LIBRARY OF CONGRESS lUlli 012 026 285 3 4 p6Rmalif6» (^/ ir"^ OF ^ N >,Ais HON. JOSEPH HOLT, OF KENTUCKY, AT mymG hall, new york, SEPTEMBEE 3, 1861. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, NEW YORK. NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM, 532 BEOADWAY OFFICE OF ''THE REBELLION RECORD:' 1861. LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS HIM 012 026 285 3 g At a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, New York, Thursday, September 5th. 1861, it was unanimously Besolced, That the thaial^ of tlie Chamber of Commerce be tendered to the Hon, Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, for }iis eloquent, powerful, and patriotic address, delivered at Irving Hall, on Tuesday evening last. Jiesohed, That he be requested to furnish tho Chamber a copy for publication and for distribution ; and that the Executive Committee be authorized to carry this Kesolu- tion into effect. SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH HOLT AT A MASS MEETING, CALLED BY THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, IN IRVING HALL, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 3, 186L The announcement in the papers September 2d, says a New York contemporary, that the Hon. Joseph Holt, the representative Union man of Kentucky, would address the people of Now York, called to- gether through the rough and howling storm of Tues- day Evenmg the 3d, the largest audience which Irv- ing Hall is capable of containing. Long before the hour for which the meeting was called every seat was occupied, and by eight o'clock every inch of stand- ing room was as hotly contested as the heights to the west of Washington. There was a large number of ladies in the galleries. The arrival of Mr. Holt was the signal for impetu- ous cheering — the whole audience rising, and waving hats and handkerchiefs. He was accompanied upon the platform by Pelatiah Perit, Chas. U. Marshall, John Jay, Peter Cooper, Prosper M. Wetmore, Ros- well C. Hitchcock, S. B. Chittenden, and others of the Chamber of Commerce, at whose solicitation he had consented to speak. Wm. E. Dodge, Esq., called the meeting to order, and nominated Pelatiah Perit chairman of the meet- ing. The nomination was unauimously acceded to. Mk. Perit, on taking the cbair, said : We are assembled this evening, to give a public reception to our distinguished fellow-citizen, the lion. Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, (applause,) who is accidentally with us. Mr. Holt has been drawn to this city by business motives, and had not intended to take any part in any public demonstration ; but he has kindly yield- ed to the solicitations of the committee of the Chamber of Commerce and many distinguished citizens, and honors us with his company this evening. (Applause.) It might be a proper introduction to the proceedings of this evening to advert to a few of those important events which have given special prominence to Mr, Holt before the public at this time. We all of us remember that doleful interval in our his- tory when the Executive Government appeared to be paralyzed ; when the army of the United States, under the ingenious arrangements of Mr. Floyd, had been scattered through remote regions, and was unavailable for any important purpose ; when the best arms of the Govern- ment had been carefully sent to those States which were ripe for secession ; and when the navy of the United States was scattered throughout remote parts of the earth, inacces- sible fo the orders of the Government. It was under these circumstances that Mr. Holt ac- cepted the appointment of Secretary of War, (cheers ;) and I am sure that I do not trans- gress the limits of truth when I say that it was owing to his firmness, and patriotism, and vigor, in a great measure, that our Government was saved from ruin. (Applause.) I am sure that I utter the sentiments of all this large audience, when I say that we owe to Mr. Holt— there are due to him from every patriotic citizen— cor- dial acknowledgments and everlasting gratitude for the services which he has rendered. I have the honor to introduce Mr. Holt to the Assembly. SPEECH OF nOJf. JOSEPH nOLT. Fellow-Citizens :— It is to me a source of boundless rejoicing that the freemen of Ken- tucky are still permitted to call the freemen of New York their fellow-citizens. Traitors with- in and traitors without have striven unceas- ingly to drag that noble Commonwealth from the moorings of her loyalty, and to send her adrift upon that stormy sea of rebellion and treason on which so many of our States are being wrecked, but their seductions and their threatenings have proved alike unavailing. In REBELLION RECORD, 1860-6L i?pite of all their Tiolcnco and of all their treacherous efibrts to rend them asunder, Now York and Kentucky stand this night before the world as sisters. The freemen of