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ORIGIN ANT3 OBJECTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SLAVEII0LDEII8' CONSPIRACY 
 
 AGAINST DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES, 
 
 AS WELL AS 
 
 AGAINST THE NATIONAL UNION- 
 
 ILLUSTRATED IN TUB 
 
 SPEECHES OF ANDREW JACKSON HAMILTON, 
 
 IN THE STATEMENTS OP LORENZO SHERWOOD, EX-MEMBER OP THE TEXAN T,Ef!IST-ATURE, AND 
 IN THE PUBLICATIONS OP THE DEMOCRATIC LEAGUE, &o. 
 
 THE SLAVE AFJSTOCRACY AGAINST DEMOCRACY. 
 
 STATEMENTS ADDRESSED TO LOYAL MEN OF ALL PARTIES, 
 
 CONCERN I \0 THE 
 
 ANTAGONISTIC PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE REBELLION— 
 
 By HENTtY 0'I^IELLY._ 
 
 NEW YORK, OCTOBER, 1802. 
 BAKER & GODWIN, PRINTERS, 
 
 Prin'tino-Housr Square, opposite Cnv H'l.i.. 
 

ORIGIN xVND OBJECTS 
 
 * OF THE 
 
 SlaYeholders' Conspiracy against Democratic Principles, 
 
 AS WELL AS AGAINST 
 
 THE NATIONAL UNION, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED IN THB 
 
 SPEECHES OF ANDREW JACKSON HAMILTOI, 
 
 W THE STATEMENTS OF LORENZO SHERWOOD, EX-MEMBER OF THE TEXAN LEGISLATURE, AND IN 
 THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE DEMOCRATIC LEAGUE, &c. 
 
 ANTAGONISTIC PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE REBELLION— THE 
 SLAVE ARISTOCRACY against THE DEMOCRACY. 
 
 The coinmentaric-s on the recent speeches of Col. Hamilton, of Texas, by several prominent New York j"ur- 
 nolists, furnish appropriate introduction to the outlines of those speeches which are herewith preaenied for the oon- 
 Bideration of loyal men of all parties throughout the land. 
 
 It will be seen that, much as they may diti'er in other respects, T?ie World <S> Courier & Enquirer, the Tribune, 
 the 'Jimes. and ihe Eveitivg Post. ( oucur in ranking those speeches among the most important ever made in con- 
 • K , with the origin and objects of the Slavtholders' R'i'bellion. 
 
 ' On some points, indeed, the revelations nt Col Hamilton are considered as the most valuable— inasmuch as 
 they show, by the highest Southern testimony, the breadth, dci'th, and blackness of that conspiracy against the 
 individual rights of the Democratic mass^ s. as well as against the integrity of the National Union. 
 
 "The Northern People have accepted this war on t"oo narrow grounds altogether," says The World <& Courier 
 & EnqvArer : — ''They have comprehended but a very meagre portion of the real interests at stake— for the very 
 good reason that they have hardly begun to understand the spirit and aims of the Rebel leaders. Had there been a 
 better appreciation of the actual truth, the war would never have lagged as it has been suffered to do from the 
 beginning." 
 
 " The evidence of such men as Col. Hamiltn, who is fresh from the active scenes of the Rebellion, and who has 
 watched it with penetrating eye from its flr.^t step, is of peculiar value,'" says the World in its daily issue of the 4th 
 of October. "Their conclusions, formed on the spot, face to face with the m..nster. are ofinflnitely more wci:;ht than 
 the no'ions of Northern men, who know it only by occa.«ional glimpses in the far distance. It is well that their tes- 
 timony should be brought before our public whenever it can be obtained. The gentl; m n who have induced Col. 
 Hamilton to address our people with instruction and appeal, have done the good cause precious service." * * * 
 "Col. Hamilton has no hesitation in pronouncing the issue now pending to he the teky nronEST, and broadbst 
 AKD DEEPEST possible. It is, to his mind, nothing more uor less than a stucgglk between the itltimatb pein- 
 ciPLES OF CIVIL oovT.nNirr.NT— a question whether the rvle «f the few or the rule of the many shall prevail. He 
 
 Presents it as his settled conviction that the liaderniu this Rebellion are actuated by a distirict purpose to SUP- 
 •LANT POPULAR GOVERNMENT and ESTABLISH A MO.NAROHY— and that tliis comes from their belief 
 that Slavery can have no effectual safeguard fxcept what the strongest for tn of goveritinent can aford. Th' t-e- 
 fore, he warns us notto rest upon the idea that mere territory, or even mere nationality, is at .stake in 'his coufliet " 
 
 "What has really got to be decided, as he justly views it," adds the World, "is, not whether the flag itself shall 
 be deprived of a third of its stars, or whether the flag itself shall continue to exist, but xcheher the liepubUcatL 
 priTH-iple, which has given the flag all its glory, is or is not to perish. He rightly declares that the co-existence of 
 a Monarchy and a Republic between the Great Lakes and the Gulf is a civil impossibility— that such an experiment 
 would only be another name for pjerpetval tear. 
 
 " We are, thcref re, shut up to the absolute necessity of meeting this question now, once fi)r all," continues the 
 TTorW— "and, in fideli'y to the ereat principles of the Declaration of Independence which our forefathers sealed 
 with their blood, are bound to prosecu'e this war with an energy an-! a se'f-devoion far beyond anything we have 
 yet displayed. These j>re great facts which Col. Hamilton seeks to enforce. He talks like a ra'sn who is thoroughly 
 pervaded by a sense o^ eir awful moment — and no mind that heeds his disclosures and his arguments can doubt 
 that he is right." ; ' 
 
 Profoundly impri d with the s"me vifws that Col Hamilton his now forcibly illustrated by his speeches in 
 Hew York and Krook.,. , tbe Dkmoobatio League tor sustaining tuk National Unity has earnestly la'iored for 
 several months in disa linating documents replete with facts and arguments on the import nt topics. Andsonie 
 of those import;int doq nents are now republished in coiinecticn with the speeches ot Col. Hamilton, as sliowing 
 the identity of views | 'tween the Colonel and that League— one of whose most .tlici. nt inemb rs (Lorenzo Sher- 
 wood) was a resident i .id a legislator in Texas, and a co-worker with Col. Hamilton in sustaining the National 
 Government in Texas, till its flag and its forces were betrayed by the General (Twi::gs) whom the then War Sec- 
 retary Floyd placed in command as an emissary of Rebellion. 
 
 As the importance of the topics cannot be ovcr-estimati-d, it is hoped that men of all parties will thorouehly 
 exomine these and other luiblie .tions calculated to pl.ace the origin and objects of the Slaveholders' Conspiracy in 
 their true light— as an attempted revolution not only in the Union of the States, but in therela'ions of the Democratic 
 masses to the government of their country — that each man may act and vote as becomes an American citizen in 
 view (if the fact whiih Col. Hamilton concurs with the I>emocratic League in asserting, that " the leaders in this 
 "Rebellion are actuated by a distinct purpose to supplant popu'ar government and establish a monarchy: and that 
 " this comes from their belief that Sl.aviry can have no effctual safeguard except whit the strongest govorument 
 "can afford;" or. as Mr. Giru'^tt, of Virgini.i, in hisl.-ttei to Trescott (.Mr Buchanan's A-^si.stant Secretary .f State), 
 expresses it, when "objecting to "the term ]>emoerat," because, as slaveholders decided, ^'■Democracy, in its 
 orlgliial philosophical sen-^e, la, indeed, inoompotible vxtli Shivery (Mid t'e iclwte iiy.it in of Southern Society." 
 
 Nbw-York, Ootobbb, 18C2. HENRY O'RIELLY. 
 
[introductory.] 
 
 THE SPEECHE'S OF COL. HAIMILTON, OF TEXAS. 
 
 (From the " World and Courier and Enquirer," of Oct. 4 — ^friendly to Seymour.) 
 
 The greatest difficultj\ from the outset, in 
 the way of a just appreciation by the North 
 of the real nature of this rebellion, has been 
 the fact that the loyal men who knew ruost of 
 it were least able to give their testimony. 
 The last echoes of the cannon at Sumter had 
 hardly died away before the communications 
 between the two sections were closed ; and the 
 northern mind was left to only casual and de- 
 sultory means of learning the developments of 
 the'Astounding iniquity. 
 
 The consequence was that it was very slow 
 to apprehend the real malignity and scope of 
 the treason. The Government and the people 
 generally were disposed to regard it as a wild 
 movement cunningly got up by a few restless 
 spirits, and easily quelled. The driblets of 
 information that came over the rebel borders 
 were so indefinite and contradictory that they 
 served only* to confuse and mislead. 
 
 It has been by terrible experience alone that 
 northern raisjudgments have gradually been 
 corrected — an experience that has cost the 
 country an amount of treasure and blood 
 dreadful to contemplate. And yet, in spite of 
 all this, a thousand misconceptions still exist. 
 
 There is yet a widely prevailing tendency 
 to ascribe the rebellion to mere secondary and 
 minor causes, and to believe that it will cost 
 only a little more effort to sweep it from the 
 land forever. 
 
 The habit still clings of reasoning from the 
 old data. We unconsciously base half of our 
 judgments upon facts as they used to be, in- 
 stead of facts as they are. This comes from 
 the difficulty of correctly learning present de- 
 Telopments. 
 
 Therefore, the evidence of such men as Col. 
 Hamilton, who is fiesh from the active scenes 
 of the rebellion, and who has watched it with 
 penetrating eye from its first step, is of peculiar 
 value. Their conclusions, formed on the very 
 spot, face to face with the monster, are of infi- 
 nitely more weight than the notions of north- 
 em men who know it only by occasional 
 glimpses in the far distance. It is well that 
 their testimony should be brought before our 
 public whenever it can be obtained. The 
 gentlemen who have induced Colonel Hamilton 
 to address our people with instruction and ap- 
 peal, have done the good cause precious ser- 
 vice. Winging their way, as these speeches 
 do, by the press, through every loj^al state, 
 they will have a salutary influence of no small 
 moment in the present critical period of the 
 war. 
 
 Colonel Hamilton has no hesitation in pro- 
 nouncing the issue now pending to be the very 
 highest, and broadest, and deepest possible. 
 
 It is to his mind nothing more nor less than 
 a struggle between the ultimate principles of 
 civil Government — a question whether the rule 
 of the few, or the rule of the many, shall pre- 
 vail. He presents it as his settled conviction 
 that the leaders iu this rebellion are actuated 
 
 by a distinct purpose to supplant popular gov- 
 ernment and establish a monarchy; and that 
 this comes from their belief that slavery can 
 have no effectual safeguard except what the 
 strongest form of Ooverntnent can afford. 'I'here- 
 fore, he warns us not to rest upon the idea that 
 mere territory, or even mere nationality-, is at 
 stake in this conflict. 
 
 What has realljf got to be decided, as he 
 justly views it, is not whether the flag shall 
 be deprived of a third of its stars, or whether 
 the flag itself shall continue to exist, hnt whether 
 the republican principle, which has given the 
 flaii; all its glory, is or is not to perish. He 
 rightly declares that the coexistence of a mon- 
 archy and a republic between the great Lakes 
 and the Gulf is a civil impossibility — that such 
 an experiment would only be another name for 
 perpetual war. 
 
 We are, therefore, shut up to the absolute 
 necessity of meeting this question now, once 
 for all ; and, in fidelity to the great principles 
 of the Declaration of Independence which our 
 forefathers sealed with their blood, are bound 
 to prosecute this war with an energy and a 
 self-devotion far beyond anything we have yet 
 displayed. 
 
 These are great facts which Colonel Hamilton 
 seeks to enforce. He talks like a man who is 
 thoroughly pervaded by a sense of their awful 
 moment ; and «o mitid that heeds his disclosures 
 and his arguments can doubt that he is right. 
 
 The Northern people have accepted this war 
 on too narrow grounds altogether. Thej- have 
 comprehended but a very meagre portion oi 
 the real interests at stake ; for the very good 
 reason that they have hardly begun to imder- 
 stand the spirit and aims of the rebel leaders. 
 Had there been a better appreciation of the 
 actual truth, the war would never have lagged 
 as it has been sufl'ered to do from tlie begin- 
 ning. The twenty millions of the North could 
 never have lived for eighteen live-long mouths 
 as they have done under the shadow of such a 
 terrific danger. By an irresistible impulse 
 they would have closed in with it forthwith, 
 and made an end of it. Nobody doubts that 
 they had the ability. There is no power on 
 the continent that could for an instant stand 
 against their collected energy. What was 
 wanting was not the strength, but the due 
 sense of infinite peril. Even at this late day 
 this feeling needs to be strengthened, and the 
 man who does this so intelligently and so faith- 
 fully as this Southern patriot deserves to be 
 hailed as a public benefactor. 
 
 Listening to Col. Hamilton, the conviction 
 comes home afresh to us that we of the North, 
 too, need everywhere and always to preserve 
 that eternal vigilance which is the price of 
 liberty. It is by small beginnings that consti- 
 tutional liberty is first undermined. It is un- 
 der the highest and purest pretexts that the 
 rights of citizens are farst infringed upon. It 
 is for every patiiot to oppose these beginnings. 
 
Col. HAMILTON'S First Speech in the North. 
 
 THE REBELLION AGAINST DEMOCRACY— 
 
 ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 New York, Oct. 1, 1862. 
 Hon. a J. Hamilton. — Dear Sir : As it is 
 understood that you are to remain in town 
 some few days, it would be gratifying to the 
 friends of the Union if you would consent to 
 address an audience at the Academy of Music, 
 in Brooklyn, on Thursday evening, the 2d of 
 October inst., on the subject of the rebellion. 
 We know of no one who could better elucidate 
 the motives and reasonings that led the politi- 
 cal adventurers South into attempted revolu- 
 tion. By complying with this request, you 
 will confer many obligations on your sympa- 
 thizing fellow-citizens of the North. 
 Very truly, yours, <tc. 
 
 AARON L. REID, 
 HENRY O'RIELLY. 
 JOHN J. SPEED, 
 HENRY C. GARDINER, 
 THOS. LAIDLAW, 
 ELLIS S. POTTER, 
 GEORGE N. WILLIAMS, 
 DANIEL G. FARNHAM, 
 LORENZO SHERWOOD, 
 CHAS. P. K IRELAND, 
 GEORGE P. NELSON, 
 THOMAS EWBANK, 
 E. H. R. LYMAN, 
 JOSIAH T. LOW, 
 GEORGE L. MEACHAM, 
 
 and others. 
 
 Metropolitan Hotel, 
 
 New York, Oct. 1, 1862. 
 Gentlemen : I am in receipt of your note of 
 this date, inviting me to deliver an address 
 at the Academy of Music, in Brooklyn, on next 
 Thursday evening. I accept the invitation and 
 tender my thanks for your kindness and sym- 
 pathy. Very truly, yours, 
 
 A. J. HAMILTON. 
 Aaron L. Reid, and others, Committee. 
 
 The Brooklyn Academy of Music was 
 thronged accordingly by an enthusiastic au- 
 dience eager to welcome the eminent Union 
 refugee from Texas, the Hon. A. J. Hamilton, 
 ex-Member of Congress from that State, who 
 had been invited to speak on The Cause, the 
 Consequence, and the Cure of the Rebellion. 
 The stage was crowded with the leading citi- 
 zens of the Sober City. Mr. Hamilton was in- 
 troduced by A. A. Low, Esq. He was received 
 with loud and prolonged applause. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton said : Ladies and Gentlemen 
 of Brooklyn, at the threshold of the remarks 
 that I shall submit to you this evening upon 
 the gravest subject which in my judgment has 
 ever yet addressed itself to a free people, per- 
 mit me to say, in one word, I thank you for 
 thiis reception, [Cheers.] I thank you, fel- 
 
 low-citizens (permit me to call you), not be- 
 cause of personal gratification at the manifest- 
 ation you made this evening of your loyalty, 
 and your appreciation of loyalty in others, but 
 because, if you will allow the expression, it 
 will be received, if indeed it shall ever reach 
 them, by thousands as loyal as I, in my dis- 
 tracted country, as a just and proper compli- 
 ment to them also. [Cheers.] 
 
 We have come to ascertain, if we can, why 
 our country is in this condition, the causes, the 
 remedies to be applied, and that too without 
 the fear of offense, save the fear which resulted 
 from the dread of offending against truth. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 The Union for the time being is dismem- 
 bered, and why ? Here I find, as well as else- 
 where, a great many who can give the cause, 
 and reference is made constantly to some past 
 political principle woven into the policy of the 
 Government by this or that party. Another 
 will attribute the disasters which have over- 
 taken the Government to another party. I 
 meet with men every day who can convince 
 me, as they suppose, that the Abolitionists of 
 Ihe North were the cause of the Rebellion, or 
 that the Democratic party was the cause, or 
 that it resulted from a mistake on the part of 
 our fathers, who framed the Government^ in 
 not incorporating wise provisions that would 
 have prevented a contest between the two 
 sections of the country. 
 
 I will not, at my time of life, in the sere and 
 yellow leaf, and when so much is before us to 
 accomplish the salvation of the country and 
 the perpetuity of its institutions, in which the 
 liberties of the people are involved, attempt — 
 there is too little time left me for that work — 
 to spend any of it in listening longer than 
 enough to manifest decent respect to any 
 twaddle about the cause of the rebellion. 
 
 I say, what are you going to do about it? 
 The fact is that the rebellion exists. You will 
 agree with me that a great, paternal, glorious 
 Government, is being sacrificed — that, if the 
 effort to destroy is be successful, we may well 
 doubt whether we or our children will ever be 
 the recipients of the same measure of freedom 
 and the blessings resulting from good Govern- 
 ment that we have been. 
 
