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 I LIBRARY OF :ESS,I 
 
 UNITED STATES I C A . | 
 

 
RELIEF FOR EAST TENNESSEE. 
 
 MEETING AT COOPER INSTITUTE, 
 
 Thursday Muening, March 10, 1864. 
 
 ADDKESS 
 
 HON. N. G. TAYLOR, 
 
 (Late Representative from East T<eKtuissee,Ji 
 
 REPORTED BY A. F. WASHBURTON, STENOGRAPHER. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 W«. C Brtant «& Co., Printers, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Libertt. 
 
 1864. 
 
tS3l 
 
PRELIMINARY CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 New York, Saturday, Feb. 20, 1864. 
 The Hon. N. G. Taylor, former Representative from East Tennessee : 
 
 Dear Sir, — The undersigned having been made aware of the important 
 mission with which you are charged, under the approbation of the Governor 
 of Tennessee, namely, the relief of the suffering Union men of that State, 
 are desirous that you should make a statement of your mission and of the 
 condition of that loyal but unfortunate population to the people of this 
 city, to the end that they may be enabled to participate in the wide move- 
 ment which is now making to alleviate their sufferings. 
 
 They, therefore, earnestly desire that you will name a day when it will 
 be convenient for you to address a public meeting to be held in New York 
 for this purpose. 
 
 Respectfully, your obedient servants, 
 W. E. Dodge, Adrian Iselin, 
 
 Jonathan Sturges, RoBr. B. Roosevelt, 
 
 Wm, T. Blodgett, Hiram Walbridge, 
 
 Peter Cooper, George Griswold, 
 
 George Opdyke, John C. Green, 
 
 Charles Butler, Morris Ketchum, 
 
 Wm. K. Strong, S. B, Chittenden, 
 
 John Austin Stevens, Jr. 
 
 New York, Monday, March 7, 1864. 
 Gentlemen, — I have the honor to own receipt of your kindly letter of 
 Feb. 20, inviting me to name an evening upon which I may address the 
 people of the city of New York upon the unhappy condition and suffer- 
 ing of the Union men of East Tennessee, and solicit from your often taxed 
 but always generous liberality, some aid and relief to my unfortunate 
 neighbors and friends in that section. 
 
 I have just returned from a tour through the Eastern States, where I 
 have been received with the utmost kindness, and where my efforts have 
 met with success. 
 
 I will have the honor of addressing the citizens of New York on Thurs- 
 day evening next, 10th inst., if agreeable to you. 
 
 Thanking you in the name of my countrymen for your kindness, 
 I have the honor to remain your obedient servant, 
 
 N. G. Taylor. 
 Messrs. W. E. Dodge, Jonathan Sturges, William T. Blodgett, Peter 
 Cooper, George Opdyke, and others. 
 
4 
 
 New York, March 9th, 1864. 
 Major-Genl. A. E. Burnside : 
 
 General, — On the evening of Thursday, 10th inst, Hon. N. G. Taylor, 
 former Representative from East Tennessee, will address the citizens of 
 New York with an appeal for relief for that loyal but unfortunate section. 
 Many of our best citizens participate in this movement and are interested 
 in its success. Your recent command in that section, and your defence of 
 its soil from the rebel, invasion have indissolubly connected your name with 
 that of East Tennessee ; and it seems therefore particularly appropriate that 
 you should accede to the request which I have the honor to make in the 
 name of the gentlemen who have requested Mr. Taylor to deliver an ad- 
 dress, namely, to preside over the meeting ; and with your permission, I 
 will so announce. 
 
 Truly and respectfully, 
 
 Your friend and servant, 
 
 John Austin Stevens, Jr. 
 
 Pursuant to the foregoing correspondence, a meeting of the 
 citizens of New York was called at the Cooper Institute, on 
 Thursday evening. 
 
 Gen. "W. K. Strong, in a few introductory remarks, explained 
 the occasion of their disappointment, in the absence of Gen. 
 Burnside, as President of the meeting, and read the following 
 letter : 
 
 Fifth Avenue Hotel, March 10, 1864. 
 John Austin Stevens, Jr., Esq. : 
 
 My Dear Sir, — On my return from New Haven this afternoon, I found 
 your kind note asking me to preside at the meeting to be addressed this 
 evening by the Hon. N. G. Taylor in behalf of the suffering people of 
 East Tennessee, and am very sorry that an important engagement in refer- 
 ence to my official duties, will prevent me from being with you at the 
 opening of the meeting. It is possible that I may be able to join you dur- 
 ing the evening. You know how much sympathy I have for the brave 
 and noble people of East Tennessee, and how much I admire their un- 
 swerving loyalty — and how much I desire to see their present wants sup- 
 plied by the more prosperous loyal sections. They deserve aid, and I am 
 Bure they will receive it. 
 
 Thanking the gentlemen of the Committee for the honor done me by 
 asking me to preside at your meeting, I remain, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 A. E. Burnside. 
 
Gen. Hiram "Walbridge was nominated and elected a9 pre- 
 siding officer. After thanking the meeting for the honor done 
 him, he said : 
 
 GEN. WALBRIDGE'S SPEECH. 
 
 The patriotic citizens of this great commercial metropolis 
 have so often and so generously bestowed their liberality since 
 the commencement of the rebellion, that now, in appealing to 
 them in behalf of the suffering Unionists of East Tennessee, it 
 may not be inappropriate to state the circumstances of their 
 present condition — the causes which have produced it, and the 
 hope they entertain of again speedily occupying their once 
 proud position in the galaxy of States that constitute the Ameri- 
 can Republic. 
 
 Located in the geographical centre of the old Union — there, 
 amid their native fastnesses, and in the mountains, they have 
 never yielded to the demands of the traitors of the so-called 
 Confederacy, though often pressed by overwhelming numbers 
 to renounce their allegiance to the Federal Union. 
 
 Twenty-five thousand of the choicest sons of East Ten- 
 nessee, in the liberating armies of the republic, have stripped 
 that community of its defenders, leaving their aged sires, their 
 defenceless mothers, and their unprotected daughters, to the 
 mercy of those formerly their neighbors and friends, who have 
 yielded to the mad and wicked spirit of secession. A common 
 humanity should have dictated that a population thus depend- 
 ent for protection on the gallantry of those who have been tem- 
 porarily in power there, should have caused those who boast of 
 their chivalry to avoid the atrocities which they have freely com- 
 mitted, and at the mere recital^of which the cheek turns pale. 
 But this foul spirit of secession is alike deaf to the claims of 
 humanity or the ties of consanguinity. This, however, need 
 not excite surprise. A people who have voluntarily determined 
 to overthrow the fabric of constitutional government must, in 
 advance, have qualified themselves for every species of atrocity- 
 known to human annals. 
 
 These facts, however, only augment our responsibility to con- 
 tribute whatever lies in our power to alleviate their sufferings, 
 
and restore them to their original condition as it existed before 
 the rebellion began. It is indeed hard, that in the third year of 
 the contest — with over twenty millions of population from which 
 to draw onr resources and strength — we should be now under 
 the necessity of alleviating the famishing wants of the Unionists 
 of East Tennessee, and defending them against the brutality 
 and outrages of a confederacy which, from the beginning, never 
 numbered more than six millions of rebel population. 
 
 This portion of Tennessee was originally settled by emi- 
 grants from the " Old North State," who inherited their convic- 
 tions of popular liberty from the men who fought at "King's 
 Mountain," and passed the " Mechlenburgh" declaration of in- 
 dependence. From 1774 to 1784, " North Carolina" exercised 
 legislation over this territory. But in the succeeding year of 
 1785, that government becoming distasteful to those hardy and 
 vigorous pioneers, they were unwilling to yield to the imperious 
 demands of the slave legislation of the parent tSate, and they, 
 consequently, organized themselves into a separate political 
 community, under the name of "Franklin." And until 178S 
 they maintained a separate political existence, whose distin- 
 guishing characteristics were political equality and universal 
 freedom. This territory was, however, subsequently re-annexed 
 to " North Carolina," and by her ceded to the General Govern- 
 ment. And such was the increase in her population and the 
 development of her resources, that after being merged into a 
 territorial organization with "Middle" and "West Ten- 
 nessee," they were admitted into the Union as a State in 
 1796. 
 