Kentucky are still the brethren of the freemen of Iscw York, bound together by the same blessed memories, kindled by the same transporting hopes, and animated by the same lofty, inflexible resolve to maintain the Union of these States, what- ever expenditure of life and of treasure the patriotic struggle may involve. Kentucky has not now, she never has had, the slightest sym- pathy with those conspirators who, at the head of armies and in the mad i>ursuit of power, arc now reddening their hands in a nation's blood. She abliors them as Eome abhorred Catiline, as the American people abhor Benedict Arnold, as Christians abhor the memory of Judas Iscariot. That abhorrence was fully expressed in her recent election ; and yet, in defiance and in contempt of that overwhelming popular de- monstration, the public papers now assure us that the secessionists are actively engaged in machinations to plunge that State into the hor- rors of civil war, simply and solely because she has refused to follow the example of Faust and sell herself to the Devil. If this be true, and, like the political bandits of Mexico and South America, they atrociously insist upon appealing from the popular vote to the sword, and strike the first blow, I predict it will then ai)pear that the Union men of Kentucky, with all their sin- cere love of peace and desire for it, carry bul- lets as well as ballots in their pockets. Fellow-citizens, I wish I had language in which adequately to convey to you my most grateful sense of the warm and cheering recep- tion with which you have honored me to-night, and my sincere thanks to the distinguished chairman of this meeting for the graceful and flattering terms in which he has jjresented me to you. The very slight services which it has been my foilune to render to our common coun- try, and to which he has referred in words of such hearty approval, have no claims to the generous appreciation which they have here and elsewhere received. Had I, with better for- tune, l)een able to accomplish infinitely more, I should only have done my duty ; while I should have been abased in my own esteem, and utterly infamous before the world, had I done any thing less. When I accepted from the Chamber of Com- merce the higlily-prized honor of appearing be- fore you to-night, it was with the distinct un- derstanding tiiat I would not inflict upon you a set political harangue. An elaborate discus- sion of those topics which now so painfully occupy the public mind is not at all necessary before the loyal men of New York. The fear- ful import of current events, and the stern du- ties which these events impose ujjon all who truly love their country, are too well under- stood by yourselves to make it incumbent upon me on this occasion to seek either to explain them or to impress them upon your con- sciences. A few thoughts, however, somewhat in connection with a journey which I have recently made through several of the loyal States, may be properly submitted for your consideration. Everywhere, I have found the most healthful and encouraging condition of the public senti- ment in reference to the prosecution of this war ; nowhere have I met with threatening or bluster, or any feeling of exasperation against the peo- ple of the South, but at every point, a calm yet stern determination to sustain the Government, mingled with a sadness whose depth and ten- derness I should in vain endeavor to describe. Strong and brave men, while speaking to me of our national dissensions and sorrows, have wept, and I honored them for it ; for if a brave man cannot weep over the threatened ruin of such a Government and country as ours, where is there tlie catstrophe, where the tomb that could touch his heart ? Everywhere all seem now to realize that this is not a war upon the peo- ple of the South, but rather in their defence and for their deliverance. If it were indeed waged against them, we might well lay our faces in the dust and confess that our glorious institu- tions are a failure ; but it is waged against a band of conspirators, who, having usurped the government of that distracted portion of our country, have established a military despotism there, and are, in the selfishness and remorse- lessness of their ambition, kindred in guilt to the very Avorst of those profligate men who in other ages and lands have disturbed the repose of nations. The public mind no longer occupies itself with discussions as to the causes of this war, nor wastes its logic in exposing the monstrosi- ties of the doctrine of secession. In the light of current and recent events, we well know what secession was intended to accomplish, and bitterly do we know what it has accom- plished, and we would now no more think of gravely examining its character and tendencies to prove it treasonable, than Ave would think of analyzing the kiss of Judas to show that it was