E 463 cr J o ^- .L92 Copy 1 OPINIONS OF PROMINENT MEN CONCERNING EXPRESSED IN THEIR LETTERS TO THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE, ON OCCASION OP TIE GREAT MASS MEETING OF THE LEAGUE .j^lsTTD oti3:ei:e=l XjO-^.a.I-iISTS AT UNION SQUAEE, NEW YOEK, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF SUMTER. FOE ACCOUNT OF SPEECHES, &c., on This Occasion, sek Full Kepobt of the Proceedings, IN Anotheb Place. NetD l^ork : C. S. WESTCOTT & CO., PRINTERS, No. 79 John Street. 1863. << / V 6i5Ji Ji INVITATIONS TO DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS, REQUESTING THEM TO ADDRESS THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE AND OTHER LOYAL CITIZENS, AT THE MASS MEE'MG IN UMOi\ SQUARE, New York, April Utli, 1863, THE SUMTER ANNIVERSARY; WITH REPLIES FROM MANY WHO WERE THUS INVITED. (THE SPEECHES OF THOSE WHO ATTENDED THE MEETING ARE PRINTED IN ANOTHER PLACE.) (COPY OF THE INVITATION.) LOYAL NATIONAL LEAG-UE. 1= Hi E XD C3- E . "We, the undersigned, citizens of the United States, hereby associate ourselves under the name and title of the Lotal National League. " We pledge ourselves to unconditional loyalty to the Government of the United States, to unwavering support of its efforts to suppress the Rebellion, and to spare no endeavor to maintain unimpaired the National Unity, both in principle and territorial boundary. " The primary object of this League is, and shall be, to bind together all loyal men, of all trades and professions, in a common union, to main- tain the power, gloiy, and integrity of the Nation." Hall of the League, 813 Broadway, New York, March 26th, 1863. Sir : The Loyal National League, associated under the pledge above, and which has been signed by thousands throughout this city and state, as well as in other loyal States, "will hold an inaugural Mass Meeting at Union Squai'e, on Saturday, the 11th of April next (the anniversary of the day upon which the war upon the Government was begun in the bom- bardment of Fort Sumter), to renew to the Government and the People of the United States its solemn pledge and firna resolve that the unity of this nation shall not be impaired either in principle or territorial boun- dary, and that the Government of our fathers shall be maintained." The Loyal National League has, from its first inception, held the hope that all the Leagues throughout the country would afiiUate under this simple pledge, and delegates from all similar organizations have been invi- ted to attend this meeting. You are respectfully requested to address this meeting, which wiU be national in character as in name, or, if your engagements be such as to prevent your active participation, to favor it with the expression of your views, to make a part of the ceremony of the day, an account of which will be published. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES A. EOOSEVELT, Secretaky of the League, 94 Maiden Lane, Neio York. COUNCIL or TWENTY-FIVE. GEORGE OPDYKE, WILLIAM CURTIS NOYES, CHARLES KING, MORRIS KETCHUM, JOHN A. STEVENS, SETH B. HUNT, WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, E. CAYLUS, JOHN C. GREEN, . MOSES TAYLOR, A. T. STEWART, CHARLES BUTLER, FRANCIS LIEBER, FRANCIS B. CUTTING, WI1(LIAM B. DODGE, ROBERT BAYARD, JOHN J. CISCO, C. V. S. ROOSEVELT, FRANCIS G. SHAW, CHARLES A. HECKSCHEE, W. H. WEBB, WILLIAM F. GARY, JAMES MOKAYE. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF TWENTY-FIVB. GEORGE GRISWOLD, JOHN COCHRANE, FRANKLIN H. DELANO, J. BUTLER WRIGHT, GEORGE CABOT WARD, JOHN JAY, ISAAC H. BAILEY, WILLIAM A. HALL, HUGO WESENDONCK, WILLIAM T. BLODGETT, PARKE GODWIN, ADRIAN ISELIN, SIDNEY HOWARD GAY, ROBERT B. MINTURN, Jr., JAMES A. ROOSEVELT, ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY, THOMAS N. DALE, JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS, Jr., WILLIAM E. DODGE, Jr., WILLIAM ORTON, WOLCOTT GIBBS, C. E. DETMOLD, CHARLES ASTOE BRISTED, GEORGE P. PUTNAM. LIST OF PEESONS INVITED TO SPEAK. THE PEESIDENT of the United States. THE VICE-PRESIDENT of the United States. HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury '' EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War " GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy " JOHN P. USHER, Secretary of the Interior " MONTGOMERY BLAIR, Postmaster-General " EDWARD BATES, Attorney-General. Governor Tod, of Ohio Hon. Richard S. Field, Llair, of Michigan, u jy^^-^ Wilmot, Morton of Indiana, <' Edgar Cowan, Yates, of Ilhnois - » ^ . ' Hon. Kirkwood, of Iowa, Ramsey, of Minnesota, '' Salomon, of Wisconsin, " Johnson, of Tennessee, Robinson, of Kentucky, " Buckingham, of Connec't, " Bradford, of Maryland, " Pierpont, of Virginia, " Cannon, of Delaware, " Coburn, of Maine, " Andrew, of Massachusetts, " Seymour, of New York, " Curtin, of Pennsylvania, E. D. Morgan, Ira Harris, William Pitt Fessenden, Lott Morrill, John P. Hale, Daniel Clark, ' Jacob Collamer, Solomon Foote, Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson, H. B. Anthony, William Sprague, L. S. Foster, James Dixon, John C. Teneyek, John Sherman, Benj. F. Wade, Zachariah Chandler, Jacob M. Howard, Lyman Trumbull, Joel Parker, J. W. Grimes, John J. Crittenden, James R. Doolittle, Henry M. Rice, M. S. Wilkinson, J. B. Henderson, Joseph A. Wright, Galusha A. Grow, Edward Everett, John A. King, Joseph Holt, Lyman Tremain, John K. Porter, James Guthrie, George G. Wright, Henry R. Selden, Roscoe Conkling, Henry L. Davis, Elisha B. Washburne, David K. Carter, Horace Biniiey, George Bancroft, Hiram Walbridge, Hon. Frnncis B. Cutting, " Josiali Irvins:, " H. R. Low, ^ " James T. Smith, " Henry W. Rodgers, " John L. Talcott, " Samuel Treat, " James Wadsworth, *•' Henry Winter Davis, « J. N. Arnold, " Francis S. Blair, Sr., " Moses F.OdeU, " Daniel S. Dickinson, " Edward Haight, " Frederick A. Conkling, " Owen Lovejoy, " Schuyler Colfax, " John E. Porter, " Preston King, " George W. Julian, " James Humphrey, " Eobevt Dale Owen, Admiral Andrew H. Foote, " Hiraui Paulding, Lieut.-Gen. Winfield Scott, Maj.-Gen. John 0. Fremont, '• John E. Wool, " Franz Sigel, " John A. l)ix, " Jannes S. Wadsworth, " Joseph Hooker, " George B. McClellan, " Henry W. Halleck, " David Hunter, " Benj. F. Butler, " Ambrose E. Burnside, " George Gr. IV^eade. " Silas Casey, " John G. Parke, " George Stoneman, " I. W. McDowell, " William S. Eosecrans, " John F. Eeynolds, Brig. Gen. John Cochrane, " Lewis Wallace, « Carl Schurz, " A. J. Hamilton, of Tex. " Eobert Anderson, Colonel Delafield, His Grace Abp. Hughes, of N. Y. Eev. Francis Vinton, Rev. Alex. H. Vinton, " E. D. Hitchcock, " Henry Ward Beecher, " Henry W. Bellows, " W. G. Brownlow, '' J. P. Thompson, " Eudolph Dulon, " S. S. Cook, " John Cotton Smith, " Stephen H. Tyng, " A. C. Coxe, " Samuel Osgood, " O. B. Frothingham, « S. H. Cox, " William Adams, " Thomas E. Vermilye, " Eobert S. Breckinridge, Judge Charles P. Daly, " Amasa J. Parker, " Murray Hoffman, " William Mitchell, " J. W. White, Prof. A. D. Bache, Mr. William Allen Butler, " George William Curtis, " David Dudley Field, " George D. Prentice, " • William M. Evarts, " W. J. A. Fuller, " William Curtis Noyes, " Charles King, " Frederick Kapp, " Charles P. Kirkland, " Orestes A. Brownson, " James A. Briggs, " George Gibbs, " S. B. Chittenden, " Geo. W. Chinton, " Timothy Parsons, " David S. Coddiugtou, " John Van Buren, " Jauies T. Brady, " Will Van Gersnbach, " Charles J. Stille, " E. N. Dickerson, " Charles E. Norton, " Jauies A. Hamilton, " William Cullen Bryant, " Henry J. Raymond, " Parke Godwin. INDEX TO THE LETTEES OF REPLY. PAGE, Letter from Win. H. Seward, Secretary of State , 9 " S. P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury 10 " Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy 11 " J. P. Usher, Secretary of the Interior 11 '• Lot M. Morrell, United States Senator from Maine- 12 " John Sherman, " " Ohio .- 13 " Charles Sumner, " " Massachusetts 13 " H. B. Anthonj', " " Ehode Island 14 Telegram from William Sprague, "' " Rhode Island 14 Letter from Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts 15 " A. W. Bradford, Governor of Maryland 16 " William Cannon, Governor of Delaware 16 " William C. Cozzens, Governor of Rhode Island 17 " David Tod, Governor of Ohio 18 " Edward Salomon, Governor of Wisconsin 19 " Samuel V. Kirkwood, Governor of Iowa 20 ' ' Alexander Ramsey, Governor of Minnesota 20 " Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, Representative from Illinois 21 % " " Edward Haight, " New York 21 " " H.L.Dawes, " Massachusetts 22 " Winfield Scott, Lieutenant-General U. S. A 28 " ,H. W. Halleck, Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States.. . 23 '' Joseph Hooker, Major-General U. S. A 23 " Irvin McDowell, Major-General U. S. A 24 " George Stoneman, Major-General U. S. A 25 " George G. Meade, Major-General U. S. A 25 " John A. Dix, Major-General U. S. A 26 " Silas Casey, Major-General U. S. A 29 " John F. Reynolds, Major-General U. S. A 29 " John E. Wool, Major-General U. S. A 30 " Carl Schurz, Major-General U. S. A 30 '• James S. Wadsworth, Brigadier-General U. S. A 30 " Admiral Hiram Paulding, U. S. N 31 " A. D. Bache, Esq., U. S. Coast Survey 32 " Rev. Dr. Fi-ancis Vinton 32 " " Thomas EVermilye 36 " " 0. B. Frothingham 37 " " Samuel Hanson Cox 38 PAGE. Letter from Kev. Benjamin W. Dwight. . . 39 " " J. T. Dun-ea 39 " " A.H.Vinton 40 " " Stephen H. Tyng 41 " " Joseph P. Thompson 41 •' " Orestes A. Brownson 42 " " Samuel Cooke 42 " Hon. Robert Dale Owen, of Indiana 43 " " Ljinan Tremain, of New York 44 " " Lorenzo Sherwood, late of Texas 46 " J. L Clark Hare, of PhUadelphia 49 " " James Wadsworth, of Xew York 49 " " Murray Hoftman, of New York : 50 " " James W. White, of New York 50 " James T. Brady, Esq., of New York 51 " Hon. Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland 51 " " John K. Porter •. 52 " " J. G. Potts, New Jersey 52 " " Henry M. Rice, of Minnesota ' 53 " '* Thomas Camej', of Kansas 54 " " James Y. Smith, of Rhode Island 54 " Richard H. Dana, Jr., Esq., of Boston . 65 '• Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes 55 " Charles Eliot Norton, Esq., of Cambridge, Massachusetts 56 •' William Curtis Noyes, Esq., of New York 57 " James A. Hamilton, Esq., of New York , g 57 " Capt. Cornelius Curtis, of Key West, Florida 60 " Henry W. Rogers, Esq., of Bufifalo 60 " John G. Whittier, Esq.. of Massachusetts 61 RESPONSES OF LEAGUES. Connecticut to the League 61 Massachusetts to the Loyal League 61 From the League at Rochester 62 From the Union Club, of Boston S^ Delegation from Philadelphia Loyal League 63 NATIONAL SONGS AND ODES, WRITTEN FOR THE OCCASION. Letter and Song of Alfred B. Street, Esq 65 Poem, by Sirs. Bradford 67 Song, by George H. Boker, Esq 70 Ode by William Ross Wallace, Esq. 71 REPLIES, PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE COUNCIL AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. LETTER OF THE HON. WM. H. SEWARD, SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES. Department of State, \ "Washington, April od, 1863. ) My dear Sir : 1 regret that I cannot attend the Loyal National League, at their inaugural mass meeting, to be held on the llth of April, to which you have invited me. But I respectfully urge upon those who shall fortunately be able to be there, vigilance, energy, and, above all things, unanimity and concert. When that excellent patriot, Gov. Wright, of Indiana, told me that he was going to Philadelphia to attend a Union League, and asked what he should say to the League for me, " Tell them," I said, "To put my name down on their roll.^" He replied : " But there are two Union Leagues there ; the one thinks this, and is gotten up under such and such auspices ; the other thinks that, and is organized by So-and-So. In which of the two will you be en- rolled ?" "In both of them," was my reply. We are now at the crisis of a revolutionary contest which involves nothing less than the transcendental question whether this unconquerable and irresistible nation shall suddenly perish through imbecilitv, after a successful and glorious existence of eighty years, or whether it shall survive a thousand years, diffusing light, liberty, and happi- ness, throughout the world. Our armies are moving on with a step firmer than those of the Roman Empire or the French Republic ever_ maintained. Our fleets have surpassed in achievements those of any previous^ national power. Our credit is conquering interested avarice at home, and defying inter- ested conspiracies abroad. All that remains now is to lift the national temper to the needful height, and fortify to the point of inflexibility the national resolution, so that we shall agree to tolerate no treason at home, and repel any and every intervention, seduction, or aggression from abroad. In order to do this, let us, in our Leagues, ask each other no questions about the past. Of what importance is it to our country now, whether a pa- triot citizen has been a Democrat, or a Whig, or Republican, or Conservative, or Radical heretofore ? Who can say that he himself has never erred, or that his neighbor was not sometimes wiser than himself on questions of adminis- tration that have passed away forever ? Let us ask each other no questions about how the nation shall govern itself, or who shall preside in its councils in the great future that looms up before us, enveloped alternately in menacing clouds and in gorgeous sunlight. Let whoever may deserve the distinction by loyalty and energetic service now, come into place and power when this crisis is passed; and let those who shall have survived it decide for themselves who is most wise and most worthy of their confidence.. Let us save the country; that is labor enough, and it will be glory enough 10 for all of the actors of the present hour. It will eclipse even the greatness of our honored forefathers. It will leave us nothing to fear for our posterity. I am, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Jamt!? a. Eoosevelt, Esq., Secretary, jr., No. 94 Maiden Lane, New York. LETTER PROM THE HOX. S. P. CHASE, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. Washington, April 9, 1863. Gentlemen : Imperative demands on my time compel me to deny myself the gratification of attending the meeting to which you kindly invite me. You will meet to send