 This inherent love of liberty, early engendered in her first 
 distinct political organization, has ever since continued to exer- 
 cise its legitimate influence on the sentiment of her people. 
 And while other sections in surrounding States have become 
 more and more thoroughly imbued in their idolatry to slavery, 
 the population of East Tennessee, catching inspiration from 
 the invigorating breezes of their native mountains, have ever 
 remained true to the cardinal principles on which the theory of 
 the Federal Government is based. 
 
 This dominant love of freedom seems to be indigenous to 
 every mountain region throughout the habitable globe. And 
 
tins has frequently been illustrated in English history, when the 
 vestal fires of freedom were only kept burning amid the High- 
 lands of Scotland. And to day, surrounded by the tyrannies 
 and despotisms of Europe, a gallant and chivalric people, whose 
 territory, reaching above the clouds, penetrates 
 
 " Where fields of light and liquid ether flow," 
 
 maintain their love of freedom pure and spotless as the snow 
 upon their native Alps. 
 
 In every contest of the past where the honor, integrity and 
 renown of the United States have been involved, no people 
 have displayed greater alacrity in upholding and maintaining 
 the Government of the United States than the people of East 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Subjected to a terrible conscription by the confederates when 
 in possession of that section of the country, it is almost entirely 
 destitute of white male population. The slaves of that region 
 having also sought protection within the Federal lines, the 
 women and children are without the common necessaries of life. 
 
 As each rebel conscription has been enforced in this section 
 of the Union, the loyal men of East Tennessee, shrinking 
 from the turpitude of fighting against a government which, in 
 the past, had guaranteed to them so many blessings, have fled 
 to their native mountains, preferring to encounter the wild 
 beasts of the forest rather than their still more inhuman neigh- 
 bors who have yielded to the foul spirit of secession. 
 
 The importance in which the region has been held by the 
 rebels as a strategic point for military operations is thoroughly 
 illustrated by the tenacity with which they have struggled to 
 hold their grasp upon it. They fully realize that the sentiments 
 of its population are thoroughly imbued with an inherent love 
 of constitutional freedom. Consequently, the rebel authorities 
 have exercised over it from the first the most tyrannical rule, 
 hoping to crush the spirit of its free people. 
 
 But all these circumstances convince us that this part of Ten- 
 nessee should have been occupied, at the commencement of the 
 struggle, as a basis for military operations in the South. And 
 it is now, as it was in the beginning, the dictate of wise states- 
 
8 
 
 manship to develope the Union sentiment of the South by sap- 
 porting and strengthening the Unionists in those localities where 
 they are still true to the General Government as in Texas and 
 East Tennessee. And the neglect to do this has led to a merciless 
 rebel conscription in those localities, which has resulted to the 
 advantage of the rebels and the absolute destruction of the 
 Unionists in those States. 
 
 These Southern Unionists are the residuary legatees of the au- 
 thority of the General Government, and the whole power of the 
 nation should be exerted to shield them from persecution and 
 to restore them to their former proud position. 
 
 Every day's experience demonstrates that it is the dictate of 
 wisdom to put forth our overwhelming strength, and bring this 
 rebellion to a spedy and immediate close. Whatever cause 
 protracts the war still further, ruins the South ; and it is kind- 
 ness to every section of the country that all our energy should 
 be devoted to bring this rebellion to a triumphant close. The 
 government, then, brought in harmony with the designs of its 
 original founders, will enter upon a new career of greatness and 
 renown, while it recognizes truth, justice and political equality 
 as the foundations of its future prosperity and strength. Let us 
 not forget that the moral world has its laws, as fixed and eternal 
 as those which regulate the material universe. And the nation 
 or statesman that disregards this great truth in the administra- 
 tion of human affairs must, sooner or later, reap the conse- 
 quences which result from their violation. 
 
 In every community there are two opposing forces struggling 
 for supremacy, — one a temporary expediency that looks to per- 
 sonal objects and immediate action — the other founded on moral 
 conviction and regulated by Christian principle; and statesmen 
 and nations are to be measured by the manner in which they 
 are controlled by one or the other of those opposing forces in 
 the administration of human affairs. "We are too apt to measure 
 results by the standard of our physical existence. And this it 
 is, and this alone, which causes so many of those who are called 
 to exercise power and influence in public affairs, to regulate 
 their conduct by the immediate circumstances which surround 
 them, instead of looking beyond the present, and basing their 
 action and shaping their policy upon the eternal principles of 
 justice and right. 
 
9 
 
 I shall now have the pleasure, fellow-citizens, of presenting 
 to you one of the gifted sons of East Tennessee — a citizen for- 
 merly- one of its ablest representatives in the National Congress. 
 Wherever the honor, interest or renown, not only of Tennessee, 
 but of the Union, was concerned, he was their able, eloquent 
 and gifted advocate. Driven from his country, by the persecu- 
 tion of the rebels, he comes to represent to you the sufferings 
 of his countrymen. And should fortune call any of us to his 
 section of the country, to stand there as he stands here to-night, 
 may we then be able to exclaim, as he exclaims here, "These ! 
 these are my countrymen, and this ! Oh this ! is my country L" 
 I have the pleasure to present to you the Hon. N. G. Taylor, 
 who will now address you. 
 
 ADDKESS OF HON. N. G. TAYLOE. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies, Gentlemen, Fellow-Citizens, — I ana 
 hereto-night, at the instance of kind citizens of this great me- 
 tropolis, to address you in reference to East Tennessee, whose 
 representative I have the honor to be on this occasion. I re- 
 gret that it is not my privilege to congratulate myself, and 
 you, upon the prosperity and happiness of my people ; that I 
 cannot tell you, our homes are undisturbed and quiet ; that the 
 peace, and tranquillity, and integrity of the family circle is still 
 unbroken ; and that there are no sad signs of sorrow, no grating 
 sounds of distress and war echoing among our mountains and 
 valleys. But such are the desolating fruits of rebellion, such 
 the blighting results of internecine war, that I can tell you no 
 such pleasing stories. 
 
 I do not come here to your great rich city as a beggar, nor as 
 a representative of beggars ; for a population that has always 
 been too proudly patriotic to bow the willing neck to the heart- 
 less tyranny of a despotic Southern oligarchy, is still too proud, 
 although beggared by this war, to cringe, as a beggar, and so- 
 licit alms of Northern brethren. (Applause.) If you will cast 
 your eye upon the map of the United States, and draw a line 
 upon its face, from Cincinnati to Charleston, S. C, and another 
 
10 
 
 from New York city to New Orleans, I think you will find 
 that their intersection will be near the centre of East-Tennessee, 
 which is that portion of the State of Tennessee lying east of the 
 Cumberland Mountains. It comprises thirty one counties, and 
 contains 10,000 to 15.000 square miles, and a population of 
 300,000 persons. 
 
 This is a mountain region essentially, and is one of the most 
 elevated within the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. 
 It is almost surrounded by lofty mountains, which isolate it 
 from other sections, and make it territorially a State of itself. 
 East Tennessee is indeed a most interesting region, and richly 
 deserving of your warmest sympathies, and your kindest re- 
 gards, if not your profoundest admiration. "It consists of the 
 broad valley of the magnificent river (Tennessee and its tribu- 
 taries) which traverses it, from northeast to southwest," for more 
 than two hundred miles, "with a varying width of from fifty 
 to seventy-five miles — and of the slopes of the mountains, which 
 separate it, on the north from Kentucky, on the west from 
 middle Tennessee, and on the southeast from North Carolina 
 and Georgia— a beautiful valley — between beautiful enclosing 
 hills, fertile, many of them, to their summits ; sparkling with a 
 hundred tributaries to the noble stream which forms its prin- 
 ciple feature." From northeast to southwest this region is 
 traversed, for most of its length, by Powell's, Clinch, Bays, and 
 House Mountains, whose transverse spurs and ridges reach far 
 down into the intervening valleys — giving variety and boldness 
 to a scenery, unsurpassed for loveliness and beauty on the 
 American continent. Our streams are fed by ten thousand 
 clear, bright, pebbly bottomed rivulets, whose cool, laugh- 
 ing waters gush from perennial fountains, away up on the 
 mountain sides, and dance merrily on in their mission of love, 
 awaking the echoes with the melody of their sweet voices. The 
 axe has cleared many thousands of fertile acres, in the valleys, 
 and along the slopes of the hills— which yield their generous 
 fruits to the hardy farmer's toil— but the rich mountains still 
 shade themselves with a boundless profusion of forest verdure, 
 as if to shut out, and hide from man's obtrusive gaze, the 
 wilderness of rich grasses and flowers, there " born to blush un- 
 seen." 
 