full of the poison of treachery. Equally matured is the public judgment as to the consequences which Avould flow from the success of the rebellion. The providences of God and the most sacred compacts of men have made us one people, and the experience of threc-ciuarters of a century has demonstrated that in this unity of government, of country, and of people consist at once our greatness and our happiness. To dismember these States now, and cast their Avretchcd fragments upon the Avild and bloody torrent of revolution to be- come the prey of every audacious spoiler, would bo as fatal to our repose and freedom as a nation, and to all our hopes of future pros- l)erity, as the severance of our own bodies would be fatal to tlie life that is within us. Equally fixed is the public mind in reference to the character of this war. It is not one of aggression, or conquest, or spoliation, or pas- DOCUMENTS. sion, but, in every light in wliicb it can be re- garded, it is a war of duty. The struggle is in- tensely one for national existence, and so hal- lowed in its spirit and aims that the flock and the pastor, those who worship around, and those who minister at the altar, may contribute alike their blood and treasure in its support, in full assurance, that in so doing, they come up only to the requirements of a Christian and patriotic life. It is a war of duty, because un- der our Christian civilization no nation can commit suicide without the perpetration of a cowardly and infamous crime ; but, morally at least, that nation does commit suicide which surrenders up its life to an enemy from which courage and manhood could have saved it. It is a war of duty, because we have no right to bear our fathers' names and insult their mem- ory by giving up, to be trodden under the feet of traitors, the noble institutions purchased by their blood. It is a war of duty, because we have no right to bestow our names upon our children stripped of that grand inheritance which belongs to them, and for the transmis- sion of which we are but the appointed agents of the illustrious men who won it by the sword and with their lives. It is a war of duty, be- cause, devoted as we profess to be to law and order and to the highest interests of civiliza- tion, it is among our most pressing obligations to rebuke and chastise the daring crime, which, through the Southern rebellion, is being com- mitted, not only against ourselves, but against the very race to which we belong. It is finally a war of duty, because we have assumed to ourselves as a people, the special championship, at once of the right and of the capacity of man for self-government, and that assumption has been accepted by the lovers of freedom every- where; and now, with the nations looking down upon us, as from the seats of some vast amphitheatre, we cannot, without treachery to our trust and complete self-degradation, suffer this sacred and sublime cause to be stricken down upon the battle-fields of the South, and left to perish there amid the jeers and con- tempt of kings and of despots. How often and how exultingly have they prophesied this day, and how have they longed for its coming ! In the essential antagonism of their institutions to ours, and in flieir intense abhorrence of that system of government which gives the honors and fortunes of the world to the toiling mil- lions who are the architects of both, how glad- ly would each one of them to-day build a mon- ument to the skies, provided he could inscribe upon it these words : " In memory of the great Republic of the United States ; founded by Washington, destroyed by Toombs, Twiggs, and Floyd ! " "What a record for humanity would that be ! Fellow-citizens, I do but utter a truth which is now sadly present to all minds, when I say that the disloyalty in our midst, especially at Washington and in the border States, has been a fruitful source of disaster and discouragement since the very commencement of this fearful struggle. This evil has assumed, under the for- bearance of the Government and peojjlc, such startling proportions, that its suppression is everywhere felt to be a paramount duty on the part of the Administration. Its prevalence has been marked by the same treacheries and gross excesses which have been its unfailing character- istics in other ages and countries. Next to the worship of the Father of our spirits, the love of our native land is at once the strongest and the noblest sentiment of which our nature is susceptible. When that sentiment has been corrupted, like an arch from which the key- stone has been withdrawn, the whole moral character seems to tumble into ruins. The public and private profligacy of traitors and spies, both male and female, is vouched for by all history, and indeed has well-nigh grown into a proverb. The man who will betray his country will betray his God ; he will betray his kindred and friends, and, if need be, the wife of his bosom, and the children of his loins. This evil is to be overcome, not by mobs — whose action is for every reason to be deplored — but by the intrepidly exerted authority of the executive branch of the Government, fear- lessly assuming all responsibility, and by the yet more crushing power of public opinion, branding disloyalty as socially and politically infamous, whenever and wherever encounter- ed. The Government can never attain to the moral power required to subdue this rebellion until society, whose corruption and ruin it seeks, shall have the courage within its own circles, and at its own firesides, to denounce and stigmatize treason and traitors as they are denounced and stigmatized by the Constitution and laws. Suppose you lived in one of those cities where there is not only a steam fire en- gine but a paid company to operate it, retained by the corporation, and your house being on fire, and this engine and company vigorously at work to extinguish it, suppose you saw from time to time men creeping out of the crowd and stealthily lotting their knives into the hose from which the water was seen to spout in every direction, upon the street and pave- ments, how long do you think the presence of such miscreants would be tolerated? But sup- pose, upon looking more closely into their faces, you should discover that quite a number of these men were members of the fire company, receiving their salaries from the very treasury to which you yourself had contributed. In the first burst of your indignation, would you not feel that if the wretches were thrown into the flames they were thus indirectly feeding, their punishment would not be too severe ? And yet this has been precisely the condition of the Government of the United States. The hose with which the Administration has been striv- ing to extinguish the fires of this rebellion, has been cut and cut continually by faithless and shameless ingrates living upon the public treas- urv. Vigorous and well-directed measures REBELLION RECORD, 1860-61. have been adopted to purge the Executive De- partments at Washington of these traitorous hose-cutters, and good i)rogress lias been made in the patriotic work. From the manner, how- ever, in wliich information continues to reach tlie enemy, no doubt many of them yet remain, and are daily betraying the hand that feeds them. In this hour of imminent national dan- ger, and threatened calamity, none should be allowed to remain a moment in the public ser- vice whose loyalty is not above all suspicion, and no loyalty can now be trusted which is not open and known of all, and which is not ardent and unceasing in its manifestations. Stringent steps too have been taken in the treatment of spies and men otherwise disloyal outside of the public service, and the country has not only approved but has warmly applauded what has been done. The rebel clamor against the sus- pension of the action of the writ of Habeas Corpus, has not disquieted anybody's nerves. The popular intelligence fully comprehends that the Constitution and laws were established to perpetuate the existence of the Government, and not to serve as instruments for its overthrow by atfurding immunity to crime and perfect freedom of action to traitors. It may be safely assumed and declared that neither the private fortune nor the personal freedom of any man or set of men can be permitted to stand in the way of the safety of a republic upon whose pres- ervation depend the lives, the fortunes, and liberties of more than twenty-six millions of people. The Union nnist be preserved and the rebellion must be sup[)re3sed, and the country will sustain the Administration in the assump- tion and unliesitating exercise of all powers absolutely necessary for the accomplishment of these ends. A large part, however, of the dis- loyal men in our midst are beyond the reach of the observation and vigilance of the Govern- ment, and the correction of the evil must, therefore, largely depend upon the condemna- tion of public opinion. Tlie men who give aid and comfort to the enemy by secretly furnish- ing them information, by advocating their cause, by sowing dissension in our midst, by insidiously discouraging loyal citizens from en- tering the military service, are more fatally the foes of our country than if they were in the ranks of the Confederate army, and they are, morally at least, as guilty of the death of those who fall in defence of the Government as if they had met them with loaded nmskets on the battle-field — and they should be treated accordingly. 1 repeat it emphatically, they should be treated accordingly. In railroad cars, and on steamboats, in every thorough- fare, and in every business and social circle, disloyalty should be reprobated and blasted as a leprous and loatlisome thin.";. When, there- fore, such men offer you their hands, look well to them, and if you have the eyes which I have, you will see that they are stained with the blood of brave and true men — it may bo your kindred and friends — who have perished and are perishing still upon the battle-fields of the South, and you will turn away from them with indignation, scorn, and disgust. There are doubtless men — few in number, I think — who sincerely believe that — the ques- tion of public honor out of view — the Ilepublic could be severed, a peace patched up, and that the two confederacies would live on thereafter as prosperously as before. A more false and fatal thought never crept, serpent-like, into an American bosom, and that man must be utterly unread in human history Avho can entertain it for a moment. You might as well expect that the boat which has been turned adrift above the cataracts of Niagara will have a tranquil voyage. If you will stand, as some of us have done, amid the ruins of the crumbled empires of the old world and ask them, they will all an- swer you, it is a delusion. If you will enter the cemetery of nations, and lay your ear to the sepulchres of those young and brave but pas- sion-led republics which have perished amid the convulsions of civil strife, they will tell you iu accents of brokenness of heart, it is a delusion. But if you will not listen to the voices of the past, go to Mexico and South America, and ask the inhabitants of those bright lands, breathed upon, as they are, by the finest climates of the earth, occupying soils of exhaustless fertility, and living amid rivers and lakes and mountains of grandeur and of inspiration, and lifting up their bowed heads, amid demoralization and poverty and dishonor, they will tell you it is a delusion. I rejoice to believe that the spirit of loyalty dwells at this time richly and abundantly in the popular heart of the North and West. But I do beseech you — you who have so deep a stake in the present and in the future of our country — you men of culture, of fortune, and of moral power — I do implore that by all means possible you will add yet further to the power and to the fervor of that loyalty. If it grows cold amid the calculations of avarice or craven under the discouragements of defeat, our coun- try will be overcome. What the crisis de- mands is a patriotism which will abide the or- deal of fire ; which is purified from all selfish- ness and from all fear ; which is heroic and exhaustless, and which vows with every throb of life, if repulsed, it will rally, if stricken down it will rise again, and that under the pressure of no circumstances of reverse or sor- row or suffering shall the national Hag be aban- doned or the honor of the country be com- l)romised. What we need is a patriotism that rises to a full comprehension of the actual and awful peril in which our institutions are placed, and that is eager to devote every power of body 'and mind and fortune to their deliver- ence— a patriotism, which, obliterating all party lines and entombing all party issues, says to the President of the United States : " Here are our lives and our estates, take them, use them freely, use them boldly, but use them success- fully ; for, looking upon the graves of our fathers, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS I 0i2 026 285 3 l DOCUMENTS. and uj)on tlio cradles of our children, we have sworn that, though all things else should per- ish, this Government shall live." That man who thinks of party organization, and party spoils, and wlio seeks to disti'act and divide tlic public mind with petty questions as to how the Government shall be administered, at a time when the enemy is at the very doors of the Gapital, declaring that there shall be no Gov- ^ ernment, is, in my judgment, false to the first ^ and highest duty of an American citizen. When the children of the republic have been summoned as a band of brothers to battle for its very life, and when the banner of that re- public is floating moux'nfully over tented fields, every wrangling flag of faction or of party that dares lift itself in its presence, should be spurn- ed as a flag of disloyalty, if not of treason. It is such a patriotism as this, and such only, that will conduct you to victory, and I have un- speakable gratification in knowing that it is now being thoroughly awakened throughout the loyal States. The capitalists of the country, risking every thing, have come forward with a grandeur of devotion to the country, which, while it will ex- cite the astonishment of Europe, has already in- spired the admiration and gratitude of every true American heart. AU honor to them. They have proved that if there is much gold in "Wall street, there is yet more i)atriotism there — not a summer patriotism that flourishes amid the pfeans of victory, but a patriotism which strug- gles and sacrifices and sufters, even in the