E423 .N54 raw J11 11 mmm '■'TIB m TlB M JHffi WSS: KfflfflHfifef'--.!- ■■■■'■■ > ; —Jus™™ jv • o > » ( *P«n v^v v*^v v^-y .^Wa\ \/ /Jfev %^ to r^< THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, HELD AT CASTLE GARDEN, OCTOBER 30, 1850. . 41 The unity of government,which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to yon. It is justly so ; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence ; the support of your tranquility at home ; your peace abroad ; of your safety ; of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will bo taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most, constantly and ac- tively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed ; it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immoveable attachment to it ; accustoming yourselves to think and to speak of it as a palladium of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with >ealous anxiety : discountnancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be aban- doned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of oiir country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts."— Washington. NEW-YOKK: PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE "UNION SAFETY COMMITTEE." 1850. o3 JOSEPH D. BEDFORD, PRINTER, Reae of 57 Ann-strsst. U T . HOBBS, STEREOTYPER, RBXR OF CI AxX-STEEET. . i THE GREAT UNION DEMONSTRATION. On Wednesday evening, Oct. 30, Castle Garden, in its vast area and spacious galleries, was thronged by au immense multitude, from whom went up but one voice, — tlie Union, — the Union as it is, — THE UNION with all the obligations of the Constitution. The resolutions and all the speakers approved of the Compromise Bills, as passed by Congress, and denounced a re-opening of the slavery agitation. All the speakers touched upon the Fugitive Slave Law excitement, and upon the constitutionality and principles of the law, and all declared it the duty of the North and the whole country, to obey it in good faith, to which thousands and thousands of voices responded in hearty approbation. Ten thousand men in arms, we venture to say, from this demonstration, can be summoned any twenty-four hours to enforce that law, if the United States Marshal so requests of the civil authorities. In New- York that law will be obeyed as readily as any other law on the Statute Book, whether it is liked or not. Three of the speakers were Whigs and three were Democrats, and their speeches were able, eloquent, and to the point, each commanding a lively attention. There were some things said which some men may or may not approve, but the Union spirit that every speaker breathed, — the higher devotion placed upon Union than upon any Party — no patriotic man can but approve. The President of the meeting was George Wood, Esq., one of the luminaries of our Bar, and foremost among the foremost in its ranks. The speakers were among our ablest lawyers. Mr. Gerard, in his peculiar but captivating eloquence, chained the attention of the auditory. Mr. O'Connor, in a terse and vigorous vein of eloquence brought down showers of applause, particularly when he threw off party bonds, and devoted himself to Union 4. GREAT UNION DEMONSTRATION. principles as the highest of all principles to govern a citizen and a man. Mr. Everts then unfolded, in a lucid and very able argument, the history and principles of the Fugitive Slave provisions, which, when revised and published in pamphlet form, will proveto be one of the most effective speeches of the evening. Mr. Edward Sandfordthen aroused the audience again in a brilliant speech, which all listened to with delight. Mr. Ogden Hoffman followed in dashing periods and patriotic sentiment that brought down storms of applause. Finally, some time after 10 o'clock, even after that late hour, and until the clock struck 11, P. M., Jas. T. Brady, Esq., had the happy power to win attention first, to command it next, and finally to make all regret when he was done. It is seldom that, in a public meeting, six such able speeches are heard. Fifty gentlemen were appointed as a Union Committee of Safety, with power to add to their numbers, to consult and to act together hereafter for the dissemination of Union principles, and the inculcation of Union sentiments. Kever has there been a more imposing public meeting in our city, and but very few have there ever been so imposing in character, in moral force, intellectual weight, and dignity, and real power. — N. Y. Express, PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, HELD AT CASTLE GARDEN, OCTOBER 30, 1850. At 7 o'clock the meeting was called to order by Mr. Nicholas Dean, who said : — Fellow Citizens : — "We have come together to-night to take 'counsel upon most grave subjects, — to advocate the supremacy of the Constitution and the Laws, and to pledge ourselves, at all hazards, to support the Union of these State*. We have been, and are yet passing through a most perilous period of our history : — to avert some of its dangers is our present purpose. That Constitution under which we have lived in the full enjoyment of all those privileges which have marked our progress as a people, and which has conferred upon us '' liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," has been attacked in the halls of national legislation, and a rule of action said to be drawn from a source above, and beyond that instrument. — avowed, and sought to be en- forced. Are we prepared to listen patiently, and approvingly, to such treasonable doctrines ? — to surrender our civil and political rights to the protection of fana- tics, — to the keeping of visionary theorists, — to the custody and control of disunionists ; — to cast at tbeir feet to be trodden on. and defaced, that Consti- tution won through long years of toil, of peril, and of suffering, — consecrated by the wisdom of our revolutionary fathers. — and approved and certified to us by the greatest uninspired name that the universe ever looked upon, — the name of George Washington ! Fellow citizens ; conservatives of all parties ; let this night witness that, there is yet a redeeming spirit strong enough, and broad enough, and active enough, to preserve intact this glorious depository of human 1'reedom, — this magnificent record of unsurpassed patriotism. To that end are we now met together. Gentlemen, I am instructed by the Committee of Arrangements to place before you the name of George Wood, Esq., as President of this great Union Safety meeting. Mr. Dean then put the question, and the nomination of Mr. Wood was unanimously confirmed. 6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, The President having taken the chair, Mr. Dean ^proceeded to nominate the following named gentlemen for Vice Presidents and Secretaries. VICE PRESIDENTS. Moses Taylor, Wm. H. AsriNWALL. John H. Brower, Francis Griffin, Joseph Kernochan, Francis S. Lathrop, Robert Latou, Charles G. Carleton, Gustavus A. Conover, Robert Smith, N. Marvin Beckwith, William Tucker, Joseph Petit, Jacob A. Westervelt. Reuben Withers, Wm. H. Webb, B. M. Whitlock, Ralph Clark, R. H. McCurdy, George D. H. Gillespie, Wm. S. Wetmore, Ed. K. Collins, Matthew Morgan, John T. B. Maxwell, Lora Nash, Mortimer Livingston, JoshuA J. Henry, Henry Young, Isaac Townsend, Samuel L. Mitchell, S. B. Althause, Schuyler Livingston, David W. Catlin, Henry Chauncey. Charles M. Leupp, E. M. Greenway, Ed. P. Heyer, E. Cheeseborough, Ab'm R. Van Nest, Michael McGrath. secretaries. Wm. Barton, Robert C. Wetmore, Fred'k. R. Betts, Wm. R. Dean, Tho. C. T. Buckley, Robert B. Milliken, Thomas Fenner, Alfred Large. Thomas W. Phelps. The President then put the question, and the nominations were adopted by the meeting with perfect unanimity. The President then rose and addressed the meeting ; he said : — The' object of this meeting, fellow-citizens, as you will perceive by the call, is to express our approval of the late measures of Congress, which are commonly known as the peace measures, and to contribute, as far as its in- fluence can extend, to preserve and perpetuate the Union of the government and the country. (Applause.) The difficulties under which we labor in reference to the important subject of the Union, relate, as you all know, to the matter of slavery ; and these difficulties commenced, or rather this agita- tion commenced, some fifteen years ago. The doctrine was then advanced, that slavery was in itself, and independent of the circumstances which sur- rounded it, sinful, and ought to be put down, without any regard to con- sequences, and without any regard to the effect of its sudden abolition on the prosperity and happiness of our sister States in which that domes- tic institution prevails. Those doctrines have been advanced, and have grown into a magnitude which now certainly threatens this country with serious difficulty, and which, if they be not put down, may terminate in the dissolution of our Union, and the destruction of this glorious Republic, which is held forth as a bright example to all the nations of the world, with a view to spread those liberal institutions under which we have enjoyed so much prosperity. Till the period to which I allude, the doctrines entertained on that subject, are perfectly well known to all of us. We all considered the institution of slavery in itself as injurious, and as an evil. But we found it existing in our country, having been originally introduced when we were in a state, of pupilage, before we acquired our independence, and it has grown with the growth of this country, so that it will require a long time before its total abolition can take place. The institution of slavery has existed since the commencement of the world, and in all ages. It has undoubtedly been, in the early periods of society, a great instrument in promoting civilization, by introducing labor and the fruits of labor ; but in process of time, when society becomes more cultivated, when the arts flourish, and stronsr inducements are AT CASTLE GARDEN". 7 held out to voluntary labor, it is better for a people that it should not exist, except in eases where it has previously existed, and where the sudden destruc- tion of it would produce more evils than it would remedy. Where this evi' exists, where it is interwoven with all the interests of a country, it is, of course, a very difficult matter to abolish it ; and every country in which it prevails should be allowed to take its own time hi the destruction of it. About the period to which 1 allude — some fifteen years ago — a new doctrine was propa- gated ou ibis subject. The idea was then put forth, that slavery was in itself, per n<", a sin — that it. ought to be abolished, at all events, and, like everything wh,ich is sinful, it ought to be abolished without regard to consequence* This, unquestionably, was a new doctrine. It was repugnant to the views enter- tained by the patriots of this country, by the fathers of the Revolution. They considered slavery to be an evil — that it was prejudicial in its effects — like despotism, which is a political evil ; but it was only an evil when it was not calculated to promote the good of society. It was thereibre to be viewed in reference to iis etiecls, and they thought we should look to the consequences before wl undertook to abolish it. The idea that it was sinful in itself, like murder or robbery, and that it ought at once to be abolished, without regard to consequences, never entered the heads of those patriots who led this coun- try originally to independence and freedom. This notion, however, as I before remarked, took ground some fifteen years ago, and then our abolitionists de- clared, that it was the duty of this country, under all circumstances, and without regard to consequences, suddenly to abolish it, looking only at the question of slavery being in itself sinful, and viewing it as an institution which ought not to be allowed to exist. Now, we consider this doctrine erroneous. We consider, that where this institution exists, we must look at consequences, and that it. will not do to abolish and destroy it without taking into consideration the etlects that would result, and without considering whether it would promote the happiness of mankind to abolish it or to sutler it to con- tinue. (Applause.) The idea that slavery is in itself sinful, is unquestion- ably repugnant to the general sentiment of mankind, because we all know, that in the earlier stages of society, shivery has been instrumental in intro- ducing institutions favorable to the promotion of civilization ; but after a period of time, the progress of society will require that it should be abolished. It will, however, need time to do so, and it must be left to every country in which it exists, to judge as to the time and circumstances under which it shall be abolished. In the Southern Htates, where it prevails, they ought to be allowed to judge for themselves, and we ought, not to interfere with them. (Great applause.) This idea, that conscience dictates that slavery is, in itself, sinful, is, as we think, entirely unfounded. We may say of conscience, in regard to this subject, as we may say of the test of beauty and sublimity, — of taste in the fine arts — that when we find the general sentiment of mankind to accord on such subjects, we ought to esteem it to be correct. Conscience, like taste, is an internal sense, which may be cultivated and improved, and which may also be stimulated and excited till it becomes morbid and dangerous. This is a view of the matter which even good and well disposed men, too often lose sight of, and which if it were properly attended to. there would be less evil committed from excessive zeal and wild enthusiasm. A celebrated critic remarks, that if any one should take it into his head that Horace, or Virgil, or Demosthenes, or any of the other great authors, were not entitled to the reputation which they have enjoyed, that individual ought to reflect that the general sentiment of mankind" has pronounced in favor of those authors, and, instead of being dogmatical on the subject, he ought to take & PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, pains to make himself familiar with those authors, and, by the time he had done so, he would approve of the common opinion of mankind. Now we may apply this to the question of slavery. When we find that slavery has existed in all ages, and in all countries ; when we find it has been an impor- tant instrument in the civilization of man ; that in all ages and in all coun- tries, many of the best and purest and most pious men have sanctioned sla- very, and have been the owners of slaves ; when an individual takes it into his head to pronounce it sinful, — we ought to take the general sentiment of mankind as the guide, and that general sentiment will prove the error into which he has fallen. And the only question is, whether the institution of slavery in the state of society in which it exists is calculated to promote its general interests. This is the true view of the subject. This was the view taken of it by the patriots of the revolution. They were all opposed to slavery in the abstract, but they found it existing in this country, and they were too well acquainted with human affairs, to think that it could be at once abolished, and their views have been corroborated by the experience we have seen in the emancipation of the negroes in the British West Indian Colonies. (Cheering and applause.) What has been the effect of the sudden abolition of slavery in those colonies ? It has blighted their prosperity and almost destroyed them, and we may venture the assertion, that if we were to bring about the sudden abolition of slavery in the Soiithern States, it would be attended with the prostration of industry as it was in the West Indies, and we should be in a much worse condition than they are ; for when we look at the character of our country and of our institutions which are free and liberal, — when we reflect that where slavery is abolished the slaves must be put on an equality with the whites, (voice — never,) and that we cannot have a standing army, such as exists in Great Britain ; the consequences would be a servile insurrection in the Southern States, a civil war — the most destructive of all wars — a servile war, the most destructive of all civil wars — would be the necessary result. Now are we to shut our eyes and ears to such consequences and to entertain and act upon the idea that slavery is in itself sinful, like robbery or any other crime, and that it must be abolished without regard to consequences ? Are we to subject the Southern States, our Southern fellow-citizens, and their wives and children, to such consequences as they apprehend, and as we have every reason to believe would ensue, if we undertook to carry into effect such an absurd doctrine, as I am sorry to say, prevails among a large portion of the community, in the Northern and Eastern States ? (Cries of no, no, no, from all parts of the house.) I have said that the object of this meeting is to put down agitation on the subject of slavery. We know the extent to which this agitation has been carried within the last fifteen years, or there- abouts. The very moment the idea was adopted, that slavery was in itself a sin, and ought to be at once abolished, without regard to consequences, a system of agitation was entered upon by a portion of the people in the E ast- ern and Middle States for the purpose of destroying it. They commenced by flooding Congress with petitions praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. They were not content with finding those petitions set aside and rejected, but they persevered in it, and Congress was from day to day, inundated with petitions of the same character. This was unquestion- ably an abuse of the right of petition. If I may be allowed to refer to a sub- ject with which I profess to be somewhat familiar (the practice of Courts of Justice,) I say that every man has a right to present his petition in due form to any court of justice ; but when it is passed upon, if he persists hour after hour, and day after day in renewing it, it would be an abuse of the right of peti- AT CASTLE GARDEN. 9 tion. That was the case with the abolition petitions, with which the legis- lature of the Union was thus flooded. I have referred to that as the commencement of this agitation ; it was not expected by those who furnished them that this constant renewal of these peti- tions would prevail. On the contrary the abolitionists knew that it could not ; but the object was to keep up the agitation ; and through the agency of a distinguished statesman, now deceased, they succeeded in carrying on this system until, to a certain extent, they alienated the mind of the South from the North, and the North from the South, and increased the number of abo- litionists to an indefinite extent. This was the commencement of that system of agitation which we now deplore. It has been growing ever since, and has assumed different shapes, and at the last session of the national legislature, an attempt was made to put it down, by passing a number of acts, commonly called peace measures. We are all aware to what extent the agitation arising from the discussion of those acts, was carried in the Halls of Congress. We are all aware of the conflict of opinions, and of the debates carried on, until finally, the opposing parties seemed to rest by a sort of mutual consent, and ihose measures were finally passed, in the hope that they would put an end to all agitation on the subject. But now, unfortunately, after they have been passed, it is attempted to agitate this subject among certain portions of our people ; and the object of calling this meeting, which I trust will be followed up by others throughout the country, is to express our approval of those mea- sures, and our disapproval of the attempt to continue this agitation, which we apprehend, if allowed to continue, will end in the destruction of this Union, and the destruction of the hopes of all republicans in every part of the world ; in the destruction of that bright example which we set in this country of an established republic — a republic calculated to promote the general happi- ness and prosperity of mankind. I have now. my friends, said all that it is proper for me to say on this occasion. You will be addressed by a number of gentlemen, without any regard to party ; for on the great question of the pre- servation or dissolution of the Union, we must rise above the billows of party spirit — (tremendous applause) — and reviving the old spirit of " '76," which knew no party hut the one great party of 'the country, a great National party, headed by the great man whose memory lives in the hearts of us all, and whose image presides over us, (pointing to the likeness of Washington over the stage,) I trust we shall be able to rise above party spirit, and look only to the Union, and the great interests which the Union involves. The President having finished his remarks, announced that Mr. Gerard would first address the meeting, and would offer some resolutions for its adop- tion. This announcement was received with acclamations, and the gentle- man named took the stand amidst great cheering from all sides of the crowded hall. Prior to Mr. Gerard's rising, the President desired the Secretary to read the two letters which follow. They were listened to with deep attention, the closing sentence of Mr. Dickinson's and various parts of Mr. Webster's being received with the most enthusiastic applause, and several interruptions lor tire purpose of giving round after round of cheers. Franklin, N. H., Oct. 28, 1850. Gentlemen : Nothing in the world but regard for the state of my health pre- vents me from accepting at once your invitation, and assuring you of my presenoe at the "Union Meeting" at Castle Garden, on Wednesday evening next. I rejoice to know that such a meeting is called. I rejoice to know that it will be attended 10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, by thousands of intelligent men, lovers of their country, party men doubtless, but abject slaves to no party, and who will not suffer either party clamor or party dis- cipline to dry up within them all the fountains of love and attachment to the con- stitution of their country. The voice of such a meeting will be heard and respected ; it will rebuke disobedience to the laws, actual or threatened ; it will tend to check the progress of mad fanaticism ; it will call men who are honest, but who have been strongly misled, back to their duty, and it will give countenance and courage to the faithful friends of Union throughout the land. When the commercial interests of the Great Metropolis of the country speaks, with united hearts and voices, expressing its conviction of the presence of the great danger, and its determined purpose to meet that danger, to combat with it and over- come it, the example is likely to rouse good men everywhere; and when the country shall be roused, the country will be safe. I concur, gentlemen, in all the political principles contained in the resolutions,* a copy of which has been sent to me; and I stand pledged to support those prin- ciples, publicly and privately, now and always, to the full extent of my influence) and by the exertion of every faculty which I possess. The eminent men whom you mention, and with whose names you have done me the honor to associate mine, arc well worthy of the praise which you bestow upon them. I shall never forget, and I trust the country will never forget, the patriotism, the manliness, the courage, manifested by them, in an hour of difficulty and peril. The peace measures of the last session are, the Texan Boundary Act, the Act for establishing the two Territorial governments of New Mexico and Utah, the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the District of Columbia, and the Fugitive Slave Law. This last measure, gentlemen, is not such a measure as I had pre- pared before I left the Senate, and which, of course, I should have supported, if I had remained in the Senate. But it received the proper sanction of the two Houses of Congress, and of the President of the United States. It is the law of the land, and as sxich is to be respected and obeyed by all good citizens. I have heard no man whose opinion is worth regarding, deny its constitutionality; and those who counsel violent resistance to it, counsel that, which, if it take place, is sure to lead to bloodshed, and to the commission of capital offences. It remains to be seen how far the deluded and deluders will go on, in this career of faction, folly and crime. There were honest and well-meaning members of Congress, who did not see their way clear to support these great and leading measures of the last session. You are quite right in saying that the motives of these gentlemen ought not to be impeached. But the measures have been adopted, they have become laws, constitutionally and legally binding upon us all. and no man is likely to oppos« them. No man is at liberty to set ixp, or affect to set up, his own conscience as above the law in a matter which respects the rights of others, and the obligations, civil, social, and political, due to others from him. Such a pretence saps the foundation of all government, and is of itself a perfect absurdity : and while all are bound to yield obedience to the laws, wise and well disposed citizens will forbear from re- newing past agitation, and rekindling the flames of useless and dangerous con- troversy. If we would continue one people, we must acquiesce in the will of the majority, ♦ The resolutions here referred to are those which were afterwards adopted by the meeting. AT CASTLE GARDEN. jj constitutionally expressed ; and he who does not mean to do that, means to disturb the public peace, and to do what he can to overturn the government. Gentlemen, I am led to the adoption of your last resolution, in an especial and emphatic maimer, by every dictate of my understanding, and I embrace it with a full purpose of heart and mind. Its sentiment is my sentiment. With you, I de- clare that I " range myself under the bamiers of that party whose principles and prac- tice are most calculated to uphold the Constitution, aud to perpetuate our gloriou- Union.