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National peace is, of all national blessings, the greatest. Therefore, it behoves us to avoid not only the immediate but the more remote causes of war. I do not believe that we can maintain permanent peace with a European despotism next door to us; but neither do I think that war will ensue, in this case, if resolution, with good temper, mark our policy now.

We must be bold in the present, if we would avoid war in the future. The "Monroe Doctrine," temperately as

serted, is peace.

I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,

ROBERT DALE OWEN.

To the Hon. E. Geo. Squier and others, Committee:

FROM HON. DANIEL S. DICKENSON, OF NEW YORK.

OFFICE DISTRICT-ATTORNEY OF THE U. S. FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. S NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 1866.

GENTLEMEN: Your note inviting me to address a meeting at the Cooper Institute to-morrow evening, called to indicate the popular sentiment on the subject of the "Monroe Doctrine," has been received, and my thanks are returned for the complimentary remembrance.

There is, perhaps, no question of national policy, either foreign or domestic, upon which the American people of all sections and parties are so firmly united and so resolutely determined, as upon that of resistance to the encroachments of monarchy upon this continent. In short, so often and so unanimously has this sentiment been asserted and repeated that the world knows it by heart.

The world knows, too, that it is one of the most cherished principles of republican institutions; that it is deemed essential to their safety and exemption from the conflicts which are wont to spring up and flourish in the pestilent atmosphere of monarchy; and the world should know, that it is the last point to be yielded to force or be circumvented by fraud.

Entertaining, as I do to their fullest extent, these convictions, I am aware that the subject is at this time somewhat interwoven with our foreign relations, always a deli

cate subject, and especially so at this time, when we are surrounded by jealousies and irritations; and having full confidence in the wisdom and patriotism of the President, his Cabinet and Congress in the premises, I have deemed it proper, in view of an official relation with the Federal Government, not to mingle in popular demonstrations upon the subject at this time, lest such action might be misconstrued or misunderstood to the prejudice of others I have the honor to be, gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

D. S. DICKINSON.

Hon. E. GEO. SQUIER and others, Committee.

FROM HON. R. T. VAN HORN, OF MISSOURI.

WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 4, 1866. GENTLEMEN: I have delayed an answer to your invitation to attend a meeting on the 6th with the hope that it would be possible to be present, but I am compelled to forego that pleasure.

Let me say a word. The air is full of strange rumors, which are well calculated to alarm every patriotic American. We must appeal to the people at once, and arouse the country to the danger.

If a monarchy be established in Mexico, we shall be untrue to our duty, and will receive the execrations of the lovers of Freedom throughout the world.

The talk that Napoleon will withdraw his troops, if let alone, may be true; but they will be withdrawn when the liberties of the Mexican people shall have been trampled under his feet.

There is but one way to secure their withdrawal-and that is, the open, manly one, of a notice to quit, backed by a demonstration on the frontier to enforce it if declined.

The great West is ready-it is a unit, and will not be silenced.

Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Colorado will drive out the foreign troops, without a man being taken from other States.

All they are waiting for is the word, and they will answer for the result.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. T. VAN HORN.

Messrs. E. GEO. SQUIER, E. L. VIELE, CHARLES D. PASTON, A. H. DUGANNE, J. A. WHEELOCK, Committee.

FROM HON. J. BAKER, OF ILLINOIS.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 1865.

Hon. E. G. Squier and others, Commmittee:

GENTLEMEN: My duties here as a member of Congress will preclude my attending the meeting on the 8th of next month, to which you invite me. I will add, however, a few words on the particular subject which you have in hand.