win- ter of adversity and amid the very gloom of national humiliation. Unless the American people can thus feel, there is imminent danger that the sun of our national life, now obscured, will yet go down forever amid storms and darkness. If all our great material interests are depressed and desolated by the shadow now resting upon that sun, what vrould bo our con- dition were that slmdow deepened into the night of permanent defeat? Is there nothing to live for but the gains of our commerce and the embellishment of our estates and homes — nothing but our personal ease and comfort? Are honor and manhood and loyalty and na- tional fame and the respect and homage of the world nothing ? Is it nothing to live without a country and without a flag, without a future for ourselves and our children, and to stand forth the degenerate and abased descendants of a great ancestry? We might indeed abjectly lay_ ourselves in the dust and be stripped by traitor hands of all that ennobles and sweetens human existence, and still live on as do the cattle of the fields ; but our lives would be f\ir more ignoble than theirs. If, with all our vast material resources, and our known and ac- knowledged superiority of physical force over the rebels ; if, with all the profuse avowals of devotion to our institutions which we have so clamorously made, we still suffer this rebellion to triumph over us, I verily believe that the American name will become a stench in the nostrils of the world, and that an American citizen will not be able to walk the streets of a- European Capital without having the finger of scorn pointed at him and Avithout being covered with contumely and derision. If I might be permitted to speak a single word upon such a subject, I would earnestly counsel patience and forbearance in reference to those charged with the administration of the Govern- ment. Before criticizing, we should remember that Ave may not see the whole field of action, and may not therefore be in a condition justly to appreciate the difficulties to bo overcome. No man can doubt the courage or the loyalty of the President of the United States, or his deter- mination to suppress this rebellion. To him, under the Constitution, the public voice has ab- solutely committed the fate of the Republic ; his hands are emphatically your hands, and in weakening him, you necessarily weaken your- selves, and weaken the struggling country we are all laboring to save. He, too, is at this mo- ment overwhelmed with mountains of toil and of responsibility, such as have pressed upon no public man in our history, and ho is fully enti- tled to all the support and consolation which a generous and warm-hearted patriotism can pos- sibly give him. Fellow-citizens, amid all the discouragements that surround us, I have still an unfaltering faith in hmnan progress and in the capacity of man for self-government. I believe that the blood which the true and the heroic lovers of our race have shed upon more than a thousand fields, has borne fruit and that that fruit is the Republic of the United States. It came forth upon the world like the morning sun from his chamber ; its Y)athway has been a pathway of light and glory, and it has poui'ed its blessings upon its people in the brimming fulness with wliich the rivers pour their waters into the sea. I cannot admit to my bosom the crushing thought tliat in the full blaze of the Christian civilization of the nineteenth century such a Government is fated to fall beneath the swords of the guilty men now banded together for its overthrow. I cannot, I Avill not believe that twenty millions of people, cultivated, courage- ous, and loyal — twenty millions of the Anglo- Saxon race — bearing the names of the heroes of the Revolution and passing their lives amid the inspirations of its battle-fields, will ignomi- niously sufter their institutions to be overturned by ten millions, nearly one-half of whom are helpless slaves with fetters on their hands. No page of history so dark and so humiliating as this has yet been written of any portion of the human family, and it Avere far better that the American people should never have been born than that they shoiild live to have such a his- tory written of themselves. The skirts of the loyal States are free from the guilt and Avretchedness of this fratricidal strife. History Avill bear testimony how zeal- ously, hoAv unceasingly, and, I must add, how successfully, the Government of the United 8 REBELLION RECORD, 1860-61. States has striven to protect all the constitu- tional rights and institutions of the South, despite of all tliat the South herself has done and is doing to sacrifice them. The hlows we are now called upon to strike, we will deal standing upon the threshold of our national life, and they will fall upon those who, under the promptings of a maddened amhition, would, with armed