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 UNION LEAGUE CLUB OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Address of the President. 
 
 JUNE 23, ISdO. 
 
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 LEAGUE CLUB OF NEW YOBK. 
 
 John y^3ty 
 
 Address of the President. 
 
 JUNE 2S, 1866, 
 

 12-^ /■ 
 
(Hcnllcmcn of Ibc (Llniou 3f tngiu (flub, 
 
 When I acknowleclg-ecl from Naples tlio notification 
 of my election as President, I proposed to address you 
 at an early day in reference to the pending- national 
 issues in which the country is so deeply interested, 
 and in reg'ard to which our countrymen in Europe are 
 neither unobservant nor indifferent. The fast-changing 
 issx;es, however, reminded me that it would be more 
 than superfluous to attempt advice in detail from such 
 a distance, to a body thoroughly conversant with the 
 whole subject, and accustomed not simply to judge 
 Avisely, but when the occasion demands it, to act 
 promptly. 
 
 With this apology for my past silence, and the re- 
 newed expression of my regret at my prolonged ab- 
 sence from the post with which you have honored me, 
 I beg leave to offer a few thoughts, not so much upon 
 specific questions immediately before the country, whose 
 aspect may change from week to week, as upon the 
 political situation gencrall}', and the ends which I think 
 should be kept in view in our efforts to give tone and 
 scope to the national policy. 
 
 If the distance and the contrasts afforded by an Eu- 
 ropean standpoint are not unfavorable to a complete 
 view of our continental Republic, its past history, its 
 present position, and its future relation to the peoples 
 and the Governments of the world, they are not equally 
 
4 
 
 favorable to accuracy of detail : and should I at all 
 misread recent events, you will remember that with 
 what has occurred since my departure I am less familiar 
 than yourselves. 
 
 THE PAST HISTORY OF THE CLUB. 
 
 The illustrious part borne by the Club throughout the 
 war, justifies the country in expecting them to assist in 
 solving the problem that the war has left us, especially 
 at a moment when the Legislative and Executive branches 
 seem unable to agree, and the Government is in conse- 
 quence disjointed in its action and divided in its influ- 
 ence. It is not forgotten that in advance of the or- 
 ganization of the Club the country was in great part 
 indebted to its founders, representing conspicuously the 
 culture, intelligence, and generous wealth of New York, 
 for the pluck that nerved the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln, 
 and supplied the money and the credit that enabled 
 him to maintain the national honor, in spite of rebel 
 thefts and an empty Treasury. 
 
 The country was again indebted to them for that 
 magnificent gathering in Union place, which promptly 
 accepted the challenge of war given at Sumter, and 
 which pledged New York, upon whose sympathy and 
 aid the traitors had confidently relied, to the cause of 
 the Constitution and the Union. 
 
 The voice of our loyal citizens then solemnly uttered 
 was re-echoed throughout the land, and from that hour 
 the suppression of the rebellion, however difficult a task, 
 was to the intelligent observer a foregone conclusion. 
 
 Months passed, and encouraged by the doubting and 
 
dilatory policy that unhappily prevailed at Washington, 
 and the seeming- disposition on the part of tlic Gov- 
 ernment to conciliate the rebels by excepting slavery 
 from the rules of war, treason again grew defiant in 
 our midst, and the Union League Club was organized 
 to subdue it. Grappling with the spirit of disloyalty 
 that vaunted itself in our streets as insolently as at 
 Richmond, that sought in every way to hamper and 
 overawe the Government and to encourage the rebels 
 and their foreign abettors, we drove that treason from 
 our public marts and churches and drawing-rooms to 
 its secret haunts, and we replaced it with a healthful 
 sentiment that radiated from our city and reinspired 
 the country with loyalty to the Government, devotion 
 to tlie flag, and undying faith in the Republic. 
 
 In this work we were soon assisted by loyal clergy- 
 men who defiantly flung from their steeples their coun- 
 try's banner and denounced the Rebellion from their 
 pulpits as a crime against God and man ; and presently 
 the rebels in New York were astonished to find the 
 stars and stripes waving over an hundred churches, 
 and allegiance to the Constitution enjoined solemnly as 
 a Christian duty. 
 
 Then followed in the action of the Club practical aid — 
 of far less importance, it is true, but still worth re- 
 membering — in the raising of thousands of volunteers : 
 three regiments of colored troops, and more for Han- 
 cock's Cori)S, when j'ou partially reawakened the pa- 
 triotism of Tammany'^ Hall ; and also in the untold 
 amounts of money which flowed like water at eacli new 
 emergency of the war and at every demand of the 
 
6 
 
 Sanitary Commission. But the g-rand service performed 
 by the Club was their moral and social influence, puri- 
 fying the Northern atmosphere, inspiring everywhere 
 love of country, hope, and confidence, and animating 
 our brave soldiers and sailors with the thought that 
 while they fought a desperate foe at the front, we were 
 guarding them from a more insidious enemy in the 
 rear. 
 
 I need not remind you, for those are among our 
 choicest memories, how cordially our aid was appreci- 
 ated by the gallant officers of our Army and Navy, 
 whom we have welcomed at our rooms, and by the 
 battle-thinned regiments, whom we have greeted on 
 their return ; uor how constantly the advice and as- 
 sistance of our more experienced members was sought 
 by the Executive, by Congress, and in every depart- 
 ment of the Governmental service. 
 
 Tlic conduct of the Club during the war has passed 
 into history, and will form no unimportant chapter in 
 the story of the Rebellion. I refer to it now, not as 
 claiming for the members of the Club or for the loyal 
 population of our city whom they represent, any ex- 
 traordinary patriotism — for the same sleepless devotion 
 animated hundreds of thousands throughout our land ; 
 and in the history of the world there is no record 
 of a contest which from beginning to end was so en- 
 tirely carried on by the people themselves, supplying 
 to the conscientious Executive, who confessedly awaited 
 their will, the needed energy of purpose, and the re- 
 quisite material of war. 
 
THE CHARACTER, INFLUENCE, AND DUTIES OF THE CLUB. 
 
 I allude to the past simply as illustrating the present 
 position of the Club, its responsibilities and duties. 
 
 That it has grown to be a political power, whose 
 influence is widely felt and deeply feared, is on all sides 
 admitted : and here perhaps courtesy demands the re- 
 cognition of the establishment of an avowedly oppo- 
 sition Club, as a frank and significant tribute to our 
 influence. 
 
 To the national character of the Union League Club 
 and the breadth of its organization, embracing men of 
 diiferent political opinions, who, having reflected honor 
 upon antagonistic parties, united in defence of the 
 country, was added the combination of circumstances 
 which enabled the Club to render such extraordinary 
 service to the country in making Now York — which 
 in January, 1861, it was officially proposed by the 
 then Mayor, should secede both from the Union and 
 the State — the chief support of the Government ; and 
 these might have sufficiently accounted for the influ- 
 ence of the Club, so distastefid to the faction wdiose 
 designs we had defeated. But beyond these claims to 
 regard, the Club has inspired confidence and compelled 
 respect by its independency of political dictation, and 
 its superiority to the narrow claims of ambitious par- 
 tisans ; by the frankness and firmness of its discus- 
 sions of the conduct of the Administration and the 
 policy of its leaders, and, above all, by its unvarying 
 adherence to the broad principles of the national Con- 
 stitution and of national iustice. 
 
These arc tliu features that have enabled the Club 
 to speak for so g-reat a multitude of the loyal citizens 
 of New York, and never was there a city whose warn- 
 ing voice, when the Republic is in danger, commands 
 a larger or more attentive audience. 
 
 THE NATIONAL PROMINENCE OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Relieved by its easy pre-eminence in all the elements 
 of metropolitan greatness from even the suspicion of 
 envy of its sister cities, New York is universally re- 
 cognized as the commercial centre of the continent, 
 interested in the prosperity of its remotest parts : and 
 the fast growing centre also of science, art, and letters, 
 which are henceforth to be numbered among the crown- 
 ing glories of our free Republic. It is also worthy of 
 note, that the feeling of national and individual pride 
 with which our fellow-citizens from every quarter tread 
 our streets and feel themselves at home, is strength- 
 ened by the thought that our Revolutionary history 
 and colonial annals, from the settlement of New Am- 
 sterdam by the Dutch, the English, and the Huguenots, 
 with their broad views of political freedom and religious 
 toleration, were the fitting antecedents of a city which, 
 excepting only the disloyal element which you so no- 
 tably hold in check, has notliing narrow or provincial 
 in its character. 
 
 Thus it has come to pass that, instead of representing 
 simply the interest of a state, or the views of a sec- 
 tion, New York, the acknowledged metropolis of the 
 Republic, represents the largest interests, the grandest 
 characteristics, and, excepting the anti-national sympa- 
 
thies of a clasfi, the truest principles of the American 
 people. 
 
 THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT. 
 
 Passing from these introductory remarks on the po- 
 sition of the Union League Club as an exponent of 
 the loyal sentiment of our city, allow me, gentlemen, 
 to offer you my heartiest congratulations upon the con- 
 stitutional passage of the "Civil Rights Act," which 
 I observed with pleasure you had assisted by your 
 influence, and liad saluted on its enactment with one 
 hundred guns as the last great vict<jry in the war 
 against slavery-. AVhile I think that the Supreme Court 
 would have decided, whenever the question should have 
 come before them, that the Amendment to the Consti- 
 tution abolishing slavery made the freed slaves citizens 
 ipso facto without the aid of Congressional legislation, 
 I still deem the Civil Rights Act the proper comple- 
 ment to the Anti-Slavery Amendment, since it removes 
 all misapprehension as to the position which tlie Amer- 
 ican Republic is henceforth to occupy before the world, 
 as regards the relations of its people towards each other. 
 It is an interesting and encouraging fact, that the great 
 principle of this bill had been already recommended bj- 
 Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, the late Vice-President of 
 the Rebel Confederacy, in his speech before the Legis- 
 lature of Georgia, on the 23d of February, as one 
 that should from the first inspire the legislation of the 
 Southern States, so that ample and full protection should 
 be secured to the freedmen "that they may start" (I 
 quote his own words) " equal before the law in the 
 
10 
 
 possession and enjoj^mcut of all rig-lits of personal lib- 
 erty and property." 
 
 There is now an end not simply of the economic 
 dogma attributed to a recent Democratic cr.ndidate for 
 the Vice-Presidency, Mr. Herchell Y. Johnson, that 
 "capital should own its laborers," but of the doctrine 
 so long practically taught even from the puli)it and 
 the bench, that black men have no rights that white 
 men are bound to regard. The Civil Rights Act, pla- 
 cing the former master and the freedman on an equal 
 footing before the law, overthrows that system of aris- 
 tocracy, which, commencing with the oppression of 
 helpless blacks, resulted in the degradation of the 
 laboring whites. 
 
 After a national existence of ninety years ]iasscd 
 in the violation of rights which we ourselves had pro- 
 claimed sacred, chastised and humbled, we return to 
 the truth to which we pledged ourselves when we took 
 our place in the family of nations. We have renounced 
 before the law Slavery and Caste ; we have repudiated, 
 in determining the personal rights of citizens, aiistoc- 
 racy of color and classification of race ; we stand 
 upon the simple doctrine of our fathers, that all men are 
 born with an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit 
 of happiness. Our countrymen have learned late and 
 slowly, but they have learned sadly and surely, that 
 with this sign only, can they maintain the unity, free- 
 dom, and honor of our Republic. 
 
