REMARKS AT THE RECEPTION OF RUSSIAN

NAVAL OFFICERS.

On the 12th of October, 1863, a dinner was given at the Astor House in New York by prominent gentlemen of that city in honor of the Russian minister, and the Russian Admiral Lisovski, commanding the Russian fleet then in New York Harbor. This entertainment had a peculiar significance, from the fact that at that moment our relations with England and France were by no means cordial, growing out of the temper excited in the United States by the disposition of the French government to recognize the "Confederate States," and, conjointly with England, to interfere forcibly to break the blockade of Southern ports. Russia alone of the European powers had shown a friendly regard and disposition toward the federal government. The occasion of a visit by the Russian fleet to the United States waters was eagerly taken advantage of to manifest the appreciation here of that feeling.

Mr. Davis was invited to the entertainment, and to respond to the second regular toast-"The President of the United States, the elected leader of the nation which is solving the problem of self-government and universal freedom"-which he did in the following words:

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,-I regard it as one of the privileges of my life to have been selected on this occasion to respond to a toast to the President of the United States. There are others who, by long association with that gentleman, earlier his political supporters than myself, more closely connected with him in the administration of great affairs in this great crisis of our history, might have had that task more appropriately confided to them. But to none could it have been confided who would have with more pleasure and more heartiness borne his testimony to the earnest uprightness of purpose and far-seeing sagacity with which, in affairs more gravely complex and weighty than this nation, since the Revolution, had ever been called upon to deal with, the President has discharged his high duty. None can speak with more profound reverence than I do of that exalted office, as exalted as any known among men, conferred by the suffrages of his fellow-citizens, and to whose power obedience is yielded, not be

cause of his power, but because of the veneration for the laws which raised him to his high post. So far I am not willing that any one shall claim more earnestly to represent the President of the United States than I do. I may be pardoned for saying that the following clause of the toast I must be permitted to criticise: "The elected chief of the nation." Certainly. "Solving the problem of self-government." No. We take it that this nation has solved that problem. (Applause.) That day of experiment has passed. This vessel was launched on the waters with many a trembling hope and many a prayerful utterance that it might survive the storms of life, and continue to be the light to other nations of the earth. Those fears are now dispelled-dispelled by more than eighty years of such success as has attended no experiment of human wisdom. After three generations now mouldering in the grave under the ægis of the republic, having lived in peace and died in blessedness, shall we call that an experiment? Whose affairs have been conducted with more regularity and order? Where in the civilized world has order been more secure? Where has personal liberty been less violated? Where the rights of religious conscience and free speech so much respected? Where has yet the first drop of blood for treason to be shed in the civilized world? And, until this rebellion broke out, where in all the world have arms not been drawn by citizen against citizen to maintain or to prostrate the experiment of the law? No; it is no experiment. It is a reality, vindicating now the right, in the success of eighty years, to continue to eternity to bear the torch of human freedom." (Great applause.)

Speaking of England's hostility to the United States, Mr. Davis said:

National hostility carried away men's hearts to swell the ambition of commercial triumph and rivalry, turned away the high thoughts of the great Anglo-Saxon nation. Her aristocracy rejoiced that the prophecies of our passing greatness were coming to be truths, and they thought that they might as well give a push to help the prophecy to its accomplishment. That we have tried to be friends with all the world is notorious. That we have tried to forget these things, and that we have forgiven them, is especially in the memory of all you gentlemen of New York; for how long has it been since-for the representative of that power which within the last two years has inflicted deeper wounds on your

body than all the rest of the civilized world—your streets were swarming with multitudes, and resounding with hosannas to the prospective heir of the crown of the three islands? And our reward has been the Trent impertinence, the Florida, the Alabama, the pirate nest around our coast. Another great nation we thought we were entitled to the sympathy of-ay, and we have the sympathy of the nation, though, perhaps, not of its ruler. It is the proud peculiarity of the American people that their heart is so large, and touches humanity at so many points, that, however the rulers of the world may be jealous of a power hostile to her greatness and desiring her overthrow, the people in their secret heart pray for her success.

The last part of the toast to which I am called on to respond speaks of universal freedom. (Hurrah.) History will show no example of an equal struggle within the limits of any one nation, met with equal power, sustained with equal endurance, crowned with equal success, promising equal triumph with that in which we are engaged. But I turn to another subject-the palm of triumph belonging to the empire of Russia. There serfdom-covering twenty, thirty, forty millions of subjects, by the fiat of one man, and the assent of the great majority of the people, peacefully, quietly, deliberately, with compensation to injured interests, with provision for the serf converted into a freeman-has vanished like the morning clouds (applause); and this day, from one end of the empire of Russia to the other, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west only on freemen. (Loud applause.) Now, the men of America, having faith in an overruling Providence, know that that retrograde motion which planets sometimes seem to have is because we regard them from wrong points of view; but when we take the central situation in the universe, we recognize that they are circling round the centre of light. And so it is destined to continue until nations shall roll up like a scroll, and all created things shall be wrapped in the bosom of the Creator.

NO PEACE TILL AFTER REBEL SUBMISSION.

On the evening of the 9th of October, Mr. Davis, in response to an invitation, addressed a large meeting at the Cooper Institute, in the city of New York, upon the condition of public affairs. He urged the vigorous prosecution of the war inaugurated by the rebels in the South, and his argument was especially directed against the "Peace" party, which now was endeavoring to instill hopes of a settlement of the great controversy in any other mode than by victories in the field. He maintained then that there was no government in the rebellious States-no lawful government--none that the federal authorities could in any manner recognize. When their armed opposition shall be swept away, it would then be for the Congress to reorganize those States, establish there and guarantee a republican form of government. He said that

"Before next year Maryland will have wiped out slavery from her soil; and if the Congress to meet in December should do its duty, we should have a free republic from Maine to Florida in less than two years. Let those who think the negro not good enough to serve by their side remember that they served in the ranks of George Washington and of Andrew Jackson.

"I never sympathized with the radical Abolitionists, for I thought them one hair's breadth this side of craziness. I know that, with only a feeble influence, they have been used by Northern Democrats and Southern Secessionists to smut and blacken all the rest of the people of the North. Now, when the nation is on the point of triumph; now, when the only thing that fires the Southern heart is the success of the opposition here, and the hope that Mr. Seymour will come to their aid; now, when the last appeal is being made; now, even, some men begin to prate about 'negro equality,' and revive the old prejudices which the enemies. of the republic alone use for our mischief, and which no man can use for our good. And I say-as little regard as I have for the Abolitionists-that the man who now utters a word for the pose of awakening prejudice against any man on the side of the government, is either a traitor at heart, or so low in intelligence that he does not know the consequences of his acts."

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There is no complete report of the speech. The extracts and account given above are from the New York papers of the following day (October 10th).

The Thirty-eighth Congress met on December 7, 1863. On the 14th Mr. Davis was named Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and chairman of a special committee of nine, to which was referred “so much of the President's Message as relates to the duty of the United States to guarantee a republican form of government to the States in which the governments recognized by the United States have been abrogated or overthrown."

On the 14th of January, 1864, a joint resolution was before the House "explanatory of an act to suppress insurrection, punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes." After a speech from Mr. S. S. Cox, of Ohio, in opposition thereto, Mr. Davis addressed the House in the following speech: