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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<A April, 1863.
Dear Sir : It will not be in my power to mingle with the patriotic voices
which you will bring together on the Anniversary of the assault on Fort Sum-
ter; but could my desires prevail, these voices, pleading for country and civ-
ilization, should swell in volume and power, until the whole land is filled with
their chorus, and the people everywhere glow with irresistible faith and cour-
age.
The assault on Fort Sumter is one of the most important events of history.
But its true character is not always recognized. It was a challenge flung down
by slavery to the civilization of the nineteenth century. Of course it was defi-
ant, wicked, barbarous. No robber knight on land, no pirate on the sea,
ever more completely became the enemy of the human race. As such, our gov-
ernment was bound to instant warfare with it; and in this enterprise of hu-
manity, it was entitled to the sympathy and God-speed of all Christian nations.
Unhappily, they have stood aloof or have taken sides with the barbarism. But
our duty is none the less plain and constant, while the glory is greater.
Studiously observant of all the constitutional safeguards claimed for slavery,
and always recognizing its absolute immunity within the states, I had never
supposed that it could be reached except within the exclusive jurisdiction of
the national government, nor had any ardor of antipathy ever led me to any
proposition inconsistent with this idea. But the assault on Fort Sumter
changed all this Slavery became militant, and fronJ this moment all its pre-
tensions were subjected to the hazards of war. Slavery took the sword, and,
u
surely in this case, there can be no exception to the rule that he who takes the
sword shall perish by the sword. Let it perish, then, and the Divine law be
vindicated.
But this assault was something more than a challenge to civilization. It was
in its front a challenge, but in its reverse an x\ct of Emancipation. The rebels
acted "Aviser than they knew,'' and their blazing batteries were more than
words. They were a proclamation, whose parchment was the firmament, Avhose
letters were cannon-balls, and whose seal was fire ; and this proclamation was
executed with all mankind for witnesses. Then and there the doom of slavery
was fixed. The later declaration of the President only registered in words
what the rebel batteries had proclaimed.
But, whether regarded as challenge or as proclamation, we have only to go
forward and crush the rebellion. In this way will the impudent challenge be
answered, and, at the same time, the proclamation be upheld.
Believe me, my dear sir.
Very faithfully yours,
CHAKLES SUMNEK.
J AS. A. Roosevelt, Secretary, Sfc.
LETTER OF GOV. ANTHONY, OF RHODE ISLAND.
Providence, April 8, 1863.
Sir : I have your invitation to attend the inaugural mass meeting on the 11th
inst. I regret that my engagements will not permit me to participate in this
great patriotic demonstration, of the importance and value of which I have a
high estimate.
It is eminently proper that loyal men of every political faith should unite in
the common defence of the government.
History will scarcely credit the fact that while the nation was struggling
with this gigantic rebellion, men could be found, not singly, but banded in
political organization, to oppose every measure which those to whom the peo-
ple had intrusted the government had deemed necessary for its preservation ;
and that at a time when the whole energy of the administration was needed
against the rebellion, the constituted authorities were embarrassed and weak-
ened by the necessity of guarding against treason at the north.
But if this treason makes the labors of loyal men more severe, it makes their
duty plainer, and makes the glory of an eventual triumph greater. For we
shall triumph in the end, and the men who are attempting to degrade the gov-
ernment, and to disgrace our arms, will sink to an infamy which shall cause
them to envy the fame of Benedict Arnold, and shall make their children deny
their names.
I am, very respectfully,
Your ob't servant,
H. B. ANTHONY.
Jas. a. Roosevelt, Esq.,
Sec'y Loyal National League.
TELEGRAM FROM EX-GOVERNOR WILLIAM SPRAGUE, U. S.
SENATOR FROM RHODE ISLAND.
Providence, April 11, 1863.
I regret I cannot be with you to-day. You have my " God-speed '' in your
efforts to unite and stimulate the people in supporting the government. Let
us all be banded togeth^ in one great brotherhood for the defence of our sa-
cred inheritance, now ieopardized by treason and its abettors.
WM. SPRAGUE.
Jno. Austin Stevens, Jr., Chairman, Sfc.
16
AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF THE VENERABLE JOSIAH QUINCY.
Boston, April 14, 1863.
Sir: Your favor of the 3d inst, written "for the Committee of the Loyal
National League," and requesting, in case of inabilitj' to attend, that I would
"address to the meeting, to be held on the 11th of April, a few words to en-
courage them in the loyal efPbrt now making to invigorate public sentiment
and public courage," was not received by me until that day, and too late either
to respond to that request or to even acknowledge its receipt;
Be assured, sir, that a request of such a nature, from such a committee, on
such an occasion, was an honor too flattering not to impress itself deeply on
my heart, and to excite into the desire of action what yet remains of patriotic
heat under the ashes heaped upon it by old age ; and though prevented on this
occasion, I yet hope, sooner or later, if life and mind be spared, in some form
to respond to the request, the expression of which does me so much honor.
It is, indeed, possible that the extended circumstances of my life may enable
me to throw some light on the present period, the events of Avhich were not
wholly unanticipated by the great minds which constructed the Constitution
of the United States, and who realized the inconsistent elements of which those
subjected to it were opposed. The impossibility of a long^continued harmoni-
ous action oifive slave oligarchies and of eight independent free democracies was
as well understood by those great minds then as at this day. They acceded to
the Constitution as the best form of government it was jsossible to have effected
under the circumstances of the time ; but they never considered it eicher as a
perpetuity or of long continuance. In the year 1802, at New York, Alexander
Hamilton, in reply to my inquiry, "How long the founders of the Constitu-
tion anticipated its continuance ?" answered, "Thirty or forty years." Nor
would it have continued longer than that time, had not the representatives of
the slave oligarchies found by experience that they could control the interests
of the free states by the influence of the leaders of the democracies of those
states, of whom John Randolph said, sarcastically and exultingly, the ''South
was as sure as of their own negroes." The subsequent long continuance of the
slave states under the Constitution was partly from a perception of their power
to control the Union, and perpetually to make it subservient to their projects
of multiplying slave states, and thus enlarging slave dominion, aud increasing
the chances of its perpetuity. For, after New York, under the lead of Aaron
Burr, had placed Thomas Jefferson in the United States President's chair, and
he had assumed the power which he publicly acknowledged he did not of right
possess, of admitting Louisiana into the Union without an appeal to the people
or the States, the slave oligarchies i-ealized their power to plant slavery per-
manently and extensively in the Southwest. From that moment the aggrand-
izement of the slave power became the master passion of the leaders of the
slave oligarchies. All disbelief of the evils of slavery was discarded from their
creed, and the belief of its benefits, its blessings, and its power became publicly
inculcated and of universal belief, in a manner, if not in fact; for slavery, lik
" Vice, is a monster of such frightful mien,
That, to be hated, needs but to be seen ;
But seen too oft, familiar with its face,
We first endure — then pity — then embrace."
But I had no intention to enter upon any discussion of familiar topics in com
mencing this letter, but only to express my sense of the honor conferred upon
me by your Committee, aii^d my desire, if possible, in some form to respond
to it.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOSIAH QUINCY.
16
LETTEK OF A. W. BRADFORD, GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND.
State of Maryland, Executive Department, )
Annapolis, April Zd, 18G3. J
Dear Sir : I have received the invitation vrith which you have honored me,
to attend and address a mass meeting you propose to hold in New York, on
the 11th iust., to inaugurate the Loyal National League. If my engagements
here would permit, I should take great pleasure in attending such a meeting.
I fear, however, it will be impossible for me to do so.
We have watched, with much anxiety, for some time past, the course of
political events in the Loyal States, and none with more solicitude than such
movements in the North. A few months since, some of our friends occasion-
ally felt discouraged by the apparent tendency of these events, whilst our
enemies were evidently disposed lo regard them as betokening an abatement
of that ardent spirit with which the entire North had heretofore responded to
■the national call. It always, however, seemed to me, that the gi-eat and vital
questions of the day were only for a time overlooked, by reason of the side
issues which partisan leaders had ingeniously succeeded in creating.
Whenever political parties, marshalled under ancient organizations, are
struggling for ascendency, we may expect that the old associations connected
with them will exert their wonted influence. Their effect, however, is neces-
sarily transient, for when their special occasions have passed, and when there
stands out in bold relief a great, oljvious, paramount, and patriotic duty to be
Eerformed, we may safely trust the instincts of the people rightly to appre-
end it ; and rest assured that no partisan, still less any treasonable influence,
will ever prevent them from discharging it.
I am most happy to see, by all the recent indications, that public sentiment
in your great state is satisfactorily responding to this reasonable expectation.
and nothing is better calculated to foster this national spirit than the formation
of such Leagues as you are about to inaugurate. Similar ones, extensively
patronized, have existed in our state for a year past, and with their assistance
we trust and believe we have here a national pai-ty that knows no subdivisions.
I like the simplicity of your pledge, and the singleness of the purpose it
avows: " Unconditional loyalty to ihe government, and an unwavering support
of its efforts to suppress the rebellion." Let that single and determined pur-
pose be the guiding spirit of every movement against the rebels^ and their
early overthrow is beyond peradventure. It has been their earnest unity of
purpose that has always afforded them their only obvious advantage.
When we shall profit by that example, and forgetful, of past political differ-
ences and ignoring all other objects or organizations, shall know nothing, for
the time being, but the American nation, its unity and its perpetuity, we shall
impart to our gallant armies a marching order that will carry them further
and faster into the heart of this rebellion than they have ever marched before.
With my best wishes for the rapid increase of your association, and perfect
faith in its salutary influence,
I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,
A. W. BRADFORD.
James A. Roosevelt, Esq.,
Secretary Loyal National League, Sfc.
LETTER OF GOV. CANNON, OF DELAWARE.
Dover, Delaware, April 8, 1863.
Dear Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter in-
viting me to be present at the Mass Meeting to be held on the 11th inst., iu
IT
Union Square, to inaugurate the " Loyal National League." I regret that en-
gagements of an official nature will probably prevent my attendance. Mean-
time permit me to assure you that my warmest sympathies are with your
movement. In this sti-uggle for the unity, the perpetuity of the nation, all
minor differences should be reconciled, and all subordinate questions post-
poned. This is no time to cavil at the measures of the administration. The
question now is, not how the government shall be administered, but whether it
shall exist. After the rebellion shall have been suppressed, and the National
Life saved, it will be time enough for loyal men to resolve themselves into po-
litical parties, and at ihe ballot-box settle their disputes concerning the mode
of its conduction.
I will enter into no discussion of the causes of the rebellion. Upon the ad-
ministration is devolved the duty of preserving the national existence. All
good citizens should lend their aid to the prosecution of the war with energy.
The work should be done thoroughly, and so that complete security should
be exacted for the future peace of the republic. Anything that contributes to
the maintenance of the public enemy is rightfully the object of attack and de-
struction. If it be armed men, they should perish ; if slavery, it should be
extinguished. When the question is between slavery without a government
and a government without slavery, no loyal man should hesitate. Those who
are in arms for the destruction of the Union, have no right to invoke the Con-
stitution as their protection against the consequences of their own criminality.
Nor do I appreciate the wisdom of those who expect to find in its literal pro-
visions specific rules for the suppression of the rebellion. The Constitution
was made primarily for the government of a nation in peace. It invested the
President with the command of the army and navy, and made him responsible
for the enforcement of the laws.
The mode of conducting the war is discretionary, and limited only by the
exigency of the occasion and the usage of civilized nations. The end is the
preservation of the Union — the highest law, the safety of the republic — the true
rule, how we can do the most damage to the enemy with the least loss to our-
selves.
As the Executive of this state, which has always been loyal, though some of
its citizens are in sympathy with treason, it shall be my pleasure, as it is my
duty, to co-operate with loyal men everywhere to maintain the authority of
the National Government unimpaired, the territorial extent of our country un-
diminished, and the right of the people, by their legally expressed will, to gov-
ern themselves unabridged.
I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
WILLIAM CANNON.
To John A. Stevens, Jr., Esq,
LETTEK OF GOV. COZZENS, OF RHODE ISLAND.
St.4TE of Rhode Island, Executive Department, )
Newport, April 8, 1863. J
Sir : Your circular is received, submitting the pledge of the Loyal Na-
tional League, established in New York, proposing an inauguration mass meet-
ing, to be held at Union Square, in that city, on Saturday, April 11th, 1863,
representing that it will be national in character, as in name, and requesting
me, in my official capacity, to address the meeting at that time, or favor it with
an expression of my views. As it will not be convenient to be present on that
occasion, I will take this method to testify my hearty ujiproval of the proposed
object of this association — to maintain unimpaired and undiminished the nation's
2
18
unity and boundary — binding us together in a common effort to preserve the
glory and integrity of this once prosperous republic. There is no more respon-
sible position for the American citizen than this. May we not hope that all will
unite in simple honesty for such a splendid purpose, divested of every secret,
partisan, or selfish consideration.
The state which I have the honor to represent has never ceased to labor for
the preservation of the Union and the Constitution. When, at the first sound
of war and cry of danger, my young and valiant predecessor. Gov. Sprague,
with Burnside (now one of the nation's chieftains) as his colonel, led the gal-
lant army of Rhode Island to the defence of the nation's capital — from that
time forward Rhode Island has been foremost in every effort to break this wick-
ed rebellion, and aid in every effort to restore her country's peace, prosperity,
and honor. Small as our state is in comparison with others, she is big in heart.
We stand to-day thousands ahead of our quota in the army and navy of our
country, and with heroic valor will we ever defend this glorious Union from
invasion, separation, or destruction.
Wishing every success to an object intended for so much good,
I have the honor to remain.
Your obed't serv't,
WM. C. COZZENS, Governor.
To James A. Roosevelt, Esq.,
Secretary of the Loyal National League, New York.
LETTER OF GOVERNOR DAVID TOD, OF OHIO.
The State of Ohio, Executive Department, )
Columbus, April 3, 1863. )
Dear Sir: OflBcial duties will prevent an acceptance of your invitation to
attend the inaugural mass meeting at Union Square, on the 11th inst.
As I cannot be present, to make known to the people who may assemble on
that occasion, the solemn determination of the people of Ohio on the subject of
the rebellion, allow me to request you to read to the meeting the enclosed
resolution recently passed by the General Assembly of Ohio, and for me
assure them that Ohio will offer her last man and her last dollar before yielding
up one square foot of the soil of this republic to traitors and rebels, or to any
other power hostile to our glorious institutions.
Very respectfully.
Your obedient servant,
DAVID TOD, Governor.
To James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Secy., §x.
The following is the resolution above referred to.
To the Governor : The following is a joint resolution of the General As-
sembly, passed the present session, to wit :
Resolved, by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That we will have no
dissolution of the Union ; that we will have no armistice; that we can fight
as long as rebels and traitors can ; that the war shall go on until law is re-
stored, and we will never despair of the republic.
Respectfully yours,
B. F. HOFFMAN, Secretary.
Resolutions relative to Pledging the Support of the State to the
Genitral Government.
Whereas, A republican form of government is believed to rest largely upon
the consent of the governed, and can only be maintained, when war is waged
19
for its destruction, by a hearty cooperation of the loyal people of such gov-
ernment ; and
Whereas, The Constitution of the United States, founded by the wisdom and
patriotism of our fathers, very wisely provides for a government of legisla-
tive, judicial, and executive departments, with power, believed to be ample,
to defend the rights of the people, maintain the authority of the government,
and execute the laws of the nation ; and.
Whereas, An unholy warfare is now waged by certain states against the
authority of the legally constituted government of the country ; and as no pro-
vision is made by the Constitution for the suppression of a rebellion, and the
enforcement of the laws, except through the legally-constituted authorities of
the counti-y ; and as the execution of the laws, in a republican or democratic
form of government, depends largely upon the loyalty and patriotism of the
people ; therefore,
Resolved, by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That we deem it
proper, as the representatives of the people, to renew our pledges, in the name
of the people of the state, to the general government, to render it all the aid
within our power, both morally and physically, in its laudable efforts to put
down the rebellion, preserve the Constitution, and restore the Union.
Resolved, That it is with pain and mortification that we hear of the proposi-
tions of either persons or parties in the North to divide the loyal states, with
the ultimate design of attaching any portion of those states to the so-called
Southern Confederacy; and that we do, in the name of the people of the State
of Ohio, most solemnly protest against such a heresy, — believmg that it not
only proposes the destruction of the Constitution and of the Union, but would,
if encouraged, result finally in the probable overthrow of our civil liberties.
Resolved, That any attempt by persons or parties in the North to divide the
territory of the Union, while the general government is waging war for its pres-
ervation, is an act of disloyalty — giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the
country — and is deserving the severest reprehension and condemnation of all
loyal men and good citizens.
Resolved, That the governor be requested to forward copies of the foregoing
preamble and resolutions to the President of the United States, and to each of
our Senators and Representatives in Congress.
JAMES R. IIUBBELL,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
B. STANTON,
March 24, 1863. President of the Senate.
LETTER OF GOV. SALOMON, OF WISCONSIN.
State of Wisconsin, Executive Department, )
Madison, April 9, 1863. )
Sir : Returning here after several days' absence, I find on my table your let-
ter of the 23th ult., requesting my presence at the inaugural mass meeting of
the Loyal N.itional League, which is to be held at Union Square, in your city
on the lltli inst.
I regret that I shall not be able to be present at the meeting, there to renew
the simple, solemn, and appropriate pledge of unconditional loyalty to the gav-
ernment and people of the United States.
The day of the meeting is fitly chosen to recall the great, unprecedented, and
enthusiastic uprising of the loyal masses of this nation for the maintenance of
our goveniment, our Constitution, and Union. Two yeai'S this war has been
waged, and yet the national integrity has not been re-established ; and more than
ever is unity — open, bold, and unconditional loyalty — necessary to save the na-
tion. But the last hope of the rebellion, a divided North, is fast waning before
20
the new uprising of the loyal people, who are reviving their pledges of support
and loyalty to the government, and before whose earnest, true, and solemn
words and resolves, lurking treason again must hide its head — as open, avowed
treason will fall by loyal blows.
You will please enter my name as a member of the Loyal National League
Firmly 1 shall stand by the pledge of its members.
Very respectfully yours,
EDWARD SALOMON.
James A. Roosevelt,
Secretary of the Loyal National League, New York.
LETTER OF GOV. KIRKWOOD, OF IOWA.
lowA City, April 7, 1863.
Sir : I very much regret that official engagements prevent my acceptance of
your invitation to attend the mass meeting at Union Square, at your city, on the
11th inst.
Unconditional loyalty to the government of the United States, an unwaver-
ing support of its efforts to suppress the rebellion, and the sparing of no en-
.deavor lo maintain unimpaired the national unity, both in principle and ter-
ritorial boundary, are duties so plain, and clear, and imperative, that the failure
to perform them can, in my judgment, be attributed only to partisan political
bigotry or disloyalty.
The gallant soldiers that Iowa has contributed to the national arms have
testified their devotion to these duties on many a hard-fought and glorious
battle-field; and our people at home, through their representatives in the state
and national councils, present to treason and rebellion a front as determined, as
compact and unbroken, as that maintained by their brothers before the enemy
in arms.
The loyal men of Iowa are ready to strike hands with all men who fully
recognize and faithfully perform their duties, and hold as traitors those who
do not.
Very respectfully,
Your most obedient servant,
SAMUEL V. KIRKWOOD
James A. Roosevelt, Esq.,
Secretary Loyal National League.
REPLY ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA.
State of Minnesota, Executive Department, )
St. Paul, April 6, 1863. j
Sir : Your communication of the 26th ult. to Governor Ramsey, now absent
from the ttate on official business, has just been received.
I regret that Governor Ramsey is not here to reply in person to your invita-
tion for him to address your League on the 11th instant. He most cordially
and heartily approves of the object of your association, and, could he be
present, would with pleasure take part in the proceedings of the inaugural
mass meeting to be held at Union Square on Saturday next.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT F. FISK, Private Secretary.
James A. Roosevelt,
Secretary of the Loyal National League, New York.
21
LETTEK OF HON. ISAAC N. ARNOLD, M. C. FROM ILLINOIS.
Washington, April 6, 1863.
Sir : I had the honor to receive your note of March 26, invitinff me to ad
dress the mass meeting to be held under the auspices of the "'Cfl National"
wiK ^- ^"'"'^ ^^"T"' ^^^ ^''^' «" *h« 11th instant. I /egret thaH
I ilr .if '"•''•{ P'^f •^". *.^*''^'l.' ^"*' ^lt'^«"gh I cannot be with you in person
Lry%l tv^r/hfV^f'^^"^,^;'^ all patriotic citizens, everywhere and of
tTonK n^n/L- ?«1«"^". pledge and firm resolve that the 4% of the na-
tion shall not be impaired, either in principle or territorial boundary and that
the government of our fathers shall be maintained." •^^""^^'■J. and that
tinn.AV P'T*^ satisfaction of representing a people occupying that por-
PPi and the A l7nr "''''^f".«.?' '""'^"* ^^^^^^" '^^ vailed of^^the MiLis-
nn^?iA i Atlantic so that the waters which fall to fertilize our soil, flow
oneL^dS^TFt^ .W vf ./' ,",' ^ necessity. TA^ iVr^riA ^.,,s« clasps in her
alwiT.f ''" '^°™^'^^^d"?e.iit.of Fort Sumter down to the present moment-through
all the changes and vicissitudes of the contest, in victory and in defease
Northwest has never hesitated nor foltered. Unseduced and uninfluenc^ bv
N.wV r''PP?K^%"JP^"^^-™«»'^'^'l traitors, whether at Richmond or b
t^arour';f r' V}"" T'fi *'^^ P^*^?^^ ^'^'^ '''' been steadfast, and determTned
that our nahonahty should continue in all its territorial inteo-i-iu
tionaitv so ^1 " Constitution, will with their blood cement a Union aTdTa-
Uonality so strong and deep that no traitor shall ever again disturb its har-
tesfis ornfTh^ ^^}'l,<^«f.''^g« of the American people, manifested in this con-
dea whi.h « . ' °^'* '"'^^"^'^ «^ "^^'-'-^l sublimity on record. The grand
Idea which sustains the war is o^ir nationality. ^
tati''c,^u''-'T'-i ^^^"^?^' ocean bounded, and extending from the Lakes
^e?e^?"fi^h;:l!;vfft:Ilt tfdr^" '-''-'■ '- ^^^^ ^« ^-- - ^ ^
in Jearh%?"P^'^° realization of this ideal Republic is the conviction beconi-
Ttt/ {/'""'' ?/ "^oj-e. clearly developed that this Republic mu^t be T]
I he lehelhon is the suicide of Slavery. The death of slave-v wJ l to^fl
regeneration of the nation. So b^ it. L^. theR^^L T<^Sa^e:^ ''
Very respectfully.
Your obedient servant,
Jas. a. ROOSKVE.T, Esq., ^^^^^ ^- ARNOLD.
Secretary of the Loyal National League.
LETTER OF HON. EDWARD HAIGHT, M. C. FROM NEW YORK.
DkahSik: It would give me unfeigned pleas''u:rto''rVfeTent'it \'nd%
take part in. the exercises of the meeting " ei masse " in accorSd XH
kmd invitation, did the state of my healtli admrit '^^^^^'^^^^^ ^^th your
22
But though necessarily absent in body, I shall bo present in spirit, and with
as firm a resolve as will animate the breast of the most ardent patriot, to stand
fast by our common country, till she is brought with honor through the fiery
trial she is now called to undergo.
The formation of Loyal National Leagues was the happy thought of some
patriot, whose regard for the fitness of things has been readily appreciated and
caught up by the common sense of the people. What gives them their value is
not alone that their members are renewedly pledged to maintain the national
unity, for every loyal heart is 7ioiu, always, and forever pledged to stand
up boldly and firmly against the enemies of his country, at home and abroad ;
but their value consists in bringing the loyalty of the country into bold re-
lief; causing it, as it were, to stand out, the admiration of manhood, while it
casts into midnight shade the traitorous bands who, within their gilded circle,
have yet to learn what this meaneth — Loyalty !
It is fitting, too, that for this great meeting the anniversary of the attack on
Sumter should have been chosen. The recollection of that, and of the noble de-
fence of the old flag by Major Anderson and his brave little band of patriot
soldiers, quickens the pulse and nerves the arm of every patriot to avenge the
dire insult, and vindicate our national honor and national unity before the
world.
Then, with a firm trust in Providence — with men in our councils " who will
not sell the truth to serve the hour" — v\'ith a commander honest, and of firmness
of purpose — with generals who only " in the path of duty see the way to glory-' —
with our armies well tried, and in no sense proved wanting — we shall bruise the
head of the serpent treason so efiectually, that its crest will not again be
raised to frighten weak and timid minds, who only know the meaning of the
word Compromise ; — a consummation most devoutly to be wished, and in my
view most certain of accomplishment.
I have the honor to be yours, very respectfully,
EDWARD HAIGHT.
James A. Roosevelt, Esq.,
Secretary of the Loyal National League.
LETTER OF HON. H. L. DAWES, M. C. FROM MASSACHUSETTS.
North Adams, Mass., April 4th, 1863.
Sir : I can be with you only in heart on the 11th inst., the second anniver-
sary of that day on which traitors first made open war upon the republic, to
make, in the presence of a patriotic nation, new pledges and fresh resolves that
the unity of this government and people shall be perpetual. I would gladly
join the throng who will go up to take your pledge on that day, or lift my voice
to encourage or assure any doubting Thomas who has ears to hear.
As it is, )'ou shall have my whole heart; and you can make no pledge I
will not take as often as the sun rises. And when I die, if this war and the
mother of it have not gone into a common grave, I will swear my children to
perform it. This shall be my " Delenda est Carthago.'' Any man, whoever
he be, who will enter into a league with me that this common grave shall be
dug, and that right speedily, with him I will lock arms ; but the man who hes-
itates to make this covenant has already begun to be a traitor.
Thanking you for your kind invitation,
I ain truly yours,
H. L. DAWES.
James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Secretary, j-c.
23
LETTER FROM LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SCOTT.
New York, April 8, 1863.
Sir : I feel myself honored by the special invitatioa to attend the Union
meeting on the 11th inst., to renew to the government on that day (the anni-
versary of the attack on Fort Sumter) the solemn pledge to uphold the national
authority and national unity.
With an undying attachment to the Union, to which I have given fifty odd
years of my life, my heart will always be in all meetings called to sustain it;
but probably I shall in person never again be present at another public as-
semblage, even for that noble purpose.
With great respect,
Your obedient servant,
WINFIELD SCOTT.
J. A. Stevens, Jr., Esq., Chairman, Sfc.
LETTER FROM H. W. HALLECK, GENERAL-IN-CHIEF OF THE
AMERICAN ARMIES.
Headquarters of the Army, )
Washington, April 5th, 1863. |
Sir : I have received your invitation to attend a mass meeting of the Loyal
National League in New York, on the 11th instant, and I regret that my ofl5cial
duties will prevent me from being present. I, however, fully approve of the
object of the meeting, as set forth in your circular.
I think no man who has carefully observed the course of events in the rebel
states, since the commencement of this war, can now hope for any other peace
than that which is imposed by the bayonet. The loyal states must conquer this
rebellion, or it will conquer them. Loyal men of all parties, and of all shades of
political opinion, must unite in supporting the government of our fathers, or
consent to see the glory and integrity of this great nation utterly destroyed by
rebels and traitors. This rebellion cannot be put down by peaceful measures.
Those who pretend to think so are either madmen or traitors in disguise. We
must either conquer or submit to terms dictated by the Southern oligarchy.
There is no other alternative. The great North and West, with their vastly
superior numbers and means, can conquer, if they will act together. If,
through factions and dissensions, they fail to do this, they will stand forever
disgraced in the opinion of the world, and will transmit that disgrace to their
posterity.
We have already made immense progress in this war — a greater progress
than was ever before made under similar circumstances. Our armies are
still advancing, and, if sustained by the voices of the patriotic millions at
home, they will ere long crush the rebellion in the South, and then place their
heels upon the heads of sneaking traitors in the North.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. W. RkLLECK, General-in-Chief.
