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THE SUMTER ANNIVERSARY, 1863. 
 
 OPINIONS OF LOYALISTS 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 THE GREAT QUESTIONS OE THE TIMES; 
 
 EXPRESSED IN THE SPEECHES AND LETTERS FROM PROMINENT CIT- 
 IZENS OF ALL SECTIONS AND PARTIES, ON OCCASION 
 OF THE INAUGURATION OF 
 
 )t Ifrrgal Itatbral league, 
 
 
 IN MASS MEETING ON" UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK, 
 
 ON THE Hth OF APRIL, 1863, 
 
 THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATTACK ON FORT SUMTER. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY OEDEB OF THE COUNCIL AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE. 
 
 Neru f)ork: 
 
 C. S. WESTCOTT & CO., PRINTERS, 
 
 No. 79 John Street. 
 
 1863. 
 

 •3 
 
THE GREAT SUMTER MEETING. 
 
 The matter contained in this volume — statements of the proceedings at the 
 Mass Meeting of the Loyal National League, in Union Square, New York, on 
 the "Anniversary of Sumter" — needs no preface beyond the accounts given by 
 sundry newspapers, from which brief quotations are herewith given. 
 
 The meeting originated in the following 
 
 CALL OF THE LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE. 
 
 The members of the Loyal National League, and all persons who unite with 
 them in a determination to support the Government it its efforts to suppress 
 the rebellion against its authority, are invited to assemble in Mass Meeting on 
 Union Square, Saturday afternoon, 11th April, at four o'clock, the anniversary 
 of the attack upon Fort Sumter, to renew to the Government their solemn 
 pledge and fixed resolve to maintain unimpaired the national unity, both in 
 principle and territorial boundary. 
 
 COUNCIL OF TWENTY-FIVE. 
 
 GEORGE OPDYKE, 
 CHARLES KING, 
 JOHN A. STEVENS, 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, 
 JOHN C. GREEN, 
 A. T. STEWART, 
 FRANCIS LIEBER, 
 WILLIAM E. DODGE, 
 WILLIAM CURTIS NOYES, 
 MORRIS KETCHUM, 
 SETH B. HUNT, 
 
 JAMES 
 
 E. CAYLUS, 
 MOSES TAYLOR, 
 CHARLES BUTLER, 
 FRANCIS B. CUTTING, 
 ROBERT BAYARD, 
 JOHN J. CISCO, 
 C. V. S. ROOSEVELT, 
 FRANCIS G. SHAW, 
 CHARLES A. HECKSCHER, 
 W. H. WEBB, 
 WILLIAM F. CARY, 
 McKAYE. 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF TWENTY-FIVE. 
 
 GEORGE GRISWOLD, 
 JOHN COCHRANE, 
 FRANKLIN H. DELANO, 
 J. BUTLER WRIGHT, 
 GEORGE CABOT WARD, 
 JOHN JAY, 
 ISAAC H. BAILEY, 
 WILLIAM A. HALL, 
 WILLIAM T. BLODGETT, 
 PARKE GODWIN, 
 ADRIAN ISELIN, 
 SIDNEY HOWARD GAY, 
 
 ROBERT B. MINTURN, Jr., 
 JAMES A. ROOSEVELT, 
 CHARLES ASTOR BRISTED, 
 ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY, 
 THOMAS N. DALE, 
 JOHN A. STEVENS, Jr., 
 WILLIAM E. DODGE, Jr., 
 WILLIAM ORTON, 
 WOLCOTT GIBBS, 
 C. E. DETMOLD, 
 GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 
 
 JAMES A. ROOSEVELT, Secretary. 
 
From the New York Evening Post, April 11. 
 THE GREAT MEETING TO-DAY. 
 
 The great Sumter Meeting at Union Square to-day, which is in progress as 
 we go to press, is an immense and most enthusiastic popular demonstration 
 About twenty delegations from Loyal Leagues in this and other states have 
 arrived here to-day, to take part in the proceedings. Among these delegations 
 are one from Philadelphia, another from Boston, and several from towns in 
 Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey. 
 
 Six stands for speakers have been erected, the presiding officers of which 
 together with the names of the principal speakers, were given in our second 
 edition. 
 
 The stands are tastefully decorated with American flags and banners, bear- 
 ing appropriate inscriptions— among them the following: 
 " Loyal National League. [Pledged to maintain the national unity ]» 
 
 lV\™Z°ZT n Un 1 i ° n v. t< ? ™ aintain the Power, glory, and integrity of the nation." 
 figure of an eagle holding a writhing copperhead.] 
 
 <; No compromise with traitors-No neutrals in this war-The flag of our 
 Union shall float over Sumter." ° 
 
 The statue of Washington is decked with the national colors, and the pedestal 
 is hung with evergreens. 
 
 Flags are flying trom almost every flagstaff, from windows and from roofs 
 and the city wears the appearance of a gala day. ' 
 
 A great number of letters have been received from distinguished men, in re 
 sponse to invitations to be present at the meeting. * * # 
 
 From the New York Daily Times, April 12. 
 
 LOYAL MASS MEETING. 
 
 THIRTY THOUSAND UNION MEN IN COUNCIL. 
 
 Loyalty to the Government and Confidence in the Administration.— An Aggres- 
 sive War Policy Urged— Secessionists Scourged and Copperheads Confounded. 
 
 GREAT ENTHUSIASM. 
 
 A grand mass meeting of the citizens of New York, regardless of party affil- 
 iation, was held yesterday afternoon at Union Square. The object of the 
 meeting was to reiterate in the ears of Southern traitors, and before the eyes of 
 Northern sympathizers, the loyalty of New York to the Union, its confidence 
 in the administration, its desire for an aggressive war policy, its extreme ab- 
 horrence of all Confederates, and absolute detestation of all Copperheads. Six 
 
stands were erected, from which sweet music was given and eloquent addresses 
 delivered. Great enthusiasm pervaded the vast assemblage, which at one time 
 must have numbered thirty thousand persons, among whom were many ladies- 
 The hotels and private residences in and about the square were gayly deco- 
 rated with flags ; banners hung from many windows ; all things wore the look 
 of a holiday. Cannon were momentarily discharged, brass bands continually 
 clamored forth airs of patriotism, and shouts of applause drowned them all. 
 For the list of officers, the letters from distinguished men, the resolutions and 
 the addresses, we have no space, and necessarily confine ourselves to an ab- 
 stract of the proceedings, which, though in some instances comparatively brief, 
 will serve as a sufficient exponent of the loyal tone which pervaded the ad- 
 dresses, and the loyal spirit which was evinced by the enthusiastic thousands 
 who responded to the call. [Here follow six columns of particulars.] 
 
 From the New York Herald, April 12. 
 
 SUMTER ANNIVERSARY. 
 
 Great National Demonstration on Union Square. — The Republic One and Indi- 
 visible. — Inauguration of the Loyal National League. 
 
 The second anniversary of the rebel attack on Fort Sumter was made the 
 occasion of another imposing Union demonstration in this city yesterday, under 
 the auspices of the Loyal National League. As on the two former occasions 
 when that first act in the rebellion summoned the citizens of New York to a 
 manifestation of their loyalty, so on this occasion, Union Square was the place 
 of meeting. At six points about the square platforms were erected, decorated 
 with flags and banners, and furnished with bands of music, and all around was 
 an immense assemblage of the people, exhibiting as much enthusiastic loyalty 
 and devotion to the flag, and as much determination to put down the rebellion, 
 as when they met at the same place two years ago. And above all towered, 
 majestic and serene, the bronze equestrian figure of "Washington, the pedestal 
 garlanded with evergreens and the head decked with the national colors. 
 
 The public edifices generally, and most of the large buildings on Broad- 
 way, had the American flag flying throughout the day. Among the notable 
 exceptions to this rule were the two headquarters of the democracy — Tam- 
 many Hall and Mozart Hall. The weather was superb, and that portion of 
 the city presented a most animated spectacle. [Here follows four columns of 
 particulars.] 
 
 The shades of evening were falling, and the gas-lamps had begun to brighten 
 up before the last of the orators at some of the stands had finished their speeches. 
 # % * The demonstration, on the whole, was a most successful one. 
 
From the New York Evening Post of April 13 — (second article). 
 
 THE MEETING OF SATURDAY. 
 
 The first open-air demonstration of the Loyal National League, on the anni- 
 versary of the original bombardment of Fort Sumter, was a great success. 
 The spaces about Union Square were crowded all the latter part of the after- 
 noon with patriotic citizens. It is needless to say that the proceedings were 
 orderly and animated. In the midst of the vast throng there was but one 
 feeling and one voice — that of irrepressible determination to conquer the re- 
 bellion. Resolutions, letters, addresses^ and speeches, were all received with 
 earnest enthusiasm. 
 
 Generals Fremont, Sigel, and Hamilton, perhaps attracted the most attention, 
 but all the speakers were listened to with the deepest interest. Postmaster- 
 General Blair, as a representative of the government, made an eloquent and 
 forcible appeal to his audience; Henry Wilson justified the high position he 
 holds in the United States Senate ; Governor Morton spoke warmly for the 
 patriotism of the Northwest; while D. S. Dickinson, Judge Kelley, of Philadel- 
 phia, Schuyler Colfax, G. W. Julian, Colonel Nugent, George W. Curtis, and 
 others, made the welkin ring with cheers. 
 
 This meeting differed from other monster meetings which have been held in 
 this city in one respect, and that is, the number of our prominent and wealthy 
 citizens who took an active part in its proceedings. Our merchants usually 
 content themselves, on such occasions, with allowing their names to be used 
 officially and contributing money ; but this time they took hold in person with 
 a will. On each of the six different stands, around which the multitude were 
 gathered, we saw many who have seldom before assumed such positions. They 
 have labored throughout with great zeal, and will so continue to labor, we 
 have no doubt, to the end. 
 
 From the New York Tribune, April 13. 
 
 THE SUMTER MEETING. 
 
 New York has spoken again for the war, with a voice whose tones shall be 
 heard as words of cheer to every national army, and words of doom in every 
 rebel camp. The meeting of the Loyal National League on Saturday was far 
 more than ordinarily a spontaneous expression of popular enthusiasm, and its 
 success is the more significant because many of the usual means by which 
 numbers are attracted to a public assembly were omitted. There were delega- 
 tions from abroad of considerable strength, but the mass of the meeting was 
 of course from New York — a city which is supposed to contain at least as 
 large a proportion of rebel sympathizers as any section of the country. Let 
 this magnificent gathering witness how large a part of its best citizens are de- 
 votedly loyal. Not less than thirty thousand of them were present to de- 
 clare it. 
 
 We give a great deal of space this morning [two entire pages, twelve columns, 
 of small type] to a report of the speeches and resolutions, but they are such as 
 
deserve public attention. The number of really eminent speakers was unusually 
 great, and their addresses were in the main thoughtful discussions of principles 
 and great measures of policy, and plain declarations of the duties of the hour. 
 The administration was represented by Postmaster-General Blair; Gov. Morton 
 of Indiana spoke eloquently for the West; Senator Wilson of Massachusetts 
 for New England ; and General Fremont, General Hamilton, and General Sigel, 
 for the great army which the whole nation contributes to defend the Republic. 
 The address of General Fremont will excite general admiration for its 
 soldierly directness of speech, good sense, and complete devotion to the cause 
 which the personal jealousies of others still prevent him from serving in the 
 field. 
 
 The speeches reflect indeed the character of the meeting, which through all 
 its proceedings preserved the earnestness of the convictions which brought it 
 together. Its genuine enthusiasm had a deeper source than party politics or 
 personal motives ; it sprung from an unconquerable patriotism, which, hav- 
 ing been tried by long endurance of war, having counted the cost of the tre- 
 mendous struggle which two years ago it undertook, having taken to heart the 
 lessons of austere experience, having been instructed by defeat and sobered by 
 great sacrifices — nevertheless, with undiminished zeal, and with a courage 
 which nothing has been able to dishearten, renews to the government and the 
 nation the pledge of its unswerving devotion and support. 
 
OFFICERS. 
 
 STAND No. 1. 
 
 Under charge of Committee of Arrangements, 
 
 GEORGE GRISWOLD, JOHN COCHRANE, 
 
 J. BUTLER WRIGHT, ADRIAN ISELIN. 
 
 President. 
 
 Hon. GEORGE OPDYKE, 
 
 Mayor of the City. 
 
 Vice-Presidents. 
 
 William B. Astor, 
 John C. Green, 
 Andrew Carrigan, 
 William Cullen Bryant, 
 John Mnll an, 
 Thomas Ewbank, 
 Robert Bayard, 
 Henry J. Raymond, 
 James A. Hamilton, 
 Edward Colgate, 
 Richard M. Hoe, 
 Henry O'Rielly, 
 George T. Adee, 
 Ferdinand Lawrence, 
 F. Schroeder, 
 Edwin J. Brown, 
 Robert Thomas, 
 William B. Rockwell, 
 William A. Booth, 
 Richard W. Weston, 
 Elisha Seeley, 
 John L>. Wolfe, 
 George Denison, 
 Frederick Prime, 
 John Hayward, 
 R. S. Mount, jr., 
 Rufus F. Andrews, 
 
 William L. Wood, 
 W. Scheppe, 
 John E. Williams, 
 Louis Burger, 
 J. G. Pearson, 
 Elias Howe, jr., 
 John M. Reid, 
 Leonard D. White, 
 Seth B. Hunt, 
 Robert Murray, 
 Joseph Lawrence, 
 W. W. De Forest, 
 William F. Barnes, 
 Thomas Stevens, 
 Howard Potter, 
 Joseph Foulke, 
 James Kelly, 
 Herman Raster, 
 Frank E. Howe, 
 George T. Elliott, 
 Francis B. Nickol, 
 D. T. Valentine, 
 Maunsell B. Field, 
 William G. Lambert, 
 B. W. Osborne, 
 David R. Jaques, 
 James W. Welsh, 
 
10 
 
 Edmund Stephenson, 
 Rev. Rudolph Dulon, 
 Philip Hamilton, 
 Samuel D. Babcock, 
 Henry Bancker, 
 John H. Waydell, 
 Robert Cutting, 
 John L. Brown, 
 Oliver Holden, 
 Charles Samson, 
 Charles H. Macy. 
 William A. Darling, 
 John Ward, 
 G. W. Bliss, 
 John Cotton Smith, 
 Richard Hecksher, 
 Isaac Ferris, 
 D. Lichtenstein 
 Henry Kloppenburg, 
 J. E. Braunsdorf, 
 John W. Quincey, 
 
 Thomas Lawrence, 
 Francis Vinton, 
 D. N. Barney, 
 O. D. F. Grant, 
 Gulian C. Verplanck, 
 Joseph Samson, 
 Francis Hall, 
 David W. Christern, 
 Stewart L. Woodford, 
 Alexander H. Keech, 
 Cornelius Vanderbilt, 
 Marshall 0. Roberts, 
 W. H. Bestling, 
 William Hegeman, 
 James B. Young, 
 M. Levin, 
 George T. Strong, 
 James Speyers, 
 Otto Lockersdorf, 
 H. Von Glahn. 
 
 Secretaries. 
 
 James W. Underbill, 
 Frank Otis, 
 William H. Grenelle, 
 Charles G. Clarke, 
 William Peet, 
 KyW. Howell, 
 CHarles Nettleton, 
 R. H. Vaudenheuvel, 
 George McMillan, 
 D. S. Riddle, 
 Louis J. Belloni, jr., 
 Charles H. Tyler, 
 Frederick G. Swan, 
 
 David W. Bishop, 
 B. J. Marten, 
 R. Fulton Crary, 
 Francis A. Stout, 
 Alexander Becker, 
 Andrew Warner, 
 George Griswold Haven, 
 James Couper Lord, 
 Samuel W. Tubbs, 
 George Wilson, 
 Joseph Howard, jr., 
 William F. Smith, 
 William E. Everett. 
 
PROGRAMME OF PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 STAND No. 1. 
 
 SOUTHEAST CORNER, FACING THE STATUE OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 Salutes of Artillery by the Workmen employed by Henry Brewster $• Co. 
 
 1. Grand March, from " Le Prophete," of Meyerbeer, by Grafula's Grand 
 Band. 
 
 2. Hon. George Opdyke, Mayor of the City, will call the meeting to order. 
 
 3. Prayer, by Rev. William Adams, D. D. 
 
 4. J. Butler Wright, of the Executive Committee, will read the call for the 
 
 meeting, and the list of Vice-Presidents and Secretaries. 
 
 5. George Griswold will read the address adopted by the Council and Execu- 
 
 tive Committees on Lectures and Addresses. 
 
 6. John Cochrane will read the resolutions . 
 
 7. Music by the Band. 
 
 8. Hon. Montgomery Blair will address the meeting. 
 
 9. William Ross Wallace will read an "Ode " on the defence of Fort Sum- 
 
 ter by General Anderson. 
 
 10. Music — singing : " The Army Hymn." By Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 11. Judge William D. Kelley, delegate of the Union League of Philadelphia 
 
 will address the meeting. 
 
 12. Mifcic — singing: " The Star-Spangled Banner." 
 
 13. Benj. H. Brewster, delegate of the Union League of Philadelphia, will 
 address the meeting. 
 
 14. Music — singing : " Song for the Loyal National League," written ex- 
 
 pressly for this occasion, by George H. Boker. 
 
 15. David S. Coddington will address the meeting. 
 
 16. George Griswold, will read a Poem, entitled " Those Seventy Men,' 
 
 written for this occasion, by Mrs. Sarah H. Bradford. 
 
 17. Music — singing : " Our Union," written expressly for this occasion, by 
 
 Alfred B. Street. 
 
 18. Col. Stewart L. Woodford will address the meeting. 
 
12 
 
 This stand was placed immediately in front of the statue of Washington. 
 Long before the commencement, a great mass of people collected beneath 
 the inspiration of the Father of their Country, and by 4 p. m. the auditors 
 at this stand were numbered by thousands. A salute Avas fired by the 
 workingmen in the employ of Mr. Henry Brewster, from two six-pounders. 
 This stand was provided with a paraboloid sound-reflector, which throws 
 the voice of a speaker much further than it would otherwise go, and 
 renders speaking in the open air comparatively easy. This is a contrivance 
 of Colonel Grant, of calcium-light celebrity. 
 
 Two huge rolls of pa,per, so large that it was necessary to wind them on 
 immense spools prepared for the purpose, stood on the table. They were 
 the rolls of signers to the pledge of the Loyal National League. 
 
 After the grand march from " Le Prophete," by Grafulla's band, Mr 
 George Giuswold called the meeting to order, and nominated Mayor 
 Opdyke to preside. His nomination wbs received with enthusiasm. 
 
 On taking the chair, the Mayor said : 
 
 SPEECH OF MAYOR OPDYKE. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : For the third time since the outbreak of this 
 wicked rebellion we have assembled at this spot, consecrated to civil 
 liberty by the statue of Washington, to renew our pledges of patriotic 
 devotion to our country. [Cheers.] On the first occasion we met to give 
 our defiant response to the booming of rebel guns against Fort Sumter. 
 To-day, the avenging arms of freemen are returning the blows then struck 
 by traitors against that ill-fated fortress. [Applause.] We do not yet know 
 the result ; but let us hope and pray to God, that these blows may fall so 
 quick and heavy that the enemy will be speedily driven from this strong- 
 hold, and that the starry emblem of our nationality may again wave in 
 triumph over its ramparts. [Cheers.] Nor do I believe that we should 
 shed many tears if the traitorous city in its rear, where this foul rebellion 
 was hatched, should share the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. [Great 
 cheering.] My friends, I rejoice to see you here in such overwhelming 
 numbers. It proves that in this metropolis of the Union, the call of un- 
 conditional loyalty is a bugle blast which reaches the public hUrt, and 
 stirs it to its inmost centime. It proves that the people of New York do not 
 underestimate the priceless value of that Union, which has made us a 
 great, prosperous, and powerful nation. It proves their unalterable deter- 
 mination to maintain it at whatever cost. [Applause.] But why are we 
 here to-day in such countless numbers'? It is, in the first place, to remove 
 all doubt in the public mind, here and elsewhere — nay, everywhere through- 
 out the civilized world, that the people of this city are unconditionally and 
 almost unanimously loyal to the government. [Applause.] The senti- 
 ments 1 ecently uttered by leaders of political factions, and the sad revela- 
 tions of Lord Lyons [derisive laughter], may have created some doubts 
 as to the unalterable determination of our people to stand by the govern- 
 ment at all hazards, and under all possible circumstances. This magnifi- 
 
13 
 
 cent meeting will dispel these doubts. [Cheers.] In the second place, we 
 are hereto declare our unalterable purpose, until this rebellion is suppress- 
 ed, to hold all party interests and allegiance subordinate to patriotism. 
 Until that great end is obtained, we will know no parties but one which is 
 for the government, and another which is against it; that we will stand 
 as a band of brothers in support of the cause which is as dear to us as 
 life, and against all who would betray it, or strive to overthrow it, where- 
 ever they may be found, whether North or South, East or West, at home 
 or abroad. [Applause.] Without detaining yon longer, when we have 
 so many eloquent gentlemen here, I wish to introduce to you first, before 
 the regular proceedings of this meeting are opened, the hero of the Harriet 
 Lane, when she was captured at Galveston. The boy, Robert Cummings, 
 was the last to leave that ill-fated vessel. He seized a revolver in each 
 hand, and in the midst of the rebels fired right and left, and, it is believed, 
 killed a number of them, until he was finally wounded and carried below. 
 [Loud applause. " Stand him up."] 
 
 Master Cummings, a sturdy little tar, mounted a chair, and was loudly 
 cheered. 
 
 Mr. George Griswold read the following address, prepared by Dr. 
 Francis Lieber, it was received with great applause. 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 It is just and wise that men engaged in a great and arduous cause 
 should profess anew, from time to time, their faith, and pledge themselves 
 to one another, to stand by their cause to the last extremity, even at the 
 sacrifice of all they have and all that God has given them — their wealth, 
 their- blood, and their children's blood. We solemnly pledge all this to 
 our cause, for it is the cause of our Country and her noble history, of 
 freedom, and justice, and truth — it is the cause of all we hold dearest on 
 this earth : we profess and pledge this — plainly, broadly, openly in the 
 cheering time of success, and most fervently in the clay of trial and 
 reverses. 
 
 We recollect how, two years ago, when reckless arrogance attacked 
 Fort Sumter, the response to that boom of treasonable cannon was read, 
 in our city, in the flag of our country — waving from every steeple and 
 school-house, from City Hall and Court House, from every shop window 
 and market stall, and fluttering in the hand of every child, and on the 
 head-gear of every horse in the busy street. Two years have passed ; 
 uncounted sacrifices have been made — sacrifices of wealth, of blood and 
 limb, and life — of friendship and brotherhood, of endeared and hallowed 
 pursuits and sacred ties — and still the civil war is raging in bitterness and 
 heart-burning — still we make the same profession, and still we pledge 
 ourselves firmly to hold on to our cause, and persevere in the struggle into 
 which unrighteous men, bewildered by pride, and stimulated by bitter 
 hatred, have plunged us. 
 
 We profess ourselves to be loyal citizens of these United States ; and by 
 
14 
 
 loyalty we mean a candid and loving devotion to the object to which a loya 
 nLi-a loyal husband, a loyal friend, a loyal citizen— devotes himself. We 
 eschew the attenuated arguments derived by trifling scholars from meagre 
 etvmoloov We take the core and substance of this weighty word, and 
 pledze ourselves that we will loyally-not merely outwardly and formally, 
 according to the letter, but frankly,, fervently and according to the spirit— 
 adhere to our country, to her institutions, to freedom, and her power, and 
 to that great institution called the government of our country, founded by 
 our lathers, and loved by their sons, and by all right-minded men who have 
 become citizens of this land by choice and not by brrth-.-who have 
 wedded this country in the maturity of their age as verily heir own. W e 
 pledge ourselves as National men devoted to the Nationality of this great 
 people No government can wholly dispense with loyalty except the 
 fiercest despotism ruling by naked intimidation; but a republic stands m 
 heater need of it than any other government, and most ot all a republic 
 beset by open rebellion and insidious treason. Loyalty is pre-eminently a 
 civic virtue in a free country. It is patriotism cast in the graceful mould 
 of candid devotion to the harmless government of an unshackled nation 
 
 In pledging ourselves thus, we know of no party Parties are unavoida- 
 ble Tn P free D countries, and maybe useful if they acknowledge he country 
 fii above themselves, and remain within the sanctity of the fundamental 
 aw which protects the enjoyment of liberty prepared for all within its 
 sacred domain. But Party has no meaning in far the greater number of 
 Zt\Z and the common relations of human life When we are ailing 
 we do not take medicine by party prescription. We do not build ships by 
 party measurement; we do not pray for our daily bread by party di - 
 Suctions • we do not take our chosen ones to our bosoms by party demar- 
 cations" nor do we eat or drink, sleep or wake, as partisans. We do not 
 on ov the flowers of spring, nor do we harvest the grain, by party lines. 
 We y do notlncur punishments for infractions of the commandments 
 according to party creeds. We do not pursue truth or cultivate science 
 Dv^y dogmas; and we do not, we must not, love and defend our 
 co y im amfour iberty, dear to us as part and portion of our very selves, 
 accoi 1 n" to party rules. Woe to him who does. When a house is on 
 £Taud a mother with her child cries for help at the windowabove, shall 
 the' firemen at the engine be allowed to trifle away the precious tune ui 
 pan" Sckerings, or is^then the only word-" Water ! pump away ; up with 
 
 th L^us not be like the Byzantines, those wretches who quarrelled about 
 contniptible party refinements, theological though they were, while the 
 trucueit Mussulman was steadily drawing nearer-nay, some of whom 
 woum even go to the lord of the crescent, and with a craven hear would 
 w for a pittance of the spoil, so that they would be spared, and could 
 vent their party spleen against their kin in blood, and fellows m religion. 
 
 We know o'f no party in our present troubles; the word is here an 
 empty word. The only line which divides the people of the North runs 
 Se^n the mass of loyal men who stand by their country, no matter o 
 wl at Ice of political meeting they were used to resort or with what 
 Tccent they utter the language of the land, or what religion they profess or 
 Safse thnents they may have uttered in the excitement of former dis- 
 
15 
 
 cussions, on the one hand, and those on the other hand, who keep outside 
 of that line — traitors to their country in the hour of need — or those who 
 allow themselves to be misled by shallow names, and by reminiscences 
 which cling around those names from by-gone days, finding no application 
 in a time which asks for things more sterling than names, theories, or 
 platforms. 
 
 If an alien enemy were to land his hosts on your shores, would you fly 
 to your arms and ring the tocsin because your country is in danger, or 
 would you meditatively look at your sword and gun, and spend your time 
 in pondering whether the administration in power, which must and can 
 alone direct the defence of your hearths, has a right to be styled by this or 
 that party name, or whether it came into power with your assistance, and 
 will appoint some of your party to posts of honor or comfortable emolu- 
 ments 1 And will any one now lose his time and fair name as an honest 
 and brave citizen, when no foreigner, indeed, threatens your country, at 
 least not directly, but far more, when a reckless host of law-defying men, 
 heaping upon yon the vilest vituperation that men who do not leave be- 
 hind them the ingenuity of civilization when they relapse into barbarism, 
 can invent — when this host threatens to sunder your country and cleave 
 your very history in twain, to deprive you of your rivers which God has 
 given you, to extinguish your nationality, to break down your liberty and 
 to make that land, which the Distributor of our sphere's geography has 
 placed between the old and older world as the greatest link of that civilization 
 which is destined to encircle the globe — to make that land the hot-bed of an- 
 gry petty powers, sinking deeper and deeper as they quarrel and fight, and 
 quarreling and fighting more angrily as they sink deeper ? It is the very 
 thing your foreign enemies desire, and have long desired. When nullifica- 
 tion threatened to bring about secession — and the term secession was used 
 at that early period — foreign journals stated in distinct words that Eng- 
 land was deeply interested in the contest ; for nullification might bring on 
 secession, and secession would cause a general disruption — an occurrence 
 which would redound to the essential benefit of Great Britain. 
 
 But the traitors of the North, who have been so aptly called adders or 
 copperheads — striking, as these reptiles do, more secretly and deadly even 
 than the rattlesnake, which has some chivalry, at least in its tail — believe, 
 or pretend to believe, that no fragmentary disruption would follow a divis- 
 ion of our country into North and South, and advocate a compromise, by 
 which they affect to believe that the two portions may possibly be 
 reunited after a provisional division, as our pedlers putty a broken china 
 cup. 
 
 As to the first, that we might pleasantly divide into two comfortable 
 portions, we prefer being guided by the experience of all history, to follow- 
 ing the traitors in their teachings. We will not hear of it. We live in 
 an age when the word is Nationalization, not De-nationalization; when 
 fair Italy has risen, like a new-born goddess, out of the foaming waves of 
 the Mediterranean. All destruction is quick and easy ; all growth and 
 formation is slow and toilsome. Nations break up, like splendid mirrors 
 dashed to the ground. They do not break into a number of well-shaped, 
 neatly framed little looking-glasses. But a far more solemn truth even 
 than this comes here into play. It is with nations as with families and 
 
16 
 
 with individuals. Those destined by nature to live in the bonds of friend- 
 ship and mutual kindliness, become the bitterest and most irreconcilable 
 enemies, when once fairly separated in angry enmity j in precisely the 
 same degree in which affection and good-will were intended to Bubsist be- 
 tween them. We must have back the South, or else those who will not 
 reunite with us must leave the countiy j we must have the country at any 
 price. If, however, a plain division between the North and the South 
 could take place, who will deny that those very traitors would instantly 
 begin to manoeuvre for a gradual annexation of the North to the South ? 
 IUs known to be so. Some of them, void of all shame, have avowed it. 
 They are ready to petition on their knees for annexation to the South, and 
 to let the condescending grantor, "holding the while his nose," introduce 
 slavery, that blessed "corner-stone of" the newest "civilization," into the 
 North, which has been happily purged from this evil. Let us put the heel 
 on this adder, and bruise all treason out of its head. 
 
 As to the compromise which they propose, we know of no compromise 
 with crime that is not criminal itself, and senseless in addition to its being 
 wicked. New guarantees, indeed, may be asked for at the proper time, 
 but it is now our turn to ask for them. They will be guarantees of 
 peace, of the undisturbed integrity of our country, of law, and liberty, and 
 security, asked for and insisted upon by the Union men, who now pledge 
 themselves not to listen to the words, compromise, new guarantees for the 
 South, armistice, or convention of delegates from the South and North — 
 as long as this war shall last, until the North is victorious, and shall have 
 established again the national authority over the length and breadth of the 
 country as it was ; over the United States dominion as it was before the 
 breaking out of the crime, which is now ruining our fair land— ruining it 
 in pohnof wealth, but, with God's help, elevating it in character, strength, 
 
 and dignity. 
 
 We believe that the question of the issue, which must attend the present 
 contest, according to the character it has now acquired, is reduced to these 
 simple words— Either the North conquers the South, or the South con- 
 quers the North. Make up your minds for this alternative. Either the 
 North conquers the South and re-establishes law, freedom, and the integ- 
 rity of our country, or the Soutli conquers the North by arms, or by 
 treason at home, and covers our portion of the country with disgrace and 
 
 slavery. 
 
 Let us not shrink from facts or mince the truth, but rather plainly pre- 
 sent to our minds the essential character of the struggle in which hun- 
 dreds of thousands, that ought to be brothers, are now engaged. What 
 has brought us to these grave straits 1 
 
 Are we two different races, as the new ethnologists of the South, with 
 profound knowledge of history and of their own skins, names, and language, 
 proclaim ? Have tbey produced the names which Europe mentions when 
 American literature is spoken of? Have they produced our Crawiords? 
 Have they advanced science ? Have they the great schools of the age ? 
 Do they speak the choice idiom of the cultivated man 1 Have the think- 
 ers and inventors of the age their homes in that region ! Is their standard 
 of comfort exalted above that of ours ? What has this wondrous race 
 produced ? what new idea has it added to the great stock of civilization 1 
 
17 
 
 It has produced cotton, and added the idea that slavery is divine. Does 
 this establish a superior race ? 
 
 The French, ourselves, the English, the Germans, the Italians, none of 
 whom are destitute of national self-gratulation, have ever made a prepos- 
 terous claim of constituting a different race. Even the new idea of a 
 Latin Race — a Bonaparte anachronism — is founded upon an error less re- 
 volting to common sense and common knowledge. 
 
 There is no fact or movement of greater significance in all history of 
 the human race, than the settlement of this great continent by European 
 people at a period when, in their portion of the globe, great nations had 
 been formed, and the national polity had finally become the normal type 
 of government ; and it is a fact equally pregnant with momentous results, 
 that the northern portion of this hemisphere came to be colonized chiefly 
 by men who brought along with them the seeds of self-government, and a 
 living common law, instinct with the principles of manly self-dependence 
 and civil freedom. 
 
 The charters under which they settled, and which divided the American 
 territory into colonies, were of little more importance than the vessels 
 and their names in which the settlers crossed the Atlantic ; nor had the 
 origin of these charters a deep meaning, nor was their source always 
 pure. The people in this country always felt themselves to be one 
 people, and unitedly they proclaimed and achieved their independence. 
 The country as a whole was called by Washington and his compeers America, 
 for want of a more individual name. Still, there was no outward and legal 
 bond between the colonies, except the crown of England ; and when our 
 people abjured their allegiance to that crown, each colony stood formally 
 for itself. The Articles of Confederation were adopted, by which our fore- 
 fathers attempted to establish a confederacy, uniting all that felt themselves 
 to be of one nation, but were not one by outward legal form. It was the 
 best united government our forefathers could think of, or of which, per- 
 haps, the combination of circumstances admitted. Each colony came 
 gradually to be called a State, and called itself sovereign, although none 
 of them had ever exercised any of the highest attributes of sovereignty ; 
 nor did ever after the States do so. 
 
 Wherever political societies are leagued together, be it by the frail bonds 
 of a pure confederacy, or by the consciousness of the people that they are 
 intrinsically one people, and form one nation, without, however, a posi- 
 tive National Government, then the most powerful of these ill-united por- 
 tions needs must rule ; and, as always more than one portion wishes to be 
 the leader, intestine struggles ensue in all such incoherent governments. It 
 has been so in antiquity ; it has been so in the middle ages ; it has been so, 
 and is so in modern times. Athens and Sparta, Castile and Aiagcn, 
 Austria and Prussia, are always jealous compa nions, readily turned 
 into bitter enemies. Those of our forefathers who later became the 
 framers of our Constitution, saw this approaching evil, and they ob- 
 served many other ills which had already overtaken the confederacy. 
 Even Washington the strong and tenacious patriot, was brought to the 
 brink of despondency. It was a dark period in our history ; and it wa 
 then that our fathers most boldly, yet most considerately, performed the 
 greatest act that our annals record — they engrafted a national, cou.plete 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 and representative government on our halting confederacy ; a government 
 in which the Senate, though still representing the States as States, became 
 Nationalized in a great measure, and in which the House of Representa- 
 tives became exclusively National. Virginia, which, under the Articles of 
 Confederation, was approaching the leadership over all (in the actual as- 
 sumption of which she would have been resisted by other rapidly growing 
 states, which would inevitably have led to our Peloponnesian war) — Vir- 
 ginia was now represented according to her population, like every other 
 portion of the country ; not as Virginia, not as a unit, but by a number of 
 representatives who voted, and were bound to vote individually, accord- 
 ing to their consciences and best light, as National men. The danger of 
 internal struggle and provincial bitterness had passed, and our country now 
 fairly entered as an equal among the leading nations in the course, where 
 nations, like Olympic chariot-horses, draw abreast the car of civiliza- 
 tion. We advanced rapidly ; the task assigned to us by Providence was 
 performed with a rapidity which had not been known before ; for we had 
 a National Government commensurate to our land and, it seemed, ade- 
 quate to our destiny. 
 
 But while thus united and freed from provincial retardation and entan- 
 glements, a new portent appeared. 
 
 Slavery, which had been planted here in the colonial times, and which 
 had been increased in this country, by the parent government, against the 
 urgent protestations of the colonists, and especially of the Virginians, ex- 
 isted in all the colonies at the time when they declared themselves inde- 
 pendent. It was felt by all to be an evil which must be dealt with as 
 best it might be, and the gradual extinction of which must be wisely yet 
 surely provided for. Even Mr. Calhoun, in his earlier days, called slavery 
 a scatfolding erected to rear the mansion of civilization, which must be 
 taken down when the fabric is finished. 
 
 This institution gave way gradually as civilization advanced. It has 
 done so in all periods of history, and especially of Christian history. 
 Slavery melts away like snow before the rays of rising civilization. The 
 South envied the North for getting rid of slavery so easily, and often ex- 
 pressed her envy. But a combination of untoward circumstances led the 
 South to change her mind. First, it was maintained that if slavery is an 
 evil, it was their affair and no one else had a right to discuss it or to interfere 
 with it ; then it came to be maintained that it was no evil ; then slavery 
 came to be declared an important national element, which required its own 
 distinct representation and especial protection ; then it was said — we feel 
 ashamed to mention it— that slavery is a divine institution. To use the 
 words of the great South-Carolinian, whose death we deeply mourn— of 
 James Louis Petigru— they placed, like the templars, Christ and Ba- 
 phornet on the same altar, worshipping God and Satan simultaneously. 
 But though slavery were divine, they choked the wells of common knowl- 
 edge witl°sand and stones, and enacted perpetual ignorance for the slave. 
 Then the renewal of that traffic, the records of which fills far the darkest 
 pages of European history, and which the most strenuous and protracted 
 efforts of civilized nations have not yet wholly succeeded in abolishing, 
 was loudly called for ; and our national laws, making that unhallowed 
 trade piracy, were declared unconstitutional. Yet still another step was 
 
19 
 
 to be taken. It was proclaimed that slavery is a necessary element of a 
 new and glorious civilization ; and those who call themselves conservatives 
 plunged recklessly into a new-fangled theory of politics and civilization. 
 
 Some thirty years ago we fiivrt; heard of Southern Eights. Some twenty 
 years since Ave were Jirst made familiar with the expression, Southern 
 Principles. Within the present lustre, Southern Civilization has been 
 proclaimed. What else remained but to invent Southern Mathematics 
 and to decree a Southern God 1 And what does Southern mean in this 
 connection ? South is a word which indicates relative position in 
 geography. Yet, in these combinations, it refers neither to geography, 
 nor to climate, nor to product, but singly and exclusively to Slavery. 
 Southern Rights, Southern Principles, Southern Civilization, and South- 
 ern Honor or " Chivalry," are novel phrases, to express the new idea of 
 principles and civilization characterized and tested by the dependence of 
 one class of people as chattel upon another. A more appalling confusion 
 of ideas is not recorded in the history of any tribe or nation that has 
 made any use of the terms— Rights, Principles, or Civilization. 
 
 Thus slavery came to group the different portions of our country ; out- 
 side of, and indeed in hostility to, the National Government and National 
 Constitution. The struggle for the leadership was upon us. The South 
 declared openly that it must rule ; we, in the meantime, declaring that the 
 Nation must rule, and if an iague is forced upon us, between the South and 
 the North, then, indeed, the North must rule and shall rule. This is the 
 war in which we are now engaged— in which, at the moment this is read 
 to you, the precious blood of your sons, and brothers, and fathers, is flow- 
 ing. 
 
 Whenever men are led, in the downward course of error and passion, 
 ultimately to declare themselves, with immoral courage, in favor of a thing 
 or principle which for centuries and thousands of years their own race 
 has declared, by a united voice, an evil or a crime, the mischief does not 
 stop with this single declaration. It naturally, and by a well-established 
 law, unhinges the whole morality of man ; it warps his intellect, and in- 
 flames his soul, with bewildering passions, with defiance to the simplest 
 truth and plainest fact, and with vindictive hatred toward those who 
 cannot agree with him. It is a fearful thing to become the defiant idolater 
 of wrong. Slavery, and the consequent separation from the rest of men, 
 begot pride in the leading men of the South— absurdly even pretending 
 to be of a different and better race. Pride begot bitter and venomous 
 hatred, and this bitter hatred, coupled with the love of owning men as 
 things, begot at last a hatred of that which distinguishes the whole race to 
 which we belong, more than aught else — the striving for and love of lib- 
 erty. 
 
 There is no room, then, for pacifying arguments with such men in arms 
 against us, against their duty, their country, their civilization. All that 
 remains for the present is the question, Who shall be the victor 1 
 
 It is for all these reasons which have been stated, that we pledge our- 
 selves anew, in unwavering loyalty, to stand by and support the Govern- 
 ment in all its efforts to suppress the rebellion, and to spare no endeavor 
 to maintain, unimpaired, the national unity, both in principle and terri- 
 torial boundary. 
 
We will support the Government, and call on it with a united voice to 
 use greater and greater energy, as the contest may seem to draw to a 
 close ; so that whatever advantages we may gain, we may pursue them 
 with increasing efficiency, and bring every one in the military or civil 
 service, that may be slow in the performance of his duty, to a quick and 
 efficient account. 
 
 We approve of the Conscription Act, and will give our loyal aid in 
 its being carried out, whenever the Government shall consider the increase 
 of our army necessary ; and we believe that the energy of the Govern- 
 ment shouldjbe plainly'shown by retaliatory measures, in checking the 
 savage brutalities committed by the enemy against our men in arms, or 
 against unarmed citizens, when they fall into their hands. 
 
 We declare that slavery, the poisonous root of this war, ought to be 
 compressed within its narrowest feasible limits, with a view to its speedy 
 extinction. 
 
 We declare that this is no question of politics, but one of patriot- 
 ism ; and we hold every one to be a traitor to his country, that works 
 or speaks in favor of our criminal enemies, directly or indirectly, whether 
 his offence be such that the law can overtake him or not. 
 
 We declare our inmost abhorrence of the secret societies which exist 
 among us in favor of the rebellious enemy, and that we will denounce 
 every participator in these nefarious conventicles, whenever known to us. 
 We believe publicity the very basis of liberty. 
 
 We pledge our fullest support of the Government in every measure 
 which it shall deem fit to adopt against unfriendly and mischievous neu- 
 trality ; and we cull upon it, as citizens that have the right and duty to 
 call for protection on their own Government, to adopt the speediest possi- 
 ble measure to that important end. 
 
 We loyally support our Government in its declarations and measures 
 against all and every attempt of mediation, or armed or unarmed inter- 
 ference in our civil war. 
 
 We solemnly declare that we will resist every partition of any portion 
 of our country, to the last extremity ; whether this partition should be 
 brought about by rebellious or treasonable citizens of our own, or by 
 foreign powers, in the way that Poland was torn to pieces. 
 
 We pronounce every foreign minister accredited to our Government, 
 who tampers with our enemies, and holds covert intercourse with disloyal 
 men among us, as failing in his duty toward us, and toward his own 
 people, and we await with attention the action of our Government 
 regarding the recent and surprising breach of this duty. 
 
 And we call upon every American, be he such by birth or choice, to 
 join the loyal movement of these National Leagues, which is naught else 
 than to join and follow our beckoning flag, and to adopt for his device — 
 
 OUR COUNTRY. 
 
21 
 
 The following resolutions were then read : 
 
 I. Resolved, That, assembled on the anniversary of the assault on Sumter, and 
 reviewing the two years that have since elapsed, in the advance which our 
 government has made from the position of unexampled weakness to which it 
 had been then reduced by imbecility and treachery, we recognize the won- 
 drous vitality and strength of our republican institutions, based upon the will 
 of an intelligent and free people. At their voice a million of men have sprung 
 to arms. An effective navy has been suddenly created, and the monstrous 
 expenses of a mighty war have been promptly and cheerfully met without bor- 
 rowing a dollar from the capitalists of Europe, or asking assistance from any 
 nation upon earth. 
 
 That the feeling of loyal America, in view of all the difficulties of the case, 
 has deepened into the firm and clear conviction that the rebellion can 
 be crushed, ought to be crushed, and shall be crushed ; and that the last Con- 
 gress, in placing at the disposal of the Executive without stint the men, money, 
 and resources of the nation, was the true exponent of the devotion and loyalty 
 of the American people, and of their unalterable determination to preserve 
 unimpaired the national unity, both in principle and territory, against armed 
 traitors in the South, their aiders and abettors in the North, and their pirati- 
 cal allies in Great Britain. 
 
 II. Resolved, That, apart from the treachery that has lurked, and which we 
 fear still lurks, in the civil and military departments of the government, we be- 
 lieve that the errors and delays that have hitherto retarded the prosecution of 
 the war, and the success of our arms, have arisen from the erroneous belief 
 that the rebels have possessed certain constitutional rights which the National 
 government was bound to respect. 
 
 That the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the Nation resolv- 
 ing, by the solemn adjudication of that high tribunal, to whose judgment 
 the American people are accustomed to bow, all constitutional doubts as 
 to the character of the war in which the nation is engaged, leaves no place 
 hereafter for any such mistake on the part of any officer, civil, military, or 
 naval, since the judicial declaration, that the territory occupied by the rebels 
 is "enemy's territory: and all persons residing within this territory, whose 
 property may be used to increase the revenues of the hostile power, are in the 
 condition to be treated as enemies, though not foreigners," has defined beyond 
 all question the rights and duty of the government and the people. 
 
 That, in accordance with the principles of that decision, now to be recog- 
 nized as the law of the land, the war should henceforth be waged with a 
 single aim to the conquest of the rebellion, with the least delay and the 
 smallest burden to the nation at large, by depriving the enemy of his strength 
 and his resources in whatsoever they may consist, by appropriating his prop- 
 erty wherever it may be convenient, and by withdrawing from his support, en- 
 rolling in our ranks, and treating as soldiers of the republic, all loyal men to 
 be found in the South, without regard to race, creed, or complexion. 
 
 III. Resolved, That when on the day on whose solemn anniversary we are gath- 
 ered together, the rebels of the South boasted that they had inaugurated war 
 against the Republic, that they had humbled the stars and stripes, and that 
 their confederate counterfeit of our flag would soon float even over Fanueil 
 Hall, the American people rallied in defence of that national unity which had 
 been their glory at home and their safeguard abroad ; and while they have 
 maintained the ancient honor of their flag on many a well-contested field, and 
 will maintain it, until it floats again over Sumter, and wherever it has floated 
 in the past ; they, nevertheless, have recognized, and do now recognize, the 
 fact that the rebellion was not organized by the people of the South, but by 
 their bad and ambitious leaders, who, armed with the muniments of war 
 filched from the national government, precipitated the revolution upon the 
 Southern states. 
 
 That we also recognize the fact that the object of those leaders is to 
 
22 
 
 establish a military or monarchical government, sustained by an organized 
 and cemented aristocracy, in which the principles of democracy should be 
 utterly ignored, its fundamental doctrine of " the greatest good of the greatest 
 number," should be discarded as a pestilent and pernicious dogma, and the 
 rights and happiness of the majority of the citizens be sacrificed to the inter- 
 ests of a few slaveholders. 
 
 That we further recognize the fact that, with this intent, Slavery was 
 made the chief corner-stone of the Southern confederacy, and in the 
 remorseless conscription for their army, persons holding twenty slaves are ex- 
 empt, while the non-slaveholders are made to bear the burden of a war in- 
 tended to impoverish and degrade them. And we gladly remember that in 
 the overthrow of that bastard confederacy, and the uprooting of its corner- 
 stone, will be concerned not simply the welfare of the nation at large, but the 
 future peace, prosperity, and happiness of the South ; that in its future results 
 the war for the Union will be one, not of subjugation but of deliverance ; and 
 that as regards all classes in the rebel states, excepting only the leaders of 
 the rebellion, our triumph will be their gain. 
 