 Then, the only question for you and I is, to 
 determine the mode* of restoring the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It is too late to ask, but perhaps well enough 
 to inquire, what were the causes of this rebel- 
 lion. 
 
 I cannot do better than to call your atten- 
 tion to what one of the leading spirits (a Mr. 
 Spratt, of South Carolina, who addressed a 
 communication at great length, and, as he in- 
 tended, with consummate ability, replete with 
 all the arguments of the school to which be 
 
THE KEBFXLION AGAINST DEMOCRACY. 
 
 belonged) coiilil bring to boar upon the piin- 
 ciples upon which their Govoninient was to 
 be based, as contrasted -with tlie Government 
 of the United States.* He euid tliere was no 
 man ufio deserved the name of statesman in the 
 South, who would pretend that Seces.iio7i was 
 cavaed bi/ any aggrcxnion of the North upon the 
 rights of the people of the South. He said it 
 ■was still less the result of any act of oppres- 
 sion on the part of the United States Govern- 
 ment What then Avas the reason? He said 
 it wns because of the difFerence in the oi'gani- 
 zation of Bociely North and South. It was 
 because in the non-slaveholding States, from 
 the fact that every man was a freeman, you 
 were necessarily Democratic; every man be- 
 ing a freeman, it resulted that the labcring 
 cliiss in the non-slaveliolding States had the 
 power in the Government, and it required but 
 little argument to prove tliat when that was 
 the case, the Government was in the heels of 
 society, because labor was always in excess of 
 the direction of labor; tiiat is to say, tliere 
 were more laboiing men, and there would con- 
 tinue to be, than there were men who bj' means 
 of their capital directed labor. He said when 
 Government w^as in the hands of those w'ho 
 direct labor alone, it was in the head of socie- 
 ty, where it properly belonged. And now, 
 said he, having cut loose from the North, have 
 we eradicated the evil ? Have we succeeded 
 in paining our object? Not at all. 
 
 He was explaining in this letter that the 
 Goveinment at Montgomery, Ala., had failed in 
 meeting the objects of the revolution, because 
 it had not provided for reopening tlie Afiican 
 slave-trade. Said he, it will involve the ne- 
 oessitj' ©f another revolution. Here is the evil ; 
 here are the laboring men, and they are in the 
 majority, too, wlio wield the power in the 
 Government. They vote at tlie ballot-box, 
 and from the premises that I have laid down 
 you will perceive that slavery and Democracj' 
 are incompatible. [Loud eheering.] 
 
 He paid a high compliment to the great 
 New York statesman who is now the Secreta- 
 ry of State of the United States Government 
 [cheers], and said that that great statesman, 
 for lie gave him credit for being great, never 
 uttered a greater truth than when he said 
 there was an irrepressible conflict between the 
 two systems of society. [Great applause.] 
 And, said he, in this additional, this second 
 revolution, that will be forced upon us, al- 
 though it may be bloodier than tlie one in 
 whieii we are now er gaped, %oe muU get rhl of 
 the lost and the IraH ronainn of Dcvioeracy, and, 
 to UKe the least plain and empiuilic of his words, 
 we must have a slave arhtoeracij. 
 
 Well, fellow-citizens, if tliat was the senti- 
 ment of one solitary man in the South, if it 
 had not been addressed by one of the leading 
 spirits engaged in rebellion, to another, the 
 tiutted agent of the State of Louisiana, then a 
 
 * Fnrther illu.>;tratiore of Oils Inportart siitjeot will 
 he found ill the iuUIicm; freui the l)»in< cmtic Leaeue, cn- 
 1i(li4 "The I'leUli jth of Kebellmn— 'J he Itsue iu its 
 Ji5«t:''l'"<lt; ■— re[)Ullirhtu ou page 10. 
 
 sitting member of the attempted new Govern- 
 ment, there might be but litt'e significance in 
 it. If it hud been reprobated by the publie 
 press of that country, if it Rad been condemned 
 by the public voice — and when I siy the pub- 
 lic voice, I mean that of those who wield the 
 power of the South, whose voice alone is heard 
 — it might have gone for nothing; but when 
 you Viear in mind that that letter was repro- 
 duced in the leading pres? of the South, spoken 
 of in terms of commendation, and no man ha« 
 to this day uplifted his voice against any one 
 of the positions there assumed — if you could, 
 as I have done, hear in the hotels, and in the 
 streets, and in parlois, echoes of that sentiment 
 from men who, two j-e-rs ago, were regarded 
 as loj'al, saying. Republicanism is a failure — 
 we are astoni.-hed that we ever thought it 
 could succeed ; we now realize the fact that 
 we must have a stronger Government — if you 
 knew it as 1 know it, you would feel, fellow- 
 citizens, that there was something more in- 
 volved in this revolution than a simple desire 
 to get rid of this hated Yankee. 
 
 It is not because the men who inaugurated 
 it hated the people of the Noith. As Mr. Spratt 
 says, it was not because they felt that you had 
 seriously wronged them, but it was a deliber- 
 ate purpose on their part to be the controlling 
 spirits in a new and a different order of Gov- 
 ernment, where their power would be perpa- 
 tual, and they would not be subjected to the 
 chances of the free choice of a free people in 
 recurring elections, as had been the case in 
 past time in our country; and he that does 
 not realize that fact to-day, does not yet under- 
 stand what that revolution means, and by 
 consequence the man that is to-day flattering 
 himself that, by conciliatory measures, by kind 
 wfffds, by peace offerings, the disloyal States can 
 be caused to resume their position in the Con- 
 federacy, is wofully deceived; it never w-ill hap- 
 pen iu that way. [Cheers.] There is but one 
 remedy, and that is on the physical power of 
 the loyal people of the North — [Great ap- 
 plause] — the physieal power, directed by the 
 exercise of sufficient thought to lead you to 
 just conclusions as to what the consequences 
 are to be to you as well as to the balance of 
 the people of the United States in case of 
 failure. 
 
 And I would say to you, fellow-citizens, that 
 I speak in behalf of the suffering peo|>le of the 
 South, who are the great body politic of the 
 South, saving and excepting the oflice-holdera, 
 for all have suffered, not only in respect of bn- 
 siness, commerce — by the destruction of confi- 
 dence between man and man, the utter annihi- 
 lation of the protection of wise and salutary 
 laws — but the upheaving of the verj' elementn 
 of societj- as well — all have suffered in that re- 
 spect ; 1 speak of the whole body politic. 
 
 Wiiatever may be said of what I say here 
 to-night, 1 know I have not yet passed through 
 the last ordeal of trial in coiisequonee of these 
 troubles. It was hard to part wiih friends of 
 years: it was bard to give up the position, 
 
THE BEBBLLION AGAINST DEMOCRACY. 
 
 ■whatever it may have been, which I had en- 
 joyed ; it was hard to part with wife and 
 children ; it was hard to leave home without 
 knowledge that I would ever return. But I 
 had something to sustain me in this — I had 
 true and loyal friends, who gave me moral 
 aid and comfort; it may be that some of these 
 may fall away from me now, because my miud 
 may be led to a conclusion which they are not 
 yet prepared for, but to which they are just 
 as certain to arrive as I have arrived at it to- 
 night. 
 
 Mr. Spratt says, then, that this revolution 
 was not because the' spirit of the Northern 
 people was aiJjL^ressive, it was not the Govern- 
 ment of the United States was ag;jressive, but 
 because the very framework of society here would, 
 if left free to grapple with slavery, destroy it 
 by moral force. 
 
 Whether that view is the precise one that 
 has influeueed those who have engaged in the 
 rebellion of tiie South or not, they have been 
 sufficiently convinced of one fact, that the in- 
 fluence of non-slaveholders in the new Govern- 
 ment was to be felt less and less year by year, 
 until at last they should be reduced to the con- 
 dition of serfs, and that the slaveholder, and he 
 alone, should govern the country. 
 
 Now, while two years ago I would not have 
 lent my ai i to a man who was seeking the de- 
 Btruetion of slavery — while I would have re- 
 garded him as an impracticable friend of the 
 G-overnment and the peace of society — while I 
 dreaded to see an appeal which would bring 
 in collision the spirit which opposed slavery 
 with slavery — while I did believe that our 
 fathers who framed the Government under- 
 stood well how to avoid trouble on the one 
 hand and inevitable difficulty on the other, j 
 am not prepared to see that system used for 
 the purpose of perpetuating itself, and, in the 
 ■ama ratio that it is elevated, my children de- 
 pressed. The question has been changed. It 
 is not^what it was two years ago. There was 
 no party then who sought more than simply 
 to protect slavery under the laws, and when 
 the expei'imeut of secession was being entered 
 upon, I said to them: Do not eater upon it. 
 If you do, you will inevitably destroy the in- 
 Btitulion ; it is laying the knife to the throat of 
 tlavery. You are in the habit of saying that 
 I am not sound upon the subject. I would 
 eave you from the very influeace which you 
 pretend to dread. You cannot, against the 
 moral force and power of all Christendom, sus- 
 tain that institution, saving and excepting un- 
 der the protection of the United States Gov- 
 ernment. [Cheers.] It is because the opposi- 
 tion to it elsewhere throughout the world, in 
 view of the immeasvirable blessings the United 
 States Government is affording to humanity, 
 dare not, on account of that one blot, if they 
 conceive it to be so, attack the integrity of that 
 Government; but when you shall have risked 
 the alternative of destroying that Government 
 for slavery, and seek to build a Government up- 
 on slavery, as its chief corner-alone, you then 
 
 challenge the public opposition of the world to 
 it, and you will inevitably fall under it. You 
 cut loose from thousands of loyal friends. I 
 mean not men who would, if it were proposed 
 now for the first time, help you make it, but 
 men who respect the Coastitution of the United 
 States as they understand it — respect laws, re- 
 spect the good neighborhood and peace that 
 we enjoy as citizens of a great and glorious Re- 
 public. They believe that there is some ame- 
 liorating power in the All-wise Providence 
 that will allow the remedy to be applied soon- 
 er or later, when it is felt to be an intolerable 
 evil. But you have not waited for this; you 
 I have determined, against the public sense of 
 the world, to sacrifice all these considerations 
 — resolving to have no power but slavery alone ; 
 you do more than that, because, with what- 
 ever purpose you commence, you will find that 
 you have not progressed two or three years 
 before, in your own judgment, it will be an im- 
 possibility to make the new Government libe- 
 ral. The reasons, fellow-citizens, are obvious. 
 Sooner or later it will be demonstrated that 
 the great body politic of the people of the South 
 were loyal to this Government, and did desire 
 to preserve it. [Cheers] The question at 
 once arises, why, then, did they suffer them- 
 selves to be forced out of the Union? 
 
 It is much more difficult to make one who 
 was not present understand this, than one who 
 WIS present. Every artifice was used. Minds 
 had been poisoned through a long series of 
 years. It had got to be a fashion to out-Herod 
 Herod in maintaining that not oaly was sla- 
 very a divine institution, but one of the bright- 
 est evidences of the perfnctiou of that wisdom 
 that created all good — [Liughter]— and even 
 those whose mission it oaght to have been to 
 spread the doctriue of peace on earth and 
 good-will toward men, to spend their time ia 
 the pulpit proving that it was an institatioa 
 ordained of God. I have about the same opin- 
 ion of some in the North who spent their time 
 in proving that it originated in hell. [Laugh- 
 ter.] My simple, uaregenerate view of the 
 subject was, that God knows best, and that it 
 was permitted, for some wise, inscrutable pur- 
 pose ; and that, when that had been accom- 
 plished, it would, by the very same power, 
 cease. The public mind was poisoned. The 
 argument was : The only way you can stop the 
 Northern people, is to go out of the Union ; and 
 if you go out now they will soon begin to beg 
 for your own terms for reconstruction. 
 
 That was the argument employed every- 
 where, and thousands upon thousands of men 
 were induced to go to the ballot-box and vote 
 for secession, having been made to believe 
 that it would be the means of securing perpet- 
 ual peace. 
 
 But, again, others who had thought natural- 
 ly upon the subject would say to their Union 
 fellow-citizens : Do not go to the polls. What 
 have you to do with this movement ? It is 
 revolutionary ; it is unauthorized ; it is a 
 proceeding to which you ought not, by any 
 
6 
 
 THE REBELLION AGAINST DEMOOKACT. 
 
 participation, to give your countenance. Let 
 the madmen, who are seeking the ruin of the 
 State, go to the polls alone. 
 
 So in many of the States not a third of the 
 vote of tlie State -was cast. That was the case 
 in my own State. In Louisiana it is now 
 known that there were a majority of the votes 
 cast against secession. At many of the polls 
 were posters saying: " Let the vote he open, 
 that we may see who are the traitors," — and 
 the Union-men dared not vote. 
 
 You may say that these Union-men did not 
 care for their liberty so much as their fathers 
 did. Gentlemen, most of us prefer reading 
 about martyrs to beiug martyrs; and I would 
 myself rather be a martyr in some other way 
 than to have a rough rope put around my neck, 
 and be hung on a lonely prairie, and have mj' 
 body left there unburied. 
 
 You ask, has this happened ? Aye, fellow- 
 citizens, it has happened ; it is happening every 
 day ; it will continue to liappen until the last 
 free spirit has left the South, or his soul has been 
 crushed, unless the power of this Government 
 steps in. [Cheers.] It commenced before se- 
 cession was commenced. In my own State it 
 commenced pending the presidential canvass in 
 which Mr. Lincoln was elected. I was not 
 
 The Constitution as it is — Yes. The Union 
 as it was — No I [Loud and prolonged cheer- 
 ing.] He would thank no man to aid him in 
 restoring the Union as it ejcisted in the State 
 of Texas in 1S6L 
 
 If he were to be martyred for expressing 
 the opinions which "Washington expressed, no 
 such Union for him. 
 
 Now, he alleged, that the issue was deliber- 
 ately tendered, of slavery on one si'le, and 
 freedom for the white race upon the other. 
 
 He spoke on behalf of the once enfranchised 
 free white man of the South, Whether sla- 
 very was compatible with Democracy or not, 
 the leaders of the rebellion intended to save 
 slavery, whether Democracy was saved or not. 
 
 If we did not accept the issue, it would be 
 forced upon us. 
 
 The liberties of the North were inseperably 
 bound up with those of the South. If seces- 
 sion should become an accomplished fact, fie 
 could see no safety for republicanism on this 
 continent. 
 
 He believed, too, that we must soon see that 
 republicanism should be maintained, even at 
 the hazard of a foreign war, clear down to tha 
 Isthmus. AVe must not permit poor Mexico 
 to become the victim of Louis Napoleon. 
 
 present when any one of these victims fell. I 'l^Cheers.] The 80,000 troops going to Mexico 
 
 did not have the honor of belonging to any 
 vigilance committee, nor was I member of any 
 K. G. C, but I take the evidence of the men 
 engaged in it, published in the public newspa- 
 pers, for the fact that more than 200 men per- 
 ished thus because they were suspected of 
 loving their children more than they loved 
 their neighbor's negroes. [Sensation.] 
 
 If, then, the necessity of that institution re- 
 quires such support,J^e?/ have severed my alle- 
 giance (if ever I had any) to it. [Cheers.] 
 
 Nor will the men who have compelled me 
 to leave my State be at all disappointed at 
 what I say here or elsewhere. I advised them 
 in advance that if they would force upon me 
 the issue of infidelity to the Government of 
 my childhood and of my father before me — 
 infidelity to that, or infidelity to Slavery — my 
 choice was easily made. [Applause.] If they 
 compelled me to elect between my children 
 and their negroes, a fool could tell where I 
 would be fouud. [Cheers.] 
 
 That issue is before you, fellow-citizens, to- 
 night. It is upon me; it is upon every man 
 from Maine to Mexico — sliirk it, if you can. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton gave a striking picture of the 
 changed condition of the non-slavehclding 
 man of the South, and the terrible system of 
 espionage and Lyneh-law which had been es- 
 tablished throughout the South. He spoke of 
 the difficulties of getting away to a Union man, 
 ■which were almost insurmountable. 
 
 It was a fashionable thing to say, " I am for 
 the Constitution as it is, and the Union as it 
 was." [Cheers.] 
 
 were not for Mexico alone. The Mexicans 
 were aware of that, and their praj'crs were 
 earnestly going up for the salvation of the 
 Government of the United States in all its in- 
 tegrity, and to the utmost extent of its terri- 
 tory, where its jurisdiction ever did exist. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 The Government hereafter must have as 
 much power as it had before, and use it better. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton concluded by a striking pic- 
 ture of the imbecility with which the rebel- 
 lion was treated by Buchanan, and by ex- 
 horting all to strengthen the hands of the 
 Government, the Government of an honest 
 President, and to concentrate all its energies 
 upon the crushing of the rebellion. He con- 
 jured the people of the North to rise to the 
 hight of this great argument With one 
 united effort let us give to the President and 
 his Generals our hearty and cordial support, 
 with the determination that if they fail, they 
 shall not have to complain of any want of cor- 
 dial support on our part. \ 
 
 Standing for the first time on free soil, he 
 might be permitted to ask with Webster, that 
 if Freedom should fall, if fall it must, it should 
 fall in the midst of the proud monuments it 
 had reared. [Loud and prolonged applause.] 
 
 Mr. Griffiths presented "a series of resolu- 
 tions, thanking Mr. Hamilton for his address, 
 and, after a few words from the Hon. Mr. 
 Odell, in which he pledged the last man and 
 the last dollar of Brooklj-n and the North to 
 put down and crush out the rebellion forever 
 the immense audience separated. 
 
THE ARISTOCRATIC ARM OF THE RKBELLION. 
 
 COL. HAMILTON'S SECOND SPEECH 
 
 ON THE CAUSES AND OBJECTS OF THE REBELLION. 
 
