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HON. ALEX. H. STEVENS, OF GEORGIA." The first question presents itself is, shall the people of the South secede from the U in consequence of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presiden the United States? My countrymen, I tell you frankly, cand and earnestly, that I do not think they ought.

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this Government of our fathers, with all its defects, comes neare the objects of all good governments than any other on the face of earth, is my settled conviction."-Stevens' Speech before Georgia. islature, Nov. 1860..

RICHMOND ENQUIRER, OF Nov., 1814.-"No man-no association men-no State, or no set of States, has a right to withdraw itself fi this Union, of its own accord. The same power which knit us toge er can only unknit. The same formality which forged the links of Union is necessary to dissolve it. The majority of States which fo the UNION must consent to the withdrawal of any one branch of Until that consent has been obtained, any attempt to dissolve Union, or obstruct the efficiency of its constitutional laws, is treas -TREASON to all intents and purposes."

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is forced upon us, I say woe to them who have made necessity. Our hands are clean, our hearts are pur but the Union must be preserved at all hazards of mon nd, if need be, of every life this side of the Ard gions. Our faces are set South, a

ere shall be no footstep backwards. He is mistal who supposes we can be intimidated by threats, or joled by compromise. THE DAY OF COMPROMI IS PAST."

JOHN A. DIX, of New York.

"I am for supporting the government. I do not who administers it. It is the Government of my count and as such I shall give it, in this extremity, all the s port in my power. I regard the pending contest w

the

DEATH STRUGGLE FOR CO

a rebellion against a governmental authory

the rebels could not lay their finger upon show that either their property, their liberty, rights had been in the slightest particular invade

"Now, what is the condition of this contest? were not satisfied with what I have detailed, b announced they were going to establish a republi CORNER STONE OF WHICH SHOULD BE VERY, and they are now engaged in that task deavoring to establish a republic on this conti 1863, the corner stone of which shall be slavery.

"It is now a contest forced upon the non-sla

MASS MEETING

OF

THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK,

(WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF PARTY,)

AT THE

COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK, MARCH 6, 1862. HON. JAMES A. HAMILTON IN THE CHAIR.

THE great meeting at the Cooper Institute, on the 6th of March, 1862, as well for its numsas for its intelligence and spirit, must be regarded as a significant fact in the history of the at revolution at present going on in the popular heart of the country. In the first place, it presented no particular political party or interest. On the contrary, to the politicians it was m the first a stumbling-block; while to the whole brood of thinly-disguised abettors of the eat treason, it was a huge rock of offence-their organs of the Satanic press greeting it with ch vociferous hatred and misrepresentations as was natural to their malign instincts. Nor had the support of any of the hitherto acknowledged leaders of popular movements in the metropor the aid of any of the means and appliances usually put into operation to bring together rge assemblages of its populace.

In simple truth it was a great spontaneous uprising of the people in vindication of the fundaental ideas and principles in which are founded our Democratic Institutions, National Unity, ad civilization. The spirit and sacred memories of those other "days that tried men's souls," ere present in it. The trusted friend and confidant of WASHINGTON, the man to whom we owe eeminently our National Constitution, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, was represented there in the rson of his son, JAMES A. HAMILTON, its president. And in the person of CHARLES KING, one its vice-presidents, was represented another imperishable revolutionary name. Nor should it forgotten, that to his father, RUFUS KING, Senator from the State of New York in the first ngress of the United States, perhaps more than to any other man, is due that great ordinance liberty which gave to the Union the free States of the Northwest.

Of the living present, there were represented in that great assembly all classes, avocations, d conditions of meh, and all shades of opinion-earnest, determined, and unanimous only as to one all-important matter, viz.: That inasmuch as slavery is treason to the fundamental idea our national existence, as set forth by the founders, and in its very nature an internecine war ainst our democratic Institutions, it becomes our supremest duty, as citizens and patriots, never surrender it or cease our conflict against it until it shall be extirpated from the whole land. This was the idea that animated that assembly. Its object was to announce this conviction the great popular heart of the free States, and the determination of the democratic people of ese States, that neither by force of arms, nor by the nefarious devices of politicians, should the ve barons of the South ever again be masters in the capital of the nation; and thus to give to National Government the support of the popular sympathy and will, in carrying forward its eat purpose of destroying the acknowledged cause of all our present disasters, and of retablishing, "UNDER THE AUSPICES OF LIBERTY," the peace, unity, and prosperity of the nation. With the hopes inspired by the President's Emancipation Message, which bears date on the y of this meeting, and renders that day ever memorable, and the reading of which amidst its audits, was the last act in its proceedings, the great assemblage dispersed. But let no man 300.24-1

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believe, that therefore every day and every hour does not add to the membership of that grest Democratic League of the sons of liberty, whose conflict with slavery and its missions will never cease until the rights of human nature shall be completely vindicated in this land.

At the appointed hour JAMES MCKAYE called the meeting to order, and said: "We have here to-night a son of one of the most distinguished founders of our National Government and free Democratic Institutions-a man whose heart is as earnestly devoted to liberty and the maintenance of the rights of human nature, as was that of his father. I propose, as President of this meeting, the Hon. JAMES A. HAMILTON."

The nomination was greeted with a unanimous confirmation, amid great applause. The following-named gentlemen were then duly elected Vice-Presidents and Secretaries:-Charles King, LL. D., Frederick Kapp, S. H. Tyng, D. D., Isaac Sherman, George Reininger, William Hague, D. D., Prof. Francis Lieber, David Dudley Field, Dr. J. A. Forsch, Lewis Tappan, Dr. Henry A. Hartt, Erastus C. Benedict, Andreas Willman, William Cullen Bryant, Prosper M. Wetmore, Adon Smith, A. Walthur, E. H. Chapin, D. D., George Folsom, Rev. Peter Stryker, Rufus F. Andrews, Sigismund Kaufmann, Rev. O. B. Frothingham, Dr. Rudolph Dulon, William Curtis Noyes, George P. Putnam, Edgar Ketchum, Duncan Dunbar, Horace Webster, LL. D., Dr. Charles Kessman, Theodore Bracklow, George B. Cheever, D. D., Dr. Henry Burgman, John W. Edmonds, Joseph P. Thompson, D. D., Rev. A. Cookman.

SECRETARIES.-Charles A. Dana, T. G. Glaubensklee, Samuel B. Barlow, Dr. James B. Richards, Ethan Allen, Hon. Henry B. Stanton, Edward Vorster, A. J. H. Duganne, Dr. W. M. Wermerskirch, George Kupper.

determination that the course and policy of your
Government shall hereafter be to develop the
great principle of human freedom, and not, as
it has hitherto been, to extend and fortify sla-
very. [Applause.] We are told the Govern-
ment has no power to destroy slavery, because
the right of one man to hold his fellow-man in
perpetual and degrading bondage is established
by State laws. I answer, such laws cannot
rightfully exist either under the Government
of the United States or of the States. Man
was created in the express image of his Maker
-a responsible being, having an immortal soul.
No power less than that which created him,
less than omnipotent, can reduce him from his
condition of a man to that of a brute-a chattel
[Cheering.]

The following Address was then delivered by the President: FELLOW-CITIZENS: The honor of presiding at [ country; and, above all, to express your fixed this thronged meeting of those who represent | the intelligence, the wealth, the enterprise, the mechanical skill and labor of this great city, excites my sensibility, from the conviction that your choice has been induced not by considerations personal to myself, but from respect to the memory of him whose name I bear. [Cheers.] We are assembled here to express to the President and the Congress of the United States our views of slavery, its influence upon our national character and the destiny of our country, and to advise the adoption of such measures as will give us permanent peace, and thus secure the future from the dangers and calamities of the present. Let the voice of the loyal men of this great metropolis be given out in no ambiguous terms; let it be the utterance of earnest men, impressed with the magnitude of the consequences involved. Let us, under the hallowed influence of patriotism-of a sense of our duty to the oppressed of this nation-blow in behalf of slavery has been struck at the treat this great subject so decisively as that the echo of your voice may come up from the loyal people in all parts of the nation, in tones which cannot be mistaken or disregarded by their Representatives. [ [Cheers.] With your permission, I will briefly express my opinions of the duties of the people, the powers and duties of the Government-in regard to slavery. The great principle on which our "Representative Democracy" is founded is "The Freedom of Man." [Applause.] In obedience to this great principle, it is your duty to express your earnest conviction that slavery is not only a great crime, but also a great social and political evil; [Cheers;] that it is the direct and immediate cause of the calamities which so sorely afflict the whole

Has the Government the power to destroy slavery? We are engaged in a war which involves the life or death of the nation. A

national existence. Every Government, whatever may be its Constitution, is necessarily armed with all the powers required to preserve its life. In the exercise of those powers it has the right, and it is its duty, to destroy property, institutions, laws of State, and the lives of those who are, or may be, employed for its destruction, or which may expose the nation to a death struggle at a future period. [Applause.]

These are rights and duties not to be sought for in Constitutions or laws. They are given and imposed on all Governments by that great law of nature, the law of self-preservation.

The President, by his oath of office, is bound, "to the best of his ability, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution." You will ob

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