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your meeting, but you may be assured that I am heartily in sympathy with the declared object thereof, and intend to make my sentiments known in Congress at an early period of the present session.

I have the honor to be yours, &c.,

B. F. WADE.

FROM MAJ.-GEN. SICKLES.

[Extract.]

CHARLESTON, S. C.

I regret that my duties here, and the reserve imposed upon me by the regulations of the military service, prevent my participation in a public demonstration, having for its noble object the expression of the sympathy of the people of this country with Chili in her struggie with Spain, and of the unfaltering adhesion of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine. But my co-operation will not be missed, for our people are unanimous and immovable in their sentiments of attachment for our republican sisters of the American Continent and although we are weary of war, European powers will not be wise in assuming that we lack either the means or the inclination to repel aggression.

DANIEL E. SICKLES.

FROM HON. JOHN A. KASSON, OF IOWA.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 1865.

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

GENTLEMEN: Your note of the 20th instant, announcing a meeting at the Cooper Institute on the 6th proximo, to give expression to the public sentiment on the question of European interference with American Republican institutions, and requesting my attendance, is received.

It will afford me sincere gratification to be present if it shall be possible. The occasion has come for the Great Republic to acknowledge its assertion of the "Monroe

Doctrine" to have been an empty phrase, or a pregnant principle of Republican, national and continental safety, to be enforced with the whole combined power of the American Republics if required.

Let our counsels be prudent, as our preparation should be complete. Let the reaction from Europe, treacherously begun in the hour of our distress, itself have reasonable time to react in view of the increased solidity of the United States at the close of our war.

Then, if justice, honor and respect for American principles do not retract the interference already initiated by Europe, let the blows fall, in the name of God and Liberty, until the interfering flags shall have been swept from the two oceans that embrace our continent.

I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,

JOHN A. KASSON.

FROM HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 21, 1865.

GENTLEMEN: It will be impossible for me to be present at your meeting in New York on the 6th of January; but, while trusting that our country may not become involved in hostilities with any foreign nation, if they can be honorably averted, I have no hesitation in expressing my warmest sympathies with the struggling and unconquered Liberals of Mexico, and my faith that both President and Congress will so act and speak, that the whole world will understand and appreciate the deep interest we feel in the permanency, the tranquilization, and the consequent prosperity of our neighboring Republic.

Yours truly,

SCHUYLER COLFAX.

FROM HON. HAMILTON WARD, OF NEW YORK.

WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 21, 1865.

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

GENTLEMEN: I am in receipt of yours of the 20th, inviting me to attend a meeting at Cooper Institute, New

York City, on the evening of Jan. 6, in vindication of the "Monroe Doctrine."

Circumstances will not permit my attending, as it would give me great pleasure to do. I hope there will be a grand outpouring of the people on that occasion. Give the "Nephew of his Uncle" to understand that as the great Napoleon at last found his Waterloo, he too may find his in the Halls of the Montezumas.

The French ruler took advantage of our supposed weakness, and planted upon this continent, over our unwilling people, a monarchy, in bold defiance of our well-known and cherished national policy and traditions. However much we might desire peace with our old friend across the water, this act of France places us in the position either to fight it out, if needs be, and vindicate our policy, or tamely submit to a great national insult and wrong. The people are of but one opinion, that the national honor must be maintained. Let them speak out.

Respectfully yours,

HAMILTON WARD.

FROM HON. R. W. CLARKE.

WASHINGTON CITY, Dec. 21, 1865.

Hon. E. GEO. SQUIER, Chairman, &c.:

SIR: I have received your notice of a call for a meeting to be held Jan. 6, 1866, at the great hall of the Cooper Institute, New York, "for the vindication of the Monroe Doctrine." My arrangements will not permit of my attending your meeting; but be assured that if called upon to act officially upon that question, I shall be with you most heartily.

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FROM HON. HORACE MAYNARD, OF TENNESSEE

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 1865. GENTLEMEN: Your invitation to be present at a meeting in the Cooper Institute, on the 6th of January next, finds me on the eve of returning to Tennessee. The ob

ject of the meeting, to give expression to the general, nay, universal, public sentiment, popularly known as the "Monroe Doctrine," meets my unqualified approval. Let the sentiment find expression on every convenient occasion, and through every practicable medium.

It has been assailed on both continents of the Western hemisphere, and it is high time it were authoritatively asserted.

Very respectfully,

HORACE MAYNARD.

Hon. E. G. SQUIER, Chairman.

FROM HON. SAMUEL J. Randall, of PENNSYLVANIA.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 1, 1866.

Messrs. Squier, Viele, Poston, Duganne and Wheelock, Committee, etc. :

GENTLEMEN: Your invitation to be present and address a public meeting in New York City, on the 6th of January next, called for the purpose of vindicating the Monroe Doctrine, has been received.

I regret that my official duties will prevent its accept

ance.

I have always supported the doctrine you wish to maintain, and have so voted in Congress. I am prepared to use all constitutional means to carry it into practical force and effect, and assume any responsibility which may arise therefrom.

I am, gentlemen, your obt. servant,

SAMUEL J. RANDALL..

FROM. IION. JAMES H. LANE, U. S. SENATOR FROM KANSAS. WASHINGTON, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 1865.

GENTLEMEN: Your valued favor was duly received; and in answer, I regret to say previous engagements_will prevent me from attending. This I much regret, as I am on the record as an advocate of a firm and decided policy

in regard to resisting the great conspiracy of imperialism to overthrow our republican form of government on this continent. And it would give me more than usual pleasure, in such a presence as that of a New York audience, to denounce the foreign despots who dared first to seduce part of our people from the path of duty, and then, in the midst of our national troubles, to plant their iron heel on the neck of our feeble and distressed sister Republic, Mexico. You may rely on me in every contingency in the future for peace or war.

Respectfully,

J. H. LANE.

LETTER FROM MAJ.-GEN. MUSSEY.

WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 5, 1866.

Hon. E. GEO. SQUIER &c., New York.

MY DEAR SIR: I am very reluctantly compelled at this last moment to decline your invitation to attend the meeting at Cooper Institute to-morrow.

I regret this the more as I am thoroughly in sympathy with what I understand to be the object of the meeting, a public declaration, to wit: of the American belief that the New World is for Republics, and that it is the duty of the United States to enunciate and maintain this belief.

Since the triumphant success of the United States in the late rebellion, republicanism is no longer an open question.

The Revolutionary War showed that a Republic could assert itself against a Monarchy and acquire independence; the war of 1812 showed that it could maintain that independence as against outsiders; the late war has shown that it can maintain it as against the turbulence and sedition of the malcontents of its own citizens, aided by the moral and material sympathy of allied France and England. And to every thinker the demonstration is overwhelming that a "People's Government" is the most beneficent in Peace, the most powerful in War, and the most secure against Treason.

This success has brought its duty with it for us to per

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