And how can we lose this great opportunity, how can we throw away this glorious privilege we enjoy, of putting down a rebellion by enlarging liberty, and of punishing treason by reforming society? [Cheers.] What hinders you? It is not the Constitution! Its voice is clear, unmistakable, and encouraging. This time the Constitution refuses to serve as a mark to morbid timidity or secret tenderness for Slavery. Or is there really any thing frightful to you in the idea, which we hear so frequently expressed, that every measure touching Slavery would irritate the rebels very much, and make them very angry. [Laughter and cheering.] Irritate them and make them angry! I should not wonder. Every cannon shot you fire at them, every gunboat that shells their fortifications, every bayonet charge that breaks their lines, makes them, I have no doubt, quite angry. [Continued laughter.] It may be justly supposed that every forward movement of our troops has upon them quite an irritating effect. [Great laughter" Fort Donelson."] If you want to see them smile, you must let them alone entirely. But will you, therefore, load your muskets with sawdust, stop the advance of your battalions, and run your navy ashore? It must be confessed, they have never shown such tender regards for our institutions. But why will this measure make them so angry? Because it will, in the end, make them powerless for mischief. And if we can attain so desirable an end by doing this, will it not be best to support their anger with equanimity, and do it? [Cheering.] I never heard of a man who, when assaulted by a robber, would refrain from disarming him because it might create unpleasant feelings. [Applause.] ent whether any of the rebels meets a punish- | Union if they had been permitted to rule it. ment adequate to his crime, provided the great [Cheers.] It is impossible! Whatever they source of disloyalty be punished in itself. might feel inclined to do if their rights were [Cheers.] The best revenge for the past is that attacked in an unconstitutional manner, to conwhich furnishes us the best assurance for the stitutional measures, constitutionally enacted future. [Applause.] and carried out, a true Union man will never offer resistance. [Applause.] As we listen with respect to their opinions, so they will listen respectfully to our advice. If we speak to them as friends, they will not turn away from us as enemies. I would say to them; "You, Union men of the South, have faithfully clung to the cause of our common country, although your education, the circumstance in which you lived, and the voice of your neighbors were well calculated to call you to the other side. You have resisted a temptation which to many proved fatal. For this we honor you. We labor and fight side by side to restore the Union to its ancient greatness, and to their purity the eternal principles upon which it can safely and permanently rest. What will you have-a Union continually tottering upon its foundation, or a Union of a truly united people, a Union of common principles, common interests, a common honor, and a common destiny? We do not work for ourselves alone, we are not responsible to ourselves alone, but also to posterity. What legacy will you leave to your children-new struggles, new dangers, new revulsions, or a future of peaceful progress? An unfinished, trembling edifice, that may some day tumble down over their heads, because its foundations were not firmly laid, or a house resting upon the firm rock of a truly free government, in which untold millions may quietly and harmoniously dwell? We do not mean to disregard the obligations we owe you, neither constitutional obligations nor those which spring from your claims to our gratitude. We do not mean that you shall suffer in rights or fortune, nor to tear you forcibly from your ways and habits of life. But let us reason together. Do you think that slavery will live always? Consider this question calmly, and without prejudice or passion. Do you think it will live always, in spite of the thousand agencies which, in this Nineteenth Century of ours, are busy working its destruction? It cannot be. Its end will come one day, and that day is brought nearer by the suicidal war which, in this rebellion, Slavery is waging against itself. And how do you wish that this end should be? A violent convulsion or the result of a quiet and peaceful reform? will you leave it to chance or would you not rather keep this certain development under the moderating control of your voluntary action? There is but one way of avoiding new struggles and a final revulsion, and that is by commencing a vigorous progressive reform in time. In time, I say and when will the term have arrived? Either you control this development by wise measures seasonably adopted-or it will control you. How long will you wait? You speak of difficulties; I see them-they are great, very great. But But, in fact, the