 In contempt of that foundation principle of the Gov- 
 ernment, the Democratic party, swayed by slavery, had 
 promulgated the doctrine that the chains of the slave 
 
11 
 
 were the bonds of the Union. So stubbornly had this 
 idea perverted the national judg-meut, that when, after 
 meditating the assault for a quarter a century, slav- 
 ery threw off its cloak of devotion to the Union 
 and assaulted the Government in open rebellion, even 
 the Republican administration of Mr. Lincoln hesitated 
 to recognize in slavery the nation's foe, and evinced a 
 readiness to court and cherish it as before. 
 
 DISASTROUS RESULTS OF OUR PRO-SLAVERY POLICY 
 IN EUROPE AND AT HOME. 
 
 On the 22d of April, 1861, after Sumter had fallen 
 and loyal blood had been shed at Baltimore, the Gov- 
 ernment assured our Minister to France that " the rev- 
 " olution was without a cause, without a pretext, and 
 "without an object, and that the condition of slavery in 
 "the several States would remain just the same whether 
 " it should succeed or fail." From that fatal policy so 
 blindly adopted and so boldly announced, without con- 
 tradiction or rebuke from the Congressional committees 
 on foreign relations for many months, came the larger 
 share of all our troubles. France and England, act- 
 ing in concert, and with no friendly motives, instantly 
 perceived the effect of our admission that the Rebellion 
 was not in the interest of slavery, and our assurance 
 that the war of the Union would not le allowed to become 
 a war of emancipation. They saw that we had voluntarily 
 confirmed the repeated but hardly credited declarations 
 of the rebels that we were as pro-slavery as them- 
 selves. They saw that we had furnished ample justifi- 
 cation for the delusive theory which they hastened to 
 
12 
 
 adopt, that tlie war involved no question of slavery, 
 immediate or remote ; ])ut was simply a stnig-gle for 
 empire on the one hand, and independence on the other — 
 a struggle in which the sympathies of the world might 
 properly be given to the weaker party gallantly con- 
 testing against odds. They recognized the fact that we 
 had enunciated a policy that must strengthen the rebel 
 cause, and perplex and alienate the liberals of Europe ; 
 that would put to silence and confusion our anti-slavery 
 friends, and enable the European governments to pursue 
 what course they liked, without interference from that 
 instinctive popular sentiment whether in Great Britain 
 or on the Continent, which they well knew would not 
 tolerate European interference to assist even indirectly 
 tla a war of slavery against freedom. 
 
 The enunciation of a pro-slavery policy from Wash- 
 ington was responded to within four weeks by the 
 Powers of Europe, with that insidious policy — in whicli 
 Russia alone, to her immortal honor, refused to acquiesce 
 — which by encouraging and promoting the Rebellion cost 
 us hundreds of thousands of lives and thousands of 
 millions of money. 
 
 It was adopted in Great Britain in violation of the 
 understanding of Mr. Dallas that Lord John Russell 
 would await the arrival of Mr. Adams and the expla- 
 nation he would bring of Mr. Lincoln's intentions ; and 
 even the ability of that eminent diplomatist, worthy of 
 his father and of his grandfather, was unable to save 
 us from the consequences of our blunder. 
 
 In May, France and England, acting in concert, 
 opened on us simultaneously with their proclamations 
 
13 
 
 of belligerency and neutrality, in favor of bellig-crents 
 without a fleet or a port ; but English ship-yards furnished 
 the one, and English colonies supplied the other, and then 
 came the pirates, who, amid the plaudits of our foreign 
 foes, dispensed with prize courts and substituted the 
 torch, and swept our commerce from the seas. 
 
 At home a like disastrous fate attended our ill-star- 
 red efforts to war at once for freedom and slavery, 
 and to establish our own liberties by riveting the fet- 
 ters of the slave. 
 
 The Army order, embodying the policy we had pro- 
 claimed to Europe, and violating the first rules of war, 
 which, as we entered the enemy's country, drove from 
 our camp the loyal slaves who came to aid us, and the 
 other orders that turned our officers into slave-catchers, 
 and threatened with "the iron hand" the blacks whose 
 assistance we were soon to crave, were followed by 
 defeats and disasters which bowed the nation in shame 
 and sorrow. 
 
 HAPPY RESULTS FROM A POLICY OF JUSTICE. 
 
 When after many weary months, and a sad waste of 
 life and treasure in a vain attempt to escape the issue, 
 our cautious but honest President yielded at last to the 
 absolute necessity of the case and the peremptory de- 
 mand of the people, and boldly struck at slavery, the 
 European world recognized the truth which should have 
 been told to them from the start, that as the rebellion 
 was the work of slavery, the war waged for the Con- 
 stitution and the Union, to be waged successfully, must 
 become a war for freedom. 
 
14 
 
 The Proclamation of Emancipation, as our Ministers 
 abroad promptly assured ns, instantly opened the eyes 
 and touched the liberal heart of Europe. Its people saw 
 that we were fighting their battles — the battle of human 
 rights against the usurpations of a class aristocracy, and 
 from that hour no Government of Europe, however hos- 
 tile to us, nor any number of such Governments com- 
 bined, would have dared to brave the moral sentiment 
 of their own people and of the Christian world by in- 
 tervening in furtherance of a war for slavery. We 
 learned too late that in denying the simple fact that 
 slavery was the cause and object of the Rebellion, and 
 in presumptuously announcing that slavery should con- 
 tinue just the same whether we succeeded or failed, we 
 had played into the hands of our enemies at home, and 
 had enabled our foreign foes to heap upon us insult and 
 wrong and to prolong and intensify the struggle. 
 
 With the adoption of the policy of justice forced upon 
 the Government bj^ the people, the God of justice 
 smiled upon our cause, the slaves rallied in defence of 
 their country's flag, and that flag advanced by land and 
 sea, until was accomplished a triumph such as the 
 world had never seen before, and at which it has not 
 yet ceased to wonder. 
 
 To that triumph, signally postponed until we had in- 
 augurated emancipation as a matter of military neces- 
 sity, and at the same time of humanity and of right, 
 may be applied with equal truth the solemn reminder 
 of Madison at the close of the war of our Revolu- 
 tion, embodied in the address of the Continental Con- 
 gress : " Let it ever be remembered that the rights for 
 
15 
 
 " which we have couteiided were tlie rights of liuman 
 nature." 
 
 It seems impossible to mistake the lesson taiig-ht us 
 by the war at every step, in its inception, its progress, 
 and its close. It is that we cannot trample with im- 
 punity on the rights of the blacks, and plead color or 
 race as an apology for the crime ; but that our mutual 
 riglits and liberties and interests, however widely sep- 
 arated in appearance, are in reality so identified by the 
 Ruler of nations, that if we would enjoy the blessings 
 of a Free Government we must accord these blessino-s 
 equally to them. 
 
 This is undoubtedly the deep conviction of the loyal 
 part of the American people, whose sleepless energy 
 and undying patriotism maintained the war, in spite of 
 obstacles and blunders, and the blood of whose sons 
 and brothers has been shed ou the battle-fields of our 
 country, that henceforth the prosperity of America can 
 consist only with justice. 
 
 I have observed without concern an intimation from 
 the so called Democratic press, that the Civil Rio-hts 
 Act would not be regarded by the President as law, 
 because it had previously met his disapproval. The 
 suggestion, while worthy of its source, is, I am persua- 
 ded, most unjust to the President, who, however decided 
 in being guided by his own convictions, and in main- 
 taining the rights of the Executive Department, will be 
 doubtless equally conscientious in recognizing the pow- 
 ers of Congress and obeying the requirements of the 
 Constitution. 
 
16 
 
 THE EFFECT OF THE AMENDMENT ON LEGISLATION 
 FOR A "SLAVE CLASS." 
 
 A late judicial decision in the South ag-ainst the con- 
 stitutionality of the Civil Rig-hts Law, must presently 
 bring the case before the Supreme Court for final adju- 
 dication ; and then we may hope for an authoritative 
 exposition of the changes wrought by the Amendment 
 to the Constitution, and by the Congressional legislation 
 appropriate thereto, upon tlie national policy and the 
 rights of citizens ; and perhaps also upon some of the 
 antiquated State laws that imposed disabiltics and pen- 
 alties not for crime, but for race and complexion. 
 
 A class of judicial questions growing out of slavery 
 and its incidents, which had been finally settled, as was 
 supposed, under the Constitution as it was, would seem 
 to be disturbed, if not re-opened by the Constitutional 
 amendment, that has substituted freedom for slavery as 
 the premise of the argument by which their validity 
 was formerly established. 
 
 It may possibly be that the identical course of in- 
 ductive reasoning, which, starting from the view of the 
 late Chief Justice that the framers of the Constitution 
 of 1189 regarded the blacks as having no rights what- 
 soever, served to establish upon that basis, by the se- 
 verest logic, the rights of the States to disfranchise, 
 outlaw, degrade, and insult what Mr. Taney called " the 
 slave races," a class thus uncared for and unprotected 
 by the Constitution, may lead to a different conclusion 
 when the judges commence with the new fact, that the 
 American people in their sovereign capacity have con- 
 stituted, ordained, and established that the members of 
 
17 
 
 the race thus disfranchised shall be equally entitled with 
 themselves to the inalienable rights of American citi- 
 zens. 
 
 That distinguished Democrat, the late John C. Spencer, 
 once said in our State Legislature, of the Declaration of 
 Independence : " That first act of our nation being a 
 solemn recognition of the liberty and equality of all 
 men ****** was the corner-stone of your Con- 
 federacy, and is above all constitutions and all laws." 
 The course of judicial decision that culminated in the 
 recognition of slavery as a national institution, to such 
 an extent that Mr. Buchanan assumed that Kansas was as 
 much a slave State as South Carolina, diverted atten- 
 tion from the fact so plainly declared by Mr. Spencer. 
 But now, taking together the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence and the American Constitution, we can all see, 
 in the words of President Johnson, that " our Govern- 
 "ment is a grand and lofty structure, and in searching 
 " for its foundation we find that it rests on the broad 
 "basis of popular right." 
 
 THE DISAGREEMENT AT WASHINGTON. 
 
 The pending disagreement between Congress and the 
 Executive, and the warm discussions to which it has 
 given rise, have excited among our loyal countrymen 
 abroad profound regret, and perhaps some doubt whether 
 by a wiser tact, a mutual deference, and a more grace- 
 ful courtesy, this most unfortunate antagonism might 
 not have been lessened or avoided ; but until recently 
 it has caused them no great alarm, as endangering 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 the harmony of the Government or the destiny of the 
 country. 
 
 They have made a g'enerous allowance for the honest 
 differences of opinion developed in the discussion on the 
 Constitutional and other questions involved in the prob- 
 lem of reconstruction ; differences so wide and deep, 
 among many who, educated in opposite schools, have 
 stood shoulder to shoulder in the war, as to recall 
 forcibly the remark of Dr. Franklin, that " the invisi- 
 " ble chains of habit are scarcely heavy enough to be 
 "felt until they are too strong to be broken." 
 
 They have at the same time regarded it as next 
 to impossible that the rupture should become positive 
 and permanent : first, from their confidence that the pa- 
 triotism and right feeling of the President and of Con- 
 gress, so conspicuously exhibited in the past, would in- 
 duce on their part an united effort at harmonious action 
 in reference to the points at issue ; and next, from 
 their conviction that the American people would not 
 quietly acquiesce in a prolonged antagonism, partly 
 political, but withal strangely personal, between their 
 Executive and Congressional servants, at a time when 
 national issues of pressing importance demand their 
 earnest and cordial co-operation. 
 
 EUROPEAN INTEREST IN OUR DIVISION. 
 
 Our European foes are watching the wranglings in 
 our Union ranks with an interest similar to that which 
 they exhibited in the progress of the war. Whatever 
 threatens a permanent division in the Union party, or 
 indicates to their hopes the reinstatement in power of 
 
19 
 
 the disloyal Democracy of the North and the unre- 
 pentant rebels of the South, is hailed by our Conti- 
 nental opponents with a pleasure that they care not 
 to conceal. When occasionally the comments of the 
 European press, most unjust and unfriendly during the 
 war, are marked by an apparent disinterestedness Avell 
 calculated to deceive the careless reader, it is well to 
 remember the hostile stand-point from which they 
 view the subject, and to read their advice by the 
 light of the fact, that their dislike of the American 
 Eepublic is as inevitable in the future as it was irre- 
 pressible in the past. Our divisions are represented 
 as indicating not simply a defect in the machinery of our 
 Government, but an inherent weakness in our national 
 Union, which for the present at least may justify for- 
 eign powers in doubting our readiness to test the loy- 
 alty of the South in the chances of a foreign war. 
 This idea may naturally embolden the European pow- 
 ers who have been balked in their hopes of our dis- 
 solution to treat with indifference and contempt our 
 just demands, or to exhibit towards our traditional 
 disapproval of their intermeddling with our immediate 
 neighbors, no further respect than may seem to be 
 paid by the convenient assurances and diplomatic prom- 
 ises with which we have been blinded and beguiled. 
 Renegade Americans are not wanting who ply their 
 trade of foreign intrigue, and I have chanced to meet 
 with a pamphlet that curiously indicates the ingenious 
 hate of a disappointed traitor, and may serve to re- 
 mind us that henceforth we must be prepared to en- 
 counter a foreign hostility aided and abetted by the 
 intelligence of our own disloyal countrymen. 
 
20 
 
 The writer, under the sig-nificant signature of " Index," 
 proposes to the Congress that had been expected to 
 meet in Paris, that they may peaceably settle the im- 
 pending European question by recompensing Austria 
 for the loss of Venetia on the one hand and of Holstein 
 on the other, by a permanent European guarantee to 
 the House of Hapsburg of — Mexico ! 
 
 This novel proposition is urged upon the ground that it 
 will be the only way to check the progress of the United 
 States, and to prevent them in connection with Eussia, 
 whom the writer denounces for her sympathy with us 
 in the war with slavery, from monopolizing and di- 
 viding the Oriental trade of the Pacific Ocean, which 
 the Czar, " once firmly seated in his Eastern saddle," 
 can convert presently into " a mere Kussian lake." 
 
 To arouse the alarm of Europe at the dangers to 
 be apprehended from our lawless ambition, the writer 
 remarks : 
 
 " Just before the American war began, Secretary 
 " Seward said, in his great speech at St. Paul, that 
 " the destiny of the United States was to absorb all 
 "the British possessions in North America, and that, 
 " with its capital removed from Washington to the 
 " Halls of the Montezumas, the Great Kepublic would 
 " one day appropriate all the South American States, 
 "even unto Terra del Fuego," &c., and after this as- 
 sertion lie refers to a recent proposition in Congress 
 to change the name of the United States to America, 
 
 The responsibility that attaches to the utterances of 
 European statesmen, and gives such weight to every 
 word that falls from those who sway the destinies of 
 
21 
 
 Europe, naturally dispones Europeans to attach some 
 degree of importance to the language used by Ameri- 
 cans in developing the foreign policy of our Republic. 
 
 With slavery has been extinguished the spirit that 
 warred upon Mexico, and in the Ostend Manifesto 
 threatened Spain with the loss of Cuba ; and the pres- 
 ent policy of our country is emphatically one of peace 
 and non-intervention, forming a striking contrast in 
 this respect with the conduct of France towards Mex- 
 ico, of Spain towards Chili, of Austria and Prussia 
 towards Denmai-k, and generally with the behavior 
 towards each other of the various members of the 
 happy family of Europe. 
 
 As the American people are fully occupied with their 
 own concerns, and entertain no thought of aggession 
 and no design of annexation — no wish, in European 
 phrase, to revise the map and rectify the boundaries 
 of America — it may be wise in our prominent orators, 
 representing either the Government or the people, to 
 avoid language that shall seem to indicate an insati- 
 ate policy of indefinite absorption, and which may 
 sometime be used more effectually than at present, in 
 invoking against us an European coalition. A recent 
 writer in the Eeviie des Deux-Mondes, M. Michel Chev- 
 alier, gives warning that in thirty years America will 
 be a match for the whole of Europe, remarking that 
 among the virtues of the great Republic, modesty and 
 reserve are not conspicuous, and that we are apt to 
 affect towards the Old World an attitude of provoca- 
 tion and disdain. He refers to the tone of our late 
 peremptory despatch to Austria forbidding the depart- 
 
22 
 
 lire of volunteers for Mexico, and recommends the Eu- 
 ropean Powers not to divide and waste their forces, 
 but to adopt a concert of organization with reference 
 to the future. 
 
 Deeming wise the maxim that enjoins a due regard 
 to the policy of an opponent, I have listened, not with- 
 out interest, to the views taken of our political situ- 
 ation by some of the rebel sympathizers among our coun- 
 trymen in Europe, expressed perhaps with less reserve 
 than is occasionally exhibited at home. 
 
 VIEW OF THE SITUATION BY REBEL SYMPATHIZERS 
 IN EUPROPE. 
 
 Frankly admitting that the people of the South were 
 prepared when they laid down their arms, to acquiesce 
 without question in whatever conditions the national 
 authority might have imposed, precisely as they ac- 
 quiesced in the several recommendations of the Presi- 
 dent, which under the circumstances had the sanction 
 of power — declaring void their ordinances of secession, 
 repudiating their own debt, and abolishing slavery — 
 they were nevertheless now resolved to insist that the 
 former constitutional rights of the States were unim- 
 paired by the war, and had revived at its close in 
 undiminished vigor the moment they laid down their 
 arms and submitted to the Government. 
 
 The recommendations or mandates of the President, 
 especially that requiring them to adopt the Constitu- 
 tional Amendment, which struck at the foundation of 
 their social and political system, and swept away rights 
 carefully guaranteed by their State Constitutions, they 
 now hold to have been an act of executive usurpa- 
 
23 
 
 tion, without any authority in the Federal Constitu- 
 tion, and justly entitling them to compensation. 
 
 It was acceded to, they say, simply from necessity, 
 and for the reason that slavery was already shattered 
 by the proclamation of Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 They profess to regard the President's recent course 
 and language as an abandonment of the theory on which 
 he originally dictated conditions, and as an admission 
 that the national Government had no right to interfere 
 in any manner with the State Constitutions. 
 
 They do not propose to forgive the President for 
 his desertion from the Democratic party at the com- 
 mencement or during the progress of the war, nor for 
 his conduct as President in abolishing slavery and 
 revolutionizing the Southern Constitutions. It is the 
 rule of their party never to forgive, and never to trust 
 again one who has deserted or betrayed them ; but 
 they will sustain his administration with apparent cor- 
 diality so long as he neutralizes the power of Congress. 
 The division in the Government they will, of course, 
 assist as far as possible ; they are charmed with the 
 qiiarrel as it stands, and indulge the hope that the 
 spirit exhibited on both sides by the Republican lead- 
 ers will soon render the breach irreparable and their 
 own triumph certain. 
 
 They regard their position as vastly improved by 
 what they call the blunders of the Kepublicans since 
 the close of the war. 
 
 Then they occupied the position of a party not simply 
 defeated, but in disgrace alike with the national Gov- 
 ernment, which they had opposed, and with the rebels, 
 
24 
 
 whom they had lured into the war and had then deserted ; 
 whereas now they are able to claim credit as loyal 
 supporters of the Administration, and the most earnest 
 in their demands for the restoration of the Union, the 
 observance of the Constitution, and the harmonizing 
 of tlie country. 
 
 They regard the course generally pursued by Con- 
 gress towards the South as a mistaken party policy, 
 both in reference to the future politics of the South 
 and the relations of tlie whites and the freedmen ; tend- 
 ing to force the whole South back into the Democratic 
 ranks notwithstanding its displeasure with its Northern 
 allies, and to excite increased unfriendly feeling be- 
 tween the races and render the position of the freed- 
 men more doubtful and difficult. 
 
 They admit that they had utterly underrated the 
 strength and depth of the national feeling for the 
 Union by which the Eebellion was overthrown ; but 
 they do not believe in any such devotion on the 
 part of the North to the interests of the freedmen, 
 now that their personal rights are firmly established, 
 as to justify the policy of those Eepublicans who 
 would postpone reconstruction simply to secure at the 
 South an extension of colored suffrage that has been 
 repudiated in the Northern States ; and they anticipate 
 in the coming elections a marked diminution of the- 
 Kepublican strength, and where the Republican party 
 is divided they look for the election of Democratic 
 members. They profess indifference to the Constitu- 
 tional Amendments now before Congress, declaring that 
 they will never be adopted by the Southern States ; 
 
25 
 
 and they rejoice in the defeat by Eeptiblican votes in 
 the Senate of the first amendment that had passed 
 the House, basing representation upon the actual vo- 
 ters ; for that amendment having been approved by 
 the President, they think would have been adopted, 
 in which case the future power of the South would 
 have been permanently curtailed ; whereas by its de- 
 feat the number of their representatives will remain 
 unchanged until after 18*10, with thirty members in 
 addition to the number to which they would be entitled 
 by their white population ; and this number will be 
 then increased, to fifty by the new census, adding two- 
 fifths to the count of the freedmen. 
 
 In 1868 they anticipate the complete re-establishment 
 of their party by the election of a President with the 
 aid of the electoral votes of the South, which they be- 
 lieve no Congress will dare to reject after the govern- 
 mental recognition of those States in the Amendment to 
 the Constitution. Then, if not before, they will pro- 
 ceed to repudiate the National War Debt, of which 
 a suggestion was early thrown out by Governor Sey- 
 mour of New York ; or if this should prove too diflB- 
 cult a task, from the policy adopted by Mr. Chase of 
 giving the bulk of the population an interest in its 
 inviolability, they will either relieve the South of its 
 share of the debt, throwing the entire burden upon 
 the North, or, which they think may answer the same 
 purpose, they will generously compensate the South for 
 the slaves that have been emancipated through the 
 action of the President. 
 
 Whether this opposition view of the situation, thus 
 
26 
 
 hastily sketched, contains anything that will be new 
 to you may be a question, but it seems to me to 
 suggest a possibility, at least, of danger to the Union 
 party and the national interests ; and to prudent states- 
 men a suggestion of danger should open the way to 
 its avoidance. 
 
 THE DANGERS THREATENED BY A DISSOLUTION OF 
 THE UNION PARTY. 
 
 Wlien the majestic principles of the Union party 
 shall have been thoroughly incorporated into the na- 
 tional policy ; when the last trace of slavery and the 
 aristocracy it has engendei'ed, and the last possibility 
 of a sectional issue based upon its remains, shall 
 have disappeared, the Union party will naturally dis- 
 solve in the face of new issues, but the parties who 
 succeed it will bear its emblem upon their banners. 
 
 In advance, however, of that time, and while slavery 
 is yet struggling like a scotched snake, and Emanci- 
 pation is not yet a complete success, and the leaders of 
 the Rebellion at the North and the South, untouched by 
 the gentleness and generosity of the American people, 
 propose to requite their magnanimity by a scheme of 
 national repudiation, or, if that be impossible, revenge 
 themseves for defeat in the field by imposing new 
 taxes upon citizens of the North, the dissolution of 
 the Union party is a very different matter. While 
 these dangers threaten us, the dissolution of that mag- 
 nificent array of loyal citizens who have saved our 
 Republic in its grapple with slavery, and placed it at 
 the head of the roll of nations, from which our pro- 
 
27 
 
 slavery foes attempted to blot its name forever — the 
 disruption of that party, however lightly it may he 
 regarded in some quarters, and the succession of a 
 party disposed to national repudiation, would, I think, 
 be a misfortune not only for America, but for the 
 world. 
 
 The war of the Rebellion was not a chance insur- 
 rection without a cause, a pretext, or an object ; it 
 was a contest of antagonistic principles of world-wide 
 interest, of hereditary privilege against eternal right, 
 of aristocratic assumption against popular freedom ; 
 and the great Union party met the shock, fought the 
 fight, and won the victory for our country and man- 
 kind. 
 
 Wherever you find a noble people, like the Italians 
 for instance, longing to throw off the chains of igno- 
 rance and superstition, to rid themselves of the tem- 
 poral despotism of Rome, and the insolent domination 
 of Austria, they look to the example of America as 
 to the guiding star of freedom. 
 
 Of this I am reminded by a recent note from Gari- 
 baldi, thanking me for the proceedings of the Ameri- 
 can breakfast at Naples on Washington's birthday, in 
 which he says : 
 
 " The sympathy which comes to me from freemen, citi- 
 " zens of a great nation, like yourselves, gives me courage 
 " for my task in the cause of Liberty and Progress. 
 " I regard to-day the American people as the sole 
 " arbiter of questions of humanity, amid the universal 
 "thraldom of the soul and the intellect. Please ex- 
 
28 
 
 "press these, my sentiments, to your countrymen, and 
 " believe me, 
 
 " Yours for life, 
 
 " G. Garibaldi. 
 "Caprera, 13 March, 1866." 
 
 REPUDIATION OF THE NATIONAL DEBT. 
 
 The suggestion of the repudiation of the national 
 debt, especially when sanctioned by the quasi predic- 
 tion of so prominent an authority as Governor Horatio 
 Seymour, would naturally find favor with the defeated 
 party of the South, as one not to be forgotten when 
 they may be restored to their former place in the 
 Senate and House of Representatives ; but they could 
 not hope for the ability to accomplish so signal a 
 revenge upon the country that had subdued them, 
 without the cordial aid of the Northern Democracy. 
 
 It becomes, therefore, an interesting inquiry, at this 
 point of our review of the situation, whether there is 
 reason to suppose that any Northern party is capable 
 of lending itself to the consummation of such a national 
 infamy, or of increasing the heavy burthens already laid 
 upon the shoulders of the North by those who en- 
 couraged and abetted the Rebellion. 
 
 That the Southern leaders of the Rebellion, defeated, 
 broken, disappointed, and depressed, should be disposed 
 to follow any Northern party that might hold out a 
 bait so tempting, is simply in accordance with human 
 nature. 
 
 To sit again as rulers in Congress and block the 
 wheels of Government, to annul or depreciate the war 
 
29 
 
 debt incurred in their subjection, by refusing appropria- 
 tions, or to throw the burthen entirely upon the North, 
 and then compensate themselves at the expense of 
 the nation for the loss of their slaves, which long- 
 years ago they valued at twelve hundred millions of 
 dollars ; and to do all this, not as traitors in violation 
 of their oaths, but as American legislators in pursu- 
 ance of what they might assume to be national jus- 
 tice, and in accordance with a humane policy of con- 
 ciliation ; this is the scheme which it is hoped to ac- 
 complish through the division of the Union party, and 
 by the aid of Democratic leaders in the North. 
 
 When, after the repeal of the Missouri compromise, 
 Southerners were reproached with their violation of a 
 sacred compact, they sheltered themselves under the 
 plea that it was tendered to them by Northern men, 
 and if now a Northern party tenders repudiation of 
 the debt, or compensation for their slaves, why should 
 they decline the offer ? 
 
 As obvious considerations of policy forbid the intro- 
 duction of repudiation or compensation as a i:)lank in 
 the Northern Democratic platform, it is proper to in- 
 quire how far the antecedents of the national mana- 
 gers in the past justify the confidence of rebel sympa- 
 thizers in Europe, in their readiness to tamper with 
 the national credit, and increase the burthens of the 
 Northern people, in order to secure again the support 
 of the rebel leaders of the South, and by their aid 
 re-establish the national ascendency of the party. 
 
 Governmental credit involves national power as well 
 as national honor, and if a division of the Unionists 
 
so 
 
 in the coming elections is to render probable or even 
 possible the success of a coalition having small regard 
 to the faith of our Republic, the differences at Wash- 
 ington, and the elections for Congress, will assume an 
 importance that will be felt alike at home and abroad, 
 by Americans and foreigners, wherever a government 
 bond is held, or a loyal heart beats in an American 
 bosom. 
 
 THE RECORD OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 
 
 The record of the Democratic party for the last six 
 years is not to an American who would be proud of his 
 countrymen a pleasant study. No ingenuity can avail 
 to palliate the part borne by that party during the 
 war against the Union. 
 
 When, on the 8th of January last, they met at Tam- 
 many, to celebrate the anniversary of the battle of New 
 Orleans, and to renew, as they expressed it, their pledge 
 that " the Union must and shall be preserved ;" to pro- 
 claim to the Southern States Mr. Tilden's touching as- 
 surance, "We spread a mantle of oblivion over the 
 past," and to woo again to their embrace the wayward 
 sisters, whom they had so lately bidden to "depart in 
 peace," the hollowness of the farce did not deceive 
 even their own orators ; the most eloquent of whom, 
 Mr. James T. Brady, reminded them that in its conduct 
 during the war, " the Democratic party had proved false 
 to the instincts, traditions, teachings, and doctrines of 
 its faith." 
 
 That damning fact is one neither forgotten nor to 
 be forgotten by the American people ; and it is sig- 
 
31 
 
 nificant of the sound sense of our citizens that, in the 
 State elections thus far held, since the close of the 
 war, they have not only refused to elevate to power 
 candidates whose record was at all doubtful, but that 
 they have refused to honor candidates whose patriot- 
 ism had been beyond question, when those gentlemen 
 retiring from the Union party had re-appeared in the 
 Democratic ranks, and attempted by their own loy- 
 alty to reflect respectability upon a disloyal party. 
 
 The facts that sustain Mr. Brady's denunciations of 
 the falsity of the party are fresh in our recollection. 
 
 For nearly thirty years the Southern leaders had 
 been contemplating secession, as a thing to be accom- 
 plished the moment they ceased to control the national 
 Government ; and about the time of the nullification by 
 South Carolina, in 1832, a medal was struck, as Mr. Pol- 
 lard tells us in his Southern history of the war, in- 
 scribed " John C. Calhoun, First President of the South- 
 ern Confederacy." 
 
 When, in 1860, South Carolina passed the first ordi- 
 nance of secession, it was proposed, in stating the causes 
 of their action, to justif}^ it by the election of Mr. Lin- 
 coln, by the escape of fugitive slaves, and by their fears 
 of the Abolitionists. Messrs, Ehett and Parker, and 
 Keitt and Inglis, promptly declared the alleged reasons 
 to be utterly untrue, and said they had been engaged in 
 the movement for a long series of years, and similar 
 testimony equally conclusive has been furnished by Mr, 
 Everett and other statesmen. 
 
 During those long years of anticipation, these seces- 
 sionists, with the cordial aid of Northern Democrats, 
 
32 
 
 were employed in strengthening themselves for the 
 coming struggle, and extending in advance through 
 the national Government the area of slavery. To 
 them and their intended treachery we owed the Texan 
 Eebellion and the war with Mexico, the efforts to bully 
 Spain into the sale of Cuba by threatening that we 
 would seize if we could not buy it, the fillibustering 
 expeditions to Central America, and the lawless revi- 
 val of the African slave trade. 
 
 During those long years, while this plot for disso- 
 lution was in progress, the Democratic leaders of the 
 North charged the anti-slavery party, which was organized 
 to expose the immoral character and unconstitutional de- 
 signs of slavery, with the very crime of disunion that 
 the South with their aid was preparing to perpetrate. 
 They denounced as unfaithful to the Constitution and 
 traitors to the Union those who adhered to the doc- 
 trines of the Fathers of the Republic, and they de- 
 manded and obtained the support and confidence of 
 the American people by their solemn professions of 
 national pride and national affection. 
 
 With the cry, " down with disunion," they perpetrated 
 outrages which, if we did not remember, we could 
 hardly credit. Mobs in our cities, encouraged by the 
 Democratic press, plundered, sacked, burned, and mur- 
 dered. There were robberies of the mails by the na- 
 tional postmasters ; the denial by Congress of freedom 
 of debate and the right of petition ; legislative bills 
 of pains and penalties for the punishment of free 
 speech, and a free press ; an anti-slavery clergyman 
 dragged from his pulpit and imprisoned as a nuisance; 
 
33 
 
 anti-slavery presses broken and scattered ; an anti-slav- 
 ery editor sliot like a dog ; brutal insults towards 
 men, women, and children, who disapproved of slavery ; 
 such were the deeds by which the Democratic party 
 illustrated their devotion for the Union, They de- 
 nounced all the Anti-Slavery and Free Soil parties, as 
 parties akin to the Hartford Conventionists, who they 
 said deserted the country in time of war. They ral- 
 lied the people ever and again in Mass Conventions 
 to save the Constitution, and they swore continually 
 by all that was sacred, that the _ Union must be pre- 
 served. 
 
 At length came the traitor's hour, and the blow was 
 struck, and the Democratic Administration, whose mem- 
 bers, sworn to protect the country, held their seats and 
 drew their pay from the Treasury of the people they 
 were betraying, played so effectively into the hands of 
 the rebels that on the 4th March, 1861, the work of 
 national disintegration was far advanced ; and of the 
 perfect Uuion intrusted to Mr. Buchanan by a too con- 
 fiding nation, he relinquished to his successor what his 
 partisans believed and hoped would prove but the dis- 
 jointed fragments of our great Republic. The Treasury 
 empty ; forts, arsenals, navy-yards surrendered ; arms and 
 munitions stolen and dispersed, our little navy scattered 
 and disabled, our army officers in part demoralized, and 
 treachery lurking in every department of the Govern- 
 ment ! 
 
 The world has no record of so wide-spread and des- 
 perate a wreck of public integrity and private honor. 
 Insurrections and rebellious abound in sacred and 
 3 
 
34 
 
 profane history, but the treachery of our last Demo- 
 cratic Administration towards the American people stands 
 among- them unapproachable in infamy. 
 
 The darkest picture of brutalizing influences of slav- 
 ery, even that drawn by Jefl'erson himself, have been 
 exceeded in blackness by the conduct of those who call 
 themselves his disciples. 
 
 Their wanton outrages on the rights and feelings of 
 the blacks had taught them to trample with a like in- 
 difference on tlie rights and feelings of their white 
 countrymen. 
 
 Denying first the claims of humanity and justice, they 
 gradually reached the point occupied by the traitors in 
 the Cabinet and the Senate, who discarded alike honor 
 and shame, who retained their seats to complete their 
 treason, and lauged to scorn their oaths to protect the 
 American Constitution. 
 
 Then was the hour to test fidelity to our National 
 Union. Once before had South Carolina inaugurated re- 
 bellion, when the Democrats headed by General Jackson 
 administered the Government. His bitterest opponent, 
 Daniel AVebster, had said : 
 
 " I shall support the President in maintaining this 
 " Union and this Constitution, and the cause shall not 
 " fail for want of any aid, any efforts, any glorious co- 
 " operation of mine. When the standard of the Union 
 " is raised and waves over ray head, God forbid that I 
 " should inquire who is commissioned to unfurl it and 
 " bear it up ! I only ask in what manner I, as an 
 " himible individual, can best discharge my duty in de- 
 " fending it." 
 
35 
 
 We know too well the sort of support given to the 
 stars and stripes by those Northern Democrats who 
 were banded to betray it, and who whenever thej^ raise 
 their country's flag- must be reminded of their abortive 
 efforts to abase it. 
 
 The world speaks of the Southern Rebellion and South- 
 ern traitors, but we had to contend not simply against 
 the slave-holding- secessionists at the South, but against 
 an army of renegade Democrats at the North abetting 
 the rebels in every form. 
 
 To Democratic leaders at New York we were in- 
 debted largely for that organized hostility of oar Euro- 
 pean foes, which encountered our merchants on every 
 sea, and our ministers at every court, and found vent 
 in the utterances of a foreign press filled with eulogies 
 of the rebels, defamation of our Republic, and predic- 
 tions of its fall. 
 
 If the Southern leaders were fiercely indignant with 
 their allies at New York for not giving them the armed 
 assistance upon which they had relied, they have perhaps 
 undervalued the services actually performed by them. 
 
 The Aristocratic Governments and ruling classes of 
 Europe, and the moneyed kings on whom they rely, had 
 long looked with a dislike latterly intensified by fear 
 upon the growing prosperity of our country, and, rightly 
 attributing that prosperity to our national unity, they 
 had long desired and indeed predicted that our na- 
 tionality would be destroyed by dissensions among 
 ourselves. 
 
 During* the Rebellion it seemed as if, for the execu- 
 tion of their designs against the honor and integrity 
 
36 
 
 of the country, they had found convenient and skilful 
 tools among- the Northern Democracy to assist the 
 rebels in their work by hampering the national power 
 and depreciating the national credit. 
 
 We have sometimes wondered at the strange belief 
 prevalent in Europe in our demoralization as a people, 
 their undisguised contempt for the citizens of the 
 North, their exaggerated ideas of the power of the 
 South, and their confidence in our early dissolution ; 
 but why should they not have deemed their day of 
 triumph near, when they saw prominent Democrats at 
 New York giving aid and comfort to the rebels at 
 Kichmond ; when they learned that these same gentle- 
 men, intriguing against their own Government, had be- 
 sought from Lord Lj'ons foreign intervention ; when 
 they saw the once National Democratic party betray- 
 ing the country in time of war, and beheld their na- 
 tional committee that formerly swore by Jefferson and 
 Jackson, led by an eminent foreign banker, late the 
 official servant of the Hapsburgs, and still the accred- 
 ited agent of the Rothschilds ? 
 
 Of the anti-American tone of our higher Democratic 
 circles, and their reflex influence on the Aristocratic 
 classes of Europe, a curious proof was given by an 
 English nobleman, now the Under-Secretary of War, who 
 while in New York at a fashionable entertainment, 
 deemed it no discoiirtesy to his host or the guests to 
 wear a symbol of the Confederate flag that was at 
 the time borne by the pirates of the Atlantic. 
 
 That behavior on the part of one, the motto of 
 whose order, noblesse oblige, would have imperatively for- 
 
37 
 
 bidden such an exhibition of his sympathies in any 
 company whom he supposed loyal to their country, 
 may assist us to understand how much we are in- 
 debted to the leading' Democrats of New York, not 
 simply for the tone of the British Aristocracy, and the 
 British press, but for the ill-omened judgment of our 
 enemies, which induced them to smile upon the inau- 
 guration of that cowardly system of piracy, whoso ex- 
 ploits, applauded and approved when our dissolution 
 was held to be inevitable, the merchants and states- 
 men of England now remember as precedents with 
 dismay, 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC INTRIGUES WITH THE BRITISH 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Before dismissing the Northern Democracy, it may 
 be remarked that, however great their anxiety "to 
 throw a mantle of oblivion over the past," to pass 
 over the appeal to arms against a constitutional elec- 
 tion as on the whole a blunder, and to recommence 
 the political game on the old footing, there is one 
 passage especially in the secret history of the Rebel- 
 lion upon which the American people have a right to 
 be enlightened. 
 
 I refer to their intrigues with the British Govern- 
 ment, whose policy proved so disastrous to the com- 
 merce of New York ; and the matter involves whatever 
 of reputation may still cling to the wreck of the Dem- 
 ocratic party. Who were the secret advisers in New 
 York of the British Minister, Lord Lyons, in those in- 
 terviews, whose only precedent in our history was 
 
38 
 
 when Benedict Arnold conferred with Sir Henry Clin- 
 ton ? The fact that such intrig-iies existed — a fact that 
 would have astounded the country, had we not ceased 
 to wonder at any new infamy in the progress of the 
 Kebellion — we chanced to learn through a despatch of 
 Lord Lyons, which was included by oversight, or with 
 a motive, among the papers printed by order Parlia- 
 ment. 
 
 It appears that the men who approached Lord Lyons 
 professed to be, and were believed by him to be, New 
 York gentlemen of prominent position, and that they 
 sought through him to shape the policy of the British 
 Government for the purposes of the Democratic party. 
 Profound silence on the part of the Democratic 
 leaders in New York has met this charge against 
 their personal honor and political integrity, officially 
 presented to the world under the signature of the 
 British Minister and in the records of the British Gov- 
 ernment ; and yet here is a charge not simply of 
 treason against our National Government, but of un- 
 told infamy as regards the American people. The na- 
 tion at large, and we of New York especially, have a 
 right to know the names and the credentials of these 
 men, who, in time of war, assumed in the name of 
 the Democratic party to open negotiations with a for- 
 eign government. 
 
 Were they actually tlic men they represented tliem- 
 selves to be, or were they fellows of the baser sort, 
 tools of rebels at Richmond, who the better to effect 
 their purposes assumed the name of New York gen- 
 tlemen ? 
 
39 
 
 The capture at sea of such open commissioners as 
 Slidell and Mason was hailed with satisfaction by the 
 American people ; but the Government, for reasons not 
 yet explained, would seem thus far to have taken no 
 steps to arraign before the tribunals of justice the 
 New York intriguers with the British Government. 
 
 Southern Unionists may well complain, as Mr. Botts 
 has already done, that no steps have yet been taken 
 to punish the rebels of the North, whose guilt was 
 greater than that of the secessionists of the South : 
 in as much as the Northerners had no apology in the 
 doctrine of State allegiance, and were traitors alike to 
 the National Government and their own States, besides 
 plotting against the Union while enjoying its protec- 
 tion and professing loyalty to its flag. 
 
 If the Government for any reason hesitates to ar- 
 raign the prominent Democratic leaders, whose names 
 are associated with the developments of Lord Lyons, 
 there is no reason why the people and the press 
 should not arraign them at the bar of public opinion ; 
 and judge of their defence, if any they have, for their 
 treasonable and disloyal attempt to induce the inter- 
 vention of England in the domestic aifairs of the Amer- 
 ican Republic. 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITIES RESTING UPON CONGRESS. 
 
 In considering the propriety of the hesitancy of Con- 
 gress to yield their control of the reconstruction ques- 
 tion by the adoption of any plan, however safe it may 
 appear, by which the vacant seats in the Senate and 
 the House shall be immediately filled with Southern 
 
40 
 
 representatives, with the sanction of what oaths soever, 
 it is proper to remember their position and responsi- 
 bilities. 
 
 They do not represent the disloyal faction that sym- 
 pathized with the rebels, who denounced the war as 
 a failure, and demanded that it should cease. They 
 represent the loyal American people, who fought it to 
 the close, and who, however magnanimous in relin- 
 quishing indemnity for the past, are inflexible in re- 
 quiring securities for the future, and who would never 
 forgive their Congressional servants were they, through 
 any blunder or weakness, to relinquish by legislation 
 the safety accomplished by such sacrifices in the field, 
 by the valor of our army and navy, and by the 
 stern devotion of the people. 
 
 Upon this point the confident expectation of rebel 
 sympathizers in Europe of " National Repudiation," com- 
 pensation for their slaves seems deserving of atten- 
 tion. 
 
 If these expectations should bo accomplished by the 
 reinstatement in Congress of Southers Members, in such 
 manner as to enable the Northern Democrats, by their 
 aid, to control again the National Government, they 
 would, in that case, have attained, in spite of their 
 defeat in the war, a large share of what, in the 
 first instance, they hoped to accomplish by the Re- 
 bellion, 
 
 Although the plan of a Southern Confederacy had 
 been entertained for some thirty years, the rebel lead- 
 ers anticipated almost to the last moment the ability 
 to accomplish by the aid of their Northern allies a 
 
41 
 
 coup d'etat, which should give them, with but little 
 bloodshed, all that they desired. 
 
 THE ORIGINAL DESIGN OF THE REBEL LEADERS. 
 
 The plan of operations I first learned from a source 
 which I knew to be reliable about the first of Jan- 
 uary, 1861, when South Carolina alone had as yet 
 passed an act of secession ; and, I may properly add, 
 in reference to an item of such curious historic in- 
 terest, that its correctness was attested a little more 
 than a year ago by the late Lieutenant-General, whose 
 memory Europe and America unite to honor. 
 
 It was at a dinner at Mr. Alfred Pell's that I re- 
 lated to General Scott what I had heard precisely as 
 I shall state it now, and that veteran soldier listened 
 attentively to the recital, nodded assent to each sep- 
 arate item, and significantly remarked at its close : 
 " It is a true bill." I need hardly say that the oppor- 
 tunities of General Scott for learning accurately the 
 designs of the rebels were unusually good, partly 
 from the confidence with which he was treated by 
 his old Southern friends, when they hoped to secure his 
 adhesion to their cause, and again from his position as 
 commander-in-chief during the early stages of the war. 
 
 The original rebel plan, whose correctness is thus 
 attested, was as follows : 
 
 After the secession of South Carolina, the other cot- 
 ton States were to follow as rapidly as the machin- 
 ery of secession, by means of conventions, could be 
 put into operation. That matter was decided and in 
 train ; the more Northern and border States, which 
 
42 
 
 were still doubtful, were to be coaxed, or dragooned 
 into the movement as might be necessary, and espe- 
 cially Maryland. As soon as Maryland should secede, 
 she was to pass an act rescinding the act of cession 
 to the United States of that part of the District of 
 Columbia which had formerly belonged to Maryland. 
 The moment that act was passed, Washington was to 
 be seized imder color of law as belonging to the 
 State of Maryland. The new Confederacy was to be im- 
 provised, the Constitution and laws of the United 
 States were to be re-adopted as they stood, with a 
 single exception making slavery universal. 
 
 Tlie new Confederacy was to be proclaimed the 
 United States de facto. The allegiance of the army 
 and navy was to be claimed, and would, they believed, 
 be yielded. Recognition by the foreign ministers at 
 Washington was to be demanded, and, as they felt 
 assured would be conceded ; an invitation was to be 
 extended to the Northern and Western States, excepting 
 New England, and perhaps Western New York, to 
 resume their places in the new Confederacy on pre- 
 cisely the same terms as in the old ; those invita- 
 tions they thought would be gradually accepted and 
 the new Government was to move on. 
 
 THE SCHEME DEFEATED BY MEMBERS OF THE CLUB. 
 
 This was the bold online of a plan that depended 
 for its execution on the concurrence of the Northern 
 Democracy, and which but for the eiforts of the mem- 
 bers the Union League Club might have been par- 
 tially successful. It was through their vigilance that 
 
43 
 
 Congress and the North were with difficulty aroused 
 to the dangers that threatened the Capital ; and it was 
 owing to information conveyed to the Government, by 
 one of the most faithful and untiring of your body, 
 that the Maryland Legislature, the moment it met, 
 without waiting for a State convention, intended to 
 prepare an act of secession, and commit Mai-yland to 
 the fortunes of the Rebellion, that the orders were 
 promptly given to General McClellan to arrest its mem- 
 bers in advance of their assembling. This timely move, 
 of the occasion for which the country has, I believe, 
 never been publicly advised, checked the audacious plan 
 by which Washington was to have been seized under 
 color of law, with all its muniments and archives, and 
 a new Government de facto proclaimed and recognized 
 by the foreign ministers, in a manner well calculated 
 to demoralize and dismay the country. 
 
 This brief reference to the plot and the manner of 
 its defeat may be interesting, not simply a& recalling 
 one of many dangers which we have providentially 
 escaped, but as reminding us that if now Congress, 
 through any error of judgment, should admit to their 
 seats in the Senate and the House disloyal Southern 
 members in such numbers as to enable them, in con- 
 junction with tlie Northern Democracy, again to control 
 the Government, they would accomplish in great part 
 the original object of the Rebellion, and might expect 
 from their constituents, on their return to their homes, 
 a reception such as would have met Sherman had he 
 surrendered to Hood, or Meade and Grant if they had 
 traitorously laid down their arms to Lee. Such a lamen- 
 
44 
 
 table result, we all know, is as little desired by the 
 President as it is by Congress and the people. 
 
 THE QUESTION OF RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 The differences that have arisen between the Exec- 
 utive and Congress on this question, and which I trust 
 are being rapidly and harmoniously adjusted, have been 
 purposely exaggerated by the opponents of the Gov- 
 ernment, and unwisely accepted by some of its sup- 
 porters as irreconcilable as regards principle and policy. 
 
 Looking at the case in the light of the past action 
 and utterances of the two branches, I see no such 
 irreconcilable difference ; but simply a case where both 
 parties are practically agreed as to the end to be 
 aimed at, and generally as to the virtual powers of 
 the Government ; and where they diflFer only as to the 
 best method of accomplishing a common purpose. 
 
 One reason perhaps for the partial difference in their 
 view is at once natural and legitimate. The President, 
 while the head of the Union party, is also the Exec- 
 utive of the whole Republic, and may properly regard 
 himself as the representative and guardian of the con- 
 stitutional rights of every section and of everj^ class, 
 especially of those now unrepresented in Congress ; 
 whereas the Senators are peculiarly the representatives 
 of their States, and the members of their respective 
 constituencies. But apart from this difference, in the 
 scope of their responsibilities arising from the wise 
 distribution of power under our National Constitution, 
 the President and the Union members of Congress 
 represent together the rights, the honor, and the free- 
 
45 
 
 dom of our country ; and no diiferences of opinion, 
 however vexatious in regard to the details of recon- 
 struction, should allow us for a moment to forget that 
 the loyalty of the President has stood the severest 
 test, and that. Southerner and slaveholder though he 
 was, he stands at once the champion of the Union 
 and the emancipator of the slave. 
 
 The President, more convinced than Congress of the 
 reliance to be placed on the returning loyalty of the 
 South, and of the safety of admitting their represen- 
 tatives, with certain qualifications, has recommended 
 that cause as feasible, and safe. Congress, on the other 
 hand, assisted doubtless by the advice of their con- 
 stituents, coming to a different conclusion, have rejected 
 the plan as involving a possible risk which they feel 
 they ought not to incur. 
 
 Of the sovereign right of the American people, and 
 of the duty of Congress as their servants, to be 
 assured of the loyalty and good faith of those who 
 recently opposed them in the field, before they are re- 
 admitted to a participation in the Government, there 
 is no shadow of question. 
 
 The President himself has acted upon this principle ; 
 and, firm as he is in the support of the constitutional 
 rights of the States, he properly insisted on the over- 
 throw of slavery, which formed the very foundation of 
 their State Constitutions, as the first condition towards 
 their restoration to the rights they had forfeited by 
 Eebellion. 
 
 The reconstruction of our Republic on the basis of 
 equal freedom and with fraternal harmony between the 
 
46 
 
 sections, is a matter of such solemnity and g-randeur 
 that to permit tlie intrusion of private griefs, personal 
 disputes, or partisan motives, may be properly regarded 
 as a crime. 
 
 And here I will venture to say, for I but utter the 
 opinion of thousands of our countrymen in Europe, 
 that the bitter personalities indulged in at either end 
 of Pennsylvania Avenue, have excited on this side of 
 the water surprise, mortification, and regret, as not 
 simply increasing the difficulties of harmonious action, 
 but as tending to impair the influence of our Govern- 
 ment and lower its dignity before the world. 
 
 The reconstruction of our Eepublic is already' far 
 advanced by the rescue of the South from the rebel 
 tyranny at Richmond, which had extinguished all State 
 rights and personal freedom, and by their restoration 
 to the protection of the National Government, with uni- 
 versal freedom opening a new future of intelligence 
 and prosperity. The completion of the task is one 
 that demands the wisest, calmest statesmanship, for it 
 is the work not for a day, but for all time. It con- 
 cerns the destiny of our Continent, and the fulfilment 
 of its highest hopes, our peace and harmony, our pros- 
 perity and strength at home, our honor, power, and 
 prestige abroad. Upon our successful solution of this 
 problem, if problem it can still be called, where the 
 solution is so plain, depends the continuance of that 
 moral influence which, since the fall of the Rebellion 
 and the emancipation of the slaves, has made the very 
 name of America a power, that in distant lands inspires 
 the masses with hope, and their oppressors with fear. 
 
47 
 
 Of the great questions which agitate tlie country, 
 the most immediately important, that which concerns 
 the readjustment of the representation from the South 
 upon a legitimate basis, since the reason for allowing 
 them the three-fifths representation for persons held to 
 service has ceased to exist, will I presume be pro- 
 vided for in an amendment to the Constitution with 
 the cordial approval of the President ; and it is to 
 be hoped that all further legislation bearing on the 
 subject of reconstruction, will be marked wath such 
 courtesy and wisdom on the part of Congress, as to 
 facilitate and command the approval of the Executive. 
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER OF THE UNION PARTY. 
 
 The policy of the Union party must continue to be, 
 as it has been, broad and national, looking always to 
 the welfare of the whole country, and never to that 
 of a section or a faction. Like -all great parties, it 
 has the misfortune to be misrepresented, and hampered 
 at times by politicians bent upon power and plunder, 
 ready to adopt any principle or policy, anti-slavery or 
 pro-slavery, that may for the time assist their purpose, 
 or even to sacrifice at once the party and the country. 
 
 This was done by the professed Republicans who 
 insidiously, at a most critical moment, defeated Wads- 
 worth, and elected in his stead Horatio Seymour. And 
 that dark deed should be remembered whenever the 
 trading politicians, by whom it was perpetrated, recom- 
 mend or oppose a national policy, and especially when 
 their counsels tend to divide and weaken the Union 
 party, as on that occasion, when their treachery sub- 
 
48 
 
 jected the country to prolongation of the war at a 
 fearful waste of blood and treasure. 
 
 THE POLICY OF THE OPPOSITION. 
 
 "We must expect, of course, a continuance of the 
 stereotyped objections of unconstitutionality interposed 
 on the part of the Democracy to every measure, exe- 
 ecutive or congressional, that tends to extinguish the 
 sectional issues by which they have thriven, and to 
 secure from future interruption the national harmony. 
 
 Their stern repugnance on constitutional grounds for 
 the last five years to every proceeding that threatened 
 death to the Eebellion, or promised freedom and safety to 
 the Eepublic, recalls an interesting revelation which I 
 quote from memory, made by Dr. Russell, of the Lon- 
 don Times, not in his original letters, but in his sub- 
 sequently published "Diary." He was dining with a 
 Democratic banker of New Yoi'k at the commencement 
 of Mr. Lincoln's administration, where he met Gov- 
 ernor Seymour, and other politicians of that party, 
 who favored him with a frank development of their 
 policy. They did not conceal their pleasure at the sea 
 of troubles in which the new Government of their op- 
 ponents was floundering, nor their resolve whenever 
 the Unionists raised their heads above water to " knock 
 them back with the Constitution." 
 
 We remember how invariably this policy was carried 
 out, and how fiercely ev.ery act of Mr, Lincoln - or of 
 Congress for the preservation of the country, was de- 
 nounced as illegal. 
 
 Governor Seymour had already proclaimed their doc- 
 
49 
 
 trine, that "successful coercion by the North" would 
 be equally "revolutionary" with "successful secession 
 by the South," and each succeeding step from the re- 
 solve of Mr. Lincoln to execute the law, and repossess 
 the stolen forts, was in turn denounced as an uncon- 
 stitutional usurpation. The call for troops, the organ- 
 izing of the army, every right thing which the Pres- 
 ident did, every judicious law which Congress enacted, 
 the freeing of the slaves that came to our lines, the 
 employment of slaves to relieve our soldiers, the Procla- 
 mation of Emancipation, the arming of the freedmen, 
 the Amendment of the Constitution, these and a thou- 
 sand other acts were each and all revolutionary and 
 immoral procedures, over which the Democracy bewailed 
 and lamented. 
 
 But the worst and most unconstitutional feature of 
 the whole was that it proved, in Governor Seymour's 
 phrase, " successful coercion." 
 
 The campaigns of Grant at Vicksburg and of Meade 
 at Gettysburg, and those of Sherman in Georgia, and 
 of Grant on his summer's line from the Rapidan to 
 Richmond, were decidedly revolutionary ; and while the 
 loyal heart of the American people bounded with joy. 
 Mayor Gunther, on behalf of the New York Democracy, 
 refused to permit public rejoicings over the victories 
 which in saving the American Republic brought to 
 his party shame, grief, and disappointment. 
 
 INTENDED REBELLION AT THE NORTH. 
 
 In referring to the victories at Vicksburg and 
 Gettysburg, the one opening the Mississippi to the 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 West, and the other rolling- back the invading army 
 of Lee, occurring- together in July, 1863, it should be 
 remembered that they thwarted the impending design of 
 rebellion in the North and West to strengthen the 
 invaders, and that but for those signal events, a more 
 desperate character would have been exhibited by the 
 riots at New York, that for a time revelled in mur- 
 der and arson, as if to teach us what we might ex- 
 pect if we permitted the treason of slavery to triumph 
 over American freedom. 
 
 THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION. 
 
 In regard to the question of suffrage among the 
 freedmen, I am strongly inclined to believe, as I have 
 already intimated, that the national policy of equal 
 rights established by the Amendment to the Consti- 
 tution, restoring in their full force, without the ex- 
 ception worked by slavery, the doctrines of the Dec- 
 laration of Independence, not as "glittering generali- 
 ties," but as sober facts, has rendered inconsistent with 
 the principles of republican government, under the 
 present national policy, the class legislation of the 
 States based upon the now extinguished exception. 
 
 Should the Supreme Court, upon a thorough review 
 of the national policy as affected by the Amendment, 
 reach the conclusion that the National Constitution as 
 amended no longer permits the States to establish in- 
 equality, by the outlawry or disfranchisement of a class, 
 the difficulties heretofore anticipated from an interfer- 
 ence by Congress with the supposed rights of the 
 States to disfranchise at their pleasure will be avoided. 
 
51 
 
 The decision will affect North and South alike, and 
 the question of suffrage on an equal basis will be 
 opened for readjustment in all the States, with such 
 conditions as regards residence, intelligence, and taxa- 
 tion or property, as each State may severally prescribe. 
 
 The antagonism of race which has hitherto existed 
 between the whites and the blacks Avas the fruit of 
 slavery, and unless fostered by unequal laws and for 
 partisan purposes, it is likely to yield steadily to fair 
 treatment, to the advancement wrought by education, 
 and especially to the influence of a common interest. 
 
 This was the case on our country's battle-fields, our 
 Generals know it well, before the inspiration of a 
 common patriotism and a common danger. 
 
 Not alone the policy, but the duty and necessity of 
 a gradual extension to the freedmen of the right of 
 suffrage, as they prove themselves fit for it, has been 
 recognized by leading minds of the most conservative 
 habit, and the least liable to be influenced by a vis- 
 ionary philanthropy or exaggerated views of the ca- 
 pacity of the race. 
 
 Our observant statesmen early in the war who were 
 intimate with the scope of American principles, and 
 impressed with the logic of events, instinctively recog- 
 nized the fact that whenever our country should en- 
 roll the slaves as defenders of the flag, she would 
 initiate a policy and incur responsibilities that could 
 not be repudiated when the war was ended, 
 
 " If," said General Sherman, " you admit the negro 
 " to this struggle for any purpose, he has a riglit to 
 " stay in it for all ; and when the fight is over the 
 
52 
 
 " hand that drops the musket cannot be denied the 
 " ballot." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, whose words will ever fall upon atten- 
 tive ears in the country that he loved and served so 
 well, in speaking of the glorious result of the war 
 in saving the destinies of our Republic, recalled the 
 fact that there were " some black men who can re- 
 " member that they helped mankind to this gi'eat con- 
 " summation ;" and in his letter recommending that some 
 of them should be let in, in defining the suffrage in 
 Louisiana, he said with a prophetic truth, which the 
 American people are beginning to realize, that "they 
 "would probably help in some trying time to keep 
 " the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom." 
 
 Mr. President Johnson has expressed himself distinctly 
 in favor of the propriety of negro suffrage. He said : 
 
 "Were he in Tennessee he would try to introduce 
 " negro suffrage gradually, first to those who had 
 " served in the ■ army, those who could read and write, 
 " and perhaps with a property qualification of two 
 " hundred or two hundred and fifty dollars." 
 
 Touching the general qualifications of electors in our 
 Republic, Mr. Lincoln asked whether we ought not 
 to elevate rather than degrade the franchise, remark- 
 ing that " education and the elective franchise should 
 " go hand in hand." That is the conviction of the 
 most thoughtful among our people, and it has been 
 well remarked by Mr. Coles, of California, that " edu- 
 " cation is the handmaid of liberty, and it is indis- 
 " pensable to the proper exercise of American citizen- 
 " ship." 
 
53 
 
 NECESSITY FOR EDUCATION AT THE SOUTH. 
 
 To secure ignorance on the part of the masses was 
 the deliberate policy of slavery ; and the extent to 
 which it was carried, making them the helpless vic- 
 tims of the Rebellion, is amply proved by the testi- 
 mony of Southern statesmen, which tends to dispel 
 the illusion that, while it is safe to intrust suffrage 
 to the Southern whites, it would be dangerous to ex- 
 tend it to the loyal and intelligent freedmen. 
 
 The Hon. J. S. Lumpkin, of Georgia, long ago de- 
 scribed the poor whites of the South as " far below 
 the slaves in morals and civilisation," and he said 
 further, " not one in a thousand of them can read, nor 
 one in ten thousand can write ;" and added that he 
 had met " many who had never seen a book or a news- 
 paper, and some who had never heard of a Bible or 
 spelling-book." This single item of Southern testimony, 
 explaining the facility with which the secession lead- 
 ers precipitated the Rebellion upon the Southern people, 
 reminds us of the grand difficulty in reconstructing the 
 South on a sure basis of prosperity, and shows that 
 the work to be accomplished requires popular agencies, 
 beyond an amendment to the Constitution or Congres- 
 sional legislation. 
 
 Slavery may be destroyed in a day, but its un- 
 pleasant traits may survive, as in Jamaica, for more 
 than a generation. The brutal ignorance, political de- 
 generacy, and social degradation that it engenders, de- 
 mand for their extinction systematic and persevering 
 efibrts. 
 
54 
 
 THE NATIONAL FREEDMEN'S AID UNION. 
 
 Thus far the National Government has left to the 
 voluntary action of the American people this essential 
 enterprise, and the National Frecdmen's Aid Union, rep- 
 resenting various societies throughout the country, whose 
 Union, it may be here remarked, was in part accomplished 
 by members of our Club, have now in their schools 
 70,000 children. In advancing that noble work the 
 Club will confer a permanent blessing both on the 
 freedmen and on the country. 
 
 Moral influences alone can renovate the States so 
 long cursed by tlie c^niel rule of a despotic oligarchy, 
 and direct aright public opinion, that great power of 
 the age, which no American should undervalue who 
 reviews the decline and fall of American slavery and 
 of the party which sustained it. 
 
 EFFECT OF IGNORANCE UPON SUFFRAGE IN NEW YORK. 
 
 Universal education in a Republic governed by popu- 
 lar suffrage is a thing not simply desirable but abso- 
 lutely essential to the safety and welfare of the peo- 
 ple. We, of New York, know by daily experience the 
 evils that result from the exercise of the suffrage 
 among a population uninstructed in the elements of 
 American Freedom and unable to read the Constitution 
 and laws of the country. 
 
 Inevitably an unenlightened constituency become the 
 blind tools of designing politicians, and in New York 
 the less educated Democracy were made throughout the 
 Rebellion to do the work of the aristocrats and despots 
 
55 
 
 of Europe, whom they do not profess to love, in as- 
 sisting the rebel attempt to divide the Union and to 
 overthrow at once the American (jovernment and pop- 
 ular freedom. 
 
 The school-house and the village church are the true 
 safeguards of republican liberty, the true guarantees 
 for wise legislation ; and none know better than the 
 tax-payers of New York the dangers that result from 
 an unenlightened constituency in fostering the insolent 
 ambition of unscrupulous leaders in facilitating the cor- 
 ruption that thrives by " the lobby" and " the ring," and 
 saddles the industry of the community with exorbi- 
 tant taxes, the burthen of which is increased by the 
 thought that the larger portion is diverted from its 
 legitimate end to minister to private and political 
 profligacy. 
 
 A PARTY OF FREEDOM AT THE SOUTH. 
 
 There is one other point on which I believe the 
 Club can exert a wide and beneficial influence, and 
 that is in developing a party of Union and freedom 
 in the South. 
 
 Under the despotic rule of slavery, intensified dur- 
 ing the war into absolute tyranny, the anti-slavery 
 sentiment which was known to exist among the South- 
 ern people, was denied expression and expansion, and 
 the old habit of caution, with perhaps a lingering 
 fear of the unextinguished power of slavery, may still 
 repress the real feeling of thousands of the people. 
 
 Already are the economic influences of freedom, in 
 advancing industry and enabling it to compete with 
 
56 
 
 capital, teaching the Southern masses to realize the 
 blessings of a free government, and to appreciate 
 aright the blundering statesmanship which sacrificed 
 them to the interest of the slaveholder and then in- 
 volved them all in a common calamity. 
 
 There is reason to believe that the most influential 
 and respectable men of the South, and some of their 
 eminent statesmen, are convinced that a new and en- 
 lightened policy' of freedom and justice is essential 
 to recover the States from the ruin caused by slavery, 
 and completed by the Rebellion. This is the class, 
 strengthened as it will presently be by immigration, 
 upon whom should devolve the task of inaugurating 
 and developing the prosperity of the South and secur- 
 ing the happiness of both whites and blacks by har- 
 mony between the races. 
 
 The importance of those races to each other is large 
 and mutual. To the presence of the freedmen, hardy, 
 acclimated, accustomed to labor, skilled in the work 
 of Southern plantations, and, as Stephens declared, 
 singularly faithful, the Southern States that now treat 
 them wisely will be indebted for a great share of their 
 future prosperity. And now, the transition period, 
 it were from slavery to freedom, is the time for es- 
 tablishing those just and friendly relations which will 
 secure a permanent cordiality, and prevent the growth 
 of the ill-will that in Jamaica resulted in a brutal 
 massacre on the one side, and judicial murders on the 
 other. 
 
57 
 
 SOUND VIEWS EXPRESSED IN GEORGIA. 
 
 To show in part the foundations of my belief in re- 
 gard to the increasing intelligence and right feeling 
 of a large portion of the Southern people, allow me to 
 quote a passage from the speech of Mr. Stephens to 
 the Legislature of Georgia, to which I have already 
 alluded, and which is the more significant from the in- 
 fluence he unquestionably wielded at the South. After 
 stating their acquiescence in the result of the war, 
 and showing that it was their true policy to seek 
 again happiness and prosperity in the Union, he re- 
 ferred to the abolition of slavery, and to the new 
 duties it imposed on them, in a spirit which I con- 
 fess I think argues most favorably for the success of 
 emancipation, and the establishment of just and cordial 
 relations as equal citizens between those who so re- 
 cently were masters and slaves. 
 
 " The wisest and best of men err in their judg- 
 " ment as to the probable workings of any new sys- 
 " tern. Let us, therefore, give this one a fair and 
 " just trial without prejudice, and with that earnest- 
 " ness of purpose that always looks hopefully to suc- 
 " cess. It is an ethnological problem, on the solution 
 " of which depends not only the best interests of both 
 " races, but it may be the existence of one or the 
 " other, if not both. 
 
 " The duty of giving this new system a fair and just 
 " trial will require of you, as legislators of the land, 
 " great changes in its former laws in regard to this 
 " large class of population. Wise and humane pro- 
 
58 
 
 " visions should be made for them. It is not for me 
 " to go into detail; suffice it to say on this occasion, 
 " that ample and full protection should be secured to 
 " them, so that they may start equal before the law 
 " in the possession and enjoyment of all rights of per- 
 " sonal liberty and property. Many considerations 
 " claim this at your hands ; among these may be stated 
 " their fidelity in times past. They cultivated your 
 " fields, ministered to your personal wants and com- 
 " forts, nursed and reared your children, and even in 
 " the hour of danger and peril they were in the main 
 " true to you and yours. 
 
 " To them we owe a debt of gratitude as well as 
 " acts of kindness. This should be done, because they 
 " are poor, untutored, uninformed, many of them help- 
 " less, liable to be imposed upon, and need it. Legis- 
 " lation should ever look to the protection of the weak 
 " against the strong. All obstacles, if there be any, 
 " should be removed which can possibly hinder or re- 
 " tard the blacks from improving their condition to the 
 " extent of their capacity. All proper aid should be 
 " given to their own efforts, channels of education 
 " should be opened up to them, schools and the usual 
 " means of moral and intellectual training should be 
 " encouraged among them. This will be the dictate 
 " not only of what is right and just, but it is also the 
 " promptings of the highest consideration of interest." ■ 
 The speech from which are taken these significant 
 extracts was ordered to be engrossed on the minutes 
 of each branch of the Georgia Legislature ; and I have 
 not learned that the honest policy thus boldly enunci- 
 
59 
 
 ated as applicable to the present situation, by one who 
 had been in favor of making slavery the corner-stone 
 of a Southern empire, excited on the part of his hear- 
 ers either displeasure or disapproval. 
 
 SHARE IN THE WORK OF ALL LOYAL CITIZENS. 
 
 While the duty of devising means of reconciling the 
 diflSculties in the reconstruction question rests immedi- 
 ately with the legislative branch of the Government, 
 the larger share of the work devolves properly upon 
 all loyal citizens. 
 
 As General Schurz said, only the "negative" part 
 of the Revolution is as yet accomplished ; the rest is 
 to be performed, by those moral influences which the 
 people are to direct, and those economic agencies that 
 are working so surely in our favor. 
 
 The evils existing at the South that are represented 
 as creating the chief danger in immediate reconstruc- 
 tion are, in the words of the same officer, " an utter 
 " absence of national feeling," a sentiment that so 
 strongly inspires the freedmen ; and next, a want of con- 
 fidence, not unnatural under the circumstances, between 
 the whites and the blacks. And General Schurz, in his 
 very able report, justly remai-ked that the surest course 
 of changing the feelings of the Southern people is to 
 embark them " in a new career of activity in a com- 
 mon field " with those whom they have so long con- 
 " sidered as their enemies." 
 
60 
 
 SOCIAL COMMINGLING RECOMMENDED BY GEN. GRANT. 
 
 General Grant in his letter to the President on the 
 18th of last December, said : 
 
 "It is to be regretted that there cannot be a greater 
 " commingling at this time between the citizens of both 
 " sections, and particularly of those intrusted with the 
 " law-making power." 
 
 That suggestion from our Lieutenant-General is one 
 that our Club can act upon with perhaps more weight 
 and influence than any body in the country, and I re- 
 spectfully commend to your consideration the propriety 
 of cordially opening your doors to Southern gentlemen 
 coming to New York, who, however deeply involved 
 they may have been in the Rebellion, are now prepared 
 not simply to acquiesce in the result of the war and 
 the abolition of slavery, but to assist in the work of 
 reconstruction upon the basis of universal education 
 and equal right. 
 
 In your rooms, in addition to the members who re- 
 present the loyal sentiment of our city, and Northern 
 governors and State legislators, they will meet the gal- 
 lant officers of the Army and Navy, who come to the 
 Union League Club, assured that they will encounter 
 none who denounced the war as a failure while it was 
 being fought, or who refused to rejoice over Union 
 victories when they were won, or who reserved the 
 renewal of their pledges that the Union should be pre- 
 served, until after their efforts to dissolve it had been 
 defeated. 
 
 There they will meet also Northern statesmen, and 
 
61 
 
 many of the Union senators and members of Congress, 
 who, I trust, more frequently than ever before, will 
 accept our welcome whenever they visit our metrop- 
 olis : and they will learn how truly with the deter- 
 mination in the Northern mind, to insist that our na- 
 tional policy shall henceforth be that of equal and 
 universal freedom, is blended a deep and earnest de- 
 sire that no sectional strife may again disturb our 
 peace, but that the South and the North may be more 
 closely bound than ever before in the bonds of a com- 
 mon interest and mutual affection. 
 
 OUR NATIONAL POSITION IN EUROPE. 
 
 The position of America at this moment, as con- 
 trasted with that which she occupied during the Ee- 
 bellion, or with that now held by those powers of 
 Europe that were then hoping for our dissolution, is 
 one of which our countrymen on the Continent are 
 constantly reminded, and which, to all who did their 
 duty in the struggle, affords occasion for national 
 pride and thankfulness. 
 
 Curiously enough, the German quarrel over the ter- 
 ritory filched from Denmark, and that may yet involve 
 in the war the whole of Europe, is regarded by emi- 
 nent statesmen as an incidental result of our American 
 troubles. The plundering of Denmark took place at a 
 time when England was still ringing with the musical 
 refrain of her Laureate's greeting to the Sea-King's 
 daughter from over the sea : 
 
 — Saxon, Dane, or Norman, we, 
 
 Teuton or Celt, or whatever we be, 
 
 We Eire each all Dane in our welcome of thee, 
 
 AliEXANDBA. ! 
 
62 
 
 And it is said that that wrong to Denmark would 
 not have been permitted by the British Government, of 
 whose course on the subject Engh'shmen rarely speak 
 with pride, had not our dissatisfaction with their con- 
 duct as a neutral, in the matter of the iron-clads, ren- 
 dered it inconvenient for her at the time to appear as a 
 belligerent. 
 
 Be this as it may, England, remembering St, Albans 
 and the Alabama, frankly confesses her astonishment, 
 and all Europe heeds the lesson, as Grant and Meade 
 guard the neutrality of our Canadian border, and teach 
 the world that America, in fulfilling her duties to for- 
 eign nations upon the broad basis of international right, 
 scorns the diplomacy of finesse ; and, in accordance 
 with her own bright precedents from the days of 
 Washington, preserves stainless her own honor, 
 
 France has heard, at last, the voice of the American 
 people, speaking more plainly than the Department at 
 Washington, or our Minister at Paris, disapproving the 
 continuance of her rule in Mexico ; and her troops are 
 to withdraw, as she promises, with no stipulation on 
 our part for the recognition of the bastard empire of 
 Maximilian ; and thus our olden friendship with France 
 is to be maintained unbroken, and our traditional policy 
 upheld, and Europe learns that the only way to pre- 
 serve our friendship is to respect our rights, 
 
 THE SITUATION AT HOME. 
 
 But the questions connected with the reconstruction 
 of our Republic are those to which our thoughts con- 
 tinually revert, and I beg to add a closing word u[)on 
 the topic. 
 
63 
 
 The spirit of Slavery and the Eebellion still lives, 
 though Freedom and the Union are victorious, and 
 events indicate that the strife ended by the war is to 
 be renewed in politics ; and the rebel sympathizers in 
 Europe anticipate on the new battle-field an easy vic- 
 tory. 
 
 Taug-ht by disastrous experience the devotion of our 
 people to American nationality, our opponents will rally 
 this time itnder the old flag, and, with the cry of the 
 Constitution and national harmony, they hope to con- 
 trol the Government which they were unable to destroy, 
 to punish the nation for its victory, and compensate 
 the South for its defeat. 
 
 When we calmly review the past and mark the 
 spirit of Eebellion at the North or the South, for it 
 was the same in either section, it would be folly to 
 shut our eyes to the dangers that threaten the coun- 
 try, if by personal feud or partisan faction the Un- 
 ion party should be demoralized or broken. 
 
 Slavery was the root of the Rebellion, but it was 
 something more than the slavery which, introduced 
 into the colonies by European Governments, had for 
 two centuries been tolerated in America. 
 
 The framers of our Constitution disapproved the sys- 
 tem, shrank from its name, and anticipated its extinc- 
 tion. It was withih our own recollection that the new 
 school arose in Church and State .which taught that 
 slavery was a blessing to be fostered and extended, 
 and which, in the spirit of its enactments, put to 
 the blush the code of Draco. 
 
 Upon this basis arose that mongrel system of athe- 
 
64 
 
 ism and Christianity, which, scouting " the higher law," 
 rested upon the code of slavery, and illustrated the 
 Sermon on the Mount by the heathenish caste of North- 
 ern churches and the African barbarism of Southern 
 plantations. 
 
 Eenouncing the Christian doctrine of equal brother- 
 hood — the American doctrine of equal rights — their 
 Christianity and statesmanship were briefly compre- 
 hended in their advertisements of "slaves and other 
 cattle to be sold at auction ;" and then came by easy 
 steps secret treason and open war ; the massacre of 
 unresisting blacks at Fort Pillow, the starvation by 
 tens of thousands of our brave soldiers in the prisons 
 of Andersonville, the attempted burning of New York 
 by night with its hundreds of thousands of women 
 and children, the New York riots and murders in 
 July, 1863, and every other atrocity up to the murder 
 of Lincoln, and the attempted assassination in his bed 
 of the venerable and helpless Secretary, And here I 
 may remark that I have heard the trial of those as- 
 sassins denounced in Europe as unconstitutional, and 
 their hanging declared to be murder, for which Mr, 
 Johnson at some time would be held accountable. 
 
 That such utter demoralization and such wide-spread 
 crime and misery should so rapidly have resulted from 
 the immoral doctrine that the black men had no 
 rights, has impressed the nation and the world ; and 
 the Christian teachers who directly or otherwise have 
 apologized for slavery, or lent it their countenance, 
 may well stand aghast at the part they have borne 
 in this bloody business. 
 
65 
 
 But the moral to be learned from it all is, the duty 
 and therefore the wisdom of ending slavery not alone 
 as we have done in its worst form, but in its every 
 feature and its slightest incident, and reducing to 
 practice the words of President Johnson, that the fab- 
 ric of our Government rests upon the basis of popu- 
 lar right. 
 
 In the war we learned — our mothers and widows 
 know at what cost — the consequences of our refusal 
 in the beginning " to do justice and love mercy ;" and 
 now the calamities threatened us by the same spirit of 
 Rebellion warn us in advance that our duty and our 
 interests are identical. 
 
 The designs of disunion Democrats at home, and of 
 the unfriendly Rothschilds and Aristocrats abroad, against 
 our national credit and national honor, can be contem- 
 plated with equanimity, if we remember in time the 
 suggestion of Sherman, that the hand that has wielded 
 the musket in our defence cannot be denied the ballot, 
 and recall the prophetic words of Lincoln, that those 
 who " helped mankind to this great consummation," may 
 again help in some trying time to keep the jewel of 
 liberty in the family of freedom. 
 
 CONCLUSION, 
 
 I am told, gentlemen, by members of the Club whom 
 I have met in Paris, and especially by the Rev. Dr. 
 Thompson, that my election as President was intended, 
 by a part at least of the members, as a tribute not 
 simply to myself personally, but to the soundness of the 
 principles, and the wisdom of the policy, with which my 
 
 5 
 
ee 
 
 name had been identified in the contest between free- 
 dom and slavery, that for thirty years has convulsed 
 our country, and whose conclusion in National Unity 
 and Emancipation — to which you so largely contributed — 
 has given a new future to our Republic, and new hope 
 to mankind. 
 
 In view of the recollections that such an announce- 
 ment naturally recalls, as contrasting the present with 
 the past, it will be more easy for you to imagine than 
 for me to express the feelings aroused in my bi-east by 
 the thought that the honor thus paid me is shared by 
 my old associates — the living and the dead ; and you 
 will permit me simply to say, that in this light I regard 
 your action in placing me at the head of the Club with 
 a deeper sensibility and a more profound gratitude. 
 
 But I should prove myself unworthy of the post 
 were I to continue to hold it while unable to fulfil its 
 duties. 
 
 When I accepted the office, I thought it possible that 
 I might soon return. I now find that I shall be de- 
 tained abroad until late in the autumn, and, therefore, 
 with renewed thanks for your confidence and kindness, 
 I respectfully submit to you my resignation. 
 I am. Gentlemen, 
 
 Yours always faithfully, 
 
 JOHN JAY. 
 
 Hotel Westminster, Paris, 
 June 23, 1866. 
 

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