- U Gentlemen, I am here to recruit my health, enfeebled as it has been, by ten months of excessive labor and indescribable anxiety. The air of these my native hills renews my strength and my spirits. I feel its invigorating influences, while I am writing these few lines ; and I shall return shortly to my post, to discharge its duties as well as I can, and resolved, in all events, that so far as depends on me. our Union shall pass- through this fiery trial, without the smell of smoke upon its garments. I am. Gentlemen, with very sincere regard, Your obliged fellow citizen, And obedient servant. DANIEL WEBSTER. To Messrs. F. S. Lathrop, Gerard Hallock, Charles G. Carleton, P. S. Duryee, Committee. New- York. Binghamton, Oct. 29th, 1850. My Dear Sir : — A most painful domestic affliction causes me to decline your kind invitation to attend a " Union Meeting" of the citizens of New- York, at Castle Garden, to-mor- row evening ; but I approve its patriotic purposes and sympathise warmly with the movement. I thank you for the complimentary manner in which you are pleased to allude to my humble efforts in the Senate, and assure you, that I long since determined to stand or fall, u survive or perish, live or die," with those who would maintain the integrity of the Union and uphold the genial spirit of our country's Constitution. Be pleased to present my best regards to the patriotic assemblage, and believe me sincerely. Yours, D. S. DICKINSON. To F. S. Lathrop, Esq., Chairman Committee, &c. James W. Gerard then came forward, and said : — I come at your call, citizens of this my native place, to meet you by thousands and tens of thousands, and sacrificing at the altar of our common country, Our party prejiidices and our party predilections, to rally around the standard of the Republic, and in this the hour of its peril, concert such mea- sures as may be best calculated to perpetuate our Union. Merchants, Traders and Mechanics of this the empire city, your voice and action of this night will be heard and felt throughout the length and breadth of this great Republic ; it will be heard and felt in the States of New England, among the descendants of the Pilgrims — beyond even the granite, frosty mountains of New Hampshire. Your A r oice and action of this night will be heard and felt through the Middle States of our Union, and, carrying aid and comfort, will be hailed with gladness through our Southern sister States, down to the orange groves of Florida. Ripe manhood of our Southern brethren will thank you for standing up for their constitutional rights, and their wives and children will bless you, in their prayers, for the jo PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, security which you give them? against the attacks of fanatics who would dis- turb their domestic relations ; for you pledge yourselves not to war against their rights, but against the men who assail them. Yes, your voice and action of this night will be heard and felt along our fifteen hundred miles of sea-coast, and every commercial place will leap for joy, and join in the gen- eral rally for the " Constitution and the Union." Hence, following the sun in his western course, your voice Avill resound through the great valleys of your western rivers, and, overleaping the barrier of the Rocky Mountains, will not die away until it reaches the new El Dorado on the shores of the Pacific — the youngest sister State of the Union. Yes, your action to-night, before to-morrow's sun shall set, will be car- ried by steam and liglitning to every city, town, and village of as glorious a land as the sun ever shone upon. The friends of the Union, from every mountain-top and from every valley, shall join in the swelling chorus of the .shout which we shall commence here to-night, of the " Constitution, the Compromise, and the Union." More than sixty years ago our Republic was launched into existence ; the Constitution adopted by all the States, bond and free, was founded upon mutual concession and compromise, and by mutual concession and compro- mise alone can it be sustained. For sixty years the States of the North and the South, under the balancing power of the Constitution, have harmoniously revolved in the respective orbits prescribed to them, and have gone on pros- perously in their course without crossing each others' path. As the emblem of the rising Republic, our fathers selected the proud bird of Jove, the king-bird of our forest, and on the scroll depending from its beak, stamped their motto, " E Pluribus Unum" " the Union < one and indi- visible." And well has the upward course of our country justified that em- blem. As the eagle in its circling flight to the upper regions of the skies, with a wing that never tires, and with an eye that never winks, faces and dares the very sun in his firmament, so has our country risen higher and higher in prosperity and renown, until we have placed ourselves in the front rank of the proud nations of the earth. Feats of art and science', rivalling deeds of arms, and the statesmen and warriors of the South striving with the states- men and soldiers of the North, which should add most to the welfare and glory of their common country. Cursed, then, be the patricidal arm which shall check that eagle's flight, and palsied be the hand which shall pluck a feather from that eagle's wing ! The object of this meeting is to ask your ratification and endorsement, after they have been discussed, of the peace measures passed at the last ses- sion of Congress, in regard to the delicate and dangerous question of slavery, the great subject of the day. You all know, that Northern abolitionists, banded with Southern disunionists, for ten long months paralyzed legislation : the wheels of government were motionless, and the friends of the Union stood in awe at the audacity of those who struck at its sacred ties. Abolition mem- bers and Southern disunionists, (goaded by continual attacks upon their slave- ry institution,) who are, in their destructive principles, as wide asunder as the poles, united together in the common cause of breaking asunder this glorious Union. Then was it that the real patriots in Congress threw off their party shackles and sectional prejudices, and Whig and Democrat, as well from the South as from the North, disregarding the shackles of their party relations, sectional prejudices and personal considerations, threw themselves into the breach, and, by their united energies, devised and carried those measures of compromise at which the whole nation rejoiced — which gave peace to Con- gress and confidence to the people, and set again in motion the wheels of AT CASTLE GARDEN. 13 government. Nobly did they do their work ; but scarcely were the troubled waters lulled, when the malcontents from the North and South, uneasy spirits, who would rather " rule in hell than serve in heaven," who only rise into notice on the scum which they create by their own agitation, immediately revived the discussion of the slavery question in most offensive shapes, and sought to throw fresh firebrands into Congress. This proceeding, you will fmcf, gives rise to three resolutions, which will be offered for your approval . First, to honor those patriotic members of Congress who, at great personal sacrifices, shoulder to shoulder, fought for those bills which settled these dan- gerous issues ; and among the names of the men thus honored, you will find that the North and the South, the Whig and the Democrat, are alike hon- ored in the resolution. The next will be one to condemn the patricidal conduct of those mem- bers as a class, both from the North and from the South, whether Whig or Democrat, who wished to rekindle the fires of discord, which had just been extinguished. The third Resolution will be to support with all the power and energy of this great city, those measures of Pcdce and Compromise which were so happily passed. This land must have Peace. We must lay these unruly spirits. The Southern States believe that their very existence, and the security of their lives and their property require it. We guarantied the compromise to them, and let us in good faith fulfil that obligation. The crowned heads of Europe and their counsellors, look with deep interest upon this conflict among ourselves. Oh ! how they will rejoice if our Republic should fall from a plethora of its own greatness, and the fabric of the model Republic, should crumble into ruins. But no, the crowned heads and the enemies of Republics in the Old World shall be disappointed, for we will send forth from this, the great commercial capital, the great heart of our country, a voice for the Union in which the whole land will join in general chorus, and ring the death-knell of the abolitionists and trading politicians, who have brought our Union to a fearful peril. One of those peace-measures was the Fugitive Slave Bill, which has been so shamefully misrepresented by lying agitators, to those who are not informed as to its provisions. This bill of the last session, is nothing more than an amendment, to the Act of 1793, which Act was based upon a clearly expressed clause in the Constitution. This bill of the last session, gives no new right to the claimants of runaway slaves. I give you the assurance of my private and professional word, that it has not superseded the law of 1793, which is still in force, nor extended its principle, but is merely an amendment to it, by allowing a hearing before United States Commissioners, and for greater convenience, imposing heavier penalties than the former law, on those who should obstruct its execution. As I stand here before you, I declare that according to ray best judgment, after a careful perusal of the law, of its scope and object, no argument can be held against its constitutionality. The Southern States did not voluntarily assume the relation of slavery : it was entailed upon them by their British ancestors ; it was their misfortune to bear it, not their crime. Sixty years ago their rights of slavery were guarantied to them, as also this power to reclaim their runaway slaves, by the contitution. It is now too late to say that slavery should not have been conceded to the Southern States ; the perfect answer is, it was conceded, with the power of reclaiming their runaway slaves. This law has not only existed, but has been acted upon for fifty years. Why is it then, that opposition has now for the first time been raised to the enforcement of it ? Because abolitionists set up their destructive principles for sale ; and 14 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING. demagogues who want votes, and politicians who want place and power, have bargained for, and purchased their votes and influence. Both the Whig and the Democratic parties have hid upon each other in this vile traffic of destructive principles and false issues. Thus both parties have been poisoned and corrupted, and their conservative principles abandoned by the leaders of sections of each. But let us make war upon them both, and cut oft' the poisoned limbs, that we may if possible save the body from the corrupting influence. I "have been a member of the "Whig party from its commencement. I like my party much, but I love my country more, and before I will fight under the banners and for the abolition principles of some of its leaders in this State, I will see the Whig party broken into ten thousand fragments. I will rebel against their dictation, I will snatch from the hands of the unworthy standard-bearers, the banner which they abuse, and if I am alone, will wave it over my head, and stand or fall by it. i" do not desert them, nor its conservative principles, but the Whig party deserts me, for the leaders, like the Israelites of old, in their mad idolatry, have gone lusting after strange gods. I will have no compromise with abolition principles, or abolition leaders — we must root them up as poisonous weeds ; we must put upon them the ban of public opinion, and drive them from our midst, as did the Levitcs the lepers from their cities, and we must prostrate them to the earth, and as they throw dust upon their heads, compel them to raise the cry of warning, " unclean'' 1 — "unclean." As to Free Soil, we are all for free soil. There is not a man north of Mason and Dixon's line, who ever wishes to see slavery extended beyond the area now prescribed by law ; but the God of nature, by the rugged moun- tains, rocky deserts, and by the climate and soil and rich vallies of our free territories, has created a proviso against the further extension of slavery, stronger than ten thousand Wilmots can draw. As to slavery in the abstract, I do not believe there is a man north of Mason and Dixon's line, who would not rejoice if to-morrow's sun could rise upon the black population of the South Constitutionally free ; for our Afri- can brother, be he bond or free, springs with us from the same mother earth, is bound with us into one common grave, and heir with us to one immortality. I believe I am a much better abolitionist than those who would mislead the colored race to their ruin. The laws to reclaim runaway slaves, must and will be strictly guarded and watched in their execution. I will with all my heart, without fee or reward, give to any alleged slave who may be arrested under the act, my services as his counsel, if he will trust me with his cause ; I will defend him with all the legal skill and power I may be master of, but, if after a full hearing, the Commissioner on the proof pronounces against him, he and I must submit to the Law. But even then a deserving, meritorious slave shall not be without hope. I will set about buying his freedom, (but I will not go among the abolitionists for their subscription,) and I will contri- bute towards it my first fee, to make him a free and regenerated man. In that sense I am an abolitionist. There are two other resolutions, which I am sure will meet the ap- proval of all who hear me. They are, that we hold the ties of the Union, stronger than the shackles of party, and that at no future election will we vote for any candidate, who is known or believed to be favorable to a further agitation in Congress of the slavery question, or who would countenance the abolitionists in their destructive course. I here to-night for one, renounce all party allegiance, where it comes in conflict with my allegiance to the Union. My motto is, my country first, my party last. I will render no personal subserviency to any candidate who is not sound on that subject ; I care net for AT CASTLE GARDEN. 15 the phalanx of party, as I have no political ambition to gratify. I have never bowed the knee to popular favor, I have never asked the people for their votes, I have never touched a dollar of the people's money. My post of honor is a private station. Hereafter I will see wloo are the conservative candidates, not where they are, and if my party gives itself up to leaders who will betray its principles, I will no longer fight under its banner, but if need be I will go over to the conservative branch of the old Democratic party, and with a buck-tail in my hat, and the tattered banner of old Saint Tammany waving over me, I will there aid in fighting the battle of "the Constitution, the Compromise, and the Union." A few words more. Look at your flag, the star spangled banner of the Union unfurled over my head — are you willing to surrender it ? Are you pre- pared to strike your colors ? Look at the bright cluster of one and thirty stars, and the red stripes beneath them. The stars representing the glorious constel- lation of our confederacy, the stripes intended for our foes abroad, and if need be for the backs of our enemies at home. And when and by whom was that flag devised ? It was when Patrick Henry from the South, echoing back the cry of liberty which Samuel Adeems raised in the North — a cry which awoke the energies of our land from its slumbering and called out our people to battle — our glorious flag was first unfurled to the world under our great and good Washington, its first standard bearer ! ! ! Under that flag the battles of your Revolution were fought, and your country's independence established. No ! The lustre of the constellation must not be dimmed, no State must erase its star, there must be no pleiad lost from its azure field, but all keep and shine together in one bright glori- ous constellation. That flag in our commercial marine has fluttered in every breeze on all the waters of the earth, cheering and comforting the American citizen in every clime in which he may seek protection under its ample folds. Where is your flag now ? Not on the battle-field, (for we are at peace with all nations,) but in the frozen waters of the Arctic Sea, leading on and encouraging Ame- rican sailors amidst the dangers and hardships of the Polar ocean, in a great and good cause, which has enlisted the sympathies of the world, the cause of humanity. That flag, too, bears the marks of many a hard-fought day, when un- furled on the battle-fields of Mexico. Great victories were won under it, while many a soldier in his expiring gaze on its galaxy of stars, scarce felt the wounds which robbed him of life. Will you strike that glorious flag, victorious at the cannon-bristling heights of Monterey, under the brave old General who never surrendered but to Him who rules the universe, and which was planted in triumph on the proud palaces of the Mexican capital by a vic- torious army led on by another brave General, who still lives to maintain in full force and vigor the constitution and laws of his country imder that flag. " Will you strike that Flag ? Never — never ! ! !" (The Speaker was often interrupted with bursts of applause.) Mr. Gerard then read the following Resolutions : — " 1. Resolved, That we revere the wisdom and patriotism of our ances- tors, which framed the Union of the States under the Federal Constitution ; that we attribute our power, dignity, and prosperity as a nation, the full pos- session and enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, the security of property and the means of moral and intellectual elevation which are the birthright of every citizen, and all the magnificent results of our growth as a people, to the Union under the Constitution ; that the maintenance and extension of these 16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETIMG great blessings during the present generation, and their transmission to pos- terity, are secure only by a faithful adherence to the Union, and implicit obe- dience to the Constitution. " 2. Resolved, That the fabric of our general government was the pro- duct of reciprocal concession among the conflicting interests of different sec- tions of the country; of mutual respect for the diversities of opinion which prevailed among the citizens, and of sincere affection, begotten by their com- mon origin, and the common perils, toils and sacrifices through which their common liberties had been won ; and that the general government can be sustained and perpetuated only upon the same basis of concession, respect, and affection. "3. Resolved, That we cordially approve of the recent measures of Con- gress for the adjustment of the dangerous questions arising out of the acqui- sition of territory under the treaty with Mexico, and that, in consideration of the various and discordant interests to be affected thereby, we hold that the compromise is a fair one, and ought to be sustained by every patriot in every part of the land. ' ; 4. Resolved, That the heartfelt thanks of this community, and of the whole nation, are due, and, on our part, are hereby tendered, to those eminent statesmen and patriots, Clay, Cass, Webster, Fillmore, Dickinson, Foote, Hous- ton, and others, who, when they saw the Union in danger, threw themselves into the breach, disregarding all personal consequences, forgetting all party pre- dilections, and willing to be sacrificed, if need be, for the good of the country. Resolved, That by this patriotic devotion to their country's good in a crisis so momentous, they have achieved for themselves immortal honor, and for the Union, we trust, an imperishable existence. "5. Resolved, That those members of Congress from this State, who, against influences the most unfavorable to the exercise of a sound judgment, sustained the peace measures by their votes, have conferred a lasting obliga- tion upon their constituents, and upon the whole country. "G. Resolved, That, while we do not impeach the motives of members who opposed, during their passage through Congress, those measures, in our opinion so indispensably necessary to the peace of the country, we do espe- cially condemn the conduct of those who, after the happy settlement of these dangerous questions by the passage of the Compromise Bills, and while all were congratulating themselves and each other that the era of good feeling had returned, have sought, by again agitating the subject, to throw new fire- brands of mischief into Congress and the country. " 7. Resolved, That the Fugitive Slave Bill is in accordance with the express stipulations of the constitution of the United States, as carried out by the act of Congress of 1793, signed by Washington, and in force at the time when the present law was passed ; and that Congress, in passing a law which should be efficient for carrying out the stipulations of the constitu- tion, acted in full accordance with the letter and spirit of that instrument, and that we will sustain this law, and the execution of the same, by all law- ful means. " 8. Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, a further agitation of the slavery question in Congress would be fraught with incalculable danger to our Union, and that we will support no candidate at the ensuing, or any other election, for State officers or for members of Congress, or of the Legisla- ture, who is known or believed to be hostile to the peace measures recently adopted by Congress, or any of them, or in favor of re-opeuing the questions involved in them for renewed agitation. (Great applause.) " 9. Resolved, That we regard our obligation to the constitution and the AT CASTLE GARDEN. yj Union as superior to the ties of any of the political parties to which we may hitherto have belonged, and that on all future occasions we will range our- selves under the banner of that party whose principles and practice are most calculated to uphold the constitution and to perpetuate our glorious Union." Mr. 0' Conor then arose and addressed the meeting. He said : — Fellow Citizens : I respond with great pleasure to the liberal and patriotic sentiments of my friend, who has just addressed you. Though a steady and consistent whig, he avows his resolution to sustain no candidate of that party, who shall be found to countenance the efforts now making to excite sectional strife and alienate one portion of our country from the other. I rejoice in the opportunity afforded me to emulate his public virtue, and to show that there is, at least, one democrat, not less devoted than he to party organization, party associations, and political friendships, who is yet as ready as he or any whig can be, to sacrifice them all when necessary to the safety of our common country. The same sentiment, no doubt, pervades this whole assemblage. It must be so. We are on the verge of a state election — party is pitted against party, and all the energy and interest incident to a political strife are displayed. Yet, of a sudden, we find this numerous and respectable body of citizens, stepping aside from their usual associations, and without distinction of party, assembled in council to devise means for preserving the commonwealth from impending dangers. Believing, as I do, that serious evils threaten us, I am rejoiced to witness this spontaneous exhibition of patriotism. It is called for by the exigencies of the times, and cannot fail to exert a benign influence. It will encourage and reinforce true men throughout the land, to see how readily the chief city of our republic can fill her largest hall with devoted friends of the Union, prepared at any and at every sacrifice to guard it from peril. We have reached a stage in our country's progress, of the deepest interest. The experience of seventy years has tested the capacity of republican insti- tutions, to secure both private rights and public liberty. The embarrassing questions which arose out of the working of a new and untried system, have been discussed, experimented upon, and generally brought to a satisfactory adjustment. The parent state has adopted enlightened views of trade, practice has taught our mercantile class the error of former opinions in respect to currency and banking, our statesmen, influenced by these and similar circumstances, have gradually surrendered extreme doctrines, and together with them the personal antipathies to which they had given rise. In the satisfied state of the public mind upon political and financial questions, a millennium seemed dawning upon us. As a consequence, our country has advanced and is tranquilly advancing with giant strides. Each day brings home new acquisitions. Emigration swells the tide of our progress to an extent unparalleled in history. Nations, in their sovereign capacity, present themselves as suppliants for admission into our confederacy, and all the elements of individual prosperity and happiness are increased and accu- mulated within our borders, in a degree corresponding with our advance in national greatness. New States spring into being and are added to our Union, so rapidly that a common memory can scarcely keep the count. Why should we not continue in our high career ? Why should we not go on prospering, and to prosper, until our national flag shall bear a hundred stars, each the representative of an empire ? That is the question we are now to answer. The political incendiary, for selfish ends has kindled the flames of civil discord ; and if not interrupted in his wicked designs, this happy state of things must cease. Our