1 ? 1" niii! i|i II 111 n II' Ih'.ll 111 III nil 1 ^^^t^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l^H L 9002 05350 5070 ^^j^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ P 1 1 1 1 ! 1 1 / : vjB ;,d to protect the people from anarchy and to main tain liberty and law for the people. (Benewed applause.)AILEOIANOB DUE TO OOVEBNMENT, NOT TO HAN. To that species of government our allegiance is due, and it has been given by the Whigs and by the Democrats in Congress in freely voting mil- lions and ten® of millions to support the gov ernment and the Constitution of the United states. It has been given by the people of Nev York city, in tens of thousands of dollars aod in thousands of soldiers, volunteers in the army of the United States, for the support of the government ; and its volume and its voice are expressed by two Democratic Generals at the head of the army, Halleck, the Commander- in-Chief, and McOleUan, [Protracted and enthusiastic cheers, in which the voice of the speaker Was lost.] Government, in this coun try, has its form and embodiment in that writ^ ten instrument called the Constitution of the United States. That piece of " parchment," that piece of " sheepskin," aa it was sneering- ly called by the reverend orator, on Sunday evening, that Constitution of the United States, is the written expression of the public vrill, the embodiment of the government, and in that Constitution, which to us is, what Magna Ohar- 1,a is to England, what the habeas corpus is to England ; in that instrument is our form of government; and that government ejzabodigs four distinct branches, — not alone the Presi dent of the United States, nor the Cabinet of the President of the United States, (an organi zation altogether unknown to the Constitution,) but the Senate of the United States, that has the treaty- making power, and that has the con firming power over appointments, the House of Representatives of the United States, and last, not least, aye, more powerful than all, the Judi ciary of the United States. [Cheers.] President Lincoln is no more the government, than you ,or I or anybody else ; he is but a branch of the gov ernment. [Renewed cheers.] He is but the Executive power. He is no more the govern ment than the Senate, or the House of Repre sentatives, and Justice Taney, with his associ ate Judges, is as much a part of the govern- ment as the President himself, [ipplause ] MAN ALLEQIANCE A TOBY IDEA. These are constitutional faott; this is the writ ten law of the United States ; this is the embor died government of the United States, and the only government to which I, or you, or any De mocrat, or any Whig, have ever sworn alle giance. [Great cheering.] This Beecher idea of government is twelve or fifteen hundred years old, a product of the feudal ages, the darkest ages of Europe. Braeton, the lawyer, enunciated it in law Latin : " iJex est iiioariug et Minister Dei in Terra, omnis quidem sui eo est, et ipse sub nulla, nisi tantum »ub Deo." The kingly idea of government, in one man, or under one authority, with certain Diviae rights, irresponsible to man on earth and scarcely responsible to God in Heaven, is the Tory idea of government ; ths despotic, monar chical idea, never before, till in this crisis, this new era, introdm od and forced upon the un happy people of these United States of Ameri ca. ["Good," and applause.] The President himself is but the mere creature of the Consti tution of the United States. He never was elected by the popular wiU, or by the popular voice of the people of the United States. — [" JVo, never," and great applause.] No never, never, nevee 1 [A number of voicesj " Never."] ME. LINCOLN NOT PBESLDENT BT THE POPUIiAE VOICE. Of the four milUons and two- thirds of a mil lion of votes oast at the last Presidential elec tion, Mr. Lincoln was in the minority of nearly a millipn, among the people ; [applause) and though in California and Oregon, under the plu rality system, he reneived their electoral -^otes, in New Jersey, glorious New Jersey, [cheers for New Jersey,] he did not receive the vote popular or the vote electoral. Thus, in these three northern States of the Union, a majority of the people were against him, while from the Sus quehanna to the Bio Grande, in fifteen other States, not a popular, nor an electoral vote was given him. JKB LINCOLN ONLY PBESLDENT AS CEEATtTKE OP THE CONSTITUTION. Nevertheless, under our constitutional sys tem in the Electoral Colleges, of the 303 elec toral votes there, though in apopular minority of nearly a million of votes, he did receive 180 electoral votes, twenty-eight more votes than were necessary to elect, him, the President of the United States, under the Constitution. I rf peat, then, the President does not represent, and never has represented, the popular will of the people of the United States. (A voice— " And never wilL") He is the mere creature of the Constitution of the United States, and our obedience to him as Executive, our ^delity to him as" the Executive, is through, and under the Constitution alone. (" That is all," and cheers.) Hence when these dedaimers tell me, that the President is the government, and his Cabinet are the g overt ment, I show them the popnla vote, and I repeat to them, that the President himself could not be President, but as he was elected and upheld by the Constitution of the U. S., and in defiance of the popular voice of the U.S. (Applause.) Tell me not, then, that I may not.and ghall not.discuss the measures of an administration, or, that this administration 18 the government, and that in criticising the ad ministration I am guilty of treason to the govern ment. Government is a thing et6rnal,and springs from God as weU as born of the instincts of man but Mr. Lincoln is but a creature of the Coastitu' tion for four years only, and the Cabinet are but creatures of Lincoln. And yet the reverend Brooklyn expositor tells us, that the President and the Cabinet are the government of the U. S. (A voice — " They are pretty flparly played out.") I shall, therefore, as I have a right, discuss freely all the measures of the adminis tration. THE TAEIPF NOT JOB EEVENUE AIONE— CABPET- PETING— WOOD SCBBWS. I shaU speak ot the tariff, for example, cost what it may. I shall say that the existing tariff was not made for revenue, but in the main for the protection of a few monopolizing, rich and wealthy corporators, the most of whom are n New England. (Applause.) I will say — and I might enumerate many such instances — ^that in the simple article of the tapestry carpet manu facture, in consequence ot the loom for the manufacture of that species of carpeting being patented, the tariff law of the United States throws thirty or forty per cent protection for every yard of tapestry carpet manufacture into the hands of two or three Wealthy manufactur ers of tapestry carpeting. (" That's so, and cheers.") (A Voice, " Simmons on wood screws.") Xes, that is another of the many il lustrations. THE PUBLIC LANDS. So with the public landa. When it was necessary to raise the tanif to increase the protection to these corporators, not for re venue, but wholly for the purpose of protection, the public lands were giveii away by Congress under the pretence of a donation to the poor man, while upon that very poor man's tea, was levied a duty, which makes it cost him thirty to forty cents per pound more, while the price of his sugar has been doubled, the price of his coffee largely increased, and taxation in every way and in every possible manner inflicted upon the consumers o( products and the laborers throughout all the United States. (Applause.) I win say, too, that the appropriation of mil lions of money for a few wealthy corporators of the Pacific railroad by Congress in time of war, was a wasteful exercise of the power of appro priating money when it was necessary during the war to inflict enormous and gigantic taxes upon all classes of people. (Cheers.) THE CUEEENOY— PAPEB MONEY LEGAL TENDBB. I shall speak, also, of the currency of the Uni ted States. The creators of the Constitution, our fathers, intended that the people should have hard money as the basis of their business, only hard money ;, gold and silver were the people's money. Hence gold and silver were ingrafted upon the Constitution, and the power given ta Congress was only the power to coin money, D ever to coin paper, as money, (" good" and ap plause,) and to stamp upon metal, uever,on pa per, the value of money ; the States were for bidden, therefore, lest they might override the Constitution, from ever making anything but gold and silver money a legal tender for the payment ot debts between man and man. And yet, the administrative powers in Congress and ' in the White House have not only violated the Constitution of tie United States in the coin ing of millions and millions of Treasury notes, but have gone down to low water mark and have coined even postage stamps, ,not shin plasters alone, but sticking plasters also. (Great aughter.) Now, if human ingenuity had exert ed itself to invent or devise the ways and means of destroying the value of property and of labor and of disturbing society, it need never have invented better ways and means than have been thus invented by this Administration. The man who receives a dollar a day for his labor, when gold ia twenty per cent premium, receives only eighty cents per day for that labor. (That's so, and applause.) The laborer, the painter, the carpenter, the lorger, the manufacturer, the foundryman, who has his two dollars a day nominally for labor, has only a dollar and sixty cents for that labor, while upon his tea, his coffee, his sugar, his shirtings, his sheetings, and his clothing of all kinds, prices have been, if not doubled, almost everywhere increased, thirty to forty per cent in cost. (That's so, and renewed applause.) Tell me not then, I am not to discuss such measures of the Administra tion. Who shall forbid, what shall prevent it ? AU the ingenuity and devices of Satan himself for destroying the value of labor and for cor rupting everything in society, could not have suggested anything more mischievous and damaging than this corruption and degradation of the currency. The higher, nominally, things go, the more the laborer practically suffers, for ivhile the capitalist, in his better knowledge of value and of money, knows how to handle money and to exchange values, the last thing that rises in the market, are the wages of the common day laborer. He, who has a salary of a thousand dollars, has twenty per cent ot it tak en off. He whose wages are twelve dollars a week, practically receives two doUars and forty cents less than the contract was made for, when he first received these stipulated wages for his labor. (Applause,) These, however, are minor matters of importance, things to be but little considered when human Liberty,— it if not human life, are all at stake. THE TWO PBO0LAMATION3— THE PBOVOST MAB- SBAL WAE OEDEB. There have recently appeared from the ad ministration of this government three docu ments of the greatest importaU'Se, which it may be dangerous freely to discuss, but which it is not the less our right and duty freely to dis cuss. These are, the first Proclamation, the second Proclamation, and the last, but not the least, the War Order from the War Department abolishing, to a considerable extent, the civil ju risdiction of the courts, and estabUshing in lieu thereof, a system of Provost Marshals through out the whole of the United States of America. The first Proclamation of the President has in it three elements, three points worthy of consi deration. The first is emancipation, the second is a proposition for the compensation of slaves, and the third is the colonization of these slaves. I propose aa briefly as posaibJe to ex amine these points in order. The first thing which strikes a man is, to ask, where is the grant of power in the Constitution of the U. S. which gives the President, but the creature of the Constitution, authority to annal whole States of the Union, or the laws and institutions of whole States in that Union, and to override aU laws for the protection ot loyal men, even if in disloyal States. No man can rise and say, that there is, anywhere, in our written Constitution, any such authority for the President ot the U. S. to exercise any such power as he assumes or usurps in his Proclamation. The only authority claimed is, that he, as Commander-in-Chief of the army— of the army not in the field— ^a- grante beUo, but as theoretical Commander-in- Chief ot the army, sitting in the White House at Washington, has the power to exercise any authority which appears to him best, or which he deems right. Now, if this be law, there is no security that he may not exercise the same power, if he deems it best for the people of the United States, to annul the relation of {parent and child, of ward and guardian, of debtor and creditor, of mortgagor and mortgagee, aye, aU the rights and obligations ef society — for he has the same right as Commander-in-Chief to exercise all powers over the northern States of the Union. ("Hear, hear," and cheers.) Who created this creature of the Constitution, the offspring of a popular minority, who vested and appointed him with this arbitrary power over thirty millions of human beings ? — (great cheering,) — a power, the hke of which, if ex ercised in England, without an act of Parlia ment, would create a revolution there in forty- eight hours, among all classes of people : a pow er, which Napoleon never dared to exercise upon his imperial throne, and which the French peo ple would never submit to, if attempted ever the people of France ? (Cheers.) THE LAWS OF WAE. But there is no such military power under the institutions of the United States. There gxe martial . rights, laws of war. but well known and well recognized, laws written of, in Grotius, in Vattel, in Paffendorf, n our own Wheaton, and in our own Kent, and nowhere is there recorded as giving to any nominal Commander ot an army, any such au thority aa the President attempts to exercise, not only over the people at large, bat over this Constitution of the Uriited States. X do not hesitate to say, cost what it may, the use of such power is an arbitrary, and despotic exer cise of illegal and unconsti'utional power. — [Tremendous cheering.] I will not cite a hun dred authorities that I could cite in Latin, in French and in Germao, under the civil, law, as old as the days of Justinian, but I will come down to what has been deemed high Republi can authority, that, of John Qaincy Adams. We had like controversies with Great Britain in 1783 and in 1816, upon the subject of slave emancipation, that we have now. Great Bri tain, pending the revolution, emancipated and abducted many slaves from Long Island and elsewhere, . and carried those slaves to Nova S !0tia or to the West Indies, there to be re-en slaved, and in the war ot 1812,Grtat Britain ex ercised a like power over this slave property of the United States. John Quincy Adams, as a Minister to England, as Secretary of State of the United States, wrote to the British authori ties that, — " They (the British) had no right to make any such emancipation promises to the negro. The principle is, that the emancipation of the enemy's slaves is not among the acta of legiti mate war ; aa relates to the owners it is a de struction of private property, nowhere warrant ed by the usages of war." " No such right is acknowledged as a law of war by writers who admit any limitation. The right of putting to death all prisoners, in cold blood, without special cause, might as well be pretended to be a law of war, or the right to use poisoned weapons, or to assassinate." This is the language of John Quincy Adams, in his correspondence with the British govern ment, upon the subject of slaves emancipated daring the war of the Revolution and the war of 1812. Under this remonstrance, and through the treaty of Ghent, one miUian two hundred thousand dollars were paid by .the British gov ernment, to the southern slaveholders, for pro perty thus abducted and emancipated during the war of the Revolution and the war of 1812. [Applause.] Hence, as the Proclamation is not right under the Constitution, it is no more right under the laws of war, nor is it right, to the loyal men, in the disloyal States of this Union.MUTUAL DUTIES OP ALLEOIANOE AND PBOTEOTION. Government has obligations and duties as well as rights. It has no right to claim al legiance andfideUty from a citizen when it can not protect that citizen, and unless protection is given, allegiance ie not due. [Cheers.] When the govercment of the UnitedStates fail ed to exercise its power for the protection of the loyalists of Enat Tennessee, of Tii-ginia of Texai and of North OaroUna, under the Uw' of nations the people there were, yrofem,for the time being, absolved from allegiance to the United States government, untU the govern ment could re-eatabUbh its power. [Applause 1 There are two species ot government under which men live, termed in law Latin gov ernments de facto and governments dejure or in plainer Enghsh, existing governments governments in point of fact, and govenuaents of right. Ours here in these northern States is not only a government de facto, but a gov ernment dejure. Theirs in the South, unre cognized by us or the world — a mere govern ment of rebellion — ^is a governjpent de facto, not a government de Jure, till recognized by the world and by us. Now, even loyal people living under that hard, iron, despotic government, de facto, of the South, are bound, obligated, forced by love ot life and love of prooerty to yield obe dience to that government till they are emanci pated from it by the people of these northern States. And yet this proclamation, with one fell blow, with one fatal sweep, abolishea the rights of property which every loyalist has in Tennessee, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, or anywhere, South. The loyalist and tho rebel are put upon a par bv thia proclama tion. And the loyalist, if, for the sake o f his wife, of his children, and of his property, though his heartfelt allegiance may be given to this govern ment, thovgh his love and devotion are all for it, he obeys this Government de facto, yet is put under the ban by this proclamation as much as if he had been a rebel, abinitio, from the very beginning, when the rebellion first broke out. (Applause.) Hence, I repeat, the proclamation is unconstitutional ; the proola mation is against the laws of war ; (loud and protracted cheers ) the proclamation is against all well-written distinctions of jurists upon the subject of allegiance and loyalty due govern ments, dejure and de facto. (Renewed cheers.) Excuse me, gentlemen, for the heavines9,the pro lixity of thia discussion. (" Go on, go on.") I fear that in entering into it I am too laborious ly discussing abstract principles ; but in these times it becomes necessary to discuss these plain, ccnstitu tional, legal principles and to show that two ana two make four. FEDEEAL COMPENSATION FOE STATE SLAVES. The next proposition of the proclamation is compensation to slaves. Here I plant my foot down on the steps of my fathers, in this, and other northern States, and tell the South to aboliah slavery there as our fathers did, and pay for their slaves when they abolish the institution, and not force taxation upon us to pay lor the emancipation ot their slaves. (Applause.) I will not tax the poor man of the North nor the rich man ot the North to pay for the emancipation of slaves in Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, or anywhere else. There is no such authority in Congress to appropriate money for any such purpose whatever. All of these northern States have aboli shed slavery by their own free will, and under thelr[osm law8,have compensated the people or not compensated them as the people ot the States willed. And yet, the President of the United States, in the exercise of the pow er ot the Executive, promises to call upon Con gress to tax the people of the North for the com pensation of slaves, loyal or disloyal. Whatl are we, who are about to be more and more over ridden by taxation, to be taxed even as the peo ple ot England and Prance are taxed on every thing we eat, drink, wear and move about in? Are we to tax the laborer of the North, earn ing for his family, a doflar or two dollars a day, for the emancipation ot slaves in distant States of the Union, over whose local interests, over whose municipal authorities, in whose debts or credits, or in whose systems of government we have no earthly right to exercise any power, and in whi6b we have but little interest ? (Cheera.) FEDEEAL OOLONIZATION OF SLAVE8. The next proposition of the President is a huge system of colonization for these slaves. Coming as he does from the State ot Illinois, his own Republican State, which gave him the Republican vote, imbued wi th the idea of the Western people,that they will not have negroes to Kve and dwell among them— he proposes to tax the Treasury of the United States millions upon millions to cblonize, in Ohiriqui or else where, some three or four millions of negroes, at the expense of the North. Why, never did a dreamier idea enter the head, it seems to me, of any wild Utopian scheming philosopher. (Laughter a,nd applause.) The abduction, the emancipation, the coloni zation of four millions of human beings from the cotton and rice fields ot the South, from the tropical districts of that region, where only the negro can work, where the white man cannot possibly labor under that tropical sun, the colo nization of three or four millions of onoe happy human beings to some foreign country, on some wild prospect of emigration, and the taxation of twenty millions of Northern people to pay the expenses of this negro colonization,i8 utterly impossible, and never can take place. What ever the President may 8ay,or whatever he may dream of, the Southern negro will remain here in the land of hia adoption and new the land of his birth, and the only question left lor us to settle is, whether remalning,States shall be left uutramme]led,unnoticed and undisturbed by us, as they have been, from the foundation ot the governmeni , or whether we shall use the power of the army to subvert and destroy the author ity ot their masters and instal these slaves as masters of the Southern States of this Union, (" never, never,") and when thus installed, whether we shall have slave partnerships with them? NO NEGBC-OOVEENMENT PABTNEESHIPS, For one, I am ready to say that if the time ever arises when Georgia or Alabama, or Virginia or Louisiana is governed by negroes, with a negro judiciary, negro senators in Con gress, and negro representatives, it is quite time ior the white people of the North to dis solve partnership with any such concern. (Loud cheers.) All theBe,however,are dreams of negro liberty, equalitv and fraternity ; and if the schemes of the President are carried out, there muat inevitably follow, what the Aohtionists now demand of him, the arming of the slaves, their adoption into the army of the United States, and our recognition of them,not only as fellow soldiers, but; as fellow citizens al so. (Aplause and laughter.) In Louis iana, there are now thousand of slaves supported on government rations, and every negro costs the U. S.,forty cents a day for his ra tion. Something must be done with these ne groes. iThe AboUtioniats propose to bring them into the army of the United States. This is no new proposition. A like proposition was made two years ago, in the State of New York— the be ginning of that idea, to give negro suffrage to negro voters, and though this was a RepubUoan State, going for Mr. Lincoln by fifty thousand majority, the Republicans themselves had good sense enough to vote down that proposition by an immense majority. Bat what mean these propositions ? They are nothing new. IJet us 6 TjBE NEGEO PABTNEESHtP OOVEENMSNT IN SPAN ISH AMEBICA. Look at Spanish America. Spanish America was settled by the lofty and proud Hidalgos of Spain ; New England was settled by the Puri tans ; Jamestown, Virginia, by a different class of people, not Puritans, not all Chevaliers, as some of them claim, not all gentlemen, but many ot them far different from gentlemen.-^ l^heee three classes of people settled on thia Continent of America ; the Puritans in the East, Chivalry, say, in the centre, and Spanish Amer icana in the South. God never made a nobler race of men than the old SpanishHidalgos. True to their loyalty, true to their God and king, they carried their old flag from the banks of the Gnadalquiver, far across the Atlantic ocean, from the shores of Florida through South America to Patagonia,and from thence to Chili, Peru and California, or across the Cordilleras. They went up the Bio de la Plata ; and every where, faithful to their God and king, thay carried this old flag of Spain in glory from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. [Applause. ] As long as the pure white blood of Spain coursed in their veins, they were an unconquerable and invincible people The lofty armadas of Eng land, the proud Drakes of our ancestors , the fleets of Queen Ehzabeth and Queen Anne, all thundered in vain against thia pure white blood of the Spanish people. But when Spain committed the error of marrying,and intermar rying with the Indian and with the negro, when Spain adopted into her armies the black blood of the negro,andthe copper blood of the Indian, then, no longer, did the pure white blood of Spain rule in glowing grandeur from the moun tain peaks of the Andes, but the negro and the Indian at last rose up, and drove out the lofty Hidalgo to the home whence he emigtated, so that now, when a northern or a soutnern regiment, as injrecent Mexican warB,Btood before the mulatto ot Spain, its mongrel, negro, and copper blood, one fierce look of of a nortiern or southern man would de- moliah a whole regiment of snch mongrels. Aud yet, the proposition ot the Abolitionists ia. to arm our negroes, to introduce them into our armies, to take you and_ me, by draft and conscription, trom our wives "and children, and march us to the Misaisaippi, shoulder to shoul der, with thia seething, sooty negro. [Ap plause,]FELLOW (NEQEO) SOLDIEES MUST BE FELLOW- eiTIZENS. There is a philosophy in arming negro men, and none kaow it better than the Abolitionists, Whomsoever you fight aide by side witb,who6ver is your fellow soldier, ia your fellow man, Jiho- ever meets you face to face with the enemy, with him, you must share the right of suffrage, the rights ot society.the right ot domicll. You must sit on juries with him and you must elect him to ofiSce. He becomes htre, as in Spanish America, your equal in society and before the eje of the law. 1 scorn Abolitionists for their hypocrisy in the North, for while they preach the equality of the negro, they will not sit side by side with him, in the same pew, or even in the same church. They WiU not worship God scarcely at tbe aame altar. They bury him away in some corner, they hide him in some dark gallery, and when God ha,s removed him from the earth, I trust to a better world, instead of honoring him in the gravewith some equality, they put him away in a dark comer of a Potter's Field. They win not mariy or intermarry with negroes. I cannot persuade my friends ol ihe Tribune to make negroes aaabciate editors with them ; I cannot induce them to employ negro reporters, compositors er pressmen, and yet they preach negro equalitv and fraternity out of the I^ibune domain. [" How are you, Greeley, and the white coat and hat ?" followed by hisses tor Greeley.] • THE PBOCLAMATION, NO 2. Let us look, now, at Proclamation No. 2. I approach this topic with more apprehension than I have any ol the others, for there is more threat in its promtilgation. [" Don't be aitaid, go on."] This proclamation is a corollary ot Proclamation No. 1. It substantially says to the free white people of the North, if you discuss and agitate this subject of emancipation, if you make war against the Administration npon this subject, you shall be incarcerated in Fort La Fayette. ["Go on, let them try it."] The pro clamation forbids aU disloyal practices, and among other thinge, states,that aU people who are guilty of, disloyal practices shall be sub jected to martial law. Bat who is to judge of ^1-.^ -It. -jf .a;..i 1 ..t^..»» o mu« ........4... New York, Superintendent Kennedy, the head ot the police. [Hisses.] And it 1 have an ene my and that social enemy approaches the Pro vost Marshal and whispers that I am guilty ot disloyal practices, he having studied into the secrets of some family circle, the Provost Marshal, without process, vrithout judge or jury, can call to his aid two thousand policemen, and can arrest and incarcerate me in Fort La Fay ette, and I am there beyond the hope of habeas corpus and the protection of law. ("No, never.") There are two points in the Proclamation. First is the suspension of the civU, and the establishment of martial law, and the second is the snspension of the habeas cor pus. You all know what the civil law is^ judges, jtu-tes, courts, and the processes by which you have been accustomed to see law ad- mimatered, but the martial law you do not know. It has been our happy lot, since the foundation ot this government, never before now to know wh,.t martial law was in this cotm- try,and we can not know what it is now,but as we read of it in the history of despotic governments over the Atlantic ocean. Martial law is the law of the bullet,the law of the drum head court,of the epaulette, the absolute law,the law iiom which there is no court of appeaJ,but to the jariadiction of which there must be imphcit obedience ; and redemption, from whibh there is no hope for, except at the pleasure of the administrators of that martial law. The next point in that Pro clamation is the suspension of the nabeas cor pus, THE ABEOQATION OF MAGNA CHAETA. Now, friends, there are certain Latin words which oome down to us from the history of our tatherB,almost made.EngUsh by constant use, which oannot weU be translated, but which neverthelesB, are fuU of meaning. All Enghai liberty, and aU our liberties aa descendants of Englishmen, come from what is called Magna Charta. It was extorted by the barons of Eng land from their despotic Kiiig John, in the year 1215, tor themselves and their serla, under the threat ot the aword, il he did not sign that great charter for English liberty, - from which have sptuhg, in the main, all the rights and liberties of Englishmen. From thence comes our right of trial by jury, and our security in the posses sion of our property. " NvXlus liber homo ca- pieturvel impnsometa?',"-"NoFreeman shall be taken or imprisoned. " No Freeman sbaU be disseised, of his freehold, imprisoned and con- depined, but by judgment of his Peers.or by the law ot the land." That is the right and the liberty which the English people have had since, Amno Domino, 1215. Now, for the first time here,aiid only with occasional exceptions,in the histoiy of English liberty, We are deprived of this right of trial by jury ; we are seized, ar rested and imprisoned without any adjudication of a jury upon our sins, or iniquities, on any allegations which may be made against us, and our property may be seized or disturbed with out any adjudication whatsoever. , (Shame.) THE NULLLFIOATICN OF HABEAS C0BPU3. There followed, in the reign of the two Charleses of England, (despotic kings,) what ia called the ' writ of habeas corpus, the right which an English subject had, when ever he was taken prisoner, and mcarcer- ated in a jaU, to have a writ trom a Judge of the Court of King's Bencn, commanding the jailor to bring th© body of that subjecc be fore him, to havjB his case adjudicated upon, ao- eording lo the laws of England. And yet, that which has been English liberty since the days of the dark ages, (1215,) that which,the despotic Kings of England, the two Charleses, accord ed, one ot whom was executed tor his tyranny, and his government Buppresaed by Cromwell — that which our fathers' have had since their reign, is now subverted, overthrown, destroyed, by a mere proclamation trom the President ot the U. S., annulling both the right of trial by jury and the habeas corpus, by which every person has a right to know, before some judge, why he has been incarcerated. The President, claims that he has authority, under tne Coniati- tution, to issue this power of suspending thfe habeas corpus. Believe you that Washington, rebelling against the tyranny ot the executive bower otKlng George, that Madison, Jefferson, Franklin, old John Adams, or any ot the fa thers ol the Revolution, ever created a Consti tution by which one mere man, having the same flesh and blood, that you and I have, is, without act of Congress, to have authority over thirty millions of people ?— that he can take any of you, by day or by night, froni your wives and children, and incarcerate you in Fort La Fayette or Fort Warren, beyond all hope ol redemption ? ("Infamous.") Never did the framers of toe Constitution give or grant such powers to the Executive of the U. S. ("We will never stand it.") If it were given, there is no Mberty any longer for the people of the U. 8., for that Exe cutive has but by the exercise ot arbitrary pow er to involve this coimtry in war with England or France, and in the snspension of the habeas corpus, after creating an army of a million of men, to ride, rough Bhod,over thirty millions of hitherto free white men, ("Never, never.") — Our own Judge Hall, in the western part of the State, but the other day liberated a person, a reverend gentleman — ^who may,' or may not, have been guilty of something, I know not what — on a habeas corpus, and in doing so, de clared that, as Congress had given the' Presi dent no such power, he had no such power. (Applause.) Notwlcnstanding this decision of Judge Hall, this person was taken, the moment he was liberated (a white man kidnapped)^ to the Oentral Railroad depot, put in a'ffejgb,t car, isolated from the people, and secretly, and stealthily taken from B^alq t<^ Albwiy, itheuce to Washington, a State prisoner. (Shame.) And they tell me that for this free speech, this free and fundamental discussion of all these things, I may be imprisoned and incarcerat ed. (" No, you won't,") But I do not at all feel certain that one or two thousand policemen may hot take me any hour of th? day from the midst of my feUow-citizens, and incarcerate me. (Nev er," and protracted cheers.) (A man in the audience proposed three cheers for Judge Hall, which were enthusiastically giv en.) WHAT IS TO BE DONE ?— GO TO THE BALLOT-BOX Now, fellow-citizens, I dare say I shall be asked by Republicans, after these complaints against the administration of the government, " What are we to do ?" If this country was not in the midst of a civil war, I would have no hes itancy in saying, aa Patrick Henry said, in the Revolution, "Reaistance to tyrants ia obedi ence to Gou." (Enthusiastic and long continued cheering.) (Capt. Bynders- " Three cheers for that, if it is the last cneers that freemen have to give." The cheers were given.) What are we to do? (An auditor— "Wnere are the tyrants?" "Put him out.") AUIpropo.%etodois to appeal to the ballot-box. Ths,t has hitherto been a suffici ent court of appeal for all the people of the Unit ed States. If they wfll permit us to have it, arouse and inspire yourselves for action at the ballot box. (Applause.) Tae ballot box is vour only, your lofty and sublime remedy. ("Will they let US have tbe ballot box?") Go to the ballot boic and make a trial there for the redemption of this people trom all impending slavery. For the present, protest loudly against allthi; arbi trary exgrciae of power. ("We wUl -ioit,") If I, or any of your fellow citizens be imprisoned, do aa the French did in the midst of theRevo- bition, form large processions with the red cap of liberty rifted over every freeman's head, (great- applause) march to the Bastile unarmed, aud on' bended knees, if necessary, implore the com mander to Ubera*e your fellow- citizen. ("No, never in America.") Freenien should always, be fore resorting lo any wKima i-aiio, petition, beg, and implore. There are rigtts and obhgations m a country like this, aa long as the ballot box is open for the ' redress of wrongs. (" You are right.") When you have assembled before this Bastile, read to the epaulettes, in the lofty sonorous Latin ol the dark, ages, the Mag na Gharia of your English fathers, thunder th© habeas corpus in the ears of your fellowcit- izens and soldiers, and then read, and re-read there, the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees to every man the right of tree speech, ot free discussion, trial by jury, and security for his properly and person. (Cheers.) Fellow-citizens, I did not come here only to complain against the aciminiatration of the government this evening, but. also to lay be fore you,in this free speech that 1 aim,making,my ideas upon the subject of this war. ' I have no sympathy vrith rebellion in any shape or form whatsoever. The Constitution of the United States onee was enough for our southern coun trymen, the Congress of the once United Statea afforded every remedy for the redress of their grievances under that Conatitution. They were terribly provoked and ggoaded, but their duty was, with the Senate of the United States, theirs, with the House of Representatives, al- mosj theirs, with the Judiciary, theirs ; their duty was, to do what I urge upon jou, this eve ning, to petition and to go to the ballot box. Th9, right of, petition is the birtfcinght of every 8 American. The Ballot Box is the 'remedy for every American. Arms, artillery, the Cartouch Box, are not elements of American progress or civilization. [Cheers.] I have my own ideas on thia war, I wish I could express them freely here. [" Speak out."] No, no, I shall not speak out, when armies are contending, when fraternal blood is being shed. But (here the speaker paus ed some time, as if considering) this I will say, I was born inche State of Maine. On one side is the British province of Nova Scotia and on the other is 4hat of Lower Canada, with wide navigable rivers, opening the State to the navies of the world ; and vet there is such an unconquerable, invincible, Anglo-Saxon spirit, and Buch a high sense oflodependence there that I do not believe Eagland,Franceandthe United States toKather, could ever subjugate the peo ple. Satij ligation or extermination ia not an American idea ; it ia not a theory to which the Anglo-Saxon blood in our veins, wiU ever sur render. II the oath of subjugation were forced upon the citizen of Maine, he would strike at tbn administrator of that oath in the rear ; but whoever held out to him the rights ot self government, according to the Constitu tion of the United States, he, with a single regi ment from New York, or elsewhere, could bring back all the people ot Maine to their obedience, I do not propo8e,if any may draw such an infer ence, that we shaU ever surrender our Constitu tion and government to the rebels ot the south ern Statea. But I propose to carry on tbe war upon a different principle — with the sword in the right hand, and the Constitutian in the left ; (great applause,) and under that panoply and protection, not a million of soldiers, but twjp hundred thousand wiU cruah out and exterminate all southern rebellion. If it be necessary for the subjugation of ihat cradle of rebellion, where this unholy war first began, where the proud flag of our country was first struck down by rebel cannon, if volunteers be called, to re-hcist that flag there, I think I may say. two millions ol volunteers would go from the Northern States. (Cheers.) EXTEBIOE DUTIES, THE MAIN DUTIES OF THX3 QOVfiENMENT. ^ My theory of the war, then, is to use only those powers which the Constitution gives us. And for what was our Constitution mainly formed ? What were its purposes ? In the main, exterior purposes, — pnrponep, out of, and beyond the do main of the United Statea. It wiJs commerce, self-interest, that created tne government ol the United States ; it waa the desire of the peo ple of the Chepapeake Bay to have free trade with the Hudson River ; it was the desire of the people ot Rhode Mand to import aud export from South Carolina without customs. Free trade, free commerce, and self- interest were the main-springs, which, in 1787, formed the govern ment of the United Statea. , In the prosecution of this war I WDuld,then, have the government hold on to New Orleans, repossees Mobile, take Galveston, conquer or subjugate Charleston at any expense. Let the government hold on to all the Southern ports for the collection ot reve nue. To have unity in the Custom House, at home, and unity for Foreign afiairs, abroad, were the main purposes, for which this Government was formed. ¦' FOBTIFY AND HOLD GEEAT EAILEOAD AND EIVB P09TS. I would have the army ot the United States occupy the great points of the Misaiasippi nver and theoardinal points on the railroads, and I would have those points fortified, and then I would leave the rebellion thus surroundea to etmg itself to death, to crush itsell out by the violence of its own venom. (Applause.) This geographical war of overrunning a peoole, whose territory stretches from the Potomae to the Bio Grande, protected in many parts by an infernal climate — ^this idea of overrunning with Northern people not habituated to that climate, that vast extent of territoroy, is a theory that, in i he end, miist full. Our great duty cerfainly is, not to rest tin the Conaeitutiou of the United States is re-established and the Union restored as it was, not as the AboUtioniats would have it. Let no man, therefore, pervert what I say. I have no sympathy either with treason or secession, I abhor Becessionism and AboUt-ionism, both. — (Great applause.) I have no more respect for Wendell Phillips than I have for Jeff. Davis. Jeff, Davis is but a rebel not two years old, and ff^endell PhiUipa is a rebel, by his own confes- lion, twentyyeara old andmore. (Laughter and ipplauae.) UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION, BOTH NOBTH AND SOUTH. Fellow-citizens, I have detained you too long, l" No, no, go on,"] but I felt it my duty to dia- oues the cardinal, primary, fundamental prin- cioles of this government, aud unless they are maintained and vindicated, we shall become here what all other Republics have been, the victims of tyranny and despotism. Tom over the pages of history, fuH of the tombs and sep ulchres of Republics that have fallen. With the exception of the little Republic of San Mari- no,on a peak of the Appenines, we are the only Repubho on the face of this broad earth. We are trying two great experiments — first, 11 the ' pronuuciatnento ot a people, dissatisfied with the constitutional result of an election can sub vert the government,andBeijondly, if tjrantsin heart and in spirit, can fasten upon us, by mere paper Proclamation, a tyranny whicb will pat q.ur Repubhc in the same category ol the tombs and sepulchres of all otlier Eepublioa that have gone before it. ["Never; never."] Freedom is a precious boon, a birthright be- yoiid aU price and calculation. Demagogues, tyrants and monarchiste, the earth over, in Europe as well aa here, are using all their cua- niDg to subvert free institutions and the great principles of human liberty. If, In our hostility to rebelhon, we forget our own rights and our own liberties, we are untrue to the sacred trust whiob our fathers handed down to us, in the Conatitution and in the Declaration ot Indepen dence. Let me end, then, by repeating now more important than ever ttJ be impressea upon ^nvtw.^^Tr'"*' *^ «entimenf of a great northern statesman, in trying times bifore Printed by Van Evrie, Hortbn & Co., 162 Nassau Stre t, IT v PRICE 75 CTS. PER HUNDRED, OR $7 50 PER THOUSAND. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Gift of STUART W.JACKSON Yale 1898 'xIk 4.H»i«i«j^%4f . '.