 THE ARISTOCRATIC ARM OF THE REBELLION. 
 
 Li response to an invitation of the National 
 War Committee, the Hon. A. J. Hamilton, the 
 eloquent Union refugee from Texas, delivered 
 an address in the large Hall of Cooper Institute 
 last evening (Oct. 4). The hall was densely 
 filled. Upon the platform were David Dudley 
 Field, the Hon. Hiram Walbridge, Prof. Francis 
 Lieber, the Rev. Henry M. Field, Profs. J. J. 
 Owen and Roswell C. Hitchcock, Brig.-Gen. 
 Strong, S. B. Chittenden, and others. At li 
 o'clock Gen. Hiram Walbridge called the meet- 
 ing to order. He said — 
 
 Fellow-Citizens: The National War Com- 
 mittee have assigned to me the duty of calling 
 to order this vast patriotic and intelligent as- 
 semblage. Without office, without honors, 
 without emoluments, without patronage, they 
 trace their authority only in the rectitude of 
 their intention, in the imminence of public 
 danger, and they fondly trust in the regaixl 
 and esteem of their countrymen. [Cheers.] 
 No sane man believes that this gigantic rebel- 
 lion, which fairly shakes the earth beneath our 
 feet, can ever be quelled unless the Federal 
 Government shall furnish the opportunity for 
 the loyal patriotic Union men of the South 
 to demonstrate their valor, their in- 
 trepidity, their devotion to the Constitution, 
 the Union, and the supremacy of law. [Ap- 
 plause.] That Constitution and the Govern- 
 ment it guarantees sprung from the hearts of 
 the American people. It was baptized in their 
 blood, and it will be defended by their hands 
 so long as treason shall seek to ignore that 
 flag that has borne the glories of the Amer- 
 ican character into every part of the habitable 
 globe. [Great applause.] I take the liberty, 
 therefore, gentlemen, of respectfully nominat- 
 ing as presiding officer upon the occasion, our 
 eminent chief magistrate, the Hon. George 
 Opdyke. [Loud and prolong«id applause.] 
 , Mayor Opdyke said: My friends, we are 
 here to listen to a distinguished citizen of the 
 South, a friend of the Union, and of the old 
 flag, who has been compelled to flee from the 
 iron despotism which the confederate traitors 
 have established there. It is therefore that 
 we are favored with the opportunity of obtain- 
 ing infoi-mation from that region from a soui'ce 
 at once so trustworthy, so enlightened, and so 
 eloquent Tho orator of the evening is a gen- 
 tleman of distinguished social position, and 
 eminent public service, having represented his 
 State in the Congress of the United States 
 ■with marked ability, and I trust the day is not 
 far distant when he will again be called upon 
 
 to serve his fellow-citizens in the same capac- 
 ity. I present to you the Honorable A. J. 
 Hamilton, of Texas. [Enthusiastic and contin- 
 ued applause.] 
 
 Mr. Hamilton said: Fellow-citizens of the 
 City of New York, could I, by the exercise of 
 some supernatural poAver, present to those I 
 left behind the scene upon which I now gaze, 
 and bring back the answer which springs in 
 every heart that throbs with a loyal feeling, 
 you would be thanked as alone would be fitting 
 for this overpowering welcome. «* 
 
 I remember well, as I entered your magnifi- 
 cent harbor but a few days past, for the first 
 time in my life, I could but be impressed with 
 the evidence before me of the magnitude, the 
 progress, and the greatness of our country, as 
 represented upon but one single spot of its 
 country. 
 
 But there was connected with it a painful 
 throb, and it arose from the reflection that all 
 that was now being imperiled; and whatever 
 you, fellow- citizens, may have supposed with 
 regard to the progress of this rebellion, or the 
 extent, so far as territory is concerned, or the 
 integrity of the people of any section of the 
 country — satisfied as you may be in yovir own 
 minds that it could not go beyond the States 
 of the South — I entertain a different opinion. 
 I mean to be understood, if it is to succeed 
 where it is already attempted, in my humble 
 judgment it will not stop there ; in short, that 
 if the Government of the United States, as it 
 existed before the rebellion, is not maintained 
 in all its integrity, we may look forward to a 
 period, perhaps not so remote that some here 
 present will not see it, when it will give way 
 here also. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton proceeded to investigate the 
 cause of the rebellion. Had the theory now- 
 advanced throughout the South, that Republi- 
 canism waft a failure, been put forth at the com- 
 mencement of the rebellion, it would have 
 been nipped in the bud. But when the arms 
 and the powder and lead were all concentrated 
 in tl^ hands of the Government, they raised 
 the cry: " Democracy is a failure. You per- 
 ceive it is a failure, because the United States 
 Government has failed. We must get rid of 
 the people of the North because they are dem- 
 ocratic. Slavery and Democracy cannot live 
 together." [Loud and prolonged applause.] 
 
 The oidy reply which he made, so long as he 
 could make any, to these statements as to the 
 weakness of Democracy, was : " Gentlemen, by 
 the time you have got through with Uncle Sam 
 you will find it strong enough for common use."' 
 [Loud cheers.] He had been what was called 
 a loyal man to the institution of slavery, but 
 the moment the old flag; was torn down he had 
 
THE ARISTOCRATIC ARM OP THE REBELLION. 
 
 told them that they would make him not only 
 an Abolition pympathizer, but an active, prac- 
 tical Abolitionist. [Enthusiastic clieering.] 
 
 He feared that tht-re were those here who still 
 fancied that by some conciliatory measures the 
 South could be brouglit back to the oM Gov- 
 ernment. There could be uo gjreater fallacy. 
 [Applause.] The loyal men of the South were 
 praying to get back into the Union without any 
 condition or conciliation. Would any loyal 
 men consent that Jeff. Davis should ever be 
 President of the United States. [" No, no."] 
 Mr. Hamilton continued: "I do want to see 
 the old Government, when it shall have assert- 
 ed its power, make a wise and just discrimina- 
 tion between the guilty and the deluded. 
 [Cheera] I waut the reall}' responsible trait- 
 ors punished. [Applause.] I waut the dowa- 
 ti'odden, the sutfering, the ignorant, to be al- 
 lowed to come back like the prodigal son, and 
 be forgiven. [Cheers.] 
 
 IS we cannot conciliate these men what can 
 we do? Shall history record it that twenty- 
 seven millions of freemen, and women, and 
 children have not the moral and phj'sical power 
 to strangle treason in fifteen hundred thousand ? 
 Is republicanism to fail upon this continent 
 because that twenty-seven millions are not suf- 
 ficiently conscious of their duty to themselves, 
 to the Governm-nt of thrir fathers, to human- 
 ity the wide world over, to realize the fact that 
 this rebellion can alone be crushed by phj'^si- 
 •al force ? 
 
 I have not a doubt but peace propositions 
 will oome from the Confederate Government, 
 but they will not come in the shape of an un- 
 conditional proposition to assume the Union 
 as it was, leaving the elective franchise as it 
 was. 
 
 We have already seen some of the conditions, 
 or what would probably be the condiiio^s, if 
 hostilities were to cease. I do not think tiiat 
 they even would emanate from the Cabinet — 
 if I may be allowed the expression — at Rich- 
 mond. They know that if the Government of 
 tlie United States should, in its mercy, pardon 
 their offenses, and restore them to their rights 
 under the Constitution, their own fellow-citi- 
 zens who have been their victims would spurn 
 them away, and ihey are as effectually cut off 
 from preferment as if they had been convicted 
 of high treason. The very desperation with 
 which they are struggling ought to prov* to 
 you and the world that they will never stop 
 while they can get men to bleed; they will 
 never cease to fight as long as there is a hope 
 of success, because it is the onl\' hope of salva- 
 tion to them. They do not feel for the suffcr- 
 ijigs of the wives and the children that are 
 made widows and orphans by tliis unholy war; 
 it never has entered the mind of one man in 
 tliis rebellion, who understood its objects, to 
 shed a tear for all the bloodshed, misery and 
 woe which it involved. 
 
 The war must be put down by bayonets, by 
 powder and ball, by brave hearts and strong 
 arnaa. [Cheers.] 
 
 1 do not .say this because I have suffered ; it 
 is because thousands of brave men are suffering 
 U'W. It is true, had I not suffered and wit- 
 nessed suffering, 1 might not, aud probably 
 would not, have been so earnest in my feelings. 
 We are all sufficiently selfish, and I am no ex- 
 ception. 
 
 If secession is an accomplished fact, aud the 
 Government that has resulted from it an estab- 
 lished Government among the n itions of the 
 e.irth, do you believe that secession would stop 
 there? Are there not men even in the Empire 
 State, in your goodly city, who would listen to 
 treason? [Woo J, Wood, Wood.] There may 
 be no such men in all New Yoi-k, but, fellow- 
 citizens, I would dislike exceedingly to think 
 tliat my hopes of the future depiuded upon 
 the f tct of there being no such men. [Laugii- 
 ter.] 
 
 I say that I do not question the loyaltj of 
 the great heart of New York. I mean that 
 man has not, even here in New York, attained 
 to human perfeetability. There are men 
 doubtless here who would be willing to be the 
 great particular magnates here in New York, 
 at the expense of the Government at Washing- 
 ton. [Cheers.] 
 
 It is certain to my mind that, once it is es- 
 tablishe 1 that it is a possible thing to tear 
 asunder the States, there will be men tugging 
 at it day by day and year by year, and yoa 
 will not have the confidence you once had that 
 these attacks should be resisted; aud you may 
 be led to ask whether, to escape anarchy at 
 last, you had not better have a stronger Gov- 
 ernmeut. 
 
 There is safety for us aud fallen humanity 
 throughout the world in the preservation of 
 the Government of our fathers. [Loud cheers.] 
 We have confidence in the flag which floats 
 over the soil of New York to-day, but wiien 
 the one shall have been destroyed, and the 
 other be trailing in the dust, what confidence 
 shall we have in equal success? 
 
 I at home felt that I wis a degraded man. 
 because I was a son of the South, and the peo- 
 ple with whom I had lived so long had for- 
 feited their birthright, and turned awaj^ from 
 me, and I was too big a coward to make my- 
 self a martyr. I was compelled to leave my 
 home under circumstances painful at any time. 
 The Angel of Death had just passed over my 
 house. But why should I be allowed to re- 
 main and weep with my wife over the tomb of 
 a little daughter — I, an old wretch, who dared 
 to tell my neighbors that the solemn oath I 
 had taken to support the Constitution of the 
 United States was still binding? I had done 
 too much to be permitted to live peaceably at 
 home. I had robbed no man in the land ; 
 there were those who at times I had fed, aud 
 they were first to cry — " Crucify him ! Hang 
 him ! " 
 
 In Mexico there are now 500 men who left 
 as I left. They are in the mountain fastnesses, 
 hunted like wolves. Are they to have h.dp? 
 Give them a chance, and they will bleed for 
 
THE A.SI3TO0KATIC ARM OF THE REBELLION. 
 
 their country, die for it, redeeaa it; and there 
 ara mea eaough there to-day to redeem it if 
 they were orjtuizid and hal arms ia their 
 haads. Let no m la be permitted to live ia the 
 GoFerameat who will- dare a^aiu to strut his 
 little hour upou auy stage aud preach treasou 
 to his fellow-men. [C leers.] 
 
 Restore the Goverameat, its Coastitutioa, 
 audits laws to all, fellow-citizeas? With all 
 my heart. R jstore the Uaioa as it existed for 
 the year ju-;t preceding the rebellion ? God 
 forbid. [Loud, prolongel, and repeated ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Am I to be remitted back to the soil of 
 Texas, to be hunted by assassins the little 
 remnant of my life ? [" Jfo, no !"] Am I to 
 go there to teach my little son that the chief 
 blessing of his great future is to run from 
 street to street aud from raxn to man, and in- 
 sist that he is as sound a man upon this sub- 
 ject of slavery as lives? [Cheers.] Ara I to 
 see my neighbors and friends hung by the 
 neck because they have doubted that the chief 
 business of the Great Ruler of the Universe 
 ia not in directing aud controlling and ma- 
 tnriag and perpetuating the iustitutioa of 
 slavery? [Cheers.] 
 
 jNo, fellow-citizens; if I cannot go there 
 and strike hands with my friends at home ; if 
 I cannot be again united with my family, ex- 
 cept upon the terms that I am to live in such 
 society as existed there, h^rd as it is to utter, 
 I can find it in my heart to say, let me never 
 see them. But if you mean, by the restorilioa 
 of the Union as it was, a restoration of that 
 Union such as our fathers intended it to be, 
 then, with all my heart, let us have it. [Great 
 applause.] 
 
 The issue is simple ; it is plain ; the way- 
 faring man mast read it as he runs, though he 
 be a fool — slavery on the one hand, and liberty 
 on the other. [Loud applause.] 
 
 And yet, fellow-citizens, for these brief de- 
 sultory words, honestly spoken, I am yet to be 
 further tried. Friends doubtless who have 
 stood up for me hitherto, will say they are not 
 prepared for this yet. But I fear not for 
 them; they will arrive in due time where I 
 stand ; and I will add, even at the expense of 
 being considered arrogant, if you please, that 
 what I have said to-night, all uninteresting as 
 it may be to you, will strike a chord deep in 
 the hearts of my people. 
 
 I know how the people feel, their modes of 
 thought, to what conclusions their minds have 
 already been brought. It is "your negroes, 
 my children." I love ray children best — I do 
 not intend to part with the hopes that I have 
 predicated upon my little son. He has, or 
 ought to have — he did have until you took it 
 away from him — the right to aspire to the 
 highest honors in his country's gift. He shall 
 have it. I will fight that my son may be 
 free, even at the expense of freeing your ne- 
 groes. [Cheers.] 
 
 Let me, then, fellow-citizens, indulge the 
 hope that, if it shall be my fortune again to 
 viait home and friends, I can say, and say it 
 
 truthfully, I am a freeman — I am not merely 
 a theoretical freeman — I have the Constiiution 
 of the United States guarauteeing me my 
 freedom; but I have what is dearer still — ^I 
 have countrymen, I havj society, I have 
 brethren, fellow citizens, all over the State, 
 without au exception, who intend that I shall 
 practice as a freeman throughout my life. They 
 intend that I shall indulge the noblest right 
 that cau be given to man — the right of 
 thought, and of impressing my thoughts, hum- 
 ble though they be, upon the minds of others. 
 
 If I can go home with that kind of freedom, 
 I want it ; less th in that I shall never be sat- 
 isfied with. [Cheering.] Hundreds of men 
 have perished because they had thought, be- 
 cause they had loved freedom, and indulged 
 occasionally in speculations as to how freedom 
 was best to be preserved; they have been 
 hung like felons. I want that to cease. I 
 want the Government of the United States to 
 treat every man iu the land as its enemy who 
 will ■ attempt to impose further restrictions 
 upon the right of a free people to think and 
 to talk. [Cheers.] When I see that, then I 
 can lift my hands and say : Blessed, indeed, is 
 this Government! Then I can accept that 
 flag as the emblem of freelom, really, unqual- 
 ifiedly — having gained new lustre by the 
 very struggle in which its citizens are engaged 
 to-daj'-. 
 
 I will indulge the hope that victory upon 
 the field may not only perch upon the stand- 
 ards of our arms, but that a moral halo will 
 surround it from the consciousness of those 
 who are fighting that they are struggling to 
 sustain liberty and to crush the last remains of 
 slavery. [Enthusiastic applause.] 
 
 Let then our last thought upon Government 
 and society be : I am yet a citizen of a free 
 Government ; I still occupy the position of a 
 recipient of the largest rational human liberty; 
 I am yet on freedom's soil, with freedom's 
 banner floating o'er me. [Loud and continued 
 applause.] 
 
 i'he Hon. Hiram Walbridge then offered the 
 following resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That the earnest and cordial thanlcs of the 
 Inydl citize'is of New York are hereby tendered to Ooi. 
 Hamilton for his c'ear, coicise, ani thorough espositiou 
 of h} infamy of th ■ preaent wicked rebellion, aud that 
 it is the duty of the Federal G >vernm3nt at the earliest 
 practicable mament to furnish such aid to the loy.il 
 Union men of the South as will enable them again to en- 
 joy all the blessings of representative constitutional gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, in seconding the 
 resolution, said that never in his life had he 
 been more happy not to have been a condition- 
 al man than to-night. They had listened to a 
 Southern slaveholder who happened not to be 
 a rebel, and that Southern slaveholder hap- 
 pened to be an Abolitionist. The one thing 
 to do was to march the loyal millions ovei' 
 every acre of the South, where they would 
 see that this Satanic power sat enthroned on a 
 sacred throne which was as black as night 
 
 The resolution was unanimously adopted, 
 and the meetiog adjourned amid loud calls for 
 favorite speakers. 
 
10 
 
 THE PLOTTINGS OF REBELLION. 
 
 THE PLOITINGS OF EEBELLIOK 
 
 THE ISSUE m ITS MAGNITUDE. 
 
 Eleven years ago, a leading spirit of Vir- 
 ginia addressed a leading spirit of South Car- 
 olina, and distinctly presented the great issue of 
 to-day. The following letter, written in 18.51, 
 by Mr. Garnett, then a member of the Vir- 
 ginia Convention sitting to revise the Consti- 
 tution of the State, to Mr. Trescott, of South 
 Carolina, afterwards Assistant Secretary, of 
 State under Mr. Buchanan, ia fully significant 
 of the matured designs of the secessionists. 
 This letter was captured at the residence of 
 Mr. Trescott, on Barnwell's Island, and con- 
 tains the reasonings ftnd motives of the traitors 
 who inaugurated the rebellion. The meaning 
 of the letter is clear on its face. It needs no 
 commentary. We ask our fellow-Democrats 
 to read and ponder it. As Democrats, we 
 accept the issue as the traitors themselves 
 understand it — as we understand it, and as the 
 leading rebels who control the South have 
 FORCED it on the nation — Slavery and De- 
 mocracy incompatible ! Which shall go under ? 
 Let true Democrats answer the question. 
 LORENZO SHERWOOD, 
 HENRY O'RIELLY, 
 CHARLES P. KIRKLAND, 
 GEO. P. NELSON, 
 THOMAS EWBANK, 
 JOHN J. SPEED, 
 HENRY C. GARDINER, 
 Corresponding Committee 
 
 of the Democratic League. 
 New York, Sept. 20, 1862. 
 
 Letter from Mr. Garnett, of Virginia, to Mr. 
 Trescott, of South Caroliva. 
 
 "Va. Convention-, May 3d, 1851. 
 
 "My Dear Sir: You misunderstood my last 
 letter if you supposed that I intended to visit 
 South Carolina this Spring. I am exceedingly 
 obliged to you for your kind invitations, and 
 it would afford me the highest pleasure to 
 interchange, in person, sentiments with a 
 friend whose manner of thinking so closely 
 agrees with my own. But my engagements 
 here closely confine me to this city, and deny 
 me such a gratificsition. 
 
 " I would be especiallj- glad to be in Charles- 
 ton next week, and witness your Convention 
 of Delegates from the Southern-Rights Asso- 
 ciations, The condition of things in your 
 State deeply interests me ; her wise foresight 
 and manly independence have placed her at 
 the head of the South, to whom alone true- 
 hearted men can look with any hope or 
 pleasure. Momentous are the consequences 
 which depend upon your action. Which party 
 will I'revail ? the immediate secessionists, or 
 those who are opposed to separate State action 
 at this time ? For my part, I forbear to form 
 
 a wish. Were I a Carolinian, it would be very 
 different ; but when I consider the serious 
 effects the decision may have on your future 
 weal or woe, I feel that a citizen of a State 
 which has acted as Virginia, has no right to 
 interfere, even by a wish. 
 
 "If the General Government allows you 
 peaceably and freely to secede, neither Vir- j 
 ginia nor any other Southern State would, in 
 my opinion, follow you at present. But what 
 would be the effect upon South Carolina? 
 Some of our best friends here supposed that 
 it would cut off Charleston from the great 
 Western trade which she is now striking for, 
 and would retard very greatly the progress 
 of your State. I confess that I think differ- 
 ently. I believe thoroughly in our own 
 theories, and that if Charleston did not grow 
 quite so fast in her trade with other States, 
 yet the relief from Federal taxation would 
 vastly stimulate your prosperity. If so, the 
 prestige of the Union would be destroyed, and 
 you would be the nucleus for a Southei'n Con- 
 federation at no distant day. 
 
 "But I do not doubt, from all I have been 
 able to learn, that the Federal Government 
 would use force, beginning Avith the form most 
 embarrassing to you, and least calculated to 
 excite sympathy — I mean a naval blockade. 
 In that event, could you withstand the re- 
 action feeling which the suffering commerce 
 of Charleston would probably manifest ? 
 Would you not lose that in which your 
 strength consists, the union of your people? 
 I do not mean to imply an opinion. I only 
 ask the question. If you could force this 
 blockade, and bring the Government to direct 
 force, the feeling in Virginia would be very 
 great. I trust in God it would bring her to 
 yoilr aid. 
 
 " But it would be wrong in me to deceive 
 you by speaking certainly. I cannot express 
 tiie deep mortification I have felt at her course 
 tliis Winter. But I do not believe that the 
 course of the Legislature is a fair expression 
 of the popular feeling. In the east, at least, 
 the great majority believe in the right of se- 
 cession, and feel the deepest sympathy Avith 
 Carolina in opposition to measures which they 
 regard as she does. But the west — Western 
 Virginia — there is the rub! Only 60,000 
 slaves to 4S)4,000 whites! When I consider 
 this fact, and the kind of argument which we 
 have heard in this body, I cannot but regard 
 with the greatest fear the question whether 
 Virginia would assist Carolina in such an 
 issue. 
 
 " I must acknowledge, my dear sir, that I 
 look to the future with almost as much ap- 
 prehension as hope. You well object to the 
 term Democrat. Democracy, iti its original 
 
ANTAGONISTIC PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE REBELLION. 
 
 11 
 
 philosophical sense, is, indeed, incompatible with 
 slavery/, and the whole system of Southern soci- 
 ety. Yet, if we look back, what change will 
 you find made in any of oui" State constitu- 
 tions, or in our legislation, in its general course 
 for the last fifty years, which was not in the 
 direction of Democracy? Do not its principles 
 and theoi'ies become daily more fixed in our 
 practice? — I had almost said in the opinions 
 of our people, did I not remember with pleas- 
 ure the great impi-ovement of opinion in re- 
 gard to the abstract question of slavery. And 
 if such is the case, what have we to hope for 
 the future ? I do not hesitate to say that if 
 the question is raised between Carolina and 
 the Federal Government, and the latter pre- 
 
 vails, the last hope of Republican Government, 
 and I fear of Southern Civilization, is gone. 
 Russsia will then be a better Government 
 than ours. 
 
 " I fear that the confusion and interruption 
 under which I write may have made this a 
 rather rambling letter. Do you visit the 
 North in the Summer? I should be happy to 
 welcome you to the Old Dominion. 
 
 " I am much obliged to you for the offer to 
 send me Hammond's Eulogy on Calhoun ; but 
 I am indebted to the author for a copy. 
 " "With esteem and friendship, 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 "M. R. H. GARNETT. 
 
 " Wm. H. Trescott, Esq." 
 
 ANTAGONISTIC PEINCIPLES INVOLVED IN THE 
 
 REBELLION. 
 
 LETTER OF THE DEMOCEATIC LEAGUE TO JOHN BRIGHT. 
 
 The following letter from the Executive 
 Committee of the Democratic League, alluding 
 to the antagonisms in which the rebellion orig- 
 inated, has been addressed to John Bright, 
 Manchester, England: 
 
 " New York, August 9, 1862. 
 '^ John Bright, member of the British Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 " Dear Sir : The Executive Committee of 
 the Democratic League for Sustaining the Na- 
 tional Unity, influenced by a just admiration 
 of the character you have earned in this coun- 
 try as well as your own, desire to tender to 
 you the respects and regards of our fellow- 
 countrymen. "We do not arrogate too much 
 when we speak in behalf of our fellow-citizens ; 
 for, at best, we can but feebly express the kind- 
 ly sentiments which the millions on this side 
 of the Atlantic entertain towards you. 
 
 " It is enough for us to know that you are 
 the warm and fii-m friend of the masses of your 
 own countrymen. Knowing this, we can ap- 
 preciate your habits of thought and your readi- 
 ness to analj'ze correctly the causes that have 
 led to the present conflict in America. No one 
 who is not imbued with a large and kindly 
 sympathy for the welfare of the masses is com- 
 petent to be a judge in our matters. There is 
 no other platform than this upon which he 
 can stand and make his survey accurate. Hav- 
 ing analyzed society in the United States from 
 the same stand-point that you have contem- 
 plated the natural rights of your own country- 
 men, you have not been mistaken as to the 
 character of the antagonisms which have here 
 culminated la warfare. 
 
 " To most people in Europe it must appear 
 surprising that the Americans should have en- 
 gaged in a civil war of such gigantic magni- 
 tude. It could not have been avoided by the 
 
 Union Government. The two antagonisms of 
 slavery and Democracy had long since entered 
 into the contest. For thirty years or more the 
 rumblings of these discordant elements had 
 gone across the waters. In Europe, where these 
 sounds had reached, the prophecies were made 
 that Democratic Government could not endure. 
 All these unfavorable prophecies were based 
 iipon the supposed weakness of the Democratic 
 principle in government. Never was a greater 
 mistake made than this. It has not been the 
 weakness of the Democratic principle, nor its 
 want of adaptation to power in Government, 
 or strength in nationality. It has been the 
 nightmare of slavery that has fastened on the 
 breast of the republic. It was this hideous and 
 disturbing element that created the convulsions 
 of the body politic that have so often seemed 
 to threaten us with dissolution. 
 
 " The pro-slavery spirit in politics has not 
 only been the disturber of our domestic peace, 
 but the cause of much reproach to us in Europe. 
 It half paralyzed the principle of civil liberty 
 where it existed. It neglected the general 
 education of the youth. It was ever contumel- 
 ious in its opposition to the national policy of 
 raising up diversified industry. It had not, 
 and from its nature, could not, have any sub- 
 stantial sympathy in the common welfare of 
 the masses. Selfish, arrogant, and unjust by 
 nature— ^condemned by a discriminating world 
 for the compound of vices interwoven into its 
 relationships, it has at last, through despera- 
 tion, taken refuge in the law offeree. 
 
 "In order to judge with accuracy, it is ne- 
 cessary to iinderstand what brought slavehold- 
 ers to the desperate resort of attempted revolu- 
 tion. The doctrine was long since promulgated 
 by them that ' a Government of majoi-ities must 
 be abrogated' — 'that slavery and Democracy 
 were incompatible' — 'that under the operation 
 
12 
 
 ANTAGONISTIC PKINCIPLES INVOLYED IN THE REBELLION. 
 
 of the Democratic principle, and the laws of 
 population and subsistence, slavery must soon 
 lose its presti-ce and go dowu before tlie en- 
 frauchised masses.' What was to be done? 
 Here was a process of reasoning, founded on 
 foresight of the future, that no argument could 
 turn aside. Statesmen in the North and South 
 concurred in the same conclusion, but with 
 this difference — the one insisting that the dem- 
 ocratic principle must be subverted in order 
 to maintain slavery unimparod — the other in- 
 sisting that the democratic principle in Gov- 
 ernment must be maintained, though it in- 
 volved the extinction of slavery. We have 
 now the desperate conflict of arms founded 
 upon the issue thus made. 
 
 " Our people of the North dreaded civil 
 war. Every interest had aversion to the resort 
 to arms. Every assurance was given that 
 slavery would not be intermeddled with in 
 states where it existed. Compromises were 
 offered and attempted to be acted on ; and 
 everything short of a surrender of the demo- 
 cratic principle in Government was tendered 
 to slaveholders in order to assuage animosity 
 and put back the intended revolution. Our 
 national Government and the party in power 
 did everything possible in conciliatory policy, 
 but with no other result than that of increased 
 determination on the part of slaveholders to 
 persist in the purposes of the rebellion. Slave- 
 holders were not mistaken in their conclusion, 
 that there was a danger to the institution of 
 slavery which no compromises could avert, 
 and against which no party' could stipulate or 
 give guaranty. Tliey knew that the frictional 
 contest must soon arise under the laws of pop- 
 ulation and subsistence. Twenty-three years 
 hence, on the ratio of the past, and the popu- 
 lation would be aggregated to sixty millions. 
 Forty-six years would swell it to a hundred 
 and twenty. But a short time in the auuals 
 of nationality, and slavery would be crowded 
 by the offshoot of that twenty-seven millions 
 now dependent upon free labor for subsistence, 
 and having every natural motive to political 
 affiliation. This was the mountain of horrors 
 to the pro-slavery sensibilities. This was the 
 political power that politicians could not bind 
 or warp into subordination to the purposes 
 and policy of slavery. 
 
 " To glance further at the logic which preci- 
 pitated the slaveholders into rebellion, they as- 
 sumed that delay only added to the difficulties 
 of successfully accomplishing a revolution. 
 They had prepared the programme in 1856; 
 and had also arranged for going out of tiie 
 Union in case Mr. Fremont was elected to the 
 Presidency. The election of Mr. Buchanan at 
 the time merely postponed the attempt, in 
 order to gain additional facilities for success 
 through the treasonable pliancy of his admin- 
 istration. With a traitorous majority in Mr. 
 Buchanan's Cabinet, the work of rebel prepa- 
 ration went rapidly on. Mr. Lincoln's inaugu- 
 ration found it fully prepared for the conflict 
 — almost an overmatch from previous prepara 
 tioDL The nation was taken by surprise, and 
 
 much time elapsed before the full meaning of 
 the southern conspiracy disclosed itself. It is 
 not fully understood yet by the masses in the 
 United States — much less by tlie people of 
 Europe. To get at the full meaning of the at- 
 teinj)ted revolution requires an analysis of the 
 wliole reasonings and motives that influenced 
 the slaveholders to enter upon it. 
 
 "To the minds of those unacquainted with 
 the reasoningsof slaveholders, and their appre- 
 hensions excited by the known force of the 
 liiws of population, the inquiry naturally arises, 
 " Could not this civil war have been averted ?" 
 We assume to know that this war could not 
 have been averted short of surrendering the 
 national Government and the national policy to 
 the dictation of less than three hundred and 
 fifty thousand slaveholders. That this could 
 not be done, and would not be permitted, is 
 now being demonstrated by the democratic 
 masses in arms to maintain the national juris- 
 diction, and with it the principles of free gov- 
 ernment 
 
 " We enclose for your perusal a copy of the 
 declaratory resolutions of our League. Also 
 we send by this mail the July number of the 
 Continental Monthly, containing an article more 
 fully elucidating the motives and reasonings 
 that led the slaveholders into the attempt at 
 revolution. 
 
 " We are aware that the liberalists of Eu- 
 rope have waited with much impatience for 
 the disclosure of a significant policy on the 
 part of our Government towards the institution 
 of slavery. They need not fear on that ground, 
 nor will their just hopes be disappointed. We 
 could have longer tolerated slavery, odious as 
 it is in principle, and damaging as it is to the 
 advancement of civilization, for the sake of 
 peace; but when it openly entered upon the 
 rcvilemcnt of the democratic principle, insisted 
 on a new order of government, and commenced 
 the war to throw off the national jurisdiction, 
 it became a very different matter. From that 
 moment the chain of subordination to its fell 
 influences was broken. Its prestige has already 
 passed the bounds beyond the pale of restora- 
 tion. Tlie bill of its abominations is now to 
 be settled through the law of force. What 
 that settlement will be is very plainly fore- 
 shadowed in the public sentiment, to the effect 
 that we can neither have peace or become a 
 homogeneous people without removing this 
 gangrene from the body politic. 
 
 "Allow us to say a word respecting the dis- 
 tress and depression that have fallen upon the 
 meohanieal industry of Great Britain. This re- 
 sult, we are all aware, has grown out of the 
 slaveholders' rebellion. It was a part of the 
 programme that entered into the calculations 
 of the southern conspirators. They openly 
 boasted, in advance, of the misery they could 
 inflict on the laboring classes of England in the 
 management of the incidents when they should 
 have entered upon the rebellion. They verily 
 believed that ihey could inflict such distress as 
 to bring the Government of Great Britain into 
 alliance with their revolutionary projects. We 
 
OPINIONS OF GEN. MITCHELL, OF KENTTJCKT. 
 
 13 
 
 do not imagine that the intelligence of Great 
 Britain can be warped from a true apprecia- 
 tion of this diabolical attempt to injure society 
 at large. That we were powerless to prevent 
 this wide-spread mischief of the conspirators, 
 is plainly evident. That we have not succeeded 
 in averting the malignant prejudice of classes 
 in Great Britain towards ourselves, is to be re- 
 gretted ; more especially as we have suffered 
 most deeply from the same causes. It will not 
 be expected, under our trying circumstances 
 even, that we can forego the preservation of 
 nationality, and consent to the prostration of 
 our great cause, for the temporary convenience 
 of the best friends we have in the world. 
 Whilst we regret the distress, and would sym- 
 pathize most deeply in any practical efforts 
 for its alleviation, we do not believe that it 
 •an find relief in alliance with the influences 
 that originated the calamity. We hope soon 
 
 to be able to bring bnck the rtdations of this 
 country and Great Britain to their natural 
 commercial basis. Tn the meantime we trust 
 that some mitigation of British calamitj'- may 
 be found in the overflowing granaries of the 
 North. 
 
 " With kindest regards to yourself, and ctood 
 wishes for your countrymen and the cause of 
 humanity everywhere, we are — 
 
 " Cordially and truly your friends, 
 
 " CHARLES P. KIRKLAND, 
 "THOMAS EWBANK, 
 "HENRY O'RIELLY, 
 "LORENZO SHERWOOD, 
 "JOHN J. SPEED. 
 "GEORGE P. NELSON, 
 " HENRY C. GARDINER, 
 " Executive Committee of the Democratie 
 League." 
 
 OPINIONS OF GEN. MITCHELL, OF KENTUCKY. 
 
 Few men in the Union possess in greater 
 degree the confidence of Ids countrymen, than 
 the gallant Kentuckian, General Mitchell — a 
 confidence well earned by successful service 
 again.st the rebels, as well as by previous de- 
 votion to the noblest pursuits of civil life. 
 
 Freed from all fanaticism on the negro ques- 
 tion — southerner as he is, and judging of the 
 rebellion with the spirit of a patriot and a 
 soldier — Gen. Mitchell places himself on the 
 same platform with C<'1. Hamilton of Texas, 
 Parson Brownlow of Tennessee, and other 
 Southern loyalists, in enforcing patriotic duties 
 and military necessities against the traitors in 
 this great struggle, for preserving the National 
 Union. 
 
 In a recent addi*ess to the ofRcera under his 
 commond, at Port Royal, in South Carolina, 
 Gen. Mitchell expressed his opinions with a 
 degree of emphasis, that renders his address a 
 fit accompaniment for the speeches of CoL 
 Hamilton, in the consideration of all loyal peo- 
 ple in the South and North. 
 
 The New York "World" of Oct. 4, publishes 
 the following abstract of Gen. Mitcliell's ad- 
 dress, in a letter from the correspondent of 
 that journal, at Port Royal, under date of 
 Sept. 26th: 
 
 "A few days ago Major-General Mitchell sent 
 for the commanding officers of regiments sta- 
 tioned at this post, to gather information and 
 to give instructions in regard to their com- 
 mands. He then spoke in substance as follows : 
 
 " ' I wanted also to say a word to you in re- 
 gard to the unfortunate negro question. I 
 think I may call it unfortunate, because I sup- 
 pose we all feel that but for this there would 
 have been no war and we should none of us 
 have been wearing uniforms. 
 
 " ' I feel that I may speak about this ques- 
 tion, for I was born in Kentucky, and 1 have 
 given to the matter as close attention as it is 
 in my power to give. I am convinced that we 
 must deitroy slavery, or slavery will conquer us. 
 
 " ' A few months ago we were not in this al- 
 ternative. If we had flestroyed the rebel army 
 in the Southwest and had token Richmoad 
 (both of which I think might have been done), 
 a division would have inevitably sprung up at 
 the South. The party who from the first op- 
 posed secession and this war, would have turn- 
 ed on the rabid secessionists and said, "You 
 have always said that the North meant to vio- 
 late our rii^hts and free our slaves. We have 
 been at war for fifteen months and they have 
 not done so. And see the position into which 
 your counsels have brought us." And the peace 
 party would have gained the ascendency at 
 the South. But now all is changed. We did 
 not beat them. Congress has passed and the 
 President has approved an act that kills slavery 
 in at least nine of the States. The South has 
 become unanimous ; and the North also. At 
 the North, if you hesitate about resorting to all 
 means to put an end to the war, you are re- 
 garded as pro-slavery and disloyal. 
 
 " ' There remains only the alternative I speak 
 of We must destroy slavery or it will conqicer 
 us. 1 accept the issue. I believe that all the 
 hopes of humanity for a thousand years to come 
 are involved in this struggle. Rather than that 
 this Government should be overthrown, I am 
 ready not only to see slavery exterminated, 
 but also have every negro in these Southern 
 States destroyed — and more, I am read}^ to see 
 every white man in these rebel States destroyed 
 also. 
 
 " ' We mu?t reali?;e the state of affair.<4. We 
 have not done so hitherto. I hear that there 
 has been some criticism of the course adopted 
 by my predecessor [Gen. Hunter] in this de- 
 partment in regard to the negro population. 
 There hns been some talking about "idle, 
 lousy negroes," etc. The time for such talk has 
 passed. We must use the negro. At the West 
 we have protected whole tracts of corn and 
 cotton — property of rebels — protected them 
 better than iheir troops would have done, and 
 
14 
 
 LIBERTY FOR WHITE IIEN. 
 
 then have been chased out and left them for 
 the enemy to gather. There can be no more 
 of that. If we carry on the?e phintations here 
 by the labor of negroes, and make it profitable, 
 we must do so, and benefit ourselves at tlieir 
 expense. 
 
 " ' I ask you all to consider this subject care- 
 fully, though tfull}^, as its importance demands.' 
 
 " Such was tlie substance of his remarks, 
 which were listened to with deep interest, and 
 with general assenl^by the officers in attend- 
 ance." 
 
 LIBERTY FOR WHITE MEN. 
 
 (From the N. T. Evening Post of Oct. 4.) 
 
 There are three classes of men in the States 
 now held by the rebels — the slaveholders, the 
 slaves, and the non-slaveholding whites. The 
 slaveholders are the originators and leaders in 
 the rebellion ; they make the slaves support 
 them in their crime, and the poor whites to 
 fight for them. The slaves number over three 
 millions ; tlie poor whites nearly five millions; 
 the slaveholders less than four hundred thou- 
 sand. The slaves are ignorant; the poor whites 
 are for the most part little better informed ; 
 the slaveholders alone, as a class, have monop- 
 olized in the South, for many years, edu(!ation, 
 wealth, and political influence. In some of the 
 Southern States only slaveholders were per- 
 mitted to hold office ; in others, as in Virginia, 
 the peculiar property of the slaveholders was 
 represented in the legislature, and balanced the 
 votes of the non-slaveholders. With wealth, 
 education, and the social and political power 
 already in their hands, this mischievous class 
 did not find it difficult to seize also the liber- 
 ties of the poor whites — the non-slaveholders. 
 Colonel Hamilton, of Texas, told his hearers 
 some evenings ago, that w^, Avho support the 
 Government, fight not only for ourselves, but 
 for the non-slaveholding whites of the South — 
 to redeem them from the serfhood in which 
 they are held by the slaveholders ; to regain 
 for them the liberties snatched from them ; to 
 save them from the fate which is before them, 
 of being made the victims of a cruel despotism. 
 But he added, what is equally true, that ow 
 liberty will fall with theirs ; and that every blow 
 we strike for thein is a blow for our own security. 
 That is to say, we must " stand by our 
 order ;" we dare not be selfish ; we cannot, 
 without ruin to our own liberties, suffer those 
 of the Southern people to be destroyed. When 
 the founders of this Union inserted in the con- 
 stitution a clause making it the duty of Congress 
 to guaranty a republican form of government to 
 every State, they wisely foresaw just this neces- 
 sity. It is necessary to the welfare of the whole 
 that each part shall be healthy ; it is necessary 
 to the liberty of each that all shall be free. 
 The aristocratic or despotic principle which is 
 now fighting for a firm hold in a few States, 
 would inevitably crush the liberty of all. Nor 
 do the rebel leaders themselves fail to see this. 
 They recognize the fact that the movement 
 which they liave begun will not, if it succeeds, 
 stop there ; they do not intend that it shall. 
 They count, not on the separation of the Union 
 into two parts, but on its entire disintegration. 
 They do not mean to be content with five or 
 six States. Mr. Stephens (Vice-President of 
 
 the Rebel Confe'leracj') said in his Atlanta 
 speech, in March, 1861 : — 
 
 "Ttie procpss of disintegration in the old Union may 
 be expected to go on with almost absolute certainty. We 
 aio now the nucleus of a growing power, which, if we are 
 true to ourselves, our destiny, and our high mission, will 
 become the conlrolling power on this continent." 
 
 — And what he then said has been re-echoed by 
 the Richmond journals at different times siuce. 
 We see that these slaveholding aristocrats 
 could and did coolly speculate on the total de- 
 struction of that Union which had fostered 
 them, favored them, petted them, honored 
 them, trusted them at aU times. They saw 
 what they were doing; they saw that the 
 movement which they deliberately set on foot 
 was not only treason against the Government 
 which every one of them had repeatedly sworn 
 to maintain ; but it was treason against the 
 happiness, the liberty, the social progress of a 
 great nation; it was ^their purpose to strike a 
 blow at social order on this continent ; to Mex- 
 icanlze the American people ; to break down all 
 that Washington and Jefi'erson and their fel- 
 lows gave their lives to build up ; to destroy 
 everything that has made the American people 
 intelligent and happy at home, and honored 
 and respected abroad. 
 
 This is what the slaveholding rebels are bent 
 on ; and, united as they are, cruel and unscrup- 
 ulous, they will succeed if they are not opposed 
 with the utmost vigor and strength of which 
 the people of this country are capable. They 
 are not playing ; when they drew the sword 
 they threw away the scabbard ; when they 
 fired the first gun at Fort Sumter, they knew 
 that they began a movement which could end 
 only in our ruin or theirs ; which must leave 
 either liberty or slavery supreme on this con- 
 tinent ; ■which must either establish a despot- 
 ism on the ruins of our liberties — or destroy 
 those who united in this conspiracy for the 
 overthrow of the Union. They have asked no 
 favor of us since; they fight on, sacrificing 
 every interest of the poor whites whom they have 
 subjected to their wills, and willing to perish 
 beneath the ruins of their system rather than 
 give up their bad hopes. 
 
 We have no recourse except to beat them ; 
 we must fight, or submit to these ferocious 
 masters; Ave must fight our best against them; 
 and those who talk of compromise, of conces- 
 sions, of kindness, of conciliation here, either 
 wofully fail to comprehemd the issue, or they 
 are speaking in the interest of the rebels ; and 
 seeking to distract and divide public sentiment 
 here, only that the enemy may the more easily 
 and speedily gain his victory. 
 
THE LAST DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN FROM TEXAS. 
 
 15 
 
 COL. HAMILTON, THE LAST DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN 
 
 FROM TEXAS. 
 
 (From an article by Horace Greeley.) 
 
 In all the discussions which during a full year pre- 
 ceded and prepared for the PresidentVs Proclamation of 
 Freedom, the opponents of Emancipation regarded tho 
 alleged repugnance of Southern Uiiioni>t9 as their Mala- 
 koffi "The Union has too few friends in the Soutti al- 
 ready," they argued; "your policy will deprive it of 
 these few. A^ide from the negroes, who are fettered 
 and helpless, tlie Union will have no remaining well- 
 wishers, in the South after you shall have identifled it 
 wilh Abolition. IIow can we aiford thus to unite the 
 Southern Whites in one compact, determined phalanx 
 against us ? It is madness to urge it" 
 
 The logic was forcible had the assumption whereon 
 it was hased been a fact. But it was not and is not. as 
 every day's developments tend more clearly to establish. 
 The ice i-^ at lust broken, and the inundation of Liberal 
 sentiment is already manifest. 
 
 Hon. Andrew J. Hamilton, of Texas, is a striking 
 illnstration of this truth. lie is a native of Alabama, 
 reared a slaveholder, always surrounded by slaves, and 
 always regarding Slavery with indolent and unquestion- 
 ing approval. But for The Rebellion ho would probably 
 have died a slaveholder and a reputed admirer of '■ the 
 peculiar Institution." 
 
 But Mr. Hamilton, though a slaveholder, was never a 
 disnnionist. When he saw those who worked very hard 
 to bring Texas into the Union working even harder to 
 get her out again, and.others with her, he stood up to re- 
 sist them. In 1S59, the Democratic party of Texas, with 
 which he had always acted, held a State Convenion and 
 nominated H. G. Runnels, formerly Governor of Misis- 
 sippi, for governor of their State. Runnels was a dis- 
 nnionist; his leading supporters were of the same stripe; 
 the resolves and speeches of the Convention which nom- 
 inated hill smacked of treasonable intent; in short, the 
 nomination was calculated to te.'t the disposition of 
 Texas as to the i-cheme of a Southern Confederacy. Gen. 
 Sam Houston came out as " stump " candidate for Gov- 
 ernor in opposition, and was elected by 8,670 majority — 
 a result to which his prominent connection vrith the 
 early history of Texas and his personal popularity doubt- 
 less contributed. Mr. Hamilton in like manner ran for 
 Congress in tiie Western District a.s an independent Union 
 Democrat, and was elected over the regular Doinocratic 
 candidate, Judge Waul, by 448 majority out of 82,870 
 votes. 
 
 Thus elected to Congress as a Unionist, Mr. Hamilton 
 did not, like John Bell, betray the cause that had honored 
 him. When, in the early part of 1861, his colleague, 
 John H. Eeagan, now a member of tlie Confederate (Jab- 
 inet, rose t) declare his own adhesion and that of his 
 State to the Confederacy, Mr. Hamilton listened till he 
 had concluded, and then said : 
 
 " I care not for myself. I made up my mind at the beginning of 
 iJiifl trouble never to pauae in any exertiona because of the condition 
 in which it would place me for the time being, ether here or at 
 home. I have not allowed one single motive of selfishness, if I know 
 ,my own heart, ever to interfere with the exercise of what little judg- 
 ment I have been able to bring to bear upon these great questions. 
 I am solemnly impressed, however, Mr. Speaker, with the condition 
 in which I actually find myself. In traveling hither from my home, 
 more than two thousand miles distant from thia Capital, for the dis- 
 charge of a public duty, my foot pressed no spot of foreign territory. 
 My eye rested upon not one material object, during my journey, that 
 was not a part and parcel of my country, as I fondly deemed it. 
 When we assembled together, as mr as I know, every State and Ter- 
 ritory was represented upon this floor. The great fabric of the Gov- 
 ernment was then complete ; but now, how changed ! When I go 
 heuoe, it will be to tind my pathway intercepted by new and 
 strange nationalities. Without ever having wandered from my na- 
 tive land, I must traverse foreign countries, if I would return. I 
 might be excused for doubting my own identity. Surely I may be 
 pardoned for having involuntarily prayed that this might prove a 
 troubled and protracted dream. Yet it is too true — too many evi- 
 dences force conviction of the sad reality. Bnt a few days past, Mr. 
 Speaker, the noble temple of American liberty stood complete in all 
 ite parts — stood in all tne majesty of its vast proportions, and in the 
 glory of its app.arent strengtli and beauty of construction; not a pil- 
 lar missing nor a joint dissevered. And its votaries wore gathered 
 about the altar, worshiping, as was their wont, with hopeful hearts. 
 Forebodings wore felt, and predictions made, of the coming storm, 
 and the destruction of the temple. And the storm has come, and still 
 ragss; the temple still stands,'but shorn of its fair proportions, and 
 
 marred in its beauty. Pillar after pillar has fallen awai^, and while 
 its proud dome still points to heaven, it is reeling in mid-air like a 
 druuken man, while its solid foundations are shaken as with an 
 earthquake. Yet there are worshipers there about the shrine, and I 
 am among them. I have been called by warning voices to come out 
 and escape the impending danger; I have been woed by entreaties 
 and plied with threats. But, sir, neither entreaties, nor threats, nor 
 hope of reward, nor dread of danger, shall tear me away until i lay 
 liold of the horns of the altar of my country, and implore heaven, 
 in its own good time, to still the storm of civil strife, and through 
 such human agency as may be best, again uprear the fallen pillars 
 to tlieir original position, that they may through long ages contrib- 
 ute to the strength and beauty of the noblest structure yet devised by 
 man." 
 
 Mr. Hamilton returned to Texas to find her the help- 
 less prey of the Disunion consinrators. The treacherous 
 surrender by Gen. Twiags of the greater portion of the 
 regular army of the Union (which Floyd had ordered 
 from Utah to Texas, doubtless for that very purpose), 
 had placed in the hands of the active traitors nearly all 
 the arms and ammunition in the State. They were uni- 
 ted by a secret league ; they were ready for the emergen- 
 cy ; and the weakness of Gen. Houston In surrendering 
 the government of the State into their hands, had com- 
 pleted the ruin of the Union cause. For a year or more 
 Mr. Hamilton remained at home, suspected and watched, 
 but not arrested, his character and position being such, 
 that any wanton assault upon him would have redounded 
 to the injury of the Secessiot^ cause. During that time, 
 ho was advised of repeated instances in which Unionists 
 less conspicuous, and with fewer personal friends than 
 himself, were hunted down, fettered, abused, and si.ain, for 
 no other offence than that of fidelity to their country. Un- 
 ionism was everywhere repressed with a strong hand, yet 
 nowhere extinguished. Thousands who were induced to 
 plunge into the black pool of Seces-ion by assurance that 
 it was merely a device to fiighten the North into conces- 
 sions of her rights to the South — by representations that 
 there would be no bloodshed, and that all would be set- 
 tled and smiling within a few months— have long .since 
 been bitterly undeceived by the relentless conscription 
 which has torn every son capable of bearing arms from 
 the paternal hearth, and by the various devices whereby 
 all their stock and crops are swept into the Confederate 
 droves and garners, and paid lor in Confederate script 
 or not at alll He has no doubt that a majority of the 
 people of Western Texas (with the other half of the State 
 he is comparatively little acquainted) would welcome to- 
 morrow tlie unfolding among them of tho dear old flag 
 under which they always enjoyed abundance, security, 
 and happiness. And Mr. Hamilton, hunted at length 
 from his home, compelled to hide for weeks in the moun- 
 tains and thickets, and to make his way furtively to the 
 Rio Grande, and thence to Matamoras, New Orleans, and 
 our city, is among us to plead the cause of the Unionists 
 of Texas, who ask that they may be enabled to help them- 
 selves. Let them have arms and ammunition, and the 
 nucleus of an army, and they will fill its ranks and joy- 
 fully co-operate in crushing out their oppressors, restor- 
 ing their State to Freedom and tho Union. 
 
 But Mr. Hamilton, though born, reared, and always liv- 
 ing in the Cotton States, is no conditional Unionist. Ho la 
 oiienly, unequivocallv, iu favor of strangling the monster, 
 Slavery, as well as his offspring, Treason — and, recog- 
 nizing in Slavery at least the fulcrum whereby the trai- 
 tors were enabled to up et the loyalty of the South, he 
 favors its demolition in order that loyalty may safely rear 
 its head again. Believing that if Slavery were extin- 
 guished, the Rebellion would ba a fire without fuel, he is 
 a champion of the policy which says, "Let Slavery die, 
 that so the Republic may live." Regarding Secession as 
 a revolt against democratic inniitutiona, in order that 
 a narrow oligarehy may monopolize the semblance as 
 well at the reality of powei', he would crush out that 
 oligarchy, by abolishing that which gives it unity and 
 pre^ti^e, that so Lioerty and Union may abide and flonr- 
 i-h evermore. Such is Hon. Andrew J. Hamilton of 
 Texas. Do not miss an opportunity to hear him, and let 
 his earnest words fire your heart with a deeper devotion 
 to Freedom and our Country L 
 
16 
 
 THE CAUSE AND CURE OF THE SLAVEHOLPEES REBELLION. 
 
 THE CAUSE AND CURE OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS' REBELLION. 
 
 (From the New Y'/rk Dally Times.) 
 
 Mr. ITaviitok, of Texas, is one of the most earnest 
 prop! ets the S' ulh has yet aiven to the Union, lie haf 
 trodileii the wiiie-prtss of rt^icl hiite and bears marks of 
 Uievt.b-.ll ge s"iight tobi iirpased upnnhim. Ilestands 
 befon liis loyal eountrym n lo-day a martyr to his prin- 
 •ip'e-, and hi.- life .saved ly a miracle, as it were, ot goi^d 
 fortune. lie was dougrd from his home, throutrli the set- 
 tlements and into the mountains of Texas. Five times 
 his a timpt to e-cape wn.s dcfeatnL He was tie mfirk at 
 whirh tlie a.'-sjisfin'.s hullet was sped. He renched the 
 Gulf eiia<t at Inst ai d fonijd snf. ty on 6hipbo«id. '■ 1 he 
 last ihjiig I Paw." he .'ay.s, ''on look'ng back from the 
 schoon r'g deck to the recedins shores of Texas, wsvs the 
 little launch full of armed men who had failed to catch 
 ma.'' 
 
 Such is the >imple story of Mr. Hamilton's escape from 
 Toxa'^. In leaving that Sta'e he was, he says, severing 
 all early connections, nartii g with life-long friends, giving 
 np his position in so^'i. ty (which was a high and en\iable 
 cne. we ran .say for him), breaking the links that bound 
 bim to wife and children, and 1 avirg "home," without 
 knowing whi ther or not he would ever retiirn ? Is not 
 ti »' a )) ctiire of the cruelest (ate that can hef ill any man 
 tB th's life f 15ut il represents the price that a brave man 
 pays f'.r his independence in the South. 
 
 Surely Mr. Uamilton is authorized to spet^k on behalf of 
 the Union men of the >*outh. He has done so in this city. 
 He Is to do so again ; ond we only wi-h he conUl speak 
 so as to be he.ird by every free man in New York State. 
 Mr. Haniilt( n puts an end to many of the nii=einble quit> 
 bles :.mon2 political parti.sansiihont the origin of the war. 
 He sa; 8 it is false to nsfribe the rebellion to the action of 
 the Abolition party. He says, and s.ays truly, that no 
 Soutl-ern leader ever yet admitted that slavery w.as not 
 adequaely protected by theNali' nal Goverrment. We 
 know that the Confederate Commissionfrs in Europe 
 kave labored most nssicuously to convince foreign cabi- 
 nets Vat the Northern St:,t. s were no more disposed to 
 the abolition ipf slavery than the Southern. But neither, 
 tays Mr. Hamilton, did the Democratic party (Mr. Bu- 
 e.hana:i's Adiiiinistration) prodi'ce the war. The can.se 
 wa* <leeper than all the causes as'^igned. It was the con- 
 viction on ihe part of Souhern ol g.^rehs (m;dn!y slave- 
 hohiers) th.it repnhlicavif^m tras a yai/iire. and their 
 deterniiration to form a Government in wh'ch (he lahor 
 oj'P e nation nhoulcl have no represeritaliori. 
 
 This is the basis of the rebelli. n, and this is the battle 
 wean- fighting. It is tlie old hatile of freedom ntrainst 
 di spoti'.in, which, from the 1 eginnins.', hivs crini-oned the 
 earth with Mood. Mr. Hamilton assnres us that the non- 
 rfaveh' Iding whiles of the South, though misled at first 
 by the sclieining authors of the rebellion, are besiinninsr 
 to 8" I that it is thar own deiTadation the obg.irels of ihe 
 f outh are seeking. He assures us, as we knew before, 
 tliat a majority in a nnmher of the seceded States were 
 
 opposed to the rebellion, aird he says that the rebels, sine* 
 tlie SiC"6.sion, "have made no fiiends among ihe Unio» 
 men." On ihe other hai d, lie drc'nr. s that the scales have 
 lal'en from the eyes of tlou-am's who were in tde b< gin- 
 ning dni'cd into treason, aiid that they stand ready toes- 
 I ouse the cause of the o'd Govemm. nt This is indeed, 
 (hcering news, and should renniniate the hope and cour- 
 age of the loy.l mi Tons who are lighting tills £re:it and 
 final battle of freedom. We shall have the Union re- 
 stored — not the '■ Union as it was." as semi-traitors mouth 
 the phrase — but Ihe Union as Washington and JeJferson 
 left it The words of Sir. Hamilton on this point con- 
 tain the Convictions of the nmion now in arms against the 
 rebellion. The voice of the people will be the voice of 
 God. Laws and Constitutions must yield to the popular 
 right and popular sal'tty. Isays Mr. Hi.milton : 
 
 *■ I involve the aid of the loyal people in restoring the GovernmcDt 
 of the Unileil States. But,' fellow-eitizeOB, if yoa had the power 
 and were to tender to me to-night the restoration of the Union as it 
 existed in the State of Tezau in 1861, 1 would not thank you for th« 
 boon. [Applauee.] Ifj because I cannot measure my conscience or 
 judgment with those ot my neighbor, or a m:ijority oi 'uiy ueighbora. 
 I am to be looked upon with coldnesa, suspicion* .ind aversion ; i/T 
 am to be insulted and spit upon by the ciiildren of my neighbors 
 whom I may have dandled on my knees, thinking that they would, 
 at least, remember me with kindness as their father's neighbor and 
 friend; if 1 am to be looked upon as something loathsome, because 
 I cannot believe that Slavery is the beginning and the end of all 
 Irgitimate government ; if, above all, I cannot say what I bclicva, 
 that there are excesses and abuses in respect to that institution which 
 ought to be looked to ; if, in short, because I might say what 
 ^VASMI^GTO^■ said, believing it ; what .Tkffkrson wrote, and what 
 all the good and great men of that day believed, 1 nni to he stigxmv. 
 tized as a traitor, and made to sufier'a traitor's doom; if that is to 
 be the result of the " Union as it was," I want no such Union. [Ap- 
 plause.] If, when the Union is restored, as I trust it will be, I may 
 he at liberty to go out and realize the fuel in a practical sense thai I 
 am the recipient of the preat and inestimable right intended to be !W- 
 lured to uie by the Constitution ot the United fe'tates; if 1 can enjoy 
 the right of speech as well as the liberty of conscience, then I caa 
 bless such a Union ; but I cannot bless ono which * holds out th« 
 word of promise to the ear to break it to the hope.*" 
 
 Mr. Hamilton does not think that 'the Sonth will 
 be TUinc d " if .-lavery is destrf yt d He thinks the slave- 
 holders and rebels will be. but that the, non-sUivelolclers 
 of the Sovth, who are the great majority of the whit* 
 people there, will he happily enj'iandiiftecl, set free, 
 enriched and" enobled by that evf nt, whioh (ru.-hes the 
 aristocrats and oligarchs. This is a new view of the 
 •inhject. It is a phi osojihic view taken by a free man of 
 Ihe South, in the interest of the South. It is a view 
 that harmonizes with tie cmr.ncipa'ion edict ot'the Goy- 
 crnment— that annihilates the sophi.sms of .> em i -trail ore 
 in the North— thai kindles the he.'irls of freemen every- 
 where to a holy zeal ag.tinst the selfish tyrants of the 
 rebellion— that gives assurance < f a new and n litre life 
 for tl.e Souh lift r slavery is overthrown, and£:n''r.iT.t<ee 
 a Union as peaceful and enduring as ilB hading principle* 
 shall be free, humanizing, and eternal. 
 
 The SlaTcholders' Denunciations sgainst Ecniccraey. 
 
 Sarnett's letter to Trescott, piiMished on ilie 10th page, is one of the clearest revelatiom 
 cf the ptirposes of the Slavchoklers in this Rehellion. 
 
 That Mr. Trescott was a thorough sj-mpaihizer with the Virginian Slaveholder in de- 
 n^Tir.cing Democratic prineiides, is indicated in various 'ways, even in his Address before the 
 South Carolina Hi-'itorical Society, as puhlished in the Charleston Mercury, and re-published 
 JB De Bow's Review for December, 1859, v herein he says: 
 
 "That the institution [of Slavery], wliich, with the ram of former times, was an experi- 
 " n «nt, had become the corner-sloue of their social and political life:" 
 
 And yet there were some men in South Carolina ." who would eradicate our old State 
 " pride — destroy the conservative character of our State politic? — strip us bare of the glorious 
 " ao)'ievement8 of the past, and drive us, destitute and dishoiiortd, into the Jit companionship 
 " of a vagabond and denioraUz'rd Dimonacy." 
 
 — And all this denunciation of " Democracy," while Trest o(t wns actually servirg as Mr. 
 Boc};anan'8 "Democratic" Assistant Secretary of State — plotting the ruin of our Democratic 
 instil niioDe, because " Slavery is iucon patible with D«nioeraey." 
 
SUVOCRACY AGAINST DEMOCRACY — THE GREAT CAUSE OF 
 
 THE REBELLION. 
 
 REMARKS OF THE HON. LORENZO SHERWOOD, 
 
 Ex-Member of the Texan Legislature, 
 
 ON THE COUESE OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS' ' OONSPIRAOY 
 AGAINST DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. 
 
 " Th« !»ad»TB In 
 
 thip Rebellion are actuated by a distinct purpose to SUPPLANT POPULAR GOVERNMENT AND 
 ESTABLISH A MONARCHY," with " Slavery as its corner-stone."' 
 
 W'Qt'ri firvi, a 1 ii\ssiu£t bis northern f'lIow-c>nntrymon, Co'. Hsmillon, the Irtst Democratic Congressnian from TexK, 
 thus poiiited to tho cause and the cnre of the tiebeilion. Referrins to the declarations of prominent slaveholders, that 
 they ■' must get nd of the last and least remains of Democracy^'' Col. H. said : 
 
 "If you could, a.<* I have done, hear in the hotels and in the streets and in parlors, echoes of that sentiment from 
 men who, two vesrsaso, were regarded as loyal, saving. '■ ReptCblicanUra isafailure — we are aston shed that we ever 
 thonijht it C'juld succeed ; we no-w realize the fact that we must have a stronger Oovemm.ent ' — if you knew it as I 
 kijow it. y(iu would feel, fellow-citizer.s, that th^re was something more involved in thii revolution than a simple desire 
 to gel rid of the • hared Tatikee.' It is not because the men who inaugurated it hated the people of the North— it was 
 not befause t'ney felt that you hrsd seriously wronged them— but it was a dt liberate purpose on their part t" be the con- 
 trolling .'■pirits in a ntio and a different order of Government, where their power would be perpetual, and tliey would 
 not be sat jKCted 1 1 the chances of the free choice of a free people in recurring elections, as had been the esse in past 
 time in our conntry; and he th.it dops not realize that fact to-day, does not yet understand what that retieilion means 
 and, by consequence, the man that is to-day flattering himself that, hy conciliatory measures, fry kinri words by 
 peaee-offi-rivgs, the disloyal States can be caused to resume their position in the Confederacy, is wofvMy deceived— it 
 never will hap'pen in that way. There is but one remedy, and that is in the physical power of the loyal people of the 
 North— the physical power, directed by the exercise of sufficient thought to lead you to just conclusions as to what the 
 consequences are to be to yov, as wrfl as to the balance of the people of the United States, in case of failure." 
 
 * * * "I have srrown wearied and disgusted with the mawkish sens-ibilify over the negro, when there is so much 
 higher and more available ground to take in favor of the white man," says Lorenzo Sherwood. * * * "My sym- 
 pathies are enli.sted in the great cause of white humanity in its shirt-sleeves — of that twenty -seven millions of Ameri- 
 can free citizens who .are bound to the eternal business of subsistence through their own industry. -Their lot is to toil 
 —to toil on froui generation to generation : and a pretty business it is for less than one hundred thousand slaveholders 
 to set these toiling millions to cuitiog one another s throats!" 
 
 THE SLAVEHOLDERS' REBELLION— ITS ORIGIN AND OBJECTS 
 
 The following correspondence, showing the 
 estimate placed on the opinions of the Hon. Lo- 
 renzo Sherwood by Col. Hamilton, of Texas, may 
 serve as an introduction to the annexed outlines 
 of the late speech of Mr. Sherwood, in New Jer- 
 sey, concerning the Origin and Objects of the 
 Slaveholders' Rebellion : 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 New Yoke, 82 Pine St., Oet. 18, 1862. 
 Col. Ahdke^v Jackron Hamilton. 
 
 Dear Sir — Knowing the profound interest with which you 
 T7atch the diffusion of information concerning the real mo- 
 tives influencing the Slaveholders' Conepiracy, I respectfully 
 submit for your conjideration a proof-sheet of the outlines 
 of the Hon. Lorenzo Sherwood's late speech in New Jersey, 
 with the belief that an expression of your opinion concern- 
 ing his statements and reasonings would still further com- 
 mend thefai to the consideration of your loyal countrymen 
 South and North, and to the friends of free government in 
 other lands, who wish to know the true causes of the at- 
 tempted destruction, not only of our National Government, 
 but of democratic institutions, by the slave-aristocracy, at 
 Ihe present crisis. 
 
 As no one knows better than you do the opportunities of 
 Mr. Sherwood for learning thoroughly and correctly appre- 
 ciating all branches of information concerning these vital 
 lucstions- opportunities aflbrded by his long Southern es- 
 |>erience and hit intimate connection with public afifairs (in 
 
 and out of the Legislature) of Texas ; and as I know the cor- 
 diality with which you and Mr. Sherwood have co-operated 
 in sustaining loyal sentiments in the South, and in endeav- 
 oring to cause the true motives of the rebellion to be cor- 
 rectly understood among your Northern fellow-countrymen, 
 as set forth in the publications of the Democratic League' 
 I am sure yon ^vill not consider Intrusive this request for 
 .an expression of your opinion on the above-mentioned 
 points. 
 
 Tours, respectfully, 
 
 HENRY O'RIELLY. 
 
 REPLY. 
 
 New York, Oct. IS, 1862. 
 
 My Deae Srs;— Tour note of to-day, calling my atten- 
 tion to, and asking my opinion of, the facts and arguments 
 contained in a proof-sheet of the outlines of the Hon. Lo- 
 renzo Sherwood's late speech in New Jersey, is before mo. 
 But a few moments are left me for reply, as I am in the 
 act of leaving tho city. 
 
 I fully concur in all that is contained in th.it speech. 
 These are matters not new to either Mr. Sherwood or my- 
 self; nor do we now for the first time interchange opiniong 
 upon them. Together we have, in years pist, watched the 
 inevitable tendency in the South to the present deplorable 
 condition of our country. There are few men of my ac- 
 quaintance who are so well prepared, from observation, 
 experience and reflection, to think wisely ;iiid act justly 
 in the premises as Mr. Sherwood. 
 
 Very truly and respectfully, 
 
 „ „ A. J. HAMILTON. 
 
 To HiNRT O'ElBtLT, Eaq. 
 
bPEECH OF LOEENZO BflKHWe^O. 
 
 SPEECH OF LOKENZO SHERWOOD, 
 
 EX-MEMBER OF THE TEXAN LEGISLATCKE, 
 
 RESPECTING THE SLAVEHOLDERS' CONSPIRACY AGAINST DEMOCRATIC 
 PRINCIPLES, AS WELL AS AGAINST THE NATIONAL UNION. 
 
 My Fbee Fellow-countrtmen : 
 
 1 thus designate yo\i, in contradistinction to 
 the masses in the ^outh, -who aro now under the 
 sway of despotism, and who are no longei- free. 
 Hard as this word is to speak, and painful as it 
 is to contemplate, the declaration is true. Those 
 who have heretofore sympathized with you in 
 the belief that tliey had enduring free govern- 
 ment, and who are attached to its principles, find 
 themselves suddenly transferred to the degrada- 
 tion of a most mercenary and relentless despot- 
 ism. I come to you to-night to disclose and elu- 
 cidate the full meaning of the conspiracy that 
 has deprived them of their political rights ; to 
 excite your generous sympathy in their behalf; 
 and, if po.-sible, to increase your animated deter- 
 mination to uphold that clause of the Constitu- 
 tion which guaranties to the people of every 
 State " free republican government." 
 
 If I arrogate to myself something of special 
 information, and more than is common to most 
 others, it is only for the reason that I have been 
 placed more immediately in contact with those 
 who have co-operated in this great Soxithern con- 
 spjracy, fitlj' denominated " The Slaveholders' 
 Rebellion." It is a conspiracy, not only against 
 the national jurisdiction, but a most foul conspir- 
 acy also against free government in the South. I 
 is this phase of the question that 1 would discuss, 
 for it is as patent to my mind that a new order of 
 government, based on privilege of class, is intend- 
 
 it» authore or contributois do not enttrtain tii. ^ 
 sentiments. If you discover that ~ democratic 
 principles are repudiated as vicious in theoi'y 
 and vile in practice, you may know that such 
 principles are objectionable. When yon hear 
 the democratic masses reviled, and continuously 
 reviled, in the standai'd political literature of .; 
 class, you may know th.al tlio?e masses are coi, 
 demned by that class as an objectionable politi- 
 cal element. I had every reason to believe, and 
 did Vjelieve before secession, that the object '■'■ 
 the slaveholders was to overthrow the den - 
 cratic principle. 
 
 When the rebellion actually took place, it re- 
 vived in my mind many things, previously bji;.;- 
 ken by slaveholders, that would otherwise have 
 
 r- 
 
 been forgotten. It was then that the mii 
 repeated declarations I had heard IIu<m 
 ries of years assumed a significant meii ' i 
 dispelled all doubt. Later revelalitr; ^^_ 
 tended to confirnt the foregone couclusi. ;,'"'"4 
 the intent of the slaveholders — that is. 
 rogalionof democratic government in fli ; 
 
 As an additional evidence of the j' ■ g^ 
 cede, as well as the motive, the real, secretflRo 
 five for secession, I will read the letter olaftr, 
 Garnett to Mr. Trescott, -written in 1851. tWK 
 speaker here read the letter.) This lotteifTr'': 
 a most important bearing and mo&t porlS 
 ous meaning. It "was written in secret 
 fidence. It was written by a leading trs 
 to a leadinsc traitor. It was written jtistf 
 
 ed to be established, as it is that the national ju 
 
 risdiction has been repudiated. If any one could j ter the Nashville Convention of I860, wl 
 
 have seen what I have seen, heard what I have the plot to secede, as is now ascertained. 
 
 adopted and determined on. It was written in] 
 swcr to a treasonable letter, with the eentime| 
 of which Mr. Garnett sympathized. " You 
 
 heard, and watched and analyzed what has been 
 thrust upon my attention during my fourteen 
 
 years' residence in the South, he would have lit- . ^ ^ -- 
 
 tie difficult}' in concluding as to the motives of' object to the term Democrat," says Mr Garnej 
 the rebellion. " Democracy is, indeed, incompatible witii ?ia 
 
 Whoever is placed in immediate contact with '"J ai>d the whole system of Soutliein r-cciet 
 the reasonings of a class, and follows up that This was a truth which had become patent 
 course of reasoning through a series of years, I the minds of slaveholdea-s, and very few at t 
 
 will have little difficulty in divining the ulterior 
 motives of that class, however much the attempt 
 may be made to disguise them. The motives 
 will crop out from the line of reasoning. When 
 slaveholders talk against " a government of ma- 
 jorities." it means something. When they talk 
 about the necessity of" abrogating a government 
 of majorities," it swells into significance of some - 
 thing more than idle theorj-. It means an in- 
 tended new arrangement of political power. 
 When yon see a periodical like De Bow's Re- 
 
 time, I think, are pre])ared to dispute the pni 
 osition. Whoever xmdertakes to controvert tl 
 proposition, will be at issue with the poUtif 
 influences now controlling the South. ff^ 
 
 As far back as 1S55, in the July number of iM 
 Bow's Review, we find an article written by IJN 
 eminent Southerner, containing the foUovN!* 
 reasonings and postulates. Speaking of the Dei;i- 
 ocratic theory, hd says: "At, the bott.om of ili!.- 
 theory lies tiie idea that might makes rigiit; in 
 other word.*, that a majority of the meniler.-i of 
 
 view, which is the oracle and organ of the slave- ' society lias a natural, indefeasible, aTid :\bsolnte 
 holders, and tiie sacred depository of the politi- j rhhi to govern tl*e minority. *' * * The ma- 
 cal literature of tiieir class, you may gather jt>'ity of numher* is more powerful than the 
 from the tenor of its pages something of what is Czai', because it is physical rhjlf. It is ni(>;e 
 meant. If you never find a generous deraooratie I grinding in its tyranny, because it iias less fe.d- 
 sentiment on its pages, you may conclude that I ing of personal responsibility, and its ArgUS eyes 
 
SPEECH OF LORENZO SHEKWOOB. 
 
 can search every corner of the country. Its in- 
 fallibility is less open to attack than the Pope's, 
 because it is, itself, public opinion." The author 
 assumes tliat "in England the ability in govern- 
 ment has been preserved by a highly aristocratic 
 Constitution, both social and political." 
 
 It may not be unprofitable, in elucidation of 
 this subject, to recite in addition a few declara- 
 tions and postulates from the present philoso- 
 phers of the South. I would take up those whose 
 opinions have passed current, and are in con- 
 formity with the designs of treason. Mi*. George 
 Fitzhugh, of Va., has more than emulated South 
 Carolina in the expression of his motives to get 
 rid of the Union. In the February number of 
 De Bow's Review, 1861, he assumes "that it is a 
 great mistake to "uppose that abolition alone 
 was the cause of dissension between the North 
 and the South." He assumes "that the Cava- 
 liers, .Jacobites, and Huguenots, who settled the 
 South, naturally hate, contemn, and despise the 
 Puritans who settled the North. The former are 
 master races; the latter, a slave race, the de- 
 scendants of Saxon serfs. The former ai-e Med- 
 iter- nean races, descendants of the Romans; 
 for '.'avaliers and Jacobites are of Norman de- 
 80. , and the Normans jvere of Roman descent, 
 a. o were the Huguenots. The Saxons and 
 Anf'-'-is, the ancestors of the Yankees, came from 
 the old and marshy regions of the north, where 
 r is little more than an amphibious biped." 
 H- assumes, further, "that the Union has served 
 ifcs purposes; that at the North the progress and 
 teiidency of opinion was to pure democracy; 
 !■ t the South must so modify its institutions as 
 ■move the people farther from the direct ex- 
 ie of power ; that it was a characteristic of 
 tte progress of opinion in the South, that all 
 DT er- see the necessity of more and stronger gov- 
 e-'nment ; that the people of the South were the 
 most aristocratic people in the world; and, to 
 CODclude, that aristocracy is the only safeguard 
 of liberty, and the only power watchful and 
 : -'iig enough to exclude monarchal despotism." 
 ie these passages for the pi^rpose of showing 
 repugnance of the authoi", and the school to 
 which he belongs, to the democratic principle in 
 rovernment. 
 
 In an Essay written by J. Quitman Moore of 
 fississippi, and published in De Bow's Review, 
 lu 1861, the author makes the following postu- 
 ahe: "Those pestilent and pernicious dogmas, 
 'he greatest good to the greatest number,' 'the 
 ajority shall rule,' are, in their practical appli- 
 cation, the fruitful source of disorders never to be 
 quieted, revolutions the most radical and san- 
 guinary, philosophies' the most false, and passions 
 the most wild, destructive, and ungovernable." 
 "In America," says this author, "by reason of 
 the operations of causes wholly extraneous to 
 considerations of government and society, the 
 republican experiment has been favored and 
 prolonged beyond recorded precedent; but, pain- 
 tlil as the reflection must be to all such as sub- 
 scribed to the Utopian philosophy, and have an 
 abiding I'aith in the capacity of man forcontiuu- 
 oas and enlightened self-rule, it must be confessed 
 that the experiment of the democratic Republic 
 "i" Arrif>rif !•. lias failed," 
 
 "The Remedy. — The institution of an heredit- 
 ary senate and executive is the political form 
 best suited to the genius, and most expressive of 
 the ideas, of the South ; but, at the same time, a 
 polity wholly incapable of realization, so longas 
 the individual States retain the attribute of in- 
 dependent sovereignty, and party passions and 
 interests are permitted to stifle the expression 
 of an enlightened and patriotic public senti- 
 ment." 
 
 " The institution of an hereditary senate and 
 executive the political form best suitfed to the 
 genius, and most expressive of the ideas of, the 
 South" III If this mode of thinking is applied 
 to the slaveholders as a class, the declaration is 
 true beyond a doubt ; but, if it is intended to 
 apply to the seven millions uon-slaveholdiug 
 masses, the democratic element in the South, it 
 is not true, even in degree, and mortal man, pro- 
 fessing to stand in the image of his maker, never 
 unsealed his lips to utter so foul and detestable 
 a falsehood. 
 
 In this programme for a Southern government, 
 we have also an illustration of Southern hypoc- 
 risy in relation to the much-vaunted "State- 
 rights " doctrine. It has been used as a pretense, 
 a means to assist in throwing off the national 
 jurisdiction. In the minds of the traitors it 
 meant nothing more. It was merely used as a 
 catchword to inaugurate treason. As soon as 
 revolution was supposed to be accomplished, 
 another and a very different doctrine is imme- 
 diately put forth. A consolidated government, 
 an hereditary senate and executive, suddenly 
 become the political form " best suited to the 
 genius" of these recent advocates of State 
 rights. 
 
 Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, at the time of giving 
 in his adhesion to the Southern Confederacy, had 
 the candor to acknowledge, in part, the hypoc- 
 risy of the South as to the reasons for secession. 
 He urged the indispensable necessity of founding 
 a new government, based on the social system of 
 the South, with "Slavery as its corner-stone." 
 Mr. Spratt, of S. C, in his famous letter to Per- 
 kins, of Louisiana, reproves the disingenuous 
 accusations against the North made by Southern 
 politicians, stating that no man who deserved 
 the name of statesman in the South would pi-e- 
 tend that secession was caused by any aggression 
 of the North upon the rights of the people of the 
 South ; that it was still less the residt of any act 
 on the part of the United States Government." 
 His argument in favor of taking the government 
 from the "heels of society" and placing it in 
 "the head," is quite as significant of meaning as 
 Mr. Moore's pi'oposition for an hereditary senate 
 and executive. 
 
 As incident to a combined monarchal arid 
 aristocratic form of government, it is well known 
 that entails and the rights of j)rimogeniture are 
 indispensable. In an article written by George 
 Fitzhugh, of Va., and published in De Bow's 
 Review in 1859, advocating entails and primo- 
 geniture, he says — 
 
 " Entails of land should include enough' to 
 sustain and keep employed at various arts and 
 avocations an almost independent social circle. 
 The landowner's spare profits <!i.->nl.l .nnble him 
 
SPEECH OF LORENZO SHERWOOD. 
 
 to educate well and start in life his younger 
 sons, either as meclianics, artists, or professional 
 men, and, with economy, to lay iip small por- 
 tions for his daughters. To eftect these objects, 
 he must have a farming tenantry, with hired la- 
 borers under them, or must farm it himself, and 
 employ many laborers. These, with his younger 
 children, aud elder ones not in business, and 
 poor and dependent relatives, would form a 
 natural and patriarchal circle, secure from the 
 fluctuations of trade. In all but name, the own- 
 er of the entailed estate would be the master, 
 and his farailj', tenants, laborers, and dependents 
 his servants. It would be an easy way of get- 
 ting back to predial slavery, without incurring 
 the odium of the name. Give us entails, and we 
 promise you a mild and modified form of domes- 
 tic slavery. We are no experimenting socialist; 
 we propose nothing new, but only to return to 
 the institutions ordained by God, and tested and 
 approved by human experience." 
 
 I might continue these recitals, indicating the 
 intentions of those who inaugurated the rebel- 
 lion ; but, I have not time to proceed with them 
 further on this occasion. These secret motives 
 to overthrow free government in the south, were 
 as carefully concealed from the non-slavetiolding 
 masses in the South as they were from the 
 twenty millions in the North. Had they been 
 promulgated as the basis of revolution, the con- 
 spiracy would have been crushed by Southern 
 strength alone. The traitors would have been 
 hurled from place and power by the democratic 
 masses, had the secret motives to "the treason 
 been understood; but, the masses in the South 
 had been as much deceived by false pretences 
 and the hypocrisy of the leading traitors, as the 
 freemen of the North. The twenty-seven mil- 
 lions, North and South, have been alike deceived, 
 and most of them are laboring under the same 
 delusion to-day. 
 
 It was indispensably necessary to the purpo- 
 ses of the rebellion, that false pretences and false 
 motives should be held out. When the rebels 
 entered upon the plot of treason many years ago, 
 political strategy waa the great weapon with, 
 which to inaugurate it. They had no more scru- 
 ple on the score of falsehood and deceit than mi- 
 litary men have under the usages of war. 
 Whilst they professed to love the Government 
 and the Union, they were hypocritically jjlotting 
 to overthrow it. They used every a^t to gain 
 confidence with Northern men, whilst secretly 
 intending to betray it. We have still many 
 men in the North, as well as in the South, who 
 are yet blinded as to the real motives of .the 
 traitois, and I have sometimes thought that those 
 most deluded were connected with the adminis- 
 tration at Washington, and the generals who 
 are commanding, not to say leading, our armies. 
 
 The great mistake that has been made \)y the | 
 administration, and the leading influences that | 
 have controlled it. has grown out of the idea that | 
 slaveholders as a class, could be conciliated — 
 that some arrangement could be made whereby 
 the South could be restored through their agen- 
 cy. The continuation of that mistake, if persis- 
 ted in, will lose the whole Union cause. The 
 
 slaveholding conspirators are haters of democi'a- 
 cy. To get rid of democracy and its future sway 
 under the laws of population and subsistence, 
 they risked the institution of slavery ; they 
 risked tlie ravages of wai- ; they risked life, and 
 all that humanity holds most dear; but it must 
 be remembered, that all this risk was incurred, 
 believing that a new order of government, sub- 
 verting the democratic principle, must be insti- 
 tuted in order to perpetuate and maintain slave 
 ry iinimpaired. 
 
 When we look at the nature of the institution, 
 and the results flowing from it, we can discover 
 the strong pecuniary motive for maintaining it. 
 Aside from the profits of agricultural products, 
 sixty millions per year were added to the in- 
 crease of slave property through the laws of gen- 
 eration. Three per cent, or thereabouts, an- 
 nually compounded, added to the profits of agri- 
 culture, swelled the slaveholders' profits to 10, IS? 
 or 15 per eenr. annually. This enabled the 
 slaveholders to monopolize the good lands and 
 the force to cultivate them. In this way the in- 
 stitution was peculiarly calculated to perpetuate 
 wealth in families, and to contiuuate it in the 
 family descent. But how was this descent of 
 property, and this increase of the future millions 
 upon millions of slave^to be held in bondage? 
 Here were seven millions of non-slaveholders, 
 composing tk« democratic element of the South. 
 It was an enfi-achised, voting power. It was at- 
 tached to free government, and had drank in the 
 idea of free government the same and as fully 
 as the people of the North. This population in 
 twenty-three to twenty-five years would swell 
 to fourteen millions. Five decades would swell 
 it to twenty-eight millions, whilst the same 
 length of time would swell the slaveholding ele- 
 ments to six millions only. Antagonisms be- 
 tween these democratic and anti-democratic 
 forces were sure to rise up as population became 
 crowded. Under this regime, the antagonistic 
 elements in society, under the laws of popula- 
 tion and subsistence, must soon come in conflict. 
 
 There was another consideration with slave- 
 holders, and one of most vital energy in impelling 
 them to the project of taking away the power of 
 the masses. The property in slaves was political 
 property. It depended for its duration upon the 
 action of political forces and the policy of the 
 State under the operation of those political forces: 
 hence slaveholders were jealous of the masses. 
 They were anti democratic, from supposed neces- 
 sity. They must possess and wield the exclusive 
 political power of the State, and continue to ex- 
 ercise it, for whenever they lost it, and the pres- 
 tige of its antagonism should come into the as- 
 cendency, the downfall of slavery would take its 
 date. This process of reasoning, whether true 
 or false, was the theory of the slaveholding in- 
 terests in the South, it was the impelling mo- 
 tive, not only for the conspiracy to throw off the 
 national jurisdiction, but to overtiirow free gov- 
 ernment in the South. When these considera- 
 tions are taken into account, and the motives 
 aud purposes of slaveholders analyzed, the fallacy 
 of attempting to conciliate them becomes appa- 
 rent. Their aim and object is, aud from supposed 
 
8PEECH OF LORENZO SHERWOOD. 
 
 necessity, to overthrow democracy. The effort 
 to do this is backed not only by supposed neces- 
 sity, in order to preserve slavery unimpaired, 
 but by the whole train of ambitious motives con- 
 nected with the raising up of an organized and 
 cemented aristocracy. 
 
 WTien we contemplate Southerc. population, 
 and separate it into clashes — to say nothing of 
 the negro — we find seven millions non-slavehold- 
 ing population, democratic in its sentiments, at- 
 tached to free government, and in every essential 
 a natural element of national strength in connec- 
 tion with liberalized institutions. When we 
 look at the Ivorth, we find twenty millions hav- 
 ing the same natural motives. How is it, and 
 why is it, that fifteen hundred thousand men, 
 women, and children, connected in proprietor- 
 ship in slavery, should have wiehled a power 
 and influence that have set the twenty-seven 
 millions at variance, destroyed concert of action, 
 and brought our Government to the deplorable 
 spectacle now witnessed ? Is it because, as slave- 
 holders pretend, that "they are our natural 
 masters"? or is it because the twenty-seven mil- 
 lions have been deceived — are now engaged in 
 deceiving each other^ — and have been frittering 
 away their strength and substance on the most 
 fallacious of all delusions— the belief that the 
 agencies which inaugurated the rebellion can be 
 turned into an agency to restore the Union? If 
 this be the reliance, in my belief the Union is 
 gone. 
 
 It has been apparent to my mind, and, as I 
 have often thought., clearly apparent, that an ap- 
 peal should be made to the democratic element 
 of the South, which as yet has never been spoken 
 to by the Cabinet or Congress at Washington. 
 It is now getting to be known that the political 
 rights and liberty of this population are conspired 
 agaiust. It has long been known that the de- 
 mocracy-haters of Europe were in alliance with 
 the traitors of the South to assist in the prostra- 
 tion of the democratic principle. Why should 
 not the President of the United States proclaim 
 to this d emocratic element of the South the intent 
 of the traitors to disfranchise the masses, and to 
 erect upon the ruins of their political i-ights an 
 hereditary aristocracy ? Why should not the 
 President say to this population, "The Constitu- 
 tion as it is guarantees you free republican gov- 
 ernment, and, by all the powers in me vested, 
 you shall have it"? Why does he not say to 
 the democracy of the South, "The Constitu- 
 tion as it is interdicts the establishment of any 
 order of nobility, and, by the powers in me 
 vested, 1 declare that it shall not be established" ? 
 Why does he not command the generals of the 
 araiy to forego their deluded sympathy in the 
 . cause of the traitors, and look to the interests of 
 the Southern masses, whos»j rights are invaded 
 and trodden down ? This folly of attempting to 
 conciliate in the wrong direction, and to fight 
 in the wrong direction, has actually prostrated 
 the public confidence in the administration, in 
 the generalship of the armies, and in our finan- 
 cial power of endurance. This policy must be 
 altered, or the Union is gone ; and if the separa- 
 tion is once consummated, the restoration will 
 never transpire. 
 
 ' If men would but reason with accuracy, and 
 determine in their own rtiinds as to what is a 
 democratic element, and therefore an element of 
 national strength— ^what is antidemocratic, and 
 therefore, an intolerable element of national 
 weakness — our governmental ,'md military forces, 
 as well as the v^hole people of the North, would 
 at once be brought to act as a unit. The politi- 
 cal moral of the democratic idea, in connection 
 with arms, must fight this rebellion. If we can 
 succeed in getting the democratic hand. North 
 and South, laid upon this monster rebellion, we 
 shall hear the deatli-rattle in its throat at once. 
 This is what tlie traitors are most afraid of. This 
 is what' their apprehensions will be most sedu- 
 lous to guard against,. Every art of hypocrisy 
 and false pretence will be put in requisition to 
 prevent it. This is the vulnerable point of at- 
 tack, and tlie rebels know it. Negro proclama- 
 tions may be alarming, but this strikes another 
 and a very different chord of sympathy in the 
 South. It would strike upon the seven millions 
 who have all the natural motives to political 
 affinity with the North — the same educational 
 motives,, the same industrial motives, the same 
 social motives, and every other motive connected 
 with the desire to maintain free and liberal gov- 
 ernment. When we appreciate the full meaning 
 of this conspiracj^ and take the traitors at their 
 word in presenting the issue, we shall all know 
 how to act. When the Government and the 
 Generals of our armies rise to the magnitude of 
 the issue as the traitors have tendered it, ihei/ 
 will know l*ow to act. Treason and civil war 
 were resorted to in order to overthrow free 
 democratic government, because such govern- 
 ment was " incomjsatible with slavery." This is 
 the whole issue, when stripped of the false pre- 
 tences that have thrown a misguided public 
 opinion around the various incidents of the ques- 
 tion. Let us rise to the issue in its true meaning 
 and magnitude. When this is done, the North 
 will become a unit. Let us appeal to the demo- 
 cratic masses in the South on this issue; let the 
 arms of the nation remove the blockade to intel- 
 ligence, and we shall have the bulk of those 
 masses with us. We must take this course in 
 order to get a strength in the South to assist in 
 restoring the Union; and we must have this 
 strength to hold the South steady after it is re- 
 stored. We can look in no other direction for 
 competent Southern assistance. 
 
 The SL.\vooRAcy against Adopted Citizens. 
 
 I would here close my remarks, but for an al- 
 lu.sion whioh I wish to make to our adopted citi- 
 zens, most of whom are in the North. Many 
 illiberal opinions have been expressed towardri 
 this population, and raoi-c particularly by the 
 slaveholders of the South. Allow me to cite a 
 passage from the writings of the literary pioneer 
 of the Know-Nothing Order. J. Fenton Mercer, 
 of Virginia, who describes himself as a slave- 
 holder, a m:in of seventy years' experience, and 
 who is known t,o have held high and responsible 
 offices for many years of his life, was a perfect 
 type and representative man of this order of pol- 
 iticians. In a book written by him, published in 
 1845, we find th« following passage : " Why has 
 
« 
 
 LETTEES 'rO HOK. ANDREW JOENSOK. 
 
 notgenei-nl suffrago dosfroyed the confederation ? 
 This lowest level of political corruptioii ; this 
 univei-dul suffrage ; this rule of vagabondism ; 
 this rushing into the temjfle of liberty by the ! 
 Irish, Dutch and English, with uiicle.ia hands, to 
 pollute and deface every thing sacred to the 
 cause of freedom — are sure to defile all, uudo 
 all, and dissolve all that is valued in this con- 
 federation, when the time shall come for the con- 
 summation of the drama." 
 
 It is an easy thing, mj- friends, foi; men to^ail 
 at a class, but it is always more magnauiraous fco 
 <!ast about, and ascertain, if we can, whether the 
 class railed at be, or be not, an element of na- 
 tional strength. I have had much experience in 
 dealing with the different elements that compose 
 and sway political organizations. I here declare 
 to you that I have never known an instance, in 
 the maladministration of government, where 
 the iniquity proceeded from the influence of 
 what are termed the "lower orders of society-.'' 
 Those in the humbler walks of life cannot at a 
 Fingle stop overleap the intermediate classes, 
 and stand in the high places where mischievous 
 power exerts itself in committing devagtation on 
 the public interests. Look at ti)e recent pecula- 
 tions upon the national treasury : — the fault was 
 not with the masses. Look at the rec'ent exhi- 
 bition of fraud, treason, tlieft, and hypocrisy 
 oouneeted with the odious administniiion of 
 Buchanan : — the fault was not with the mass- 
 es of population, either native or adopted. I 
 could refer you to tiiousands of instances where 
 men in high places, elected by the honest and 
 well-meaning suffrages of all classes, have be- 
 trayed their trust, and engaged in the enactment 
 of laws designed solely for mercenary specula- 
 tion. Political theft is different from all other 
 kinds of larceny. It exceeds in moral turpitude 
 ^11 others, and .is of too lugb a gnule for men in 
 
 the lower walks of life to fee engaged in com- 
 mitting. Political fraud and political pecula- 
 tion, like military' glory, seldona get below the 
 cuptains. 
 
 1 would now contrast these adopted citizens, 
 and their conduct, with the conduct of Ahese 
 exalted Virginians and their co-revilers in the 
 South, who.oe writings for years have teemed 
 with ribaldry and revilement against demociacy, 
 against our naturalization laws, and against 
 that class of our citizens made partakers of po- 
 litical power under them. These revilers in the 
 South have long been engaged in the plot to 
 overthrow the national jurisdiction and the po- 
 litical rights' of the masses. Those who h^ v 
 been reviled are standing by the Government u- 
 maintain our free institutions. The examples iu 
 contrast should dispel illiberality, as well as the 
 great error in which it was conceived. I ad- 
 monish my countrymen to indulge in this hate- 
 ful error of Southern extraction no longer — for, 
 let me assure you that if you persist in this il- 
 liberal course, the future histoi'ic names of Sigel, 
 and Corcoran, and their hundred and liity thou- 
 sand brave companions in arms, will prove, and 
 justly prove, your everla.^ting rebuke. Calamity, 
 it has often been said, brings out the truth or 
 falsity of theories, inasmuch as it applies tjie 
 touchstone of truth, which is found in result. I 
 confess to you, my fellow-citizens, that when I 
 see our adopted citizens exposing themselves to 
 the diseases of camp life, the casualties of the 
 battle-field, and standing side by side with our 
 natjive-born to maintain free dciuocratie govern- 
 ment, my admiration and affection towards them 
 are not onl}' confirmed, but intensified. It makes 
 me feel grateful to know that treason, or sym- 
 pathy with treason, have no place in their 
 hearts, n'lulv. tliev ari? an ilfmml "f iVatioxat- 
 
 LETTERS TO HON. ANDREW JOHNSON. 
 
 The following letters to Andrew Johnson of 
 Tennessee, when in Congress last year, will fur- 
 ther illustrate the views expriessed in the 
 speeches of Col, Hamilton and Lorenzo Sher- 
 wood, respecting the real objects ,9f,thp rebel 
 slaveholders, and ii^ •'■ > be projjer antidote 
 for the treason : 
 
 oRK, Novel i 
 . I ;.:i- w JuiiNsoN (in Seii ■ 
 Washington, D. C 
 j/tdT Sir: What are the AiiunrH.'. aiime- 
 fighting about, and what the purpose to be 
 gained by the result of arms— are grave ques- 
 tions now being agitated by all classes in Eu- 
 rope. " What are we fighting for?" is a ques- 
 tion with many people in the Korth, who iiave 
 drank in the impression that the South was com- 
 posed of nothing but pro-slavery interes''^. 
 
 I will tell you in few words what I am fight- 
 ing for. I am engaged in this contest, as far as 
 in me lies, in behalf of the non-elaveholding 
 population in the Southern States, You know 
 its character, and you know, at the same time, 
 the disparagement under which it ha? been 
 placed as an aggregate, ever since its birtti ; and 
 you also know the helpless, hopelss condition in 
 which it would be placed by the siaveholding 
 "wer, in case it is ytermanently separatoi 
 
 ■m its natural political affinity with the North, 
 ou know enough of the plans of secession to 
 I ow its designs upon the mass of free labor 
 .-^uuth. If you do not, please trace the pages of 
 De Bow's Review for the last ten ycara, and put. 
 what you find cropping out in those pages with 
 what you must have listened to coming from in- 
 dividuals of high standing, and I think you need 
 not be at a loss to discover the ultimate plan of / 
 half disfranchising the free labor of the South. 
 ^' is true, this design has been covered with all 
 
LETTSjBS to HOK. AJsDHEY/ JOHAoOJS'. 
 
 7 
 
 \)ui iii^souif. i.«ofecy , biu ii has, neverlheless, 
 been sufi&ciently disclosed,. and continuouelj dis- 
 closed for the last ten years, to convince me that 
 I am not mistaken. i • 
 
 The slaveholdtr of the South fears that the 
 voting power of the South may become the gov- 
 eruino' power. In all my conversations with the 
 intoUeetual politicians, Thsive observed this jeal- 
 ousy, this fear; and what has troubled the pro- 
 slavery spirit most of all things, has been the 
 contemplated probability of an affinity between 
 the free labor lyTorth and South. When that 
 transpires, it will prove the destruction of the 
 pro-slavery prestige, even in the South ; and we 
 shall hear no more of plans to break up the Gov- 
 ernment, or to dismemb?r the Union. 
 
 I have grown wearied and disgusted wit! 
 the mawkish sensibility over the negro, when 
 there is so n\ueh higher and more available 
 {ground to take in favor of the white man. 
 Six and one-half or seven millions of white men, 
 
 their ha'f-disparaged condition ; their firness 
 
 to be free int.-n, and their right to be disenthralled 
 from the prejudice which the pro-slavery spirit 
 in polities has thrust upon them — afford to my 
 raind a just basis for Governmental consideration 
 in the prosecution of this war. 
 
 I wish to say plainly. Sir, my sympathies are 
 enlisted in the great cause of white humanity in 
 its shirt-skeves — of that twenty-seven millions, 
 of American free citizens who are bound to 
 the eternal business of subsistence through their 
 own industry. Tlieir lot is to toil — to toil on 
 from generation to generation; and a pretty bu- 
 siness it is for less than one hundred thousand 
 rebel slaveholders to set these toiling millions to 
 cutting one another's throats ! 
 
 What right, have we of the IN'qrth to. aban- 
 don our white non-slaveholding brethren of the 
 South to the hopeless tyranny of an exclusive 
 pro-slavery policy? What right has Congress 
 to forbear the bold dei'Jaration in favor of this 
 population, and to pledge all the adhering ele- 
 ments of the Government to protect it — to shel- 
 ter it under the national ensign — yea, if need 
 be, to so far humble and subordinate the pro- 
 slavery spirit as to give encouragement in the 
 right direction to the masses of the Southern 
 white population ? 
 
 It would Vje, useless to say "this non-slave- 
 holding population cannot be reached." It can 
 be reached, and can be enlisted on the side of 
 its own protection. Let Congress and all tbe 
 goverDmental powers declare their solicitude for 
 it, and determination to protect it; and let us of 
 the North re-echo the sentiment, and hail it as a 
 brotherhood in politicui destiny and })olitical 
 right. Arms will remove the blockade to intel- 
 ligence. We shall have the mass of this popula- 
 tion with usif we take the bold and strong means 
 to invite it. 
 
 It sti'ikes me that you are the man to bring 
 out this subject through a congressional decla- 
 ration. Your sympathies are known to be with 
 the niasises of the laboring white men South. 
 Yoti are known and marked in every part of the 
 Union as their friend. Youhave the courage to 
 do just what your conscience tells you is best. 
 
 Congres.9e3 and conventions have been truckling 
 to rebel slaveholders and endeavoring to salve 
 over their antipathies to the Union. Ko effort 
 has made them better. Nothing can u^.ake them 
 worae. Suppose the effort Bho-idd now be made 
 in the direction where the process of reasoning 
 would naturally carry it. Nothing can be lost; 
 by making the attempt. A bold declaration 
 would strike more terror into the rninds of rebel 
 slaveholders, than half a doz^n Port Royal can- 
 nonades — terrific us that affair appeared. It 
 would be worthy an American Congress and 
 command the approval of the world. The ques- 
 tion, "Whafare we fighting for," would no 
 
 l,>M-,.r ),.^ :wked. ' . . 
 
 Very truly yours, fjsc,,,,., 
 
 LORENZO SHERWOOI;. 
 
 Nf.w York, Nommhcr ?.S. 18">1- 
 Hon. Andrew JoH.N'soN(\"n Senate), 
 
 Dear Si-r 
 
 What i ,..----- , ■ ■ i -•;--' 
 
 ble, by way ol raising up a Southern Union par- 
 ty, or co-operating strength, is now the ques: 
 tion. That there should be a congressional dec- 
 laration of something else than worn out gene- 
 ralities, I have no doubt. That there should be 
 something said that is sufficiently specific to 
 strike upon some chord of natural sympathy, ap- 
 pears more and more to me to be necessary. 
 
 The suggtstions 1 forwarded to you have 
 gained upon my mind since 1 wrote you, and the 
 policy of an appeal to the free labor South, and 
 the separation of the Southern population into 
 classes, so as to throw the responsibility of the 
 rebellion upon the small numerical class that 
 inaugurated it, is more apparent to my mind 
 than when 1 last wrote you. 
 
 I think we have much to gain hy Southern 
 indiscretion. The slip I tend you is indicative 
 of the df^veloping design of secession, and is 
 corroborative of the motive 1 alluded to in the 
 suggested resolutions., 
 
 The moral force of the Southern programme 
 must-be struck at its vulnerable point. What is 
 that vulnerable point? My long residence in 
 the extreme South conviiicts me that the intend- 
 ed disfranchisement of the Southern masses is 
 the most prominent cause of Southern discon- 
 tent; and that the exemplification of this intent 
 by a congressional declaration would tend to 
 establish a more effective hold upon the Union 
 sentiment South, than any thing else that could 
 be put foi'tb. 
 
 1 am aware that nearly every Union man. 
 South, who has been accustomed to play the 
 Southern political game in politics, is stereotyp- 
 ed in the idea' that anj- thing that tends directly 
 or remotely to the policy of emancipation should 
 be avoided. They seem to foiget the political 
 necessity of making the declaration to the effect, 
 that protection and alleijiance viitst go together; 
 that this is a political, social, national, and above 
 all, in the midst of the effusion of blood, an impe- 
 rious and unavoidable war necessity. We shall 
 come to this, and the sootier the declaration is 
 
LETTERS TO HON. AJTOREW JOBOTSON 
 
 made, in oonneotion with other coneiderations, 
 in my humble opinion the better. 
 
 In the midst of tribulation, under democratic 
 government, every sensitive man of impulse per- 
 suades himself into the belief that he is a compe- 
 tent adviser. We shall have a thousand and one 
 distractions as to the declared motives which 
 exist for the prosecution of the war. They are 
 already being put forth in different sections, and 
 the Government at'Washington is as little un- 
 derstood in its views of policy as in its unpub- 
 lished military designs. I think it time, in order 
 to avoid public distraction in the North, and to 
 show to the world that there is such a thing as 
 definite motive in Government policy, founded 
 on some tangible principle, to make an authori- 
 tative congressional declaration of some kind; 
 and the more pointed it is, if founded on just 
 principle, the better. I doubt whether you 
 could find an abolitionistpwse who would strike 
 the right point. I also doubt whether any politi- 
 cian from the Gulf Stales, however strong in his 
 Union sentiments, would dare venture upon any 
 definite declaration that would be specific. You 
 will excuse my suggestions; they are made under 
 the belief that something efi'eetive must be done 
 in connection with arms to raise up a Southern 
 
 strength to our side. If we cannot do it, the 
 Union is gone. I hope it may never be said of 
 us, that we have lost our strength and the force 
 of the Union cause through timidity. 
 
 Are we not brought by the determined spirit 
 of rebellion to deal with all its opposing elements 
 affirmatively? Has not all forbearance been 
 construed into timidity? It has seemed to me 
 that the disposition to forego as long as possible 
 any resort to force by the national Government 
 has been an ill-devised humanity, that has re- 
 resulted merely in preparation for a more exten- 
 sive effusion of blood. If anything is yet to be 
 gained by paltering to the influences that have in- 
 augurated this treason against the common popu- 
 lation and common interest of the countr}^ I can- 
 not see it. Perhaps those better skilled in political 
 philosophy may be able to do so. I fear, however, 
 that those who have so long failed to appreciate 
 the nature, strength, and motives of this rebellion 
 will be slow — quite too slow — in the enunciation 
 of views or principles in connection wiih the 
 plan of raising up a Southern party, and of 
 strengthening the North by keeping it a unit. 
 Very truly, Ac, 
 
 LORENZO SHERWOOD. 
 
 (POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION.) 
 From the New York Tribune, Oct 3!. 
 The -'Origin xnd Obj cts of the Slaveholders' Conspiracy agjiiust Democratic Principiss, as 
 well as against the National Union," illustrated in the Speeches of Andrew Jackson Hamilton, of 
 Texas, the statements of Lorenzo Sherwood, late of Texas; the letter of Muscoe R. H. Garnett, late 
 Democratic Member of Congress from Virginia, to William H. Trescott, of South Carolina, showing 
 the antagonism of Democracy and Free Labor to Slaverj' and its Rebellion; the Letter of the 
 Democratic League of our City to John Bright, &c., has ju.st been compiled for that League by 
 Henry O'Rielly, and is now printed in a neat pamphlet, which can be had at our ofiice. If therOk 
 is a sincere and loyal Democrat in this State, who now thinks of voting for Seymour & Co., we 
 are confident that a careful reading of this pamphlet would dissuade him from ao doing. Please 
 look into it, and judge if you ought not to aid in circulating it. 
 
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