11 
 
 Stand here with me, on the bank of this clear, rapid little 
 river, and I will show you a landscape that God made for man 
 to love and enjoy. There is the spring under that venerable 
 willow — and its pellucid waters are dancing along, to their own 
 music, in their serpentine track, through grassy meadows where 
 flocks are feeding ; to the right, is the great wheat-field already 
 rich with the verdure of spring ; beyond is the forest, vene- 
 rable with age, but strong enough yet to breast the storms 
 of a hundred years ; above the forest, there, before you a 
 mile or more away, is the first ridge of the mountain, be- 
 hind which is the cascade whose silvery waters have nour- 
 ished whole generations of echoes ever since the flood ; still 
 above, far away in the blue distance, rises the grand old 
 mountain itself; on its sides and slopes the primeval forest still 
 spreads its giant arms, as if to shield the millions of beautiful 
 wild flowers, that flourish at its feet, while on its summit, above 
 yon belt of mist, 6,200 feet above the sea, a green grassy 
 prairie meadow, fringed with fir trees, spreads its beautiful 
 bosom to the caresses of the sun. In this mountain-girt realm, 
 there are no dismal swamps, and stagnant, putrid lakes, whence 
 malaria springs to poison man — no miasm taints the air — these 
 find a home in less congenial climes. The pestilential winds 
 from the damp lowlands of the south and southwest, filtered and 
 cooled as they sweep over the lofty crests of our mountains, 
 breathe life and health on all our sunny valleys. Our moun- 
 tains abound with ores of lead, zinc, copper, silver, and iron ; 
 bituminous coal, and many varieties of marble, are found 
 in various localities. Salt has been discovered, and there are 
 mineral waters, of great medicinal value, in almost every 
 county ; and we have water-power enough to operate all the 
 machinery of the continent. 
 
 This country, these valleys, these mountains, are the homes 
 of 300,000 people, whose misfortune it has been to incur the 
 displeasure of their Southern brethren. Not that they differed, 
 essentially in their sentiments and feelings upon the great 
 national questions that had heretofore, to a greater or less ex- 
 tent, sectionalized the opinions of the country ; not that in their 
 sympathies, interests, education, or associations, they were severed 
 from their brethren surrounding them, — but that they cherished 
 
12 
 
 a different appreciation of the Government of the United States, 
 which was committed to them in trust, for the benefit of pos- 
 terity ; not that they loved their kindred less, but their country 
 more. [Applause.] 
 
 It is true that many of our kindred of the South are very 
 angry with the people of East Tennessee, and they hate us with 
 great bitterness, and of late have done us great injury. Yet, 
 while the remembrance of this fact is a source of great pain to 
 the people of East Tennessee, they are consoled by the reflec- 
 tion that this animosity and hatred have been engendered by 
 her devotion to the union of these States, by her adherence 
 to the farewell advice of the father of our country, by 
 ber persistent refusal to take part or lot in any mad effort for 
 the overthrow of our common government — a government 
 which has always protected its citizens, which has never in- 
 fringed a solitary right of an individual or a State of this Union, 
 from its beginning down, and which our people believe it to be 
 their religious duty to hand down, as a priceless and inestimable 
 heritage, to their children and children's children. [Loud 
 applause.] 
 
 But it is not true that East Tennessee has ever been unfaith- 
 ful to the Southern people, either in principle or in fact. We 
 believed, and we declared, that the interests and institutions, 
 the happiness, prosperity, and rights of „the people of the South, 
 were bound up with and in the Union, and that they could 
 never be preserved outside of the Union. We declared this 
 upon the rostrum and at the hustings, — everywhere, from 
 Carter to Shelby, — from the eastern limit of the State to its 
 western boundary upon the Mississippi river. Inexorable his- 
 tory has vindicated the correctness of our judgment, and demon- 
 strated the weakness and fallacy of theirs. Let the universal 
 prosperity that swelled every channel of their vitality — com- 
 mercial, political, industrial and social — at the beginning of the 
 war, and within the Union ; and the ruined commerce, the 
 paralyzed industry, the bankrupt treasury, the dismembered 
 families, the broken-hearted widows, the orphaned children, 
 the desolated homes and new-made graves of the South without 
 the Union, attest the unutterable folly of those who execrate the 
 people of East Tennessee, because they would not affiliate with 
 
13 
 
 treason. [Applause.] Could those who made tins war have 
 beee made to taste alone its bitterness and feel its woes, it had 
 been well. Then East Tennessee would have escaped. But, 
 alas! the concentrated fury of the war has rolled over her inno- 
 cent bosom, and she is in ruins to-day, having nothing left her 
 but pride, poverty, and patriotism. 
 
 Her people are the descendants of the pioneer heroes of 
 North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New 
 Jersey, with here and there a solitary individual from other 
 Northern and Southern States, and, like their illustrious ances- 
 try, they have never learned how to be false to the Constitution 
 and the Union. The pioneer heroes of East Tennessee left their 
 daughters their wives and their old men, to defend themselves 
 against a savage foe, in the great war for independence, while 
 they buckled on their armor and struck for our infant nation- 
 ality upon the sides and slopes of King's Mountain, under the 
 lead of Shelby and Campbell. In the war of 1812, they fought 
 gallantly on many a battle-field, and triumphed under their 
 own immortal Jackson at New Orleans. [Applause.] In 1832- 
 '3, when Nullification threatened with the sword to cut the Gor- 
 dian knot of our Union, and when the illustrious Jackson ap- 
 pealed to the Eternal to witness that the Federal Union must 
 be preserved, a united Amen swelled in the hearts and broke 
 from the lips of the people of East Tennessee as from the lips of 
 one man, and they were ready to sacrifice their lives in defence 
 of the integrity of our glorious government. Her stalwart sons 
 were mingled in the front ranks of the Mexican war, and they 
 poured out their blood freely with their fellow-citizens of other- 
 States at Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo, at Monterey and Buena 
 Vista, at Chepul tepee and Cherubusco, and helped to swell the 
 shout of victory as our gallant legions marched in triumph into 
 the Grand Plaza of Mexico. 
 
 Thus, in peace and in war, in the cabinet and in the field, at 
 the hustings, at the bar, and in the Senate, in public assemblies 
 and private circles, in the homes of the rich and the cabins of 
 the poor, the heart of East Tennessee has ever " kept time to 
 the music of the Union." [Loud applause.] This devotion is 
 not a mere sentiment, it is a passion ; nay, more, it is a princi- 
 ple on fire, ever burning, never consumed ; it is a heritage of 
 
14 
 
 the blood, transmitted from sire to son, imbibed with mother's 
 milk ; stereotyped upon the heart, and rivetted in the soul. 
 [Applause.] "Witness the sad history of the past three years ! 
 The first test of the Union sentiment of East Tennessee, 
 upon the existing difficulties, was applied in February, 1861. 
 The form of the question then was, " Convention or No Con* 
 vention," and the electetion of representatives or delegates by 
 the people to that Convention, in case it should receive a 
 majority in its favor at the pending election ? The true test in 
 this election was the aggregate majority of those who vindicated 
 the Union cause during the contest. The questions before the 
 people were amply discussed from the rostrum, and when the 
 day for election came, the State of Tennessee, casting a vote of 
 130 or 110,000, gave a solid majority of 64,000 opposed to 
 going out of the Union, and of that number, East Tennessee 
 gave 34,000 in favor of the Union, and 7,000 against it. [Ap- 
 plause.] In June, when the question was put in a different 
 form, " Representation or No Representation" East Tennessee 
 again recorded her vote, by overwhelming majorities, against 
 the great treason. Then came persuasions, soft and sweet ; 
 syren eloquence, dropped like the dews of Hermon into the 
 ears of our people of the mountains, and our boys were promised 
 exemption from the battle-field if they would only acquiesce 
 and let the storm roll on. Well, fellow-citizens, the August 
 election came, for a Governor, members of Congress, and rep- 
 resentatives to the State Legislature. By this time, the bayo- 
 nets of the Southern Confederacy bristled all over the State of 
 Tennessee. Our great men in the middle and western portions 
 of the State had felt the force of the storm — among them, the 
 man whom I was proud to serve in 1860, as the representative 
 of the Union sentiment of our State in conjunction with my 
 illustrious friend Mr. Everett — I mean John Bell. He, and 
 the Ewings, Cave Johnson, JSTeal Brown, and a host of men 
 whose hearts had been true to the Union until the storm rose, 
 now felt their knees smite together and their hearts fail 
 them, and the fury of the tempest swept them all off into the 
 Southern Confederacy. Our boys in the mountains saw that 
 storm. Efforts were made to keep us from the ballot-box. We 
 were told — " The State having now gone out of the Union, if 
 
15 
 
 you dare to go and vote for the men who are in favor of the old 
 Union, we will see that you are taken care of. We have places 
 prepared for men of your sentiments, and the first thing you 
 know you will find yourselves under the gallows, or in the 
 loathsome dungeous of the Southern Confederacy." The storm 
 came up, from the west and south, and the east of us, — dark, 
 gloomy, gathering blackness with every hour. We heard the 
 muttering thunders in its bosom, we saw the livid flashes, as 
 they illuminated us in our isolated position. But, when the 
 election came, when the rest of the State was falling off and 
 going into treason and the Southern Confederacy, East Tennes. 
 see gave a large vote for the Union candidate for Governor, and 
 elected her representative to the Congress of the United States, 
 and her representatives to the legislature, by overwhelming 
 majorities. [Applause.] 
 
 Then came violence to individuals : the cutting and shooting 
 down of Union flags ; but still, East Tennessee breasted the storm, 
 she still held out faithful ; and by-and-by the Confederate Con- 
 gress, as the war waxed hot and hotter, passed a conscript law ; 
 and every man in the community, from eighteen to thirty-five 
 years of age, was enrolled by officers in every neighborhood, 
 appointed for that purpose, and notified to rally at a given time 
 and at a given point, to enter active service for the defence of 
 the rebel cause. Then the exodus, already begun, swelled to 
 hundreds and thousands. Our young men had resolved that 
 they never — no, never — could be persuaded or charmed by 
 blandishments or flattery, or forced by bayonets, to strike at the 
 heart of the mother that bore them. [Applause.] ~No ! but 
 they went to their homes, kissed their mothers' lips and received 
 their blessing, they received the fond farewells of their fathers, 
 their sisters, their wives and their little ones, and then went 
 forth, exiles from their own loved land. There was no promise 
 of premiums or bounties to them ; there was no hope of wealth, 
 happiness and prosperity in the distance; but they left their 
 homes in the darkness of the night, and ascended the rocky 
 sides of the mountains, 150 or 200 miles from Kentucky, where 
 they hoped to find relief. Ragged and in tatters, with their 
 feet unshod and bleeding, they took the pathless ridges of the 
 mountains, in the darkness of the night, aided by the silvery 
 
16 
 
 rays of the moon or the dimmer light of the stars; and in the 
 daytime, sought the deepest, darkest gorges of the mountains, 
 that they might find shelter and rest until the coming shadows 
 of another night enabled them again to pursue their perilous 
 way, that they might find liberty and the flag of their country, 
 under its folds alone to fight, and, if need be, there to die. 
 [Prolonged applause.] 
 
 Regiments, companies, and squads of infantry and cavalry 
 were now distributed over the length and breadth of the coun- 
 try, for the purpose of hunting down and shooting the escap- 
 ing conscripts. Everywhere they went, and as they went, they 
 entered the houses of the people, searching for arms and am- 
 munition, and thus the people of the whole country were rob- 
 bed of their muskets and rifles, and left perfectly defenceless. 
 Prominent citizens were arrested now, by armed bands, fre- 
 quently at midnight, in the bosom of their families, without 
 notice, and carried before some Provost Marshal, or some up- 
 start official, tried before a military commission, hastily got 
 together, ex parte, without evidence, and with scarcely the sem- 
 blance of a charge, sometimes with no charge at all, and then 
 hurried off to the loathsome dungeons of Tuscaloosa, Ala., or 
 Madison, Ga., or Richmond, or Saulsbury, or Knoxville, or 
 Nashville, there to lie in the midst of unutterable filth and 
 vermin, to pine away and famish upon their scanty and miser- 
 able fare, and sometimes to die in utter despair. I, myself, 
 have known the facts of whicli I speak. Men as reputable as 
 any in East Tennessee have suffered in this way. I will men- 
 tion one case. Mr. Pickens had been a representative in the 
 State Legislature ; he was a man of heart, a man of soul, a 
 man of intelligence, a man who was popular among all our 
 people, a good citizen, and true and loyal to his country; but 
 he had been ostracised, and in compliance with the order of 
 Benjamin at Richmond was seized, without charges, carried 
 South, and in the loathsome dungeons of Tuscaloosa, Ala., he 
 paid the forfeit of his life, and became a martyr to the glorious 
 cause of human liberty and the Union of these States. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Sir, such instances are not rare in our community. The 
 prisons of the South have been filled with the best men of East 
 
17 
 
 Tennessee ; and it is said by those who know, that not less than 
 five thousand — think of it, fellow-citizens! — not less than five 
 thousand of the men of East Tennessee, because they were true 
 to their country, because they loved the flag that emblematized 
 all that they held dearest on earth, because they would not bow 
 the knee to Baal, nor receive upon their necks the yoke of the 
 king of the South, have been snatched from their homes by the 
 hand of power, and borne away into captivity. The railroad 
 bridge near my home was burned, and parties charged with 
 burning it were arrested, tried by a drumhead court-martial, 
 according to the order of Benjamin, and hung; and I speak but 
 the truth when I tell yon, that at least two of those gentlemen 
 — for they were gentlemen, honorable, high-minded, intelligent, 
 moral, upright citizens of the community in which they lived — 
 two, at least, I say, of those who were thus ignominionsly hung, 
 and their bodies left dangling in the air, knew not that they 
 were sentenced until they were brought within sight of the gib- 
 bet upon which they w T ere to expiate with their lives that offence 
 which they had committed against the Southern Confederacy, 
 of being true to their own government! 
 
 Thus affairs moved on, and Terror shook her black banner 
 over all our country ; and, to make the reign of terror still more 
 fearful, a legion of tawny Indians, whose forefathers had been 
 wont, in other times, to tomahawk and scalp the citizens of our 
 section of the country, were brought from their mountain re- 
 gions, with their painted faces, and wild, unearthly whoops, and 
 put upon the track of our remaining young men. But be it 
 ever remembered, to their credit, that these poor, half civilized 
 Cherokees were less savage on the trail than their pale-faced 
 companions in arms .[applause] ; and the people, after the first 
 terror had subsided, and they found the kindness of heart that 
 existed in the bosoms of these Indians, preferred a thousand 
 Cherokee Indians in their neighborhood to one captain's com- 
 pany of rebel soldiers. 
 