 IV. Resolved. That iu view of the recent conduct of the British government, 
 in permitting a piratical vessel to be built, equipped, and manned in British 
 ports, for the use of the Southern Confederates, and to go forth under the 
 British flag, in disregard of the remonstrances of the American minister, 
 accompanied by ample proof of the character of the vessel, to prey upon Amer- 
 ican commerce, and plunder and burn defenceless merchant ships, receiving 
 the while the hospitalities of British colonial ports, it is proper for us to recall 
 to the British government and the British people the contrast between such a 
 violation of international neutrality, and the honorable fidelity and promptness 
 which the American government, from its foundation, has uniformly observed 
 toward the government of Great Britain. 
 
 The example set by Washington in observing, in regard to England, 
 the strictest neutrality in her war with France ; the peremptory instruc- 
 tion given by Hamilton, when Secretary of the Treasury, to the collectors 
 of our ports to exercise " the greatest vigilance, care, activity, and impar- 
 tiality, in searching for and discovering any attempt to fit out vessels or 
 expeditions in aid of either party, the action of our government on the 
 suggestion of Mr. Hammond, the British minister, in seizing a vessel that 
 was being fitted out as a French privateer; the restoration to the British 
 government of the British ship '•' Grange," taken by the French in Ameri- 
 can waters ; the equipment by President Jefferson, in 1805, of a force to 
 cruise within our own 6eas and arrest vessels embarking in a war in which 
 the country had no part, and " bring in the offenders for trial as pirates/'" 
 and the prompt fidelity with which succeeding Presidents have performed 
 their duty in this regard, especially toward Great Britain, down to its 
 Canadian rebellion in 1838, and its war with Russia in 1854, the facts 
 of which are fresh in their recollection — complete a record that entitles the 
 American government to the fairest exercise on the part of England of the 
 neutrality she professes in the pending war with the Southern Confederates. 
 That, apart from the fact that the aid thus extended in England to the Confede- 
 rate cause without interference by the government, in defiance of the senti- 
 ments of the civilized world, to a pretended government, which boasts as its 
 corner-stone human slavery, it is the sentiment of this meeting that the gov- 
 ernment of the United States should make the most urgent appeal to the honor 
 of the British government, to the justice of the British courts, and the moral 
 sense of the British people, to provide a remedy for these outrages, and avert 
 the possibility of a conflict between two nations who should be united by all 
 the ties that spring from a common ancestry, and a common civilization. 
 
 V. Resolved, That we cannot separate on an occasion like the present, when 
 we again catch the echoes of cannon thundering against Sumter, without re- 
 calling, with swelling pride and affectionate regard, our brave army and navy, 
 wherevei*, gathered for the defence of the country, and especially those that 
 
23 
 
 attract the gaze of the world on the Cooper, the Rappahannock, and the Mis- 
 issippi. 
 
 That, to protect the rights of our gallant defenders, is the grateful duty of 
 all true Americans ; and that we heartily approve the judicious act of our legis- 
 lature to secure them their privilege of a vote, while we leave to the scorn 
 they deserve, those men, recreant to the first principles of democracy, who, 
 ready to abet the enemies of their country, even by invoking intervention 
 from a British minister, with a base consistency, would wrest from our citizen- 
 soldiers the right to pass upon such disloyal conduct. 
 
 VI. Resolved, That, with the view of advising the national government of the 
 earnest devotion of the loyal masses here assembled, and of their decided views 
 in regard to the manner in which the war should be prosecuted, a copy of these 
 resolutions be respectfully addressed to the President and each member of his 
 cabinet, to whom, by acclamation, we wish God-speed in their glorious work of 
 maintaining the unity, the freedom, and the supremacy of our common country. 
 
 The Mayor then said : 
 
 I have now the honor of introducing to you a gentleman who is part 
 and parcel of the government — a distinguished member of the administra- 
 tion — a gentleman of Southern birth and Southern associations, but whose 
 heart beats as loyal as yours or mine. I have the pleasure of presenting 
 to you the Hon. Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General of the United 
 States. [Great applause, and " Three cheers for Blair."] 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. 
 
 Mr. Blair said : 
 
 Fellow-Citizens of New York : I am gratified to meet so vast an 
 assemblage, and to unite with you in doing honor to the glorious cause 
 which we have met here to pledge ourselves to support. This, my friends, 
 is a most appropriate occasion upon which to renew our pledges to that 
 flag which has come down to us with so many hallowed memories asso- 
 ciated with the founders of this government. The day upon which an at- 
 tempt was made to subvert this government is a day to be remembered ; 
 it is a day to be remembered, and I hope, with the treatment which we are 
 going to give the traitors, that we will make it to be remembered by them 
 for eternity. [Cheers. " Good !"] The contest in which we are engaged 
 is a struggle for the great idea underlying our political fabric, and as we 
 live in an age when opinion is the great element of power, it is essential 
 to our success that the true nature of the struggle should be comprehended 
 by good men at home and abroad. Some reference to the parties to it 
 may contribute to effect this object. From the outset the oligarchic in- 
 terest everywhere has been at no loss on which side to range itself. Every- 
 where it has identified itself with the rebellion because it battled in the 
 cause of privilege and against free government, and everywhere it has ex- 
 erted itself promptly, yet skilfully, to support the rebel cause. Wielding 
 vast power in all European governments, controlling the whole foreign 
 press and some of our own, and assuming from the first mutterings of the 
 
24 
 
 tempest that our ship of state was a wreck, as they had always predicted 
 it would be, they have looked on only to find facts to sustain a foregone 
 conclusion and otherwise to exert all the power they could wield to con- 
 summate their wishes. I do not in thus speaking of this class, and espe- 
 cially of the European branch of it, wish to be understood as impeaching 
 their motives or questioning the sincerity of their conviction that, in the 
 preservation of their own and kindred orders, they are doing the best for 
 mankind. As individuals, and especially is this true of the British aris- 
 tocracy, they are distinguished by a high sense of honor, hy courage, 
 truthfulness, and other manly qualities. But these personal characteristics 
 only serve to give more etfect to a mistaken policy in antagonism to free- 
 dom and free government, which results necessarily from the relation to 
 society to which thy are born and bred. They justly feel that the con- 
 tinuance of such a government as ours saps the foundation of their order 
 day by day, and hence, though we meddle not in their affairs this class has 
 warred upon us from the day we set up our democratic establishment in 
 the wilds of America. For the most part this war has been carried on in 
 the field of opinion by writers hired to combat the natural yearnings of 
 the human heart for liberty. We have replied only by continuing to 
 minister to human happiness, giving free homes to the oppressed, elevating 
 the poor by instruction in free schools, and by having the gospel preached 
 to all creeds. There was one point, however, upon which every letter- 
 writer and book-making tourist who catered to the appetite of the estab- 
 lished orders for American disparagement failed not to comment with the 
 greatest harshness. That was, that we tolerated African slavery. So bit- 
 ter have been these denunciations that many persons supposed, when the 
 war broke out, that the English aristocrats for once would have to be on 
 the side of those who were struggling for free government. Far from it. 
 Like most of those among us who are now signalizing themselves by de- 
 nouncing the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, the conscription act, 
 &c, their advocacy of freedom was, as we now see, only "to serve the 
 cause of slavery. It was for the freedom we cherished, not for the slavery 
 we tolerated, they reviled us. See these proud aristocrats now, arming 
 the slave-drivers at Richmond with iron-clad ships to strike down freedom, 
 forgetting even the insults offered a few years since by their present allies — 
 the Richmond snobbery — to the heir apparent of the English crown ! But 
 do not suppose that by pointing to the evidences of sympathy and alliance 
 between these domestic and foreign foes of free government, I seek to stir 
 you to wrath against England. Far from it ; for while it is true 
 that in all essentials the British peer and our vulgar Masons and 
 Slidells, and the silly women who insult Union soldiers, are the 
 same order of people, differing only in cultivation and external circum- 
 stances, but agreeing in the distinguishing characteristic of having no faith 
 in humanity, yet you must remember that these worldlings, do not rule 
 either in Englaud or America. Despite of their opposition, slavery was 
 struck down in the British realm, and despite of them the great Republic 
 will be saved, and the slave machinery applied to subvert it destroyed. I 
 feel assured of this, because not only our own people, but the people of 
 Europe, are beginning to understand, what I have said the aristocrats ev- 
 erywhere have understood from the first, that this is a battle for common 
 people throughout the world, and that they now are, or soon will be, ready 
 
25 
 
 to make common cause for freedom against the wide-spread conspiracy of 
 aristocrats to destroy it. It is true that Lord Lyons tells his government 
 that our "democratic leaders" came stealthily to him, and made known 
 their wish and purpose " to put an end to the war, even at the risk of 
 losing the Southern states altogether," but " that it was not thought pru- 
 dent to avow this desire, and that some hints of it, dropped before the 
 elections, were so ill received, that a strong declaration in a contrary sense 
 was deemed necessary by the democratic leaders." Lord Lyons further 
 states that these democratic "leaders" thought " that the offer of media- 
 tion, if made to a radical administration, would be rejected ; that if made 
 at an unpropitious moment, it might increase the virulence with which the 
 war is prosecuted. If their own party were in power, or virtually con- 
 trolled the administration, they would rather, if possible, obtain an armis- 
 tice without the aid of foreign governments ; but they would be disposed 
 to accept an offer of mediation if it appeared to be the only means of put- 
 ting a stop to hostilities. They would desire that the offer should come 
 from the great powers of Europe conjointly ; and in particular, that as 
 little prominence as possible should be given to Great Britain." This is 
 the sum of his lordship's revelations ; and if it were not that he entirely 
 mistakes the character and influence of his men, they might be ominous of 
 the result which he and the British ministry so confidently predict and 
 devoutly wish. If the " chiefs" whom he describes as " calling loudly for 
 a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and reproaching the government 
 with slackness as well as with want of success in its military measures," 
 but telling him that it was their wish " to put an end to it at the risk of 
 losing the Southern states altogether," were really as able as he supposes 
 they are, to bring the true democracy of the North to adopt the plans of 
 the secessionists for the extension of slavery, to make it the foundation of 
 the political institutions of the country, or to assent to the division of the 
 country — resigning one half of it to slavery — then, indeed, might the ene- 
 mies of popular government indulge their fond hope that the bright pros- 
 pects which opened on the birth-day of free institutions in the New World, 
 and have attended its progress to this hour, would soon close. But it is 
 apparent, even from the narrative of the worthy and truly honorable rep- 
 resentative of England, that " the leaders" who conferred with him were 
 conscious that they could not lead their party to sanction their purposes, 
 that they were forced to disavow them, and advised postponement of the 
 offer of mediation ti^l they should come into power, which they only hoped 
 to secure by " calling loudly for a more vigorous prosecution of the 
 war, and reproaching the government with slackness as well as with want 
 of success in its military measures" ! But the immense popular assemblies 
 which have everywhere denounced mediation of any sort, show that no 
 such jugglery would avail. The most distinguished leaders of the democ- 
 racy in this great commonwealth attended the vast meeting of the 6th of 
 March. They are here again to-night. They unite in council with the 
 members of the republican party, with the chiefs of the old whig party, 
 with those of the original anti-slavery party, with the American party, 
 peculiarly jealous of foreign influence, and with those of other strong 
 classes, which embrace, with a sort of kindred sympathy, the naturalized 
 citizens of all Europe, as brothers enfranchized from feudal fetters, and ri- 
 sing here to usefulness and influence as the equals of the native born free- 
 
26 
 
 man. Every party and every class by whom free institutions are.held dear 
 in this country, merging all minor differences of opinion, are gathering in 
 every quarter to devise measures to restore the nationality and secure the lib- 
 erties of the country ; and to give effect to these, the shouts of battle 
 from a million of brave men are heard by land and sea. They see the 
 feudal lords who hold the slaves in the South in bondage, to raise 
 the commodities on which the laborers of the feudal lords in Europe 
 are to exhaust their energies to exalt their privileged orders, are sup- 
 ported by such orders because of a common interest in the enslave- 
 ment of mankind. And if the vassalage which holds the black race 
 as mere animated machines, and is rapidly reducing the poor whites of the 
 South to a dependence and suffering, rendering the fate of the slave of a 
 kind master enviable — if such vassalage is to be upheld by the great mod- 
 ern dynasties abroad, combining their military power to give support to 
 the despotic principle in a nation separated from them by the ocean, how 
 long will it be before such armed usurpation here will, by its reactionary 
 force, recover the arbitrary poAver that belonged to the age of the Bour- 
 bons, the Tudors, and of that horde of feudal proprietors who monopolized 
 the soil, holding the people as serfs appurtenant to the domain of masters, 
 rising as a superstructure of oppression through grades from barons, counts, 
 dukes, princes, and emperors to autocrats ! Our Southern chivalry, which 
 but a generation back, signed our Magna Charta of liberty and equality, 
 in the course of one lifetime, by the indoctrination of the slave system, 
 working on one poor oppressed caste, are always prepared to join the Holy 
 Alliance abroad in making a partition of this continent, and setting up 
 dynasties deriving their type from the Congress of Vienna, and they have 
 an improved feature on the old feudal system, tending to reinvigorate it. 
 In that state which led off in the assault upon the Union, the ownership 
 of ten slaves, or an equivalent, was an essential qualification for a legisla- 
 tor. Carrying out this principle, the Confederate Congress has decreed, 
 that twenty slaves shall exempt the master from military service. This 
 will operate as a premium for multiplying slaves, and divide the commu- 
 nity into two great classes, the producers and the soldiery ; creating a mili- 
 tary government, one portion of the people to fight, the other to feed the 
 fighters. The starveling whites not suited to war, and not subjected as 
 soldiers, will become slaves to the owners of estates on whom they must 
 depend. That the crowned heads of Europe, who are invited to make 
 the political constitutions of this continent, as well as its cotton, their 
 concern, should have a disposition to admit states into the Holy Alliance 
 which give such earnest hostility to free government, is not unnatural. 
 But what will the more enlightened portion of the European population 
 think of this conbination with slaveholders to extirpate liberty in America ? 
 The organs of the privileged orders in Great Britain, the Quarterly Re- 
 view, The Times, &c, already congratulate their patrons on the fact that 
 rebellion here has arrested Reform in England. They proclaim that 
 Lords Palmerston and Russell reached their power in England by pledges 
 of reform, and now they rejoice that the Rebellion has exonerated them 
 from their obligation ! They would now, for the third time, attempt to 
 crush the free principles which, nurtured here beyond the reach of despotic 
 eoalitions, has attained a prosperity, spreading an influence back to the 
 country of their origin, reforming their government and elevating their 
 
27 
 
 • 
 
 people ; and it is in the interest of the selfish few that the progress of na- 
 tions in reform, in freedom and happiness, is to be arrested. Is it possible 
 that a great war, waged by the potentates of Europe, in alliance with the 
 slave system propagated in the South, against the free states of America, 
 will be cordially supported by the substantial, intelligent body of the Euro- 
 pean populations? Can Lord Lyons persuade himself or them that there 
 are democratic leaders in the free states, capable of drawing the democratic 
 masses to join foreign powers in mediating a peace dividing the empire of 
 free government on this continent with slavery, European sovereigns to 
 hold the balance of the continent 1 No patriot, no honest man of any 
 party, no democrat of influence with a party which has never been want- 
 ing to the country when its fortunes hung upon the scale of battle, could 
 have made the questions which were submitted to Lord Lyons. Davis, 
 Benjamin, Floyd, and Toombs, call themselves democrats. Their emissa- 
 ries in Europe, Slidell, Sanders, and Mason, call themselves democrats. 
 Their creatures in the free states, Buchanan, Toucey, and the subaltern 
 traitors associated with them, spared by the clemency of the administra- 
 tion, call themselves democrats. But these men in the North are only 
 so many men on gibbets. The real democrats everywhere are with 
 the real republicans, in arms for their country and its Constitution. It 
 is not the interest of nations to destroy each other, and I hope no nation 
 will interpose in any way to countenance the treason which has no object 
 but the overthrow of republican institutions. The only effect would be 
 to embitter and prolong the strife. England, especially, which has some 
 consciousness of the value of such institutions, and has evinced a full 
 sense of the mischief of the slave power now seeking her help to sacrifice 
 them here, will, I doubt not, recoil from the leprous touch. There was a 
 time, indeed, when even that very class of Englishmen who would now 
 see the Great Republic fall with so much satisfaction, looked toward it with 
 veiy different feelings. It was when they apprehended invasion from France. 
 Then the free states of this continent, proud of their race and of the inspira- 
 tion, responded to the patriotic heart of Britain. They did not intend 
 to be passive while " the Latin race" established their ascendency in the fa- 
 therland- At that great crisis English statesmen recognized the value of this 
 kindred sympathy, and honored the magnanimity which, forgetting the op- 
 pression dealt to us as an infant people aspiring to equality with their brethren 
 beyond the Atlantic, remembering only the glory of a common lineage, lan- 
 guage, and literature. They felt, and with reason, that the mutual abhor- 
 rence of slavery, in whatever form imposed, would induce the government 
 of the United States to make common cause with England against any 
 attempt to invade or enslave her. But now that their apprehensions 
 of danger from across the chaunel are, for the time, allayed, and they feel 
 no present need of help, the feeling for America, which for a moment ex- 
 panded the hearts even of the English lordlings, has passed away. They 
 have become as earnest as in '76 to overthrow our government, and are 
 co-operating with the rebels, as with the tories, in every possible way, 
 short of declared Avar, and have clearly evinced their disposition to take 
 even that step whenever we will give them a pretext for it, which will carry 
 the people of England with them. We cannot, therefore, be too careful 
 not to furnish the desired pretext, especially when the people of Europe, as 
 well as of America, are awakening to their interest in this struggle. We 
 
had better suffer for a time from the pirates set afloat in England, and har- 
 bored and provisioned in their West India possessions, to devastate our 
 commerce, to enable the English nation to put a stop to these outrages. 
 I have confidence that they will do it, and I much prefer the mode adopted 
 by the real noblemen of New York, to touch the hearts of the real nobility 
 of England — the men who love truth and justice — to whom alone she owes 
 her greatness among the nations of the earth — to that proposed by my friend, 
 General Butler. To send the starving poor of England cargoes of food, 
 while her aristocrats are turning loose upon us piratical vessels, tells more 
 than words can express of the nature of this struggle, and who are allies in 
 it. I will venture to affirm, that the mediating leaders who visited the 
 British minister in November, are not among those who, while .exhibiting 
 such munificence toward his countrymen, were lavishing millions to sus- 
 tain free government, although most of them are democrats. The rebel- 
 lion here, this reactionary measure against free government, reacts across 
 the water, stops all progress, all beneficence and reform for the people of 
 Europe. That is the nature of this contest. You cannot, therefore, if 
 you love yourselves, your rights, and the rights of those whom you are to 
 leave behind you ; if you love your brothers in fatherland, and wish to have 
 an asylum for them, and to extend the principles of liberty in the old con- 
 tinent, you cannot but stand up for the government you have installed 
 here, regardless for the moment of whom you have placed in power. I am 
 a member, as my friend said, of the existing government, and I say to you 
 here, although its measures may not meet the approval of some of you, 
 yet, rely upon it, you have as honest a man as ever God made installed in 
 the chair of the Chief Magistrate. [Loud applause.] We have a man 
 from the people, like many of those I see before me, having a heart sym- 
 pathetic for the masses ; a man working his way from an humble and ob- 
 scure position, up to the elevated position that he now fills ; and, of course, 
 he feels and feels deeply, as one of you, the nature of the struggle that I 
 have been endeavoring to paint. You must support him, my friends. It 
 is your cause ; not his. [Three cheers for the President.] Thanking you 
 again, my friends, for the cordiality and kindness with which you have 
 been pleased to receive me, I give way to others who can add much to 
 what I have said, and say it better. [Prolonged cheers.] 
 
 Mayor Opdyke : Gentlemen, we have just heard patriotic and spirit- 
 stirring words, from one member of the administration. A letter will now 
 be read to you from another, who is not able to be present. John Austin 
 Stevens, Jr., will read a letter from the Hon. S. P. Chase. 
 
 John Austin Stevens, Jr. , then read a letter from Mr. Chase. 
 
 Mr. Stevens : In addition to what Mr. Chase has said, there are a few 
 lines in a private letter. With your consent I will read them : 
 
 Washington, April 9, 1863. 
 
 My Dear Sir : * * * * * You may think my letter rather 
 
 too explicit and direct ; but it seems to me the times require plainness of speech. 
 
 What said the Roman orator when Catiline armed against his country ? 
 
 " Let what each man thinks concerning the Republic be inscribed on his forehead." 
 
 Sincerely your friend, 
 
 S. P. CHASE. 
 John Austin Stevens, Jr. 
 
29 
 
 Mayor Opdyke : Gentlemen, I have now the pleasure of introducing to 
 you a distinguished and eloquent representative in Congress from a sister 
 state, a gentleman who has stood by the government manfully and fear- 
 lessly ; I introduce to you Judge Kelley of Philadelphia, a delegate from 
 the Loyal League of Philadelphia, which is represented here to-day by 
 over one hundred members. (Loud applause.) 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. WM. D. KELLEY. 
 
 Judge Kelley said : In the name of unconditional loyalty to the Con- 
 stitution, Philadelphia greets New York. [Cheers.] In the name of the 
 unity of the nation founded by the origiaal of that grand monument — 
 [the statue of Washington was immediately in front of the stand] — the 
 Keystone sends greeting to the Empire State. [Applause.] And this after 
 two years of war — two years of war ! We of Pennsylvania have tears for 
 the dead, sympathy for the mangled and bereaved, but this is for our 
 individual hearts, our private circles; for our country we have but pride 
 and devotion. [Cheering, " Good, good."] Two years of war, in which 
 the Ruler of Providence has more clearly than ever before in history de- 
 monstrated how from seeming evil He is still educing good, how within His 
 purposes it is to make the folly and wrath of man to praise Him. [Cheers.] 
 Two years in which the American people have made more of glorious his- 
 tory than ever was made before in the same brief period. O, my country- 
 men, look back over that little period of two years, and remember our con- 
 dition when in the first wild outburst of wounded and indignant patriotism 
 you gathered to this square. Your country was bankrupt ; it could not 
 borrow at one cent a month the little sum of $5,000,000 ; your navy 
 lay in Southern yards in ordinary, upon the distant coast of Africa, or in 
 the far Pacific ; your army was on the frontiers of Texas, in New Mexico, 
 in the far Territory of Washington, everywhere but where your govern- 
 ment could command it ; your arsenals had been treacherously emptied 
 alike of arms, ammunition, and accoutrements ; an enemy, to whom had 
 been transferred your navy and your military resources, had fired upon 
 your flag and threatened to unfurl from the dome of your Capitol a foreign 
 banner, but the heart of America did not tremble, and two years of war 
 have not chilled or bated your patriotism. [Cheers, " No, no."] We are 
 here to-day to say that no star must be stricken from our flag — [" Never"] ; 
 no acre of our country surrendered, if to prevent it takes from our coffers 
 the last dollar and from our hear.th-sides the last able-bodied boy. [Cheers, 
 " Hurrah."] These are the sentiments of Pennsylvania, and I am glad you 
 respond to them with such fervor. We behold all the possible conse- 
 quences of the war ; in these two years we have created a navy : we have 
 organized, armed, and equipped an army such as the eye of God never be- 
 held before upon this planet; and we have conquered well-nigh 400,000 
 square miles of territory. [" Good, good !"] »We have not borrowed of 
 England or the Continent one picayune toward bearing the expense. [Ap- 
 plause.] O, my friends, this is a proud day. We had demonstrated be- 
 fore rebel hands desecrated our flagj the beneficence of republican in- 
 stitutions. In eighty short years we had conquered the breadth of 
 a continent. Yes, our flag floated on yon Eastern promontories in 
 
30 
 
 the broad blaze of the noon-day sun, while on our golden sands the 
 morning dawn just tipped its stars, and all was ours, and civilization 
 was blooming over all. "We had demonstrated the capacity of man 
 for self-government and of popular institutions, raising the poor emi- 
 grant and his children to the full stature of manhood and to all the powers 
 and rights of citizenship, nay, to the capacity not only to enjoy, but to ex- 
 ercise them all. [Cheers.] The potentates of Europe had seen the peas- 
 ant and the laborer, under our benign institutions, expand into the citi- 
 zen and the capitalist ; they had seen from the humblest walks of life the 
 man of honor, wealth, and distinction, spring. Eighty years had served to 
 demonstrate this. But, their sneer was — a good government for peace, 
 but no government for war. Is it not a government for war ? When 
 Congress passed what the copperheads call the conscription bill, and thus 
 served notice upon France and England that every man who had not de- 
 pending upon him, and him alone, aged parents or tender children, should 
 be called to the field, they concluded that all Europe in alliance would not 
 do to meet the American people under that government which was not 
 good for war. [Cheers.] So good is it for war that, while we go on to 
 conquer those who are armed with our weapons, we hold the envious 
 aristocracy of Europe in check, and dare them to do their worst [cheers], 
 yes, dare them so defiantly, that I refer you to the New York papers of to- 
 day for the revised opinion of Lord John Russell, as ex] trussed in the 
 House of Lords. [Cheers. " Give it to him !" « Bully !"] Bully for 
 the American people. [Cheers.] Bully for those institutions that open 
 the school-house to every child however poor it m*y be, and give a just 
 return for all the labor that it or its parents perform. What is this war? 
 What is it about f Between whom is it, men of New York ? [" Three 
 cheers for Kelley."] No, do not cheer so insignificant a being ; keep quiet, 
 and hear him. Is it between political parties'? No ; here on this stand 
 are men of all par-ties. I do not know what party I belong to I was 
 fool or sinner enough to hasten home in 1852 to vote for Frank Pierce, 
 but since 1854 I have been fighting for freedom and civilization in the 
 ranks of the Republican party. [Cheers; "Good."] No, my friends, 
 it is not between political parties ; nor is it between contending states. 
 The line between prevailing loyalty and treason seems to divide states, 
 but take the exceptions. East Tennessee and West Virginia are loyal as 
 New York or Pennsylvania, [" Good, good,"] though one of them lies 
 south of Kentucky, and the other has been held by Eastern Virginia, as 
 Russia holds Poland, or as England has held Ireland. [Cheers.] Yes, 
 they are loyal. It is a war between two orders of civilization — the order 
 of civilization which we enjoy, which opens a school-house to every child 
 coming into the commonwealth by birth or emigration ; which gives to the 
 son of the poorest laborer, whether of native or foreign birth, the mastery 
 of the Engltsh language, the art of writing and some knowledge of figures, 
 and so enables him to go forth and arm himself with knowledge, and wis- 
 dom, and power to contend with the world and secure a fair day's wages 
 for a fair day's work whether in humble or exalted sphere. The other 
 orderof civilization is one which holds that capital should own its labor; 
 that laboring men and women should be held for sale and purchase like 
 cattle in the stall or upon the shambles. And, my friends, do not let us 
 blink the cpiestion. The taking of Fort Sumter, the taking of Vicksburg, 
 
31 
 
 will not settle the war. One or the other of these orders of civilization 
 must be victoriously triumphant over the whole land before you can have 
 peace. [Cheers. " That's the talk."] You have heard from Secretary 
 Chase. Like him, I am for letting the negro in. I do not think he is a 
 bit better than I or you, and I do not see why he should not do picket duty 
 in the swamps as well as my son or yours. I do not see why he should 
 not work for us as ably as lie has for our common enemy, and I am for 
 letting him in, and letting him under the stars and stripes win his way to 
 freedom by proving on the bloody field the power of his manhood. 
 [''Bravo." Applause.] This we have to do. This we will do. And 
 having sunk the traitors, from Fernando up or down — whichever it may 
 be, to Jeff Davis — [laughter and applause] — deeper than ever plummet 
 sounded — we will have so squelched treason that our children and our 
 children's children to the latest generation will never fear another civil 
 war. We will have peace then if it suits our pleasure, with England and 
 with France, and we will have demonstrated to the world the power as 
 well as the beneficence of republican institutions. Yes, when this war 
 closes will we not have shown the world that that Constitution framed 
 under his [pointing to the statue 'of Washington] wise auspices is not only 
 beneficent over a young and peaceful people, but is a fit canopy for a con- 
 tinent ? [Loud and prolonged applause, and three cheers for Kelley.] 
 
 Mayor Opdyke : Gentlemen, we have on the stand one of the heroic 
 defenders of Fort Sumter when it was a citadel of the Union. He was 
 then a subordinate in the United States army. He is now a brigadier- 
 general in the service of the United States. I ask leave to introduce to 
 you Brigadier-General Crawford of the Pennsylvania volunteers. 
 
 Brigadier-Gen. Crawford was introduced and received three cheers. 
 Three more were given for the mayor. 
 
 Mayor Opdyde : You have been pleased with the eloquence of our sis- 
 ter city of Philadelphia. I am happy to ^ay that it is not yet exhausted. 
 We have another gentleman from that state present, a gentleman who 
 left the democratic party, not in 1852, as did Judge Kelley, but a few 
 months ago. He has been a democrat of the strictest sect. He will pre- 
 sent to you his views of the contest. I beg leave to introduce Benjamin 
 H. Brewster, Esq., a distinguished lawyer of Philadelphia. 
 
 SPEECH OF B. H. BREWSTER, ESQ. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : With some misgivings, I have consented to come 
 here. It is my wish so to act in all my public demonstrations upon the 
 important subject that has called you here, and which agitates the minds 
 of all men in America, that I may not blunt the measure of my useful- 
 ness by over-action. For I have not come out from my privacy to make 
 myself the advocate of a party, or by zealous declamation to urge the 
 promotion of any one. Nothing but a sense of duty has stimulated me 
 to come from the quiet of my study into such vast throngs of anxious and 
 excited men. [Cheers.] From my earliest youth I have been connected 
 
32 
 
 with the democratic party — identified with its principles, and associated 
 with its public characters. From its first organization, kinsmen of mine 
 have held its highest honors and been its firmest advocates. All this has 
 bound me to it with hoops of steel. In the darkest hours of its adversity 
 I have never lost my faith in it or in its leaders. 
 
 I have a right to speak for it and to speak to it. When I look round 
 and see it commanded by runaway wliigs, who have spent their time 
 in systematic opposition to its measures and its men, and hear them lay 
 down the law for the rank and file, and hear them declare the rule of faith, 
 I am amazed at their audacity and ashamed of the submissive spirit of 
 those they profess to lead and speak for. But more than that, and worse 
 than that, I hear those men defile the sanctuaries of our political conven- 
 tions by teachings that are heterodox, by statements that are untrue, and 
 by policies of action that are treasonable, and so I have come here by the 
 advice of judicious men to say away from home that which I have 
 willingly said there, that democrats are not bound by any obligation of 
 party allegiance to follow such "blind leaders of the blind." They are 
 not to heed the teachings of men whose whole political, personal, and social 
 natures are. in their very elements, hostile to their party and antagonistic 
 to its principles. Their lives, their associations, and their proclaimed 
 opinions, are all in open war with the democratic party as a party, and 
 with democratic measures as a rule of government. At such a crisis as 
 this how dare such men stand up and lay down the law of action for that 
 political church, whose catechism they have not yet learned 1 ? I say how 
 dare they strive to teach treason, and tell party men that such foul teach- 
 ings are the logical results of their political faith. One might suppose that 
 they had banded together to betray and caluminate the party they profess 
 to lead. Democrats of New York, I say to you, as I have said to the 
 democrats of Pennsylvania, that such men are not of you, and are not 
 with you, and should be spurned by you. When we had a united and tri- 
 unphant party we only knew them as our avowed enemies, and now we 
 only know them as our corrupters and betrayers. [Applause.] Let us 
 not now, with armed men in the field — with our banner soiled and trampled 
 on, with the principles of our government in peril and our honor questioned 
 — let us not follow such men into the gulf of faction, or hope to main- 
 tain party by sundering our country. Let us have a country fir«t before 
 we have a party ! Let us have laws obeyed before we have organizations 
 to elect officers to administer laws that are despised. [Cheering.] The 
 men who broke down the democratic party by secession from its fold 
 now demand its help and command obedience to its laws to secui'e them 
 success in their open resistance to all public authority, and they have 
 found those men in the North who are weak enough or base enough to 
 help them in their treason. The last who should encourage this outrage 
 and public sin are democrats. By the ballot were they beaten, and by its 
 final decree are they bound. Suffrage and obedience to popular will are 
 at the very foundation of all true democracy. How, then, can democrats 
 stand by men as democrats who are disloyal to their own faith and resist 
 the declared will of the people and refuse obedience to the letter and the 
 duly appointed officers of the law. Those who would act otherwise, those 
 who would teach otherwise, have no business here. There place is with 
 the enemy. Their home should be in the South. [Great applause.] 
 
33 
 
 I do not complain that men speak out their ideas, but 1 do complain 
 that when they speak they speak political blasphemy. The freedom of 
 speech I would not abridge ; but licentiousness ot speech is not freedom. 
 Scoffin- reviling, railing, and denouncing, is not freedom ; it is imrae- it 
 fs sin What produced this war ? Did the states that first rebelled lose 
 their ne-roes * No, not one. Did those that lost their negroes willingly 
 enter info this conflict/? No ! they were dragged into it. Die cause ot 
 this war was that the far-off gulf states could not endure the freedom ot 
 speech and liberty of the press here, a thousand miles oft— up, tar up in 
 the North And now we are told that the democrats are to rally and 
 overthrow the government, by fair or foul means, to vindicate the liberty 
 of speech and the liberty of the press. Remember, gentlemen, we have 
 the largest liberty. The government we obey is one of our own choice. 
 The officers who 7 strive to Lcute the laws, under difficulties such as never 
 encompassed men in a free government before are faithful *"0»*im<tel 
 honest men, and they merit your support, and it is your duty, fieely ^ and 
 without grudge, to give it. [Applause.] Setting aside all other considera- 
 tions I am for this war as a duty to my section-first, to compel obedi- 
 ence to law ; second, to reduce a rival and hostile section ; third, to pre- 
 vent foreign treaties with a new and feeble power vnthm o*r Jemtonal 
 limits ; fourth, to uphold the honor of our country before the woild and 
 to prove the strength of democratic institutions to enforce obedience to law 
 as absolutely as an imperial Caesar. 
 
 This occasion will not permit many words. This is my testimony, and 
 I trust others of my political persuasion will think with me, and act with 
 me, for our country, our whole country, and nothing but our countiy. 
 [Great applause.] And I say to you, that the Northern man who wi 
 give his sympathy to Southern men who call him a dog and a coward is 
 worse than a dog, and deserves to be spit upon. [Great applause.] And 
 now, gentlemen, I go for prosecuting this war, nigger or no nigger^ I go 
 for iJ for the reasons I have stated ; and if we do not succeed, I go for 
 crippling the rebels so that if they come out of the ■ their devilish in- 
 dependence won't be worth a straw. [Great laughter and applause.] 
 
 A patriotic ode on the Defence. of Fort Sumter by Major (now General) 
 Anderson, was then read, and received with much applause (See 
 Appendix.) 
 
 Mayor Opdyke : We have with us here to-day one of our honored 
 fellow-citizens, whose patriotism has carried him to the war, a gentleman 
 who can use his tongue as well as his sword. I have the pleasure to intro- 
 duce to you Col. Stewart L. Woodford. [Loud cheers.] 
 
 SPEECH OF COL. WOODFORD. 
 
 Col S L Woodford said : Men of New York and brothers of the 
 Loyal Leaaue; I call you thus, for though I have not signed your pledge 
 I come to you from that older Loyal League whose muster-rol is read 
 where the reveille drum beats, and whose councds gather where the 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 camp-fires burn. [Cheers.] To-day the army and the navy sends you a 
 greeting and a God-speed ; and well may they bid you all-hail in your 
 great work, for though to those gallant men in the ranks it is hard to 
 face the pitiless storm and the more pitiless storm of battle, though it is 
 hard to suffer absence from home and loved ones, hard to languish in the 
 hospital or fall in the field, it is harder, far harder to know that there is 
 something which strikes at them at home, to know that right here, under 
 the shadow of the flag, the serpent hisses and rattles and strikes, and yet is 
 unpunished. [Great cheers.] God bless you for these voices of your 
 thousands gathered in your Loyal Leagues ; God grant that by them you 
 may speak silence to the traitor, and bid the copperhead writhe back 
 smitten to his own death. [Cheers. "The eagle has him."] Men of New 
 York, it is fitting that upon this anniversary day you should be gathered 
 thus. Twice twelve months since and treason broke into open Avar ; and 
 then on the shattered ramparts of Fort Sumter, as upon an altar, the na- 
 tion took its great oath of loyalty over burning casemates and bursting 
 shell. You have come to renew that oath. You have come to speak to 
 the rebels in arms and to the waiting nations beyond the sea, that the great 
 metropolis has detex - mined, come what may of peril, of loss, of war, come 
 what may, this metropolis stands pledged to pursue this war to the bitter 
 end. [Cheers.] You have come to testify that you will bear taxation, it 
 need be ; that you will endure conscription, if need be ; that you will face 
 foreign war, if that must come — [great applause] ; that, God helping you, 
 you will hand this land of our fathers down to our children's children, un- 
 broken and forever. [Loud cheers.] Upon one thing you may rely, the 
 national army is loyal to its very core — [cheers] ; despite what intriguing 
 politicians may assert, there is no officer nor true soldier in that army who 
 will not sacrifice his dearest leader to the cause of his country — [applause] ; 
 there is no officer there who does not hold the great cause of the nation to 
 be above all hero-worship, and who is not willing to follow the majesty of 
 the law, whoever that law may bid him go. [Cheers.] And, gentlemen, 
 I think that we want peace full as much as you stay-at-home gentlemen 
 who are so afraid of us. There is a great deal of sympathy among some 
 men at the North for the poor fellows who live on hard tack and under 
 shelter-tents ; God bless you, we don't want your sympathy. If you love 
 us, come down and help us fight — [cheers] — and if you have not got the 
 nerve to fight, at least have the decency to keep your mouth shut. [Loud 
 cheers. " Good, good."] One word and I am done. [" Go on, go on."] 
 I intend to go in about two days to the army. [Cheers.] The attack which 
 has been made upon Fort Sumter may possibly fail ; valor and courage 
 have been stricken down before this ; but of one thing be sure, the day 
 shall come, whether it be now or twelve months hence, the day shall come 
 when the old flag shall wave over Sumter again ; the day shall come when 
 this Union shall be restored, for God made this land for free government, 
 and it is not in the power of any rebellion to reverse that heavenly decree. 
 [Cheers.] And now, thanking you for your kind attention — [" Go on, go 
 on"] — I do not think that I could talk any more to-night unless you were 
 willing to fill up my regiment for me. [Laughter. " How many are you 
 short 1 ?"] We want about two hundred and fifty. [" I will go for one." 
 Loud cheers.] 
 
35 
 
 Mayor Opdyke : I have now the pleasure of introducing H. N. Wild, 
 Esq. [Three cheers for H. N. Wild.] 
 
 SPEECH OF HORATIO N. WILD. 
 
 Horatio N. Wild, Esq., said : Mr. Chairman, for the first time since 
 you have been chief magistrate of the city I take you by the hand, and 
 greet you as one of the friends of the Union. [Cheers.] Fellow-citizens, 
 I have and so have you. listened to statesmen, the judiciary, and the mil- 
 itary ; all that language could say or words convey, has been said. I 
 wish now that I had the voice of Demosthenes in which to speak to you, 
 or the eloquence of Clay or Webster or the great men who have gone 
 before us, to convey to you to-day a living idea of the true condition of 
 your country, and to clear up your minds from all doubts as to what your 
 duty may be. Two years ago, a few rods from here, stood a gray-haired 
 great man, Senator Baker from California. [Prolonged cheering.] I 
 never shall forget the power of that man's presence or his words, as long 
 as I live. I remember in his closing remarks he said this : " If I 
 should faij, if I should fall upon the battle-field, let my countrymen drop 
 one tear for my memory, for I go for the right." [Loud cheering.] Yes, 
 nor the right, and since that day, two years ago, the startling events which 
 have taken plaee in our Republic, have caused the world to stop and 
 consider the condition of this great Republic. Oh ! that we should be 
 surrounded to-day by mothers clad in mourning, and old men sorrowing 
 for their sons, that have fallen in the sacred cause of the Union ! Oh ! 
 that you could see them here, the fathers, mothers, and brothers of 200,000 
 men that are now beneath the green sod ! And I say now if there is one 
 tribute of respect that we owe to their memory, it is to stand by that 
 which they fought for, and not to let the green laurel of memory and revenge 
 fade into the sere and yellow leaf in two short years. Who is there here 
 in this vast assemblage to-day, who will not say that they went forth to do 
 battle for a holy cause? [The artillery firing its closing salute interrupted 
 the orator.] Let it echo ; and as some people have asked why is the 
 American flag floating from our lofty edifices to-day ? I answer : it is be- 
 cause the rebels have not taken one single state from us, and we have sur- 
 rounded them with a wall of fire which they can never penetrate. It is 
 for this that we have a right to see the flag out. [Applause.] The line is 
 drawn, it is completely drawn, gentlemen ; it is this : either the Union or 
 slavery must perish. Then I say, let slavery die and the Union live. 
 [Loud cheers.] So says every true man. I am a man of the masses. I 
 come from the shop ; I manufacture, in common with many a one who 
 has come to this meeting. This is the hour when the mechanics and work- 
 ingmen who are to fight our battles leave their labor. To them I say : 
 accursed be the voice, palsied be the hand, that would interfere with the 
 efforts of any man, or deny any man's right to contribute to the success of 
 the nation in this struggle. I cai*e not for parties ; I care not for the man 
 that has got "nigger" on the brain ; I want to go for the man who has 
 got Union on his brain. Let us fight for the common cause, and if the 
 nigger is a part of it, for him ; but for the Union intact and forever. 
 [Loud applause.] Mr. Chairman, I may have fatigued you, but I think 
 
36 
 
 the crowd have made up their minds to stand by the Union, one and in- 
 separable, now and forever. [Prolonged applause] 
 
 Mayor Opdyke : Thanking you for your patient attention, as we are 
 through with our speakers, I new propose three rousing cheers for the 
 Union, after which the band will give the " Star Spangled Banner," and 
 we will adjourn. 
 
 With many cheers, and the inspiriting strains of that magnificent music 
 which is identified with the glory of the nation, this portion of the vast mul- 
 titude separated. 
 
OFFICERS. 
 
 STAND No. 2. 
 
 Under charge of Committee of Arrangements, 
 JAMES A. ROOSEVELT, GEORGE CABOT WARD. 
 ISAAC H. BAILEY, WILLIAM E. DODGE, Jr. 
 
 President. 
 
 ROBERT B. MINTURN. 
 
 Vice-Presidents. 
 
 John A. Stevens, 
 Moses Taylor, 
 A. T. Stewart, 
 James T. Brady, 
 Peter Cooper, 
 James Lenox, 
 Lorenzo Sherwood, 
 Cambridge Livingston, 
 E. Caylus, 
 A. Michelbacher, 
 William M. Evarts, 
 Benjamin F. Butler, 
 A. Thorp, 
 
 David S. Coddington, 
 William Wadsworth, 
 M. S. Dunham, 
 Samuel R. Betts, 
 David Miller, 
 Otis D. Swan, 
 James H. Welch, 
 W. Ashton, 
 George T. Hope, 
 Benjamin Floyd, 
 Robert Ray, 
 James G. Watson, 
 J. P. Morgan, 
 W. V. Brady, 
 Isaac Dayton, 
 S. H. Gay, 
 
 James W. Newton, 
 
 Carl Schulk, 
 
 John F. Trow, 
 
 Horace Greeley, 
 
 Joseph W. Alsop, 
 
 Benjamin D. Silliman, 
 
 William Barton, 
 
 Clarkson N. Potter, 
 
 John W. Avery, 
 
 Henry B. Hyde, 
 Cyrus W. Field, 
 Wickham Hoffman, 
 William Radde, 
 Charles W. Sandford, 
 
 William H. Wickham, 
 Henry Bruggman, 
 George A. Robbins, 
 Mark Hoyt, 
 Valentine Mott, 
 Oliver S. Stagg, 
 James W. W hite, 
 Jeremiah Burns, 
 Dexter A. Hawkins, 
 Henry Clausen, 
 James C. Holden, 
 Alexander H. Leonard, 
 Frederick Olmstead, 
 P. H. Holt, 
 George B. Butler, 
 
C. R. Robert, 
 J. P. Wallace, 
 Merritt Trimble, 
 Israel Corse, 
 Lorillard Spencer, 
 Stephen Philbin, 
 George W. Brown, 
 Charles Burkhalter, 
 N. Worrall, 
 William B. Shipman, 
 James M. Cross, 
 Willard Harvey, 
 A. Menzesheimer, 
 Paul Spofford, 
 George C. Wood, 
 Alexander Proudfoot, 
 A. Fred. Sueltzer, 
 John A. Foerseb, 
 
 38 
 
 Anthony S. Hope, 
 Jacob Hayes, 
 Robert J. Livingston, 
 Murray Hoffman, 
 Gustav. Kutter, 
 Isaac Sherman, 
 Harvey H. Woods, 
 Elijah Fisher, 
 William Hague, 
 Robert G. Remsen, 
 Henry Hill, 
 John B. Dingledein, 
 Thaddeus B. Wakeman, 
 Theodore Polhemus, jr. 
 John Bailey, 
 Morris Ketcham, 
 R. Von Der Heydt. 
 
 Secretaries, 
 
 Veranus Morse, 
 William S. Chamberlain, 
 George Bruce, jr., 
 Charles E. Stevens, 
 Richard Valiant, 
 Edward B. Morris, 
 Charles C. Nott, 
 William Bond, 
 John H. White, 
 Clinton Rice, 
 Samuel Curtis, 
 
 Edward A. Mann, 
 Cephas Brainerd, 
 William W. Hague, 
 Stuyvesant Le Roy, 
 Charles E.Wilbour, 
 James Lenox Kennedy, 
 T. G. Sherman, 
 George B. Waldron, 
 J. Howard, 
 Elliott F. Shepard, 
 William D. Jones. 
 
PROGRAMME OF PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 STAND No. 2. 
 
 SOUTHWEST CORNER OF UNION SQUARE. 
 
 Salutes of Artillery by the workmen employed by Henry Brewster fy Co. 
 
 1. Grand March from " Le Prophete," of Meyerbeer, by Dodworth's Grand 
 
 Band. 
 
 2. Robert B. Minturn, Esq., of the Council of the Loyal National League, will 
 
 call the meeting to order. 
 
 3. Prayer by Rev. J. T. Duryea. 
 
 4. James A. Roosevelt, of the Executive Committee, will read the call for 
 
 the meeting, and the list of Vice-Presidents and Secretaries. 
 
 5. Isaac H. Bailey will read the address adopted by the Council and Executive 
 
 Committees on Lectures and Addresses. 
 
 6. George Cabot Ward will read the resolutions. 
 
 7. Music by the Band. 
 
 8. Gov. 0. P. Morton of Indiana will address the meeting. 
 
 9. Music — singing : " The Army Hymn." By Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 10. Gen. A. J. Hamilton will address the meeting. 
 
 11. Music — singing : " The Star-Spangled Banner." 
 
 12. Mr. Scoville, delegate from New Jersey, will address the meeting. 
 
 13. Music — singing: "Song for the Loyal National League." Written ex- 
 
 pressly for this occasion, by George H. Boker. 
 
 14. Rev. J. T. Duryea will address the meeting. 
 
 15. Jas. A. Roosevelt will read a poem, entitled, "Those Seventy Men." 
 
 Written expressly for this occasion, by Mrs. Sarah H. Bradford. 
 
 16. Music — singing : " Our Union." Written expressly for this occasion, by 
 
 Alfred B. Street. 
 
40 
 
 This stand was erected on the southwest side of the Park, and was 
 decorated with banners bearing appropriate inscriptions. 
 
 At about half-past four o'clock, after salutes of artillery and martial 
 music, the meeting was called to order by R. B. Minturn, Esq., and prayer 
 was offered by the Rev. J. T. Duryea. 
 
 Mr. James A. Roosevelt read the call for the meeting, and the list of 
 Vice-Presidents and Secretaries. 
 
 Mr. Isaac H. Bailey was called upon to read the Address, but would 
 not detain the meeting by reading it, on account of its length, saying that it 
 was in accordance with the spirit which had called this meeting together ; 
 that it would be published by the press, and that the time would be fully 
 occupied by able and interesting speakers. 
 
 The resolutions were read by John Jay, and were adopted by accla- 
 mation. 
 
 The Chairman introduced to the meeting Robert Cummings, 14 years 
 of age, cabin-boy on board the Harriet Lane, and one of the few survivors 
 of her last engagement. He was greeted with loud applause, and mod- 
 estly bowing, retired. 
 
 Governor Morton, of Indiana, was introduced by the President, and 
 said : 
 
 SPEECH OF GOV. O. P. MORTON, OF INDIANA. 
 
 Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens : As you have learned by the 
 call, this meeting is assembled for the purpose of commemorating the 
 attack upon Fort Sumter. The inquiry may present itself to your minds, 
 For what are we commemorating the attack upon Fort Sumter ? Before 
 that time the American people had been paralyzed by divisions into 
 parties. The organization throughout the Southern states of a powerful 
 rebel army; the seizure of forts, dockyards, arsenals, mints, ships-of-war, 
 and every species of public property, had proved unavailing to arouse the 
 nation, which was, like a man with a dreadful nightmare, struggling to 
 awake, but yet unable to do so. But when the echo of the first gun was 
 heard in the night, coming like an earthquake, the nation arose from its 
 bed, and every man rushed into the open air to inquire what was the cause 
 of t he alarm, ready to go to the rescue if necessary. The firing upon 
 Fort Sumter was an evil hour for the rebellion ; for it had the effect, for 
 the time, to close up the ranks among the people, to heal up the dissen- 
 sions, and to bring us together as with a mighty compression. The attack 
 upon Fort Sumter had its effect to unite the American people. May its 
 speedy recapture and restoration again draw us together by the strong 
 bonds of patriotic fraternity. [Applause.] Time passed on, and the pa- 
 triotism and self-sacrificing devotion of many of our people, stimulated by 
 the great Union meetings after the fall of Sumter, wore out ; and the 
 dem agogues who had been driven into their kennels by the universal out- 
 burst of patriotism, came forth and began to do the devilish work of 
 attempting to produce divisions at the North, so as to paralyze the arm of 
 
41 
 
 the government. I believe that we shall come together again. I believe 
 that the work of the demagogues will be ' short-lived. I believe that the 
 good sense and the ardent affection which must still be found in the hearts 
 of an overwhelming majority of our people, will again rally us all around the 
 standard of our country, and uphold it until it shall be borne in triumph 
 to final victory. We are engaged in a war the most terrible in history — a 
 civil war. The first question which I shall ask to-day, and it may seem 
 somewhat elementary to you, for your minds are doubtless made up upon 
 the subject, is this : What brought this war upon the country ? who are 
 its authors'? My excuse for asking this question and answering it, is 
 based upon the fact that there are men in the city of New York, and all 
 over the loyal North, who are attempting to persuade the people that 
 this war was made by Mr. Lincoln's administration ; that it is an abolition 
 war, gotten up for the purpose of effecting the emancipation of the slaves, 
 and to promote negro equality. The foundations of the Rebellion were 
 laid more than thirty years ago. The first development of it was in the 
 nullification movement of South Carolina upon the pretence of a tariff 
 which they declared to be unconstitutional and oppressive. That Rebel- 
 lion was promptly suppressed by the iron will and strong hand of Gen. 
 Jackson. And the prediction was then made by Gen. Jackson himself, 
 that the next development would be upon the pretence of the slavery question. 
 From that time until the breaking out of this rebellion, preparations were 
 constantly made. Men of the Calhoun school of politics, at first almost 
 wholly confined to the state of South Carolina, but afterward spreading 
 through most of the Southern states, and afterward extending the poison 
 even into the Northern states, were laboring to lay the foundations for the 
 great rebellion with which we are now struggling. They were willing to 
 postpone the revolt so long as they could control the government through 
 the instrumentality of party. But when, shortly after the administration 
 of President Buchanan commenced, it became apparent that the South 
 could not longer control the government as before, preparations were sys- 
 tematically and industriously made throughout that entire administration to 
 bring the rebellion on. It was the business of Mr. Floyd, from the very first, 
 so to dispose of all the arms and munitions of war, that when the hour 
 came the rebels could place their hands upon them ; and we know they 
 did, the greater portion of them. Mr. Toucey, the Secretary of the Navy, 
 allowed the navy to become dilapidated and dismantled ; and when the hour 
 for action came, it was dispersed upon all the oceans, and was of no value to 
 us. It was the business of Mr. Cobb, the Secretary of the Treasury, to 
 impoverish the treasury of the Union, and to bring dishonor upon its 
 credit. I have been informed since I have been in this city, of a fact which 
 I believe is not generally known. Mr. Cobb deliberately made arrange- 
 ments to allow the interest on the public debt to go unpaid, so that the 
 coupons should be protested for non-payment, in order to affect our credit 
 abroad; and this dishonor to the national credit was only avoided by some 
 banks of the city of New York coming forward and voluntarily paying 
 the interest upon the national debt to preserve the national credit. [Ap- 
 plause ] Immediately after the election of Mr. Lincoln, South Caro- 
 lina made her arrangements to go out of the Union. She was followed by 
 one state after another, until eight or nine had gone through the forms of 
 secession, before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. At the time of his inaugu- 
 
42 
 
 ration the rebels had an army of more than 30,000 men in the field, 
 trained, armed, and ready for battle. Up to that time we had done noth- 
 ing. Mr. Buchanan had proclaimed to the world that the government 
 had no power for self-preservation. He had declared that the government 
 could not take a single military step to preserve its life from the robbers 
 that had taken it by the throat. Their arrangements had been made under 
 his eye, throughout his entire administration ; and we can only exonerate 
 him from the charge of a knowledge of the plans of the rebels, and com- 
 plicity with them, by making the most liberal concessions in favor of his 
 imbecility. [Laughter.] Our little army of 15,000 men had been scat- 
 tered to the four winds. There were not two hundred men together in any 
 one place, except the army of General Twiggs in Texas, which was most dis- 
 gracefully surrendered, as you know it was intended it should be, when it 
 was placed there. Preparations were made for the reduction of Fort 
 Sumter. They had been going on for many weeks. They were made 
 deliberately, openly, under the guns of that fortress. Those guns 
 remained silent ; and after all the land batteries and floating batteries had 
 been prep ared, and the hour was ripe, then the fire was opened upon Sum- 
 ter, and our glorious flag was hauled down, and our gallant garrison was 
 compelled to surrender to the enemy ; and thus the war was begun. Need 
 I ask you the question, then, who made the war"? It was made by the 
 rebels ; it was made by the South. Our government is standing on the 
 defensive. It is defending its life ; it is defending itself against the dis- 
 memberment of its territory ; it is struggling and fighting to prevent the 
 dissolution of the Union. It is not a war which the government has made, 
 but a war forced u pon the government — a war which the government could 
 not refuse to accept. The next question, then, for our consideration is, for 
 what purpose did the South make this war? For what purpose was this 
 rebellion brought upon the country, with all its train of disasters? What 
 object had they in view ? What had they to gain by it ? One party to 
 this war contends that there is no such thing as an American people, an 
 American nation ; that we are but an aggregation of some thirty-four petty 
 nationalities, united together in a partnership of interest and convenience, 
 from which any one is at liberty to withdraw at pleasure. The other party 
 to this war, to which I trust we all belong, contends that there is such a 
 thing as an American people, that there is a national unity. [Applause.] 
 That while we are divided into st ates for local and domestic government, 
 while the states are divided into counties, each having a government of its 
 own, and while the counties are again divided into townships, each 
 having a township government of its own, yet the township belongs 
 to the comity, the county to the state, and the state to one mighty in- 
 dissoluble nation. [Applause.] The question recurs, Why did the South 
 make this war, and seek to destroy this government ? You will be told, 
 perhaps, by such a man as Fernando Wood [groans] — I beg your pardon 
 for alluding to a subject which s eems to be so repulsive to your feelings — 
 but we are told by many men, N orth and South, that the war was forced 
 upon the South to protect their r ights under the Constitution ; that it was 
 the intention of Mr. Lincoln's ad ministration to aggress upon those rights, 
 and to secure those constitutio nal rights she commenced the war to de- 
 stroy the Constitution itself. T he first official declaration which the rebel 
 overnment ever made to the courts of Europe, given by their first am- 
 
43 
 
 bassador to Lord John Russell, was the statement that the war was not 
 made by the South for any such purpose ; that the South did not fear that 
 the administration of Mr. Lincoln would trample upon their constitutional 
 rights. I need then give no further answer to this pretence upon the part 
 of Northern sympathizers. Then what was the war made for by them ? 
 It was to establish a government in which the institution of slavery should 
 not be simply recognized or tolerated, but should be the great, paramount, 
 controlling interest, in which the slaveholding aristocracy should be the 
 dominant or the governing class. The war was made for the purpose of 
 overturning and uprooting the democratic principle and establishing the 
 aristocratic principle. Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Confederacy, 
 who has given us the only commentary upon their new constitution, de- 
 clares, in his speech at Milledgeville, that the South, for the first time in 
 the history of the world, had established a government whose chief corner- 
 stone was the institution of slavery. It was a matter of boasting that 
 this had occurred for the first time in the history of civilization. [A voice, 
 " For the last time, too. "] It was brought forth as an evidence of re- 
 markable progress. He boasted that they had overturned the principles 
 upon which this government had been founded ; that they had established 
 a government upon principles directly the reverse of those which were set 
 forth in the Declaration of Independence, and upon which this government 
 was established. The great question present in all our minds, and one 
 which we are all trying to answer to ourselves, is the great question, 
 How shall we procure peace ? How shall this war be ended ? It is said 
 that there are three ways in which peace can be attained. The first is by 
 conceding the independence of the rebel states, conceding the dissolution of 
 the Union, conceding the dismemberment of our territory. [Voices, 
 " Never."] The second is by procuring an armistice, then calling a Na- 
 tional Convention, having the rebel states represented in that convention, 
 and then propose to amend the Constitution, to make it satisfactory to the 
 rebels, and reconstruct the Union by turning out the six New England 
 states. [" Never."] The third is by suppressing the rebellion and con- 
 quering a peace. [Applause, and cries of " That's the way."] Let me 
 consider very briefly the merits of these different modes of obtaining peace. 
 1. If you obtain peace by conceding the independence of the rebel states, 
 then you must make up your minds to give up Kentucky, Missouri, Mary- 
 land, and Delaware. ["Never."] We have been told by the rebels, 
 first and last, that they never would consent to a peace, except upon terms 
 giving to them all the slave states represented in the rebel Congress. Each 
 of these states has members in that body ; and each is represented by a 
 star upon the rebel flag. If you would, therefore, obtain peace by aban- 
 doning this war, and conceding their independence, you must make up 
 your minds to give them those four states. If you do that, you must also 
 give them up your national capitol, which is between Maryland and Vir- 
 ginia, both of which would go with the South. That is the first conse- 
 quence. I do not say it would be the worst, by any means, for we could 
 build a new capitol upon better ground, and, I believe, in a better neigh- 
 borhood. [Laughter.] The next consequence to flow from peace upon 
 those terms, is the surrender of the mouth of the Mississippi river, and 
 the control of that stream, thus making the Northwestern States tribu- 
 tary to the rebel confederacy. The next consequence, flowing, directly 
 
44 
 
 from that, would be to raise up in all the Northwestern states, a power 
 ful party in favor of immediate annexation to the Southern Confederacy. 
 They would feel at once that the Northwestern states, lying in the Mis- 
 sissippi valley and upon the Ohio, are bound geographically, commercially, 
 and socially, with the people of the South and Southwest ; and they 
 would never consent to be separated from that political community that 
 controls the mouth of the Mississippi river. This party would be power- 
 ful from the first. It could not at once carry this measure of annexation 
 to the Southern Confederacy, and would then resort to a claim for a North- 
 western Confederacy, which would be but a preparatory and incipient 
 measure ; because after we shall have cut ourselves loose from the Atlantic 
 states, we must have an outlet, and we should be driven to throw our- 
 selves into the arms of the Southern Confederacy to enable us to get out 
 through the Gulf of Mexico. Another consequence to flow from peace 
 upon these terms, would be the immediate establishment of a Pacific Re- 
 public. California, Oregon, the territory of Washington and all those 
 territories separated from the Atlantic states by the range of the Rocky 
 Mountains, would at once set up for themselves, and with a much better 
 show of reason than any other portion of the Republic. They are upon 
 the Pacific slope. Their commerce is upon the Pacific ocean. Their 
 commerce is separated from ours by the Rocky Mountains. And they 
 would at once separate from us and set up a great Pacific Republic. No 
 sensible man can believe that if the work of secession and disintegration 
 shall be consummated by the establishment of the independence of the 
 present rebel states, it will stop there. No, it will go on until our coun- 
 try, once powerful, prosperous and glorious, will have become an utter 
 wreck and ruin. 
 
 2. Let me noAV consider briefly this second mode of obtaining power, 
 by procuring an armistice, calling a national convention, amending the 
 Constitution, so as to make it satisfactory to the rebels, and reconstruct- 
 ing the Union by turning out the six Ncav England states. We know very 
 well that the rebels will not come back with all the free states in the Union. 
 It would still be in the minority in the government, as they are the minority 
 in the populations. To remove this difficulty, it is proposed to turn New 
 England out, so as to get South Carolina and the other Southern states 
 in. We would then live in a confederacy of twenty-eight states, of which 
 fifteen would be slave states and thirteen would be free states. That 
 would give the South a permanent majority in the Senate of the United 
 States ; for they would take care never again to admit another free state 
 into the Union. What, then, would be our condition ? What is the con- 
 dition of Ireland to England, of Poland to Russia, of Hungary to Austria? 
 Such would be our condition were we to consent to a new confederacy 
 constructed upon these principles. Why is New England to be turned out ? 
 What is her offence for which she is to be expelled from the Union ? It 
 is that she has loved liberty too well, and slavery too little. [Applause.] 
 To New England, more than to all other parts of the country together, do 
 we owe this revolutionary war, and all the mighty train of consequences 
 that have followed it, so important to ourselves and to the world. The 
 Revolution had its origin in New England; and New England gave more 
 soldiers than all the other states together, for the purpose of carrying it 
 on to a successful issue. Massachusetts gave over 75,000 men, while South 
 
45 
 
 Carolina gave a few hundred over 5,000. Yet the proposition is made to 
 kick Massachusetts out, to coax South Carolina to come in. We are to 
 turn out loyal states in order to induce this viper to return to nestle in our 
 bosom. We Avill bring the viper back ; but it will not be until after its 
 fangs are extracted. This scheme is too dishonorable to be pursued ; and 
 yet this scheme is older than the war. It has its advocates in your city, 
 and in all the Northern states. I dismiss it as a subject too repugnant, to 
 our f'elings to be longer presented to you. 
 
 3. I come, then, to the last method of obtaining peace — by suppressing 
 the rebellion and conquering a peace. [Applause.] In the first place, 
 allow me to consider very briefly the progress of the war. What progress 
 have we ni ide ? I know we are an impatient people. We want great 
 things accomplished in a very short period. We have failed properly to 
 consider the magnitude of the rebellion and the difficulties of the under- 
 taking. When we shall have looked over the ground, we shall find that 
 our progress, after all, has been highly satisfactory, and such as to give us 
 the most confident hopes of success in the future. We have secured Ken- 
 tucky ; we have secured Missouri ; we have a great part of Arkansas ; we 
 have a great part of Louisiana ; we have Maryland ; we have Delaware ; 
 we have a considerable part of old Virginia ; a considerable part of North 
 Carolina, and a large part of Tennessee. We have at this time more than 
 half the rebel territory and more than a third of all its population. The 
 right to grumble is one of our prerogatives. We are a grumbling people. 
 We grumble at the President. I have no doubt that the President has 
 committed faults. He has been placed in a more trying and difficult posi- 
 tion than any Executive the nation ever had. The position of Gen. Wash- 
 ington was never more difficult or more important than that of Abraham 
 Lincoln. If the President had not erred, under all these trying circum- 
 stances, it would have been more than human. You who are familiar with 
 the history of our Revolution remember what bitter opposition was waged 
 against Gen. Washington, almost throughout the war. You remember 
 the complaints tbey made of want of success — complaints of his tardiness — 
 and how, from time to time, the hearts of the people sank within them. 
 But still they held on, and victory finally crowned our arms and blessed 
 our cause. There was still a confidence that took fast hold of the hearts 
 of the people at the time, of the integrity, the purity, the sound judgment 
 of Gen. Washington. And I tell you to-day that the great overshadow- 
 ing element in the character of Abraham Lincoln is his unimpeachable 
 integrity. [Applause.] It is the confidence that this nation has that he 
 is an honest man, that he loves his country, and that whatever he does he 
 intends for the welfare of the country ; that if he errs it is the error of the 
 head and not of the heart ; and I congratulate the nation that in this great 
 hour of trial Ave have for our President so honest and upright a man as 
 Abraham Lincoln. [Applause.] 
 
 They complain of the Secretary of War. It is said that he is not doing 
 his part well, and that many of the misfortunes of the war are to be attrib- 
 uted to him. I doubt not he, too, has committed errors ; but I have 
 watched his course narrowly ; I have had much to do with him in the ad- 
 ministration of military affairs in Indiana, an'l I take great pleasure in bear- 
 ing testimony to his great abilities, and to his untiring devotion to the cause 
 in which he is engaged. I tell you there is nothing half-hearted about Edwin 
 
46 
 
 Stanton. His whole heart is in the work, and he is devoting himself to it 
 night and day. I believe history will yet record his name upon one of- its 
 brightest and best pages. I may speak, too, with propriety, of Secretary 
 Chase. He received the treasury, as it came from the hands of Cobb, 
 without a single grain in it. [Laughter.] It had been impoverished by 
 him purposely to paralyze the power of the government to resist the rebel- 
 lion. That was a part of the scheme — a part of the policy which character- 
 ized the whole administration of Buchanan. Mr. Chase has resurrected the 
 credit of the nation ; and this fabric of the national credit never stood so 
 high as at the present time. It is our boast that we have carried on the 
 war to this time without being compelled to call upon Europe to furnish a 
 single dollar, as has been correctly stated in one of the resolutions you have 
 just adopted ; and the prospect is that we shall cany on the war to the 
 end, and crush out the rebellion, without calling upon Europe to lend us a 
 single dollar for that purpose. The plan of obtaining peace that I am in 
 favor of, is by crushing out the rebellion. How are we to do that ? The 
 great instrumentalities to be employed are the army and the navy. They 
 are attempting by force and violence to destroy this government, and we 
 must meet them by force and violence. We must therefore maintain the 
 army and the navy in their efficiency, and keep them in operation. To do 
 that, the ranks of the army must be recruited. Those who are not in favor 
 of filling up the army, are not in favor of crushing the rebellion, and want 
 the rebellion to succeed. The ranks of the army must be recruited ; and 
 how shall it be done ? You cannot do it by volunteering ; but it must be 
 done by the conscription act. It is a matter of necessity that that act 
 should be enforced everywhere. Some of you, perhaps, do not like the 
 conscription act. It is an odious thing at the best ; a thing which cannot 
 be made acceptable to the people. Yet it should be understood that it is 
 a necessary evil, and should be accepted as such. If you do not like the 
 conscription act, let me ask the question, who are the men who forced the 
 conscription upon the nation ? They are the men who have endeavored to 
 make the war odious. They are the men who have produced the state of 
 public opinion which has entirely cut off and suspended all volunteering. 
 They are the men who have encouraged desertion from the army. They 
 are the men who have endeavored to depreciate the national currency, to 
 discourage the army, to discourage men from volunteering. These are the 
 men who have brought the conscription act upon the country ; and I pray 
 you to hold them responsible for it. The government would much prefer 
 to depend upon volunteering to the end, as it had in the beginning ; but as 
 that became impossible in consequence of the opposition to the war, it be- 
 came necessary to resort at last to the conscription act. Let me here ad- 
 vert briefly to what is called the $300 section. We are told that is the 
 rich man's section ; that it was designed to exonerate the rich man, and to 
 embrace the poor man. I want to correct that. I disapproved of it, but 
 it was for a very different reason from those demagogues who are trying 
 to excite the country against the law. I preferred that it should allow 
 the drafted man to furnish a substitute, but leave to him the expense and 
 the trouble of getting a substitute. But why was the $300 clause put in? 
 It was put in for the benefit of the poor man. In Indiana we had a little 
 draft — a draft of a few thousand men for nine months — and the price of 
 substitutes ran up from $200 to $800 or $900 in a very few days after the 
 
47 
 
 draft was made. Does it require an argument to show that there is a much 
 larger number of poor men in New York who can procure $300, than of 
 men who can procure a substitute when they have to pay $800 to $1,000 
 for him"? This was the idea which led Congress to insert the $300 clause; 
 to protect the poor man from the result which experience had indicated, 
 that the price of substitutes would run up even to $1,000, putting it en- 
 tirely out of the power of a man of moderate means to procure a substitute 
 at all. Yet this clause has been perverted and falsely held up before the 
 people, to make the government and the war odious. 
 
 Another instrumentality to which the government proposes to resort, in 
 certain places, is the raising of negro regiments. We are told that it is de- 
 grading to white manhood that the negro should be called upon to fight. "We 
 employ the agency of horses and mules ; we employ the agency of gun- 
 powder, and that is as black as the negro [laughter] ; we employ the agency 
 of steam ; and these things are not considered as degrading to white man- 
 hood ; but the moment you propose to employ the instrumentality of the 
 negro, we are told that it is revolting to the white race. This is done for 
 the purpose of appealing to the lowest prejudices of our nature upon the 
 subject of color. I am in favor of fighting the rebels and subduing them 
 in any way that it can be accomplished. [Applause.] If you can make a 
 successful use of bull-dogs and tom-cats, I am in favor of using them too. 
 [Great laughter.] 
 
 The question of employing negroes is not a question of right, but merely 
 of expediency. If you can make the negro soldiers available, use them ; 
 if you cannot, don't use them. It is simply a question of the means of 
 suppressing the rebellion. I would like to ask this question of those de- 
 nouncing the employment of negro regiments, If by employing negro regi- 
 ments to hold the forts in Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, South 
 Carolina, and wherever we have forts, we can thereby dispense with a 
 draft in the city of New York, would these gentlemen be opposed to it then ? 
 [Laughter.] If thereby 5,000 or 10,000 men can be left at home in New 
 York, who would otherwise be taken from their families and their indus- 
 trial pursuits, would these men still oppose it, or would they still insist 
 that the men must be drafted — that the negroes may not be employed ? 
 Suppose that we draft one of these objectors and make this proposition to 
 him, " Now, sir, if you will consent to the employment of negro soldiers 
 in your stead, I will discharge you,'' what do you think his answer would 
 be ? [Laughter and applause.] The only question, then, is the question 
 of expediency. Can they be made useful to us in suppressing the rebel. 
 lion? 
 
 Another instrument which the President proposes to employ in the pros- 
 ecution of the war, is the proclamation of freedom to the slaves of rebels 
 in rebel states. We are told that this is entirely unconstitutional, and we 
 must pay very strict regard to the constitutional rights of those men who 
 have seceded from the Union and made themselves a new constitution. 
 We are to be divided and distracted among ourselves, and take each other 
 by the throat, to preserve the constitutional rights of rebels. Is that just? 
 I am asked by a gentleman near me, has the rebel any right under the 
 Constitution which a white man is bound to respect? [''No," "no!"] 
 The crowd answers the question for you, sir. The great difficulty is, that 
 our people do not draw the distinction between peace and war. They 
 
48 
 
 seem to think we are to carry on war just like peace. They do not know 
 that war has its privileges, its rights and immunities, just as peace has. 
 What gave the President the right to send his army across the river at the 
 Potomac, to occupy the heights of Arlington, to dig up the sacred soil of 
 Virginia into intrenohments, and to cut down timber? There is not a word 
 in the Constitution about that. It is a right that springs out of the con- 
 dition of war. What gave our army the right, at Goldsboro', to destroy 
 churches and academies, and to convert private residences into hospitals 
 for the use of the army? There is not a word in the Constitution about 
 that. The right springs from the existence of war. They have the right 
 to seize horses and mules, to cut down and destroy growing crops, to cut 
 off the provisions and resources of the rebels, wherever they can. The 
 Constitution is silent about this ; but this right to do all these things springs 
 from the existence of war. What gave the President the right to blockade 
 the rebel ports, to shut out the commerce of the world — arms, provisions, 
 goods of every description ? The Constitution says not a word about that ; 
 but the Supreme Court of the United States has recently decided that 
 the blockade is constitutional, and that the President had power to declare 
 and to enforce that blockade. It is only when you come to the negro — only 
 when you come to slave property — that the panoply and armor of the Con- 
 stitution is thrown around him. Now, slaveholding is the great element 
 in maintaining the rebellion. It performs all the labor of the camp and 
 of the march. And at home it raises the provisions to feed the rebel army 
 in the 'field, and to support the families of the rebels upon their plantations. 
 Withdraw slave labor, and three fourths of the rebels would be compelled 
 to return home to raise something »to live upon and to feed their families. 
 The epicstion is, how to destroy the strength of the rebellion ? If a 
 blockake will assist, we have a right to resort to that ; if destroying their 
 growing crops, we have a right to do that; if withdrawing the labor 
 which provides for the families of the rebels, and furnishes provisions to 
 them and to their armies, and which performs all the work of the field and 
 of the camp, we have a perfect right to do that. It simply resolves itself 
 into a question of expediency, How shall the rebellion be suppressed ? If 
 it can be suppressed in this way — if this can be made instrumental, in a small 
 degree even, in suppressing the l'ebellion, it is not only the right of the 
 President to resort to it, but it is his solemn duty to do so. His right to 
 do so is too clear for argument. It is an experiment. I believe it will 
 succeed. It has already partially succeeded. But if it does not succeed, 
 it doe? not controvert the right. It is an experiment. The attack upon 
 Fredericksburg was an experiment. It did not succeed ; but I believe 
 that the constitutionality of it was never disputed. [Applause.] The 
 attack upon Murfreesboro, by Gen. Rosecrans, was an experiment, and it 
 succeeded ; and I believe nobody is disposed to question the constitution- 
 ality of that act. [Renewed applause.] This is an experiment, and 1 
 believe it will succeed — that it will be an important instrument, not only 
 in suppressing the rebellion, but in elevating the character of the nation. 
 [Applause] But whether it shall succeed or not, the right to issue that 
 proclamation, and to enforce it, seems to me too clear for argument. 
 
 We hear a good deal said, in these latter times, about arbitrary arrests, 
 because a man here and there, who has been particularly virulent against 
 his country in time of war, has been taken to Fort Lafayette or person- 
 
49 
 
 ally confined. [A voice, "They ought to be hung up."] It is some- 
 what arbitrary ; I shall not deny that ; but in my judgment, the great 
 error of the government has been rather in the discharge than in the 
 arrest. [Applause.] Not many arrests have been made. A great deal 
 has been said about the few that have been made. But for my part, I do 
 not know of a single man that has been incarcerated who did not deserve 
 to be. When we hear men talking about the rights of personal liberty, 
 "" and of the writ of habeas corpus, what have they to say about the rights of 
 the hundreds and thousands of Union men languishing, perishing, rotting, 
 in Southern dungeons. Are not these men our brethren likewise ? Are 
 they not our fellow-citizens ? Have they not personal rights, as dear to 
 us as those of the people of the city of New York ? They are our fellow- 
 countrymen. If you have tears to shed, I pray you to shed them over 
 those men who have been lying in filthy, pestilential dungeons for months 
 past, and many of whom have died there, and the country has never known 
 the history of their death. While these things are going on from day to 
 day — and no one dare deny it—these men have no sympathy for them; but 
 their sympathies are entirely wasted upon a kw copperheads who may 
 have found their way into Fort Lafayette or Fort Warren. 
 
 The last hope of the rebellion is founded, not upon the success of their 
 arms, but upon dissensions and divisions among us. Take this home with 
 you and think of it. If there are any persons here to-day who are en- 
 gaged in fomenting jealousies and discords among our people — who are en- 
 gaged in factious opposition to paralyze the arms of the government — I beg 
 of them to think of the terrible responsibility which they take upon them- 
 selves. Every week they protract this war costs us many a life, from dis- 
 ease or from battle. Every week takes millions of treasure, building up 
 still higher the mountain load that rests upon the nation. The responsi- 
 bility is with them. Eead the speeches in their Congress ; read their 
 newspapers; converse with rebel prisoners, and you will find that they all 
 tell the same story. They believe that the time is coming when there will 
 be a party in the North which will rise up and strike down the party of 
 the government, and overturn the government itself, when we shall fall 
 an easy prey to them. [" Never," "never."] I believe this will never 
 »occur ; but it is the hope of this which induces them to linger on. They 
 are told that we cannot get another army. " Struggle on ; endure and 
 suffer everything; wait until the present Union army is exhausted, by bat- 
 tle or by disease, and then the victory will be yours ; for there never will 
 be another loyal army at the North." It is this which induces them, 
 more than all, to struggle on. 
 
 We have everything at stake in this contest ; not only our nation, our 
 character at home and abroad, as a people, but the individual prosperity 
 and happiness of every man of us is directly involved in this issue. I 
 have heard men say, who have lately been in Europe, that the American 
 war passes for almost nothing there, the American character has already 
 suffered so much ; and if the Union should be destroyed, we should then be- 
 come, as we should deserve to be, the laughing-stock of the old monarchies 
 of the world. There is one great difference between ourselves and the 
 rebels. We are absorbed in our daily business. Your streets were never 
 more thronged ; your harbor was never more full of ships, and general 
 prosperity prevails. We are attending to our business, and the rebels are 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 attending exclusively to the war ; and when we shall attend to the war> 
 we shall end it most speedily. 
 
 In conclusion, as you love yonr country; as you love your families, your 
 wives and your children; as you love yourselves — putting it even upon the 
 ground of selfishness — I exhort you to give all that you are, and all that 
 you hope to be, to the final suppression of this rebellion. [Applause.] 
 
 The " Star Spangled Banner" was then sung, the audience uniting heart- 
 ily in the chorus. 
 
 SPEECH OF GEN. A. J. HAMILTON. 
 
 Gen. A. J. Hamilton, of Texas, was greeted with loud cheering. He 
 said : 
 
 Two years have passed since the hand of treason fired the first gun at 
 the national flag. Our country had engaged in war before it engaged in 
 this. Its flag had been fired upon by national enemies, who had been met 
 on many fields, at home and abroad ; but it had never been called upon 
 to defend that flag against enemies whom it had nurtured, and who ought 
 to have been its dearest and surest friends. During these two years, many 
 changes have, from time to time, been manifested in the public feeling, in 
 the public opinion, judging from the expression given to it through the 
 public press, and through those who assume, from time to time, to be the 
 exponents of the public sentiment. A.t the moment when the news thrilled 
 through the hearts of the people of this great city and this great nation, 
 that the flag had been fired up«ui and dishonored, there was but one im- 
 pulse, and that was to rush to the rescue. There was but one sentiment 
 then expressed, as I am told, in all this land, and that was to punish the 
 men who had been guilty of this treason, and avenge the country upon the 
 men who had sought to dishonor the flag of the nation. 
 
 That did not continue to be the public feeling ; and why ? Because 
 it was the impulse, simply, of the hearts of the people, such as an individ- 
 ual might feel upon receiving a personal insult. The public mind had not 
 then been accustomed to weigh in the balance the magnitude of the inter- ♦ 
 ests involve! in the struggle, nor did they rightly understand the object in 
 view upon the part of those who had made it necessary for the govern- 
 ment to engage in this war. It was not perceived at a glance that the trai- 
 tor had not become maddened under the existence of some real or fancied 
 wrong upon the part of the loyal states, but that this was a conspiracy of 
 long standing, the object of which was to overthrow the government; not 
 that it bad wronged tbem, but because those engaged in the conspiracy 
 preferred a government of another character. It was said by the vice- 
 president of the so-called confederacy, that the object was to establish a 
 government upon the ruins of the national government, the corner-stone 
 of which should be slavery — which was the stone rejected by the builders 
 of this government. The experience of our forefathers having led them 
 to form a government without that corner-stone, they had determined to 
 tear down that ediiice, and build upon its ruins another, and to use that 
 rejected stone as the chief of the corner. 
 
 But their object was not understood, and time rolled on ; and many, 
 
 
51 
 
 supposing that this rebellion was merely the result of a momentary passion 
 and ill feeling, which would soon pass away, became tired, and were ready 
 to reunite with them once more upon the terms of the Constitution, with 
 the addition, it may be, of some additional guarantees, as the phrase was, 
 which would give peace and security to the South, against the aggressive 
 spirit of the North, upon the institution of slavery. But they tell you 
 to-day, that it was not because of any wrong they had suffered at the 
 hands of the people of the North, of any kind, and least of all for any 
 wrong upon the part of the government in respect to slavery, that they 
 severed the bonds that bound them to you. They say, indeed, that they 
 did u=e this argument ; but it was used as a pretext, simply as a means of 
 maddening the people of the South, and firing their hearts, in order to be 
 able to precipitate them into revolution. Now that the thing is accom- 
 plished, they tear away the veil, and tell you that the great quarrel they 
 have with you is, that your society constitutes a democracy — not a copper- 
 head democracy, not a democracy which resists every effort the govern- 
 ment now makes to preserve its own existence — but using the term in its 
 enlarged and proper sense. They say it is because your men are all free, 
 and therefore all participate in the government ; and it results that the 
 government is in the hands of laboring men, or, as they express it, in the 
 heels of society — whereas, in the South, where they control and direct the 
 labor, they say that the government is in the head of society, where it 
 ought to be. And because slavery and democracy are natural antagonisms, 
 as they must ever be, they determined, following the lead of Mr. Calhoun, 
 to hatch the viper, to tear asunder the bonds of this Union, and rear up a 
 government of a few over the many, in which the democratic principle 
 should be ignored, and which should confer authority and power alone in 
 the hands of men who are interested in the institution of slavery. It is 
 the old struggle of liberty on the one hand, and despotism on the other. 
 [Applause. ] 
 
 .But it is said that the President has changed the character of the war, so 
 far a& this government is concerned. I will not reply to the assertion the 
 unheard of until now and the monstrous lie, that this government made the 
 war. The man who utters it ought not to be replied to ; or, if at all, he 
 ought to be replied to with a blow, and not by words. [Applause.] 
 
 I pass that by. The war exists. We all know who made it. But it 
 is said the President has changed the character of the war from a war to 
 suppress the rebellion to a war to crush out slavery. There js only a 
 slight mistake in this. The President has not changed the character of 
 the war. He is still carrying it on to suppress the rebellion ; but as the 
 best means of suppressing the rebellion, thank God, he has at last put his 
 heel upon the cause of the rebellion. [Applause.] You say he had not 
 the power to do it. I don't know whether he had the power to do it or 
 not ; I know that he has done it ; and now how are you to help it ? You 
 that don't like it, what are you going to do about it?' He is the President 
 of the United States, the commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the 
 United States ; and the principle is older than the government, a principle 
 recognized among all nations, civilized and barbarous, that the commander 
 of an army has the right, and will exercise it if he has the power, of tak- 
 ing from the public enemy all his resources, and reducing him to starva- 
 tion and to abject want, in order that he may be conquered. Where do 
 
 / 
 
52 
 
 you get the authority for saying that the President of the United States, 
 the commander-in-chief of our army and navy, engaged in the most mo- 
 mentous war of modern times, and for the pi enervation of his government, 
 has less power as commander-in-chief than the commander-in-chief of the 
 army of any other nation 1 But if he had wanted any portion of the power 
 exercised by him. upon the theory that it was lodged in another depart- 
 ment of the government— the war-making and the law-making department 
 of the government — that has conferred upon him by solemn act of Congress 
 the power to do what he has done. And under his own authority, with 
 that of Congress coupled with it, he has said to the rebellious states and 
 districts embraced in his proclamation of January 1st, that slaves held in 
 bondage by rebel masters prior to that period, shaH from and after that 
 date, be forever free men. [Applause.] By virtue of that proclamation, 
 every slave in that whole region stands, under the Constitution and the 
 laws, this evening, as free as you and I. They may not be in the practi- 
 cal enjoyment of their liberty. Many of them we know are not. They 
 are still held as slaves, by force ; but as our armies penetrate deeper and 
 deeper among them, they will become practically free ; and they will re- 
 main free. For while the President had the power to make them free, 
 and while it was his duty to do it— while it was the very best policy that 
 could have been adopted, and the most fatal blow that secession has yet 
 received from any quarter — I thank God that he has not the power, nor 
 has Congress the power, nor any department of the government, nor have 
 the people of this great government the power, constitutionally, to make 
 one of these same manumitted and liberated slaves ever anything less than 
 a freeman again. [Great applause.] It is irrevocable. It will last as 
 one of the proudest monuments in the history of this government, from its 
 foundation down to the present time. The President has changed the 
 character of the war. Scipio, when the Roman government was in danger 
 of being overthrown- by the Carthagenians, and when he was fighting lor 
 the perpetuity of his government, in order to preserve the government. of 
 the people and triumphantly to end the contest, determined " to carry 
 the war into Africa;" and so has President Lincoln. [Laughter and ap- 
 plause.] Africa made war upon him; and he has made war against the 
 institution that made war upon the nation. He is determined not only to 
 declare war against it, but to go into its strongholds and fastnesses and 
 throttle it in its very bed, to seize upon the idol before its altar, and drag 
 it down and destroy it forever. [Applause.] 
 
 The President has done a great many other "unconstitutional'' things. 
 He has disregarded the right of habeas corpus; and for that he is a "ty- 
 rant." The right to suspend the habeas corpus is given in the Constitution 
 of this country ; and the men who talk about the unconstitutionality of this 
 or of other acts of the President, ought to go and read the Constitution be- 
 fore they undertake to talk about it. [A voice, " Perhaps they can't read." 
 Laughter.] The Constitution gives the power. It provides that the right 
 shall not be suspended, " except in time of war." This I believe is what 
 the lawyers would call a negative pregnant with an affirmative; and is as 
 if the Constitution had said, In time of war it may be suspended. 
 
 For what is it suspended ? We are told that he ought not to suspend it 
 in New York, because the war does not exist here. Already I suppose 
 there are those who think that New York is virtually out of the Union. 
 
53 
 
 The argument is, that hostilities exist in South Carolina, or Georgia, or 
 other Southern states, and that there it might he well to suspend the right 
 of habeas corpus, and that it is the meaning of the Constitution that it 
 may he suspended there. Gentlemen surely do not understand the object 
 of the constitutional provision. It is not for the purpose of dealing with 
 traitors with arms in their hands, in military array against the govern- 
 ment, that the Constitution provides for the suspension of the habeas cor- 
 pus in order that men may be taken hold of. Not at all. For men in 
 arms against the government, armies are provided with bayonets and 
 sword?, instruments of death, in their hands, ready to mete out justice to 
 traitors whenever and wherever they find them. It is not for the purpose 
 of taking hold of a man who has done enough to convict him, before a 
 proper tribunal and an impartial jury, of treason against the government, 
 that provision is made for the suspension of that writ ; but it is made for 
 the purpose of enabling the President to take hold of men who have done 
 not quite enough to enable him to convict them of outright treason, and 
 yet too much to- allow them to remain in the body of society; to enable 
 him to lay his hand on them and place them out of the way of tempting 
 weak men to become disloyal to the government. [Applause.] When you 
 hear one of these men complaining so much that Abraham Lincoln is 
 a tyrant, tell him that he furnishes an answer to the charge in his 
 own respected person ; because he is the very character that the govern- 
 ment ought to take care of, and the government will be remiss in its duty 
 if it does not take hold of him accordingly. The man who makes the 
 charge is a living monument to the lie he tells. If Abraham Lincoln were 
 a tyrant, no man in this critical condition of the country could go about 
 calling him one ; for he would not permit it. If he had been a severe man 
 even, if he had been disposed to wield all the power he had, for the pres- 
 ervation of the government, situated as he is, a thousand heads would 
 have rolled from the block before this evening. 
 
 Congress, too, comes in for its share of reproach. They tell you that 
 that has been violating the Constitution. Men Avho have been high in 
 position heretofore, and who ought to be still higher now, by at least twenty 
 feet [laughter], tell you that Congress has violated the Constitution of the 
 country, in providing the means of replenishing the wasted ranks of the 
 army by means of the conscription act, and that it is such a violation of 
 the Constitution of the country, that the good people of New York should 
 be invoked to resist the government in enforcing the law ; and this is 
 all done in the name of the Constitution, to preserve it. Again let me 
 ask if the men who take this ground have read the Constitution of 
 their country, or if they suppose that the great body of the people have 
 never read it ? Let me ask you who take this position, whether that same 
 Constitution, or any authority of the government, has given you the right 
 to determine this grave constitutional question 1 ? When did it give you the 
 right f And how ? Has the Constitution provided any means of settling 
 constitutional questions which may arise in respect to the law passed by 
 Congress? Certainly it has. What means has it provided? That the 
 people of New York shall rise up in mass meetings and say that the law 
 is unconstitutional? Oh, no! By the state authorities ignoring it, as 
 South Carolina did in 1832, nullifying the law? No. How then ? By 
 taking the case, under the law, to the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 
nad invoking its solemn judgment ; and if that august tribunal shall decide 
 that such law has been passed by Congress without authority, you will 
 have no occasion to resist the government, because it will not attempt to 
 put the law in force. But until it is so ascertained, the man who under- 
 takes to resist the law, or who advises its resistance, is already a traitor 
 against the government, and inviting the people to plunge headlong into 
 rebellion. It is not done without a purpose. It is not done out of loyal 
 love an d respect and veneration for the Constitution. It is not to protect 
 the riaVts of the people. But it is a cool, fiendish, deliberate purpose to 
 produce schism and. confusion in your midst, that such doctrines are put 
 forth • and I say that the men who do it ought to be hanged by the gov- 
 eri ment • and if I could utter a word taking the Jone of a curse agamst 
 the present administration, it would be because it has shown a timidity, 
 almost criminal, in not immediately taking hold of and dealing with all 
 such men. [Applause.] . 
 
 There are many other things objected to. The truth is, that the govern- 
 ment can do nothing these men do not object to. Every solemn effort 
 made by the President, or by Congress, or by your armies in the field, is 
 the subject of constant unfriendly criticism upon the part of these object- 
 ors. Yet we hear not a word of reproach or condemnation, not a whisper, 
 against the men who have caused the trouble in which we are now involved. 
 We hear not a disrespectful word from them against Jefferson Davis, or 
 any of his friends. On the contrary, they consider him almost the type 
 of perfection in man— one of the :greatest men of the age. I am willing 
 that every rebel here, or elsewhere, should sing paeans to him. I do not 
 want them to give their assent to the act of a single loyal man of the coun- 
 try It would be a reproach to a loyal man to have their commendation 
 under any circumstances. If they needs must crown their hero, let them 
 crown him with a wreath befitting his character, and suited to the deeds of 
 his life Having attempted the destruction of his country, in whose lap 
 he was nursed in youth, by which he was educated, and by which in man- 
 hood he was trusted as one of its accredited agents; having a high plac- 
 in its councils by virtue of the solemn oath he took to support the Cone 
 stitution, and to legislate for the best interests of the country ; having per- 
 iured himself and prostituted his high position to tear down the republic, 
 to plot treason fur years, with the coolness of a fiend— if, fordoing all .that, 
 Jor well nigh accomplishing it, and making men almost doubt the capacity 
 of man for self-government, which had nearly become part of our religion, 
 he deserves a crown — 
 
 " Then weave the wreath, the hero's brow to suit, 
 Of blasted leaf, and death-distilling fruit " 
 
 Go, gather the cypress and the hemlock, the nightshade and the deadly 
 upas ; steep them in the tears of the widows and orphans he has made ; 
 sprinkle them with the blood of your brothers and sons ; breathe upon 
 them the nation's deepest curse ; and then bind them upon his brow, there 
 to blister through all time and burn through eternity , and palsied be the 
 arm and withered forever, that would stretch forth the friendly hand to 
 snatch them hence. [Great applause.] Let them come and receive (lieu- 
 laurels. Let them come boldly, for they have won them well ; and from 
 this hour, neither angels in heaven, men on earth, nor fiends in hell, will 
 deny their claims to eternal infamy. 
 
55 
 
 After the outburst of feeling caused by the capture of Fort Sumter, 
 there came a day of apathy, doubt, and almost of despair; but, at every 
 step through this disastrous war, the people have gone deeper and deeper 
 in their research into the cause of the straggle, and have learned more and 
 more of the spirit, the object, and the temper of the men engaged in it, 
 until at last I believe that they have risen to the full consciousness of the 
 magnitude of the struggle that is pending. They know that it involves 
 the life or death of this great government, and that there can be no com- 
 promise ottered or thought of. The man who talks of it is either a fool or 
 a hypocrite. Every well-informed man now understands that no compro- 
 mise can be offered that would be accepted by the leaders of the rebellion. 
 We know, too, that,, the leaders out of the way, the great body of the 
 people are ready to come back without any compromise. They have ac- 
 cepted the compromise offered by the President in his proclamation ; and 
 that is, that the hellish cause of the rebellion shall die with the rebellion. 
 [Applause.] The only thing that could create another rebellion shall be 
 cast back behind us forever. It shall never again be the cause of disturb- 
 ance. Why, then, talk about compromise % What we want is unity of 
 action, and to strengthen the hands of the government. How is that to 
 be done % We profess to be lovers of liberty. The man who seeks to 
 destroy the confidence of the public in the President, and the men under 
 him who are carrying on the war, profess to be democrats. What do you 
 mean by the term democracy? If you mean love of the democratic 
 principle, that is the leading feature of our government. If you do 
 love that principle which makes all men under the constitution and the 
 laws equals — which gives to each man the same measure, and offers to 
 him the same protection of life, liberty, and property — you are a demo- 
 crat indeed ; and in God's name, I say, be a democrat, and I will help 
 you if I know how. But if you mean anything narrower" than that — if 
 you mean by democracy something that is against the government — then 
 you are no democrat, and you commit a libel upon the name of democracy 
 when you call yourself one. [Applause.] 
 
 The war is going on, and we must sustain the government. Men tell 
 you that you can sustain the government at the same time that you con- 
 demn the President and those that act under him. I am not here to tell 
 you that the President of the United States is the government, or that the 
 President and the Congress, taken together, are the government, I think 
 I understand something about the theory of this government, It is a gov- 
 ernment of the people, it is true. They are the ground- work of the gov 
 eminent. The government rests upon the people ; but it is a government 
 you have created yourselves, and you have prescribed the manner in which 
 your power shall be exercised. You do not get up primary assemblages 
 like this to determine what shall be done in raising an army and prose- 
 cuting the war ; but you have adopted a constitution, and by that you 
 agree every four years to elect a President, and to clothe him with 
 power to administer the government for four years. You are bound by 
 the constitution which you have made, bound by the rules you have 
 adopted for the exercise of your own power, and you cannot go beyond 
 this, unless you seek to create revolution. Therefore, having selected your 
 President, and made him your agent, under your rules, does it behoove 
 you, when your interests are threatened, and when your agent is doing 
 
56 
 
 all he can to protect your interests and preserve your rights, even if you 
 conceive him to commit errors, to go about and cause all men to turn away 
 from him and leave him helpless? When the agent you have created is 
 protecting your own rights, is it*not your duty to come up and give him 
 your help, to aid him by your friendly counsels, and not to thwart him by 
 constant attacks, and statements which, if true, would prove him to be 
 unworthy of your confidence or your support? It is not only your duty 
 to do that, but it is your duty to do more. While he is your President, 
 as he must be for two years, when we all realize that this rebellion must 
 be put down within two years, what then ought you to do ? Sustain 
 and support him by your counsel and friendly advice. If you think he 
 has men about him in high places who are not doing the most effective 
 work in crushing out the rebellion, it is your bounden duty to let the Presi- 
 dent know your opinion. If, for example, you believe that there are earn- 
 est, able, and willing patriots who have worked well, but who by the 
 jealousies of others have been displaced and withdrawn from the positions in 
 which they were effecting much good, it is your business to let the President 
 know, and to let the world know, that those men ought to be restored. 
 We.want Fremont back again at the head of an army. [Applause.] We 
 want old Ben. Butler back at the head of an army. [Applause.] We 
 want Sigel back at the head of an army. [Applause.] They are all 
 worthy men and patriots; and if it so happened that by their superior 
 intuition or knowledge of the facts, they foresaw earlier than others, and 
 especially before the administration, the policy that this government 
 must ultimately adopt in crushing the rebellion, that is no reason why 
 they should not be allowed to aid in carrying out that policy after it has 
 been adopted by the administration. I say it is our duty to the President 
 to say this to him in a friendly way ; and as one who has done all I could 
 in every way, and will continue to do it to the end, no matter what my 
 personal fate may be, I would say this to him as frankly to-night as to 
 the humblest man in the land. I believe if we say this, the President 
 will appreciate it, and sooner or later will act upon it. 
 
