
 With muffled tramp, and chock of serried arms. 
 
 On each contested field ihc dead look up 
 
 Ry thousands — tens of thousands — lo<>l; straight up, 
 
 Throngh trampled dust and blood-stained turf, to 
 
 God, 
 Who holds tho i^stje. ?carce one houRehold heartk 
 Hut lacks some tender light from eyes to set 
 ]n dCTith's mute, waiting wonder. ^Ve miss ours. 
 A chair slasids empty in its wonted place, 
 A shadow falls across the floor, and he — 
 Our soldier boy, his fatherV only son, 
 Taking his rest as truest s Idiera do 
 W ben work is done — lies shot to death between 
 Us and the foe 
 
 Oh Hod! by lives like thl$— 
 Hy blood of hnsbands. fathers, brothers, sous, 
 So freely oflered. hear us for our cause; 
 Unite our Noithland in one loyal aim: 
 Wherever lifted, break the brazen front, 
 Of treason. Make its very name a thing 
 So foni and hateful, men shall whisper it 
 With bated breath, and traitors everywhere 
 Be l>anned and branded. Then, and not til! thee,r 
 The nation's fiag shall float without a stain ; 
 Then rebels and their seifs shall live alone 
 On record, telling how sublime a ti uth 
 We fought for, and how grand its triun>pbt 
 
21 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. G. ADAMS. 
 
 The last speaker was the Hon. G. Adams, introduced as a KentuckiaHj 
 He proceeded to address the meeting iii a clear and forcible manner: 
 
 My Friends AND Fellow-Citizens: I do 
 not propose, at this late boiir, to inflict 
 upon you a lengthy speech. Moreover, this 
 call upon me to addreya ybu is entirely un- 
 expected. 
 
 Why is it that the loyal people of this 
 country have re-nominated Abrahiim Lin- 
 coln for the Presidency of the United Stales, 
 with a unanimity unparalleled on the 
 American continent? It is because they 
 have tried him, and know that he is honest, 
 capable, and faithful. It is because they 
 have tested hira, and know that he is an 
 enlightened and devoted patriot, who sin- 
 cerely loves his country and his Govern- 
 ment — an ardent philanthrophist, who is 
 the unflinching friend of humanity, and of 
 civil and religious liberty. It is because 
 they have confidence that he is the friend 
 of universal freedom, and that, with the 
 loyal people of the country, he will never 
 rest satisfied until the last shackle of sla- 
 very is stricken from the limbs of every 
 being who bears the image of God, whether 
 white or black, and until our country, uow 
 "rent with civil feuds and drenched with 
 fraternal blood," is, by the total extinction 
 of slavery, restored to permanent peace, 
 prosperity, happiness, and greatness. It is 
 because they have an abiding faith that he 
 will never enslave and disgrace this great 
 country, by submitting to a peace on any 
 terms other than such as shall be dictated 
 by the Government, terms which shall in- 
 clude the absolute, unconditional submis- 
 sion of the rebels to the la'i ful authority of 
 the Government; terms which vindicate 
 the supremacy of the Constitution and the 
 laws of the United States over every foot of 
 the national domain, from the Passama- 
 quaddy to the Rio Grande ; terms that shall 
 place the leading traitors of the South, with 
 their aiders and abetters in Kentucky and 
 the free States, in a condition that they 
 must either quit the country, or leave the 
 world ; for it matters but little whether they 
 take up their abode in some remote corner 
 of the earth, there to suffer the pangs of a 
 guilty conscience, or go directly to the 
 kingdom prepared for them, there to be 
 governed by the devil and his angels. In 
 short, the loyal people of the country feel 
 
 that they can trust Abraham Lincoln to 
 carry out the principles of the Baltimore 
 platform, they have confidence that lie 
 will take the slaves of the wealthy traitors 
 of Kentucky and place them in the army, 
 to do battle for the Union ; thereby reliev- 
 ing and assisting the poor, loyal, patriotic 
 sons of that State in their determined strug- 
 gle to save the Government, and preserve 
 the integrity of this great country; that he 
 will faithfully and zealously make eflSca- 
 cious the resolution in the platform in re- 
 gard to Federal affairs, as well in Kentucky 
 and elsewhere as at the National Capital. 
 And I tell you, my fellow-citizens, he will 
 do these things, I te'l you, too, that Ken- 
 tucky will ratify the nominations of the 
 Baltimore Convention, in November next, 
 by an overwhelming majority. That noble 
 old Commonwealth, in whose soil repose 
 the bones of her illustrious Clay, will no 
 longer be disgraced and cursed with neu- 
 trality — milk and water politicians, who, 
 whilst they profess to be for their Govern- 
 ment, and are enjoying its protection and 
 its blessings, are, at the same time, quietly 
 doing every thing in their power to aid the 
 more meanly, treasonable enemies of the 
 country to destroy the Union. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, I speak particularly of 
 Kentucky, because I am a Kentuckian. I 
 speak warmly, because I feel warmly, oa 
 this subject. 
 
 But the loyal people feel that they can- 
 not only trust Abraham Lincoln as their 
 great civil captain, but. also, as command- 
 er-in-chief of the army and navy. And 
 thus, with such Marshals in the'field as 
 Grant, and Meade, and Hancock, and Burn- 
 side, and Butler, and Sherman, and Thomas, 
 and McPherson, and a long I'st of others 
 like thtm, with the brave and patriotic sol- 
 diers under their command ; and with such 
 admirals upon the waters as Fiirragut and 
 Porter and a host of others, with the brave 
 and gallant seamen under them, speedy 
 success is certain, both by land and by sea. 
 The stars and stripes are bound to float 
 triumphantly "over the sea and over the 
 land, and in every wind under the whole 
 heavens." 
 
 Any why, fellovr-citizens, hare the loyal 
 
££ 
 
 people of this country nominated Andrew 
 Johnson, of Tennessee, for the seco id oflBce 
 in their gift, with a unanimity nea ly equal 
 to that with which they have re-ni .iiinated 
 the distinguished incumbent of he first 
 office? It is because liis untiring and un- 
 swerving devotion to liis country li: i proven 
 him worthy to be trusted ; and be .luse he, 
 with his Kast Tennessee brethren, 'as gone 
 through a fearful, fiery ordeal, .nd has 
 come out of the furnace purer and orighter 
 metal. It is because that, notwithstanding 
 he is a citizen of a slaveholding ai d rebel- 
 lious State, the loyal people ha' e confi- 
 dence, from his noble conduct t nee the 
 commencement of the rebellion, he will 
 stand by and support them and t'. e l*resi- 
 dent in their determination that treason, 
 slaver}', and copperheadism shall be over- 
 thrown, and damned to eterual infamy. 
 
 In a word, all have nnlimited confidence in 
 the ability and integrity of Andrew John- 
 son, and that he will support and sustain 
 the glorious principles enunciated in the 
 platform. 
 
 And now, fellow-citizens, in conclusion, 
 we have only to sustain the Government in 
 its noble efforts to suppress the rf^bellion ; 
 to maintain the enlightened financial policy 
 so happily inaugurated, and so successfully 
 carried out by the far-seeing and lofty- 
 minded statesman at the head of our finan- 
 cial affairs; to do our whole duty in the 
 coming contest; and with Lincoln and 
 Johnson as our standard bearers, victory 
 will perch upon our banners at the ballot- 
 box and in the field, and with victory will 
 come peace, prosperity, happiness, gran- 
 geur, glory, and renown. 
 
CORRESI>OISrX>EISrOE. 
 
 The Committee "on Speakers" addressed the following letter to a num- 
 ber of distinguished statesmen in various: sect; ms of the country : 
 
 Among those who responded to the invitation wer^ , Hon. J. G. Blaine, of Maine, Hon, 
 Thos. H. Hicks, and Hon. Thos.Swann, of Marjdand. A telegraphic answer was received 
 from Wm. H. Smith, of Ohio, Private Secretary of G v. lirough. 
 
 Washington, D. C., 
 
 June 11, 1864. 
 
 Sir : We have the honor, in behalf of 
 the Union organization which we represent, 
 to invite you to be present at a meeting of 
 loyal citizens to be held in this city, on 
 Wednesday evening, the 15th instant, for 
 the ratification of the nominations of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson for the 
 Presidency and Vice Presidency of the 
 United States for four years from the 4th of 
 March next, and to request that you will 
 address the people who may be convened 
 on that occasion. 
 
 Very respectfully, yours, 
 
 JOSEPH H. BARRETT, 
 
 GREEN ADAMS, ]■ Committee. 
 
 WILLIAM A. COOK, 
 
 I more th n I do, and no one is more anxious 
 
 for thei election than am I. 
 j Acce] t. my thanks for compliment paid 
 
 and bel ;ve me to be, 
 I I ost respectfully, yours, 
 
 I THOMAS H. HICKS. 
 
 ! Joseph I. Barrett, "| 
 
 Green .vdams, 1- Committee. 
 
 Wxllia;; A. Cook, J 
 
 Washington, D. 
 June 13, 
 
 C, 
 
 1864. 
 
 Gentlemen: The condition of my throat 
 is such that I am not allowed to speak in 
 the open air; otherwise I should be most 
 happy to take part iu the meeting to ratify 
 the nominations recentlj' made at Baltimore 
 — nominations which will inevitably secure 
 the support of a large majority of the loyal 
 voters in this country. 
 
 Thanking you for the invitation, I remain, 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 J. G. BLAINE. 
 Hon. Green Adams, and others. 
 
 Senate Chamber, 
 
 June 17, 1864. 
 
 Gentlsmen : Your favor of the 11th in- 
 stant, inviting me to be present " at a meet- 
 ing of loyal citizens to be held in this city 
 on Wednesday, the 15th instant, for the rati- 
 fication of the nominations of Abraham 
 Lincoln and Andrew Johnson," has just 
 reached me, being returned from Cambridge, 
 my Post Office at home, where it had been 
 sent, not knowing that I had left that place. 
 
 Unable to attend the meeting as indicated, 
 by means of affliction, had the notice been 
 received, I must be allowed to say that none 
 united in heart and feeling in ratifying the 
 nomination of Messrs. Lincoln and Johnson 
 
 Baltimore, June 13, 1864. 
 
 Gent'.emen: I have received your letter 
 of the 1 th instant, inviting me to be present 
 and adt -ess the people at a meeting of loyal 
 citizens to be assembled in Washington on 
 Wednef lay next, for the ratification of the 
 nomina.ons of Abraham Lincoln and An- 
 drew J( 'inson for the Presidency and Vice 
 Preside icy of the United States. 
 
 I regvet extremely that imperative en- 
 gageme ts at the North will prevent me 
 from be ag present on the occasion. 
 
 Be p -ased to accept my cordial good 
 wishes 1 )r the success of your meeting, and, 
 at the s me time, permit me to assure you 
 of the ( onfidence 1 feel in the honesty, pa- 
 triotisn: and uncompromising devotion of 
 the dist iguished nominees of the National 
 Union < onvention, and my determination 
 to give hem a cordial support. 
 
 With jreat respect, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 THOMAS SWANN. 
 To Mes, -s. 
 J. W. B vrrett, 
 G. Ada rs, Y Committee. 
 
 W. A. Cooi 
 
 "I 
 
 Columbus, June 14, 1854. 
 
 To Hon Jos. H. Barrett, Commissiener of 
 
 Fenemis : 
 
 Sir : ^'our invitation to Governor Brough 
 to be present at the ratification meeting 
 finds hi)n absent from the State. Rest as- 
 sured, ''owever, of his sympathy with its 
 object, i ad of his hearty cooperation in the 
 labor ot he coming campaign. In the elec- 
 tion of jincoln and Johnson lies the safety 
 of the <:ountry and the completion of the 
 good work already begun. 
 
 WM. H. SMITH, 
 
 Private Secretary. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Resolutions of the Grand National Council of the Union League of America, 
 adopted in Baltimore June 6, 1864. 
 
 1st. Resolved, That we will support the 
 Adtainistration in the vigorous prosecution 
 of the war, to the complete and final sup- 
 pression of the rebellion, and to this we 
 pledge all our energies and efforts. 
 
 2nd. Resolved, That slavery, being the 
 cause of the rebellion and the bond of union 
 among traitors, ought to be abolished with- 
 out delay ; and it is the sense of this or- 
 ganization that slavery, in all its forms, 
 should be prohibited by an amendment to 
 the P'ederal Constitution. 
 
 3rd. Resolved, That wc hereby approve of 
 the principles involved in the policy known 
 as the Monroe doctrine. 
 
 4th. Resoevcd, That the confiscation acts 
 of Congress should be promptly and vigor- 
 ously enforced, and that homesteads on the 
 lands confiscated under it, should be granted 
 to our soldiers and others who have been 
 
 made indigent by the acts of traitors and 
 rebels. 
 
 5th. Resolved, That every person who 
 bears arms in defence of the national flag 
 is entitled, without distinction of color or 
 nationality, to the protection of the govern- 
 ment he defends to the full extent of that 
 government's power. 
 
 6th. Resolved, That we hereby tender our 
 thanks to the soldiers of the army and the 
 sailors of the navy. 
 
 7th. Resolved, That it is the unqualified 
 sentiment of the Union League of America 
 that no man ought to be retained in or ap- 
 pointed to any office, be the same high or 
 low, under the National Government, who 
 does not fully sympathize with, and who 
 would not heartily support, by word and 
 deed, the foregoing resolutions. 
 
 Resolutions endorsing Mr. Lincoln and Johnson, passed June 8, 1864. 
 
 Resolved, That this National Council of 
 the Union League of America hereby most 
 heartily approves and endorses the nomi- 
 nations made by the Union National Con- 
 vention at Baltimore, on the 8th of June, 
 ISQi, of Abraham Lincoln for President, 
 and of Andrew Johnson for Vice President 
 of the United States ; and as we are bound 
 by our obligation to do all in our power to 
 elect true and reliable Union men to all 
 offices, and as the nominees of said Con- 
 
 I vention ate the only candidates that can 
 hope to be elected as loyal men, we regard 
 it as the imperative duty of the members of 
 the Union League to do all that lies in their 
 power to secure their election. 
 
 Resolved, That this Council also earnestly 
 approves and endorses the Platform of 
 Principles adopted by said Convention. 
 
 Resolved, That we will as individuals and 
 as members of the Union League, do all in 
 our power to elect said candidates. 
 
 ■ The speech of Hon. A. W. Randall has not been furnished the Executive Com- 
 mittee, and hence is not published. It was a clear and forcible vindication of the Nom- 
 inees of the Baltimore Convention, and the policy of the Administration. 
 
 17. X. of *f . 
 
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