The present French Emperor has somewhere said, in substance, that one of the Napoleonic ideas is, to keep step with the movement of one's age; and that if a man fails to do this, by standing still or going backwards, he is apt to get run over-a first-rate idea, by the way-but the Mexican scheme of the Emperor is a flat violation of it. The idea will prove itself true in this as in hundreds of other instances; the scheme will fail. The movement of the age is progressive, not retrograde, or even stationary. The tendency is to larger liberty, in fact, in form, and among all men, and will not allow the founding of a throne, at the point of foreign bayonets, upon the ruins of an American Republic. The idea of being flanked by such a monarchy upon our southwestern border, presided over by an offshoot of the House of Hapsburg, is perfectly preposterous, and not for a moment to be entertained by any friend of liberty in America or Europe. The thing is morally, politically, historically impossible, and never would have entered the head of Louis Napoleon, had he not been entrapped, by his want of sympathy with freedom, into the shallow supposition that this country was going to be done for by the rebellion. In my judgment, this Republic should stand for liberty on the continent,

and firmly protest against any further foreign coercion of the political system of Mexico.

Yours, very respectfully,

J. BAKER.

FROM HON. CHARLES SITGREAVES, OF NEW-JERSEY.

PHILLIPSBURG, N. J., Dec. 27, 1865. Hon. E. G. Squier and others, Committee:

GENTLEMEN: I regret that previous engagements will prevent my attendance at the meeting to be held in the great hall of the Cooper Institute, in New York, on the evening of Jan. 6, for the purpose of giving expression to the sentiments of the people on the subject of the Monroe Doctrine.

Although "absent in body, I will be present with you in spirit." This Continent must be, in all its length and breadth, the home of constitutional freedom and the asylum of the oppressed of every land, which it never can be with an empire on its borders.

Our people must never add to the oceans of human blood which have been shed and mountains of treasurethat have been expended to "maintain the balance of power," which they must do if "foreign, and especially monarchical, interference is permitted in the domestic and international affairs of this continent." You say truly, that the time is appropriate for an expression of opinion on this subject. It is, indeed, appropriate, not only for the reiteration, but for the maintenance and enforcement of the "Monroe Doctrine." The stability of the Union, the future tranquillity of the nation, the extension of republican principles and the rights of man, alike demand it. Now is the proper time. The opportunity now lost can never be regained, without destroying the peace of the world. An earnest declaration by Congress and the President now, I think, would be sufficient; but if not, then a million of brave men, disciplined in the march, the camp, and the battles of a four years' sanguinary war, will, under God, settle the question of despots for ever.

Very truly yours,

CHAS. SITGREAVES.

FROM. MAJ.-GEN. J. A. GARFIELD, M. C., FROM OHIO. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON CITY, Dec. 26, 1865.

HON. E. GEO. SQUIER:

DEAR SIR: Yours, inviting me to address a meeting at the Cooper Institute, on the application of the Monroe Doctrine to our relations with Mexico, Perú and Chili, is received. I regret that my duties here will not allow me. to accept your invitation. I should be glad to cooperate with you in an effort to inform the citizens of my country by what means and for what ends the monarchies of Europe have been, and are still, endeavoring to trample out republican liberty in the New World. I trust you will call the attention of the assembly, that will meet on Saturday evening, to the fact that Maximilian, the French agent in Mexico, by a decree of Sept. 5, 1865, re-established slavery, with a view to encouraging emigration from our rebel States; thus affording another proof that the French usurpation in Mexico was in reality a part of the rebellion, for the purpose of extending and perpetuating the institution of slavery.

I believe that a firm and decided course on our part will, without war, secure the removal of the French usurpation. That the usurpation will cease, and the pretensions of Maximilian and Napoleon in Mexico will be relinquished, I have no doubt.

I am, dear sir, very respectfully yours.

J. A. GARFIELD.

FROM HON. B. F. WADE, U. S. SENATOR FROM OHIO. WASHINGTON, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 1865.

HON. E. G. SQUIER:

SIR I have just received your note inviting me to attend a meeting to be held iu the City of New York, on Saturday evening next, "for the purpose of giving expression to the sentiments of the people of New York, on the subject of foreign, and especially monarchical, interference in the domestic and international affairs of this continent." I regret that I shall not be able to be present at

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