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 ROOEBDINGS 
 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 LOYAL MTIOML LEAGUE 
 
 ooop=»Eir^ iisrsi?ia?xja?3i3. 
 
 FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 20th, 1863, 
 
 i< 
 
 fiPXKCHBS BT 
 
 <Un. COCHRANE, Gen. HAJVIILTO T, Hok. ROSCOE CONK- 
 LTNG, AND Senator FOSTER, OF CONN. 
 
 New ^urk : 
 
 U. S. WESTCOTT Jb CO., PRINTERS, 
 
 70 JoHX Strkkt. 
 
 18C3. 
 
PROCEEDIISTGS 
 
 ORGANIZATION 
 
 LOYAL MTIOML LEAGUE 
 
 OOOIF^EII^L I3SrSTITXJT3El^ 
 
 FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 20th. 1863. 
 
 SPEECHES BY 
 
 Gen. COCHRANE, Gen. HAlNflLTON, Hon. ROSCOE CONK- 
 LING, AND Senator FOSTEll, OF CONN. 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 New forkr 
 
 C. S. WESTCOTT & CO., PRINTERS, 
 79 John Strkkt. 
 
 1863, 
 

CALL OF THE LOYAL MTMAL LEAGUE. 
 
 We, the undersigned, citizens of the United States, hereby associate 
 ourselves under the name and title of the Lotai. National League. 
 
 We pledge ourselves to unconditional loyalty to the government 
 of the United States, to an unwavering support of its efforts to sup- 
 press the rebellion, and to spare no endeavor to maintain unimpaired 
 the National Unity, both in pi'inciple 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 
 maintain the power, glory, and integrity of the nation. 
 
 The signers of the above pledge are respectfully invited to meet 
 together on the evening of Friday, March 20, at the Cooper Insti- 
 tute, to consider plans of organization. 
 
 The rolls outstanding should be sent to the office of the Evening 
 Post before Wednesday night. Tickets will be sent by mail to all 
 who have subscribed their names and residences. Persons desiring to 
 enroll their names can do so by calling at 544 Broadway, adjoining 
 the office of the American Express Company, after 12 o'clock on 
 Tuesday, and from 9 a. m. till 5 p. M. on Wednesday, Thursday, and 
 Friday, when tickets will be fui;^nished to them. 
 
THE NEW VORR LBUIIES. 
 
 IKTTPlOIDXJaTOIi'^r. 
 
 There being some little confusion in the public mind as to the pur- 
 poses and organization of the different Leagues in this city, a slight ac- 
 count of them seems desirable. The constant and concerted efforts of 
 persons of doubtful loyalty to cu-culate disloyal documents and jour- 
 nals among the soldiers and througliout the country having arrested 
 attention, a meeting of gentlemen was called at the hou.-e of Rlr. 
 Charles Butler, on the 14 th of February, to consider what should 
 be done to arrest the attempted demoralization of public sentiment. 
 The meeting resulted in the formation of a Loyal Publication So- 
 ciety, under the presidency of Mr. Charles King, which is now 
 doing good service in the loyal cause. Their headquarters are at 863 
 Broadway. At that meeting there was a strong desire expressed on 
 the part of many gentlemen to organize a League on a broader basis, 
 but the proposition was rejected for two reasons : First, because it 
 was deemed desirable that the Publication Society should be con- 
 fined in its duties ; and secondly, because it was stated that a Union 
 League was then being formed under other auspices. The course of the 
 Union League was then watched with interest, and action was de- 
 layed, although it had been determined to go to the people with a pledge 
 for signatures in order to obtain a popular constituency as the basis 
 of a great National League, until it was understood that the Union 
 League had abandoned the idea of a broad and democratic organiza- 
 tion and was about to foi-m itself into a Union LeaguI': Club, with 
 Mr. Egbert B. IMinturn as chairman. A pledge was then drawn 
 up and put forward as the pledge of the Loyal National League, 
 and exposed for signature at the various public offices and newspaper 
 counters of the city. 
 
6 
 
 On the evening of the 6th, a public meeting was held at the 
 Cooper Institute, which resolved itself into a Loyal League of 
 Union citizens, but it was not considered that this was in any form a 
 League, there having been no bond or pledge signed by any indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 The desire of the people for a broader and more national organiza- 
 tion was clearly shown by the large numbers who besieged the offices 
 for days for a chance to sign the pledge. 
 
 When the rolls had been extensively signed, a mass meeting of the 
 signers was called at the Cooper Institute, to whom over five thou- 
 sand tickets were issued. It is known that as many more names were 
 on record at various points, which had not been surrendered. 
 
 A second public meeting of the Union League op Loyal "Citizens 
 was held, at the Academy of Music, in the interim, called by the 
 managers of the first meeting at the Cooper Institute, and a plan of 
 organization submitted, with General Scott as president. 
 
 This seeming to be merely individual action for the " formation of 
 a society," to use the words of the "originator," Mr. Pkosper M. 
 WetjViore, on the occasion of the meeting at the Cooper Institute, on 
 Friday, March 6, and in no sense a League, it was not thought in 
 any way to interfere with the broad national purpose of the signers 
 of the pledge. The following pages give an account of the mass 
 meeting of the signers and their organization on the 20th March, at 
 the Cooper Institute. 
 
 It is further known that not only have nearly all the wards in the 
 city adopted the title and pledge of this Loyal National League, 
 but that hundreds of associations are forming, not only in this but in 
 every loyal state. Ere long it is believed that most of the Leagues 
 will have adopted this simple, comprehensive pledge and title, and 
 have affiliated themselves together as a true and broad Loyal Na- 
 tional League. 
 
 A Meiviber of the League. 
 
opi a-.A.nsriz.A.Tionsr 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE. 
 
 In accordance with the call of the Loyal National League, the 
 signers of the following pledge assembled at the Cooper Institute on 
 the evening of Friday, March 20 : 
 
 PLEDGE. 
 
 We, the undersigned, citizens of the United States, hereby associate 
 ourselves under the name and title of the Loyal National League. 
 
 We pledge ourselves to unconditional loyalty to the government 
 of the United States, to an unwavering support of its efforts to sup- 
 press the rebellion, and to spare no endeavor to maintain unimpaired 
 the national unity, both in principle and territorial boundary. 
 
 The primaiy object of this League is, and shall be, to bind together 
 all loyal men, of all trades and professions, in a common union to 
 maintain the power, gloiy, and integrity of the nation. 
 
 The meeting being a business meeting, to which admission was 
 given only by tickets distributed to the subscribers to the pledge, the 
 gathering was very quiet and orderly in its assembling. But the soHd 
 masses of the sturdy loyalty of the city steadily marched in until, be- 
 fore the hour of commencement, the large hall was densely filled. 
 
 At eight o'clock an immense roll, handsomely mounted with the 
 national colors, and containing over five thousand names (a part only 
 of the headings having been returned, and several hundred of them 
 being still outstanding), was placed upon the desk in front of the 
 audience and greeted with great applause. 
 
A large and distinguished company gathered upon the platform, con- 
 spicuous among whom were the orators of the evening, General John 
 Cochrane, General A. J. Hamilton, of Texas, Mr. Hoscoe Conkling, 
 and Senator Foster, of Connecticut. 
 
 The audience was called to order by Mr, Charles Butler, with 
 the following remarks : 
 
 speech of mr. charles butler. 
 
 Members of the Loyal National League — Fellow-Citizens : 
 In introducing the business of the evening, instead of giving you 
 thoughts of my own, I propose to read to you an extract of the 
 closing remarks of that great and masterly speech made by Daniel 
 Webster, on the 16th of February, 1833, in reply to Mr. Calhoun, 
 and upon the resolutions submitted by Mr. Calhoun propounding the 
 doctrines of secession. [Cheers.] 
 
 " Mr. President : If the friends of nullification should be able to 
 propagate their opinions and give them practical eifect, they would, 
 in my judgment, prove themselves- the most skilful "architects of 
 ruin," the most effectual extinguishers of high-raised expectation, the 
 greatest blasters of human hopes, that any age has produced. They 
 would stand up to proclaim, in tones which would pierce the ears of 
 half the human race, that the last great experiment of representative 
 government had failed. They would send forth sounds, at the hear- 
 ing of which the doctrine of the divine right of kings would feel, even 
 in its gi-ave, a returning sensation of vitality and resuscitation. Mil- 
 lions of eyes, of those who now feed their inherent love of liberty on 
 the success of the American example, would turn away from behold- 
 ing our dismemberment and find no place on earth whereon to rest 
 their gratified sight. Amid the incantations and orgies of nullifica- 
 tion, secession, disunion, and revolution, would be celebrated the 
 funeral rites of constitutional and republican liberty. 
 
 But, sir, if the government do its duty, if it act with firmness and 
 moderation, these opinions cannot prevail. Be assured, sir, be as- 
 sured that, among the political sentiments of this people, the love of 
 union is still uppermost. They will stand fast by the Constitution, 
 and by those who defend it. I rely on no temporary expedients, on 
 no political combination ; but I rely on the true American feeling, the 
 genuine patriotism of the people, and the imperative decision of the 
 pubhc voice. Di.sorder and confusion, indeed, may arise; scenes of 
 commotion and contest are threatened, and perhaps may come. With 
 my whole heart I pray for the continuance of the domestic peace and 
 quiet of the country. I desire, most ardently, the restoration of 
 
affection and harmony to all its parts. I desire that every citizen of 
 the whole country may look to this government with no other senti- 
 ments than those of grateful respect and attachment. But I cannot 
 yield, even to kind feelings, the cause of the Constitution, the true 
 glory of the country, and tlie great trust which we liold in our hands 
 for succeeding ages. If the Constitution cannot be maintained with- 
 out meeting these scenes of commotion and contest, however unwel- 
 come, they must come. We cannot — we must not — we dare not omit 
 to do that which, in our judgment, the safety of the Union requires. 
 Not regardless of consequences, ive must yet meet consequences ; seeing 
 the hazards which surround the discharge of public duty, it must yet 
 be discharged. For myself, sir, I shun no responsibility justly de- 
 volving upon me, here or elsewhere, in attempting to maintain the 
 cause. I am bound lo it by indissoluble ties of affection and duty, 
 and I shall cheerfully partake in its fortunes and its fate. / am ready 
 to perform my own appropriate part, whenever and wherever the oc- 
 casion may call on me, and to take my chance among those upon 
 whom blows may fall first and fall thickest. I shall exert every 
 faculty I possess in aiding to prevent the Constitution from l)eing 
 nullified, destroyed, or impaired ; and even should I see it fall, I will 
 still, with a voice feeble, perhaps, but earnest as ever issued from hu- 
 man lips, and with fidelity and zeal which nothing shall extinguish, 
 call on the people to come to its rescue." 
 
 Mr. Butler continued as follows : 
 
 While the great statesman, who uttered these prophetic words, 
 sleeps quietly beneath the sod of his own Marshfield, undisturbed by 
 the hellish incantations and orgies of secession, and is happily spared 
 the sight of the attempt to destroy " the constitutional and republican 
 liberty" of his country — it has fallen to the lot of the only son and in- 
 heritor of his name to fall under its blows, which consigned him to a 
 premature, though an honorable grave. He, too, sleeps, by the side of 
 his father. Who of us could then have believed that we should so 
 soon be called upon to make a response to this prophetic voice. Our 
 assemblage this evening is an answer to this voice. We are the people, 
 and we come in answer to this voice to the rescue of our country. 
 Tiiis government is to be saved by the people, and not by the 
 politicians. It is the people, and they only, who can save it, and 
 they will save it. The Union, the whole Union, and nothing but the 
 Union — under the flag of freedom — is their watchword. To give ex- 
 pression and foi-ce to this will of the people, organization is necessary 
 — " Loyal National Leagues" are necessary, and we propose this 
 evening to inaugurate one of this character. To preside over your 
 deliberations as chairman, it is fitting to choose a representative man — 
 one Avho reflects " the true American feeling — the genuine patriotism 
 of the people'" — one who, having achieved for himself honorable fame 
 
10 
 
 in civil and political life, when the first blow was struck against the 
 life of " constitutional and republican liberty" spi'ang to his feet, and 
 ofiered himself a willing sacrifice in their defence. His voice rallied 
 around him an ardent and patriotic band, and he led them forth to 
 battle. Having fulfilled his duty in the field, he has returned to us 
 disabled by his services, but still desirous to serve his country. He is 
 now present, to animate us with his example. I introduce him row 
 to you in the person of Gen. John Cochrane. [Continued and long 
 applause.] 
 
 The question was then put, and Gen. Cochrane was elected by 
 one tremendous aye. 
 
 Mr. Butler nominated Mr. Isaac H. Bailey as Secretary. The 
 nomination was approved of. 
 
 On motion of AVm. E. Dodge, Jr., a Committee was appointed to 
 report a Constitution and By-Laws for the Loyal National 
 League. 
 
 The Chair appointed Messrs. Wm. E. Dodge, Jr., Mudgett, Nelson, 
 Wright, and Mark Hoyt. 
 
 John Austin Stevens, Jr., announced that there was a telegram 
 present from Gen. Sigel. The meeting calling for the reading of it, 
 Mr. Stevens read it as follows : 
 
 " Washington, D. C, March 20, 1863. 
 
 " I cannot be present at the inauguration of the Loyal National 
 League this evening, but I send my best wishes, and request you to 
 enroll my name among its members. 
 
 " I believe that the self-preservation of the North and the preserva- 
 tion of republican principles on this continent, have made this war on 
 the part of the United States government necessary, and that there 
 can be no rest until our arms have triumphantly established the rights 
 of man and the majesty of the law over the whole South. [Cheers.] 
 
