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 THE 
 
 ^^ ^ 
 
 GREAT QUESTIONS OF THE TIMES, 
 
 BRIEF REPORT OF PROCEEDmGS 
 
 AT THE GREAT 
 
 I INAUGURAL MASS MEETING 
 
 LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE, 
 
 IN 
 
 UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE AXNTVEKSAKY OF 8UMTER, 
 
 APRIL llTii, 1863. 
 
 (A full Report of the Pi'oceedinga, inoludiiig all the speeches, and letters ft-om di; 
 
 linguished citizens in all quarters of the Union, is 
 
 published in another book.) 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PRIXTED FOR THE LOYAL ISTATIOXAL LEAGUE. 
 
 S68. 
 
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■,.■ THE GRRAT QUESTIONS OF THE TIMES,.! 
 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS 
 
 AT THE 
 
 ■ Great InauguraWassMeeting 
 
 >*► ' OF THE 
 
 LOYAL NATIONAL LEAGUE, 
 
 ON UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE A.NNIVEIlSA.Ry OF SUMTER. 
 
 FEINTED FOR THE LOYAL NATIOBTAL LEAGUE. 
 
 The Samter Rally on the lltb Aprilat Union Square, 
 was a triumphant gathering of the loyal people of 
 the Empire City. The weather was fine; the con- 
 courte imra'ense; the speeches patriotic and eloquent. 
 Six stands were erected on the Square for the accom- 
 modation of the orators and musicians, and upon 
 each of these were flags of stars, with appropriate 
 mottoes and devices. The magnificent statue of 
 Washington was decorated with a rosette of red, 
 white, and blue, with streamers, and trimmed with 
 evergreens. The vast assemblage of people pouring 
 in from every street at an early hour surged about 
 the stands, foyming a sea of upturned faces beaming 
 •with patriotic devotion to their country. Many of 
 the public buildings and large edifices on Broadway 
 and other parts of the city had the National flag 
 flying during the day. Capt. Mowbray and Henry 
 Brewster each sent a brass piece, from which a sa- 
 lute of one hundred and fifty guns was fired. The 
 police arrangements, under Inspector Carpenter, 
 were all that could be desired, and the utmost order 
 was preserved throughout the day. It was a mag- 
 nificent mass meeting of the loyal citizens of New- 
 York, who, forgetting their party associations and 
 political predilections, mude haste to show their al- 
 legiance to the flag which had been struck from its 
 stafi'by Rebel cannon at Fort Sumter two years sgo. 
 We do not disparage the other distinguished gentle- 
 men when we say that Gen. Fremont and Gen. Sigel 
 were the lions of the day. These men had been 
 baptized xvith fire on the field of battle, and had 
 shown their patriotism by personal exposure in front 
 of the enemy. When ilie speaking commenced. 
 Union Squaie presented an imposing and animated 
 scene. Here the white locks of Daniel S, Dickmson 
 were streaming in the wini, while his pungent sen- 
 tences stirred the souls of his auditors with intense 
 emotions; there Gov. Morton of Indiana reasoned of 
 the righteousness of our cause and the judgment that 
 will come upon traitors, while Gens. Fremont and 
 Sigel, at different stands, but almost within hearing 
 of each otherj moved their bearers with a spirit of 
 
 enthuBii,^m which was expreseed in cheer apom 
 cheer an .J sentiments of high commendation. Hand- 
 kerchiefi |and flags were waved by the fair hands of 
 ladies wfe^ filled the doorways, windows, and balco- 
 nies thaij -arder the Square, and the booming cannon 
 seemed vvlfive emphasis to the sentiments so spiritr 
 ediy appj.aided. The short pauses between the 
 speeches v^^re filled with music that chimed harmo- 
 niously ■" ith the masterly eloquence of the speakers. 
 Allhouf 'i the news from Charleston was not satis- 
 factory, .he hope and the faith of the people were 
 unshaken, and their dstermination to wipe out the 
 Rebellion, at whatever cost of blood and treasure, 
 was firm and strong as on the day of the Sumter 
 outrage 
 
 sta:v]> ]Vo. 1. 
 
 Speeches of the Hon. Montgomery XCIaiv, 
 the Hon. Wm. ». Kelley, and Others. 
 
 Stand No. I was placed immediately in front at 
 the statue jf Washington. Long before the com- 
 mencement a great mass of people collected beneath 
 the inspira Ion of the Father of their Country, and 
 befo; m. the auditors at this stand were nam* 
 
 bered c. thousands. A salute was fired by th<s 
 workingmui in the employ of Mr. Henry Brewster 
 from two <^ pounders. This stand was provided with 
 a paraboloid sound-reflector, which throws the voice 
 of a speaker much farther than it will otherwise go, 
 and renders speaking in the open air comparatively 
 easy. This is a contrivance of Col. Grant of cal- 
 cium-light celebrity. 
 
 After a grand march from "Le Prophete," by 
 Grafulla's Band, Mr. George Griswold called the 
 meeting to order, and nominated Mayor Opdyke to 
 preside. His nomination was received with enthu- 
 siasm. 
 
 On taking the chair, the Mayor made a few 
 remarks on the occasion and its memories, which 
 were received with great applause. He concluded 
 by introducing the hero of the Harriet Lane, Robert 
 Cummiugs, tlje brave sailor boy who tired the last 
 shots after she had been boarded by the Rebels. Tiia 
 Btardy little tar moauted upon a chair, in obedience 
 to the calls of the multitude^ and was loudly cheered. 
 
 Mr. Georg£ Griswold then read the addresi of 
 
the League, prepared by Dr. Lieber. It was re- 
 ceived with frequent cheers. 
 Mr. S. B. Chittenden proposed the following 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 I. Resolved, That, assembled on the anniversary of the 
 a?sauU on Sumter, and reviewini the two years lliat have 
 since ela[>scd, in the advance whiuti our government has 
 made from the position of unexampled weakness to which 
 it had been reduced by imbeciiity and treachery, W9 recog- 
 nize the wondrous vitality and 8tren.^th of our repn^ican 
 institutions, based upon tlie will of an intelligent a 
 people. At iheir voice a million of men have sp 
 amis. An effective navy has been suddenly creal _^^ 
 the monstrous expenses of a mighty war have been pfUKIit- 
 ly and cheerfully met without borrowing a dollar from the 
 capitalists of Europe, or asking assistance from any nation 
 upon earth. 
 
 That ttie feeling of loyal America, in view of all the difii- 
 eulties of the case, has deepeneil into the firm and clear con- 
 ■victlon that the rebellion can be crushed, ought to be crush- 
 «<!, and shall be crushed; and that the last Congress, in 
 placing at the disposal of the Executive, without stint, the 
 men, money, and resources of the nation, was the true ex- 
 ponent of tile devotion and loyalty of the American peuple, 
 and of thvir unilterablc determination to preserve unim- 
 paired the national unity, both in principle and territory, 
 against iirmod traitors in the South, their aiders and abettors 
 in the North, and their piratical allies in Great Britain. 
 
 II. Resolved., That, apart from the treachery that bus 
 larked, and which we fear still lurks, in the civil "and mili- 
 tary departments of the government, we believe thatlho 
 errors and delays that have hitherto retarded the prosecu- 
 tion of tlie war, and the success of our arms have arisen 
 from tlip erroneous belief that the rebels have possessed cer- 
 Ta'n constitutional rights which the national goyernment 
 was bound to resp^ cf. ', 
 
 That the recent decision of the Supreme Court Of the na- 
 tion, resolving, by the solemn aojudicaiion of thathign tri- 
 buna', to whose judgment the American people are accus- 
 tomed to bow, a'l consiitntional doubts as to the character 
 of the war in which the nation is engaged, leivef no place 
 hereafter for any such mistake on the part of apy officer, 
 civil, military, or naval, since the judicial declrirat''ou that 
 the territory occupied by the rebels is "enomy'a territory ; 
 and all persons re.-iding within this territory, whose property 
 may be used to increase the revenues of the hosti'e power, 
 are in the oondiiion to be treated as enemies, though not 
 foreigners,"' has dffined beyond all question the rights and 
 dutv of the government and the people. 
 
 That, in accordance with the principles of that decision, 
 now to be recognized as the law of the hmd, the war should 
 henceforth be wa^ed with a single a'm to the conquest of 
 the rebe lion, witli the lea.st delay "and the smallesc burthen 
 to the nation at lai ge, by depriving the enemy of his strength 
 and his resources in whatsoever they may consist, by appro- 
 priating his property wherever it may be convenient, and 
 by withdr.awing from h's support, enroding in our rank'', and 
 treating as soliliers of the ivpub'ic, all loyal men to be found 
 dn the bouth, without regard to race, creed, or complexion. 
 
 III. Resolved, Tnat when, on ihe day on whose solemn 
 anniversary we are gathered togttlier, the rebels of the 
 South boasted ihat they had inaugurated war againrt the 
 repnbUc, that they had humbUd the staro and stiipes, and 
 that their confedt-rate couriterfeit of our flag would soon 
 float even over Faneuil Hall, the American people r.iUied in 
 defence of that national unity which had been their glory at 
 home and their safeguard abroad ; and while they have 
 "maintained the ancient honor of tueir flag on many a well- 
 contested field, and will maintain it, until it again tloats over 
 Sumter, acd wherever it has floated in the past; they, never- 
 theless, have recognized, and do now recognize, the fact that 
 the rebellion was not organized by the people of the South, 
 but by their bad and ambitions leaders, who, armed with the 
 muniments of war filched from the national government, pre- 
 c p tated ihe revoluiion upon the Southern States. 
 
 That we also recognize the fact that the object of those 
 leaders is to establish a midtary or monarchical government, 
 sustained by an organized and cemented aristocracy, in 
 which 'he principlesof democracy should be utterly ignored, 
 its fundamental doctrineof " the greatest good of the greatest 
 number" should be di'cirded as a pestilent and pernicious 
 dogma, and the rights and happiness of the majority of the 
 ' citizens be sacrificed to Ihe interests of a few slaveh(dders. 
 
 That we further recognize the fact that, with this intent, 
 Slavery was made the "chief corner-stone of the Southern 
 ■confederacy, and, in the remorseless conscription for tin ir 
 army, persons holding twenty slaves are exempt, while the 
 non-slaveholders are made to bear the burthen of a war in- 
 tended to impoverish .and degrade them. And wo gl.adly 
 remember that in the overthrow of that bastard confederacy, 
 and the uprooting of its corner-stone, -will be concerned, not 
 simply the welfare of the nation at large, but the future 
 peace, prosperity, and happiness of the South; that in its 
 future results the war for the Union will be one, not of sub- 
 jugation, but of deliverance; and that, as regards all classes 
 in the rebel States excepting only the leaders of the rebellion, 
 onr triumph will be their gain. 
 
 IV. Resolved, That in view of the recent conduct of the 
 British government, in permitting a piratical vessel to be 
 built, equip[)ed, and manned in British ports, for the use of 
 the Southern confederates, and to go forth under the British 
 flag, in disregard of the remonstrances of the American 
 minister, accompanied by ample proof of the character of 
 the vessel, to prey upon American commerce, and plunder 
 and burn defenceless merchant ships, receiving the while 
 the hospitalities of British colonial ports, it is proper for ns 
 to recall to the British government and the British people 
 the contrast between such a violation of international neu- 
 trality, and the honorable fidelity and promptness which the 
 American government, from its foundation, has uniformly 
 observed toward the government of Great Britain. 
 
 The example set by Washington in observing, in regard 
 to England, the strictest neutrality in her war with France; 
 the pe'remptory instruction given by Hamilton, when Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, to the collectors of our ports to exer- 
 cise " the greatest vigilance, care, activity, and impartiality, 
 in searching for and discovering any attempt to fit out ves- 
 sels or expeditions in aid of either party;" the action of our 
 Government, on the suggestion of Mr. Hammond, the Brit- 
 ish Minister, iu seizing a'vessel that was being fitted out as 
 a French privateer; the restoration to the British Govern- 
 ment of the British ship " Grange," taken by the French in 
 American waters ; the equipment by President Jefferson, in 
 180.5, of a force to cruise within our own seas and arrest ves- 
 sels embarking in a war in which the country had no part, 
 and "bring in the offenders for trial as pirates;" and the 
 prompt fidelity with which succeeding Presidtnts have per- , 
 formed their duty in this regard, especially toward Great 
 Britain, down to its Canadian rebellion in 183S, and its war 
 with Russia in 1S.54, the facts of which are fresh in their 
 recollection,— complete a record that entitles the American 
 Government to the fairest exercise, on the part of England, 
 of. the neutrality she professes in the pending war with the 
 Southern Confederates. Tnat apart from the fact that the 
 aid thus extended in England to tlie Confeilerate cause, 
 without interference by the government, in defiance of the 
 sentiments of the civilized world, to a pretended govern- 
 ment, which boasts as its corner-stone human slavery, it is 
 the sentiment of this meeting that the Government of the 
 United States should make the most urgent appeal to the 
 honor of the British Government, to the justice of the 
 British courts, and the moral sense of the British people, to 
 provide a remedy for these outrages, and avert the possibil- 
 ity of a conflict between two nations who should be united 
 by all the ties that spring from a common ancestry and a 
 common civilization. 
 
 V. Resolved, That we cannot separate on an occasion 
 like the present, when wo ag^iin catch the echoes of cannon 
 thundering against Sumter, without recaUing, with swelling 
 pride and aft'eciionate regard, our brave army and navy, 
 wherever gathered for the deience of the country, and espe- 
 cially those that attract the gaze of the world on the Cooper, 
 the Kappahannock, and the Mississippi. 
 
 That, to protfct Ihe rights of our gallant defenders is the 
 grateful dnty of nil true" Americans; and that we heartily 
 approve the judicious Act of our Legislature to secure them 
 their privdig^ of a vote, while we leave to the scorn they 
 deserve, those men recreant to the first principles of de- 
 mocracy, who. ready to abet the enemies of their country, 
 even by invoking intervention from a British minister, with 
 abase consistency, would wrest from our citizen-suldiers 
 the right to pass upon snch disloyal conduct. 
 
 VI. Resolved, That, with the view of advising the Na- 
 tional Government of the earnest devotion of the loyal masses 
 here assembled, and of their dec'ded views in regard to the 
 manner in which this war should be prosecuted, a copy of 
 these resolutions be respectfully addres-ed to the President 
 and each member of his Cabinet, to whom, by acclamation, 
 we wish God-speed in theirglorious work of maintaining the 
 unity, the freedom, and the supremacy of our common 
 countiy. 
 
 The reading of the resolutions was interrupted by 
 applause, and tbey were adopted by acclamation. 
 
 Mr. GiuswoLD read, amid great applause, ex- 
 tracts from the letters of Gen. Scott, Gen. Halleck, 
 Gen. Hooker, Archbishop Hughes and Gov. Tod. 
 Tfce following is the letter from Gen. Hooker: 
 
 Hkadquarteks Army of thk Potomac, ! 
 AprU 9, 1863. 5 
 
 To Jas. A. Roosevelt, Secretary Loyal League : 
 
 Sir: Ackuowiedging the receipt of an iiivitatioi3 to be pres- 
 ent at a mass meeting of the loyal citizens of theLuited 
 States, to be held at New York on the 11th Instant, I have 
 occasion to regret that my duties will not permit me to be 
 present at that important assemblage. 
 
 PeriKit me, tiowever, to express my hearty sympathy with 
 the objects and purposes of the proposed demonstration, and 
 to desire that my name may be placed with those who so love 
 their country, its Union and its Constitution, as to be glad to 
 renew pledges of loyalty and fealty as often ai ciicumsuujcei 
 will demand. 
 The frequent «38embling together of our countrymen for 
 
purposes of counsel and interchange of thought upon the 
 great national question of the day is one of the useful and 
 commendable duties of the times, which has my best wishes, 
 as it has those of all honest and loyal men. 
 
 The army which I have the honor to command is, I am 
 proud to say, in such good heart and in so excellent a con- 
 dition that I am warranted in pledging it to a gallant blow for 
 the defence of our national unity and integrity, whenever the 
 enemy shall be met by the Army of the Potomac. 
 
 That God may speed the cause of the Union and popular 
 liberty everywhere, is the hopeful aspiration of 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 JOSEPH|H00KER, 
 Majoi-General Commanding. 
 Tne Mayor then eaid: 
 
 I have now the honor of introducing to you a gen- 
 tleman who is part and parcel of the Government — 
 a distinguished member of the Administration — a 
 gentleman of Southern birth and Southern associa- 
 tions, but whose heart beats as loyal as yours or 
 mine. I have the pleasure of presenting to you the 
 Hon. Montgomery Blair. [Great applause, and 
 " three cheers tor Blair. "] 
 
 SPEECH OF MONTGOMERY BLAIR. 
 Mr. Blair said: Fellow-citizens of New York, 
 I am gratified to meet so vast an assemblage, and 
 to unite with yoa in doing honor to the glorious 
 cause which we have met here to pledge ourselves 
 to support. This, my friends, is a most appropriate 
 occasion upon which to renew our pledges to that 
 flag which has come down to us with so many hal- 
 lowed memories associated with the founders of this 
 Government. The day upon which an attempt was 
 made to subvert this Government is a day to be re- 
 membered; it is a day to be remembered, and I hope 
 with the treatment which we are going to give the 
 traitors, that we will make it to be remem- 
 bered by them tor eternity. [Cheers. " Good !"] 
 The contest in which we are engaged is a struggle 
 for the great idea underlying our political fabric, 
 and as we live in an age when opinion is the great 
 element of power, it is essential to our success that 
 the true nature of the struggle should be compre- 
 hended by good men at home and abroad. Some 
 reference to the parties to it may contribute to effect 
 this object. From the outset the oligarchic interest 
 everywhere has been at no loss on which side to 
 range itself. Everywhere it has identified itself 
 witb the Rebellion because it battled in the cause of 
 privilege and against free Government, and every- 
 where it has exerted itself promptly, yet skillfully, 
 to support the Rebel cause. Wielding vast power 
 in all European Governments, controlling the whole 
 foreign press and some of our own, and assuming 
 from the first mutterings of the tempest that our 
 ship of State was a wreck, as they had always pre- 
 dicted it would be, they have looked on only to find 
 facts to sustain a foregone conclusion and otherwise 
 to exert all the power they could wield to consum- 
 mate their wishes. I do not in thus speaking of this 
 class, and especially of the European branch of it, 
 wish to be understood as impeaching their motives 
 or questioning the sincerity of their conviction that 
 in the preservation of their own and kindred orders 
 they are doing tee best for mankind. As individuals, 
 and especially is this true of the British aristocracy, 
 they are distinguished by a high sense of honor, 
 by courage, truthfulness and other many qualities. 
 But these personal characteristics only serve to give 
 more efiect co a mistaken policy in antagonism to 
 Ireedom and free government, which results neces- 
 sarily from the relation to society to which 
 they are born and bred. They justly feel 
 that the continuance of such a Government as 
 ours saps the foundation of their order day by 
 day, and hence, though we meddle not 
 in their affairs this class has wan-ed upon us from 
 the day we set up our democratic establishment in 
 the wilds of America. For the most part this war 
 has been carried on in the field of opinion by writers 
 hired to combat the natural yearnings of the human 
 heart for liberty. We have replied only by contin- 
 uing to minister to human happiness, giving free 
 homes to tha oppressed, elevating the ^joor by in- 
 
 struction in free schools and by having tlie Gospel 
 preached to all craeds. There was one point, how- 
 ever, upon which every letter-writer and book-mak- 
 iDg tourist who catered to the appetite of the estab- 
 lished orders for American disparagement failed not 
 to comment with the greatest harshness. That was, 
 that we tolerated African Slavery. So bitter have 
 heen these denunciations thatmany persons supposed, 
 whea the war broke out, that the English aristo- 
 crats for once would have to be on the f-ide of those 
 who were struggling for fi'ee government. Par from 
 it. Like most of those among us who are now sig- 
 nalizing themselves by denouncing the suspension 
 of the writ of habeas corpus, the Conscription act, 
 &c., their advocacy of freedom was, as we now 
 see, only to serve the cause of Slavery. It was for 
 the freedom we cherished, not for the Slavery we 
 tolerated, they reviled us. See these proud aristo- 
 crats now, arming the slave-drivers at Richmond 
 with iron-clad ships to strike down Freedom', for- 
 getting even the iusults offered a few years since by 
 their present allies, the Richmond snobbery, to the 
 heir apparent of the Eoglish crown ! But do not 
 suppose that by pointing to the evidences of sym- 
 pathy and alliance between these domestic and for- 
 eign foes of free government, I seek to stir you to 
 wrath against England. Far from it; for while it 
 is true that in all essentials the British peer and 
 our vulgar Masons and Slidells and the silly 
 women who insult Union soldiers are the 
 same order of people, difteriDg only in cul- 
 tivation and external circumstances, but agreeing 
 in the distinguishing characteristic of having no faith 
 in humanity; yet you must remember that these 
 worldlings do not rule eitlier in England or America. 
 Despite of their opposition, Slavery was struck 
 doWn in the British realm, and despite of them the 
 great Republic will be saved, and the slave machin- 
 ery applied to subvert it destroyed. I feel assured 
 of this, because not only our own people, but the 
 people of Europe, are beginning to understand, 
 what I have said the aristocrats everywhere have 
 understood from the first, that this is a battle for com- 
 mon people throughout the world, and that they 
 now are, or soon will be, ready to make common 
 cause for freedom against the wide -spread conspiracy 
 of aristocrats to destroy it. It is true that Lord 
 Lyons tells his Government that our " Democratic 
 leaders" came stealthily to him and made known 
 their wish and purpose " to put an end to the war, 
 even at the lisk of losing the Southern States 
 altogether,'" but " that it was not thought prudent 
 to avow this desire, and that some hints of it, 
 dropped before the elections, were so ill received, 
 that a strong declaration in the contrary sense was 
 deemed necessary by the Democratic leaders." 
 Lord Lyons furtner states that these Democratic 
 "leaders' thought "that the oft'^r of mediation, if 
 made to a Radical Administration, would be rejected 
 — ^that if made at an uupropitious moment, it might 
 increase the virulence with which the war is prose- 
 cuted. If their own party were in power, or virtu- 
 ally controlled the Administration, they would 
 rather, if possible, obtain an armistice without the 
 aid of foreign Governments; but they would be 
 disposed to accept an olfsr ot mediation, if it 
 appeared to be the only means of putting 
 a stop to hostilities. They would desire 
 that the offer should come from the great Powers 
 of Europe, conjointly; and, in particular, that 
 as little prominence as possible should be given to 
 Great Britain." This is the sum of his lordship's 
 revelations, and if it were not that he entirely mis- 
 takes the character and influence of his men they 
 might be ominous of the result which he and the 
 British Ministry so confidently predict and devoutly 
 wish. If the " chiefs " whom he describes as 
 " calling loudly for a more vigorous prosecution of 
 the war, and reproaching the Government witb. 
 slackness as well as with want of success in ita 
 military measures," but telling him that it was their 
 wish " to put an end to it at the risk of losing the 
 Soatheru States altogether," were really as able as 
 
he snpposes ihey are to bring the true Democracy of 
 the North to adopt the plans of ibe S9ce8nou:st8 for 
 the extentioa of Slavery to make it the fouudation 
 of ihe poliiicil institaiions of the country, or to 
 assent to the division of the couiKry— rewguing one 
 halfof it. to Slavery— 'hen, in^Jeed, might tDeeueiines 
 of popular goverument indulge their fond hope that 
 tbebrijiht prospects which opened on the birthday 
 of free iuBticutioQS in the New World, and have at- 
 tended its progress to this hour, would S3on close. 
 But it is apparent even from the narrative ot the 
 worthy and truly honorable represeniaiive of 
 England, that "the leaders ' who conferred with 
 him were conscious thst they could not iead ibeir 
 party to saiction their purpo-es, that they were 
 forced to disavow them, ai d advised posiponeiueut 
 of the offer of mediation till they should come into 
 power, which they only hoj ed to secure by " calhng 
 loudly for a more vigo"rous prosecution of the war, 
 and reproaching the Government with slackness as 
 well as with want of success in its mibtary meas- 
 ures !" But the iirimecse popular Hssemblies which 
 have everywhere deuouuced mecirition of uny sort 
 show that no siub jugglery would avail. Tde most 
 distinguished leaders of the Democracy m th s great 
 commonwealth attended the vast meeting of the bth 
 of March. They are here again to-night, 'f'bey 
 unite in council with the members of the Republican 
 party with the chiefs of the old Whig party, with 
 those of the original Anti-Slavery party, with tDe 
 American party. lecub.arJy jealous of foreign influ- 
 ence, and with those of other strong classes which 
 embrace with a sort of kindred sympathy the natural- 
 ized citizens of all Europe as brothers eniranchised 
 from feudal fetters, and lising here to usefulness and 
 influence as the equals of the native born freeman. 
 Every party and every class by whom free institu- 
 tions are held dear in this country, merging all minor 
 differences of opinion, are gathering in every quarter 
 to devise measures to restore the nationality, secure 
 the literties of the country, and to give eflect to 
 these, the shouts of battle from a milhon of brave 
 men are beard by Und and sea. They see the feudal 
 lords who hold the slaves in the South in bondage, 
 to raise the commodities on which the laborers of the 
 feudal lords in Europe are to exhaust their energies 
 to exalt their privileged orders, are supported by 
 such orders because of a common interest in tl e en- 
 elavement of mankind. And if the vassalage which 
 holds the black race as mere animated machine?, and 
 i8 rapidly reducing the poor whites of the South to 
 a dependence and suffering, rendering the fate of the 
 slave of a kind master eu-v-iable— if euch vassalage 
 is to be upheld by the great modern dynasties abroad, 
 combining their military power to give support to 
 the despotic principle in a nation separated from 
 them by the ocean, bow long will it be before 
 such armed usurpation here will, by its 
 reactionary force, recover the arbitrary power 
 that belonged to the age of the Bourbons, the 
 Tudors, and of that horde of feudal proprietors who 
 monopolized the soil, holding the people as serls ap- 
 purtenant to the domain of masters, rising as a su- 
 perstructure of oppression through grades from ba- 
 rons, counts, dukes, prince?, kings, and emperors to 
 autocrats ? Our Southern chivalry, which but a 
 generation back signed our Magna Charta of hberty 
 and equality, in the course of one lifetime, by the 
 indoctriualion of the Slave system, working ou one 
 poor oppressed caste, are already prepared to join 
 the Holy Alliance abroad in making a partition of 
 this coulinent and setting up dynasties deriving their 
 type from the Congress of Vienna, and tney have an 
 improved feature on the old feudal system, tending 
 to reinvigorate it. In that State which lud off in 
 the assault upon the Union, the ownership of tea 
 slaves, or an equivalent, was an essential qualifica- 
 tion for a legislator. Carrying out this pnmiple, 
 the Confederate Coogress lias decreed that twenty 
 Blavea shall exempt the master from military ser- 
 vice. This will operate as a premium for multiply- 
 ing slaves and divide the communny into two great 
 classes, the producers and the soldiery; creating a 
 
 military government, one portion of the people to 
 tight, the other to feed the fighters. The starveling 
 whites not suited to war and not subjected as sol- 
 diers will become slaves to the owners of estates on 
 whom they must daiend. That the crowned heads 
 of Europe, who are invited to make the political 
 constitutfons of this coniiuent, as well as its cotton, 
 their concern, should have a disposition to admit 
 States into the. Holy Alliance which gives such 
 earnest of hostility to fie « government, ia not un- 
 natural. But vvhat will the more enlightened 
 portion of the European population think of 
 this combination with slaveholders to extir- 
 pate hberty in America ? Tne organs of the 
 privileged orders in Great Britain, the Quarterly 
 Review, Tim Times, &c., already congratulated 
 their patrons ou the fact that Rr bellion here has ar- 
 rested Reform iu England. They proclaim that 
 Lords Paluierston and Russell reached their power 
 in England by pledges of reform, and now they re- 
 joice that the Rebellion has exonerated them from 
 their obligation ! They would now, for the third 
 time, attempt to crush the free principles which, 
 nurtured here beyond the reach of despotic coali- 
 tions, has attained a prosperity, spreading an influ- 
 ence back to the couuiry of their origin, reforming 
 their Government and elevating their people; and 
 it is in the interest ol the selfish few that the pro- 
 gress of nations in reforoa, in freedom and happi- 
 ness, is to be arrested. Is it possible that a great 
 war, waged by the potentates of Europe, in alliance 
 with tee slave system propagated lu the South, 
 against the Free States of America, will be cordially 
 supported bv the substantial, intelligent body of the 
 European populations ? Can Lord Lyons persuade 
 himself or them that there are Democratic leaders 
 in the Free States capable of drawing the Demo- 
 cratic masses to join foreign powers iu mediating a 
 peace dividing the empire of free government on 
 this continent with Slavery, European sovereigns 
 to hold the balance of the continent 1 No patriot, 
 no honest man of any party, no Democrat of 
 influence with a party which has never been 
 wanting to the country when its fortunes hung 
 upon the scale of battle, could have made 
 the questions which were submitted to Lord Lyons. 
 Davis, Benjamin, Floyd and Toombs call them- 
 selves Democrats. Ttieir emissaries iu Europe, 
 Slidell, Sanders and Mason, call themselves Demo- 
 crats. Their creatures in the Free States, Buchanan, 
 Toucey, and the suljaltem traitors associated with 
 tbem, spared by the clemency of the Administration, 
 call themselves Democrats. But these men iu the 
 North ave only so many men on gibbets. The real 
 Democrats everywhere are with the real Republicans, 
 in arms for their. country and its Constitution. It is 
 not the interest of natious to destroy each other, and 
 1 hope no nation will interpose in any way to coun- 
 tenance the treason which has no object but the 
 overthrow of republican institutions. The only 
 effect would be to embitter and prolong the strife. 
 England esj eeially, which has some consciousness of 
 the^value of such institutions, and has evinced a full 
 sense of the mischiefs of the slave power now seek- 
 ing her help to sacrifice them here, will. I doubt not, 
 recoil from the leprous touch. There was a time, 
 indeed, when even that very class of Englishmen 
 who would now see the Great Republic fall with so 
 much satisfaction, looked toward it with very difter- 
 eut feelings. It was when they apprehended in- 
 vasion from France. Then the Free States of this 
 continent, proud of their race and of the inspiration, 
 responded to the patriotic heart of Britain. They 
 did not intend to be passive while " the Latin r-M^' 
 establiehed their ascendancy in the fatherland. 
 At that dread crisis English statesmen recognized 
 the value of this kindred sympathy, and honored 
 the niaynanimiiy which, forgetting the oppression 
 dealt to us as an infant people aspiring to equality 
 with their brethren beyond tlie Atlantic— remember- 
 ing only the glorv of a commou Imeage, language, 
 and literature— ihey felt, and with reason, that tue 
 mutual abhorrence of Slavery iu whatever form im- 
 