irritation it will create will be rather short-lived. It will die out with slavery. I have endeavored to set forth that the reformation of Southern society resulting from these measures is the only thing that will make the Southern people our sincere friends. Why not risk short irritation for a lasting friendship? [Cheers.] But while I am little inclined to pay much regard to the feelings of the rebels, who would delight in cutting our throats, I deem it our duty to treat with respect the opinion of the loyal men of the South, on whose fidelity the whirl of rebellion raging round them had no power. I have heard it said that any measure touching Slavery in any way would drive them over to our common enemy. Is this possible? Is their loyalty of so uncertain a complexion that they will remain true to the Union only as long as the Union does nothing which they do not fancy? What, then, would distinguish them from the traitors?-for the traitors too would have adhered to the will they not be twenty times greater twenty years hence, unless you speedily commence to remove them? You ask me, what shall we do with our negroes, who are now four millions? And I ask you, what will you do with them when they will be eight millions-or rather, what will they do with you? [Cheering.] Is it wise to quail before difficulties to-day, when it is sure that they will be twice as great tomorrow, and equally sure that some day they must absolutely must-be solved? You speak of your material interest. To-day, I am convinced, there is hardly a man in the free States of this Republic who would not cheerfully consent to compensate you amply for the sacrifices you might voluntarily bring. [Applause.] Do you think that after the fierce struggles which inevitably will come if Slavery remains a power in the land after this war, and which, with the certainty of fate, will bring on its destruction, an equally liberal spirit will prevail? Look at this fairly and without prejudice. Does not every consideration of safety and material interest command you to commence this reform without delay? Must it not be clear to the dullest mind that this task which imperatively imposes itself upon you, will be the easier the sooner it is taken in hand, and the more difficult and fearful the longer it is put off? his country. [Applause.] He would stand What! you, the descendants of those men of iron who preferred a life or death struggle with misery on the bleak and wintry coast of New England to submission to priestcraft and kingcraft; you, the offspring of those hardy pioneers who set their faces against all the dangers and difficulties that surround the early settler's life; you, who subdued the forces of wild nature, cleared away the primeval forest, covered the endless prairie with human habitations; you, this race of bold reformers who blended to But, pardon me, Union men of the South, if in speaking to you of a thing of such tremendous moment, I have appealed only to the meaner instincts of human nature. How great, how sublime a part might you play in this crisis, if you appreciated the importance of your position -if you would cast off the small ambition which governs so many of you! To maintain a point in controversy just because you have asserted it, to say: We can do this if we please, and no-gether the most incongruous elements of birth body shall hinder us, and therefore we will do it; or, we have slavery and nobody has a right to interfere with it, and therefore we will maintain it, how small an ambition is this! How much greater, how infinitely nobler would it be, if you would boldly place yourself at the head of the movement and say to us: We grew up in the habits of slaveholding society, and our interests were long identified with the institution, and we think also that you cannot lawfully deprive us of it; but since we see that it is the great disturbing element in this Republic, we voluntarily sacrifice it to the peace of the nation, we immolate it as a patriotic offering on the altar of the country! [Loud cheers.] Where are the hearts large enough for so great and exalted an ambition? Ah, if some man of a powerful will and lofty devotion would rise up among you; if an Andrew Johnson would go among his people, and tell them [great applause] how noble it is to sacrifice for the good of the country [cheers] not only one's blood, but also one's prejudices and false pride, he would be greater than the generals who fight our battles, greater than the statesmen who direct our affairs, and coming generations would gratefully remember him as the true pacificator of and creed, who built up a Government which you called a model Republic, and undertook to show mankind how to be free; you, the mighty nation of the West, that presumes to defy the world in arms, and to subject a hemisphere to its sovereign dictation; you, who boast of recoiling from no enterprise ever so great, and no problem ever so fearful-the spectral monster of Slavery stares you in the face, and now your blood runs cold, and all your courage fails you? For half a century it has disturbed the peace of this Republic; it has arrogated to itself your national domain; it has attempted to establish its absolute rule and to absorb even your future development; it has disgraced you in the eyes of mankind, and now it endeavors to ruin you if it cannot rule you; it raises its murderous hand against the institutions most dear to you; it attempts to draw the power of foreign nations upon your heads; it swallows up the treasures you have earned by long years of labor; it drinks the blood of your sons and the tears of your wives, and now?