ment, thrown into the scale of slavery, hitherto has influenced politics in the free states, and made them pro-slavery in sentiment and in action, just as surely will the power and patronage of the Federal Government, when engaged on the side of free principles, make the slave states anti-slavery. But it will do it without injury to the text or to the spirit of the Constitution;-correcting its bad support of a feeble and enfeebling institution, it will leave it to the processes which its own society will provide for its destruction. Why should we consider slavery, when robbed of its political strength and driven to depend upon its own merit, and its own ur aided forces, a dangerous institution? To whom is it dangerous? Look at the states on which it turns its fond gaze and upon which it bestows its smiles; and look at the states of which, retreating, it turns back its frowns. No, gentlemen, believe me, the favor of slavery is a false, a meretricious favor, and, as of every other harlot, it is its love and not its hate that should inspire fear, and its rage inflicts no wounds so deep as its caresses. (Applause.)

Gentlemen, we are fighting, and we are fighting for the Constitution. War, to sustain the Constitution, however different from peace in its methods, is just as constitutional. It is always constitutional to support the Constitution by such measures and by such weapons as are necessary to repel the force that is brought against it. And while this constitutional war lasts, its forces, its blows, shall not be withheld, not averted, not parried by the Constitution, but shall fall with whatever shattering force they may upon the institution of slavery; and whatever slave war makes free, peace, restored, shall never re-enslave. (Applause.) Go on with your war. It falls upon the guilty authors of the rebellion-the slaveholding aristocracy of the South. (Renewed applause.) Let it fall, with all its weight, upon the bad stimulant of their unholy passions-the institution of slavery; and when the war is over, whatever of slavery is left within the jurisdiction of loyal state governments, will be dealt with by them. If the structure of society shall be so far broken by prolonged contumacy of rebellion, in any region, that a loyal state government cannot be found, or the materials of its rightful and safe construction cannot be gathered, then society, by necessity, falls under the protective control of the Federal government, and slavery, then, in common with all other institutions, will be directly dealt with. (Applause.) But, gentlemen, with good faith and an honest purpose, we will maintain the principles of the Constitution, and not in the zeal of the contest, or in the heat of our own resentments, or in the glow of our own just enthusiasm for liberty, destroy the Constitution that this war is, on our part, raised to uphold. (Applause.)

There has been a great deal of puzzle, gentlemen, about a certain matter in this war, when the progress of our arms brings us in contact with the black population of the South. A somewhat taking theory and phrase, that never seemed to me to be very sensible, were, early in the campaign, put forth by a distinguished general, which, putting slavery upon the ground of property, described the slaves as contraband of war. My view of the Constitution, in this connection, is this: that the slaves of the South are to the Constitution and to the Federal government but a part of the population of the South. (Applause.) And when treason defies the Government, and raises the flame of war, the Constitution knows but two descriptions of people-those that are loyal, and those that are rebel. (Loud applause.) And, weighed against the safety and protection of the loyal slave, the lives and fortunes of a hundred rebel masters are but dust in the balance. (Applause.) This proposition, so thorough and universal, arises under the laws of war—a constitutional war-and no enactment of Congress can add greater vigor of authority, or produce greater practical results, than an active exertion these powers of war.

Mr. President, I believe I have said all that is necessary about the Constitution. I do not believe, as an eloquent gentleman has suggested to us, that it is altogether a matter of geography whether we maintain the Union and our federal Government or not. I think it depends a great deal more upon the people of the country,—upon their intelligence, upon their integrity, upon their virtue, upon their willingness, in sober and honest endurance, to bear the burdens that are necessary for the triumph of our cause. I believe, Mr. President, that we need to marshal the financial resources of the country with equal courage and wisdom-that we must pay taxes long-continued and heavy. As, too, I believe that this generation has been guilty of the desertions of public duty that have come so near overthrowing the great fabric of Government that our ancestors transmitted to us, I say that it is unjust and cowardly for us to put on our posterity the payment for our sins. (Applause.) I would like to know what manhood there is in saying, "We will defend against the dangers that our feeble and selfish politics have brought upon the noble heritage that our fathers prepared for us and future generations, but we will make our children pay the expenses of it." (Applause.) And we must insist upon it, that, with the same perseverance, the same fidelity, the same honest self-sacrifice, with which our fathers wrought for us, we will labor in this, the heat of our day, for our children. We must be honest. I say it, Mr. President, with profound sincerity, that, next to the crime of taking money to betray your country, in its danger, is the offence of extorting money for defending it in its necessity. (Applause.) I don't believe in that softness of phrase which makes it a crime to grow rich by the betrayal, and a happy fortune to grow rich out of the necessities, of the country. (Loud applause.) Let us see to it that a deep and firm public opinion makes itself felt upon this subject-felt by the Government, felt by the Cabinet, felt by the contractors, and felt by the people. (Applause.)

The eighth regular toast :—

The Army and Navy.

The President said-It was expected that we should have with us to-night, to respond to this toast, Maj. Gen. Fremont. (Tremendous cheering.) In reply to an invitation, he telegraphed two days since in these words: "I shall try to be with you at the time fixed." His engagements, however, have prevented his attendance. I hold in my hand a letter received from him this morning, and I invite your attention to the magnanimity which pervades it.

ELLIOT C. COWDIN, Esq.

GEN. FREMONT'S LETTER.

MY DEAR SIR-In reply to your letter of the 17th, I beg you to say to the Committee that I am fully sensible of the honor done me, in being designated to reply in behalf of "The Army and Navy."

Their important and signal victories assure the preservation of that nationality whose attainment is typified in the name you meet to honor, and I should have been glad of the opportunity to add my voice to the applause which a grateful country gives them on this anniversary.

Especially would I have been glad to have found so fitting an occasion to express my own admiration of the brilliant successes of our Inland Navy, and that part of the Western Army in whose triumphs I naturally feel a special interest.

My engagements here are, however, of such a positive character, that they will not permit me to be absent.

Begging you, therefore, to assure the Committee of my hearty participation in the objects of the meeting,

I am, very truly yours,
J. C. FREMONT,
Major-General U. S. Army.

WASHINGTON, 21st February, 1862.

(Long-continued cheering.)

A letter had also been received from Gen. ScoTT, which was read, as follows:

GEN. SCOTT'S LETTER.

BREVOORT HOUSE, Feb. 22, 1862. DEAR SIR-Nothing could be more flattering than your invitation for this evening, but I am very much an invalid, and fear that I am already under more engagements for the day than my strength will allow me to comply with.

I beg you and your associates to accept my grateful acknowledgments, with the assurance that the esteem of my countrymen is very precious to me in the decline of life. (Loud cheers.) WINFIELD SCOTT.

E. C. COWDIN, Esq.

The ninth regular toast:

The Fathers of the Republic-Inspired by the great principles of the Declaration of Independence, they battled not for themselves, but for their country and mankind.

The Chair called upon the Hon. HENRY J. RAYMOND, Speaker of the Assembly, to respond, who came forward amid great applause, and spoke as follows:

SPEECH OF HON. H. J. RAYMOND.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN: I respond with great pleasure to the toast which has been assigned me-a pleasure second only to that with which I find myself in the midst of this goodly band of Republicans, on the anniversary of the Birthday of the Father of the Republic. I think it meet and proper that those who have led off in this second great war of Liberty should celebrate the Birthday of him who was foremost in the war which gave us independence at the outset of our history. I think it eminently fitting that we should honor the memory of the Fathers of the Republic, for we have inherited their sentiments-we honor their names—and we are to-day following their example. There is not a solitary principle of the Republican party, that does not find its precedent and vindication in the principles and opinions of those who are honored in that toast, as the Fathers of the Republic, and as they then sent forth to the world that Declaration of Independence, which was the beginning of the great events which secured us freedom from foreign oppression, so have the Republicans of this day sent forth to the world, and are now sustaining by their arms, that second Declaration of Independence, which is to deliver this country from a still more formidable power than Great Britain ever was to us-I mean the Political Domination of Slavery. (Cheers and applause.)

I take it, sir, that that was the specific object for which the Republican Party was organized. We saw day by day, step by step, growing up in this country the power of an oligarchy of a little more than three hundred thousand men, based upon an enormous property in human beings-an oligarchy based upon slavery-not content with the position assigned to it by the Constitution of our country; not content with its

position as a social institution and a form of labor, as an evil that had descended to it from the past, and which they were to remove as they best might in the course of time; not content with this, but seeking to establish itself as the permanent, dominating, supreme power, not only over its own section, and the States in which it existed, but over the affairs, foreign and domestic, of this whole Republic. (Applause.) It was this state of danger that called the Republican party into power. The nation had already seen all the powers of our General Government passing under the control of this same slave oligarchy, and by it, directly or indirectly, wielded in all the departments of the Government. I need not recite the familiar history. Slavery dictated the law of the land, and wielded the hand by which that law was put into execution. It is to the eternal honor of the Republicans of the United States that they had the courage and determination to make a stand against this power, and to declare the independence of the country of its authority and control. (Loud applause.) They succeeded at that tribunal established by the Constitution of the country for the settlement of all great questions of difference. They appealed to the ballot, and at the ballot they carried. their point. Success had established the fact that the power and control of this country-the Constitutional authority of the Republic of the United States-was properly and justly in the hands of those who were the foes of the political domination of Slavery. They established by the highest tests known to our Government their right to wield the Government of the United States. Was this oligarchy satisfied with the decision? Not at all. They appealed from the ballot-box to the bullet. They declared that if they could not maintain their supremacy by their votes they would fly to arms, and by force maintain the domination they had usurped. They have tried that, and they must await the issue.