posed, would induce the Government of the United 
 btates to make common cause with Eosland affainst 
 any attempt to invade or enelave ber. But now that 
 tUeir apprehensions ofdaiuer from across tlie Chaa- 
 n»ifV^^'''^ time allajed, and they ieel no preeeni 
 need of help, the feeliug for America, whid> for a 
 moment expanded the hearts even of ihe Enoiish 
 lordliQgs. has passed away. They have hecome as 
 earnest as m '76 to overthrow our Government and 
 are co-operating with the Rebels, as with the Tories 
 in every possible way short of declared w«-, and 
 have clearly evinced their disposition to take even 
 that step wheiievrr we will give them a pretext for 
 t wbich will carry the people of EugUnd with 
 them. We cannot tlierefore be too careful tot to 
 furnish the desired pretext, especially when the p'o- 
 ple of Europe as well as of America are awakeninsr 
 to their interest in this struijgle. We bad better 
 suffer for a time trom the pirates set afloat in En- 
 Rlma, and harbored and provisioned in their West 
 inaw ?r't'''T'^ '° devastate our commerce, to 
 enable the En-lish nation to put a stop to these out- 
 rages. I have confidence that tiiey will do it, and I 
 much prefer the mode adopted by the real noblemen 
 of New York to touch the hearts of the rea! nobility 
 ot England— tbe men who love truth and justice— 
 to whom alone she owes her greatness among the 
 nations of the earth-to that pronoeed" by 
 my friend, General Butler. To -send thi 
 starving poor of England cargoes of food, while 
 ZlL 7'* "-'.Y^^s are turning loose upon us piratical 
 vessels, tells more than words can express of the na- 
 ture ot this struggle and who are allies in it. I will 
 venture to affirm that the mediating leaders who 
 visited the British Minister in November are ^o? 
 among those who. while exhibiting such mut^ificence 
 tov?ard his countrymen, were lavishing millions to 
 flostain free government, although most of them are 
 Democrats. Tlie Rebellion here, this reactionarv 
 measure against free government, reacts across the 
 water, stops all progress, all beneficence and reform 
 lor the people of Europe. That is the nature of this 
 contest. You cannot, therefore, if vou love vour- 
 eelvee, your rights, and the rights of those whom 
 you are to leave behind you, if you love vour 
 brothers in fatherland, and wish to have an asylum 
 lor them, ana to extend the priucioles of liberty in 
 the old continent, you cannot but 'stand up for the 
 (government ydu have installed here, regardlees for 
 the moment of whom you have placed in power. 
 1 am a member, as my friend said, of the existing 
 Government, and I say to you here, although iti 
 measures may not meet the approval of some of 
 you, yet rely upon it, you have as honest a man as 
 ever God made installed in the chair of the Chief Maff- 
 letrale. [Loud applause.] We have a man from the 
 people, like many of those I see before me, bavins 
 a heart sympathetic for the masses, a man working 
 his way from an humble and obscure position up t% 
 the elevated poeition that he now tills, and, of 
 course, he feels, and feels deeply, as one of you, the 
 nature of the struggle that I have betn endeavoring 
 to paint. You must support him, my friends It is 
 your cause; not his. [Three cheers for the Presi- 
 dent. I Ihanking you again, my friends, for the cor- 
 diility and kmdnets with which vou have been pleased 
 to receive me, I give way to ocbers who can aid 
 mucti to what I have said, and say it better. fPro- 
 longed cheers.] ^ 
 
 Calls for "Butler" and " Fremont." 
 John Austin Stevens, jr., ,ead the letter from 
 Secretary Chase. It was received with frequent ap- 
 plause. 
 Loud calls for " Fremont." 
 
 Mayor Opdyke— Gentlemen, I have now the 
 pleasure cf introducing to you a distinguished and 
 eloquent representative in Congress from a sister 
 State, a gentleman who has stood by the Govern- 
 ment manfully and fearlessly; I introduce to you 
 Judge Kelley of Philadelphia. [Loud appliuee.] 
 
 SPEECH OP THE HON. W. D. KELLEY. 
 
 Judge Kelley said: In the name of uncondi- 
 tional loyalty to the Constitution, Philadelphia 
 greets New York. [Cheers.] In the name of the 
 nnity of that country, founded by theorigiaal of that 
 grand monument [the statue of Washington was im- 
 mediately in front of the stand], the Keystone sends 
 greeting to the Empire State. [Applause.] And this 
 aitertvvoyearsof war— two vearsof war! We of 
 Pennsylvania have tears for the dead, sympathy for 
 the mang ed and the bereaved, but these are for our 
 individual hearts, our private circles; for our country 
 we have but pride and devotion [cheering "Gaod 
 good"]; two years of war in which the Ruler of 
 1 rovideuce has more clearlv than ever before la 
 Distory, demonstrated how from seeming evil He is 
 edacing good, how within His purposes it is to make 
 the folly and wrath of men to praise Him 
 [cheers]; two years in which the Araericaa 
 people have made more of glorious history 
 than ever was made before in "the same brief 
 period, p, my countrymen, look back over that 
 little period of two years and remember when in the 
 lirst wild outburst of wounded and indignant patriot- 
 lem you gathered to this square. Your country was 
 bankrupt; you could not horrow at one per cent a 
 month the little sum of $5,000,COO; your navy lay in 
 Southern yards in ordinary, upon the distant coast 
 ot Africa or m the far Pacific; your army was ou the 
 troniiers of lexas, in New Mexico, in the far Terri- 
 tory of Wasbiogton, everywhere but where your 
 Government could command it; vour arsenals 
 emptied alike of arms and ammunition and accouter- 
 ments; an enemy, strengthened by your navy and 
 by your mihtary resources, had fired upon your flajr 
 aud threatened to unfurl from the dome of your 
 capitol a foreign banner, but the heart of America 
 did not tremble, and two years of war, even disasters, 
 has not chilled or bated our patriotism. [Cbeers 
 
 ?V°°'."J , ^^^ ^""^ '^^'■^ ^^-^^y 'o say "ihat no star 
 must be stricken from our flag [" Never"]; no acre 
 of our country surrendered it it takes from our 
 lockers the last dollar and from our heanh-sides the 
 last able-bodied boy. [Cheers, " Hurrah."] These 
 are the sentiments of Pennsylvania, and I am glad 
 you respond to them with such fervor. We behold all 
 the possible consequences of the war; we have made a 
 navy; we have made an army such as the eye of God 
 never beheld before upon this planet; we have con- 
 quered m two years well-nigh 400,000 square miles 
 ot territory. ['• Good ! good !"] We have not bor- 
 rowed of England or the Continent, or any foreign 
 man or nation, one picayune toward bearinsr the ex- 
 pense. [Applause.] Oh, my friends, this is a proud 
 day. We had demonstrated, before Rebel hands 
 desecrated our flag, the beneficence of republican 
 institutions. In eighty short years we had con- 
 quered a Continent. Yes, our flag floated on yoa 
 li^astem promontoiies in the broad blaze of the noon- 
 day sun, while there on our golden eaads, the moru- 
 ng- daw-n just tipped its stars, and ail was ours, 
 and civilization was blooming over all. We had 
 demonstrated the capacity of man for self-'^overn- 
 ment anl of popular institutions, raised the poor emi- 
 grant and his cbildren to the fall stature of manhood 
 and to all the powers and rights of citizenshio, nay 
 to the capacity not only to enjov, but to exercise 
 them all. [Cheers.j The potentates of Europe had 
 seen the peasant aud the liborer expand into the 
 citizen and the capitalist; they had seen 
 from the humblest walks of life the man 
 of honor, wealth, and distinction epilog 
 Eighty years had served to demonstrate this. 
 But, was their sneer— a good Gi'verument for peace* 
 yet no Government for war. la it not a Govern- 
 ment for w.ir ? Wben Congress passed what the 
 Copperheads cull the Coubtrit.tion bill, and served 
 notice upon Frauce and England that every man 
 who had not dejjending upon him, and him alone 
 aged parents or tender chilaood, should be called to' 
 
 // 
 
the field, they concluded that all Earope in alliance 
 would not do to meet the American people under 
 that Government which was not good for war. 
 1 Cheers.] So good for war that, while we go on to 
 conquer those who are armed with our resources, 
 we hold the envious aristocracy of Europe in check, 
 and dare them to do their worst [cheersl , and dare 
 them BO defiantly, that I refer you to the New York 
 papers of the day for the altered opinion of Lord 
 John Kuesell, as expressed in the House of Lords. 
 {Cheers. " Give it" to him !" " Bully !"1 Bully for 
 the American people. [Cheers.] Bully for those 
 institutions [" Bully for Kelley"] that open the 
 Bchool-houBe for the poor child, and give a just re- 
 turn for all the lahor that he or bis parents perform. 
 What is this war ? What is it about ? Between whom 
 is it, men of New York? ["Three cheers for Kelley.''] 
 No, do oot cheer so insignificant a being; keep ({.^^fh 
 and hear him. Is it between j)olitical parties ? No ; 
 here on this stand are men of all parties. I do not 
 know what party I belong to. I was tool or ^nueT 
 enough to hasten home m 1852 to vote for b rank 
 Pierce, and since then I have been fighting for free- 
 dom and civilizatiou in the ranks of the Republican 
 oarty. [Cheers; "Good."] No, my friends, not 
 Wtween political parties ; nor is it between contend- 
 ing States. Tbe bne seems to divide States, but 
 take the exception. East Tennessee and West Vir- 
 ginia are loyal as New York or Pennsylvania 
 ["Good, gooa"], though one of them lies south of 
 Kentucky, and tbe other has been held by Eastern 
 Virginia,as Russia holds Poland, or as England has 
 held Ireland. [Cheers.] Yet they are loyal. It is a war 
 between two orders of civilizatiou— the order of 
 civilization which we enjoy, which opens a school- 
 house to every child coming into the oommonwealtb 
 by birth or emigration ; which gives to the son of the 
 poorest laborer, whether of native or foreign birth , the 
 mastery of the English language, the art of writing 
 and of figures, aud enables hiiu to go forth and arm 
 himself with knowledge, and wisdom, and power to 
 contend with the world and get a fair day's wages 
 for a fair day's work. The otber order of civiliza- 
 tion is one which holds that capital should own its 
 labor; that laboring men and women should be held 
 for sale and purchase like cattle in the stall or upon 
 the shamt'les. And, my friends, do not let us blink 
 tbe question. The taking of Fort Sumter, tbe tak- 
 ing of Vicksburg, will not settle the war. One or 
 the other of these orders of ciAnlization must be vic- 
 torious, triumnhant over the whole land before you 
 can have pea'ce. [Cheers. "That's the talk."] 
 You have heard from Secretary Chase. Like him, 
 I am for letting the darkey in. I do not think he is 
 a bit better than I or you. and I do not see why he 
 Bhould not do picket duty in the swamps as well as 
 I or my flon. 1 do not see why he should not work 
 for us as ably as he worked for his enemy, and I am 
 for letting him in, and letting him, under the Stars and 
 Stripes, win his way to' freedom by proving on the 
 bloody field the power of his manhood. [" Bravo." 
 Applause.] This we have to do. This we will do. 
 And having done it, we will — having sunk the 
 traitors, from Fernando up or down, whichever it 
 migbt be— [laughter and applause]— we will have 
 sunk them deeper than ever plummet sounded ; we 
 will have so squelched treason that our children and 
 our children's children to the latest generation will 
 never fear another ci^il war. We will have peace 
 v/ith England and with France, and, what is more, 
 we will tiave oemonstrated to the world the power 
 siS well as the beneficence of republican institutions; 
 we will have shown the world that that Constitution 
 named under his [pointing to the statue of Washiog- 
 ton] wise auBpites is not only beneficent over a 
 young and peaceful people, but is a fit canopy— I say 
 is a fit canopy for a coniinent. [Loud aud prolonged 
 applause, and three cheers for Kelley ] 
 Loud calls for " Fremont." 
 
 The Mayor, amid loud applause, introduced Brig.- 
 Gen. Crawford of Penn., one of the defenders of 
 Fort Sumter under Major Anderson. 
 SpeeobcB were Bubsequently made by Benj. H. 
 
 Brewster, esq., of Philadelphia; Col. Stewart E.. 
 Woodford, Col. Taylor, and ex-Councilman Horatio 
 N. Wild; and an ode was read by William Ross 
 Wallace; after which, as the shades of night were 
 falling, the Mayor adjourned tbe meeting, with loud 
 cheers for the Union and the Star-Spangled Banner. 
 
 ADDEESS BY PEANOIS LIEBEE, 
 
 CUAIRMAN ON THE COUNCIL'S COMMITTEE ON- 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 Kcail at the Meeting of the Loyal National League,. 
 
 In/ their request, in Union Square, New York,. 
 
 on the nth of April, 1863. 
 
 It is just and wise that men engaged in a 
 great and arduous cause should profess anew, 
 from time to time, their faith, and pledge them- 
 selves to one another, to stand by their cause to 
 the last extremity, even at the sacrifice of all 
 they have and all that God has given them — 
 their wealth, their blood, and their eliildreu's 
 blood. We solemnly pledge all this to our cause, 
 for it is the cause of our country and her noble 
 history, of freedom, and justice, and truth — it is 
 the cause of all we hold dearest on this earth : 
 we profess and pledge this— plainly, broadly, 
 openly, in the cheering time of success, and most 
 fervently in tbe day of trial and reverses. 
 
 We recollect how, two years ago, when reck- 
 less arrogance attacked Fort Sumter, the response 
 to that boom of treasonable cannon was read, in 
 our city, in the flag of our country — waving from- 
 every steeple and school-house, from City Hall 
 and court house, from every shop window and 
 rr.arket-stall, aud fluttering in the band of every 
 child and on the head-gear of every horse in the 
 busy street. Two years have passed ; uncounted 
 sacrifices have been made — sacrifices of wealth, 
 of blood, and limb, and life— of .friendship and 
 brotherhood, of endeared and hallowed pursiiits 
 and sacred ties — and still the civil war is raging 
 in bitterness and heart-burning — still we make 
 the same profession, and still we pledge ourselves 
 firmly to hold on to our cause and persevere in 
 the struggle into which unrighteous men, be- 
 wildered by pride and stimulated by bitter 
 hatred, have plunged us. 
 
 AVe profess ourselves to be loyal citizens of 
 these United States; and by loyalty we mean a 
 candid and loving devotion to the object to- 
 which a loyal man — a loyal husband, a loyal 
 friend, a loyal citizen — devotes himself. We es- 
 chew the attenuated argument derived by trifling 
 scholars from meagre etymology. We take the 
 core aud substance of this weighty word, and 
 pledge ourselves that we will loyally — not merely 
 outwardly and formally, according to the letter, 
 but ferveutly and according to the spirit— adhere 
 to our country, to her institutions, to freedom 
 and her power, and to that great institutioa 
 called the government of our country, founded 
 by our fathers, and loved by their sons and by 
 all right-minded men who have become citizens 
 of this land by choice and not by birth-—who 
 have wedded this coimtry in the maturity of 
 their age as verily their own. We pledge our- 
 selves as national men devoted to the nationality 
 of this great people. No government can wholly 
 dispense with loyalty, except the fiercest despot- 
 ism ruling by naked intimidation; but a republic 
 stands in greater need of it than any other gov- 
 
•ernment, and most of all a republic heset by 
 open rebellion and insidious treason. Loyalty is 
 pre-eminently a civic virtue in a free country. 
 It is patriotism cast in the graceful mold of 
 candid devotion to the harmless government of 
 an unshackled nation. 
 
 In pledging ourselves thus we know of no party. 
 Parties are unavoidable in free countries, and may 
 be useful if they acknowledge the country far 
 above themselves and remain within the sanctity 
 of the fundamental law which protects the enjoy- 
 ment of liberty prepared for all within its sacred 
 domain. But Party has no meaning in far the 
 greater number of the highest and the com- 
 mon relations of human life. When we are ail- 
 ing, we do not take medicine by party prescrip- 
 tion. We do not build ships by party measure- 
 ment ; we do not pray for our daily bread by 
 party distinctions ; we do not take our chosen 
 ones to our bosoms by party demarcations, nor 
 do we eat or drink, sleep or wake, as partisans. 
 We do not enjoy the flowers of spring, nor do 
 we harvest the grain, by party lines. We do not 
 incur punishments for infractions of the com- 
 mandments according to party creeds ; and we 
 do not, we must not, love and defend our country 
 and our liberty, dear to us as part and portion 
 of our very selves, according to party rules and 
 divisions. Woe to him who does. When a house 
 is on fire, and a mother with her child cries for 
 help att the window above, shall the firemen at 
 the engine be allowed to trifle away the precious 
 time in party bickerings, or is then the only 
 word — " Water ! pump away ; up with the lad- 
 <ier !" 
 
 Let us not be like the Byzantines, those 
 wretches who quarreled about contemptible 
 party refinements, theological though they were, 
 while the truculent Mussulman was steadily 
 drawing nearer — nay, some of whom would even 
 go to the lord of the crescent, and with a craven 
 lieai't would beg for a pittance of the spoil, so 
 that they would be spared, and could vent their 
 party hatred against their kin in bloody and 
 fellows in religion. 
 
 We know of no party in our present troubles ; 
 theword is here an empty word. The only line 
 which divides the people of the north runs be- 
 tween the mass of loyal men, who stand by their 
 country, no matter to what place of political 
 meeting they were used to resort, or with what 
 accent they utter the language of the land, or 
 what religion they profess, or what sentiments 
 they may have uttered in the excitement of 
 former discussions, on the one hand, and those, 
 on the other hand, who keep outside of that 
 line — traitors to their country in the hour of 
 need, or those who allow themselves to be misled 
 by shallow names, and by reminiscences which 
 cling around those names from bygone days, 
 finding no application in a time which asks for 
 things more sterling than names, theories, or 
 platforms. 
 
 If an alien enemy were to land his hosts on 
 your shores, would you fly to your arms and 
 ring the tocsin because your country is in danger, 
 or would you meditatively look at your sword 
 and gun, and spend your time in pondering 
 ■whether the administration in power, which 
 must and can alone direct the defence of your 
 hearths, has a right to be styled by this or that 
 . party name, or whether it came into power with 
 
 your assistance, and will appoint some of your 
 party to posts of honor or comfortable emolu- 
 ments? And will any one now lose his time 
 and fair name as an honest and brave citizen, 
 when no foreigner, indeed, threatens your coun- 
 try, at least not directly, but far more, when a 
 heedless host of law-def^'ing men, heaping upon 
 you the vilest vituperation that men who do not 
 leave behind them the ingenuity of civilization 
 when they relapse into barbarism, can invent—^ 
 when this host threatens to sunder your country 
 and cleave your very history in twain, to deprive 
 j'ou of your rivers which God has given you, to 
 extinguish your nationality, to break down, your 
 liberty, and to make that land, which the dis- 
 tributor of our sphere's geography has placed 
 between the old and older world as the greatest 
 link of that civilization which is destined to en- 
 circle the globe — to make that land tho hot-bed 
 of angry, petty powers, sinking deeper and deeper 
 as they quarrel and fight, and quarreling and 
 fighting more angrily as they sink deeper ? It is 
 the very thing your foreign enemies desire and 
 have long desired. When nullification threaten^ 
 ed to bring about secession — and the term seces- 
 sion was used at that early period — foreign 
 journals stated in distinct words that England 
 was deeply interested in the contest; for nullifi- 
 cation might bring on secession, and secession 
 would cause a general disruption — an occurrence 
 which would redound to the essential benefit of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 But the traitors of the North, who have been 
 so aptly called adders or copperheads-r— striking 
 as these reptiles do, more secretly and deadly 
 even than the rattlesnake, which has some chiv- 
 alry, at least, in its tail — believe, or pretend to 
 believe, that no fragmentary disruption would 
 follow a division of our country into North and 
 South, and advocate a compromise by which 
 they pretend to believe that the two portions 
 may possibly be reunited after a provisional 
 division, as our peddlers putty some broken china 
 cup. 
 
 As to the first, that we might pleasantly divide 
 into two comfortable portions, we prefer being 
 guided by the experience of all history, to fol- 
 lowing the traitors in their teachings. We will 
 not hear of it. We live in an age when the 
 word is nationalization, not denationalization ; 
 when fair Italy has risen, like a new-born god- 
 dess, out of the foaming waves of the Mediterra- 
 nean. A.11 destruction is quick and easy ; all 
 growth and formation is slow and toilsome. Na- 
 tions break up, like splendid mirrors dashed to 
 the ground. They do not break into a number 
 of well-shaped, neatly framed, little looking- 
 glasses. But a far more solemn truth even than 
 this comes here into play. It is with nations as 
 with families and with individuals. Those des- 
 tined by nature to live in the bonds of friendship 
 and mutual kindliness become the bitterest and 
 most irreconcilable enemies, when once fairly 
 separated in angrj' enmity, in precisely the same 
 degree in which affection and good-will was in- 
 tended to subsist between them. We must have 
 back the South, or else those who will not re- 
 unite with us must leave the country ; we must 
 have the country at any price. If, however, a 
 plain division between the North and the South 
 could take place, who will deny that those very 
 traitors would instantly begin to maneuver for a 
 
8 
 
 gradual annexation of the North to the South ? 
 It is known to be so. Some of them, void of 
 all shame, have avowed it. They are ready to 
 petition on their tnees for annexation to the 
 South, and to let the condescending grantor, 
 " holding the while his nose," introduce slavei-y, 
 that blessed "corner-stone of the newest " civili- 
 zation," into the North, which has been happily 
 purged from this evil. Let us put the heel on 
 this adder and bruise all treason out of its head. 
 As to the compromise which they pi'opose, we 
 know of no compromise with crime that is not 
 criminal itself, and senseless in addition to its 
 being wicked. New guarantees, indeed, may be 
 asked for at the proper time, but it is now our 
 turn to ask for them. They will be guaran- 
 tees of peace, of the undisturbed integrity of 
 our country, of law, and liberty, and security, 
 asked for and insisted upon by the Union men, 
 who now pledge themselves not to listen to the 
 words compromise, new guarantees for the South, 
 armistice, or convention of delegates from the 
 South and North — as long as this war shall last, 
 until the North is victorious, and shall have es- 
 tablished again the national authority over the 
 length and breadth of the country as it was; 
 over the United States dominion as it was before 
 the breaking out of the crime which is now ruin- 
 ing our fair land — ruining it in point of wealth, 
 but, with God's help, elevating it in character, 
 strength, and dignity. 
 
 We believe that the question of the issue, 
 which must attend the present contest, according 
 to the character it has now acquired, is reduced 
 to these simple words : Either the North con- 
 quers the South, or the South conquers the North. 
 Make up your minds for this alternative. Either 
 the Noith conquers the South and re-establishes 
 law, freedom, and the integrity of our country, 
 or the South conquers the North by arms, or 
 by treason at home, and covers our portion of the 
 coimtry with disgrace and slavery. 
 
 Let us not shriuk from facts or mince the truth, 
 but rather plainly present to our minds the es- 
 sential character of the struggle in which hun- 
 dreds of thousands, that ought to be brothers, 
 are now engaged. What has brought us to these 
 grave straits ? 
 
 Are we two different races, as the new ethnol- 
 ogists of the South, with profound knowledge of 
 history and of their own skins, names, and lan- 
 gimge, proclaim ? Have they produced the names 
 which Europe mentions when American literature 
 is spoken of? Have they advanced science? 
 Have they the great schools of the age ? Do they 
 speak the choice idiom of the cultivated man ? 
 Have the thinkers and inventors of the age their 
 homes in that region? Is'their standai-d of com- 
 fort exalted above that of ours? What has this 
 wondrous race produced? what new idea has it 
 added to the great stock of civilization? It has 
 produced cotton, and added the idea that slavery 
 is divine. Does this establish a superior race ? 
 
 There is no fact or movement of greater signi- 
 ficance in all history of the human race, than the 
 settlement of this great continent by European 
 people at a period when, in their portion 
 of the globe, great nations had been formed, and 
 the national polity had finally become the 
 normal type of government; and it is a fact 
 equally pregnant with momentous results that 
 the northern portion of this hemisphere came to 
 
 be colonized chiefly by men who brought along 
 with them the seeds of self-government, and a 
 living common law, instinct with the principles 
 of manly self-dependence and civil freedom. 
 
 The charters under which they settled, and 
 which divided the American territory into 
 colonies, were of little more importance than the 
 vessels and their names in which the settlers 
 crossed the Atlantic ; nor had the origin of these- 
 charters a deep meaning, nor was their source 
 always pure. The people in this country al- 
 ways felt themselves to be one people, and 
 unitedly they proclaimed and achieved their 
 independence. The country as a whole was 
 called by Washington and his compeers America, 
 for want of a more individual name. Still, there 
 was no outward and legal bond between the 
 colonies, except the crown of England ; and 
 when our people abjured their allegiance to that 
 crown, each colony stood formally for itself. 
 The Articles of Confederation were adopted, by 
 which our forefathers attempted to establish a 
 confederacy, uniting all that felt themselves to 
 be of one nation, but were not one by outward 
 legal form. It was the best united government 
 our forefathers could think of, or of which, per- 
 haps, the combination of circumstances admitted. 
 Each colony came gradually to be called a state, 
 and called itself sovereign, although none of 
 them had ever exercised any of the highest 
 attributes of sovereignty ; nor did ever after the 
 states do so. 
 
 Whenever political societies are leagued to- 
 gether, be it by the frail bonds of a pure con- 
 federacy, or by the consciousness of the people 
 that they are intrinsically one people, and' 
 form one nation, without, however, a positive 
 national government, then the most powerful of" 
 these ill-united portions needs must rule ; and, 
 as always more than one portion wishes to b& 
 the leader, intestine struggles ensue in all such 
 incoherent governments. It has been so in anti- 
 quity ; it has been so in the middle ages ; it has 
 been so and is so in modern times. Those of our 
 forefathers who later became the framers of our 
 Constitution, saw this approaching evil, and they 
 observed many other ills which had already 
 overtaken the confederacy. Even Washington, 
 the strong and tenacious patriot, was brought to- 
 the brink of despondency. It was a dark period 
 in our history ; and it was then that our fathers 
 most boldly, yet most considerately, performed 
 the greatest act that our annals record— they 
 engrafted a national, complete, and representa- 
 tive government on our halting confedei^acy ; a 
 government in which the senate, though still 
 representing the states as states, became na- 
 tionalized in a great measure, and in which the 
 House of llcpresentatives became exclusively 
 national. Virginia, which, under the Articles of 
 Confederation, was approaching the leadership 
 over all (in the actual assumption of which she 
 would have been I'csisted by other rapidly grow- 
 ing states, which would inevitably have led to 
 our Peloponnesian wai) — Virginia was now 
 represented according to her population, like 
 every other portioii of the country ; not as 
 Virginia, not as a unit, but by a number of 
 representatives who voted, and were bound to 
 vote individurtlly, according to their consciences 
 and best light, as national men. The danger 
 of internal struggle and provincial bittemeea 
 
9 
 
 %ad passed, and our country now fairly en- 
 tered as an equal among the leading nations in 
 the course where nations, like Olympic chariot- 
 horses, draw abreast tli>i car of civilization. We 
 advanced rapidly; the task assigned to us by 
 Providence was performed with a rapidity which 
 had not been known before ; for we had a national 
 government commensui-ate to our laud and our 
 destiny. 
 
 But while thus united and freed from pro- 
 vincial retardation and entanglements, a new 
 portent appeared. 
 
 Slavery, wliich had been planted here in. the 
 colonial times, and which had been increased in 
 this country by the parent government, against 
 the urgent protestations of the colonists, and 
 especially of the Virginians, existed in all the 
 colonies at the time when they declared them- 
 selves independent. It was felt by all to be an 
 evil, which must be dealt with as best it might 
 be, and the gradual extinction of which must be 
 wisely yet surely provided for. Even Mr. 
 Calhoun, in his earlier days, called slavery a 
 scaffolding erected to rear the mansion of civili- 
 zation, which must be taken down when the 
 fabric is finished. 
 
 This institution gave way gradually as civili- 
 zation advanced. It has done so in all periods 
 of history, and especially of Christian history. 
 Slavery melts away like snow before the rays of 
 rising civilization. The South envied the North 
 forgetting rid of slavery so easily, and often ex- 
 pressed her envy. But a combination of 
 untoward circumstances led the South to change 
 her mind. First, it was maintained that if 
 slavery is an evil, it was their affair, and no one 
 else had a right to discuss it or interfere with it ; 
 then it came to be maintained that it was no 
 ■evil; then slavery came to be declared an im- 
 portant national element, which required its own 
 distinct representation and especial protection ; 
 then it was said — we feel ashamed to mention 
 it — that slavery is a divine institution. To use 
 the words of the great South-Carolinian, whose 
 death we deeply mourn — of James Louis Petigru 
 — they placed, like the templars, Christ and 
 Baphomet on the same altar. Yet still another 
 step was to be taken. It was proclaimed that 
 •slavery is a necessary element of a new and 
 .glorious civilization, and those who call them- 
 selves conservatives plunged recklessly into a 
 new-fangled theory of politics and civilization. 
 
 Thus slavery came to group asjain the diffe- 
 rent portions of our country outside of, and 
 indeed in hostility to, the national govern- 
 ment and national constitution. The struggle 
 for the leadership was upon us. The South 
 declared openly that it must rule ; we, in 
 the meantime, declaring that the nation must 
 rule, and if an issue is forced upon us, between 
 the South and the North, then, indeed, the 
 North must rule and shall rule. Tliis is the war 
 in which we are now engaged — in which, at the 
 moment this is read to you, the prepious blood of 
 our sons, and brothers, and fathers, is flowing. 
 
 Whenever men are led, in the downward 
 course of error and passion, ultimately to declare 
 themselves, with immoral courage, in favor of 
 a thing or principle which centuries and thou- 
 sands of years of their own race have declared, 
 by a united voice, an evil or a crime, the mischief 
 does not stop with this single declaration. It 
 
 naturally, and by a well-established law, un- 
 hinges the whole morality of the man ; it warps 
 his intellect and inflames his soul with bewilder- 
 ing passions, with defiance to the simplest truth and 
 plainest fact, and with vindictive hatred toward 
 those who cannot agree with him. It is a fearful 
 thing to become the defiant idolater of wrong. 
 Slavery, and the consequent separation from the 
 rest of men, begot pride in the leading men of the 
 South — absurdly even pretending to be of a diff'er- 
 ent and better race. Pride begot bitter and 
 venomous hatred, and this bitter hatred, coupled 
 with the love of owning men as things, begot at 
 last a hatred of that which distinguishes the race 
 to which we belong more than aught else — the 
 striving for and love of liberty. 
 
 Tliere is no room, then, for pacifying argu- 
 ments with such men in arms against us, against 
 their duty, their country, their very civilization. 
 All that remains for the present is the question, 
 Who shall be the victor? 
 
 It is for all these reasons which have been 
 stated that we pledge ourselves anew, in un- 
 wavering loyalty, to stand by and support the 
 government in all its efi^orts to suppress the 
 rebellion, and to spare no endeavor to maintain, 
 unimpaired, the national unity, both in principle 
 and territorial boundary. 
 
 We will support the government, and call on it 
 with a united voice to use greater and greater 
 energy, as the contest may stfem to draw to a 
 close ; so that whatever advantages we may gain, 
 we may pursue them with increasing efficiency, 
 and to bring every one in the military or civil 
 service that may be slow in the performance of 
 his duty to a quick and efficient account. 
 
 We approve of tlie Conscription Act, and will 
 give our loyal aid in its being carried out, when- 
 ever the government shall consider the increase 
 of our army necessary ; and we believe that the 
 energy of the government should be plainly 
 shown by retaliatory measures, in checking the 
 savage brutalities committed by the enemy 
 against our men in arms, or unarmed citizens, 
 when they fall into their hands. 
 
 We declare that slavery, the poisonous root of 
 this war, ought to be compressed within its nar- 
 rowest feasible limits, with a view to its speedy 
 extinction. 
 
 We declare that this is no question of politics, 
 but one of patriotism; and we hold every one to 
 be a traitor to his country that works or speaks 
 in favor of our criminal enemies, directly or in- 
 directly, whether his oft'ence be such that the law 
 can overtake him or not. 
 
 We declare our inmost abhorence of the seiret 
 societies which exist among us in favor of the re- 
 bellious enemy, and that we will denounce every 
 participator in these nefarious societies, whenever 
 known to us. We believe publicity the very ba- 
 sis of liberty. 
 
 We pledge our fullest support of the govern- 
 ment in every measure which it shall deem fiit to 
 adopt against unfriendly and mischievous neutral- 
 ity ; and we call upon it, as citizens that have the 
 right and duty to call for protection on their own 
 government, to adopt the speediest possible 
 measure to that important end. 
 
 We loyally support our government in its dec- 
 larations and measures against all and every at- 
 tempt of mediation, and armed or unarmed inter- 
 ference in our civil war. 
 
10 
 
 "We solemnly declare that we ■will resist every 
 partition of any portion of our country to the 
 last extremity, whether this partition should be 
 brought about l)y rebellious or treasonable citi- 
 zens of our own, or by foreign powers, in the way 
 that Poland was torn to pieces. 
 
 We pronounce every foreign minister accredited 
 to our government,who tampers with our enemies, 
 and holds covert intercourse with disloyal men 
 among us, as failing in his duty toward us and 
 towai-d his own people, and we await with atten- 
 tion the action of our government regard- 
 ing the recent and surprising breach of this 
 duty. 
 
 And we call upon every American, be he such 
 by birth or choice, to join the loyal movement of 
 these National Leagues, which is naught else than 
 to join and follow our beckoning flag, and to 
 adopt for his device : 
 
 OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 LETTEE 
 
 To Messes. John Bkight, John Stuart Mill, 
 Richard Cobben, Newman Hall, E. B. Cairnes, 
 Edward Dicey, and ouu other friends in 
 England. 
 
 Adopted at the Inavgural Mans Meeting of the 
 Loyal National League, on- the Sumter Anni- 
 versary at Union Square, in the city of New 
 York, April Uth, 1863. 
 
 Deeply hated and loudly maligned by the ene- 
 mies of free institutions, the loyal citizens of the 
 United States of America turn with all the more 
 pleasure and gratitude to tlieir European friends, 
 to those fearless and far-sighted men whom 
 neither the scowl of the threatening tyrant, nor 
 the zeal of their fellow-countrymen advising in 
 justice, has been able to move from their stead- 
 fast principles. To you especially, our English 
 advocates, we look with peculiar pleasure, on 
 your own account as well as ours, feeling that 
 your support is not less honorable and advanta- 
 geous to yourselves than gratifying and encour- 
 aging to us. For we do not regard ourselves as 
 suppliants for the charity of your favor in a cause 
 foreign to your principles and interests, but as 
 brothers appeailing to brothers who are waging, 
 though under different circumstances, the same 
 battle for law, liberty and truth. 
 
 We, the citizens of the United States of Amer- 
 ica, are fighting for two objects: 
 
 First. To prove that we are a nation and a 
 government, not a fortuitous assemblage of petty 
 states loosely connected by a precarious league ; 
 and that we have the same right as all other gov- 
 ernments to resist and suppress insurrection and 
 conspiracy. By that instinct of self-preservation 
 which is pi'overbially the first law of nature, and 
 which holds good for nations as well as for indi- 
 viduals, we also claim to be guided. 
 
 Secondly. To arrest the progress of a barbariz- 
 ing institution, which, originallj'^ forced upon us 
 by the mother country, and, fostered by an unfor- 
 tunate combination of circumstances, was threat- 
 ening to overrule the wliole national policy, ex- 
 ternal and internal, and to reduce the majority 
 of our population to a state of political servitude; 
 an institution which begins by imposing ignorance 
 
 on the black, and finishes by encouraging igno- 
 rance in the white, as the educational statistics 
 of the Free and Slave States most clearly show. 
 
 Both these objects have been scandalously mis- 
 represented in your country by men, too, who 
 have not the excuse of ignorance to offer for 
 their errors. 
 
 Persons pretending to be much better acquaint- 
 ed with our Constitution than the founders of it 
 were, have formed a theory of our government 
 according to their own wishes. They have de- 
 nounced it as a " rope of sand," without strength 
 or Cohesion, and, when it has demonstrated its 
 vitality and capacity to assert its rights, they cry 
 out against it as an usurpation and a tyranny, 
 though it is notorious that no European govern- 
 ment in a similar strait has ever shrunk from 
 measures at least as stringent. 
 
 Even more flagrant are the bad faith and soph- 
 istry manifested in reference to the second branch 
 of our struggle. It is at first denied that slavery 
 had anything to do with the war; and the enact- 
 ment of a tariff subsequently to the breaking out 
 of the insurrection was actually assigned as the 
 cause of that insurrection. When the falsity of 
 this statement became so glaring that its very 
 authors were ashamed to urge it longer, they 
 seized on the President's Proclamation, and en- 
 deavored to attach to it this paradox: "The 
 President abolishes slavery where he cannot reach 
 it, and leaves it alone where he can — thus show- 
 ing his insincerity." 
 
 Rarely in the annals of mankind has a more 
 insincere attempt been made to fasten insincerity 
 upon others. The founders of our government 
 had been most careful to keep slavery out of the 
 peaceful jurisdiction of the Constitution. The 
 Pi'esident had, therefore, no right to meddle with 
 slavery in those States where the* Constitution 
 was in force. It is only in those where it had 
 been overturned and put in abeyance by the con- 
 spirators that he could decree emancipation as a 
 war measure. 
 
 But further — and in this suppressio veri the 
 injustice of our calumniators is more strikingly 
 manifest — even before proclaiming emancipation 
 in the insurgent States, the President strongly 
 recommended emancipation, with Government 
 aid, in the Border States; and bills for carrying out 
 his recommendation in Missouri and Maryland 
 were on the point of passing the last Congress. 
 They were, indeed, defeated at the last moment 
 by factious opposition ; but, besides this proof of 
 intention, has nothing actually been done ? The 
 abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, 
 the first serious and effective treaty with Great 
 Britain to put down the slave-trade, the recep- 
 tion of a Haytian minister at the Capitol, the 
 recognition of black men as citizens of the United 
 States, — are all these to count for nothing ? Do 
 they afford no proofs of the Government's sin- 
 cerity ? Finally, the exclusion of slavery from 
 the Territories of the United States, which was 
 the cardinal principle involved in the Presiden- 
 tiiil election, has it not been literally carried out? 
 From these shameless detractors we gladly 
 turn to you who have, from the first, perceived 
 and maintained that our cause is the cause of 
 freedom, humanity and progress, not only in the 
 Western ^Hemisphere, but throughout the civil- 
 ized world. Tlie friends of tyranny, the enemies 
 of the people and of liberal institutions, are 
 
11 
 
 ■everywhere rejoicing ia the anticipation of our 
 ruin, both from their abstract hatred of the prin- 
 ciples wliich we represent, and from the practical 
 assistance which our overthrow would give them 
 in their designs at home. That our cause is the 
 cause of liberty and progress will be made clear 
 by examining the only possible solutions of the 
 present conflict. These are three: 
 
 First, that the Government will succeed by 
 force of arms in re-establishing its authority^ over 
 those portions of the insurgent States which it 
 lias not yet been able to reoccupy. 
 
 Second, that through the treachery or faint- 
 heartedness of a portion of the northern popula- 
 tion, the reverse will take place; the South will 
 conquer the North by negotiation, if not actually 
 in the battle-field, and succeed to the control of 
 the National Government, retaining the free 
 States, or a portion of them, as subject depend- 
 encies. 
 
 TIdrd, that the so-called Confederate States 
 will succeed in establishing a separate govern- 
 ment without making further conquests from the 
 Union or acquiring control over it. 
 
 These, we repeat it, are the only three solu- 
 tions possible ; for that on which our foreign ene- 
 mies are accustomed to dwell with malignant 
 complacency, the comminution of our country 
 into a multiplicity of fragments, would be but a 
 slower and less direct way of arriving at the 
 second result. 
 
 Now, what would be the respective consequen- 
 ces to the world of these three solutions? 
 
 Throughout its whole existence, up to the time of 
 the present civil war, the United States govern- 
 ment was a singularly peaceful and unmilitary 
 one. Its army was smaller than that of a second- 
 rate German Duchy ; its war marine as small as 
 its commercial marine was large. It had never 
 pui'sued an aggressive or interfering policy, any 
 attempts in that direction being -notoriously and 
 solely the work of that very gang of conspira- 
 tors who have now kindled the flames of civil 
 war. If it now succeeds in subduing the insur- 
 rection, it will naturally continue to maintain 
 only such land forces as may sufiice to preserve 
 tranquillity within its borders, and such squad- 
 rons as will secure it from the fear of foreign in- 
 vasion. But suppose the slaveholding South to 
 obtain the masteiy over all this vast territory 
 and wield the resources of it. In the first place, 
 no man of ordinary sense and information doubts 
 that the " confederation " would be rapidly con- 
 solidated into a very strong government, either 
 an autocratic monarchy or an oligarchy ; indeed, 
 •the latter may be said to exist already. The 
 leaders of the movement have themselves repeat- 
 edly acknowledged this. The wasteful and ex- 
 haustive nature of slave cultivation soon pro- 
 duces a demand for fresh soil ; hence such a com- 
 munity is necessarily expansive. Although this 
 expansive tendency was sufficiently manifest to 
 inspire other governments and nations with well 
 founded apprehension, still our free majority 
 acted as a constant drag upoaipit, till the leading 
 oligarchs, impatient of the restraint, essayed to 
 rid themselves of it by the extremity of violence. 
 Give them the supremacy, and they would have 
 strength and singleness of purpose to overrun 
 any of their neighbors at will. The combined 
 resources of all sections would soon furnish them an 
 army greater than that of France, a navy supe- 
 
 rior to that of England. Moreover, war would 
 be the simplest method of occupying the po6r 
 whites at the South and the dependent whites at 
 the North. Thus the great slaveholding empire 
 of North America would be at the same time 
 more inclined to and more capable of aggression 
 and conquest than any other nation existing. 
 We are, indeed, aware that an attempt has been 
 made to convict us and some of you whom we 
 address of inconsistency in this matter. If, it is 
 asked, slave cultivation impoverishes the soil, if 
 the presence of slavery debases the non-slave- 
 holding white, how can a government containing 
 these elements of weakness be strong for attack 
 and dangerous to its neighbors? But there is 
 really no incompatibility whatever in the two 
 things. The very qualities of an arbitrary gov- 
 ernment which render it most injurious at home, 
 are often those which render it most formidable 
 abroad. Its comparative unfitness for foreign 
 conquest is one of the beauties of a constitutional 
 government. Was the Empire of the first Na- 
 poleon any the less the terror of Europe because 
 it oppressed and impoverished France? It is be- 
 cause slavery exhausts the old soils that it must 
 conquer new ones; it is because it deprives the 
 masses of their rights that it must keep them 
 busy at war. 
 
 It ia supposed, however (and we are not igno- 
 rant that our friends.as well as our enemies abroad 
 are to be found taking this view of the issue), 
 that a boundary line might be adjusted on terms 
 safe and honorable to the North, and the two rival 
 communities, becoming separate nations, might 
 go on side by side, counterpoising each other af- 
 ter the fashion of that most expensive, but, per- 
 haps necessary, " balance of power" in vogue on 
 your side of the Atlantic. Suppose such an al- 
 most impossible boundary to be drawn: this 
 would be a less evil to humanity, but still a 
 great one. The aggressive tendencies of the 
 slaveholding power under an "independent," 
 but by no means free, government, would be par- 
 tially checked by the proximity of a Northern 
 Democracy, but not entirely checked, much less 
 eradicated. There would be the same necessity 
 for new land, and the same difficulty in keeping 
 the poorer class of whites quiet. There would 
 be a constant tendency to war in one or the oth- 
 er direction. If the Northern Union were assailed, 
 the blockade and all other inconveniences of the 
 present war would be at once renewed. If an- 
 other attempt were made to carry out the dream ■ 
 of the ffoldeti circle, by invading Mexico or the 
 West Indies, whether this were done with the 
 connivance or against the consent of any Conti- 
 nental powers, would it be for the interest of 
 England, of freedom, .or of humanity ? Surely 
 not. 
 
 And now, what do we expect of England ? 
 What have we a right to expect of England ? for 
 here again we are accused of inconsistency in 
 repelling mediation and, at the same time, invit- 
 ing aid. We want that moral intervention 
 which was so efficacious in the case of Italy. 
 We ask that England, who has for long years 
 professed her attachment to law and liberty, 
 should not look with favor on the attempt to es- 
 tablish an insurgent confederacy upon the two 
 cornerstones of secession (which is but another 
 name for lawlessness) and slavery. We believe 
 that, had the governments of western Europe de- 
 
12 
 
 dared from tlie first, officially or semi-officially, 
 their unwillingness to see the success of such an 
 attempt at government — presided over too by 
 the inventor and founder of repudiation — and 
 had the majority of the press and the influential 
 classes followed in the same path, the insur- 
 rection would have died out by this time; for 
 nothing has sustained it so much as the indirect 
 aid received from Europe and the constant hope 
 of greater and more direct assistance. We are 
 sure that ordinary care and comity would have 
 prevented the fitting out of privateers fromj'our 
 ports to prey on our commerce. 
 
 In every free country tliere must be differences, 
 and great differences, of opinion ; but some, 
 at least, of the acts alluded to lie completely be- 
 yond that domain. Whether our Union can be 
 restored in its integrity, may for you be matter 
 of opinion. Aiding the insurgents against the 
 government is, for every one who does it, a mat- 
 ter of will. 
 
 You English are proud of your reputation as a 
 law-abiding people ; can you encourage the 
 most unprovoked and unjustifiable rebellion that 
 the world lias ever witnessed? You wish to ele- 
 vate the very lowest class of workmen ; can you 
 patronize the system which reduces them to the 
 legal status of the brute? You wish to educate 
 the classes next in the scale ; can you sympathize 
 with the system which prefers to keep them in 
 ignorance? Your aristocracy claim to be learned, 
 refined and humane; does theniagie of a name so 
 blind them that thej' would gladly see a whole 
 continent deliveied over to the lusts of an oli- 
 garchy, however illiterate, violent and sanguin- 
 ary, so that it but be an oligarchy and not a 
 democracy ? 
 
 Trusting that the good sense and virtue of the 
 English nation, aided by such advisers as you, 
 will soon answer these questions in the nega- 
 tive, we remain, with renewed thanks and sympa- 
 thy, your friends and associates in the cause of 
 liberty and truth. 
 
 LETTEE 
 
 To Count Agenor Gasparin, Prof. Edouard La- 
 
 BOULAYE, AUGUSTIN CoCHIN, AND OTBER FRIENDS 
 
 OF America in France. 
 Adopted at the Meeting of the Loyal National 
 League at the Sumter Anniversary at the 
 great Mass Meeting in Union. Square, New York, 
 on the nth of April, 1863. 
 
 Gentlemen, — The Loyal JNational Leaffue in 
 the city of New York, ah organization having 
 its ramifications throughout all the loyal Slates, 
 and bound together by the simple pledge " to 
 maintain unimpaired tlie national unity, both in 
 idea and territorial boundary," have charged us 
 with the grateful duty, in their name, to thank 
 you for your disinterested and distinguished 
 services, in behalf of the American People and 
 Union, in France. 
 
 Amidst the general misapprehension and be- 
 wilderment of the public ojanion of Europe, you 
 have clearly understood and appreciated the 
 nature of the struggle in which the People and 
 Government of the United States are in- 
 volved ; and your pertinent and impressive 
 
 word.-} have traversed the ocean and have 
 inspired us with renewed hope and courage. In 
 the heart of the American people, by the side of 
 Washington, stands enshrined for ever that 
 ancient form of French S3'mpathy, generosity and 
 v.ilor, the Marquis de LaFayette. He and his 
 companions, who stood by our fathers in their 
 great struggle against arbitrary power, in the 
 popular imagination have always represented 
 France. Is it strange, then, that their children, 
 treacherously assailed in the very citadel of their 
 national life by a far more pernicious and des- 
 potic power, should listen with reluctant ear to 
 the voices that would persuade them that France 
 had lost the clew of her own great career, and, 
 repudiating the traditions of her own glory, con- 
 spired with such a power to overthrow freedom, 
 the rights of human nature and Christian civili- 
 zation in America ? The messages you have sent 
 us have cleared away the doubts that weighed 
 upon our hearts, and prove to us that, notwith- 
 standing the persistent efforts of the advocates of 
 the slave power to conceal its deformities and to 
 misrepresent the true issues involved in its 
 attack upon American nationality, the en- 
 lightened and liberal mind of France penetrates 
 the whole mass of subterfuges, and sees clearly 
 on which side lies truth and justice. 
 
 We esteem so much the more highly your en- 
 lightened and just appreciation of the cause for 
 which we contend, inasmuch as we cannot shut 
 our eyes to the fact that many things in the 
 manner of conducting it must seem anomalous 
 to an European observer, unacqainted with the 
 more intimate circumstances and principles 
 peculiar to our American system and life. 
 
 The supreme necessity of a government found- 
 ed in the will of the people is, to hold their 
 public servants to the most exact and inexorable 
 obedience to that will, as expressed in the 
 written constitution — for that is the fundamental 
 law. To permit any assumption of power on 
 the part of any one or all of these servants, 
 under the pressure of any exigency, would be to 
 open the door to endless ambitions, and to iocur 
 the hazards of the most fatal consequences. 
 Doubtless the founders of our national system 
 of government intended, as far as possible, to 
 ignore the whole subject of slavery, to leave its 
 interests entirely in the hands of the authorities 
 of the several States in which it already existed, 
 and to keep them wholly without the jurisdic- 
 tion of the national constitution. For the sake of 
 UNION, they found it necessary to recognize it as 
 an existing, but, as they believed, temporary /ac<, 
 but never as a right; and so, from the period of 
 the adoption of the national constitution, the 
 idea of the complete independence of slavery of 
 the national government had been inculcated 
 and strengthened. Its masters called it an in- 
 stitution, to put it upon a level with the funda- 
 mental law — the constitution itself. They 
 moreover, at an early day, possessed themselves 
 of its supreme jur^/i-ial powers, and had thus in 
 their own hands ifft interpretation. They pro- 
 ceeded to wrest its meauing to their own 
 purposes, and to make of it an instrument for 
 the perpetuiil maintenance of human bondage, 
 instead of giving to it the true sense of its 
 fraineis — a charter of liberty for all men. By 
 allying themselves with a prevalent democracy 
 at the North, the}' were able to instill and estab- 
 
13 
 
 liih these interpretations, not only in the popu- 
 hir mind of the whole country, but in much of 
 the legislation of the national government. 
 And if, with all this, you will bear in mind 
 that the constitution, to the American citizen, 
 stands in the place of the person of the sove- 
 reign in the monarchical systems of Europe; 
 that to it he owes paramount allegiance ; that it 
 is the supreme object of his loyalty, 5^ou will be 
 the better able to understand the apparent 
 hesitancy of the national government to strike 
 at the existence of slavery, even in resistance of 
 its own blow at the nation's life. 
 
 To destroy slavery, the acknowledged cause of 
 the war, and at the same time to preserve intact 
 the wise inhibitions of the constitution, accord- 
 ing to the settled construction of that instru- 
 ment, has been from the beginning a question of 
 no little practical difficulty to the national ad- 
 ministration. To carry on the war, it must have 
 the hearty support of the country. To be sure 
 of this suppoft, it must not outrun preconceived 
 public opinion. To enlighten and correct public 
 opinion, time is necessary. Let us assure you 
 that your own generous efforts to enlighten the 
 public opinion of Europe have effected much to 
 the same end here, and that the whole loyal 
 country is fast coming up to the just and only 
 solution of the great question in issue. The 
 President's recent proclamation of emancipation 
 is a proof; for while it by no means completes the 
 work, even in idea, it is, at least, a great step in 
 the right direction. Issued under his constitu- 
 tional powers as commander in-chief of the army 
 and navy of the United States, and as a measure 
 of war, its direct operation must of necessity be 
 restricted to such districts of country as still 
 remain in unsubdued rebellion ; but, indirectly, 
 and as a ground oi right of freedom for the slave, 
 its ecope is much wider and more important. In 
 any view of it, it surely deserves the hearty sym- 
 pathy and support of all the enlightened lovers 
 of liberty and progress, rather than such captious 
 and unworthy criticisms as that of the English 
 minister. Lord John Russell is the minister of a 
 constitutional goverimient ; he cannot be ignorant 
 what rights of war a commander-in-chief may 
 exei'cise ; he knows that the rights of war are 
 restricted to the theati-e of the war, and that, 
 under every constitutional government, power, in 
 theorj' at least, is restricted to the exercise of 
 rights. 
 
 Another ground of popular misapprehension, 
 on your side of the Atlantic, as to the true issues 
 at stake in our struggle, may very naturally have 
 arisen out of the fact that in all the revolutionary 
 movements of modern Europe the insurgents 
 have usually represented liberty, nationality 
 and progress, while the governmentsrepresented, 
 if not arbitrary power, at best aiithoriti/ only, 
 and the status quo. Here, on the contrary, 
 exactly the reverse is true. Here the insurrec- 
 tion represents a power founded upon the utter 
 annihilation of the commonest human rights — a 
 boasted rcpuiliation of all ideas of liberty and 
 progress ; Avhile the national government, 
 founded upon the principles of the Declaration 
 of Independence of 1776, '" the self-evident truths 
 that all men are created equal, and are endowed 
 by their Creator with the inalienable rights to 
 life, liberty, and the puisuit of happiness," wars 
 only to preserve the institutions in which these 
 
 rights are embodied, and under which alono 
 they can be maintained in the present exigency. 
 But, with all this, it is not difficult to see bow 
 the European mercenaries of the slave power, 
 skillfully concealing the true character of its 
 atrocious attempt to overthrow free government 
 in America, and stealing the battle-cry of the 
 oppressed nationalities of the Old World — 
 "National Independence" — should have beea 
 able to bewilder the public opinion, and draw t® 
 its shameless cause much of the sympathy of the 
 popular heart, of Europe,, even of France. 
 
 Assuming, for the occasion, the part of the op- 
 pressed, these frenzied devastators of a whole 
 race of men have not hesitated to charge the 
 loyal people of the North and the National Gov- 
 ernment with fighting only for dominion. "You 
 fight," say they, " not for freedom, not for the 
 emancipation of the enslaved, but only for the 
 maintenance of power." The slightest examina- 
 tion will prove how unfounded and nefarious is 
 this charge. The whole controversy in the elec- 
 tion of Lincoln turned upon the question of the 
 limitation of the area of slavery. The Republi- 
 can party, who made him their candidate and 
 carried him into office, planted themselves upon 
 the simple groimd of limiting slavery to the 
 lines within which it already existed. This at- 
 tempt to resist the arrogant demand of the slave 
 masters to appropriate to their own use the 
 whole of the still unoccupied domain of the na- 
 tion, constituted the whole offense of the people 
 of the United States in that election. They sim- 
 ply said to them. The national domain and the 
 uitional government belong to us, as well as you. 
 Liberty is 0!<r lieritage, and henceforth we mean 
 that it shall have its rights in both government 
 and domain. 
 
 No other ground of offense than this had the 
 slave power for tearing asunder our national 
 unity, no other excuse for the unparalleled crime 
 of beginning the present war to destroy the na- 
 tional life. These facts are patent to the whole 
 world. Who, then, is it that is fighting for do- 
 minion? 
 
 We do not mean to say that the diabolical 
 exigencies of slavery do not necessitate the illim- 
 itable appropriation of territory and the unre- 
 strained exercise of dominion which is demanded 
 for it. Doubtless, like every other system of au- 
 thority founded in mere power without right, 
 slavery requires that its masters should be mas- 
 ters also ot the law-making power of the gov- 
 ernment under which it exists. 
 
 Let the friends of the slave power in Europe 
 have the benefit of the admission that the exi- 
 gencies of a slave society demand for its main- 
 tenance universal dominion, and the ultimate in- 
 vasion of all the territories that may, at any giv- 
 en period, lie adjacent to its boundaries. Thence, 
 not only all the territories of the Union, but 
 when these. should be absorbed, all Mexico and 
 the South Americiin States. Its inevitable in- 
 stincts have already made themselves manifestia 
 the various predatory expeditions that, from 
 time to time, have been set on foot at the South. 
 These were but a kind of offshoot of its exuber- 
 ant and monstrous vitality ; but they serve to 
 ilhislrate the nature of the slave power. 
 
 In stripping from it the veil of sophistries with 
 which it has sought to conceal its enormities, 
 you have not only rendered a great service to 
 
It 
 
 diir uational cause, but to the cause of public 
 justice and Christian civilization everywhere. 
 For the cause of the Union is the cause of human- 
 ity, unless it is to be taken for granted that the 
 public morality of Christendom requires that the 
 United States should abdicate the character of a 
 nation in the interests of the power which as- 
 sails it. If the ti'ue character of this power 
 could be clearly presented to the public con- 
 science of France, we should feai'lessly rest our- 
 selves upon its verdict. As it is, we cannot so 
 much blame the general'misappreheusion, which 
 has caused it not only to be tolerated, but to be 
 clothed with a certain popular esteem, as well as 
 ■W^ith certain public rights, by the peoples and 
 authorities of Europe, when we remember that 
 dven here, in the more immediate arena of iis 
 crimes, the peculiar character of American slav- 
 ery, has not hitherto been thoroughly appre- 
 hended by the popular mind. 
 
 Simple Slavery is not a modern form of in- 
 humanity. The annals of our race are full of the 
 groans of the enslaved. But hitherto slavery 
 has founded itself upon power — has rested its 
 claim, in the might of the strongest — has been 
 content to enjoy its proiits, in the category of 
 things without remedy. In no age of human 
 history, until now, has it ever been attempted to 
 clothe slavery with the Sacredness of Right. 
 The distinguished infamy belongs to the founders 
 of the southern confederacy, of setting up a gov 
 ernment, whose corner stone, to use the language 
 of one of the most notorious of them, Alex. H. 
 Stephens, is "the right of the superior race to 
 enslave the inferior." "This right," he says, 
 " settles forever the agitating question of Ameri- 
 can Slavery," and boastfully declares that " our 
 new government is the first in the history of the 
 world based upon this great phj'sicai, philosoph- 
 ical and moral truth." 
 
 The announcement is a sufficient notice to all 
 the world. The establishment of the Southern 
 Confederacy is not alone the setting up of a new 
 power upon the earth, but the introduction into 
 the public law of the civilized world of a new 
 RIGHT ; and into the family of nations of a nkw 
 
 FORM OF CIVILIZATION. 
 
 It is in this aspect of our struggle that it be- 
 comes of the deepest interest to the people of 
 France and to all men. An attempt to supplant 
 the laws founded by the Divine Master of these 
 Christian centuries by a new code, derived from 
 the reeking shambles of King Dahomey, is an 
 enterprise in which the people of the United 
 States are not alone interested. 
 
 Is it possible that the idea* can be anywhere 
 entertained that the glory of France, or the 
 permanent well-being of her people, require its 
 successful prosecution on this continent? Will 
 she aid in the overthrow of a nationality, found- 
 ed upon the principles of her own great revolu- 
 tion, and cemented by the blood of her noblest 
 sons, for the sake of any profits to be derived 
 from the meretricious embrace of suyh an ally ? 
 At the south they make a commerce out of their 
 own blood when it flows under a colored skin. 
 That, doubtless, is in accordance with the new 
 confederate code. For the sake of national recog- 
 nition the new confederate power wonld allow 
 any respecl able nation to participate in all the 
 benefits of iliis commerce as well as of the trade 
 
 in cotton. We cannot be persuaded that France 
 will be the first to take advantage of the offer. 
 
 If at the instant of the slave master's attempt 
 to force the new right into the public code of the 
 Christian world, the governments of France and 
 England had promptly refiised to accept it — if 
 they had simply declared that no State founded 
 upon any such atrocious right should ever be ad- 
 mitted into the family of Christian nations — the 
 question would long ago have been settled. 
 There would have been no idle and starving 
 spinners and weavers in Lancashire, no unem- 
 ployed and famishing workpeople at Rouen and 
 Mulhouse. Even now these governments have it 
 in their power to say the word that shall at once 
 put an end to the pernicious hopes that prolong 
 our disasters, and the continually more and more 
 aggravated sufferings of their own peoples. 
 
 As for us, we know now that the issues at stake, 
 in the war which we wage, belong to humanity ; 
 we know, also, how momentous they are, and that 
 the great question is not as to the (Jay or month 
 or year in which peace shall be declared, but as 
 to the hour in which the impious right organized 
 by the slave power into a Confederacy of States 
 shall be utterly overthrown and extinguished. 
 If we doubted as to our duty in such a crisis, we 
 should turn to one of you and learn that " a 
 People accustomed to liberty should risk their 
 last man and their last dollar to keep the inherit- 
 ance of their fathers" — "that the dismember- 
 ment of the Union — the rending assunder of the 
 country — would be degradation without remedy." 
 
 We would by no means speak boastfully of the 
 military successes of the armies of the Union. A 
 singularly peaceful people, like those of the 
 Northern States, do not learn war in a day Be- 
 sides, this is emphatically a war of ideas, and 
 they take time to put on their armor and march. 
 Still, an inspection of the map of the insurgent 
 States will show you that some portion of every 
 one of them is already in the occupation of our 
 military forces. Let us assure you that the pres- 
 ent condition of these forces, both physically and 
 morally, never was as good as at this hour, nor 
 their future success so well assured. At the same 
 time let us further assure you that the resources 
 of the people of the loyal States, both in men and 
 money, remain unexhausted, and still adequate, 
 we believe, to the work which Providence has 
 committed to their hands. 
 
 And again thanking you for the many just and 
 inspiring words you have spoken, in behalf of 
 the great cause for which we fight, let us express 
 to you our hope and our belief that when the end 
 of our battle shall come neither you nor we shall 
 be made ashamed by the result. 
 
 With sentiments of the highest individual es- 
 teem, we remain, respectfully, yours, <fec. 
 
 STAIVB TSo. 8. 
 
 Speeches by Gov. IVIorton o( lud., Oeu. A. J. 
 
 Hamilton, Jas. HI. Scovel. 
 
 This stand was erected on the south-west side of 
 
 the Park, and was decorated with banners bearing 
 
 the following inscriptions: 
 
 " Loyal Notional League." 
 " A common Union to maiutaiu the power, glory, und integ- 
 rity of the Nation." 
 " No compromise with traitors; No neutrals in war; Tiie 
 
 Flag of our Union shall float over Snmter. " 
 
 " Loyal National League, pledged to maintain the nationality ;" 
 
 " No fire in the rear." 
 
15 
 
 At abont 4 J o'clock, after salutes of artillery and 
 nartial music, the meeting -was called to order by 
 K. B. MiNTURN, esq., and prayer was offered by 
 ibe Eev. J. T. Duryea. 
 
 Mr. James A. Eoosevelt read the call for the 
 meeting and the list of Vice-Presidents and Secreta- 
 ries. 
 
 Mr. Isaac H. Bailey was called upon to read the 
 Address, but would not detain the meeting by read- 
 ing it, on account of its length, saying that it was in 
 accordance with the spirit which had called this 
 meeting together; that it would be published by the 
 press, and that the time would be fully occupied by 
 able and interesting speakers. 
 
 The resolutions were read by John Jay, jr., and 
 were adopted by acclamation. 
 
 The Chairman introduced to the meeting Egbert 
 CuMMiNGS, 14 years of age, cabin boy on board the 
 Harriet Lane, and one of the few survivors of her 
 last eisgagement. He was greeted with loud ap- 
 plause, and modestly bowing, retired. 
 SPEECH OF GOV. O. P. MORTON OF INDIANA. 
 
 Gov. Morton of Indiana was introduced by the 
 President, and said : 
 
 Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens : As yon 
 have learned by the call, this meeting is assembled 
 for the purpose of commemorating the attack upon 
 Fort Sumter. The inquiry may present itself to 
 your minds. For what are we commemorating the 
 attack upon Fort Sumter? Before that time the 
 American people had been paralyzed by divisions 
 into parties. The organization throughout the South- 
 ern States of a powerful Eebel army, the seizure of 
 forts, dockyards, arsenals, mints, ships of war, and 
 every species of public property, had proved una- 
 vailing to arouse the nation, which wa.'i, like a man 
 with a dreadful nightmare, struggling to awake, but 
 yet unable to do so. But when the echo of the first 
 gun was heard in the night, coming like an earth- 
 quake, the nation arose from its bed, and every man 
 rushed into the open air to inquire what was the 
 cause of the alarm, ready to go to the rescue if uec- 
 essary. The firing upon Fort Sumter was an evil 
 hour for the Eebellion; for it had the effect, for the 
 time, to close up the ranks arnoug the people, to heal 
 up the dissensions, and to bring us together as with 
 a mighty compression. The attack upon Fort Sum- 
 ter had its effect to unite the American people. May 
 its speedy recapture and restoration again draw us 
 together by the strong bonds of patriotic fraternity. 
 [Applause.] Time passed on, and the patriotism and 
 selt-sacnfidng devotion of many of our people, stim- 
 ulated by the great Union meetings after 
 the fall of Sumter, wore out; and the dem- 
 agogues who had been driven into their 
 kennela by the universal outburst of patriot- 
 ism came forth and began to do the devilish 
 work of attempting to produce divisions at the 
 North so as to paralyze the arm of the Grovernment. 
 I believe that we shall come together again. I be- 
 lieve that the work of the demagogues will be short- 
 lived, I believe that the good sense and the ardent 
 affection which must still be found in the hearts of 
 an overwhelming majority of our people, will again 
 rally us all around the standard of our country, and 
 uphold it until it shall be borne in triumph to final 
 victory. We are engaged in a war, the most terrible 
 in history, a civil war. The first question which I 
 shall ask to-day, and it may seem somewhat element- 
 ary to yon, for your minds are doubtless made up 
 upon the subject, is this: What brought this war 
 upon the country ? who are its authors'/ My excuse 
 for asking this question and answering it, is based 
 upon the fact that there are men in the city of New- 
 York, and all over the loyal North, who are attempt- 
 
 ing to persuade the people that this war was made 
 by Mr. Lincoln's Administration; that it is an Aboli- 
 tion war, igotten up for the purpose of effecting the 
 emancipation of the slaves, and to promote negro 
 equality. The foundations of the Eebellion were 
 laid more than thirty years ago. Toe first develop- 
 ment of it was in the nullification movement of South 
 Carolina upon the pretense of a tariff which they de- 
 clared to be unconstitutional and oppressive. That 
 Eebellion was promptly suppressed by the iron will 
 and strong band of Gen. Jackson. And the predic- 
 tion was then made by Gen. Jackson himself, that 
 the next development would be upon the pretense of 
 the Slavery question. From that time until the 
 breaking out of this Eebellion, preparations were 
 constantly made. Men of the Calhoun school of 
 politics, at first almost wholly confined to the State 
 of South Carolina, but afterward spreading through 
 most of the Southern States, and afterward extend- 
 • ing the poison even into the Northern States, were 
 laboring to lay the foundations for the great Eebel- 
 lion with which we are now struggling. They were 
 willing to postpone the revolt so long as they could 
 control the Government through the instrumentality 
 of party. But when, shortly after the Administra- 
 tion of President Buchanan commenced, it became 
 apparent that the South could not longer control the 
 Government as before, preparations were systema- 
 tically and industriously made throughout that en- 
 tire Administration to bring the Eebellion on. It 
 was the business of Mr. Floyd, from tbe very first, 
 so to dispose of all the arms and munitions of war 
 that when the hour came the Eebels could place 
 their hands upon them; and we know the}' did, the 
 greater portion of them. Mr. Toucey, the Secretary 
 of the Navy, allowed the navy to become dilapidated 
 and dismantled; and when the hour for action came, 
 it was dispersed upon all the oceans, and was of no 
 value to us. It was the business of Mr. Cobb, the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, to impoverish the Treasury 
 of the Ucion, and to bring dishonor upon its credit, 
 I tiave been ioforoied since 1 have been in this city, 
 of a fact which I believe is not generally 
 known. Mr. Cobb deliberately made arrangements 
 to allow the interest on the public debt to go nn- ' 
 paid, so that the coupons should be protested for 
 non-payment, la order to affect our credit abroad; 
 and this dishonor to the national credit was only 
 avoided by some banks of the City of New-York 
 cominsr forward and voluntarily paying the interest 
 upon the national debt to preserve the national 
 credit. [Applause.] Immediately after the election 
 of Mr. Lincoln, South Carolina made her arrange- 
 ments to go out of the Union. She was followed by 
 one State after another, until eight or nine had gone 
 througb the forms of Secession, before Mr. Lincoln's 
 inauguration. At the time of his inauguration the 
 Eebels had an army of more than 30,000 men in tbe 
 field, trained, armed, and ready for battle. Up to 
 that, lime we had done nothing. Mr. Buchanan 
 had proclaimed to the world that the Government 
 had no power for self-preservation. He had de- 
 clared that tbe Government could not take a single 
 military step to preserve its life from the robbers 
 that had taken it by the throat. Their arrange- 
 ments had been made under his eye, throughout his 
 entire Administration; and we can ouly exonerate 
 hiai from ihe charge of a knowledge of the plans of 
 the Eebtls and a complicity with them, by making 
 tbe most liberal concessions in favor of his imbe- 
 cility. [Laughter.] Our little army of 15,000 
 men had been scattered to the lour winds. 
 There were not 200 men together in any one place, 
 except the army of Gen. Twig^'S in Texas, whicli 
 was most disgracefully surrendered, as you know 
 it was intended it should be when it was niaced 
 there. Preparations were made for the reduction of 
 Fort Sumter. They had been going on for many 
 weeks. They were made deliberately, openly, un- 
 der the guns of that fortress. Those guns remained 
 silent ; and after all the land batteries and floating 
 batteries had been prepared and the hour was ripe, 
 then the lire was opened upon Sumter, and our glo- 
 
lu 
 
 rions flag was hauled down, and our gallant garrison 
 was compelled to surrender to the enemy; and thus 
 the war was begun. Need I ask you the question, 
 then, Who made the war ? It was made by the 
 Rebels; it was made by the Somh. Oar Govern- 
 ment is standing on the defensive. It is defending 
 its life; H is defending itself against the dismember- 
 ment of its territory; it is struggiiag and lighiiog to 
 prevent the dissolution of the Union. It is not a 
 war which the Government has made, but a war 
 forced upon the Government^a war which the Gov- 
 ernment could not refuse to accept. The next ques- 
 tion, then, for our consideration is, For what pur- 
 pose did the South make this war ? For what pur- 
 pose was this Rebellion brought upon the country 
 with all its train of disasters ? What object had 
 they in view 1 What had they to gain by ic ? One 
 party to this war contends that there is no surh 
 ihmg as an American people, an American natioi. ; 
 that we are but an aggregation of some 34 petty t 
 nationalities, united together in a partnership of 
 interest and convenience, from which any one is 
 at liberty to withdraw at pleasure. The other party 
 to this war, to which I trust we all belong, con- 
 tends that there is such a thing as an American 
 ■people, that there is a national unity [applause] ; 
 that while we are divided into States for local and 
 domestic government, while the States are divided 
 into counties each having a government of its own, 
 and while the counties are again divided into town- 
 • ships, each having a township government of its 
 own, yet the township belongs to the county, the 
 county to the Ssate, and the State to one mighty in- 
 dissoluble nation. [Applause.] The question recurs, 
 Why did the South make this war, and seek to de- 
 stroy this Government 'I You will be told, perhaps, 
 by such a man as Fernando Wood [groans] — I beg 
 your pardon for alluding to a subject whicn seems 
 to be so repulsive to your feelings — but we are told 
 by many men, North and South, that the war was 
 forced upon the South to protect their rights under 
 the ConKtitutioD ; that it was the iatention of Mr. 
 Lincoln's Administration to aggress upon those 
 rights, and to secare tliose consiitutional rights she 
 commenced the war to destroy the Constitution it- 
 self. The first official declaration which the Rebel 
 Government ever made to the Courts of Europe, 
 given by their first embassador to Lord John Rus- 
 sell, was the statement that the war was not made 
 by the South for any such purpose; that the South 
 did pot fear that the Administration of Mr. 
 Lincoln would trample upon their constitu- 
 tional rights. I need then give no further 
 answer to this pretense upon the part of 
 Northern sympathizers. Then what was the war 
 made for by them >. It was to establish a Govern- 
 ment in which the institution of Slavery should not 
 be simply recognized or tolerated, bat should be the 
 great paramount of controlling interest, in which 
 the elaveholding aristocracy should be the dominant 
 or the governing class. The war was made for the 
 purpose of overturning and uprooting the dem- 
 ocratic principle and establishing the aristocratic 
 principle. Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of the 
 Confederacy, who has given us the only commentary 
 upon their ucw Constitution, declares in his speech 
 at Milledgtville, that the South for the fiist time in 
 the history of the world, had established a goveru- 
 ment whose cbief corner-stone we,8 the inetitutioa 
 of Slavery. It was a matter of boastiug that this 
 had occuiied for iha first time in the histoiy of civil- 
 ization. [A voice, " For the last time, too."] It 
 was brought forth as an evidence of remarkable pro- 
 gress, lie boasted that they had' overturned iha 
 principles upon which this Government had been 
 lounded; that ihey had established a»Govetnment 
 uoon principles directly the reverse of those which 
 were Bet fortii in ihe Declaration of Indcpendeuce, 
 and upon whic.i this Government was established. 
 The great question preeeut iu all our luinds, and one 
 which wo aie all trying to answer to our- 
 selveij, 18 laa great question. How sball 
 wa procure peace 1 How shall ibis war 
 
 be ended ? It is said that there are three ways 
 in which peace can be attained. The first is by coa- 
 ceding the independence of the Rebel States, conced- 
 ing the dissolution ot the Union, conceding the dis- 
 memberment of oui- territory. [Voices, " Never."] 
 The second is by procuring an armistice, then calling 
 a National Convention, having the Rebel States rep- 
 rAeuted in tnat Convention, and then propose to 
 amend the Constitution, to make it satisfactory to 
 the Rebels, and reconstruct the Union by turning 
 out the six New-England States. ["Never."] The 
 third is by suppresoing the Rebellion and conquering 
 a peace. [Applause, and cries of "Ttiat's the 
 way.' ] Let me consider very briefly the merits of 
 these diflerent modes of obtaining peace. 
 
 I. If you obtain peace by conceding the independ- 
 ence of the Rebel States, then you must make up 
 your minds to give up Kentucky, Missouri, Mary- 
 land and Delaware. ["'Never."] We have been 
 told by the Rebels, first and last, that they never 
 would consent to a peace, except upon terms giving 
 to them all the Slave States represented in the Rebel 
 Congress. Each of these States has menibersin that 
 body, and each is represented by a star upon the 
 rebel flag. If you would, therefore, obtain peace 
 by abandoning this war, and conceding their inde- 
 pendence, you must make up your minds to give 
 them those four States. If you do that, you must 
 also give thtm up your National Capitol, which is 
 between Maryland and Virginia, both of which 
 would go with the South. "Tnat is the first conse- 
 quence. I do not say it would be the worst, by any 
 means, for we could build a new capito) upon better 
 ground, and, I believe, in a better neighborhood. 
 [Laughter.] The uexo consequence to flow from 
 peace upon those terms, is tne surrender of the, 
 mouth of the Mississippi River, and the control 
 of that stream, thus making the Nor.h- Western 
 States tributary to the Rebel Confederacy. The 
 next consequence, flowing directly from that, 
 would be to rdise up iu all the North-West- 
 ern States, a powerful party in favor of im- 
 mediate annexation to the Southern Confederacy. 
 They would feel at once that the North- Western 
 States, lying in the Mississippi Valley and upon the 
 Ohio, are bound geographically, commercially and 
 socially with the people of the South and South- 
 west; and they would never consent to be sepa- 
 rated from that political community that controls the 
 mouth of the Mississippi River. This party woald 
 be powerful from the first. It could no', at once 
 carry this measure of annexation to the Soathom 
 Confederacy, and would then resort to a claim 
 for a NortU-Wpstern Confederacy, which would 
 be but a preparatory and incipient measure; 
 because after we shall have ' cut ourselves 
 loose from the Atlantic States, we must have 
 an outlet, and we should be driven to throw 
 ourselves into the arms of the Southern Con- 
 federacy to enable us to get out through the Gulf of 
 Mexico. Atother consequence to flow from peace 
 upon thesa terms would be the immediate estabbsh- 
 m'ent of a Pacific Republic. California, Oregon, the 
 Territory of Washington and all these feVritories 
 separated from the Atlantic States by the range of 
 the Rocky Mountains, would at once set up fos 
 themselves, and with a much better show of reason 
 than any other portion of the Republic. They are 
 upon the Pacific slope. Their commerce is upon the 
 Pacific Ocean. Their commerce is separated from 
 ouis by the Rocky Mountains. And they would 
 at once separate from us and set up a great Pacific 
 Republic. No sensible man can believe that if the 
 work of S'cespioa and disintegration shall be con- 
 summated by the estaljlirshment of this independence 
 of the present Rebel Sfaie!", it will stop there. No, 
 it will go on until our country, once powerful, 
 prosperous and glorious, will have become an utter 
 wreck and ruiu. 
 
 II. L>it me now consider briefly this second modo 
 of obtaining power, by procuring an armistice, call- 
 ing a National Convention, amending the Constita- 
 
17 
 
 tiOD, BO as to make it satisfactory to the Rebels, ana 
 reconstructing the Uaion by turning out the six 
 New-England States. We know very well tbat the 
 Rebels will not come back with all the Free States 
 in the Uoioo. It would still be in the minority iu 
 the Governmsnt, as taey are the minority in the 
 popnliiioDs. To remove this difflculty, it is pro- 
 posed to turn New- England out, so as to get South 
 Carolina and the other Southern States in. We 
 would then live in a Confederacy of twenty-eight 
 States, of which fifteen would be Slave States and 
 thirteen would be Free Sta'es. That would give 
 the South a permanent majority iu the Senate of the 
 Unioed Statea; for tbey would take care never again 
 to admit another Free State into the Union. What 
 then would be our condition ? What is the condi- 
 tion of Ireland to England, of Poland to Russia, of 
 Hungary to Austria ? Such would be our condition 
 were we to consent to a new Confederacy con- 
 structed upon these principles. Why is New-En- 
 gland to be turned out ? What is lier offense for 
 which she is to be expelled from the Union ? It is 
 tbat she has loved Liberty too well and Slavery too 
 little. [Applause.] To New-England more than to 
 all other parts of the country together, do we owe 
 this Revolutionary war, and all the mighty train of 
 consequences that have followed it, so important to 
 ourselves and to the world. Tde Rovolution had its 
 origin in New-England, and New-England gave 
 more soldiers than all the other States together, for 
 the Tiurpose of carrying it on to a successful issue, 
 ftl-issachuaetta gave over 75,000 men, while Sauth 
 Uarolma gave a few hundred over 5,000. Yet the 
 proposition is made to kick Massachusetts out, to 
 coax Sauth Carolina to come iu. We are to turn 
 out lo/al States in order to induce this viper to re- 
 turn to nestle in our bosom. We will bring the 
 viper back; but it will not be until after its fangs are 
 extracted. This scheme is too dishonorable to be 
 pursued; and yet this scheme u older than the war. 
 It bus Its advocates in your city aud in all the 
 Northern States. 1 dismiss it as a subject too repug- 
 nant to our feelings to be longer presented to you. 
 III. I come then to the last method of obtaining 
 peace, by suppressing the Rebellion and conquering a 
 peace. [AppLuse.] In the first place, allow me to 
 consider very briefly the progress of the war. What 
 progress have we made ? I know we are an im- 
 patient people. We want great things accomplished 
 in a very short period. We have failed properly to 
 consider the magnitude of the Rebellion and I he dif- 
 ficulties of the undertaking. When we shall have 
 looked over the ground we shall find that our pro- 
 gress after all has been highly satisfactory, and such 
 as to give us the most confident hopes of success iu 
 the future. We have secured Kentucky; we have 
 secured Missouri; we have a great part of Arkansas; 
 we have a great part of Louisiana; we have Mary- 
 land; we have Delaware; we have a considerable 
 part of old Virginia; a considerable part of North 
 Carolina, and a large part of Tennessee. We have 
 at this time more than half the Rebel territory and 
 more than a third of all its population. The right 
 to grumble is one of our prerogatives. We are a 
 grumbling people. We grumble at the President. 
 i have no doubt that the President has committed 
 faults. He has been placed in a more trying and diffi- 
 cult position than any Executive the nation ever had. 
 The position of G-en. Washington was never more diffi- 
 cult or more important than that of Abraham Lin- 
 coln. If the President had not erred, under all these 
 trying circumstances, it would have been more than 
 human. You who are familiar with the history of 
 our Revolution remember what bitter opposition 
 was waged against Gen. Washinyton, almost 
 throughout the war. You remember the csmpbtints 
 they made of want of success, complaints of his 
 tardiness, aud how from time to time the hearts of 
 the people sank within them. But still they hell 
 on, and victory fiually crowned our arms and blessed 
 our cause. Tuere was still a confidence that took 
 fast hold of the Hearts of the people at that time, of 
 the integrity, the purity, the sound judgment of 
 
 Gen. Washington. And I tell vou to-dav that the 
 great overshadowing element in the character of 
 Abraham Lincoln is his unimpeachable integrity. 
 [Applause.] It is the confidence ttiat this nation 
 has that he is an honest man, that he loves his coun- 
 try, and that whatever he does he intends for the 
 welfare of his country, that if he errs it is the er- 
 ror of the head and not of the heart; and I con- 
 gratulate the nation that in this great hour of trial 
 we have for our President so honest and up- 
 right a man as Abraham Lincoln. [Applause.] 
 Tney complain of the Secretary of War. It is 
 said that he is not doing his part well, and that 
 many of the misfortunes of the war are to be attrib- 
 uted to him. I doubt not he, too, has committed 
 errors; but I have watched his course narrowly, I 
 have had much to do with him in the administration 
 of military affairs in Indiana, and I take great pleas- 
 ure iu bearing testimony to his great abilities', and 
 to his untiring devotion to the cause in which he is 
 engaged. I tell you there is nothing haU-haarted 
 about Edwin Stanton. His whole lieart is in the 
 work, and he is devoting himself to it night aud day. 
 I believe history will yet record his name upon one 
 of its brightest and best pages. I may speak, too, 
 with propriety, of Secretary Chase. He received 
 the Treasury, as it came from the hands of Cobb, 
 without a single grain in it. [Laughter.] It had 
 been impoverisued by him purposely to paralyze the 
 power of the Government to resist the Reoellion. 
 Tbat was a part of the scheme, a part of the policy 
 which characterized the whole Administration of 
 Buchanan. Mr. Chase has resurrected the credit of 
 the nation; and this fabric of the national credit 
 never stood so high as at the present time. It is 
 our boas'; that we have carried on the war up to 
 this time without being compelled to call upon Eu- 
 rope to furnish a single dollar, as has been correctly 
 stated in one of the roioluiions you have just adopt- 
 ed; and the prospect IS taat we shall carry on the 
 War to the end, and crush out the Rebellion without 
 calling upon Europe to lend us a single dollar for 
 that purpose. Tlie plan of obtaining peace that I 
 am in lavor of, is by crushing out the Rebellion. 
 How are we to do that ? The great instrumentalities 
 to be employed are the army and the navy. They are 
 attemptiiii; by force aud violence to destroy this Gov- 
 erumeut,and we must meet them by force aud violence. 
 We must therefore maintain the army aud the 
 navy in their efliciency, and keep them in operation. 
 To do that the ranks of the army must be recruited. 
 Those who are not in favor of filling up the army 
 are not in favor of crushing the Rebellion, and want 
 the Rebel ion to succeed. The ranks ot the army 
 must be recruited ; and how shall it be done ? You can- 
 not do it by volunteering; but it must be done by 
 the Consciiption act. It is a matter of necessity 
 that that act should be enforced everywhere. Some 
 of you, perhaps, do not like the Conscription act. 
 It is an odious thing at the best; a thing which 
 cannot be made acceptable to the people. Yet it 
 should be understood that it is a necessary evil, 
 and should be accepted as such. If you do not 
 like the Conscription act, let me ask the question, 
 who are the men who forced the conscription upon 
 the nauon ? They are the men who have enoeavered 
 to make the war odious. They are thf men who 
 have produced the state of public opinion which 
 has entirely cut off and suspended all volunteering. 
 They are the men who have encouraged desertion 
 from the army. They are the men wbo have en- 
 deavored to depreciate the national currency, to 
 discourage ttie army, to discourage men from volun- 
 teeiing. These are ihe men who have brought the 
 Consciiption act upon the country; and I pray yoa 
 to hoid them- responsible for it. The Goverument 
 would much prefer to depend upon volunteer- 
 ing to the end, as it had in the beginning; but aa 
 that became imposjible in consequence of the 
 opposition to the war, it became necessary to 
 resort at last to the Conscription act. Let 
 me Here advert briefly to wnat is called the $300 
 section. VVe are told tnat that ia the rich man's 
 
18 
 
 section ; that it was designed to exoncTate the rich 
 man, and to embrace the poor man. I want to cor- 
 rect that. I disapproved of it, but it was for a very 
 different reason from those demagogues who are 
 trying to excite the country against the law. I pre- 
 ferred that it should allo-.v the drafted man to fur- 
 nish a substitute, but leave to him the expense and 
 the trouble of getting a substitute. But why was 
 the $300 clause put in ? It was put in for the ben- 
 efit of the poor man. In Indiana we had a little 
 draft — a draft of a iew thousand men for nine 
 monthg — and the price of substitutes ran up from 
 $200 to $800 or $900 in a very few days after the 
 draft was made. Does it require an argument to 
 show that there is a much larger number of poor 
 men in New-York who can procure $300, than of 
 men who can procure a substitute when they have 
 to pay $800 to $1,000 for him? This was the idea 
 which led Congress to insert the $300 clause; to 
 protect the poor man from the result which expe- 
 rience had indicated, that the price of substitutes 
 would run up even to $1,000, putting it entirely out 
 of the power of a man of moderate means to pro- 
 cure a substitute at all. Yet this clause has been 
 perverted and falsely held up before the people, to 
 make the Government and the war odious. Gov. 
 M. proceeded to demonstrate the propriety of em- 
 ploying negro regiments, of the Emancipation Proc- 
 lamation, and of "arbitrary arrests." He conclud- 
 ed by showing that the Rebellion now derives its 
 vitality only from the hope of dissension in the 
 North, and by an earnest appeal for united effort to 
 suppress the Rebellion at once and forever. 
 