James A. Roosevelt, Secretary of the League, New York,
LETTER OF MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH HOOKER, COMMANDING
THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.
, Headquarters Army of the Potomac, )
April 9, 1863. |
Sir : Acknowledging the receipt of an invitation to be present at a mass
meeting of the loyal citizens of the United States, to be held at New York on
24
the 11th instant, I have occasion to regret that my duties will not permit me to
be present at that important assemblage.
Permit me, however, to express my hearty sympathy with the objects and
purposes of the proposed demonstration, and to desire that my name may be
placed with those who so love their country, its Union, and its Constitution, as
to be glad to i-enew pledges of loyalty and fealty as often as circumstances will
demand. The frequent assembling together of our countrymen, for the pur-
pose of counsel and interchange of thought upon the great national question of
the day, is one of the useful and commendable duties of the times, which has
my best wishes, as it has that of all honest and loyal men. The army which I
have the honor to command is, I am proud to say, in such good heart, and in
so excellent a condition, that I am Avarranted in pledging it to a gallant blow
for the defence of our national unity and integrity whenever the enemy shall
be met by the army of the Potomac.
That God may speed the cause of the Union and of popular liberty every-
where, is the hopeful aspiration of
Your obedient servant,
JOSEPH HOOKER,
Major-Gene ml commanding.
To James A. Roosevelt,
Secretary Loyal National League.
LETTER FROM MAJOR-GENERAL McDOWELL.
St. Louis, Mo., April 7, 1863.
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th
ult., inviting me to address the meeting of the Loyal National League in New
York on the 11th inst.
I regret the duty on which I am now employed will not permit my being in
New York on that occasion. The association has my sincere sympathy, and
shall have my cordial support. I see the pledge does not differ, substantially,
from the one I took some time since, and in a more formal and solemn manner
even than is proposed by the League, and which I share with a million of oth-
ers ! I mean the oath taken by the army, by the privates as well as the gen-
erals, " to bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America, and to
serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies and opposers whom-
soever."
May not those who have taken this oath be regarded as virtually members
of the National League — active members, who, to fulfil their pledge, have
given up nearly all of their personal liberty, and most of whom are now sacri-
ficing the material interests of themselves and their families ?
It is mainly to the exertions of those active members that we must look for
the suppression of this rebellion. Their labors and sacrifices will not be in
vain, and the hope of the loyal will not be disappointed, if they and their suc-
cessors are only sustained by those who remain at home.
Will it not be one of the objects of the League which is to be inaugurated on
the 11th, to see that they and the national government are sustained, both
through good report and through evil report — " in all times of their tribu-
lation,'' as in all times of their " prosperity ?" — for thus only can the nation
finally have unity, peace, and concord, — peace and concord following, and only
possible, after unity.
1 have the honor to be, very respectfully,
Your most ob't servant,
IRVIN McDowell,
Major-General.
James A. Roosevelt, Esq.,
Secretary of the Loyal National League, New York.
2S
LETTER OF MAJOR-GENERAL STONEMAN.
Headquarters Cavalry Corps,
Army of the Potomac, April 3, 1863.
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of an invitation from the
Loyal National League to unite with it in the ceremonies connected with its
inauguration (in Union Square, New York city), on the anniversary of the day
upon which the war upon the government was begun, in the bombardment of
Fort Sumter.
Permit me to assure you that nothing would give me more unfeigned satis-
faction than to be pi-esent upon the occasion, did duty to my country in another
field permit my presence in your city at this time.
These are times which demand that every true soldier and lover of his coun-
try should be at his post, either battling with a powerful and arrogant foe in
front, or crushing out an equally dangerous and more unprincipled foe at
home ; and it is hoped that the efforts of the League, amongst other things, may
be directed toward holding up to execration those men who, under the shield
of " free speech,'' seek to paralyze the earnest endeavors of those who are
ready to offer up, as a willing sacrifice upon the altar of their beloved coun-
try, their lives and their all for the honor and the integrity of their nation and
their nation's flag.
You can rest assured that if this army has a thorough hatred for the reb-
els in its front, it has an equal hatred, intensified by scorn, for traitors at
home, and that we would hang the one with the same satisfaction that we
would shoot the other.
We have nothing in common with Southern principles, and no patience with
Northern sympathizers ; and we warn them that the day will come when we
will make it as uncomfortable for them to remain where they will then be as it
would be dangerous for them to come where we now are.
With my best wishes for the successful accomplishment of the objects, as set
forth in your letter, and the hope that I may be honored with the privilege of
being considered a member of the Loyal National League, I have the honor
to be,
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
GEORGE STONEMAN, Major-General
James A. Roosevelt,
Secretary Loyal National League, New York.
LETTER OF MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE.
Headquarters 5th Army Corps, '
Camp near Falmouth, Va.,
April 2d, 1863.
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 26th
ult., inviting me to be present at a proposed meeting of the Loyal National
League, to be held at Union Square, on the 11th inst., and, in the event of my
inability to attend, asking for my views.
My duties with the army in the field, and the near approach of active opera-
tions, preclude the possibility of my presence on the occasion referred to;
which I the more regret, because, cordially subscribing to the cardinal princi-
ples enunciated as the basis of your association, it would afford me much pleas-
ure to co-operate with you in giving a public expression to the same.
My views, which you ask for, are very brief and simple. They are, that it
is, and should be, the undoubted and unhesitating duty of every citizen of the
republic to give his whole energies, and to contribute by all the means in his
power, to the determined prosecution of the war, until the integrity of the gov-
26
ernment is re-established, and its supremacy acknowledged. Deprecating as
useless all discussion as to the causes of the war, the fact of its existence, and
the necessity for its continuance, should alone occupy us. For its successful
prosecution and termination, I am clearly of the opinion there is only required
union and harmony among ourselves, and the bringing to bear men and means
proportionate to the power and resources of the country.
For the purpose of securing union and harmony, I know of no measure better
calculated than the organization of your National Loyal League. Its broad
and simple platform is one to which citizens of all parties can readily subscribe ;
and I have no doubt its effect will be most salutary iu proving, to those who
are in arms to subvert the government, that, whatever differences of opinion
may exist on minor points, upon the main point of there being but one gov-
ernment and one flag, we are determined and united.
Wishing you every success in your patriotic object, I have to assure you,
for myself and those under my command, that we do not hesitate " to pledge our-
selves to unconditional loyalty to the government of the United States — to an
unswerving support of its efforts to suppress the rebellion, and to spare no en-
deavor to maintain unimpaired the national unity, both in principle and terri-
torial boundary."
I have the honor to be, sir,
Most respectfully, your obed't serv't,
GEO. G. MEADE,
Maj. Gen. of VoVs.
Jas. a. Eoosevelt, Esq.,
Secretary Loyal National League, New York.
LETTER FROM MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX.
No. 3 West Twenty-first Street, )
New York, April 10, 1863. j
Sir: I am here for a few days only, and it is not in my power to accept
your invitation to attend and address the mass meeting to be held in Union
Square to-morrow ; but I take great pleasure in expressing to you, for such
use as you may think fit, my views in regard to the contest which is convuls-
ing the counti-y. It is nearly two years since I addressed a mass meeting of
the citizens of New York where yours is to be held. The contest had just
then commenced, and we pledged to the country our lives, our fortunes, and
our sacred honor, to sustain the government in carrying it on. The battle of
Fort Sumter had been fought ; some of its brave defenders were with us ; the
tattered flag, which they had upheld till they had been conquered by famine,
and not by the steel of their treacherous countrymen, was waving over us.
Seven states had declared themselves out of the Union : in some of them
even without the formality of such a declaration. Our mints, forts, and reve-
nue vessels, had been forcibly seized and appropriated by the insurgents to the
prosecution of their treasonable purposes. In Baltimore our troops, hastening
to the defence of the Capital, had been shot down in the public streets. It
was under these circumstances that we assembled to declare that this insur-
rection against the government, founded upon no just cause — the offspring of
ambition, and of a long-concerted scheme of national disorganization, must be
put down ; that it was due to our fathers, our children, our country, and the
cause of public order throughout the world, that this example of selfishness
and bad faith should not go down to future generations hallowed by success to
inspirit the machinations of false men, and to dishearten the friends of good
goyernment.
2Y
When I say this msurrection against the government is without just cause,
I do not overlook the fact that there has been much in sectional movements
and objects to excite irritation ; and no one has condemned these movements
and objects more strongly than myself.
But the origin of this insurrection is of earlier date, and founded in more
deeply-seated causes. The hostility to the Union of which it is the fruit, was
first developed in the nullification movement of 1832. It contemplated then
what it is contending for now — a forcible separation of the states. When
Gen. Jackson, by his extraordinary sagacity, saw its secret purpose, and by his
indomitable courage put it down, he declared that the conspiracy was only
suspended, that it would be renewed at some future time, on the question of
slavery, which would be made a^pretext for the dissolution of the Union. The
history of the last quarter of a century manifests the truth of his prophecy.