 Several regiments of citizens had now volunteered, and hun- 
 dreds more had been compelled by coercion to enter the rebel 
 lines, and to serve in the rebel army ; and about this time, Aug. 
 1863, Jeff, Davis made another call, running up to forty. five 
 years of age ; and at the same time. Gov. Harris issued an addi- 
 2 
 
18 
 
 tional call, embracing all up to fifty-five years of age ; so yon 
 see that all our population from eighteen years of age up to 
 fifty-five were called for by these several authorities. But 
 hark ! the drum and spirit-stirring fife are heard ; and the starry 
 banners, the gleaming bayonets, and federal bine uniforms of 
 Burnside's hosts are seen on the hills of the Cumberland as 
 they hasten to the redemption and relief of our suffering people. 
 The army of Gen. Bragg had been, just previously, compelled to 
 evacuate Chattanooga, and Gen. Eosecrans occupied that ex- 
 tremity of the State ; our young men at once sprung from their 
 hiding places and their coverts in the mountains, and rallied to 
 the standard of their country, under the lead of the gallant 
 champions of the Union, and our mothers, sisters, wives, and 
 old men, were left alone to occupy our homes. To-day, fellow- 
 citizens, more than 25,000 East r Jennesseaus wear the uniform 
 and bear the arms of your country and ray country. [Prolonged 
 and enthusiastic applause.] "While I would not disparage any 
 other section of these United States in its patriotism, I must say 
 for my section, that in the midst of all their sufferings and 
 trials, privations and perils, they have furnished to the support 
 of our government more men, in proportion to their population 
 — more than two to one — than any other section of the country, 
 [Applause.] 
 
 As Gen. Burnside, in September, marched with his conquer- 
 ing hosts towards Upper East Tennessee, the rebel army 
 retreated before him ; but as they went, thinking, perhaps, that 
 they were seeing the last of East Tennessee, they seized upon 
 the property, the live stock, especially, of the Union farmers, 
 all over the country, where they could find it, and carried it off 
 with them. From that moment the work of devastation went 
 on with accelerated momentum. Many times have the Union 
 and rebel armies traversed the whole length of East Tennessee, 
 exhausting the country all around for current supplies, and, at 
 every moment, widening the track of ruin that they left behind 
 them. In the track of the armies came robbers, who found con- 
 venient hiding-places and rallying points in the mountains that 
 skirt our valleys, and came down and claimed their share of the 
 property of our plundered people; and thus our barns and stables, 
 our cribs and dwellings, were entered and robbed, and our people 
 
19 
 
 left utterly destitute. The very wearing apparel of our womon 
 and children was seized by these ruffians, and carried out of our 
 houses. Our blankets and bed-clothing, everything that was 
 calculated to render the soldiers more comfortable, was seized 
 by the strong hand, and carried away. Our tanneries shared 
 the same fate. They had all been compelled, in the reign of 
 the rebels, to contribute sixty per cent, of their leather to the 
 government for the shoeing of their soldiers ; but now, when 
 they were retreating from the State, they soized all the leather 
 in the vats, and bore it away, leaving our old men, women and 
 children, to meet the rigors of the passing winter bare-footed, as 
 well as almost naked. 
 
 Believe me, fellow-citizens, East Tennessee has drunk the full 
 cup of suffering, and nothing seems left her now but to drain its 
 bitterness to the very dregs# She has sacrificed everything 
 but loyalty and honor , she has suffered everything but dis- 
 honor and death ; and now destitution and famine, followed by 
 despair and death, are trampling upon the thresholds of her sad 
 homes, are entering their very doors, ready to consummate the 
 sacrifice and complete the suffering. But, thank God, through 
 all her sufferings, she has been faithful. Persuasions, threats, 
 insults, imprisonments, wounds, stripes, privations, chains, con- 
 fiscations, gibbets, and military murders, the clash of arms, the 
 " terribleness of armies with banners," and all the combined 
 and concentrated horrors of internecine war marshalled upon 
 her battle-torn bosom, and hurling sorrow and ruin into all her 
 homes, have never corrupted her loyalty, nor driven her a soli- 
 tary line from her devotion to the government of our fathers. 
 [Great applause.] Left unprotected, when she ought to have 
 been protected by the government that she loved, interior and 
 isolated, disarmed before she could organize, she was seized and 
 pinioned by a power that overrode all law, and trampled con- 
 stitutional liberty under its feet. Choked down, under a reign 
 of terror black as the night of Robespierean rule in Paris, her 
 proud neck has felt the heel of a despotism more heartless and 
 crushing than the power of an autocracy. Her loyal people, 
 because they could not do otherwise, have submitted, for more 
 than two dreadful years, to a bondage their inmost hearts have 
 abhorred — a bondage that fetters the soul, and seals the lips, 
 
20 
 
 and all but closes the door of hope. "We have breathed but to 
 live, and lived but to pray, " Oh, Lord, how long ?" Thank 
 God ! the prayer of the oppressed is answered, and East Ten- 
 nessee, in answer to our prayers, is almost free, and the grand 
 old banner floats once more triumphantly, gloriously, over our 
 mountain-girt home, and there may it float forever ! [Loud 
 applause.] 
 
 " Flag of our hearts, onr symbol and our trust, 
 Though traitors trample thy bright folds in dust, 
 Though vile ambition, dark rebellion's lust, 
 
 Conspire to tear thee down ; 
 Mill'ons 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.] 
 
 ■ 
 
 With this history of the people of East Tennessee before yon, 
 it is for you to determine whether this brave and patriotic pop- 
 ulation shall be suffered to fall and perish in their devotion to 
 our common country, by the blighting hand of famine, or 
 whether your philanthropy and benevolence shall interpose to 
 shield and protect and guard and save them. East Tennessee, 
 my native East Tennessee, has sacrificed all she had for the 
 country. Her horses, her mules, her flocks and herds, her 
 cattle upon a thousand hills, have all been offered up ; her corn 
 and wheat are all consumed ; her young men — all who have not 
 perished in the camp or on the battle-field — are now swelling the 
 ranks of your victorious armies ; and, now our matrons and 
 maidens, our old men and little children, our soldiers' widows 
 and orphaned babes, are all bound and upon the altar ; already 
 the sacrificial knife is uplifted ; it trembles in the hand of 
 Famine ; — may God save my people, and avert the stroke, in 
 this their day of sorrow and trial ! 
 
 While the scourge of this cruel war has thus blighted and 
 blasted, devastated and ruined East Tennessee, the land of 
 the free, the home of the loyal and brave, it has scarcely 
 been felt north of Mason and Dixon's line. On the contrary, 
 a degree of prosperity, such as you have never experienced, 
 has poured into the lap of the people of the North and West 
 boundless wealth. The labors of your agriculturists have been 
 
21 
 
 succeeded by the blessings of a gracious Providence ; your 
 mechanics have received remunerative prices for all the labor 
 they could perform ; your merchants have seen their trade prosper 
 beyond all parallel ; your manufacturers have expanded and en- 
 larged their operations in every branch of manufacture ; and 
 your mineral region is pouring forth, from the bowels of the 
 earth, uncounted wealth. Whether you will make this vast in- 
 crease of wealth a source of blessing to yourselves, your chil- 
 dren, your country, and the world, is a problem that is left for 
 you to solve. The desolations and ruin of this unnatural and 
 cruel war have opened a wide field for your philanthropy and 
 benevolence. Will you enter it ? — will you sow it ? Will you 
 cultivate it? If so, an abundant crop of blessings will fall upon 
 your basket and upon your store, upon your homes and hearths, 
 and, above all, upon your hearts. [Applause.] 
 
 When starving Ireland was weeping over her famishing 
 children, as they drooped and died in the remorseless grasp 
 of famine, her wail of woe was heard across the wide waste of 
 waters, and America wept in sympathy with Ireland ; but 
 while sh<3 lifted up, with one hand, their dying heads, with the 
 other she ministered nourishment and life to the perishing 
 children of the Emerald Isle. A nobler example of national mag- 
 nanimity and Christian charity can scarely be produced from 
 the annals of the world. Yet these people were the subjects of 
 a foreign government, and were strangers beyond the sea. The 
 cry of suffering now comes to the American ear and falls upon 
 the American heart from the famishing lips of our own people ; 
 and East Tennessee, from the summits of her rock-ribbed moun- 
 tains, with one hand beckons to her rich and and powerful 
 and flourishing sisters of the North, and with a bursting heart, 
 and tearful eye points with the other to the desolation that 
 hangs like a pall of death over her forty thousand ruined 
 homes in the valleys below. Will those sisters prove angels 
 of blessing and of mercy, and bring peace and happiness and 
 hope to those desolate homes again, or will they leave their 
 past munificence alone to illustrate and adorn and glorify their 
 history? That you, fellow-citizens, do sympathize with my 
 people, and that you are ready to open your hands for their 
 relief, I cannot doubt ; , and especially when I remember that 
 
22 
 
 the appeal of the suffering and the sorrowful, the afflicted and 
 the bereaved of earth, has never been made in vain to your 
 magnanimous and benevolent people. Sir, the question is re- 
 duced to one of life or death. General Grant wrote to General 
 Robert Anderson a few days ago, as I learned from him, saying 
 that there were three alternatives for the people of East Ten- 
 nessee ; one was, to be carried out of their section to where 
 they could find something to eat ; another was, that provisions 
 should be carried to them ; and the last was, if neither of the 
 others were adopted, that the people of East Tennessee must 
 perish in the midst of their mountains. Sir, I do not believe 
 you intend that these people shall perish. I will not believe it 
 till I see their bones bleaching among their native hills. [Great 
 applause.] I believe you have hearts that palpitate in unison 
 with their hearts ; I believe you have hands that will open for 
 their relief. 
 
 Sir, the very soil of East Tennessee, from the beetling crags of 
 the White Top Mountain to the battle-scarred summit of the 
 Lookout, is henceforth classic ground ; every neighborhood has 
 witnessed the conflict of arms; almost every county hasfeltt he 
 shock of battle; and some of the most memorable and bloody 
 struggles that history will record have been fought on her 
 bosom. The red sea of war has rolled its fiery billows over all 
 her valleys, and rivulets of blood from her slippery hill-sides 
 have swelled the tide of death. The lines of fire have illumined 
 her midnight heavens, from Bristol-on-the Line to the summits of 
 the Cumberland, like the quick, lurid flashings of the tempest. 
 The roar of trampling war-steeds spurred to battle, the clash of 
 sabres, the sharp rattle of musketry, and the solemn thunder of 
 artillery, mingling with the shrieks of the wounded, the yells of 
 the vanquished, and the shouts of the victorious, have aroused 
 the slumbering echoes in all her remotest solitudes. Rosecrans 
 met disaster there, and thousands of brave hearts ceased to beat 
 on the mournful field. But, near the same ground, the hero of 
 twenty victories won back the goddess to our country's standard, 
 and the unpretending Grant led the hosts of Freedom to triumph 
 again. (Vociferous applause.) 
 
 The impetuous Sherman, along the slopes and summit of 
 Mission Ridge, leads his brave legions to victory at the cannon's 
 
23 
 
 mouth ; the cool and dauntless Thomas, with his gallant vete- 
 rans, flashes terror into the hearts of the foe ; but it is reserved 
 for fighting Joe Hooker and his splendid corps, following the 
 flight of the American eagle, to scale the steep sides of Lookout 
 Mountain, snatch victory from the rebels on its lofty summit, 
 and re-echo in pealing thunders, above the clouds, the shouts of 
 triumph from the armies below. (Great applause.) 
 
 The investment of Knoxville by Longstreet, the masterly 
 strategy with which Potter deceived and out-mauouvered the 
 rebel chief, the siege, the various assaults and sallies, the mur- 
 derous charge and bloody repulse, the daring attempt upon Fort 
 Saunders, where young Benjamin won immortal honor by his 
 undaunted daring, the deadly conflict, the disastrous retreat, 
 have given many a name to a proud immortality — 
 
 ■** And Manson, Potter, White, 
 And Parke, are dashing through the fight; 
 Ferrero, Hascall, Carter, rush 
 Secession's hydra head to crush; 
 And waving high his glittering sword, 
 The Morgan-tamer Shackelford 
 Pants to hegin the steeple-chase, 
 And win again immortal race !" 
 
 The gallant Saunders, with his new-born star, 
 Gleams for a moment through the cloud of war, 
 Yields, the young hero, on the bloody sod, 
 His name to glory, and kis soul to God I 
 
 ■" While Burnside proved, on sea and land, 
 Full worthy of his high command, 
 With genial, but undaunted soul, 
 Arrays and well directs the whole ; 
 Moves on his veteran army corps, 
 And fadeless laurels plucks once more. 
 Hail ! chieftain of the rescue, hail 1 
 A saddened land shall cease to wail 
 While 'comrades' give thee just renown, 
 And grateful States with honor crown: 
 Mothers shall teach their babes thy name, 
 And prattling childhood lisp thy fame ; 
 Our hills shall clap their joyous hands, 
 And shout for thee and thy brave bands 
 The voice of age its thanks express, 
 And unborn generations bless." 
 
94 
 
 Mingled forever in the historic page that perpetuates their 
 heroic deeds, as on the bloody fields where they won their fame, 
 are the sons of every loyal State in the Union. Our valleys and 
 hill-sides entomb the remains of the slain patriots of every State 
 who died there for their country ; together they fought, united 
 they fell ; the same sod that was enriched by their blood, ming- 
 ling as it flowed, grows green over the bosoms that' rest, side by 
 side, in the same grave ; they died under the same starry ban- 
 ner in defence of the same great country, and their brave souls 
 together were heralded to the spirit world by the loud thunders 
 of battle. They sleep in East Tennessee's bosom, beside her own 
 murdered sons. The maidens of the mountains will plant flow- 
 ers on their graves, and water them with tears ; generations of 
 patriots will honor their memories; the everlasting mountains 
 will sentinel their dust ; and the sighing winds of autumn, and 
 the bright waters of the valleys, shall murmur their requiem 
 forever. 
 
 By the sacrament of fire, by the baptism of blood, East Ten- 
 nessee is consecrated to liberty and the Union. Neglected by 
 the Government, anathematized by Davis and his myrmidons — 
 exhausted by friends — pillaged by enemies — all battle-scarred 
 and bleeding, her tattered garments dyed red with the life- 
 blood of her slaughtered sons — ruin and destitution all around 
 her, and gaunt famine clutching at the vitals of her little chil- 
 dren — there she is, pierced with anguish, and scalding tear- 
 drops are on her pale cheek ; crowned with sorrows, sublimely, 
 grandly beautiful, she sits like a queen in the midst of her 
 mountains — the queen of a desolate realm. She is my mother ! 
 I am proud of that mother, and I would rather write myself a 
 son of East Tennessee, clothed in the bloody tatters her loyalty 
 has entailed upon her, than to flourish and luxuriate in the 
 wealth of a prince — with the brand of " traitor" stamped upon 
 my brow. [Loud applause.] She is the sister of the great 
 States of the North and West — the daughter of the nation — and 
 her devotion to the nation has cost her all she has lost, and all 
 she is suffering now. But who is it, men of New York, ladies 
 of the Empire State — who is it that challenges your sympathy 
 and demands your aid ? Not the strong men of the land, not 
 our young men — No : they are all gone — 
 
25 
 
 " Their thousands swell the bannered hosts 
 Of which a mighty nation boasts." 
 
 They are struggling beside your New York boys, fighting and 
 dying with them for the nation's life, for our common country. 
 (Applause.) It is the fathers and mothers, the wives and chil- 
 dren of these heroic mountaineers — who call to you, from the 
 brink of the grave, for help. Their cry is, " We have suffered 
 all, sacrificed all, given all we had — and we would do it all 
 over again, if necessary, for our love of country : and now, shall 
 we give up our lives also ?" Fellow-citizens of New York, you 
 cannot, you will not, you dare not permit it. Oh ! then reach 
 out your strong hand and save them — for a nobler race breathes 
 not on earth's broad surface, and they are your brethren. Penn- 
 sylvania has heard — Philadelphia has answered, and her noble 
 benefaction is already on the way to the scene of destitution ; 
 Maine has listened, with tearful eye and trembling heart, to 
 the tale of woe, and sends a generous contribution to the suf- 
 fering : and Massachusetts, with a liberality that illustrates her 
 largeness of heart, has, through her noble-souled Committee, at 
 Boston, drawn out a subscription, reaching already to more 
 than $60,000, and averaging still, more than $2,000 per day. 
 Will the Empire State, will the Metropolitan City — that has a 
 single street operating a capital of more than $300,000,000, and 
 a world-wide commerce concentrating at her gates — stand 
 aloof in the noble work of saving from the blight of famine the 
 destitute sufferers of East Tennessee ? No, sir: No ! I know 
 your charity and benevolence have been, and are continually 
 taxed, by the demands of this cruel war, and you have volun- 
 tarily and cheerfully met the demands. Have you lost any- 
 thing, have you been impoverished, in purse or in heart, by 
 giving for charity ? Nay : but prospered and enlarged in your 
 ability to give. Many millions have been contributed to those 
 noble Christian enterprises, the Sanitary and Christian Com- 
 missions, and you are preparing now to endow one of them, in 
 this great city, with at least a million more. God bless you, in 
 your noble purpose, and crown your efforts with the most am- 
 ple success. But oh ! ought you not, likewise, to respond 
 promptly, adequately, magnanimously, to the just claims East 
 Tennessee presents this day upon your patriotism and honor, not 
 
less than upon your philanthropy and Christianity ? If East Ten- 
 nessee is weak, poor, desolated, charred by fire, blasted by the 
 sword, pillaged of her property, wasted of all her substance, be- 
 reft of her sons, and pallid with hunger — it is because she has 
 loved the Union, adhered to the Constitution, and hated trea- 
 son ; because she has been faithful to the Government, and 
 ready to die for the flag ; our Uuion, cemented by the blood of 
 our fathers ; our Constitution, devised by their wisdom : our 
 Government, the Constitution in action ; the Union exerting its 
 functions ; our flag, the symbol of our liberty, the emblem of 
 our nationality, the glory of cur past, our pride of the present, 
 our hope and promise of the future. (Applause.) Now, if in 
 the maintenance and defence of our common right and prop- 
 erty in this common heritage, East Tennessee has lost, and 
 sacrificed all her individual property, and all her means of 
 living, is it demanding largely of your sense of mere equity, 
 and justice, to ask you to save hee people from starva- 
 tion, till they can have time and opportunity to make bread ? 
 But, sir, my people, not only want bread, they desire peace. 
 Every consideration of humanity, patriotism, charity, — the hopes 
 of mankind, — the principles of Christianity, — the interests and 
 prosperity, of the world, even of the rebellious South demand 
 peace, — honorable lasting peace. I am not here to say hard 
 things of the Southern people, — they are my brethren by 
 blood — the friends of my youth, the companions of my riper years. 
 I love them still, and I thank God, that I have a heart alive to 
 the wide distinction between the offence and the offender. 
 With unutterable loathing, and abhorrence, I hate the sin, — but 
 the sinner is my brother still. This horrible rebellion I abom- 
 inate, with unspeakable detestation, but the rebel is my kin for 
 all that, — and him I would subdue, reclaim, and save, if possi- 
 ble. Besides, sir, large masses of these people, I know to be, — 
 though wearing the harness of rebellion, as true, at heart, as 
 you, — who have never yet been tried in the furnace of a des- 
 potism. From the beginning, they have had an iron hand upon 
 them, — they have breathed an atmosphere of terrorism, such as 
 must be felt to be known. That terrorism has compelled, co- 
 erced thousands of Southern men into the rebel army, — and 
 "chains them there to-day, — while thousands of others are, vol- 
 
27 
 
 nntarily, there, because intelligent, ingenious traitor leaders 
 have misled them, with gilded falsehoods. I hope and pray that 
 the day of their deliverance will soon come. These, thus con- 
 strained, and thus misled, ought to have peace. Sir, the horri- 
 ble prospects of the beautiful South, as well as the memory of 
 its past prosperity, and wealth, and influence, — and the death- 
 like desolation that overshadows it now, — the seas of blood 
 spilled there, — the ocean of tears Avept there, by widowed 
 women and orphaned children, — all these demand peace. 
 But how are you to have peace 1 That is the great question. 
 There are but two methods of obtaining peace that I can think 
 of. One is, to concede all the rebel leaders demand, — that is, 
 the recognition of the Southern Confederacy, as an independent 
 Government, — consequently the disintegration and dismember- 
 ment of the United States, — and, of course, the remanding of 
 the Border States, with their loyal inhabitants, — together with 
 the bones of your heroes, that fell in battle, to their lawful pos- 
 session forever. This is one of the ways by which we can get 
 peace. Are you ready to accept, will you adopt it ? (Cries of 
 " No.") Will you permit it ? (Cries of " Never, never.") Must 
 we, then, war on forever 1 (Voices, " Yes.") No, my friends, 
 I will tell you a better plan. Let us bring this dreadful war to 
 a close the other way, — the only other way, by fighting it out 
 with overwhelming ^and irresistible numbers. (Applause.) 
 Fight it out on its merits and demerits, and let every other 
 question, even the " Negro," alone. Inevitable destiny governs 
 that question, and God is destiny, — let us leave that question to 
 His wisdom, and rest assured, He will settle it all right. God 
 rules, and He has brought the counsels of the wise, of all par- 
 ties, to naught, on this question. For forty years, some of your 
 greatest men, in the pulpit, — at the press, and in the political 
 world, have been trying to tear down slavery. What had they 
 all accomplished before this war? Had they even abraded the 
 surface of the " Institution." Believe me, in 140 years, their 
 labors would have borne the same result, — leaving the Con- 
 stitution untouched. 
 
 Well, there was another party, down South, that was for 
 preserving it, because they held it to be a right, under the Con- 
 stitution, — because it represented a large portion of the capital, 
 
28 
 
 as well as the labor of the South. I was one of that party. We 
 said, preserve the Union and you protect slavery, destroy the 
 Union, and all its bulwarks are gone. AVell, Gentlemen, this 
 party failed. Another party, there, assumed to be the exclusive 
 guardians and custodians of the Institution. They called us by 
 way of reproach , Republicans, Abolitionists, Lincolnites. These 
 men declared, that neither the Constitution, nor the flag, were 
 a sufficient protection to slavery, and that it could only be saved 
 by taking it out of the Union — therefore, they tore the Constitu- 
 tion into fragments, trampled it under their unhallowed feet, 
 and threw themselves and slavery beyond the protection of the 
 flag. This party has been defeated also. And now, in reference 
 to slavery, God's finger, through the instrumentality of these 
 traitor leaders, writes " Tekel" on the wall. (Applause.) 
 Let the blame or the glory attach where it properly belongs. 
 The abolitionist North failed to even wound it, the Union men 
 of the South could not save it, — but Providence has permitted 
 the madness and folly of Jefferson Davis and his allies in three 
 years, to free more negroes than all the abolitionists North could 
 have liberated in one thousand, years. They designed to per- 
 petuate, and have maimed and crippled the institution, (which 
 they loved better than their country,) I believe, unto death, 
 and, in their own fall, they have dragged tens of thousands of 
 innocent and good men into the same ruin with themselves. 
 For myself I have to say, I am not a Republican, nor an Aboli- 
 tionist, but a veteran Whig, of the Clay-Webster school. (Cheers.) 
 But I have this much of true Democracy in me, — that I have 
 formed my love of country upon the model of, not Webster and 
 Clay alone, but of the illustrious hero whose ashes repose at the 
 Hermitage — Andrew Jackson. (Applause.) With that sort of 
 Democracy, and all other parties, and isms, that love their 
 country more than they love any party, I am willing to strike 
 hands, under the banner of my country, and march side by side 
 with them, to victory. (Cheers.) Having sacrificed all I pos- 
 sessed, but a few negroes and my land, I am ready to sacrifice 
 these, also, if need be, for the restoration of the Union, and the 
 perpetuation of Constitutional liberty. 
 
 But I said we must have peace, and was pointing out the only 
 honorable way left us of obtaining it. Make our armies so 
 
29 
 
 strong as to trample, crush, and smother out the last spark of 
 treason, and rebellion-in-arms, anywhere within the territorial 
 limits of the nation. (Immense applause.) If you have any 
 treason lurking here at the North or in the great West, frown 
 it clown with public opinion, — crush it out at the ballot-box, — 
 everywhere let the names of the traitors be, as they will be in 
 history, a hissing and a by-word : 
 
 " Be every false detested name 
 Condemned to everlasting fame I" 
 
 "Whether his tomb be found North or South of Mason and 
 Dixon's line — 
 
 " Shame and dishonor sit 
 By his grave, ever, 
 Blessing shall hallow it — 
 Never, no never I" 
 
 Not by little armies of 400,000 or 500,000 can you destroy 
 this monster Rebellion. Its boundary is too large, its empire 
 too great. At first you called out 75,000 men. You were ex- 
 cusable. You had not grasped the magnitude of the movement. 
 But three years of experience ought to enlighten men. Our 
 generals have met the foe on many a field, they have tested 
 their mettle, they have measured their strength, they have felt 
 their prowess, they have tried their courage, they kno w they 
 fight well, — they ought to know that nothing can break and 
 beat them but overwhelming force. Then nothing remains to 
 be done but to send men enough to whip them. (Applause.) 
 But have you men to draw upon ? Why, sir, it seems to me 
 there are men enough in this single city to double all your 
 armies. Your thoroughfares are crowded clay and night, your 
 streets are thronged everywhere I go, — which way I turn is a 
 continuous tide of men ; and if Davis could have one sweep here 
 with his conscription in New York, he would not ask a recruit 
 for three years to come ; there is a perfect human avalanche 
 rolling on forever. Now is the time, sir, while we have but 
 one enemy on hand. By-and-by, we may have to settle with 
 France. Next year we may have a trouble with England. Then 
 while the coast is clear, and peace remains outside, we ought to 
 clean up the Rebellion and be ready for the stormy or the peace- 
 ful future. Let us stop speculating, stop wrangling over politics, 
 
30 
 
 stop making Presidents, and arranging for fat jobs and big 
 contracts, and make it the serious, earnest, business of rulers, 
 and people, army and navy, to conquer a lasting and a glorious 
 peace at home. Sir, our Ship of State is in perilous seas — Scylla 
 a-port, Charybdis a-lea — breakers ahead and reefs all round ; 
 there are pirates in sight, and mutineers on board, and the ter- 
 rible hurricane howls o'er the sea. 
 
 Shall the crew of that noble vessel, freighted with our wives 
 and children and loved ones, freighted with our hopes for all 
 time to come, freighted with the prospects of liberty and the 
 hopes of freedom of all earth's inhabitants that know or have 
 heard of us — shall her crew, in the midst of this storm, fall to 
 fighting as to who shall next command the ship ? [Applause.} 
 Oh, is it not the part of patriotism for every man, in this dark 
 hour, to come and strengthen the heart of the helmsman to stand 
 at his post 1 [Enthusiastic and prolonged applause.] And no 
 matter what questions may separate and divide that crew, is it 
 not their duty to stand in the midst of the storm, and say to the 
 helmsman — " Guide our bark safely through ! Here we are, 
 at your back, and we will stand by you through the storm !" 
 [Renewed applause.] Sir, if we do this, the vessel will soon 
 pass between Scylla and Charybdis; she will leap over the 
 breakers and the reefs, and when we get out upon a calm sea, 
 and upon a prosperous voyage, then, and not until then, can we 
 settle the questions that we may choose to raise. 
 
 " sail on, Ship of State ! 
 
 " Sail on, Union strong and great 1 
 
 " Humanity with all its fears, 
 
 " With all the hopes of future years, 
 
 " Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 
 
 " In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 
 
 " In spite of false lights on the shore, 
 
 " Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 
 
 " Our hearts, our hopes, are still with thee ; 
 
 "Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
 
 " Our faith, triumphant o'er our fears, 
 
 " Are all with thee — are all with thee !" 
 
 We look behind us and seethe loveliness of peace; now that 
 she is gone we remember a thousand winning charms we never 
 perceived when she made our country an Eden, our homes, 
 even the humblest, a Paradise. "We look before us, she is fled 
 
31 
 
 and the grim visaged monster war, armftd with fire-brand and 
 sword, and every implement of death, has planted himself 
 square between us and the dove-eyed angel peace, whom 
 we so ardently love, and long to embrace. If we would win 
 and recapture peace, we must, first, conquer and bind the 
 monster between us and her. Then let her sweet image gleam 
 upon the bristling points of fifteen hundred thousand bayonets 
 [tremendous and long-continued applause] ; let it blaze upon the 
 glittering steel of five hundred thousand swords ; let it leap from 
 the mouths of ten thousand cannon, and the echo of that thun- 
 der will bring peace to every home and house and heart through- 
 out the length and breadth of our reunited country. [Hearty 
 applause.] When the atmosphere is damp and filled with ma- 
 laria, and death moves in every breeze, then, sir, what do we 
 want ? We want the keen flash of heaven's electricity, we 
 want the live thunder, rolling from mountain top to mountain 
 top ; and then all is purified, all is calm, all is serene and 
 healthful once more. [Cheers and shouts.] 
 
 It is in mercy's name I ask for this. I can only tolerate war, 
 because it is the shortest, most direct, and only way, to honor- 
 able and lasting peace ; and I beg for war, on the grandest scale, 
 in order to make peace sure, beyond a doubt. Give us the 
 largest amount of physical force, in the face of the enemy, ready 
 to fall upon and destroy them, that they may not be destroyed, 
 and fill untimely graves. [Loud applause.] 
 
 Sir, I trust the time is coming, and will soon be here, when 
 this cruel war will be over. I trust the day is soon coming 
 which is to prove but the dawn of that prosperity which is in 
 reservation for our glorious country in the near and far-off fu- 
 ture, when, reunited, we shall sit under our own vine and fig 
 tree, everywhere, and none shall make us afraid ; when the 
 watchword of the sentinels upon Liberty's watch tower, as it is 
 uttered upon the coast of the Atlantic, shall be echoed all 
 along the line, until the last man hears and returns the saluta- 
 tion by the shore of the distant Pacific. 
 
 " Our Union, ordained by Jehovah ! 
 
 "Man sets not the fiat aside ; 
 "As well cleave asunder the -welkin, 
 
 " As the one mighty system divide 
 
32 
 
 "The grand Mississippi sounds ever, 
 
 "From pine down to palm, the decree ; 
 " The spindle, the coin, and the cotton, 
 
 " One paean shout, Union to thee !" 
 
 Having already trespassed upon your patience too long [cries 
 of "go on"], I must close my remarks. 
 
 I thank you, for your very polite attention, and will express 
 my earnest hope that you will keep what I have said, in your 
 memory, think upon it, and act. 
 
 Gen. W. 3v. Strong: — Mr. Chairman, it is deeply to be re- 
 gretted that more of onr fellow citizens have not had an oppor- 
 tunity of listening to the recitals, which we have heard this stormy 
 evening. The touching and eloquent appeal from the distin- 
 guished speaker who has just taken his seat, must sensibly 
 affect all hearts. We cannot consent that he shall retire from 
 this city, under the impresion that this is to be the last he is to 
 hear from this appeal to us. I therefore beg to move, that 
 the gentleman who have had charge of the inauguration of this 
 meeting, be requested to take such further steps, as, may be 
 proper to enable the citizens of New York to make a fitting 
 response to the appeal, which has been to-night so truthfully, so 
 touchingly, and so eloquently made by Col. Taylor, of East- 
 Tennessee. 
 
 The motion was carried by acclamation. 
 
 The Chairman : — All who wear the uniform of the republic 
 when this war is over, must be entitled to its civil and politi- 
 cal rights. (Applause.) The distinguished gentleman has ad- 
 verted to the fact, that he was a member of the old Whig 
 party. I desire to say, that I continued a member of the old 
 national democratic party, until this threatened overthrow 
 of the Governement took place, and then I trampled party be- 
 neath my feet. (Cheers.) And here I ask my friend to say to 
 this meeting, with his hand pledged in mine, whether, if it 
 becomes necessary to sweep slavery from the Union, to save 
 the Country, he, as a Tennessean, is not willing it shall be 
 done. 
 
 Col Taylor : — (putting his hand in that of the chairman)— 
 Yes, slavery and everything else in the way — -if it stand in the 
 way of the nation's integrity and existence — let it go down for- 
 ever. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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