 Gen. A. J. Ha^iilton followed in an able and 
 eloquent address which was listened to with earnest 
 attention and repeated applause. 
 
 Hon. James M. Scovel of the New-Jersey Le- 
 gislature, one of the seventeen who did not vote for 
 the Peace resolutions, made a short speech, and 
 
 The Rev. J. T. Duryea concluded with a few 
 remarks; the audience dispersing in the gathering 
 shades of twi light 
 
 STAIVI> NO. 3. 
 
 Speeches by Gen. Sigel, Schuyler Colfax, 
 aud Others. 
 
 This stand was decorated with the American colors, 
 and with banners bearing the inscriptions, "One 
 Flag, One Destiny, One Country;" "Sustain our 
 Brave Soldiers." A band of musicians were in at- 
 tendance, and commenced the proceedings by per- 
 forminff the grand march from " Le Prophete." The 
 meeting was called to order by Dr. Francis Lieber, 
 who upon taking the chair spoke as follows : 
 SPEECH OF DR. LIEBER. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens: Two years ago the boom of 
 the cannon of treason reached us from Charleston, 
 and now this very day we expect news from that' 
 very port. We do not know in which way the news 
 will turn — whether it will bring us tidings of victory, 
 or whether reverses will follow. But, fellow-citizens, 
 I venture fo say that whether we are vi-torious im- 
 mediately and take that traitorous city, or whether 
 every iron-clad vessel is sunk to the bottom there, 
 we will remain firm — we will carry out this war to 
 the very last, and will not give h up until every inch 
 of the country is restored to the Union. [Ctieers.] 
 No matter what turn the war has taken during the 
 last two years — sometimes we were victorious, and 
 sometimes we were baffled — we meet auain to-day to 
 profess our faith, and tigain pledge ourselves not to 
 give up the struggle — not to yield one inch — until 
 the United States authority is lestored, until we 
 have again a country in her whole integrity, until 
 we can say again that we are American citizens from 
 
 North to Sjuth, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 [Loud cheer?.] We will not allow pride, or ar- 
 rogance, or uiitruth to rule over us. We come here 
 to pledge ourselves again. I believe I can express 
 far better what I believe we have met here for, if I 
 read to you a portion of the address that will subse- 
 quently be read to you in its entirety. There I have 
 expressed on paper my views better'than I could by 
 word of mouth, and I hope and trust I have only ex- 
 pressed Union feeling. I will a.k my friend, Mr. 
 Lossing, to read to you the last portion of the ad- 
 dress, and inquire if you agree with us or not. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Mr. B. J. Lossing said he felt it to be an honor to 
 repeat to the meeting the wise words contained in 
 the address. He went on to state that on the 12th 
 of April, 1861, the news of the attack on Fort Sum- 
 ter reached New-Orleans, where he was then stay 
 ing. That forenoon, while sketching upon the fields 
 where Jackson won his last great battle, he heard 
 seven discbarges of cannon in New-Orleans, and 
 observed to his companion that they were rejoicing 
 in New-Orleans over the secession of the seven Con- 
 federate States; but the dischargts sounded to him 
 as the death knell of the oligarchy of the country. 
 From that day to this he believed firmly that the 
 whole rebellion was nothing more than an instru- 
 mentality in the hands of God to strengthen and 
 purify the nation. [Applause.] Mr. L. then read 
 from the address as requested. 
 
 During Mr. Lossing's remarks. Gen. Sigel came 
 upon the stand, and, upon being recognized, was 
 greeted with enthusiastic cheering. 
 
 SPEECH OF GEN. SIGEL. 
 
 Loud calls were made for Major-Gen. Sigel, who 
 was then introduced. He spoke as follows: 
 
 Citizens — [A Voice — " Sprectien Deutch ?'"] You 
 will have somebody that will give you something 
 better than I can do in German. Citizens of New- 
 York, I greet you. I am glad to see a_ peaceful 
 armj around me. [Applause.] I am glad to see the 
 people of New- York so faithful to their Government, 
 and so decided in maintaining the great principles 
 laid down in the Declaration of Independence and 
 in the Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. [Great 
 cheers.] Theie are some, my friends, who say that 
 the safetv of this country will depend on the muscles 
 of m;n— -on the strong arms of the Democracy. 
 There are some who say so now. I answer ttiem, in 
 the name of a great people, that the rights ot men 
 and republican principles are stronger than the 
 muscles of a few thousand demagogues [Tremen- 
 dous cheers and a voice, " That's the talk."] Now, 
 my friends, we are not fighting a new battle. This 
 time is not a new time for the American people. It 
 is the spirit of 1776 [applause] which is making its 
 tour round the globe, and which is revived in the 
 hearts of the American people. [Renewed ap- 
 plause.] My friends, the spirit is awakened and 
 we have to maintain it. It not only i^ revived in 
 the hearts of the American people, but it tiae per- 
 meated France and Italy; it has revived Germany 
 andHurgary; it has put the si ythe and the lance 
 into the hands of Kosciusko, Mieroslawski and Lan- 
 ffiewicz, and it even has fiightened awav that far- 
 away grizzly bear of Peteisburg. And Europe 
 looks upon you as those who have to fight the battk. 
 They say yju began in 1776. It is America which 
 h!)s brought forth this great movement, the French 
 Revolution and all the revolutions following; 
 and it is in this country where the last 
 blow must be struck, and where the 
 last battle must be fought. [Cheers.] You are not 
 of the opinion of those who think that this war must 
 be ended now and must be ended very quickly, and 
 I am not of that opinion either. Europe has for 
 thirty years fought for religious independence and 
 for the freedom of conscience. We, the American 
 people, have to fight Jor republicanism and for the 
 independence of nations. [Cheers.] We must not 
 get tired. Your ancestors fought seven years to ac- 
 
19 
 
 quire their independence, and I think that tbe princi- 
 ples for which we are now battling and fighting are 
 worth that we at least spend half that time for their 
 maintenance. [Applause.] They say that this war 
 is led on slowly. It is true. But the first year, you 
 know very well, was spent in experimentiDg, in 
 illusions, in false hopes; the second year was hardly 
 sufficient to gather our forces ; and the third year, I 
 think, will be sufficient to draw the iron band closely 
 around seceesionism, to strangle it. [Cheers, and a 
 voice — "Ten thousand men for Sigel."] I thank 
 you for. your sympattiies. I have not come here to 
 engage in the business of speech-making. I am only 
 here ou an errand, and 1 hope I will not be here 
 very long. I thank you for your sympathies, and 
 make room for somebody better. 
 
 Gen. Sigel wag loudly cheered on resuming his 
 seat. 
 
 Dr. EuDOLPH DuLON then addressed the audience 
 in the German language, and his speech, which was 
 an eloquent appeal in behalf of the National cause, 
 was loudly applauded. 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX. 
 
 The Hon. Schuyler Colfax ot Indiana was intro- 
 duced by Gen. Sigel as his \alued friend and as a 
 "first-rate man." 
 
 Mr. Colfax said that every man who spoke in the 
 language of fatherland from Germany, or in the lan- 
 guage of bis own mother tongue was his friend and 
 brother. There were others speaking for our noble 
 Union that day in the very jaws of danger, in the 
 port of Charleston, South Carolina. [Applause. 1 
 God bless those noble men of arms who have gone 
 forth to plant our banner victoriously on the place 
 where the reptile flag of disunion first was raised ! 
 [Cheers.] The afternoon of this April day to-day in 
 Charleston has an atmosphere hanging over it lurid 
 with shot and shell and flame. [Renewed applause.] 
 There waves on the one hand the Palmetto flag of 
 treason, which seeks to divide this noble country, 
 the heritage of our fathers ; and above yon, sons and 
 brothers — worthy sons of worthy sires — floats the 
 banner of beauty, of glory, that never yet paled in 
 the face of any foe, but which traitors have sought 
 to trample in the dust. [Applause and a voice: 
 "They can't do it."] My friends, in the hour when 
 our country comes to make up her jewels, these 
 brave men will be remembered in our heart of 
 hearts — those men who went forth from this city, 
 from my District in the far Western State of Indi- 
 ana, and every other loyal district in the Union, 
 some in the freshness of life's June and some in 
 the full maturity of life's October, to give their 
 life, if need be, for their beloved country — those men 
 whose example shall live as long as nistory, and 
 whose memory shall blossom even in the very dust 
 of the grave. Their names shall be written higtt 
 upon the scroll of American fame. God bless them 
 to-day ! May the God of Battles that stood by our 
 fathers in the infancy of this country, and out of 
 weakness gave them strength and power, stand by 
 our noble defenders to-day. [Anplause.] My friends, 
 I want you to remember one tning more about that 
 gallanf. army. The men who are under the folds of 
 the Aiiierican flag quarreled in the past, as you have, 
 in reg.rd to transitory issues. They quarreled at 
 the piimary meetings, at the polls, everywhere 
 where men could honestly differ in the exercise of a 
 freeman's privilege, but when their country was in 
 danger, when the issues of national life and death 
 hung trembling in the balance, they threw away 
 from them all these petty differences, and struck 
 hands together as noble patriots under our country's 
 flag. Why cannot we imitate their noble example 
 here at home, for to-day the question is not the 
 minor issues of the past, which are but as dust 
 in the balance. It is the greater, tbe no- 
 bler, the more important question — not only 
 as regards the heritage bequeathed to us, but in 
 regard to your posterity in the coming generations 
 
 of the future. . It is whether this Republic of ours 
 shall live, or whether it shall die— whether this 
 country shall remain a beacon light for the oppressed 
 of all nations, with the Union as its insignia, as it 
 has been in the past, of its power and strength, or 
 whether it shall be shattered to pieces, and be sub- 
 ject to the insult, invasion of the foreign despot, 
 until liberty shall be crushed out in the warring 
 remnants of tbe American Republic. [Voices — 
 "Never."] It is for that that hostile armies are 
 marshalled to-day against the ranks of treason. 
 There are some who go about crying peace, peace, 
 when there can be no peace except on the basis of 
 submission to rightful authority. [Cheers.] Those 
 who would consent to have the Union severed by the 
 sword of treason are as false-hearted as the pretended 
 mother whose deceit Solomon detected by proposing 
 to _ divide the child to settle the dispute with her 
 neighbor. [Cheers.] Such a man may have been 
 rocked in an American crad/e and suckled by an 
 American mother, but he has not an American heart. 
 [Cheers.] Mr. Colfax then paid a just tribute to the 
 deeds of Gen. Sigel m the field, saying that he could 
 not point to one solitary error committed by him. 
 Before this war closes he trusted the Administration 
 would weed out every commanding officer whose 
 whole heart was not in the struggle, and then in the 
 closing Waterloo of the straggle you will see Sigel 
 and the men who fought mit Sigel charging. [Loud 
 cheers.] While the speaker indorsed tbe President's 
 Proclamation through and through, yet he regarded 
 any man who stood unconditionally by the Union, 
 the President and the army, as a true, whole-souled 
 patriot, no matter whether he thought the Proclama- 
 tion was the blood or the marrow. [Cheers.] Some 
 said that the South would not submit. He would 
 say in reply that it was dying to day, and that the 
 very women who are now engaged in the bread riots 
 to procure food, would, when the military power of 
 the South is broken, huil our flag not only as an em- 
 blem of the Union, but as the harbinger of plenty to 
 them. [Cheers.] Mr. Colfax closed by alluding to 
 the return of the soldiers of New -York, who, having 
 gone forth as the vindicators and defenders of the 
 Union, would return as its saviors, having illustrated 
 their devotion to the old flag, of which one of our 
 poets had so beautifully written: 
 
 Flag of our hearts, our symbol and our trust, 
 Though traitors tiample tliy bright folds in dust, 
 Though vile ambitioij, dark rebellion's lust 
 
 Conspire to tear thee down: 
 Millions of loyal lips thy folds caress, 
 MiUioDs of loyal heaita thy stars do bless. 
 Millions of loyal hands will round thee press 
 To guard thy old renown. 
 [Three cLeers.] 
 
 SPEECH OF GOV. PIERPONT. 
 Governor Pierpont of Virginia was the next 
 speaker. He remarked that the attack on Fort 
 Sumter was not the sudden impulse of passion, but 
 it was the outbreak of an old feeling that had fought 
 against our fathers in the days of the Revolution 
 under the name of Tory, that had taken its seat in 
 South Carolina, and had been in South Carolina pol- 
 itics from that day until the present, and had many 
 sympathizers in tbe shape of Copperheads. [Cheers.] 
 They had decided that the two "institutions of labor 
 in this country could not exist; had preached the 
 doctrine that where labor participated in govern- 
 ment the institutions of the country could not be 
 stable, and had affirmed that the laborers of the 
 South were slaves, and that the laborers of the North 
 were no better. They had inculcated all these doc- 
 trines into the minds of tbeir children, and had inau- 
 gurated this revolution, not for tbe purpose of per- 
 petuating Slavery or dividing the North, but for the 
 purpose of enslaving laboring men, whether they 
 were in the North or whether they were in the 
 South. [Applause.] They hai been induced to be- 
 lieve at the South (and he well knew it, because he 
 was m their midst) that the people of the North 
 
20 
 
 would not fight ; and tbey believed tbat one South- 
 «rn man was equal to five Northern men, because 
 the Southerner was a gentleman and tlie Northerner 
 a slave. The North had victories and reverses in 
 this contest; but, while the South has beea united 
 in this great fight, the North has had its atten- 
 tion divided. The war woald soon draw to a clo?e, 
 and it must have one of two termioations. The 
 South would subjugate the North and put the 
 white laboring men of the North upon an equality 
 with their slaves, or else the North would whip ihe 
 South, and place them and their slaves upon an 
 equality, and tell them by the eteraal God that a 
 traitor had no more rights than a slave. [Cheers.] 
 Germans, Irishmen, lugitives from oppression abroad, 
 have you not seen enough of autocracy in the Old 
 World? [Voices — "Too much."] Have you come 
 here to nnite with men to establish a Southern Con- 
 federacy ? [A voice — "No — cau'teeeit." Laughter.] 
 Have you come here to take part with men who hold 
 that all laboring men are unworthy of participatiog 
 in government, and are incapable of being freemen ? 
 Fellow-citizens,' we must be in earnest; we must put 
 down all traitors, wliether at the North or at the 
 Sooth ; we must win in this last fight for liberty. 
 [Cheers.] When future generations read the history 
 of our country, they would look back upon the Amer- 
 ican Republic as the best government tbat ever ex- 
 isted. Would the historian say that five millions of 
 whites, backed up by four millions of slaves, made 
 war upon a democracy of eighteen millions, and 
 whipped aid subjugated them? ["Never."] That 
 would not be the case; but it would be written that 
 the freemen of the North rose in their strong h and 
 overthrew the enemy. In conclusion, Gov. Pierpont 
 alluded to the triumphant vote io favor of freedom in 
 his State. Out of 48,000 votes cast in 1860, 30,000 
 were now recorded against Slavery ; and as the Rebels 
 had drawn off some 12,000 of the remainder into 
 the army, only a corporal's guard of the allies of 
 Slavery were left. [Cheers.] He also stated that 
 he meant to make every man in the State of Vir- 
 ginia, who held office, swear to support the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, including every 
 person liolding a licenee, merchants, tavern- 
 keepers, mnneipal officers, ministers who celebrated 
 the rites of inarriage, bank officers, from president 
 to clerk; and he thought it would do no harm to 
 have a little of that kind of administration here — 
 [laughtei] — especially if it embraced editors of 
 newspapers. [Cheers.] Gov. P. was here obliged 
 to stop on account of the failure of his voice, but he 
 hoped this wou'd not be the last opportunity he 
 would have of addressing the citizens of New-York. 
 [Cheers.] 
 
 Gen. SiGEL said that he had had communication 
 with Gov. Pieipont, and he had found that he was a 
 man of soanci prmciples. 
 
 Dr. LiEBER announced the death of Jas. L. Peti- 
 gru of Charleston, and oSered a series of appropriate 
 resolutions, which were unanimously adopted. " 
 
 The Hon. Montgomery Blair was introduced, 
 and said a few words; and 
 
 Mr. Weill acd Dr. FoERscH addressed the audi- 
 ence in German. 
 
 The proceedings were conducted in an orderly 
 manner, in strict accordance wiih the programme, 
 and the speakers were listened to with the most 
 marked attention and interest, whether speaking in 
 German or Eoglish. The concourse was large from 
 first to last, and the demonstration was a most suc- 
 cessful one. 
 
 STAND NO. 4. 
 Speeches by ITIajor-Gcn. Fremont, the Hon. 
 Koscoe Coiililing, the Hon. Crco. W. 
 Julian, nnd W. 3. A. Fuller, esq. 
 
 The prescLce of Major Gen. Fremont and staff at 
 Stand No. 4, atlracled a large audience to the north- 
 west corner of Union Square, who were entertained, 
 
 before the exercises commenced, by music from 
 Robertson's Band and salutes of artillery, which lat- 
 ter did not cease until the meeting closed. The stand 
 was decorated with the national flag, and on each 
 end was a banner, one inscribed "Loyal National 
 League — a common Union, to maintain the power, 
 glory, and iotelligence of the Union;" the other, 
 " Stistain our Brave Soldiers." The platform was 
 girt round with the legend, " Pledged to Uncon- 
 ditional Loyalty." 
 
 The Hon. Chas. King, of the Council of the Loyal 
 National League, called the meeting to order, and 
 the proceedings were opened by prayer, offered by 
 the Rev. Rosvvell Hitchcock. The reading of 
 the Vice-Presidents and Secretaries, the address and 
 letters, was dispensed with. 
 
 Robert B. Minturn, jr., read the resolutions, 
 which were carried by acclamation. Then came 
 music by the band, after which 
 
 The Chairman said: I am now about to present 
 to you one who has a right to claim your attention — 
 for he has shOwn his devotion to his country by 
 leading her soldiers to the field, and by encountering 
 — what is worse than armed hosts — the prejudices of 
 lukewarm men, half and half friends and patriots — 
 men who, if they bad their way, would make a 
 compromise to-moi-row with Slavery and all its hor- 
 rors, and who now, under the guise of peace, would 
 make useless, or worse than useless, the treasures of 
 blood spilled by your children and mine, to vindicate 
 the gloripus flag which Rebels would trample down. 
 [Cheers.] Fellow-citizens, I present to you Major- 
 Gen. Fremont. 
 
 Gen. Fremont was greeted with a burst of en- 
 thusiasm which continued some minutes. Quiet 
 being restored, he said: 
 
 SPEECH OF GEN. FREMONT. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens: I had the honor of beingasked 
 to meet you here to-day, and to address j'ou. I ac- 
 cepted the invitation for the pleasure it gave me to 
 meet you, and for the further satisfactiou I would 
 have in using the occasion to say how fully and how 
 cordially I sympathize with you in the objects ot 
 this meeting. Two years ago you met here and ac- 
 cepted the war inaugurated on this memorable day 
 at Fort Sumter. [Cheers.] To-day. again, the 
 noif e of battle rolls around that monumental fort, 
 and we are hourly waiting to hear the thunder of 
 the guns which shall announce that at length our 
 outraged flag has been gloriously avenged. [Ap- 
 plause.] But whatever may be the fortune of the 
 day, no anniversary could have been found more fit- 
 ting to renew your pledges that there shall be no 
 wavering in your support of the Government, no 
 faltering in the purpose of tne North to restore and 
 maintain, undivided and free to all, the whole terri- 
 tory of the United States of America. [Applause.} 
 Tne public assemblages, of which tliis is the first, 
 are intended to draw together and to give effect and 
 voice to the opinions and feelings of the people on 
 the great question of the day. We welcome these 
 manifestations as the evidence of healthy activity 
 in the public mind. They indicate unmistakably 
 that the nation is not drifting', but moving with a 
 fixed and resolute purpose — that a feeling of uncon- 
 ditional loyalty is rapidly abaorbing all varieties of 
 opinion, and fusing all party distinctions into the 
 single lesolve to jireserve our national unity, at 
 every cost. [Applause.l But while permitting my- 
 B-lf the pleasure of meeting you here and of taking 
 part in this commemoration, I have declined to avail 
 myself of the invitation with which I had been hon- 
 oied, to address you. The subjects on which I had 
 been asked to speak required a scope of comment 
 and suggestion, in which" I do not feel at liberty to 
 indulge. I decline to do so in deference to the com- 
 monly received opinion that a certain offii^ial pro- 
 priety pro''iibit8 olficers of the army and navy from 
 speaking in popular assemblies. But mure eppecially 
 1 decline to do so, because I wasinformfd, not very 
 long since, that officers permitting themselves to 
 take pan in public affairs outside of their professional 
 
21 
 
 uties had been characterized by bigh authority as 
 'political Generals." [Laughter.] But in giving 
 vay to this usage, I am not at all satisfied that it is 
 he'correct view of the scope of an oiHcer's duty in 
 bis country, and amidst the disorders of a civil war. 
 Jnder other forms of government, where the head of 
 he nation shapes and directs its policy, and where 
 he agents and the people themselves "Bimply con- 
 orm, tbis suppressed freedom " of speecb, where it 
 last have expression, necessarily takes the form of 
 , revolt, and is consequently more incompatible 
 yith the public tranquillity. Bu>, ia this country, 
 yhere there is really such a thing as public af- 
 aire upon which the nation deliberates, and where 
 he vitality of the system depends upon the fact 
 hat every man is expected to take a living in- 
 erest in them, the case is widely different. 
 lere the Government simply executrs the will 
 f the people, to which it is expected strictly to 
 onform, and concerning which it ought, conse- 
 uently, to be well informed. [Applause.] The 
 lilitary power is only an executive arm of the 
 overei'gn in this country — the people; and instead 
 f forming that milisary power into a distinct and 
 eparate class, and creating barriers between the 
 rmy and the people, everything ought to be done to 
 ;eep the soldier one of them [applause!, having com- 
 lon interests and common opinions. [Applause.] 
 .'o isolate them and their sentiments would be, or 
 aight be, highly dangerous to our free Government, 
 ,nd in this country there should De no such thing as 
 , military party. [Applause.] We have lately seen 
 yith what satisfaction the country received the reso- 
 utions of our troops in the field— how timely and 
 mportant was their influence — not the less because 
 t was evident that they had no idea of merging into 
 he soldier iheir sympathies and privileges of the 
 itizen. [Applause.] And it is absurd to say ihat 
 a a war of ideas, a conflict of principles, in a revo- 
 ution which is taking the shape of a refoima'ion — a 
 evolution which involves the civilization of the age, 
 ind to the results of which the friends of liberty are 
 ooking with the deepest anxiety and interest in 
 very part of the world — in all this momentous 
 truggle, that the men most actively concerned, tak- 
 ng toe most active part and making the costliest 
 aorifices, should have no opinion. It is idle to tell 
 IS that the opinions of ofiicers in important places 
 lave no influence on the conduct and the re- 
 ults of the war. Nor does it always hap- 
 )6n that a General has the choice to ren- 
 ler his service lo the country in the more con- 
 ;enial duties of the field; he may be placed in 
 iharge of a distant and rebellious provioce, sepa- 
 ated, disconnected from the seat of the Government 
 )y the conditions of the war, and where necessarily 
 le must be much governed by his own conviclions 
 ind his own opinions. Would it reflect — does it re- 
 lect on the soldierly qualities of that General that 
 le had the ability to institute a policy which ena- 
 )led him, in the midst of rebe'lion and anarchy, to 
 lold in subjection to the laws and to reduce into 
 jood order and healthy propriety, and to restore in 
 ts commercial relations to the Union, the great me- 
 tropolis of the South. [Applause.] Men who, by 
 aniiing with you here two years a?.o, subjected 
 .hemselves to the charge of being political Generals, 
 lave sealed with their lives their devotion to this 
 ^use. [Appla' 89.] Then Schenck and Mitchel and 
 Baker spoke to you here. [Applause.] The one has 
 jiven his blood and the others their lives in your ser- 
 i^ice. [Applause. J Were they the less good soldiers 
 jecause they came to you here, on the eve of battle, 
 ;o get inspiration and to find encouragement and re- 
 Qewed strength in the assurances of your support 1 
 [Applause avid cries of " No."] It is not here that 
 the name of " political General" can be consid- 
 ered a stigma or a disqualification. [Applause. | 
 Already shadows begin to people this place, and the 
 spot has become classic ground. Two years ago this 
 was one among the many beautiful openings which 
 decorate your city. Yoa had no Buoker Hill to 
 serve as a field-altar of patriotism. In this spldndid 
 
 city— this radiating center of the material prosperitv 
 of the countr)-— there was wanting the traditional 
 spot in sight of which no man could, without shame, 
 fall below the spirit of the day which gave it an his- 
 toric fame. [Applause.] But here already you 
 have sermons in these stones — there you have your 
 field-altar. [Cheers.] In ti^ht of that stattie of 
 Washington you come here to-day to renew your 
 pledges — you promise that in his hand, which two 
 years^go held up to your indignant gaze your dis- 
 carded and outraged 'flag, you will yet place the 
 standard which shall be raised in victory over the 
 walls of Sumter. [Great applause.] You promise 
 ttiat you will never agree to a dismemheiment of the 
 country which he left you — [Voices — '• Never," and 
 applause] — and that next to the crime of the traitors 
 who are striking in arms at the life of the nation, 
 you will hold the guilt of those men who, placed in 
 responsible positions, do not use every effort to di- 
 rect, with most terrible energy, the power of this 
 country to destroy the Rebellion. [Tremendous 
 cheering, and three times three cheers for Gen. Fre- 
 mont.] 
 
 The Chairman: I now, fellow-citizens, present 
 to you one of our own representatives — a man who 
 has proved that bullying could not hurt him. He 
 was a member of Congress when this great crime 
 was committed, and the experiment was tried on 
 him which has been tried on others, by some of the 
 yellow-faced Southern chivalry — to bully him, by 
 talk of pistols and bowie knives. He told them, 
 "By the grace of God, I carry my defenders here 
 (pointing to his braast), and if any man wants to 
 fight, let him come on." [Vehement cheers.] I 
 present to you Mr. Roscoe Conkling. 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. ROSCOE CONKLING. 
 Loud applause greeted Mr. Conkling, who said: 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens : Ton 
 have assembled to commemorate an event which 
 must be memorable in history to the latest syllable 
 of recorded time. You celebrate an anniversary 
 which will be canonized, or cursed, till the holiest 
 fountains of human sentiment are forever frozen or 
 dried up. You solemnize the recurrence of a day 
 which will stand in the calendar hereafter as a day 
 which did much to manifest tlse nothiagoess or immor- 
 tality of human rights. [Cheers.] The 12ih of April,. 
 1861, was a day of darkness and deapair; our sun 
 was eclipsed, and no man could see to read the dial. 
 It was a day of humiliation and death, but through 
 that death there came a glorious resurrection and 
 ascension. When Samter fell, 
 
 " You, and I, and all of us fell down, 
 And bloody treason flourished over ua." 
 