 Now, fellow-citizens, let us rally to the support of the President ; and 
 if we act four months vigorously together, the victory will have been 
 achieved. The bottom is ready to drop out of the rebellion to-night. 
 While I speak it may be that the old flag, dishonored two years ago to- 
 day, is again run up and waving over Sumter. [Applause.] It is wav- 
 ing on South Carolina soil, thank God. [Renewed applause.] The brave 
 and gallant spirit at the head of that little band/ deserted by the govern- 
 ment then in power — a democratic government too, who refused to send 
 him succor — the noble Anderson, deserted, alone, surrounded by traitors 
 and enemies, fought them until he could fight them no more. When the 
 flag went down at the end of that struggle, South Carolina doubtless 
 thought the victory was won, and the independence of the Confederate 
 States already established. I take it that now they feel that this is a 
 little more than they bargained for. The chickens are coming home to 
 roost hefore they have prepared poles to receive them ; and tiny have not 
 poles enough, even if they had had notice^ of their coming. [Laughter.] 
 One earnest movement upon the part of the people, and the work is done. 
 
 No man under heaven could have avoided mistakes under the circum- 
 stances. Gen. Washington had as many revilers as Abraham Lincoln ; 
 
57 
 
 and I have no doubt that the men who are now trying to make the country 
 believe that Lincoln is not doing his duty, would have said the same of 
 Washington ; for there were just such men who did say the same of Wash- 
 ington when he was President. Give your support to the President, and, 
 I repeat, the bottom will be out of this rebellion in four months. Their 
 material for armies has been exhausted. The conscription there has 
 swept in every man that could be found, whether by the corporals or the 
 blood-hounds, between the ages of sixteen and sixty, excepting the men 
 fortunate enough to own twenty negroes apiece, and they are exempt. 
 When you are complaining of the conscription act of this government, 
 why do you not say something of the conscription act of the rebels, with 
 whom you have so much sympathy 1 No man who owns twenty negroes 
 is called upon to go and fight. They are to be kept as safely as possible. 
 When the war is over, and the victory is achieved, they want as few poor 
 white men as possible. They want all the operators to be negroes, and 
 the white men to be all lords and gentlemen. Why not tell the people 
 that ? That is no part of your policy. You do not want the laboring 
 men in this part of the country to understand that this is a war against 
 poor men. Rich men can live under almost any form of government ; 
 but poor men have the deepest and most abiding interest in free institu- 
 tions and free government. Again, we have the material power ; we have 
 all the money upon our side, and can soon crush the rebellion if outsiders 
 will keep their hands off. There is more money in this city to-day than 
 there is in the hands of all the rebels outside of England and France. 
 Go on, and in a few days we shall hear the glad shout of a country re- 
 deemed, a nation regenerated, coming up from Maine to California ; and 
 you will have aided in achieving the most brilliant triumph of liberty over 
 despotism, not only in modern days, but in the whole history of the world. 
 Your children will read it at school, and your children's children will draw 
 from it the inspiration of liberty, the love of freedom, and will transmit 
 the heritage you gave them unimpaired to successive generations of their 
 descendants, an honor and a glory until the end of time. 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. JAMES M. SCOVEL, OF NEW JERSEY. 
 
 The President introduced the Hon. Mi*. Scovel, a member of the cop- 
 perhead legislature of New Jersey. 
 
 Hon. Mr. Scovel said : Being called upon to speak at this time, I am 
 reminded of a family which once visited Mount Vesuvius, and being dis- 
 appointed in witnessing an eruption, they let ofi° a Roman candle. I feel 
 this afternoon as if, after the gorgeous display of volcanic fires, I were to 
 follow with a Roman candle; but although I cannot entertain you with 
 the eloquence of the gentlemen who have preceded me, I can perhaps 
 speak to you a few words of truth and soberness. Your President has in- 
 troduced me as a member of the copperhead legislature of New Jersey. 
 In that legislature there were seventeen men who did not vote for the in- 
 famous peace resolutions — men who never bowed the knee to Baal- As 
 one of those seventeen, when asked if I was ready to shoulder the musket, 
 I told them that I was ready to shoulder a copperhead at any time ; for, 
 as the poet says — or, if he did not, as he ought to have said — 
 
 " "When Adam first with Eve did wed, 
 Into the garden came a copperhead." [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 \ 
 
58 
 
 One of the earliest copperheads was John C. Calhoun ; and next to 
 him perhaps we may rank the Old Public Functionary ; and then comes 
 Mr. Wood, christened Fernando. Let me here remind the Pre^dent that 
 I think he and I are about even, for if New Jersey produced a copperhead 
 legislature, she has never produced a Fernando Wood. [Laughter.] Fer- 
 nando Wood told us in a recent speech that he had had an interview with 
 Lord Lyons. I wish he could have an interview with Gen. Butler or 
 with Rosecrans ; for I have no doubt that either of them would have 
 given him an opportunity to consider the maxim, " Brag is a good dog, 
 but Holdfast is a better." [Laughter.] I speak of Fernando Wood as a 
 representative copperhead. He sets himself up as the man that leads that 
 party. He pretends. to lead the democratic party. The Mozart regiment 
 itself repudiates him,\nd states that he never gave a dollar to equip that 
 regiment or to send them to the battle-field. He says he has given more 
 dollars than some patriots have given cents ; yet there is not a man in the 
 army who has not more patriotism than Fernando Wood has dollars. 
 Such a man as he claims to be the leader of the democratic party. It 
 was my privilege to follow the banner of Mr. Douglas until that banner 
 waved above his grave. I never regretted it, and never will regret it ; 
 for his last expressions were in favor of the Constitution and the Union, 
 and he warned his children to stand by the flag of his country. [A voice, 
 " God bless his memory."] Ay, and God bless the memory of every 
 man who is true to his country to the last. He was a democrat ; and I 
 ask you if Edwin Stanton is not a democrat % Is not Daniel S. Dickinson 
 a democrat? Is not Gen. Halleck a democrat ? Is not old Ben Butler, 
 perhaps to be our next President — a democrat ? [Great applause.] Your 
 little boy will get astride of a stick and call it a horse" ; but that does not 
 make it a horse. Fernando Wood calls himself a democrat, but that 
 does not make him a democrat. [A voice, "He is a demagogue.''] We 
 hear men say a great deal about their patriotism and about state rights. 
 In the legislature of which I am a member, one man rose in his place and 
 said he was a state rights democrat. But Robert Dale Owen says that 
 when you hear a man talking in favor of state-rights, he means by state- 
 rights merely an arm stretched out between a traitor and the gallows. 
 Every man who sympathizes with treason is a traitor ; and so when this 
 man announced himself a state-rights democrat, I told him he was a dis- 
 loyal man and a traitor, and he did not dare to resent it. Brave men 
 everywhere have an instinctive aversion to traitors and cowards ; and 
 wherever ycu see these Northern men with Southern principles— the men 
 who, if they had lived in the time of the Revolution, would have been 
 tories — you will find men not only cowai'ds, but with treason in their hearts. 
 No man who has the sentiments which actuate free and patriotic men, in 
 such a time as this will raise his voice against President Lincoln, or to 
 weaken the strength of the government, or to abridge its constitutional 
 powers. But when we turn to the people and call upon them to sustain 
 the government, they listen to us and respond to the appeal. Ask New 
 Hampshire, ask Rhode Island, ask glorious little Connecticut. In thun- 
 der tones the response comes back to us. [Three cheers were given for 
 Connecticut.] Every patriot was tremulous with anxiety about the Con- 
 necticut election ; and how glorious was the feeling that kindled in the 
 heart of every true man when he saw them rallying around the old flag, 
 
59 
 
 and when he saw that the President was sustained by these three states, 
 which could not be deceived or sold by traitors who love their own self- 
 interest more than they love their country ! Whenever you hear a man 
 calling himself a member of the once-honored democratic party, and fol- 
 lowing the man who claims to be a leader of the party, tell him that when 
 a party deserts its country it becomes a faction, and that in time of war 
 men who adhere to that faction become conspirators and traitors. If 
 Fernando Wood and his followers act as conspirators, let them have the 
 everlasting infamy, and let their names be remembered, if at all, only as 
 the Catilines of America. I remember the story of an old sailor, who, 
 after he had been off at sea for a long time, came back to look after a lady 
 of whom he had once been enamored, but could not find her. At last he 
 went into a graveyard — rather a queer place to look for his Mary Ann 
 — and there he did not find her ; but he found a tombstone bearing the 
 inscription : 
 
 " Weep not for me, my deai'est dear ; 
 I am not dead, though I lie here." 
 
 The old sailor did not understand it ; he looked at it a few minutes, 
 and then he exclaimed, " Shiver my timbers ; I think if I was dead I would 
 own up." [Laughter.] So it is to-day with those copperheads. The 
 freemen of this country are awake. They understand what patriotism is. 
 They understand that it is not merely a sentiment, but that it is a prin- 
 ciple, and that its foundation is virtue. If we are true to the country, 
 we shall stand by the soldiers of the country. They know what self- 
 sacrifice is — these men that' sustain our flag upon a thousand fields. 
 Among the proudest days of my life have been those when I have re- 
 ceived letters from the gallant soldiers of New Jersey in the national army. 
 There has been no time since the war first broke out when there have not 
 been large numbers of men in New Jersey willing to make peace with the 
 Southern rebellion. They do not even call it the Southern rebellion ; they 
 call it the " irregular opposition of the South ;" and they say they " do 
 not want to offend their erring brethren of the South." There were five 
 of them who were willing to go to Jefferson Davis and, upon their bended 
 knees, ask him to make peace. [A voice, ' : Hang them."] The day will 
 come when their children shall he ashamed to call them father. But im- 
 agine those men going down to Jefferson Davis, the perjured tyrant of 
 the Southern Confederacy, and asking him to make peace with them ! He 
 would order them out of the Southern Confederacy in twelve hours; and if 
 they were not, they would soon be like Paganini's music — executed on a 
 single string. [Laughter.] 
 
 What is the duty of freemen in a time like this? It is their duty to 
 stand by the flag of their country, and to stand by the President. I did 
 not vote for President Lincoln. Many of you did not. But the hour he 
 became the constitutionally elected President of the United States, from 
 that hour we said we would sustain him. [Applause.] We know that 
 President Lincoln desires to do just what the President of a free people 
 ought to do. Knowing that, we will stand by him to the last dollar and 
 the last man. Some men say that the conscription act ought not to be 
 sustained. Old Mr. Narr, who calls himself a " locofoco" editor, said that, 
 in his opinion, that act ought to be resisted ; and if they took him under 
 that conscription act, they would have to fight for him. The old rascal 
 
60 
 
 knew that he was sixty-five years of age, and that they would not have him 
 anyhow. In forty-eight hours after they had passed the peace resolu- 
 tions, word came from the army of the Potomac what our soldiers thought 
 of them ; and then these men said they never meant to interfere with the 
 government at all. They Avere only in fun. They meant no mischief. 
 In Hudibras we read that, 
 
 " Like a lobster boiled, the morn 
 From black to red began to turn ;" 
 
 and a somewhat similar change was apparent in the countenances of these 
 men. The history of New Jersey will hereafter show that at one time 
 there was an organized band of these men, whose sentiments resembled 
 those of some of your New York politicians, men who knew no passage in 
 the Bible but " Servants, obey your masters ;" who were ready to lie down 
 before their Southern masters and do their bidding — an organized gang of 
 these men who undertook to carry New Jersey out of the Union ; and it 
 was only when loyal men sprang up to the rescue that they were willing to 
 take the back track. This should serve as a warning to us to be watchful, 
 lest we be surprised by the enemies of our country. 
 
 I had a friend in the battle of Murfreesboro. When he was asked by 
 his wife to come home a day or two before that battle, his answer was, " I 
 would rather die upon the held of battle, than that it should be said of me 
 that I did not dare to do my duty.' 1 And that man died in a hand-to- 
 hand conflict with the rebel cavalry, and his last words spoke his solicitude 
 for his country. When I remember that man, and the gallant boy Cum- 
 mings fighting on the Harriet Lane, and the friend at.Vicksburg who had 
 one leg shattered, before the attack, but said "Never mind me, boys; get 
 the vessel by the batteries, and the enemy may have my other leg," and know 
 that it is such men as these who sustain the honor of the country, I should 
 be a coward if I did not take care to keep alive the spirit of patriotism at 
 home, and to put down the men who attempt to strike down the soldiers, 
 and seek to betray them at the ballot-box. You remember that Lord 
 Nelson said, at Trafalgar, " England expects every man to do his duty." 
 This country expects every man to do his duty ; and every woman, God 
 bless them ! to do her duty ; and under the heavens that shine above us we 
 will do our duty. We will not submit to the Southern rebels, or yield to 
 their demands. Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, said at one time that 
 he was " born insensible to fear," when Mr. Adams replied, "Most babies 
 are." [Laughter.] Whatever our feelings toward them, we shall not 
 fear them. But we shall have a feeling of regret that citizens of the same 
 nation should have raised their parricidal hands against our flag. 
 
 " So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain, 
 No more through rolling clouds to soar again, 
 Views his own feather on the fatal dart 
 That winged the shaft that quivers in his heart. 
 Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel 
 He nursed the pinion that impelled the steel ; 
 While the same plumage that had warmed his nest, 
 Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast." 
 
 Let us say, with Clayton, of Delaware — I am sorry that New Jersey is 
 behind Delaware and Missouri, but we will yet send loyal men to the legisla- 
 
61 
 
 ture who will expunge those peace resolutions — " Accursed be the hand 
 that let slip the first arrow at the American flag." Let us do our duty. 
 Let us rally around that flag, and let every man of us, as we gaze upon 
 the sacred folds of that banner, raise the rallying cry of " Liberty and 
 Union." Let the last prayer of every patriot be, " May God bless and 
 save the American Union !" 
 
 SPEECH OF REV. J. T. DUKYEA. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Ddryea was introduced to the meeting, and said : The sun 
 reminds me that I ought to be brief. It has already gone down. God 
 grant that its last gleams may have glittered over the blackened walls of 
 fallen Sumter, and upon the fixed bayonets of a federal guard patrolling in 
 the city of Charleston ! [Applause.] It may be well for us to stand here 
 in the sombre twilight, and think solemn thoughts ; thoughts of the great 
 future ; thoughts of our duty ; thoughts of our past, in its glorious history ; 
 of our present, in its mo;nentous issues ; of our future, in its once glad 
 and glorious, though now clouded promise. Ay, it may be prophetic, if 
 we stand under the sky and see the stars come out, one by one, until the 
 firmament is full-orbed as the firmament of our national glory will yet 
 shine before all the earth, one star after another, beaming and sparkling 
 out, until the finished galaxy resplendent shall call for praise and ad- 
 miration from the world. [Applause.] Now, let us bring the thoughts we 
 have heard, and the doctrines that have been impressed upon our minds, to 
 a practical issue. What shall be your position to-morrow in the community % 
 What shall be yoar determination in the future ? Will you accept the war 
 cry, " Unity and the government forever" ? [Applause.] You have seen 
 that the sole object of the war is to establish the unity of the nation. The 
 life of the nation depends upon the re-establishment of its unity. Upon 
 the life of this nation depend the hopes of all the downtrodden of the earth. 
 Your own hopes and the hopes of your children, your hopes for time, and 
 your hopes, through the church of God planted in this country, for 
 eternity. Will you solemnly swear, under God's heaven and in His pres- 
 ence, that you will know no issue but the unity of the government, and 
 you will know no cessation of efforts or of resources but war until that 
 unity be established"? [Cries of "Yes, yes; we will!"] Let this 
 sole issue rise colossal before you. Bow down before the grandeur of a 
 government united, consolidated beyond disintegration forever ; and let 
 them take each other's hands and say, to the last man, to the last drop of 
 blood, to the last dollar of our resources, we stand pledged, now and for- 
 ever, for the unity of the government, indissoluble and perpetual. ["We 
 will!"] 
 
 I have stood by mothers who have buried their children, and underneath 
 the sable veil of mourning were weeping hot tears of bereavement ; and I 
 have said, " Has this war cost us enough, and shall it cease?" and the quiv- 
 ering lip has gasped, " Never." I have gone to the soldiers upon the tented 
 field. 1 have seen their privations and witnessed their sorrows. I have 
 seen atheir longing for home, their impatience to embrace their Avives and 
 little ones and join their fathers and mothers and sisters ; and I have asked 
 them, " Has this war cost us enough, and shall we now relinquish it ?" and 
 the answer has come back, unanimous, "Never." I have walked through the 
 
62 
 
 hospital, from bed to bed. I have seen the shattered limbs, the pierced 
 breast, the battered skull ; and going from couch to couch, I have said, 
 " Have you who have bled and suffered and agonized, day after clay and 
 night after night, resolved that this war has cost enough, and that it shall 
 cease? ' And from corridor to corridor of bustle, and from bed to bed of 
 agony, the cry has come up, "Never, no never." [Cries of " Never."] Have 
 you given children, have you given limbs, have you given property, as have 
 these mourning mothers, and those wounded, dying soldiers ? If you have 
 not, never, never say the war has cost too much, until they shall say it. 
 Never say cease, until they shall say it. 
 
 One word more. Let me tell you an incident. In Fort Sumter, 
 two years ago, before the bombardment, General Anderson brought out 
 the old flag that had been raised upon that flagstaff, and tied the halliard 
 to the flag, and gathered his men around him, and asked the chaplain to 
 kneel by the flagstaff and pray. He knelt with closed eyes, one hand 
 above grasping the halliard, the other below, and thus kneeling there at the 
 foot of the flagstaff, before God, the chaplain prayed that that flag might 
 never be lowered in the face of the enemy. After Fort Sumter had yield- 
 ed, and the flag had been lowered, General Anderson called the man who 
 had charge of the pennant halliard, and asked him if the flag had been 
 lowered by himself. Said he, " The old flag that we raised upon the flag- 
 staff when we were bowed in prayer around it, was torn by the gale, and 
 the day before the bombardment it was taken clown to be mended ; and 
 when the call came to rehoist the flag, we took a new one because the other 
 was not sewed together. We hoisted the new flag instead of the old one ; 
 and the old flag,baptized with prayer, and consecrated wifli uplifted hands to 
 God, and besought of God to be kept from desecration, never was lowered 
 in the face of the enemy." General Anderson told me that flag never was 
 hoisted before the enemy, nor before the enemy was it ever lowered. I 
 have it in New York ; and I am patiently awaiting the time when I can 
 bend ont he halliards again, and not amid prayer, but amid song and thanks- 
 giving, again hoist the old ensign to the peak. I said that flag shall rise 
 again. My fellow-citizens, if you love the destiny of mankind ; if you 
 love the oppressed and downtrodden of the earth ; if you love your country ; 
 if you love your family ; if you love your children, say, will you swear 
 here before God, that flag shall rise there again"? ["Yes, yes."] Will you 
 that love the past ; you whose hearts are full in the present, you before whom 
 hope shines brightly in the future, lift up now your good right hands to 
 heaven and say, that flag shall rise there again ? [The crowd raised their 
 right hands.] Then let it rise, 
 
 " and long may it wave, 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the hrave." 
 
 The meeting then adjourned, and the assembled multitude dispersed in 
 the deepening shades of twilight. 
 
OFFICERS. 
 
 STAND INTO. 3. 
 
 . Under charge of Committee of Arrangements, 
 
 C. E. DETMOLD, PARKE GODWIN, 
 
 ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY, WILLIAM ORTON. 
 
 DR 
 
 President. 
 
 FRANCIS LIEBER. 
 
 Vice-Presidents. 
 
 Charles P. Daly, 
 Seth B. Hunt, 
 E. S. Sandford, 
 
 Charles H. Marshall, 
 William H. Webb, 
 William Cullen Bryant, 
 A. T. Stewart, 
 George Griswold, 
 William H. Anthon, 
 E. Delafirld Smith, 
 John J. Bradley, 
 A. C. Richards, 
 Don Aloiizo Cushman, 
 Joseph Walker, 
 Daniel Slate, 
 James Whiting, 
 Henry Brewster, 
 Charles S. Spencer, 
 James K. Pell, 
 William Watt, 
 Elliot C. Cowdin, 
 W. B. Roberts,. 
 James W. Farr, 
 Isaac G. Ogden, 
 Austin Leake, 
 Joseph Balestier, 
 Richard Storrs Willis, 
 Joseph Hoxie, 
 George Bliss, 
 
 B. Westermann, 
 Hyman Morange, 
 George F. Thomae, 
 George Starr, 
 Charles P. Clinch, 
 George S. Coe, 
 George S. Robbins, 
 Andrus Willman, 
 Pierre V. Duflon, 
 J. C. Peters, 
 Thomas Stevenson, 
 Samuel Wetmore, 
 
 C. H. Sand, 
 Charles Stein way, 
 George Woodward, 
 J. M. Marsh, 
 Erastus C. Beuedict, 
 Henry Seaman, 
 William A. Dooley, 
 Herman R. Leroy, 
 Robert Colby, 
 Henry S. Smith, 
 Charles Pomeroy, 
 John B. Wickerskam, 
 C. S. Franklin, 
 Edward R. Ludlow, 
 Weil Von Gernsbach, 
 Charles Nelson, 
 William Scharfenberg, 
 
64 
 
 Charles Schaffner, 
 Joseph W. Lester, 
 Vincent Colyer, 
 G. B. Teubner, 
 Chr. Karl, 
 P, J. Joachirassen, 
 Eugene S. Ballins, 
 David Tappan, 
 Edward Hoyt, 
 Robert L. Stewart, 
 
 Augustus Weissman, 
 W. B. Dinsmore, 
 Henry Ford, 
 Benjamin F. Manierre, 
 Alexander H. Stevens, 
 Neheniiah Knight, 
 George H. Moller, 
 Adolph Douai, 
 Dr. Luther Voss. 
 
 Secretaries. 
 
 William S. Opdyke, 
 0. V. Coffin, 
 Peter M. Myers, 
 William Bibby, 
 Walter W. Phelps, 
 Albert G. Stevens, 
 Ellis Muuday, 
 James McGee, 
 Henry R. Benkard, 
 Thaddeus B. Faber, 
 Hiram Calkins, 
 James Ward Smyth, 
 
 Frank Moore, 
 Robert Benson, Jr., 
 Henry R. Winthrop, 
 John Henry Hall, 
 Augustus C. Fransioli, 
 J. Howard Wainwright, 
 L. P. Tibbals, 
 Maturin L. Delafield, 
 William Rhinelander, 
 Sidney Webster, 
 David Drake, 
 James S. Stearns, 
 
PROGRAMME OF PROCEEDINGS. 
 STAND No. 3, 
 
 WEST SIDE OF UNION SQUARE, BETWEEN FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH STREETS. 
 
 Salutes of Artillery by the workmen employed by Henry Brewster fy Co, 
 
 1. Grand March from " Le Prophete," of Meyerbeer, by Dodworth's Grand 
 
 Band. 
 
 2. Dr. Francis Lieber, of the Council of the Loyal National League, will call 
 
 the meeting to order. 
 
 3. Address by Rev. Dr. Rudolph Dulon. 
 
 4. C. E. Detmold, of the Executive Committee, will read the call for the meet- 
 
 ing, and the list of Vice-Presidents and Secretaries. 
 
 5. Robert Lenox Kennedy will read the address adopted by the Council and 
 
 Executive Committee on Lectures and Addresses. 
 
 6. William Orton will read the resolutions adopted by the Council and Execu- 
 
 tive Committee. 
 
 7. Music by the Band. 
 
 8. Major General Sigel will address the meeting. 
 
 9. Music — singing: " The Army Hymn," written expressly for this occasion, 
 
 by Oliver "Wendell Holmes. 
 
 10. Schuyler Colfax will address the meeting. 
 
 11. Music — singing : " The Star-Spangled Banner." 
 
 12. Governor Pierpont will address the meeting. 
 
 13. Music — singing : " Song for the Loyal National League," written ex- 
 
 pressly for this occasion, by George H. Boker. 
 
 14. "Weil Von Gernsbach will address the meeting. 
 
 15. "William Orton will read an original poem, entitled " Those Seventy Men,' 
 
 written expressly for this occasion, by Mrs. Sarah H. Bradford. 
 
 16. Rev. J. A. Foersch will address the meeting. 
 
 17. Music — singing: "Our Union," written expressly for this occasion, by 
 
 Alfred B. Street. 
 
66 
 
 When the hour for commencing the proceedings had arrived, the grand 
 march from " Le Prophete" of Meyerheer was performed by Dodworth's 
 hand. 
 
 Dr. Francis Lieber, of the Council of the Loyal National League, 
 called the meeting to order. He said : 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : Two years ago the boom of the challenge of treason 
 reached us from Cliarleston, and now this very day we expect news from 
 that same port. We do not know which way the news will turn out, 
 whether it will bring us a victory or whether any reverses may befall us ; 
 but I venture to say that whether we are victorious immediately and take 
 that treasonable city, or Avhether every iron-clad vessel is sunk to the bot- 
 tom there, we will remain lirm— [" Amen"] ; we will carry out this war 
 to the very last, and will not give it up until, every inch of the country is 
 restored to the United States [Applause.] No matter what turn the war 
 has taken during these last two years. Sometimes we were victorious, 
 sometimes reverses have befallen us ; but we meet here to-day again to 
 profess our faith and again to pledge ourselves not to give up this struggle 
 — not to yield one inch until the United States authority is restored — until 
 we have again a country in her whole integrity — until we can say again 
 that we are American citizens from the North to the South, and from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific. [Cheers.] We will not allow pride, or arrogance, 
 or untruth, to rule over us. We have come here to pledge ourselves to this 
 purpose ; and I believe I can express far better what I believe we have 
 come here for — what we have met here for — if a portion of the address 
 which will be given you entirely, be read to you. There I have expressed 
 on paper better than I could now do by the word of mouth — and I hope 
 and trust that I have there expressed only your views. I shall a.^k my 
 friend Mr. LossiNG to read to you the last part of that address, and then 
 ask you whether you agree with us or not. 
 
 I introduce Mr. Benson J. Lossing, well known by his works on the 
 Revolution and on the history of the United States. 
 
 SPEECH OF MR. BENSON J. LOSSING. 
 
 Mr. Lossing spoke as follows : 
 
 It gives me great pleasure to participate with you in the proceedings of 
 this day, and I feel it to he an honor to be called upon to repeat to you by 
 the words of my mouth those wise sayings that have been put in print by 
 the esteemed gentlemen who has just addressed you. I would simply say 
 that two years ago I was in New Orleans on the morning of the 12th of 
 April. We were informed by telegraph from Charleston that Fort Sumter 
 was attacked. I rode down during the afternoon to the battle ground 
 where Jackson won the last and greatest battle of the war of 1812. While 
 I was sitting upon the base of the monument erected near the headquarters 
 of Jackson at that time, making a sketch of the field of Chalmette, where 
 the battle was fought, I heard seven discharges of cannon at the city of 
 New Orleans. Knowing that the fort had been attacked that morning, I 
 said to my travelling companions — 
 
67 
 
 At this juncture Major-Gen. Si gel appeared upon the stand, and wag 
 greeted with loud and protracted cheering. As soon as silence was par- 
 tially obtained, Mr. Lossing continued his remai'ks. 
 
 Gentlemen, I will detain you but a moment longer, because one of the 
 bravest of the brave is here to< address you. I would simply say that 
 when I heard those seven discharges of cannon, I knew that it meant the 
 seven Confederate States rejoicing over the fall of Sumter. I said to my 
 travelling companion, " Fort Sumter is gone;" but the sound of that can- 
 non to my ears was more significant than that. It sounded to my ears the 
 death knell of that Southern oligarchy — the power that had corrupted eth 
 public virtue of this country. ["That's it" — applause.] From that time 
 to this I believed firmly — and my faith is stronger to-day than ever it was 
 — that this whole rebellion is nothing more than an instrumentality in the 
 hands of God for the purpose of strengthening and purifying this nation- 
 cheers.] But I proceed now to read the words of wisdom from the emi. 
 nent publicist who has addressed you, Dr. Lieber. 
 
 Mr. Losstng read as follows : 
 
 "We will support the government, and call on it with a united voice to 
 use greater and greater energy, as the contest may seem to draw to a close 
 — so that whatever advantages we may gain, we may pursue them with 
 increasing efficiency, and to bring every one in the military or civil service 
 that may be slow in the performance of his duty to a quick and efficient 
 account. 
 
 " We approve of the conscription act, and will give our loyal aid in its 
 being carried out, whenever the government shall consider the increase of 
 our army necessary ; and we believe that the energy of the government 
 should be plainly shown by retaliatory measures, in checking the savage 
 brutalities committed by the enemy against our men in arms, or citizens, 
 when they fall into their hands. [Applause.] 
 
 " We declare that slavery, the corrupting root of this war, ought to be 
 compressed within its narrowest feasible limits, with a view to its speedy 
 extinction. 
 
 "We declare that this is no question of politics, but one of simple patri- 
 otism ; and we hold every one to be a traitor to his country, that works 
 or speaks in favor of our criminal enemies, directly or indirectly, whether 
 his offence be such that the law can overtake him or not. 
 
 " We declare our inmost abhorrence of the secret societies which exist 
 among us in favor of the rebellious enemy, and that we will denounce 
 every participator in these nefarious societies, whenever known to us. We 
 believe publicity the very basis of liberty. 
 
 " We pledge our fullest support of the government in every measure 
 which it shall deem fit to adopt against unfriendly and mischievous neu- 
 trality •, and we call upon it, as citizens that have the right and duty to 
 call for protection on their own government, to adopt the speediest possi- 
 ble measures to that important end. 
 
 " We loyally support our government in its declarations and measures 
 against all and every attempt of mediation, or armed or unarmed inter- 
 ference in our civil war. [Loud applause.] 
 
68 
 
 " We solemnly declare that we will resist every partition of any portion 
 of our country to the last extremity, whether this partition should be 
 brought about by rebellious or treasonable citizens of our own, or by 
 foreign powers, in the way that Poland was torn to pieces. 
 
 " We pronounce every foreign minister acci'edited to our government, 
 who tampers with our enemies, and holds intercourse with disloyal men 
 among us, as failing in his duty toward us and toward his own people, and 
 we await with attention the action of our government regarding the recent 
 and surprising breach of this duty. 
 
 " And we call upon every American, be he so by birth or choice, to join 
 the loyal movement of these National Leagues, which is naught else than 
 to join and follow our beckoning flag, and to adopt for his device — 
 
 OUR COUNTRY! 
 
 Dr. Lieber : Fellow-citizens, do you agree with those sentiments that 
 have been read to you 1 
 
 Vociferous responses, '-Yes," "Yes." 
 
 The band performed " Hail, Columbia." 
 
 The assemblage called loudly for " Sigel," " Sigel." 
 
 Dr. Lieber : You will have an opportunity of hearing General Sigel 
 soon. 
 
 Mr. C. E. Detmold : Before proceeding, we will read the call under 
 which this meeting is assembled .to-day. 
 
 Mr. Detmold read the call. 
 
 When the call was read, loud demands were made again for General 
 Sigel. 
 
 A voice : " Give us Sigel, the best general in America." 
 
 Major-Gen. Sigel complied with the universal demand, and on rising 
 was greeted with enthusiastic cheers. 
 
 A voice : " Sprechen Deutch." 
 
 SPEECH OF MAJOR-GENERAL SIGEL. 
 
 Gen. Sigel said : Citizens, you will have somebody that will give you 
 something better than I can do in German. Citizens of New York, I 
 greet you. I am glad to see a peaceful army around me. [Applause.] 
 I am glad to see the people of New York so faithful to their government, 
 and so decided in maintaining the great principles laid down in the Decla- 
 ration of Independence, and in the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. 
 [Great cheers.] There are some, my friends, who say that the safety of 
 
69 
 
 this country will depend on the muscles of men — on the strong arms of the 
 democracy. There are some who say so now. I answer them in the 
 name of ;i great people, that the rights of man and republican principles 
 are strong r than the muscles of a few thousand demagogues. [Tremen- 
 dous cheers. " That's the talk."] Now, my friends, we are not fighting 
 a new battle. This time is not a new time for the American people ; it is 
 the spirit of 1776 [applause] which is making its tour round the globe, 
 and which is revived in the hearts of the American people. [Renewed 
 applause.] My friends, this spirit is awakened, and we have to maintain 
 it. It not only is revived in the heart of the American people, but it has 
 permeated France and Italy ; it has revived Germany and Hungary ; it 
 has put th i scythe and the lance in the hands of Kosciusko, Mieroslawski, 
 and Langiewicz, and it has even frightened that far-away grizzlv 
 bear of St. Petersburg. And Europe looks upon you as those who have 
 to fight the battle. They say you began it in 1776. It is America which 
 has brought forth this great movement, the French Revolution and all the 
 revolutions following ; and it is in this country where the last blow must 
 be struck, and where the last battle must be fought. You are not of the 
 opinion of those who think that this war must be ended now, and must 
 be ended very quickly, and I am not of that opinion either. Europe 
 has for thirty years fought for religious independence, and has fought 
 for the freedom of conscience. We, the American people, have to fight 
 for republicanism and for the independence of nations. [Cheers.] We 
 must not get tired. Your ancestors fought- seven years to acquire their 
 independence, and I think that the principles for which we are now battling 
 and fighting are worth that we at least spend half that time for their 
 maintenance. [Applause.] They say that this war is led on slowly. It 
 is true. But the first year, you know very well, was spent in experiment- 
 ing, in illusions, in false hopes : the second year was hardly sufficient to 
 gather our forces ; and the third year, I think, will be sufficient to draw 
 the iron band closely around secessionism, to strangle it. [Cheers. " Ten 
 thousand men for Sigel. "] I thank you tor your sympathies. I have not 
 come here to engage in the business of speech-making. I am only here 
 on an errand, and I hope I will not be here very long. I thank you for 
 your sympathies, and I make room for somebody better. 
 
 The General was loudly cheered on retiring from the front of the 
 stand. 
 
 SPEECH OF DR. DULON. 
 
 Dr. Rudolph Dulon was then introduced amid great applause. He 
 said — speaking in the German language — 
 
 Mass meetings, resolutions, long speeches, hurraing, talk — all that does 
 not, and never did, answer the purpose in momentous epochs. But, cer- 
 tainly, the assembling of a powerful, resolute people, resolutions that 
 clearly point out the path to corresponding deeds, speeches that throw oil 
 into the fire, criticism that probes merciless into the foul flesh, these have, 
 occasionally, in the work of great epochs, given powerful co-operation. 
 
 And a great epoch is this. We might be led to suppose an epoch dif- 
 fering widely from the men whom it makes. It is, indeed, a gi'eat epoch, 
 
10 
 
 and there are tall bodies, but pitifully small, dwarfed shapes of mind. 
 Circumstances have made this epoch great ; circumstances occasioned by 
 human folly and crimes. 
 
 You lament the war ; you are alarmed at its terrible consequences. I 
 tell you no power could exert a more peaceful influence upon the country 
 than this war. For this war the patriot should have prayed. Slavery is 
 a curse. It has been a curse in all times. It co-operated in the destruc- 
 tion of Rome and in the ruin of Greece. Its innermost essentiality 
 makes it a curse everywhere. With us, slavery was safe, protected as it 
 was by right and law. By right and law, I say ; for the eternal rights of 
 men weigh generally as much in politics as a certificate of baptism in Wall 
 street, or an abstract idea with the usurer. But the slaveholders them- 
 selves voluntarily tear up this charter, overthrow that law, destroy their 
 safeguard. Then this holy war becomes a right, a duty, to which reason 
 and patriotism call. Had not two things been wanting, reason and power 
 of action, the victory would have been ours, liberty would have conquered — 
 liberty the most high, the most beautiful, the most sublime. Indeed, there 
 never was anything greater at stake, never a more sublime prize fought 
 for than even now. 
 
 Do you consider this a mere phrase "? Look over the country, from the 
 gulf to the lakes, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, that immense continent ; 
 look at its vast, superabundant resources, look at the immeasurable rich- 
 ness in all that stimulates industry and commerce, general and universal 
 culture of mind and body ! This country, rising in all its parts, with equal 
 efforts, equally gigantic, the proud realm of one free and powerful people, 
 not stained by the touch of tyrannical princes, proclaiming that they are 
 such by the grace of God, free from those wrongs and privileges, from 
 those abuses and traditionary prejudices, that are the curse of old Europe. 
 Fellow-citizens, where was there ever anything superior to it — where any- 
 thing like it? Compared with this power, the old Roman empire, with 
 all its splendor, the empires of Alexander, Charlemagne, Napoleon, are 
 nothing. The despots of Europe may all unite their powers ; should free 
 America say, " It is my will," their united power will crumble into dust. 
 Fellow-citizens, this is a simple fact. Conquer, and you will see the truth 
 of it. To assert the difficulty or the impossibility of our victory, is either 
 trea-on or want of sense and of courage. Fellow-citizens, why are we 
 here to-day % To proclaim that we see what is just before our eyes ; to 
 proclaim that we feel that to which only a codfish could be insusceptible ; 
 to proclaim that we shall do what will even fill our pockets, and what will 
 answer all our individual interests ; to swear to be true to our country, to 
 sacrifice fortune and life, if need be, not with sounding words, like bab- 
 blers, but with deeds that shall put the enemy to flight. 
 
 With these vows 'we will meet those European heroes and their plans of 
 intervention. Come, ye lords, if you dare ; burn your fingers and intro- 
 duce yourselves to the stout arms that are in the service of a free people. 
 Such are the vows, too, with which we oppose the traitors of the North. 
 Beware, too, you misled, degenerate sons of the brightest, the proudest 
 country the sun shines on ! The arm that is ready to destroy the invader, 
 is quite strong enough to break the hard skulls of traitors. Those vows 
 shall unite us. We will encourage and inspire each other in times of 
 gloom, at any loss and any sacrifice. We like nothing as well as money ; 
 
71 
 
 it is wanted ; we must give it. The country, indeed, will some time repay 
 with enormous interest. Our own strong arms are wanted. Let us not 
 despair. Not every ball kills, and within the free country it will be sweet 
 to sleep. The country demands what is dearer to us than our own life, 
 our sons, our pride and our hope. Press their hands, and send them into 
 this war. " Rather upon than without the shield," be that the last fare- 
 well. 
 
 With this vow we turn finally to our government. It loses our battles, 
 wastes our millions, and sacrifices unsuccessfully hundreds of thousands of 
 our sons. Yet, you gentlemen in Washington, you can count upon us. 
 We are not tired. We offer once more life and fortune in the service of 
 the people. But you must listen to us. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, I must be short ; these gentlemen behind me pull my 
 coat ; they want me to be done. They fear lest I might throw some dis- 
 cord into the unanimous feeling of to-day, by blaming this government. 
 And that I should indeed like to do. Will you, republicans, in times of 
 difficulty, keep from your government one of the greatest blessings of re- 
 publican institutions ? will you not favor the government, allowing it to 
 bear the opinions of thoughtful and loyal citizens ? will you not allow the 
 greatest blame, if it be well founded % Will you in times of need, when 
 the highest is at stake, when hearts are bleeding as much as purses — 
 will you then give up your right, and will you plant servile silence, like 
 the most obedient of subjects, upon the sacred soil of freedom ? I dare say 
 we are men, not dogs ; Ave shall speak, not murmur. The government 
 has managed badly. And we must proclaim it plainly, that we will not 
 be the servants of their caprice. They have failed to place the right men 
 in the right places. Now, I will be short, because I can be plastic. 
 
 There is Butler, by the testimony of New Orleans, one of the greatest 
 administrative geniuses that ever existed. Had he been immured in the 
 ice at the North Pole, no sacrifice should have been too great for govern- 
 ment to obtain his services. But they have him, and iliey — they relieve 
 him. He is now travelling and making speeches. The government can- 
 not place him ; they know no use for him ! There is Fremont. Can you 
 find a better or more cultivated patriot? Can you find a man of which a 
 country could be more proud? He saw plainly and distinctly, when others 
 doubted. He spoke liberty, while others groped in the dark. He, too, is 
 no man for this government ! There is Sigel. Everybody knows the noble 
 hero. His heroic deeds are fresh in the memory of all, in spite of the 
 pains that some men take to doom them to oblivion. And it is not true, 
 that Carthage and Pea Ridge alone testify to his genius. Bentonville — 
 600 against 5,000 — shows equal ability and heroism. And then, when 
 again Bull Run witnessed bloody deeds, there was he, the hero, first pav- 
 ing the path for victory — then at last saving the army from total ruin, by 
 his prudence. This renowned general is so vexed and offended by the 
 government, that as an honorable man he cannot but lay down his 
 sword. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, as long as this is possible, our cause, the holy cause of 
 our country, stands not well. If you continue to suffer this, if you do not 
 denounce energetically such acts as these — then .whoever you are, free and 
 powerful men, true republicans you are not. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, you will do your duty. Hail, Columbia ! Hail, our 
 country ! 
 
72 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX. 
 
 Hon. Schuyler Colfax, member of Congress from Indiana, was the 
 next speaker. He said : 
 
 Fellow-Citizen^ : I have listened with a great deal of interest to the 
 speech which yon have just heard from my friend, who took his seat a few 
 moments ago — not because I understood a word of it (for I did not), but 
 because I saw his heart was in it, and yours, too. Every man who speaks 
 for the Union and our noble flag, in the language of fatherland from Ger- 
 many, or in the language of my own mother-tongue, or in that of sunny 
 France and Italy, he is my brother and my friend, and his word falls 
 sweetly on my ear. [Cheers.] There are others speaking for our noble 
 Union to day, in the very jaws of danger, at the port of Charleston, South 
 Carolina. [Renewed cheers.] 
 
 God hless those noble men of arms who have gone forth to plant our 
 banner victoriously on the place where the reptile flag of disunion first was 
 raised ! [Cheers.] The afternoon of this April day to-day in Charleston 
 has an atmosphere hanging over it lurid with shot, and shell, and flame. 
 [Eenewed applause.] There waves on the one hand the Palmetto flag of 
 treason, which seeks to divide this noble country, the heritage of our 
 fathers ; and above your sons and brothers — worthy sons of worthy sires 
 — floats the banner of beauty, of glory, that never yet failed in the face of 
 any foe, but which traitors have sought to trample in the dust? [Ap- 
 plause. " They can't do it."] My friends, in the hour when our country 
 comes to make up her jewels, these brave men shall be remembered in our 
 heart of hearts — those men who went forth from this city, from my district 
 in the far western state of Indiana, and every other loyal district in the 
 Union, some in the freshness of life's June, and some in the full maturity 
 of life's October, to give their life, if need be, for their beloved country — 
 those men whose example shall live as long as history, and whose memory 
 shall blossom even in the very dust of the grave. Their names shall be 
 written high upon the scroll of American fame. God bless them to-day ! 
 [Cheers.] May the God of Battles that stood by our fathers in the infancy of 
 this country, and out of weakness gave them strength and power, stand by 
 our noble defenders to-day. [Applause.] My friends, I want you to remem- 
 ber one thing more about that gallant army. The men who are under the 
 folds of the American flag quarrelled in the past, as you have, in regard to 
 the transitory issues of the past. Ihey quarrelled at the primary meetings, 
 at the polls, everywhere where men could honestly differ in the exercise of 
 a freeman's privilege ; but when their country was in danger, when the 
 issues of national life and death hung trembling in the balance, they threw 
 away from them all these petty differences, and struck hands together as 
 noble patriots under our country's flag. Wiry cannot we imitate their 
 noble example here at home ? for to-day the question is not the minor 
 issues of the past, which are but as dust in the balance. It is the greater, 
 the nobler, the more important question — not only as regards the heritage 
 hequeathed to us, but in regard to your posterity in the coming generations 
 of the future. It is whether this republic of ours shall live, or whether it 
 shall die. 
 
 It is whether this country shall remain the beacon-light for the oppressed 
 of all nations to flock to our open gates, with the Union as its insignia, as 
 
73 
 
 it has been in the past, of its power and strength as well as its promise for 
 the future — or whether it shall be shattered into pieces, divided into hostile 
 and warring confederacies, and become at the mercy of every foreign des- 
 pot, and subject to their insult, invasion, or triumph over us, until we are 
 put unde/ the hoof of the Old World, and liberty shall be crushed out in the 
 warring confederacies of the American Republic, as they have crushed it 
 out on the soil of the Old World. [Loud cries of "Never, never."] It is 
 to avert that, that hostile armies are marshalled to-day against the ranks 
 of treason. There are some men who go around crying "Peace, peace," 
 when there is and when there can be no peace except on the basis of sub- 
 mission to rightful authority. [Cheers.] I say to you here to-day, my 
 fellow-citizens (and I am a native of the city of New York), that the man 
 here or elsewhere who will consent that this American Union shall be 
 severed by the sword of treason, is as false an American as the mother 
 whom Solomon proved to be a false mother by proposing to divide the 
 child about which she was disputing with her neighbor. That man who 
 is willing to have this republic severed in twain might have been born un- 
 der the stars and stripes, he may have been rocked in an American cradle, 
 and may have an American mother (and I sympathize with that mother), 
 but he has not an American heart. [Applause.] 
 
 You have a right, my friends, to be proud of the distinguished services 
 of your noble soldiers in the field in this great struggle for American na- 
 tionality. You have read in the historic past of evidences of noble hero- 
 ism which are embalmed upon the page of history, and you have wept as 
 you have read them. You have told them to your children on your knee, 
 as the brightest example that ancient history can give you. I will recall 
 before you a few familiar illustrations. There was the Spartan mother 
 who told her child, " Return with your shield or upon it." That one 
 single example has been the theme of eulogy for many centuries past ; and 
 yet, in this conflict, this saying has been paralleled over and over again, 
 hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times, from these palatial resi- 
 dences down to the humble cabins in the forests of Indiana. [Cheers.] You 
 have heard, besides, of that mother who told her son, when he complained 
 of his sword being too short, " Add one step to it and it will be long 
 enough." You have seen mothers girding their sons and telling them to 
 go forth, and if need be, willing to give the life of their first-born to the 
 country that they have loved. You have heard of those women, in the 
 olden time, that threw in their jewels to save their country. All over this 
 noble land of ours these acts have been absolutely thrown in the shade, for 
 the women and men of America have brought forth not only their golden 
 but living treasures to save this republic from disruption and disunion. 
 [Applause.] You have heard of Curtius, who leaped into the yawning 
 gulf to save the republic of which he was a citizen. We have here hun- 
 dreds and thousands, and there are hundreds and thousands more, ready 
 to leap into the fiery hell of flame at Charleston, to wrest victory, if pos- 
 sible, even against odds, for the flag of the country of their birth. I know 
 there are many others to address you, to whom you will listen, and who 
 can interest you more than myself. The duty of the hour to-day is a per- 
 fect abnegation of all the minor differences of the past, and the coming 
 together, welded by the heat of an all-pervading patriotism into one mighty 
 mass around our flag, our country, and our government. The lesson, the 
 
74 
 
 sentiment of to-day, is "unite" — above all things else, "unite," enfor- 
 cing that unity by deeds of heroism in the field. I heard the speech with 
 which this meeting was opened by the distinguished Gen. Sigel, who ad- 
 dressed you — that noble and brave man. I wish to say, as a member of 
 the American Congress, I watched his course, from the opening of this 
 war until he returned, a few days ago, to the city of New York, and I 
 cannot, for the life of me, point to one solitary military error which he 
 committed in attack, in reverse, in battle, in march, in the camp, or in the 
 field. He was like a tiger at b;iy and like a lion on the leap. [Applause.] 
 He made you an eloquent speech to-day, but he made a more eloquent one 
 at Wilson's Creek [cheers], another at Carthage, another at Pea Ridge 
 [renewed cheers] ; and before this war closes, when this administration 
 shall, as I believe, and hope, and trust they will, weed out every com- 
 manding officer whose whole heart is not in this struggle — who does not 
 feel all over like standing by the government, and by the President — and 
 put men who were first to hurt the rebels in the closing Waterloo of this 
 war, you will see Sigel, and the men fighting "mit Sigel," charging. 
 [Loud cheers.] I think that Sigel ought to make all the speeches to- 
 day. 
 
 Now, my friends, I told you I intended to draw my remarks to a con- 
 clusion, that you might hear other speakers upon this stand. You are 
 sometimes told that there is a difference between the government and the 
 President. I say to you that you can only know your government and 
 your administration through your President. You might as Avell say you 
 can recognize the corporation that exists in the city of New York without 
 recognizing the men who are the officers of that corporation, who are to 
 sue and to be sued, who stand living, breathing embodiments of the corpo- 
 rate authority granted to them. And so it is with our government. It is 
 known abroad by Abraham Lincoln, it is known at home by Mr. Lincoln. 
 It is Mr. Lincoln who is civil President ; it is he who is military President 
 of the United States ; it is he who is commander-in-chief of the army and 
 navy of the Republic. You cannot separate or disassociate the two ; and 
 I say to you, therefore, when the copperhead, who, for the sake of stab- 
 bing at liis country, is willing to stand by these traitors, who have for- 
 sworn a most sacred oath, that thereby they might stab with a more certain 
 instinct, and plunge the dagger into the nation's heart — when these men 
 talk to you, I say in reply, " Stand by the President." [Loud applause.] 
 
 If the hour of reverse comes in war, remember it is only by and through 
 the President alone and his power that this gigantic rebellion can be crush- 
 ed out utterly and forever. However we may differ, and I say to you 
 while I endorse the proclamation of the President through and through, up 
 and down, from one end of it to the other— [applause]— yet any mar. who 
 stands unconditionally by the Union, unconditionally by the army, I re- 
 cognize him as my brother, as true and noble and whole-souled and devoted 
 a patriot, whether he thinks this proclamation is too broad or too narrow. 
 It is the cause of the Union that towers above all things else ; the Union 
 represented in that noble flag that waves over our soldiers to-day ; that 
 Union that is yet to be restored in all its pristine purity, purged of treason 
 on every side ; for though they may tell you that the South will not sub- 
 mit, I tell you in reply that when the military power of the South is 
 broken (and it is dying to-day of exhaustion), the Union will be restored. 
 
Y5 
 
 The very women of the South who now in bread riots are breaking open 
 confederate warehouses to supply themselves and their children with the 
 necessaries of life, will hail that flag in triumphal procession, not only as 
 the emblem of union, but as the harbinger of peace and of plenty to them. 
 [Cheers.] In that glorious hour when you shall welcome back with tri- 
 umphal acclaim the noble men who went forth from your midst to be the 
 saviours, defenders, and protectors of the Union, we can all say in the 
 beautiful language of the poet : 
 
 " Flag of our hearts, our symbol and our trust, 
 Though traitors trample thy bright folds in dust, 
 Though vile ambition, dark rebellion's lust, 
 
 Conspire to tear thee dosvn; 
 Millions of loyal lips thy folds caress, 
 Millions of loyal hearts thy stars do bless, 
 Millions of loyal hands will round thee press, 
 
 To guard thy old renown." [Cheers.] 
 
 Gen. Sigel: I will introduce to you Gov. Pierpont of Virginia. 
 He was never out in the field — he was a little too heavy for that — but I 
 have seen some of his boys. I have made their acquaintance, and I have 
 found them faithful. 
 
 SPEECH OF GOV. PIERPONT. 
 
 Gov. Pierpont was received with loud cheering. He spoke as follows : 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : I know from the hearing that you have given to 
 those who have spoken in a different language to-day, that many of you, 
 perhaps, do not understand my native tongue [" O, yes, go-ahead"] ; but 
 from the cheers that you have given and the hearty response that you have 
 made to every sentiment that was uttered, I know that your heart beats 
 with my heart to the tap of the Constitution and the Union to-day. [Ap- 
 plause.] My fellow-citizens, it is a matter of extreme pleasure that I meet 
 with you on this occasion. I think it is one happily conceived that there 
 should be a great meeting in the city of New York on this, the anniversary 
 of the attack upon Fort Sumter. [" Hear, hear," and applause.] My 
 fellow-citizens, that attack was not a sudden impulse of passion ; the event 
 that led to it was not the mere election of a particular man as President 
 of the United States. It was the outbreaking of an old feeling that had 
 fought against our fathers in the days of the Kevolution, under the \Name 
 of tory ; that had taken its seat in South Carolina, and has been in So u th 
 Carolina politics from that day until the present, and has many sym- 
 pathizers all over the country in the shape of copperheads. [Cheers.] 
 They had decided in their own minds that the two institutions of labor in 
 this country could not exist ; they had preached the doctrine that where 
 labor participated in government, that the institutions of the country cou Id 
 not be stable ; they had preached the doctrine that the laborers of the South 
 were slaves, and that the laborers of the North were no better ; they had 
 inculcated that in the minds of their children, daughters, and wives, and 
 upon this great idea they inaugurated this revolution ; not for the purpose 
 of perpetuating slavery particularly, not for the purpose of dividing the 
 North and the South, but, my fellow-citizens, for the purpose of enslaving 
 
76 
 
 the laboring men, whether they were in the North or whether they were in 
 the South [cheers] : and I tell you, gentlemen, to-day, this is the contest 
 that was inaugurated at Fort Sumter on the 11th of April, 18G1. It re- 
 mains to be seen how that fight will be fought out. They had been in- 
 duced to believe at the South (and I well know it, because I was right in 
 the midst of them) that the people of the North would not fight : they be- 
 lieved that one Southern man was equal to rive Northern men, because a 
 Southern man was a gentleman and a Northern man was a slave. My 
 fellow-citizens, that contest is still going on. We have had* reverses; we 
 have had victories. It has been a powerful array of strength against 
 strength; but while the South have been united in this great fight, we of 
 the North have had our attention directed partly to the war, partly to 
 making money, and partly to the opposition of the war. [Laughter and 
 applause.] Now, fellow-citizens, this fight is coming to a close ; is is not 
 going to last always ; it must terminate some way, and it is to have one 
 of two terminations. The one termination is for the South to triumph 
 and subjugate you with all the white men in the South that labor, and put 
 you upon an equality with their slaves by denying to you all participation 
 in the government. [Vociferous exclamations of " Never, never. "] The 
 other is, my fellow- citizens, for you of the North to whip the South, and 
 place them and their slaves upon an equality, and tell them, by the eternal 
 God, that a traitor has no more rights than a slave. [Great cheering.] 
 And, my fellow-citizens, you must hold this language to the ear of the 
 people. I tell you, you must be in earnest ; they are in earnest. You 
 must hold it to the ear of the people ; and whether the traitor be North or 
 whether he be South, or whether he be in your midst, you must teach him 
 that the spirit of liberty, the spirit of eternal, indomitable liberty of every 
 man, is in this fight, and that he is a foolish man who will throw himself 
 in the way of its march. It will run over him and crush him in the dust, 
 for God has intended this country all to be free. [Applause.] 
 
 Why, my fellow-citizens, what a spectacle do we present ! Americans, 
 Germans, Irish, that have come over from Europe — fled from oppression 
 there — hav'n't you seen enough of aristocracy in the Old World % [A voice, 
 " Too much."] Have you come over here to unite with men to establish 
 a Southern Confederacy, as they call it — who hold that our laboring men 
 are not worthy of participating in the government — that you are all only 
 slaves. No, fellow-citizens, you are capable of being freemen ; but what 
 would be the history % This is the last great fight of liberty ; we must 
 win or lose forever. You may put down an aristocracy — you may put 
 down an oligarchy for to-day or to-morrow, or next day, but it will rear 
 its head again just as long as you find unscrupulous men to seize upon 
 power : the monarch will raise his head and try to subjugate the weak 
 that are around him — to destroy our free republican government to-day, 
 and what will be its future history ? Ay, when your children's children 
 and my children's children come to read the history of to-day, they will 
 look back upon the American Republic as the best government in the 
 greatest country that ever existed upon the face of God's earth. The 
 historian will say, that there were about five millions of white men south 
 of Mason and Dixon's line, backed up by four millions of slaves, and these 
 people made war upon a democracy of eighteen millions, and they whipped 
 them ; they subjugated them, and blotted out the brightest hope that God 
 had ever given the world for republican government. 
 
 [Loud cries of " Never, never, never."] 
 
77 
 
 The curses and execrations of every freeman would light upon you — 
 upon the men that lived in this day. They would say that they struggled 
 feebly for a short time, but that copperheads and peace-party-men, who, 
 actuated by a desire for political office, rose up and broke down the force 
 of all the eighteen millions of people. But, my fellow-citizens, if you 
 should triumph in a very short time, it will be this, that in the United 
 States there are four hundred thousand slaveholders, and that these slave- 
 holders attempted to overthrow the great democratic American nation — 
 they attempted to overthrow it by the cry of " Abolition, abolition ;" that 
 the freemen of America were not to be frightened by any such cry, but 
 that they rose in the strength and power of their might and overthrew 
 their slaves. And what is to become of the slaves ? Are you going to 
 subjugate the master and return to him his property? [Voices, "No, 
 never."] That is the question that is to be decided. They have decided 
 that democracy and slavery are incompatible. I say they have decided it ; 
 the freemen of America never did decide it, but the slaveholder has de- 
 cided it. He has initiated the war upon that hypothesis ; he has predica- 
 ted his whole case upon that single issue ; he has said he could overthrow 
 the whole government. Now, is he able to do it % It is for you to say 
 whether he shall or not ; it is for you, the people of the North, to say it. 
 I tell you, as sure as there is a God in heaven, and a just God, too, if the 
 people of the North don't bestir themselves they will overthrow it. I tell 
 you they are overthrowing it. 
 
 God never intended — he is too just to intend — that a people should be 
 a great and free people, enjoying all the institutions that we enjoy, as we 
 do enjoy them, when they are attacked by four hundred thousand traitors ; 
 if they don't vindicate their rights he does not intend they shall be free. I 
 would to God that every copperhead north of Mason and Dixon's line could 
 be made a slave, because he is fighting against the rights of the poor white 
 man ; he is fighting against the rights of the man who labors, the man 
 who develops the country — he is fighting against those who are the great 
 bulwarks of our nation, and he ought to be a slave. [" That's so," and 
 applause.] He ought to be ranked with a traitor ; he is no better than one, 
 he is not as good. Jeff. Davis to-day spurns him and tells him, " We 
 won't have your peace offers, we despise you." How does he look — how 
 does he feel ! Despised among the freemen of the North, despised by the 
 aristocracy of the South — poor devil ! he will nestle in the grass and 
 every man shall put his heel upon him. [Laughter and loud cheers.] I 
 wish to God that my voice would stand it, as I would like to tell you. a good 
 many things in connection with this subject. But all I have got to say is, 
 that I represent now a part of Virginia that is loyal. ["Good," and applause 
 and three cheers for free Virginia ; groans for Carlisle.] In a vote of 48,000 
 in 1860, that was cast for President of the United States, a vote was taken 
 the other day for the freedom of West Virginia from slavery. There were 
 30,000 out of that 48,000 that voted for the freedom of West Virginia 
 [cheers], and out of that same boundary there are 12,000 troops in the rebel 
 army, and there is not a corporal's guard left of the last. I tell you 
 we commenced reorganizing the government of Virginia when they at- 
 tempted to pass the ordinance of secession, and throw around them the 
 arms of the South and bring into subjection the Union men of Virginia. 
 We rebelled against them ; we took hold of the old goverument and reor- 
 
78 
 
 ganized it, and by the grace of God and the assistance of the President, 
 and the strong arm of the troops, I intend to make every man in the state 
 of Virginia, bearing office, swear to support the Constitution of the United 
 States. [Cheers.] Our oath goes this wise: "dealing under license," 
 that embraces all merchants ; it embraces all tavern keepers, all coffee- 
 house keepers, all officers of municipal corporations, every minister of the 
 gospel who celebrates the rites of matrimony, and every bank officer — 
 president, director, clerk, or cashier. We require them to take an oath, 
 without any mental reservation, that they will support the Constitution of 
 the United States and the restored government of Virginia, as vindicated 
 by the Wheeling Convention, which assembled on the 11th of June, 1861. 
 And if you had a little of that kind of thing in New York it would not 
 hurt you ; 1 would hold up to you all editors of newspapers. Fellow- 
 citizens, I thank you for your attention. Probably my throat will get 
 stronger ; this is not the last time I will be in New York. I hope in God 
 that Charleston may have our flag waving over it to-day ; and in prospect 
 of that, I propose three cheers for our army and navy. [Three cheers 
 were given with a wili.] 
 
 General Sigel : I had some intercourse with Governor Pierpont, and as 
 he was so friendly to introduce me to you, I wish to say something that I 
 had forgotten before. He wrote letters to me in regard to his men, his 
 boys of Virginia ; and from the first moment to the last of our communica- 
 tion, I have found that he is a man of sound principles, that he is just, 
 and that he does not care whether he has do with somebody who was born 
 in this land or with a little Dutchman. [Laughter and cheers.] 
 
 Dr. Lieber : You have just heard a Southerner speak in favor of the 
 Union and for our country, and you have heard a German by birth speak 
 in favor of it. I now propose to read to you some resolutions regarding 
 another great noble southern Union man, who has just died. The infor- 
 mation of his death has just reached us. I mean James Louis Petigru, 
 who was one of the'most distinguished, one of the most learned, and one 
 of the bravest men that ever graced the citizenship of the United States. 
 He remained true in the time of nullification, and now in time of rebellion 
 he was the only openly professed Union man in South Carolina. 1 trust 
 that you will adopt with great cheer and good will the resolutions which 
 will be read to you. 
 
 The resolutions (which are herewith given) were seconded by Mr. C. E. 
 Detmoed, and unanimously adopted. 
 
 Whereas, We, loyal citizens assembled in Union Square, New York, on the 
 11th April, 1863, have heard with deep sorrow that James Louis Petigru, of 
 Charleston, South Carolina, has departed from this life ; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That we will ever cherish the spotless name of this loyal citizen, 
 who has set us a bright example of unwavering fidelity and fortitude, in ad- 
 hering to his country and her sacred cause, with a large mind, untainted by 
 narrow state pride, free from sectional prejudice and proof against the errors 
 peculiar to his native portion of the country. 
 
 Resolved, That, born and educated in South Carolina ; gifted with talents 
 which entitled him to the highest positions coveted by ambition ; acknowledged 
 by all to be the greatest jurist and counsellor in his whole state; of a genial 
 as well as an aspiring temper, fittted to enjoy the amenities of friendship and 
 inspiriting popularity ; aware that his interests were not lying on the side he 
 had chosen ; conscious that he wanted but a sphere of action to be a states- 
 
79 
 
 man. he nevertheless preferred to give up every advantage and tie, and to re- 
 main a patriot of devoted rectitude and political simplicity. _ _ 
 
 Resolved That, in the unhappy period of nullification James Louis Petigru 
 was the acknowledged leader of the Union men in Charleston ; and now, in 
 the dire period of civil war, when his impassioned state pronounced herself, hy 
 an overwhelming declaration, against the country, he alone, of all prominent 
 citizens, remained faithful to the last moment of his life, as a lonely rock in the 
 midst of an angry sea is lashed in vain hy the frenzied turmoil of storm and 
 
 wave. 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR. 
 
 Postmaster-General Blair was introduced to the assemblage. He said : 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : I have already raised my voice on the other side of 
 the square in behalf of the cause we have assembled here this afternoon to 
 cheer and support. I do not believe that I can furnish another quadrant of 
 you with an address on this occasion ; but I am happy to see the working- 
 men of New York turn out to sustain the workingman's cause. This, my 
 friends, is not the cause of the high classes ; it is not the cause of the 
 great ; it is the cause of the workingmen of the country. It is to sustain 
 a government which has been beneficent, which has given free homes, which 
 has educated the poor and elevated the masses. It is their cause ; and in 
 such a cause as that, the workingmen of the country, of all countries, ought 
 to <nve their hands and hearts on this and on all other occasions. My 
 frie°nds, the aristocratic classes, the oligarchic interest— they understood 
 from the first tap of the drum, from the first gun fired at Charleston— they 
 knew in whose cause that action was begun [" Hear, hear," and applause], 
 and it is responded to from the other side of the water. From the day 
 that gun was fired, from the first tap of that drum when they reared the 
 rattlesnake flag under the palmetto, the rattlesnake is abroad, and all that 
 olio-archie interest with one united voice led the new government to break 
 up°the government of the United States. The people of the United States 
 were slow to believe that a fratricidal hand could be raised to strike down 
 a government which had shed nothing but good upon everybody and 
 throughout the civilized world; but now, my friends, you are rallying, now 
 you are coming up to the mark, now your friends across the waters are 
 responding to the voices of Cobden and Bright ; they feel that this is the 
 workingman's cause throughout all lands— not only the land ot the Union, 
 but the°lands abroad. [Applause.] 
 
 Now, my friends, we must be unfaltering. This is a struggle that has 
 been go'ing on from the beginning. It was begun in '70, the era when we 
 founded this government. The aristocratic interest abroad are now send- 
 ino- forth piratical vessels to break down American commerce ; all that is 
 furnished by the oligarchic interest in foreign lands to assail free govern- 
 ment, the home of the oppressed of all lands. On the other side, you see 
 that instinctively the people begin to understand in Europe, as well as in 
 America, that they have an interest in this cause, and they are coming up 
 r« the work nobly. My friends, I do not despair. I know we will go 
 through it ; I know we will nut down the rebellion and traitors; it is not 
 given by God that a beneficent institution like this shall perish in this age 
 and in this era. [Cheers.] 
 
80 
 
 SPEECH OP WEIL VON GERNSBACH. 
 
 Mr. Weil Von Gernsbach was then introduced. He said in German: 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : The people of New York have assembled to-day in 
 mass meeting, in order — as is their right and duty — to look after the house- 
 hold of the nation and to consult on the situation of public affairs. You 
 will find many things wrong ; and, in fact, many things are wrong. The 
 loyal people of this country have before them an armed, terrible and en- 
 raged enemy of their greatness and unity ; and behind and beside them 
 gather thousands of sneaking traitors, to wrest the arms out of their hands, 
 and to deliver them defenceless to the enemy. [Cheers.] What a sad, 
 what a revolting spectacle for the friend of this country and of liberty ! 
 Two years ago, at the outbreak of the civil war, when .the people of the 
 free states, full of indignation at the affront to the nation, rushed to arms 
 in order to oppose a wall of brass to the onset of the slave power, these 
 men raised a deafening noise, boasted of their loyalty, of their love for 
 freedom, of their hatred against the rebels, of their devotion to the Union. 
 But no sooner had a few disasters befallen the national armies, than they 
 completely changed front, and for the past eighteen months their represent- 
 atives in the state legislatures, their orators, their politicians, their jour- 
 nalists have had nothing better to do than to keep up an unceasing denun- 
 ciation of the government, its agents, its officers, and the generals [ap- 
 plause] who are devottd to the popular cause. Indeed it is a sad work 
 -which the press of this party has undertaken to perform. ]So expres- 
 sion is too vulgar, no abusive term too coarse for them to fling day after 
 day against the head of the nation and against his first officers and coun- 
 cillors. Instead of enlightening the people, of teaching and encouraging 
 them, these men check its energy, mislead its sentiments, and poison public 
 opinion. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, this infamous conduct of the press is a disaster of in- 
 calculable consequence, a disaster greater than is generally assumed ; and 
 I will tell you why. The first condition of the perpetuity and the prosper- 
 ity of a democratic republic is the respect of the people for the laws which 
 they themselves have made, and for the authorities which they themselves 
 have constituted. Now, let me tell you, gentlemen, Europeans, and in 
 particular we Germans, can appreciate this respect, which native Amer- 
 icans possess to so high a degree. [Applause.] It is a fruit of their edu- 
 cation, and has become with them a habit. Even an unpopular officer 
 they demand to see respected and even to an unpopular law they submit 
 readily, because they know that both can be removed by lawful means. 
 But, fellow-citizens, at present a part of the press seems to have made it 
 its task to root out systematically, by coarse, vulgar abuse, and by un- 
 measured fault-finding, this respect for law, and thus to undermine the very 
 foundation of the republic. They know not, these deluded men, that they 
 are using a two-edged sword which, at the first opportunity, may be turned 
 against them. 
 
 Let me now also say a word, as a German to Germans, on our German 
 press. Some of our journalists have sunk so deep, are so co\ered with 
 disgrace, have played so deep in the mire of infamy, that they seize of this 
 mire, in which they are completely imbedded, and fling it at the best of 
 
81 
 
 men ; yea, even at a long-tried friend of freedom, the ornament of the 
 German population — our gallant General Sigel. Such are the consequen- 
 ces, if men serve a bad cause. And what a cause is it that these people 
 serve I Divested of all phraseology, of all secondary questions, the combat 
 which now devastates this country is nothing else than the combat of free 
 labor against the large-landed property system [cheers] ; the battle of the 
 oppressed against the oppressor, of the starving against the aristocracy, of 
 the laborers against the privileged idlers — in one word, of the world-con- 
 trolling idea of freedom against the disgraceful institution of slavery. [Ap- 
 plause.] In such a combat, can German men, German laborers, thinking, 
 intelligent men of moral education, hesitate one moment on which side 
 they must stand ? Many of you have already fought the same combat 
 over before. The revolution which for the last seventy years has been 
 going the rounds of Europe, is substantially nothing else ; for the so-called 
 rights of the princes and of the crown, if historically reduced to their 
 origin, what are they but the arrogated rights of the large-landed proprie- 
 tors 1 [Applause.] How can Europeans, how can Germans, prostitute 
 themselves by aiding in an attempt to deliver over this country, bound 
 and chained, to the slave power 1 ? The government has committed faults, 
 has shown weakness ; we do not deny or conceal it. But consider the 
 extraordinary situation of the men at the helm of the nation, and you will 
 not be harsh in your judgment. Do not forget, in particular, that a large 
 portion of the disasters which have befallen us, rests on the shoulders of 
 incapable and unsound-minded generals. 
 
 " Peace ! peace !" our opponents cry. But what peace do they want ? 
 A peace with everlasting disgrace or an honorable peace? A disgraceful 
 peace they can have any time. Tell the army to cast away their arms, 
 give Washington to the rebels, proclaim Jefferson Davis President for 
 life, extend slavery over the entire continent, catch the runaway negroes 
 and return them to their masters, abolish liberty of the press and of speech, 
 submit to the Montgomery Constitution, and deprive the free laborer in the 
 Northern states of his right of suffrage — then you have peace, the peace 
 of the copperheads, the peace of the grave, the peace of infamy and moral 
 self-destruction. [Cheers.] But if, on the other hand, you want an honor- 
 able peace, you must conquer it by force of arms — there is no other way. 
 
 This land, America, the home of freedom, has given the signal for the 
 combat once before, and France and Europe followed. To-day Amer- 
 ica gives the signal once more. It is a holy war, and be assured the signal 
 will have again world-shaking consequences. Sooner or later, when the 
 fulness of time is come-, the people of France will again sit in judgment 
 over its oppressors and tyrants, and outraged Germany will rise, and 
 wrathful Italy, and bleeding Poland, and downtrodden Hungary, and they 
 will begin the holy war — the last war. [Great applause.] 
 
 Be ye therefore united, German men ; support with your whole strength 
 the holy cause, your own cause. Victory is not doubtful, and we will carry 
 the standard of victory everywhere — into the huts of the oppressed poor 
 throughout the civilized world. Do not overestimate the power of our 
 enemies in the North. By their designs, tendencies, aims, and acts, they 
 have forfeited the name of a political party. They form only a gang of 
 miscreants, under whose feet the ground already begins to give way. [Con- 
 tinued applause.] 
 
 6 
 
82 
 The meeting was then effectively addressed, in German, by Dr. Forsch : 
 
 SPEECH OP DR. FORSCH, 
 
 When I, after a long silence, again appear before the public as an 
 orator, I have to confess, that the importance of the present condition of 
 our country has induced me. But do not think that I speak to you as a 
 partisan. I address you as a citizen of the United States, as a member 
 of our great Union. All party questions must be laid aside at present, 
 and the only question is, Shall our Union be preserved or shall she be 
 gathered into fragments ; shall we become the mocking-stock of the Euro- 
 pean despots, or shall we preserve the respect of all nations as an undi- 
 vided nation ? for I am convinced that this large audience will agree with 
 the words of our immortal Andrew Jackson : " Our Union must and shall 
 be preserved, in peace if we can, by war if we must !" 
 
 I may boldly assert, my American fellow-citizens, that no heart can 
 beat warmer for the safety of our Union and the preservation of our liberty 
 than the heart of a true German. Having struggled in vain in the old 
 country for freedom and human rights, overpowered by the mighty aris- 
 tocracy and despotism, this Union the only asylum of the oppressed, the 
 only refuge of the persecuted, gave us a home. And yet this great Union 
 is the star of hope for all the oppressed nations in the Old World. But, 
 alas ! treacherous hands have shaken the pillars of our holy temple, and 
 perfidious sons threaten to trample under their own feet their good mother, 
 who gave them independence and all welfare, our glorious Union. No, 
 no, never shall this be done, and as long as there runs a drop of Ger- 
 man blood in our veins we will stand bravely on the side of true Ameri- 
 cans, and tight man to man for our great Union, till the last enemy is 
 conquered. 
 
 We will fight this battle on the political arena also. Politics are to the 
 German not a mere business to suit a selfish interest, or to get some foot 
 at the public crib, but an earnest affair to save the people's rights, to 
 promote the people's welfare, to guarantee to the people their liberty, and 
 for all to preserve our great Union one and indivisible. And if the day 
 of election shall arrive, the Germans will not meet under any party flag, 
 but look to that glorious banner on which is written : " The Union shall 
 and must be preserved!" 
 
 On the battle-field we see bravely fight our German soldiers for our 
 righteous cause. They laid aside all party questions as the trumpet of 
 war sounded, and rallied with one mind and one heart under the flag of 
 our Union. And if we are justly proud of a Steuben, De Kalb, Muhlen- 
 berg, and others, as heroes in our Revolution, and who had helped to 
 lay the corner-stone of our Union, we mention now with equal pride a 
 Sigel, Max Weber, and others, bravely fighting for the preservation of the 
 holy inheritance of our forefathers. So we feel ourselves a common broth- 
 erhood, and we say in the words of a Lafayette : " This red, white, and 
 blue, must make its journey around the world!" 
 
 I will now close, and 1 hope to speak in the name of the greater part 
 of my German brethren if I say, " Our watchword is Union and Consti- 
 tution, and our countersign is Liberty to all ! So we assemble around 
 the old flag and say : 
 
 " The star-spangled banner, oh ! long may it wave 
 Over the land of the free and the home of the brave.'" 
 
OFFICERS. 
 
 STAISTID INTO. 4=. 
 
 Under charge of Committee of Arrangements, 
 
 FRANKLIN H. DELANO, 
 GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 
 
 EOBEET B. MINTUEN, Jr. 
 SYDNEY HOWAED GAY. 
 
 President. 
 
 CHAELES KING. 
 
 "Vice-Presidents. 
 
 A. W. Bradford, 
 Albert E. Gallatin, 
 Thomas W. Clerke, 
 John E. Williams, 
 George Folsom, 
 John R. Brady, 
 Charles A. Hecksher, 
 Ezra Nye, 
 Richard Upjohn, 
 Samuel B. Ruggles, 
 Theodore G. Glaubenskee, 
 Luther Bradish, 
 William Aufferman, 
 Caleb B. Spicer, 
 Frederick H. Wolcott, 
 Eugene S. Ballard, 
 Eli White, 
 George F. Tallman, 
 William Astor, 
 C. Y. Wemple, 
 Joseph T. Duryea, 
 George L. Schuyler, 
 Julius Brill, 
 Adam W. Spies, 
 George F. Allen, 
 John J. Phelps, 
 S. S. Wyckoff, 
 John T. Henry, 
 William C. Rhinelander, 
 Wm. Hall, 
 Samuel S. Sands, 
 Nathan Chandler, 
 
 John Kress, 
 Peter Brunges, 
 David Dows, 
 Edward Burns, 
 J. B. Cornell, 
 Sigismund Waterman, 
 John T. Henry, 
 Henry D. Sedgwick, 
 Charles S. Messenger, 
 Simeon Draper, 
 John C. Brant, 
 Jonathan Thorne, 
 Jacob A. Westervelt, 
 John Stevenson, 
 John C. Hamilton, 
 N. Rossman, 
 Conrad Geib, 
 F. M. French, 
 Nathaniel W. Burtis, 
 George H. Matthews, 
 James G. King, 
 Henry B. Smith, 
 Chauncey D. Murray, 
 James McKaye, 
 Charles Cludius, 
 Louis Naumann, 
 A. V. Meeks, 
 Hamilton Fish, 
 Charles A. Moore, 
 John Brooks, 
 Henry A. Heiser, 
 S. Frankel, 
 
84 
 
 William W. Todd, 
 Francis G. Shaw, 
 George Donaldson, 
 Edwards Pierrepont, 
 Charles B. Hoffman, 
 T. H. Faile, 
 John K. Myers, 
 E. C. Korner, 
 Charles Bruno, 
 
 A. E. Silliman, 
 Eleazar Parmly, 
 James Kearney Warren, 
 Amos Bobbins, 
 Enoch Chamberlain, 
 Henry Vandewater, 
 Henry Maurer, 
 Henry B rimer, 
 Fred. Schutz. 
 
 Secretaries. 
 
 Irving Grinnell, 
 John W. Minturn, 
 Washington Coster, 
 Cruger Oakley, 
 Edward C. Bogert, 
 Temple Prime, 
 Oliver K. King, 
 Andrew H. Sands, 
 Peter Macy, 
 Brockholst Cutting, 
 Nathaniel Prime, 
 John Nesbitt, 
 Henry J. Barbey, 
 
 William J. Todd, 
 J. Howard Williams, 
 James E. Mauran, 
 I. Smith Homans, Jr., 
 George D. Lyman, 
 William F. Cary, Jr., 
 Theodore Koosevelt, 
 Walter H. Burns, 
 Frederick Sturges, 
 Murray Hoffman, Jr., 
 Edward S. Eenwick, 
 Frank Shepherd, 
 William J. Emmett. 
 
PROGRAMME OF PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 STAND No. 4. 
 
 NORTHWEST CORNER OF UNION SQUARE.. 
 
 Salutes of Artillery by the workmen employed by Henry Brewster fy Co. 
 
 1. Grand March from " Le Prophete," of Meyerbeer, by Robertson's Grand 
 
 Band. * 
 
 2. Charles King, of the Council of the Loyal National League, will call the 
 
 meeting to order. 
 
 3. Prayer, by Rev. Roswell D. Hitchcock. 
 
 4. George P. Putnam, of the Executive Committee, will read the call for the 
 
 meeting, and the list of Vice-Presidents and Secretaries. 
 
 5. Franklin H. Delano will read the address adopted by the Council and Ex- 
 
 ecutive Committee on Lectures and Addresses. 
 
 6. Robert B. Minturn, Jr., will read the resolutions. 
 
 7. Music by the Band. 
 
 8. Major-General Fremont will address the meeting. 
 
 9. Music — singing : " The Army Hymn." By Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 10. Roscoe Conkling will address the meeting. 
 
 11. Music — singing : " The Star-Spangled Banner." 
 
 12. George W. Julian will address the meeting. 
 
 13. Music — singing : " Song for the Loyal National League," written expressly 
 
 for this occasion, by George H. Boker. 
 
 14. W. J. A. Fuller will address the meeting. 
 
 15. George P. Putnam will read an original poem, entitled " Those Seventy 
 
 Men." Written expressly for this occasion, by Mrs. Sarah H. Bradford. 
 
 16. Music — singing : " Our Union." Written expressly for this occasion, by 
 
 Alfred B. Street. 
 
Charles King, of the Council of the Loyal National League, called 
 the meeting to order, and the proceedings were opened by prayer by the 
 Rev. Roswell D. Hitchcock. 
 
 After the reading of the lists of Vice-Presidents and Secretaries, 
 and of the Address and Resolutions, and the special resolutions on 
 the death of Judge Petigru of Charleston, S. C, the chairman, Mr. 
 King, introduced Major-General John C. Fremont in the following 
 words : 
 
 I am now about to present to you one who has a right to claim your 
 attention — for he has shown his devotion to his country by leading her sol- 
 diers to the field, and by encountering— what is worse than armed hosts— 
 the prejudices of lukewarm men, half and half friends and patriots— men 
 who, if they had their way, would make a compromise to-morrow with 
 slavery and all its horrors, and who now, under the guise of peace, would 
 make useless, or worse than useless, the treasures of blood spilled by your 
 children and mine to vindicate the glorious flag which rebels would tram- 
 ple down. [Cheers.] Fellow-citizens, I present to you Major-General 
 Fremont. 
 
 Gen. Fremont was greeted with a burst of enthusiasm which continued 
 some minutes. Quiet being restored, he said : 
 
 SPEECH OP GEN. FREMONT. 
 
 Fellow-citizens : I had the honor of being asked to meet you here to- 
 day, and to address you. I accepted the invitation for the pleasure it gave 
 me to meet you, and for the further satisfaction I would have in using the 
 occasion to say how fully and how cordially I sympathize with you in the 
 objects of this meeting. Two years ago you met here and accepted the 
 war inaugurated on this memorable day at Fort Sumter. [Cheers.] To- 
 day, again, the noise of battle rolls around that monumental fort, and we 
 are hourly awaiting to hear the thunder of the guns which shall announce 
 that at length our outraged flag has been gloriously avenged. [Applause.] 
 But whatever may be the fortune of the day, no anniversary could have been 
 found more fitting to renew your pledges that there shall be no wavering in 
 your support of the government, no faltering in the purpose of the North 
 to restore and maintain, undivided and free to all, the whole territory of 
 the United States of America. [Applause.] The public assemblages, of 
 which this is the first, are intended to draw together and to give effect and 
 voice to the opinions and feelings of the people on the great question of the 
 day. We welcome these manifestations as the evidence of healthy activity 
 in the public mind. They indicate unmistakably that the nation is not 
 drifting, but moving with a fixed and resolute purpose; that a feelino- of 
 unconditional loyalty is rapidly absorbing all varieties of opinion, and fu- 
 sing all party distinctions into the singte resolve to preserve our national 
 unity at every cost. [Applause.] But while permitting myself the pleas- 
 ure of meeting you here and taking part in this commemoration, I have 
 declined to avail myself of the invitation with which I had been honored 
 
87 
 
 to address you. The subjects on which I had been asked to speak required 
 a scope of comment and suggestion, in which I do not feel at liberty to in- 
 dulge. I decline to do so in deference to the commonly received opinion 
 that a certain official propriety prohibits officers of the army and navy from 
 speaking in popular assemblies. But more especially I decline to do so, 
 because I was informed, not very long since, that officers permitting them- 
 selves to take part in public affairs outside of their professional duties, had 
 been characterized by high authority as "political generals." [Laughter.] 
 But in giving away to this usage, I am not at all satisfied that it is the 
 correct view of the scope of an officer's duty in this country, and amidst 
 the disorders of a civil war. Under other forms of government, where the 
 head of the nation shapes and directs its policy, and where the agents and 
 the people themselves simply conform, this suppressed freedom of speech, 
 where it must have expression, necessarily takes the form of a revolt, and is 
 consequently more incompatible with the public tranquillity. But in this 
 country, where there is really such a thing as public affairs upon which the 
 nation deliberates, and where the vitality of the system depends upon the 
 fact that every man is expected to take a living interest in them, the case 
 is widely different. Here the government simply executes the will of the 
 people, to which is is expected strictly to conform, and concerning which 
 it ought, consequently, to be well informed. [Applause.] The military 
 power is only an executive arm of the sovereign in this country — the peo- 
 ple ; and instead of forming that military power into a distinct and sepa- 
 rate class, and creating barriers between the army and the people, every- 
 thing ought to be done to keep the soldier one of them [applause], having 
 common interests and common opinions. [Applause.] To isolate them 
 and their sentiments would be, or might be, highly dangerous to our free 
 government, and in this country there should be no such thing as a mili- 
 tary party. [Applause.] "We have lately seen with what satisfaction the 
 country received the resolutions of our troops in the field — how timely and 
 important was their influence — not the less because it was evident that they 
 had no idea of merging into the soldier their sympathies and privileges of 
 the citizens. [Applause.] And it is absurd to say that in a war of ideas, 
 a conflict of principles, in a revolution which is taking the shape of a refor- 
 mation — a revolution which involves the civilization of the age, and to the 
 results of which the friends of liberty are looking with the deepest anxiety 
 and in every part of the world ; in all this momentous struggle, that the 
 men most actively concerned, taking the most active part and making the 
 costliest sacrifices, should have no opinion. It is idle to tell us that the 
 opinions of officers in important places have no influence on the conduct 
 and the results of the war. Nor does it always happen that a general has 
 the choice to render his service to the country in the more congenial duties 
 of the field ; he may be placed in charge of a distant and rebellious prov- 
 ince, separated, disconnected from the seat of the government by the con- 
 ditions of the war, and where necessarily he must be much governed by his 
 own convictions and his own opinions. Would it reflect — does it reflect — 
 on the soldiery qualities of that general that he had the ability to institute 
 a policy which enabled him, in the midst ot rebellion and anarchy, to hold 
 in subjection to the laws and to reduce into good order and healthy pro- 
 priety, and to restore its commercial relations to the Union, the great me- 
 tropolis of the South % [Applause.] Men who, by uniting with you here 
 
88 
 
 two years ago, subjected themselves to the charge of being political generals, 
 have sealed with their lives their devotion to this cause. [Applause.] 
 Then Schenck and Mitchel and Baker spoke to you here, [Applause.] 
 The one has given his blood and the others their lives in your service, 
 [Applause.] Were they the less good soldiers because they came to you 
 here, on the eve of battle, to get inspiration and to find encouragement and 
 renewed strength in the assurances of your support? [Applause and cries 
 of "No."] It is not here that the name of " political general" can be con- 
 sidered a stigma or a disqualification. [Applause.] Already shadows be- 
 gin to people this place, and the spot has become classic ground. Two 
 years ago this was one among the many beautiful openings which decorate 
 your city. You had no Bunker Hill to serve as a field-altar of patriotism. 
 In this splendid city — this radiating centre of the material prosperity of 
 the country, there was wanting the traditional spot in sight of which no 
 man could, without shame, fall below the spirit of the day which gave it 
 an historic fame. [Applause.] But here already you have sermons in 
 these stones — there you have your field-altar. [Cheers.] In sight of that 
 statue of Washington you come here to-day to renew your pledges — you 
 promise that in his hand, which two years ago held up to your indignant 
 gaze your discarded and outraged flag, you will yet place the standard 
 which shall be raised in victory over the walls of Sumter. [Great ap- 
 plause.] You promise that you will never agree to a dismemberment of 
 the country which he left you [Voices, " Never," and applause] ; and that 
 next to the crime of the traitors who are striking in arms at the life of the 
 nation, you will hold the guilt of those men who, placed in l-esponsible po- 
 sitions, do not use every effort to direct, with most terrible energy, the 
 power of this country to destroy the rebellion. [Tremendous cheering, 
 and three times three cheers for Gen. Fremont.] 
 
 The Chairman : I now, fellow-citizens, present to you one of our own 
 representatives — a man who has proved that bullying could not hurt him. 
 He was a member of Congress when this great crime was committed, and 
 the experiment was tried on him which has been tried on others, by some 
 of the yellow-faced Southern chivalry — to bully him, by talk of pistols 
 and bowie-knives. He told them, " By the grace of God, I carry my de_ 
 fenders here (pointing to his breast), and if any man wants to fight let him 
 come on." [Vehement cheers.] I present to you Mr. Roscoe Conkling- 
 
 Loud applause greeted Mr. Conkling, who said : 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. EOSCOE CONKLING. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens : You have assembled to com- 
 memorate an event which must be memorable in history to the latest syl- 
 lable of recorded time. You celebrate an anniversary which will be can- 
 onized, or cursed, till the holiest fountains of hnman sentiment are for- 
 ever frozen or dried up. You solemnize the recurrence of a day which will 
 stand in the calendar hereafter, as the day which made manifest the noth- 
 ingness or immortality of human rights. [Cheers.] The 12th of April, 
 1861, was a day of darkness and despair; our sun was eclipsed, and no 
 
89 
 
 man could see to read the dial. It was a day of humiliation and death 
 but through that death there came a glorious resurrection and ascension. 
 
 " When Sumter fell, 
 
 You, and I. aud all of us fell down, 
 
 And bloody treason nourished over us." [Cheers.] 
 
 But two years have passed — two years " of plots and counterplots, of gain 
 and loss, of glory and disgrace" — and undismayed and undaunted, you 
 come to say to doubters and to enemies, as William Tell said to his native 
 mountaineers : 
 
 " We hold'to you the hands you first beheld, 
 To show they still are free." 
 
 It seems to be a maxim in the economy of Providence, that the trials of 
 a nation are»in the ratio of its destinies. If it be poor and powerless, if 
 it have no empire and holds no position envied by the world, it may escape 
 the blasts of war, and languish for long intervals in unmolested calmness. 
 But if it be rich and powerful, if it claim as its own one tenth of the globe 
 if in the lifetime of a single man it grows to be the foremost power in al 
 the earth, it must accept perils and struggles as the price of its greatnes 
 and success. 
 
 If besides being powerful, a people has set up institutions in which no 
 trace of aristocracy or kingcraft is tolerated, it has voluntarily elected to 
 make its own soil the theatre of a contest which has been waging since 
 time began, between oppression and liberty. It is the mission and fore- 
 ordained destiny of a people assuming to found and maintain a democratic 
 government, to wrestle and grapple with the foes of freedom and equality 
 within and without ; and the struggle now raging in America, is only the 
 old battle for human rights transplanted from the Old World to the 
 New. [Applause.] We had no right to expect to escape it. 
 
 Why should we *? 
 
 Why should we hope to elude the evil passions and instincts which have 
 led men the world over to seek the destruction of equal rights, and the 
 aggrandizement of the few at the expense of the many ? 
 
 We knew that nowhere had men relinquished superior and exclusive 
 privilege without a contest ; why should they do it here — here in the New 
 World, the place reserved for republican government to vindicate itself for- 
 ever, or to wither from the world ? 
 
 Time and civilization and government had their morning not in the west 
 but in the east. Dawn flushed, and yet centuries rolled by before light 
 broke upon the western continent. 
 
 Why was this ? 
 
 Why was half the globe kept hidden away behind a trackless waste of 
 waters, till the other half had been dug over and over, to bury its dead? 
 Why were progress and barbarism mewed up so long in the Old World, to 
 solve in blood the problems of humanity 1 
 
 Perhaps the New World was reserved till mankind should be fitted for a 
 higher and better dispensation. 
 
 Perhaps it was designed to withhold this inheritance from man till the 
 race had been tried and instructed, and exalted by the wisdom and the 
 folly, the virtues and the vices of wasted ages. 
 
. 90 
 
 If this was the design, we can understand our mission, and accept our 
 responsibilities. » 
 
 If it is the mission of the American people to make their continent a 
 garden for the growth of a new civilization, higher and better and truer 
 than the world has ever known, we may understand the logic which per- 
 mits blood to stain our land. 
 
 If wo maintain successfully that man needs no mortal master but him- 
 self, we bring forth a great new truth, and no great truth was ever yet 
 born into the world without great pangs. 
 
 It costs great pangs to plant the germ of free government here, and the 
 manner in which the experiment began, might well convince the mind of 
 faith that Providence had charge over it. The task was undertaken by a 
 group of men which no previous age could have produced. They were 
 the victims of all the bad systems of government then extant, and they 
 were called to devise a new system just when the world was all ablaze 
 with political intelligence. 
 
 All the past was before them, and the French revolution was just 
 delivering its terrible message to mankind. 
 
 Two forms of government had already been tried here. 
 
 The colonial system had been tested and thrown off. 
 
 The confederate system has been fairly tried, and found fit to live only 
 through the revolution it supported. All the members of the Confederacy 
 had found the need of a stronger system, closer knit. I say all — all but 
 South Carolina, who put herself up to be raffled for by the contending 
 parties, to belong to the British Crown or the American Republic, as the 
 one or the other should succeed in the struggle of which she was to be the 
 safe spectator. 
 
 The Fathers of the Republic, in their almost inspiration, saw clearly 
 that a government, to be enduring and free, must be a union, not of states, 
 but of the people, not a partnership, nor a club of thirteen members, but 
 an eternal wedlock of the nation. 
 
 They fashioned their work accordingly — they excluded carefully all 
 state rights which would militate against the supremacy of the federal 
 government. 
 
 Some of their acts seem prophetic now, when men here in New York, 
 "leading politicians," as Lord Lyons calls them, are proposing to array 
 the state against the general government, and to nullify the act for en- 
 rolling soldiers, and other acts of Congress. 
 
 An effort was made to put into the Constitution some way in which 
 men could oppose the general government, under cover of state authority, 
 and yet dodge the halter, but the halter was carefully kept in. 
 
 Luther Martin, the attorney-general of Maryland, went home from 
 the convention and delivered to the legislature of his state the following 
 statement, which I commend to those politicians with a snaky name, who, 
 according to the good book, must be the most subtle of all the beasts 
 of the field [loud cheers and laughter] : 
 
 " By the principles of the American Revolution arbitrary power may, 
 and ought to be resisted, even by arms if necessary. The time may come 
 when it shall be the duty of a state, in order to preserve itself from the 
 oppression of the general government, to have recourse to the sword : in 
 
91 
 
 which case the proposed form of government declares that the state, and 
 every one of its citizens who act under its authority, are guilty of a di- 
 rect act of treason ; reducing by this provision the different states to this 
 alternative, that they must tamely and passively yield to despotism, or their 
 citizens must oppose it at the hazard of the halter if unsuccessful — and redu- 
 cing the citizens of the slate which shall take arms to a situation in ivhich they 
 must be exposed to punishment, let them act as they will, since if they obey the 
 authority of their state government, they will be guilty of treason against the 
 United States ; if they join the general government they will be guilty of 
 treason against their own state. 
 
 " To save the citizens of the respective states from this disagreeable 
 dilemma, and to secure them from being punishable as traitors to the United 
 States, when acting expressly in obedience to the authority of their own 
 state, I wished to have obtained as an amendment to the third section of 
 this article, the following clause : 
 
 " '■Provided, That no act or acts done by one or more of the states 
 against the United States, or by any citizen of any one of the United 
 States under the authority of one or more of the said states, shall be 
 deemed treason or punished as such ; but, in case of war being levied by one 
 or more of the states against the United States, the conduct of each party 
 toward the other, and their adherents respectively, shall be regulated by 
 the laws of Avar and of nations.' 
 
 "But this provision was not adopted, being too much opposed to the 
 great object of many of the leading members of the convention, which 
 was by all means to leave the states at the mercy of the general govern- 
 ment, since they could not succeed in their immediate and entire abo- 
 lition." 
 
 With such views the Constitution was formed, and went into operation 
 over a country infinitely diversified in soil, climate, and production. 
 
 The attractive portion of the republic was the South. Its breezes were 
 bland, its climate was almost perpetual summer, its soil needed only to be 
 tickled with a hoe to laugh with a harvest. All these charms had enticed 
 the rich, the indolent, and the idle. The seat of population, and allowed 
 representation in Congress upon its chattels, of course it became the seat 
 of political power. For three quarters of a century it ruled the country 
 absolutely, and enjoyed almost a monopoly of public honors. 
 
 But it relied upon unskilled, unpaid labor, and there was the bane of its 
 success. Though it started with everything, it was outstripped by free 
 labor, which started with nothing. 
 
 Political questions continually arose, and were always decided for and 
 by the South. While this continued, the South was quiet, apparently, 
 yet ever plotted against the time when decisions might result in favor of 
 other sections of the country. At last that time arrived for once. [Ap- 
 plause.] A President, not of Southern choosing, was elected. What of 
 that ? Did the leading managing men of the South fear that their rights 
 or their slaves would be taken from them ? I deny it. After some asso- 
 ciation, in Congress and out of it, with those who plunged the South into 
 rebellion, I deny that they for a moment feared that Abraham Lincoln 
 would or could disturb their institutions. 
 
 But there was another thing they did fear. Their personal ambition 
 
would be thwarted, and also their plans for prostituting the government 
 for the benefit of their own " section," as they called it. 
 
 The time had come when they and their sons could no longer hold all 
 the offices, civil and military, at home and abroad, and when they could 
 no longer manage the foreign and home policy of the government, so as to 
 pick a quarrel with anybody who happened to have an island or anything 
 else that they wanted to steal. [Cheers.] 
 
 They were to be deprived of these things if they stayed in the Union ; 
 if they went out, they saw visions of new wealth and power. A new 
 empire in the tropics dazzled their eyes. An unlimited and unrestrained 
 license to steal land from feeble neighbors on the South, and to plant it 
 with slavery, the reopening of the slave trade to Christianize the barba- 
 rians of Africa — these and kindred objects seemed to them preferable to 
 remaining in a government in which they must at last divide the monop- 
 oly they had enjoyed. Fair play is what they rebelled against ; equality 
 is what they couldn't endure ; free government put into actual practice 
 is what they would not submit to, and they made a bloody issue to de- 
 stroy it. 
 
 Is not this the old fight over again, the encounter once more between 
 equal rights and privileges, the dying kick of despotism % 
 
 Surely it is ; and with an aristocratic element in the government, it was 
 bound to come. You could not check the laws of growth in the North, 
 nor of decay in the South ; and hence, in time, the balance of power 
 was sure to change. This was inevitable, and yet the minority would 
 not loosen their hold without dipping their hands in the blood of their 
 country. 
 
 I laid down the proposition that the trials of a nation must be gauged 
 by its destinies, and is it not clear that our destiny left us no course 
 except to resist to the uttermost the bloody raid which we are still re- 
 pelling ? 
 
 The patriotism of the people answered that question two years ago to- 
 day. General Jackson believed that there was a deity and divinity in 
 masses of men — that whatever a nation affirmed to be true must be immu- 
 table truth. [Cheers.] Never, perhapl, was there a stronger proof of the 
 quick infallibility of a people's instinct, than when the heart of America 
 vibrated with the news that traitors had battered Sumter, and trampled 
 on the flag. [Applause.] Did any man among you speak of submission 
 or separation at that time ? No ; those who could not speak for their 
 country then were dumb — they dare not speak for treason. 
 
 They dare not consort with the ambassador of a foreign power, to be- 
 tray their country then. They dare not hawk at their government then 
 and assail it with the tricks of the mountebank and the pettifogger. Pub- 
 lic sentiment would not tolerate it. Why does public sentiment tolerate 
 it now ? 
 
 "Why does public sentiment tolerate it in this proud city, where, beside 
 all higher motives, you have such an enormous stake of money in the 
 supremacy of the government ? Here, where two hundred millions of 
 debts are due from the South, here, where you have for ten years furnished 
 ninety per cent, of all the money the government has had, here, where you 
 hold government securities amounting to more than eighty million dollars, 
 why is it that public sentiment tolerates men who are doing more to kelp 
 
93 
 
 rebellion than if they had muskets in their hands and stood within rebel 
 lines? There ought to be some good reason why loyal people are 
 doomed ro put up with revilings and hypocritical lamentations and 
 complaints of men who, for the wrongs done their country, ought to 
 be daily and nightly on their knees, asking forgiveness from God and the 
 mourners. 
 
 It is difficult to know what to do with such people. [A voice : " Hang 
 'em ; hang 'em."] 
 
 Mr. Conkung — No, no. That would violate the wise advice of Dr. 
 Johnson. Goldsmith asked the doctor whether a man who had disgraced 
 himself wouldn't do well to cut his throat. " Why, no," said the 
 doctor, '• if he has disgraced himself, let him go where he isn't known, in 
 place of going to hell, where he is sure to be known." The success these 
 disturbers have in misleading others, shows the justice of the saying that 
 a lie will run a mile while the truth is putting on its shoes and stockings. 
 Suppose their charges and statements are all true, just as they make them, 
 does that justify or excuse them in the course they have pursued ? Sup- 
 pose it is true that the President, and the Cabinet, and Congress, and the 
 administration party have all done wrong, why should the nation be mur- 
 dered, and the government destroyed for that ? 
 
 The war is for the supremacy of the ballot-box [cheers], and it is only 
 by standing by the government, and maintaining it, that we can preserve 
 the ballot-box, and the ballot-box is the only means of correcting public 
 abuses if they exist. If men are honest in saying that the government is 
 in unfit hands, let them help to wrest it from the assassins who are aiming 
 daggers at its heart ; and when this is done, the people can elect better 
 and more capable men. But what reason is there in allowing the govern- 
 ment to be ruined because the acts of those who happen represent it for a 
 space are distasteful ? [Cheers.] If there are imperfections on the admin- 
 istration's head, it is no time to rebuke or punish them now. But at any 
 time there is no justice in most of the clamors lately raised for political 
 effect, and I will say a word of one or two of them. 
 
 It is charged by secession sympathizers, as one of the reasons for assail- 
 ing the government, that the rebellion is the result of agitating the ques- 
 tion of slavery. Suppose it is — is the North, or the anti-slavery men of 
 the North, to be blamed or punished for that? Who has agitated the 
 slavery question in this country since 1850? There was no agitation in 
 1851 and '52, except by a few abolitionists, who hadn't votes enough to 
 elect a constable from Maine to Minnesota. We had hushed all agitation 
 then. We had annexed Texas to extend the area of slavery, and fought a 
 bloody war, and paid three hundred millions of dollars in consequence. 
 We had acquired new territories, but they had been brought in without 
 any restriction against slavery. We had adopted the compromise meas- 
 ures of 1850. We had given the South such boundaries as she wanted ; 
 we had paid her millions, and adopted a fugitive slave law, which I heard 
 Douglas tell Mason he (Mason) drew, and made as stringent as he could, 
 and Mason admitted it. What was there, then, to agitate slavery for? 
 In 1852 both the national conventions adopted the same platform, accept- 
 ing the compi-omise measure as a finality, and congratulating the people 
 that the end had come of slavery agitation. The nation went to sleep 
 thinking the negro had been put aside, and that the legislation of the coun- 
 
94 
 
 try was to be turned to its commercial, manufacturing, and material wants. 
 Repose and peace were everywhere, when suddenly there came a voice, as 
 piercing as a ciy of fire in the night, and men started, as they would leap 
 from their beds to see if the house was in flames. What was it? Why, 
 the Missouri Compromise was to be repealed. The Missouri Compro- 
 mise? That wall which our fathers built between slavery and freedom — 
 that great covenant which had tranquillized a continent, and to which ev- 
 ery man was pledged, and his father before him — was that to be destroyed? 
 Who was to do it? Had any one in the North petitioned Congress to do 
 it ? No. Let us remonstrate ; let us pray Congress not to do so huge a 
 wrong ; not to hoist the flood-gates of agitation, and launch the nation 
 upon a boundless sea of sectional contention. The people assembled in 
 their might ; they conjured the party in power to stay its hand ; they im- 
 plored the majority in Congress, by the memories of the past and the hopes 
 and fears of the future; they sent to Washington memorials which, if 
 heaped together, would have barricaded Pennsylvania avenue. But all 
 to no purpose ; the Missouri Compromise fell, and fell with a -crash which 
 resounds yet in this bleeding country. [Applause.] Who did it? Who 
 did it ? Who did it ? Who, as Mr. Fillmore said, opened the Pandora's 
 box, and let loose every evil of sectional madness and strife? Did North- 
 ern anti-slavery men do it ? Did any anti-slavery man vote for it ? Was 
 it anything but a monstrous, treasonable cheat of the slaveiy interest? 
 [Cheers.] Who carried the torch of the incendiary and the knife of the 
 murderer into the territories ? Who sacked their villages and drenched 
 their fields in blood ? Who attempted to force slavery upon an Unwilling 
 people ? Who tried to force through the Lecompton constitution, foul 
 with violence and fraud? Has there been any slavery agitation in this 
 country for ten years not produced by the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
 mise ? It was that repeal which gave birth to the [Republican party, 
 which filled its ranks with the members of all existing organizations, and 
 gave one million three hundred thousand votes to John Charles Fremont. 
 If slaveiy agitation has contributed to the rebellion, let the blame be where 
 the truth puts it, and not on the anti-slavery men of the North. Let us 
 remember who the incendiaries are, who, after setting fire to the house, 
 complain that those who come to put it out make a great fuss, and agita- 
 tion, and disturbance generally. But whoever agitated, and however 
 wantonly, what has that to do now with rescuing our government and our 
 liberties from the uplifted hand of treason ? 
 
 There is another wicked pretext, fashionable now with the disloyal and 
 the false. It is alleged that after secession began it might have been coaxed to 
 stop by compromise ; and I want to mention one thing on this head to show 
 how much audacity a man must have to assume the ground held by politi- 
 cians of a certain school in this state. They are protesting that they were 
 for something at the time which, if it had been adopted by Congress, would 
 have averted the whole difficulty. What were they for in the legislature 
 at Albany ? They said that the grievance of the South was, that slave- 
 holders were in danger of being shut out of the territories where the cli- 
 mate would let slavery live, and that was the trouble to be removed. They 
 had a plan for doing it. It wa's called the Robinson proposition, and was 
 urged and supported as all-sufficient by the very men who are now around 
 inquiring who is responsible for the war, and insisting that it might have 
 
95 
 
 been compromised. What was the Robinson proposition ? It proposed 
 that all the territories should be cut in two by the old Missouri compromise 
 line, and that all north of it should come in as a free state, and on the 
 south slavery should take its chance ; and whenever the territory filled up 
 with the number of people required for a repi'esentative in Congress, it 
 should come in as a state. This was the panacea commended them in New 
 York by those who .now oppose the war. Now let me remind you that 
 the political friends of the present administration offered the South twice as 
 much as the Robinson proposition, and it was spurned. We offered them 
 all the territory where slavery could flourish, and offered it without condi- 
 tion. We offered to admit all as a state with slavery, if it came with 
 slavery in its constitution, to admit it at once, without waiting for a white 
 man to move into it, and without any stipulation or understanding that 
 any Northern territory should come in free. The territory thus to be sur- 
 rendered to slavery was free by the laws of Mexico. You will see the dif- 
 ference ; the Robinson proposition required that the North should have, as 
 an offset, the half of the territory free, and admitted as a state, and further, 
 that the South should not form its territory into a state until, in lapse of 
 time, the census showed 1 10,000 people there ; whereas the proposition 
 offered to the South in Congress said nothing about the North having any 
 share, and did not require an hour's delay nor any number of population 
 whatever. Yet the Robinson resolution was thought enough to offer by 
 the same men who now claim that reasonable offers would have been ac- 
 cepted. They know that nothing would have been accepted except the 
 prostration' of the government. They know that the Crittenden compro- 
 mise was defeated by Southern votes in the Senate, as Gov. Johnson stated 
 the other night at your Academy of Music, and as Edward Everett affirmed 
 in Boston day before yesterday. But, again, what difference does it make 
 now whether or not if we had done something some other time, something- 
 else woulin't have happened ? There is another plea for opposing the war, 
 which I see is done not only into speeches, but into poetry, here now. It 
 is that the government party is laboring not to restore the Union, but to 
 emancipate all the slaves, even if so doing pi^events a restoration. This 
 is believed by some fools, perhaps by some knaves, and possibly by some 
 honest people, but they must be rather pig-headed. It ought not to be be- 
 lieved or countenanced by any who sympathize with our soldiers in the 
 field, and want to see them spared hardship or exposure. When the war 
 began it was supposed that slavery would be an element of weakness to our 
 enemies — that the fear of servile insurrection among four millions of bond- 
 men would keep part of the masters at home. We had a right to think 
 so. John Brown, with seventeen negroes and a cow, had struck terror 
 into all Virginia. [Cheers and laughter.] John Randolph said in Con- 
 gress, "The lire-bell never rings in Richmond that every mother does not 
 clasp her baby more closely to her breast." Why was this? Because 
 they lived on a volcano, and knew not at what hour incendiary fires would 
 burst forth, enshrouding cities, and painting hell on the sky. Wasn't it 
 reasonable to suppose that an element so dreadful as this in peace, would 
 be fearful in time of war % Wasn't it patriotic to hope and to wish that 
 slaveowners and overseers might, for fear of slave massacres, be kept at 
 home, in place of going to the battle-fields of rebellion to slaughter your 
 neighbors and mine? Wasn't it right to take advantage of slavery, and 
 
96 
 
 manage it to weaken and paralyze our enemies? But what was done in 
 deference to the policy of those who have stolen the garment of " Conser- 
 vatism," and are so pleased with their new clothes that they are likely to 
 strut themselves to death? Why, generals, "Conservative" generals, be- 
 gan to issue proclamations, and kept issuing proclamations to the slave3 
 and their masters, saying, "Now slaves be kind and obedient to your 
 masters; don't you run away, if you do we'll send you back ; don't you 
 rise, if you do we'll put you clown with the whole power of the army ; and 
 don't you go to scaring your mistresses or being disobliging, if you do we'll 
 chastise you for that." The great idea seemed to be to let the slaves know 
 that they couldn't be permitted to take any part in the ceremonies at all. 
 Some of our generals felt as select and exclusive on that point, as the boy 
 did at his mother's funeral, when he saw a neighbor boy cry, and asked 
 him, " What business have you to cry here, this ain't none of your funeral." 
 What was the result of thus guarding rebel property ? In place of an ele- 
 ment of danger and weakness, slavery became an element of strength, and 
 slaves fed and clothed rebellion. While the masters were away in the 
 field, drilling and organizing and putting the country on a war footing, an 
 unpaid laboring population of at least two millions, for women as well as 
 men are field hands, were at home raising corn and pork, and making 
 cloth, or else acting as cooks and teamsters, or digging the trenches, build- 
 ing the fortifications, ay, and fighting the battles of the rebellion. Does 
 anybody doubt now that the slaves have been impressed into the military 
 service of the rebellion ? The rebel pickets on the Kappahannock are 
 many of them black to-day. Yet, for trying to turn slaves against their 
 master even now, after learning by bitter experience the folly of the past, 
 the government is denounced, and charged with perverting the war into an 
 Abolition raid. And men "say this who pretend to be the friends of our 
 soldiers in the field. I wish you could all stand, as I have stood, among 
 the fortifications at Yorktown. Whoever visits them will see magnificent 
 digging ; he will see a city builded in the ground ; he will see a maze 
 of trenches and embankments many feet high, doubled with gabions 
 and finished with a labor, which sets one counting by the thousands 
 to guess how many white men dug those graves as they burrowed 
 into Yorktown. I would like to look upon the man who dare avow 
 that he feels glad to know that white men drooped and died in those trench- 
 es, when black men, used to the heat and malaria, might have been found 
 to do the work in half the time. [Loud cheers.] Yet all are nicknam- 
 ed fanatics.and radicals, who have sought to get some help out of the negro 
 race. We are told that it would be a great calamity to free the slaves. 
 Why ? Because they would come North. Only think of that ! They'll 
 stay South in slavery, and when they can stay and have freedom too, they'll 
 come North ! 1 believe that if you would drain the North of negroes, you 
 have only to establish freedom and rights for them South, and they will all 
 go there as naturally as a duck takes to water. I want the North emptied of 
 its black population ; I want to see all the negroes North go South, and am 
 willing to have them hold all the land there that is left over after our soldiers 
 who want to stay, and the loyal people, are provided for. I would cast out 
 the best rebel in the South, to make room for the worst loyal man in theNorth, 
 black or white, and I should expect a trade as profitable as Prentice said 
 another would be. He said if the Devil should change places with Jeflf. 
 
97 
 
 Davis, hell would gain as much in malignity as it lost in talent. [Cheers.] 
 It is an easy thing to find a stick if you want to flog a dog ; and I wonder 
 sometimes that those who are searching for excuses for shirking their duty 
 are not more ingenious. It is amazing how small a thing answers their 
 purpose. If they can find some man who has been arrested, or some wo- 
 man of high-flavored reputation who has been seai'ched, they seem to think 
 they have made out a 'case in favor of leaving the government to perish. 
 For the madness and pique of party, they would bury their nationality 
 under the waves of revolution, and leave the annals of free government 
 like a bloody buoy on the sea of time, warning the nations of the earth to 
 keep aloof from the mighty ruin. If they can find a fraud on the govern- 
 ment which they have not been caught in themselves, they are as happy as 
 a boy with a new top. [Cheers.] If some scamp has swindled the gov- 
 ernment in the charter of a steamboat, or the manufacture of army cloth- 
 ing, the whole administration is held to blame for that, and the war ought 
 to stop to prevent frauds. Frauds are plenty, no doubt ; there are mis- 
 creants flourishing about your hotels and streets, who have fattened upon 
 the agony of their country ; who have bought shawls at Stewards, and 
 diamonds at Ball & Black's, with gains made by smuggling felt and shoddy 
 into the coat of the poor soldier, relied upon to keep him warm and dry in 
 the pelting storm. There are men who would bribe some twin rascal to 
 give them a contract, to weave the winding sheet of their country, expect- 
 ing to double the profit by filling with shoddy and buying the inspector to 
 let it pass. [Groans.] They are not " radical" men as a class, however ; 
 they are remarkably free from "fanaticism." But retribution waits for 
 each one of them, to overtake him sooner or later, and meantime, in place 
 of stopping the war, "room for the leper, room!" If we are beset by 
 thieves, let honest men press forward and close the war at once, instead of 
 protracting it, to give thieves a longer run. Let us make the best and 
 not the worst of our difficulties. Let every man see carefully where his in- 
 fluence goes. Let him look to his selfish interests as well as his patriotism. 
 Do you want to embolden England to fit out ocean bandits to prey upon 
 your commerce, and to drive all freights into British bottoms ? If you do, 
 you have only to tolerate and support and vote for politicians cap tble of 
 sitting down here in New York, and intriguing with the British minister, 
 for the humiliation of their country at the feet of foreign powers. Do 
 you want to breathe new life and hope into rebellion, and the confederates 
 of rebellion at home and abroad? If you do, you need only encourage 
 parties, and newspapers, and men, who foment divisions here, and publish 
 them to the world. Do you want to retard and prolong the war, till for- 
 eign quarrels come, and the energies of the people ar -. worn out ? If you 
 do, you have only to give ear to those who talk about an armistice, or a 
 compromise, or a convention now. You have only to give them countenance, 
 and some other despot will land an army in Mexico, and slap the Mon- 
 roe doctrine in our faces, to make us hang our heads the lower, when we 
 remember that eight years ago our American ministers ostentatiously as- 
 sembled at the tomb of Charlemagne, and proclaimed the " Ostend Mani- 
 festo." [Applause.] Do you want to bind up the gashed bosun of the 
 nation % do you want to restore permanent and universal repose ? do you 
 want to reinstate the government in its old glory, and the country to its 
 old prosperity ? If you do, you have only to bend all the resources we 
 
98 
 
 possess to the annihilation of the rebellion. You want no truce till rebels 
 seek it, and they will seek it whenever John Slidell is as well convinced 
 that the North is united, as he is now that Europe won't interfere. You 
 want no compromise, but the Constitution of the United States as your 
 fathers made it. That is the ark of our safety, and " except we abide in 
 the ship we cannot be saved." [Cheers.] Let us cling to the ship which 
 our fathers built and launched in darkness and tempests, upon the tide of 
 time ; let us take heed lest she drift upon the rocks, while we wrangle 
 among ourselves ; let us feel that our crowning infamy would be to lose 
 the vessel from brawls among the crew. Rather than this should happen, 
 let her go down in the shock ; rather let the harpies of Europe pluck the 
 eagle of the sea, rather than pull down her colors ourselves. • 
 
 " Nail to the mast her glorious flag, 
 Stretch every threadbare sail, 
 And give her to the God of storms, 
 The lightning and the gale !" 
 
 Mr. J. W. Mather sang a song composed for the occasion by George 
 H. Boker, commencing : 
 
 " When our banner went down, with its ancient renown, 
 Betrayed and degraded by treason, 
 Did they think, as it fell, what a passion swell 
 Our hearts, when we asked them the reason ?" 
 
 The chorus, being taken up by the immense throng, had a fine effect. 
 
 The Chairman next introduced the Hon. Geo- W. Julian, of Indiana, as 
 one who would show them how futile was the hope of the rebels to sepa- 
 ate Western men from the Union. 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. GEO. W. JULIAN. 
 
 Gentlemen : When I came to New York I had no thought of address- 
 ing this meeting. I have consented to do so, but briefly and with much 
 hesitation ; for I am sure that such an audience as this, assembled in the 
 presence of so many able and eloquent men, can find better pastime than 
 listening to any words of mine. 
 
 Allow me for a few moments to refer to some of the lessons of this war 
 — lessons worthy to be pondered in the present stage of our conflict, and 
 full of promise for the future. In the first place, we have learned that this 
 rebellion can only be put down hy fighting. [Cheers.] In the beginning 
 we did not realize this. We believed in making a show of war, while other 
 remedies were to be kept in reserve, and actual war avoided. You will 
 remember that the general-in- chief of our armies, the great military idol of 
 the nation, scouted the idea of crushing the rebels by military power. He 
 believed in compromise, in declining the just and necessary consequences 
 of Mr. Lincoln's election, in conciliation, in melting the hearts of the 
 rebels by the fervent heat of brotherly love, or that we should allow them 
 to "go in peace." Many good and patriotic persons thought we were to 
 succeed by playing war, and by wooing our " erring sisters" back from their 
 folly and their crime. I rejoice that we have outgrown this infatuation, and 
 that all loyal men now agree that this must be a struggle of physical vio- 
 
99 
 
 lence, the aim of which is to subjugate the rebels by military power. I be- 
 lieve this will now be clone, because at last we have an eye single to its 
 accomplishment, and have put far from us any thought of diplomacy or 
 compromise. [Cheers.] 
 
 We have learned another lesson. We have learned, by very dearly- 
 bought experience, that this is not a mere struggle of physical forces, or of 
 victories, but of ideas. At first we tried not to see this. We tried to 
 make ourselves believe that this rebellion was a stupendous accident, 
 springing into life without any known parentage, and defying the law of 
 cause and effect. We thought we could crush the rebellion while ignor- 
 ing the cause which produced it, and that we could hope for the favor of 
 God without laying hold of the conscience of one general. The govern 
 ment itself, speaking through its high functionaries, declared that the 
 slavery question was not involved in the contest, and that slavery itself 
 would remain exactly the same after the war as before. But we have at 
 last opened new books. . Every man now sees that this is a struggle be- 
 tween two forms of civilization, each aiming at the mastery of the Repub- 
 lic ; a struggle between right and wrong, between light and darkness, be- 
 tween heaven and hell. Every loyal man now admits slavery to have 
 been the cause of the war, and that we must deal with it in the light of 
 this truth. Every intelligent man now sees that our mistaken policy, by 
 making our struggle one for mere power on the part of the North and for 
 independence on the part of the South, has lost us the sympathy of the 
 masses in Europe ; and that if we are saved from foreign intervention, it 
 will be owing to our entire change of front on this question. Let us re- 
 joice that since slavery has the nation by the throat, we are at last ready 
 to smite it in the name of God. [Applause.] 
 
 Gentlemen, I refer to another lesson we are learning in the progress of 
 this war. We are learning how to draw the line between treason and 
 loyalty. We are learning that opposition to the administration in the use 
 of its authorized means of crushing the rebels, is so much aid given to their 
 cause. We are learning that there can be no middle ground, and that a 
 conditional Union man is no Union man at all. You can't serve God and 
 Mammon. You can't ride two horses at once, when they are going in 
 opposite directions, without great inconvenience. This is a revolt against 
 law, against the constituted authorities of the government. It must be 
 put down by the constituted authorities of the government. We can't 
 crush it by going forth each one of us to fight on our own hook. We 
 must use the army, the navy, the executive, the money provided by Con- 
 gress, and, in short, the authority of the Constitution and laws. And 
 if there is a man here who is not willing to lay hold of all the ropes wdiich 
 the government has thrown out to strangle rebels with; if there is one 
 here who is not willing to lay hold of old Abe* Lincoln's proclamation, and 
 help him maul the lives out of the rebels with it ; if there is a man here 
 who is not willing to use all the instrumentalities which the nation, in its 
 wisdom, has seen fit to employ in saving the government, then I say he is 
 on the wrong side of the line, and ought to make tracks to the tents of 
 Jeff. Davis just as fast as his unsanctified legs will carry him. He does 
 not belong here, for there is, I repeat, no half-way house between treason 
 and loyalty. I am glad that we are learning this lesson, and requiring 
 men so to take their position that we may know whether to shoot at them 
 or not. 
 
100 
 
 There is still another encouraging lesson which the rebellion is teaching 
 us. We are learning to hate the rebels, somewhat in proportion to their 
 stupendous guilt. [Cheers.] The lack of a just resentment on the part 
 of our armies and people, has been one of the grand obstacles to our suc- 
 cess. This I repeat on the authority of the ablest and truest generals in 
 the service. We have not dealt with rebels and outlaws as rebels and out- 
 knvs. We have called them '"misguided brethren" and "erring sisters," 
 instead of complimenting them in valid coin. I rejoice that we are begin- 
 ning to appreciate their character, and to act accordingly. We have 
 learned that they arc animated by all the fury of devils. Under the infernal 
 tuition of slavery, they have run through vhe whole gamut of common vil- 
 lanies, and at last turned national assassins. They poison our .wells, murder 
 our wounded soldiers, plant torpedoes in their path, boil the dead bodies 
 of our soldiers in caldrons, and saw up their bones into jewelry and fin- 
 ger-rings to decorate their Christ-forsaken carcasses. They have hatched 
 into life whole broods of villanies that have been unheard of in the past 
 history of the world. They have improved upon human depravity till I 
 would suppose the Devil himself would grow ashamed of his occupation, 
 and seek a change of air. 
 
 Gentlemen, if I had the command of our armies, and the courage and 
 skill to lead them, I would chastise these rebels as they deserve. I would 
 batter down their cities ; I would lay waste their plantations , I would 
 free and arm their negroes ; I would write desolation and death on the 
 very soil ; and if I had the power, I would paint hell on the very sky that 
 bends over the rebel states, so that all the world might see what it costs to 
 conspire against such a govei'nment as this. I would not talk about the 
 constitutional rights of the scoundrels who have abdicated the constitution, 
 and ceased to have any rights under it ; but I would deal with them as 
 having no right in God's world but the right to die. Such an earnestness 
 on our part is what the case demanded from the beginning. Some people 
 believe that everybody, at death, will go straight to heaven without touch- 
 ing upon any purgatory on the way. Now I don't propose to enter into 
 any theological speculations, but it sometimes occurs to me that if there is not 
 a pretty brisk little purgatory on the other side of the grave, for the special 
 treatment of Jeff. Davis and his crew, it will be the grandest oversight 
 that divine Providence could possibly have committed. I have heard 
 somewhere of a Calvinistic preacher who said that God would send some sin- 
 ners to hell just to show them what a splendid damnation he could give them. 
 1 confess, I never think of these rebels without thinking of that preacher. 
 But let me not be understood as wishing to postpone the treatment of these 
 rebels to the next world. On the contrary, let us give them as worthy 
 and as emphalic a foretaste here as we can give them, consistently with 
 the laws of Avar. [Cheers.] 
 
 Gentlemen, permit me to say, in conclusion, that there is one lesson of 
 this war which I fear we have not yet sufficiently mastered. I mean 
 the duty of frank, fearless and friendly criticism of this administration. I 
 mean just what I say — not the criticism of rebel sympathizers and copper- 
 heads, masqueiading in the disguise of loyalty, while seeking the overthrow 
 of the government, but the criticism of the loyal masses who installed the 
 administration in power, who have a right to direct it, and whose religious 
 duty it is to make themselves heard. I exhort you, my friends, to do your 
 
101 
 
 duty in this respect. See to it that you are loyal to the government, but 
 see to it that the government is loyal to you. "Without you, the adminis- 
 tration can do nothing ; with your earnest help, it cannot fail. You made 
 it. It is the breath of the people. The president is your servant ; and it 
 becomes your solemn duty, when he goes astray, to point to his errors and 
 advise him of your wishes. Loving the country as I do, far more than I 
 love the president, or his cabinet, or his commanding generals, and be- 
 lieving, as I have done, that I saw the republic alternating between life 
 and death, through the misguided policy of the administration, I have said 
 so frankly in my place in the House of Representatives ; and I thank the 
 newspapers for the audience they have given me. Perfect loyalty would 
 not allow me to say less. The country must be saved at all hazards. No 
 man's position is so exalted, or character so sacred, that he should be 
 spared at the nation's expense. When General Butler was recalled from 
 New Orleans I think the government did wrong, and I say so ; and that 
 that wrong should be righted. When General Fremont was struck down 
 in the midst of a glorious career in the West, in defiance of the sentiment 
 of the people, and without any warrant of fact or justice, the government 
 did wrong, and the loyal masses of the countiy, who know this, should de- 
 mand atonement through his immediate restoration to a command befitting 
 his rank and merits. When high commanders in our armies have been 
 persistently kept in the service for a whole year, when their incapacity or 
 disloyalty could not have been unknown to the President, he did wrong, 
 and you should demand, in the name of the country, that all such wrongs 
 shall be righted. Be faithful to the administration. Stand by it with a 
 love and fidelity which can only be measured by your devotion to your 
 country and its priceless interests, and the government, becoming at once 
 your servant and the master of the rebels, will speedily usher in the glad 
 return of peace, and liberty and law shall be one and inseparable forever. 
 You will not again see " the Union as it was," but as it will be when this 
 war shall have worked out its providential lesson, and the old flag of our 
 fathers, waving only over the free, shall appear as lovely as " the rainbow 
 after a tempest." [Prolonged cheers.] 
 
 THE YOUNG HERO OF THE " HARRIET LANE." 
 
 Gen. Frejiont then stated that John M. Eager, Esq., would narrate 
 an incident of the Rebellion. 
 
 Mr. Eager said : It will be remembered that when the decks of the 
 Harriet Lane had been cleared by the rebels, a boy made his appearance, 
 and picking up two revolvers that lay upon the deck, discharged their 
 charges upon the boarding assailants, and that nearly every shot took 
 effect. That boy, but fourteen years of age, was of Scottish parentage, 
 and had given his life and courage to the cause in which his vessel was en- 
 gaged. Fellow-citizens, at the request of the presiding officer of this 
 stand, I have the pleasure of introducing to you the gallant boy, Robert 
 Cummings, the boy hero of the Harriet Lane. 
 
 The boy came forward, and the vast concourse gave him a hearty greet- 
 ng, testifying their appreciation of his merits by a liberal contribution of 
 ''greenbacks," which he pocketed with evident satisfaction. 
 
102 
 
 Gen. Fremont came forward to introduce the next speaker, Mr. W. J. 
 A. Fuller ; but the General's appearance was hailed with vociferous ap- 
 plause and calls for "a speech" by new arrivals. Gen. Fremont bowed 
 his acknowledgments, and said : Fellow-citizens, I cannot say anything 
 further than I have already said to strength your convictions, deepen your 
 enthusiasm, or kindle your patriotism. [Cheers.] I beg you will now let 
 me leave the rest to my friend Mr. Fuller. [Cries of "No, no!" " Go 
 on yourself."] 
 
 SPEECH OF W. J. A. FULLER, ESQ. 
 
 Fellow-citizens : It requires a pretty bold man to follow in the wake 
 of Gen. Fremont ; nevertheless I shall try it. [Cheers.] 
 
 Fellow-citizens: Twice since the breaking out of this unholy rebellion, 
 I have had the honor to address you in this place upon the same issues 
 which bring us together to-day. At the great war meeting held here last 
 year, we exchanged words of encouragement that might help to nerve the 
 arm and strengthen the purpose of the government to crush this gigantic 
 crime against the nation and against humanity ; and two years ago, in tins 
 very square, we first gave utterance to that patriotic indignation which 
 thrilled through the land at the dastard attack upon Fort Sumter. [Ap- 
 plause.] Again we are solemnly assembled, on this anniversary of that 
 fatal day, to renew our stern resolve to maintain the integrity of the na- 
 tion in all its principles of free government, and to preserve intact the 
 national domain. [Cheers.] None of us will ever forget the glorious up- 
 rising of the North, when treason dared to defy the flag we all so honored 
 and revered. The electric effect of the rattling of that iron hail upon Fort 
 Sumter still sounds in our ears and lingers in our hearts. With what 
 eager devotion and enthusiastic loyalty the people rallied around their in- 
 sulted flag ! As in the thunder-storms that sweep over free Switzerland, 
 
 " Jura answers through her misty shroud 
 Back to the joyous Alps who call to her aloud," 
 
 [cheers], so did the vengeance of a free people vent itself in wrathful clam- 
 ors against the authors of this outrage. [Applause.] The echoing shouts 
 of their indignation reverberated amid the hills of peaceful and happy New 
 England, across the fertile valleys of the Susquehannah and the Genesee, 
 and over the broad prairies of the West, sweeping them, like their own 
 destructive fires, until the dying cadences were lost, mingling with the paeans 
 of rejoicing that came answering back to us from those bright twin stars of 
 freedom upon the Pacific shore. You all remember the stirring effect of 
 the President's proclamation calling the nation to arras ! Its clarion notes 
 rang through the land like the call of a trumpet. It was like the blast of 
 Roderick's bugle. From hill and mountain side, from vale and heather, 
 plaided warriors, belted and glaived, started from the earth and rushed to 
 the defence of the capital and the nation. [Applause.] 
 
 I will not stop to trace in detail the progress of the war, or to show its 
 effect upon the country. "We have a stinging recollection of some inconsid- 
 erable defeats, and a few serious reverses to our arms; but these are more 
 than counterbalanced by a long series of glorious triumphs by land and by sea. 
 
103 
 
 Upon a thorough survey of the whole ground, we have reason to thank 
 God for our successes thus far. All great wars have been slow in their 
 operations, and liable to vicissitudes. This has been eminently so with us. 
 In addition to the gigantic force of the rebellion, we have had to deal, at 
 the North as well as the South, with that disturbing element which alone 
 has caused it. This has been a stronger adversary than enrolled armies, and 
 hosts of steel. It has encountered customs, prejudices, sins, that have 
 been intrenched in the whole sentiment, manifested in all the action, and 
 interwoven with all the tissues and framework of our social, commercial, 
 and political relations. [Cheers.] We must expect, therefore, the prog- 
 gress oi our cause to have been slow and fitful — now pushed forward with 
 marked success, now drooping, despondent, and almost paralyzed by a re- 
 action from the other side ; now meeting some heady current of opposition, 
 checked, and almost beaten back ; now, by the impulse of new energy, and 
 the strength of ai'oused determination, rallying, and breaking the sturdy 
 lines of the enemy. [Cheers.] Yet in none of these crises must we fear 
 the grand result. Our cause and our material resources are stronger than 
 the rebels, and, like truth, are so mighty that they must prevail. [Ap- 
 plause.] The waves of our progress, now ebbing, now flowing, gain on the 
 whole, and slowly, yet surely, overcome both the sandy barrier and the rock- 
 bound coast ; for what is of God, and for humanity, is sure to triumph. 
 [Cries of " good !"] No man can fail to observe that triumph, even at the 
 point which our cause now occupies. In order to appreciate that triumph, 
 we must have a wide horizon. One battle, or two, or a few almost im- 
 pregnable positions as yet successfully defying our efforts to reduce them, 
 may furnish to narrow and carping minds no perfectly satisfactory result. 
 But what says the experience of the past two years % Is there not a great 
 change in the tone of public sentiment as to the true cause of the war ? 
 [Loud applause.] And have we not reason to be satisfied with our net 
 results? Two years ago, fifteen states were in open or thinly disguised 
 rebellion. To-day, our flag flies on the soil of every state, and the border 
 states, with a single exception, are all reclaimed, and ranged on the side of 
 the Union. I have been a close student of history, and I challenge con- 
 tradiction when I assert that 3 in neither ancient nor modern times, has any 
 nation ever accomplished so much within so short a period, as our govern- 
 ment has done within the past two years. [Cheers.] 
 
 The present condition of the war, and purpose of our people, hold out 
 most gratifying encouragement for the future. It has become a question 
 of endurance, and our Northern blood tells. I have never been one of 
 those who believed this hydra-headed rebellion could be crushed completely 
 out in thirty, sixty, or ninety days. It is a big job we have on hand yet; 
 but with patience and perseverance, we shall get successfully through it. 
 The people will get the government right after a while, and then we shall 
 make short work of it. [Cheers.] Already we see the beginning of the 
 end. The sentiment of patriotism, evoked by the assault on Fort Sumter, 
 has crystalyzed into a principle, a firm, stern, deep-rooted, and determined 
 purpose to preserve intact this nation, both in territory and form of gov- 
 ernment. The people have always been right. The difficulty heretofore 
 has been with the government, which has moved so slowly and inefficiently. 
 The people have given most freely of their blood and treasure, and submitted 
 to sacrifices without stint ; but the imbecility and incapacity of their rulers 
 
104 
 
 have stood between them and their triumph. [Cheers.] At each of the 
 groat meetings held here, I have endeavored to urge the government to 
 more vigorous and decisive action. Hitherto we have acted toward the South 
 just as a man would treat his discarded mistress — afraid to strike her and 
 mar her beauty, for fear he might wish to be restored to her caresses. 
 Thank God, that is all over now ! Even the hunkerest of hunkers and 
 copperest of copperheads are satisfied that war exists, and that there can be 
 but one successful road out of it now, and that is the complete subjugation 
 of the rebels. [Applause.] I never heard one of these reptiles but wanted 
 to whip them first, before "letting the wayward sisters go." [Laughter 
 and applause.] 
 
 The people have finally settled into the conviction that it is too late now 
 to discuss the cause of the war. They all know what brought it about, 
 and feel and know that any and all overtures of peace and reconciliation 
 would be fruitless, until the rebellious hosts have all been overcome. 
 [Cheers] This is our purpose here to-day — to say to the government, use 
 the means which a confiding people have given you to crush out the rebel- 
 lion, and we, on our part, here solemnly renew our pledge of unconditional 
 loyalty to the government, 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. [Cheers.] 
 
 I want a few words of plain square talk with the President. We all 
 know his sterling worth, his ardent patriotism, his honesty of purpose, his 
 plain, practical common sense; but, alas! we also know that to his ex- 
 treme good nature and kindness of heart must be charged his disinclination 
 to "hurt" anybody, and the long train of evil results that have flowed 
 therefrom. Abraham Lincoln! you still have the confidence of the people, 
 and they will stand by you and suslain and uphold you and the govern- 
 ment in its policy and in all its measures; but in return for this generous 
 confidence, they ask and will exact from you that you do your whole duty 
 to them. [Cries of " That's so."] We want you to feel that war means 
 something ; that everybody must be " hurt" who stands in the way of the 
 accomplishment of our relentless purpose. Make your generals fight, hang 
 traitors, shoot deserters, use the great powers at your command sternly 
 and unflinchingly, and you can soon tread out the last dying ember of this 
 rebellion. [Cheers.] We have given you the tools ! Use them ! You 
 have all the money and all the men necessary to make short work of this 
 war. Employ them with all the vigor and energy God has given you. 
 Enforce your conscription law, and do it speedily and thoroughly. The 
 people will stand it — stand anything, everything but supineness and in- 
 activity. [Three cheers.] Don't let your armies rust with inaction or rot 
 with disease. [Applause.] * 
 
 We have had enough of political favoritism and partisan preference in 
 the field and out of it. We want men now — men with hearts of fire and 
 nerves of steel. Turn out every man, from a cabinet minister down to the 
 lowest officer in the army who has an independent command, who will not 
 do something. [Cheers, and cries of " That's to the purpose."] We must 
 have in every department of the public service men equal to the present 
 exigency. The people are sick to death of do-nothings. [Cheers.] As 
 we recover territory in the rebel districts, appoint judges who will confis- 
 cate property to help pay the expenses of the war ; men who will " hurt'' 
 
105 
 
 somebody — hang somebody, if you will give them half a chance ; who will 
 not, to be personally pleasant and popular, fail in their whole duty, but 
 who will "make things smoke," and compel the rebels to foot the bills. 
 [Cries of " Good."] I speak thus to you, Abraham Lincoln, because you 
 are the fountain head, and you alone have the power to remove stumbling 
 blocks and to hold your generals to a most rigid accountability. Stiffen 
 the rail down your back [laughter and cheers], and do not allow generals, 
 as I know they have, to overrule your broad, comprehensive, and common 
 sense plans. If one general fails to execute your orders, have his head in 
 a charger, and put another in his place. [Cheers.] Hold them all re- 
 sponsible with their commissions and their heads for the prompt and faith- 
 ful execution of your orders. Make them toe the mark, or decapitate them 
 right and left. Do not be turned from your purpose by the stereotyped 
 plea that you are not a military man. You have got in an eminent de- 
 gree what many men lack ; what you call in the West, " hard horse sense." 
 [Cheers.] Use it! Ride over croakers and inefficient generals roughshod. 
 Take the lines in your hands and drive the coach yourself; and if they at- 
 tempt to turn your horses or stop your progress, run them into the ditch. 
 For two years the people have been saying, in the language of the Revela- 
 lations, " How long, O Lord !" have we to wait ! They have been pa- 
 tiently and anxiously waiting for you to assume the whole responsibility 
 and control of this war. Use fearlessly and fiercely the vast means and 
 resources which they have placed at your disposal. The compulsive course 
 of the people knows no retiring ebb, but keeps right onward to its purpose, 
 and they earnestly call upon you to do all that lies in you to finish the war 
 and crush out the rebellion. Subjugate, exterminate, annihilate, repeople 
 the South, if need be, but use all the power now in your hands to bring 
 the war to a speedy and successful issue. You are constantly accumula- 
 ting war material. Use it sharply, suddenly, decisively. Don't waste 
 your time on side issues or on semi-traitors at the North. The people will 
 take care of them. We'll erect a guillotine in this square, run it by steam, 
 and cut off all the copperheads in the country, if you will only attend to 
 your part of the business, and make your armies whip the rebels. [Cheers.] 
 We have got to whip them or be whipped ourselves. There is no mid- 
 dle course, no other alternative. If we are willing to let Jeff. Davis alone, 
 he won't let us alone. Put men like Cen. Butler [cheers] and the late la- 
 mented Gen. Mitchell, if you can find them, in positions where their talents 
 and energies can have full scope. Don't fetter them. Give them full means 
 and authority, and they will render a good account of their stewardship. 
 Don't be alarmed about intervention of any kind. The people will take 
 care of that, too, let it* come in what shape, or from what quarter it may. 
 In spite of the heavy burdens of the war the nation has increased in 
 moral and material developments, until we have that supreme conscious- 
 ness of inherent strength and cohesive power, that would enable us in this 
 righteous cause to shake our naval and military fist in the face of the 
 world. The construction of our Monitors has revolutionized naval war- 
 fare, and destroyed the boasted superiority of England, who is no longer 
 mistress of the seas. We pulled her naval teeth all out when we built the 
 Monitor. The inventive genius of our people has made such improve- 
 ments in army and navy projectiles, and other warlike contrivances, that 
 
106 
 
 we can afford to smile with derision at any and all threats of foreign inter- 
 vention. [Applause.] 
 
 The nation has safely passed through two important eras in its history. 
 First, in our infancy, the war of Independence showed our ability to throw 
 off all foreign control. Second, ere we had fairly hardened from the gristle 
 into the bone of manhood, we proved ourselves able to resist successfully, 
 foreign aggression ; and now we are in the midst of the third and most 
 important struggle for national life, in coping with domestic treason and 
 preventing national parricide. It remains for us to show that we have suf- 
 ficient strength and unity to govern ourselves. Unless we can put down 
 this rebellion, we proclaim to the world our inability to sustain free gov- 
 ernment, and prove the unfitness and incapacity of a free people to rule 
 themselves. [Cheers.] 
 
 We see to-day, throughout the length and breadth of the land, the 
 grandest exhibition of loyalty ever shown by a people to its government. 
 With the vast means and resources placed in the hands of the government, 
 it has, as yet, failed to crush out this rebellion. The fault, as I have said, 
 lies not with the people, but with those who have wielded these vast re- 
 sources. But, notwithstanding the impatience of the people at the tardy 
 and inefficient efforts of the government, we have again rallied around it, 
 to express our confidence in its loyalty, to give it renewed assurances of 
 our abiding faith in its ability to accomplish its work, and to implore it to 
 give us, in vigorous and energetic action, an equivalent for our generous 
 trust and support. [Cheers.] 
 
 This Loyal National League inaugurates a mighty movement, which 
 cannot fail of influencing greatly the destinies of the republic. The people 
 are willing fo forget and forgive the faults, and follies, and crimes of men 
 in high places, and only ask in return that their rulers shall forego all per- 
 sonal and partisan considerations, and devote their whole energies to the 
 business of crushing out the rebellion. [Cheers.] Men of all parties, 
 sects, and conditions, have given in their adhesion to this movement. They 
 ignore all party affiliations, bury all personal animosities, and agree to 
 unite for this one purpose of making speedy and thorough work of this 
 war. Let, then, the government unite, heart and hand, with the people, 
 and save the national life, which is in such deadly peril. The country 
 will furnish soldiers, but it must have victories. Let the government be 
 assured that the hearts of the people are wholly in the work before them, 
 and that no draft can be made upon them too large, provided that it be 
 used to insure victories. [Applause.] Unless the government cordially unite 
 with the people, and work with them energetically and efficiently in 
 putting down the rebellion, we shall become jarring states, petty powers, 
 warring upon each other, and torn with internal feuds, like Mexico and 
 the South American republics. Rather than see this nation share such a 
 fate — rather than behold its honored flag trailing in such disgrace — it would 
 be better that the whole countiy be swept with the besom of destruction. 
 [Prolonged applause.] 
 
 The Chairman then came forward and said that Mr. Peter Cooper, 
 not being able to be present, had requested him to read a few remarks 
 which he had prepared. 
 
107 
 
 REMARKS OP MR. PETER COOPER. 
 