 " All the talent and energy, the wealth and resources of the people 
 should be laid on the altar of the nation ; and if the government will 
 employ all these agencies, and trust in men of energy and character, 
 unfettered by petty jealousies, to break the i-anks of the enemy in fivn 
 and at home, this war will be speedily ended. 
 
 " We must have the sharp sword as well as the sharp pen — the 
 strong arm as well as the strong and fearless mind, to help us in this 
 terrible struggle. The people must awaken those who sleep, and stir 
 up those who are creeping along instead of marching onward w^ith 
 self-relying boldness. 
 
 " 1 believe in the Monroe doctrine, in the Butler code [great and 
 long-continued applause, and waving of hats], in the President's 
 
11 
 
 Proclamation [great cheering] in the good will and perseverance of 
 the people [loud applause], in the undaunted courage of our volun- 
 teers [continued cheering], in the final vindication of the honest, the 
 just, and tlie brave [great applause] ; in the lil)eration of the down- 
 trodden and the slave, and in the overthrow and death of the South- 
 ern oligarchy. [Enlhusiatic cheers.] 
 
 " Respectfully, 
 
 "F. SiGEL, 
 
 '• Major-General.'» 
 
 A formal note from Gen. Fremont, acknowledging the receipt of an 
 invitation, was then read amid great applause. 
 
 Mr. Stevens then read a letter from a Committee of a Loyal 
 National League which had been formed in Brooklyn on Wednesday 
 evening, signed by its officers. The letter was received with cheers. 
 
 To the Loyal National League of the City of New York : 
 
 At a meeting of loyal citizens of the city of Brooklyn, held on 
 the 19th of March, 18G3, a Union League was formed, which num- 
 bers already over 500 names. The members of this League cordially 
 indorse the pledge under which you have organized, and are fully re- 
 solved to stand by the government of our country to the last, in its 
 efforts to suppress the present wanton and wicked rebellion. And 
 they heartily join you in holding that men of all parties and profes- 
 sions should waive, for the time, their points of difference, and should 
 unite in sustaining the only government under which the unity and 
 glory of our country can be pi'eserved. 
 
 Stephen M. Gkiswold, 1 
 
 A. B. Hanu, > Committee. 
 
 G. H. ROBEETS, ) 
 
 SPEECH OF GENERAL JOHN COCHRANE. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Loyal National League : I have but few 
 words to address to you to-night. 1 did not come here with the pur- 
 pose of making a speech nor of expatiating at length upon the great 
 objects which fill your hearts and occupy your minds ; for with an- 
 other who has been immortalized by the dramatic muse, I say, 
 
 " Kude am I in my speech, 
 And little blessed with the, set phrase of peace. 
 
 ******** 
 
 And little of this great world can I speak, 
 More than pertains to feats of broil and battle." 
 
12 
 
 But wherever throughout this whole land, I look upon my assem- 
 bled fellow-citizens, the great civic army of peace, my thoughts revert 
 with constancy to that faithful band that in front of yonder enemy 
 submits to every inclemency, yields to no defeat, but in every event un- 
 der every circumstance, with bosom armed in the panoply of patriot- 
 ism, offers itself a sacrifice to the safety and unity of the country. 
 [Applause.] I speak to you of the soldier in arms. [Renewed ap- 
 plause.] I speak to you of his stern endurance, of his anxious solici- 
 tude, of his efforts, of his perils, and of his death, for the comforts 
 which you enjoy. I speak to you of men who have here banded 
 themselves frequently in array against each other — partisans of differ- 
 ent political principles and creeds — and yet who, united slioulder to 
 shoulder, under one flag and with flashing bayonets know no division, 
 no party rallying ciy but the great cry of their country, " Save, or 
 we are lost." [Applause.] Nay, nay, when the battle has been 
 waged , and their ranks set in array, no question has been made by 
 soldier of his comrade, " What were you in your civil lists V but with 
 the sternness of war and with the determination for victory, demo- 
 crat and republican, abolitionist, emancipationist, all Americans have 
 advanced under the one slogan — " The victory shall be ours and the 
 rebellion shall be crushed." [Great applause.] And if more were 
 necessary to teach to us the folly, the wickedness of division when 
 our country is in extremity-;-if anything in addition should be 
 required here to-night to explain why all should be sacrirtced of 
 personal and [)olitical division and contest upon the common altar of 
 our suftering country, I would invoke the pi'esiding spirit of that great 
 man departed from among us, but whose words have reached u.s here 
 to-night upon the breeze, the spirit of the great Webster, seated 
 where party prevails no longer, teaching Americans that as Americans 
 only can they maintain the American government in its integrity. 
 [Cheers.] The voices of the dead proclaim the great truth to the 
 living. They who preceded us, the fathers as well as the commenta- 
 tors upon their works, announce that there can be no successful ac- 
 tion save in unity, save in the accord of sentiment and unanimity of 
 mind. It must be now as it ever has been, that a great people, strik- 
 ing for the great truths which control government and influence the 
 destinies of a race, must advance in the cause which they have adopt- 
 ed with a united front. [Applause.] 
 
 Then, members of this Loyal National League, I speak to you to- 
 night, not as members of political parties, not as those in whose minds 
 even the reminiscence of political divisions is present, but as those 
 forgetting or ignoring the long and dreary past that we may at length 
 reach a bright, a brilliant future ; I speak to you that with united 
 mind and honest heart, nerved with vigorous strength, you lay down 
 at your feet and trample in the dust those who encourage political 
 divisions as demagogues and traitors [applause], and that with one 
 common effort we may declare that this people is and shall be a united, 
 independent, and integral people. [Renewed applause.] 
 
13 
 
 Mucli has been said heretofore by our friends respecting the con- 
 duct of the people in this great contest, as presenting great encourage- 
 ment to ourselves that there is a great reaction throughout this land. 
 A reaction ? A reaction toward what and from what? From the 
 causes and principles of rebellion to the principles and virtues of a com- 
 mon loyalty, a reaction from demolition and revolt to loyalism and in- 
 tegrity. Far from it. My friends, there has been no reaction. 'The 
 reaction is in the mind of the lukewarm, of the doubting. Tlie great 
 heart of the people, from the earliest initiation, from the first original 
 moment of this rebellion, has been right. [Applause.] Never, never 
 was it wrong. The people have understood this far better tlian the 
 politicians and the statesmen, for the people have thought with their 
 hearts, while politicians have speculated and combined with their 
 minds [cheers], and from the first moment of this controversy, my 
 word for it, had the true measure been adopted, that of suppressing 
 the rebellion, and securing to us the victory, the people would have 
 risen m tnasse, the country over, to maintain it. [Applause.] What ! 
 Educate the people to resistance to rebellion ! Nay ; it has been the 
 people vv^ho have educated the administration to resistance. [Ap- 
 plause.] There has been no reaction. A singular combination of cir- 
 cumstances induced a certain set of lukewarm, doubtful gentlemen, to 
 suppose that the quietude of the people meant doubt in regard to the 
 issues and the character of this controversy ; but, as they glided from 
 their holes the honesty of the people who had been surprised placed 
 its heel upon the head and the snake was destroyed. [Applause.] 
 The people stand where they ever stood, firm, true, and honest, by their 
 country, and their whole country. 
 
 A war precipitated upon us by a rebellion significant of what ? 
 Significant of a revolt of simply a state? A civil war to redress 
 an asserted or proclaimed grievance ? Nay, nay ; but a determi- 
 nation on the part of a whole section and region of country 
 to shake off the yoke of a government, to proclaim independ- 
 ence to itself, to disturb the course of kiw, to avert the current of 
 commerce, to set at naught the institutions of America, to deny her 
 laws and all allegiance to the great pi'inciples of free and independent 
 government. It is something more than rebellion ; it is something 
 more than civil war. It is a contest precipitated by rebels and in 
 which we are engaged for the great rights of humanity and of man- 
 kind. [Applause ] From its very nature it knows no compromise. 
 [Applause.] From its very coui'se it cannot be settled. There is no 
 way out except the way through. [Loud applause.] There is no argu- 
 ment but the bayonet ; there is no voice that will convey reason to those 
 in arms against us buttheexjdosion of the ordnance in the field. [Ap- 
 plause.] When our armies have reached yonder gulf : when our soldiers 
 shall reside at home in the palaces of the Palmetto rebels, when 
 Yankee Doodle shall be the note proclaimed throughout the savanoahs 
 of the South [renewed applause], and the down-trodden wooden nut- 
 
14 
 
 meg peddlir.g Jonathan shall be the lord of Southern manors [re- 
 newed cheers] — then, and not- till then, will the war be ended. [Loud 
 cheers ; " John, you're right !"] 
 
 Compromise ! compromise what, and with whom ? Do you not know 
 that when the majority of the misled people of the South were Union 
 men and were anxious that this government should be preserved, their 
 political leaders were able in the face of the efforts of conservative' men, 
 as they proclaimed themselves, and honestly then, too, to carry those 
 states out of this Union, without armies, without experiment, in doubt, 
 in gloom ; those men, heedless of the ruin they would cause, carried 
 that country in the face of this government to arms ; and do you sup- 
 pose that they, having now no divided body in their rear, carrying 
 with them a united South, and having an experience of over eighteen 
 months of, if not successful, at least equal war, will now consent to 
 compromise and accept the terms they imperiously rejected at first ? 
 No ! no ! it is not that only, it is that they scorn, contemn, and de- 
 spise the pedling Yankee ; they hate and spit upon the flag, which 
 they sneeringly term a rag, and exclaim, that should separation per- 
 chance ensue, they would hold intercourse with us, but they would 
 do so holding their noses the while. [Laughter.] 
 
 Is there a man here who will accept the issue from these men at the 
 South that they will not live with us? [" No !" " No !"] No, the issue 
 is whether we will live with them [applause], and that issue is now in 
 process of determination. It is being determined and adjusted by yon- 
 der armies in the field. It is being determined by these armies at the 
 North. Give me but a united people, a devoted people, knowing their 
 rights, and determined to maintain them, and I will venture their cause 
 against every eai'thly power that time can place against it. [Loud 
 applause.] 
 
 It may be sooner, it may be later, but the determination is fixed and 
 unaiterabie, either now or hereafter, that the time will come when this 
 government shall be I'eunited, and that the stars and stripes shall once 
 more float over a great, united and happy people. [Cheers.] Fellow- 
 citizens, members of this Loyal National League, I well recollect the 
 time when to utter the sentiment that a people at war with its enemies 
 should use every means of victory over its enemies, was pronounced to be 
 Abolitionism — EmanciiJation — and when no person could speak even in 
 bated breath of the propriety of employing those means, forsooth, with- 
 out being met with the stigma of political disgrace, and being im- 
 pressed into the ranks of a despised class of fanatics. Why there 
 was a time when you dared not even proclaim to the country, so pe- 
 culiarly sensitive were the nerves of our politicians, that a black mule 
 should be used against the enemy, much less a black man. [Laughter 
 and applause.] But now the countiy is opening its eyes to the facts, 
 announces what it always believed, what the masses always adjudged 
 and Jinew to be true, that if we are to secure victory, the policy of 
 victory muct be adopted ; [loud applause ;] if we would destroy our 
 
15 
 
 enemies, we should adopt every means of weakening his and aug- 
 ment!: 12 our strength. [Applause] 
 
 Well, how stands the case. Let me give you a few figures, they will 
 not detain you long, they are as interesting as troops on this occasion, 
 they are from our census of 1860, prepared by a slvilful hand ; I give 
 you tlie results : There are in the Northern States, or the Loyal States 
 of the Union, by the last census 4,000,000 of whites between the oges 
 of 18 and 45. There are in the disloyal regions of the South 1,300,000 
 whites between the ages of 18 and 45. Thus you perceive we are a little 
 more than tlu-ee to one. Could we conquer, could we subjugate them 
 even Avith that proportion of men in our favor ? It may be that we 
 could, but it would be exti'emely doubtful. You have yet in their own 
 fastnesses a multitude of allies, and those allies are the blacks. Those 
 blacks, slaves within those disloyal States, number 3,500,000, of which 
 some 2,000,000 are plantation laborers, mechanics and artisans, and 
 there are some 300,000 of those 2,000,000 that are domestic slaves, leav- 
 ing 1,700,000 who are employed to subsist the 1,300,000 white armed 
 warriors. These blacks, men and women, are actively engaged every 
 moment of the day in procuring the means of subsistence, for energi- 
 zing the armies of the South. Thus there are in the aggregate three 
 millions of people, white and black, at the South against four mil- 
 lions at the North. Could we conquer them by any such proportion 1 
 No ; there is no instance in history — there is no ground for belief 
 in any rational mind, that with such proportions between the North 
 and the South, victory would perch upon our banners in such a strug- 
 gle. What then? We must resort to the only means to be employed 
 in such a cause, and those means, I am happy to say, are at length 
 determined upon and being adopted. In such a position, and upon 
 such a statement — and upon that statement it is that we elucidate 
 the cogency of the position — we are brought to the conviction that 
 the duty of the armies of the United States at the present moment 
 is to declai-e that the war must be brought speedily to a successful con- 
 clusion. Say that we have 4,000,000 of whites at tlie North, add to 
 them 1,700,000 blacks at the South and you have 5,700,000 engaged 
 in this war for the Union, and a very large proportion of this number 
 engaged in the enemy's country, — familiar with its fastnesses — men 
 who of all others would be most valuable to us as adjuncts, most use- 
 ful as auxiliaries. Add the blacks to our side and you reduce tiie 
 force of the South to 1,300,000. Then we would stand relatively 
 the North to the South as 5| to Ij or as 9 to 2. In that proportion 
 success lies with us. [Applause.] 
 
 It is only when you have invoked the aid of that portion of the 
 Southern strength which is disaffected towards the rebellion, and 
 which is able and willing to war for free institutions, that you can 
 deal the rebellion a fatal blow and achieve success in favor of 
 free institutions. [Cheers.] There was a time when even this 
 statement was received with doubt. But that time has passed. 
 
16 
 
 Our armies accept the truth, our citizens receive its strength ; 
 and united on that point, there will be a cogency in their united 
 application, and a vigorous action in their onward stride, which 
 will teach mankind, and the world on the other side of the Atlantic, 
 that the American people have determined to finish and conclude the 
 war which rebellion has thrust upon them. [Applause.] I have oc- 
 cupied your attention longer than I intended, and I propose now to 
 give way to speakers who have been invited to address you this even- 
 ing. They will engage your attention and will speak of attairs at 
 length. There are those from other quarters, the far Southern tropics, 
 who will speak to you of affairs peculiar to their own firesides, and 
 they will address you also upon your own position, and I am sure from 
 what you will learn and hear this evening, that you, as members of 
 the LoYAT, National League, will be prepared from this time through 
 its organization to teach the world that the American people are in 
 earnest. [Loud applause.] 
 
 [music] 
 
 The President : I have to announce to the meeting that I hold 
 in my hand a roll that has just been presented, containing the names 
 of 1,700 policemen, who have joined the Loyal National League. 
 [Long and loud applause.] I think, fellow-members, we may say, 
 after this, that order reigns in Warsaw ! [Applause.] 
 
 An old gentleman in the audience : 
 
 Is there any difference between this League and the one organized 
 at the Academy of Music ? 
 
 The President : If there is a difference, it is not understood by 
 the Chair. 
 
 The Old Gentleman : I think there is a misunderstanding. 
 
 The President : There may be a misunderstanding, hut there is 
 no difference ; and these misunderstandings, when we are all united 
 in one common purpose, ai'e but additional incentives to energetic 
 action. [Applause.] 
 
 Mr. William E. Dodge, Jr., chairman of the committee to report 
 By-Laws, submitted a series of By-Laws, and a resolution on ward 
 organization. 
 
 (For By-Laws and Resolution, see the Appendix.) 
 
 The Old Gentleman : I wish to make a slight alteration. The 
 nomination of a " central committee, to be approved by this society." 
 
 The President stated that such a committee was contemplated. 
 
 The question was then put, and the By-Laws and Resolution were 
 carried by acclamation. [Great applause.] 
 
17 
 
 Gentlemen, I have now not only the honor, but the great pleasure, 
 to present to you a gentleman you have often heard ; a gentleman 
 whom I have often seen, and taken by the hand. I have stood by 
 him in many a stern struggle in the House of Representatives. He 
 was always a true, tried, steadfast, Southern Democrat. He stands 
 before you to-night almost an isolated man. He has parted from his 
 family ; the last, and almost the only news he has had from them 
 being that, as those troops who were surrendered at the South, 
 through the treason of General Twiggs, were on their return to the 
 North by exchange, passed by his family mansion, his little ones ran 
 out, and, notmthstanding the disloyal sentiments of the vicinity, they, 
 with the spirit of their sire, gave three cheers for the Union. [Great 
 applause. " Good."] The virtues which they inherited, and thus 
 expressed, are still radiant in the heart of that father, and he is here 
 as a fother, to speak to you as fathers to-night, upon the great cause 
 of the Union. I introduce to you General Hamilton, of Texas. 
 [Loud and long-continued applause.] 
 
 speech of brigadier-general a. j. hamilton, of texas. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Loyal National 
 League : Had 1 been disposed to deal justlv by myself, I surely 
 would not have been pi-esent ou tliis occasion. It is not often 
 I have been under the necessity of making apologies in advance 
 of the humble elForts I have from time to time made in this 
 great cause ; but recent indisposition of a severe character, ad- 
 monishes me that I am not able this evening to meet your just 
 expectations ; nevertheless, in obedience to the wishes of friends, 
 I am hei-e to bear testimony still to what 1 deem the principles upon 
 which this government ought to prosecute this war to successful con- 
 clusion. And I cannot better do that than by endorsing every word 
 my friend — as I may be permitted so to call him — and your President, 
 has so eloquently uttered in your hearing this evening. [Applause.] If 
 I make any change at all, it would not be by detracting from any sug- 
 gestion he has made, or from any of the principles he has urged in your 
 hearing ; but it would be, had I the capacity, by adding immeasurably to 
 the suggestions he has made, if by so doing I could infuse vigor into the 
 public arm. The purpose, I presume, of this great assemblage, is to 
 ratify and endorse the object of this League. I suppose this is a part 
 of the record of tiiat League which I see before me [pointing to the Korx 
 on the speaker's desk, handsomely mounted with the national colors]. 
 I know not how many names it may contain ; but. judging from the 
 size of the roll, it contains names enough, if mustered into an army, 
 to redeem my State [Applause] ; and if the men who signed it have 
 hearts as ready and wilUng as their hands, they would redeem it if arms 
 were placed in their hands. [Renewed applause.] I understand the 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 object of the signers of this pledge of the Loyal National League, to 
 be to declare the unalterable determination of every one who there puts 
 his name to stand by the government in its efforts to suppress the rebel- 
 lion. [Cheers.] What are those efforts to be '? To levy armies, as 
 a mattei- of course, to furnish the means to arm and equip the sol- 
 diers raised, to put them in the field and to sustain them while thei-e. 
 Unquestionably all will agree to this. I mean every loyal man ; for, 
 unfortunately, every man in this part of the country, I understand, 
 will not go that far. Some people this way think that the best way to 
 put down and suppress a rebellion is to cease fighting rebels. [Cries of 
 " Brooks."] It is further, I imagine, the purpose of those who join 
 this League to sustain the Congress of the United States in the meas- 
 ures that have been adopted in its wisdom to give power to the Exec- 
 utive and to the officers of his army. [Loud cheers.] I understand it is 
 the determinalion of all who sign this pledge and thereby become mem- 
 bers of the League, no longer to carp about this being a war against the 
 institution of slavery [great applause], or to urge the government to 
 ■withdraw from the country a part of v/hat ought to be its just sup- 
 port in putting down this rebellion. 
 
 It is strange to my mind, and has ever been strange, when con- 
 sidering it, how any man in the land who really is capable of 
 reading the current events of the day, and who is willing to 
 admit, what the truthful pen of history will record, in what 
 way and for what purpose the rebellion sprang up in our midst, 
 how any man can find it in his heart to withdraw, even tempo- 
 rarily, his support fi'om the government because it has at last deter- 
 mined to strike down the thing which has attacked the integrity of 
 the government [loud cheers], and to talk about the monstrosity of 
 this administration and the government making war upon slavery. 
 [Great applause.] What was it, pray tell me, you that carp, what 
 was it that made war upon the government ? [Cheers. " That's it." 
 " That's the question."] What institution, or pretended interest 
 growing out of any institution, was made the pretext and the real 
 cause of this war ? I say the pretext, because I say what I have often 
 said, it was not because of any oppression on the part of the people of 
 the non-slaveholding States upon the interests of slave owners of the 
 South, that the rebellion was had , but slavery was nevertheless the 
 cause. It was the cause in more senses than one. It was the cause, 
 first, because its tendency had been to make the owners of that prop- 
 erty arrogant. It made them desire to be the lords of this country. 
 [" That is so."] It made them determined, in their bigotry of heart, 
 that they would rule the countiy [" They shall not"], or else they would 
 ruin it and build up another government. [" They cannot."] It was 
 for this cause, secondly, that they induced many innocent and igno- 
 rant people in the South to believe that the South had been greatly 
 wronged because of her interest in this institution, and that you in- 
 tended to destroy it ; and many were thus led to participate, not 
 
19 
 
 knowing the real (.lesign of the conspirator.^, not knowing that it had 
 been smouldering in the hearts of the leaders of tliis rebellion for the 
 last thirty years, who for that long period had been watching the fa- 
 vorable moment, adding to their strength, ditFusing the programme, 
 and in the language of Mr. Yanoky, one of its great apostles, " firing 
 the Southern heart," all the time on a mere pretext, and waiting a 
 favorable moment, to precipitate the cotton States into rebellion. I 
 say. with all my heart, with all my soul and mind, that I do not even 
 regret the necessity of crushing slaveiy in putting down tliis rebellion. 
 [Great applause.] I did not wait for the Pre.-<ident's Proclamation 
 to take my po.sition. I said the veiy moment the viciousness, the 
 ^^^ckedness, the unheard-of monstrosity of men, in the face of society 
 and under the l)lessings of such a government as this, brought them to 
 lift their hands in rebellion against it, and put forward slaveiy as the 
 pretext or the cause — that moment my mind was unalterably fixed 
 against the institution forever. [Loud cheers.] Suppose you could 
 re-establish the Union by putting down rebellion and pre.sei-ving slaveiy. 
 Do you believe you could make slaveholders love you more than they 
 love you now?. ["No, never!"] Do you believe you can make 
 them less confident of preserving the institution in all future time than 
 they were before the rebellion, after they have seen that you have not 
 the moral and physical power to crush the cause, together with the 
 rebellion ? And, if you could believe both these things, I might ask 
 if you believe it within the range of possibility that the loyal men of 
 the South, who have suffered so much from this rebellion, can ever' 
 live at peace with these devils who have undertaken to ruin them and 
 you? [Loud applause. " No, no."] If not, then da you love reb- 
 els and traitors more than you do loyal men? [" No, no."] Pre- 
 serve the one and destroy the other, take your choice ! [Loud cheers.] 
 I must not and will not refer to myself, but I will refer to neighbors 
 and friends, those who are yet living (for many have died), who are in 
 Mexico or in the mountains and fastnesses of western Texas, 
 hiding like wolves in the caves of the country, or scattered exiles 
 through the loyal land. How are they to return and live in the bo- 
 som of these slave-owners, restored to their constitutional rights if 
 they have any left. How will they endure those institutions in favor 
 of which, and in deference to which, all the people of the South have 
 been compelled to bow down as worshippers for the last ten years? 
 I assert in your presence to-night, what every man of rcsj)ectable rep- 
 utation knows who has ever placed his foot on Southern soil, that 
 long before this rebellion commenced slavery had undermined free 
 government in the South. [*' That's so."] I say in your presence 
 that for what George Washington left upon record when he died, for 
 what .Jefferson wrote and labored to achieve, for what any one of the 
 great fathers of our government believed, for what my father spoke 
 and all of his neighbors spoke thirty years ago, that same "Washington 
 any time within the last ten years, for uttering in the South, would have 
 
20 
 
 been hanged as high as Haman. [" That's so."] I speak what I do 
 know when I tell you that more than two hundred and fifty accord- 
 ing to their own record, of your free people who had gone down to 
 populate our state were hanged in 1860, pending the presidential elec- 
 tion, because they were stispected of not being more loyal to slavery 
 than they were to their government, and four thousand others, men, 
 women, and children, were driven out. Are you to be told for the 
 lirst time here to-night that your fair females, educated at your schools 
 to teach our daugliters have been driven out after suffering every sort 
 of ill treatment too gross to be mentioned in this presence, and ex- 
 pelled from the country, and your male friends hung by hundreds in 
 the South ; yet men will talk about preserving the institution of slavery 
 from which these things sprung, even after it has dared to lay its 
 hands upon the altar erected by Washington and his companions, and 
 has attempted to tear down the temple of liberty itself. [Loud 
 cheers.] I say that, in my judgment, it is one of the mercies of God's 
 providence, if this rebellion was to take place, that its result (perhaps 
 it was the only means by which this result might be reached, and 
 therefore, it was a moral necessity) must be the total extinction of 
 the accursed institution. [Applause.] You may say, and I have 
 heard it said, " This man speaks through his resentment ; he has 
 grown to be an Abolitionist !" It is true, fellow-citizens. [Loud 
 applause.] I sprang at once living to my feet, an Aboliiionist, the 
 very moment this rebellion began. [Immense applause. " Good ! 
 good!"] I hate the institution. [Renewed applause.] You may 
 ask why do I hate slavery and love my government ? Because I 
 never received auglit but blessings from that government. I never 
 received ill-treatment from it. I have been the recipient of its bles- 
 sings since I was a child. Have I ever received protection from sla- 
 very ? What has it done for me ? Because I would not assist in rob- 
 bing you of a good government it has robbed me of a home, and my 
 wife and children are captives to rebellion ! Ought I to love 
 it? ["No, no."] Or to talk for it? ["No, no."] Or to feel 
 for it? ["No, no."] Or ought I not rather to consecrate the 
 remainder of my life to waging uncompromising war against it? 
 [Great applause. "Yes, yes."] 
 
 And what, fellow-citizens, after all, are you to gain by restoring the 
 government with that institution ? If you restore that institution which 
 is the cause of the rebellion, which is part and parcel of it, and from 
 which you can never separate it ; you must restore those who are inter- 
 ested in it to the great bosom of the national family. I have heard it 
 said recently that in high places it has been suggested that it would be 
 a pleasant sight to see Jeff. Davis and his compeers return to the Uni- 
 ted States Senate. ["Never." "Never." " Hang him."] I do not 
 know how far I may go without wronging my own heart or this great 
 cause, but I could almost find it in my heart to say that, if those are 
 the terms upon which restoration of the government and salvation to 
 
21 
 
 the country are to be had, then let all perish in one common ruin ! 
 [Loud applause.] A nation can never restore to its councils such 
 men without sinking its honor forever. What ! will you restore the 
 men whose arras are red to their shouldei-s with the blood of your cliil- 
 dren, your neighbors, your friends, who would consign you all this 
 night to degradation, misery, and want; who would exterminate the 
 last man, woman, and child, in the loyal states in order to succeed in 
 this hellish rebellion ? The men whose congress passes a resolution 
 every sixth day declaring that they will never live in political fellow- 
 ship with you, who scorn and despise you, and declare they will ac- 
 cept no terms except unconditional recognition of their independence, not 
 only of all the states in'rebellion, but that they will have also Kentucky, 
 Maryland, and Missouri, and all of Virginia. [" Never." " Never."] 
 Now they have told you this, yet men talk about inviting these men back 
 to the Senate of the United States. [" Never." " Hang them first."] 
 They have no constitutional rights, they have no legal rights, but from 
 their conduct those rights may somewhat have changed. They had 
 once the right to be in the Senate Chamber, and to protection of their 
 property by this government ; but, by their rebellion and resistance to 
 the constituted authorities of the government, they have forfeited all 
 such rights as these, and they now have the right — if they can be 
 caught, tried, .and convicted, as they ought to be, and no doubt will 
 be — to be executed for their offence. [Loud cheers.] But it is, for- 
 sooth, a terrible thing to talk about, first of taking away all their ne- 
 groes, then of employing their negroes against them. Well, it does seem 
 to me, fellow-citizens, that if an assassin were to make an attack on 
 me, not suspecting any foul intention on his part, and he had a dagger 
 at my throat and I in the struggle could get possession of it, I would 
 not exactly restore it to him [laughter and loud cheers], and I would not 
 be particular about how I used it upon him, [Renewed laughter and 
 cheers.] 
 
 This government, as you know, was attacked, and is working 
 to crush out this rebellion, and is it not a shame that men at this 
 day will talk about the wickedness of this government making war 
 upon the South ! Now some men, of exceedingly small head [" Cop- 
 perheads"] and smaller heart, may receive plaudits ior uttering such 
 a falsehood ; but they must know, if they will take a second thought, 
 that all histoiy will record it to be afoul lie and slander. [Applause. 
 "Good." "Good."] This government never invited war on the 
 part of the South, but it waited until your national capital, within 
 ten hours of your great city, was seriously threatened, and was well 
 nigh being lost. I will say to your honorable president here to- 
 night, that when I parted from him and Washington, a day or twS 
 after the inauguration of the President of the United States, I passed 
 through no hamlet, village, town, or city, at the South, that did not 
 already swarm with soldiers mustering and preparing for an attack on 
 the government. And do you remember that the first Secretary of 
 
22 
 
 War in Mr. Davis's regime, Mr. Pope Walker, declared in a speech 
 in Montgomery, Ala., long before the first shot was fired, that within 
 a given time they would have the national capital. It was an open 
 boast at the South, and they really believed it. They believed they 
 had so managed, through the agencies they had been able to employ 
 in high places, that they had secured the power and they intended to 
 use it. I will not mention names, because that would be rude, on 
 this occasion, and I know none of your minds will revert to Governor 
 Floyd, of Virginia, or anybody like him. [Loud laughter and cheers.] 
 But it was Fo. And yet men here talk about their constitutional 
 rights, and that they have property in the South, about which prop- 
 erty, you having disputed it, they intend to tear do^\^l the govern- 
 ment and make another, this same species of property being the 
 corner-stone of the new government. But when you, for the preserva- 
 tion of your govei'nment, resist the aggressive war made upon you, 
 when you attempt to put down the rebellion and to preserve your 
 government, you are doing a most cruel, unjust and unconstitutional 
 thing. I sujipose these gentlemen imagine that the object in framing 
 the Constitution was to see how long a government could exist with- 
 out having power to protect itself against enemies without or within. 
 [Laughter.] A common, fiippant remark of the rebels was that the 
 government was a failure, because it was not possessed of inherent 
 strength. But I have said to them on many occasions, as I say to 
 you to-night, that in my judgment they will find, before they get 
 through with it, that this government is strong enough for common 
 use. [Applause.] It has just the same omnipotent power that any 
 other government under heaven has to protect itself from its enemies 
 without and within. It was intended to have that power. The 
 Constitution conferred upon the President, and made it his sworn duty, 
 to suppress insurrection and to repel invasion ; and it placed him at 
 the head of its army and its navy that he might employ the Avhole 
 force of the country, if necessary, to accomplish that great object. 
 Nobody ever dreamed, until those teachings through which secession 
 grew to be popular, that it had not power to accomplish everything it 
 desired for these great ends. But it has been discovered that the 
 government, surrounded as it has been by enemies, molested by the 
 sympathy abroad for the treason at home, from day to day surrounded 
 with difficulties new and hitherto untried by the government, may 
 make now and then a mistake. It may have made the mistake of 
 arresting some men who had not said as much as they ought to have 
 said to convince their neighbors of their loyalty — for I do believe 
 every man ought so to speak out, that if not at heart a traitor he 
 shall not be suspected [applause] — such men may have been pounced 
 upon by the government and put in durance vile for a few days, 
 until the government thought it had strength enough to allow such 
 reptiles to go at large. And then the Avhole brood of small fry poli- 
 ticians have raised the cry, " Whj this is the most tyrannical govern- 
 
23 
 
 nient under heaven." With a million traitors in arms against it, and 
 a third as many more at home going about claiming that it is an un- 
 holy war ! Now and then the government arrests a reptile, not for 
 the purpose of executing, but of confining him, and the cry is raised 
 that it is a tyranny too gi'cat to be borne, and the people are called 
 upon to resist it. Why, genthinen, the very fact that you hear men 
 gouig about in such a condition of things as now exists, proclaiming 
 such senlinu'nts, is the best evidence under heaven that they lie. [Ap- 
 plause.] If tills had really been a tyranny, a thousand such heads 
 would have rolled from the block before now. There is no other gov- 
 ernment beneath the heavens that would tolerate such treason, for 
 that is the name by which to call such disloyalty. It may not be 
 treason in the first grades, to be punished capitally as tre.ison, but 
 it is quasi-treason. It is time that men should cease talking in that 
 way. Every man knows it is a he. The government may make a 
 thousand mistakes, but it is not despotic. A few weeks ago the Sec- 
 retary of War said to me in reply to some remarks about such lan- 
 guage, "That is nothing new ; it happens in this city every day." 
 The reply I made was, " If that be true, all I have to say is that 
 somebody, I don't know who it is, does not do his duty." [Applause.] 
 If even in the national capital, and in the very halls of the national 
 Congress, such sentiments of qualified treason can be uttered, and if 
 the officers of the government, knowing it, allow such men to go at 
 large day by day, I say it is a proof that it is not a despotic govern- 
 ment, but the contrary. This government has borne more from its 
 pretended friends than it has had to contend with from open enemies. 
 The time is coming, and I am heartily glad to sec this great people 
 waking up to the determination, when, whatever our thoughts or sen- 
 timents may have been with regard to the policy of the country, we 
 will come together and act together for its preservation. It is due to 
 you to do this. The truth is that you must repose on yourselves. 
 You have been truthfully told to-night that it is not a returning sense 
 of fidelity to the government, but a returning sense of your duty 
 under the fidelity you have always felt. It may have been latent in 
 the bottom of your hearts, but every man who belongs to this Loyal 
 National League has always regarded himself as a loyal man, and 
 has always loved his government. He may for a time have been luke- 
 warm in the cause ; he may not have felt that he could have given them 
 the active and cordial support that was due from every citizen ; but 
 now, having maturely considered, he has at last arrived at the convic- 
 tion that there is but one path of safety, but one path of duty, and 
 that is to lend his whole heart to the cause of the govertuncnt, to 
 sustain it in all its constitutional relations, and bring together a 
 mass of public sentiment which will sweep away every man (hat op- 
 poses it. [Applause.] And even if there be men in high places 
 who, for their own selfish promotion, have been engaged in wily 
 diplomacy to defeat for a time the success of one man in the 
 
24 
 
 public service, engaged faithfully in one quarter of the country, 
 and if there be those with similar purpose checkmating another 
 man in the performance of his duty, let them learn a lesson from 
 the history of the past. Let them remember that the people of 
 this great country, " thinking with their heart," Avill instinctively 
 know the men who do their duty and will reward them too. 
 We know that a few years ago, when we were engaged in a foreign 
 war, there was an old general, who never pretended to be anything 
 more than a rough and faithful soldier, winning victory after victory, 
 paying no attention to what was going on at the National Capitol, 
 while others were intriguing, seeking in their life in camp to secure 
 the great honors which this great people could confer ; and we know 
 that the people took up that old rough soldier, who had never dreamed 
 of being President, and made him President over all of them. 
 [Cheers. " Taylor."] It may again occur that some men who think 
 that they are winning the popular favor may be set aside, while those 
 who have performed duties in distant points in the South, who may 
 have been relieved because the contrast was becoming too great be- 
 tween them and others, may live long enough to realize that the peo- 
 ple of this country, when aroused, are omnipotent, and to acknowl- 
 edge that 
 
 " The best-laid scliemes of mice and men 
 Gang aft aglee." 
 
 [Cheers for Butler.] 
 If we are to do our duty to our government, let us begin by deter- 
 mining to do our whole duty. At the risk of being impertinent or 
 officious this evening, I must say that I think the time has come not 
 only for arousing each and all of us to the protection of the govern- 
 ment of the United States in the prosecution of this war to a success- 
 ful issue, but also to defend the honor and dignity of this great people, 
 by directing their attention to the position of this" government, and 
 telling our public servants that we are not afraid of foreign powers. 
 [Applause.] We bow not even at the footstool of the great Nephew of 
 his Uncle. [Renewed applause.] I have never myself had any fears. 
 I believed that if it came to the point that the rebels in arms were to 
 have sympathy from abroad, from the ruling class in England, or 
 from the Emperor of the French, we could at once challenge the gi'eat 
 heart of both nations which knows well Avhat this war means [great 
 applause] ; for, while we know that the rebellion has received great 
 encouragement, and even material aid, from one class of the citizens 
 of England, there is another class who, even amid all their sufferings 
 and deprivations consequent upon this war, have been true and loyal 
 in their hearts to the government of the United States, and when 
 they see that this great people, in the mi<lst of its trials, when they 
 see that you who have sent to the Army of the Union men enough to 
 have conquered Europe a few years ago, still remember to build ships and 
 
25 
 
 freight them with bread, and send them across the briny deep for their 
 relief, you will hear — nay, you hear to-day the response whidi comes 
 back to you by every vessel that readies our shores — that the wliole 
 heart of the English people is loyal to the principles of liberty. 
 [Cheers.] The great heart of Europe is with us ; and we c^n afford 
 to say to their rulers — Do your worst. [Applnuse.] 
 
 I do not hold others responsible for my humble views, but, for one, 
 I would not withhold, upon the part of this government, the expression 
 of sympathy and the extension of aid, if need be, to our strug- 
 gling neighbor who is about to become the victim of the wily des- 
 pot of France. [Applause.] A leading man of that country re- 
 marked to me last summer that the republicans of Mexico and the 
 republicans of the United States must stand shoulder to shoulder in 
 the cause of civil liberty ; that slavery had been the nightmare of our 
 government, and before it ended we should find the lovers of civil 
 liberty throughout the world on one side, and the lovers of despotism 
 an*ayed in sympathy with the rebels against the government on the 
 other. For one, I wish to hear this government declare that our 
 sympathies are with Mexico, and we do not wish to see it oveiTun by 
 Louis Napoleon. [Applause.] How long is it since he dared to con- 
 ceive the project of crossing the Atlantic to meddle in the affairs of 
 any government upon the continent of America ? Would he have at- 
 tempted it three years ago? [" No !"] Would he have talked about 
 it five years ago? It would have been \^rth his throne to have done 
 it. But now we are in a position whicn enables him, in his judg- 
 ment, to take advantage of us ; we are struggling in a desperate war, 
 and will not be able to give aid to Mexico ; we are not able to dic- 
 tate to the world as to the sacredness of the institutions on this side 
 of the water against their interference. Instead of planting ourselves 
 on the Monroe doctrine, in the midst of our troubles, we can be 
 snubbed by Louis Napoleon proposing to have commissioners from the 
 Southern Confederacy meet our commissioners on neutral ground to 
 rearrange the American Senate, I suppose. [Hisses.] Had I been 
 the premier of this great government, if it had cost me my life, I 
 woukl have replied : " Sir, there was a time when you would not have 
 dared to say so much ; and now that you have said it, I Avill take the 
 occairion to say to you, in the name of the government, that you had 
 better take counsel of those who surround you as to the quickest and 
 safest way of getting out of Mexico." [Applause.] We would have 
 united the lovers of freedom throughout the world by such a proceed- 
 ing. I do not know what the policy of that government is ; I only 
 know that it has come to us in unequivocal form ; that but recently 
 that government was intriguing with the Southern Confederacy for 
 the sale of my state to France. The same man who represented 
 France in Texas when I left was again on Mexican soil intriguing for 
 the purchase of Texas, and yet I hear no word said by our govern- 
 ment, and I think it is time something was said. 
 
26 
 
 But I want you to understand, whatever the policy of the government 
 may be upon these questions, I am as loyal to this administration as any 
 man livii;g within the United iStates. I am as loyal to the President. 
 He is my President. He is the only President we can have for two 
 years. He must be sustained ; and had I millions of money, and as 
 many lives, 1 would give them all to sustain the government. [Ap- 
 plause.] But I am not bound to sustain the policy of those surround- 
 ing him, and who are dictating to him, and I think the people have the 
 right to rise up and dictate the true course of the government in re- 
 gard to its internal difficulties, and they will not be true to the country 
 until they determine it in their judgment, and exercise it for the gov- 
 ernment of the country. [Applause.] 
 
 I desire to say a few words directed mainly to my section 
 of the country. I believe if there are any within the limits 
 of the United States who have had cause to be disappointed, I 
 am, at least, one of those men ; not that I have been an applicant 
 for anything, but that I have lioped that the country I love so much 
 would ere this have been redeemed. Upon the 4th of December I sailed 
 from your port, if not a happy man, at least buoyant in heart, for I was 
 connected with an expedition which I had been taught to believe was 
 intended for the relief of Texas. Without solicitation on my part I 
 had been put in commission and connected with that expedition ; with 
 the declaration oft repeated that it was to go to Texas; I never knew 
 that we were not going therejintil we arrived at New Orleans. Now, 
 as a matter of course, feeling an interest in the loyal people of Texas, 
 my mission here being to procure relief for it, and believing that the 
 object had been eftected, it was my simple duty to hurry the news to 
 them as fast as possible that relief was coming. In the mean time, 
 many of them had been run out of the country and had been waiting 
 patiently on the other side of the Kio Grande. They were told that 
 we were coming — they got it through the public prints — and they 
 took measures accordingly. They got up organizations preparatory 
 to joining the federal forces as soon as they landed. Bat when it 
 was found out that there Avas no aid coming — when it was found out 
 'by the rebels that the force Avas to operate on the Mississippi River 
 and not in Texas — you can imagine what were the consequences to the 
 Union men who had manifested some pleasure at the arrival of aid. 
 I have no means of knowing how many, but I know that some hun- 
 dreds lost their lives in consequence of that disappointment. 
 [" Shame, shame."] I know they have died deaths not heard of since 
 the dark ages till now ; not only hunted and shot, murdered upon 
 their own thresliolds, but tied up and scalded to death with boiling 
 water, torn asunder by wild horses ; whole neighborhoods of men ex- 
 terminated, and their wives and children driven aAvay. They were 
 hung by twenties. And the work is still going on. I ask loyal men 
 if these things ought to go on. History Avill bear me out in saying 
 that never, since the beginning of time, have people endured more by 
 
27 
 
 way of testifying their devotion to any government that has existed 
 among men. 
 
 It has been said sometimes that the only loyal men of the South 
 were the black men. I am here to-ni^ht to dispute that. It is 
 not true. I assert that more than half tlie white men of that 
 country were loyal in the beginning of this struggle ; and more than 
 h;df of those living there to-day would return to it with gladness and 
 gratitude if you would give them relief Talk about sympathy with 
 men who are covered with crime, murder, arson, robbery, and 
 the despoliation of the poor ! Talk about the rights of property of 
 these men ! Yet not a word do I hear about the orphans and the 
 widows those devils have made in the South, the homes they have 
 burned, the property they have confiscated. 
 
 And the loyal people of the state of Texas have suffered also by 
 the action of this government, for they were in the habit of consum- 
 ing largely of the products of the North, and from this, of course, 
 they have been cut off. Since the border of the Eio Grande has 
 been in possession of the rebels, they have compelled the plant- 
 ers to sell their cotton to the confederate government and taking 
 theii' payment in confederate paper, and the horses and teams 
 have been seized to transport it to the Rio Grande, where the 
 rebels could then exchange it for gold or silver or for any re- 
 quired supplies. It does seem to me that it is time for the people 
 to say to the government that this has gone on long enough. [Ap- 
 plause.] It does seem to me that I have purchased a riglit to call 
 upon you to-night to express your opinion upon that subject. [Re- 
 newed applause.] But I will say if they never do it, it will not crush 
 my devotion to the government, although it may cause the loss of the 
 last friend I have under heaven. But I shall think that some man 
 who has surrounded the government has been to blame if no action is 
 taken. 
 
 There is a reason why France wishes to get possession of 
 Texas. I will not go into figures but I will satisfy any person who 
 is skeptical, that there are rich cotton lands enough in tliat state to 
 produce four times as much cotton as is now produced upon this 
 whole continent ! It is a country twice as large as France, possessed 
 of great facilities, facilities untold, minei'al wealth beyond the know- 
 ledge of any man living, a country teeming with wealth in the great 
 future, and which will, if we still hold her in sisterhood, at no dis- 
 tant day pour into the lap of this great emporium. Give me one 
 note of encouragement to-night, and I shall be relieved ; but under 
 whatever circumstances, I shall perform my duty. Whatever men 
 may say in i-egard to the inefficiency of the government, and its short- 
 comings hitherto, it luis still its armies in the field ; and there are 
 counsels that are able to lift up the nation from the mud and mire of 
 the present hour and to place it firmly upon the path of success. 
 Still the admiring gaze of the world is fixed upon us. When 
 
28 
 
 we shall speak, and speak with determination, our voice will stiU 
 be heard throughout the world. We may now be in trouble ; but 
 the power and majesty of this country is not all clouded, and still in 
 the midst of its direst calamity, 
 
 " Like some proud cliff that rears its awful form. 
 Swells from the vale and midway meets the storm ; 
 Though round its base the rolling clouds are spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 
 
 [Loud and long continued applause.] 
 
 There Avere loud and reiterated calls for " Conkling," " Conkling," 
 " Roscoe Conkling." Amid three cheers, the President came forward 
 with that gentleman, saying : I need not inform you who he is. He, 
 with others, sustained the weight of our cause in the last House of 
 Representatives, and before this battle was waged I stood a spectator 
 of his efforts, which in the common cause have encircled his brows 
 with the civic wreath. He was then a Republican, as I was a Dem- 
 ocrat ; we now are both lovers of our country and members of the 
 Loyal National League. [Loud applause and three cheers.] 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. ROSCOE CONKLING. 
 
 The Hon. Roscoe Conkling said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens : There are reasons why 
 I should be glad to remain a listener to night, and yet if I possessed 
 a hundred voices, and every voice was trumpet- tongued, gladly would 
 I raise them all to greet this great assemblage : so cordially do I share 
 with you the sentiment which has brought you together. [Applause.] 
 
 The inquiry was made a while ago whether there is a difference 
 between this organization, and the meeting held at the Academy 
 of Music. There is no difference, except that the purpose of this 
 league is, to extend far and wide through the loyal States, its in- 
 fluence and example, to nationalize that which has, up to this 
 time, been local. The character of those with whom the movement 
 originates, gives assurance that rivalries, or personal ambitions, or par- 
 tisan objects, do not lie at its foundation. This is not the place far po- 
 litical parties to contend. You have not come together to destroy old 
 political organizations, or to found a new one. You iiave come, not 
 as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as American citizens, with the 
 single object and purpose of sustaining the government in quelling a 
 giant insurrection. [Cheers.] You come as the children and heirs 
 of those who, no matter to what political party they belonged, no 
 matter what religious creed they held, no matter what language was 
 their mother-tongue, no matter where was the land of their birth, 
 stood side by side on the bloody battle-fields of the American revolu- 
 tion. [Applause.] 
 
You come as the heirs of a priceless and imperiled birthright, the 
 defenders of an endangered nationality, incontestably the greatest the 
 world has ever seen. You come as the guardians of a mild and nur- 
 turing government assailed by parricides and assassins, and your mis- 
 sion here is not to recast political parties, but to embalm in the hearts 
 of your countrymen those institutions of equality and freedom in 
 which the freest and best elements of existing systems, are blended 
 with the revelations and experience of buried centuries and epochs. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 Eighty years ago our fothers braved, for seven years, the greatest 
 power on earth, and endured all the hardships and pangs of civilized 
 war, with the added horrors of the tomahawk and scalping-knife. 
 They were sustained by an unfaltering purpose. What was it? It 
 was to plant the tree of constitutional hberty for all where the blight- 
 ting frosts of despotism could never reach it. 
 
 They did plant it, and watered it with their blood when it was a 
 little, feeble, frail experiment ; and now, when it has taken root and 
 grown up till it overspreads a continent, aud shelters an empire, now 
 when thirty millions of people, the ransomed of all nationalities, are 
 nestHng underneath its branches, red-handed traitors have laid the axe 
 at its root, and sworn it shall be hewn down and cast into the fire. 
 
 Not strangers, but children of a common parentage, indulged and 
 pampered children, sought by stealth to destroy the roof-tree, and to 
 plunder and ruin the homestead of us all. 
 
 I say they sought their end at first by cowardice and stealth, and 
 availing themselves of the places of power and trust which had been 
 confided to them ; having the government in their own hands, in 
 double trust, they sprang upon it unawares, as if to murder the nation 
 in its bed. But the sleeper waked, and creeping assassination stalked 
 as rebellion. [Applause.] Foiled in its secret hope, the next step of 
 treason was to plunge the country into the gi-eatest war of which his- 
 tory makes note : the greatest of wars in all the three elements which 
 measure the magnitude of war ; the greatest in its cost in money, the 
 greatest in the forces and power engaged, the greatest in its theatre of 
 operations. 
 
 It is this that has made this liall to-night a temple of freedom, and 
 filled it with the votaries of constitutional hberty. But the struggle is 
 not of words, nor of argument, nor of reason — it is a bloody grapple 
 for the mastery by force of arms. 
 
 What then can be done for it here in this great audience chamber, 
 crowded with the patriotism, the intelligence, and the industry of this 
 imperial city? Will the thousands here assembled fire one bullet at 
 the enemy or give one stroke with the sword, or one thrust with the 
 bayonet ? Is there any call for men or money now to be responded 
 to here ? Then wiiy sliould you be here 1 Why should New York 
 speak that tlie nation may hear ? 
 
 I will give you a reason why. From the outset our greatest dan- 
 
80 
 
 ger and misfortune has been from divisions among ourselves. [Ap- 
 plause.] The sheet anchor of rebellion, its greatest hope, has been 
 that the loyal states v^-ould become divided, and grovi^ weary or dis- 
 gusted with the contest. 
 
 I appeal to my distinguished friend who preceded me, whether it is 
 not true that had it been believed throughout the cotton states that 
 the twenty millions of the North would risf with unanimity, sternly 
 determined to maintain their institutions at any cost to the bitter end, 
 the rebellion would never have been inaugurated. [Applause.] The 
 conspirators did not wade into the red sea of revolution until they had 
 assured themselves of discords and divisions here. When the assault 
 upon the government actually began the thews of party gave way, and 
 for a time the South saw with dismay a united North. Then came 
 again the antagonisms of politics. The government party was de- 
 feated in elections ; the administration and the war was assailed, hos- 
 tile resolutions were brought foiiA'ard in conventions and legislat*ures, 
 and men boasted in both houses of Congress that they had never voted 
 men or money to be used to suppress rebellion. What is the result? 
 It has gone out that the North is languishing and faltering in the strug- 
 gle. It has been " told in Gath and published in the streets of 
 Askelon," that the state of New York is ready to stop, to give up on 
 any terms ; and the despots of Europe, and the ringleaders of the 
 South are again flushed with expectation. 
 
 It is' mainly to dispel these delusions, that this meeting has been 
 called, and this Loyaj. National League inaugurated. [Cheers.] 
 
 Not many such congi-egations of people will be needed to show the 
 world that the fires still burn Avhich broke out into the most sublime 
 spectacle in all history, when the lightning flashed the tidings that in- 
 surgents had battered Sumter, and trampled upon that flag which for 
 eighty years had proudly defied the world in arms. [Cheers.] 
 
 The throbbing of such a heai't as this will vibrate far away. Your 
 voice will be heard more plainly in Richmond than in New York. 
 It will carry assurance there that time has only confirmed yom- deter- 
 mination, that come what may, and fall what must, the government 
 shall stand. [Applause.] 
 
 Your proceedings will say to Richmond, that while the people of 
 New York are a law-abiding people, a peace-loving people, a conser- 
 vative people, to use a word much murdered in this year of grace 
 [laughter] ; that while they deplore the war, while they have ever 
 been in favor of the Constitution, and of living up to all the compro- 
 mises and guarantees of the Constitution, they are also for the country, 
 right or wrong. [Cheers.] And that happen what will, perish what 
 may, they mean that the Union shall live, and that the beak and claw 
 of national power shall descend upon palmettos, and pelicans, and 
 rattlesnakes, till the starry banner again waves from the St. Lawrence 
 to the Gulf of Mexico. [Great cheering.] 
 
 The inspiration of great masses of men like this, pronounces the 
 
31 
 
 doom of the nation's cnemie?, and proclaims that state rights, and 
 state institutions, and all other institutions if need be, must give way, 
 in order that the republic may live. [Renewed cheering.] 
 
 If rebellion will not desist without, you are ready to see Vicks- 
 burgh, and Kichmond, and Charleston, heaps of smouldering ruins. 
 [Cheering.] 
 
 For myself, if driven to it, I go farther. Disunion is disintegration, 
 disintegration is anarchy, anarchy is despotism ; and rather let deso- 
 lation reign from the Potomac to the Gulf, than one stripe be torn 
 from the flag, or one star blotted from its azure folds. [Continued 
 applause.] These echoes will not die to night, nor to-morrow, nor 
 afterward, till they have floated far and wide. As I entered the hall 
 this evening, a distinguished citizen was reading to you some words 
 of a great statesman, who sleeps in a grave where New England has 
 laid him ; and as I listened and looked upon this scene, my mind 
 rested upon another thought of Webster. He said once in a speech, 
 " The lightning is strong, the whirlwind is strong, the tempest is 
 strong, but there is something stronger than all of these — it is the 
 enlightened judgment of mankind." [Applause.] Yes, there is power 
 in the honest sense of men, and the earnest judgment of a host like this, 
 speaking Avith the depth of feeling and conviction here evinced, will 
 at this time go far and near with healing on its wings. [Applause.] 
 
 It goes to Washington, to reinvigorate and spur the flagging energies, 
 if they do flag, of those charged with the administration of public 
 aflfairs- 
 
 It goes to the Potomac among the soldiers, whose bed is the ground, 
 and tells them that the blessings and benedictions of grateful thou- 
 sands are daily and nightly descending on their heads. [Applause.] 
 It says to them, that though other republics may have been ungiwte- 
 ful, this republic will ever decorate with heroic honors, those who have 
 exchanged the fireside for the camp, and gone to defend on distant 
 battle-fields, the life and glory of their country. [Applause.] 
 
 Above aU else, it gives the lie to sinister croakei's, and impeaches 
 rebel sympathizers everywhere, in the North and in the South. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 All leagues of loyal citizens, and all meetings of the loyal, must, 
 if they are earnest and sincere, tend in the same direction, and there- 
 fore I understand that no difference in object or purpose, is to be found 
 between this national association and any other similar in character 
 
 Why should there be, how can there be, any difference now between 
 those Avho are honestly for God and their country ? " Why," says 
 one, " There are acts of the administration that I cannot ap[)rove of." 
 Well, fellow-citizens, I have a little confession to make upon that 
 point myself, and I make it in strict confidence, and shall not admit 
 it if it ever is repeated. [Laughter.] I advocated the elevation of 
 Mr. Lincoln to the presidency. [Applause.] I voted for him, and, 
 as the representative in Congress of a proud and loyal constituency, I 
 
32 
 
 have endeavored to sustain and uphold his administration always. I 
 have confidence in him, and yet there are a great many tilings which 
 the administration has done that I do not approve of. [Cheers.] But 
 is that any reason why I should not stand by it and hold up its hands, 
 even to the uttermost ? ["No, no."] Why, if you think you have a 
 poor administration, so much the more is it your duty to help it along. 
 [Applause.] If you have a weak administration, so much more it 
 needs strength, does it not? [Cheers.] Be it bad or good, it is ours 
 for two years more, subject to changes in the cabinet, and whoever 
 thinks he has a bad President, or a bad cabinet, is in the condition 
 of the man who had a very bad cold, but it was the best he had. 
 [Laughter and applause.] If you cannot sustain Mr. Lincoln for 
 any other reason, sustain him because he is President. Go for the 
 crown, if it hangs on a bush. I have said, and I do not mean to 
 make a speech, 1 will not be led into that, whatever other indiscretion I 
 may commit — I said that I could not always see the reason of acts 
 done by the administration, but then others would approve of these 
 very acts and condemn something of a diiFerent character, perhaps. 
 There is notliing, for example, in the doings at Washington which has 
 been more bitterly denounced than a line of policy which I will allude 
 to, yet I do not at all sympathize with those who disapprove it. I 
 refer to that branch, or those branches, of the policy of the adminis- 
 tration looking to a resort to all the means which the God of Nature 
 has placed in our power to crush and trample out forever that painted 
 lizard, called Secession. [Loud and prolonged applause.] I never 
 have been throwm into hysterics because the administration, at an early 
 day or at a late day, has talked about arming or attempting to arm 
 men who were willing to bear arms, merely because they sprung from 
 tiger-hunters on the Gold Coast of Africa, and were painted black by 
 Nature's brush. [Cheers.] I feel about these people as the man did 
 who said : "If any rebel has a mule that can draw a howitzer, I 
 want him ; and then if he has a nigger that can touch it otf, I want 
 him [loud cheers] ; or if the nigger can draw the howitzer better 
 than the mule can, and the mule can touch it off better than the nig- 
 ger can, let them be put to work in that way." [Loud laughter.] I 
 detect myself in saying " nigger ;" but I caution you all against in- 
 dulging in that word, because the Secretary of State says that no man 
 who says " nigger" ever can be President. 
 
 This question, fellow-citizens, of employing and ai-ming negroes, and 
 dealing with negroes, has been more prostituted, has been used for 
 baser purposes, than anything else which has entered into the dema- 
 goguism of the day. The wildest, maddest, falsest dreams of parti- 
 san perversion and malice have been rehearsed to the people to mis- 
 lead them on this subject, and wicked attempts have been made to 
 mystify, to throw dust in the public eye, till it should be believed that 
 this war was being perverted into a war for abolition, and that the 
 nation was being crippled and impoverished to emancipate the negro 
 
33 
 
 race. Workingmen, laboring men, those who sustain the dignity and 
 the aristocracy of labor — one of tlie few aristocracies fit to live — 
 workingmen have been approached and importuned by those who ought 
 to be above it — one occurs to me now. [" Thurlow Weed." Laugh- 
 ter.] That voice over there sp^'aks in an unknown tongue. [Contin- 
 ued laughter.] I meant another man, one who is understood to be a 
 candidate for the presidency, and who stands, as is undei'stood, against 
 the war. The I'resident told me the other day that he had sent Avord 
 to him that he had better take his own interests into consideration in 
 opposing the government, because it would be hard to run for the 
 presidency next year if there wasn't any presidency to run for. 
 [Laughter.] But I was saying that men who ought to have been 
 above it, because they know better, have tried to impress the work- 
 ingmen of this country with the belief that the negroes, if freedom 
 was established for them at the South, would overrun the North ; 
 that water would flow up hill ; that colored men, with an additional 
 demand for colored labor created where they are, would leave the 
 climate adapted to them, in which they thrive, and come here to over- 
 spread the North, and freeze and starve in the latitude in which we 
 live. See what a monstrous, wicked perversion it is. I had supposed, 
 as all history and reason show, that men fly from slavery, not from 
 freedom. I had supposed that every panting fugitive, who fixes his 
 eye on the noi'th'Star, and runs until he strikes the dominions of the 
 British Queen, flees from bondage, not from liberty. But we are told 
 that if liberty is given to black men, forsaking that liberty, and pant- 
 ing for strange climates, they will flock here to crowd out white men, 
 and reduce the price of Avages ; and therefore the negro must not be 
 armed and encouraged to fight for us, but left to feed and clothe tlie 
 rebellion for fear that slavery will get hui't ; and the government, our 
 strong government, as my friend says it is charged with being (I have 
 had an idea, for a good while, that if there was a little more glue put 
 into the government it would not hurt it at all [laughter], 1 do not 
 think that there is any danger of its sticking too close together for 
 present purposes) ; this strong government of ours, for striving to 
 make slavery an element of strength to ourselves, and of weak- 
 ness to our enemies, has, we are told, been guilty of a, great crime. 
 The policy of proclaiming freedom to the slave, and using him as an 
 instrument against armed treason, is characterized as too severe, and 
 upon the same principle the administration party in Congress is de- 
 nounced because it passed a confiscation act, a bill of confiscation 
 against rebels generally. I will not stop to discuss it. You have 
 heard it discussed on the other side, and can you answer why those 
 who without provocation have deluged the land with blood and covered 
 it with mourning ; why those who have dug a hundred thousand new- 
 made graves ; who have sent a skeleton into almost eveiy house ; who 
 have reduced thousands from affluence to beggary ; wlio have burdened 
 the nation with a debt which posterity must acquit — can you tell why, 
 
 3 
 
• 
 34 
 
 in the name of that God whose free worship you enjoy, they should 
 not be compelled to contribute something to repair the ruin they have 
 caused? [Applause.] 
 
 But, felloAv-citizens, 1 pass away from this. I intended to speak for 
 a moment of the trifling reasons for difference which seem to 
 separate men who want to stand together in the maintenance of 
 their country in that struggle which, for our government and 
 for all of us, has two, and only two alternatives, glory or the 
 grave. Some men say "I not only disapprove of things the adminis- 
 tration has done, but this war might have been prevented. Let us 
 grant it, for the sake of argument ; grunt it in spite of what the gen- 
 tleman who went before me in addressing you, and I, both know to be 
 the fact, grant, in spite of what we saw and'heard, that when the re- 
 bellion began, Congi*ess might have gone so far in coaxing and yielding 
 to armed rebels, as to avert an issue ; grant it in spite of what 1 think 
 my friend behind me heard Mr. Houston of Alabama say in the com- 
 mittee of tliirty-three.* Speaking for his section and for othei's, after good 
 men and true had been for days pi-oposing, and offering, and suggest- 
 ing, and conceding ; ready to do anything that men could do, without 
 sacrificing their government, to avert a struggle, Houston said, snatch- 
 ing up a piece of white paper, ^'^ There is no iise of our cheating each 
 other ; we do not mean to siai/ icith you ; we do not mean to stay in 
 this government; we mean to break it up; we can make more money 
 without you than with you, and if you would take that iwper and 
 sign your names to it and let us lurite our agreement over them, then 
 we u'oiild not stay ivith you." But admit that the war might have 
 been avoided by some compromise beyond those which were offered ; 
 or admit, as it is claimed on the other side, that if, in 1856, the Re- 
 publican candidate for the presidency had been elected secession and 
 rebellion never could have ripened, never could have been hatched out, 
 and that the government would have been rescued, and rescued for- 
 ever. [Applause "Bravo." "Three cheers for Fremont," given 
 with a will.] Well, fellow-citizens, I do not know but thnt moment 
 was as apt a time as any to cheer for Gen. Fremont [Kenew el applause] ; 
 because if I may say it without stepping upon party ground, whoever 
 the man had been, in 1856, whether John Charles Fremont or another, 
 if a man, not only loyal, but blessed with a little genuine old Teu- 
 tonic pluck, had been elected President, this rebellion certainly never 
 would have happened at the time it did and in the way it did. 
 [Cheers.] No ; another president was necessaiy to give treason free 
 course ; a president who, whether loyal or not, was so timid, as to 
 halt between doubt and determination, till rebels snatched from his 
 nerveless grasp, the ensign of the Republic, and shook in liis very face 
 the paltiy banner of secession and rebellion. [Hisses for Buchanan.] 
 But it matters not. Suopose that in one way or the other this war 
 could have been averted. It is upon us now ; it is a civil war Avaged 
 with a vindictiveness and ferocity equal to the pei-fidy and cowardice 
 
35 
 
 in which it was conceived. It is a war waced by men who have'dis- 
 regardcd ahnost all the obligations imposed by civilized warfare, men 
 who not only intended, as has already been said, that the Stars and 
 Bars should float from the dome in Washington, but who have avowed 
 in word and in deed the purpose to launch the wiiole country upon a 
 shoreless and starless sea of bloody revolution. They never expected 
 the war to be restricted to their own fields, nor wouM it have been 
 had we not advanced into their lines ; it is owing only to barriers of 
 brave men beating back the waves, that the surges have not dashed 
 over our thresholds, engulling man and woman, toddling childhood 
 and tottering age. These are the dangers which have been upon us ; 
 they are no phantoms ; but realities which beset us still, and ta.K all 
 our energies and manhood. 
 
 Why then neglect things that are, for things that were ? 
 
 " Let the dead past bury its duad, 
 Act, act in the living present, 
 Heart within, and God o'erhead." 
 
 Many good men have looked at the dark side of the picture, and 
 said that we are making no progress in the war, while debt accumu- 
 lates, armies waste away, and time elapses. 
 
 I do not argue that time and men have been employed always a? 
 they should have been, yet is it not true that those are most given to 
 cavil, who stop the shortest time to measure the magnitude and diffi- 
 culties of the thing we have to do ? 
 
 Have they thought that the nation had been buried in profound 
 peace for years, had long unlearned and forgotten the habits, the arts, 
 and the appliances of war, Avlien unexpectedly and suddenly the hand 
 of violence was raised on half a continent ; and that when a confiding 
 people roused itself, it found an empire in revolt for thousands and 
 thousands of miles, and organized and armed by those who had been 
 secretly plotting for half a generation ? 
 
 "While deliberate preparation had been made on the side of treason, 
 have we all borne in mind how helpless and hopeless our situation was, 
 when violence began ? Who can portray a situation so pitiful'? The 
 government was in rebellion against itself. The administration con- 
 spired against the people. The cabinet was full of traitors. Gen. 
 Cass was driven into retirement because he Avould not consent to the 
 overthrow of the Constitution. The leaders of the rebellion had the 
 government completely in their hands ; they were sworn to preserve 
 and defend it, yet they gave themselves up to its destruction. They 
 held the highest places of honor and of trust, which a generous people 
 could bestow, and they made use 6T all that power and perjury could 
 do, to sap the foundations of republican nationality. 
 
 They arranged in advance so that you should have neither money, 
 nor ships, nor arms, nor soldiers, nor anything for defence when the 
 work of demolition and disunion should begin. 
 
36 
 
 Look at them a moment and see the role of hidden infamy that 
 each one played. 
 
 Howell Cobb was Secretary of the Treasury, and it was his part 
 to slander and degrade the public credit, to derange the finances, and 
 squander the public money, so that the government could not even 
 borrow in the market. 
 