The object has never for a moment been out of view. The Southern mind has been
educated in hostility to the Union, and in favor of a separate confederacy, with
slavery as the basis of its organization ; and the Southern states, with few excep-
tions, a majority of them unwillingly, have been led by management, and at length
driven by violence, into open, forcible, armed rebellion against a government to
which they were parties by a compact as sacred as any that ever existed between
communities or men. If the Southern states had by their representatives met
peacefully in convention; if they had calmly and with unanimity expressed their
desire to withdraw from the Union, and had declared their inability from incom-
patibility of interest, temper, or political opinion, to live in harmony with us, it
would have been an appeal which we could not well have resisted; but when
all deference to our justice and good feeling, all consideration of our rights, are
contemptuously disregarded, when the public arms, forts, treasures, and arse-
nals, are unscrupulously seized; when that which could only have been prop-
erly the result of negotiation and agreement, is sought to be gained by fraud,
or extorted by violence ; a.nd when the national flag, endeared to us by the
blood of our ancestors, and by victories unnumbered on the sea and the
land, is insulted and trampled under foot, there is but one course for
just, brave, and honorable men, and that is to defend the government, the
Union, and the national integrity, if need be, to the last dollar of our treasure
and the last drop of our blood. It is painful — I will not say it is discouraging
— to find any difference of opinion among us on this subject. I have felt not
only grieved, but mortified by the recent peace movements at the North. I
am amazed that any one can suppose they can have any other result than to
give courage and confidence to the insurgents, or that there is any hope of
success on our part but in a steady and unshrinking prosecution of the war.
The insurgent leaders will accept nothing less than a recognition of the inde-
pendence of the Confederate States. They will not even negotiate with us
until that point is conceded. Their efforts were never more desperate than
they are now. They have brought into the field, by conscription, near-
ly every man capable of bearing arras. Our divisions have inspired
them with fresh hopes, and have given new point to their hostilit3^ The
tone of their leading presses is higher, and the demands of their leaders
more extravagant, than they were before the peace moverments commenced.
A peace on any terms with men animated by such a spirit would be a mere
suspension of hostilities, to be renewed with greater advantages on their
part, and with more embittered feelings of hatred. If there ever was a
contest that needed to be fought out, it is this. The men who have dragged
the people of the South into this insurrection against a government over
which they have had, for three quarters of a centui-y, a leading control, which
has never visited them with a single act of oppression or injustice, must be
overthrown before we can have any peace which would not be a precursor of
fiercer war; war which would inevitably transfer to our own territory the
ravages which have desolated theirs. If those who, to quote their OAvn idle
and delusive phrase, are engaged in " the prosecution of peace,'' could look
28
on this spectacle of deserted fields which were once teeming with the fruit of
a bounteous agriculture ; of groves and forests levelled to the ground ; of houses
stripped of their covering so as to be no longer habitable, and of families
broken up, dispersed, and homeless ; in a word, if they could see with their own
eyes the prevading desolation which two armies, one of friends and the other
of foes, have wrought out in widely-extended districts, they would be con-
vinced that there is no present hope but in continued war — war which should
strip of their power the authors of all this devastation — vigorous and deci-
sive war as a prelude to a stable peace. War is the only means by which the
same horrors can be kept from our own firesides. Desperate as the strug-
gle has been, there is nothing in the past which should discourage us.
We must not disguise the magnitude of the contest, or of the efforts and suf-
ferings to be endured.
There is more blood to be shed, more treasure to be expended, more hard-
fought battle-fields to be won. These are considerations to inspire us with
patriotism and courage — not to overwhelm us with discouragement and de-
spair. There are crises in the life of every nation by which its spirit and char-
acter are tested. Such a crisis is upon us ; we are to demonstrate whether the
love of country or the love of ease predominates in us, and under circumstan-
ces which would make defeat indelible disgrace.
We have two millions of people capable of bearing arms ; the insurgents
have but half a million. Our foreign commerce, our domestic industry — in a
word, our labor, in all its extended channels, is comparatively undisturbed.
Their communications by sea are cut ofi" — their agriculture is paralyzed in its
most profitable branches, and it is becoming a question whether, with nearly
the entire white male adult population withdrawn from the field of producive
industry, food enough can be provided for their absolute wants. Almost without
manufactures there is a fearful prospect of destitution in nearly all those fabrics
which are essential to bodily comfort and health. The prices paid for them
are almost incredible. This enhancement of values is not merely a conse-
quence of the depreciation of the currency, but it is even more the result of
scarcity combined with an imperious demand which cannot be adequately
supplied. This dearth will continue, and with increased intensity. That it
will be much longer endured by the great body of the people I do not believe ;
Indeed, I am satisfied that the insurgent army at this moment would crumble
to pieces but for the arbitrary power by which it is controlled. The highest
impulses that ever roused a great people to action are ours. Never was pre-
sented to a nation such a choice of blessings to be achieved, or evils to be
averted.
On the one side there is national glory and prosperity, the inheritance of an
unsullied name, the renown of ancestors to bo transmitted to their children,
the achievements of years that are past, the promise of years that are to come,
the security from internal disruption, only to be efi"ected by maintaining the
Union unbroken ; all these are the stakes for which we are contending. On
the other hand, there is public dishonor, reproach to the good name of those who
have gone before and of those who are to come after, an example of pusilla-
nimity to make children blush for their fathers ; national dissolution and an
element of disintegration engrafted on our political system which will break
us into fragments, and make us the sport of internal ambition and disorder,
and of foreign cupidity and violence. These are the great evils we are strug-
gling to avert ; and if, through our want of courage, our internal divisions, and
our unwillingness to make sacrifices for the preservation of our government,
wo cannot rise to the level of our responsibilities and duties, the part we shall
have borne in this contest will go down to future ages as one of the most dis-
graceful examples of demoralization in the annals of our race. I look with
unshaken confidence to the great body of the people for deliverance from im-
pending evils — for the courage, the constancy, the disinterestedness, and the in-
difference to personal sacrifices necessary to restore to us the Union, with
29
strength augmented by the severity of the trial through which it will have
passed,
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
JOHN A. DIX.
James A. Eoosevklt, Esq.
Secretary Natioiial League.
LETTER OF MAJOR-GENERAL SILAS CASEY.
Washington, D. C, April 6, 1863.
Dear Sir : Yours of the 3d inst., conveying an invitation on behalf of the
National League is received. I regret that my duties are such that I cannot
accept your polite invitation to be present at your meeting on the 11th inst.
The formation and principles of your League meet vrith the concurrence of
my understanding, and vrith the approbation of my heart.
It is meet and proper that you should have for your meeting the anniversary
of the day when the glorious flag of our country was so foully dishonored by
traitors in arms.
The issue of the contest in which we are now engaged, involves inter-
ests of momentous importance — the destinies of unborn millions. If, from
disloyalty, or neglect of duty on our part, this rebellion succeeds, our
free institutions are gone. We may keep up a disjointed national existence of
some kind — but the free institutions which have been handed down to us, and
which are the glory of our Republic, will have been sunk in the night of ages.
If true to ourselves, we may expect the aid of a just and kind Creator, for He
has no attributes which would aid in founding, on the ruins of a free republic,
an empire, whose cornerstone is human slavery.
Momentous history is being enacted about us ; and in view of its all-absorbing
importance, let us swear on the altar of our country that we will never relax
our efforts until its glorious flag shall wave over every foot of its soil.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
SILAS CASEY,
Major-General Volunteers.
John Austin Stevens, Jr.,
National League Committee.
FROM MAJOR-GENERAL REYNOLDS.
Headquarters 1st Army Corps, )
Army of_ the Potomac, April, 4, 1863. j
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your request to join the
inaugural mass meeting to be held in New York city by the Loyal National
League on the anniversary of the day on which the war against the govern-
ment was begun in the South.
I regret that my duties here will preclude the possibility of my being present
on an occasion of such interest to every pure patriot.
With every expression of interest in the sentiments and objects of the meet-
ing, and hoping all success may attend the efforts of the association.
I remain, very respectfully,
Your ob't servant,
JOHN F. REYNOLDS,
3Iaj. Gen. Volunteers.
James A. Roosevelt, Esq.,
Secretary Loyal National League, New York.
30
LETTER OF MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN E. WOOL.
Headquarters, New York,)
April 9, 1863. )
My dear Sir : I received your kind invitation to attend the Union League
meeting anticipated on Saturday next, for which you have many thanks. I
regret that it will not be in my power to attend.
Business of importance connected with my department calls me to the
North. I; however, will be with you in thought and spirit.
Very truly yours,
JOHN E. WOOL.
To John A. Stevens, Jr., Chairman.
LETTER OF CARL SCHURZ, MAJOR-GENERAL IN THE U. S. ARMY.
Dear Sir : The invitation to be present at, or to write a letter to, the great
meeting of the League at New York, reached me only to-day. I found it on
my return from Washington. How it happened that I did not receive it in
time I do not know. I would, indeed, not have been able to be present, but I
would have gladly availed myself of that occasion to give an expression of my
Bentiments in writing.
I write you this in order to let you know that my silence was not owing to
any neglect on my part. I shall always be happy to contribute my little mite
to the success of the good cause, whenever a fit occasion presents itself.
Very truly yours,
C. SCHURZ.
LETTER OF GEN. JAMES S. WADSWORTH, OF THE ARMY OF
THE POTOMAC.
Headquarters, First Division, First Corps, )
April 8, 18C3. |
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your circular inviting
me to attend a mass meeting in Union Square on the 11th instant, the anniver-
sary of the attack on Fort Sumter.
I regret that my duties here will not allow me to assemble with you on that
occasion, to renew, with the loyal citizens who will there congregate, the sol-
emn and earnest vows which every true patriot has taken, to stand by his gov-
ernment and his flag in this hour of our greatest trial.
In common, so far as I know, with every soldier in the army, I have wit-
nessed with deep gratification the formation of Loyal Leagues in the loyal
states, and the fresh and fervent outburst of patriotic sentiment among the
people. That this should occur after the incidence of heavy taxation had been
felt, and homes in every quarter had been made desolate by the havoc of war,
is a sufficient proof that the nation has risen to a just appreciation of the mag-
nitude of the issue ; that it feels that not only territorial integrity, but honor
and freedom, are at stake.
A proud, but base and selfish oligarchy, reared in a social system which
does all a social system can do to deprave the heart, pervert the understanding,
and develop only a brutal passion for dominion, has attempted to overthrow
our goA ernment and divide our counti-y. With such a foe, there can be no
compromise, no concession, no half-way course. We must fight it out, and
conquer, or be conquered.
The annals of the past record no greater or nobler struggle. Thousands of
years will not obliterate the history of the events in which we are taking part;
and whether, in all that time, we shall be pointed to as the degenerate sons of
noble sires, or as the worthy inheritors of the freedom they achieved, will de-
pend upon ourselves.
31
I can truly say, that with unlimited faith in the patriotism and intelligence of
the people, in the courage of our troops, and in the justice of our cause, I have
not now and never had, any fears as to the final result.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
JAMES S. WADSWORTH.
James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Secretary.
LETTER OF ADMIRAL PAULDING.
Navy Yard, )
New York, April 9, 1863. ]
Mt dear Sir : My thanks are due to the Committee for the unmerited com-
pliment of inviting me to speak, or express my views on the occasion of the
great assemblage of the Union League, to meet at Union Square on the 11th inst.
There are many of our distinguished citizens who will till the rostrum with
greater ability than I can ; and so far as my views may interest society, I am
happy to convey them on an occasion, and with an object of so much import-
ance, as our patriotic citizens have in view. All men, worthy to_ live under' a
government like ours, are bound to support the administration in a vigorous
prosecution of the war, whilst a rebel is found in arms, at any and every sacri-
fice of life and treasure ; and all who, by word or deed, shall give aid and
comfort to the enemy, should promptly meet the punishment due to treason. No
cause was ever more sacred than ours, and none can be more wicked, or a
greater outrage upon humanity, than that of the rebels. Ours is the cause of
civiHzation and rational freedom, of truth, honor, religion, andjustice.^ That of
the rebels may be characterized by every epithet that belongs to his Satanic
Majesty, whose motto, " Better to rule in hell, than serve in heaven," they
have essentially adopted.
We are fighting for our country, our homes ; for the wise and beneficent gov-
ernment of our fathers, and the last hope of freedom for the civilized world.
The rebels made the rebellion to establish an odious despotism, cemented and
sustained by the obscene element of human bondage, the most extravagant as-
sumption of bad men in any age, or that ever stained the hands of men calling
themaelves Christians, with blood. We all know all this to be true, and yet
we have the incredible phenomena of treason amongst us, bold and defiant,
openly plotting to arrest the strong arm of the government, raised to shield
the life of the nation.
Would it not be wise to thrust from our midst this pestiferous evil, and ask
for prompt legislation, if the laws will not reach the traitors and the treason
that contaminates society, giving aid and comfort to the rebels, and misleading
simple-minded partisans ? Would it not be wise to provide for the banish-
ment, incarceration, and fine of these men, and no less mischievous women, who
infest our cities, conveying information and supplies to traitors whe seek the
lives of our gallant soldiers upholding the cause of our country ?
When we have disposed of our domestic enemies, a more distant one will
claim our attention ; and in regard to this we cannot act too promptly. If w^e
are not on the eve of a war, it is because our old enemy and commercial rival
has not perfected his policy ; and I am speaking the language of sober truth in
saying, that if suitable preparation is not promptly made, our plundered cities
may soon light up the land as our ships blaze upon the ocean. The pirate
" Alabama," or " 290" English Merchants, is no more a rebel steamer than
though she had never displayed the rebel emblem. She has never been in a
rebel port. She was built, fitted, armed, and manned with English seamen in
England, and is, to all intents and purposes, an English pirate upon our com-
merce. Many more ships, of a formidable character, are being prepared in
English dock-yards, to be sent abi'oad in the same way and upon the same
errand. We cannot silently ?ubrait to this ; and if we could, we cannot escape
the evident hostility. It may be well to consider whether it would not be
better for us to have war with England, than thus to be her victim. Our com-
32
merce is swept from the ocean by her seamen, while her merchants enjoy the
harvest her perfidious spoliation has created.
England never failed to cripple a rival when she could do it with impunity,
and now, when this rebellion is upon us, she lights the ocean with our ships, in
full security that her domestic altars peacefully glimmer on her shores. I
trust the nation will no longer submit to this insulting plunder, but rise
to the dignity of manhood ; and claiming immunity from further outrage, let
her feel the vengeance of a gallant people, if the necessity shall be forced
upon us.
I am, sir, with sincere respect,
Your obedient servant,
H. PAULDING,
Rear Admiral and Commandant.
LETTER OF A. D. BACHE, U. S. COAST SURVEY.
Sir : Public duties prevent me from leaving Washington at this time. 1
take the opportunity which your invitation gives to express my hearty sympa-
thy with you in your sentiments of unconditional loyalty, in your efforts for
the suppression of the rebellion — in your endeavors for National Unity.
I am bound with you in feeling and action for the maintenance of the
" power, glory, and integrity of the nation,'' and feel with you that the Repub-
lic in its extent, its government, its laws — the Union of our youth and maturity —
our country, is worth the entire sacrifice of all that we have, and of all that we
are ; is alone worth living for and dying for.
Respectfully, yours.
A. D. BACHE.
James A. Roosevelt, Esq.,
Secretary of the^Loynl National League.
LETTERS OF THE REV. DR. VINTON, OF NEW YORK.
Trinity Church, New York, |
Marck 30th, 1863. j
My Dear Sir : I shall not be able to participate in the inaugural mass
meeting of the Loyal League by speaking; but be assured of my deep interest
and earnest fellowship in all efforts to unite our countrymen in suppressing the
rebellion, and reinforcing the allegiance of all citizens to the Constitution of
the United States.
I remain very truly, dear sir,
Your obedient servant,
FRANCIS VINTON.
James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Secretary.
Trinity Church,
New York, April 8, 1863.
My dear Sir : I beg to acknowledge the invitation of the Committee of the
Loyal National League to address the meeting of citizens on the anniversary
of the rebel assault on Fort Sumter. Being disabled from speaking in the
open air, I avail myself of your alternative, of writing to my countrymen.
It has appeared to me that the complaint against the federal authorities, that
in the prosecution of this war they have violated the Constitution of the United
States, is a grave misapprehension. The Constitution has been developed, not
33
violated. This is the proposition which I would demonstrate and maintain.
The last Congress and this administration have doubtless inaugurated measures,
by-laws, and edicts, unprecedented ; but the civil war which has exacted them
is unprecedented.
The Constitution was framed by our wise fathers for the exigencies of War
as well as of Peace. It would indeed be impotent to accomplish the grand
purposes of government, proclaimed in the Preamble, unless it conferred war
powers. For while " Union " is impaired by rebellion, and "justice '"' defied
by arms, and "domestic tranquillity" disturbed by disloyalty and ti-eason,
how is Union to be "perfected," or justice " established," or tranquillity "in-
sured," by the Constitution, but by war powers in the Constitution 2 How
did " the people of the United States" propose to " provide for the common de-
fence, and promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
themselves and their posterity," by ordaining and establishing the "Constitution
of the United States of America," unless by incorporating war powers in their
fundamental law ? By developing these constitutional provisions, the Presi-
dent and Congress have acquired an historical pre-eminence, rivalled only by
the Convention of our forefathers which framed them, the states which adopted
them, and the Congress which organized the government.
The administration of President Washington and the administration of Pres-
ident Lincoln will stand side by side in historical fame. The one has displayed
the vigor of the Constitution which the other set on foot.
Look at the Habeas Corpus question. President Lincoln has acted on the hy-
pothesis that the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus is suspended, by order-
ing the arrest and imprisonment of persons suspected of disloyalty to the
country, and of giving aid to the rebellion.
The constitutional provision respecting Habeas Corpus is remarkable. It is
negative. It is as follows : '• The privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus shall
not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public
safety may require it." (Art., I. sec. 9, § 2.) It is ranged in the catalogue of
the disabilities of Congress. So far as it is positive, it prohibits the suspension
of the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus in time of peace. And it de-
clares that in cases of rebellion or invasion, it shall be suspended if the pub-
lic safety requires it. Rebellion or invasion, ipso facto, suspends it, for the
sake of the public safety. The question for the authorities of government to
determine, is simply — " Does rebellion or invasion so exist as to jeopard ' the
public safety' ? "
The public safety means the lawful liberty of the mass of individuals. The
privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus is the privilege of personal liberty under
law of an individual in spite of arbitrary power. Does rebellion or invasion
60 prevail as to endanger the lawful liberty or rights of the mass of persons.
If so, the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus, to individuals, is suspended
by the Constitution out of regard to the rights of the public. But what au-
thorities of the government are to determine when the public safety demands
the suspension of the writ ? They who maintain that Congress has this pre-
rogative argue upon the analogy of English precedent. But the analogy does
not hold. For Parliament enacted the law of Habeas Corpus, and, therefore,
Parliament alone may suspend the law. But Congress did not enact the law
of Habeas Corpus, and, therefore, it is not requisite that Congress should sus-
pend it. And, moreover, there is is no example of Parliament suspending the
privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus. It remains unrepealed and un-
touched on the statute book ever since the reign of Charles II. And yet the
privilege of the writ has been frequently suspended when the public safety
required it. The King, by advise of the Privy Council, has arrested and im-
prisoned disloyal persons, without authority of Parliament. And the uni-
form course has prevailed of an act of indemnity by Parlian.ent, discharging
all persons from guilt who had any agency in arresting suspected person and
denying them the privilege oi Habeas Corpus.
3
34
Earl Russell has stated in the House of Lords this distinction between the
Law of Eaglaad and the Constitution of the United States. They who would
fetch these arguments against the President from England would better ap-
prove the act of the late Congress indemnifying the President. But, under
our Constitution, there was no need of the act of indemnity ; for if the Consti-
tution, itself, suspends the writ of Habeas Corpus in cases of rebellion or inva-
sion, when the public safety may require it, the question is narrowed to the
inquiry whether rebellion or invasion is a fact.
In the present condition of the country, no one can be found of hardihood
to deny that rebellion is a fact, and that the public safety requires the sup-
pression of the rebellion.
But the demand is made: " Why should the President be the judge when
the exigency exists ?'"' The answer to this demand is made by Mr. Horace Bin-
ney, whose statement and argument on this question are not to be refuted.
He shows that the judge of the exigency is not the Supreme Court, not Con-
gress, but the Executive. The President alone makes oath to "preserve, pro-
tect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.'' The Judiciary are
out of the question, since this power of government is the one with whom any
controversy on the question may happen, and it cannot be judge in its own
case. The Congress may not judge if the exigency, for Congress may not be
in session; and though in session, the power to judge is neither expressly nor
by implication given to Congress. The Executive remains to enforce the pro-
vision of the Constitution, by virtue both of necessity and of his oath.
The privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus is a privilege for the conservation
of personal liberty in time of peace. In cases of rebellion or invasion, the
personal liberty of thousands is threatened, and, therefore, the suspension of
the privilege of the writ to an individual suspected as an enemy is in obedience
to the right to liberty of many individuals and the safety of the public.
This war has thus developed the Constitution, according to the meaning of
its authors, and has shown that this reverend document embodies a Govern-
ment, for the protection of loyal persons, and for their preservation as a na-
tion, whether against foreign or domestic foes.
The privilege of the writ in time of peace, and the suspension of the privi-
lege in cases of rebellion or invasion, alike guarantee personal liberty to the
loyal in the land.
Consider, next, The Finance Laws of the Thirty-seventh Congress,
These, too, develop the Constitution of the United States. The purpose and
effect of these laws are to establish a uniform national currency ; to equalize
exchange among the states; to establish a representative of values, grounded on
the credit of the federal government, and thus to interest every man, who owns
a dollar, in the permanency of the Union, and to engage him in its support.
The appeal to patriotism is reinforced by the pocket, which is a very sensi-
tive nerve in the body politic ; while each bank bill, like the coin of the United
States, is a symbol and monitor of the national sovereignty.
The Constitution, undoubtedly, intended to confine the regulation of the
currency to the federal authorities exclusively, and to prohibit the states from
any independent legislation on this subject. And the people of each state,
by adopting the Constitution of the United States as the supreme law in the
state, paramount to their own state constitution and laws (See Art. VI., ^ 2,
Con. U. S.), have deliberately established the supremacy of the federal govern-
ment over the currency of the nation.
The Constitution of ' the United States gives Congress power "to coin
money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and fix the standard
of weights and measures," (Art. I., sect. 8, ^ 8). This provision, alone, covers
the broad question of representatives of value in commerce. The provision
(Art. I., sect. 8, ^ 2) empowers Congress " to borrow money on the credit of the
United States." But the Constitution nowhere requires the federal govern-
ment to make nothing but silver and gold a tender in payment of debts.
35
On the other hand the Constitution of the United States prohibits each
state from interfering with the national sovereigntj^ over flnanae and commer-
cial standards of value. " No state shall coin money, emit bills of credit, or
make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.." (Art.
1, sect. 10, ^ 1.)
Nevertheless, State Legislatures are accustomed to charter banks, with
authority to issue " bills of credit " in the shape of bank bills, and to permit
banks to suspend specie payments, as at the present time.
For more than seventy years, the currency of the United States has con-
sisted chiefly of the bills of local banks, which have enjoyed par value only
within local precincts, beyond which they are depreciated at a greater or less
discount, and often are valueless as a medium of exchange. The country has
suffered by these disorders of finance. Nothing it plainer than the proposi-
tion, that no authority may justly empower agents to do indirectly what the
superior authority prohibits it from doing directly. The axiom obtains
" QiU facet per al'mm^ facet per se." The act of the agent is the act of the prin-
cipal.
But the assumed power of State Legislatures to charter banks of issue, has
been acquiesced in by the people, as a convenience, in the absence of a na-
tional currency, until prescription has acquired accumulating force in favor of
local banks, rendering the inauguration of the national currency more and
more difficult. The particular interests of stockholders, the immense priv-
ileges of directors, the facilities enjoyed by tradei's, the habits of the people,
and the rivalries of states, have combined to resist the right of Congress to
" emit bills of credit," and establish an uniform currency for the nation.
No power but the exigencies of the nation, produced by this unhallowed re-
bellion, it seems to me, would be strong enough to conquer the influences con-
spiring to prevent the establishment of a national currency, in accordance
with the Constitution of the United States, that eventually would supersede
the unconstitutional local currency.
And, therefore, this war for national union has developed the Constitution of
the United States in evincing the sovereignty of the Federal Government over
finance, and has thus knit tighter the bonds of union, and proclaimed afresh
that the United States are a nation. With the Government securities in pub-
lic and private chests, and the Government currency in every man's purse,
there will grow up a familiarity with the sovereignty of the Federal Govern-
ment and a patriotic determination to maintain it. Wherever the citizen trav-
els in this vast domain of the United States, he carries with him the money of
the Constitution as he is everywhere protected by its flag.
In the next place, notice the Conscription Ad of Congress. The Constitu-
tion is developed in its provisions for national defence, in shewing that the
power of the sword is given to the central power, and that thex-efore we are a
nation.
Congress has authority " to raise and support armies, to provide and main-
tain a navy, to make rules for the government of the land and naval forces, to
provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress
insurrections and repel invasions, to provide for organizing, arming, and disci-
plining the militia for governing such part of them as may be employed in the
service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the appoint-
ment of the ofiicers, and the authority of training the militia according to the
discipline prescribed by Congress." (Art. I., Sect. 8, ^ 12, 13, 14, 15, 10.)
When the barons in the middle-ages led their retainers to battle, the vassals
obeyed their lord rather than the king. Jealousies and rivalries and strife en-
sued. The campaign was frequently frustrated and brought to naught by
these dissensions. Not until the prerogative of calling forth and commanding
the baronial forces was lodged exclusively in the chief baron, did the various
dependencies acquire the consistency of a nation. After the sovereignty of the
king wafe thus estabhshcd, the nation was at unity in itself, and civilization
leaped forward to fresh exploits.
36
The analogy to our own country is palpable. State rights and the federal
sovereignty have frequently come into collision. The authority of the central
government to enrol and draft tlie citizens of the republic, has been question-
ed and hindered. A volunteer army was deemed best, and bounties have been
liberally offered and accepted to swell the depleted ranks of regiments in the
field, as well as to constitute new forces. The miserable effect of that experi-
ment is to make soldiers mere hirelings, under the false name of volunteers;
to induce desertion in order to enlist in other regiments, for the sake of the
bounty ; to suggest to the soldier that he may act according to his own will ;
to suppress the sense of subjection to authority, to impair every military in-
stinct, and to degrade and keep out of mind the supreme right of the government
to command the service of any and every citizen who enjoys the protection of
the government.
I need not enlarge on the evidence of these efforts, nor further allude to the
jealousies of the state authorities, nor indulge in denunciations of the dema-
gogues who have been vociferous in discouraging the conscription.
It is sufiBcieut to say that the Conscription Laws of the Tliirty-seventh Con-
gress are framed in view of all these impediments and prejudices. The execu-
tion of them will demonstrate the sovereignty of the Constitution of the United
States. The soldiers which they create will be soldiers indeed, who, entering
the army in obedience to authority, will, from the start, learn to obey the stern
requisitions of military rule, and will constitute an army governed by one will,
moved by one plan, and marched to victory.
For one, I rejoice in the Conscription Laws, as the edicts of that sovereignty
on which our Union and our nationality depend. I anticipate the suppression
of the rebellion, under the potency of the laws, which have developed the
Constitution of the United States as the osgis of our liberties, under law, and
as the sovereign of the nation.
There is no danger from the tyranny of our rulers, tor the election of them
recurs to the people at short periods. But while they are in power, let them
b e rulers and not subjects. Let us unite to sustain them in their lawful pre-
rogatives, and swear anew to support the glorious Constitution which endows
them with authority, and defends our rights. The Loyal National League is
designed to invigorate and refresh our patriotism. It is like the Carthagenian
father, who imposed the oath on his son, never to cease warlare unlil the Ro-
mans were overcome. So we renew our oaths, that, while this unnatural re-
bellion shall not die by its own hand, but erects its defiant standard against the
Flag of our Union, we will never cease to combat it till it is destroyed and
shamed into infamy.
Your obedient servant,
FRANCIS VINTON.
To James A. Roosevelt, Esq., Secretary, jr.
LETTER OF REV. THOS. E. VERMILYE.