 We have met, my friends, like the fathers of our country. They met to 
 pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, to form a Union 
 of all the states into one general government — a government more perfect 
 and more powerful for all the purposes of self-preservation than had ever 
 before existed in any age or country of the world. To effect this glorious 
 purpose, they bound themselves by a solemn obligation to guarantee to 
 every state a republican form of government, with all the rights of a free 
 and independent people and country — a government having its foundation 
 on the inalienable rights of man, and not like rebeldom, with its corner- 
 stone resting on the necks of four millions of human beings held in hope- 
 less, thankless slavery. Yes,. my friends, it is to maintain, extend, and 
 perpetuate the institution of human slavery, that has brought on our coun- 
 try all the horrors of cruel war. This, my friends, is what our Southern 
 rebels intend to maintain and perpetuate. It is a system that enables 
 thousands to sell their own children into hopeless bondage ; an institution 
 that, as John Wesley has well said, comprehends in itself the sum of all 
 villanies. For, after having stolen a man and sold him into slavery with 
 all his posterity, what more can be done ? When I remember of hearing 
 my father tell that he had seen, when a boy, droves of naked Africans driven 
 through his native village of Fishkill, and exposed there for sale, and that 
 he had thrown corn among these half-starved creatures, and seen them 
 struggle for the grains as they fell on the ground, J can only think of a 
 system with such an origin, and which subjects a whole race to such a 
 depth of degradation, with the most profound detestation and horror. The 
 question now arises, and demands an answer, what must we do to be saved 
 from being overrun and subjected by the heartless tyranny of such a sys- 
 tem % For we must remember, as Dr. Franklin has well said, that men 
 are proud-spirited little animals, not fit to be trusted with power. What, 
 then, can we do to save this great country from the terrible war in which 
 we are now involved? If we act like men, we will frown down every 
 party and every person that stands in the way of putting down this most 
 wicked rebellion. We must do what we ought to have done at the begin- 
 ning of the war. We should give constant assurance that we will protect 
 and defend all friends of the Union of these states, whether black or white : 
 and we must carry on this war to the bitter end against all who would 
 pluck a star from our flag or lessen the power and glory of the nation. 
 
 The meeting was then adjourned by the chairman. 
 
OFFICERS. 
 
 STAND NO. 5. 
 
 Under charge of Committee of Arrangements, 
 
 THOMAS N. DALE, 
 CHAELES ASTOE BEISTED, 
 WILLIAM S. BLODGETT. 
 
 President. 
 
 CHAELES BUTLEE. 
 
 Vice-Presidents. 
 
 William Curtis Noyes, 
 William F. Cary, 
 George F. Nesbitt, 
 Peter Baker, 
 John H. Ocherhausen, 
 George Wilkes, 
 William Oothout, 
 Murray Hoffman, 
 S. B. Chittenden, 
 Austin Abbott, 
 Cyrus Curtis, 
 Thomas Tileston, 
 Eichard Berry, 
 P. Pfeiffer, 
 J. W. Wcnners 
 
 E. E. Morgan, 
 Horatio Allen, 
 
 F. S. Winston, 
 Eobert B. Minturr. 
 A. A. Low,' 
 
 H B. Stanton, 
 Ernst Bredt, 
 A. L. Eobertson, 
 Hugo Wesendonck, 
 Louis Schwartz, 
 
 William Grovenart, 
 Francis Ruppert, 
 Charles J. Chipp, 
 John Benkard, 
 J. Penniman, 
 Christopher Williams, 
 Frederic De Peyster, 
 J. P. Girard Foster, 
 Eobert McGinnis, 
 John E. Gavitt, 
 Erasmus Sterling, 
 Frederick C. Wagner, 
 Sigismund Kaufman, 
 A. D. F. Eandolph, 
 Simeon Baldwin, 
 H. W. T. Mali, 
 G. Griswold, 
 Caleb B. Knevals, 
 Eichard S. Storrs, 
 Moses S. Beach, 
 Bernard Cohen, 
 Adrian Iselin, 
 Henry F. Vail, 
 Charles Yates, 
 Ira 0. Miller, 
 
110 
 
 Robert Bayard, 
 Philip Frankenheimer, 
 John Lloyd, 
 Otto Ernst, 
 Adam Norrie,] 
 Stephen Cambreleng, 
 William T. B. Milliken, 
 Samuel M. Fox, 
 Peter S. Titus, 
 Samuel W. Stebbins, 
 Charles H. Ruggles, 
 Elias Wade, Jr., 
 0. Ottendorler, 
 Abram Wakeman, 
 John Sattig, 
 L. Funke, 
 
 Treadwell Ketchum, 
 James W. Savage, 
 John J. Cisco, 
 A. Lockwood, 
 John P. Crosby, 
 Latham Parker, 
 J. N. A. Griswold, 
 Edgar Ketchum, 
 S. Matille, 
 Charles T. Eodgers, 
 T. A. Smith, 
 Henry E. Davies, 
 D. Willis James, 
 W. R. Yermilye, 
 Henry A. Kerr, 
 J. P. Underbill. 
 
 Secretaries. 
 
 Nathaniel Coles, 
 Henry A. Oakley, 
 Richard A. McCurdy, 
 Theadore B. Bronson, 
 Charles E. Strong, 
 Samuel Williams, 
 Charles H. Neilson, 
 William B. Crocker, 
 Walter H. Burns, 
 Edward C. Morris, 
 John H. Almy, 
 Richard L. Suydam, 
 
 Thomas B. Bills, 
 Hugh L. Meighan, 
 Jefferson Coddington, 
 David Rowland, 
 
 A. C. Kingsland, jr., 
 Charles Wiegand, 
 Benjamin W. Strong, 
 Francis A. Hall, 
 
 B. H. Howard, 
 George B. Satterlee, 
 G. P. Lowrey. 
 
PROGRAMME OF PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 STAND No. 5. 
 
 NORTHERLY END OF UNION SQUARE, BETWEEN BROADWAY AND FOURTH AVENUE. 
 
 Salutes of Artillery by the workmen employed by Henry Brewster fy Co. 
 
 1. Grand March from " Le Prophete, " of Meyerbeer, by "Wallace's Grand 
 
 Band. 
 
 2. Charles Butler, of the Council of the Loyal National League, will call the 
 
 meeting to order. 
 
 3. Prayer by Kev, Henry W. Bellows, D. D. 
 
 ^4. William T. Blodgett, of the Executive Committee, -will read the call for 
 the meeting, and the list of Vice-Presidents and Secretaries. 
 
 5. Thomas N. Dale will read the address adopted by the Council and 
 
 Executive Committees on Lectures and Addresses. 
 
 6. Thomas N. Dale will read the resolutions. 
 
 7. Music by the Band. 
 
 8. Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson will address the meeting. 
 
 9. Music — singing : " The Army Hymn." By Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 10. Hon. Henry Wilson will address the meeting. 
 
 11. Music — singing : " The Star-Spangled Banner." 
 
 12. James W. Nye will address the meeting. 
 
 13. Music — singing : " Song for the Loyal National League," written expressly 
 
 for this occasion, by George H. Boker. 
 
 14. John C. Montgomery will address the meeting. 
 
 15. Thomas N. Dale will read a poem, entitled "Those Seventy Men," 
 
 written expressly for this occasion, by Mrs. Sarah H. Bradford. 
 
 16. Henry B. Stanton will address the meeting. 
 
 17. Music — singing : " Our Union." Written expressly for this occasion, by 
 Alfred B. Street. 
 
112 
 
 Chari.es Butler, of the Council of the Loyal National League, called 
 the meeting to order, and an impressive prayer was offered up by Rev. 
 Henry W. Bellows. 
 
 The Call of the Meeting, the Address and Resolutions, and the 
 Special Resolutions on the death of Judge James L. Petigru, of 
 Charleston, S. C, were duly read, after which the Chairman introduced 
 the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, who was received with great cheering 
 and applause. 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. DANIEL S. DICKINSON. 
 
 Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen : It is almost two years 
 since I attended a meeting in this veiy square to discuss public affairs and 
 the condition of the country. It is two years this day since our national 
 flag, our great emblem of hope and promise — the Stars and Stripes — was 
 insulted by an infamous conspiracy and an infernal rebellion. [Loud 
 applause.] I well remember when the news reached the city. Tt was a 
 dark and fearful night ; the storm was descending in its awful density, well 
 worthy of such an occasion as that. The fiend spirit of the storm clapped 
 his hands, and it seemed as though the evil genius of destruction was 
 brooding over us. Two years have now elapsed, and the sun is shining 
 genially upon us, the air is warm, the germs are shooting, the buds are 
 swelling, the lawns are green, the birds are singing, and the popular heart 
 is redolent with hope and buo)ant with promise. [Loud cheers. J Rebel- 
 lion still exists, but how does it exist ? Charleston — the hotbed of seces - - 
 sion, the foul point and nucleus of rebellion, the cesspool of conspiracy 
 [loud cheers and laughter], the heart of all that is infamous and wicked in 
 this matter — if she has not already fallen, it is but a question of time. 
 [Great applause and cheers.] And the owls and ravens who have croaked 
 for blood will soon know that ashes and desolation cover the spot that has 
 so long menaced the integrity of this Union ! [Loud applause.] It is said 
 to be the heart of this great movement, and so it is ; and the foul and slimy 
 blood it has sent forth through the political veins, had it not been resisted 
 by loyal health, would have corrupted the whole mass. But, thank God, 
 from the time our Stars and Stripes were insulted, from the time our sol- 
 diers were butchered in Baltimore while marching to the defence of the 
 national capital, from that time to the present, the loyal feeling has been 
 abroad, and it will vindicate itself and prove the integrity of the loyal peo- 
 ple. But I will not go back, when so many able and distinguished gentle- 
 men are to follow me, to spend time in discussing the causes of a war for 
 which there was no cause except evil spirits. I will take the question as I 
 find it, as one of the greatest events which has ever existed since civiliza- 
 tion was organized — a question between government and conspiracy, a 
 question between light and darkness, a question between good and 
 evil, a question between government and rebellion. What though 
 the evil spirit of darkness has been loose for a little season, and 
 has been permitted to rove up and down the earth'? When this 
 rebellion Avas organized, the spirit of political parties among all noble 
 and good men was % hushed — democrat, republican, American, and aboli- 
 
113 
 
 tionist even — all men who loved their country more than party came to- 
 gether like a band of brothers, determined to vindicate the integrity of the 
 government and prove themselves worthy descendants of illustrious and 
 Revolutionary sires ! [Cheers.] I stand upon that ground to-day, and I 
 defy all the artillery, save the artillery of heaven, to dislodge me. [Great 
 applause, and cries of ; ' That's it."] But as political parties laid aside their 
 armor and left their castle untenanted, there were a few miserable politi- 
 cians who came forward and took with them seven more spirits more 
 wicked than themselves, and entered in and dwelt there, and the last state 
 of politics was worse than the first. [Great laughter and applause.] 
 
 This controversy, gentlemen, has assorted society — it has made up its 
 account ; it has put men of loyal hearts, who love their country above 
 party and above all things, into one great mass together, and here they 
 stand before me. [Applause.] Opposed to them are three classes of those who 
 are against the country and the administration. One of these classes have 
 arms in their hands ; another class have politics in their heads ; and an- 
 other cla;?s have treason in their hearts — and they are all working together. 
 [Great applause.] 1 curse them all as one ! [Cheers, and cries of " Good 
 good^"~ 1 invoke the maledictions of all loyal people upon them. I de- 
 nounce them in the name of the Union, the Constitution, of free o-overn- 
 ment, and of liberty. [Cheers.] It is the duty and should be the privilege 
 of all men to jeome forward and act together, irrespective of party; un- 
 fettered, unembarrassed, and untrammelled entirely by any party lines or 
 party leadership ! And such is the feeling of the country ; it is tending in 
 that direction every day ; and the popular currents are growing so broad 
 so deep, and running with such power, that they will sweep away all this 
 rubbish of lies and political parties, [Loud cheers,] 
 
 It is a question, gentlemen, that reaches down to the foundation stones 
 of our government ; a question whether that great edifice shall be shaken, 
 or whether it shall be maintained'? It is not a question whether one party 
 or the other shall succeed ? I myself am an old-fashioned democrat of the 
 straitest sect, and I do not inquire who administers this government ! 
 [Cheers.] I would preserve this great edifice, founded with blood and tears, 
 wrought out by our Revolutionary sires, and it will be in time to inquire 
 who shall tenant that edifice after this rebellion is over. [Loud applause.] 
 Listen not to him who cries " Lo, here," or " Lo, there," and attempts to 
 excite party prejudices and to climb up by the back door on the slippery 
 and filthy step-stones of party discipline. [Loud cheers.] Inquire who is 
 for his country? Who is on the Lord's side? [Cheers.] Who will 
 stand for the editice ? and not what are his political antecedents. What 
 he does to-day is of great consequence ; what he did before the rebellion is 
 of very little ! [Loud cheers and laughter.] We want men who will stand 
 for the country ! We want men whose moral and material muscle stands 
 out like whip-cord ! In this great controversy we want men who will bare 
 their bosoms to the shock and defy the boasted assault of treason. [Cheers,] 
 
 Quite recently I have heard that a great political discussion, was held in 
 this city, between the British minister, Lord Lyons, and some individuals who 
 had crawled into the democratic lion's skin [laughter], and brayed accord- 
 ingly. [Cheers and laughter.] Lord Lyons, I believe, is a gentleman, a 
 foreign minister, and representing a government that puts robbers and the 
 robbed, a government and a conspiracy, upon the sanje footing, why, I 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 think he did very well ! [Laughter.] Since his government decided that 
 those who stole and those stolen from we -e both belligerent equals, and to 
 be treated exactly alike, I think their mil ister did very well. [Laughter.] 
 Since his government fitted out, or permitted to be fitted out, pirates to 
 cruise not merely against the commerce of the world, but against the com- 
 merce of the United States, I think Lord Lyons played his part very well, 
 and I have no complaint to make of him. But as to these 290s of the 
 Democratic party, I have something to say of them [laughter] ; the robbers 
 who are cruising against the peace of this nation. What is their position? 
 They democrats? Democrats! [Laughter.] Andrew Jackson was a 
 democrat ! I wish they would put themselves into communication with 
 his spirit a little while! [Laughter.] If the old gentleman carries his 
 cane yet, there would be some rapping ! [Laughter, and a voice, " He 
 would hit Fernando Wood with it,"] Let us see what is their position ? 
 They sit down with the representative of a government known to be un- 
 friendly to us ; a government who wishes to see this government destroyed, 
 because it is the hope of all free governments throughout the world. They 
 sit down in his presence and connive schemes for the overthrow, disrup- 
 tion, and destruction of this government of revolutionary memory, and 
 baptized with the warm blood of our ancestors! They beseech him not to 
 let the powers of Europe come forward in the matter now, because it would 
 be premature ; but to keep the hand of Great Britain out of view while 
 she plays an active part. Why ? Because there is an hereditary recollec- 
 tion of her villanies and atrocities and persecutions. [Cheers.] Now, I 
 say once for all, and knowing what I say, and meaning what I say, and 
 speaking in italics and capitals [laughter], I say for pure unalloyed ras- 
 cality, for double-distilled villany, there has been nothing recorded since 
 the days of Pontius Pilate as infamous as that. [Great applause.] Who 
 are the individuals, I want to know? I am told they are democrats? 
 They are demoncr&ts. [Great laughter and loud applause.] I would 
 like to know who they are. [A voice : "Wood."] I mean to go and 
 look in the Rogue's Gallery, to see if I cannot find their portraits there ! 
 [Laughter.] Their names will stand "high upon the roll of infamy ; and 
 if they are not placed in the highest niche in that temple, and are not ac- 
 corded a proud place in the public pillory, then they will never receive 
 what they are entitled to. [Cheers and laughter.] When this rebellion 
 broke out, our " belligerent equals" had stolen our arms and munitions, 
 and sent our navies adrift beyond our reach. But two years have gone 
 over, and there never was a government, even Rome in its proudest days, 
 that has done what this government has done. It has raised an army that 
 makes the earth throb at every tread as though it were the convulsions of 
 a volcano. It has men and material) and in the energies of its people, it 
 has shown what no other government, ancient or modern, has ever shown! 
 [Cheers.] The rebellion is } r et upon us ; but how ? Look over Virginia, 
 that cheated her people into secession ! If the seven vials of God's wrath 
 had been poured out upon that state, it could hardly be more blasted than 
 it is now ! 
 
 They have lost all hope of foreign intervention. Louis Napoleon, who 
 was so ambitious to stride so far he could not gather, has found enough to 
 do in other sections of the country ; and Great Britain, although Russell 
 spouts, and Palmerston complains, and although those fools, Lindsley 
 
115 
 
 and Gregory, may make a noise, yet Great Britain h nnma u n 
 much to meddle in this affair rCh«Z » V i , 7* a,to S ether to <> 
 knowledge of this peoSe a£, V [y two^l ^T 1 ^ haS S ° me 
 has not forgotten. ffiS'te^W?^*^^'*" 
 
 people, with John Bright^ cXfen't/ r^/Slr't/r: £ 
 favor. Loud applaud..] And the government and aristocracy „f er nnt 
 
 a i^e";'",";*^ 1 '?, 10 l0 ° k J* US ' C °" cluW *W ootl seTjn" asS 
 die an, F °I iP?? ^'augltter.] She, therefore, hai nofm^ 
 htlr ' , ,*' , 1S not t0 nlKklle - Then what is the hone of the re 
 
 . — ; ~r "" ">"■ «-"»-^n|ji» aireaciy. it 13 : 
 
 now as it was in that Arabian country, when the mother said 
 
 My daughter, it is time that thou 1 
 len summers, already, have passe 
 I must find thee a husband, if, und 
 lhe conscript bill has left us one ; 
 
 My daughter, it is time that thou wert wed— 
 len summers, already have passed o'er thy head ■ 
 I moat find thee a husband, if, under the sun 
 
 I IP nnnc/>i-in4- V.,11 U i_ft 
 
 [Cheers and laughter.] She has taken the youn* and the old Their R „fc_ 
 £T TLoud"!;^.'^ ■*«**•"* *E are not ™"l h « 
 
 £;on [ at t e "t h The" 1 " ^ t ^ *" OT ^ ***">* ^ 
 p! fl n 1 ! Thej are lookin S eagerly to the Kniehts of the 
 
 Golden Qrcle, and to parties inaugurated to aid the rebellion i, t he "acred 
 ame of democracy. But they will be disappointed ; and the" w 11 find a 
 bursting public ^ opinion that shall sweep all these reptiles, these C froi 
 a^IaSe J * *" ^ ^ **** ^ the Ked -together* '[Loud 
 I started with this rebellion- with one great idea— that it had to be 
 
 ^pont^^^^^ 
 
 spiracy ; a rebellion of amhitious pomicianT" t i" e/a' onfm^f 
 the people The people of the South are, many of the,,,, leva"", Hon- 
 est and if you takeaway the revolvers from their ears the. ,7 111 „ 
 back and rally around the glorious old stars and tri^s S„ fSd 
 cheers.] And those conspirators came forward into the vatS ' oflW 
 thefo.ernmen, the Cabinet, the Senate and the House of lie^cnnuc/ 
 and laid their hands upon the holy evangelists of Almighty God and ™ 
 in h,s name that they would support the Constitution! Tlil, e same mei? 
 
 make 1 1 t ' h 'KT UP ° n '"^ " PS ' "— "^ "•*£ *SU3 
 make Hell blush, by slinking away into some dark corner to nlot the 
 
 St we To told tlaM? ^T^ ^ ^ j " St -oTVLtL^ 
 the I ? 6 ° nl7 Way t0 deal with such m en is, to banc out 
 
 the olive-branch of peace to them ! I am for the olive-branch myself bu 
 I want it to be a stout tree, and about eight feet from the grounTfeS 
 applause and laughter] and have a good strong rope hinging at the end 
 
116 
 
 of it. [Renewed laughter and cheers.] That is the way to treat the 
 leaders of this rebellion. [Cheers.] 
 
 It is a question between rebellion and government, and there .cam be no 
 compromise. You might as well compromise between light and darkness; 
 and any one, if he is a man of ordinary intelligence, who should attempt 
 to compromise, is a traitor to his country. [Cheers.] I denounce him as 
 such, and I will tear the mask from his face whoever he may be, and 
 whatever disguise he may take on. [Great applause.] Yet we hear men 
 say 'every day, "Oh, lam for the war, I am for the Constitution; but Ithink 
 we ought to treat them with more lenity ; give them propositions of peace, 
 and extend the olive-branch to them. I am opposed to employing negroes 
 as soldiers, because it is injurious to their feelings.'" [Laughter and cheers.] 
 I look over this vast expanse of rebellion. How many brave spirits have 
 been quenched forever for the purpose of maintaining the glorious institu- 
 tions of our country! And shall they be yielded up now I We must 
 either lay down our arms, or else summon renewed energy, and go as one 
 man to hurl the whole power of the greatest free government on earth 
 upon this rebellion, like one great thunder-storm, and blast it forever. 
 [Great applause and booming of cannon.] " O, but," they say, " we are 
 afraid that, the Constitution and slavery may suffer. [Laughter/] Slavery 
 has assembled and dispersed conventions ; it has put up and put down pol- 
 iticians ; it has made the mean mighty and the little great, and they hate 
 to lose such important political capital. [Cheers and laughter.] Now, I 
 would not go out of the way after slavery, or to get rid of slavery ; but 
 you might as well expect to retain the wild game of the country after you 
 had cleared it all up, as to retain slavery after the wave of rebellion passes 
 over it. [Great applause and cheers.] The abolitionists tried to make 
 an impression upon slavery for thirty years without any success ; the se- 
 cessionists made it in one! [Great laughter and loud applause.] They 
 are altogether the better abolitionists of the two ! [Great applause.] The 
 abolitionists never got the thing in motion ; but the secessionists have got 
 it in motion so it will never stop. [Cheers.] Stop rebellion to-day, and 
 slavery will " march on." like John Brown's ghost. [Laughter ] It has 
 gone up, gone down, and gone away [loud cheers and laughter] ; as a po- 
 litical institution, it is gone forever. [Cheers.] Xenophanes, the great 
 Greek transmigrationist, beseeched a friend to stop the chastisement of a 
 dog, for he thought he recognized in the howl of the dog the voice of a 
 deceased friend [laughter] ; and there are a great many politicians 
 who don't like to have slaveiy disturbed, for they think they recog- 
 nize the voice of a deceased friend in it ! [Great laughter, and .long and 
 loud cheers.] I have never seen the day, from the time the first kernel of 
 powder was hurned on Fort Sumter, that I would not have employed ev- 
 ery negro, every white man, every vi oman, and every child, of all com- 
 plexions, and in any and every way which would tend to the crushing out 
 of this rebellion. [Tremendous applause.] I would put forth a blow, 
 and strike them where they would feel it most. I would not draw a bow at a 
 venture; I would draw a good sight, and take good aim at the vitals of this 
 infamous monster. [Loud cheers.] I don't want any compromise until this 
 question is settled, and until we have a peace that is going to be a peace! 
 [cheers] a peace anchored upon a safe and sure foundation stone. [Cheers.] 
 I object to the institution* of slavery in our government, or political life, 
 
117 
 
 always, and from this day forward ! [Cheers.] I object to it as I would 
 to a powder-house in the city of New York, because it is dangerous, and 
 liable to blow us all to pieces. [Cheers and laughter.] I object to it be- 
 cause it has been invoked as the means to destroy this great nation. I am 
 for the Union, the whole Union, and nothing but the Union, against every- 
 thing this side Heaven. [Most enthusiastic applause and cheers.] This 
 genial air, this bright sun, this glorious surrounding of popular hearts, 
 tell me that this rebellion is doomed! [Cheers, and cries of " Good."] 
 It tells me, what I believed from the beginning, that whom the Lord loveth 
 He chasteneth. We shall rise higher, stronger, mightier and purer than 
 ever, after this storm has howled itself to rest. [Great applause.] The 
 oceau may cast up her mire and dirt in the mighty heavings and agitations 
 of her bosom ; the lightnings may flash athwart the sky ; the thunders 
 may roar in the distance, and the winds may howl ; but I tell you, the sun 
 of this Union will rise again, with the promise of a fair day, and God's 
 children will stand upon the great principle of equality in this Western 
 hemisphere. [Tremendous applause, and three hearty cheers for the 
 speaker.] 
 
 After an interlude of music by the band, Mr. Bctler introduced the 
 Hon. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, who was received with three 
 cheers. 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. HENRT WILSON OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens of New York : The banners 
 of more than a thousand regiments of loyal men of our country are to-day 
 waving in the beams of yonder setting sun in the land of rebellion. Three 
 quarters of a million of our countrymen, of our neighbors, of our friends, 
 are bearing the banners of their country to-day on the soil of the rebel 
 states. They are around Charleston [cheers] ; on the shores of North 
 Carolina ; with Banks near the mouth of the Mississippi ; with Grant 
 around Vicksburg ; with Rosecrans around the immortal field of Murfrees- 
 boro [loud cheers] j with Fighting Joe Hooker on the banks of the Rap- 
 pahannock. Y'our cheers, your voices, the beatings of your loyal hearts, 
 will reach them ; and as they look the foes of their country in the face, 
 they will be stronger because the men of New York are behind them. 
 [Cheers.] Oar brave soldiers in the field, in the language of Gen. Stone- 
 man, one of our bravest and truest soldiers, say that while they hate the 
 rebel in front, they despise the traitor in the rear [cheers], and they would 
 delight to hang the one as well as to shoot the other. That is the senti- 
 ment of three fourths of a million of brave men who are bearing the ban- 
 ners of the Republic, The gentleman who preceded me said to you, and 
 he said truly, that the hopes of the rebel chiefs were in the division of the 
 people of the loyal states. It was my fortune — my sad fortune— to sit 
 with those rebel leaders in the session of 'bO and '61. Then they were 
 preparing the country for revolution. Day after day we sat in the Senate 
 of the United States — in the House of Representatives — and saw these 
 rebel leaders plot for the overthrow of the Republic ; and I say to you to- 
 day, gentlemen, that their hopes rested upon two things — one, the inter- 
 vention of England or France through the power of King Cotton ; and the 
 
118 
 
 other, division in the Northern states. They believed that the city of New 
 York would raise the cry of "bread or blood;" tbey believed that the 
 loyal men hastening to the defence of the menaced capital would be smitten 
 down on the pavements of the city of New York. Jefferson Davis, in the 
 session of 1860, said to me on the floor of the Senate that he was assured, 
 in the language of one of his friends in the North, that if this contest came 
 to blows thev would throttle us in our tracks. But, gentlemen, you all re- 
 member that when, two years ago, the banners of our country went down 
 beneath the consuming fires of the batteries upon Fort Sumter, that the 
 people rose in their majesty as one man for the support of the country. 
 [Cheers.] Hut you remember, also, with what amazement the rebel chiefs 
 received the intelligence of that uprising of the freemen of the North. 
 Eussell tell us in his Diary that he found everywhere in the South the 
 greatest amazement that the people of the North were united to uphold the 
 cause of our country. But, gentlemen, we know while the people of this 
 country — the masses — rose to sustain their government, to sustain the 
 cause of human liberty in the Western World, that there were men who 
 bowed to public opinion, but whose hearts were black with sympathy with 
 traitors. ["That's so."] Misfortunes came upon us, death entered al- 
 most all our dwellings, our brave men were smitten down on many battle- 
 fields, trials came upon the people, our hearts throbbed sadly and heavily, 
 and then it was that these men the rebel chiefs relied upon to come to the 
 rescue and save them — to bathe our streets in blood and overthrow the 
 government of the country — began to demand a peace that was to blot 
 this nation for ever from the annals of mankind. But, gentlemen, thanks 
 to God, thanks to the people of this country, they are rising again, and 
 copperhcadism is slinking away. [Loud cheers.] The heel of the Ameri- 
 can people is pressing that serpent's head. [Renewed applause.] And 
 now, gentlemen, I say to you to-day, that while the rebel chiefs give up 
 the cause of foreign intervention, they yet rely on the secret orders of the 
 Knights of the Golden Circle ; they rely upon men who preach peace, 
 when there can be no peace, with the salvation of our country. [Cheers.] 
 But, gentlemen, my faith is strong —strong in the people of the United 
 States, strong in the progress of human events, strong in Democratic insti- 
 tutions, and strong in that God that rules over the affairs of men. 
 [Cheers.] The cause in which we are engaged is the cause of national 
 unity ; and the lite of this nation, the existence of this North American 
 Republic, is at issue ; and that is not all : the cause of human liberty in 
 America is at i.-sue — the cause of toiling millions of the North American 
 Republic. There is an influence on earth that elevates and adorns human 
 character that is with us and fighting for us in this great battle in which 
 we are engaged. There is not a man who cannot take tie cause of our 
 country home with him to-night, and read his Bible, and on his bended 
 knees invoke the blessing of Almighty God upon the cause of our common 
 country. It is a cause that a man may be proud to toil for, labor for, and, 
 if need be, proudly to die for. [Cheers. ] The other day, away up in the 
 interior of this state, a gallant and gray-headed old soldier lay dying. In 
 his last moments, when life was flickering, he called for a glass of wine, 
 and, holding it up, said : " God bless my conntry, the United States of 
 America !" and the brave old soldier passed away with the noble and pious 
 sentiment upon his lips. And there is not a brave soldier battling iu the 
 
119 
 
 field under the flag of our country, there is not a man in America that may 
 not invoke these utterances of Gen. Sumner, and ask God to bless our 
 country, the United States of America. [Cheers and the boom of cannon.] 
 
 Now, gentlemen, we should give to the government of our country our 
 support, not because it is a republican administration, I don't ask that ; 
 if it was a democratic administration I would support it because duty to 
 my country demanded it [great applause] and I am proud to know there 
 are many democrats who are giving to this administration all their moral 
 support, and all the votes they have to give. [Cheers ] The Committee of / 
 Military Affairs of the Senate, of which I am chairman, had upon it four 
 republicans and three democrats ; 6,825 names have passed before that 
 committee ince the war, and I say to you there never was a party divis- 
 ion in this committee since the war commenced [cheers]. I find here to- 
 day the letter of Senator Rice of Minnesota, a member of that committee, 
 in which he says a peace democrat is a disunionist, and there can be no 
 peace with disunion. 
 
 But, gentlemen, our duty is to forget all partisanship, forget all memo- 
 ries of old conflicts, and bury them deeper than plummet ever sounded 
 [cheers], and go for our country, our whole country and nothing but our 
 country ! [Great applause.] I hail and welcome these Loyal Leagues and 
 I hope every true man in the country will enroll his name among them, 
 and I agree with Mr. Seward, that I would put my name down on all of 
 them if I could ; and I hope there will be no rivalries or jealousies among 
 these organizations ; I hope they will all co-operate and bind themselves 
 together, and move straight forward and onward to uphold our country 
 and to fire the hearts and nerve the arms of our brave soldiers to battle 
 for the cause of our country in the field. [Loud cheers.] As republi- 
 cans aud democrats all of us should support the government of our coun- 
 try, and carry the nation in triumph through this contest, and then, after 
 we have unitedly saved the nation from a slaveholders' rebellion, if Ave 
 cannot stand together to administer the government, we will yield to bet- 
 ter men than ourselves. [Great applause.] For my part I look to no fu- 
 ture except to carry the nation through in triumph and extend its authority 
 over every foot of territory [cheers], I have no calculations for any future 
 administration ; all ideas associated with party dwarf and sink down in 
 the presence of the mighty events now upon us. The highest and loftiest 
 duty ever committed to men is committed to us now ; and that duty is to 
 save our country, and preserve the life of our nation. [Loud cheers.] Yes, 
 gentlemen, we will do it, I have undoubting faith that we shall do it ; I 
 entertain not a shadow of a doubt of the triumph of our cause [cheers], 
 I never have doubted ; amid defeat, darkness, and disaster — I had faith 
 that this people would rise and stand up lor the country, that they would, 
 cultivate patience and toleration, and above all that endurance that wins 
 and triumphs in the end. [Great applause.] I have seen more enthusiasm 
 in other days than in this, but we have now come to the sober second 
 thought which is based upon the sentiment and the heart, upon the con- 
 victions and the judgment, upon the aspirations and the soul of the people. 
 It is the result of reflection — it comes irom trial, and it will live and last, 
 and carry us gloriously and triumphantly through. [Great applause, and 
 three cheers and a tiger for Mr. Wilson.] 
 
120 
 
 SPEECH OF JAMES W. NYE. 
 
 Amid loud cheers James W. Nye was then introduced to the vast audi- 
 ence, and spoke as follows : 
 
 Fellow-Citizens of New Yoke : I am not a stranger to you, and although 
 my home is now a distant one I feel quite at home here in the city of New 
 York. I have seen her thousands marshalled before and I hope in the 
 paradise of God to see them marshalled again, but you were never mar- 
 shalled on a more eventful day than this 11th of April! When I stood 
 in the Capitol of the nation and received the intelligence that Fort Sumter 
 had been fired upon I made a covenant then, which I dare not break, that 
 I never would lay down my arms, till the glory of that old flag was re- 
 deemed. [Great applause.] That covenant I have carefully kept, and 
 though divided from you by vast plains and rivers, oceans and mountain 
 heights, I found 3,000 miles distant, when I arrived in the territory of 
 Nevada, my old acquaintance the stars and stripes [great cheering], and 
 there they will float for ever, for whatever may be the fate of the At- 
 lantic slope there shall be one Switzerland in America. [Cheers and 
 cries of " Good," " Good."] We will barricade our mountain fastnesses, 
 and there the old stars and stripes shall float. [Great applause.] 
 They floated first upon New England's soil, and that genius and 
 inspiration was caught up and sent out to the Alleghanies and the 
 nation, weak and few in numbers but strong in determination and 
 will, made it our standard sheet for ever, and no hand of rebellion and no 
 foreign power shall ever wrest that old flag from us. [Loud cheers and cries 
 of " Never, never."] The stars are the eyes of a watchful and vigilant peo- 
 ple, and the stripes are emblematical of the tribute our fathers paid to 
 Britain in two wars. [Immense applause.] I look, my fellow-citizens, 
 upon this rebellion differently from most men — I think it is a good thing. 
 [Sensation.] Now don't be alarmed till I explain. [Laughter.] The 
 spirit of '7G had died out ["That's so "], and wanted resurrection! and 
 thank God we have got it! [Great applause.] It wanted regeneration 
 [loud cheers] ; it needed rebaptism, that baptism needed to be in blood — 
 and we have got it! [Cheers.] Though it may clothe your family and 
 mine in the habiliments of mourning, yet a glorious future will be a 
 recompense for all our woes ! [Loud cheers.] When this rebellion is 
 crushed out, for two centuries we shall be able to sit down under our own 
 vine and fig-tree, with none to molest and make us afraid ! [Loud cheers.] 
 Rebellion at the South and Copperheadism at the North will be seen 
 walking two by two into a political potter's field, as the pairs walked into 
 the ark [great laughter and applause], and there they will be buried for 
 ever ["Amen," and loud cheers], and they ought to be! [Renewed ap- 
 plause.] We are told that this rebellion cannot be put down by arms. 
 But we can beat the world, whatever arbiter or arbitrament they choose. 
 [Cries of " That's so," and applause.] These rebels have chosen the arbitra- 
 ment of the bullet instead of the ballot, and we will beat them at that! 
 [Great applause and cries of " Good, good."] And the man is blinder 
 than a meadow mole and more deaf than an adder, who will not hear the 
 charmer, charm he never so sweetly, who sees anything else but final tri- 
 umph in this struggle. [Loud cheers.] They tell us, we shall be loaded 
 down with taxes ! Now there is one thing I want to say in all earnest- 
 
121 
 
 uess, that when I see a man with a pencil behind his ear, and a card, 
 figuring up what he can make out of the countiy, in this hour of our na- 
 tion's straggle — he is a traitor ! [Immense applause, cries of " That's so " 
 and " Good." J I want to see armies of men inquiring what they can sacri- 
 fise to save their countiy. [Loud cheers.] Our mothers parted from our 
 fathers, and buckled the armor on to their only sons, and kissed the last 
 tear from off their cheek ; and bid them go forth in the hour of the Revo- 
 lution, to battle for freedom or die! [Loud cheers.] They returned 
 crowned with this rich inheritance of personal and political freedom. 
 That inheritance was intrusted to us, and we are the executors of that 
 rich legacy, and we will sustain it for ever. [Great applause and cries of 
 "We will," " We will."] But we are told that we make no progress! 
 Sir, the moon has not 24 times filled her horn since this Rebellion broke 
 out, and sir, that moon had 23 times filled her horn before England, 
 France, Sardinia and the Turk, took the only fortress they ever did take 
 in Russia, with all their combined armies ! [Tremendous applause, cries 
 of "Good" and "Bravo."] And yet we are told we don't fight fast 
 enough. [Renewed applause.] I undertake to say, in full view of the 
 history of the past, that no nation on earth has ever shown so much 
 recuperative and real existing power as this "nation and as the people desi- 
 rous of putting down this Rebellion ! [Loud cheers.]' I have got a kind 
 of inspiration that the stars and stripes, either now float over Fort Sumter 
 or they will soon [great applause], gold-dealers and copperheads to the 
 contrary, notwithstanding ! [Immense applause and laughter.] I know 
 this Rebellion will be put down because it is wrong ! I know we shall 
 succeed' because we are right! [Loud cheers.] Sir, I know one thing that 
 copperheads don't know [cheers and laughter], and thank God they know 
 a great many things that I don't know [great applause and laughter], I 
 don't know enough to plot with anybody for the destruction of this glori- 
 ous country ! [Groans for the copperheads.] I do know enough to love this 
 country with as unswerving and undying a love, as a son ever felt for the 
 mother that bore him. [Immense applause.] I know that this nation was 
 planted in faith ; it was watered by the blood and nurtured by the tears 
 of as pure patriots as ever went forth to battle for freedom. [Loud cheers.] 
 I know that enough of that blood courses in our veins, to give that eternal 
 and abiding principle of freedom, a resurrection so that all Hell and 
 Rebeldom combined cannot destroy it ! [Immense applause and cries of * 
 " Good, good."] 
 
 Men of New York are you ready for this question [cries of " Yes, yes."] 
 — Whether from this great pulsating beat of the nation your radiations 
 shall be such as to inspire your distant brethren upon the far western 
 coast, with an abiding belief that you are in favor of maintaining this 
 Union ? [Great applause and shouts of " We are."] Then I will go back 
 and report that New York is all right ! [Tremendous cheers.] 
 
 He who believes that this country will not succeed is wanting in faith 
 —Oh ye of little faith ! [Great laughter.] England fought France for 21 
 years, Wales fought France 700 years and Ireland is fighting England 
 still. [Great applause and laughter ; a voice, " May she succeed."] And 
 yet we seem to be tired in 24 months. [Cries of " No, no."] If there is a 
 man who has not faith, let him go among the copperheads! [Cheers and 
 laughter.] A dreadful fate awaits all these traitors— a fate more to be 
 
122 
 
 dreaded than the fall of the dreadful avalanche— it will be an eternal abi 
 ding sleep, so that one would doubt whether in the wisdom of God they 
 will be disturbed in the morning of the Resurrection [laughter and cheers! 
 unless it wm be to consign them to a deeper Hell ! [Great applause and 
 cheers, "They will file off to the left then."] I thank you for this 
 hearing [« Go on, go on."] It is very easy to say "Go on," but where is 
 the wind to come from ? [Laughter and cheers.] I have been speaking at 
 another stand and I am tired, but I would go on my bended knees on a 
 pilgrimage from the heaving billows of the Atlantic to the quiet waters of 
 the Pacific, to see restored to this continent, that glorious and benignant 
 peace, that will bring with it, one people, one government, and one nation 
 — and that we will have ! I want this people now to give three hearty 
 cheers for the old flag. [Three tremendous cheers for the flag, and three 
 more for the speaker.] 
 
 SPEECH OF PROFESSOR JOHN A. PORTER. 
 
 Professor Porter of Yale College was introduced and received with 
 hearty cheers, and spoke as follows : 
 
 Mr. President and Fellow- Citizens : To-day I am not ashamed to con- 
 fess myself a citizen of Connecticut. [Great applause and six rousing cheers 
 for Connecticut.] Copperheadism made its strike there, and it has been 
 trampled into the earth. [Loud cheers.] We met the enemy last Monday 
 and as you know, we obtained a glorious victory, which sent a thrill of 
 joy through all this great country of ours. [Cheers.] After a meeting I 
 addressed a few evenings ago, I was introduced to the mother of the 
 lamented Colonel Kingsbury, one of the glorious heroes of this war. At 
 Antietam he was leading on his regiment to capture a bridge that was 
 deemed important, when he fell pierced with a bullet, and he cried to his 
 brave men, " Dash on and take that bridge, never mind me," and so he 
 laid him down to die. Four men sprang from the ranks to lift him up, 
 when four more balls struck him, and he lay down and poured out his 
 life in defence of his country. To soften the blow a dispatch was sent to 
 his mother, that the colonel was wounded: but she said, "I know what 
 that means— the light of my life is gone out "—and this poor mother as 
 she stood before me, looked as if the light of her life had sone out. I 
 thought to myself, " Shall all these sacrifices be in vain ?— Thisblood poured 
 'out, these lacerated hearts, these poor stricken mothers and sisters and 
 widows— are all these to be sacrificed in vain V My heart answered me, 
 No ! " Rome has not lost all her breed of noble sons ! " [Cheers.] The 
 people of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York, are prepared to stand 
 by the old flag to the last ! 
 
 " Flag of the brave ; thy folds shall fly, 
 The sign of hope and triumph high, 
 When speaks the trumpet's signal tone, 
 And the long line comes gleaming on ; 
 Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet, 
 Has dimmed the glistening bayonet, 
 Each soldier eye, shall brightly turn, 
 To where thy meteor glories burn." 
 
 Yes : true to the flag ! every man of us, as our revolutionary fathers 
 were, until from the chain of lakes of the North to the gulf of Mexico at 
 
123 
 
 the South the old flag shall float again in triumph all over our fair land. 
 [Great applause.] 
 
 SPEECH OF JOHN C. MONTGOMERY. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : I will detain you less than three minutes [cheers] ; 
 as no doubt there are a great many democrats among us, I wish to relate 
 two incidents with regard to the two rebel ambassadors at * ranee and 
 England. First, about James M. Mason. I have known him for a long 
 time, and although always of different parties, we were always on terms 
 of intimacy. Some years ago, Mr. Mason was at my house and a friend 
 called to see me, and I introduced Mr. Mason to him as "My democratic 
 friend, Colonel Mason of Virginia." Mr. Mason turned around to me 
 and said, « Montgomery, I shall be most happy to be introduced to your 
 friends ; but I want you to understand, that hereafter you must mtaodnoe 
 me as your 'republican friend,' not as a democrat, for, by God, 1 believe 
 democracy unconstitutional." [Laughter.] I have also known the ^other 
 rebel commissioner a long time -John Slidell. He called himself a 
 democrat and I was an old whig, but never tainted with copperheadism 
 [Three cheers for the "old whig."] I fought for my country m the 
 second war of Independence [cheers], and my father before me fought in 
 the Revolution ; audi am ready to fight now for the good cause. [ bud 
 cheers] although I am somewhat turned of 48. [Laughter and dieers- 
 Mr M. appearing to be nearer 70.] In 1840, when General Harrison 
 was a candidate for the Presidency, I determined to devote all my energies 
 to securing his election. John Slidell called at my house ^«*™g* 
 my efforts? he said he could tell me something that would deter me . fiom 
 ever supporting him. I said, " You cannot do that." He said he was in 
 CinciSi ^ one time, and met there a Colonel Wilkinson ****** 
 nloved a hack-driver, who drove his own coach, to carry them to Geneia 
 SLn's country-s'eat at North Bend. When they »ot there Genera 
 Harrison welcomed them very kindly, and told the driver to ^ h» 
 horses to the stable and then come in, and at the dinner-table the hack 
 man was invited in and took dinner with them ; and « Now,'; ^ShdeU, 
 « would you vote for a man, for the Presidency, who would invite a*ack 
 driver to dine at the same table with gentlemen ! I thanked him foi 
 history and told him I would use it, and that I was not ashamed i£ vot 
 for any man who would invite a man who drove a hack, if he was honest , 
 and respectable, to dine at the table with a prince, if necessary. [Loud 
 cheers.] 
 
 SPEECH OF G. W. ELLIOTT. 
 
 Mr. Elliott, a merchant from London, was the next speaker. He 
 
 =a Men of New York : I speak to you as men of what I believe to be the 
 oreatest free nation of the earth. Your nation is to-day engaged in a 
 K such as no nation has gone through. You are to-day distracted 
 with a violent attempt to separate you and destroy the greatfebnc which 
 has cost so much, and taken so many years to build. I ferventiy hope 
 you are to put down this rebellion, and I believe you will. Men of INew 
 York, it has been told you that England does not sympathize with you, 
 
124 
 
 but believe it not ! England, in her great heart— her popular heart- 
 sympathizes with you thoroughly. [Cheers ; a voice, " Can't see it."] 
 England is not easily moved ; and it takes a long time before her popular 
 heart is stirred up, but you may be sure that the true heart of the nation, 
 her masses, do sympathize with you thoroughly and deeply! [Cheers.] 
 Her aristocracy, and especially her would-be aristocracy, of course look 
 w S P°P ular government' like this, with feelings of very little kindness. 
 Well they may, for they know that all the tinsel adornments and "audy 
 trappings, and all that is not real manhood, when it comes to such a 
 nation as this, is stripped from a man, and he stands before them for what 
 he is. [Cheers.] In England it is said of you men of New York, that you 
 care not for the Union. Contrary to my own interest, I have always 
 maintained that this was a lie. Is it not so ? [Cries of « Yes," and cheers ] 
 I say to you, that this battle must be maintained and carried through suc- 
 cessfully at all hazards. The great monarchies of Europe are watching 
 you very carefully, and I tell you, if you obtain a victory, you obtain ft 
 not only for yourself, but for all the world ! [Cheers.] You must carry 
 this war through successfully for the benefit of all posterity. [Cheers ] I 
 rely upon you that it shall be done. And when this glorious American 
 flag, the stars and stripes, shall float victoriously over every state in all 
 this broad land, and you shall be a great united people, a happy people, 
 you will present to the whole world such a spectacle as no other nation 
 can show ! [Loud cheers, " Go on, the London Times won't print your 
 speech."] r J 
 
 SPEECH OF COLONEL NUGENT. 
 
 Colonel Nugent of the 69th Regiment was received with three hearty 
 cheers. He said : 
 
 My Friends : I did not come here to make a speech, but as a spectator. 
 I am very proud to see so much patriotism, and so many coining up to 
 the support of the government, but I would be much prouder to'see one 
 half of you down in the army of the Potomac, to fill up the broken regi- 
 ments there. I see a great many here that I would take for recruits for 
 the gallant 69th. [A voice, « Give me $1,000 and I will go."] I don't 
 want you, sir, we only want true men and volunteers. [Hisses and cries of 
 " Copperhead."] But, gentlemen, I don't feel at home here, and I am 
 not much of a speaker. Put me at the head of my regiment and I am at 
 home. [Great applause.] 
 
 SPEECH OF F. E. LAMBERT. 
 
 Mr. Lambert was the next and last speaker. He appealed to his 
 countrymen from the land of Erin, to stand by the flag of their adopted 
 country, and to support the government with all their means and power 
 He denounced the traitors who cry, "Peace," and who would compromise 
 with rebellion, and expressed his confidence in all the measures of the 
 administration. 
 
 The band then played " Old Hundred," and the vast audience dispersed, 
 with three tremendous cheers for the Union. 
 
OFFICERS. 
 
 STAND INTO. 6. 
 Under charge of Committee of Arrangements, 
 
 JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS, Jr., WILLIAM A. HALL, 
 
 WOLCOTT GIBBS. 
 
 President. 
 
 WILLIAM E. DODGE. 
 
 Vice-Presidents. 
 
 C. V. S. Eoosevelt, 
 Francis B. Cutting, 
 Pelatiah Perit, 
 Andrew V. Stout, 
 Clarence A. Seward, 
 Edward S. Jaffray, 
 Moses H. Grinnell, 
 John D. Jones, 
 A. C. Kingsland, 
 James W. Beekman, 
 H. W. Bellows, 
 Frederick Sheldon, 
 Archibald Philips, 
 J. Evans Tracy, 
 H. A. Wilhelm, 
 Hamilton Bruce, 
 C. C. Pinckney, 
 Alfred Schermerhorn, 
 Henry L. Pierson, 
 Frank W. Ballard, 
 Lorenzo Draper, 
 John Sedgwick, 
 John Cooper, 
 Sheppard Gandy, 
 
 Warren Ward, 
 John S. Giles, 
 James W. Otis, 
 David Dudley Field, 
 Henry A. Smith, 
 Wade B. Worrall, 
 Gottlieb Dietler, 
 George W. Blunt, 
 Stephen H. Tyng, jr., 
 John H. Williams, 
 Frederick Eauchfuss, 
 D. Huntington, 
 William Post, 
 John Meeks, 
 John W r atson, 
 James A. Briggs, 
 John Trenor, 
 Archibald Hall, 
 Morris Franklin, 
 James Gallatin, 
 Horace Green, 
 F. E. Wellington, 
 Edward Leonard, 
 Andreas Whitman, 
 
126 
 
 Epes P. Ellery, 
 George H. Moore, 
 Joseph P. Norris, 
 Samuel T. Bridgham 
 William A. Martin, 
 D. H. Gildersleeve, 
 G. W. Hayes, 
 A. Davidson, 
 Thomas L. Thornell, 
 James E. Spalding, 
 Frederick A. Coe, 
 Frederick Kuhne, 
 Morgan Jones, 
 
 William E. Dodge, Jr., 
 Jacob Herrick, 
 Caleb Barston, 
 William Jellinghaus, 
 Daniel Wells, 
 Frederick G. Fosr, 
 Daniel Coger, 
 P. Eemsen Strong, 
 Nathaniel Wooley, 
 B. H. Howell, 
 David Colden Murrav, 
 William Black, 
 
 Secretaries. 
 
 Charles Nordhoff, 
 S. Hastings Grant, 
 A. K. McMillan, 
 Lewis Carr, 
 Oscar Schmidt, 
 Edward King, 
 Edward Willets, 
 George F. Betts, 
 Eobert E. McBumey 
 F. M. Palmer, 
 Ames L. Hastie, 
 James F. Euggles, 
 Joseph H. Choate, 
 
 Daniel W. Berdan, 
 W. S. Matthews, 
 J. H. Frothingham, 
 E. M. Strebeigh, 
 Samuel Blatchford, 
 John M. White, 
 Pierre Humbert, 
 Henry S. Fearing, 
 Theodore Tilton, 
 Edward A. Wetmore, 
 Frederick W. Downer, 
 Charles H. Swords. 
 
PROGKAMME OF PROCEEDINGS. 
 STAND No. 6. 
 
 NORTHEAST CORNER OF UNION SQUARE. 
 
 Salutes of Artillery by the workmen employed by Henry Brewster § Co. 
 
 1. Grand March, from " Le Prophete," of Meyerbeer, by Wiegand's Grand 
 
 Band. 
 
 2. William E. Dodge, of the Council of the Loyal National League, will call 
 
 the meeting to order. 
 
 3. Prayer by Rev. Thomas E. Vermilye, D. D. 
 
 4. William E. Dodge, Jr., of the Executive Committee, will read the call for 
 
 the meeting, and the list of Vice-Presidents and Secretaries. 
 
 5. William A. H a H will read the address. 
 
 6. William A. Hall will read the resolutions. 
 
 7. Music by the Band. 
 
 8. Senator L. S. Foster, of Connecticut, will address the meeting. 
 
 9. Music by the Band — singing : " The Army Hymn," by Oliver Wendell 
 
 Holmes. 
 
 10. David Dudley Field will address the meeting. 
 
 11. Music — singing: " The Star-Spangled Banner." 
 
 12. James Wadsworth will address the meeting. 
 
 13. Music — singing : " Song for the Loyal National League," written ex- 
 
 pressly for this occasion, by George H. Boker. 
 
 14. George William Curtis will address the meeting. , 
 
 15. William E. Dodge, Jr., will read a poem, entitled " Those Seventy Men," 
 
 written expressly for this occasion, by Mrs. Sarah H. Bradford. 
 
 16. S. S. Chittenden will address the meeting. 
 
 17. Music — singing : " Our Union," written expressly for this occasion, by 
 
 Alfred B. Street. 
 
128 
 
 This stand was located in the northeastern angle of Union Sonare ft 
 We he motto, "Acontmon Union to tnaintafn the power Z Jd 
 : t TT; m v w "-" SaIUte Pea ' ed from «* t SC' and 
 
 iK ±j £*£ ''l ;;-:;' of the Loyal r ^ **■« 
 
 n T7 ° , ° iaer ' atter whlch P^yer was offered up by Rev 
 
 p Dr -, VMlYEA " Mr - J °™ A. Sxkvens, Jr., then read theilt f 
 Presents and Vice Presidents of the meeting. M, Sx.vl ta lso 
 the resolutions, which were adopted unanimously. 
 
 SPEECH OF DAVID DUDLEY FIEr D 
 
 dwindles im„ 'insignSce, TwJ&i"SS? n**! f»™ 
 enonnons power, e^al to.l,!^ fa ^ '' «,"* n,, oohtediy 
 lious states. But if the twentv .i, TO t • ls m tlie rebel - 
 
 millions loyal and LmZlth^T^T WWe made Up of «**•* 
 of the former, and the W of thl S& ?"*2" an ^ UaI llumber 
 represented ^ tln4 mill W ^sJSSE o^"^ ^ ^ ** 
 therefore, under a neeessitv mo° 1 ^ . r f pr ° P ° rt,0ns - We are, 
 
 *V^S^cW^ lab ° rWhh aU ° Ur 
 to absolute unanimity the better To tlmt P 1 ? ?* W * Can Come 
 
 differences, and confine ourselvesto A? f ' W ? ? USt ^ aside minor 
 
 truths and rules of cond ct tint ll , T"** 1 ? fundara ental political 
 
 the Rebellion By tl e mean, and H > 1°* ^ J° the overtir ™ ° f 
 collect and use all our rtS for hT ^ ^ 7° be 6Qabled to 
 the integrity of the Z£T£ ^ZSS*^* ^^ ^ 
 courage numbers will avail us lit. l 6 /", 1011 ^ exten *- But without 
 
 exhortation to conrage cTn be ™*L ° Uld Se f m stran S^hat an 
 
 fathers Our people U^ S"g « *£ jWJj of our 
 
 through penis from £ I^S Sf^ ***%"*"«*> 
 war for independence thrmnrf V h ° 1' g l \ co i onial wars, through the 
 
 sion which eLu 1 tl u'ou hie ntliS ^ f ■ J" 08 *^* *» d depres- 
 hshment of the oSS^^^J^^^^ *? «« ^b- 
 courage has been almost a U„onym 1 the A "e "T *** Mexic °' 
 there is a moral as well .. i J . American character. But 
 
 sacrifices, iXmmnp^n j£" ^ c ? ura S e ' . wbich sbrink « fr»m no 
 and misuke^l SSw? iT,^ ^ Uanimit 7 of delays 
 This kind of course no V^fffi'SSP' thr ° Ugb *" vici ^udes. 
 columns in the field ' i need d bv , t WhlCh ?""" f ° rtreSSeS and lead * 
 counsels of the timi and wiv^n™ '' * C ° Ura S 6 W . hich ejects the 
 peace, sends none b e» ^517 -fption of inglorious 
 and mahes ready to send JK^t^^S attbto^ 
 
129 
 
 may call, if it call for all we have. And yet, without constancy, courage 
 may fail at last. In the difficult and novel circumstances in which the 
 country now stands, we are liable to have repeated failures. Inexperience 
 leads to mistakes ; the difficulty of adjusting untried means to ends pro- 
 posed brings after it frequent miscarriages, and these tend to beget in the 
 end distrust, and the fear that we may not after all be able to overcome 
 the difficulties in our way. But this is not the proper feeling for a heroic 
 people. Constancy under all fortunes is the great Roman virtue, as the 
 opposite quality is the curse of fickle and secondary nations. " Unstable 
 as water thou shalt not excel," was the prophecy of the patriarch to a 
 portion of his children. So it is now, and so it ever will be ; those 
 nations only can hope to stand at the head of the world which never 
 despair. Let us, fellow-citizens, stand together ; show the courage of our 
 fathers, and the constancy of our race. So will our future be full of 
 promise. Then shall we rise superior to any disaster and eveiy embar- 
 rassment ; and our children will thank God for our unity, our courage, 
 and our constancy throughout the perilous times of the slaveholders' 
 rebellion. 
 
 Mr. Field was frequently interrupted by applause during the delivery of 
 his address. 
 
 SPEECH OF GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 
 
 Mr. Curtis on being introduced was received with applause. He 
 said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens : Two years ago, when that flag 
 came down, for the first time shot at in dishonor, and disgraced by Ameri- 
 can citizens, there was but one feeling that ran through this land — a 
 feeling so shuddering and appalling, that it was as when a great ship 
 suddenly comes into the wind, and every inch of canvas flutters, and for 
 a moment there is a doubt whether the voyage shall be continued or 
 whether the ship shall there go down. You remember, fellow-citizens, that 
 the answer to that shot was given upon this place, where we stand to-day. 
 You remember that the first answer was given by eloquent voices, whom it is 
 well for us at this moment to recall, because they were voices of those 
 who have sealed their fidelity with their life's blood. Here, within the 
 range of my voice at this moment, stood the gallant Mitchell, born in 
 Kentucky ; and he, after his career, is silent. But you know his story. 
 Here, within sound of my voice, stood the gray-haired Baker. He, too, 
 has sealed with his life's blood the truth of his words. Eloquent in their 
 lives, fellow-citizens, they were still more eloquent in their death ; and 
 they are for ever eloquent, speaking to you and to me and to our chil- 
 dren's children, for ever, in our hearts and in our history. Two years 
 have passed. There are no longer but 800 soldiers and but $500,000 in 
 the Treasury. Did you hear them speak ? Then bend your head, and 
 strain your ears this moment, and you shall hear also the thunders of an 
 eloquence that shakes the very air, that dazzles the very splendor of the 
 midnight heavens — the thunders of the belching fires of Dupont and the 
 brave men with him, who now declare that that flag that was pulled down 
 in weakness shall be raised in power ; and that as when it fell it was the 
 
 9 
 
130 
 
 glittering shroud of every party line, and of all party differences whatso- 
 ever, so that now there are, there can henceforth be, but two parties in 
 the land—they who stand in open rebellion, with guns and cannon against 
 it, and all other men who are resolved to sustain it, and that, God helping, 
 if they cannot do the work, then they will fall doing it, and transfer it to 
 ^heir children, and their children's children to do, until all beneath the 
 pall of party shall upbear the flag, and the stars ai-e restored once more to 
 the heavens whence they came. [Applause.] This, fellow-citizens, and 
 not less, is the significance of the hour. It is to answer for us all whether 
 we are a nationality ; it is to answer for us all whether there is something 
 below all our differences, whatever they may be. This is a contest which 
 has never changed its character ; this is a contest, from the beginning, 
 simply of the ballot-box. It is not long since I stood upon a platform 
 like this side by side with a man whose every political theory I doubt not, 
 differs absolutely and radically from mine. The gentleman of whom I 
 speak has a name known to you, justly dear to you, peculiarly honored 
 by every loyal man in the land at this moment, for he is James T. Brady 
 of this city . [Applause.] With Mr. Brady, bound upon the same mis- 
 sion, I went into the state of Connecticut, and we went there, not as 
 Connecticut men, but as citizens of the United States, interested to know 
 whether other citizens of the United States living in that state were 
 willing to abandon the Union, dishonor the flag, and consent to common 
 ruin. We stood there side by side simply to defend the ballot-box. 
 Whatever differences Mr. Brady and I had before — and I believe they 
 were radical upon every question — the moment the assault was made upon 
 that box, that instant Mr. Brady and every man like him in the country, 
 and every loyal man of whatever complexion, knew no other party than 
 the party that would restore, by bullets if necessary, by every measure 
 which the administration, which is the representative of this country, 
 might call for, the ballot-box in all its purity, as the sole and single arbiter 
 of every political difference in this land. That, fellow-citizens, was the 
 significance of the meeting here two years ago. I stand before you, I 
 trust, as a loyal man. I believe only one man in this city has made it his 
 boast that he is not loyal. [A voice : "Fernando Wood."] It seems to 
 me, fellow-citizens, that he might well have spared his breath ; for I never 
 knew that any one suspected that gentleman of loyalty ; or, if he ever 
 was loyal, he has long ago given it the benefit of the statute of limitation. 
 [Laughter.] But when he says there is no such sentiment as loyalty in this 
 land, I hope the occasion of the hour may take him through the square in 
 which we stand, that he may see the hundreds and thousands of men, 
 whose brothers, sons, friends, stand embattled from the Chesapeake to the 
 Mississippi, by sea and by land, brave men, united by one sentiment, and 
 one sentiment only, and that an unshrinking and eternal loyalty to the 
 government which their fathers made, which they have received, and 
 which, by the grace of God, they will transfer unchanged to their children. 
 [Applause.] Now, then, fellow-citizens, understand this one point, that 
 the effort to destroy the nation, which is no less than the United States of 
 America, is simply to undo the laws of God. The union of the United 
 States is an instinct. From the instinct of union in the people the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States sprang ; for it was the sentiment of union that made 
 the Constitution, and not the Constitution that made the Union. The Union 
 
131 
 
 is a fact of our existence ; it is a thought, it is a sentiment, you cannot repeal 
 it, you cannot touch it in the least point, for it is in the heart of every 
 citizen. And when we say Union, when I stand here and say to you that 
 I belong to the Union, and that that flag stands for the Union, you all 
 understand me to mean precisely what an Englishman means when he 
 says England, precisely what a Frenchman means when he says France— 
 and that is the essential nationality of this people. The Union is the form 
 only, the Nation is the soul. To save the Union is to save the Nation. 
 And, therefore, at this moment first and most truly in this land the Union 
 man is he who is resolved that there is, that by the grace of God, there 
 shall be, but one government as there is but one nation, within our do- 
 mams— that either this rebellion shall march trailing its flag over us, until 
 above our shame and disgrace its flag sends its curdling and chilling shadow 
 deep into the waters of the Lakes, or that the people of the United States 
 of America— knowing all their strength is in union— will march triumph- 
 ant over them, bearing that flag full of the hues of heaven, until its ancient 
 splendor shall flash the liberty with which it was first baptized far over the 
 sparkling waters of the Gulf. [Applause.] Stand fast, then, by the 
 Union. Understand that the Continental Congress adjourned that its 
 best men might make the Constitution of the United States, and that the 
 cause of the United States is the cause of human nature. It is therefore 
 that this rebellion is so envenomed, and therefore that it stands so fast and 
 so ably, because it knows that by the necessary development, by the necessary 
 growth of the people of this country, whatever interferes with the rights, 
 with the liberties, with the peace of any solitary citizen in the land' 
 wherever he may be, that touches the liberty of all ; and that no man 
 wdl rest, that the nation itself will heave, until the rights of every man 
 have been fully vindicated. Now, fellow-citizens, this being so, the 
 experience of two years has shown us two things : in the first place, that 
 this nation is resolved to maintain its nationality ; and in the second place, 
 that there is no conceivable result possible to the war in which we are 
 engaged except the absolute victory or the absolute subjugation of the 
 government of the United States. [Applause.] There is no possible 
 ground between this. The gentlemen who have for a moment proposed 
 compromise do injustice to the policy and sagacity of the men who have 
 reared the black flag of rebellion. The men who have raised the flag of 
 disunion do an equal injustice to the sworn conviction of every loyal citi- 
 zen in the land. Therefore, understand me, that there can be but one of 
 these two issues. You know which. In your own experience it is writ- 
 ten in many a household of yours in the finger of blood— it is written in 
 your hearts, deep down, with all the earnestness of the most vital convic- 
 tion. Understand that the moral of to-day is the moral of two years ago ; 
 that there is henceforth no party among loyal men. We know there is 
 none. We know this, fellow-citizens, that Jefferson Davis, of Missis- 
 sippi, was no sounder man tried by party standards, than the old white- 
 haired man whose eloquence at a neighboring stand has thrilled you this 
 afternoon. Whatever Jefferson Davis was as a party man that was Daniel 
 S. Dickinson. But while the hand of Davis was raised to stab us, you 
 know how the tongue of Mr. Dickinson has waved like a tongue of' lire, 
 defending and again defending as he has to-day the outraged honor of our 
 dearest common mother and native land. [Applause.] And you know 
 
132 
 
 further that however good a party leader in his day Mr. Breckinridge 
 may have been, that Mr. Douglas was no way inferior to him, and his last 
 words were of the most unswerving loyalty to his country and to the 
 Union of the States. [Applause.] It was my special pleasure to say 
 when it was my privilege to be in Connecticut, that if they had produced 
 in Connecticut one known in party times as a democrat, who had since 
 disgraced the name, we in New York had produced another man known 
 in party clays as a democrat, who had not disgraced it, and that if Isaac 
 Toucey had done all he could, as his own letters testify, to haul down that 
 flag and disgrace it beneath the heel of Rebellion ; that John A. Dix, no 
 less a man of standing in his party, had not hesitated to make the tele- 
 graph and every brave man's heart thrill with the message: "Whoever 
 hauls down that flag, shoot him on the spot ! " [Applause.] Yes, fellow- 
 citizens, there we stood then, and here we stand now, unchanged. The 
 ship was tossing then ; I grant you the ship is tossing now. But then it 
 was in the wind ; now it has laid its course ; it has taken the full breeze, 
 and its course is onward. But this understand, what, while the tempest 
 howls, while the ship quivers in these dreadful billows red with blood, is 
 the duty of every loyal man ; what will every loyal man do 1 He will ask 
 himself but one question: Does the captain, do the crew, mean right? 
 Then, if they do, I will not trouble myself to have a better captain whom 
 I may know, I will not trouble myself to call over the names of a crew 
 that may to me seem abler than this. The ship is here ; the tornado is 
 here ; the captain is here ; the crew is here — we are all in for the voyage. 
 And whoever, knowing that that captain and crew desire only the safety 
 of the ship and the passengers, whoever for an instant raises a voice against 
 them, whoever himself desponds, desires or endeavors to seduce loyal and 
 brave men of the land from their obedience, mark that man well, for he 
 shows himself a lineal descendent of the copperhead in Eden, who tried to 
 seduce Eve from her obedience. [Laughter and applause.] Stand fart, 
 fellow-citizens, then, I abjure you ; stand fast by the flag which is the 
 symbol of all that is precious to you — of all the liberties you ever had — 
 of principles that at this moment keep this city in perfect peace ; that at 
 this moment maintain quiet throughout the broad region that is not touch- 
 ed by the hand of Rebellion. Stand fast by the flag, knowing this, that 
 if we are not strong enough ; if, in our day, this fight cannot be fought 
 out ; that it is a tight which was born in us ; it was bred in our bones ; it 
 flows in our blood ; .we are tied up to that issue ; and when we lay in the 
 graves those who went from us with bloom in their cheeks, with patriotism 
 in their voices, with hope in their hearts — remember that when they went 
 we held ourselves in camp by our firesides ready to follow ; we hold our- 
 selves — every man of us who is loyal holds himself, at this moment, only 
 waiting to hear what the government, which is the representative of the 
 whole people, demands of him, in order to say, "Ready! Ready! I am 
 here ! " [Tremendous applause.] Still more : If all who have gone — God 
 rest then souls ! — if all who are ready to go, young men who are strong 
 men now, will not suffice, then shall the time come when each one of us 
 will transfer it to his child, as the most sacred duty he can perform, that 
 he shall neither spare himself nor allow his children's children to be spared 
 in this struggle ; and renewing once more our vows to the dear old flag, 
 we will vow — as we do now here — God, and the shades of the august dead, 
 
133 
 
 who have hallowed this very spot with devotion to the Union, witnessing 
 it we do here once more vow that, pure as its white, bright as its red, 
 fiied as its stars, is our faith in the national honor, in the national glory 
 that that flag represents ; and that though it should cost us our lives, they 
 shall be given, and the war shall go on— it shall be chronic in American 
 blood— until that flag floats on every spot of American soil as calmly in 
 the evening air as it hangs before you now. [Great and long-continued 
 applause.] 
 
 SPEECH OF S. B. CHITTENDEN. 
 
 S. B. Chittenden, Esq., was the next speaker. He said : 
 Fellow-Citizens : There can be nothing more timely or better calcu- 
 lated to warm the hearts and exalt the patriotism of all who sincerely love 
 their country, than this League and this vast meeting, and yet both have 
 been and will continue to be denounced by partisan presses and teachers, 
 as instigated by federal office-holders for unworthy ends. I will not con- 
 sume vour time, nor insult your intelligence, by any refutation of this 
 preposterous calumny. There is not a well-informed person within the 
 sound of my voice who does not know it to be a wicked falsehood It is 
 a prodigious lie -a part of that refuge of lies which begot the rebellion 
 and by which it still lives, only to be so much the more accursed, when it 
 shall be finally hurled to its righteous and ignominious doom I 
 
 Unnumbered thousands of true and loyal hearts, embracing all sects and 
 all political parties, have devoutly prayed for this grand ^^frfl? 
 National Loyal League-regarding such action *f****%^ti*l* 
 vation of our country ; and I hail this League to-day, my count y men as 
 Tsignal and sure prophecy of a grand and glorious victory and triumph 
 for the Union over all its enemies. 
 
 The time had come to draw the line. We cannot serve God and mam- 
 mon. Those who refuse to sustain the government in this horn ot ite 
 severest trial, are the enemies of their country, and the aids of Jefl. Davis. 
 Such will be the burning record of impartial history. The ***£*£ 
 be put down with shot and shell, or the country is ruined. The lebelhon 
 never can be put down by conditional patriots. The rebels can't be 
 whelped by men who fight Lm, shouting all the time at jh. toprf £« 
 voices " We can never subdue you : " nor by men who fight against them 
 wUh 'an «tf » of any sort. Lay, then, with such folly, "£**•£ 
 treason. Let us be men, and worthy of our noble sires. You, *,ho a e 
 not unconditionally /* the war, are against it. There is no middle 
 ground Thank God the loyal men of New-York have within a month 
 fpoken once, twice, thrice, and now speak again, ma voice ^thunder 
 re-offering the immortal declaration of Andrew Jackson, I he Union 
 must and shall be preserved." The line is now to be distinctly and finally 
 Sra In Seek ye E3S whom ye will serve. There is but one question 
 More" the country. Victory £ death 1 The question about t«* 
 about finance, about slavery-all questions ™g*Z£RZL 2TiS£ 
 adjourned. There remains but one question to be settled ; that is a m li 
 ta ry question. The fate of this great republic turns upon hi D*m on 
 is impossible. Shall Jeff. Davis subdue the HM J, or shall ^the North 
 conquer him? That is the question. Say, not that this is an 
 Consult the evidence. 
 
134 
 
 The rebels turn with scom and bitter execration from the Woods, the 
 Brookses, Vallandigham, and all such peace-at-any-price men as Seymour 
 of Connecticut : they insist peremptorily upon disunion as the first condi- 
 tion of peace. This fact is perfectly established and undeniable by any 
 honest man. To divide this country is to cut the spinal column, and 
 death the inevitable result. Disunion, therefore, is victory for the Rebel- 
 lion, and defeat and unspeakable disgrace to the nation. Will you, will 
 any man who was not born to be a willing slave, hesitate as to his duty 
 in such a crisis? Shall the iron heel of the supremest despotism that ever 
 trod the earth, crush the necks of twenty millions of free souls? Shall we 
 compel all future generations of Northmen to blush red with shame, that 
 we could not defend the liberties our sires achieved for us? Oh! God 
 forbid such degradation, such humiliation. Oh ! spirit of Washington — 
 spirits of all the great and good men, by whose wisdom, valor and sacri- 
 fices, the freedom of this people was purchased, save, oh ! save our country 
 from such disgrace and shame ! 
 
 But Mr. Brooks says the Republic is dead, and he has drawn black lines 
 around such obituary notice in his paper. Is that true, my fellow-citizens? 
 Is the Republic dead? Shall it ever die? But, says Mr. Brooks, the 
 Constitution has been violated. I do not admit this, but suppose it to be 
 true for a moment. What then? Suppose Mr. Brooks, that an assassin 
 should enter your house to-night, threatening your life and that of your 
 family. You see him by the light of the moon standing by your bedside; 
 his dagger is drawn, and he is braced to plunge it remorselessly to your 
 heart ! Just behind him stand his negro servants beckoning to you as 
 intelligibly as they can, that if you will be their friend they will assist you 
 to save your life and that of your family. What will you do ? Will you 
 send for policemen, judge, jury, or the Constitution, to see what weapons 
 they provide for you ? Certainly not. You will instantly tell 'the assas- 
 sin's negroes that you will be their friend; you will seize any weapon 
 within your rear-h, and without the least hesitation or delay hurl any one 
 of them at the head of the villain ; you will kill him on the spot if you 
 can, and gladly accept all the aid his negroes can give. If you refuse such 
 aid, or hesitate in accepting it, any friend and acquaintance you have in 
 the world will say, " Thou fool ! thy own life is forfeited. If with the 
 aid of his negroes you kill the assassin, the world will applaud you, and " 
 your children's children to the latest generation will rejoice in your tri- 
 umph. Is not the case I have supposed the case of our beloved country ? 
 Are we not hound to use all the weapons God has given us ? Shall we 
 stop to examine their strength ? Shall we not rather hurl them all against 
 the foe with a steadfast, unflinching and holy purpose to save the national 
 life! 
 
 The Constitution has been discussed since 178$ by all the ablest men 
 the country and the world have produced, with indecisive results. Let 
 this discus>ion be resumed when the war is over. It is our present and 
 instant duty to crush the rebellion by any means in our power. I repeat 
 it: the only practical question before us is a military question. We are 
 to choose victory or death ! Come, then, every true man ! By all the 
 treasured and immortal memorials of the Revolution ; by the sacrifice and 
 death of the great captains who have already fallen in this struggle; by 
 the blood of hundreds of thousands of our brave brothers smitten and slain 
 
135 
 
 on the battle-fields ; by the death and sufferings of other multitudes in 
 camp and hospital ; by the heroic martyrs who have been shot and gibbeted 
 in every slave state, tor no crime but love of their country ; by the words 
 of weeping friends who have freely given their loved ones to die, that our 
 great inheritance of liberty might be rescued from the grasp of an assassin ; 
 by the undaunted heroism and genuine patriotism of the magnificent armies 
 which cemain in front, between us and the assassin ; by all the precious 
 memories of the past ; by the grander and more glorious promise and 
 prophecies of the quick-coming future, I implore my countrymen one and 
 all to sustain the government unconditionally, and may the old flag wave 
 for ever ! 
 
 " Over the land of the free and the home of the brave." 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. BRIGGS. 
 
 Amidst cries for "Fremont, Fremont," the President introduced Hon. 
 James A. Bbiggs, who spoke as follows : 
 
 Felloav-Citizexs : I wish that Fremont was here to speak to you in 
 thunder tones of the glorious proclamation of freedom that has gone forth 
 from the chief magistrate of the nation. Not long ago most men were 
 afraid to be called emancipationists, and had a perfect horror of being 
 called abolitionists. That time has gone by ; at least the feeling which 
 then existed so generally exists no longer in the minds of thinking men, 
 and to call a man an abolitionist now does not stir his blood unpleasantly 
 at all. 
 
 The rebels, my friends, are not all at the South : some of them are here 
 in our midst, — here in this great commercial emporium of the country, 
 the city of New York, and it is your duty and mine to do all we can to 
 counteract their influence. There are men here who are protected by our 
 laws and institutions in their lives, their property, their reputation — in 
 everything of theirs that requires protection — whose sympathies are all 
 with the rebels, who are fighting against the United States government, 
 by which these men are protected ; and I have no hesitation in saying 
 that they should be smoked out by a correct public opinion. The men 
 here who give aid and comfort to the rebels at the South should be 
 arrested, indicted, tried, and if convicted, executed. [A voice : " Wood."] 
 Let them take the penalty of the law. The lamented Douglas, whom all 
 true democrats delight to honor, in the last speech he ever made, said 
 that there were but two parties, patriots and traitors, and he was right. 
 Now, as then, there are but two parties in the land, the party of patriots 
 and the party of traitors. Those who belong to the first are bound to do 
 all in their power to sustain the government ; and as for those who belong 
 to the second, let them take the doom of traitors at the hands of the law. 
 This government has cost something — it has cost long years of war and 
 blood and toil, of privation and heroism, and it must now be preserved. 
 We will, if necessary, go through the seven years' war a second time, and 
 sacrifice every man and every dollar to be found in the land rather than 
 permit this government to be, destroyed- [Applause.] But it cannot be 
 destroyed ; it cannot die ; it will be as lasting and perpetual as time itself. 
 Its foundation-stones were laid by freemen's hands, and cemented by free- 
 men's blood, and the God of our fathers watches over it always, so that 
 
136 
 
 it cannot die. Many of our men now in the field must go down to their 
 graves in this struggle, and many of them must go down there unknown ; 
 but those who in the next generation shall read the history of our times, 
 as we now read the history of times past, will find written high up upon 
 the scroll of fame and immortality the names of the men who day by day 
 are dying for the republic animated by a spirit as noble and self-sacrificing 
 as that of the patriots and heroes of '76. [Renewed applause.] You 
 have heard from the granite hills of New Hampshire, the land of Stark ; 
 you have heard from the land of Greene, Rhode Island ; and last Monday 
 Connecticut, the land of Putnam, spoke out in a voice that all the copper- 
 heads in that state understand perfectly well. If ^pose gentlemen had met 
 together on last Monday night it seems to me that they would have had 
 such a meeting as that of the'two unfortunates described by Byron in his 
 magnificent poem, "Darkness," who, yon remember, by their mutual 
 hideousness destroyed each other. All this is encouraging and as it should 
 be : bat it is our duty to see to it that in this great centre of the trade, 
 wealth and influence of the countiy, no traitorous teachings shall be p*er- 
 mitted to take root, and that the hearts of its people shall now, as they 
 have always done, beat true to the music of the Union. [Applause.] 
 "We want no reconstruction of the government of the United States. We 
 want no change made in the old Constitution Avhich bears the honored 
 name of George Washington, President. [Renewed cheering.] We 
 desire and intend to preserve that Constitution as it is : we would not 
 change a single letter of it ; but we are determined that from Maine to 
 California, from the Lakes on the North to the Gulf on the South, all men 
 shall own allegiance to it. 
 
 As westand here to. day in support of the Constitution and the Union, 
 our noble officers and soldiers are rendering them more active service in 
 front of Charleston, of the capture of which I trust we may be told before 
 we disperse. And when Charleston is captured it should be razed to the 
 earth and the ground on which it now stands ploughed over, so that men 
 hereafter would be at a loss to tell the spat that it once occupied. I would 
 have that city sacked and burned, the women and children spared of 
 eourse, but the rebels in arms made to bite the dust ; and there is human- 
 ity in the wish. These rebels North and South must be blotted out un- 
 sparingly, and we must do it. There is no other course that we can take 
 without dishonor to ourselves and to the country. 
 
 I have already spoken of men in our midst who have no sympathy with 
 us, who are not of us, who are alien in birth, in principles, in feeling, and 
 in hope. Such men come here merely to make money, and they do not 
 care which side wins. They have no bnsiness here ; they do not belong 
 to the country, and they ought to be put on board the vessels that brought 
 them here and sent back to the Old World, there to have the iron heel of 
 despotism grind into their necks until they can come to a land of freedom 
 better prepared to appreciate it. Every one who is not with us in this 
 momentous struggle for national existence is against us, and should be sent 
 away. [Applause.] 
 
 I have spoken of Charleston. Eighty-three years ago to-morrow that 
 city was bombarded by the British under Gen. Clinton. In 1861 at four 
 o'clock on the morning of the 12th of April, the rebels fired upon Foi't 
 Sumter. Let us hope and pray that at that hour to-morrow morning 
 Charleston may be ours, and the old flag float again over Sumter in 
 
honor, in glory, and in power, never to be removed from that position un- 
 til the hour comes, as come it must, when the last particle of light shall 
 fall from the urn of expiring Nature. [Renewed cheering.] 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Briggs' speech the President of the meeting 
 said : You have heard from Nevada ; you have heard from Ohio ; have 
 you patience to listen for a few moments to one from Missouri? [Several 
 voices, "Yes," "Yes."] 
 
 SPEECH OF MR. PARSONS. 
 
 Mr. Parsons, of St. Louis, then came forward, amid applause, and 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 I thank you for this kind greeting, although I cannot, if I would, re- 
 gard it as offered to me personally, since you do not know me nor I you. 
 I accept it, therefore, as a tribute to the state from which I come. Do 
 you remember that that state is claimed by the Southern Confederacy? 
 You see before you a man who belongs to a state that is claimed by Jeff. 
 Davis. [A. voice : "You are not one of them."] 
 
 I am not one of them, a friend here says, and he is right ; I am not. 
 I will tell you who I am ; I am that old man who, when it was dangerous 
 in our city to say that you were a Union man, when there were three 
 rebel flags floating there and only two Union flags, one from the State- 
 House and the other from the City-Hall — I am the old man who then 
 and there hung out the first Union flag that was hung out from a private 
 residence. [Great cheering.] I was threatened and told : " Parsons, you 
 will regret this ; it will not be sixty days until we have this city in our 
 hands, and then you and others like you must look out." "Well," said 
 I, " I cannot say you won't have it, but I do not think you will ; and you 
 won't if I can help it. But if you do get it you must do one of two things 
 with me — either send me out of the countiy or take my life ; for under 
 the rebel government I will ne%er live." ["Good," "Good."] I had 
 two sons with Gen. Lyon, and the next oldest one wanted to go and join 
 Gen. Fremont's body-guard, but he was too young and not big enough. 
 
 ] expected that when I should get into the Free States away from the 
 baneful influence of slavery, I would find none but loyal men ; but I have 
 been very much surprised to find here and between here and there, seces- 
 sionists far more numerous than in Missouri, a state claimed by the Con- 
 federacy. This should not be so. I want to be able to go back to Mis- 
 souri and tell our friends there that New York is now loyal, and that she 
 is determined to stand to the old flag until the rebellion is subdued. Let 
 us be united. If we were so we could sweep over this rebellion and over- 
 whelm it at once. I shall conclude with the words of Andrew Jackson 
 and Daniel Webster: "The Union, it must and shall be preserved!" 
 " Liberty and Union, now and forever one and inseparable." [Applause.] 
 
 The President next introduced Gen. Crawford, one of the garrison 
 of Fort Sumter under Major Anderson. The General bowed to the 
 crowd,, but declined to make a speech. 
 
138 
 
 SPEECH OF THEODORE TILTON. 
 
 The Chairman announced that the closing speech of the day would be 
 made by Theodore Tilton, of Brooklyn, who rose to speak as the even- 
 ing was coming on. 
 
 My Countrymen : It is a beautiful prophecy of the Word of God, " At 
 the evening time there shall be light." I see the shadows of the evening 
 falling on your faces, yet I see the light of hope shining in your eye?. So, 
 amid the shadows of war that now rest on the land, a holy fire in men's 
 breasts keeps bright the prospect of Victory and Freedom. 
 
 Two years ago, when I spoke at the first great meeting of the people as- 
 sembled in this Square — it was at this same hour of the day : the sun was 
 setting behind yonder roofs. I recalled then — and I recall now — that 
 strain of Milton's : 
 
 " So sinks the day-star in his ocean bed, 
 And jet anon repairs his drooping head, 
 And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 
 Flames in the forehead of the morning sky." 
 
 It is my firm faith, that the glory of this nation — which seemed, like the 
 sun in the heavens, about to go down at noon — is to rise to a more illus- 
 trious splendor. The flag that went down shall rise again ; the honr 
 that went down with it shall rise again. Nothing shall be lost — Except, 
 indeed, the precious loss of the brave dead, who have gained honorable 
 graves. 
 
 Is it the fight at Sumter that we celebrate to-day? It is more. Sum- 
 er is more than a battle-name. It means a new idea — a new principle^ — 
 a new doctrine of government — a new assurance of the rights of the peo- 
 ple — a new support to republican institutions. It is not simply that over 
 that fortress, two years ago to-morrow, at daybreak, hovered the first 
 cloud of smoke of the greatest war of modern times. It is more. What 
 was the meaning of that outbreak ? At first, the meaning was hidden in 
 the smoke. Then, when the people saw it, the government failed to see 
 it. But at last the eyes of the President were opened, and on the first of 
 January he interpreted the meaning by public proclamation to all the 
 world. That fort of Charleston harbor was built upon a foundation of 
 New England granite : that state of South Carolina is to be rebuilt upon 
 a foundation of New England ideas ! That is the meaning of Sumter. 
 
 To-day's anniversary is a stand-point for looking backward and look- 
 ing forward. To-day we end the second year of the war. Washington, 
 at the end of the second year of the Revolution, wrote these words : 
 
 "That spirit of freedom, which at the commencement of this contest 
 would have gladly sacrificed everything to the attainment of its object, 
 has long since subsided, and every selfish passion has taken its place. It 
 is not the public, but private interest, which influences the generality of 
 mankind, nor can the Americans any longer boast an exception." 
 
 This was Washington's testimony. What is ours ? Compare the spirit 
 of both wars at the end of two years ! Are we better than our fathers, 
 that our record should be better than theirs * We have had what they 
 had — a two years' history of good and evil — of patriotism and greed — of 
 loyalty and treachery — of holy zeal and ignoble passion. Contractors 
 
139 
 
 have fattened, while soldiers have gone unpaid. Opportunities for victory 
 have been thrown away by generals, by reason of not being on friendly 
 terms with brother officers in the same service. Party spirit has kept offi- 
 cers in command who have been fit only to serve the enemy. Other offi- 
 cers, whose names alone are a terror to the rebellion, are still knocking at 
 the doors of the government, vainjy asking appointment to the field. Pub- 
 lic money has been squandered. Popular patience has been exhausted. 
 Official beguilers in high places have whispered the counsels of the Devil 
 into the President's ears. Honest men have hung their heads for shame, 
 blushing for the government of their country, while they trembled for her 
 fate. Many a Christian heart has lifted up its prayer to God, saying in 
 bitterness, "In whom can we put our trust but in Thee?" This is the 
 picture of the two years' war against the rebellion. "Why do I depict it? 
 Is it to make a ground against hope ? No. It is to make a ground in fa- 
 vor of hope. It is because what is true of ourselves to-day was exactly 
 true of our fathers in Washington's day. It is because, after such a two 
 years 1 history, our fathers still had spirit and courage to fight five years 
 more, and in the end to win their immortal victory. 80 if, after our two 
 years' history, we are called to pass through five years more of war, I 
 doubt not we shall be equal to the work, till our victoiy too shall be im- 
 mortal ! 
 
 Whence came the war? It is said that many years of peace had cor- 
 rupted the public virtue. No. Peace is no corrupter of the public virtue. 
 Peace is its foster-nurse. Peace is the mother of the arts. Peace touches 
 the soil, and it blossoms into flowers. Peace is the fore-token of the final 
 glory of the earth. Peace is God's benediction upon the land. No ; it 
 was not peace that gave us war, It was because we had war while we 
 thought we had peace. It was because, for seventy years, we were given 
 over to " strong delusion, to believe a lie." First pure, then peaceable — 
 that is the order of God's law. But this nation — impure — guilty of a 
 great sin — the sin of sins — how could it have peace? It had no peace. 
 It has had none from the beginning. Our fathers died, leaving war in the 
 land ; and we, when we were born, received as our birthright inheritance 
 to day's legacy of civil war. What, therefore, is the lesson of these many 
 years — of this long experience — of this seeming peace culminating in open 
 war ? There is this lesson for to-day — that there will be no end of the 
 war between the North and the South until freedom shall reign, and there- 
 fore peace. Justice is the only calmer of revolutionary storms. Anything 
 but emancipation will be war — war now, war evermore — until God's day 
 of settlement with the nation. 
 
 And as this is a meeting of the Loyal League, it is easy to answer the 
 question, Who is loyal ? It is he who is loyal to liberty — no one else. 
 It is lie who has faith in justice — no one else. It is he who upholds the 
 rights of men — no one else. This is the only loyalty that can save this 
 nation. There is but one salvation. Save the nation from her sins, and 
 you save her from her perils. Wise men will heed the many signs of the 
 times — the many tokens of God's interfering providence, saying now, as 
 of old, " I will maintain the right of the poor." It is to rebuke fools for 
 their folly that the people gather here to-day. The first uprising of two 
 years ago, was in testimony against the disloyal South ; to-day's uprising 
 is in testimony against the disloyal North. Let the many treasonable com- 
 plotters who walk these streets — breathing out threatenings against liberty 
 
140 
 
 — take heed of this day's purpose, and beware of that gathering indigna- 
 tion of the people — that coming wrath of the patriotic masses in the 
 loyal states — which means to sweep before it the combined enemies of the 
 republic, alike in the South and in the North ! 
 
 This nation is not to be lost : it is to be saved. It shall come out of 
 these trials — tested. It shall pass through these flames — purified. I think 
 no evil of these times. They are brave days. They cany sorrow in them, 
 but they carry mercy. Out of the wrath of man rises praise to God. 
 There are sublime compensations for war. Otherwise it would be unen- 
 durable. But, with these, and for the sake of these, it becomes heroic. 
 Are the times troublous *? They are for putting an end to troubles ! Are 
 they full of unusual burdens % They are for making the yokes easy and 
 the burdens light. My countrymen, we have been living low-minded lives ! 
 These great events are for lifting us to higher thoughts. They are for in- 
 spiring us with more Christian aims. They are for sowing the land with 
 more generous ideas. Our children will be richer in soul for the struggle of 
 flesh and blood through which we are now passing. They will be wiser 
 for the lessons we now are learning. These dews of the night, now fall- 
 ing, are to enrich the fields for future harvests. So the dew of blood which 
 a righteous war is now leaving upon many battle-fields is to spring up into 
 the growth of a. nobler manhood of the American people. 
 
 Meanwhile, my countrymen — as the night comes on — as the darkness 
 thickens — my thought wanders away from the multitude of your faces, 
 which these shadows are making dim, to that greater multitude whose 
 faces are more dusky than this darkness — the four millions of humble 
 men and women, the poor and lowly, the oppressed and despised — who all 
 their lives long have sat in the darkness of the shadow of death. In the 
 silence of the night, their voices arise into the ear of Him who heareth in 
 the heavens ! 
 
 " Hoarse, horrible, and strong 
 
 Goes up the agonizing cry — 
 
 Filling the hollow arches of the sky — 
 
 How long, God, how long ! " 
 
 But it is written in His divine word — " Shall not God avenge His own 
 elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them ? 
 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily." 
 
 Is this promise to be fulfilled "? Hark ! Put your hands to your ear ! 
 The noise of many battles comes up from the South ! What means the 
 sound? It is the voice of God the Avenger, " bringing forth judgment 
 unto victory. 
 
 The meeting adjourned with prolonged and vehement cheers for the 
 Union. 
 
 RECEPTION OF THE DELEGATION FROM THE LOYAL LEAGUE 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 The Delegation from the Loyal League of Philadelphia, to attend the 
 Great Mass Meeting of April 11, arrived at the foot of Cortlandt street 
 about noon, where they were met by a Committee of the Loyal Leagues 
 of this city, with carriages. The distinguished guests were taken to 
 
141 
 
 Delmonico's and welcomed by R. B. Minturn, and the Rev. Dr. Bellows. 
 Morton McMichael, Esq., Chairman of the Philadelphia Delegation, 
 responded in a very happy and patriotic speech, after which all partook of 
 a lunch provided for their entertainment. From Delmonico's the guests 
 were escorted to the headquarters of the Union League Club, and invited 
 to participate in the proceedings of raising and dedicating a flag. They 
 were then escorted to seats at the various stands. At 7 o'clock the Dele- 
 gates of the New York Union Leagues dined by invitation with the 
 Philadelphia Delegates at the Astor House. Covers were laid for 150 
 persons. 
 
 When the cloth was removed, speeches were made by B. H. Brewster, 
 Esq., Charles Gibbons, Esq., Henry C. Carey, Esq., and others of Phila- 
 delphia, Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, Charles King, Esq., of this 
 city, and others. Morton McMichael, Esq. , presided. There were about 
 one hundred Philadelphians present, among whom were George H. Boker, 
 Esq., Judge Kelley, John B. Kenney, and Ex-Mayo^ Charles Gilpin. 
 The affair passed off pleasantly. The Philadelphia Guests, during their 
 stay, were waited upon by many of our most prominent citizens, and ex- 
 pressed themselves highly delighted with their reception and entertain- 
 ment. They returned home, bearing with them the best wishes of their 
 loyal friends in this city, whose hearts beat in unison with theirs, and 
 whose hands are ever ready to join with theirs in upholding the Union 
 and crushing; out this wicked and causeless Rebellion. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Call of the Meeting 3 
 
 Notices of the Press 4 
 
 Stand No. 1 9 
 
 Introductory Remarks by Mayor Opdyke 12 
 
 Address, prepared by Dr. Francis Lieber 13 
 
 Resolutions 21 , 
 
 Speech of Hon. Montgomery Blair 23 
 
 Speech of Hon. William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania 29 
 
 Speech of Benjamin H. Brewster, Esq., of Pennsylvania 31 
 
 Speech of Colonel Stewart L. Woodford 33 
 
 Speech of Horatio N. Wild 35 
 
 Stand No. 2 , ! 37 
 
 Speech of Governor 0. P. Morton, of Indiana 40 
 
 Speech of General A. J. Hamilton, of Texas 50 
 
 Speech of Hon. James M. Scovel, of New Jersey 57 
 
 Speech of Rev. J. T. Duryea 61 
 
 Stand No. 3 63 
 
 Speech of Benson J. Lossing, Esq 66 
 
 Speech of Major-General Sigel 68 
 
 Speech of Dr. Rudolph Dulon 69 
 
 Speech of Hon. Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana 72 
 
 Speech of Governor Pierpont, of Virginia 75 
 
 Resolutions on the late James Louis Petigru, of South Carolina. . . 78 
 
 Speech of Hon. Montgomery Blair 79 
 
 Speech of Weil Von Gernsbach 80 
 
 Speech of Dr. Forsck 82 
 
 Stand No. 4 83 
 
 Speech of General John C. Fremont 86 
 
 Speech of Hon. Roscoe Conkling 88 
 
 Speech of Hon. George W. Julian, of Indiana 98 
 
 Speech of W. J. A. Fuller, Esq 102 
 
 Remarks of Peter Cooper 107 
 
144 
 
 Page 
 
 Stand No. 5 109 
 
 Speech of Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson 112 
 
 Speech of Hon. Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts 117 
 
 Speech of James W. Nye 120 
 
 Speech of Prof. John A. Porter, of Connecticut 122 
 
 Speech of John 0. Montgomery 123 
 
 Speech of G. W. Elliott 123 
 
 Speech of Colonel Nugent 124 
 
 Stand No. 6 126 
 
 ' Speech of David Dudley Field, Esq 128 
 
 Speech of George William Curtis 129 
 
 Speech of S. B. Chittenden, Esq 133 
 
 Speech of Hon. James A. Briggs 135 
 
 Speech of Mr. Parsons, of Missouri 137 
 
 Speech of Theodore Tilton 138 
 
 Reception of the Delegation from the Loyal League of Philadelphia 140 
 
nTT?|; ?»;;;; ;s ~ ; 
 
 THE SUMTER ANNIVERSARY. 1863, 
 
 OPINIONS OF LOYALISTS 
 
 THE GREAT QUESTIONS OF THE TIMES; 
 
 EXPRESSED IN THE SPEECHES AND LETTERS FROM PROMINENT 
 rZENS OP ALL SECTIONS AND PARTIES, ON 00 
 OP Tfl (JURATION OF 
 
 %\t Itogral IJa&rmtl league, 
 
 IN MASS MEETING-' ON UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK 
 
 ON THE 11th Or APRIL, 1863, 
 
 THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATTACK ON FORT SUMTEfi 
 
 
 PUBLISHED »V OliDEB OK THE COUNCIL AND EXECUTIVE COSIMITJ'l 
 
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