 [Cheers.] But two years have passed — two years- 
 " of plots and counterplots, of gain and loss, of glory 
 and disgrace" — and undismayed and undaunted, yon 
 come to say to doubters and to enemies, as William 
 Tell said to his native mountaineers, 
 
 " We bold to you the hands you first beheld. 
 To show they Btill are free." [Cheers. J 
 
 It seems to be a maxim in the economy of Provi- 
 dence that the trials of a nation are io the ratio of 
 its destinies. If it be poor and powerless, if it 
 have no empire and holds no position envied by the 
 world, it may escape the blasts of war, and languish 
 for long intervals in unmolested calmness. Bat if 
 it be rich and powerful, it' it claim as its own one- 
 tenth of the globe, if in the lifetime of a single 
 man it grows to be the foremoat Power in all the 
 earth, it must accept peri's and struggles as the price 
 of its greatness and success. 
 
 If beside being ])owerful, a people has set up in- 
 stitutions in which no trace of aristtcracy or king- 
 craft is tolerated, it has voluntarily elected to make 
 its own soil the theater of a contest which has been 
 wagiog since time began between oppression and 
 liberty. It is the mission and loreordainel destiny 
 of a people assuming to found and mainiain a 
 democrauc Government to wrestle and grapple with 
 
22 
 
 the foes of freedom and equality witbia and with- 
 out; and the struggle now raging in America in only 
 the old battle for human rights transplanted from 
 the Old World to the New. [Applause.] We had 
 no right to expect to escape it. Why should we ? 
 
 Why should we hope to elude the evil passions 
 and instincts which have led men the world over to 
 seek the destruction of equal rights, and the aggran- 
 dizement of the few at the expense of the many? 
 
 We knew that nowhere had men rehnquished 
 superior and exclusive privilege without a cohtest; 
 why should they do it here — here in the new world, 
 the place reserved for republican government to 
 Vindicate itself forever, or to wither from the world ? 
 Time, and civilization, and government, had their 
 morning not in the west, but in the east. Dawn 
 flushed, and yet centuries rolled by before light 
 broke upon the Western Continent. 
 Why was this ? 
 
 Why was half the globe kept hidden away behind 
 a trackless waste of waters, till the other half had 
 been dug over and over, to bury its dead. Why 
 were progress and barbarism mewed up so long in 
 the old world, to solve in blood the problems of 
 humanity ? 
 
 Perhaps the new world was reserved till mankind 
 should be fitted for a higher and better dispensation. 
 Perhaps it was designed to withhold this inheri- 
 tance from man, till the race had been tried, and ia- 
 etructed, and exalted, by the wisdom and the folly, 
 the virtues and the vices of wasted ages. 
 
 If this was the design, we can understand our 
 mission, and accept our responsibilities. 
 
 If it is the mission of the American people to make 
 their continent a garden for the growth of a new 
 civilization, higher and better and truer than the 
 world has ever known, we may understand the 
 logic which permits blood to stain' our land. 
 
 If we maiutain successfully that man needs no 
 mortal master but himself, we bring forth a great 
 new truth, and no great truth was ever yet bora 
 into the world without great pangs. 
 
 It costs great pangs to plant the germ of free gov- 
 ernment here, and the manner in which the experi- 
 ment began might well convince the mind of ialth 
 that Providence had charge over it. The task was 
 undertaken by a group of men which no previous 
 age could have produced. They were the victims of 
 all the bad systems of government then extant, and 
 they were called to devise a new system just when 
 the world was all ablaze with political intelligence. 
 All the past was before taem, and the French Rev- 
 olution was just delivering its terrible message to 
 mankiad. 
 
 Two forms of government had already been tried 
 here. 
 
 The Colonial system had been tested and thrown 
 oflf. 
 
 The Confederate system had been fairly tried, and 
 found fit to live only through the revolution it sup- 
 ported. All the members of the Confederacy had 
 found the need of a stronger system, closer knit. I 
 say all— all but South Carolina, who put herself up 
 to be raffled for by the contending parties, to belong 
 to the British Crown or the American Republic, as 
 the one or the other should succeed in the struggle of 
 which she was to be the safe spectator. 
 
 The Fathers of the Republic, in their almost in- 
 spiration, saw clearly that a Governmeot, to be en- 
 during and free, must be a union, not of States, but 
 of the people ; not a partnership, nor a club of thir- 
 teen members, but an eternal wedlock of the 
 nation. 
 
 They fashioned their work accordingly— they ex- 
 cluded carefully all State rights which "would mili- 
 tate against the supremacy of the Federal Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Some of their acts seem prophetic now, when men 
 here in New- York, " leading poJiticians," as Lord 
 liyons calls tbem, are piopoelDg to array the State 
 ■against the General Government, and to nullify the 
 act for enrolling soldiers, and other acts of Congress. 
 
 An effort was made to put into the Constitution 
 some way in which, men could oppose the General 
 Government, under cover of State authority, and 
 yet dodge the halter, but the halter was carefully 
 kept i a. 
 
 Luther Martin, the Attorney-General of Maryland, 
 went home from the Convention and delivered to 
 the Legislature of his State the following statement, 
 which I commend to those politicians with a snaky 
 name, who, according to the good book, must be the 
 most subtle of all the beasts of the held [loud cheers 
 and laughter] : 
 
 " By the principles of the American Revolution arbitrary 
 power may, aad ought to be resisted, even by arms if neces- 
 sary. The time may come when it shall be the doty of a 
 State, in order to preserve itself from the oppression of the 
 General Government, to have recourse to the sword: in which 
 case the proposed form of government declares that the Stute, 
 and every one of its citizens who act under its authority, are 
 guilty of a direct act of treason; reducing by this provision 
 the different States to this alternative, that they must tamely 
 and passively yield to despotism, or their citizens must oppoie 
 it at the haxarfi of the halter if nnsuccestful—and reducing th» 
 citizens of the State which shall take arms to a. situation in 
 which they must be exposed to punishment, let them act as they 
 will, since if they obey the authority of their State Govern- 
 ment, they will be guilty of treason against the United Stales; 
 if they join the General Government, they will be guilty of 
 treason aiainst their own State, 
 
 "To save the citizens of the respective -States from this 
 disagreeable dilemma, and to secure them from being punish- 
 able as traitors to the United States, when acting expressly in 
 obedience to the authority of their own State, I wished to 
 have obtained as an amendment to the third section of this 
 article, the following clause: 
 
 " ' Provided, That no act or acts done by one or more of the 
 States against the United States, or by any citizen of any one 
 of the United States under the authority of one or more of the 
 said States, shall be deemed treason or punished as such; bat, 
 in case of war being levied by one or more of the States 
 agam^t the United States, the conduct of each party toward 
 the other, and their adherents respectively, shall be regulated 
 by the laws of war and of nations' 
 
 " But this provision was not adopted, being too much 
 opposed to the great object of many of tne leading members 
 of the Conveution. which was by all means to leave the States 
 at the mercy of the General Government, since they could not 
 succeed in their immediate aad entire abolition." 
 
 With such views the Constitution was formed, 
 and went into operation over a country infinitely 
 diversified in soil, climate, and production. 
 
 The attractive portion of the Republic was the 
 South. Its breezes were bland, its clime was almost 
 perpetual Stimmer, its soil needed only to be tickled 
 with a hoe to laugh with a harvest. All these 
 charms had enticed the rich, the indolent, and the 
 idle. The seat of population, and allowed repre- 
 sentation in Congress upon its chattels, of course it 
 became the seat of political power. For three- 
 quarters of a century it ruled the country absolutelv, 
 and enjoyed almost a monoply of public" honors. 
 
 But It relied upon unskilled, unpaid labor, and 
 there was the bane of its success. Though it 
 started with everything, it was outstripped by free 
 labor, which started with nothing. 
 
 Political questions continually arose, and were 
 always decided for and by the South. While this 
 continued, the South was quiet, apparentlv, vet 
 ever plotted against the time when decisions might 
 result in favor of other sections of the country. At 
 last that time arrived for once. [Applause.] A 
 President not of Southern choosing was elected. 
 What of that ? Did the leading managing men of 
 the South fear that their rights or their slaves would 
 be taken from them ? I deny it. After some as- 
 sociation, in Congress and out, with those who 
 plunged the South into Rebellion, I deny that they 
 for a moment feared that Abraham Lincoln would 
 or could disturb their institutions. 
 
 But there was another thing they did fear. Their 
 personal ambition would be thwarted, and also their 
 plans for prostituting the Government for the ben- 
 efit of their own "section," as they called it. 
 
 The time had come when they and their sons 
 could no longer hold all the offices, civil and mili- 
 tary, at home and abroad, and when they could no 
 longer manage the foreign and home policy of the 
 Government so as to pick a quarrel with anybody 
 
I 
 
 23 
 
 who happened to have an Wand or anything else 
 that they wanted to steal. [Cheers.] 
 
 They were to be deprived of these things if they 
 stayed' in the Union; if they went out, they saw 
 visions of new wealth and pox^er. A new empire 
 in the tropics dazzled their eyes. An unlimited and 
 unrestrained license to steal land from feeble 
 neighbors on the South and to plant it 
 with Slavery, the reopening of the slave- 
 trnde to Christianize the barbarians of 
 Africa, these and kindred objects seemed to them 
 preferable to remaining in a Government in which 
 they must at last divide the monopoly they had en- 
 joyed. Fair play is what they rebelled against; 
 equality is what they couldn't endure ; free govern- 
 ment put into actual practice is what they would not 
 submit to, and they made a bloody issue to de- 
 stroy it. 
 
 Is not this the old fight over again, the encounter 
 once more between equal rights and privilege, the 
 dying kick of despotism ? 
 
 Surely it is, and with an aristocratic element in 
 the Government, it was bound to come. You could 
 not check the laws of growth in the North, nor of 
 decay in the South, and hence, in time, the balance 
 of power was sure to charge. This was inevitable, 
 and yet tbe minority would not loosen their hold, 
 without dipping their hands in the blood of their 
 country. 
 
 I laid down the proposition that the trials of a 
 nation must be gauged by its destinies, and is it not 
 clear that our destiny left us no course except to re- 
 eist to the uttermost the bloody raid which we are 
 still repelling ? 
 
 The patriotism of the people answered that ques- 
 tion two years ago to-day. Gen. Jackson believed 
 that there was deity and divinity in masses of men — 
 that whatever a nation affirmed to be true, must be 
 immutable truth. [Cheers.] Never, perhaps, was 
 there stronger proof of the quick infallibility of a 
 people's instinct, than when the heart of America 
 vibrated with the news that traitors had battered 
 Sumter, and trampled on the flag. [Applause.] Did 
 any man among you speak of submission or sepa- 
 ration at ttiat time? No; those who could not 
 speak for their country then, were dumb — they dared 
 not speak for treason. 
 
 They dared not consort with tbe Embassador of a 
 foreign power to betray their country then. Thej 
 dared not hawk at their Government then, and aestiil 
 it with the tricks of the mountebank and the pettifog- 
 ger. Public sentiment would not tolerate it. Why 
 does public sentiment tolerate it now 1 
 
 Why does public eentiment tolerate it in this proud 
 city, where, beside all LieLer motives, you have 
 smh an enormous stake of money, in the supremacy 
 of the Government? Here, wbere two hundred 
 millions of debts are due fiom the South, here where 
 you have for ten years furnished 90 per cent of all 
 the money tbe Government has had, here where you 
 hold Govenmeiit securities amouLting to more than 
 eighty mi lb on dollars, why is it that public senti- 
 n.ent tolerates men who are doing more to help Ke- 
 bellion than if they had muskets in their hands and 
 stood behind the liebel lines ? There ought to be 
 seme good reason why loyal people are doomed to put 
 up with the revilings" and hypocritical lamentations 
 and complaints of men who, for the wrongs done 
 their country ought to be daily and nightly on their 
 knees asking forgiveness from God and the mourners. 
 It is difficult to know what to do with such peo- 
 ple. [A voice: " Hang 'em." "Hang 'em."] 
 
 Mr. ConkUng-^No, no. That would violate the 
 wise advice of Dr. Johnson. Goldsmith asked the 
 Doctor whether a man who had disgraced himself 
 wouldn't do well to cut his throat ? " Why no," taid 
 the Doctor, " if he has disgraced himself, let him go 
 where he isn't known, in place of going to liell, 
 where he is sure to be known." [Great Laughter.] 
 The BQCceBB these disturbers have in misleading others 
 
 shows the justice cf the saying that a lie will run a 
 mile while the truth is putting on its shoes and stock- 
 ings. Suppose their charges and statements are all 
 true, just as they make them, does that justify or ex- 
 cuse them in the course they have pursued ? Supposie 
 it i* true that the President, and the Cabinet., and 
 Congre88,and the Administration party have all done 
 wrong, why should the Nation be murdered and the 
 Government destroyed for that ? 
 
 The war is for the supremacy of the ballot-box 
 [cheers], and it is only by standing by the Govern- 
 ment and maintaiuiDg it, that we can preserve tbe 
 ballot-box, and the ballot-box is the only means of 
 correcting public abuses if tbey exist. If men are 
 honest in saying that the Government is m unfit 
 hands, let them help to wrest it from the assassins 
 who are aiming daggers at its heart; and when this 
 is done, the people can elect better and more capable 
 men. But what reason is there in allowing the 
 Government to be ruined because the acts of those 
 who happen to represent it for a space are distaste- 
 ful ? I Cheers.] If there are imperfections on the 
 Administration's head, it is no time to rebuke or 
 punish them now. But at any time there is no 
 justice in most of the clamors lately raised for 
 political effect, and I will say a word of one 
 or two of them. It is charged by Secession sym- 
 pathizers as one of the reasons for assailing the Gov- 
 ernment, that the Rebellion is the result of agi- 
 tating the question of Slavery. Suppose it is— is 
 the North, are the Anti-Slavery men of the North to 
 be blamed or punished for that ? Who has agitated 
 the Slavery question in this country since l«i)U I 
 There was'no agitation in 1851 and '52 except by a 
 few Abolitionsts. who hadn't votes enough to elect 
 a constable from Maine to Micnesota. ^« bad 
 hushed all agitation then. W^e had annexed Texas 
 to extend the area of Slave. y, and fought a bloody 
 war and paid $300,000,000 in consequence. \\ e had 
 Acquired new territories, but they had been brought 
 in without any restriction against Slavery. We bm 
 adopted the Compromise measures of 1«^"- r,« 
 had civen the South such boundaries as she wanted, 
 we had paid tea millions, and adopted a fugitive 
 Slave law, which I heard Douglas tell Mason he 
 r]Uaeon)dew, and made as Btringen as he could 
 
 bSaWi;n:!."lnT^^^^ 
 SventfonradVted the same platform accepting 
 
 t'^X^promiseL^^^^^^^^ 
 
 iCfr;\'g^a i n.%te n^^ti^n wen\tosieepthi^^^^^^^ 
 tl e ne Jro had been put aside, and that the legislation 
 ofthefonntry was'to be turned to it. commercial 
 manufacturing, and material wants. Repose and 
 peace was everywhere, when suddenly there came a 
 voice as piercing as a cry of fire m the night ana 
 men started, as they would leap from their beds to 
 see if the house was in flames. What was it T 
 Why, the Missouri Compromise was to be repealed. 
 The" Missouri Compromise! That wall which our 
 fathers built between Slavery and Freedom, 
 that ereat covenant which had tranqmlbzed 
 a continent, and to which every man was 
 pledged and his father before him— was 'hat to 
 be destroyed? Who was to do it? Had 
 any one in the North petitioned Congress to do it 7 
 No. Let us remonstrate, let us pray Congress not 
 to do so huge a wrong, not to hoist the flood-gates 
 of agitation! and launch the nation upon a boundless 
 sea of sectional contention. The people assembled 
 in their might, they conjured the party in power to 
 stay its hand, thev implored the majo.ny in Congress 
 by the memories of the past nnd the hopes and tears 
 of th« future; they sent to Washington memorials 
 which if heaped togetUer would have barricaded 
 Pennsylvania Avenue. But all to no purpose ; the 
 Missouri Compromise fell, and tell with a crash 
 which resouudb ytt in this bleeding countrj . [Ap^ 
 
24 
 
 planBe.] Who did it? Who did it? Who did it? 
 Who, as Mr. Fillmore said, opened this Pandora's 
 box, 8nd let loose every evil of f ectional madneps 
 and strife? Did Northern Anti-Slavery men do it ? 
 Did any Anti-Slavery man vote for it ? Was it any- 
 thing but a monstrous, treaBonaole, cheat of the 
 Slavery interest ? [Cheers.] Who carried the torch 
 of the incendiary, and ihe knife of the murderer, into 
 the Terriiorif 8 ? Who sacked tlieir villages and 
 drencheii their fields in blood? Who attempted to 
 force Slavery upon an unwilliDg people? Who tried 
 to force through the L'compton Conslitution, foul 
 ■with violence and fraud ? Has there been any 
 Slavery agitation in this country for ten years not 
 produced by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise ? 
 It was that repeal which gave birth to the Reoub- 
 lican party, ■which filled its ranks ■with the members 
 of all existing organizations, and gave 1,300,000 
 votes to John Charles Fremont. If Slavery agita- 
 tion has contributed to the Rebellion, let tbe blame 
 be ■wbera tbe truth puts it, and noi, on the Anti- 
 Slavery men of the North. Let us remember who 
 the incendiaries are, ■who, after setting fire to the 
 house, complain that those ■who come to put it out 
 make a great fuf s, and agitation, and disturbance 
 generally. Bat whoever agitated, and however 
 wantouly, what has that to do now with rescuing 
 oar Goverment and our liberties from the uplified 
 hand of treason ? 
 
 Tbere is another wicked pretext fasbionable now 
 ■with tbe disloyal and the false. It is alleged that 
 after Secession began it might have been coaxed to 
 stop by Compromise ; and I want to men ion one thing 
 on this head to show how much audacity a man must 
 have to assume the ground held by politicians of a 
 certain school in this State. Thev are protesting that 
 they vpere for something at tbe time which, if it had 
 been adopted by Congress", would have avertei the 
 whole difficulty. What ■were they for in the Legis- 
 lature at Albany? They said that the grievance 
 of the South ■was, that slaveholders were in 
 danger of heine shut out of the Territories vbere the 
 cliaiate would let Slavery live, and that was tbe 
 trouble to le removed. They bad a plan for doing 
 it. It was called the Robinson proposition, and was 
 urged and supported as all-sufficient by the very 
 men who are now around inqairing who is respon- 
 sible for the war, and insisting that it might have 
 been compromised. What was the Robinson prop- 
 osition ? It proposed that all the Territories should 
 be cut in two by the old Missouri Compromise line, 
 and that all north of that line should come in as a 
 free State, and on the south Slavery should take its 
 chance; acd whenever the Territory filled up with 
 the number of people required for a representative 
 in Congress, it should come in as a State. This was 
 the panacea commended then in New-York bj those 
 who now oppose the war. Now let me remind you 
 that the political friends of the present Administra- 
 tion offered the South twice as much as the 
 Robinson proposition, and it was spurned. We 
 offered them all the territory where Slavery 
 could flourish, and offered it without con- 
 dition. We offered to admit all as a 
 State with Slavery, if it came with Slavery in its 
 Constitution, to admit it at once, without waiting 
 for a white man 1o move into it, and without any 
 stipulation or understanding that any Northern ter- 
 ritory should come in free. The territory thus to be 
 surrendered to Slavery was free by the laws of 
 Mexico. You will see the difference — the Robinson 
 proposition required that the North should have, as 
 an offse', the half of the territory free, and admit- 
 ted as a State, and further, that the South should 
 not form its territory into a State until, in lapse of 
 time, the census showed 110,000 people there; 
 "whereas the proposition offered to the South, in 
 Congress, said nothing about the Noifi having any 
 share, aud did not require an hour's delay nor any 
 number of population whatever. Yet the Robinson 
 resolution was thought enough to offer by the same 
 men who now cluim that reasonable offers would 
 have been accepted. They know that nothing 
 
 would have been accepted except the prostration of 
 the Government. They know that the Crittenden 
 Coniproniise was defeated' by Southern votes in the 
 Senate, as Gov. Johnson stated tbe other night at 
 your Academy of Music, and as Edward Everett 
 affirmed in Boston day before yesterday. Bat again, 
 what difference does it make now whether or 
 not if we had done something some other time, 
 something else wouldn't Lave happened? 
 There is another plea for opposing the war, which 
 I see is done not only into speeches, but into poetry, 
 here now. It is that the Government party is labor- 
 ing not to restore the Union, but to emancipate all 
 the slaves even if so doing prevents a restoration. 
 This is believed by some fools, perhaps by some 
 knaves, and possibly by some honest people, but 
 they must he rat"er pig-headed. It ought not to be 
 believed or countenanced by any who sympathize 
 with our soldiers in tbe field, and want to see them, 
 spared hardship or exposure. When the war began 
 it was supposed that Slavery would be an element 
 of weakness to our enemiee — that the fear of servile 
 iusurreciion among four millions of bondmen would 
 keep part of the masters at home. We had a right 
 to think so. John Brown, with seventeen negroes 
 and a cow, had struck terror into all Virginia. 
 [Cheers atd laughter.] John Randolph said in Con- 
 gress, "Tae fire bell never rings in Richmond that 
 every mother does not c asp her baby more closely 
 to her breast." Why was this ? Because they i 
 lived on a volcano, and knew not at what hour in- ' 
 cendiary firej would burst forth, enshrcyaJing cities, 
 and painting hell on the sky. Was'ut it reasonable 
 to suppose that an element so dreadful as this in 
 peace, would be fearful in time of war? Wasn't it 
 patriotic to hope aud to wish that slave-owners and 
 overseers, might, for fear of slave massacres, be kept 
 at home, in place of going to the battle fields of re- 
 bellion to slaughter your neighbors and mine? 
 Wasn't it right to take advantage of Slavery, and 
 naanage it to weaken and paralyze ourenemies ? But 
 what was done in deference to the policy of those 
 who have stolen the garment of "conservatism," 
 and are so pleased with their new clothes that they 
 are likely to strut themselves to death ? Why, Gen- 
 erals, "conservative" Generals, began to issue proc- 
 lamations, and kept issuing proclimations to the 
 slaves and their masters, sayiug, "Now, slaves, be 
 kind and obedient to your masters; don't you run 
 away, if you do we'll send you back; don't you rise, 
 if you do we 11 put you down with the whole power 
 of the army, and don't you go to scaring your mis- 
 treeses or being disobliging, if you do we'll chastise 
 you for that." The great idea seemed ta be to let 
 the slaves know that they couldn't be permitted to 
 take any part in the ceremonies at all. Some of oar 
 Generals felt as select and exclusive on that point 
 as the boy did at his mother's funeral, when he saw 
 a neighbor boy cry, and asked him, "What business 
 have you to cry here? this ain't none of your 
 funeral." What was the result of thus guard- 
 ing Rebel property? In place of an ele- 
 ment of danger and weakness to the Rebels, 
 Slavery became an element of strength, and 
 slaves fed aud clothed rebellion. While the 
 masters were away in the field, drilling and organ- 
 izing and putting the country on a war footing, an 
 unpaid laboring population, of at least two millions — 
 tor women as well as men are field hands — were at 
 home raising corn and pork, and making cloth, or 
 else acting as cooks, and teamsters, or digging the 
 trenches, building the fortification?, aye, aud fight- 
 ing tbe battles of the Rebellion. Does anybody 
 doubt now tha'i the slaves have been impressed into 
 the military service of the Rebellion ? The Rebel 
 pickets on the Rappahannock are, many of tbem, 
 black to-day. Yet, for trying to turn si ives against 
 their masters even now, after learning by bitter ex- 
 perience the folly of the past, the Government is 
 denounced, and charged with perverting the war 
 into an Abolition raid. Aud men sa-y this who pre- 
 tend to be the friends of our soldiers iu the field. I 
 wisn }oa could all stand, aa I have stood, 
 
26 
 
 amoDc the fortifications at Yorktown. 
 "Whoever visits them -wiU eee magDificeiit digging; 
 he will see a citv buildtd in the groond; he will SfC 
 a maze of trenches and embankments many feet 
 higb, doubled •with gabions and finished with l laoor, 
 ■which Eets one counting by the thousands to guess 
 how many white men dug their graves as they bur- 
 rowed into Yorktown. I would like to look upon 
 the man who dare avow that be feels glad to know 
 that white men drooped and died in those trenches, 
 when black men, used to the beat and malaria, 
 might have been found to do the work in half the 
 time. ILoud cheere.] Yet all are nicknamed 
 fanatics and radicals who have sought to get some 
 help out of the negro race. We are told that it 
 would be a great calamity to free the slaves. Why / 
 Because they would come North. Only think of 
 that ! They'll stay South in Slavery, and when thev 
 can Btay and have freedom too, they '11 come North 1 
 I believe that if you would drain the North 
 of negroes, you have only to establish Freedon 
 and rights for them South, and they will all go 
 there as naturally as a duck takes to water. I want 
 the North emptied of its black population ; I want 
 to see all the negroes North go South, and am will- 
 ing to have them hold all the land there that's left 
 over after our soldiers who want to stay, and the 
 loyal people are provided for. I would cast out the 
 best Kebel in the South to make room for the worst 
 loyal man in the North, black or whit;e, and I should 
 expect a trade as profitable as Prentice said another 
 would be ; he said if the Devil should chaoge 
 places with Jeflf. Davis, hell would gain as much in 
 malignity as it lost in tal-nt. [Cheers. J 
 
 It is an easy thing to find a slick if you 
 want to flog a dog; and I wonder sometimes 
 that those who are searching for excuses 
 for shirking their dutv are not more mgeDious. 
 It is amazing how smali a thing answers 
 their purpose. If they can find some mau who has 
 been arrested, or some woman of high-fldvored rep- 
 utation who has been searched, they seem to thiuk 
 they have made out a case in favor of leaving the 
 Government to perish. For the madaess ana pique 
 of partv they would bury their naiionaluy under the 
 waves "of revelation and leave the aunab of free 
 Government like a bloody buoy on the sea 
 of time, warning the nations of the earth 
 to keen aloof from the mighty luin. It 
 they can find a fraud on the Government which 
 they hav'nt been caught in themselves, they 
 are as happy as a boy with a new top. [Cheera. J 
 If gome scamp has swindled the Goveroment in the 
 charter of a steamboat, or the manufacture of army 
 clothing, the whole Administration is held to blame 
 for that, and the war ought to stop to prevent 
 frauds. Frauds are plenty, no doubt; there are 
 miscreants flourishing about your hotels and streets 
 who have fattened upon the agony of their country, 
 who have bonghi shawls at Stewart's, and diamonds 
 at Ball &. Black's, with gains made by smugghng 
 felt and shoddy into the coat the poor soldier re- 
 lied upon to keep him warm aod dry in the pellitig 
 storm. There are men who would bnbe some twin 
 rascal to give them a contract to weave the wxadiog 
 sheet of their country, expecting to double the profac 
 by filling with shoddy aud buying the inspector to 
 let it pats. [Groans.] They are not " radical" men 
 as a class, however; they are remarkably free from 
 " fanaticism." Bat retribution wans tor each one of 
 them, tooverlake him sooner or later, and meantime, 
 in place of stopping the war, " room for the leper, 
 room !" If we are beset by thieves, let honest 
 men press forward and close the war at once instead 
 of protracting it to fiive thieves a looger run. L,et 
 usmake the best and not the worst of our ditHcul- 
 tiee. Let every man see carefully where hia lufla- 
 ence goes. Let him look to his selfish interests as 
 •well as his patriotism. Do you want to embolden 
 England to fit out ocean bandits to prey upon your 
 commerce, and drive all freights into British bot- 
 toma T It you do, yoa have only to tolerate and 
 iapport aod vote for politiciana capable of silting 
 
 down here in New-York and intriguing with the- 
 British Minister for the humiliation of tbeir coun- 
 try at the feet of foreign powers. Do you want to 
 breathe new life and hope into rebellion, aid the con- 
 federates of rebellion at home and abroad ? If yoa 
 do, yon need only encourage parties and newspa- 
 pers, and men, who foment divisions here and pub- 
 lish them to the world. Do you want to retard and 
 prolong ttie war till foreign quarrels come and the 
 energies of the people are worn out ? If you do, 
 you have only to give ear to those who talk about 
 an armistice, or a compromise, or a convention now. 
 You have ooly to give them countenance, and some 
 other despot "will land an army in Mexico, and flap 
 the Monroe doctrine in our faces to make us hang 
 our beads the lower, when we remember that e'ght 
 vears ago four American Ministers ostentatioosly as- 
 sembled at the tomb of Charlemagne, and pro- 
 claimed the " Ostend Manifesto." [Applause.] 
 Do you want to bind up the gashed bosom of the 
 nation ? do you want to restore permanent and uni- 
 versal repose? do you want to reinstate the Govern- 
 ment in its old glory, and the country in its old 
 prosperity ? If you do, you have only to bend all 
 the resources we possefs to the annihilation of the 
 rebellion. You want no trace till Rebels seek it, and 
 they will seek it whenever John Slidell is as well 
 convinced that the North is united as he is now that 
 Europe won't interfere. Yoa want no compromise 
 but the Constitution of the United States as your 
 fathers made it. That is the ark of our safety, and 
 " except we abide in the ship we cannot be saved." 
 [Cheers.] Let U3 cling to the ship which our 
 lathers built and launched in darkness and tempests 
 upon the tide of time; let us take heed lest she drift 
 upon the rocks while we wrangle among ourselves; 
 let us feel that our crowning infamy would be to 
 lose the vessel from brawls among the crew. Rather 
 than tbis should happen, let her go down in the 
 shock; rather let the tiarpiea of Europe pluck the 
 eagle of the sea; rather than pull down her colore 
 ourstlves, 
 
 " Nail to the raasl bcr glorious flsg, 
 Streich every threadbare sail, 
 And give her to the tJod olf.torm8, 
 The lightning aud the gale 1" 
 
 Mr. J. W. Mather sang a song composed for the 
 occasion by George H. Boker, commenciug: 
 
 " 'Wben our banner went down, with its ancient reno-wn, 
 Betiayed end degraded by treason. 
 Did they thioK, as it fell. wh»t a passion would Bwell 
 Our hearts when we asked theuj the reason 1" 
 
 The chorus, being taken up by the immense throngs 
 had a fine effect. 
 
