SPEECHES OF REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRATS.

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meeting is accomplished. Upon the wings of the lightning it goes out throughout the world that New York, the very heart of a great State, with her crowded thoroughfares, her merchants, her manufacturers, her artiststhat New York, by one hundred thousand of her people, declares to the country and to the world, that she will sustain the Government to the last dollar in her treasury-to the last drop of your blood. The National banners leaning from ten thousand windows in your city to-day, proclaim your affection and reverence for the Union."

Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, who was Secretary of the Treasury in the Democratic Administration of President Polk, denounced secession as a crime, and said :-"Much as I love my party, I love my country infinitely more, and must and will sustain it, at all hazards. Indeed, it is due to the great occasion here frankly to declare that, notwithstanding my earnest opposition to the election of Mr. Lincoln, and my disposition most closely to scrutinize all his acts, I see, thus far, nothing to condemn in his efforts to save the Union. . . . And now let me say, that this Union must, will, and shall be perpetuated; that not a star shall be dimmed or a stripe erased from our banner; that the integrity of the Government shall be preserved, and that from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the lakes of the North to the Gulf of Mexico, never shall be surrendered a single acre of our soil or a drop of its waters."

David S. Coddington, an influential member of the Democratic party, gave a scathing review of the efforts of disunionists recorded in our history, and said :-"Shall I tell you what secession means? It means ambition in the Southern leaders and misapprehension in the Southern people. Its policy is to imperialize Slavery, and to degrade and destroy the only free republic in the world. . . . Nothing so disappoints secession as the provoking fidelity of New York to the Constitution. From the vaults of Wall Street, Jefferson Davis expected to pay his army, and riot in all the streets and in all the towns and cities of the North, to make their march a triumphant one. Fifty thousand men to-day tread on his fallacy."

Such was the response of some of the ablest representatives of the venerable Democratic party to the slanderers of that party, such as Sanders and his like in the South, and its trading politicians in the North. It was the

1 Representative men of the Democratic party in different loyal States made speeches, and took substantially the same ground. The venerable General Cass, late Secretary of State, made a stirring speech at Detroit, on the 24th of April. "He who is not for his country," he said, "is against her. There is no neutral position to be occupied. It is the duty of all zealously to support the Government in its efforts to bring this unhappy civil war to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion, by the restoration, in its integrity, of that great charter of freedom bequeathed to us by Washington and his compatriots."

The veteran General Wool, a Democrat of the Jefferson and Jackson school, and then commander of the Eastern Department, said, in response to the greetings of the citizens of Troy, who, at the close of an immense meeting, on the 16th of April, went to his house in a body:-"Will you permit that flag to be desecrated and trampled in the dust by traitors? Will you permit our noble Government to be destroyed by rebels, in order that they may advance their schemes of political ambition and extend the area of Slavery? No, indeed, it cannot be done. The spirit of the age forbids it. My friends, that flag must be lifted up from the dust into which it has been trampled, placed in its proper position, and again set floating in triumph to the breeze. I pledge you my heart, my hand, all my energies to the cause. The Union shall be maintained. I am prepared to devote my life to the work, and to lead you in the struggle!"

Caleb Cushing, who presided at the Charleston Convention (page 20) and at the Seceders' Convention at Baltimore (page 27), in 1860, made an eloquent speech at Newburyport, Massachusetts, on the same day, in which he said that he cordially participated in the patriotic manifestations around him. He would yield to no man in faithfulness to the Union, or in zeal for the maintenance of the laws and the constitutional authorities

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IMPRESSIONS OF AN INTELLIGENT ENGLISHMAN.

unbiased sentiment of the great body of that organization then and throughout the war, who were truly loyal in sentiment, and formed a strong element of the powerful Union party that faithfully sustained the Government, in spite of the machinations of demagogues. That meeting relieved the citizens of the commercial metropolis of the nation from the false position of apparent selfish indifference to the fate of the Republic, in which they had been placed before Europe by an able correspondent of the London Times, who had been utterly misled by a few men among whom he unfortunately fell on his arrival in this country.' It gave assurance of that heart-felt patriotism of the great body of the citizens of New York, who attested their devotion to the country by giving about one hundred thousand soldiers to the army, and making the sacrifice, it is estimated, in actual expenditures of money, the loss of the labor of their able-bodied men, private and public contributions, taxes, et cætera, of not less than three hundred millions of dollars in the course of four years. That meeting dismayed and exasperated the conspirators, for they saw that

2

of the Union; and to that end he stood prepared, if occasion should call for it, to testify his sense of public duty by entering the field again, at the command of the Commonwealth or of the Union. Mr. Cushing did offer his services in the field to the Governor of Massachusetts, but they were not accepted.

At a public reception of Senator Douglas, Mr. Lincoln's opponent for the Presidency, at Chicago, Illinois, on the 1st of May, that statesman, in a patriotic speech, said:--" There are only two sides to this question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war; only patriots or traitors. ... I express it as my conviction before God, that it is the duty of every American citizen to rally round the flag of his country."

1 This was William Howard Russell, LL. D., whom we have mentioned in note 2, page 91. He had acquired much reputation by his graphic pictures of the war in the Crimea. He was instructed to keep the readers of the Times advised of the progress of events in the United States during the civil war that then seemed inevitable. Dr. Russell arrived in the city of New York at the middle of March, 1861, while the ground was covered with snow. The center of the society into which he was invited and retained during his stay in that city was an eminent banker, whom he speaks of as "an American by theory, an Englishman in instincts and tastes-educated in Europe, and sprung from British stock. His friends," he said, “all men of position in New York society, had the same dilettanti tone, and were as little anxious for the future, or excited by the present, as a party of savans, chronicling the movements of a magnetic storm.'" He mentions the names of some of the gentlemen whom he met there, among whom were some who were distinguished throughout the war as the most persistent opposers of their Government in its efforts to save the nation from ruin. The impression their conversation and arguments made on the mind of Dr. Russell was, he said, “that, according to the Constitution, the Government could not employ force to prevent secession, or to compel States which had seceded by the will of the people to acknowledge the Federal power. In fact, according to them, the Federal Government was a mere machine put forward by a society of sovereign States, as a common instrument for certain ministerial acts, more particularly those which affected the external relations of the Confederation. . . . There was not a man who maintained the Government had any power to coerce the people of a State, or to force a State to remain in the Union, or under the action of the Federal Government; in other words, the symbol of power at Washington is not at all analogous to that which represents an established government in other countries. Although they admitted the Southern leaders had meditated 'the treason against the Union' years ago, they could not bring themselves to allow their old opponents, the Republicans now in power, to dispose of the armed force of the Union against their brother Democrats of the Southern States."

The conclusion at which Dr. Russell arrived, in consequence of the expressed opinions of these "men of position in New York," among whom he associated while there, was, that "there was neither army nor navy available, and the ministers had no machinery of rewards, and means of intrigue, or modes of gaining adhérents known to European Governments. The Democrats," he said, “behold, with silent satisfaction, the troubles into which the Republican triumph has plunged the country, and are not at all disposed to extricate them. The most notable way of impeding their efforts is to knock them down with the Constitution every time they riše to the surface, and begin to swim out. New York society, however, is easy in its mind just now, and the upper world of millionaire merchants, bankers, contractors, and great traders, are glad that the vulgar Republicans are suffering for their success."-My Diary North and South: by William Howard Russell, Chapters III. and IV. Harper & Brothers, 1963.

Alluding to the meeting, the Richmond Despatch (Apríl 23) said:-" New York will be remembered with special hatred by the South, to the end of time. Boston we have always known where to find; but this New York, which has never turned against us until this hour of trial, and is now moving heaven and earth for our destruction, shall be a marked city to the end of time." That special hatred, not of "the South," but of the conspirators, was evinced in attempts to lay the city in ashes, and, it is said, to poison the Croton water with which the city is supplied from forty miles in the interior.

This exasperation of those who had been greatly deceived was very natural.

The disloyal official propo

SPEECH OF PROFESSOR MITCHEL.

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they had been deceived, and observed that, unlike themselves, their political brethren in the Free-labor States loved their country more than their party -were more patriotic than selfish--and would boldly confront with war, if necessary, every enemy of the Union and of American nationality. It also amazingly encouraged and strengthened the President and his Cabinet in their efforts to suppress the rising rebellion.

In that meeting the profound intellect-the science of the Free-labor States-was represented by Professor O. M. Mitchel, one of the brightest lights of the century, who also gave his services and his life in defense of the Union. No speech on that occasion thrilled the vast multitude who heard his voice more than that of Professor Mitchel. "I have been announced to you," he said, "as a citizen of Kentucky. Once I was, because I was born there. I love my native State as you love your native State. I love my adopted State of Ohio as you love your adopted State, if such you have; but, my friends, I am not a citizen now of any State. I owe allegiance to no State, and never did, and, God helping me, I never will. I owe allegiance to the Government of the United States." After referring to his own education at the Military Academy at West Point, he said :-"My father and my mother were from Old Virginia, and my brothers and sisters from Old Kentucky. I love them all; I love them dearly. I have my brothers and friends down in the South now, united to me by the fondest ties of love and affection. I would take them in my arms to-day with all the love that God has put into this heart; but, if I found them in arms against my country, I would be compelled to smite them down. You have found officers of the Army who have been educated by the Government, who have drawn their support from the Government for long years, who, when called upon by their country to stand for the Constitution and for the right, have basely, ignominiously, and traitorously either resigned their commissions or deserted to traitors, and rebels, and enemies. What means all this? How can it be possible that men should act in this way? There is no question but one. If we ever had a Government and a Constitution, or if we ever lived under such, have we ever recognized the supremacy of right? I say, in God's name, why not recognize it now? Why not to-day? Why not forever? Suppose those friends of ours from Old Ireland-suppose he who made himself one of us, when a war should break out against his own country, should say, 'I cannot fight against my own countrymen,' is he a citizen of the United States ? They are countrymen no longer when war breaks out. The rebels and the traitors in the South we must set aside; they are not our friends. When they come to their senses, we will receive them with open arms; but till that time, while they are trailing our glorious banner in the dust; when they scorn it,

sition of Mayor Wood, only three or four months before; the intimate and extensive commercial relations of New York with the Slave-labor States; the known financial complicity of some of its citizens in the African Slave-trade, and the daily utterances of some of its politicians, gave assurance that in a crisis such as had arrived, it would "stand by the South." While the writer was at the St. Charles Hotel, in New Orleans, on the day when the President's call for troops reached that city, he heard a gentleman (Colonel Hiram Fuller), who had been prominently connected with the newspaper press of New York, say to a group of bystanders: "Our city will never conntenance the Black Republicans in making war. I belong to a secret society [Knights of the Golden Circle?] in that city, fifty thousand strong, who will sooner fight for the South than for the Abolition North." This was less than a week before the great meeting at Union Square.

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PATRIOTIC RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED.

condemn it, curse it, and trample it under foot, then I must smite. In God's name I will smite, and, as long as I have strength, I will do it. Oh! listen to me! listen to me! I know these men; I know their courage; I have been among them; I have been with them; I have been reared with them; they bave courage; and do not you pretend to think they have not. I tell you what it is, it is no child's play you are entering upon. They will fight; and with a determination and a power which is irresistible. Make up your mind to it. Let every man put his life in his hand, and say: 'There is the altar of my country; there I will sacrifice my life.' I, for one, will lay my life down. It is not mine any longer. Lead me to the conflict. Place me where I can do my duty. There I am ready to go. I care not where it may lead me. I am ready to fight in the ranks or out of the ranks. Having been educated in the Academy; having been in the Army seven years; having served as commander of a voluntary company for ten years, and having served as an adjutant-general, I feel I am ready for something. I only ask to be permitted to act, and, in God's name, give me something to do!"

While the speakers at the great meeting illustrated the enthusiasm of the people of the Free-labor States, the resolutions there adopted indicated the calm judgment and unalterable determination that would govern them in the trial before them. In those resolutions, they averred that the Declaration of Independence, the war of the Revolution, and the Constitution of the United States had given origin to our Government, the most equal and beneficent hitherto known among men; that under its protection the wide expansion of our territory, the vast development of our wealth, our population, and our power, had built up a nation able to maintain and defend before the world the principles of liberty and justice upon which it was founded; that by every sentiment of interest, of honor, of affection, and of duty, they were engaged to preserve unbroken for their generation, and to transmit to their posterity, the great heritage they had received from heroic ancestors; that to the maintenance of this sacred trust they would devote whatever they possessed and whatever they could do; and in support of that Government under which they were happy and proud to live, they were prepared to shed their blood and lay down their lives. In view of future reconciliation, they added:-"That when the authority of the Federal Government shall have been re-established, and peaceful obedience to the Constitution and laws prevail, we shall be ready to confer and co-operate with all loyal citizens throughout the Union, in Congress or in convention, for the consideration of all supposed grievances, the redress of all wrongs, and the protection of every right, yielding ourselves, and expecting all others to yield, to the will of the whole people, as constitutionally and lawfully expressed."

For many months after this great meeting, and others of its kind in the cities and villages of the land, the Government had few obstacles thrown in its way by political opponents; and the sword and the purse were placed at its disposal by the people, with a faith touching and sublime.

FORTS NEAR KEY WEST.

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CHAPTER XV.

SIEGE OF FORT PICKENS.-DECLARATION OF WAR.-THE VIRGINIA CONSPIRATORS AND THE PROPOSED CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON CITY.

E have observed that on the fall of Fort Sumter the conspirators were very anxious to seize Fort Pickens before it should be re-enforced. We left Lieutenant Slemmer and a small garrison there, besieged by insurgents, who were continually increasing in number.' We have also observed that the Governor of Florida had made secret preparations to seize Forts Jefferson and Taylor before the politicians of his State had passed an Ordinance of Secession.

Fort Jefferson' is at the Garden Key, one of the Tortugas Islands, off the southern extremity of the Florida peninsula, and Fort Taylor is at Key West, not far distant from the other. The walls of Fort Jefferson were finished, as to hight, and the lower tier of ports was completed, in the

autumn of 1860; but the upper embrasures were entirely open; temporary sally-ports, for the convenience of laborers, remained unstopped, and the works were exposed to easy capture at any time. Fort Taylor was nearer completion. Its casemate-battery was mounted, and Captain (afterward Brigadier-General) J. M. Brannan, with a company of the First Artillery, occupied barracks about half a mile distant.

The seizure of these forts by the secessionists was delayed chiefly because the laborers employed on them were mostly slaves belonging to

1 See page 172.

This fort covers an area of about thirteen acres, or nearly the whole of the Garden Key. It is calculated for an armament of four hundred and fifty guns when complete, and a garrison of one thousand men. It commands the inner harbor of Key West.