dismembered Union may be broken into frag- IQ PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, c merits, and its holy mission for the elevation of mankind utterly defeated. In free States there must ever he differences of opinion, political parties and popular leaders. They are unavoidable incidents, indeed they are necessary to the public weal. And leaders and parties, notwithstanding their diversities of opinion, may be honest and patriotic. Rival projects of policy may differ in merit and in their effect upon classes, whilst their leading objects are yet the common good. In these the patriot statesman finds employment, and a field for honorable competition. The political course of such men as Clay, and Cass, and Webster, and Dickinson, serve to illustrate these truths. But it is our misfortune to have amongst us, politicians insatiable in the pursuit of power and place, whom no considerations can restrain from their accustomed pursuit, whatever the cost or however mischievous may be the means they find it necessary to employ. In the general peace and prosperity which has of late reigned amongst us, these men were threatened with a total loss of occupation. To avert from themselves the evil of oblivion, they have brought into the arena, a fruitful element of discord. It has been seized upon at the same instant by the most distinguished tactician of this class, in each of the great political parties, the arch-magician of the democrats, and the renowned hobby-rider of the whigs. It has almost wholly broken up pre- existing political organizations, and by arraying in deadly hostility the North against the South, menaces our dearest interests. Though hitherto of apparently adverse opinions we find these two leaders now advocating the same doctrines, working by like agencies, and aiming at the same ends. A secret understanding no doubt exists between their followers, soon to be consummated by an avowed co-partnership, for mutual gain. Shall we follow either, or with impressive unanimity, shall we condemn them both ? Before this meeting was held the abolition organs had answered the question. Whilst vaunting that the whole North was recreant, they have unformly admitted our fidelity to the constitution. They tell us that the Fugitive Slave Law, the most important of the peace measures recently adopted by Congress, indispensable to the protection of southern interests, and necessary to the fulfilment of our constitutional obligations, cannot be enforced in any part of the Northern States, except in this city. It is admitted, however, that the imperial city, with its half-million of inhabitants, the capital of the New World, is faithful to the constitution. That here at least the laws will be executed. Even in this libel upon the North, the patriot will find consolation and grounds of assured hope for his country. It is said by the Father of Truth that, when two or three are gathered together in His name He will be amongst them. We are many, united and faithful ; our cause is just. Let us then be its missionaries and champions — let us spread the faith and vindicate it. Whilst injustice and breach of faith is advocated, we are told there is no danger of disunion. That wrong will be patiently submitted to, or resistance suppressed by force. Instead of the fraternal Union, that has hitherto existed, they would give us a Union, held together by the bayonet. They would have us arm as against a foreign foe, as we did against the Briton and the Mexican, and marching into the southern States, subject our brethern and fellow-citizens to colonial bondage by force of arms. Men of the North, are you prepared for this — for a compulsory Union, cemented by the blood of your fellow-citizens, shed by yourselves amid the thrilling horrors of a civil war ? Forbid it Heaven ! Are you willing to stand with arms in your hands, upon the grave of Washington, and dye it with the blood of his countrymen, because they dared to defend the dearest interests of their country ? I know you do not. For myself, I desire not a Union thus purchased, or thus preserved. Whenever partial and unjust legislation, shall render the AT CASTLE GARDEN. 1 9 Union disadvantageous and undesireable to any considerable portion of our countrymen, I say let them withdraw. I desire no Union held together by the military force of one section directed against the other and compelling its reluctant obedience. To deter you from action, or to weaken your influence, unworthy motives are imputed. It is said that the merchants of New-York have a pecuniary interest in Southern trade, and are moved by sordid considerations. I repel and fling back the unjust reproach. It comes from men accustomed to such impulses in their own political conduct. Certainly no such motive exists in my own case ; for I have no interests or connections in the slave holding States, personal, political or pecuniary. There are some motives of unques- tionably purity why Americans of the Northern States should shrink from disunion. Let us sunder the ties which now bind these States together, and what becomes of all that is most illustrious in the history of these United States of America ? Our greatest pride and glory is that we are citizens of that glorious confederacy — one and indivisible — originating with the old thirteen States, which first proclaimed to the world, and established on a stable basis, the immutable principles of civil liberty. Let us dissolve this confederacy and what becomes of the greatness and glory of the American name ? They are gone — gone forever. My brethren — men born upon this Northern soil — you in whose veins there is no drop of Southern blood, are you willing that future generations shall look upon Washington as the hero of a by-gone nation that exists no more ? When your sons read our glorious Declaration of Independence, and glowing with admiration of its matchless eloquence, inquire into its origin and authorship, 'are you willing to tell them it was the production of a foreign statesman, that it laid upon weak and perishable foundations the basis of a republic which has crumbled into dust ? Shall Yorktown, where the seal was set to our independence — New Orleans, the battle field on which our prowess was established — shall the grave of Washington, who achieved the first triumph, and of Jackson, who accom- plished the crowning glory of the last — shall these sacred spots be obliterated from the map of your country ? Shall these illustrious names and the glorious deeds connected with them pass away from us as a shadow, and attach them- selves henceforth and forever to another and a foreign people ? If by our injustice we drive the Southern States from the Union, all these will become their rightful and their exclusive inheritance. For the preservation of our common property in all these — to preserve our ancient glory, our present prosperity, the rich and glowing promise of our future, to perpetuate to re- motest times the great American name, I will oppose, I am sure you will oppose, " the first dawning of any attempt to. alienate one portion of our coun- try from the other." If we continue united we shall continue to prosper ; our vast unsettled regions of fertile territory will be filled with happy and en- lightened men ; we shall fill the measure of our foreshadowed greatness, and present in times not far distant, a nation in extent, in power, in benign influences, exceeding any that has ever existed or been conceived by the imagination. Let us not jeopard these prospects by dissensions about the African. Whatever may be thought of the negro's capacity for improve- ment it is not wise, benevolent or patriotic, by a doubtful experiment in that direction, to hazard the prosperity of the countless millions of white men for whom Providence has appointed this continent an asylum and an abode. 1 trust this meeting, by its resolutions, and our citizens by their votes, will say so emphatically, and administer a wholesome rebuke to the agitators of po- litical abolitionism. In future elections, let us single out for preference those candidates, no matter of what name or political sect, who arc faithful to the 20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, Constitution and devoted, before all other earthly duties, to the preservation of the Union. Both of the existing great political parties have allowed themselves to become more or less contaminated with the sin of supporting or tolerating these agents of sectional strife and of disunion, the abolition or free soil agi- tators. Between the free soil managers and the expediency-men of sound opinions, true, staunch and reliable men can, with difficulty, be found amongst the nominees for office. It may, consequently, be difficult to select ; but the best must be done that circumstances will admit. I shall single out, for my ticket, men who are in favor of peace measures, fraternity with the South, and the permanency of the Union. If I cannot find such, I will take those who pretend to be so, and thus give my voice for the principle. My friend who preceded me, said that if he could not find a National Whig to vote for, he would go to Tammany Hall and vote for National Democrats. I know not where the Whigs meet, but I will go any where for my candidates, and adopt those only who are friends of the Union. Jefferson said, " We are all Federalists ; we are all Republicans ;" in humble imitation, I will add, we are all Whigs ; we are all Democrats. A better name than Whig cannot be worn by an American, a more honorable designation than Democrat can- not be found in any vocabulary. I will support any National Whig in pre- ference to any of that class of pretended Democrats who are known as free soilers. The tactics and purity of that class was well exemplified in the pro- ceedings of the late Democratic State Convention, held at Syracuse ; nor did their nominal opponents appear on the occasion in a light much more credi- table. I had the honor to Represent a district containing, as far as I knew, no single free soil Democrat. I endeavored to represent it truly. I presented a report that the free soilers had fallen into error of doctrine, and that their or- ganization was consequently heterodoxical and irregular. That report was adopted by a strong majority. I presented a set of resolutions affirming the principles of the national Democratic party, and among them that of the non- intervention of Congress in the Anti-Slavery agitation. Those resolutions were adopted by a still greater majority. But lo ! when the nominations came up, three noted free soilers, devoted advocates of the principles and practices denounced by the Convention, were recommended to the people as suitable candidates for important State officers. It was said that the Union of the party required and sanctioned this sacrifice of consistency. An Union of two political bodies entertaining opinions diametrically opposed upon the only question now agitating the public mind, or affecting legislative action, was deemed lawful, just and honorable ; because it might combine a suffi- cient vote to defeat the Whigs, and secure a portion of the public offices to each of the temporarily united sections. To no such Union have I ever been, or will I ever be, a party. It is unworthy of both sections, amounts to a de- sertion of its principles by each, and can serve no honest purpose. I prefer an Union of all the friends of Union throughout this menaced republic, to a combination of two hostile political factions for temporary success and a par- ticipation of spoils. Nevertheless, these candidates were forced upon me, and in the congressional district of my residence, a thoi"ough paced political abo- litionist has been put in nomination by professing Democrats. For none of these shall my vote be cast. Shall I vote for the abolitionist against the Na- tional Whig, now a representative in Congress, who supported all the peace measures in which we rejoice, and who has thus given earnest of his devotion to his country ? Never. Fellow-citizens, let us resolve to withhold our suf- frages from any and from every candidate for office who is tainted in any degree with the sin of fostering Anti-Slavery agitation for political purposes — no matter what his party or his professed political associations — no matter AT CASTLE GARDEN. 21 with what studious observance of the forms of party nomination he may have hcen robed for the canvass. Let this great metropolis rise in her majesty — let her citizens arise as one man, and with one voice rebuke the trading poli- ticians who fancy her their thrall. Her example, I trust, will be followed elsewhere, and the impulse given here will awaken the whole North to a sense of its duty and a just course of action. Thus we may begin a move- ment whose ultimate cflects will consign to political extinction the aspirants to poAver who would attain their object by the ruin of their country. Mr. O'Conor then seconded the resolutions read by Mr. Gerard, which were unanimously adopted with the most hearty acclamation. During the delivery of his speech, Mr. O'C. was frequently cheered by the immense concourse of citizens whom he addressed. Mr. Evarts then came forward and addressed the meeting, as follows : Among the measures, sir, of the late session of Congress, a session more important, perhaps, than any other since the formation of the government, was one which purports to provide legal enactments in pursuance of, and for the better execution of, a specific obligation imposed by the Federal Constitu- tion. It is of this law, the Fugitive Slave Law, that I propose to speak, and I shall attempt to exhibit for your intelligent consideration and dispassionate judgment, the true character of its most important provisions, in their relation to the sacred compact on which the whole fabric of our government rests, and to the sound principles of jurisprudence which should mark the laws of every nation, and most of all, those of a nation of freemen. In approaching this discussion, sir, I have not had the advantage of meet- ing with anything which could be called an argument against the validity of the law or the propriety of its enactments. It seems, thus far, to have an- swered the purposes of the opponents of the law in their public examinations of the subject which have fallen under my notice, to call the southern claim- ants, availing of its provisions, Slave Catchers; the northern judges, Commis- sioners and Marshals, who, m their respective functions, have had occasion to discharge official duty under it, Kidnappers, and Slave Hunters, and to exe- crate its whole process and procedure as violent and oppressive, and its sanctions as cruel. Discussions hi such a tone and temper, scarcely arrest my attention, much less attract my confidence. I infer, and am warranted to infer, either that such reasoners do not under- stand the subject they profess to treat, or that they do not desire or design to shed light upon it ; that they are contending not for practical ends and the advancement of the right, but to embitter strifes and aggravate dissen- sions. We are, gentlemen, confirmed in this view of the real motives and ob- jects of these malcontents, by the consideration, that of all the great measures of the late Congress which your resolutions approve, the Fugitive Slave Law is the only one which is not either entirely satisfactory to the North, or in its character not capable of disturbance ; the capital for agitation being thus reduced, a more active business must be carried on to produce the same pro- fitable returns. The Convention which framed the Constitution of these United States was composed of the wisest and best of men ; in their deliberations and final conclusions upon some of the most important provisions of that instrument, it is known that marked diversities of opinion prevailed, but in this great council in which Washington presided, and the patriotic statesmen of the North and South bore equal part, this clause in substance, was unanimously adopted. 22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws there- of, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." I ask you, gentlemen, is there any point defective or imperfect in this obligation or in the manner of its creation ? Did force compel or fraud pro- cure from the northern delegates unmanly or ignoble concessions ? No, the obligation is perfect, and for the common good received the free, intelligent and honest assent of all the parties to the great compact of our nationality. Congress, very soon after the formation of the government, passed a law for the execution of this clause of the Constitution, and the act of 1793 has remained in force as the sole legislation on the subject until the enactment of the present law, in amendment of and supplement to its provisions. It is said that the privilege of Habeas Corpus, secured by the Constitution of the United States, is infringed by the provisions of the new act. If this be so, such provisions are void, and no repeal or agitation is required to annul them ; the judgment of the Supreme Court will set that matter right. But this writ is not in terms denied by the act, and while the fundamental legis- lation of Congress has provided that the writ shall issue in all cases of con- finement under any law of the United States, or any order, process, or decree of any of its judges or courts, "anything in any act of Congress to the con- trary notwithstanding," there is no reason to fear that any court will hold the writ to be denied by implication. To be sure, the writ of Habeas Corpus being framed only for the enlargement of persons restrained of liberty con- trary to, or without authority of law, if the certificate under the Fugitive Slave Law be lawful warrant of confinement, the habeas corpus will not operate the discharge of the party from custody ; if it be not such lawful warrant, then upon the writ of habeas corpus the prisoner will be liberated ; and thus this important writ will discharge its appropriate function as quietly, as effectually, and upon the same rules of law, as in ordinary cases. The only denial of the writ of habeas corpus to the fugitive slave is to be found in a statute passed, not at Washington and with the participation of South- ern influence, but at Albany, by our own Legislature. This law provides, that persons detained under process of any court or judge of the United States, in case of their exclusive jurisdiction, shall not be entitled to a writ of habeas corpus ; that every petition for the writ shall exclude this as the cause of detention complained of ; that if this cause of detention appear on the hear- ing, the State magistrate shall at once remand the prisoner, and that such magistrate shall not inquire into the justice or legality of any such process. Now, the Supreme Court of the United States having held, that legislation under this clause of the Constitution is exclusively in Congress, it follows- that every person restrained of liberty by process of a judge or court of the United States, under the late act of Congress, is denied the writ of habeas corpus by our own statute. This law of the State is not to be complained of ; it proceeds upon the ground of avoiding a conflict of jurisdictions, and I bring it to your notice for the purpose of showing that some careful discrimination is necessary to understand when a denial of this great writ in favor of liberty, is or is not at variance with sound principles. Another objection made to the law is, that it docs not provide, or, as it is more commonly stated, that it abolishes the trial by jury of the issue between the claimant and the alleged fugitive from labor. It is urged, that this is a departure from the fundamental principles of our jurisprudence, which gives this trial of the matter of fact involved in every private suit and public prose- cution. AT CASTLE GARDEN. 23 It might be sufficient, sir, in answer to this objection, to say, that the right to a°trial by jury is not given by the act of 1793, and that, previous to the year 1840, the statute of our own State, respecting the surrender of fugi- tives from labor, provided for the hearing and determination of the facts, by affidavit or oral proof, before the State magistrate, without a jury. In tho year 1840, a statute was passed in this State, giving the trial by jury on the hearing before the State magistrate, and we might suppose that it was with an holiest purpose of protecting freemen against unfounded claims for their surrender, had not the last section provided, " that this act shall not be so construed as to apply to the relation of master and apprentice which may exist in any other State." The only valuable purpose of a trial by jury, in any case, gentlemen, is for the better ascertainment of the facts in dispute ; the facts in the case of a controversy between master and apprentice are, in their nature, as numerous and as difficult, at least, as between master and slave ; and what shall we think of the legislation which gives this form of trial in .the one case and denies it in the other ? What but this — that the anxiety to protect the liberty of freemen is insincere, and the statute was framed to evade the fair fulfilment of the constitutional obligation. The act of Congress makes no such distinction ; it gives the same law, and prescribes the same administration of law, for the bond and the free, for the slave and the apprentice. • In any aspect of the matter, gentlemen, I put it to your candid judg- ment, whether the absence of the trial by jury in the procedure under the new act, can be imputed as an innovation, when the act of 1793 equally excluded it ; or as an oppression, when the legislation of our own State, until the year 1840, allowed the determination of the same questions by a magis- trate without a jury. , So much is said on this point of trial by jury, sir, that it may be jworth our while to look a little further into the true nature of this right, sp habit- ually and so justly valued by our citizens. It is not a natural right ; it is a positive and artificial institution, the growth of English liberty, from which people we have inherited, and some other nations have adopted it. Gene- rally, perhaps universally, its privilege applies to the decision of the principal and substantive issue in controversy, and not to the determination of matters, however vital in their nature, preliminary or introductory to the main trial. Thus, in civil cases, property is taken or the person is arrested, in criminal prosecutions, the accused is seized and thrown into prison without any trial by jury ; and though these summary proceedings operate for the time, and often for a long time, as a practical adjudication of the question of property or of liberty, no one complains of it as an encroachment upon the right oi trial by jury. We all know and understand that these processes are necessary to bring and retain the subject matter of dispute, whether of a civil or criminal na- ture, before the appointed tribunal, to await the verdict of a jury in the due progress of the cause, to the end that such verdict may have some practical and valuable operation. Now, the whole theory upon which the act of 1793, the present act of Congress, and the State proceedings (until recently) in the matter of fugitives from labor have been framed, has been, that, under the constitutional provision, the claimant was entitled to process within the Si al- to which the fugitive had fled, to restore him to the State from which he had escaped, there to abide the full determination of the right between them ; and further, that this process was of the character preliminary or introdw:- tory to the substantive trial of right to which I have alluded. Thus, Judge Story, in his Commentaries on the Constitution, says, that the clause under 24 PROCEEDINGS OP THE UNION MEETING, consideration "obviously contemplates summary ministerial proceedings," and requires " only 'prima facie proofs of ownership." I have said, sir, that this is the theory of the Fugitive Slave acts ; it seems to me to he the sound construction of the constitutional clause ; the very occasion for any provision in the premises was that different laws and different notions prevailed, on this subject of slavery, in the two sections of the country, and the very object of the actual provision, and the very pith of its language, are to subtract the determination of the right of the master to his slave from the laws and tribunals of the State of refuge, where the general doctrines of jurisprudence would place it, and by a special and ex- ceptional provision to retain the jurisdiction under the laws and before the tribunals of the State whence the fugitive fled, restoring him thither to abide their judgment. Regarding the Fugitive Slave Law and the procedure under it in this light, we shall find all their alleged inconsistencies with the general course of judicial investigations concerning the rights of persons or property, j-esolve themselves into this separation of the jurisdiction of trial from the jurisdiction of first process, a separation not peculiar to this act nor to the constitutional clause from which it springs. In the jurisprudence of the United States there are. sir, four cases in which this principle prevails, two arising under the constitution, and two under treaties with foreign powers ; and of these two divisions one case only under each implies any accusation even of crime, against the parties affected by it, the other is for the enforcement of merely civil rights. The cases under the constitution, as you will readily under- stand, are the delivery from one State to another of persons charged with crime, and this very matter of fugitives from labor ; the cases under treaties with foreign powers are the extradition of persons charged abroad with crime there committed, and the surrender of seamen deserting from foreign vessels in violation of a simple contract of hire. The delivery of fugitives from jus- tice from one State to another, and the extradition of foreign criminals are subjects familiar to us all ; that the claim, in either case, is made upon ex- 2>arte proof taken out of our own State-that the arrest is summary, and that neither upon habeas corpus nor through a trial by jury, can the fact of guilt or innocence be inquired into according to our own laws or before our own tribunals-and that obedience to the claim is yielded, not in pursuance of general principles of law, (with which it is at variance,) but in fulfilment of special obligations thereto imposed by the constitution in the one case, and by the treaty in the other ; all this, I say, we know and understand, and no man questions the procedure as unjust and improper. The analogy which these cases bear to the surrender of fugitives from labor must strike every one, and the only objection to its completeness ever urged, is that the notion of crime enters into both the cases to which I have referred — an objection of little weight when we consider that it is not a convict, hut an accused person, whom our law presumes to be innocent, that we are called upon to send away for trial under foreign laws and before foreign tribunals. But, gentlemen, the surrender of deserting seamen under our treaty stipulations with foreign powers, must be admitted to present a perfect illus- tration of the true character of the procedure under the Fugitive Slave Law. It has for many years been the policy of our government to insert in its com- mercial treaties with foreign nations reciprocal engagements for the forcible arrest and surrender of deserters from the private and public vessels of either contracting party. The consuls of each nation, by these treaties, are clothed with authority to require the arrest, detention, and imprisonment of such deserters, and "to apply to the tribunals of the country where such desertion AT CASTLE GARDEN. 25 shall occur, to enforce this right ; upon simple claim not under oath, and the production of the ship's roll or other authentic document, showing that the persons claimed formed a part of the crew, it is provided that" the surrender shall not be refused," and that the public prisons of the country may be used for their confinement, until their actual deportation. For the execution of these treaty stipulations, Congress has by law pro- vided, that upon claim thus made and substantiated, it shall be the duty of any court, judge, justice, or magistrate applied to for the purpose, to issue a warrant to arrest the persons claimed for examination. Upon this examina- tion the only points of inquiry are, do the persons claimed belong to the crew of the vessel with deserting from which they are charged, (and of this the crew list or ship's roll is made sufficient evidence,) and further have they left the vessel without the consent of the master, and thus placed themselves within the terms of the treaty stipulation for their surrender. These facts once established upon this summary inquiry, without any trial by jury, and securely against the operation of the writ of habeas corpus, the deserting seamen are lodged in prison, forcibly restored to the power of the ship-master from whose service they had escaped, and carried from our shores. Nothing, gentlemen, could be less in accordance with the whole spirit and tenor of our general law than this procedure. The relation of master and seaman is one of contract of service for hire, and stands upon no other footing in the eye of the law, than that of the mechanic and his journeyman or the merchant and his clerk. For a breach of these contracts our laws allow no other remedy than of pecuniary damages pursued through the ordinary forms of suit, the trial by jury included. No process of arrest, no summary inquiry, no compulsory restoration to service is tolerated by our law. Why then has the act of Congress established this peculiar procedure in the case of foreign seamen ? Because the government has contracted treaty engagements with the foreign nation, of which this is the simple and necessary fulfilment. Why has our government bound itself by treaty to the establishment of this pecnliar procedure thus at variance with the spirit and tenor of our general law ? Doubtless, sir, not from any predilection for such procedure in itself, but for the general benefits to the contracting parties which the entire treaty secures, and among which in the contemplation of both parties is the reservation by each within its own jurisdiction of the trial and decision of all contracts of maritime service between masters and mariners. Practically, sir, this peculiar law has no inconsiderable operation in infringement of personal liberty among the class made subject to its provi- sions. Probably not far from a hundred seamen in this port alone are annually affected by its coercion. Yet we hear of no violent objection to, nor even harsh criticism upon, this law. It is obvious to every one that the proper point of attack, if any attack is to be made, is not upon the law, but upon the treaty stipulation which has made the law necessary, and that good faith and common honesty require a withdrawal from the entire benefits of the treaty if we are not disposed fairly to fulfil this particular stipulation, part and parcel of it. So, too, the Fugitive Slave Act finds its place in our statute book, not from any present motive of complacency in its purpose and effect in themselves considered, but as a necessary fulfilment of the antecedent obligation imposed by the constitution ; and shall not the same good faith and common honesty which bind us to the full observance of foreign treaties, with equal force compel a complete obedience to this fundamental compact by which alone we exist as one people ? 26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, The objection that the late Fugitive Slave Act is ex post facto and there- fore both unconstitutional and oppressive, finds little support from an examination of its provisions. Waving the point, that the phrase ex post facto is applicable only to criminal statutes as too technical, we may say of the act in question without fear of contradiction, that it neither makes that slavery which was not so before, nor subjects any man to that condition not so subject before, nor impairs at all the quantity or quality of proof before requisite to establish the existence of the relation of master and slave. Indeed it is worthy of notice that the 10th sec, which introduces the only material change in the matter of proof, applies only to cases of escape, subsequent to the passage of the act. It is true that the procedure of the new act. is intended to be more efficient towards its object than the previous law had been, but an objection to it as ex post facto on that ground, would be as reasonable as the complaint of a criminal that a law was ex post facto which after the commission of his crime should increase the number of the police, thus diminishing his chances of escape, or enlarge the judicial force of the tribunals having cognizance of the case, thus accelerating the approach of his trial. But it is further said that this act does not provide sufficient guaranties for freemen in protection of their liberty. Gentlemen, the whole body of our jurisprudence in reference to personal rights is not to be found in this single act ; it authorises the application of its procedure only to persons held to ser- vice or labor, and whoever shall by its process or without its process attack the liberty of any man, of whatever complexion, not subject to that condition, is liable to criminal prosecution or to civil suit as the case may be. In a word, every citizen is protected by law against oppression or imprisonment under this act, in the same manner and to the same extent as against the same danger in any other quarter, and he needs no more complete or more certain protection. I have thus, sir, not, I trust, without a due « sense of the responsibility which should attend every effort to affect public opinion, on a matter of serious public concern, presented the main features of this act in connection with the constitutional clause to which it owes its origin, and under such analogies with the jurisprudence of the United States as have seemed to me appropriate to its illustration. I have endeavored to show that it does not subvert nor attempt to subvert any established principles of liberty or of law, except in so far as the recognition of slavery may be deemed at variance with such priciples, and that in this respect the law is what it is in accordance with, and in obedience to, the constitutional obligation. Of the details of the bill, the plenary powers of the commissioners, the adjust- ment of fees and the particular forms and authentication of proof, I shall speak no further, than to say that I am unable to perceive that by any provi- sion, or from any omission, this act threatens the remotest danger to any per- son not truly subject to the condition of the slave or apprentice. If these details be in any respect unwise, injudicious or unconstitutional, and such defects prove of any practical importance, they can be and will be corrected. They do not touch the popular mind and furnish no basis for excitement or agitation. It is only from a popidar impression that the act is a violent and tyrannical prostration of the usual safeguards of liberty, and that its operation to that effect is above judicial and constitutional control, that any considera- ble resistance to its authority can be feared ; a correct understanding of its provisions must remove such an impression even from minds the most preju- diced. A little sober consideration will satisfy those who express and hon- estly feel a repugnance to this statute, that the real point of their dissatisfaction AT CASTLE GARDEN. 27 is with slavery itself, and the constitutional provision for the surrender of fu- gitives avIio have escaped from its hard condition. Of forcible resistance, sir, to the execution of this law, exhibited or threat- ened, but few words are needed to place it, and the promoters of it, of what- ever srarb or guise, in a proper light before the community. The supremacy, absolute and universal, of the law, is an essential notion of i-very organised community, and he who doubts this supremacy strikes at the foundation of society. It is the pride and happiness of free communities, that, their law is established by the expression of the public sentiment and public will through the authentic forms of legislation, and is construed and administered by tri- bunals emanating from the same original source of authority, but constituted permanent and independent. Such is our fortunate condition. When in such a community, an individual claims ibr his private conscience the right of veto on the public legislation, or appellate jurisdiction over the supreme judicial tribunals, he simply denies the rightful existence of society, and asserts that the complete natural independence of the individual is the only lawful condition of man. With such tenets society can hold no argument, and when they lead to overt and violent resistance to the law of the com- munity, the actors in such resistance become and are treated as outlaws and enemies of the State. The right of martyrdom under the law, and the right of revolution to change the sources ofthe law, are the only rights which rea- son, morals or religion can suggest against an iniquitous system or adminis- tration of law. How much ofthe devotion ofthe martyr, or the heroism of the patriot, the agitators of our day exhibit, you, gentlemen, cfan judge as well as I, and how little anything in the system or the administration of our Go- vernment can justify or excuse rebellion against it, let the freedom, Security and happiness which prevail throughout our borders bear grateful witness. Let us, then, be misled from the plain path of duty by no idle clamor, by no specious sophistry ; let us know and feel that he who strikes at a law, strikes at the law ; that he Who violates or avoids the obligation of one clause of the Constitution, is faithless to that great charter of our national govern- ment, and to the Union of these States, which exist by and under it, and by and under it alone ; above all, let. no one who loves his country — who reveres the memory of his lathers — who hopes for the happiness of his children — ever doubt or ever forget, that as we, the citizens of this great republic, acknow- ledge no superior, and bow to no master but the laav, so have Ave no guard- ian of our rights, no protector of our liberties, but the laav, and that every wound to its authority, as surely enfeebles its protection. In the actual aspect of public, affairs, sir, the duty of every good citizen is clear. While the enemies of public order and security, whether at the North or at the South, labor to irritate one portion of the nation against the other — to aggravate and inflame differences of feeling and opinion — to estrange from each other men born of one blood and of one country — be it our care to emulate the noble spirit of our common ancestry, Avho bound us together as one people, free, independent, powerful ; let the line be fairly drawn between the foes of public order, the laAvs and the Constitution — and whatever others may do, let us see to it, that in our breasts the love of coun- try shall reign predominant, and that neither the cold selfishness of politics shall quench, nor the fickle flame of fanaticism shall supplant, its sacred fire. After which, Mr. Edward Sandford said : — Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens : — At this late hour of the night I shall not detain you long from the pleasure of listening to the gentlemen who will folloAv me. 28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, In complying with the wishes of the Committee of Management, and appearing before you, I cannot withhold the expression of my profound regret, that, in this age of the republic, an occasion should have arisen for convening this vast assemblage, to do what may be in your power to avert the dangers impending over the Union of these States. When I was entering upon my manhood, the dark cloud of Nullification lowered upon the Southern States of this confederacy, and open resistance to the Federal Government was threat- ened, because Congress, as it was alleged, had passed laws which were not within the scope of the authority granted to it by the Constitution. The executive authority of that government was then wielded by a hero and statesman from the south, around whom every affection of my youthful heart became strongly entwined, and in that great crisis the immortal Jackson declared those emphatic Avords " The Union, it must and shall be preserved." At the same period a great statesman from the north, when nobly doing battle in the councils of his country and earning for himself the proud appellation of " the defender of the constitution," uttered that imperishable sentiment, " Liberty and Union now and for ever, one and inseparable." At that time the principle of devotion to the Union as it was formed by our forefathers, was universal in the Northern States, and lie who dared to suggest its dismemberment, was regarded as guilty of moral treason. But from whence comes the cry of nullification now ? In what quarter of this confederacy is the present peril which has called you from your homes to take counsel together, and concert action for the preservation of the existence of this nation ? From the north ! from our neighbors around us, but not from among us. And against what does rebellion now revolt ? Not against an act of Congress of questionabel constitutional force of operation, but against the great basis of this Union, the federal constitution itself! By the fourth article and third subdivision of the second section of that instrument, it was agreed between the several States and ordained by the people of the United States, that no person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor ; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. It is against this clause of that solemn compact that a portion of our fellow-citizens of the Northern States are now directing their open and concerted resistance, and they are practically nullifying this sacred promise of protection to the rights of their brethren at the south. But for this provision it is well known that this Union could not have been formed, and the domestic tranquility and the blessings of liberty which we have enjoyed under it, could not have been secured. And unless it be faithfully and inviolably observed, it is apparent that injustice will be done, and that sooner or later this Union will be dissolved. At the time of the formation of the constitution, involuntary servitude or slavery existed in the greater portion of the States, and it was indispensable to the security and enjoyment of this species of property in those States, that persons so held to service could not change their legal condition by passing into a state where such property did not exist, and which did not recognize any right to such property. The object of the constitution was by force of its own terms, by the paramount power of the great fundamental law, to continue the condition of servitude upon all whose lot it is to bear it, and to extend the rights of masters, so as to secure a prompt and effectual fulfilment of that condition in every State and territory of the Union, without regard to the public law or public policy of any State, or to the private feelings or opinions of any citizens of any State in respect to that relation. Its design was to prevent either the love of AT CASTLE GARDEN. 29 liberty or the hatred of slavery, the wildness of fanaticism or the reckless or mischievous love of notoriety and agitation in any and in all parts of the wide spread territory of the federal Union, from obstructing the rights of owners of slaves to secure their services in every portion of the land. The great charter of our Union creates this absolute and unqualified right on the part of the owners of persons held to service who shall escape into another state, and by the terms of the compact it is ecmally the duty of every citizen who enjoys the protection and benefit of the federal government to see that this portion of the supreme law of the land is fairly, firmly, and fully carried into effect. Under this clause of the constitution there can be no such thing as escape from the condition of servitude, or from the obligations arising from that condition, by fleeing into the territory of a free state. When there, the constitution declares that the fugitive " shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom his service or labor may be due." It is a popular error that supposes a fugitive slave may become free by escaping from the state in which he is held, into a free state, or by any length of residence in a free state. Nothing but manumission can free him from the obligation of servitude. In whatever portion of the Union he may be found, his master has the right, under the constitution, to take him back to his service, which a parent possesses to reclaim a runaway child. The milliners of this section in the constitution cannot cover their unjust and unlawful designs against the existence of this glorious Union as it is by declaiming against and denouncing the recent act passed by Congress, making additional provision for the restoration of fugitive slaves. So far as that act operates upon the rights of masters, it is restrictive of the broad and unfettered rights declared in the constitution itself. By force of the constitution alone, and without the aid of any act of Congress, or any of the machinery of the courts of justice, the Supreme Court of the United States have solemnly decided, that the owner of a slave is clothed with the authority in every State of the Union to seize and recapture his slave wherever he can do it without any breach of the peace. The act of congress of 1850, as well as the act of 1793, add nothing to the powers nor to the rights of owners of slaves, and merely prescribe evidences of claim and forms of proceedings, and provide the aid of the ministers of the law, that unfounded claims may be properly guarded against, and illegal violence be prevented Those of our fellow-citizens who say that fugitives from service shall not be restored, array themselves directly against the federal constitution, and deliberately trample upon that which secures the bless- ings of liberty to us and our posterity. They claim the protection of the constitution and laws for their property, and refuse to execute provisions in behalf of their southern brethren, because they possess property of a different description, Is not this factious ? Is not this dishonest ? How can we ask our fellow-citizens of the Southern States, to remain in this compact of union with us, when we refuse to execute the provisions inserted in the constitution for the protection of their rights ? How can we ask them to feel assured, that our disregard of the letter of the compact shall be confined to the fugitives from their service who shall escape or be inveigled from them, and that the agitation shall not be carried to their homes and their firesides 1 But it is said by the agitators that the South will not, that the South cannot, that the South dare not withdraw from this Union. I have always apprehended that a practical destruction of this Union, or confederation of sovereign or independent States, was a matter much more likely to be readily achieved, than to be of difficult attainment. This Union is a matter of 30 PROCEEDINGS OF the union meeting, compact, where the continued obligation of the one party to fulfil his engage- ments, rests upon the continued performance by the others of those stipula- tions which protect his rights. Suppose five States shall say to the other States, you refuse to perform your constitutional obligations to us, and we will no longer remain in confederacy with you. We will send no represen- tatives to your National Legislature, and no laws passed by that body shall be enforced within our limits. What is to be done ? Do you say send an army and navy, blockade their ports, burn their cities, and slaughter their inhabitants ? What kind of a Union will this be ? Is the State which has been driven from the Union by the refusal of other States to respect its guarantied rights, to be conquered by the federal arms, and held as a van- quished country. Are you to wage war upon your brethren because they will no longer submit to your wanton invasions of their chartered rights. No ! I trust never. If force is not to be resorted to in such a contingency, Avhat is then to be the condition of these States? The tie which unites them is broken, and each stands alone in its sovereignty. You have instructive examples of the calamities which may then befall us in the past history of the South American States. If it shall be said that new confederations may be formed, scarcely less powerful than our glorious Union, let me ask who will enter into a new constitutional compact with you, when you have re- fused to respect and to execute the rights created by our present charter ? No, fellow-citizens, let us not look at the probable consequences of a dis- union, nor the possibilities of a re-union, but rally in support of the solemn covenants of the constitution, determined to stand by the Union as it is. In this patriotic cause we can hold no fellowship with those of our fellow- citizens, who, believing in a " higher law," or in " no law," are friends of the Union, but of that Union in which every other citizen shall submit to their doctrines and sentiments. There is no higher law nor higher duty of man upon this earth, under his duty to his God, than the performance of contracts, and our present hap- piness is put in jeopardy, and our future prospects are clouded by the appa- rent determination of considerable numbers of our fellow-citizens to disregard the express injunctions of the constitution. I am not of the number who seem to think that this may be done with impunity. How can these dangers be averted ? First and mainly, through the bal- lot-box. Let no man who is not known to be firmly and resolutely opposed to all further agitation, who is not known to be an ardent supporter of the constitution and of the whole constitution as it is, be entrusted with political power. When lire-brands shall no longer be thrown from our legislative halls and executive chambers, minor agitators will soon hide their diminished heads. Iu politics let us know no cause but that of our country, no party but that of the Union. Let us support no nomination, come from whence it may, which does not present to us a candidate who is animated by a love for his whole country, and who is not ready to execute all its laws and main- tain its institutions in their full vigor and purity. Secondly, let us reason with the deluded, let us arouse their patriotism, awaken their sense of jus- tice, bring them out from among the unjust covenant breakers, and turn their efforts to the promotion of their country's peace and safety ; and lastly, let us put the mark of disapprobation in enduring characters upon all repro- bate disturbers of the public tranquility and moral traitors to the union of these States. And if all our efforts shall be doomed to fail, if the madness of phrenzy, and the wickedness of treachery shall he destined to pull down the pillars of this magnificent temple of republican freedom, I am careless and indifferent AT CASTLE GARDEN. 