20 East 37th street, March 31, 1863.
Sir : I have just received the letter of the Loyal National League invit-
ing me to address an inaugural mass meeting, to be held at Union Square,
on the lltli of April next — the anniversary of the day upon which the war
upon the government was commenced in the bombardment of Fort Sumter.
Most cordially do I approve the principles of the League as declared in your
letter ; and I feel highly honored by the invitation you have sent lue. Two
years ago it was my privilege to officiate as one of the chaplains at the great
mass meeting on Union Square, immediately after the fall of Fort Sumter, and
to address our fellow-citizens in regard to our duty in the exigency which re-
bellion had brought us into, and again I will readily unite with my fellow-
citizens and raise my voice for the unconditional support of our noble govern-
ment, and for unconditional, uncompromising war with treason and rebellion.
37
Our happy country, humanity and religion — the present and the future — all
are interested.
I accept the invitation with which you have honored me, to address the
meeting, and am,
Very respectfully yours,
THOS E. VERMILYE.
J. A. Roosevelt, Esq., Secretary, Sfc.
LETTER OF REV. 0. B. FROTHINGHAM.
No. 113 West Thirty-fourth street, )
March Zlsl, 1863. )
My dear Sir : I appreciate at its full value the invitation extended to me to
be one of the speakers at the mass meeting to be held on Union Square, April
11th, and I would gladly respond to it with a promise to say something^ if I
had not been sorely troubled, for more than a month, with a bronchial inflam-
mation, which makes all public speaking difficult and painful, and would make
out-of-door speaking all but impossible.
Ever since I was a very young man. I have been a sturdy and uiieompro-
mising abolitionist, and nothing has occurred in these latter days to diminish
the intensity of ray conviction that slavery is the one root of bitterness and the
one root of evil in this country. To it, and to nothing else, I trace the dreadful
conflict in which we are engaged. In its utter extinction I find the only ground
of hope for — not the " restoration of the Union," since union, in any worthy
or intelligent sense, we never have enjoyed — but for the creation of union —
the inauguration of constitutional autharitj' — the birth of a truly national spirit,
and the assurance of a firm and enduring peace. In my view, the war will end
in nothing but impotency and disgrace, unless it ends in the elimination of the
system of slavery, and the establishment of republican institutions in every part
of the country; but I am also deeply persuaded that the war, if vigorously
pushed, must end in this, as we see that it leads to this, implies this, involves
this, effects this, at every step'in its prosecution. The tread of the Union army
unsettles the very foundation of the slave power ; the presence of the Union
army is the presence of the northern civilization and of the genius of the cen-
tury ; the occupation of the Union army is a sign that the black " Othello's oc-
cupation's gone." The only head there is to hit is the head of an aristocracy
whose basis is the ownership of man — whose armorial badge is a whip ; and
every blow on that head is a blow for the dignity of man — for the rights of la-
bor — for civil equality, social harmony, education, morality, and happiness. I
am, therefore, an advocate of the most earnest and terrible prosecution of the
war — of the most earnest support of the administration in its efforts to carry
the war successfully on — of the most earnest pressure of the administration to-
ward more determined endeavors in its prosecution. I will not quarrel with
men respecting the motives, intents, wishes, purposes, policies, they cherish in
connection with the war's conduct. Let them only conduct the war as war, in
war's garb, on war principles, war fashion, and the Powers above them will
take care of the war's issue.
I am, therefore, heart and conscience, with your Loyal National League :
with the loyalty of it, the nationality of it, the manly and generous allegiance
of it. To have reached this point of union for the prosecution of the war is an
immense advance on any point hitherto reached in our struggle. It is a gain
of moral strength to be devoutly grateful for; and it hints at other gains more
noble still — at no less a gain, in fact, than union for the maintenance of peace,
liberty, equality, fraternity.
"With respect I am.
Very cordially yours,
0. B. FROTHINGHAM.
James A. Roosevelt, Secretary, Sfc.
38
LETTER OF REV. SAMUEL HAXSOX COX.
4 East Thirtieth street, 1
New York, .Varck 31, 1863. |
Respected Sir: In reply, may I say, that he who owns no nation as his
deserves to he owned by none ; and as such to be excommunicated from the
sublunary universe. He who, in this nation, is so sordid, so ignorant, eo idiotic,
as to have appreciative enthusiasm in no degree towards our ovrn e pluribus
unum, our many states in one nation ; towards our own national arch, of which
the ma^ificence, all studded with itars, has no parallel in the world ; such a
man deserves not the honors, nor even the protection — I had almost said, at
home or abroad- — of citizenship as an American ! Xo, sir, we have too
many such amorphous specimens among us, whose presence and influence could
be of real value to no really noble cause, anywhere ! Hence, this noble na-
tion may be stabbed to the heart by the matricides of the South, and might
bleed and die, without affecting the sensibility or eliciting the grief either of
these pseudo-patriots in our country or of their sympathizers anywhere ; that
hate, about equally, the duties and the rights of man, provided their own im-
punity may be left inaccessible and absolute.
But I like the summons to all true men, that they show themselves in a Loyal
National League, as true sons of such a noble mother : as the virtual confreres
of Washixgtox and his compatriots of the Revolution, achieving our national
existence; as, under God, they did; and then organized its freedom and its
unity as a mighty nation ; with a Coxstitction of wonder and of worth ; to
which was due, and almost ungrudgingly tendered, the admiration of man-
kind.
Our League is a symbol national, which posterity will quote with joy, which
history shall record with pleasure, and which the world can read and inter-
pret with reverence unfeigned. I am an American of the Americans ; and to
all my issue, born and to be born. I say first, love your Redeemer ; second, love
your country ! This, from that, the result.
I am now an old man, if my seventieth year can so define me ; no oflBce-hun-
t€r ; no partisan ; neither bought nor sold, nor in the market. But, if I know
myself, I love my country, my species, my fellow-citizens ; the cause of civiliza-
tion, learning, good manners, rational liberty universal ; the duties and the
right* of all mankind ; this, as the result of my birth and nurture in this land ;
of some extensive inspection and comparison of this with other lauds ; most of
all for more than fifty years, if I mistake not, of knowing and loving the oxly
LIVING axdtrceGod; who made us all; w 11 judge us all; and bless and
save all who truly love and obey him. I hope to live and die, praying for
his Kingdom to come: for my country to stay; and grow, greater and better,
till the second coming of my Saviour, the Son of man I thus finishing all mun-
dane history.
With high consideration and respect, your compatriot and friend,
SAMUEL HAXSOX COX.
P. S. — On the 11th of April I hope to be with you and say something if
desired, or as you already request.
James A. Roosevelt, Esq.,
Sec. Loyal National League,
94 Maiden Lane, Xew York.
39
LETTER OF REV. BENJAMIN W. DWIGHT.
New York, April 1, 1863.
Dear Sir : No declaration can be more true than that he who falters in
devotion to his coantry iu this the hour of its greatest peril, is proved thereby
utterly unworthy of any birthright or inheritance in it. It is one of the high-
est of all forms of duty to God and the human race to love and serve our
country at all times, and especially when it most needs and expects our assist-
ance. One of the basest of all possible remembrances on earth will they haad
down to their posterity who shall be known in after-years to have stood by
and held the garments of those who, in this dark day of our history, undertook
to save our mother-country, the common p.ireut of us all.
May God defend the right and bless the brave, and greatly enlarge the ever-
growing area of human freedom ! Can any one that knows his God, or reads
history intelligently, or looks out hopefully on the future of the human race,
doubt whether he will or not ? This is the holiest of all wars, in its principles
and objects, as it will be the grandest in its issues.
Tours in full and warm oneness of feeling with all who love our sacred
BENJAMIN W. DWIGHT.
James A. Roosevelt. Esq., Secretary, S^x.
LETTER OF REV. J. T. DURYEA.
26 West Thirtt-sixth street, N. Y. City. )
Apnl 7, 1863. ' |
Dear Sir . Having already devoted more time and strength than I can well
spare from professional duties during the past week, and the present, to labors
for the soldiers and seamen of the army and navy ; seeking, by ministering to
them, to discharge the debt of Christian charity and gratitude to the defenders
of our nationality, and a citizen's inevitable obligation to his government; and
knowing that persons well known to the people and influential among them,
will be eager to address you, I desire respectfully to decline so conspicuous a
part in your proceedings. Permit me, however, to give my hearty concurrence
and deepest sympathy with your movement. The objects, doctrines, senti-
ments, and spirit of your Association appeal to every loyal heart. Every man
true to God, to his country, and to mankind, must bid you fervently •* God
speed.''
You exhibit the true issues of this momentous crisis. This is a struggle for
national existence ; and our existence is depiendent on unity of government.
God has fixed the conditions of national life. Where there are unity of terri-
torv, sameness of language and religion, community of interests, national life
tends to unity. Thwart the life in its organic tendency to unity, it will either
painfully burst its bands and force for itself unity, or succumb— and then cor-
ruption and decay ensue.
We are in possession of all the conditions of nationality. Physical geogra-
phy lays the foundation. No oceans intersect our broad plateau ; no Alps dis-
sever it; it is one. We have a common language; a religion essentially iden-
tical. The past proves that our material and social interests are common.
Under these conditions our national life came to unity. The colonies tended
to the confederation — the confederacy to a •' more perfect union.''
Let this unity be broken at this stage of our development, the life of the na-
tion will assert itself, and force a new unity, or it will yield, and death must
40
inevitably ensue. History reads us our doom. Examples are too familiar to
be mentioned.
Let ns >>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.
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