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SECRETARY SEWARD'S LETTER.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 1862.

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Elliot C. Cowdin, Esq, New York: DEAR SIR: I have had the honor of receiving the note, in which you have invited me to attend a Union festival to be celebrated on the approaching anniversary of the birth of WASHINGTON.

It would be a source of great satisfaction to me to meet the people of New York on so interesting an occasion. But Congress has instituted similar ceremonies to be observed at this Capital, and has made my attendance upon them an official duty. I need not say that in my heart, and mind, and soul, I approve these proposed observances. Disloyal citizens have seized upon that great anniversary to pervert it to a more complete organization of the conspiracy for the overthrow of the Union of which WASHINGTON was the founder, and for the betrayal of the people of the United States back again to the foreign yoke which the hand of WASHINGTON Smote and broke. May we not hope that the mighty shade of the Father of his Country will be allowed to look down from its rest on that day devoted to his memory, and say which of the two are, indeed, dutiful children-those who are engaged in the destruction of that country, so blessed of God above all other lands, or those who have committed themselves to its salvation.

I am, dear Sir, yours, very faithfully,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

SECRETARY CHASE'S LETter.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 1862.

SIR: Most gladly would I unite with the citizens of New York in celebrating the anniversary of the Birthday of WASHINGTON, could I leave, even for such a purpose, my post of duty at this time; but I must remain here.

The celebration which you propose, and similar celebrations spontaneously springing from the same impulse, all over the country, justify the hope that the memory of WASHINGTON, ever living in the hearts of his countrymen, will lend an appropriate inspiration to all our endeavors to restore the Union, which he contributed so much to establish. We need that inspiration. We need for the trials of these days his firmness, his patience, his disinterestedness, his true courage, his lofty sense of justice, his enlightened zeal for impartial freedom. These are the virtues, which, exercised in such degree as men are capable of, will not only restore the Union, but reëstablish it in more than its pristine vigor, compactness, and beneficence.

ELLIOT C. COWDIN, Esq., &c.

Yours, very truly,

S. P. CHASE.

SENATOR SUMNER'S LETTER.

SENATE CHAMBER, 19th Feb., 1862.

MY DEAR SIR: I should be glad to be with you at your Festival of the 22d February, but my duties will keep me here.

Let us honor the memory of WASHINGTON, but sincerely honoring him, we cannot become indifferent to those great principles of Human Freedom, consecrated by his life, and by the solemn act of his Last Will and Testament.

ELLIOT C. COWDIN, Esq.

The third regular toast.

Ever sincerely yours,

3. The Governor of the State of New York.

This was a signal for much applause.

CHARLES SUMNER.

A letter from His Excellency GOVERNOR MORGAN was then read.

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SIR: I have received your letter of the 14th inst., inviting me to attend a Union Festival at Irving Hall, to be held on the approaching anniversary of the birthday of WASHINGTON. I am compelled to say, in reply, that official engagements here will deprive me of the pleasure of accepting your kind invitation.

The 22d of February should always be a holiday to be kept and celebrated in a becoming manner, but there are reasons now, not hitherto existing, for more jubilant rejoicings. Nor can any one, at this time, read WASHINGTON's Farewell Address attentively without a deeper and a more abiding impression than ever before of the wisdom of that Patriot and Statesman. Let, then, his warning voice, as well as his glorious deeds, be ever remembered and cherished, his brilliant example be everywhere followed, and let this Union be prized and adhered to, not only for the benefits and blessings it has conferred in its past history, but for the richer glories and triumphs which lie in the future. I have the honor to be, with great respect,

Mr. ELLIOT C. COWDIN, &c.

Your obedient servant,

E. D. MORGAN.

The President said-I hold in my hand two other letters, to which I invite your attention. They are from Governors of neighboring States, who, like our own Chief Magistrate, have evinced untiring devotion to the Union, and have rendered signal service to the Government. One is from Gov. CURTIN, of Pennsylvania, and the other from GOVERNOR SPRAGUE, of Rhode Island.

Gov. CURTIN'S LETTER.

PENNSYLVANIA EXECUTIVE CHAMBER,
HARRISBURGH, PENN., FEB. 19, 1862.

DEAR SIR: I have your letter of the 15th, inviting me to attend the Union Festival in New York on the 22d of this month. I shall on that day be engaged in the celebration of the festival in the metropolis in which the Declaration of Independence was adopted, and where was the home of WASHINGTON during the period of his civil

service.

It will, therefore, be impossible for me to be present in New York, in accordance. with your invitation.

It has pleased the Almighty so to shape events, that our brave and loyal men have been at last permitted to move in earnest; and thus in the approaching anniversary of the birthday of WASHINGTON, we shall at once refresh our memories of that patriot and sage, and glory in the certainty of the speedy overthrow of the monstrous rebellion, which for so many months has been rampant among the besotted and benighted people of a portion of our country.

I have the honor to be, Sir, with much respect,
Your obedient servant,

ELLIOT C. COWDIN, Esq., Chairman, &c., &c.

A. G. CURTIN.

Gov. SPRAGUE'S LETTER.

STATE OF RHODE ISLAND, &c., EXECUTIVE
DEPARTMENT, PROVIDENCE, Feb. 20, 1862.

DEAR SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation of the 15th. I cannot be present to address your Committee at their "Union Festival" on the 22d inst., and no letter could enhance the pleasure of the occasion. The recent success of our arms furnishes abundant cause for congratulation aud rejoicing. I take

pride in assuring you that the people of Rhode Island will unanimously join with the patriotic observers of this day. My presence with them requires that I should accept of no invitations away from my own home. I observe with pleasure the name under which you assemble.

Let the Union of these divided States be uppermost in your councils and first in

your prayers.

Strive for the preservation of the Constitution. I know of no shelter so secure for the liberties of the people, no asylum where their rights can be more zealously guarded, no method more safe by which the blessings of free government which we have enjoyed can be transmitted to our children and our posterity.

I beg you will assure your Committee that, although unable to be with them, my interest in the cause, and the object of their meeting, is still warm and active.

With sincere good wishes,

I am, my dear Sir, your obedient servant,

TO ELLIOT C. COWDIN, Esq., &c.

WM. SPRAGUE.

The fourth regular toast,

4. The Mayor of the City of New York was received with loud applause. Mr. Jas. M. Thomson proposed three cheers for the Hon. George Opdyke, which were enthusiastically given. The chair remarked that His Honor, Mayor Opdyke, would have been present, but for duties elsewhere connected with the celebration of this anniversary.

The fifth regular toast,

5. The Character of Washington-It possessed a power to rally a nation in an hour of disaster; amid the storm of war it cheered and guided the country's friends; it flamed, too, like a meteor to repel her foes; in peace it commanded a nation's confidence and the world's respect.

The President said-This sentiment will be responded to by one distinguished for his services in the cause of religion and education, and equally so for his devotion to our free institutions. I invite your attention to the Rev. Dr. Hitchcock.

SPEECH OF PROFESSOR ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK, D.D.

MR. PRESIDENT :—I have learned several things as I have been sitting here this evening. From a recent outburst of applause, I infer that none of you voted for Fernando Wood at the last municipal election. I have also concluded that you like "Old Abe" very well, and do not like Slavery. And, furthermore, it is pretty plain to me by this time [the hall was now quite full of cigar smoke], that you not only mean to maintain the integrity of the old Union, but that you are already annexing Cuba, or Havana at any rate, to our domain. (Applause.)

By some oversight, as the Committee assured me, I had late notice of my expected appearance here to-night. The very civil gentleman who brought me at once the invitation and the apology, tried to persuade me that it made no great difference, since I was desired to speak to the Memory of Washington, "and that, you know, is so easy." "So easy!" It reminded me of the New England deacon, who had an itching to preach, and, after giving his minister a good deal of trouble about the matter, was at length permitted to make the attempt. The good man broke down very near the beginning of his discourse, and cut short his unlucky experiment by stammering out: "Beloved brethren, I used to think it was a mighty easy thing to preach. If any of you think so, I advise you to come up here and try." If your Committee-man, or anybody else, thinks it so easy to speak of Washington, let him try it. (Cheers.)

Seriously, Mr. President and gentlemen, whether on short notice or on long notice, I regard it as anything but easy to speak to the memory of this peerless man. Many eloquent tongues have attempted this familiar theme, and still the theme remains. defiant of them all. So free was the character of Washington from everything protuberant and jagged, so admirably balanced were all his faculties, so complete, rounded out, and eveu, the whole genius of the man, that the handling of his character is like the grasping of a large and highly polished ivory ball. In all my studies I encounter no such miracle of Providence. When I think of what he was, and of what he accomplished for us, I dare not boast of him as the product of our soil and of our institutions. I am as proud as any man of our Continent, and proud of the Republic, but I dare not claim for them the credit of such a harvest. He who was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," is vastly more to me than the great American; he is the great Man of all the races and of all the ages. I hail him, more in gratitude than in pride, as the gift of God to our nation, sent rather from above than from amongst us, to be our one pattern man and pattern Republican for all coming time. God be thanked, then, let us all say, God be thanked, for the glorious Memory of Washington!

Met now to celebrate his birth, let us be warned against incurring the just and bitter condemnation of those who garnish the sepulchres of their Prophets, while they neglect their teachings. The President of the United States, in this hour of our national distress, did wisely in inviting the clergy of the land to open their houses of worship to-day for the reading of Washington's Farewell Address to his Countrymen. I have not been able to take part in any of these public services, but twice during the day have I read over carefully by myself, in the retirement of my study, this incomparable document. Of course I had read it before, as we all have many times perhaps, but to-day I have read it with an astonishment and an admiration, which I can hardly express. I am startled to find it so prescient. The duties it enjoins upon us, are precisely the most needed lessons of the day and the hour. The evils against which it warns us, are precisely the evils which are now upon us, clutching at our throats. I am sure I cannot do you a better service than by reviewing briefly the leading points of this remarkable Address. Four points are specially prominent.

1st. Our attitude towards foreign nations. We are solemnly warned against all foreign entanglements, whether of alliance or of hostility. We are neither insanely to hate England, nor insanely to love France. They are on one side of the Atlantic, and we on the other. There let them stay, and mind their own business, while we stay here and mind our own business. As a nation we have been altogether too sensitive in regard to the opinions and doings of other nations. For a long time we cherished bitter memories of England. Quite recently the tide was turned. The Prince of Wales, for his mother's sake and for his own, was showered with our eager and generous benedictions in every city and in every hamlet through which he passed from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from the Mississippi back again to the Atlantic. England in his person asked us to be her friend and ally in the troublous times which are perhaps before her; and we answered, Yes, we will. That bond is now broken, if not by the English people, at all events by the English government. Its selfish, onesided, misnamed neutrality has stung us to the quick. We do not regret the lavish hospitalities of a little more than a year ago; we still bless the widowed Queen, whose honored husband served us with his dying hand; but against the scornful aristocracy of England we have closed our bosoms as with bars of steel. They have had their

choice, and now let them abide by it. We meditate, I trust, no revenge. But from this hour onwards they must tread their own path of destiny, while we tread ours. The lesson has been a painful one, but worth all its cost. Henceforth we obey the early mandate of our Washington. We shake ourselves clear of all foreign entanglements. We wrap ourselves in the mantle of our own institutions, our own traditions, our own ideas, our own interests, and stand here erect and solid on our own continent to work out our own salvation. We thank Russia for her generous sympathy, and we hail her rising power as destined to divide with us the real empire of the future; but we ask no help, as we dread no rivalry. From this time forward we wish to be, and mean to be, only Americans. (Cheers.)

2nd. Another point of equally vital moment, is Union amongst ourselves. First, as against geographical divisions and rivalries; and equally as against the spirit of party, imperilling the public weal. Our government is not a loose confederation, but a compact, organic, close Union of the States. For ten years (from 1777 to 1787), our Fathers had ample trial of the principle, of Confederation, and then sent it to the tomb of the Capulets. There let it rest, with no resurrection trumpet ever sounding its recall. Our nationality is no artificial, dead conglomerate of independent, sovereign parts, but an organic, living, puissant body, knit limb to limb. This is the doctrine which we are now proclaiming in the hoarse thunder of battle over the land and over the sea. Our territory is a unit, made so by the hand of the Almighty, when our, mountains were heaved to their place, and our rivers had their channels cut for them. This unity we mean to keep, maintaining it, if need be, against the world in arms. Over this undivided, indivisible heritage, purchased for us by the valor of our sires, we have sworn that no flag shall ever wave but our own dear old flag of the Stripes and the Stars, rendered more and more dear to us by every fresh baptism of blood. Territorial dismemberment is nothing less than national assassination, which we mean to resist to our last dollar and our last man. The West is ours, not less than the East; the South, not less than the North; and we intend to hold them all together in the name of liberty and order. If foreign intervention threatens us, we shall beat it back. If domestic rebellion lifts its hateful front, we shall strike it down. The cotton fields of South Carolina must be for ever ours, if we have to sow them with salt. The mouth of the Mississippi must be for ever ours, if we have to keep it for alligators. This issue was not clear to us at first. Before Sumter was fired upon, multitudes amongst us, lovers of peace and freedom, honestly believed that there was nothing left for us but to endure dismemberment. We had then no proper sense of nationality. But the roar of Beauregard's artillery, in the twinkling of an eye, changed all that. The thunder which was designed simply to detach the border States from their old allegiance, and to shake them down into the lecherous arms of the Confederacy, in the good Providence of God had quite another office to discharge in rousing the nation from its stupid slumber. At that call, the giant started to his feet, and with one impatient stamp shook the continent from sea to sea. Six hundred thousand men are now following the bugles of victory, and will not turn back till they have planted the flag of the Union in every rebellious State. (Great applause.) But it is not enough that we save the Union. We must save it as patriots, and not as partisans. You, gentlemen, are Republicans. What I have been, and am, is no concern of yours. I address you to-night as an American. And I warn you solemnly this holy war as Republicans. Go into it only as Americans, and Praise no General because he has been a Republican. Criticise

against going into with all your might.

angry

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