31 what fragment may crush this weak body of mine, for I would not willingly survive the ruin of my country. But I indulge in no such gloomy forebodings of the destiny of this Union. If I could have doubted the patriotic impulses of our fellow-citizens, for a moment, the meeting of this vast assemblage of the intelligence and enterprise of this city, animated as it has been by ono sentiment, and speaking a united voice, would have dispelled that doubt. I would rather take up the strain of a poet of the North, who looking from the portals of our Temple of Liberty down the long vista of futurity, saw an empire without a parallel in its advantages, with scarcely an equal in extent, inhabited by a people of boundless enterprise, indomitable persever- ance, enjoying the largest liberty compatible with safety, and sang, " Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, The Queen of the World, arid the child of the skies." Mr. Sandford was throughout received with loud applause. Having concluded, Mr. Ogden Hoffman addressed the meeting. He said : — Mr. President and Fellow Citizens: — At this late hour of the night, wearied as you must be, in common with myself, I shall not trespass long upon your time. I came not here as Whig or Democrat ; I have not mingled much the past few years in strictly political meetings, and do not design to enter anew the exciting arena of political discussions. But when I found the Union in danger, — when I found the Constitution set at naught, — when I found the laws openly resisted — and saw our glorious Union reeling under blows from agitators at the North and factionists at the South, I felt it my duty to come forward, and stand by all lovers of our common country in this crisis of our danger. I come because I love my country more than party. Do not mis- understand me — I believe the honest men of both the great parties are at- tached to the Union, and intend to be faithful to the Constitution and the laws of the land : and speaking for that party with which I acted — with whose success my warmest hopes are identified and for whose triumph my best exertions shall be given, I believe that the great mass of the Whig party are, as they always have been, faithful to the Constitution, the Union, and the Laws. I come not here, as the advocate of slavery ; I deplore its ex- istence, and so does every patriotic and Christian citizen in the Southern States. It is, however, no"fault of theirs that it has been entailed upon them. I remember that the Constitution found it there ; that it recognized its ex- istence ; and but for such recognition — but for the spirit of compromise, which marked that recognition — the Constitution could never have been framed. By the same spirit of compromise alone can it be preserved. I hurry on from any of the expressions of the feelings natural to a speaker on an occasion like the present, to the more important considerations which press upon our notice. Look at what this Constitution, and the Union thereby effected, have done for our country. See our commerce whitening every sea, and the hand of industry rewarded with plenty. Standing on our own soil, we may see the bright sun rising over the billows of the Atlantic, and quenching its setting beams in the waters of the Pacific. Our land has been the home of the op- pressed of all nations. It is advancing with gigantic strides to greatness, an illustrious beacon to light the way of truth and justice over all the earth. Who, that witnesses our upward career, aptly typified by the flight of the noble bird we have chosen and adopted as our national emblem, would see that eagle, while soaring in his pride of place, checked in mid career and fall lifeless to the ground ? "Who does not remember when, at the last session of ^ongress, disunion was muttered in our national halls, how the throngsin Njsy city, where prosperity had smiled upon every face, were filled with 32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING. anxiety and alarm ? At that crisis, high above the voice of faction and the clamors of party, was heard the glorious voice of Henry Clay — [at this word the enthusiasm of the audience could not be restrained, and the cheering broke out again and again] — that voice, I say, eloquent with the cheering words of patriotism, of counsel, and of hope. It seemed as if the occasion had given new vigor to his wasted frame ; and casting aside alike the chains of sectional feeling and the weight of years, he advocated the claims of our com- mon brotherhood with all the fervor and talent of his younger days. And there was another, — he of the mighty mind, who came forth from tribulation and trial at home, and threw the weight of his mighty character in favor of the Union. I refer to Daniel Webster. [Here the applause was again re- newed, and continued.] He had before been known as the " Defender of the Constitution," but he has now added to this the title of " Champion of the Union." From every part of the Union there were found true patriots, who, casting aside party trammels, and party dictation, stood up manfully with these, and fought and conquered with them. I need not name those to whom I refer. The honest of all parties will long bear them in their hearts. But there is one, a stranger to you and to me, against whom I candidly confess, I at one time entertained some prejudices, and to whom I am therefore the more desirous to render justice. He, too, like Daniel Webster, came forth from trial and tribulation at home, (for the ultraism in the valley of the Mis- sissippi is as dangerous as the abolitionism of the north,) and like him, perilled everything as a public man, even to his place as Senator, in defence of mea- sures essential to the support of the Union ; he is, therefore, particularly en- titled to the homage and gratitude of his countrymen. I refer to Gen. Foote, of Mississippi. [His name was greeted with prolonged cheers, and the speaker then suggested that the audience should reserve their applause until the conclusion of his speech, in order to save time.] But I need not particu- larize each of this noble band ; from the North and the South, from the East and the West, they stood up together, shoulder to shoulder, and fought man- fully for the common safety ; they fought and conquered, and peace once- more spread her white wings over the land. But scarcely had civil dissen- sion — that viprous worm which knaws out the bowels of the State — been " scotched," when the voice of disunion again broke forth, to condemn the peace measures thus designed to restore concord and harmony. At the South, the bill for the admission of California was attacked, and its authors villificd, while at the north, the abolitionists, forgetting the gallant sister thus added to our confederacy, complained that every thing had been conceded, and se- lected the fugitive slave law, as the especial object of their attack, branding all who voted for it, with the most violent epithets fanaticism could suggest. What is the purport of that law ? It is the same in principle as the law of '93, passed by the fathers of the Revolution, and signed by the illustrious Washington. Do they say that this law does away with the trial by jury in the State to which the slave has fled ? So did the law of '93. Is a slave liable under this law upon ex parte statement to be taken back to bondage ? So he was, under the enactment signed by Washington, and in both enact- ments is the habeas corpus j^'eserved. Bnt the law which provides for the return of fugitives from justice is no less stringent. Suppose a citizen of Georgia should come here, and, after committing a crime, flee to his Southern home. He is liable by this law to be torn from his wife and children, on ex parte testimony, and to be dragged here for trial. But where are now the tears of the tender hearted over the stringency of this law ? But there are extradition treaties with foreign nations, by which we bind ourselves to return fugitives from justice who shall flee to us from their shores. AT CASTLE GARDEN. 33 A fugitive from abroad who has made this country a refuge and a home is liable to be seized by process based upon ex parte statement, is denied the right of trial by jury, and is taken back to be tried, perhaps by a code of laws more bloody and oppressive than any to which our countrymen would submit. Are there any tears shed over his fate ? Any vigilant committees appointed to protect him from the pursuer ? No ! all the sympathy of these agitators is reserved for the poor slave. This professed sympathy for the poor black man's wrongs, does not extend to any practical efforts to buy the poor fugitive's freedom ; it will give nothing to the Colonization Society to purchase him equal rights in Africa ; it is merely a weapon in the hands of agitators, nor can they care, if, in using it they sunder the cords which should unite all classes of our people in a common destiny. But these bands may not be lightly sundered. Our independence was achieved by southern as well as northern blood. The graves at Yorktown, as well as Saratoga, nourished the seeds of freedom, and out of the common labor of all sections, grew that Union which must and shall be preserved. Suppose the law is as bad as they assert it to be, good faith requires us to execute it. Who ever heard of a compromise, in which both parties did not complain, that each had obtained too little and conceded too much ? When we are playing for the great stake of the Union, shall we stop to split straws ? When a law, sanctioned by the constitution, has been passed by Congress, can they be good citizens who systematically and violently oppose it ? No ! and I warn my countrymen at the North how they broach this doctrine of disobedience to lawful authority, lest the South one day return the bitter chalice to our own lips. Look at the consequences of disunion ! Our country broken up : the hand of labor and useful industry everywhere paralyzed — and ruin and deso- lation everywhere supreme ! But some will say, "Let them go, the North is the strongest !" Others say, " Coerce them !" Coerce whom? our brethren ? Are we certain that the victory would be ours ? But if it would — oh, dear to our country — afflicting to humanity everywhere — blighting to the hopes of Free- dom — would be a victory won upon a field red with the blood of our prostrate brethren. One of the noblest of these, from our own State, has said, in reference to the Union — " I would not only place before it the shield of honest Ajax — I would surround it with walls of brass — and when these were too weak to guard it, I would summon the patriotism of the land, and circle it with living human hearts !" If the period of our national existence is to come, let it be when all sections, the North and the South, the East and the West are banded together as in the days of our revolution, against a despotic foe, and let us perish, if perish we must, in defence of our firesides, our altars, and our Union, and lie down together in the red grave our swords have opened for us in the ranks of our enemies. Let us resolve by all our strongest ties to the land of our homes — by all our memories of the past — by all our hopes for the future, that our Union shall not be dissolved by the rude hands which are now assailing it. Or if our ship of State, freighted as she is with the hopes of mankind, must founder, let her go down at the close of some well-fought battle, with a foreign foe. But do not let her sink ingloriously in a smooth and placid sea, sacrificed and scuttled by the treachery and piracy of her own crew. Rather than she should perish so, I would nail to the mast her "Holy flag Set every thread-bare sail, And give her to the God of Storms, The lightning and the gale." 34 ' PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, James T. Brady then rose, he said : — I know from some experience in addressing public meetings that you must be too much fatigued to desire any extended remarks at this late hour, and per- haps I would most consult your convenience if not your wishes by not detaining you longer. Indeed, this would be my most judicious course, considering how ably you have been addressed by the eloquent gentlemen who have preceded me. They are skilful reapers in the field of oratory, and leave but little for the gleaner by whom they are followed. Yet as you encourage me to pro- ceed, and exhibit an enthusiasm which nothing seems to diminish, I will say a few words in advocacy of the noble purpose for which the thousands of our fellow citizens are gathered here to-night. I rejoice that my native city has once more vindicated its righteous claim to the character for patriotic conservatism which it has so steadily maintained. In other parts of our State it has long been the fashion to underrate our intel- ligence, disparage our principles, and assail our character, but we have never sanctioned an organized opposition to the laws — we have never truckled to abolitionism, or anti-rentism — we have refused countenance or support, we have extended hatred and opposition to the fanatic, the demagogue, and the traitor. I assert, and the truth of what I say is known to you all, that here in our often reviled city, we have never sustained any principle which became embodied in the creed of either of the great political parties in the State, which had not its origin in a sincere desire to ascertain, and support what was true and just. There is a certain region in the State which has sometimes been called the " infected district." To us the politicians may now apply that designation. Our city is indeed infected, but it is with a feeling of patriotism that pervades the whole body politic — a feeling which rises far above the reach of party, and yearns and struggles for the happiness and the glory of our Union. That feeling has been exhibited here to-night, and the tidings of our deeds will go forth to-morrow to gratify every true lover of his country throughout the length and breadth of our land. We have met to advocate the Union and the Constitution. We have met as the friends of those free principles which lie at the foundation of our government. We believe that those principles are incorporated in the Con- stitution. You have heard much praise bestowed upon the illustrious men by whom that Constitution has recently been so ably defended and main- tained. But let us never forget, that the happy form of government which it was intended to secure, is not the result of any individual greatness or indi- vidual effort. It is the product of that struggle which has existed for ages between the many and the few. The great truths recited in our Declaration of Independence did not originate with the patriots who promulgated that imperishable charter of liberty. For those truths, many a patriot combatted who has no name in history, and who never shared the fruits of the great contest in which he engaged. For them, men have sacrificed their lives who died unhonored and unappreciated — their names consigned to infamy, and their " corses given to dogs." It is meet and just, therefore, that, while we honor the leaders as they deserve, we remember also the hosts who, having themselves given the first impulse to the cause of human right, followed with fidelity and zeal those who guided them toward the great object of their hope. It is our custom to speak daily of our Constitution. There are many who mention it as if it were some mighty bond of Union which no human power could sever. Look at it closely, and you will perceive that it is only a solemn covenant between sovereign States, by which each of them, in consideration of its separate rights being fully maintained by a general government, dele- AT CASTLE GARDEN. 35 gates to that government certain powers for the good of the whole confed- eracy. The Constitution of the United States is one of the best results of human wisdom. It is the fruit of the philanthropist's efforts for true freedom, through the darkness and oppression of ages. It has withstood the assaults of time and of treason. It is the only tie by which our States can be kept together. It is the means by which our country has attained its present gigantic growth, and startled the world by its unparalleled progress. Yet, now, even in the zenith of our prosperity, we see that sacred charter invaded. We see it assailed by men who, while they aim death-blows at our national existence, assert that it is folly and delusion to speak of dissolving the Union. I say that the Union of these States is but an agreement, the terms of which are written in the Constitution, and to the observance of that agreement, in letter and in spirit, every member of this confederacy is bound in honor as well as in justice. If we fulfill the obligations of the compact, we are in no danger — if we violate them, we deserve no safety. I see this charter assailed by the fanatic, and I look on with regret. I behold the assaults made upon it by the traitor, and I am indignant. I pity the insanity of the wretch who, blinded by a false creed, applies his torch to the glorious fabric wrought from the thoughts and labors of men in all ages, who loved and would exalt their fellows ; but when I see behind this insane fool men urging him to the work of demolition, who know that his fell deed must endanger the best hopes of humanity, I feel that no hatred, no scorn, no punishment, is too deep or damn- ing for such sacrilegious dastards. I have two men of this stamp within my mental vision. In contemplating them and their actions, I am compelled to acknowledge that gross injustice has been done to the name and deserts of Benedict Arnold. He long possessed the reputation of being the greatest and worst amongst traitors. But his claim in this respect must yield to those of two prominent men in this State. Their names are already on your lips. Each of the great political parties in our country has furnished one. I refer to Martin Van Buren and William H. Seward. I know their history and their acts. I know that you would order that the name of traitor should be branded on their brows in characters so permanent as to be indelible, except at the touch of the Creator on the judgment day. These men have sought the support of the two classes who are now en- dangering our Union. I refer to the fanatics, and the demagogues. Alas ! for the former, they are the dupes of those who use them merely as the blind instruments of nefarious ambition. Our country is afflicted beyond all na- tions of the earth with a set of men who believe nothing perfect but them- selves, and are satisfied with no theory but such as they originate. Like the aerolites which are projected from beyond the gravitation of another planet and hurled within ours, they do not seem adapted for the globe we inhabit. Either they are too good for this world, or this world is not good enough for them. They are sorely offended because they were not consulted in the arrangement of the solar system. They have a marvellous benevolence. Its peculiarity consists in its far-sightedness. They can see the misery which is distant, but not that which is near. They pity the sufferings of the New Zealander, and supply moral pocket handkerchiefs for the native of the Sand- wich Islands, but cannot perceive the agony of the ragged mother whom they behold with a shivering infant in her arms, making her way through the snow seeking alms from the wayfarer, with labor almost as difficult as that of the diver who hunts for pearls in the chill depths of the ocean. They are addicted to any color, and any reform except that of the race to which they belong. They are subject to the censure involved in lines which I beg leave to repeat : og PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, " I thank my God, the sun and moon Are both hung up so high, That no presumptuous hand can stretch, And pluck them from the sky. If 'twere not so, I have no doubt But some reforming ass, Would recommend to take them down And light the world with gas." You know well these inspired and matchless philanthropists. Nothing sublunary meets their approval unless they claim its paternity. They de- nounce the Bible, assail Christianity, and trample upon the laws of man. In their fell work they have the assistance of wretches, who to gratify their own vanity — yes, for the petty triumph of an hour, would sacrilice the cause of constitutional freedom for ever. These two classes — the fanatic and the demagogue — are now rivals in the bad effort to defeat a law of Congress. I mean the Fugitive Slave Law. And what is that ? You have heard it well explained by my able friend, Mr. Evarts. It is a constitutional method which the general government has prescribed, by which an American citizen, in any State of the Union, may recover his pro- perty. This law is obstructed in its execution by numbers of men at the North and East. It is so obstructed by the same men who scout at the idea that anything can disturb our Union. Let us pause, reflect, and compare. We all remember the time when South Carolina was unwilling that an offensive law should be executed within her territory. I do not stop to con- sider any of the political questions growing out of that occurrence. At that time she had a son and a representative whose name this country can never forget — John C. Calhoun. My own political friends know well how much I honored that great and pure statesmen while he lived. You are prepared to hear me declare, that I love and revere his memory. When that State thus assumed a position deemed so unwarrantable, the whole power of the general government was at once directed against her ; the lead in this movement beino- taken by one whose course was promptly to decide and efficiently to act. That was called Nullification. What, I would ask, is the course now pur- sued by too many in reference to the Fugitive Slave Law ? A nullification infinitely worse, because, as Mr. Sandford has told you to-night, it aims, not at a mere act of Congress, but at our great national charter. Some of you may suggest, that the opposition to this law is only individual action. I fully admit that the general government is not responsible for the acts of citizens ; but this I do say, that our Constitution and Union are a mockery, and our professions here a silly delusion, if we do not feel ourselves required to demand, that, in the efficient and thorough execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, the entire power of the federal government be so exercised, that no effort of an individual or a mob shall possibly prevail against it. Unless this be done, our pretended Union is not worthy a moment's regard. It is not an affair merely of parchment. It has taken root, and it must grow and strengthen in the affections of our entire people. If any member of the confederacy be sustained in the slightest violation of our national compact, then I have no hesitation in declaring, that the sovereign State whose rights are permitted to be disregarded has a perfect right to secede. There is nothing in our cove- nant which can morally bind any State to remain in the Union if its con- stitutional rights be not preserved in their full and unqualified vigor, by the utmost power and resources of the general government. I know that there are in this State miserable politicians of both parties, who are afraid to consider, and unwilling to acknowledge, the plain truths AT CASTLE GARDEN. 37 which I have uttered ; but I for one, as a member of the Democratic party, utterly and forever disclaim connection with any man or set of men, who, from any motive or for any purpose, seek or wish to have abated, in the slight- est degree, the most rigorous and exact observance of our national compact, in each and all of its provisions. I hate the abolition party. This is not because I have any hatred of the colored race. I would be amongst the first to protect, and elevate them, if my disposition to do so were not restrained by duties much superior to the gratification of any vain or capricious fancy. I am for preserving our Union, not as a bargain merely, but as a great brotherhood, of men who seek to promote the happiness and glory of mankind. We know that Ave scarcely possess a na- tional character. The diversity of climate, soil, and institutions in our vast territory has separated many of our States, as if an ocean rolled between them. The founders of the constitution, aware of this fact, completed that stupendous work on the basis of compromise. They saw, as we do now, that between the South Carolina planter, and the Massachusetts farmer, there was a difference of individuality, almost as great as that which distinguishes the Irishman from the Scot. This difference has naturally created sectional antipathies which the true patriot has from the formation of our government been trying to eradicate, so that the American feeling, like the American name, should be diffused over our wide-spread territory. The fanatic, and the demagogue are endeavouring to widen the breach, to increase the repulsiveness amongst those, who, exulting in a common baptism derived from a common country, should permit no geographical boundaries to make them feel or act otherwise, than as brothers. The enemies of our Union base all their wicked efforts on an affected love for the blacks. They are doing what is well calculated to excite a war of races, by which one of them would surely be exterminated. If that struggle should ever occur, I know that I speak your senti- ments, in declaring, that whatever may befall, we will stand by our own race, and aid it in the fulfillment of the glorious mission for which it was unquestionably designed. I will detain you no longer. I have strong hopes that our Union will survive the assaults and injuries it now encounters. I found those hopes on occasions like this, when men, without distinction of party, assemble to raise their voices in favor of maintaining the Union at any hazard and at every sacrifice. To do this, it is only requisite that the North and the South, the East and the West, should do justice to each other. We have but to keep our promises and observe our national contract. This meeting well indicates that our city has resolved upon discharging all its duties to the whole country. I am delighted, indeed, that such a meeting has been called — delighted that it has been so numerous and enthusiastic. To all traitors, it is the hand- writing on the wall. To all patriots, the glorious bow of political promise. Mr. Brady, amid the most enthusiastic cheering, concluded by offering the following resolution : Resolved, That a committee of fifty citizens, whose names are hereunto annexed, be appointed, with power to fill vacancies and add to their numbers, to be called the UNION SAFETY COMMITTEE, charged with the duty, by correspondence and otherwise, of carrying out the objects of this meeting, which are hereby declared to be — To revive and foster among the whole people of the United States, the spirit in which the Union 38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, AT CASTLE GARDEN. was formed and the Constitution was adopted ; and to resist " every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeehle the sacred ties which now link together the various parts." Robert Smith, James Brooks, Isaac Townsend, Charles E. Butler, John J. Cisco, Nicholas Dean, 0. D. F. Grant, Dennis Perkins, Ralph Clark, Robert C. Wetmore, S. T. Nicholl, J. A. Westervelt, Samuel L. Mitchell, J. Phillips Phcenix, George B. Butler, Geo. D. Gillespie, David W. Catlin, Wm. T. Ross, Albert J. Anderson Wm. M. Richards, Wm. H. Webb, G. Griswold, Jr. Edwin Hoyt, Saml. H. Foster, James Bryce, Ephm. Holbrook, James B. Murray, E. ClIESEBROUGH, Wm. Gale, Wm. S. Miller, J. L. Hale, Saml. G. Goodrich, Reuben Withers, George Wood, Moses Taylor, Hiram Ketchum, Schuyler Livingston, Charles G. Carleton, Gideon Ostrander, Joshua J. Henry, Joseph Kernochan, Francis S. Lathrop, Charles O'Conor, Marshall 0. Roberts, Henry Grinnell, James E. Thayer, Jacob Aims, Lucien B. Chase, Jno. D. Van Beuren, James W. Gerard, James Munroe, Andrew Mount, Thos. W. Phelps, Sidney Brooks, Wm. S. Wetmore, f. cottonet, Alfred Large, R. B. MlLLIKEN, T. E. Davis, Stephen Whitney, Richard K. Haight, G. A. Conover, G. D. Babcock, Israel Corse, James Fellows, Henry Ludlam, Saml. Cornell, This resolution was unanimously passed, and on motion the meeting then adjourned. Edward Sandford, Francis Griffin, Charles B. Spicer, B. M. Whitlock, E. K. Collins, A. M. Cozzens, Wm. M. Lambert, John M. Bradhurst, Ogden Hoffman, George Douglass, Wm. Stevens, Richard Burlew, G. W. Hempstone, Samuel E. Sproull, James T. Brady, Alfred G. Benson, John McKeon, Wm. A. Banister, Nicholas Ludlam, Chas. M. Connolly, Stewart Brown, John C. Green, Joseph Lawrence, Saml. D. Babcock, Gerard Hallock, Wm. B. Astor, Henry R. Dunham, Edward Curtis, E. B. Heyer, John R. Walter, John Cleveland, Nelson Robinson, Thomas Tenner. SIGNATURES ATTACHED TO THE CALL FOR THE UNION MEETING OF THE CITIZENS OF NEW-YORK. The undersigned unite in this call for a public meeting of their fellow- citizens, without distinction of party, who approve of the peace measures of the last session of Congress — who are disposed to sustain the constitution and laws of their country, and to maintain the Union, and for such action as is best calculated to arrest the further progress of political agitation in this section of the country. Hicks & Co Alsop k Chauncey Wm Whitlock k Co Wm IT Aspinwall Moses Taylor P Chouteau, jr., k Co N T Hubbard & Co C and L Denuison k Co A B & D Sands Saml L Mitchell Ball, Tomkins k Black John Adams Wm I Lane Townsends k Millikin Henrys, Smith k Toun- send F S & D Lathrop k Co Wright, Betts & Co Nathaniel Ward Perkins, Warren & Co McCurdy, Aldrich k Spencer Rankin, Duryee k Co McGrath k Thorn Carle ton & Co R C Whetmore & Co Fearing & Hall Rodgers, Catlin, Leavitt k Co Harrall, Sproulls k Co Petit, Bannister k Harris Ross k Leitch Jno Jewett k Sons Benj De Forrest k Co Slate, Gardiner & Co Scott k Bell Gerard k Betts Jas Harriott G A Conover Jno H Carrell Amos Woodruff Robert Smith Wm Tucker Egbert Howland Peter Bogart Jas Wotherspoon John Campbell Joseph Rogers Dudley B Fuller Smith Dunning Francis Hall k Co C A Leonard Beals, Bush & Co' R & D M Stebbins Wm C Langlcy & Co Foster k Livingston Bramhall, Abernethy k Collins Clark k Work Cushman & Co Davis, Brooks k Co John Cryder Thomas Crocker B K Collins Stewart Greer k Co Wood k Grant R Buloid k Co Abbott, Dodge & Co Laurence, Ciapp & Co Wm H Franklin F Cottenet & Co Cooper & Giraud Dunham k Dimon E D Hurlbut k Co Wm H Brown John Lindlaw John Lloyd R K Haight D B Fearing C M Parker James Donaldson D S Kennedy Henry Bergh Thos Eggleston Wm H Jones G B Lamut E B Sutton & Co Earl & Dean Jones & Johnson S S Howland J L Aspinwall R L k A Stuart Chas P Leverich Minturn k Co B Aymar Schuyler Livingston Jacob k Wcstervelt John Collins Wm C Todd & Co Houghton k Arnold A R Raymond TeuEyck, SutphenSo Co John W Dodge Wm R Dean Brown, Bros k Co Center k Co Aymar & Co Wm T Ross S Jaudon & Co Mason & Thompson Halsey. Utter k Co Edward Fenner Hugh A Toler H J Seaman G B Lamar Charles E Connelly Jonathan Thompson Wm Edgar Howland S T Nicoll k Co Baldwin, Starr & Co Patten, Lane k Co Edward P Heyer & Co John E Earle Oliver, Jones k Granger Frederick Wilkinson B A McDonald Thos E Bishop & Co Peter Hughes R S Ackman J M Shaw Noal B Stokely F S Wiberskay W M Wilson W R Stokely Samuel Crawford A W Johnson H Joy J H Campbell J A Tilford W B Spaulding, P Cavanagh W H Fox C Neefna S Jar vis Ferris E R Ives L W Holmes J W Thome W Wade William Davis Geo W Blanchard Jacob Travers David Beek Charles Mailler Chas S Oakley J Senfield James A Smith E L Barrett Henry Hanfield Robert Wiltse Isaac Wm Smith Chas H Thompson P Heard Kingsland Henry Miera John Teatzen Cozell Jercha John Wilkinson Clans Wicntjenn PFink Hams Kngell Thunis Haulenback James Kngles Joseph Cooper Henrv Plump David H McCoy Garret Van Nostrand Frederick Holsten John Brown David Orson Jamas Smith John Plump J Gervos G H Haulenbeck J B Schmith W B Meckon T H Gray S Galaveare D Ilaylor Daniel S Marvin Hughes, Ward k Co Nevius k Co R W Newton Thos McCrine k Co Thompson, Quick & Mc- intosh Thompson k Co B M Whitlock k Co Brown k De Rossett O & A Wetmore k Co Wolfe k Gillespie Wolfe. Bishop & Co H M Boyce k Co Chas B Butler J W Gerard Nicholas Dean Wilmerdings k Mount Geo .1 Taylor & Co Jno H 13 rower & Co G G Howland Johnson k Lowden Peter J Nevins H K Coming Richard P Buck Nesmith & Sons Howes k Co S W Lewis Chas II Marshall k Co Taylor and Merrill Wm H Webb Austins & Sp)QB* Marshall Roberts John J Rarttfns Watt 8c Sherman Coffin, Bradley fc Co George liml k Co Lord & Snellirfg Grant k Barton Allen, Hazen k Co Greenway. liro & Co Zebedee Cook Cheesebrough, Steams & Co Jas S Aspinwall Basse tt k A born John E Karle Calvin W How k Co Jonas Conkling k Co 40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, Doremus & Nixon W Smith Brown Geo W &. Jehial Read L & V Kirby Richards & Cronkhite Lewis B Brown Myers, Suydam & Co Persse & Brooks Furman, Davis & Con- nor Waldron & Ilsley Floyd Smith Atwater, Mulford & Co Chas M Connelly Havermeyer & Mollers Richard Irwin Amory Edwards WW De Forrest & Co William B Astor Jacob Lie Roy Sturges, Clearman & Co Hotchkiss, Fenner & Co W H Weed & Co J & J Cox Dubois & Vandervocrt Stephen Burkhalter Suydam, Reed & Co B Baker Baldwin,Dibblee & Work Gibert, Cobb & Johnson John L Buckley & Co Downs & Giteau Buckingham, Ward & Co Wood, Vose & Co Sherman & Collins Kent, Poag & Co Ingoldsby, Boisseau & H aisled Swift & Hurlbut Cromwell, Haight & Co Wilson G Hunt & Co John Caswell & Co C W & J T Moore & Co Hy W Barstow Trowbridge, Dwight & Co Compton & Turner Marsh & Frear Hudson & Robertson Wm H Franklin Osgood & Jennings E J Anderson John L Graham Jas H Van Allen J B Varnum Hiram Ketchum Daniel Jackson Thomas Harrison Lee Mortimer Thome Edward B Thorpe F Wilson Strulhers & Vail Bruner, Jr N Carpenter Saml Brush W L Southwick C H Field John Calvin Smith C H Ring R C Valentine Geo W Stevens W C Buniston Floyd Smith C H Childs H Robertson II Demeraest J A Blackledge J A Ryerson C M Campbell Henry Albshon W H Fox Horace W Graves F M Smith Jas Martin Hector Sinclair T Godwin Carson & Hard Bradley R Hard Poillon & Colgate Hy Kinden Edwd Godfrey &. Son Leggett & Bros Steele & Co Jno Klenke Jos Bradley Gustavus Phieffer Danl McCabe Geo Colby Wm M Tweed Jas McKench C M Singleton H B Perkins Jno H Aldrich Betts, Selleck & Betts Peterson & Humphrey Stewart, Bussing & Son Z Gordon Coleman & Stetson Lewis Atterbury Jr & Co John F White E M Calie W H Meins David Lennox Wm H Rockwood G Lutier J D Bullwer B M Hershell Geo S Marshall Wm Raymond Chas H Noyes F S Hasbrouck H A Nichols A M Rorok Robert E Jones Robert S Underhill Wm H Plummer Gorden Michael Daniel Estes E E Rothoven Thomas Lawrence J B Boyd Abner F Chadwich G F Mott John Wight N S Husted R J Roberts E Buckman H P Haven John Buckmaster Hannah & Laing Wm Halsey & Co Robert B Clark John A Barlow Anson J Foster Daniel Mock Julius Hagins John Moon Alfred H Satterlee Jas B Merritt N G Kellogg S B Hayward W R Gilbert Richardson, Watson & Co Spies, Christ & Co Hutchinson & Tiffany E B Place Jas K Place Geo W Todd Wm A Francis Geo Eder M M Decker Thos Colesman A V Browne J E Brown Nelson, Wells & Co P C A Matthew Hiram Waring Geo G Miller & Co Edwin Wygant M C Morgan & Co Corn Stewart Benj Greenwood Wm H Dederick James Matther Dan'l C Greene L N Fuller H D Powers Rufus Park Clark & Beatty C M Hawkins Dan'l M Bertholf S Taylor Alfred Wright P S Schutt M A Hoppock B J Hilton Jas Langpheu J H Cain Geo Ward J & N Smith J R Mair B M Haywood J S Hiscox S H Cornell C Adams & Co S C Brush D W C Carpenter J T Carpenter R Burkhalter Sam'l P Everts C Van Dive Rob't Marston L A Caraner Wm F Piatt & Brother John Stants E J Gibson RRRoe A L Dennison & Co P C Send E Pattison Wilson J Hunt Robert Charles, jr James C Hard Michael Mullen H D & E Ward Curtis & Lumley W M Lathrop Hiram Veltman Baker, Griffin & Co R & G Wilson H Moses & Co J H Mc Williams W D Gregin D W Graves John A Clussman J Campbell Thomas H Hamblin Johnson & Tredwell C L Minor Thos Andrews W S Whitney Wm Corrie C E Baker R Munsell W B Askew J A Munsell Abendroth Bros R L Shaw Thos Barrows David M Gogon Wm Ludlam Peter Neepus Wm H Mitchell Thomas Barclay Amos Smith Peter F Ranpau John Vanderbilt Alfred Dorlon D H Gould A Whitlock E Benedict Lewis Gibson John H Earle Wm McCormick Mattison & Ely A C Collins G K Hyde Albert G Weed Alexander Forman Douglas Leflingwell Ira Libby A L Thorn Walter Scribner John Sullivan II J Seaman W H Champion R C Kimball L A Mullen H W Duryee Jno C Magee Aaron Field Geo M Mann E J B Thomas Wm H Post John H Jones Joseph Sohler E H Bleecker Sam Shaw James Campbell Julius Earle & Dean J C Beale E B Sutton & Co L Lefferts L Pincoffs B Rothmater W E Seymour Wm Florence James F Wenman D L F Appleby Alexander Patterson Jones & Johnson Edward P Moore Henry J Scudder M P O'Hern & Co W J G Thomas Frederick N Fleming Joseph Fowler S V Appleby James H Dill Deny & Casey Geo D Cassio E R Roberts Kennith & Laverty Duncan & Burdetl C A Ten Eyck Saml Candler Alexr J Cartwright Joseph Pinkham John B Many J W Watkins James Robinson Alex R Brandon David Moses Wm Agate, jr Scott & Bell Peter Donnelly Thos L Braynard F Rorring H M Dayton George Morrison Edward J O'Connor G Frederick Davy John Croft John S Pierre N Gilmore John Cox F H Babcock Girard & Betts John Boyd, jr James Newham F A Blossom Walter Greenough & Co Bulkley & Lockwood Amos 6 Wells Henry Butler Billings Hayward James L Gray J H Rhynet W P Wilson James Farrell Wm Farrell H J Rogers F Willis Fisher, M. D. AT CASTLE GARDEN. 41 Jno Vanderbilt Thos F Pinner B Harding H Johnson R Haskell W H Daily N L Frost W R Swift J D Varney Wm Butts James M Welch E P Peters John Ainslie Chas E Kendriok D E Pond A Pelletier B T Clark Zebuler Whippoll W H Fuller Osgood Bradbury J Lorimer Graham, jr D A Parker E Femell Jones W W Lee John D Maxley J A Buckwean L E Black C C Fitch Jno Driscoll WLHall AW Hollister Kitchen, Montrose & Wilcox Chas F Pickengill James Coleman Robt Latour David R Allen A Anganvanie John D Wendell C D Hullen & Co Chas M Scovil Nathan G Fisk P H Hamblin Horace L Sill Samuel Sneden Henry T Mulbrey C H Levy & Co Ebon Goodwin k Bro Noah T Sweeney k Co Chas H Thorn, Jr J D Camp Edwin Hillyer C G Till ' Alirich & Burton Joseph F Moyses Mcllarg k Richardson A North Wm A Guert Vincent k Beekman Lindslay, Cameron k Hayward W C Landon W F Merrill Edmund C Fisher Jacob Chamberlain Moses Chamberlain J W A Davenport John Doggett, Jr Lyman, Converse k Pomeroy Freeman, Hodges k Co John Lockwood Longs k Woods Bartlett k Goodrich Malcolm & Gaul J L Beirer Bruno k Cargil F M Jones k Co Henry W Barnes John Buckley Spear, Ripley & Co Vail k Parker Thomas Saunders A W Van Pelt Saunders k Forman Genio C Scott Wm G Noble K Spencer Vincent Bellman A G Jerome Thaddeus R Brooks Wm Furman Thos N Dale Woodward, Mount k Co N Ferris k Co E Fuller, Jr Laughlin k Avery V G Audubon E Bonnier Alfred Jones W H Dans John E Bigley Pomeroy k Leonard R Furman Chas H Pratt Horace L Sill A Camp John Ogden JTP Smith James Whyte Davis John L Cadey Alfred Hassal A E Douglas, Sen Houghton & Arnold A R Raymond Ten Eyck, Sutphen k Co John W Dodge Richd A Rolfe H N Seaver H B Sheldon George Farmer N Coles Merrill, Townsend k Boynton Wm G Barney R G Green Chas Bridge J R Pierson Thos R Clark Thos M Argall Potts k Simmons Hope k Willcox Geo E Byxter C Cronkhite Thos T Winthrop James T Moulton Geo A Willis Draper, Knox & Inger- soll Sam F Bains Chas B Waldo Garner k Co Fanshaw, Milliken & Co Wisner H Townsend Albert G Crowell Thos Garner Geo H Whelpley Thos Harnar Leo Mortimer Thom Edward B Thorp T Wilson Wm Thorn Struthus & Vail C Brown G B Gray Robt Carpenter James Struthers H A Howe Barrows k Pitcher II Shepard Munsell & Co Hart. Morehouse k Mer- r'itt John P Lockwocd A L Reynolds Chalmers k Ward Graydon, Swanwick k Co Paton k Stewart Chas Hopkins John Cottings John S Quick Townsend & Kellogg J Loomis k Co A B Thompson James M Sloan Zenas Newell S 1) Burling Wm W Bruce A J Clark Wm J Burling L & V Kirby & Co Taylors & Richards Lee k Brewster Burnham, Plumb k Co Wallis k La Tourette Thomas Barry Wm Young Marvin A Arrents J k E Vandenhoet Henry C Southworth Wm F Kartright W W Bush L N Wyant Wm Strong, Jr John H Earle Wm Van Antwerp D S Ketchum Thomas Hiller, Jr. P M Curtis A D Hillard B D Judson J Burnham C W Railbeck, Esq C E Randell Thos Mason, Jr Geo M Brush J Munroe Murphy Wm King J W Hurlbutt H Ross S W Pinkery E Maltby & Son J P Martinot E C Ketchum Samuel S Conch M J Whelan Wm J Tyler J A Williamson Lewis P Clover D E Wheeler Stephen D Halsted H J Billings Wm Murphy Owen Cassidy Wm Conodes Henry Jelmerring H B Clark Smith Dunning, Jr. J S Dunning J J Stewart & Co C H Morford Israel Moorhouso Jas H Nol Frederick Curtis G W W Savage C Adams Jas L Miller S G Britter Aaron Close K Frezy S W Davenport J R Riley J G Payntar G R Smith John Lagrave J S Twrrar D Crocheron J W Gorse « Alfred F Lagravo Adam Boyd Jas Donald John McGregor W Gillilana J R Stufford H G Gillespie Saml C Bishop Alonzo Brown J C Leftingwell John P Fry J M G Smith J W Smith JR Gliddon Wm Ray, jr C Henderson John Howard John T Daly George Hoy George Wenterrath John L Henry Thomas Horace John Chacken H W Beese II J Minor A Livingston Johnson J W Bouck W W Case J L Slemmer Francis Harral Irving C Johnson J C Horner Ames C Martin H Morse Proff J W Winter Norton, Winslow k Co Davenport & Gardner Burt, Brothers & Co Wanger, Minor k Co Stone k Starr Philip Henry k Son William Tucker Saml G Wooten James W Stanton James Hale H C Bennett S J Edwards D H Bennett Carr Johnson C J W Lillerndahl Jones & Hanabergli T A Morrison J L Bach Wm W Shirley Geo Merritt Paul M P Durando E C Coates Samuel F Bartol G Panhis Robt Hill S V R Moore E Meyer M T Heuitt James Greig Chas A Merrick Hewit k Coulson Richards k Cromwell James Sweeney M Hardenbergh Jno A Jackson A L Beak H Jeroliman k Co Hayes k Snow J M White k Underbill Gregory k Foote Geo B Clark H N Birch Kimm k Switzer F S & S A Martin Armstrong k Mather Naylor & Co Chas A Shepherd Robt S Barnes Wm McGrorty Samuel Hutchins W S Dfity Oliver F Hall Geo G Hopkins R Chambers E S Earle Wm Strong Ira Beals NSW Vanderhoof J M Vanderhoof 42 Van Blankensteyn k Fibs AVni C Walker K Stone & Greacen Kichard Beasen John \\ r MoGrath AVm D Price G AV Barker W T Avis Joseph Jenkins H M Gage G W Simmons Ilosmer & ilubbards John Dewitt & Co Peck & Bloodgood Van Dozen, J agger k Co C & J Davis J P Hull Slauson. Barret, k Co J M Valentine John Sedgwick AV G Bui dick J C Welton k Co Thos G Stewart & Son W S Rowland R Mull, ken Edwd C Halliday Henry II Porter Danl II Curtis Daul Fainlou George Catlin Martin Xabriskio Chas A il.unilton Chas Abernethy J N Burr Noah Loder E & W Cock k Co BF Browning J L Stephenson A & W G Mooney k Co Jeremiah Frost Chambers & Hoiser J B Moroor AViddlelield k Cohn AV H Wolfe Hopkins. Allen J: Co Win H Franklin E J Anderson S Crocker N Knight Win Burton Greene Phillip Tilluigha.-.t Doremus ic Nixon John Slade, jr Thatcher. Tucker k Co Chaa Carvill Henry Bowers, jr Atwater. Knapp &AVood- rutf Hudson k Robertson Van Wagenen k Yeoman Hardt k Co Strange k Cc James W Cook Chas Paulson 1, Goldschinidt k Co Ha! seed & Hash W Carpenter k Co Bernheimer & Arnold Gossman & Brotiiers American Howe Pin Co John Kirby John H Austen J W Schulten k Hurd Francis Burritt Geo Bird k Co James W Newton J H k Smith Thomas Br^lhers Chase & Walker R A & G H Whitthaus H Blake & Co James Lehr Stanton, Barnes k Ham- ilton F S & S A Martina Ohas A Macy PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, Little, Alden k Co Jas Letferts k Co M D Benjamin J L Hubbard L D Smith L D Jndd Godfrey, Pattison k Co McGregor k Timpson Moran k Iselin Winterhoff,Piper k Kauk A & J Higgins & Co Townsend, Clark k Co Hemmerling, Mayet k Co De Ronge k Moran W S Phipps k Co Thirion, Maillard k Co C AV Smith P II \ r andervoort & Co John Donnelly P Gallagher P O'Conner P McHugh AVm Caually M Gillen M Maters James Mehau P Sweet John L Ayres Geo Mannany Geo G Dnryee Richard Rush J Duhkin J AV Stevenson John Morris L Pilvors Thorn Blonear Charles Schweder Shumway John Brown T Thompson T Johnson J AV Burns N E Ten Broeck H V Rockakilling Robt Provcden Richard Smith Ransom Steenlegtt Sam Tavlor C AV Palmer Bradley Mead John Johnson J S Beach J P Green Edward Henry Chas Britts Geo Barton D M Terry II N Skinner Thos Curtis Magnus Roamstorms H Jl Martin Kobt Stewart Chas Friller C C Crowell AA 7 " R Chamberlain C G Corley Edwd AV Lewis Thos Eugene de Martans A M Beninger John Ball Chester Goodsell R C Rathburn John M Bolton Amos Finch Thos H Higinbotham Ross k Graham Edward C Halsey J B Hubbard Wm Ryder John Rvder J C Delprat John K Hollman A Swanda J D Slanghangher Geo D Ellsworth John S Voorhis AV B Northrop L B Case G M Groves II K Brewer Edward Scribuer ChasB Churchill M M Candy P C Foster D Halsey E Goodell Patrick Castello D J Hathaway, jr J Townsend R M Talliaffare. jr Thomas B Lawson J E Kilburn Geo II Clark C C Bostwick J A Campbell E T Turner Wm F Forby F G Scriber C H Roach J AV A Strickland II R Wintor AVm T Church. H G Gillespie Converse, Todd k Gray- don G Y Hurll Wm Doane E V McGregor A H ColUs J II Hedley Jas Burns John T Goldsmith. M F Gilhooley AValter E Harding Geo J AV Maibeo Daniel Pratt Ralph Pomeroy AVm V Brady Chas Burdett J C Frolick II Hathaway AV H Draper J M Martin Frank Phelps Edwd Riley Regan Ethan A Allen, jr E H Egbert AV A Bamsted Artois k Denison Benj Douglass Richd A Douglass John McKillock AA r m AV Hurlbut M A Roberts Guelin Burnblum T W Low W H AVarnor J M Phelps A B Brown E RAVard J Burns, jr Giles Blayer. jr A Hall T D ValiJ AVmB McGrath Chas Blake Geo A Johnson Thos Cochraine AV B Mead R S Abbott U L Hatch G F Muchend AVm Willis Chas L Strong H M Cleveland L B Leed C H Todd W H Crocker E D Perry A G A Belsoe Donaldson Higgins John AVashing John Kirkpatrick H N Morgan Austin Wheeler Teterel & Blain Beals, Bush & Co H E Morgan Saml AVoodruff S Carter Edward II Tracy J J Tracy C B Andrews T K Brace, jr AVm B Davis B G Fairchild J S Hautington Chas B James AVm B DeForreat F Oakes, jr A F Goodnow M Gleeson J L Cochran Joseph AVallis E R Mannon W F George S T Baldwin R H Douglass J A Hayden Curtis Jndson AV H Haskett L Edgerton E Littlefield R T Cross Jno Unsworth Geo Mallory AV J Udie Geo Taylor Edwd Hoober J T AVhite G F Mott AV H Montgomery Edward Matthews S S Bruklin Edward B Bell W D Fraser B G Willins Saml Marsh D B Holbrook R M C G ranam. A D Logan D B Turner P H Van Buren M Inglee E R Robinson G C Smith Edward Doran James Boyd H Lone Thomas Gasfs George Belford James Patterson Alexander Stern M Gillen J C Pegtie Hugh McBride Edwd McTaggrat F Gillen Peter McHugh John Faulery Dames Oates B McGowan Hugh Dolen J A Stevenson James Craigie AVm Mowatt W K Thorn J E Sayro J A Riley Bartley Hoyt J J Livery AA r m Myers AVm Shaler G Stephens Stephen Stevens Jas D Hawley AT CASTLE GARDEN. 43 Robert Jones D Boswick D Morgan James Allen Junes Little G J Seixas R C De Marcollin L B Woolworth Wm Hopkins A T Gonrlie James Sullivan J Cragem Geo B Farras H C Fling J E Libbv W G D Mellcp Warren Leiaud Geo Levie Chas H Hinman 'R Wyokoff John llangavell Geo E Costar Silas P Downar N W Bradley Jacob Banter Andrew R Hoey Elias Moore James Dixon Saml Wintexler M H Bridge Saml J Bridge W J Child Richard Ferkin E B Gilmore G D Morrison Jas B Rish Thos Maloney F H Fleming J Edwards Libby Michael J Coley B S Buctor II Reed J R Handmen Jem Hynes W R Whitemen R Johnston C B Waito W H Dill D Sullivan Dr G Hypers Edward D Morember A M & C Stetson Chas Mount H C S human Jas H Brush Jas H Le Granger Lyman Andrews Jas D Anderson John H Blake Frank El we 11 P Stewart H C Garwood John Walker John Black, jr Jas Williamson S L Spencer Geo Williamson John Snelgrove John E Myers Saml Regwa J Gallot Wm Van Houten Albert Fisher, jr Jas Achrsindan S A Van sard S Van Santroons W McCames Geo Lonsbury Wm Brown Chas L Jones Silas R Jones F N Rust John Woodruff J W Wandel T Mom J Siterly Peter Floyd D C Wilson Abram Volk John Fay Wm Smith John Gunn John H Reyorson John Tracy John Dunns John Walker J Owens Win Bond R E Larmity Thos GeUtou Curtin John Lloyd K Blight U F & E Doubleday Robt J White A Gallatin Howe Theodore W Bailey W C Allen Geo E Morgan B Day Isaac Amos S S Mottley Amos Britley Jas Barry E B Clayton & Sons John C Roberts H O H.ggins Sidney A Schiefflin Geo J Iloolidgo B J Stone Wm H Bond C Bulkley John B Strattin Alex Warner Chas Wood Wallace Hooper Thomas & Rust J D Dunkiu F L Parmeston Span lding, Thomas &. Vail Edward J Drydeiv Isaac H daily Chas A Appleton Edwd Griffith Beuj Farewell C V Back Marsenier Fianigather Aaron W Kellogg Berger & AValter J Stewart Guynne John G Butts John Lamb Wm T Peek Geo C Treston Jos H Westertield Henry M Sims L D Bulkley Wm J Dugan J D Morgan B S McDonald Leland & Beach John M Jenkins Geo H Irwin Rankin, Pulliam Jc Co C II Bedell Marcus Harins John Rogers Peter Mutton Thos B Quirk Thos Richards R Craighead W A Watkins Tatk O'Connor Edwd Walker W L Ormsby Thos Smith, jr D Van NostranJ C Knox Saml Brooks II H Jones G W Robinson John P Scott F C Thompson A D Ellis Henry Fenno Henry Gallagher A R Thompson John Ilawley Robert Patterson C D Birdseye A & N Conover M R Blon 11 De Grace J C Smith Wm Colgate & Co John D Van Sann Jonathan Greene R B Hutchings J W Weston W D Macgregor Eugene Ahem Wm O'Brioce JohnMcllioy ■ Jas Clark F B Smith E Neville A McCotter S H Wales OD Mum J is P Beach John C Nixon, jr Robert Boggs ' N W Roberts T Teddy A S Comstock A Rogers Edwin A Brooks Mason & Law Henry W Law Gurtlon & Robinson Geo Savage C G Wood C E Smith WUlard Folt TreadweU & Gould John P Stagg. Spn & Co J C Henderson cs Wooley J N Dilts Nathan Stevens James Farley A B Davis John E Warren Augustin Averill Samuel Osborne W B Butler T B Cuming John P Hagur J J Boyd James R Keeler Walden Pell John Yates Cebra James Bridge Wm Rust A F De Luze Everett &. Brown Thos Means T V W Sebring Henry Clucas Stephen A Pierce Jobs Butler Eli White &. Sons E Furdy H G Marks Wm Rice James B Lynch. Geo Reimer J McMuUen Wm McMullen Thos S Yates B Jackman Wm Armstrong John Fowler Wm B Miller Wm Woodhull J J Ferris J M Ports J D McKay Chas M Decker C Latham John Crawford Isaac B Swift Philip O'Neil B S l J emmnar S Walling John Stephens B Decker P S Lubs D D Tompkins Oliver Monroe Valentine Baker D Lewis J W Hyde A D Atkinson G Lockwood Isaiah Rynders W S Munday A S Griswold Wm H Morrell Grant Thorburn Walter Brady Isaac H Brown A M Anderson Kr.eeland S Townsend Wm H Stansbury Thomas Dunn A L Stimson T Cobb John Hoey W W Voorhies James Cholwell Wm P Morrison G M Curtis J U Slemmer Robertson Reynolds W Stevenson F W CooliJ^e 3 De Witt Blondgood I, W Winchester E Louis Brinsmada Wm E Sibell Wm Mott A Cholwell John Newhouse D L Pettee Jas Green N R Brewer Josiah Pierce John I Mum ford Dwight !c Townsend James L Varick R H Johnson James Doran R P Middleton W B Middleton 46 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, H L Gardiner S C Dortie A Zender John J Dortie C A Colquitt Eugene Daly J Henry Wilhaus H L Wickham Stewart, Greer & Co Swift. Waldron & Co Hawkins & Logan Oliver Corwin & Co Cogswell, Crane k. Co Joseph W Beadel Wm S Johnson H B Wardell J II I'hillips F Johnson Chas Wardell M J Stone W Henry Morris J James Kelly Chas M Gray Wra & John Schrymser Geo W Phelps Jas Bergen J G MiUs P Truex J N Clark J Dunning Robt Andrews G S Earle M C Adams W C Smith J C Donovan Cyrus Harmon M Reynolds Wm Robbins Thomas Clark Thomas Wiliiam P Thompson S Houseman R Vail J Banta John Hutton James Ludlow Joseph Ludlow D Tallman D Sherwood R Duryee W Peterson J McGinnis Walter Soofield B S Budd W Wright James Lowden Oliver Odell B Cruikshank J D Van Voorhis J A Van Voorhis Cragin & Wallace Win Eagle Jacob Perkins II T Croc in Geo Linen J W Dennison T Eardon Edward N Wead Owen C Owens Edward Knox A L Hatch Charles C Horton Thomas Outwater Abner Taylor John Batton James Tarrant F S Morris B A Van AnUin Malon Apgar Major Lines J H Williams & Son E Blackford Chilar & Smith Perkins & Brothers Geo W Carpenter J W Winn C G Christman Alfred N Park Robert II Smith John D Winple Capt W Webb, USA Hon C Dyer, M C Geo W Wiley James Reeves Jas A Demarest David Moffit Wm Falconer Jas Payne Henry Burritt Stuart F Randolph Badger, Peck &. Co Edmund Mozeltyne . Jas S Hyde H Hearsey Edward Curtis N C Pratt H II Swan & B Crassons H Leichhard Wm II Bur beck J L Dobbin E Eck F W Clark G S Owden W P Witcomb John M Bruce Gerard Hallock Win H Van Orden J Cohen, jr W H CahveU Washington Durbrow Wm H Stone B R Sheall Wm Neilson Jas Coleman Timothy Kellogg Geo Collins Henry Yelverton Bird D Gillilan E V Booth Geo S Stephenson N R.Stimson V." S Moody N S Ogden W E Bunker H Gowdy Geo Ryan S Van Benschoten J P Veeder J W Forbes F E Mather M M Vail Chas Vandervoort Cornelius Oakley, jr Daniel V Valentine Wm Lawson Solomon Levi Wm F Hopscn J H Prentice & Co H Deming Chas Whitney G W Suttler D & A Wesson Yuljne. Baldwin &. Co Seaman & Muix D Wanimer J F Kirby S N Chilson W E Chilson W P David D Beaudin J C Woodbine C C Merchant L S Gordon E Barnett W Warren W E Millet Geo P Fox C A Baudoine A Stodart &, Co F Hitchcock E II Leadbeater C S Holden H Young Williams & Stevens James Beck & Co J L Kingsley Wm Harrington J L Brown D CampbeU D Galer K Woodward L Weller Lincoln Bates William Turner Jas B Murray A Jones John Lorimer Graham John A Weils Wm G Butler James H Van Allen H Shepard J B Varnum Naihaniel Marsh W B Dinsmore Geo S Maury A S Levy J A Underwood J Cleveland S Wilmot J Hamilton Pratt Chas Buck Robert M K Strong C Edwards Lester Alex L McDonald Daniel Jackson & Co John Slosson Jas Monroe R & N Dart A & A G Trask & Co Leeds & Hazard Lovell & Pomeroy Veerder, Popham & Co E K Jauncey Wood & Grant Harper & Co Brigham & Carhart Wm C Taylor Wm R Hoodless Cooper & Giraud C H Leonard H M Schiemin M W Woodward Joseph Boston Bunker & Van Boskerck F W Whittlesey Morris, Reynolds & Co H Tibbits James T Barker James A H Bell Thomas Gilmartin Samuel Newby H Havens & Co Heath & Richardson Gibbs & Co E Lyman, jr Samuel Lyman Youngs & HoweU Josiah Rich L Wignin H Bortias C M Iiolcomb Brooks & Bearne James Q, Wood Thos Hoyt & Co C A Burgess Wm H Jauncey Lewis S Squire J Van Buskirk J Pearsall John Doane C Johnson G Dutton W Ellionn J Thompson John Singer P P Haight G H Goetchins P C Friher H B Weeks R F Thomas E T Deforest John Walker S Compton A A Davis T H Thurston E Glassey P Phelan R B Montgomery S G Glass G McMuUand WLent J C Wandell John J O'Brien J McMenomy S S Chamberlin James L Wise Hamilton Jones H Yoclin Henry Coles J D Lambert Stephen Burkhalter S H Barratt J A Gilmour Edward Fox James Foster S P Andier Joseph T BeU Henry S Moore Joseph W Lea C A Griffen J & S Philbin Cornelius Lockwood Wm M Dayton H Y Crocheron G II Palmer R L & A Stuart Robert Robertson Wm R Van Amburgh Wm Gardiner Caleb Howell W Ralph Williams A Willetts Geo F Coolidge & Bra S R Kenney Rafferty &. Leask Geo S Doughty B F Bailey J S Ailing Henry Morris Henry Johnson C W Cary Jas Woods J II Dater J Cockran Alexander Francis N Barrow W II Drinker Geo Begbee John II Blown Thomas Smith S N Solomon Geo L Haviland Chas Drake J Hamilton Pratt Anthony Viger John Morrisif*. W Wiles > S Burchand C Brooks W R Conway John P Townsend George E Grant John M Burns R L Bertholf Harvey H Woods John II Coombs Donoly Jim Geo W Archer W H Bowne AV H UnderhiU J W Conway J Monk John T Meakim C G Voorhees F E Robertson AT CASTLE GARDEN. 47 Dr Homer Bostwick Dr J Devlin "Win H Raynor T Pugsley Thomas Office John Milton HaU N T Whiting Jamer Bryan John Jollener Jesse Weeks Martin Hamilton Reed Dewitt Clinton Judah. Hemy Bennett A Maddox John Connoh WmS Gregory Lucius B Allen A P Snyder J S Shotwell Wm Miller Wm Niles Joseph B Hart Geo W Stevenson " Beekman" Jas Rapelje J Ross F Postley John Colyea Daniel D Hyer Chas Henriques Daniel K Underhill J Stebbins Lalhrop Jabez C Nott Capt James J B Fordham Thomas C Smith Geo D T Ordway Edward Macmober Geo P Nelson A P Harrison Egbert Howland J Sozier Robert Pelligrew Wm Coulter Daniel Archer G A Conover Jas Wotherspoon Robert Taylor Peter B M'Glynn Thomas Chalmer Horace Beals Jacob W Goodwin Isaac Lewis A A Denman Jos Rogers Samuel A Campbell John Creighton Saml Mahon Robert Mahon Chas Walker Philip Furlong Johnston Campbell James Elder James Curry Edward Farry Constantine Mahon John Slater Thomas Roberts John Finkins Henry Kuntz John May Edward Lynch Arthur Creighton Thomas Vobert Patrick McGinnis James Riordun Frank Stryker Wm Camraer Robert Grain James Smith John Stone Sylvester Farry Frank Dayton James Ross G W Q,uidar John F Seaman Geo P Flagg John Letson J L Woodin John Robert Wm H Bolton Wm M Giles F E Durdin S S Remsen Wm Wilson Wm Mowbry R S Taylor John Van Norden S S Wyckoff H P Battle Wm W Meredith W E Barnes P Gordon Andrew Farnham James Wood M P Worrd D E Johns Haight & Van Lien C L Gale Geo A Hickok J Wendell & Co H A McSwain Saml Mitchell E K Curtis Gilbert, Cobb & Johnson John L Buckley & Co Wm Cutler David A Wood L D Jims T Noble James White W J Campbell A R Moonereff Thos B Brown D A Edwards H Haller C D Stewart R C Webster James M Wattles W A Williams J G Cameron A L Allen H G Brant Chas McBritt K B Howard John Daley L Lincoln W G Murray A J Nichols John J Delaplaine James Campbell M Reilly James B Doolittle A J Townsend Chas J WiUett J Thomas M J McNamara Mike Walsh A Walbridge Townsend & Bro3 R B Milliken B M Kevers,jr R Damrell Seth B Robinson John W England John Oakley Jenkins Lemuel Nichols Park & Ressell G Alexander Wm A Douglass Wm F Powers Wm P Morse Samuel Annon Mott & Bros Wm J Van Boskirk Chas Jones Chas Franks Dennis Duffy A Walker Joseph Lee C D Post John Condon Alfred Wright W G Poor G Furman, jr P Ostrang R W Aborn Bassett & Aboni J M Gardner K Williamson H Morrison John Odell J Holmes Henry B Venn F Fitzsimmons James Graham Wm Taylor S S Lynch Isaac M Phyfe C C Carbitt Chas R Ellis A R Snyder D M Hubbard S A Lawrence George Curtis Stephen A Waring Wm Johnes Emerson W Smith Geo T Stanley Francis Hoilon James Ross Stevens George D Peshine Wm Close James Ward H N Ward Chas B St John Thos Mix John P Manuel Chas Weeks Henry W Van Nott TR Strong B F Kendle Thomas Cummings Wm P Thomson Augustus Gautier James H Major W T Edgerton James Groodfrey A B Althause James Cambell M D Underhill Henry Welsh Jeremiah Welch S Van Rensalier Thomas Dennis J C Sangis J W Story Nelson Elliot Reek J Van Renselder G S Van Wagennen G Boliver Hall (Cold) U S B W M C Hutchison James Bedell E P Barnes Wm Hastings Chas Adams John Marshall James Thompson S Opdyke C L Eliot John Arrowsmith John R Thompson Geo W Willis Allen M Cassidy Wm J Johnson Wm Phipps Wm Bennett Chas Baker Thos O'Connor Geo Southmayd E S Martinson S G Savago J L Goodhua Sill Gautier Edward T Gray Francis Dyer John Campbell Adam Schepps Wm H Thomas George King Robert Fulton James Smith James Malloy Thomas Logan .1 F Brown Thomas Phillips Henry Camps Otto C Sackman Edgar II Laing James Stewart Wm J Brisley C M Rogers John Nevin Cornelius Johnson John Robinson Edward D Nolion Peter J Bogert Jacob C Bogert John Edward John M Dodd J C Houston James M Sweeney Howell Dobbs Wm Green Jacob S Baker Alex Lawrence James Harriott Freeman Bloodgood John G Bliss WmLaimber, jr John A Harriott M S Meyers F C Hoagland Thomas Haley John H Cornell Francis Duncan Bernd P Smith Isaac Graham Amos Woodruff John B Cornell Robert Smith Asa VV Fry Jas Anderson John Wilson Benj F Camp Wm Tucker Taylor & Alden J F Adams Amos Howes Robert Letson Sneden, Scheuck & Co Aug Embury Dows & Giteau J Ketchum R M Perriyer C M W Fry J W Halstead P H Holt Samuel Gilman H II Salmon S C Paxon Jas C Woodward A Barratt Win H Hazard Russell & Morton Cooper & Giraud Daniel Thorton Andrew Luke N L McCready Joseph Allen J D Abrah.ims Henry C N-'smitb. Gray & Wilson Wm Thomson J Y Williams Edward Bill John C Hunter Eagle & Hazard R C Read James Ward E J Mercer D A Brant 48 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, Rufus H Griswold J A F Brinkerhoff Geo F Deitey G F True Wra Clark VV Waring A Wilson B D Long Jas Chriscadoro A B Tnplar R G Belt G Hamilton Daniel F Britcher A N Clarey John A Hake Thos Lawrence Elias H Ely Chas J Folsom Wm Jarvis J G Elliott Casper C Childs Geo Payon Q.uackenbos Chas Squirk Wm Walti Drinker Richard D Cook J Ruggles Landon Jas W Riggs Thos Cooman Richard D Adams Benj Raynod T W Brantingham Van Buren k Churchill John F Keel Chas B Babcoek H P Wilson I A Ganley Isaac k Solomons J Brunner Persse k Brooks G B k J R Wilkinson W C Heath Benj G Breck Jeremiah Devlin Reuben H Jones Wm Perry Stephen W Jessup Andrew Gilhooly J Edgerton Smith H H Johnson E Varburg H P Hall II B Hall E Hall Daniel Alden F W Haines Edwd N Tailer. jr Wm R Swan Date k Wright W A Mitchell J J Booney Jas Waugh Samuel Hasskett John Molley A Egbert James Hanlon John Parker Wm C McEdwards S Dreyfous Frans C Lawrence Abram R Van Nest H D Magnes James Hervey Jas Bonacum W R Sheldon Geo Woodruff Thos P Stanlose Jas- Collins E W Laight John Breasted Schuyler Livingston Jacob A Westervelt E Mills Francis Perkins James p Wallace W F Young R L Baldwin Saml Shaw John G Auten N Gilmore F L Richardson Richd F Parisen A G Demon Arthur Stewart Andrew Hume J W Auten Ed Wade S H Butler Enoch Smith Henry Smith J S Gans J D Meeker Geo Manning Wm W Thompson Alexander C Wheelock L & B Curtis k Co B Aymar Wm Wright D J Oakley P Cunen J P Newman Earl k Reeves A F Earl James Sherman H W Gilkland James Reeves J L Gaulier H Perricks Wm Clark J B Scott E L Vandevere J N Stewart G A Meachum R D Holmes W S Tompkins J H Brady E Le Fort J Keyser P Cunen, jr J H Ryerson S S Albu W W Kuhn J Kelly E Rosenfield W II Mace J H Borchess C Coleman S Ludwick E M Bartlett Thos Darby J Rooney Wm Moore James Foy John J Haskness R H Polly M McChesney Wm Knapp Wm H Radford John S Pollard Thos L Knight John B Coth Claude Dasfepben Lewers k Jurgens Martin & Whitsciff Roswell Hovey C Bogart Henry Weldon F Owen & Son Geo Forrester Winship Meeks S Van Buren S Suydam II k J Hopkins Robt Pearce Geo E Douglass Chas Wright Wm H Moglom Nathan Ruthburn Joseph R Hoff Wm G Shepherd Jno J Qnackinburt D M Demarest A Ackerman Wm Van Allen Richd B Lewis Jas P Mackey J & G Fair Thos Bates Seth Godfrey F W Fanning M Armstrong P N Hoosley Robert Robertson M H Nugent Alexander Hepburn James Rowe J D Lent Jas Carmody H M Fen Thos Bunting John Doyle Wm D Jagoe Thos Price Daniel Blauvelt Benj Galbraith S Byrne N C Palmer H C McLeod D A Wasson Frederick N Armstrong Samuel Jackson Thos Hailey John Keef H M Morris Thos Malony B N Wilkinson Geo Ross H Miegs F S Gregg Saml K Wood J Welsey T Chester Jas H Perkins Jas Claig John Flemings Saml P Avery Miles Lovelle J D W Lewt John Hamilton John Byrnes J H Marshall D Carolin J W Johnson John Bush James Benson Thos A Fletcher Elisha Bloomer A C Dunham F E Whitney Geo McCord Hall k Bohme Geo C Rich Horace A Shaw Saml Allen W H Norris Robbins, Langdon & Co James McAlloy Seribner k Coolidge S Craig P W Engs & Son Jackson, Robins k Co Benj H Ford C L Anthony M T Nicholson Wright k Holgate Tarrant Putnam Sanderson k Griggs Loder k Co McDougal k Rushmore Booth k Tuttle Blashfield & West Hugh Macnair S P Conner SD H C Parke John S Shapter N D Smith Murfey, Benedict k Co Wm Kertland Henry L Clark W W Underhill S k T Lawrence J W Rumsey Wm Snedeker Edwd Cook C P Marks G P Bradford Hatch & Yale R F Mathews Dibble k Frink Danl Williams H P Liscomb BLevi S B Solomon W B Bennett John Cook Wm Walker John Mitshu S M Stiles PA Fay J B Germond S Brukheina. J Hyatt Geo M Bertram John R Farrington Wm Hibbard G G Taylor H J Sherwood Wm D Briggs J D Hunt S Sestrum James Davils John Williams A Jarvis F Godfrey W H Proctor I- R Case John C Bishop Henry Douglass P V Hoffman W D Harris L R Shaw W W Todd Chas Combes Wm Dodge, jr John M Bruce, jr Cunningham & Osborne David Ogden Levi Cook k Co Underhill & Lloyd Doilner & Potter M S Schoonmaker Lord, Warren, Salter & Co H Nichols R Swartwout Wm J Todd Wm Engs John Dawlew Wallace, Barry & Co J C Felham Saml F Tracy Smith Tuttle Wm S Hastie Alfred Edwards & Co Geo Whitaker Jos G Dorr S Baldwin Wm W Calder Geo Groesbeck S L Tredwell Thom Bray E Molan Wm Butler C Luth E T Hyde J Bond R Lysell S Baker J B Cruimer J De Angelis Squire N Godfrey Chas P Gordhier S M Hutchins J Mullen AT CASTLE GARDEN. 49 J Hart T Spenoe J Simoson S De Angelis CTeal J Roney J Darby VLutz J Vandercluck Win S Birch J Lockwood Geo H Kook James Pratt S H Lewis Thos Pearson A W Van Pelt John Carnch C Degrum C H Zeller Wm Walsh W McRea David Hollis B F Halsey & Son HAT Granbery John D Sweet John Lynch Walter .Maury James H Wright Wm Hindhaugh F S Cozzens Peter Cragin J Sere well John M Costa Wm Oxx Marius Imbert John Ackland S F Bowne John H Bedell Jas W Staintwon C F Chas H II Athens C Lewis A H Hurd C B Kellogg E Kellogg Z Bailey Wm A Jacoboin B C Bogert Henry Bell W Ball John Ferrell Simeon Scott Geo Rain Henry O'Brien Bern herd H Kennan J S Howell Chas R McNulty W Z Larned Saml E Darling H Zabriska. Ralph H Avery H G Sturghes J B Simpson K B Hoyt A. A Demming V E O'Shea L C Coe Baldwin, Bliss & Sheldon Edward Wamsley Dickinson & Churchill C B Bostwick F D Page W J Combs F R Page M M Brown J H Neilley J Mansfield John Clark Wjn W Dean Geo W Powers Jas G Mather G Jennings C H Waterbury Robt Gamble E A Russell J B Brown 4 GHyde Jas Daly John Myers Johr. Gilson John Van Nest John A Hangrim A D Sloane Chas Dodd John McEntyre John B Hoffman John Gamble, jr Wm McCready Saml Baker, jr James Barkley Wm Barclay Wm Douglass Albert Fisher, jr Walter Moore Jas Mason Monsieur J Bird Jacob C Fisher Hugh McElrath John Russ Wm Ingham Chas McFarland Thos Gorman Wm Griffith P V Smith Edward Berkley Chas Odell John R Fogal M Batler Rufus Blaine Henry White Alfred C Holmes S P Spencer S Hopkins John Blunt Geo V Ryerson Edw Drake Thos Farran Jas McLoane Joseph Wallack C A Ebbets David Price J W Biker Francis N Barron Chas T Dye Isaac H Austen Edwd Ferry PT Butler James Berthoff II H Cook J H Morris G W Shurragar James H Patton F A Hegeman S D Chapman B B Hallock W Corbin E R Gale John Penniman W Hemmalang James Inglish Jno M Vanderbilt J G Hall Wm Preston Saml Broughton Richard W Maun H G Deniston J W Tomkins Henry W Brown Geo H Jones C H Church Thomas Sproull T W Warren E T N^xsan D A Allen S G Hamilton W P Donaldson Edwin Richmond Richard C Sherman Smith Hicks C E Sanedon Esau Horn Chas Larancout Cornelius Reed Geo B Ward G Scarff Geo B Woodridge Robert W Brown Thos Smith W B Simpson John Wood C W Francis Wm Foster Leo Isaac C Pray C N Mackubise Francis M Denister Henry Gelston Jacob J Blauvelt J A Serven Saml Walker A A Campbell Cornelius Bedell Nicholas Mandevilla Wm H Blauvelt Henry Hughes Nathan Cooke Robert Corbett Samuel Gardner Abm Depue Noah Norris B Pilcody Josiah F Durnie Wm Hatton Hugh O'Mallie Wm Wallace Ezra F Fuller Taylor Smith Wm Bemer Prescott Tray S Barker Thos J Houpt Oscar W Hyatt Geo Martin Clements Hamplin Hosea B Pinnis J B Tibbets Chas B Reese John Dean James H Hamilton C S Breckett Robt R Nevin Underhill & Boel Thos Knight J J Ennis T M Moore A H Sands Geo H Neurgezer Wm J Flagg Chas T Shelton Horace Andrews T S Hale A Hogan Wm Musgrove Maurice Wins L A Sykes Gilead A Smith Chas Thwing H W Carr S R Wicks John C Hopper R Carman Combe3 Robert Browne Tabec & Bagley Wm W Porter Van Norden & King Wm Jas Currio Wm II Nevius J A Quackenbag Wm E Us worth Jas E Jenkins Horace J Moody John P Paulison J M Randulp Wm H Emerson Chas Neucom Thos M Beare W H Lush Edwin F Post Halstead J R Halstead Stacey Pitcher Thomas H Appleton Thomas Carroll Richard Wynkoop Samuel Hoffman S Gansay A J Perry Wm Barber R Withins C W Lawrence Aug E Silliman E Riggs Edwd M Morgan Stuart T Randolph & Co Thomas G Carey James Gallatin F Dobbs A P Halsey J Oothout H A Worth R Strong Winslow, Lanier Sc Co Jno G Winter, Son & Co Jas De Lancey Walton J Cammann J Walter Camp M Arrowsmith Geo Prescott Jas Hillyer Eli C Blake Jas McCrow John Townsend, jr Daniel H Racket Solomon Hanes H Beakley D C Vaughan John Alexander J William Mead E W Nexsen A P Vosburgh Charles Schroeder Geo W Stiursen J H Rogers Alexander Trenchard L S Geer Charles H Fairbain Samuel J Seely W H Sherwood Robt Dodge Samuel H Meller S Fisk Edwd Crook Robt D M Gray Robt Egan Wm Mortimor Gilbert S Mixon James Bridges T M Lowe J Ritter H P Brush Corns Oakley W H Coles & Freeman Wm G S Yates Geo Hodgson L Coman Henry Waring & Son John Cryder AVm H Peck John Moore Wm Minny Peck &. Lyman H Murlin Isaac H Reed E N Belder J White Wm C Doughty Richard Irvin Edwd J Mann James Olwell Amory Edwards Ralph Post John T Rollins Am Learsiez Wm F Carey A D Clarke 50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, Wm A Cnmmings Solomon Tuthill Jos Smith H Hammersley & Co John E Miller Daniel E Delavan John Woolf H R Kennedy D D Hart C H Groyn Wash L Gilroy Jas W Taylor Jas C Church Goodwin Lowrey John F Gilchrist Litchfield & Co Nicholas Cade John Crarick J Miller L C Hoyt Mallin & Mnnn John Freeman Geo N Heldon Aug Hoffman "Wm K Edgarton S P Ingraham E D Sullivan Thomas Webster Edwd H Haswell A W Welden Francis S Hoffman Robt Ferguson Samuel Dugard E H Latimer D A Breakenridge John Ricks Geo A Wardell Robt N Veming Thomas Crocker John Cunningham G C Black Robt Morton T M Clark Philip Brush Young, Bonnel & Sut- phen Samuel Foster Alexander Brutti G Van Bergen John Craig Levi Rowley Crooke, Fowks & Co Stephen S Chamberlain Benj G Austin .John M Warren . Thomas Haley Samuel Archer T Van Tassell H Egbert James D Oliver John R Doremus Geo W Hardenbrook James Courten John H Howe J A Stanley Wm H De Bevoise Abner Osborne S B Spalding Ezra Waterbury Jacob Wagner E B Jayne G H Moeseman W C Prankard Geo B Sutton John Lobdell Wm T Lock-wood Jarvis Weed Charles E Townsend John H Sands Wm Macan James A Bishop Philo Vosburgn. Geo S Lewis C McRea. J Silliman Frank Wagner Elisha Brooks E Boetor Jesse Sellecks Geo H Wooster Chas E Youngs Chas P Durando Granvill G Ingraham David J Peters E H Egbert Joseph A Ingram Josiah Bulkley Chas F Goodwin Francis B Baldhim Stephen P Durando B V Severidge Edward D Brooks John Brooks Henry Morris Isaac N Seymour Shepherd Knapp Vunsyter & Treru Wright & Filies F Bloodgood & Co Alex Watson L H Good F White Weeks, Kelley & Co E Bement E Memslu & Co Beebeeheedwen & Co Danl Seixas J B Wood Hugh Laing Wm B Hoffman F H Pessoon Michl O'Connor S E Seymour J T Welsh W Keeler Jno D Borthwell J Harrison John C Beam DA Hay W E Lewis Jas Graham W H Windsor Robert H Falls Thomas L Wills D Ebbits Elisha Peck Camman & Whitehousa Chas A Jarvis John H Dykers W W Dibblee W P Palmer John W Whitlock & Co Patten, Lane & Allen James Wendell White, Griffith & White Jonas Miller Gordon & Talbert F J Conant & Bolles F E Phelps David P Hall Alexander Clarke R C Cruston G Smorry Oscen M Steutevaul Wm M Evarts Benj T Kissam Henry A Coster W H Kissam John S Brown P Stuyvesant B Brinthrop J G Ferguson WmPLee C K Churchill John R Degez Alex Fubes Edward Hill, jr Thomas Burns Charles Tomrw, M.D. R B Hill Henry S Edward, jr B West Eichholt F B Forbes Henry E Stearns H W Blossom E W Corbert Wm Perick M B Morris Sandy HaU L F Cobb B J Bolder Dewitt C Campbell W V Clason G L Bennett Henry Haight John H Elliott Horace J Meech E S Sites George Kellogg H S Kent Chas Souar Jo B Alberton Henry Albro Miles John R Curin Allen Hot George Spencer Du Bois Vandervoort Sacket, Belchut & Co W E Townsend Wm Marston M D Thomas Walter Smithland Goff & Constable Daniel D Tompkins Daniel C Taylor Fisher & Fellows C Schenck & Brother Andrew C Elliott Charley Storms J & N Briggs John J Taylor & Co Paul Spofford Daniel Curtis, jr Henry L Champlin John A Fisk Edwd Woolsey Crosby, Crockert & Co Augs Whitlock & Co M F Mervitt Stover & Stephenson M L C Mend Samuel Noyes W W Townsend A D Baker T Kealer J Ward L R Cornell Edward Dunham Thomas D Sturgis James McDonnell N L Fontaine Robt Benson, jr John L Lefferts Thos E Burns Jos C Phillips J L Miller Cowing & Co E S Bloomfield James Bell C V Clark R Bradley Wm S Woodward James D Sturges George Tucker J W Fish & Co C S Knight Wm L Boyd John Barton Samuel T Rogers Thos B Brooks J C Hanson Evan Griffith J L Warner Wm H Chase J D Lawrence George Donnegan A K Thompson P J Nevens R M Brown Josiah Jex Isaac B Lewis F E Ruland Starks W Lewis Loomis L White B J Williams L Tuckerman John D Levett B B T Benton C C Benton Chas W Hopkins Hamilton Farrell D Brown Wm M Young Hugh S Pollock Andrew Hall Bass, Clark & Dibble Wm B Jackson Wm Reed D B Bissell H Johnson & Mills John J Daveis Thomas Kimball E R Ives J P Doremus G W Peckham W A Martin Smith Dunning N Andrews & Co Oakley Beach Wells & Van Benschoten Tarker & Ritter Hall & McMullens Wanzer, Minor & Co Lee, Fenton & Phelps Wm S Brown Nath'l Weed J & H Van Nostrand Terbell, Jennings & Co J H Ran son D M Marvin & Co Boyd & Wilkins Wm Burger & Co Oakley & Co Woodburn, Dey,Ermond &. Wyles Carpenter & Mackin Horace H Day John H Davis Amidon & Hurlbut J M Luckey John Thomson John Stevens J Witherel Theodore Stout Robert Murray Thomas Ahearn Tisdale & Borden W M Lambert R B Jones James W Harris Washington Plumber H A Huxthal Alex Porter Browne J Millerige Smith Joseph Batlin A Goldsmith James Bascom. J R Maver Auguste B Taber James Bascom Schuyler Skaat3 J A Corey Fred Libbey Benj Hunt Allen Taber J W Courier Wm Henry Chambers HS Ware J Taber Allen Dale J M Jennings E D Eaton Wm B Ackley VPeaxd AT CASTLE GARDEN. »•; Joseph Foster DWC Becker Jas H Devoe John Hamilton T D Johnes Geo T Marsh all R C Root & Anthony H Root Oliver Cady E S Sturges John H Lyman Robt Jaffrey T D Miggs Henrv Moore C V Woodruff Walter Brinckerhoff D B Crane Fox & Polhemus C H Hertzei. W C Ogden Rich M Hoe Rich Vauwick H F Anthony E W Talman J Anthony, jr Jonathan S Tappen John Pearce Thomas M Jenkins G Young Henrv Jones, jr B P Keiser A Brousseau & Co Hall Brothers A Pond J Stanley Milford G S Rainsford J Moring J Gumer Jos Woodward, jr T Waller, jr P II Learned Theo Crane Otis & Woodward D A Galloway A Sayre J Olmsted & Co J II Barnes W G Rav J & R MUlbank & Co J C Adams R W Waterton J G Allen G & S Conover J W Hait E L Mix Geo J Johnson Massey & Mitchell A A Lewis Geo E Browne E H .Merrill Ketohum & Perry Edward H Burdell & Co Doremus, Crane & Car- penter Wm Hurlbut & Co Adams, Smith & Co S B Reed Leonard Johnson J M Smith & Co Wright & Lossee J Garibrandt Isaac Carpenter H C Omeloff Ferguson & Sherman Chas F Randolph Bartlett, Perry & Co Sam Perry Dan Bryan, jr L Eastman Wallace, Hicks & Co H Burrett &. Co Pearson & Co W Hubboard & Son Higgins,Brown& Shields W C Heaton W D Parsons John S Buckley & Co L & A Ferris & Co Brush & Co W S Brush Woodward & Cromwell S S Smith Wm H Wilson Wm Jackman Saml Black J W Mook Saml C Ryerson V Miller F S S Vanderbeck S R Seterfield H Sigler John Vanderbeck George Vanderbeck Marcus Morton M Underhiil Wm F Webber John H Macrecdy Clement Fosdick Wm B Fairchild A P Waring S Peters J Roberts B Brown J Hunt J Mullen Wm Munson W C Moffitt John Collard C V Borden W Lyons Geo M Smith John Claughley H Siemon Robt W Coffin Wm Berrian Henry De Lacy FEW Boody Edwd Clasback Alfred H Cummings Samuel Spencer Edwd Gordon M Maury Wm & J R Habersham Geo Borrman M A Wheelock J A Cure Sidney B Fairchild Wm H Butcher J McGee J H Gregory J S Conklin W H Grogan Frere Bdey Thornton Ogden Blydenburgn & Co Southworth, Slanson & Co George B Storm Isaac F Storm H N Stebbins Topham & Stebbins Robert Hutton B F Metcalf A S Shepard Chas C Wilcox Beach &, Van Dewater Ayres & Tunis P G Arcularius Chas F Park & Co Henry Allen Robt Allen Cad walled Richard James Murphy Wm Gaul J G Hodgkins Geo F Brandt J M Glovner B F Simons Geo Cook Geo W Morton Jno T Darley I R Bentholema Dudley B Fuller J M Wing H Montross B L Sterling Stephen H Williamson R M Ludlow & Co C Colton & Co Henry Hebard Geo H Gilman Robert Robertson James Brigham John McDonald G F Thomson R Phinney J R Livingston James Z Zeiss A L Reynolds J H Wood J T Wardlow Aug Van Ness John Roberts Nelson & Van Dyke Isaac Tyler T W Brush Alex Benjamin James St John W F Young G P Nash George J Foster Robt R Kearney M Broderick John Mack James C Noble Thomas Freeborn James Carrol John Lord Thomas Jones Rufus Blain Philip H Underhiil Jacob A Swift Ira Baranour Benj Connor Henry Harrison Nathan Selch Charles A Oakley Daniel Wanser George Eastbrook Henry Long AH Burling Wm M McArdle A Murdock Joseph Mitchell George Brady Johne Mehim Oliver Odell A K Bickbee Richard Wall A Barrett & Co Smith, Wallace & Co Sherman & Collins J L Cross Hamilton & Henmau Solomon Freeman C S Martin J Ogden Smith R Edwards James Clinch Stanton & Jarvis Robt Alcott Theo W Todd D W Evans Conklin & Smith John Caswell & Co Ab'm 1$ Warner Thos F Bull D D Conover John B Benton Divine & Bro E Mitthe L Southmayd Saml J Bury J S Knapp & Son W & G Oakley k Co John Van Zandt And S Surre John S Mills 51 John Patten, jr Mulford .Martin James Rowland T J Ford Francis W Ogsbury Marcus Hurd Geo Seeley Wm M Andrews D R Fleman Edmund W Mills H & J Hopkins Henry Brace H K Tuckerman E P Whates Chas Ackerman A F Mann Jas Renton C W Oakley Geo Morrow S Rich Smith George Baker John G Alteback Thos W Phelps Richards & Fleury H B Richards Wm Muirhead Chas Molay Fr Beisemveber Wm R Marsh Palmer & Newcomb Edgar Farmer James H Forbes Edward P Forbes Marvin J Merchant C W Loomer John Coyle, jr H Goldsmith Ren & Pollock Brodhead, Storm Ic Co Geo D Woodruff Roswell, Skeel & Co Jared W Graves James Nelson Cornelius Brett Thomas W Gamisi John Christie Jno C Hewitt A Bills J Burrall W A Van Duzen Wm Egerton Charles J Clark B Fosselman Abner Osborn J R Neall Peter Duryee Frank Darley G W Swift H Lake John Smith Wm S Mokenns S Stewart Henry Conway Chas Stewart Ph Woodhousa C C Waller S S Havaland R W Milbank Jacob T Merritt O Bryan, jr J R Brookelman John P Gasald Solomon Furman W E Cary W II Meyers Chas P Leverich Ch D Matthews Jos McUams K Boonen Graves W A Demill Henry Coggill & Co John B Wilson Gustavus Brown R Kimball Minturn & Co W F Partridge 52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNION MEETING, John S Reighart D Donovan C H Hawthorn E Th Nexen J Woodlind & Son Crocker, Washburn &• Johnson Robt McGeary Crane & Thomson A S Barnes & Co M C Merrick C B Samson S Holden J H Holden Beers & Clark Chas Harrison D G & E Haviland W H Tileston J B Whitman Bobbins & Bro Daniel T Appleton John H Felix Geo F Hussey A G Ferry N C Bishop H Groom E J Tryon John Cozens B F Shaffer Pat H Jackson John Lander E R Lamoureux J H Chase James Hand Jas B Hetherington B N Leonard &. Co T M J Ciplit R K Haight D B Fearing C M Parker James Donaldson D S Kennedy Henry Bergh Thomas Egleston Wm H Jones G W Brush Charles W Raisbeck J J Ennis John G Hadden Samuel Davenport Isaiah Meeker Stephen Emmett J M Dunbar William Walker James H Holden Woolsey Roe Geo Comstock John P Britton Wm W Parsells Wm Britton Wm J Secor Thomas Secor Wm Goble T Prince John Dargavell E Greenwood J R Lester J Brush J Braisted Stephen Conover John Stevens Geo Peirce James Gemmell, jr Samuel Coleman Henry B Phelps Jacob H Strever Waller & Kolps Samuel & Collis John C Ham W F King G C Richard W J Harrington Tunis Morrell Baldwin Gardiner W Jones James B Brewster Henry Brewster John W Britten Wood, Tomlinson & Co Osborne & Boardman C A Stetson John A Robinson Edward Mowry James T Stagg Geo E Watress Chas B Smith Randolph M Cooley James H Lambert J B Wyman Chas W Marsh E R Bebb Thos B Cord James Kellogg Wm W Gallan W Bunker Collins Edwin Thome S G Doughty T Dutton John Smyth James H Gray John T Mills C C Lacy Chester Marcy James O'Conner John T Smith James O'Neal George J Jones L M Black T B Long N H Cooper W Jones Sherman, Sandford & Co H N Smith & Co Jacob Griffin Richard W Reynolds Edwd Owens Jas F Kinny John O'Donohue John S Harring & Co B H Howell C C Stryker Wells, Miller & Provost Peter Neefus Wm H Mitchell Wm E Bird Livingston & Moore James H Mills A Woolsey Thomas N Smith Allen & Rodgers J T & J Y Frost Burdick & Martin F L Kneeland Henry P Bush M Bennet C & H Williams A B Dunlap W E Demill J Schiffler & Bro M Solomons John Tenett & Sons Vanderseer & Faxon Penfold & Schuyler Henry R Morgan Richard H N Martin Daniel B Phillips J Wintringham Batelle, Renwick &• Co F H Bartholomew Henry Ludlam E B Butler Henry Lazinsby Benj Blossom & Son Abbot, Dodge & Co W M Proctor Bebee & Bro Cartright, Harrison & Co Jas R Keeler & Co Li Hie & Rasenes S M Jarvis C A Logan A W Whitlock Jacob LeRoy J Mc J Bensel ThO LeRoy & Co Henry Q,uackenboss & Co Spencer, Quackenboss & Co A W Winans Frost & Converse Ward, Peck & Co Lord & Taylor Granniss & Stewart John H Talman J & J F Trippe Thos E Bishop R F Haviland &. Co Haviland, Keese & Co M Ward & Co Job Chandler & Foster Hook, Townsend & Co Wm M Vail Young & Leavitt Piatt & Brother Read, Taylor & Co Tracy. Irwin & Co W & W Wakeman Cyrus H Loutrel Creed, Brockee & Co Henry Trowbridge & Co John Paret & Son Vose, Wood & Co Windle & Co Geo B Windle Louis S Bellows & Schel Draper & Eldridge Sill & Thomson Fellows & Co Fellows, Van Arsdale & Co Wm J Lord North, Brothers C H Downing Hamilton Hoppin D C Bogert Wm Chauncey & Co Fisher & Fellowes Tompkins & Co J Herrick A De La Montagne Work & Drake James Boyd Hilyer & Co S C Wheeler S Seldon S D Moody S D Herrick Wm Johnson A D Ladd S H Farnsworth Everett Clapp Vegtil & Bergh Jas E Vail John Benson Coman, Hopkins & Co J Richards R Clapp & Co D A Gall II R Van Rensselaer J Richardson Byron L Cross J M Wheeler Fairbanks & Co W H Roke Charles S Matthews L Leslie J Labor J Piatt R A Bouton J Murdock J L Dickinson J D Travis J B Coffin Danl Stewart Wm H Hyatt DanlN Tucker Thos Parrell Thos M Stonier J C Davis Wm Higgins Jas D McConnell Michael Killilea Th Long Jas H Hollister T C H Dexter J L Warner Fletcher Westray J E Reed L W Jerome B G Boardman, jr D H Wood Jas Giddings J P Byrnes, jr Nathaniel Hayden Geo Watson Willis Patten J Tray Wm Gale & Son Wm Everdell & Son James S Magnus M H Hyde W J Monell J Nesbitt T H Quin Wm P Jennings Ichabod Price Thos Thamar David M Earl Saml Bell Asahel Burt Holdane & Co M Buekman M Banta John Morrow J J Drummond T C Derry Abram Drummond Beach, Clarke & Co Dwier & Barber A & G & H Brown Rianhard, Starling & McMurdie Fisher, Cushing & Hen- derson M Can field Pratt, Woodford & Co W B Pettigrew S N Mauh Johnson & Groser Z Booth E M Carrington Booth & Foster Cornell, Willis & Co W Brown Greenleaf & Kinsley Chas Denison W D Johnson Joseph F Johnson W B Wright E W Hicks Sampson & Baldwin E Block C P Butler Nathaniel McKee A Decker Wm H Thomson D R Evarts Thomas Walden Jas Meldrum S S Austin CA Reynolds Jacob Rheend Wm H Mason P J Koman Elijah H Purdy Henry D Johnson Howard Scovell J H Lester C M Waterbery John B Hobby John W Thompson Henry Jarvis Louis Bleidom AT CASTLE GARDEN. R T Bunker John Carroll Jas Lees J W Carrington A W Stange C Stoddard H J Beers Peter S Bayard Wilson Knapp A B Beers Hiram Sears J Morley, jr J R Value Geo H Allen Wm S Hoole S Ward Ch Millington S M Beckly k Co J W Bebee J Wallace C A West Manning, Smith k Ing- lesby H Healy Leroy M Wiley k Co 1 Mannund I Tracy G S Pierce Ch W Arthur Alf Cooper Jno D Chevalier H Wendall F H Lockwood Theo McKnight H Crocker M C Story S E Wood worth. J F Cornell, jr H W Brown A Carman WS WCutahen G S Arrowsmith Robt Roberts D D Howard S Russell Childs John Macy A F Spencer J R Curtis Jas Findely Schenck W S Leroy I Birdshara. Chas Drop Geo Howland Geo Cook Thomas Gould A R Herrick F C Barret John W Hanson Jas A Satterlee Daniel Moore Backus k Osborn Draper k Rowland If J Smith Theodosius Strong Borstman, Bros k Co A Journeay, jr., k Co A & J S Lane Edward F Allen Joseph E Trippe T Smith k Co C P Rorbach k Co Ward, Dickson & Co Barnes & Pharo A B Neilson J C Neilson S Whitehead John Van Nostrand Wm C Marvin W R Jones Dane, Drake k Smith Wm A Ellis Wm B Campbell A J F Hamilton Richd Baldwin Chas Dennis H P King GCLay Arthur k Burnet C S Westcott J J Cox Edwd Rathbun J C Jutting C A Thacksun Geo Moreau A Morrison C M Mather W S Sniffer Henry Edwards R C Edwards J M Nichols R C Williams Wm F Speer Silas C Herring John Farrall Gilbert Camp & Co Maltby k Starr Gault & Ballard Geo Williams R W Bulkley D Larfaty King & Samuels John D Locke B J Hathaway B Wands WCobb J Wilson M Sanford J W Wheeler A H Center k Son G Preston .David Smith A Hopkins Jacob Hays Thomas A Leroy T Freeborn J B Fellows J C Stoneall J W Riker H L Riker White & Sheffield J W Hawkhurst Maurice White W Collins Enos Jones J Smith L Bradley J P Mercer G B Crandall G H Peck C M Vandervoort J McChesney W H Jones W R Griffith J Price W Collins J G Williams L Wartz J M Dell T Mahon N Dearborn A Lossee W H Jones R Bensly J Payne J West D Wood J B Bonsel J Creighton T Alberts J Berry E Castello J B Burnett Geo W Loss F Kiddle S Gibson S Hithal W Dodge E R Webb E Wilson A Welsh W Thomas D Cubberly C Wasse R H Miller D k J Devlin Butterfield Brothers August Belmont S J Briant C Van Whyck G C See ' B Riley J R Brown P A Trasseo S Oliver J Docussou E Bach J Vanderbilt E B Sparurer A Robinson, jr A Remson H T Chapman S Smith S V Callender W S Wiley ST Randolph S Andrews S Tobey H Harris W M Postley H Hammond H Undine J Steele S Uffington N Huzzy J Craft F Lockwood Clock & Miller W L Moore A L Phillips J S Barry J Campbell J T Savage Philip Hamilton Edmund Driggs Churchill k Kettel S J Pardesus John R Pitkin David Stevens Aug Cleveland WASHINGTON'S FAKEWELL ADDRESS. September 17, 1796. Friends mid Fellow Citizens: The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprize you of the resolu- tion I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom the choice is to be made. I beg you at the same time to do me the justice to be assured, that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country ; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest ; no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness ; but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compati- ble with both. The acceptance of and continuance hitherto in the office to which your suffrages have twice called me. have been an uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you ; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the senti- ment of duty or propriety ; and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that in the present circumstances of our country you will not disap- prove of my determination to retire. The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust, were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government, the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives io diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me, more and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be wel- come. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services. they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe, that while choice and pru- dence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it. In looking forward to the moment which is to terminate the career of my politi- cal life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of thai debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved conntry for the many honors it has conferred upon me ; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has sup- ported me ; and for the opportunities I have thenco enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness 56 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead — amidst appearances sometimes dubious — vicissitudes of fortunes often discouraging — in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism — the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans, by which they were effected. Pro- foundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing wishes, that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its benificence — that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual — that the free constitution which is the work of your hands may be sacredly main- tained — that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue — that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete, by so careful a preservation and so pru- dent a use of this blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it. Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments, which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all im- portant to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsels. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my senti- ments on a former, and not dissimilar, occasion. Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of our hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence; the support of your tranquility at home; your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity ; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed; it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immoveable attach- ment to it ; accustoming yourselves to think and to speak of it as a palladium of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capa- city, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principle. You have, in a common cause, fought, and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess, are the work of joint councils, and joint efforts — of common dangers, sufferings, and success. But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole. The north, in an unrestrained intercourse with the south, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter, great addi- WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 57 tional resources of maritime and commercial enterprize, and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The south, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the same agency of the north, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the north, it finds its particular navigation invigorated — and while it contributes in different ways to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the pro- tection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The east, in like intercourse with the west, already finds in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water, and will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. Tho west derives from the cast supplies requisite to its growth and comfort — and what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions, to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the west can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connexion with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious. While therefore every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find, in the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations ; and what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries, not tied together by the same government, which their own rivalships alone would be sufficient to produce, but w r hich opposite foreign alliances, attach- ments, and intrigues, would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which under any form of government are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is, that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other. These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and vir- tuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere ? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue of the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands. In contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations — Northern and Southern ; Atlantic and Western ; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings which spring from these misrepresentations ; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head. They have seen in the negotiation, by the executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the senate of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the general government, and in the Atlantic states, unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi. They have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to them every thing they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their 58 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the union by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with aliens? To the efficacy and permanency of your union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute ; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which alliances at all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of govern- ment, better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the effica- cious management of your common concern. This government, the offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced and unawed ; adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation; completely free in its principles; in the distribution of its powers uniting security with energy, and containing within itself provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of govern- ment. But the constitution which at any time exists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and ihe right of the people to establish government, pre-supposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government. All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, coun- teract, or awe the regular deliberations and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction ; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force ; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of party, often a small, but artful and enterprizing minority of the community; and according to the alternate tri- umphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common councils, and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to be- come potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government ; destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. Towards the preservation of your government and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily discountenance irregular opposition to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretext. One method of assault may be to affect in the forms of the constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of govern- ments, as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitutions of a country ; that facility in changes upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to per- petual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember especially, that from the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty, is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of society within the limits pre- scribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property. I have already intimated to you the dangers of parties in the state, with par- ticular reference to the founding of them upon geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you, in the most solemn man- ner, against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. "WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 59 -This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed ; but in those of the popu- lar form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit, of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has per- petrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and, sooner or later, tho chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of the public liberty. Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight.) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party arc sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the public adminis- tration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms ; kindles the animosity of one part against another; foments occasional riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself, through the channels of party passion. Thus the policy and will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true ; and in governments of a monarchial cast, patriotism may look with indulgence if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From the natural tendency, it is certain there will always bo enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose ; and there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume. It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking, in a free country, should inspire caution in those intrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres; avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of one department, to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to creato, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominate in the human heart, is suffi- cient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing into different deposi- tories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions of the other, has been evinced by experiments, ancient and modern ; some of them in our country, and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers, be, in any particular, wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way in which the constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation, for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance, in permanent evil, any partial or tran- sient benefit which the use can at any time yield. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness — these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexion with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, whero is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obliga- tion desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained GO "WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric ? Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it, is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering, also, that timely disbursements to prepare for danger, frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which una- voidable wars have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives; but it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should parti- cularly bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue ; that to have revenue there must be taxes : that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant ; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects, (which is always a choice of difficulties,) ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue which the public exigencies may at any time dictate. Observe good faith and justice towards all nations ; cultivate peace and harmony with all : religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it ? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant, period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt but that m the course of time and things the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence has connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas ! it is rendered impossible by its vices ! In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies, against particular nations, and passionate attachment for others, should be excluded; and that in the place of them, just and amicable feel- ings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is, in some degree, a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another, disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trfding occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject ; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to the projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes, perhaps, the liberty of nations has been the victim. So, likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and the wars of the latter without adequate inducements or justifica- tion. It leads, also, to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which are apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions, by un- WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 61 necessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill will and a disposition to retaliate in the parties from whom equal privileges arc- withheld; and it gives to ambitious, corrupt, or deluded citizens, (who devote them- selves to the favorite nation.) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding with the appear- ances of a virtuous sense of obligation to a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambi- tion, corruption, or infatuation. As avenues to foreign influence, in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many- opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the art of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public counsels ! Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter. Against the insidious wiles of foreign influ- ence, (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influ- ence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy. to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike for another, cause those whom they actuate to seo danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious ; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people to surrender their interests. The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence, she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwiso in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitude of her poli- tics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities. Our detached and distant situation, invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance ; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossi- bility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provo- cation ; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation ? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice? It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world : so far I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it ; for let me not bo understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion, it is unnecessary, and would be unwise to extend them. Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respect- able defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies. Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand ; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences ; con- sulting the natural course of things ; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means tho stream of commerce, but forcing nothing ; establishing, with powers so disposed in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to m 62 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. enable the government to support them, conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and natural opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time, abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate 5 constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another ; that it must pay with a portion of its independ- ence for whatever it may accept under that character; that by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard. In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good ; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit; to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue; to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they have been dictated. How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided by the prin- ciples which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them. In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my Proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index to my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me ; uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert mo from it. After deliberate examination, with the aids of the best lights I could obtain, 1 was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it with moderation, perseverance and firmness. The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not neces- sary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe, that according to my under- standing of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all. The duty of holding a neutral conduct maybe inferred, without any thing more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations. The inducements of interest for observing that conduct, will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress, without interruption, to that degree of strength and constancy, which is necessary to give it. humanly speaking, the command of its own fortune. Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error; I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence ; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service, with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest. Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations; I anticipate, with pleasing expectation, that retreat, in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow citizens, the benign influence of good laws, under a free government; the ever favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors and dangers. i W46 V *1*°* <^ -W & .. . *> «.«o° V .•V.?-. <^ lV^ ,<* y ^o* &* . t » - *bV" cv jjy . tills * *> v .:•.?* ^ A o v tins* *> • **' *♦ •; ,V V <4* v s±^£* ^ c° •- %^ .* <*0 'oV B .v" >r.s ♦ two**",* ,v _> «? r* <0r 1" A- * BOOKBINOINC II ^ • " ° V V A Cranfull* Pi H V » ' " °» jan F« 1989 I »^a^Nr' v^ A. ^^ t V«K*r