 The Secretary of the Navy, was Mr. Toucey, of Connecticut, 
 [" Scoundrel ! " groans.] The expounder now of malignant politics, 
 in an honored state, which has an honored z'epresentative here upon 
 the platform. [Applause.] Isaac Toucey was one of the ministering 
 priests when the country was sacrificed. His ministration was quite 
 important, and it was very handy to have him where he was. It was 
 his proud preliminary privilege to scatter your little fleet to the four 
 winds of heaven, to banish it in part to distant seas, where it could 
 not be called to aid a fort or hold a position, and to anchor it in part 
 where it could be stolen by easy theft. All this was done, and the 
 decks were cleared for treason. 
 
 There was Jefferson Davis, not in the Cabinet ostensibly, but really 
 in the Cabinet, a graduate of West Point, a man who had been edu- 
 cated and nurtured at your bounty. He entered the Mexican war, 
 and, being the son-in-law of the old hero of that war, to whom tribute 
 has been paid here to-night, became a pet in the army. He came to 
 the Senate of the United States, after he had been Secretary of War 
 under Mr. Pierce, and was made Chairman of Military Affairs, and 
 what do you suppose his mission was in prepaiing for the rebellion ? 
 It was, in conjunction with that twin patriot Floyd [groans], so to 
 dispose your little army that the government would be helpless, naked, 
 and bleeding at the feet of its betrayers. His dispositions were cer- 
 tainly judicious. He sent a large part of the entire force to Texas, 
 Texas which we fought a bloody war for, and paid to obtain, how 
 much, two hundred millions? 
 
 Gen. Hamilton. Three hundred millions. 
 
 Me. Conkling. Three hundred millions to acquire. Troops were 
 sent to Texas under pretence of guarding the frontiers from the 
 incursions of savage Indians. And who was put in command ? 
 Twiggs, the traitor, a dog in forehead and a deer at heart. He was 
 put tliere in order that in one day, without firing a gun, or striking a 
 blow, he might surrender an empire gi'eater than France ; an empire 
 greater than all Europe between the Alps, the Rhine, and the Pyre- 
 nees. He, too, played his part, and betrayed to the enemies of his 
 country a vast possession, rich, inconceivably rich, for which some of 
 the best blood of the nation had been poured out, and the bones of 
 the young and the brave left to bleach on the burning sands of Mex- 
 ico. There was another man in this cabinet never to be forgotten, 
 and that is .Jacob Thompson of Mississippi. Do you remember his 
 especial part in this dark tragedy of treason ? It was, while he 
 was a sworn officer of the administration, a cabinet minister, bound 
 
37 
 
 by his oat]i to maintain inviolate the secret doings of Jthe cabinet ; it 
 was nt that time, and in disregavd of his oath, privily to tele- 
 graph to Judge Longstreet, or Long^vorth, of Charleston, that the 
 Star of the West, an unarmed vessel, was to leave your beautiful bay 
 on a certain day to feed a starving garrison at Sumter, to the end that 
 guns might be planted to sink her when she came. I am warranted 
 in saying that he did literally this, because he told me so himself 
 [" Catch him and liang him."] My impression is that a little healtliy 
 hanging would do for this nation what thmider does for a sultry day. 
 [Loud and prolonged cheering.] 
 
 Suih were the means, in part, by which the nation was bound hand 
 and foot before the danger was discovered, and in order that we may 
 guard against desponding, let us remember these and other things Avhich, 
 if time permitted, or the hour was earlier, might be referred to. [" Go 
 on ! go on !"] No, fellow-citizens, I will "o on but very briefly ; only 
 far enough to caution you and myself against overlooking the great 
 hindrances and obstacles against which the government has struggled. 
 Above all we must not forget that we have been carrying on a war of 
 invasion, and that the inequality between those waging such a war, 
 and those resisting, is so enormous that arithmetic can scarcely com- 
 pute it. AVe have been compelled, not only to send armies into an 
 enemy's country to win battles, but to hold and occupy immense re- 
 gions. History^ tells us how hard and slow a thing this is. 
 
 George Washington lost almost all the battles of the American 
 Eevolution ; he lost them almost all, and yet the revolution succeeded. 
 Why? l-Jecause the colonies had the enormous advantage of fighting 
 on their own gi-ound to resist an invading army, which came far from 
 home. So Napoleon was victorious in Eussia, and the flames of 
 burning Moscow flashed a new and bloody light upon the blazing star 
 of Austerlitz. But his army, his six hundred thousand, what of 
 them ? They fled, they froze, they perished ! The same conquering 
 Child of Destiny led his legions through repeated victories in the pe- 
 ninsula of Spain, but something more was necessary than to win bat- 
 tles, and at last he fled for his life, and why? For the same reason 
 which has retarded our successes, certain to come, in the struggle in 
 which we are engaged. [Cheers.] We, fellow-citizens, like the in- 
 vading forces I have instanced, have had from the outset a war of 
 invasion. We had traitors in higli places to bind and paralyze the 
 government beforehand, we have had unnumbered disadvantages, but 
 I Avill tell you what is the military answer, and the political answer, 
 and the truthful answer, to it all. No matter what impediments there 
 are, no matter how the balances of doubtful and temporary questions 
 may waver, God Almighty does not mean that a nation such as this 
 shall die in the morning of its life. [Great applause.] No, all 
 we need is faith, a star, an indomitable heart. Do as you have done 
 to-night ; say to the world that if those who have gone forth already 
 are too few to vindicate an insulted nationality, the North has still 
 
38 
 
 armies of loyal sons, ready, if need be, to bare their bosoms to the 
 icy fangs of death. [Cheers.] Let it be understood henceforth that 
 whatever political differences there may have been, whatever men 
 may have said in view of elections heretofore, they will stand square- 
 ly by the government now, and sink all minor causes of quarrel to 
 compass the defeat of a common foe. [Applause.] Pour out a voice 
 to the ringleaders in the South, and to the despots abroad, who long 
 for the overthrow of this great example of free government, who hate 
 and fear this republic because it stands a scowling monitor to them, 
 but to their people a pUlar of fire by night and a cloud by day, the 
 shadow of a great rock in a weary land to the oppressed of all na- 
 tionalities ; pour out a voice which shall tell of the strength of unity, 
 which shall prove that overwhelming numbers in the loyal states 
 
 " Are true to the last of their blood and their breath, 
 And like reapers descend to the harvest of death." 
 
 Wlien this is done ; when it is known that the resources of the 
 North, the money, the power, the men of the country, are to be pre- 
 cipitated upon the rebellion, from that hour its hairs are numbered ; 
 from that hour the sands of its life are run. [Cheers.] 
 
 In conclusion, fellow-citizens, let me say once more, that I rejoice 
 that this meeting has assembled, that here, in this imperial city, which 
 influences so widely the affairs of the whole continent ; here, where it 
 is said contempt of the government has grown rampant ; here, where 
 men come making long pilgrimages and uttering sentiments which 
 have been silenced in half-loyal cities of the South ; here, where 
 greater impunity for moral, if not for legal ti'cason, has been 
 allowed than almost anywhere else ; here, where great hopes of divis- 
 ion and disloyalty have been held out to the leaders of rebellion, I re- 
 joice that a multitude so gi'eat, representing the patriotic and the true 
 of all parties, has come together to renew their vows of undying loy- 
 alty, and to send out again the great acclaim that, come what will, 
 happen what may, be destroyed what must, the union of the States 
 shall be preserved inviolate forever, and the Constitution shall be 
 obeyed on every foot of our rightful jurisdiction. [Loud and long- 
 continued applause.] 
 
 At this point, there was thrown upon the stage a bouquet of the 
 National tricolor, the donor shouting the motto : " United we stand, 
 divided we fall," amid loud cheering. 
 
 The President : I hope that the audience will remain patient 
 and quiet for a few moments.. There is a gentleman seated upon the 
 platform, who will address to you a few remarks. He will not detain 
 you at this late hour of the evening,. but his voice has been heard with 
 rapt attention elsewhere, in the councils of the Nation, and there he 
 
39 
 
 has won for himself a laudable, an abiding, and an honorable fame. 
 There is strurrgle at Vicksburg ; there is doubt at Yazoo. We liave 
 heard from Vicksburg ; we have heard from Yazoo ; but there are 
 both struggle and doubt in Connecticut ; let us hear a rejiresentative 
 of Connecticut. 1 introduce to you iSenator FosTiiu, of Connecticut. 
 [Loud applause.] 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER, U. S. SENATOR FROM 
 CONNECTICUT. 
 
 Mr. President, Fellow-Citizens of Neav York : It is quite too 
 late to make a speech, even if I had a speech to make, which, huskily 
 for you, I have not. I am casually here on my way home from 
 Washington. It has rejoiced my heart to-night to be here, to see 
 what I have seen, and to hear what I have heard, for here in the city 
 of New York, the great centre of trade and commerce, the great cen- 
 tre of the capital of the country, here we look for a political influence 
 which shall be potential throughout our land, and not unfelt through- 
 out the world. To you, fellow-citizens, more than to any equal num- 
 ber of men in the whole country, is committed the guardianship of the 
 Constitution, the protection of the public liberty, and the perpetuity 
 of tlie union of these states. To no other equal number of men has 
 this trust beea so clearly committed as to you, for the public 
 voice, the public press, the public sentiment of New York, I will not 
 say control this country, but exei-t an influence most powerful over 
 every portion of it, an influence that it is in-possible to over-estimate, 
 and it is, therefore, a matter of rejoicing to me to see so many earnest, 
 and true, and loyal men assembled here to-night, in the discharge of 
 as high and as holy a duty as was ever committed by our Creator to 
 men. [Loud cheers.] And I am sure, I am quite sure from what I 
 have seen and heard, that you purpose to discharge this duty honor- 
 ably, faithfully, fearlessly [cheers], that if this country is lost it shall 
 not be lost in consequence of any defection in the city of New York. 
 [Applause.] And if there be no defection in the city of New York, 
 if the city of New York stands true to itself, to the flag of the coun- 
 try, to the union of these states, our liberties are secure. [Loud 
 cheering.] Not only over the loyal states, but through the disloyal 
 states, the city of New York is looked to with intense interest ; 
 and when New York rises in her might and in her majesty in favor 
 of the preservation of tlie union of these states, its defence, its rescue 
 fi'om those who would overthrow it, a thrill of delight goes through 
 every loj'^al heart, and a feeling of gloom, of depression, and a little 
 uneasiness about the neck, is felt through all the disloyal states. 
 [Great applause.] I will not, however, attempt to speak, after what 
 you have heard from men who have come here from the field, [" Go 
 on," " Go on,"] and who are so situated that they have a right even 
 to tax your patience (which they have not done) ; but coming, as 
 
40 
 
 they do, one from a far-distant section of the coimtiy, and another 
 from the field of battle, they have a right to tax your attention Avhich 
 I have not. Pardon me if I Fay one word about my own state, Con- 
 necticut. [Cheers.] Let me ask every gentleman here, who belongs 
 to Connecticut, and some I am persuaded do, to see to it that, before 
 our election comes, which will be one fortnight from next Monday, he 
 is at home, and attending to his duty. [Cheers. " Good," " Good."] 
 And let me beg each of my fellow-citizens, not to put off the time of 
 his return too late. There is much good that he may do by returning 
 home at once. Go in the first train. Do not stay in this city, hos- 
 pitable, noble as it is, but go home. [Applause.] There is danger 
 lest some, like the one whom my friend alluded to, may be doing 
 mischief while you are away. That gentleman, with certain others, 
 proposes to change the state administration, and to take it out of the 
 hands of those who have administered it most loyally, patriotically, and 
 ably, and put it in the hands of men who cry " peace, when there is no 
 peace," [cheers.] who ai-e for compromise, Avho are opposed to putting 
 down this war by force, who think that our Southern brethren are, on the 
 whole, very much more in the right than we are, and that it becomes 
 us, as the greater and stronger portion of the confederacy, to yield to 
 them with magnanimity, and to have peace. [Never.] That is 
 what is proposed by a few men — I hope not many — in my own 
 state of Connecticut, and it is therefore that I would lirge upon every 
 Connecticut man here to go home and counteract that influence. I 
 go home to-morrow. I do not promise that I shall do much, but I 
 shall do all that I can ; and if that is but little, there is so much the 
 more need that all you who are here should go and help me. While we 
 are full of confidence and hope, it is not to be disguised that our enemy, 
 playing upon the basest passions of the basest hearts, may occasion us 
 a great deal of mischief and trouble, and that our state, reduced by 
 having some twenty thousand loyal men in the battle-field, using not 
 the ballot-box but the cartridge-box, there is danger lest our state be 
 carried by our enemies — not political enemies, but the enemies of our 
 country. [Cheers.] There is as much necessity that these men be 
 overcome and beaten, as that the enemies south of the Potomac be 
 overcome and beaten. These men are a fire in the rear of our brave 
 soldiers in the field. My friend here to-night can bear me witness, 
 that there is but one voice coming from the army, and that is : " We 
 must be sustained at home. [Loud applause.] To send us off here 
 to fight the enemy in front, and then let loose upon us a set of cow- 
 ardly dastards in the rear, is shameful." [Cheers.] Let me then 
 entreat every man to go home; and if he is not a voter even, if he 
 has formerly been a citizen of Connecticut, still let him go home and 
 see his neighbors, and use what influence he has in favor of the right 
 cause. Do not let him think that because he is not a voter, he has 
 no riglit to intermeddle. Our country is one ; a citizen of New York 
 is a citizen of Connecticut, and if you will pardon me, I will take 
 
41 
 
 the liberty to say that a citizen of Connecticut is a citizen of New 
 York. Our destiny is one. We are bound up together — one nation- 
 ality, one Hag, one country, one Union ; by that let us all stand, and 
 if we perish and we shall not if we stand united and firm together, 
 if we do perish, let it be in defence of that which shall give us a 
 name, and for which it shall be glorious to have died. [Continued 
 applause.] 
 
 The President : Fellow-citizens, I am reminded before I call 
 these proceedings to a close, by the continued presence of our friend 
 General Hamilton upon the stage, of the hearty sympathy you have 
 expressed with his state of Texas. I tru«t that that sympathy may be 
 far-reaching; that it will be appreciated and responded to by our 
 government at Washington ; that those efforts which have been un- 
 dertaken may be resumed, and that his state may once more be intro- 
 duced into the cynosure, and among the sisterhood of states. [Cheers.] 
 I am requested to announce that the committee, whose names are 
 announced in the proceedings of the meeting, Avill meet on Monday, 
 at an hour and place to be named hereafter. 
 
 I am requested to say further that a full copy of these proceedings 
 will be sent to every member of this League. [Cheers.] 
 
 And now, before we adjourn, I have, as your presiding officer 
 this evening, •'to enjoin upon you, above all, and paramount 
 to everything else, immediate, and continued, and constant action. 
 [CheerrJ.] It was asked whether a difference existed between this 
 and another organization. There is no difference whatever. The 
 meeting called at the Academy of JNIusic was, as I understand it, 
 for purposes kindred and identical with those for which this 
 meeting was called, except that this meeting goes further, and 
 purposes an organization which it had in view before that meeting 
 was convened, or notified to be convened. We have now consumma- 
 ted our purpose ; you have appointed your committees ; those com- 
 mittees will take immediate action for immediate operation in- the va- 
 rious wards of the city. And let it be kno-wTi and realized by you all, 
 that however strong the principles upon which you assemble and upon 
 which you stand, and which nerve and arm you in this conflict, prin- 
 ciples are not all ; they must induce you to action, action not only 
 general before the public, but privately in the lesser circles in your 
 wards, in your election districts ; everywhere must your organization 
 speak the strength of your numbers, so that your principles may be 
 carried out, and your country may be saved. 
 
 And now, before Ave close, I have great gratification in announcing 
 to you that this Loyal National League, so happily organized 
 this evening, will be inaugurated, in mass meeting on Union Square, on 
 the annivorsaiy of the attack on Fokt SuarrER, Saturday, 11th April. 
 [Great cheering.] 
 
 The meeting now stands adjourned. 
 
OPI^IOIS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 From the New York Evening Post, March 21. 
 
 THE THIRD GREAT MEETING. 
 
 There was nothing in the meeting, held at the Cooper Institute, hast 
 evening to distinguish it from the meetings that have j^i'eceded it, unless 
 it was an air of sterner determination to support the war to its last re- 
 sults. It was, in fact, designed to be a business meeting of the members 
 of the Loyal National League, rather than a gathering for talk, l)ut it was 
 successful in either aspect. The business of organizing the League was 
 happily accomplished, while the addresses were among the most eloquent 
 that have yet been delivered. Our readers may infer that it Avas a pretty 
 large assemblage, when we inform them that no less than five thousand 
 five hundred tickets of admission were issued. 
 
 General Hamilton, of Texas, is always an impressive and forcible speak- 
 er ; his earnestness is that of deep conviction ; he knows what the rebel- 
 lion is in spirit and in act ; he has suiFered from it in person, in property, 
 and in family ; and when he warns the people of the North of the intensity 
 of its malignity, his language is the utterance of a painful experience, and 
 has all the direct simplicity and pathos of the naked truth. Nor does 
 General Hamilton ever seek to disguise the foct that this horrid and wan- 
 ton war has grown out of slavery, or his conviction that slavery should be 
 made to pay the penalty of its own deeds. The son of a slaveholder — 
 and a slaveholder himself in former times — he does not allow the preju- 
 dices of caste, nor the delusions of local policy, to blind him to the reali- 
 ties of circumstances and life. lie knows that slavery is the cursed root 
 of bitterness between the people of the North and South; he knows that 
 there is no other fundamental antagonism; and he is not afraid to say 
 that he desires to see the cause of the quarrel removed. Let slavery be 
 utterly eradicated, he exclaims, rather than that this noble and generous 
 people — brothers in lineage and race — should be kept in a state of per- 
 petual enmity and bloodshed. 
 
 It is refreshing to hear such a man talk — one who separates himself from 
 the prejudices of his section to save his country — and the mind involuntarily 
 contrasts the noble frankness and disinterestedness of his course with that 
 of certain men of the North, who, born and bred in freedom, are yet the 
 defenders of bondage. Here is one who has been all his life taught to 
 respect and uphold slavery, but who, the moment his country's integrity 
 and permanence are endangered by it, yields it to the country's good. But 
 how many are there, who, having been all their lives taught the dignity 
 and worth of freedom, who are openmouthed, indeed, on all public occa- 
 sions in their praises of it, but when that freedom is assailed, causelessly 
 
43 
 
 and ruthlessly, by its foul antagonist, abandon the sacred cause of right 
 and take part with the enemy ! 
 
 The other speeches of the evening were worthy of the occasion. General 
 Cochrane presided with rare tact, and spoke with his usual ability ; and 
 Mr. Eoscoc Conklin was never more animated or powerful. In the selec- 
 tion of men to act on the several committees good judgment was shown. 
 The names are, most of them, the names of our best known and wealthiest 
 citizens, taken from all ranks in life, and from all political parties that are 
 loyal. The merchant, and the mechanic, the lawyer and the tradesman, 
 the man of wealth and the man of science, are all represented, and there is 
 good reason to believe that every person designated for duty will act 
 in furtherance of the purposes of the League with all his energy and 
 influence. 
 
 From the New York Tribune, March 21. 
 THE MEETING LAST NIGHT. 
 
 The meeting last night at the Cooper Institute, to organize the Loyal 
 National league was a gathering as remarkable in its way as any of the 
 great meetings that have been held in this city for the last two years. It 
 was great, first, i;i numbers, for, admission being only by tickets to mem- 
 bers, women were necessarily excluded — probably not a dozen being pres- 
 ent — and the immense hall was packed with men, who, had they, as 
 usual, been accompanied by wives, daughters, or friends, would have been 
 compelled to find standing-room out of doors by thousands ; secondly, in 
 the evident character of the audience, in the intelligence, respectability 
 and earnestness of the men who know what they mean to do, and how 
 they mean to do it ; and thirdly, in its enthusiastic but serious earnest- 
 ness, and in the entire unanimity and sympathy which bound it together, 
 and moved it as one man. Though the arrangements for the meeting 
 seem to have been somewhat hastily made, and little pains taken to bring 
 to it men, strangers among us, but whose fame would attract an audience 
 — all the speakers being our own citizens, or gentlemen who happened to 
 be in town — yet the assemblage came together, evidently not so much to 
 hear distinguished oratoi-s, as because they had signed a pledge, which 
 they meant, then and there, to give an earnest of their intention of fulfil- 
 ling, and to act with others moved by the same high motive. As the 
 meeting, therefore, owed nothing to mere management, so its entire suc- 
 cess is all the more gratifying and more significant. It is but the precur- 
 sor of others which will give completeness and momentum to a great 
 popular movement, which, we cannot doubt, will carry everything before 
 it, develop a fresh spirit throughout the North, and hasten that triumph 
 which the people everywhere demand and long for. 
 
 We print in another column a full report. Those who read will recog- 
 nize, as those who heard hailed with unbounded enthusiasm, the eloquence 
 and devoted patriotism of Cochrane, Hamilton, and Conkling. The organi- 
 zation of the League was completed and its officers chosen, and in the 
 tone of the speeches of these gentlemen Avill be seen the spirit in which a 
 great work is begun. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 BY-LAWS 
 
 Unul ^lengi^ 
 
 1. The Association is organized under the Pledge of the Loyal 
 
 National League. 
 
 We, the undersigned, citizens of the United States, hereby associate 
 ourselves under the name and title of tlie Loyal Nationai. League. 
 
 We pledge ourselves to unconditional loyalty to the Government 
 of the United States, to an unwavering support of its efforts to 
 suppress the Rebellion, and to spare no endeavor to maintain unim- 
 paired the National unity, both in pi-inciple 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 
 maintain the power, glory, and integrity of the Nation. 
 
 2. All persons signing this Pledge shall be members of the Loyal 
 
 National League. 
 
 3. Its officers shall be — 
 
 A Council of Twenty-five, and 
 
 An Executive Committee of Twenty-five, permanently chosen, 
 each body with power to fill vacancies in its own number, sub- 
 ject to the approval of the League — 
 
46 
 
 A Treasurer, to be elected by the Council ; 
 
 A Secretary, to be elected by the Executive Committee. 
 
 4. The duty of the Council shall be to have a general supervision 
 
 over the affairs of the League, and to report to the Association 
 for their approval, from time to time, such additional by-laws as 
 they may deem expedient. The members shall preside over the 
 meetings of the Association. 
 
 5. The duty of the Executive CoManrxEE shall be to take charge o^ 
 
 the Hall of the League ; to provide it with suitable journals and 
 documents ; to superintend the general details of its business ; 
 and devise plans for its enlargement and usefulness. It shall also 
 be a chief duty of the Executive Committee to provide by cor- 
 respondence and otherwise for the spread of this national 
 organization throughout the loyal states, with a view to harmo- 
 nious and united action in furthering the primary objects set forth 
 in the pledge. ' 
 
 6. The duty of the Treasurer shall be to receive and disburse all the 
 
 moneys of the League, under such rules and regulations as the 
 Council may prescribe. 
 
 7. The duty of the Secretary shall be to keep a fan- copy of all 
 
 minutes and proceedings of the League, to conduct the corre- 
 spondence under the direction of the Executive Committee, and 
 to be the custodian of its archives. 
 
 8. The League shall be supported by voluntary subscriptions and 
 
 monthly contributions of its members. 
 
 9. No debt shall be incurred beyond the actual cash funds in the 
 
 hands of the Treasurer. 
 
 Ward Representation. 
 
 Whereas, Clubs have been formed, and are now forming, in various 
 wards of this city, under the pledge of the Loyal National League, 
 
47 
 
 and in some nstances delegates have been appointed to co-operate 
 witli delegates from other wards ; and 
 
 Whereas, it is desirable to bind in a common Union all the associa- 
 tions which, by accepting this pledge, evince a desire to affiliate 
 together. 
 
 It is, therefore, recommended that the Executive Committee be in- 
 structed to give their first attention to the perfecting of a scheme 
 whereby all such Clubs may be properly represented in this organiza- 
 tion. And they further recommend that the Executive Committee 
 report at the first meeting of the Association a suitable badge of the 
 national colors. 
 
 Resolution adopted in joint session of the Council and Executive 
 
 Committee. 
 
 Resolved, That in addition to the Council and Executive Com- 
 mittees appointed at the meeting at Cooper Institute, Friday, 20th 
 March, for organization of the National League, and in accordance 
 with the resolution of instruction unanimously adopted at that meet- 
 ing, thei-e shall be a Committee of twenty-two, consisting of one 
 representative from the organization which has been or may be raised 
 in each ward of the city ; and that such Committee shall be entitled 
 " The Ward CojmiTXEE of the Loyal National League," and 
 shall unite with the Council and Executive Committees in joint ses- 
 sion. This Ward Committee may make rules for its own government, 
 and adopt measures for the spread of the organization, with the con- 
 currence of the Council and Executive Committee. 
 
 Correct copy of the By-Laws and Resolution on Ward Representa- 
 tion. 
 
 JAMES A. ROOSEVELT, 
 
 Secrctaiij of the League. 
 New York, March 26, 18G3. 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 lllliiillllllllllllllllllllililllllllilllllillll 
 012 198 740 6 « 
 
 Officers i)f i\}t fopl f aiioiml f m5uc. 
 
 
 COUNCIL OP TWENTY-FIVE. 
 
 GEORGE OPDYKE, 
 CHARLES KING, 
 JOHN A. STEVENS, 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, 
 JOHN C. GREEN, 
 A. T. STEWART, 
 FRANCIS LIEBER, 
 WLLIAM E. DODGE, 
 WILLIAM CURTIS NOTES, 
 MORRIS KETCHUM, 
 SETH B. HUNT, 
 
 E. CAYLUS, 
 MOSES TAYLOR, 
 CHARLES BUTLER, 
 FRANCIS B. CUTTING, 
 ROBERT BAYARD, 
 JOHN J. CISCO, 
 C. V. S. ROOSEVELT, 
 FRANCIS G. SHAW, 
 CHARLES A. HECKSHER, 
 W. H. WEBB, 
 WILLIAM F. GARY, 
 
 JAMES McKAYE. 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OP TWENTY-FIVE. 
 
 GEORGE GRISWOLD, 
 JOHN COCHRANE, 
 FRANKLIN H. DELANO, 
 J. BUTLER AVRIGHT, 
 GEORGE CABOT WARD, 
 JOHN JAY, 
 ISAAC II. BAILEY, 
 WILLIAM A. HALL, 
 HUGO WESENDONCK, 
 WILLIAM T. BLODGETT, 
 PARKE GODWIN, 
 ADRIAN ISELIN, 
 
 SIDNEY HOWARD GAY, 
 ROBERT B. MINTUKN, Jr., 
 JAMES A. ROOSEVELT, 
 CHARLES ASTOR BRISTED, 
 ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY, 
 THOMAS N. DALE, 
 JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS, Jr. 
 WILLIAM E. DODGE, Jr., 
 WILLIAM ORTON, 
 WOLCOTT GIBBS, 
 C. E. DETMOLD, 
 GEORGE P. PUTNAHL