-Every day it is whispered in your ears, Whatever Slavery may have done to you, whatever you may suffer, touch it not! How many thousand millions of your wealth it may cost, however much blood you may have to shed in order to disarm its murderous hand, touch it not! How many years of peace and prosperity you may have to sacrifice in order to prolong its existence, touch it not! And if it should cost you your honor-listen to this story: On the Lower Potomac, as the papers tell us, a negro comes within our lines, and tells the valiant defenders of the Union that his master conspires with the rebels, and has a quantity of arms concealed in a swamp; our soldiers go and find the arms; the master reclaims his slave; the slave is given up; the master ties him to his horse, drags him along eleven miles to his house, lashes him to a tree, and, with the assistance of his overseer, whips him three hours, three mortal hours; then the negro dies. That black man served the Union, Slavery attempts to destroy the Union, the Union surrenders the black man to Slavery, and he is whipped to death-touch it not. ["Hear, hear." Profound sensation.] Let an imperishable blush of shame cover every cheek in this boasted land of freedom-but be careful not to touch it! Ah, what a dark divinity is this, that we must sacrifice to it our peace, our prosperity, our blood, our future, our honor! What an insatiable vampyre is this that drinks out the very marrow of our manliness! ["Shame."] Pardon me; this sounds like a dark dream, like the offspring of a hypochondriac imagination, and yet-have I been unjust in what I have said? ["No."] less warm and precious than the tears of a planter's lady about the threatened loss of her human chattels? [Sensation.] If you have such tender feelings about the dangers and troubles of others, how great must be the estimation you place upon the losses and sufferings of our people! Streams of blood, and a stream of tears for every drop of blood; the happiness of so many thousand families forever blasted, the prosperity of the country ruined for so many years-how great must be the compensation for all this! Shall all this be squandered for nothing? for a mere temporary cessation of hostilities, a prospect of new troubles, a mere fiction of peace? People of America! I implore you, for once, be true to yourselves, [great applause,] and dó justice to the unmistakable instinct of your minds and the noble impulses of your hearts. Let it not be said that the great American Republic is afraid of the nineteenth century. [Loud cheers.] And you, legislators of the country, and those who stand at the helm of Government, you, I intreat, do not trifle with the blood of the people. This is no time for politely consulting our enemies' tastes, or for sparing our enemies' feelings. Be sure, whatever progressive measures you may resolve upon, however progressive it may be, the people are ready to sustain you with heart and hand. [Loud and longcontinued cheering and waving of hats.] The people do not ask for any thing that might seem Is it asking too much of you that you shall extravagant. They do not care for empty glory; secure against future dangers all that is most they do not want revenge, but they do want a dear to you, by vigorous measures? Or is it fruitful victory and a lasting peace. [Great apnot true that such measures would not be op- plause.] When pondering over the tendency of posed had they not the smell of principle about this great crisis, two pictures of our future rise them? ["That's it." Applause.] Or do the up before my mental vision. Here is one: The measures proposed really offend your constitu- Republic, distracted by a series of revulsions and tional conscience? The most scrupulous inter-reactions, all tending toward the usurpation of preter of our fundamental laws will not succeed in discovering an objection. Or are they impolitic? What policy can be better than that which secures peace and liberty to the people? Or are they inhuman? I have heard it said that a measure touching Slavery might disturb the tranquillity and endanger the fortunes of many innocent people in the South. This is a possibility which I sincerely deplore. But many of us will remember, how often they were told it in former years, that true philanthropy begins at home. Disturb the tranquillity and endanger the fortunes of innocent people in the South!-and there your tenderness stops? Are the six hundred thousand loyal men of the North, who have offered their lives and all they have and they are for the Union, less innocent? Are those who have soaked the soil of Virginia, and Missouri, and Kentucky, and Tennessee with their blood-are they guilty? Are the tears of Northern widows and children for their dead husbands and fathers power, and the gradual destruction of that beautiful system of self-government to which this country owes its progress and prosperity; the nation sitting on the ruins of her glory, looking back to our days with a sorrowful eye, and saying, "Then we ought to have acted like men, and all would be well now." Too late, too late! And here is the other: A Government, freed from the shackles of a despotic and usurping interest, resting safely upon the loyalty of a united people; a nation engaged in the peaceable discussion of its moral and material problems, and quietly working out its progressive development; its power growing in the same measure with its moral consistency; the esteem of mankind centering upon a purified people; a union firmly rooted in the sincere and undivided affections of all its citizens; a regenerated Republic, the natural guide and beacon light of all legitimate aspirations of humanity. These are the two pictures of our future. Choose! [Immense applause.] History of the War for the Union, AND OF ITS CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES, With References to Official Documents in the "REBELLION RECORD." Illustrated with Portraits, Maps, and Diagrams, IN ONE VOL., ROYAL OCTAVO-UNIFORM WITH THE REBELLION RECORD. N. B.-Most of the Official Documents in the "Record," and some of the "Narratives," have been prepared specially for this publication, and are copyrighted. This HISTORY will be issued in numbers and in a volume, as soon as it can be properly prepared, after the war is ended. THE REBELLION RECORD: A DIARY OF AMERICAN EVENTS, With Documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, &c., &c., EDITED BY FRANK MOORE, AUTHOR OF "DIARY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION," With an Introductory Address on the Causes of the Struggle by EDWARD EVERETT. THE FIRST VOLUME CONTAINS 267 Documents and Narratives, 187 Poems, and an immense mass of Facts and Incidents; with a Colored Map, several Maps on Wood, and Portraits on Steel of THE SECOND VOLUME contains about the same number of Documents, Narratives, &c., and Portraits of Royal 8vo, cloth, $3.75; half sheep, $4; half calf, ant., $5; half mor., $5. "I consider the RECORD a very valuable publication."—Edward Everett. FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. EXECUTIVE MANSION, DEC. 29. 1861. "The President will continue to buy the REBEI LION RECORD as the volumes are ready. Your work is already very useful for purposes of reference; it will soon be INDISPENSABLE." Yours, very truly, JOHN HAY. Mr. GEO. P. PUTNAM. The volumes of this Record will contain every Document and Paper of the slightest value or interest. The Heroes and Martyrs: A SPLENDID SERIAL, IN QUARTO, with 80 fine Portraits on Steel. THE BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES are elegantly printed on tinted paper, each number containing 2 fine Portraits and Biographies PRICE, 25 cents. Sold only to subscribers. To be completed in 40 numbers. A work of very attractive interest and value is in preparation by Mr. G. P. PUTNAM, the publisher of the "Rebellion Record." In a series of numbers, handsomely printed in quarto, he proposes to give personal sketches of the "Notable Men of the Time, and Heroes and Martyrs of the War," illustrated with fine portraits on steel, from original photographs. Not only the Generals and military leaders, but the YOUNG MEN of genius and promise-such as GREBLE, ELLSWORTH, WINTHROP Lieut. PUTNAM and others, distinguished by character and talents in this great struggle-and the leading Statesmen and Orators of all parties, will be fully and fairly represented by faithful and accurate biographies. The work is to be a serial, but will form, when completed, two handsome volumes of permanent interest. THE SPIRIT OF THE PULPIT WITH REFERENCE TO THE PRESENT CRISIS. Part 1 contains 21 Sermons by Eminent Divines, North and South. ROYAL 8vo, 160 PAGES, DOUBLE COLUMNS, PRICE 50 CENTS. The whole work in ? vol. cloth, $1.25. AT THE Mass Meeting of Loyal Citizens, ON UNION SQUARE, NEW-YORK, 15th DAY OF JULY, 1862, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK, THE UNION DEFENCE COMMITTEE OF THE CITIZENS OF NEW-YORK, THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, AND OTHER COMMITTEES OF LOYAL CITIZENS. LETTERS AND SPEECHES. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF |