E286 1865 UBRARY OF CX)NGRESS M III III III III 00005708047 "oV W o .0 ,0 ^^u^S^' 0' ^. ^"^' ^^^ ,_ ^^^ *...'_^u- -^^ *.,.•' ^.^^ ' :igM', %<^^ f^^'. \/ V^ .v %,^ > y^^v^' /% -^^^ ^>'\ ^^^fW^ '^'^ 'X: iip'^ 9' •»l*"- ^^ < V ^ ^ * " " ^ ^ .>M^^ % sc^' ^^^iS''- ''^. > 9 • m: tT O . * , . V 40^ 1^ :«'JC^.- , ^•^' *. ■.^.'\/"%. -: -^-0^ ^ t^-o^ v\\v- "^^il^^ r-^^i -^.r,^ ^^ t^-0^ ■M o \^ ,0' 0' ; .^"-V. v^ ,'i<^. ^^ • :'^^;.^ \. .^-^ :'M.^^ u .^ /^^'. Xn <^ 'vO<^- •<"\' v<^' ^ -o *^y.'^l:"\" .r . .^*^ ^-^ . ''.\:ii\^ ^^-r^^^ •^■ .^' ^ ^-^^ .^^ -'• <' c/^^:v^'% ,-^ •Iv . " c , ^ ;ci- -o K ^V. " ' .^^ ^^,.^^.^'; ^^-n^. -^^^^ii: .^ k\ "^p ^^ -Tm^^^ "^^^ ',.>.^-- c ^aa nmUv W^xM'Uj, -^ o O R A T I O T DEI-IVEUICI) 15EFOUE THE CITY AUTHORITIES OF BOSTON, FOURTH OF JULV, 18 65, J. M. MANNING. TOOin'HKK WITH AN ACCOUNT or TIIK MrMCIPAL ClCI.KIiUATI ON OF THE EIGHTY-NINTH AXNIVEHSAKY AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. y BOSTON: J. E. FARWELL & COMPANY, PRINTERS, No. 37 CONORKSS STUliET. 18G5. CITY OF BOSTON. In Common Council, July 6, 1865. Ordered : That the thanks of the City Council be pre- sented to the Rev. Jacob INI. Manning for the highly eloquent and patriotic Oration delivered by him before the Municipal authorities on the celebration of the Declaration of American liidcpendcnce, July 4, 18(55, and that he be requested to furnifh a c(^})y for publication. Sent up fn* concurrence. W:\I. B. FOWLE, President. Ill Board of Aldermen, July 10, 1805. Concurred. G. AV. MESSINGER, Chairman. A[»[)roved July 11, LSI)."). F. W. LINCOLN, Jr., Mayor. A true coj)y. Attest : S. F. I\lcCLEARY, Clnj Clerk. ORATION. IIi;retofore on occasion of our National Anniversary tlic speakers summoned to address you have sometimes pressed on your hearing ideas and sentiments respect- ing "which you earnestly differed from them and one another. And hereafter, should the exigencies of the country at any time require, Boston cannot lack courageous men, instant in season, who v\ill speak the unwelcome truths which she ought to hear. But the task of to-day, though perhaps not less difficult, is more agreeable. The duty you have imposed upon me, if I rightly apprehend it, is to aid in giving utter- ance to the feeling which now fills all our hearts. In saying this, I assume that the feeling itself is right ; a patriotic joy, exultant w^ith the ecstasies and tender over the agonies of successful war, — a joy full of gratitude for the deliverance already vouchsafed, and causing us to renew our solemn vow that no promise to man, contained in the Declaration of Independence, shall be left unfulfilled. b PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. It has been said of John Adams, that upon the pas- aiige of the Resokition of Independence, July 2, 1776, his mind " heaved like the ocean after a storm." Thus docs a nation's heart heave to-day. The voice of its thanksgiving is as the voice of many waters. A mystic chord, stretched from our one heart across the intervening years, vibrates responsively to the words of "the colossus in that debate." Our joy seeks the lofty utterance in which he exclaimed, " the day is past. The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America ; to be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great Anniversary Festival-, commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore." He adds, " You will think me transported with en- thusiasm, but I am not." " Through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and glory." " You and I may rue," but " posterity will triumph." " Posterity will triumph." Yes, we stand in the dawn of the day whose glory was foreseen by the Fathers. Now is fulfilled the word which was then spoken. We are the citizens of an independent and regenerated country. We breathe an atmosphere which is invigorating to liberty. Plymouth Rock, so long refused of the builders, has become the corner- TEACE U^"DER LIBERTY. 1 stone of the republic. To-day we nationalize the ])raycr for Massachusetts, devoutly saying, " God save the United States of America ! " The ark, to which we committed our liberties when the flood of Rebellion came, and from which the dove was sent forth again and again only to return each time with the olive branch in her mouth, now rests upon the summits of victory. And on this most auspicious birthday of the nation, we are going forth from that ark to build our altar, and to look on the bow in the clouds, which tells us that war shall no more deluge our land. 1 Fas it been befitting, hitherto, that we should cele- brate the anniversary of the Declaration of Indepen- dence 1 Then it is doubly befitting that we should do so from this time forth. To those who have rebelled and been defeated, we do not presume that this pro- ]uicty W'ill appear. Nor are we anxious to succeed in meeting their views of the fitness of things. Four years ago they intimated that we were not prosperous enough ; and to-day, forsooth, we are too prosperous to keep the feast. Then they ridiculed the solemnity of Avhicli they are now disposed to complain. But loyalty does not choose treason for her teacher when she goes to school. As we were hopeful in the day of adversity, so will we be grateful in the day of triumph. We did not omit our feast when Freedom was threatened. 8 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. nor will Ave now that Slavery is overthrown. Yet we indnlge in no ungenerous exultation. We rejoice not at the discomfiture of our enemies, but in the Salvation of the Republic. We di-eaded war with them, knowing that our own blood flowed in their veins. We clung to the common traditions and glory of the past. We were charitable and forbearing almost to the verge of recreancy. And that patience and long suffering are to-day our vantage-ground. We are sure that no malignity mingles with our joy ; but only a just indig- nation, not untinged with pity and grief. We rejoice not that half a continent is laid waste or covered with mourning, but that liberty has taken another step for- '^ard in the world. Whatever of tenderness there lUay be in our hearts, if we w^ere silent in view of what God has wrought, the very stones would cry out. It has been said by one of our English critics, that we violated the spirit of this festival, when we under- took to put down the Rebellion by force of arms. " Henceforth," was his language, " the observance of the Fourth of July is an unmeaning ceremony." But that conclusion was reached from an inadequate prem- ise. The critic seemed to see only half of what the Declaration of Independence proclaims. Let no one be misled by the name of that immortal paper. Besides the right of revolution, to which the name especially PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. \) points, tlic paper itself declares that there is an inalienable right of liberty, which belongs equall)- to all men. But allowing our critic his premise, what was that right of revolution declared by the Fathers ? AVas it something that would legitimate the Southern Rebellion ? Was it a principle Avhich we violated in putting down that Rebellion by force 1 The Fathers of the Republic did not believe in wantonly breaking up any form of government. The oppression must be intolerable and morally wrong, and revolt the only available means of redress, in order to justify such a course. Had the national rule become wicked and in- tolerably oppressive to the South ? Imagine the conspirators at Montgomery saying that " a decent respect to the opinions of mankind required that they should declare the causes which impelled them to the separation." What were those causes, when fairly stated 1 A golden passage in the first draft of the Declaration had been dropped to please the Southern delegates. At the framing of the Constitution that noble charter was again compromised to bring South Carolina into the Union. Concession after concession was made to the Slave States, and they seized one centre after another of the Federal power. They wielded the Government of the country ; and gradually published their design to make it the bulwark and propagandist of barbarism. Would such 10 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. a statement as this show " a decent respect to the opinions of mankind 1 " Do we see here any warrant for using that carefully defined Right of Revolution which the Fathers claimed ? No, they dared not make an honest appeal to history. Their better nature told them that they could give only the most monstrous of reasons for what they did. Hence the fictions of State Sovereignty and the Right of Secession, by which they sought to escape. The war under Abraham Lincoln hostile to the Declaration of Independence ? It was reluctantly accepted to rescue that Declaration from the spoiler. Had we failed to crush the Rebellion, and had foreign powers stooped to the infamy of a full recognition ; had we lost everything else, still we should not have lost our fidelity to those rights which the Fathers of the Republic held sacred. But this is not all. So far from having fallen back, we stand higher to-day than on any previous birthday of the nation. Did the first war with England establish the Right of Revolution ^ The war for the Union has not yielded that right, but saved it from an infamous abuse. And our time-hallowed festival, while retaining all its earlier meaning, is to-day vastly more significant than ever before. We should feel that we have met to inaugurate a new jubilee of freedom. Those voices of the Declaration which proclaim liberty and equality are no longer muffled. They peal forth clearly in PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 11 every note of joy, and they fall only npon willing ears. To-day, for the first time, the mighty chorns is entire. Our feast is kept not merely in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit. As we are amending the Constitution, so I could wish that we might amend the Declaration, by restoring to it those w^ords wiiich were blotted at the demand of Slavery. " He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting these very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has de- prived them, by murdering the people upon whom he has obtruded them ; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another." That is what Jefferson said when he 12 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. would show " a decent respect to the opinions of man- kind," by stating the causes which impelled the colonies to declare their independence. For more than fourscore years that passage has lain rusting, like a sword in its scabbard. But the malign Power which doomed it to such ignominy has been overthrown. We draw it forth to-day, amid the new glory which has risen upon us. We brandish aloft its reburnished blade, that it may flash across the sea the double record, — who it was that planted, and Avho that has uprooted the insti- tution of American slavery. Standing upon the. higher summits of the Declara- tion, as we now do, it is natural for us to review the path by which we have ascended. Homer, carefully enumerates, in the Second Book of the Iliad, the ships which bore the Greeks to the Trojan war. And it would be a serious neglect on this anniversary, did I fail to name some of the more important events which have brought us to our present position. The rush of events since the opening of the last Spring has indeed been overwhelming. We seem to be looking over the awful brow of Niagara ; and the voice of the cataract is the only voice that can utter our emotions. But let us go back from the downfall to the source of the mighty current, and follow it forward. The llebellion had its fountains far away in our TEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 13 liislory. The little rills began to flow into each other after the Colonial period, and the large streams thus formed became more and more visible as the question of admitting new States was forced upon the country. At length all these streams of disloyalty were gath- ered into a single basin ; and then it was that we beheld the Lake Superior of treason, spreading itself broadly out in the full daylight, and kissing the bended cheek of England on its farther shore. That was the inland sea, around which we went shuddering through- out the year 1861, vainly expostulating with those who would trust their all to its waters. Before the year had dawned, a weak old man, soon to' vacate the high office which he had allowed treason to control, told us, in words that would have appalled our hearts had we been base enough to believe them, that the Re- bellion was \vrong, and that any forcible resistance of it would also be very wrong. There w^as nothing to do but stand, through a hundred terrible days, bowed in shame and chafing with a just rage, until the mighty Northwest should reach out its long arm and haul up our starry flag to the height from which it had fallen. That long arm never failed us, and it left the proud symbol floating securely when it vanished suddenly out of sii^ht. But how furious the storm in which the banner went up, and by which it was instantly assailed? The sea of Rebellion, changed to a foam- 14 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. ing whirlpool after the first thunderclap at Charles- ton, swept into its broad circle State after State, senators, judges, churches, a large portion of the Army and Navy, and so much of the public property as could be placed in its way. "When our Congress met, on the -ith of July, the usurpation had an army with full ranks, superbly officered, well supplied and drilled, and every branch of its affairs, whether at home or abroad, was in able and experienced hands. Before the first leaves of Autumn fell, we had lost Ellsworth, — the rising star of our volunteer soldiery ; Senator Douglas, — from whose position and known loyalty much was expected ; Winthrop and Greble, — one a child of genius, the other a true son of Mars ; and General Lyon, who, more than any other loyal officer up to that time, had shown the qualities of a great commander. The humiliating battle of Bull Run had^been fought, — revealing disloyalty in high places, exposing our ignorance of the art of war, uncovering the approaches to the Capital, and sending a thrill of anguish and terror throughout the land. Later in the season came the surrender of Lexington, — opening Missouri to the foot of the invader ; the battle of Ball's Bluff, — costing us the lamented Baker, whose great popularity bound the Pacific to the Atlantic coast as with hooks of steel, and quenching the light in many New England homes ; and, toward the going out of the year, came the irreg- PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 15 iilar capture of Mason and Slidell, and the advice ot the Earl of Derby to the British Government, " that outward-bound ships should signalize English vessels that war with America was probable." The attitude of the Border States had paralyzed the Administra- tion, and divided the sentiment of the North ; Congress could do little more than save itself from falling a prey to treason ; feelings of humanity compelled the Presi- dent to recognize " the Confederacy," so far as to treat with it for exchange of prisoners ; belligerent rights, and the moral power of sympathy had already been secured to it from the leading foreign powers, Ivussia, " faithful among the faithless," excepted ; and pirates were roaming over the high seas, commissioned by the arch-conspirator Davis, " to sink, burn, and destroy everything which flew the ensign of the so- called United States of America." But this carnival-year of treason was not without its signs of promise to us. The telegram of Secretary Dix to the special agent in New Orleans, " if any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot;" the heroism of Anderson and his de- voted comrades ; the sublime response to the first call for troops, Massachusetts, as of old, leading the van ; the elastic energy of the nation under the stunning blow of Bull Run ; the battle of Rich Mountain, sav- ing to us Western Virginia ; the capture of the forts ] 6 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. at Ilatteras Inlet, under Admiral Stringham and Gen- eral Butler ; the glorious achievement of the Navy at Port Hoyal, under the lamented Dupont ; the stubborn and bloody fight near Belmont, where General Grant first gave token of that daring, coolness, modesty, stra- tegy, and invincible nerve, which have since won him our eternal gratitude ; the moral courage and wisdom of Mr. Seward, in appeasing the wrath of England over the afi"air of the " Trent ; " these events were all unmistakable omens that the triumphing of the wicked would be short. The huge volume of the Hebellion, thus sensibly diminished, now shrunk at a rapid rate. Tlie new year (1862) gave Mason and Slidell to England, by whom they were " coldly received ; " Edwin M. Stanton, the Cato among our heads of departments, became Secre- tary of War ; the battle of Mill Spring settled the issue in the Border States ; the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, and of Eoanoke Island, brought the nation to its feet in a frenzy of delight ; Pea Ridge followed, crushing the Rebel cause in Missouri ; then came the Providential exploit of the first Monitor, swiftly aveng- ing the loss of the " Congress " and " Cumberland," and opening a new era in the history of naval warfare. On the heels of these victories treads that at Newborn, confirming our supremacy in Eastern North Carolina ; that at Winchester, where " Stonewall " Jackson was PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 17 defeated and driven back ; and the terrific struggle of Pittsburg Landing, where unflinching determination again prevailed, chiefly through General Sherman, — " his martial features terrible," then, as ever, the Tela- monian Ajax of the war. We were puzzled, rather than made anxious, when we knew that Lee had evac- uated Manassas ; soon the coasts of Georgia and Florida were ours ; General Pope and Commodores Foote and Davis, had opened the Mississippi far down- wards ; and when New Orleans had surrendered to Farragut, who found the people there so insolent that he turned them over to General Butler, in that glad hour it seemed to us that we could already discern the angel of peace, his feet beautiful upon the moun- tains, bringing good tidings, and saying unto us, " Your God reigneth." Our God did reign. And because He loved us. He did not sufi"er us at that time to triumph. Again the Ilebellion began to unfold its narrowed volume. All eyes were now fixed upon the Army of the Potomac, — noblest Army the world has ever seen, — grand at last with the splendors of victory, as it was grand at first in the gloom of disaster. Wasted in its slow advance, after the barren successes at Yorktown and Williams- burg, it lay, the victim of an invisible destroyer, along the muddy slopes of the Chickahominy. General Banks, assailed by the combined forces of Jackson s 18 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. and Ewell, had skilfully withdrawn his little army from the Valley of the Shenandoah. It was deter- mined that the force under McDowell should cover Washington, and not the right wing of the Army of the Potomac. Jackson was thus at liberty to co-operate with Lee against McClellan, whose plan for falling back had been discovered by Stuart's famous raid, and whose difficulties had been increased rather than less- ened, by the costly victories of Fair Oaks and Mechan- ics ville. The first attempt at withdrawal was the signal for furious pursuit. But our brave columns, though vastly outnumbered, were not once beaten in the field. Their march was not a retreat in the proper sense of the term ; and each time they turned upon the pur- suing legions of the foe, at Gaines's Mills, the Chicka- hominy, Peach Orchard and Savage's Station, White Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill, they sent those legions, mangled and disheartened, backward. It was not in the fighting, but through divided counsels, that the campaign proved a failure. The Army still supposed itself on the way to Hichmond, when the order came for it to move toward Washington. Then it was that the Rebellion rolled out its hidden masses. At Cedar Mountain it struck a blow that darkened many homes in New England ; and this was but the opening of the series of assaults which culminated in the second battle of Bull Run, and which swept on until met by PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 19 an impassable barrier at South Mountain and Antie- tam. Nor did the sweep of the Rebellion seem to grow less, but only more vast, at the great battles of Fredericksburg, Murfreesboro,' and Chancellorsville. The elections in the North had been carried against the loyal cause, the assassination of Senator Sumner had been threatened in New York, and the Congress at Richmond had proposed an alliance with the States on the Pacific coast. But our God was reigning. The school of calamity had opened our eyes to see those four millions of blacks, who everywhere had a welcome for us, and whose forced labors enabled the Rebels to keep their armies in tlie field. Our Congress, whose achieve- ments for freedom we cannot too much admire, had smoothed the way for the President. With Slavery abolished in the District, and forever shut out from the Territories ; with Hayti fully recognized, the Fugitive Slave Law repealed, and the Confisca- tion Act passed, it was easy for Abraham Lincoln, pressed on by military necessity, to issue that decree of EMANCirATioN wliicli made him the saviour of his country, and of a race of men. Thoughts of foreign interference were now at an end ; and Heaven, though trying our faith for a time, at length began to smile. The enlistment of the blacks as soldiers rapidly fol- lowed ; and to our own Governor Andrew especially is 20 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. due the high honor of urging that measure forward to complete success. On the fourth of July, 1863, the Ke- bellion had received its death wound. Vicksburg fell, involving the fall of Port Hudson, and thus opening the Mississippi; and victory settled on our banners at Gettysburg, after a contest which history, as I think, will pronounce the great and decisive battle of the war. I need not speak of the brave men who there fought. The classic genius of Everett, now immortal, has em- balmed their names ; and the matchless Eulogy of the . Martyr-President, has left nothing for eloquence or poetry to add. Now, upon the failure of the July riots, the llebellion withdrew into its inmost recesses, knowing that its life depended on keeping out of the way. The battle of Fort Wagner, costing us so dear ; and that at Chickamauga, revealing the great com- mander in General Thomas ; and others of less note, in the South and West, did not change the fixed course of events. Grant and Sherman, in their own close coun- sels, were forecasting the final campaign. General Burnside opened the gates of East Tennessee. The battle of ]Mission Hidge, and the storming of Lookout Mountain, where Hooker's warriors seemed to wield the artillery of the clouds, secured an open door into Georgia. Deeply pained, but unhindered, by the dis- aster on Red River, the new regiments rallied on the PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 21 banks of the Rapidan under the Lieutcnant-General, and near Chattanooga mid'er his great subordmate. The Rebels were confused and bewildered in their hiding- places, not knowing what the omens foretokened. They comprehended the game only when they had lost it. The movement of Meade's army to the South of Petersburg, so costly but so necessary, and involving such immense sacrifice of life at Spottsylvania, the Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Coal Harbor, and on the banks of James River, closed the iron hand of fate upon the main army of the Rebellion. It was now dangerous for that army to remain stationary, and far more dangerous for it to attempt to move. The defeat of Sigel and Hunter, and the raids near Washington, could not loosen the stubborn hold of Grant. The failure of the assault planned by Burnside, and the pause of Sherman before Atlanta, sent the currency and the heart of the country down to their lowest point notwithstanding the glorious news from the " Kear- sarge," and the anxiety of the Rebels to treat for peace. But had certain politicians at that time read the pur- pose of the leading generals, they would not have advised the two wings of the Republican x^arty to drop their separate candidates and unite under some com- mon leader ; nor would certain other politicians have voted the war a failure, and clamored for an armistice .and a compromise- The grasp upon the throat of the 22 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. Eebellion was not relaxed ; Sherman resumed his work upon its extremities, hurling' the fragments westward to be completely crushed by Thomas at Franklin and Nashville ; the bright pennant of Farragut floated vic- toriously off" the harbor of Mobile ; and Sheridan's ride in the Valley sealed the fate of the writhing victim. Every life sacrificed by the Southern leaders after that date was a murder. They knew their cause to be hopeless ; only their desperate pride sustained them. Victory carried the national election. The fall of Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, and Goldsboro' was but the eff"ect of a cause that had already operated. They went down like oaks in the still night after the hurricane has swept over them! The mad blows at Hatcher's Run and Fort Stcdman, which recoiled so terribly ; the quailing before Sheridan's swift squad- rons, all the way round from Lynchburg to Five Forks, the utter collapse, when the final word was given, " up boys, and at them," were an overthrow too awful for my poor description. I can but recur to the figure with which I began this recital. The long gathering, the now unfolding and now contracting waters, were forced to the precipice. In the mists rising out of the abyss into which they went thundering down, we saw calmly shining the bright bow of promise ; and our awed and swelling hearts could only exclaim, " The Lord God omnipotent reigneth." PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 23 How shall I fitly impress you with the grandeur of this result to our country "? Let us first contrast the opening with the close of the Rebellion. Never before did treason start up so pompously, and perish so in- gloriously. At the secession of South Carolina, Mr. Keitt said : " We have carried the body of this Union to its last resting-place, and now we will drop the flag over its grave." But he is in a traitor's gory grave, and the flag still waves on high. When the conspira- tors met at Montgomery, Davis said, " the South is determined to maintain her position, and make all who oppose her, smell Southern powder, and feel Southern steel." But that steel and powder are ours to-day, and Davis — quantus muiatus ah illo — smells a gibbet in the air. Mr. Stephens said, " in the conflict, thus far, success has been on our side, complete throughout the leno-th and breadth of the Confederate States. It is upon [the enslavement of the African race] as I have stated, our social fabric is firmly planted ; and I cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate success and full recognition of this principle throughout the civilized and enlightened world." But the only response to that atrocious sentiment, thus far, has been a universal cry of indignation ; and Mr. Stephens now has other use for his philosophy, in a fortress whose name (Fort Warren) reminds him of the revered martyr to liberty on Bunker Hill. After the outrage on Fort Sumter, 24: PEACE UISDER LIBERTY. the Rebel Secretary of AVar said, " I will prophesy that the flag which now flannts the breeze here will float over the dome of the Capitol at Washington before the first of May. Let them try Southern chivalry and test the extent of Southern resources, and it may float event- ually over Faneuil Hall itself." The Governor of South Carolina also said, " we have humbled the flag of the United States. It is the first time in the history of this country that the Stars and Stripes have been humbled. It has been humbled, and humbled by the o-lorious little State of South Carolina." But the flag then " humbled " is exalted at length, and those who rolled the sacrilege as a " sweet morsel " under their tongues, are vagabonds and fugitives in the earth. The fate of all the leaders in the Rebellion gives a new meaning to the words of a king of Israel ; " Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off"." Not only did they sell their birth- rio-ht, but that which they most feared has come upon them. We recall here the terrible lines of Addison, and, slightly changing them, exclaim : — " There is some cliosen curse, Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, Eed with uncommon wrath, to blast the wretch Who seeks his greatness in his country's ruin " The Rebellion begins and ends its career on a stage PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 2o where tranjedy and comedv struo-o-le together for the mastery. In its final shout, " Sic semper tj/rannis,'" we hear its own doom pronounced ; and it goes out of his- tory, as the body of the assassin has gone, into the bhickness of darkness forever. Around it hangs the memory of its great swelHng words ; of sacrilege to the bones of the dead ; of Fort Pillow massacres, St. Albans raids, yellow-fever plots, and attempts to burn cities full of women and children. A host of skeleton shadows from Libby, Saulisbury, and Andersonville flit above the place of its torment. It forever hears the horror and laughter of the world shouted after it. And if there be any words, in all the circle of literature, which it may fitly utter, they are : " Let the day perish wherein I was born ! Let it not be joined unto the days of the year, nor come into the number of the months ! Let no joyful voice come therein. Let them curse it that curse the day ; let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark." Respecting the change that has come over the aris- tocracy of England, I will be very brief. They are eating their own words at a rapid rate ; and the wry faces which they make, while " chewing the bitter cud," are our ample revenge. If they can afford to remember the indecent haste with which they listened to the conspirators ; with which they threatened war over the affair of the " Trent ; " Avitli which they vir- 4 26 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. tually became allies of the Rebellion ; we certainly can. Our disgust is stirred not a little at their eulogy of our Martyr-President, whom a short time before they had so insultingly maligned ; but if they can afford to extend such sympathy, we may well keep silent, and gratefully — smile. Lee and Johnston, and Forrest, and Taylor, and Kirby Smith, having surrendered, of course the surrender of England follows. Like a cer- tain Confederate General, she " surrenders uncon- ditionally on condition that she is unconditionally pardoned." The bills are rather large after that little pleasantry of the " Alabama." Our portly friend pro- tests that he didn't steal the butter and put it in his hat ; and therefore, though something very much like butter is streaming down his glowing cheeks, yet, if he sai/s he didn't, possibly he didn't. We mean that our memory shall be as short as England's ; that is, we will forget the hostility of the titled few, and remember the sympathy of the untitled many among her subjects. As for France and Mexico, we cannot forget the exposed heel of Achilles ; and we shall take care that no Paris, with poisoned arrow, wounds us to death on our Southwestern border. It might be thought ungenerous to contrast our present feelings with those of the vanquished ; let us therefore remember how we felt at the outbreak of the Pebellion, and from the contrast thus suggested PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. loam the greatness of our cause for rejoicing. We shall never forget that Saturday on which Sumter fell, nor the Sunday next following. Least of all shall we ever forget the Sunday, next following the massacre of our loyal soldiers in Baltimore. Sabbaths we cannot call those days, for they brought no rest to us. We w^ere astounded, bewildered, appalled. We went unto the house of God, only to calm ourselves there under His great shadow, as we looked forth on the gathering tempest of war. Then we gazed down a horrible vista of devastation, famine, tears, blood, and wild disorder. We looked, " And behold a pale horse ; and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." We saw the iron-hoofed demon of war, — his neck clothed with thunder, pawing in the valleys, displaying the glory of his nostrils, swallowing the ground with fierceness and rage, saying among the trumpets, " Ha, ha ! " smelling the battle, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting ; we saw this mighty waster going forth to trample down all our beau- tiful civilization, to fill every house in the land with mourning, to turn the moon into blood, and cast the stars unto tlie ground like untimely figs. But lo, the vision is changed ! Another angel has sounded, even the angel of peace. We look up, and, behold, all the stars are in their- places. Their bands have not been loosed nor their sweet influence disowned. 28 TEACE UNDER LIBERTY. " The terrible steed lies with nostril all wide, And through it there rolls not the breath of his pride." Yes, the gloom and horror are behmd us, and the glory before. We lay aside the spirit of heaviness, and put on the bright apparel of joy. For He that now cometli — escorted by our returning conquerors — is meek and lowly. His coming is as showers upon the mown grass. We see waste places rejoicing at His approach, the wilderness budding and blossoming, the rose growing again in Sharon, the lily reappear- ing in the valley, the hills clothed with flocks and corn and the free floods clapping their hands. Up, come ye, let us spread our garments in the way ; let us cut down branches, and strew them before this King of Peace ! Let us go before, and follow after, and sing, " Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors." Let the children, also, with their glad hosannas, swell our chorus of welcome. For Peace cometh, crowned with war s victories, to sway a benign sceptre over the land. Only a little more than four years ago we were bringing home, from the bloody pavement in Balti- more, our young soldiers, slain for rushing between the raised dagger of treason and the nation's life. Sorrow- ful indeed Avas that funeral ; for the air was thick with startling omens, and the tidings, coming on every pulse of the electric wires, smote us like the sirocco's PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 29 breath. But to-day the g-rave of those martyrs is holy ground. You have recently made a pilgrimage to their sculptured monument, going with songs of joy, and with garlands in your hands, to tell to a thousand generations that Liberty does not forget, in the day of her triumph, those " who made their lives an offer- ing " for her sake. A little more than four years ago all our hearts were on board the " Star of the West,'' sailing into Charleston harbor, carrying food to a little band of starving men ; only to be warned back by a hostile shot, and to be forced to look on, in powerless indignation and shame, while the encircling batteries of treason vomited forth their inhuman fury upon that small and fainting company ; until the stars of our nationality went down, insulted but not dis- honored, into the smoke and flames of fratricidal war. But lo, the change ! A rod out of heaven has touched and transfigured the scene. Since the magnolias last bloomed, all our hearts have been on board another ship, bearing upon it some of the scarred veterans of freedom, and with them the heroic Anderson, who carried with him the same starry Symbol that first went down. This they lifted up to its former proud height, amid shoutings, the sobbings of joy, jubilant music, and thunders of loyal cannon. And thus was proclaimed, to all traitors, and the enemies of liberty everv where, that the covenant which makes these 30 TEACE UNDER LIBERTY. States a nation is an everlasting bond ; and that their Union — by the sweet ministries of peace, if possible, but, if necessary, by the thunderbolts of war — "must and shall be preserved." No vain boasting, no empty exultation, no vulgar triumph over the vanquished, but a solemn admonition to us and our children, and to all the world, that " whosoever falleth on this rock shall be broken, and on whomsoever it falleth it shall grind him to powder ! " But I proceed to some of the more lasting results of the war. Of its effect as realizing the spirit of the Declaration I liave already spoken. The triumph of our loyal arms has settled the ques- tion of sovereignty, as between the Union and the several States. It was said of the States of ancient Greece, that they lost their government by desiring severally to govern : Grecue civitates, diim imperare singuhs ciipiunt, imperium omnes perdlderunt. A similar fate threatened the American Republic, growing out of the heresy of State Sovereignty. But the war is at an end, and where are those Sovereign States ? Do they appear, to negotiate a peace with the Federal Gov- ernment { No; they cannot shield the assailants of the Union and Constitution. Those assailants find, as Roman traitors once found, that " they must answer at the bar of the assembly as criminals, not pretend to PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 81 negotiate ^Yitll the Republic as equals." The States arc but municipalities ; in the goTcrnment of the whole country is vested the sovereign power. We have heard of treason against a State ; but we now see that such a crime is always relative to the Union. No State, acting primarily and independently, defines the crime of treason and prescribes its penalty ; it exercises that function only by virtue of its connection with the United States. Robert E. Lee, fancying the authority of Virginia paramount to that of the Eepublic, became a traitor ; Andrew Johnson, true to his primary rather than his secondary allegiance, maintained his loyalty. " But if the question of sovereignty was not settled before the war, and if Lee honestly believed Virginia to be sovereign, ought he to suffer the penalty of trea- son ? " Certainly not for that simple belief. But he went further. He did that which he had often seen defined as treason in the Constitution of his country. Let no one be punished for believing the abstract doctrine of State Sovereignty ; but let those who have made war upon the United States, and the whole country through them, be taught the horrible nature of their crime. Treason, as we now perceive, is not properly an off"ence against Massachusetts, or Virginia ; not the killing of a public servant, however high his office ; but an attempt to murder the sovereignty of the people of the United States. No other crime can 32 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. compare with it in guilt. It is not merely hurling- a single planet from its sphere, but destroying the power of gravitation itself. Thank God, the thin pretext, from which so many have leaped into bloody Rebellion, is no more ! Like the gourd of Jonah, it has perished with the night in which it grew up. All the people of the land know now, that in case of collision between civil authorities, they owe a single paramount allegi- ance ; and that they owe it to the Government whose organic law defines high treason, and declares that Congress shall determine its penalty. The triumphant issue of the war has proved the power of an elective government to cope with armed Kebellion. Heretofore, the advocates of hereditary power have said, " Your government by the people, with universal suffrage and a change of rulers every four years, may do very well on a small scale, and while you are held together by the necessity of making common cause against other nations. But wait till you have a broad territory, and many competing in- terests among your citizens : and then, in case of any considerable revolt, see how soon your country will go to pieces. Your Government, resting as it does on the shoulders of the masses, will have for its chief man- agers men of inferior ability ; the brief tenure of office will not train great leaders ; your ablest men, seeing themselves but units in the mass, will lack patriotism ; PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 33 in any threatening emergency, your nation will find itself unprepared." This reasoning was so plausible, and in part so philosophical, that some of us half believed it. Our hearts misgave us when we knew that certain of the States were banded together to destroy our Government. There did seem to be a want of patriotism among our ablest men ; there was a lack of trained leaders ; we were wofully unready to cope with the Rebellion. But one element in our fixvor, out- Aveighing all the advantages of a monarchy, had been too much overlooked. The people knew that the Government was their government, and its cause their cause. If it was dishonored, they were dishonored ; if it Avas lost, their earthly hopes were lost. No sophist- ries could blind them to the momentous issue. Hence the rush to arms. Hence the cheerful submission to taxes, and other necessary burdens and restraints. Hence the readiness to loan the nation whatever trea- sure it might need. Our first efforts were awkward and unsuccessful ; and, of those whom we tried as leaders, one after another failed. But the resources were vast; the determination to conquer grew more stern ; gradually Ave learned how ; and those who wished us evil, and our own doubting hearts, were taught that what a free people ivills it can perform. We have shown that the humblest man, if honest, can be the successful ruler of the miditiest nation on the 34 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. globe. The people are too intelligent, too much dis- posed to justice and public order, to need intellectual giants in the chairs of state. The wolf, and the bear, and the lion have been subdued to the habits of the lamb and the ox ; " and a little child may lead them." The spirit of the people has made our rulers great. All fears respecting the stability of such a government as ours are forever dispelled. There is, in the nation, a centripetal power balancing its centrifugal power ; it may be as permanent as it is beneficent, as strong as it is free. Hitherto our Republic has been called an experiment ; it will be called so no longer. E-oyalists know this. They see that the weapon with which they have thus far defended their kings is wrested from them. They are asking themselves, with blanched cheeks, what they have done and said to us in the day of our trouble. Let me here give way a moment to the mouth-piece of the English aristocracy. Hear it: "It, has been vulgarly supposed that democracy is necessarily incompatible with strength and vigor of executive action, and that the concentration of power in a single despot is necessary for the conduct of a great war. That delusion the American struggle has dispelled. It has been thought that democracies were necessarily fickle to their rulers, unstable and wavering in their determination. That, too, tlie democracy of America PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 35 ]kis disproved. It has been said that democracies were necessarily violent and cruel in their disposition, and that from impatience of discipline and obedience they are unapt for military success. No man can say that now. It has been said that democracies would not support the expenses of war and the burdens of taxa- tion. This is proved not to be the case. No autocrat that the world has ever seen, has received a more firm and unbounded support, and commanded more unlim- ited resources than those which the American people have freely placed at the disposal of Mr. Lincoln. His re-election in 1H6-1 was evidence of the wise and prudent firmness of the people who exercised the suffrage, and the result ought to have left no doubt on the minds of thoughtful men as to the necessary issue of the great contest." Comment is needless. To such language every American patriot says, as the friend of Antonio said to Shylock — " I thank thee, Jew, for giving mc that word ! " The war has also proved that we are in no danger from military ambition. The soldiers of Ciesar and Napoleon were ready to follow their adored command- ers in any attempt at usurpation. Not so our soldiers. They know what they have been suffering and fighting for ; for a Government wliich belongs to themselves, and which not even their most admired general, for 36 TEACE UNDER LIBERTY. whom they wouhl die any moment, can be permitted in the smallest particnlar to usurp or disown. Thank God, the American people are able to discriminate in their gratitude. No renown of the warrior can so daz- zle them as to make them forget the proper subordina- tion of the military to the civil power. Henceforth we shall be less nervous at popular admiration lavished on the successful general. It is not the blind applause of an unthinking populace, but thanks rendered to one who is expected to be a benefactor in the future as well as in the past. We are deeply grieved that it has cost the hero of Atlanta so dear, or that any other hero's tripping should be the price of this valuable lesson ; and we are and always will be grateful to the man who could say to his troops, as Sherman did, in bidding them adieu after all that had happened, " be good citizens in peace as you have been good soldiers in war." Another result of the struggle has been to strengthen, rather than shake, the foundation of our liberties. The essential theory of the Government is not changed, but confirmed and made to operate on a larger scale. It is an axiom of history that civil wars are ended only by compromise. That axiom has failed for once. The rebellions of England have revolutionized her govern- ment, though nominally it is much the same. When kings come out of wars with their subjects, they never PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 87 after sit as firmly as before on their thrones. They must humor the people, and yield more or less of the reality for the sake of the semblance of power. But our Government has not yielded anything to the Rebels ^et, and will be guilty of a foolish act if it ever does. Its basis is broader and deeper to-day than when the war began. The people understand its spirit better, and are wedded to it by a more determined loyalty. The great problems forced upon their attention, have taught them their duties and revealed to them their rights. And the Institution with which they might have been tempted to compromise has ceased to exist. Was the way of the wdcked ever more utterly turned upside down 1 The attempt was to assassinate Liberty ; the result is that Slavery has been cast into an igno- minious grave. The attempt was to rivet the chains of bondage on a race of men ; the result is that they are and ever shall be free. The attempt was to carry a monstrous wrong upward to our Northern border ; the result is that freedom and the right have been carried downward to our Southern border. This is a new feature in the history of rebellions. It teaches us that they " fight against the stars in their courses " who fight against the rights of man ; that, as under the throne so upon the throne, the march of human liberty is forever onward, When it rises up none can hinder, and when it strikes none can stand. 38 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. The war has also deepened the aiFection of the peo- ple for the Union, in all parts of the land. The suffer- ing and glory it has occasioned are a common heritage. The East and West can never forget that they have stood shoulder to shoulder throughout the terrible struggle — that they have rejoiced together over the same victories, and wept together over the same reverses. The blood of their sons has flowed together on a hundred battle-fields, and those sons are now sleeping side by side in the soldier's grave. Nor do we doubt that the era of wiser counsels and kindlier feeling, is coming to the people of the South ; when they also, having learned the real cause of their troubles, shall reach forth a fraternal hand unto those who have broken the yoke ofan Oligarchy from off their necks. Yes, it is our country ; our one country ; our redeemed and renovated country, that every Ameri- can heart embraces to-day. We of the East can never resign our share in the glory of Sherman's army, and they of the West will ever claim that the army which conquered Lee was theirs. No patriot, from the Mississippi to the Pacific Coast, will ever admit to himself that the tomb of Abraham Lincoln is in a foreign country ; and we who have " seen his star in the East " can never endure a strange flag waving over that shrine, as we go thither, with our sweet spices, to remember whom he loved and for whom he was offered. PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 39 I will name but one other result of the war, itself an effect of the results already named. The question of Sovereignty settled, the power of cohesion in a free government proved, and the Republic raised to leader- ship among the nations, our character as a people will naturally improve. Not that the American people have been especially bad, but they are in a condition to grow better. The consciousness of power begets a feeling of repose. It gives steadiness and self-poise to both nations and men. If Southern " chivalry " had been more genuine, it would have boasted less. If our country had been more truly " the home of the free,"' the shouts for freedom would have been less noisy. Those friends abroad who expect that we shall be made vain-rjlorious and insolent bv our success, are mistaken. Being sure of our position, we shall lose our sensitive- ness, and grow calmer and more self-possessed. Our nationality is vindicated. Other governments, con- temptuous once, now look toward us with respect and fear. But their fear is groundless, so long as their treatment of us is just. The war has not made us a military people ; but only shown that when we must fight we fight through to victory. Standing on our high places, we shall not breathe out slaughter against other nations, but the rather overlook their impotent unfriendliness. This new dignity will be promotive of peace everywhere. It will bring forth in us more of 40 PExVCE UNDER LIBERTY. the fruits of manly virtue. Ceasing to fear criticism, we shall be less criticized. The opinions of foreigners will not disturb us much hereafter. We shall learn to be content, and modestly proud, in the enjoyment of our own history, our own institutions, our own simple manners and customs. It is respectable now to be a citizen of the United States, — respectable anywhere. We have only to keep quietly in our place. We have a character, and that character will give a charm to American life. Those who have taunted us hitherto will henceforth treat us with deference. They will find a new merit in our literature, a new refinement in our society, — grace and dignity where all was vulgar and trivial before. We shall learn that success, as well as a good deed, shines very far " in a naughty world," that it transforms a nation of plebeians into a nation of patricians, that it changes the worthless into the " most worshipful." Heretofore America has imitated Europe; hereafter Europe will imitate America. And the influ- ence of this new treatment, instead of puffing us up, will beget in us all a sober self-respect. It will render us a calmer people ; will make us content with our citizenship, and all the simple republican customs bequeathed to us. Thus shall the most lasting, the grandest, the richest result of the mighty struggle be secured. PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 41 I now come to the most grateful, and withal the tenderest portion of my task. It is the offering of our united thanks unto those who have achieved for us the priceless boon. Soldiers from the Army and Navy, once soldiers but now again citizens, we hail you to-day as our benefactors and deliverers. We welcome you home from the fatigues of the march, the wearisome camp, and the awful ecstacy of battle. Through four terrible years you have looked without quailing on the ghastly visage of war. You have patiently borne the heats of Summer and the frosts of Winter. You have cheerfully exchanged the delights of home for the hardships of the campaign or blockade. Not only the armed foe, but the wasting malaria has lurked along your resistless advance. You know the agony and the transport of the deadly encounter. How many times, standing each man at his post, in the long line of gleaming sabres and bayonets, every hand clenched and every eye distended, you have caught the peal of your leader's clarion, and sprung through the iron storm to the embrace of victory ! But all that has passed away. Tlie mangled forests are putting on an unwonted ver- dure, the fields once blackened by the fiery breath of war are now covered with their softest bloom, and the vessels of commerce are riding on all the national waters. The carnage, the groans, the cries for succor, the fierce onset and sullen recoil, the thunders of the 6 42 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. artillery, and the missiles screaming like demons in the air, have given way to peeans, civic proces- sions and songs of thanksgiving. The flag of your country, so often rent and torn in your grasp, and which you have borne to triumph again and again, over the quaking earth or through the hurricane of death in river and bay, rolls out its peaceful folds above you, every star blazing with the glory of your deeds, in token of a nation's gratitude. We come forth to greet you, — sires and matrons, young men and maidens, children and those bowed with age ; to own the vast debt which we can never pay, and to say, from full hearts, " We thank you, God bless you ! " But while we thus address you, you are thinking of the fallen. With a soldier's generosity you wish they could be here to share in the thrice -earned welcome. Possibly they are here, from many a grave in which you laid them after the strife ; pleased with these fes- tivities, and with the return of joy to the nation, but far above any ability of ours either to bless or to injure. You may tarnish your laurels, or an envious hand may pluck them from you. But your fallen comrades are exposed to no such accident. They are doubly fortu- nate, for the same event which crowned them with honor has placed them beyond the possibility of losing their crown. Many of them died in the darkest hours of the Republic ; others in the early dawn of peace, PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 43 "while "■ the morning stars were singing together." But victory and defeat make no differences among them now. They all have conquered in the final triumph. Their names will alike thrill the coming ages, as loftily spoken by the tongues of the eloquent; and their deeds will forever he chanted by immortal minstrels. They were together " brave men, who repose in the public monuments, all of whom alike, as being worthy of the same honor, the country buried, not alone the successful or victorious ; and justly, for the duty of brave men was done by all, their fortune being such as God assigned to each." •^o' " By fairy hands their knell is rung, By forms unseen their dirge is sung ; There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray, To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; And Freedom shall awhile repair, To dwell a weeping hermit there." And ye know, departed soldiers of the Eepublic, that your President was a partaker in your " last full mea- sure of devotion." Yes, you have him, for you deserve him more than we. Have you left many widows on the earth ? Among them the wife of Abraham Lincoln is one. Are your fatherless children now waiting for us to pay over to them a little of the great debt we owe ? Among them the children of Abraham Lincoln 44 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. mourn a father gone to be with you. The man so exalted, whose summons drew you from happy homes to be offered on the aUars of war, has himself followed in the sacrificial column. His mortal form is laid as low as yours. It can no longer be said that he called you to a death which did not threaten him. O, ye sightless couriers of the air, waiting around that new- made sepulchre at Springfield, take up this truth — the invisible Republic where President and people still are one — and bear it abroad on gentle wings, and reveal it tenderly to every poor heart that bemoans a husband, or son, or friend, or brother slain ! In the words of an ancient orator, " It becomes us to honor the dead, and to lament the living. For what pleasure, what consola- tion remains to them? They are deprived of those who love them, but who preferring virtue to every con- nection, have left them fatherless, widowed and forlorn. Of all their relations, the children, too young to feel their loss, are least to be lamented ; but most of all the parents, who are too old ever to forget it. They nour- ished and brought up children to be the comforts of their age, but of these, in the decline of life, they are deprived, and with them of all their hopes. We shall best honor the dead, then, by extending our protection to the living. We must assist and defend their widows, protect and honor their parents, embrace and cherish their orphans. Who deserve more honor than the PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 45 dead ? Who are entitled to more sympathy than their kindred ? " Nor in the field alone, has the meed of a nation's thanks been earned. At home the fair have toiled and waited for the brave. The flame on the altar of Hymen, Avhich has burnt low while there was sterner work to do, will be kindled afresh at the return of the saviours of the country. The Soldiers' Aid Societies, the San- itary and Christian Commissions, and the records of all our military hospitals, are an eternal monument to woman's patriotism and woman's love. And as, in the past, they have chosen to be widows of brave men rather than the wives of cowards, so now, neither scar nor crutch, nor artificial limb, will damage the suit of those who deserve the fair. Soldiers, while we applaud your heroism, there is also due, from you, a recognition of services by those Avho have not stood at the front. As I am enough of a civilian to speak their gratitude to you, so I have been enough of a soldier to return tlianks in your name to them. They have exerted tliemselves to the utmost that you might lack no per- sonal comfort, and that the sinews of war might ever be tense and strong. And as the various classes of loyal citizens look around upon one another to-day, each esteeming others better than himself, perhaps the truest word we can utter is that the whole loyal people of the 46 PEA.CE UNDER LIBERTY. land, wherever any may have struggled or toiled, are the real and the only chief hero of the w^ar. We cannot forget, in this glad hour, how much we owe to the patriotic statesmen of former days. The noble record of the last two Congresses is but the car- rying forward of what their predecessors had begun. We remember the perils and speak gently of the mis- takes, while we admire what we will believe was the purpose of those men. It is not in our hearts to doubt on which side of the line of battle Rufus Choate would have stood, had he lived to see that line clearly drawn. In no man was the sentiment of nationality ever more intense than in him. '' The Union broken up 1 " we can hear him exclaim with that preternatural voice of his, " never, while there's enough of Plymouth Rock left to make a gun flint of! " This whole bloody war has been but the old battle between Webster and Cal- houn, fought through with other weapons and on a broader stage. Their thoughts have sped from the mouths of contending cannon , their words have clashed in the fierce shock of encountering steel. Their spirits have struggled in the air while loyalty and treason were struggling on the plain below. They have shud- dered or smiled, as each one has seen his idea smitten down or winning the day. And when the final acclaim of the armies of the Union went up, could we not almost see the sullen ghost of Calhoun turning away PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 47 into the darkness 1 Could we not again hear Webster's voice coming to us in the grand music of the ocean, across his tomb at Marshfiekl, and saying, " the asi:»ira- tion of my hfe is attained? I now do behokl the gorgeous ensign of the Repubhc known and honored throughout the earth ; full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in more than their original lustre, not a stripe erased nor a star obscured ; and every- where, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heaven, there is emblazoned that sentiment, dear to every American heart — Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." You will not deem it merely a professional act in me, my friends, if I remind you that to God is due our supreme gratitude to-day. This obligation you have recognized in the service of prayer. The war has renewed our faith in a Divine Providence controlling the destinies of nations, and without which not a sjjar- row falleth. His throne has rested firmly on the vexed sea of Rebellion, and He has wielded all its wrath for our complete deliverance. In the first shot at Sumter we heard the voice of God saying, " arise, my people ; " and in the last shot at Ford's Theatre we saw Him delivering over the sword of justice into the hands of one who believes that " treason is a crime, 48 PEACE U^■DER LIBERTY. and not merely difference of opinion," All along He has sent us defeats when our cause needed them. Many a deliverance has been so unexpected, and from sources so ne\Y and strange, that we could only say, " it is the Lord's doing ;" nor did He permit the crowninsf success to come until liberty had been assured to all the inhabitants of the land. Perhaps there is no pious word on record, more expressive of what we should feel to-day, than Admiral Farragut's order after the taking of New Orleans : " Eleven o'clock this morning is the hour appointed to return thanks to Almighty God for his great goodness and mercy. At that hour the church pennant will be hoisted on every vessel of the fleet, and their crews assembled, will, in humiliation and prayer, make their acknowledgments therefor, to the Great Dispenser of all human events." Following this bright example, and that of manv loval fjovernors and brave i^enerals, and of our departed and our living President. — nay, indeed, speaking from the deep impulse of our own thankful hearts. — it is unto the Lord that we sini^ our new song, for he it is that hath done marvellous things : -• His rifjht hand and His holv arm have 2:ot- ten Him the victory." Let it not be inferred, from the tenor of these remarks, that I see no peril in the future. What shall PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 49 be the treatment of the disloyal, and what the basis of citizenship in the reconstructed States, are questions of grave concern. Are we exhorted to be kind to the Rebels ? That appeal is needless. We shall be kind to them. Manv of us have very tender reasons for treating them kindly. We always have been kind to them ; erring on that side, and yielding to their unjust demands, until they inferred that we could not be aroused to maintain our rights. We may accept it as an axiom, that the people of the Xorth cannot be cruel towards the leaders in the South. All our danger, then, is on the other side. Let us not give other nations occasion to say that we make a commodity of justice. Let not the offenders themselves despise us for fearing to vin- dicate the majesty of the Eepublic. Will good citi- zens feel altogether safe, in our country, if it is to have admired Eebels roaming at large in all parts of it for a generation to come ? Let us not be so kind to the disloyal as to be unkind to the loyal. Should not those in the South who have fought on our side be cared for before those who have fou2:ht as-ainst us ? Those who have been true to the Government should be protected first. This is justice, whose claims are sacred. Xor is it magnanimity, but a crime which nature abhors, to cherish enemies who are outraging our friends. Shall we leave the blacks in the power 7 50 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. of the exasperated foe, knowing, as we do, that the savage spite which cannot touch us will be wreaked upon their unsheltered heads'? I shall believe that the revolt of the rebel angels has succeeded, and that Satan now sits on the throne of God, if such horrible treachery can exist and go unscourged of heaven ! While the Saviour of men was riding in triumph to Jerusalem, " He beheld the city, and wept over it." But those tears did not prevent Him from saying, " Behold your house is left unto you desolate." Imitat- ing that divine act to-day, we raise our bitter cry over prostrate treason, even while we call on Justice to draw out her sharp sword. There is no malignity in our hearts, but a reverent prayer that the sovereignty of the nation may be magnified and made honorable. They would have it so. They trampled on our for- bearance and warnings, and defied the power which should be " a terror to evil doers." Let justice be done without the least over doing. Let their doom be so reasonable that no wicked sympathy shall dare to lift its head. Let them be put where no " foreign corre- spondent " can glorify them ; where no unfriendly court can make use of them ; where no lying pens of their own can fill the world with histories of their treason disguised as patriotism, and of their attempt to na- tionalize barbarism painted as a struggle for human liberty. Let them be so punished that their example TEACE UNDER LIBERTY. ^^ 51 can never prove contagious, and be buried where the bloodhounds of despotism can never scent their graves ! Two acts of the struggle for liberty in America are past ; the third and consummating act is now upon us. The first act closed under Washington, when the Colo- nies were acknowledged to be free and independent States ; the second act closed under Lincoln, with the vindication of the sovereignty of the Union ; the third act will close when equal political rights are conceded to all men. God grant that the last act may not, like the first two, deluge the land with blood ! May the evil tree be plucked up in the hour of its weakness, before its roots have undergrown and its branches overspread the Republic. The Emancipation Procla- mation was but incidental to the war for the Union. Not in the purpose of man, but by the arrangement of God, it has knocked oft' the chains of the slave. And it has done a negative, rather than a positive work. It has delivered the blacks from chattel slavery, but it has not introduced them into civil liberty. How this last act shall be achieved is the problem now forced upon the country. Our statesmen cannot evade it if they would ; it is taxing their wisdom beyond any other ques- tion of the hour ; and whoever solves it successfully will complete the grand American triumvirate. We could wish that the triumvirate, when full, might read — 52 g. PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. Washington, Lincoln, Johnson. Do any say that it is inconsistent to demand citizenship for the blacks in the States now returning to the Union, while in many of the so-called Free States only the whites are admitted to the ballot? But the people of these latter States have not rebelled. Security for the future may re- quire of disloyal communities what should not be exacted of the loyal. Only those who have broken the peace are put under bonds to keep the peace. " But the question of suffrage belongs to the States." So it does, while they are in their normal condition. Perhaps the day of military necessity is over ; but is there not a necessity of state quite as pressing, which, if not yielded to, will ultimately become a military necessity? If you cannot do a righteous deed for its own sake, yet doing it to prevent war is better states- manship than waiting for the war to come. A free government can be said to fulfil its purpose only when no class of persons under it has wrongs to be re- dressed. Emancipation is but a mockery of the blacks, especially while among their late masters, if they be not admitted to citizenship. Perhaps it "did not occur to Mr. Lincoln, perhaps he thought it un- wise at the time, to make his Proclamation perfect by adding to it: "And, that the promises herein con- tained may not prove illusory in the end, I do also pro- claim, and cause to be published and proclaimed, that, PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. 53 in reconstructing the State governments now disor- ganized, the blacks shall be admitted to all the rights of freemen on the same conditions with the whites." How much present anxiety would have been prevented by some such golden clause ! But we will believe that the question is in safe hands. Surely the Congress, if made wise by the events of the past, will not " guarantee a republican form of government " to any State, while there is manifestly, in that State, a spirit hostile to the very principles of republicanism. To the loyalty, wis- dom, and patriotism of our statesmen we confide this grave concern. They alone can decide it peacefully ; and may God have them in his holy keeping ! Anticipating the gradual solution of all remaining difficulties, in a manner which shall fulfil the hopes of a generous patriotism, I see, before our country, a future too grand for my feeble portrayal ; a development of the resources of nature, a growth of manufactures, a commerce, civilization, and Christianity, which shall be the glory of the New World and the wonder of the Old. No man, standing at the sources of the Amazon, can bring within the range of his vision all its mighty course from the mountains to the sea ; — its broad tributaries with their interlacing streams ; its silent advance through primeval forests, and vaster sweep across luxuriant savannas ; the sails of adventurers, and of scientific explorers, moving up into its alluring 54 PEACE UNDER LIBERTY. mystery ; the inexhaustible wealth of field and mine to which it is a natural highway ; the current, so like an ocean, with which it proudly yields at last to the ocean's embrace. And so, standing to-day by the sources of this new stream in American history, we cannot foresee all its unfolding volume ; its distant greatness, and grandeur, and majesty ; the destinies, mortal and immortal, of both nations and individuals, which it will gather upon its ample bosom, and bear onward and onward, into the unbounded hereafter. We can only lift up our overflowing hearts toward Him whose rod has brought the water out of the rock, and ask that He would direct its wondrous course ; draining the richness of all the civilizations into it, and causing it to bless the ages through which it shall roll, until it mingles in that sea of latter-day glory, whose law is peace, and whose tides and waves are the pulsa- tions of a perfect love. THE CELEBRATION. THE CELEBRATION. The Committee of the City Council for making tlie necessary arrangements to celebrate the eighty-ninth anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence, July 4, 18G5, was ap- pointed February 18, and consisted of Aldermen John S. Tyler, Geo. W. Messlnger, L. Miles Standish, Charles F. Dana, Geo. W. Sprague, Nathaniel C. Nash, and Edward F. Forter ; Councilmen Wm. B. Fowlc, John Miller, W. W. Elliott, N. J. Bean, Wm. W. Warren, Joseph Allen, F. W. Falfrey, John P. Ordway, S. II. Loring, J. C. Ilaynes, S. B. Stebbins, M. W. Richardson, and Sumner Crosby. By invitation of tlic Committee, His Honor Mayor Lincoln was invited to consult with them, and to act with and for them on public occasions. Before the time had arrived for making definite and precise preparations for the celebration, the War came to an end, and it was considered on all hands that the Fourth of July ought to be signalized by demonstrations of joy even more extensive than have heretofore been customary. The appropriation was accordingly increased by the City Council, and the Connnittee devoted themselves to perfecting a pro- gramme of celebration which would gratify all classes and suit all proper tastes. The elements marred the full success of some 58 THE CELEBRATION. of the entertainments, but, as a whole, it is believed the celebra- tion was satisfactory to the public, and a fit exposition of the prevalent happy state of feeling in the community. According to custom, the bells were rung at sunrise, noon, and sunset, and salutes were fired upon the Common, by Capt. French's 2d Battery, at the same hours. DECOEATIONS. The City Hall, and other public buildings and places were decorated freely with flags, mottoes, shields, &c. From the line crossing Chauncy Street was suspended a shield, bearing on one side the motto : ' ' The security of the American Republic rests in the equality of human rights." (Reverse side.) " God bless the Union ! It is dearer to us for the blood of our brave men shed in its defence." At the entrance to the Common, by Park Street, a large and beautiful banner motto was suspended. On the front side was the motto : ' ' We exult that a Nation has not fallen." On one side of this motto was a figure of Justice, with the scales, &c. On the other side the Goddess of Liberty. On the reverse side of this banner a motto : "A new birth of Freedom," with the figure '65 underneath, flanked by a representation of the soldier and sailor. A similar ban- ner, with the following mottoes, was at the Boylston and Charles streets entrance: " One Flag — One Government." (Reverse.) " The Union, it must be preserved." On Beacon Street Mall, where tables were set for a collation to the "Veteran Soldiers," for nearly 350 feet, flags and other bunting were extended on both sides, and up into the THE CELEBRATION. 59 trees, in sucli a manner as to create a very picturesque effect. At the entrance, opposite AValnut Street, was a large canvas sliield, l)eariiig the motto : — *' Honor to the galhxnt defenders of the Star-Spangled Banner." Nearer the foot of the Mall was another shield, on which were the mottoes: "What the fathers gained in blood may the sons preserve by virtue!" and "Liberty and Union, one and indivisible, noAV and forever ! " There was also attached to the trees bordering this display of buntiniT the names — Abraham Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Hooker, Burnside, Hancock, Howard, and Sedgwick, on one side of the Mall, and on the opposite were the following names in similar order : Richmond, Vicksburg, Shenandoah Valley, Knoxville, Antietam, Wilderness, Petersburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Chancellorville. The following mottoes were hung at the places designated, with flags : — Across Winter Street, at Music Hall : — "Indemnity for the past and security for the future; the noblest indemnity and the strongest security ever won, be- cause founded in the redemption of a race." Reverse side — "All honor to the Army and Navy of the United States. Animated by a love of their country, they went forward at its call, and have reaped what they well de- served — th.e Nation's gratitude." Across ^Merchants Row from Faneuil Hall to Market : — "I leave you, hoping that the lamps of Liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal." — AiiiiAU.m LmcbLN. 60 THE CELEBRATION. Eeverse side — " All honor to the Citizen Soldiers of Mas- sachusetts ! In the War for Independence in 1776, and in the War for Freedom in 1861, foremost to defend and prompt to shed their blood in support of man's inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Across Washin2;ton Street from Boston Theatre : — ' ' Washington promulgated our principles — Warren died in their defence. We intend to perpetuate them." Reverse side — ' ' The memories of the fathers are the in- spirations of her sons." A MOENING CONCERT was given upon the Common, at 7 o'clock in the morning, and was listened to with apparent gratification by many thou- sand people. The musicians numbered eighty, under the direction of j\Ir. B. A. Burditt, and the pieces played were as follows : — Hail Columbia. Russian National Hymn. Medley of Popular Airs. England's National Hymn. Dirge in Memory of President Lincoln. Hallelujah Chorus. French National Air. Ireland's National Air. German Fatherland. Our Country's National Airs. Old Hundred. THE CELEBRATION. 61 THE CHILDRENS CELEBRATION. JMui^ical and otlier entertainments, chiefly for the children of the Public Schools, were provided during the day at Music Hall, Andrews Hall, and the Boston Theatre. These enter- tainments were under the management of a Committee of the AVarren Street Chapel, subject to the directions of the Sub- committee on Children's Celebrations. At the Music Hall, before and after the Oration, at 9, 3^, and 5^^ o'clock, three National Organ Concerts were given by jNlr. G. E. Whiting and :\Irs. L. S. Frohock. At Andrews Hall, at 9, 11, 1, 3, and 5 o'clock, there were exhibitions of natural magic, legerde- main, ventrih)quism, and Punch and Judy, by Henry Bryant. At the Boston Theatre there was dancing and promenade, with full bands of Music, from 9i to 1, and 2 Mo 6 o'clock. All these places were fully attended. At the ]Music Plall, during the interval between the fourth and fifth performances on the programme of the first concert in the morning, His Honor Mayor Lincoln entered, escorting General Anderson and Admiral Farragut, who were greeted with loud cheers and tempestuous applause, waving of hats and handkerchiefs, every one rising in their seats. The gentlemen being seated and the tumult subsiding, tlie Mayor came forward and said : — My Friends : I thought to have the pleasure of introducing U) you our noble guests here, Init I perceive tliat they are already introduced and recognized by you, — bound to you heart to heart. Still, I Avill do myself the honor formally to present to you \'icc-Adniiral Farragut. 62 THE CELEBRATION. Atlmiral Farragut rose amid renewed and vociferous ap- plause, and as soon as he could obtain silence, said : — " It affords me great pleasure to return thanks to you for this greeting, and after an absence of forty years to meet you on this glorious day." The Mayor : ' ' And now for the hero of Fort Sumter :" (Great applause.) General Anderson rose and said : — " I can only thank you, as I do, from the bottom of my heart." During the enthusiastic demonstrations of the audience which ensued. Miss Hattie Lincoln, daughter of His Honor the Mayor, presented to Admiral Farragut an elegant bouquet, and Miss Addie Standish, daughter of Alderman Standish, presented a similar one to General Anderson. Mr. James R. Elliott than sang in fine style, " Columbia, the gem of the ocean," the audience joining in the chorus. While sin<2:in2: the last verse, Mr. Elliott turned toward Gen- eral Anderson and Admiral Farragut, singing these lines : — " May tlic wreaths they have worn never wither, Nor the stars of their glory grow dim ! May the service united ne'er sever, But they to their colors prove true ! Oh ! the Army and Navy forever ! Three cheers for the Red, White, and Blue ! " Which were received with loud applause. Alderman George W. Messinger then presented two very handsome bouquets to Misses Lincoln and Standish, and soon after His Honor the Mayor and his distinguished guests retired, and drove to Andrews Hall, Avhcre the General and Admiral were received THE CELEBRATION. 63 with cliccrs from tlic clilldren, who, at the INLiyor's request, tlien sanf^ a verse of " The Star-Spangled Banner." They tlience proceeded to the Boston Theatre, the audience rising and the band in tlie balcony phaying "Hail to the Chief," as they entered and advanced up the platform to the front of the stage, the young misses on the floor encirtling the area in a double line. Silence being restored. His Honor Ma^^or Lincoln said : — *' I beg to congratulate you all on the happy auspices of this occasion, and to present to you Vice- Admiral Farragut and Major-General Robert Anderson." General Anderson thus replied to the loud applause of the youthful assembly : — "My little friends, I wish that I could take you all by the hand and tliank you fur this welcome." (Great applause.) Admiral Farragut said : — " It affords me the deepest gratification to meet you on this glorious day, and to thank you for this complimentary recep- tion." (Great applause and cheers.) Nine young ladies in costume then came forward and danced the Highland Fling in a manner which was loudly applauded by the spectators. Mayor Lincoln and party withdrew shortly after, the band playing the National airs, and the large assembly cheering enthusiastically. THE PROCESSION was formed at City Hall (corner of Bedford and Chauncy streets) at ten o'clock. The Chief Marshal was Brevet Brig. Gen. Wm. S. Tilton, who was assisted by Col. P. U. Guiney, 64 THE CELEBRATION. Maj. J. Henry Sleeper, Capt. Nathan Applcton, and II. W. Tilton, Esq. as aids, and by the following assistant marshals : Lieut. Col. P. T. Hanley, Maj. J. W. Mahan, Capt. W. T. W. Ball, Capt. M. F. O'Hara, Capt. Wm. A. Hill, Lieut. C. F. Williams, Maj. W. T. Eustis, 3d, Maj. K. T. Lombard, Capt. Geo. D. Putnam, Capt. J. P. Jordan, Lieut. James Darling, Dr. E. G. Tucker, J. W. Wolcott, Jr., James H. Roberts, J. T. Fuller, Geo. F. Williams, Jr., Levi C. Barney, John D. Cadogan. The procession marched in the following order : — Twelve mounted Police Officers, in command of Sergeant John M. Dunn. Col. Charles R. Codman and staff, in command of the escort. Band from Gallop's Island. Second Regiment of Infantry, under command of Lieut. Col. O. W. Peabody. The Lincoln Guards of South Boston, Capt. M. E. Bigelow. The Newton Zouaves, Capt. Alfred SchofF, a company of lads. The 14th unattached Company of militia, Capt. Lewis Gaul. Gilmore's Band with a Drum Corps. The Boston Light Infantry Regiment, H. O. Whittemore, Captain commanding. The 1st Battery Light Artillery, Capt. Cummings. The 2d Battery Light Artillery, Capt. French. Bond's Cornet Band. Brig. Gen. AVm. S. Tilton, Chief Marshal, and Aids. First Division. Col. Thomas Sherwin, Chief of Division. Aids, Capt. Geo. M. Barnard, Jr., and Lieut. John G. Kinsley. THE CELEBRATION. 65 This Division was composed of the City Government, various present and past City, County, and State officials, officers of tlie N. E. Veteran Association, invited guests, and the Boston Scottish Club in Highland costume, and the American Hiber- nian Society with their officers and beautiful banners in a car- riage, the members following on foot in good numbers and wearing their handsome regalia. Second Division. Col. A. F. Devereux, Chief of Division. Aids, Lieut. Col. W. S. Davis, and Capt. A. P. Martin. This Division was composed entirely of returned soldiers, headed by cavalrymen, preceded by a drum corps of young lads with Master Coffin, acting Drum Major. Next was borne a banner on which was the motto, "The Nation's Defenders," who were represented by members of dif- ferent Army Corps, each bearing a representation of their corps badge, as follows : — 1st Corps, " Buck's Eye." 2d Corps, " Clover." 3d Corps, "Diamond." 5th Corps, " Maltese Cross." Gth Corps, " Roman Cross." 9th Corps, " Anchor and Shield." 10th Corps, " Four-Bastioned Fort." 11th Corps, " Crescent." 20th Corps, "Heart." Then came four large wagons, each drawn by four noble horses, furnished by Adams & Co.'s Express Company, and by •J 66 THE CELEBRATION. Jordan, Marsh, & Co., containing disabled veterans. As the brave and crippled men passed, the thousands of people who lined the sidewalks greeted them with hearty cheers. The procession moved from City Hall in Chauncy Street, through Summer, Winter, Tremont, Park, and Beacon streets, to Arlington Street ; through Arlington to Boylston Street ; through Boylston to Park Square ; through Park Square and Pleasant Street to Tremont Street ; through Tremont, Dover, Washington, and Winter streets, to the Music Hall. The City Council and guests entered Music Hall, and the escort conducted the veterans to the foot of Beacon Street Mall. THE SOLDIERS' COLLATION. Twenty tables Avere laid in Beacon Street Mall for the vet- eran returned soldiers and sailors, of which they partook with a hearty relish. After the eatables were disposed. of, some of the veterans made brief remarks appropriate to the occasion, and among others Mr. Benjamin F. Norcro*s, a veteran sailor of thirty years' standing, who came home in the Canandaigua, made an interesting speech, wdiich was listened to with marked attention. The company separated after giving cheers for the Army and Navy. SERVICES IN THE MUSIC HALL. The Music Hall was filled to overflowing. It had been ap- propriately draped, for the occasion, the names of the States and of John Hancock and the other signers of the Declaration of Independence, from Massachusetts, being prominent upon THE CELEBRATION. 67 tlie galleries. There were also mottoes making proper allusion to the preservation of the Union by the valor of our brave men. Soon after 12 o'clock, Mayor Lincoln entered with Admiral Farragut and Gen. Anderson, who Avere received with tremen- dous cheering. The singing of the " Star-Spangled Banner," which opened the exercises, was by a Choir selected from the High and Grammar schools, nnder the direction of Mr. Carl Zerralm, and received much applause. A prayer was offered by Kev. Henry W. Foote, when the " Chorus of Pilgrims," from " I Lombardi," was sung. The Declaration of Independence was gracefully read by Master Charles Harris Phelps. Kev. Mr. ]\Ianning, then de- livered his Oration. It was warmly applauded, particularly the allusions to the suppressed passage of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and to Farragut, Stringham, Grant, Sherman, An- derson, and President Lincoln, and the great act of his admin- istration. The following Original Hymn, by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, was then sung to the Music of the " Old Hundredth Psalm." Our Fathers built the house of God ; Rough-hewn, with haste its sLabs they hiid ; The savage man in ambusli trod ; And still they worshijjpcd undismayed. They wrought like stalwart men of war, WIio wrung the state from heathen hands ; Wlio bore their foith's high banner far. And in its name possessed the lands. 68 THE CELEBRATION. TJie skill of strife to peaceful arts, Their perils over, glad gave way ; The bond of freedom joined men's hearts More near than meaner compact may. Wc, followers of their task and toil. Inherited their dangers too ; Drove bloody rapine from our soil, Th' oppressor dared, the murderer slew. Our heavy work, like theirs, at end ; Eeturning from the death-won field, Brother with brother, friend with friend, Again the house of God we build. Oh ! may our ransomed freedom dwell In truth's own citadel secure ; And blameless guardians foster well The mystic flame that must endure. The flame of holy human love. That makes our liberties divine ; Let each strong arm its champion prove. And each true heart its deathless shrine. Benediction was pronounced by the Chaplain. DINNER AT FANEUIL HALL. At the close of the exercises at Music Hall, a procession was formed of the City Council and its guests, which marched directly to Faneuil Hall. The decorations of the Hall were somewhat more carefully and elaborately arranged than is cus- tomary on such occasions, and are thus described by the decorators, Messrs. Lamprell & Marble : — THE CELEBRATION. 69 " The entrance was throutrh an arch of flag's. From the centre of the ceiling was suspended a large star, twenty-five feet in diameter, composed of flags of all nations, in the centre of Avhich was a blue field with silver stars. The points of the star were tipped with gilt ornaments. Radiating from the star were American pennants and various-colored bunting to the capital of each pillar ; also red, white, and blue bunting extending; around the cornice of the Hall. A laro-e arch of green and gilt spanned the eagle, with a motto, "Peace — Reunion — Liberty." On the pillars were emblems of war, U. S. shield, liberty cap, &c. From the arch, and attached to the pillars, were a canopy of blue field, with stars, envel- oping the eagle. On the panels of the Gallery were the names of some of our most prominent army and naval officers. On one side of the clock was " Farragut — Welcome, in the Cradle of Liberty, to the noble leader of our brave and gallant Navy, who, in his own career, has embodied the loyalty, the valor, and the courage which has borne our hardy tars on to glorious victory." On the opposite side, "Grant — All honor to the great Captain of the age, who combines the perseverance of Wellington Avith the strategy of Napoleon." On the side galleries, " Meade," " Sherman," " Sheridan," "Porter," "FooTE," " Stringham," " Winslow," and "Anderson" — Faithful among the faithless! Deserted by his Commander-in-Chief, he withstood all temptations, choos- ing death rather than the surrender of his country's flag to sedition and treason." Small clones of flaii's and shields were Interspersed between the panels. AVhite, red, and blue bunt- Ins: extended in festoons arousd the base of the o;allcrics, and 70 THE CELEBRATION. American flags and bunting were appropriately festooned in the rear of the rostrum. The lower windows were curtained with American flags and white, pink, and blue lace. The upper windows were decorated with flags of all nations. There were also large American flags on each side of the lower doors. Bronze medallions, life size, of the late President Lincoln, Secretary Seward, Lieutenant-General Grant, Major-General Meade, IMaj or- General Butler, and Vice-Admiral Farragut, adorned the wall behind the Mayor's chair. On the rostrum in front, in the midst of a sea of beautiful mosses and flowers and aquatic plants, appeared a fine miniature representation of the U. S. ship Hartford, the flag-ship of Admiral Farragut at the battle of New Orleans." His Honor Mayor Lincoln presided at the tables, and, upon hia invitation, the Divine blessing was invoked by the Chaplain of the Day, Rev. Henry W. Foote. The dinner was then spread, and the company occupied nearly an hour in the practical discussion of its merits. The cloth was then removed, when Mayor Lincoln rose and spoke as follows : — "Fellow-Citizens: Again, under happy auspices, we are assembled in Faneuil Hall, and, in company with distin- guished guests, celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. For the past four years our civic feast has been omitted. We have repaired to other temples, as has been the custom of the people of Boston on this day since the close of the Revolutionary War, and with prayer and THE CELEBRATION. 71 praise have listened to those words of hope and cheer which were befitting tlie solemn exigency through which our country- was passing ; but our hearts were not attuned to those jubilant strains, which graced in happier times the festivities of our commemorative exercises. " This venerated Hall, indeed, during this time, has not been closed. It has been exerting an influence from its traditional history, and from the live men whose eloquence has rung through its arches, as important as in any period since one stone was laid upon the other. Its doors have opened on their golden hinges to our armed men going to or coming from the gage of battle. They have been inspired by the patriotic memories which impregnate its walls. Their faith in the good old cause has been strengthened as they remem- bered tlic Fathers who rocked the cradle in the infancy of the Republic ; and tlieir indignation has been aroused as they heard the traitor's threat, that the l\ebel flag would one day float over the sacred edifice. The stern discipline of sorrow and gloom was laid upon the land, to test the manhood of the pco})le. The trial has been severe, and the sacrifice great ; but through the Providence of God, and the might of the gallant men on the land and on the sea, who have unflinchingly stood by their country in its hour of peril, the Republic is saved, and we rejoice to-day with shouts of tri- umph unexampled in our history. " What a contrast is the celebration of to-day to all which have preceded it ! Before the late Rebellion, it was our cus- tom to assemble to rehearse the noble story of our Fathers. Sometimes the thoughtful would rai.v iiii; iinnirv-NiNrii axnivkijsauv AMERICAN IXDEPENDEXC'E. BOSTON: J . E . F A K W K L L & CO M P A N Y , P R I N T E R S X ' 1 . 37 C O N G I! E S S S T R U K T . 1 8 G 5 . H 3 J 8 •\/-. V-^'/ \.-H-<\/ \.-^'-/ ^^^^ > .•i. /.^ .^V ^ O ' o , . * .A, ^-A ♦^ y:' ^'^ ^0 ,0 C N 9 ^^ *V\^$f/)5> fL'i-' -■> V V$' .* V HECKMAN IINDERY INC. I^APR 89 ^- aN^-"<>. N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA 46962 •^^0^ 4 O . * VS *■ ^>. A-^ '•.^.^.' ^