hordes, cross that threshold and destroy us. Let us then thoroughly rouse and nerve ourselves to the great work of duty that is before us. If it is to be done well, it should be done quickly. If we Avould spare both blood and treasure, we should move promptly and mightily. "Were it possible at this moment to precipitate the whole physical force of the loyal States as an avalanche upon the South, it would be a measure not only of wisdom and economy, but eminently one of humanity also. Let us have faith and hope and courage, and all will yet be well. Fellow-citizens : I feel that I may have spoken to you with more emphasis and with more earnestness of suggestion than I am privileged to employ in your presence. If I have done so, you Avill forgive the freedom — I know you will — to that terrible conjuncture of public affairs in which it is my fortune to address you. If I had more interest than you have, or less interest than you have, in the tragic events and issues to which we have referred, you might well dis- trust me ; but I have precisely the same. If this Union is dismembered and the Government subverted, the grave of every earthly hope will open at my feet and it will open at your feet also. In the lives of fsimilies and of nations there arise from time to time emergencies of danger which press all their members into the same common council chamber ; and when the tempest is raging at sea, and all nautical skill seems at fault, and the laboring, quivering ves- sel shrieks out from every joint the agony of the conflict, all who are on board — alike the humblest sailor and the obscurest passenger — may rightfully speak, on that great principle of our nature which no human institutions can modify and no human despotism can subdue — the right of self-preservation. Even so, amid the heady currents of this national tragedy, I, but an humble citizen of our distracted and bleeding country, have ventured to lift up to- night the voice of counsel and of entreaty in your hearing. "William Curtis Noyes, Esq., followed Mr. Holt, in a speech of great eloquence and beauty, for which we have space for only a short quo- tation. He said : " And now, Mr. President, 1 have to express my thanks to the honorable gentleman from Kentucky for the eminent pub- lic services which he has rendered — (applause) — not only in behalf of the Chamber of Com- merce, but in behalf of the city of New York, — (cheers) — and I know I may say in behalf of the State of New York. (Applause.) New York gives her hand to Kentucky. [Shakes hands with Mr. Holt amid tremendous cheer- ing.] She will give both hands, with her lieart in it, to Kentucky. (Renewed cheering.) You, sir, found the Government in a condition of great pressure ; you gave it an impetus which brought it out of the rough sea in which it was wallowing. Another republic, at the period of its lowest depression, manfully acknowledged it by placing upon its coins a ship in full sail, under full canvas, knocked down almost in the trough of the sea, and they had for their motto — ' She drifts, none knows whither.' "V\''e drift, we know where, and you are responsible for that drift. (Cheers.) Go on, sir, in your work of patriotism and benevolence ; go through the country and rouse it by the eloquent appeals that you can make, such as we have listened to to-night. (Applause.) Go on, sir, and may God prosper you in it, and you will receive as great a future reward in bringing this country to its right position upon these great questions as the great orator of Athens received when he made his denunciations against Philip of Mace- don. (Loud cheering.) I beg leave to offer in conclusion, sir, this resolution : "Besohed, That the Hon. Joseph Holt, of Ken- tucky, by his unsullied character, in private as well as in public life ; by his unfaltering devo- tion to the Constitution and the Union ; by the prompt and successful measures promoted by him for their defence, and for the protection of the capital when in imminent peril from trai- torous domestic foes ; by his patriotic efforts throughout the country, and especially in his own State, in rallying the people to the support of the national flag and our national integrity, and by his stirring and eloquent appeal on this occasion, has entitled himself to the gratitude of his countrymen and to the admiration of the lovers of freedom and free popular institutions everywhere ; and that the thanks of this as- sembly be, and they are hereby gratefully ten- dered to him." The resolution was received with acclama- tions of applause. After loud and repeated calls, Mr. Holt rose for a moment, and said : " I need not say, fel- loAV-citizens, that if the pulsations of my heart were words, they would tell you what I can never do — how deeply I thank you." (Loud and continued applause.) LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 026 285 3 pH8J