We beat them with the ballot. We are perfectly willing to try the question, if needs be, by arms, and take our chance of beating them with the bullet. (Applause and cheers.) We are willing to meet them on any field they choose to select, by any form of trial they can discover or invent, and there assert the right of the sovereign people of the United States to make laws and control the policy of the Government, regardless of the dictates of this oligarchy, which would make slavery the corner-stone of our great Republic.

They started the rebellion with every prospect of success. They started with high and glowing hopes. They had been twenty-five years in making their preparations. They had organized their conspiracy. They had drilled their men. They had formed their alliances here, in our very midst, in the Northern States. They had allies upon whom they had counted; and when they raised the rebel flag they staked the existence. of their oligarchy on the issue of that trial.

We spent a long time in preparation. We had to do so, for they had taken us unawares. We did not believe that they would rebel against the Government which was known to them only by its blessings, and against which they had not one solitary just and well-grounded complaint. We never believed, to the very last day of the experiment, that they were sincere in their purpose of rebellion. Thus it came to passwhile they were organized, while they could put one, two, or four hundred thousand men into the field upon the spur of the moment, we, on behalf of the great Republic of the United States, were without an army, without resources, without organization, without a settled purpose, without a fixed conviction, even, that it would be necessary to fight at all. All this preliminary work which they had done, we had to do after they had made the issue and presented themselves in the field to meet it. Is it any

wonder that delay has attended our movements? The Administration did everything which man could do to meet the emergency, and they are prepared to meet it to-day. They stand in the field ready to meet it-determined and resolved to meet it at the earliest possible moment-(applause)—and with what results the events of the last few days sufficiently reveal to us. (Renewed applause.)

We know now, as well as we can know anything that is still in the future, that the rebellion is to be crushed, and to be crushed speedily; that its power is gone, that its back is broken, and soon even the Government which claims to exercise its authority will be scattered. That Government, which to-day is desecrating the birth-day of the Father of his Country, will soon be a fugitive from the capital which it has selected for the scene of its operations. (Applause.) Who can doubt it who sees day by day the closing around it of the gigantic chain that is strangling out its life? Who can doubt it who looks at the valor that won Fort Donelson, and is now pressing on to still more glorious fields of valor and renown? (Renewed applause.) Who can doubt it who recals the valor of BURNSIDE and the splendid victory of Roanoke Island? On every side the rebellion is incumbered by the forces of the Union, strong in muscular power, stronger in preparation, and strongest of all in the righteousness of their cause, and in the holy determination to win, or die in the attempt. (Applause.) We shall soon see this rebellion crushed; we shall have the Constitution restored; we shall have the opinions of the Fathers of the Republic enthroned in the Government of the Republic; and then we shall hear no more of the rebellion in all time to come.

I have said that it was the object of the Republican party to crush the usurped political power and control of slavery over the General Government. It has done it already. It had done it undoubtedly before the first gun was fired-before the first appeal was made from the decision of the ballot. The vote of 1860 settled the question for ever. Slavery as a political power was dead on the day that ABRAHAM LINCOLN was elected President. (Loud cheering.) I do not say that it was incapable of further mischief; so powerful an element as slavery, so great a property, having so many interests interwoven with it, had still power to inflict much mischief upon important interests of the country. But what man to-day believes, that on the day after the inauguration of LINCOLN it was in the power of the slave oligarchy to wield a control over any one single department of our Government for any length of time? Who believes that thereafter slavery could decide whether this or that man should go into the Cabinet; whether such an one should be appointed Custom-house Collector, or Postmaster, in this Union, as for years they had done? Who believes it was possible for slavery to give law to the Republic, and control its action in all its affairs-foreign and domestic? Slavery, as a political power, was dead, but, if you will excuse the Irishism, it was not half so dead as it is to-day. (Applause.) It has now, in addition to a natural death, committed suicide. It has brought upon itself the extraordinary horrors of war. Slavery can no more stand up under war than an iceberg can stand against a flood of burning lava. It melts before its hot and fervid breath. Look at Port Royal, and wherever our armies go, for proof. The advent of an army of the Union breathes upon the institution of Slavery, and it dissolves like the mists before the rising sun. (Applause.) Wherever our armies go, Slavery disappears. Then comes upon us the momentous task of providing for those whom it releases from all control-that control which was hateful and unjust, as well as that which is needful for their preservation.

The Republican Party stands where it always stood, the supporter of the Constitution