words of cheer to our brave generals and soldiers in the field : to rebuke treason in our midst, giving, in the garb of peace, aid and comfort to treason in the panoply of war; to maintain inviolate the integrity of the national territory and the supremacy of the national Constitution and laws : to strengthen the hands and nerve the heart of the President for the great work to which God and the people have called him. For what worthier purposes can American citizens now assemble ? It is my fixed faith, gentlemen, that God does not mean that this American republic shall perish. We are tried as by fire, but our country will live. Notwithstanding all the violence and all the machinations of traitors and their sympathizers, on this or the other side of the Atlantic, our country will live. And while our country lives, slavery, the chief source, and cause, and agent of our ills, will die. The friends of the Union in the South, before rebellion, predicted the destruction of slavery as a consequence of secession, if that mad- ness should prevail. Nothing, in my judgment, is more certain than the ful- filment of these predictions. Safe in the states, before rebellion, from all federal interference, slavery has come out from its shelter, under state con- stitutions and laws, to assail the national life. It will surely die, pierced by its own fangs and stings. What matter now how it dies ? Whether as a consequence or object of the the war, what matter? Is this a time to split hairs of logic ? To me it seems that Providence indicated clearly enough how the end of slavery must come. It comes in rebel slave states by military order, decree, or proclamation ; not to be disregarded or set aside in any event as a nullity, but maintained and executed with perfect good faith to all the enfranchised ; and it will come in loyal slave states by the unconstrained action of the people and their legisla- tures, aided freely and generously by their brethren of the free states. I may be mistaken in this, but if I am another better way will be revealed. Meantime it seems to me very necessary to say distinctly what many yet shrink from saying. The American blacks must be called into this conflict, not as cattle, not now, even, as contrabands, but as men. In the free states, and, by the proclamation, in the rebel states, they are free men. The Attor- ney-General, in an opinion which defies refutation, has pronounced these free- men citizens of the United States. Let, then, the example of Andrew Jackson, who did not hesitate to oppose colored regiments to British invasion, be now fearlessly followed. Let these blacks, acclimated, familiar with the country, capable of great endurance, receive suitable military organization and do their part. We need their good-will, and must make them our friends by showing ourselves their friends. We must have them for guides, for scouts, for all military service in camp or field for which they are qualified. Thus em- ployed, from a burden they will become a support, and the hazards, privations, and labors of the white soldiers will be proportionally diminished. 11 Some will object, of course. There are always objectors to everything prac- tical. Let experience dispel honest fears, and refute captious or disloyal cavil. Above all, geiitlemen, let no doubt rest on our resolution to sustain, with all our hearts and with all our means, the soldiers now in arms for the republic. Let their ranks be filled up; let their supplies be suflScient and regular; let their pay be sure. Let nothing be wanting to them which can insure activity and efficiency. Let each brave officer and man realize that his country's love attends him, and that his country's hopes hang upon him ; and, inspired by this thought, let him dare and do all that is possible to be dared and done. So, gentlemen, with the blessing of God, will we make a glorious future sure. I see it rising before me — how beautiful and grand ! There is not time to speak of it now ; but from all quarters of the land comes the voice of the sover- eign people, rebuking faction, denouncing treason, and proclaiming the indi- visible unity of the republic; and in this Heaven-inspired union of the people, for the sake of the Union, is the sure promise of that splendid hereafter. With great respect, yours very truly, S. P. CHASE. Hou. George Opdyke, George Griswold, Esq., and others. Committee of the Loyal Union League, New York. LETTER FROM THE HON. GIDEON WELLES, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. Washington, April 10, 1863. Sir : I am honored by your invitation to bo present at the inaugural mass meeting of the Loyal National League at Union Square to morrow, the anni- versary of the day when the firing commenced on Fort Sumter, to renew the solemn pledge and firm i-esolve that the unity of the nation shall not be im- paired, and that the government of our fathers shall be maintained. It will not be in my power to attend your meeting, but my heart will be with you. There are no higher earthly obligations than the preservation and perpetua- tion of the Constitution under which we live, and the Union that our fathers formed, both of which were assailed by traitors at Charleston on the 11th of April, 1861. Two years of causeless and embittered warfiire against the most beneficent government which man has ever enjoyed, so far from weakenino- our efforts or exhausting our energies, only render more obligatory upon us the maintenance of the Union in its integrity, now and forever, Avith all the vigor we possess, and by all the means which God and nature have placed at our disposal. For one, I am, irrespective of all past party differences or associa- tions, the friend of every man who supports the Union, and the enemy of all who oppose it, or who sympathize or fellowship with the traitors who oppose it. Such, I doubt not, are the object and purpose of the Loyal National League, and as such it has my best wishes for its success. Very respectfully, GIDEON WELLES. James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Sec'y of the League. LETTER OF HON. J. P. USHER, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. Department of the Interior. ) Washington, D. C, April 10, 1863. ' | _ Sir: I have the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of your favor of the 26th of last month, wishing me to attend and address the mass meeting to be held at Union Square, in the city of New York, under the auspices of the Loyal National League of ^hat city. The purpose of the League being to render to the government an unwaver- It in» support in its efforts to suppress the rebellion, and to spare no endeavor to maintaiii the naflonal uiutt ummpaired. both in principle and territorial boun- darr. must find a hcArry respon3e in the breast of cveTT loval man. TThile it is a matt<^T of great satisfactioii to all patriotic men, that those who leairuf : :" ■ ' ~ ""r maintenance of the gorr'- ' "-■ " ' not find it necessarv to uph. :.tion br imposing upon : crs secret oaths and ob^auuiir .racter. it is a cause of pr^... . ..^rot and josf r.l:^— v. to dB pBbaeifcs. exift among us secret societies and orgaui. jueadtesTS of ;c bound to each other It unlawful oaths, of s. jBioriminal character that, when called to testify in courts of justice, they uriwf , and shield themselres under the law, which declares that no one shall hscBBBpelled to aceuse himself of fcicny. Had my official duties here per- agitted. it would hare afforded me great satisfaction to meet the thousands upon thousands of loval and TTnioD-loring men of my native state in your great city, and with them renew our unalterable devotion jo the national unity, and join in fresh pledges for its preservation. I have the honor to be, faithfully, Totir obedient serranL J. r. USHER. James A- Roosevelt. Esq., Secretary of the Loyal StOiona] League, Nev York. LETTER OF LOT X. MORRELL, U. S. SENATOR FROM MAINE. AuGusiA, April 7, 1863. DxAK Sir : I am honored in the receipt of your favor, in which I am invited, on behalf of the " Loyal National League,'' to be present at the Mass Meeting at Union Square, on the 11th inst. Concurring most cordially in its objects, I regret my inability to be present. In this day of peril to OUT common country every patriot heart must I am sure, sympa- IjboMe wdth these objects — that of binding together all loyal men of all tmdee and professions in a common union to maintain the power, glory, and integrity of the nation. Pitiable indeed is that man's insensibility, whose pulse does not quicken at the mention of these high purposes. May the inaugura- tion of the "Loyal National Le^agne," on the anniversary of the day upon which war upon the government was begun at Fort Sumter, incite an overwhelming moral conviction of the nation, which shall give to the day the significance of Doomsday to the domestic enemies of the country I The llth day of April, 1S61, is destined, I do not doubt, to find its his- toric parallel in another day of an eventful period in our history, that of the 27ih day of May. 1754. On this latter day. we are told by the great American historian, that lieutenant-Colonel "Washington, at the forks of the Ohio, afterward named Fort Duquesne, at the head of one hundred and fifty followers, loyal to the English possesions in the Western World, repelled by force of arms the assault of France upon an English fort, and thus began the battle which was to banish from the soil of our republic the institutions of the Middle Ages, and waked a struggle which was to continue until the cause of feudalism and despotism was overthrown. The malignant assault upon Fort Sumter was the signal also for a conflict, long impending between not essen- tially dissimilar forces, and which admits of no truce until popular power and freedom are triumphant The nation's extremity is the nation's opportunity. It has not the guilt of insanely precipitating events ; it must not be obnoxious to the folly and mad- ness of not conducting to a prosperous conclusion what was inauspiciously and treacherously begun. In such an hour of our history, of domestic conspiracy against '• the national 13 life," armed rebellion against the supreme authority, the turbulence and anar- chy of secession, confederacy of the enemies of popular government, it is felt that all loyal men, everywhere, should renew their plighted vows to their com- mon country — that they should strive to enter fully into the spirit of the august founders of American liberty ; and followinar their example, and endeavoring to preserve and perpetuate what they, for the welfare of mankind, so earnestly began, pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, in its mainten- ance. Very respectfully yours, LOT M. MORRELL. James A. Roosevelt, Secretary, ifc. LETTER OF HON. JOHN SHERMAN, U. S. SENATOR FRO.M OHIO. Mansfield, Ohio, i April G, 1863. \ Sir : I regret that other duties will not allow me to attend the proposed meeting of the " Loyal National League." Most heartily do I approve of your declaration " that the unity of this nation shall not be impaired.'' I want no other platform. I will subscribe to no other creed until all the enemies of the Union are overthrown. I will regard every man as a political friend who will only heartily act upon this sentiment, whatever may be his opinion as to the best means to be used for that object. The deep and strong feeling of patriot- ism now showing itself in every part of the loyal states, gives me full confi- dence that the purpose of the League will surely be attained. Very truly yours, JOHN SHERMAN. Jas. a. Roosevelt, Esq., Secy, Sfc. LETTER OF THE HON. CHARLES SUMNER, U. S. SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS. Washington, 9>e warned. "We are either rising, regenerated, to send a thrill of national life that will reorganize the shattered members into a new t>ody, or we shall sink back in feebleness to die ! Let this government falL and section will war against section, through the inevitah»le collision of interests, until we become self-annihilated : or, worn out in patience, spirit, and resources, we shall, for relief and rest, fling ourselvM into the arms of some interfering tyrant, and come to the unity of deipo'iim. Go on, then,, in your wort Set this bsue before the peopfe. Ring out the alarm 1 Tone up the public mind, and roase the national heart. Let the war- «ry be, Ukitt, Life, Libeett, Destiny ! against Discsios, Decay, Despot- ism, Doom I Very respectfully, yours, J. T. DURYEA. P. S. — If you fail to complete your corps of speakers, I will not withhold my voice. Ja31E6 a. Roosevelt, Esq.,'; Secretary Loyal League. LETTER OF TUE REV. A. 11. VINTON. St. Mark's Rectoet, April 8. 1863. Dear Sir : Allow me to thank you for the invitation to address the mass meeting of the Loyal National League. Although obliged to decline your courtesy, I am glad of the opportunity to gav that my convictions and feelings chime in entire harmony with the pur- poses of the League. As an instrument for giving voice to the TJ^nt-up loyalty of the people's great heart, its organization is most timely. For that sentiment had been so wng pent up that its power had begun in some quarters to be despised, and its very exi.stence denied- Expression will give it fresh life and added power, and its joint expression will insure its triumph. I have never, indeed, permitted myself to doubt that the issue of our terri- ble conflict would establish the supremacy of the great principle of our na- tional unity, for it Is assured to us alike by history, by geography, and by faith : By' faith, because the massing together of all the tribes of the earth, in this jrreat'land, under a political system adapted to develop the highest man- hood of the race, is an experiment of Divine Providence too sublime to faiL By geographv, because the rivers and the mountains forbid the distinction of North and .South. By history, because every nation that has achieved stabil- ity has marched to it always through two kin'ls of conflict, viz. : a foreign war, io determine its boundaries ; and a civil war. to adjust and fix its polity. We have fought and finished the series of outward conflicts, and there re- mamed of necessity the interior battle of ideas before the national unity could be pronounced impregnable. 1 his is our present crisis, and, by the threefold light, our struggle seems full of promise. The principle of national unity, having life in itself will prove itself sover- eign : while the rival passion of seces-non being, like other passions, suicidal, Will perish from its own violence, and then the League of Loyalty will embrace the whole nation. 41 With this fixed hope, I cheerfully lend my voice to hail its inaugoration, and bid it Grod-speed. I am, dear sir, Tery respectfully, lour obedient servant, ' ALEX. H. VINTON. To JiJiES A. KoosEVELT, Esq., Secretary, Jjrc LETTER OF REV. STEPHEN H. TTNG. St. George's Rectory, April 6, 1S63. Mt Dear Sir : I greatly honor and rejoice in the formation of the Loyal National League. But my health this spring forbids such effort a5 an address in the open air. It would he a great pleasure to me could I add anything to the noble rising spirit ot unoouditioaal devotion to our country and our Consti- tution, which seems now to render sure the hope of coming from this vast con- flict as a free and finally established nation. Tour friend and servant, STEPHEN n. TTNG. James A. Roosevelt, Esq. FROM THE REV. JOSEPH P. THOMPSON. 32 West 36th Street, \ April 6, 1S63. j Pear Sir: Gladly would I accept the invitation to address the Loval Na- tional Lt-ague, on the 11th inst., did not a severe cold forbid my speaking in the opou air. It gives me no surprise and no discouragement that the second an- niversary of the attack on Fort Sumter finds us sail in an undecided struggle for the liL\ the unity, the liberty of the nation. From the first I anticipated nothing short of a three years' war, and nothing less th:\n a struggle involviu^: all our resources, and testing all our taith : and therefore, I accept disasters and reverses without wavering, and hold myself ready for every possible service and sacrifice for my country, unto the end. Uncouiiitional loyalty to the government — imcompromising hostility to its enemies — unsparing' devotion to its defenders — unswerving opposition to foreign interference under whatever disguise — imshrinking sjicrifices for Uxion\ Jus- tice, Liberty — no Union with slavery — no disunion for slavery — the I'xiox roR Liberty — those are the principles and declarations by which I stand through all the fluctuations of the hour, till God shall give us peace in right- eousness. Tour ob't servant, JOS. P. THOMPSON. James A. Roosevelt. Esq. 42 LETTER OF REV. ORESTES A. BROWNSON. Elizabeth, N. J., April 11, 1863. Dear Sir : It would give me great pleasure to comply with the invitation of the Loyal National League, to address the mass meeting to-day at Union Square, but the state of my health renders it impossible. ^ My views of the present national crisis are well known. I am an uncondi- tional Union man. I can make no compromise with rebels, and accept no peace that does not secure the supremacy of the government and the integrity of the national territory. With great respect, I have the honor to be Your obedient servant, 0. A. BROWNSON. Jas. a. Roosevelt, Esq. LETTER OF REV. SAMUEL COOKE. New York, April 8, 1863. My dear Sir : I have received your invitation to address the mass meet- ing of the Loyal National League, to be held at Union Square, on Saturday, the 11th inst. Other calls and duties will prevent me from so doing ; and I therefore avail myself of this opportunity to say that the principles which you announce in the pledge as the guides and objects of your association, seem to me to cover the entire ground of patriotic action in the present state of our national affairs. It is entirely clear to my mind, that our land can have no rest, either in the near or remote future, unless the people succeed in '' maintaining unimpaired our na- tional unity, both in principle and territorial boundary." Neither can I see how this is to be done except by "unconditional loyalty to the government of the United States, and by an earnest support of its efforts to suppress the re- bellion." We may cry "peace — peace;" but there will be no peace for us, or for our children, save in the complete subdual and overthrow of the men who claim to be the government of the Confederate States, and who care nothing for ruin if thereby they can rule. They represent nothing but themselves, for we have no evidence that a single Southern State was ever fairly voted out of the Union, except South Carolina. We have reason, moreover, to believe that, at this moment, a majority of the voters of the Southern States are, in heart, with the federal government, and not with the new confederacy. But be that as it may, and with a full appreciation of the losses, and horrors, and miseries of war, I can see no path opening into restored peace, and renewed prosperity and happiness, but that which you indicate in the letter to which this is a reply. I am, most truly yours, SAMUEL COOKE. Mr. James A. Roosevelt, Secretary of the Loyal National League. 43 LETTEK OF THE HON. KOBERT DALE OWEN. New York, April 10, 1863. Sir : In reply to the invitation so kindly extended to me to be jji-esent and deliver an address, on the Sumter Anniversary, next Saturday, suffer me to ex- press my regret that the imperative character of the duties which I have as- sumed, as chairman of a Commission recently created to investigate and report upon the condition of the colored population emancipated by acts of Con- gress and by the President's Proclamation, and to suggest measures for their protection and government, forbids my acceptance of what would otherwise have been a pleasant duty. But, in thus reluctantly declining, you will allow me, perhaps, a few brief remarks suggested by the occasion, and by the present critical condition of the country. No man familiar with history expected that the first burst of enthusiasm, aroused two years since by the cannonade of Fort Sumter, and which sent half a million of volunteers into the field, would endure through a protracted war. Such things never happen. Reaction comes by necessity. The wonder is, not that it showed itself last autumn in political reverses, but that it did not come upon us sooner. And we may well be surprised and encouraged that the dark season has been so brief, and that the day is already at hand. One of the latest signs of the morning dawn is the noble victory in Connecticut. I predict that the thousands who will assemble next Saturday to renew, with fresh en- thusiasm, after the sober second thought of two years' ordeal, their vows of loy- alty to the Union, will be another. That reaction had no deep or solid foundation. It was due, in a measure, to the natural impatience under temporary reverses, of a people unaccustomed to war, evincing itself in a restless desire for change. That impatience was doubtless quickened by the fact, that, before and at the time of the autumn elections, there were many things in the administration of public affairs im- peratively demanding reform. Could it be otherwise, when a million of men were suddenly called into the field from a nation at profound peace, and with scarcely any warlike experience ? But even as to the worst errors of administration that have been com- mitted, we may regard them under two phases. Are we sure that they have not been overruled for good 1 When I find, in a recent report on the conduct of the war, proofs of all the short-comings that have marked its progress ; when I read there of golden opportunities lost — of the fairest hopes of victory dashed and blighted — I see in all this more than the incapacity of man. I see the finger of God. Had there be no fatal blunders made by our generals in command — had our troops been led as wisely as they fought bravely — the war might indeed have been closed last summer. Six months ago we might have concluded a peace. But can we believe that it would have been a peace on an enduring foundation — one to last, not during a few anxious years of our lives, but a peace for our children, and for their children after them ? Had we, then, sufi'ered enough, and thought enough, and felt enough, to do this ? I do not believe it. Nor was it to be expected. Consider what lay at the basis of this struggle — an evil, of proportions so gigantic that in its eradication was involved the social condition of four millions of people, and the industrial and commercial interests of six millions more. Was it likely that we could reach the solution of a prob- lem so vast, so momentous, through a few months of war, through a few months of thought 1 Two battles had to be fought : one in the field, physical force against physi- cal force, in which the sword is the arbiter : the other at home, with weapons less violent but more powerful. Here had to be fought the battle against moral wrong, the battle against old abuse, the battle against long-hardened prejudice. And it availed nothing to close the war with the sword, if the war of opinion was still at issue and undecided. We forgot this in the first din of arms. We are awake to its importance now. There should be an addition to Jefferson's celebrated axiom : " Error of opinion m'Jiy safely be tolerated, if reason is left free to combat it." It is not enough that reason be left free. She must be up and doing. She must bestir herself. If she spends her freedom in idleness, if she sits listlesslj^, by with her hands across, error will steal a march upon her and win the battle. God works, but he works by human means. It is encouraging to perceive that loyal men are becoming convinced of these tx'uths, and are acting upon the con- viction. It is encouraging to believe — as most firmly I do — that the tri- umphant success which awaits your demonstration on the Sumter Anniversary, will aid the good cause as surely and effectually as a brilliant victory achieved by force of arms. On that anniversary we may well pause to consider what cause it was, breaking in upon eighty years of good fellowship, outraging the domestic tranquillity of a continent, that directed against Anderson and his gallant band, then in the discharge of their official duty, a bombardment by their fellow- citizens. We are not left to conjecture that cause. Three weeks before fire was opened on Fort Sumter, the gentleman elected by the insurrectionary states as their Vice President, boldly and unreservedly proclaimed it. On the 21st of March, 18G1, Alexander H. Stephens, addressing an immense crowd at Savannah, Georgia, publicly declared, that "African slavery was the immediate cause of the late rupture and the present revolution j" and that " slavery is the negro's natural and moral condition." He went further. He added : " This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth." There are some things which cannot be done in this world — they are morally impossible. And this project to erect, in the nineteenth century, a great em- pire on the basis of human slavery, is one of them. We may not be the agents to subvert it. We may act the coward, and suffer defeat ; we may play the submissionist, and assent, for the time, to slavery's supremacy. But it will per- ish none the less. The very advance of the world will destroy it. The irre- sistible current of human Progress will sweep it away. The question is not whether that slave-based government shall fall. The only question is, whether we, connecting our fortunes with a system inevitably doomed to destruction, shall be involved with it in one common ruin. I am, sir, your obedient servant, ROB'T DALE OWEN. To James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Secretary Loyal National League, New York. LETTER OF HON. LYMAN TREMAIN. Albany, April Wth, 1863. Sir : I have received your invitation to address a mass meeting at Union Square, on the 11th instant, but other engagements will place it beyond my power to accept it. I have perused with satisfaction the pledge of the Loyal National League, It is brief, but comprehensive, and its terms are so general, and yet so patri- otic, that no American citizen can object to them, unless he is a traitor or in sympathy with treason. The day you have selected for your meeting is quite appropriate. Various phases in the condition of the public mind, and in regard to the future result 45 of our great struggle, have been developed during the two years that have elapsed since the overt act of war was committed at Fort Sumter. The ardor and novelty exhibited in the first uprising of the people to resent the insult of- fered to the national flag, have passed away. Weak and timid men, borne along for the moment by the popular current, but having no permanent principle of action, have manifested symptoms of wavering and despondency, because the rebellion did not fall before the first blow. Necessary evils, resulting from a war unexampled in its proportions, together with the incidental burdens and restraints imposed upon the citizens by the acts of our constituted authorities, have enabled designing and ambitious leaders, who would prefer the success of treason to the triumph of the government under its present administration, to acquire a temporary success that, to the superficial observer, seemed to indi- cate a dissatisfaction Avith the war. The boldness, however, manifested by the plotters against the government, has been productive of salutary results. Good men, who had been deceived as to their purpose, have taken the alarm. Public sentiment is finally coming to the conclusion that there can be no middle ground to be occupied between the friends and the enemies of our government. Union leagues are capable of doing much good, in developing public opinion and giving it the j^roper direction, as well as counteracting the misrepresenta- tions of those croakers and disloyal men who lose no opportunity to mislead and corrupt the popular sentiment. Present indications ore encouraging. Recent Congressional legislation, by dedicating all the men, money, and other resources of the nation, to the work of overthrowing this rebellion, has given to the people of the loyal states, to the rebels, and to the world, a pledge of the terrible earnestness of the govern- ment and the people which has produced beneficial fruits. Many of the ques- tions which were new, and in the earlier stages of the war, have been adroitly used to embarrass the administration, are being determined by the action of the legislative and judicial departments of the government. Whether the power to suspend the habeas corpus, where a uecesr^ity exists, belongs to the President or to Congress is no longer a practical question, because by the recent act of Congress, the President is invested with all the authority which Congress can confer in addition to that which pertains to his high office. By its recent de- cision, declaring that the stocks and securities of the United States are exempt from state taxation, the Supreme Court of the United States has rendered efi'ective the money-borrowing power of the national government — a power essential to carrying out the constitutional authority of raising and supporting , armies. This same high tribunal has by its recent decision, in the prize cases, set at rest an objection which has been urged very generally and in high quarters, against the President's proclamation, and which would be equally available against any other act of war on the part of the general government or of the commander-in-chief, to the eifect that it is invalid, unless it makes a distinction between the property of loyal and disloyal citizens in the rebel states. This objection being fairly and fully stated is thus authoritatively overthrown by the Court : " Under our peculiar Constitution, although the citizens owe supreme allegiance to the federal government, they oue also a qualified alle- giance to the states in which they are domiciled ; their persons and property are subject to its laws; hence in organizing this rebellion they have acted as states claiming to be sovereign over all persons and property within their re- spective limits and asserting a right to absolve their citizens from their allegi- ance to the federal government. Several of the.«o states have combined to form a new confederacy, claiming to be acknowledged by the world as a sovereign state. Their right to do so is now being tested by wager of battle — the ports and territory of each of those states are held in hostility to the general govern- ment. It is no loose, unorganized insurrection, having no defined boundary or possession. It has a boundary marked by lines of bayonets and which can 4:'6 be crossed only by force. South of this line is enemies^ territory. AH persons residing ivilhin this territory whose property may be used to increase the revenues of the hostile power are in this condition liable to be treated as enemies though not foreigners.'' Encouraged by these manifestations, let us sustain all the acts of our public authorities honestly intended to crush out this rebellion, including all laws, until they are pronounced invalid by the courts. Let the lines be more dis- tinctly drawn between those who, no matter what may have been their politi- cal antecedents, are now unconditional supporters of the government, and those who are either against it or for it with conditions and provisoes. Let u§ discard wholly all subordinate issues and mere partisan obligations, and let the question be squarely met of union or disunion, loyalty or treason. Our brave soldiers have gone forth to fight, and, if necessary, to die in the field. They are united, and republicans, and democrats, Americans, whigs, and abolitionists, are marching forward, side by side, and shoulder to shoulder. Why cannot we also be united at home ? Why not cheer, sustain, and strengthen our noble armies by presenting the spectacle of a people sub- stantially united ? Our sacrifices and sufferings, serious as they are, are scarcely to be named in comparison with the sacrifices and suS'erings already suffered by the rebels. The glorious objects to be accomplished by our success, the priceless value of the Constitution and Union we would preserve, the millions of treasure al- ready expended, and the thousands of lives sacrificed for that object; the na- tional degradation and ruin v^hich will be the result if we fail in the contest, demand that the war be pressed forward with all the power and means at our command. There can be no peace with these traitors until they are vanquished. We must conquer them or they will conquer us. Away, then, with the wretched cry of " Peace," " Peace," when we know there can be no real peace except one achiev- ed by the valor of our armies and the success of our arms. Let us resolve that whether this contest continues months or years, it must go on until the victory is won. To falter or yield now, or to fight with only half our powers, would cover us with eternal disgrace. It is quite clear that we must fight, and rea- sonably certain that we shall win. The question is coming down to one of endurance, resources, and numbers, and hence the probabilities of success are all on the side of the government On, then, with the good cause ! Let no Union man falter or turn back. Trusting to our own right arms, to the righteousness of our cause, and to the favor of an overruling Providence, let us press onward, indulging the confident expectation of re-establishing our national authority throughout the entire States and Territories of the Union. Yours, very truly, LYMAN TREMAIN. James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Secretary of the Loyal National League. LETTER OF HON. LORENZO SHERWOOD, LATE OF TEXAS. New York, April 10, 1863. Gentlemen : I am in receipt of your very kind note of the 8th, iiiviting me to attend, as one of the speakers, at the meeting to be held at Union Square on the 11th iTist. You will please accept my thanks for the compliment. If, in bestowing it, you have gone too far by inviting me as one of the speakers, you have not over-estimated my anxiety for the great cause. I say great cause, for the reason that no cause, in its manifold incidents, has ever been greater. History records no other like it. In the Revolutionary struggle, the contest involved the establishment and maintenance of an outpost 47 of civilization founded upon the theory of protection to natural rights. What •was then an outpost ha's grown to be a centre, and is regarded as such, not only by political philosophers and lovers of free government, but also by the antagonistic political forces of the whole world. The American theory of natural rights, a population of more than thirty millions having all the motives in combination to maintain these natural rights, and a continent as a platform upon' which to exert them in connection with an expanding power, make this nation the centre of a civilization upon the highest and most sacred of all political theories — the acknowledged right of man to be free, under well- regulated self-government. Our theory, adopted for the protection of popular rights through the dis- tribution of power, and of giving effect to such distribution of power by means of the elective franchise, has been attacked by the anti-democratic or anti- republican influences of the South. A minority of the Southern population has set out, not for a new. but for an old form of government — a form of gov- ernment that has not kept pace with the advancement of political philosophy on this continent. European forms and European privileges in class power are sought to be reintroduced, in opposition to the interdict in our fundamental law forbidding the establishing of any order of nobility. The form of gov- ernment which our fathers had repudiated as inconsistent with justice, and not adapted to the protection of popular rights, is now insisted upon as a means for advancing and upholding the remnant of barbarism still existing in the southern portion of the Union. This is the cause of the attempted revolution. We cannot disguise the na- ture or character of the present conflict of arms. It is purely political. It arises out of antagonisms, the very opposite of each other. It springs from the theory, not new. but recently promulgated as an excuse for revolution — '■'•that slavery and democracy are incompatible.^'' If we allow the conspirators to be the expositors of their own meaning, we need not be at a loss to divine their objects. It is clearly apparent that they intend to free their institution from the danger of republican government, to secure it by abrogating a gov- ernment of majorities in the South, and to perpetuate it by the establishment of a cemented and hereditary slave aristocracy. This is the political, material, and war meaning of the rebellion. The real issue is this : Shall we maintain our national unity, and in connection there- with that clause of the Constitution which guarantees to the people of all the states republican government ? or, shall we allow the antagonistic theory, which the conspirators have set up, to prevail ? When we adopt the true theory of the war, and popularize that theoi-y, the rebellion will have lost nearly the whole of its political as well as its physical force. When the conspii-acy is stripped of its disguises, it is then shorn of its strength : surrounded by its disguises, it has been made to appear formidable, and has been made formidable for a season through imposition and concealed treachei'y. The rebellion is for- midable or weak precisely in proportion as its motives and objects become known to the popular mind of the nation. Fifteen hundred thousand is the force on the one hand ; twenty-seven millions, or thereabouts, is the natural force on the other. The one is in favor of repudiating republican govern- ment, the other in favor of maintaining it. This is the natural arrangement of forces when the objects of the rebellion are definitely made known. In thia conflict between the democratic and ani.i-democratic forces of the nation, nothing is more essential to the national cause than that the issue should be definitely understood. Give to the people the real issue as it is, and they will make the result as it ought to be. Annexed to this note, I send a copy of the New York Senate resolutions. I do so for the i-eason that they may be incorporated with the expressions of patriotic sentiment now flowing in upon your committee from all parts of the country. It was a happy omen for the success of our cause, when the Senate of this state flung away its partyism, and invited our people to come 48 and stand side by side on the ground of patriotism alone. Most wisely are the people responding to that generous and praiseworthy invitation. The day that these resolutions passed the senate will be remembered as a day that afforded the harbinger of assured strength that was to grow out of a consolidated deter- mination of our people to stand in unity in suppressing the rebellion. With appreciative regard and sympathy in all your efficient efforts, I am most cordially and truly vours, &c. LORENZO SHERWOOD. To the Council and Committee of the Loyal National League, New York. NEW YORK SENATE RESOLUTIONS. Passed February 13, 1863. [KefeiTed to in the letter of the Hon. Lorenzo Sherwood.] Whereas, The political influences now controlling the rebellion have defined their motives and positions by announcing that " Slavery and Democracy are incompatible," and that they are "irreconcilable antagonisms f and, Whereas, also, It now plainly appears that the slaveholders'* rebellion origi- nated in a conspiracy against the principles of free government as well as against the national unity ; therefore, Resolved, As the sense of this legislature, that it hns become a question for the American people, as well as for the advocates of liberal government every- where, whether slavery shall perish, or the principles of free government be overthrown and prostrated. Resolved, That free government in the South had nearly ceased to exist pre- vious to the inauguration of open rebellion ; that in the execrable preparation for open rebellion, civil liberty had been stricken down and public opinion had become the result of regulation by mobs ; that the management of the in- cidents of that rebelHon has been a mere continuation of an execrable system of coercion, inaugurated by slaveholding traitors who had long plotted the over- throw of free government in the South. Resolved, That the Constitution of the Pnited States guarantees to the people of all the states free republican government ; that this is the absorbing feature of our whole political system and the highest behest of our fundamental law; that there is no reserved power by the states or incident of state sovereignty that has or can have acknowledged existence in opposition to this fundamen- tal guaranty; that in maintaining this guaranty of free government against all antagonisms, we maintain the Constitution as it was, as it is, and as it should Resolved, That the despicable sympathy expressed by political circles in Europe in favor of the overthrow of democratic government in the United States, is precisely what the American people had a right to expect; that the expression of sympathy by the masses of Europe, in favor of maintaining our free government against the acknowledged antagonism of slavery, is also what we had a right to expect ; but that any portion of our free countrymen of the North should have joined the coalition between traitors and European despot- ism to overthrow the national unity, is what no patriot in our country had any right to expect. Resolved, That we hereby absolve ourselves from allegiance to all party, ex- cepting that great party of American freemen who are determined to stand by the question of national unity and free government; to this great party we cor- dially tender the hand of fellowship and unity. We call upon the people of this great state to stand by this cause with one accord, and to maintain it with all their might, and power, and means, and credit, and to exhibit no hesitation or faltering until this cause is made triumphant. 49 Resolved, further, That we call upon the legislatures of the loyal states of this Uuion, upon Cougress, and upon the President of the United States, and invite them, clearly and distinctly, to present to their countrymen, North and South, the great issue between free government on the one hand and the an- tagonism of slavery set up by the conspirators against free government on the other ; that we not only believe, but know with moral certainty, that when this question is well and definitely understood by the masses, it will bring into political affiliation and unity the free labor foi-ce of the whole Uuion. Resolved, That as the representatives of the people of New York, we send the tender regai-ds of our whole people to the brave men composing the army and navy of the Union ; that while we cherish their names and brave deeds in af- fectionate remembrance, we pledge to them the firm and vigorous support of our ]>eople in every way and form possible to make such support available. It is theirs, through patriotic bi-avery, to achieve success : it is oui's, as their grateful countrymen, to honor them for it. LETTER OF THE HOX. J. I. CLARK HARE, OF PHILADELPHIA. Philadelphia, April 8, 1863. Dear Sir : Reasons which I will not detain you by stating, prevent me from accepting the kind invitations of your Committee, received to-day, to address the inaugural mass meeting of the Loyal Xational League, to be held on the aunivorsaiw of the attack on Fort Sumter. I regret that I cannot take part in the proceedings of a meeting, called to commemorate the great event which seems to have been intended by Divine Providence to teach the American people how to meet and bear disaster, and convert defeat into the occasion of victory. Present or absent, the heart of every lover of his country will be with you, and remain firm in the belief that we shall, through 3-our efforts, and those of true patriots everywhere throughout the land, succeed in ^-indicating our honor, and existence as a nation, by the suppression alike of our open foes and of the secret enemies who seek to mislead us under the guise of friendship. Yours, respectfuUv, James A. Roosevelt, Esq , J. I. CLARK HARE. Sec't/ Loyal National League. LETTER OF THE HOX. JAMES WADSTVORTH. 58 Liberty St., New Y'ork, April 10, 1863. Dear Sir : Inadvertence, amid the hourly pressure of important business, has alone prevented my earlier reply to the very courteous invitation of your- self, as well as of your Committee, to address our fellow-citizens on the occa- sion of the mass meeting of to-morrow. I shall be with you in heart, and soul, and person, and speak if I can. I am not well, but. believing that the s>vord was given to man that none might be slaves, save those who lack the courage or the skill to use it, and that in this time of armed rebellion the only proper peacemakers of the hour are the loaded cannon and the lighted torch in the hands of a Union-loving sol- diery, you may always count on my voice and arm being lifted wherever in the judgment of my fellows it can advance the cause of constitutional liberty and the wants of the Republic. "With my kind regards to your coadjutors of the Committee, I am, trulv vours, John Austin Stevens, Esq., J.'AVADSWORTH. Chairman of Committee of Arrangements. 4 50 LETTER OF HON. MURRAY HOFFMAN. New Yokk, March 31, 1863. Dear Sir : I 'greatly regret my inability to address the meeting of the Loyal National League, in compliance with the invitation with which I have been honored. No one has a deeper sense of the unsurpassed guilt of this rebellion ; of the humiliation and rum which will attend its success : and of the gratitude due from every friend of freedom and civilization to those who are struggling to suppress it. May their efforts speedily find an end in their perfect triumph! Yours, very respectfully, iuURRAY HOFFMAN. James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Secretary, j-c. LETTER OF HON. JAMES W. WHITE. New York, 341 Fifth Avenue, } April 11, 1863. 5 Dear Sir : I regret that it will not be in my power to comply with the in- vitation of the Loyal National League, to address the mass meeting to be held to-day on Union Square. Sickness and death in my family detain me from the meeting ; but 1 am with it heartily in its spirit and purpose. No one was more scrupulously solicitous than I always was, to avoid every interference with the domestic institutions of the slaveholding states ; but when those states wantonly and wickedly rose up to destroy our national integrity, power, and glor}"^, for the sake of that human slavery that was our scandal and reproach before Christendom, 1 promptly sympathized with all those Avhose hearts beat quickest and strongest, and who looked to the most energetic, radical, and permanent measures for the suppression of the rebellion, and the preservation of our republic, whole and intact, in its majesty and right, terri- torial and political. I have felt deeply, that the preservation of our republican idea (which must perish if the rebellion can be successful) was worth more to the human race than all the lives and all the material wealth embraced at any one point of time within the limits of the United States. I did not, and do not, desire to survive the fall and ruin of my country and her free Republican institutions. If but the mere germ of that Republicanism can be preserved, to grow and fructify, and expand in the future, in all its mild and genial beneficence, I have always felt, and still feel, that it would be cheaply purchased at the sac- rifice of all that we have to offer of life and property. That these sentiments animate the great body of our people, cannot be doubted. Your meeting to day will, I hope, furnish fresh evidence of that truth. The past two years are replete with it ; and if ever we should feel proud of the title of American Citizens, it should be in view of those two years just past, during which our people en masse have so often shown themselves ready to come forth and suf- fer and die for the glory of the nation, and the maintenance, under God, of the great living principle of justice and human freedom which he has confided to uato cherish and defend. There are many suggestions — practical ones — that I would desire to urge, but I have not the time. I will only say that whatever may be the reverses that we shall meet with, whatever may be the delays or the treacheries that shall em- barrass or obstruct us, we must be inexorable in the determination that we shall never cease our efforts ; but, on the contrary, shall continually increase and multiply them until the national authority is restored to every inch of ter- ritory that at any time acknowledged the supremacy of the United States. 61 Acting in this spirit, and iiolding every officer and public servant, civil and military, from the highest to the lowest, strictly accountable for the uses to which he may apply, or neglect to apply, the resources of the nation committed to him, it will be speedily seen that the rebellious power that is arrayed against us, even though succored by any amount of foreign recognition or intervention, must yield and disappear before the resolute and exhaustless energy that we shall thus bring to bear upon it. I am, dear sir, with much respect, Your obedient servant, JAMES W. WHITE. James A. Roosevelt, Secretary of the Loyal National League. LETTER OF JAMES T. BRADY, ESQ. New York, April 11, 1863. My dear Sir : My throat and voice are in such a condition that it will be out of my power to speak at the meeting of the League this afternoon. I need not say how anxious I am to assist in every honorable movement de- signed to secure, on the part of the North, unanimity of sentiment and action in preserving the Constitution and Union, and securing the perpetuity of our republic. The attachments and obligations of party will be considered by our people in contests of a party character, but should be entirely laid aside in the single effort to save the nation's life from the deadly blows aimed against it by trai- tors. When we have secured the physical and moral triumph, sure to come, sooner or later, we will punish infractions of the Constitution through the bal- lot-boxes and courts of justice. But in the prosecution of the present war, to prevent twenty millions of the North disgracefully succumbing to eight millions at the South, we will, 1 hope, give the administration a hearty and unwavering support. Yours, vei'y truly, JAMES T. BRADY. Mr. John Austin Stevens, Jr. LETTER OF THE HON. HENRY WINTER DAVIS, OF MARYLAND. Baltimore, April 10, 1863. Dear Sir : I have postponed my reply till this time, in the vain hope that. I might be able to accept your polite invitation. To my great disappointment, I am at the last moment compelled to forego the pleasure of participating in your loyal demonstration. No one watched with more anxiety than I did, the treacherous attempt of the enemies of the government to paralyze it by getting possession of the House of Representatives and of the state governments. No one rejoices more than I do over the failure of that conspiracy, so nearly successful, and which, if successful, must have proved fatal to the United States government or plunged the loyal states into the horrors of a revolution. I am thankful that the danger is passed; that the people are now awake to the plot against their liberties which they were so near consummating under the guidance of faith- less and ambitious leaders; and that the rushing current of popular reaction has driven not a few to disavow their designs, apologize for their blindness, and openly to execrate the purposes of those with whom they acted. Henceforth the people will know that the enemies of the government are those who fail to support all its vigorous measures ; that the cry for peace is 62 treachery ; that sympathy for southern brethren is hostility to our loyal brethren ; and that all who are not with us are traitors to be watched, and not patriots to be trusted. The nation now knows that the result of the war is a question of endurance, of resources, of tenacity of purpose, of patience ; and that question can be solved but in one way. Let us remember the great quality of the Roman people — unfaltering firm- ness in disaster. With their example before our eyes, if we resolve never to make peace till crowned with the laurels of victory, we shall assuredly win, and wear for generations the crown of empire. Sincerely your obedient servant, H. WINTER DAVIS. James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Secretary, ^c. LETTER OF THE HON. JOHN K. PORTER. Albany, A'pril 10, 1863. My dear Sir : Until this morning, I had hoped to be able to take part in the inaugural meeting of the Loyal National League, but 1 am detained by en- gagements which cannot be deferred. The occasion will be historical. It will be associated with great events. It will infuse needed strength into the councils of the government. It will nerve with new vigor those who, with calm and dauntless courage, are perilling their lives, on the sea and on the land, in the public defence. It Avill dispel the illu- sion which has upheld a sinking rebellion, that Northern party lines could be converted into lines of division between treason and loyalty. Administrations rise and fall on questions of political ascendency ; but the fiat of the popular ivill, which is the strength and the law of a republic, is, that the government shall stand; and that, in the free states of the North, treason shall find no party in which it can claim a home. The Loyal National League will proclaim to-morrow the united purpose of a free people to maintain the Constitution and the laws. This announcement will be appropriately made from the democratic city of New York, in which George Washington took his inauguration oath to " preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States" — the city in which a high public func- tionary of the nation, now building and equipping pirate ships to burn and sink unarmed American merchantmen, recently received private proposals from Northern traitors for a league between them and England, to make common cause in subverting the •' Constitution as it is," and dismembering " the Union as it was.^' Very respectfully yours, JOHN K. PORTER. John Austin Stevens, Jr., Esq., Secretary, ^-c. LETTER OF HON J. G. POTTS, OF NEW JERSEY. Trenton, April 6,^1863. Dear Sir : I am in the receipt of your kind favor of the 3d. and would gladly accept the invitation extended to me but for engagements which I cannot well dispense with. In your contemplated gathering of loyal men my heart will be with you ; and, depend upon it, so will the heart of New Jersey, notwithstanding the bastard peace resolutions of her late mis-representatives. The people of 53 this state will never be outdone in devotion to the Union while Princeton, and Monmouth, and Trenton, lie within her borders. With great respect, very truly, John Austin Stevens, Esq. J. G. POTTS. LETTER OF HON. H. M. RICE, OF MINNESOTA. Washington, D. C, April 8, 1863. Dear Sir : I cannot be with you on the 11th instant. The present war may last as long as slavery is a recognized American Institution, or until it shall be so modified, as to partake of the benefits of civilization and Christianity, with a view to its ultimate extinction. Slavery is the cause of the continued strife : the cause must be removed, or the disease will extend to every extreme of the Union, and in the end prove its ruin. A long war is better than a short peace — better for both sections — and yet, the sooner it is closed, the more quickly will the anvil, the plow, and the loom, respond to the happy songs of the work- men throughout the entire land. Hence the necessity of a united North. Our forefathers formed a league for the defence of liberty — the South have formed a league in defence of human slavery. Are we of the North less brave, less patriotic than our forefathers ? Why can we not lay aside party, petty fault-findings, and unite as one man, until the honor of our country, liberty, and the names of our fathers, shall have been vindicated ? The South were traitors to the Constitution, the coun- try, and the Democratic Party, and now persistently insult those who, for years, fought solely in their defence. Yet they find in the North democratic sympathizers! Who can forget how they left us — cowardly left us — without any feeling of gratitude for the past, or hope of a future reunion ? Prior to their saying good-by, they were informed that the democracy of the North were not discouraged ; but if they would remain, that the fight should be re- newed with increased vigor. The!/ could well smile at this simple yet generous proposition, for their own full, fat ranks showed that they had not suffered; but the careworn, thinned Northern wing told but too well who had met the shock of our political foes. And yet democrats can be found, doling out their sick- ening sympathy for the success of their unholy cause. Those of the South have frequently said that they will listen to no compromise, short of a recogni- tion of their independence; this being true, a peace democrat is a disunionist,for the South loill have no peace short of disunibn, unless compelled hy force of arms to abandon her present position. Those in power have erred, will again err ; but because a pilot occasionally misses the points of the compass, shall we scuttle the ship ? The administration may not confer any civil appointments upon democrats ; what then ? It gives the democracy the greater opportunity for showing its patriotism — its love of country — of liberty. Ever since the republican party came into existence, it has, until recently stood patiently out in the cold, even beyond the crumb boundary, while the democratic party for years waxed fat upon the good of the land. Now that the tables have been partially turned, can we not show a little patient modesty until we shall again be triumphant ? End the rebellion — make war upon the western mountains, cause them to throw out their untold and countless millions of hidden treasures — open up to seed the great prairies of the West — develop the manufacturing wealth of the country — spot every sea with American sails as thick as snow-flakes — Civiliza- tion and Christianity will do the rest, even to the making of a proper disposition of the African. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, HENRY M. RICE. Hon, Mr. Roosevelt, Secretary of the Union League Association, New York City. 64 LETTER OF THE HON. THOS. CARNEY, OF KANSAS. AsTOR House, N. Y., April 10, 1863. My dear Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 8th inst., inviting me to address my fellow-citizens of New York, at the great mass meeting to he held at Union Square on the 11th inst. — the anniversary of the attack upon Fort Sumter. I regret that my official duties will not permit ine to be present upon that occasion. It is a soui'ce of pride to me to know that the young state which I have the honor to represent, is not excelled by any of her elder sisters in devotion to the Union, and in her contributions to the noble work of perpetuating it un- impaired. Kansas has been tried in the furnace of affliction, and has come forth purified and ennobled. It cannot be forgotten that while we were poor in purse we were strong in the earnest determination of our people, and in the ready and unyielding courage of our soldiery. Unappalled by the spectre of con- scription, we have furnished more than double our quota of troops under all the calls of the President, and are still ready, should occasion demand, to make renewed sacrifices for the holy purpose of subduing rebellion and re-establish- ing the government upon an enduring basis. And with becoming modesty I claim that the services which Kansas troops have rendered to the country in this time of her trial, entitle them to the grate- ful remembrance of every loyal citizen. They have shed their blood on more than twenty battle-fields, and have met and beaten their enemy in more than half a dozen states. But where all have done so nobly it may seem invidious to particularize. The sentiment of the loyal North is undivided as to the necessity of putting down this wicked rebellion, and the determination to accomplish that purpose speedily and eflectually. The elements which compose the Loyal National League well illustrate the fact that no differences of political opinion will be allowed to retard the great work, upon the successful completion of which de- pends the existence, prosperity, and perpetuity of the government. I do not allow myself to doubt the result. The hour of final triumph may not be as near at hand as we now anticipate; still further reverses may attend our arms. But I confidently believe that, as well through disaster as through victory, the great North will push steadily onward to the eventual destruction of rebellion, and the restored unity of all the states. Two years ago the rebels inaugurated this gigantic conflict by the attack upon, and subsequent reduction of Fort Sumter. To-day that stronghold and the city which it guards are invested by a powerful and well-appointed fleet and army. God grant that before the second anniversary of the fall of Sum- ter passes, we may receive intelligence that it is again under the control of the federal government, and that Charleston has received the merited punishment of its long-nursed and virulent treason. Thanking you for your kind invitation, I have the honor to remain, with the highest consideration. Very respectfully, your ob't servant, THOS. CARNEY. Jno. Austin Stevens, Jr., Esq., Chairman, j-c. 55 LETTER FROM THE HON. JAS. Y. SMITH, OF RHODE ISLAND. Providence, April 8, 1863. My Dear Sir: I have the pleasure of your letter of 4th inst., inviting me to address the mass meeting called for the 11th inst., on Union Square, to inaugurate the Loyal National League. I regret that my engagements will prevent my participating with our brothers on an occasion of such deep national interest and the aniversary of an event which marked an epoch in the history of our government. May the in- terest of the meeting be intensified by the knowledge that our flag again waves over Sumter, and that Charleston is now in possession of lo^^al men. I trust the response of Connecticut to the greeting of our Loyal League may be continued from state to state until but one sentiment shall prevail from the Atlantic to the Pacific — unity and fraternity. For the interest expressed so cordially in our success in Rhode Island, accept my thanks. Very truly yours, JAMES Y. SMITH. John Austin Stevens, Jr., Esq., of Committee, j-c. LETTER OF MR. R. II. DANA, JR. Boston, April 8, 1863. My dear Sir : A loyal man must give a good reason for not attending the mass meeting of the Loyal National League next Saturday, at which yau have honored me with an invitation to speak. I trust mine will be considered sufficient. I am officially engaged in the trial of an American citizen for being engaged in fitting out, from a New Eng- land port, a slaver. Every slave-trader is an enemy of the cause which the Loyal League is or- ganized to maintain. His instincts and interests lead him to sympathize with an empire whose cor- ner-stone is slavery. He is willing that that power shall rule the whole re- pubhc ; and, if that cannot be, he is willing to give them half of it for their em- pire. It is such purposes we must contend against. Believe me, With great sympathy, Yours truly, R. H. DANA, Jr. John Austin Stevens, Jr., Esq. LETTER OF DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. Boston, April 4th, 1863. _ Dear Sir : I am, as all of us are, heart and soul with you in the great na- tional movement, which will carry with it every true voice and arm of the loyal North, and many a true heart, throbbing for the hour of delivery in the grasp of Southern traitors and tyrants. All success to the meeting in your spa- 56 cious park, none too ample for the multitudes who will throng its gates, a pal- ace as it stands, with heaven for its roof. May spring carpet its floor with soft- est green, and tint its ceiling with purest blue, for this auspicious festival ! Union Square, sprinkled fi-om the font of patriotism when it received its name, is to be rebaptized by immersion in the same sacred waters. In their depths let us bury all that can divide the true lovers of a common country, so that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall ever separate them from each other. Henceforth let us call all men brothers save those who have sold their birthright for wealth or power, and those who lack manhood to defend their nation against the bayo- net thrust at her bosom and the stroke of the poison-fang at her heel. Like many others who would gladly be with you, I shall be compelled to forego that high privilege. But the shouts in Union Square will be heard on Boston Common ; the old grasshopper on Faneuil Hall will wheel round to the southwest to listen for them; our narrow streets will not have room enough for their echoes ; Massachusetts will ring with them ; Rhode Island, the Lilliputian bride of Liberty, resplendent in the white robe and the proud jewels of her fresh espousals, will stand on tiptoe to catch the sound : New England will thrill through and through with it, the wide North will be all alive with it ; and the west wind will carry it over the prairies, over the sierras, to the far shore fringed with the gold of sunset. With many regrets that I cannot add my voice to the voices of the thousands that will swell the great shout for Union, which means national salvation, and glory, and honor, and immortality. I am yours, very truly, 0. W. HOLMES. John Austin Stevens, Jr., Esq., For Committee of Loyal National League. LETTER OF MR. CHAS. ELIOT NORTON, OF MASSACHUSETTS. Cambridge, Mass., 7th April, 1863. Sir : I have had the honor of receiving an invitation to attend the meeting of the loyal National League in New York, on the anniversary of the bombard- ment of Fort Sumter. I regret that I am unable to accept it, for it would af- ford me the heartiest pleasure to take part in a mass meeting certain to have such wide influence, the object of which is to declare that " the unity of this nation shall not be impaired, either in principle or territorial boundary." For the love of the Union, on the part of the loyal people of the North, is no blind passion ; nor is it a sentimental aifection for an ideal Union as it was. It springs from no lust of dominion or pride in territorial extent, but it is a deep and abiding sense that the territorial integrity of the nation must be pre- served, in order to maintain free institutions. It is the reverence for justice and the love of liberty which inspire the love of the Union. In maintaining territorial unity, the people mean to secure a more perfect unity of principle throughout the nation than has heretofore existed. They mean, that sujiersti- tious regard for the letter of the Constitution shall not be allowed to intei-fere with the influence and authority of its spirit. They mean, that is, " to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, to promote the general welfare and to secure the blessings of liberty," for all men North and South. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Sec^y of the Loyal National League, N. Y. 57 LETTER OF WM. CURTIS NOYES, ESQ. New York, April 10, 1863. My dear Sir : My absence at Albany, attending the Court of Appeals, has prevented an answer to the kind invitation of the Loyal National League, to address the mass meeting to be held to-morrow at Union Square. I cordially approve of the movement, and sympathize fully in its object ; but a severe cold under which I am now suffering will prevent my speaking in the open air, and I must therefore decline the opportunity, which I would otherwise gladly embrace, of again bearing my public testimony to the wickedness of the war into which the country has been plunged by the " slave oligarchy"— to the necessity of prosecuting it to a successful peace with all the men and treasure of the North — and to our fixed determination never to end it until the Union is restored, the integrity of the territory of the United States preserved, and our national flag everywhere respected and honored. Very respectfully. Your friend and servant, WM. CURTIS NOYES. J. A. Roosevelt, Secretary of the Loyal National League. LETTER OF JAMES A. HAMILTON, ESQ. DoBBs' Ferry, April 10, 1863. To the Loyal National League : Gentlemen : In reply to your very flattering invitation to address a mass meeting at Union Square, on the 11th instant, I must express my regret that I am admonished by my advanced age not to attempt to address our fellow-citizens of New York on that occasion in the open air, and particularly that I shall thus be deprived of the opportunity o^imiting with the loyal and patriotic men who will be asseml)led there, in the renewal, in the most solemn and public manner, of my pledge of unconditional loyalty to the government of the United States— to an unwavering support of its efforts to suppress this wicked rebellion— and that I will spare no endeavor to maintain unimpaired the national unity, in principle and territorial boundary. I, however, avail myself of your invitation to ex- press my views appropriate to the occasion and to the condition of our country. I have never faltered in my confidence that the people of the loyal states, worthy of their free institutions and of their glorious country, would sacrifice all party feelings and prejudices, and would devote their property and lives, if required, to preserve the national life. At the same_ time, the painful admission must be made, that there are many men in our midst, of education, and who hold high ofiicial positions, who are so utterly lost to all senseof duty to their country, that they are imperilling its highest interest to gratify their party feelings and lust of power ; there are again others, who, without being disloyal, are so ignorant of their duties as citizens, or so much deceived by folse and wicked teachers, as to be recreant citizens. To this last class I particularly address those remarks — the former must be left to that condemna- tion by the people, which will, sooner or later, overtake and crush them; they are a desperate faction, by which, in the language of Mr. Madison, '_' I under- stand to be a number of citizens who are united by some common impulse of passion or interest adverse to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community." The history of our country in regard to all men aiid parties who endeavor to emlmrrass the government, when the country is in a condi- tion of war, is most emphatic. " Experience is the oracle of truth : and when its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred." Their fixte will be a stern lesson for future generations. 58 I proceed to endeavor to awaken the ignorant or deluded class, to a sense of their public duties, by presenting to them the following views : The fundamental condition of every free political association, call it a state or nation, is, that every member thereof, is bound to give his property, and his life, if necessary, to protect and defend the association, and at all times to do all in his power to promote the true interests thereof. This is an axiomatic truth, which cannot be denied. A correlative obligation is, that the state or nation is bound to protect every member of the association, in the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. A necessary result from this fundamental condition is, that every member of the association, state, or nation, pledges his faith and honor to every other mem- ber, that in good faith he will, when called to do so, give his property and hazard his life to defend and protect the association, state, or nation, of which he is a member or citizen. This last pledge is the great Bond of Union ; it results necessarily from the fundamental condition ; and proceeds from each individual to every other as a condition of their being members of the association or citizens of the state or nation. This is the foundation of Loyalty, which belongs to all conditions in life, civil and political. It requires all to be "■ true to plighted faith and duty, in business and in their social relations as well as to the state." _ In free gov- ernments all are citizens, and all who are true and loyal to their obligations are Felloiu-citvL&n?, because they are in fellowship each with the others, on equal and kindly terms. " Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." (P]ph. V.) The government which may be formed by the association, and ordained a,nd established by the people, is the instrument by which the duties of the citi- zens of the state or nation are called into action and directed, and its en- ergies controlled. When such government is established, all the members of the association have become citizens of a state or nation, and owe it allegiance. Natural allegiance arises from birth. Express allegiance is that obligation which proceetls from an oath of allegiance. Every citizen by adoption is thus bound to obedience to the nation. One of the highest and most imperative duties of a citizen, is to obey the laws. This duty results as well from his obligation of allegiance as from his pledge of loyalty to each and every of his fellow-citizens, for the reason that when the government was forined and established by the people, they each and all to one and the other agreed to obey its laws. From these great truths there results this inevitable consequence : When a citizen of the state, from selfishness, from dissatisfaction, from cowardice, or any other influences, avoids or refuses to perform his duty in sustaining his government in war, or denies the full force of these obligations, he must be held to be guilty of treachery, not only to the state, but to every citizen thereof. The truth of this position will be admitted by all but base men, who ai-e ca- pable of disloyalty to their associates in business, or to their other social re- lations. From these axioms we proceed to consider the actual condition of the coun- try and the relation of each and all the citizens thereto. The government of the United States has declared, through all its depart- ments, that we are in a condition of civil war. Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, in a letter to Mr. Adams, of June 8, 1861, says : " The government insists, as all the world might know, that it must and would, under all circumstances, insist on the integrity of the Union as the chief element of national life ; since, after trials of every form of forbearance and conciliation, it has been rendered certain and apparent that this paramount and vital object can be saved only by an acceptance of civil war as an indis- pensable condition. That condition, with all its hazards and deplorable evils, 59 has not been declined. The acceptance, however, is attended with a strong desire and a fixed purpose that the war shall be as short and accompanied with as little sufi'ering as possible." Vattel says: "A civil war breaks the bands of society and government, or, at least, suspends their force and effect ; it produces in the nation two inde- pendent parties, who consider each other as enemies.'' * * * " They stand, therefore, in precisely the same predicament as two nations who engage in a contest, and being unable to come to an agreement, have recourse to arms." The United States and the people thereof are engaged in a war. The " Union which is the chief element of the national life '' is at stake. The govern- ment, and the people of the state of Neio York are parties to this war. They have furnished money and soldiers to aid ^le national government in carrying on the war. The people of this state, as well by their allegiance to the national as to the state government, are bound by all the ties which are respected by true men, to support the war at any sacrifice of property or life. The legislative and executive departments of the government of the United States have established the policy necessary to carry on this war. and all the citizens of the state or nation are bound to sustain this policy, although they may not consider it the wisest, because it is the legally established policy. "The power to make laws" * * # "may be defined to be the power of prescribing rules binding upon all persons or things over which the nation has jurisdiction; it acts compulsorily upon all persons." * * * " A law of the land till revoked or annulled by the competent authority, is binding not less on each branch or department of the government than on each individual of the society." (Hamilton.) From all this it is cleai', that all those men, of this or any other state, who refuse with head and hand to support the government of the state or of the United States, in conquering that most inveterate and malignant enemy, are false to each and to all their loyal fellow-citizens — to the original con- dition upon which the state and nation were formed ; are false to both govern- ments, and being unworthy members should be driven out of the country, or if not so, should be shunned as moral traitors. Citizens of this state have not the poor excuse of the secessionists, of being bound by their state allegiance. Citizens by adoption have no allegiance whatever to any particular state. Their rights are conferred by the United States, and their oath of allegiance binds them to that government. To cavil about the wisdom of the established policy — to instigate popular hostility to the laws enacted in order to raise money or men to carry on the war — are at best unavailing, and are, most generally, a cloak to cover a base sympathy with the designs of the public enemy. But, above all, in abject de- basement must those " democratic leaders " be held, who sought interviews with Lord Lyons, the representative of a foreign power, in order to induce "Foreign mediation between the North and the South." The determined energy of the enemy presents but one issue to this war — victory or death to one party or the other. Let the men who are now laboring to paralyze the arm of the government — to disorganize the army — to defeat the efforts of the government to fill up its ranks, and thus to expose them to defeat by overwhelming numbers — prevail in their evil designs. IIow long will it be before Washington will be taken, and the wealth of Philadelphia and New York reward the successful advance of a malignant soldiery ? We rest in security only as long as we have an army competent to meet and repel the enemy. The skill and energy of government, sustained by the devotion, endurance, and bravery of the people of the loyal states, must give the victory to the right. Of this there cannot be a doubt. But, after the conquest of their armies — the invasion of the states in rebellion — what then ? A dogged and obstinate resistance — not in arms, but through the power of their state governments to the authority of the United States — 60 will prevail. The future of our country after the war will call for all the wis- dom and energy of our government. A stern necessity may require the estab- lishment of territorial governments — perhaps to continue during the present generation. It is not within the reach of hope, much less of belief, that the aristocracy, who made this war, the fruit of a conspiracy existing for years, involving fraud and perjury, will be capable, if even willing, to unite in cordial brotherhood with a people whom they despise and hate, and who have compelled them to submit to the humiliation of conquest. As a conquered people, they must receive the law from the conqueror. What that shall be, must be dictated by future events. In closing, we add, that " a nation is never to regulate its conduct by remote possibilities or mere contin- gencies, but by such proJjabilities as may be reasonably inferred from the ex- isting course of things and the usual coui'se of human nature." Your obedient servant, JAMES A. HAMILTON. FROM CAPT. CORNELIUS CURTIS, OF KEY WEST, FLORIDA. Rooms Loyal National League, 1 April, 8, 18G3. j Dear Sir : Your kind invitation to be present at the grand rally of Sumter fame on Saturday next, would be cheerfully complied with, butfor the necessity of my departure home, the extreme southern limits of our habitable country. I regret greatly the necessity, for I should then say more than I can now write, though I must inform you that at Key West, on the last of February, was inaugurated a Loyal League, of whose existence you and the public would have been informed, but for the suppression of a loyal paper by a military command- er, whose sentiments coincided with other officials, friends to traitors and reb- els. Need I say that slavery is the lump which leavens the whole batch ? May it forever be done away with ! Very respectfully, your ob't servant, CORNELIUS CURTIS. letter:of henry w. Rogers, esq. Buffalo, April 9, 1863. Gentlemen: Permit me to thank you for your favor of the 4th, inviting me to speak at the mass meeting called for the 11th inst., in your city, for the purpose of inaugurating the Loyal National League. I am ignorant — and unpardonably so, no doubt — as to the precise object of the League. But if, as its title imports, it is intended to subserve the interests of loyalfy and union — if it intends, by its efforts, to strengthen the administra- tion "in its attempts to put down the rebellion — to encourage our brave troops now in the field — to countenance loyalty everywhere, and to rebuke and igno- miniously punish treason wherever found, whether in the states that have se- ceded or'in Indiana, Connecticut, or New York — steering above all mere party politics — it will not only have my sympathy, but my cordial and hearty sup- port. . . I will not doubt, from the high character of the gentlemen engaged in it, that this is its only aim and purpose ; and I only regret that prior engage- ments must prevent my acceptance of your invitation. In conclusion, if there must be a political party during the continuance of 61 this war for the preservation of the government, let it be known as the A^iti- rebellion Partly ; and let all those who cannot sympathize with it be known and designated as Rebels. This will narrow controversy down to within rea- sonable (and, as I think, just) limits. I am, gentlemen, very respectfully yours, HENRY W. ROGERS. John Austin Stevens, Esq., and others. Committee, ^x. LETTER OF MR. JOHN G. WHITTIER. Amesbury, 5th 4th Month, 1863. Dear Sir : I am sorry that, owing to illness, I am compelled to avoid writ- ing, except at rare intervals. The song you ask for I could not give you in season for your occasion. Your example is being followed all over the country — gathei'ing up and com- bining the hitherto scattered and divided loyalty of the North. We must sink party (in the old acceptation of the term) out of sight, and make fidelity to " Liberty and Union" the only test. It is of small consequence who have the offices, so that the country is saved. Thanking you for thinking of me in X5onnection with your meeting, and with the heartiest wishes for its success, I am, very truly, &c., JOHN G. WHITTIER. John A. Stevens, Esq. CONNECTICUT— "TO THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE." The Loyal Women's League of Bridgeport, in Connecticut, the state where loyalty has won its latest triumph, " sends greeting" to ihe Loyal National League, and pledges to it such a co-operation as women may give in this hour of our country's peril. In behalf of the League, (Signed) MRS. S. S. CLAPP, President, MRS. MATSON M. SMITH, of Ex. Com. Bridgeport, April 10, 1863. " MASSACHUSETTS " TO THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE, NEW YORK. Salem, April 9, 1863. The Salem Union League sends greeting to the " Loyal National League of New York." As Salem was the first to carry the flag to the farthest corners of the eastern continent, so in this western world she will be the last to surrender it. It must float again over " Sumter," never more to be stricken down. ' In behalf of the Salem Union League, GEO. W. BRIGGS, Jos. H. Webb, Rec. Sec'ij, N. Y. President. 62 LETTER FROM THE UNION LEAGUE OF TUE CITY OF ROCHESTER. Sons of Washington, Union League Headquarters, } Barracks No. 1, Rochester, N. Y., April 9, 18G3. ^ To the Loyal National League, New York City : Brethren : We cheerfully respond to your invitation to send delegates to your Great Loyal Union Meeting. You may be assured that Rochester and old Monroe "will never be found wanting in any emergency in which an appeal may be made to their loyalty and patriotism. In these respects we claim en- tire equality, at least, -with any county in the Empire State. We look with pride upon the fact, that, during the gloomiest period of the rebellion, we flinched not from the performance of our entire duty. We furnished an excess of volunteers of more than two hundred over and above the required quota, and in this respect stand preeminent in the state. Our "Gallant Thirteenth" distingnished itself in the first battle of the war, before Washington and Ma- nassas, and its tattered flag has through many a sanguinary conflict nobly braved " the battle and the breeze." Under the second call, we sent two com- plete regiments of infantry, several batteries of artillery, and a large force of cavalry and sharpshooters, exceeding our quota by two hundred eflective men, more than any other county in the state. Have we not a right to claim that " Old Monroe '' is loyal ? Here the present Secretary of State enunciated that truism of political economy, that free and slave systems cannot coexist, except with an " irrepressible conflict,''' — a proposition now sufficiently demonstrated in the terrible contest we are waging with tlie supporters of slavery. We are proud of our county, and a little vanity maybe excusable. Our Union League now comprises a large number of men, all true and loyal, devoted to our countrj^, ready, if necessary, to die in her cause, and we are rapidly increasing. We tender you our right hand of fellowship, and grasp yours with a hearty God bless you. May we soon unite in commingling our congratulations over the termina- tion of this cruel war, and the establishment of a peace upon the basis of uni- versal freedom. In fraternal devotion to " The Union, now and for ever, one and insepar- able," We are truly yours, ROCHESTER UNION LEAGUE. JNO. C. CHUMASERO, President. J. H. NELLIS, Recording Secretary. We hereby certify, that the following gentlemen, members of Rochester Union League, have been duly chosen as delegates by said League, to repre- sent them in the meeting of the National Union League of New York City, to be held in New York, Saturday, April 11, 1863. DELLON M. DEWEY, GEORGE W. PARSONS, E. M. SMITH, C. D. TRACEY. JAMES W. ADAMS. JNO. C. CHUMASERO, President. Rochester, April 9, 1863. 63 FROM THE UNION CLUB OF BOSTON. Boston, April 9, 1863. Dear Sir : As the Secretary of the Union Club of this city, I have the honor to receive, through you, on the 4th inst., the invitation to attend the great mass meeting to be held, on the 11th, in Union Square, extended to the Club by the Committee of the Loyal National League of New York; and I hastened to lay the same before the Executive Committee of the Club. The Committee received it with the most cordial respect; but, after mature consideration, directed me to say to you that the Union Club was formed sev- eral weeks before the auspicious occasion on which your association was so brilliantly inaugurated, for the encouragement and dissemination of patriotic sentiment and opinion, and the promotion of intercourse of an agreeable char- acter among patriotic men of different pursuits in life, but its membership was restricted to such as should be specially invited to join it ; and one of the pro- visions of its Constitution is, that " The Club shall never be called upon nor permitted to act in its official or associate capacity as a club, upon any politi- cal question or subject." and that, therefore, they are reluctantly compelled to decline, on behalf of the Club, your very welcome invitation. The Committee also directed me to extend to your Committee and to the Loyal National League of New York, the assurance of their highest respect. Full}' reciprocating the pleasure you express at this renewal of our own friendly correspondencfe, ~~ I remain, very truly yours, CHARLES W. STOREY. Secretary. To J. Austin Stevens, Jr., Esq., for the Executive Committee of the Loyal National League, Neio York. THE PHILADELPHIA DELEGATION TO THE LATE SUMTER MEETING. April U, 1863. The following gentlemen, among whom will be recognized many names well known to the country as eminent in law. commerce, and science, composed the del- egation from the Loyal League of Philadelphia to the assemblage of the Loyal National League at Union Square, on occasion of the Sumter Anniversary, April 11, 1863. Never before in our history has New York been honored by so distinguished a delegation from our sister city : NAMES OF THE DELEGATES. Morton McMichael, Chairman. Cadwallader Biddle, Horace Binney, Jr., John Hanna, W. H. Ashurst, Charles Cabot, George Whitney, E. C. Markley, James L. Claghorn, C. F. Norton, George H. Boker, E. Carpenter, Hon. J. I. Clark Hare, Caleb H. Needles W. E. .Aloorhead, J. E. Kingley, Charles Gilpin, R. S. Scott, William H. Kern, W. P. Jenks, ^ John Rice, John B. Kcnuey, Dr. Wilson C. Swann, S. Fisher Corlies, W. S. Stewart, W. G. Moorhead, E. S. Mawson, Loyd P. Smith, Henry Samuel, John A. Murphy, A. R. Chambers, B. II. Brewster, H. C. Carey, Charles Gibbons, Samuel J. Reeves, J. W. Paul, S. B. Thomas, Stephen Colwell, Hon. John P. Verree^ Frank Comly, J. G. Fell, H. Moore, B. H. Brown, George 11. Grossman, L. A. Godey, Hon. W. D. Kelley, C. Smith, E. W. Bailey, Samuel E. Stokes, G. M. Coates, Gibson Peacock, Daniel Smith, Jr., W. B. Hazletine, E. C. Knight, James II. Orne, r. J. Dreer, James Milliken, John W. Forney, C. Clark, C. A. Walborn, R. "W. Leaming, Thomas Birch, H. xM. Watts, J. E. Caldwell, W. R. White, B. II. Moore, E. Mitchell, William Struthers, Jarvis Slade, J. A. Barclay, Samuel Slaymaker, A. B. Grubb, Theo. Adams, W. J. Wainwright, R. J. Reed, William H. Tiers, W. N. Rowland, James W. Landell, E. A. Browning, Francis Wells, James M. Paul, John W. Claghorn, Henry Ashhurst, Samuel J. White, Hon. James M. Scovel, H. Dixon, Dr. C. S. Wurts, Charles Norris, Capt. Frailey, U. S. N., R. B. Cabeen, Rev. J. E. Torrence, S. Bradford, T. J. Megear, R. Carter, S. II. Haas, F. E. Emhart, George Erety, John M. Riley, Washington Keith, E. T. Chase, S. A. Caldwell, T. Sweeny. NATIOI^AL SONGS ISSUED BY THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE, ON OCCASION OF THE SUMTER ANNIVERSARY, J^:E>JEiIlL 11, 1S63. Albany, April 7, 1863. Dear Sir : I received a letter from John Austin Stevens, Jr. Esn on the fourth instant, requesting me, in behalf of the Committee of the Loya?Natbnal 1 Uh^in'stant "''^ ' ''"^' '' ^' ''""^ ^^ '^^ ^^^^ "^«^*-g ^- NewSkron the It affords me great pleasure to send the accompanying lines in resDonse n. a humble tribute to the objects of the League. response, as Very respectfully, yours, Jamks a. Roosevelt, Esq., ^^^^^^ ^' STREET. Secretary of the Loyal National League. OUK UNIOISr. WRITTEN FOE THE GREAT SUMTER MASS MEETING AT UNION SQUARE, APRIL 11 1863, AT THE REQUEST OF THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE. BY ALFRED B. STREET. AiR~Red, White and Blue. Our Union, the gift of our fathers ! In wrath roars the tempest above|; ' The darker and nearer the danger, Tlie warmer and closer our love! Though bleeding, it never shall perish It bows, but not sinks to the blast ; Foes rush on in fury to rend it, But we will be true to the last. r f Then hail to our Union of pride . Stand guard 'till the tempest is past We all, in defence of the Union, Will rally and fight to the last. 6Q Our Union, ordained by Jehovah ! Man sets not the fiat aside ; As well cleave asunder the welkin, As the one mighty system divide. The grand Mississippi sounds ever, From pine down to palm, the decree ; The spindle, the corn, and the cotton, One paian shout, Union, to thee ! Then hail to our Union of pride ! Stand guM-d till the tempest is past I We all, in defence of the Union, Will rally and fight to the last. Our Union ! the lightning of battle. First kindled the flame of its shrine ; The blood and the tears of our people, Have made it forever divine. la battle we then will sustain it. Will strive till the triumph is won ; ■ 'Till the states form the realm of the Union, As the sky forms the realm of the sun. Then hail to our Union of pride ! Stand guard till the tempest is past ! "We all, in defence of the Union, "Will rally and fight to the last. 6T THOSE SEVENTY MEN: A TALE OF THE TIMES. FOB.THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE MEETING, ON THE SUMTER ANMVEESAKY, 1863. BZ MSS. SARAH H. BUADFORD. WnEfeE shall the scene be laid ? In some deep forest glade, Where streams sweet music made, Sparkling and clear ; Or 'mid the city's roar, Op on the ocean shore. Where waves their fury pour ? No— no — not there ! Shall I recite to-day Some fiimous olden lay^^ Tale of fierce strife and fray' Of other times ? No — for another theme. Grander than all, I deem, Fills e'en my nightly dream,' Wakens my rhymes. Not Oeta's mountain pass. That glorious burial place Where fell Leonidas And his three hundred ; Not that so bravely made "Charge of the Light Brigade,"(i bramst countless hosts arrayed, At which all wondered ;| Not where, -neath India's sun, Valorous deeds were done, Victories bravely won 'Gainst bristling barriers— Where 'midst the battle's shock. Firm as the mountain rock Stood noble Ffavelock And his brave warriors ; — But I've a tale to tell. Of fighting long and well, 'Mid showers of shot and shell, 'Mid cannon's boom ; No tale of olden time. None from a foreign clime, ' But one of deeds sublime, ' Nearer our home ! 68 Have you not heard it, then, IIow those brave seventy men, Shut up in narrow pen, Battled for Hfe ? WhUe 'round on every hand Thousands of foemen stand. Sons of one mother land, In deadly strife ! Batteries right of them. Batteries left of them, Cannon in front of them. Volleyed and thundered ; Still those devoted men Toiled in each smoke-filled den, While e'en their foemen then Looked on and wondered. Now all the food is gone. Help from the land is none, And, ere to-mori-ow's sun Dead they must be ! Stands the lookout on high, Straining his eager eye, Oh ! he can not descry Help from the sea ! Night closes round the place, Darkness comes on apace. Then comes one cry for grace— " Fire ! — we're on fire !" Still pours the deadly shot Into the fated spot, Riee the flames fierce and ho^ Higher and higher ! Yet does their courage rise, Still each his strong arm plies, Battling with enemies, Battling with fire, Ready to do or dare, Ready to perish there. Watching the flames prepare Their funeral i>yre ! Once did each etout heart quail, Once every cheek turned pale ; That Flag, which ne'er did fail, Totters at last! But, ere to earth it falls, One whom no fear appals, Darts 'mid the showering balls] Straight up the mast — (Deed that's been done by few,) His steady hand and true Bears the Red, White, and Blue, Nailing it fast ! 69 From Moscow, Napoleon, From Persia, famed Zenophon, From Sumter, brave Anderson, Forced to retire ! Call you it victory, then. When those brave seventy men, O'erwhelmed by thousand's ten, Famine and fire, Marched to their country's airs : Marched 'neath the stripes and stars. Greeted mth loud huzzas, "While the drum beat ? These did not meanly fly. Proudly their foes they eye — Better than victory Such a defeat ! Brothers, the time may come When, 'mid the cannon's boom, We to defend our home. Must to the fight ! Then let our watchword be, Honor and bravery. Union and Liberty. God — AND THE Right \ TO LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 012 196 775 3 SONG FOK THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE^ . ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATTACK ON FORT SUMTER, APRIL llth,":1863.. BY GEORGE U. BOKER. When our banner went down, with its ancient renown, Betrayed and degraded by treason. Did they think, as it fell, what a passion would swell Our hearts when wo asked them the reason ? Chorus — Oh ! then, rally, brave men, to the standard again, The flag that proclaimed us a nation ; We will fight, on its part, while there's life in a heart. And then trust to the next generation. Although causeless the blow that at Sumter laid low That flag, it was seed for the morrow ; And a thousand flags flew, for the one that fell true, As traitors have found to their sorrow. Chorus — Oh ! then, rally, brave men, to the standard again, The flag that proclaims us a nation ! We will fight, on its part, while there's life in a heart, And then trust to the next generation. 'Twas in flashes of flame it was brouglit to a shame, Till then unrecorded in story ; But in flashes as bright it shall rise in our sight. And float over Sumter in glory ! Chorus — Oh ! then, rally, brave men, to the standard again, The flag that proclaims us a nation ! We will fight, on its part, while there's life in a heart, And then trust to the next generation. , ^"^l- (fr<. Issued by the Loyal Natio) — Th. . ou, Ship of State ! Sail ov, vy Union strong and great ! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy 'fate ! We know what Master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! Fear not each sudden sound and shock, Tis of the wave, and not the rock ; 'Tis but the flapping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale ! In spite of rock and tempest's roar, In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! Our hearts, our hopes, are still with thee ; Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith, triumphant o'er our fears. Are all with thee— are all with thee ! .AD ANDERSON, ON League Meeting, in 3. BY OE. 0, WELL may the Nati( — : him Garlands gi-een, and pure, ana i., lendid, Who vowed, in the dread night folding dim, That its flag should be defended ; That should rustle still each radiant fold O'er the grave of the dastai-d Tory,* And its eagle answer, as of old, To the morning's earliest glory! Not for him to wait for a feeble chief,! As he only groaned and trembled, When the traitors round discussed relief, "While their base, black hearts dissembled. Not for him to peril stars that burst On a king t who would freedom smother ; For our Anderson's great heart was nursed By a true Kentucky mother ! How the walls of Sumter hailed his form Through the night in its martial splendor ! How the flag flashed out, like a starlit storm, In the hand of its stern defender ! And, O ! when the morning's torch displayed Evei'y stripe on the rampart peerless, How the bailed traitors shook dismayed At the hero striding fearless ! ^ Then well may the Nation wreathe for him Garlands green, and pure, and splendid. Who vowed, in the dread night folding dim, That its flag should be defended ! So the Constitution keeps its place. With the flag still proudly flying ; But the Copperheads that attack its base, In their own foul slime are dying ! * Charleaton, in the Kevolution, was fall of Toriee. t Buchanan, then the President. i George the Third. . . ^ i. , i.. -j-i. j, i. , § The Charleston rebels who, in view of the Buchanan administration's timidity and treaehory, never dreamed that any United States officer would act with such loyal decision, were astonished to see Major Anderson, by the aid of a spy-glaea, in the early light of that glorious moming, on the rampart* of Fort Sumter. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 196 775 3 ^ p&m