 The Chairman next introduced the Hon. Geo. W. 
 Julian of Indiana as one wlio would show them how 
 futile was tbe hope of the Rebels to separate West- 
 ern men from the Union. 
 
 Mr. Julian's speech, which was a scathing rebuke 
 to Secessionists, and to those who countenanced 
 them at the North, was received with vehement ap- 
 plause. , 
 
 He was followed by Mr. W. J. A. Fi;ller, who 
 held the attention of the audience until the evening 
 shadows began to fall, when an adjournment was 
 carried. 
 
 STAND NO. 5. 
 Speeches of the Mon. Daniel S. VickinsoUr 
 Senator liVilson, Gen. Nye, Prof. John 
 A. Porter, CJ. W. Elliott, John C. lOLont- 
 gomery, and Col. Nugent. 
 This stand was located nearly in front of the 
 Everett House, on the north side of Union Square, 
 and had a fine display of banners and mottoes, and 
 the Stars and Stripes floating proudly over it. On 
 three sides were the following mottoes: "Oar Coun- 
 try, Now and Forever;" •' Pledged to Maintain the 
 National Unity," and " Loyalty." Two large ban- 
 
26 
 
 ners were at the corners, one inacribed "One Flag, 
 one Country, one Destiny," and the other, " The 
 Jjoyal National League— Pledged to Maintain the 
 National Unity." Long prior to 4 o'clock the space 
 in front of the stand was filled witli a dense crowd 
 — one mass of heads nearly as far as the eye could 
 see. 
 
 After music by tbe band, Mr. Charles Butler 
 called the meeting to order, and a most impressive 
 and fervent prayer was offered by the Rev. Dr. Bel- 
 lows. William T. Blodgett read the call tor the 
 meeting and the list of officers appointed, and a let- 
 ter from Maj.-Gen. Dix, which was received with 
 loud cheers. Dispensing with the reading of the 
 resolutions, Mr. Butler then introduced the Hon. 
 Daniel S. Dickinson, who was received with tu 
 multuous applause. 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. DANIEL S. DICKINSON. 
 Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 It is almost two years since I attended a meeting in 
 this very square to discuss public affairs and the con- 
 dition of the country. It is two years this day since 
 our national flag, our great emblem of hope and 
 promise — the Stars and Stripes — was insulted by an 
 infamous conspiracy and an infernal Rebellion. 
 [Loud applause.] 1 well remember when the news 
 reached the city. It was a dark and fearful night — 
 the storm was desceoding in its awful density, well 
 worthy ot such an occasion as that. The fiend spirit 
 of the storm clapped his hands, and it seemed as 
 though the evil genius of destruction was brooding 
 over us. Two years have now elapsed, and the sun 
 is shining genially upon us, the air is warm, the 
 germs are shooting, the buds are swelling, the lawns 
 are green, the birds are singing, and the popular 
 heart is redolent with hope and buoyant with prom- 
 ise. [Loud cheers.] Rebellion still exists, but how 
 does it exist ? Charleston — the hotbed of secession, 
 tbe foul point and nucleus of Rebellion, the cess- 
 pool of conspiracy — [Loud cheers and laughter] — the 
 heart of all that is infamous and wicked in this mat- 
 ter — if she has not already fallen, it is but a question 
 of time. [Great applause and cheers.] And the 
 owls and ravens who have croaked for blood will 
 soon know that ashes and desolation cover the spot 
 that has so long menaced the integrity of this Union ! 
 [Loud applause.] It is said to be the heart of this 
 great movement, and so it is ; and the foul and 
 slimy blood it has sent forth through the political 
 veins, had it not been resisted by loyal health, 
 would have corrupted tbe whole mass. But, thank 
 God, from tbe time our Stars and Stripes were in- 
 sulted, from the time our sol jiers were butchered in 
 Baltimore, while marching to the defense of the 
 National Capital — from that time to the present, the 
 loyal feeling has been abroad, and it will vindicate 
 itself and prove the integrity of the loyal people. 
 [Applause.] But he would not discuss the causes — 
 he would take the question as he found it. When 
 this Rebellion was organized, the spirit of 
 party was hushed away, honorable men 
 and all came forward to vindicate the integrity of 
 the nation and prove themselves worthy descendants 
 of Revolutionary sires. [Loud cheers.] He stood 
 upon tbat ground, and he defied all the artillery save 
 the artillery of Heaven to dislodge him. [Great ap- 
 plause; "That's it.''] Bat there were a few miser- 
 able politicians who took unto themselves seven 
 spirits more wicked than themselves, and entered in 
 ■and dwelt there, and the last state of politics was 
 worse than the first. [Laughter.] There are three 
 classes of those who menace the Government. One 
 class have arms in their hands; another class have 
 politics in their heads, and another class with treason 
 in their hearts [loud cheers and laughter I, and they 
 are all acting together. [Cheers and applause.] He 
 cursed them all as one, and on them all invoked 
 maledictions. He denounced them in the name of 
 the Union and Constitution and of free Government. 
 He was a Democrat of the straightest sect, but he 
 did not inquire who administered this Government. 
 [Cheers.] It will be time to inquire that when this 
 
 Rebellion is over. Listen not to him who cries, " Lo 
 here!" and " Lo there!" and atteaipts to excite 
 jiarty prejudices, and to ciimT) up iide tiltliy and slip- 
 pery stepstones of party discipline. Inquire only who 
 is for his country — who is on the Lord's side. 
 We want men to-day that will put down this Rebel- 
 lion; we want men whose material and moral muscle 
 shall stand out like whip cord, and who will 
 give their lives for their country. [Cheers.] He 
 nad recently neard of a great political conference 
 between Lord Lyons and some individuals who had 
 crawled into the Democratic lion-skin. As far as 
 Lord Lyons was concerned, representing a Govern- 
 ment who considers government and conspiracy as 
 the same, who called those who stole and those who 
 were stolen from "l)eltii<erents" alike, who fit out 
 pirates to cruise not merely on the commerce of the 
 United States, but of the world. He did very well. 
 [Laughter.] But against these 290s of the Demo- 
 cratic party, who are conspiring against the peace 
 of the Union, he had no respect. They are Demo- 
 crats. Andrew Jackson was a Democrat. He 
 wished they would put themselves into communi- 
 cation with his spirit for a little while, and if the old 
 gentleman carries his cane yet, there would be same 
 rapping. [Laughter. A voice — "He would hit 
 Fernando Wood on the head."] He would say once 
 for all now, and meaning what he said, and speaking 
 in italics and capitals, that for pure and unalloyed 
 rascality, double-distilled villany, there has not been 
 anything recorded since the days of Pontius Pilate 
 as infamous as that. [Cheers.] Who are the indi- 
 viduals? [A voice — "Wood."] Before he went 
 home he was going to look in the Rogues' Gallery 
 for their portraits. [Cheers.] He was told they 
 were Democrats. Ttjey are demon-crats. [Great 
 applause and laughter.] They connived with the 
 representative ot a foreign Government for the 
 destruction of their country, and their names shall 
 stand high on the roll of infamy ! When the 
 Rebellion broke out traitors had stolen our arms and 
 ships, but now we have raised an army that makes 
 tbe earth throb with its tread. The" hope of the 
 Rebellion for foreign recognition is gone. Great 
 Britain thinks she can see quite as well what is go- 
 ing on at a respectable distance — [laughter] — and 
 France has enough else to attend to. Great Britain 
 did hope that our Government might be destroyed. 
 Her rotten aristocracy, that leans up against her 
 public and her public debt against them, like two 
 drunken men supporting each other — [Laugliter and 
 cheers]- and both of them will fall when one gives 
 way a little; they hate us, but John Bright and 
 Cobden and the masses are in our favor. [Loud 
 cheers and applause.] The only hope of Rebellion 
 now rests in the division and disloyalty at the 
 North, on secret societies and parties inaugurated 
 to aid Rebellion under the sacred name of Democ- 
 racy. They tell us we must fold our hands and hang 
 out the olive branch of peace. He was tor the olive 
 branch himself, but he wanted it should he a 
 stout tree, and about eight feet from the 
 ground — [Great laughter and cheers] — and have a 
 stout rope hanging irom the end of it. [Renewed 
 applause.] That is the way to treat the leaders of 
 this Rebellion. [Cries of " That's it" and cheers.] 
 There can be no compromise now. He is a traitor 
 to his country, if tie is a man of ordinary intelligence, 
 who attempts anything of the kind. This glonous 
 meetmg convinced him that the Rebellion was 
 doomed. [Cheers.] But these men are afraid that 
 Slavery may suffer in this war for the Constitiition. 
 He would "not go out of the way to get rid of 
 Slavery, but you might as well expect to retain 
 the wild game in a country after you have 
 cleared it all off as to retain Slavery after 
 the war of Revolution has passed over it. [Great 
 applause.] The Secessionists have done more 
 in one year than the Abolitionists have done in 30. 
 [Laughter and cheers.] The old Greek Xenophemes, 
 who believed in transmigration, requested his fiiend 
 to cease beating a dog, for he thought he recognized 
 the voice of a deceased friend in its howl, and so wise 
 
27 
 
 men don't want Slavery disturbed becaaee they 
 think they recognize the ho-wl of a deceased friend 
 in it. [Great applause and laughter.] He would 
 object to Slavery the same as he would object to 
 having a powder house in New-York City ; because 
 it is liable at any time to blow us all to pieces. [Loud 
 cheering.] Tbe ocean may cast off her mire and 
 dirt in the mighty heavings and sgitations of ber 
 bosom ; the bghtnings may flash athw artthe slsy ; the 
 thunders may war in the distance, and tbe winds 
 may bowl, but the sun of this morn will rise again 
 with the promise of a fair day, and God's children 
 will stand upon the great pjinciple of equality in 
 this Western Hemisphere. [Tremendous applause 
 and three hearty cheers for the speaker.] 
 
 After an interlude of music by the band, Mr. 
 Butler introduced the Hon. Henry Wilson of Maes, 
 who was received with three rousing cheers. 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. HENRY WILSON OF MAS- 
 SACHUSETTS. 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens of New- 
 Tork: The banners of more than a thousand regi- 
 ments of loyal men of our country are to-day wav- 
 ing in the beams of yonder rolling sun in the land 
 of Rebellion. Three quarters of a million of our 
 countrymen, of our neighbors, of our friends, are 
 bearing the banners of their country to-day on the 
 Boil of the Rebel States. They are around Charles- 
 ton [cheers] ; on the shores of North Carolina; with 
 Banks near the mouth of the Mississippi; with Grant 
 around Vicksburg; with Rosecrans around the im- 
 mortal field of Murfreesboro [loud cheers] ; with 
 Fighting Joe Hooker on the banks of the Rr.ppahan- 
 nock. Your voices, the beating of your loyal hearts, 
 will reach them ; and as they look the foes of their 
 country in tbe face, they will be stronger because 
 ,the men of New-York are behind them. [Cheers.] 
 Our brave soldiers in tbe field in the campaign of 
 Gen. Stoneman, one of our bravest and truest sol- 
 diers, say that while thev hate tbe Rebel in front, 
 ihey despise the traitor in the rear [cheers], and they 
 would delight to hang the one as well i'.s to shoot 
 the other. That is the sentiment of three-fourths of 
 a million of brave men who are bearing the banners 
 of the Republic. The gentleman who preceded me 
 said to you, and he said truly, that the hopes of the 
 Rebel chiefs were in the division of the people of the 
 loyal States. It was my fortune — my sad fortune — 
 to sit with those Rebel leaders in the session of '60 
 and '61. Then they were preparing tbe country for 
 Revolution. Day after day we sat in the Senate of 
 the United States — in the House of Representatives 
 — and saw these Rebel leaders plot for the overthrow 
 of the Republic; and I say to you to-day, gentlemen, 
 that their hopes rested upon two things — one, the in- 
 tervention of England or France through the power 
 of King Cotton, and the other, division in the North- 
 ern States. They believed that the City of New- York 
 would raise the cry of " bread or blood " — they be- 
 lieved that the loyal men hastening to the defense of 
 the menaced capital would be smitten down on the 
 pavements of the City of New-York. Jefferson Da- 
 vie, in the session of 1850, said to me on the floor of 
 the Senate that he was assured, in the language of 
 one of his friends in the North, that if this contest 
 came to blows they would throttle us in our tracks. 
 But, gentlemen, you all remember that when, two 
 years ago, the banners of our country went down 
 beneath the consuming fires of the batteries upon 
 Fort Sumter, that the people rose in their majesty, 
 as one man, for the support of the country. [Cheers.] 
 But you remember aleo, with what amazement the 
 Rebel chiefs received the intelligence of that uprising 
 of the freemen of the North. RusesU tells us, in his 
 Diary, that he found everywhere in the South tbe 
 greatest amazement that the people of the North 
 were united to uphold the cause of our country. 
 But, gentlemen, we know while the people of this 
 country, the masses, rose to sustain their Govern- 
 ment ; to sustain the cause of human liberty in the 
 Western World, that there were men who bowed to 
 public opinion, but whose hearts were black with 
 
 sympathy with traitors. [" That's bo."] Misfor- 
 tunes came upon us, death entered almost all our 
 dwellings, our brave men were smitten down on 
 many battle-fields, trials came upon tbe people, our 
 hearts throbbed saaly and heavily, and then it wae 
 that these men the Rebel ctiiefs relied upon to come 
 to the rescue andsave their. — to bathe our streets in 
 blood and overthrow the Government of the coun- 
 try — began to demand a peace that was to blot this 
 nation forever from the annals of mankind. But, 
 gentlemen, thanks to God, thanks to the people of this 
 country ! tbey are rising again, and Copperheadism 
 is slinking away. The heel of the American people 
 is pretsing that serpent's head. Ard now, gen- 
 tlemen, I say to you to-night that while the Rebel 
 chiefs give up the cause of foreign intei-vention, they 
 yet rely on the secret orders of the Knights of the 
 Golden Circle; they rely upon men who preach 
 peace, when there can be no peace, with the salva- 
 tion ol our country. [Cheers.] But, gentlemen, 
 my faith is strong — strong in the people of the 
 United States, strong in the progress of human 
 events, strong in Democratic institutions, and strong 
 in that God that rules over the affairs of men. 
 [Cheers.] The cause in which we are engaged is the 
 cause of national unity, and the life of this nation; 
 the existence of this North American Republic, is at 
 iseue; and that is not all, the cause of human lib- 
 erty in America is at issue — the cause of toiUng mil- 
 lions of the North American Republic. There is an 
 influence on earth that elevates and adorns human 
 character that is with us and fighting for us in this 
 great battle in which we are engaged. There is not 
 amanwto cannot take the cause of our country 
 homo with him to-night and xead his Bible, and on 
 his bended knees invoke the blessing of Almighty 
 God upon the cause of our common country. It is a 
 cause that a man may be proud to toil for, labor for, 
 and, if need be, proudly to die for. [Cheers.] Up 
 in tHe interior of this State a gray-beaded old sol- 
 dier lay djing. In his last moments, when life was 
 flickering, he called for a glass of wine, and, holding 
 it up, said: "God bless my country, the United 
 States of America !" and the brave old soldier 
 passed away witli the noble and pious sentiment 
 upon his Mps. There is not a man in America that 
 may not invoke these utterances of Gen. Sumner, 
 and ask God to bless our country, the United States 
 of America. [Cheers and the boom of cannon,] 
 We should support the Government of our country, 
 not because it is a Republican Administration, for I 
 do not ask it. I would support a Democratic Ad- 
 ministration, because my duty to my cormtry de- 
 manded it. [" Bravo, bravo.'"' Cheers.] But I 
 am proud to know that they are giving to this Ad- 
 ministration all their moral support and all the 
 votes they have to give. On the Committee of 
 Military Affairs in the Senate there were 
 four Republicans and three Democrats, and of 
 6,825 names that passed before that Commit- 
 tee since the war commenced, there never 
 has been a party division in that Committee. 
 [Loud applause.] We should forget all partisanship 
 and bury all party feelings deeper than ever plummet 
 sounded [cheers] , and go for our country, our whole 
 country, and nothing but our country. [Great ap- 
 plause and cheers.] He hailed these Loyal Leagues 
 springing up over the country, and all should cooperate 
 to fire thb hearts and nerve the arms of our brave 
 soldiers. [Loud applause.] All party conflicts and 
 organizations dwarf and sink down in the presence 
 of the mighiy events which are upon us. The high- 
 est and loftiest duty ever committed to men is com- 
 mitted to us now, and that, duty is to save our coun- 
 try, to preserve the life of our nation. [A cry—" We 
 will."] We will do it. I entertain not a shadow of 
 a doubt of the triumph of our cause. [Applause.] I 
 never have doubted amid defeat and darkness. [A 
 cannon boom. ] I have had undoubting faith that this 
 people would rise ; that they would stand by their 
 country ; that they would cultivate patriotism and 
 toleration ; and above all, that endurance that wine 
 and triumphs in the end, I have seea mor« euthu- ' 
 
28 
 
 aiaem in other days than in this, bat we have now 
 come to the poher second thought ■which is based 
 upon the eentiuient and the heart, npon the convic- 
 tions and the judgment, npon the aspiratiot s and the 
 Bonl of the people. It is the result of reflection — it 
 comes from trial, and it will live and last, and carry 
 us gloiiouely and triumphantly through. [Great ap- 
 plause, and three cheers and a tiger for Mr. Wilson.! 
 Gen. James W. Nye was next introduced to the 
 immense audience, who welcomed him with loud ap- 
 plause. 
 
 SPEECH OF GEN. KYE. 
 He was no stranger to them, and he felt quite at 
 home in the old city of New-York. [Applause.] 
 He had seen her thousands marshalled before, but 
 they were never gathered on a more eventful oc- 
 casion. He stood in the National Capitol when the 
 news came that Fort Sumter had been fired npon, and 
 he made a covenant that he would never lay down 
 his arms till the glory of that old flag was redeemed. 
 [Great applause.] When he went to his new home, 
 3,000 miles away, he met there Lis old acquaintance, 
 the Stars and StnoeE — [Cheers] — and there it should 
 float forever. [Great applause.] Whatever may be 
 the fate of the Atlanic slope, there shall be one 
 Switzerland in Ameiica. [Load Cheers.] Tney 
 would barricade their mountain fastnesses and the 
 old flag should float there forever. [Grfat applause.] 
 The stars are emblematical of the eyes of a watch- 
 ful and vigilant people, and the stripes are em- 
 blematical of the tribute our fathers paid to Great 
 Britain in two ware. [Tremendous applause.] He 
 thought this Rsbelliou a good thing. The spirit of 
 '76 had died out. It needed a new regeneration — a 
 new baptism — and that baptism needed to be of 
 blood, and we have got it. Though it may clothe 
 our famihes in the habiliments of mourning, yet the 
 glorious future will be a recompense for all of our 
 sacrifices. We. will have a peace that will be per- 
 manent. Kebellion at the South and Copperheadism 
 at the North will be seen walking two by two in 
 the political Potter's field as the pairs went into the 
 Ark, and there they will be buried forever. [Tre- 
 mendous applause.] And they ought to be. [Ap- 
 plause. Cries of "Good!" "Amen!'] We are 
 told that this rebellion cannot be put down by arms; 
 bat these Eebels have chosen the arbitrament of 
 bullets instead of ballots, and we will beat them at 
 that. [Great applause, " We will I"] And the man 
 IB blmoer than a meadow mole and deafer than an 
 adder that can see anything else than our fiual tri- 
 umph in this struggle. [Loud cheers.] They tell 
 ns we stall be burdened with heavy- taxes; but 
 when he saw a man with a pencil behind his ear 
 figuring up how much he can make by this war he 
 isa traitor. [Great applause, and cries of " Good !" 
 "good!" " That's so."] He wanted to see men 
 inquiring what sacriticee they could make for their 
 country. [Loud cheers.] Ue had a kind of in- 
 spiration that to-day, and at this hour, the Stars and 
 Stripes floated over Port Sumter [trenieudoas ap- 
 plause], gold-dealers and Copperheads to the con- 
 trary. [14enewed applause and liughter]. Or if it 
 does not now, it soon will. [Loud cheers.] He knew 
 one thing that Copperheads oidn'i know, aijd thank 
 God tbey knew a great many tbiogs he did not. 
 [Renewed laughter and applause.] He knew enough 
 to love this country with as undying a love as a eon 
 lor the ruother that bore him — [great applause] — and 
 he did n't know enough to plot treason against it. 
 [Renewed applause.] He believed that all bell and 
 Reheldom combined could not destroy this country. 
 [Loud cheers.] Men of New- York! are you ready 
 to maintiiiu tbis Union ? [Cries of "Yes," "yes," 
 " we will.' ] Tben I will go West and report that 
 New-York is all right. [Great cbeers.] If there is 
 a man who has not faith enough to believe the coun- 
 try must succeed, let him go among the Copperheads. 
 [Great laughter and applause.] A more dreadful 
 fate awaits all these classes ot Rebels than that of 
 
 the falling avalanche; theirs will be an eternal, 
 abiding sleep, and one would doubt whether, in the 
 wi:dom of God, t' ey wi 1 be disturbed in the morn- 
 ing of the reenrrection — [loud cheers and laughter] — 
 unlets it is to consign them to a deeper hell. [Great 
 applause. "They will file off" to the left then."] 
 Felli)W-citizens, I thank you for this hearing. [" Go 
 on," "go on."] It is all very easy to say "go on," 
 but where is the wind to come from ? [Great laugh- 
 ter.] He had been speakingat anotherstand, and was 
 tired. But he would go on a pilgrimage from the 
 heaving billows of the Atlantic to the quiet waters 
 of the Pacific to see restored on this continent that 
 glorious and benignant peace that wiil bring with it 
 one country, on» people — and that we will have. 
 He would now ask them to give three cheers for the 
 old flag. [Given heartily, and three cheers for the 
 speaker.] 
 
 Prof. John A. Porter of Yale College was next 
 introduced. He said to-day he was not ashamed to 
 coEfess himself a citizen of Connecticut. [Cheers, 
 and three rousing cheers for Connecticut.] Copper- 
 headism had made its strike there, and been tram- 
 pled into the earth. [Loud cheers.] The people of 
 Connecticut and New-York are prepared to stand 
 by the flag until it shall float in triumph over all 
 this continent. [Loud cheers.] 
 
 SPEECH OF JOHN C. MONTGOMERY. 
 Mr. John C. Montgomery was introduced, and 1 
 related to the audience a story of Mason, with whom 
 he had been acquainted. Mason, on one occasion, 
 on being introduced by Mr. Montgomery as his Dem- 
 ocratic friend, said: " Mr. Montgomery, I wish you 
 would introduce me, not as your Democratic but as 
 your Republican friend, for, by G — d, I don't think 
 Democracy is conetitutional." 
 
 SPEECH OF G. W. ELLIOT. 
 Mr. G. W. Elliot, a merchant from London, 
 was next introduced. He said that the real true, 
 honest heart of the English people sympathized with 
 the Americans in this struggle. [A voice — " Can't 
 see it."l The aristocracy and the would-be aristoc- 
 racy mivht desire to see this Government destroyed. 
 England is not easily moved, and it takes a long 
 time to move the great masses, but the great popular 
 heart o; that country eympatbizes thoroughly with 
 the Noi th in this struggle. He believed this to be 
 the greatest nation on earth, and engaged in one of 
 the greatest struggles the earth ever saw. Their 
 success would not only be a victory here, hut a tri- 
 umph for Freedom all over the world. [Loud 
 cheers.] He had always said that the great City of 
 New- York was loyal, aud if he was told they were 
 in favor ot Slavery and Secession he said that was a 
 lie! [Cheers and applause. A voice — "Go on; give 
 it to 'cm. ; but The London Times won't print your 
 speech." Laughter.] 
 
 SPEECH OF COL. NUGENT, OF THE "69tH." 
 Mr. Butler then introduced Col. Nugent, who 
 was received with three rousing cheers. He said: 
 
 My Friends: I did not come here to make a 
 speech, but as a spectator, to look on. But I am 
 very proud to see such a spirit of patriotism as I 
 have seen here this afternoon ; but I would be 
 prouder to see one half of you down in the Army of 
 the Potomac, to fill up the broken regiments there. 
 [Loud cheers.] I see a great many here 1 would 
 like as recruits for the gallant 69ih. [A voice — 
 " Give me $l,O0O and I will go;" hisses and cries 
 of "Copperhead."] We don't want you. Sir; we 
 want true men and volunteers. [Cheers] But, 
 gentlemen, I am not; accustomed to public speaking 
 and do not letl much at home here; put me at the 
 head of my regiment and I am at home. [Greait 
 applause.) 
 
29 
 
 After sorae remarks by P. E. Lambert the vast 
 audience dispersed, the band playing "Old Hund- 
 red," and other iomsic, and the crowd giving three 
 tremendous cheers for the Union. 
 
 STAND No. 6. 
 
 Speeches by David Dudley Field, Gen. Nye, 
 
 Cicorgc W. Curtis, S. V. Chittenden, 
 
 Jauies A. Briggs, Thomas Parsons, Oen. 
 
 Cra^vford, Theodore Tilton, and others. 
 
 Stand No. 6 was located in the noith-eastern angle 
 of Union Square. It bore the motto, "A common 
 Union to maintain the power, glory, and integrity of 
 the Nation." Salutes pealed from the lips of aitille- 
 ry, and at about 4 o'clock Wiegand's band struck up 
 the Graod March from " Le Prophete." 
 
 Wm. E. Dodge, esq., presided, and in opening 
 the meeting said they were resolved not to cease do- 
 ing till we should be a united and happy people. 
 
 Prayer whs then offered by the Kev. Thomas E. 
 Vermilye, D. D. 
 
 The list of officers of the meeting, the address, and 
 the resolutions were read by John Austin Ste- 
 vens, jr., and adcp'ed. After mutic by tiie band, 
 
 David Dudley Field, esq., was introdaced, and 
 spoke as follows: 
 
 SPEECH OF DAVID DUDLEY FIELD. 
 
 Fellow-citizens: If I were asked to express in 
 three words what appears to me the greatest 
 needs of the country at this hour, I should 
 say unity, courage, constancy. Without unity, our 
 great preponderating force dwindles into in^ignifi- 
 cance. Twenty-three millions wield undoubtedly 
 enormous power, equal to the subjugation of all tire 
 Rebels in the rebellious States. But if the twenty- 
 three millions were made up of thirteen millions 
 loyal and ten d sloyal, the latter might neutralize an 
 equal number of the former, and the force of the 
 twenty-three millions would really be repreeented 
 by three million?. So of greater or less proportions. 
 We are, therefore, under a necessity, moral" and po- 
 litical, to labor with all our might to produce agree- 
 ment among our people. The nearer we can come 
 to absolute unanimity the better. To that end, we 
 must lay aside minor differences, and confine our- 
 selves to the few essential, fundamental political 
 truths and rules of conduct that have relaUon only 
 to the overthrow of the Rebellion. By these 
 means, and these alone, shall we be enabled to col- 
 lect and use all our resources, for the maintenance of 
 the power, and the integrity of the nation, in its 
 whole territorial extent. Bat without courage 
 numbers will avail us little. It should seem strange 
 that an exhortation to courage can be neceesaiy 
 among the children of our fathers. Our people have 
 won tbeir way by courage to their present expanded 
 greatness. From tte time when our fathers landed 
 on these shores, through all the hardships of settle- 
 ment, ihrough poverty and want, through perils from 
 Indian savages, through colonial wars, throuKh the 
 war for independence, through the long period of 
 uncertainty and depression which ensued through 
 the political crisis which resulted in the establish- 
 ment of the Constitution, the war of 1812, aiid the 
 war with Mexico, courage has been almost a 3yno- 
 nym fur the Amerifian character. But there is a 
 moral as well as a physical courage, which shrinks 
 from no sacrifices, looks unappalled upon 
 reverses, hears with equanimity of delays and 
 mistakes, and cairies itself cheerfully, loiti- 
 ly, through all vicissitudes. This kind of 
 courage, not lees than that which storms for- 
 tresses and leads columna in the field, is needed r>y 
 U8 now; a courage which rejects the counsels of the 
 timid and time-serving, spurns every sug^jestion of 
 ingloiioas peace, sends none bat eucouiaging words 
 
 to our soldiers in the ranks, and makes ready to 
 send more soldiers, and as many more as the country 
 may call, if it call tor all we h*ve. And yet, with- 
 out conbtancy, courage may fail at last. In the 
 difEicult and novel circumstances in which the 
 country now stands, we are liable to have lepeated 
 failures. Inexperience leads to mistakes; the diffi- 
 culty of adjusting untried means to ends proposed 
 brings after it frequent miscarriages, and these tend 
 to beget in the end distrust, and the fear that we 
 may not after all be able to overcome the difficul- 
 ties ia our way. Bui this is not the proper feeling 
 for a heroic ptople. Constancy under all fortunes 
 is the great Koa an virtue, as the opposite quality 
 is the curse of fickle and ECtoudary nations. 
 " Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel," 
 was the prophesy of the patriarch to a 
 portion of bis children. So it is now. and 
 so it ever will be; those nations only can hope to 
 stand at the head of the world which never despair. 
 Let us, fellow-citizens, stand together; show the 
 courage of our fathers, and the constancy of our race. 
 So will our future be lull of promise. Then shall 
 we rise soperior to any disaeter and every embar- 
 rassment; and our children will t bank God for our 
 unity, our courage, and our constancy throughout 
 the perilous times of the slaveholders' rebellion. 
 
 Mr. F. was frequently interrupted by applause 
 during the delivery of his address. 
 
 Toe Chairman next introduced Gov. Nye of 
 Nevada Territory, who was greeted with three 
 cheers. 
 
 SPEECH OF GOVERNOR NYE. 
 
 Gov. Nye said it was not with him a matter of 
 faith; he knew there was enough of the spirit of 
 our Revolutionary fathers yet circulating in the 
 veins of their sons to redeem the flag under all cir- 
 cumstances from dishonor at home or intervention 
 from abroad. The Republic would live, no matter 
 what the ordeal through which it was called to pass. 
 He would address Copperheads, if there were any 
 present, for he came not to call righteous, but sinners 
 to repentence, " They did not want negro regi- 
 ments!" He would arm a mule to kill Rebels. He 
 would arm the devil himself if he would consent to 
 serve, because that would be meeting his equal face 
 to face. [Laughter.] If the Copperheads wanted 
 to avoid conscription let them stop discouraging en- 
 listments in colored regiments. Those people who 
 talked about resisting the conscription act had better 
 ask themselves whetber tbey wanted the field of war 
 transferred from Virginia to Manhattan Island. Gov. 
 Nye continued at some length in his characteristic 
 strain, mingling humor and argument. 
 
 SPEECH OP GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS, 
 Mr. Curtis on being introduced was received with 
 apt'lause. He said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman and fellow citizens, two years ago, 
 when that flag came down, for the first time shot at 
 in dishonor, and disgraced by fellow-citizens of 
 ours, and American citizens, there was but one feel- 
 ing that ran through thit^ laud — a feeling so shudder- 
 ing and appalling, that it was as when a great ship 
 suddenly comes into the wind, and every inch of canvas 
 flutters, and fur a moment there is doubt whether 
 the voyage shall be continued or whether the ship 
 shall there go down, "iou remember, fellow-citi- 
 zens, that the answer was given upon this place, 
 where we Etand to-day. You remember that the 
 first answer was given by eloquent voices, whom it 
 is well for us at this rnomeut to recall, because 
 they were voices of those who have sealed iheir 
 fidelity with their life's blood. Here, within the range 
 of my voice at this moment, stood the gallant MU- 
 chel, born in Kentucky; and he, after his career, ia 
 silent. But you know his story. Here, within 
 sound of my voice, stood the great- 
 hearted Bakei-. He, too, has sealed the truth «f 
 his words. Eloquent in their lives, fellow-citizens, 
 they were still more eloquent ia their death; 
 
30 
 
 and tbey are forever eloquent, speaking to you and 
 me, to our children's children, forever, in our hearts 
 and in our history. That -was the reeponse given 
 then. Two years have passed. There are no longer 
 hut 800 soldiers, and hut $500 in the Treasury. Did 
 yon hear them speak ? Then bend your head, and 
 strain your ears this moment, and you shall hear also 
 the thunders of an eloquence that shakes the very 
 air, that dazzles the very splendor of the midnight 
 heavens — the thanders of the belching fires of Du- 
 pont and the brave men with him, who now declare 
 that that ilag that was pulled down in weakness 
 shall be raised in power; and that as when it fell it 
 was the glittering shroud of every party line, and of 
 all party differences whatsoever, so that now there 
 are, there can henceforth be, but two parties in the 
 land — they who stand in open rebellion, with guns 
 and cannon, against it, and all other men who are 
 resolved, God helping, if chey cannot do the work, 
 then they will fall doing it, and transfer it to their 
 lineage to do, and their children's children, until all 
 beneath that pall of party shall upbear the flag, and 
 the stars are restored once more to the heavens 
 whence they came. [Applause.] This, fellow-citi- 
 zens, and not less, is the significance ot the hour. It 
 is to answer for us all whether we are a nationality ; 
 it is to answer for us all whether there is something 
 below all our ties, whatever they may be. This is a 
 contest which has never changed its character; this 
 is a contest, from the beginning, simply of the 
 ballot-box. It is not long since I stood 
 upon a platform like this side by side with 
 a man whose every political theory I 
 doubt not, differs absolutely and radically ' from 
 mine. The gentleman of whom I speak is a name 
 known to you, justly dear to you, peculiarly honored 
 by every loyal man in the land at this moment, for 
 it is James T. Brady of this city. [Applause.] 
 With Mr. Brady, bound upon the same mission, we 
 went into the State of Connecticut, not as Con- 
 necticut men, but as citizens of the United States, 
 interested to know whether other citizens ot the 
 United States living in that State were willing to 
 abandon the Union, dishonor the flag, and consent 
 to common ruin. We stood there side by side simply 
 to defend the ballot-box. Whatever differences Mr. 
 Brady and I had before — and I believe they were 
 radical upon every question — the moment the 
 assault was made upon that bcx, that instant Mr. 
 Brady and every man like him in the land, and 
 every loyal man of whatever complexion, knew 
 no other party than the party that would restore, by 
 bullets if necessary, by every measure which the 
 Administration, which is the representative of this 
 country, might call for, the ballot-box -in all its 
 purity, as the sole and single arbiter of every politi- 
 cal difference in this land. That, fellow-citizens, 
 was the significance of the meeting here two 
 years ago. 1 stand to you, I truer, as a loyal 
 inan. I believe only one man in tbds city has 
 made it his boast that be is not loyal. [A Voice : 
 " Fernando Wood."] It seems to me, fellow-citi- 
 zens, that he might well have spared his breath ; for 
 I never knew that any one suspected that gentleman 
 of loyalty; or, if loyal, he had long ago given it 
 the benefit of the statute of limitation. [Laughter.] 
 But when he says there is no such sentiment as loy- 
 alty in this land, I hope the occasion of the hour 
 may take him through the square in which we 
 stand, that he may see the hundreds and thousands 
 of men, whose brothers, sons, friends, stand embat- 
 tled from the Chesapeake lo the Mississippi, by sea 
 and by land, brave men, united by one sentiment, 
 and one sentiment only, and that is an unshrinking 
 and eternal loyalty to the Government which their 
 fathers made, which they have received, and which, 
 by the grace of God, they will transfer imchanged 
 to their children. [Applause.] Now, then, fellow- 
 citizens, understand this one point, that the efibrt to 
 destroy the Nation, which is no less than the United 
 States of America, is simply an effort to 
 undo the laws of God. The Union of 
 thb United States is an iastinct. From 
 
 the instinct of union in the people the Constitution 
 of the United States sprang. For it was the senti- 
 ment of union that made the Constitution, and not 
 the Constitution that made the Union. The Union 
 is an effect of our existence; it is a thought, it is a 
 sentiment, you cannot repeal it, you cannot touch it 
 in the least point, for it is in the heart of every citi- 
 zen. And when we say Union, and when I stand here 
 and say to you that I belong to the Union, and that 
 that flag stands for the Union, you all understand me 
 to mean precisely what an Englishman means when 
 he says England', precisely what a Frenchman means 
 when he says France — and that is the essential 
 nationality of this people. The Union is the form 
 only, the nation is the soul. To save the Union is to 
 save the nation. And, therefore, at this moment first 
 and most truly in this land the Union man is he who 
 is resolved that there is, that by the grace of God 
 God there shall be but one Government as there is 
 but one nation within our domains^that either this 
 Rebellion shall march trailing its flag over us, until 
 above our shame and disgrace its flag sends its 
 curdling and chilling shadow deep into the waters 
 of the land, or that the people of the United States 
 of America — knowiug that the Union is the nation- 
 will march triumphant over them, bearing that flag 
 full of the hues of Heaven, until its ancient splen- 
 dors shall flash the liberty with which it was first 
 baptized far over the sparkling waters of the North. 
 [Applause.] Stand fast, thea, by the Union. Un- 
 derstand that when the Continental CongresB de- 
 clared, adjourning, as it did adjourn, that its best 
 men might make the Constitution of >he United 
 States, that the cause of the United States is the 
 cause of human nature. It is therefore that thie 
 Rebellion is so envenomed, and therefore that this 
 Rebellion stands so fast and so ably, because It 
 knows that by the necessary development, by the 
 necessary growth of the people of this country, 
 whatever interferes with the rights, with the 
 liberties, with the peace of any solitary citizen in the 
 land, wherever he may be, that touches the liberty 
 of all; and no man will rest, the nation itself will 
 heave, until the rights of every man have been fully 
 vindicated. Now, fellow-citizens, this being so, the 
 experience of two years has shown us two things: 
 in the first place, that this nation is resolved to main- 
 tain its nationality; and in the second place, that 
 there is no conceivable result possible to the war in 
 which we are engaged except the absolute victory 
 or the absolute subjugation of the Government of 
 the United States. [Applause, j There is no possible 
 ground between this. The gentlemen who have for 
 a moment, proposed compromise do injustice to the 
 policy and sagacity of the men who have reared the 
 black flag of rebellion. The men who have raised 
 the flag of disunion do an equal injustice to the 
 sworn conviction of every loyal citizen in the 
 land. Therefore, understand me, that there 
 can be but one of these two issues. You know 
 which. In your own experience it is written in 
 many a household of yours in the finger of blood — 
 it is written in your hearts, deep down, with all the 
 earnestness of the most vital conviction. Under- 
 stand that the moral of to-day is the moral of 
 two years ago; that there is henceforth no party 
 among loyal men. We know there is none. We 
 know this, fellow-citizens, that old Jefferson Davis, 
 of Mississippi, was no sounder man tried by party 
 standard than the old white-haired man whose elo- 
 quence has thrilled you this afternoon. Whatever 
 Jefferson Davis was as a party man that was Dan- 
 iel S. Dickinson. And while the hand of Jeff. 
 Davis was raised to stab us, you know how the 
 tongue of Mr. Dickinson has waved like a tongue of 
 fire, defending and again defeading as he has to- 
 day, the outraged honor of our dearest common 
 mother and native land. [Applause.] And you 
 know further, that however good a party 
 leader in his day Mr. Breckinridge may have been, 
 that Mr. Douglas was no way ii5erior, and his last 
 words were of the most unswerving loyalty to hiB 
 country and to the Union of the States. [Applause.l 
 
31 
 
 And, fellow-citizem, it was my special pleasure to 
 say, when it was my privilege to be in Concecticut, 
 that if they had produced in Connee ieut one known 
 in party times as a Democrat, we in New-York bad 
 produced another man known in party days as a 
 Democrat; and that if Isaac Toucey had done all he 
 could, as his own letters testify, to haul down that 
 flag and disgrace it beneath the heel of Eebellion, 
 that John A. Dix — a man, and no lees — had not 
 hesitated to make the telegraph and every brave 
 man's heart thrill with the message: "Whoever 
 hauls down that flag, shoot him on the spot !" [Ap- 
 plause.] Yes, lellow-cilizens, there we stood then, 
 and here we stand now, unchanged. The ship was 
 tossing then ; I grant you the ship is toesing now. But 
 then it was in the wind; now it has laid its course; 
 it has taken the full breeze, and its course is onward. 
 But this understand, that while the tempest howls, 
 while the ship quivers in its dreadful billows red 
 with blood, what is the duty of every loyal man; 
 what will every loyal man do ? He wiU ask him- 
 self but one question: Does the captain, do the crew, 
 mean right ? Then, if they do, I will not trouble 
 myself lo have a better captain I might know; I 
 will not trouble myself to call over the names of a 
 crew that might seem abler than this. The ship is 
 nere; the tornado is here; the captain is here; "the 
 crew is here — we are all in for the voyage. And 
 whoever, knowing that that captain and crew desire 
 only the safety of the ship and the passengers, who- 
 ever for an instant raises a voice against them, who- 
 ever himself desponds, desires or endeavors to seduce 
 loyal and brave men of the land from their obedience, 
 mark that man well, for he shows himself a lineal 
 descendant of the Copperhead in Eden, who tried 
 to seduce Eve from her obedience. [Laughter and 
 applause. 1 Stand fast, fellow-citizens, then, I ab- 
 jure you; stand fast by the flag which is the sym- 
 bol of all that 18 precious to you — of all the liberties 
 you ever had — ot principles that at this moment keep 
 this city m perfect peace ; that at this moment main- 
 tain quiet throughout the broad region that is not 
 touched by the hand of Kebellioa. Stand fast by 
 the flag, knowing this, tbat if we are not enough; 
 that if, m our day, thio tight cannot be fought out; 
 that it was a fight which was born in us; it was 
 bred in our bones; it flows in our blood; we are 
 tied up to that issue; and when we lay iu the 
 graves those who went from us with bloom in their 
 cheeks, with vigor in their voices, all that can move 
 in man — remember that when they went we held 
 ourselves in camp by our firesides ready to follow ; 
 we hold ourselves — every man of us who is loyal 
 holds himself, at this moment, only waiting to hear 
 what the Government, which is the representative 
 of the whole people, demands of him, in order 
 to say, " Ready ! Ready ! I am here !" [Tremen- 
 dous applause.] Still more: If all who have 
 gone— Grod rest their souls ! — if all who are ready 
 to go, young men who are stroag men now, wiU not 
 suffice, then shall the time come when each one of us 
 will transfer it to his child, as the most sacred duty 
 he can perform, that he shall neither spare himself 
 nor allow his children's children to be spared. And 
 renewing once more our vows to the dear old flag, 
 we will vow — as we do now here — God witnessing 
 the vow, and the shades of the august dead, who 
 have hallowed this very spot with devotion to the 
 Union; and witnessing the heavens, we do here once 
 more vow that, pure as its white, bright as its red, 
 fixed as its stars, is our faith in the national honor, 
 in the national glory that that flag represents ; and 
 though it should cost us our lives, they shall be 
 given, and the war shall go on — it shall be chroni- 
 cled in American blood — until that flag floats on 
 every spot of American soil as calmly in the evening 
 air as it hangs before you now. [Great and long- 
 continued applause.] 
 
 SPEECH OF S. B. CHITTENDEN. 
 After music, S. B. Chittenden, esq., was intro- 
 duced, who said that he had risen from a sick bed to 
 attend the meeting. He denounced the aspeision 
 
 that the League was a scheme of Federal office- 
 holders for unworthy ends as false. The Rebellion 
 must be put down by shot and shell — and it could 
 never be done by conditional patriots. Those who 
 were not unconditionally for the war were against 
 it. There was but one question before the Ameri- 
 can people — victory or death ! All other questions 
 had been passed upon aud adjourned. We must 
 subdue Jefferson Davis or he u~. To divide the 
 Union would be to sever the spinal column of the 
 nation, and death would be the inevitable result. 
 He advocated the setting aside of all party issues, 
 and concluded by adjuring them by the memories of 
 the past, the greater and more glorious promisee of 
 the future, to swear that so long asihey lived they 
 would be loyal to their country and to the flag that 
 waved over " the land of the free and the home of 
 the brave." [Applause.] 
 
 Music followed, and there were loud cries for Fre- 
 mont. The Chairman stated Mr. Fremont was 
 coming. [A voice, "We don't want Mr. Fremont, 
 but Gen. Fremont."] It was then announced that ' 
 Gen. Fremont had started to come to the stand, but 
 was unable to do so on account of the pressure of the 
 crowd. At the same time a dense mass of humanity 
 was seen surging and veering round the Everett 
 House, in the midst of which was the carriage of 
 Gen. Fremont, proceeding up Fourth avenue. 
 
 Mr. Lambert, " the Irish apprentice boy," fol- 
 lowed in a few remarks, asking why his country was 
 not represented from the stand, as it was nobly rep- 
 resented on the battle-field, and referred to the repu- 
 diation of Fernando Wood and his doctrines by the 
 Mozart Regiment. 
 
 SPEECH OF THE HON. JAMES A. BRIGGS. 
 The Hon. James A. Briggs did not mince matters 
 in defining his position. Treason, be believed, 
 attainted the blood, and he was for hanging traitors, 
 proven to be such, whether South or North. Mr. 
 Briggs drew a comparison betjveen Connecticut 
 Seymour and New-York Wood, as they sat down to 
 figure up the result of the election in the land of 
 steady habits, and the two surviving enemies in a 
 famished city, described by Byron, when they 
 
 " Lifted up their eyes and beheld 
 Each other's aspects, saw, and shrieked, and died ; 
 Even of their mutual hideousness they died, 
 Witnessing each the other was one upon whose blow 
 Patriotism had written, Traitor !" [Applause, j 
 
 . SPEECH OF THEODORE TILTON. 
 
 Theodore Tilton was the last speaker. In the 
 course of his remarks he said that the shadows of 
 even were descending, and a shadow had also passed 
 over our flag, but it would rise out of it resplendent, 
 and its glory in the future should exceed any glory 
 of the past. The lesson they were to carry home 
 was that there should be no sinking of hope for the 
 Republic, but there should be a resurrection for it; 
 for as God lived, liberty should triumph in this land. 
 The Republic was not dead, but the Slave Power 
 that struck the Republic was dead. All wars had 
 their compensations; and, as the bow of promise 
 came out of the stormv sky, so liberty should rise 
 out of the storm of thfs time, and the East and the 
 West, the North and the South— as did the Isle of 
 Cypress, according to the mythological tale, at the 
 tread of Venus — should blossom with the flowers of 
 peace. Mr. Tilton coucluded by saying, " May God 
 save the Republic in His own time, aud to IIis own 
 praise ! ' 
 
 The meeting at this stand, about 6J o'clock, closed 
 with three cheers for the Flag of the Union. 
 
 Thomas Parsons, esq., of St. Louis, said that he 
 hailed Irom a State claimed by Jeft'. Davis. He was 
 the first man that hung out a Union flag when that 
 city was under Rebel eway. He was a Jackson- 
 
32 
 
 VanBnren-Polk Democrat, bat not a Buchanan 
 Democrat, nor Copperhead. [Applau-:e.] 
 
 Gen. Crawford, one of the men who defended 
 Fort Sumter, was introduced, and gracefully ac- 
 knowledged the enthuBiastic reception accorded to 
 him. 
 
 Eeception of the Delegation from the 
 LoTAL Leagce of PHILADELPHIA. — The De'egatiou 
 from the Loyal League of Philadelphia, to attend 
 the Great MasB Meetmg of Saturday, arrived at the 
 foot of Conrtlandt street about noon, wbere they 
 were met by a Committee of tLe Loyal Leagues of 
 this city,with carriages. The distinguished guests 
 weretaken to Delmonico's and welcomed by R. B. 
 Mintmrn and; tbe Rev. Dr. Bellows. Morton Mc- 
 Michael, esq., Chairman of the Philadelphia Dele- 
 gation responded in a very happy and patriotic 
 speech, after which all partook of a lunch pro- 
 vided for their entertainment. From Delmoni- 
 co's tbe guests were escorted to the headquar- 
 ters of the Union League Club, and invited to 
 participate in the proceedings of raising and dedi- 
 cating a flag. They were then escorted^ to seats at 
 the various stands. At 7 o'clock the JL»elegate8 of 
 the New Yoik Union Leagues dined by invitation 
 with the Philadelphia Delegates at the Astor House. 
 Covers were laid for 150 persons. 
 
 When the cloth was removed, Bpeechea were made 
 by B. H. Brewster, esq., Charles Gibbons, efq., 
 BLenryC. Carey, esq., and others of Philadelphia, 
 Senator Wilson of Maesachusetts, Charles King, 
 esq. of this city, and others. Morton McMicbael, 
 esq., presided. There were about one hundred 
 Pbiladelpbians present, among whom were George 
 H. Buker, esq.. Judge Kelley, John B. Kenney, and 
 ex-Mayor Charles Gilpin. The aftair passed off 
 pleasantly. The Philadelphia guests, during their 
 stay, were waited upon by many of our most prom- 
 inent ciiizens, aid expressed themselves highly de- 
 liiihted with their reception and entertainment. 
 They return home to- day, heaving with them the 
 best wishes of their loyal friends in this city, whoee 
 hearts beat in unison with theirs and whose hands 
 ere ever ready to join with theirs in upholding the 
 Union and crushing out this wicked and caubelees 
 Kebetbon. 
 
 A NORTHERN TRIBUTE TO SOUTHERN LOYALTY. 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 Offered by Francis Lieber, and seconded by C. E. 
 Detmold, concerning the dcjnise of Jajhes L. 
 Petigru, of South Carolina, and unanimously 
 approved at the Great Mass Meeting of the 
 Loyal National League and other loyal citi- 
 zens, on occasion of the Sumter Anniversary, 
 in New York, April Uth, 1863: 
 "We, loyal citizens, assembled in Union Square, 
 New York, on the 11th day of April, 186.3, have 
 heard with deep sorrow that James Louis Peti- 
 gru, of Charleston, South Carolina, has departed 
 from this life ; therefore. 
 
 Resolved, That we will ever cherish the spot- 
 less name of this loyal citizen, who has set us a 
 bright example of unwavering fidelity and forti- 
 tude in adhering to his country and her sacred 
 cause, with a large mind untainted by narrow 
 state pride, free from sectional prejudice, and 
 proof against the errors peculiar to bis native 
 portion of the country. 
 
 Jiesolved, That, born and educated in South 
 Carolina; gifted with talents which entitled hira 
 to th« highest positions coveted by ambition ; 
 
 acknowledged by all to be the greatest jurist and 
 counsellor in his whole State ; of a genial as well 
 as an aspiring temper, fitted to enjoy the ameni- 
 ties of friendship and inspiriting popularity ; 
 aware that his interests were not lying on tbe 
 side he had chosen ; conscious that he wanted but 
 a sphere of action to be a statesman, — he never- 
 theless preferred to give up every advantage and 
 tie, and to remain, from early manhood to a ripe 
 old age, a patriot of devoted rectitude and polit- 
 ical simplicity. 
 
 Jiesolved, That in the unhappy period of nulli- 
 fication James Louis Petigru was the acknowl- 
 edged leader of the Union men in Charleston j 
 and now, in this dire civil war, when bis im- 
 passioned State pronounced herself by an over- 
 whelming declaration against the country, he 
 alone of all prominent citizens remained faithful 
 and unmoved to the last moment of his life, as a 
 lonely rock in tbe midst of an angry sea is lashed 
 in vain by the frenzied turmoil of storm and 
 wave. 
 
 LETTER FROM GEN. HALLECK, GENERAL-IN- 
 CHIEF OF THE AMERICAN ARMIES. 
 
 Headquarters of the Army, ) 
 
 Washington, April 5tb, 1863. J 
 James A. Roosevelt, 
 
 Secretary of the League, N. Y. 
 Sir : — I have received your invitation to attend 
 a mass meeting of the Loyal National League in 
 New York, on the 11th inst., and I regret that 
 my official duties will prevent me from being 
 present. I, however, fully approve of the object 
 of the meeting, ns set forth in your circular. 
 
 I think no man who has carefully observed the 
 course of events in the rebel States, since the 
 commencement of this war, can now hope for 
 any other peace than that which is imposed by the 
 bayonet. The loyal States must conquer this 
 rebellion, or it will conquer them. Loyal men of 
 all parties, and of all shades of political opinion, 
 must unite in supporting the government of our 
 fathers, or consent to see the glory and integrity 
 of this great nation utterly destroyed by rebels 
 and traitors. This rebellion cannot be put down 
 by peaceful measures. Those who pretend to 
 think so are either madmen or traitors in dis- 
 guise. We must either conquer or submit to 
 terms dictated by the Southern oligarcliy. There 
 is no other alternative. The great North and 
 West, with their vastly superior numbers and 
 means, can conquer, if they will act together. 
 If, through factions and dissensions, they fail to 
 do this, they will stand forever disgraced in the 
 opinion of the world, and will transmit that dis- 
 grace to their posterity. 
 
 We have already made immense progress in 
 this war — a greater progress than was ever before 
 made under similar circumstances. Our armies 
 are still advancing, and, if sustained by the 
 voicesof tbe patriotic millions at home, they will, 
 ere long, crusli the rebellion in the Soutii, and 
 then place their heels upon the heads of sneaking^ 
 traitors in the North. 
 
 Very respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient serv't, 
 H. W. HALLECK, 
 GenerAl-iu-Chi«C 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 I ISr D E X 012 196 752 2 % 
 
 TO THIS BRIEF REPORT OF I'ROrEEDIXG^;. 
 
 (roi- a full Report of Proceeaiii.Ers, Si)eeche.s, Letters, &0., see aiiotlier edilion.) 
 
 Resolutions expressive of the views of the meeting^,.^ -' 
 
 Letters from Gen. Scott, Oen, Hooker, and Gov. Toilil ,"- 
 
 Speeeli of Hon. Montgomery Bhiir, Postmaster-Geuernl '■'■ 
 
 Speech of Hon. William Y>. Kelley, of Philadelphia, ■' 
 
 Address by Dr. Francis Lieber, '' 
 
 Letter to .Tohii Bright, Richard Cobden, and other friends in Great Lrilain . 1(» 
 
 Letter to Count Gasparin and other friends of America in France 12 
 
 Speech of Gov. Morton, of Indiana 14 
 
 Remarks of General Hamilton, of Texas 1 ^ 
 
 Remarks of Hon. .James M. Scovel, of t)ie New Jersey Legislature is 
 
 Remarks of Rev. .1. T. Duryea 1 "^ 
 
 Speech of Dr. Francis Lieber ^^ 
 
 Remarks of Benson J. Lossing, Esq., '^^ 
 
 Speech of Major-Geil. Sigel ^ ^ 
 
 Remarks of Dr. Rudolph Dulon ^ ^ 
 
 Speech of Hon. Schuylei- Colfax, M. ('., from Indiana 1^ 
 
 Speech of Gov. Pierpont, of Virginia '' ■' 
 
 Remarks of Mr. Weill and Dr. Foersch -'• 
 
 Speech of Major-Gen. Fremont -'^ 
 
 Speech of Hon. Roscoe Conkling, - ^ 
 
 National Odes. l)y Alfred B. Street, and George II. Boker, E'^qs., ■^■> 
 
 Remarks of Hon. Mr. Julian, of Indiana -•' 
 
 Remarks of Mr. W. J. A. Fuller, "-'' 
 
 Letter from Major-Gen. Dix, -'^ 
 
 Speech of Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson ....-•' 
 
 Speech of Hon. Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, -" 
 
 Speech of (iov. Nye, of Nevada, -* 
 
 Remarks of John ('. Montgomery, Esq., -^ 
 
 Remarks of Mr. G. W. Eliot, of London -^ 
 
 Remarks of Col. Nugent, of the fivith -^ 
 
 Speech of David Dudley Field, Esq., -'^ 
 
 Speech of George William Curtis, Esq., -• 
 
 Speech of S. B. Chittenden, Esq., ' ' 
 
 Remarks of Mr. Lambert, of Ireland ' ' 
 
 Speech of Hon. James A. Briggs J 
 
 Speech of Theodore Tilton, Esq , '^^ 
 
 Remarks of Thomas Parsons, Esq., of St. Louis, '^ 
 
 Gen. Crawford, one of the defenders of Fort Sumter, ■^■- 
 
 Delegation from the Loyal League of Philadelphia ■'- 
 
 Remarks of D. H. Brewster, Charles Gibbons, and Henry C. Carey, Esqs., and oth.-rs, ^ 
 
 of Philadelphia, 
 
 A Northern Tribute to Southern Loyalty— Dr. Lieb.M-s Resolutions concerning the 
 
 death of James L. Petigru, of South Carolina 32 
 
 Letter from Major-Gen. Halleck