was in foreign intervention. That hope is gone now. Great Britain wisely thinks she can see what is going on quite as well at a respectful distance; and France has already enough growing affairs upon her hands. Great Britain did hope that our government might be destroyed. It is only simple truth to say this of those who represent her before the world-her governing classes. Her rotten aristocracy, that lean up against her public debt, and her public debt against them, like two drunkards supporting each other, both of which will fall when either gives way a little, hate us; but Bright and Cobden and the great middle class, who represent the heart and principle of England, are in our favor. The only hope of the rebellion now exists in division and disloyalty at the North; in secret societies and parties inaugurated to aid treason under the sacred name of Democracy. Those who promote these influences tell us that we must be tender of the rebellion; that while it advances upon us, with treason in its heart and murder and rapine in its hand, and seeks to apply the torch to the fabric of republican government erected by our fathers, we must fold our hands and hang out the olive-branch of peace. I am for the olive-branch myself; but, under present circumstances, I would have it the limb of a stout tree about eight feet from the ground, with a strong rope dangling from the end of it. That is the only appropriate way to extend the olive-branch to the contrivers and leaders of this rebellion. He is a traitor in heart, it a man of ordinary intelligence, who would propose peace to defiant traitors and rebels in arms. There can be no compromise now, and this glorious gathering of the loyal people assures me anew that the rebellion is doomed.

But these peace advocates, who hold secret conspiracies with foreign emissaries, are afraid that slavery may suffer in this war for the constitution. The war is for the Union; and that must be maintained, let what results else may come. I would not go out of the line of march to strike slavery, or to get rid of slavery; but you might as well expect to retain the wild game in a country, after it had been cleared of forest and brushwood, as to retain slavery when this revolution it has invoked against the constitution shall have passed over it. The secessionists have done more in one year to dispose of slavery forever on this continent, than the abolitionists have done or could do in thirty.

When they arrayed slavery against the Union and appealed to the test of war, they threw aside their only conventional protection-all that stood between it and the world's condemnationand chose a forum where force in the cause of freedom and justice is to be measured against force wielded in behalf of oppression and wrong. Let the war for the Union go on to its legitimate results, and if slavery perishes in the contest it will perish in the using of its friends, and all loyal people will say, "Amen!" Under the experience now accumulated, I would object to slavery the same as I would to a powder-house in the midst of this crowded city, because of its dangerous qualities and its liability to explode at any time and blow us all to pieces.

Though much has been achieved in this war for the Union, much remains to be done; much of endurance, much of effort. Patriotism must still bring its choicest offerings and lay them upon the altars of the country; but the end is certain, and is worthy of all the effort, all the endurance, and all the cost. The ocean of war and strife will for a while longer cast up mire and dirt in the mighty heavings and agitations of her bosom; the lightnings may flash athwart the sky; the thunders may roar in the distance; the winds may howl and the tempests beat, but the sun of our national morning will burst forth again with promise of a fairer day; and God's children will stand forth upon the great principle of justice and equality, established forever in this Western Hemisphere.

SPEECH

DELIVERED AT THE GREAT MASS MEETING CALLED BY THE

LOYAL UNION LEAGUE, AND HELD AT MADISON SQUARE,

NEW YORK, April 20, 1863.

THIS is a fitting period, Mr. President and ladies and gentlemen, for us to commune together upon matters which deeply concern our well-being, nay, our very existence as a great people; and I am alike proud of and thankful for being selected as one of the speakers upon an occasion so pregnant with meaning, so replete with interest. I am grateful, indeed, for the generous reception, the spontaneous, hearty, and noble greeting which you, in a kind partiality, are pleased to extend me. It tells me that my humble efforts in the cause of the Union and the constitution are remembered and appreciated-that there is a flame of patriotism in the public heart which will burn like the vestal fires of fable, with a pure and constant glow, until time shall be no more, and yet will neither be consumed nor wasted. It bids me laugh on at the poisoned arrows, drawn from the quiver of a foiled and unmasked malignity, and to defy the enemies of my country, whether in the character of the bold highwayman and outlaw, or the mean and masked assassin who labors in the expectation of personal reward.

Two years elapse this very day, since I had the honor to address in Union Square, in this city, one of the largest popular meetings ever held. It was the upheaving of the masses alarmed by the culmination of a dark conspiracy, and startled by the mad assault of rebellion upon the institutions which they had been taught to regard with religious veneration. The popular current ran strong and broad and deep, and bore along with it upon its bosom all opposing objects. It was before avarice had set down to its repast, or greed had whetted its appetite for its

banquet, or politicians had calculated their chances and infused their pollutions; and there was but one heart, one hand, one voice; and these were for our country at any cost-regardless of blood or treasure. I stood between the gallant Dix and the lamented Baker. One still serves his country with honor in the field, and the other sleeps in his bloody grave-his brave spirit quenched in defence of the Union he loved-the victim of murderers, engaged in the work of treason, murder, and rebellion. Many who attended that mighty gathering have fallen upon the field of blood, or have perished with disease and exposure. Many more are still with our brave army and navy, doing battle in the cause of constitution and free government, and, in the true spirit of sons of Revolutionary sires, are laboring to crush and exterminate conspiracy and rebellion. Many are pursuing their cus tomary avocations, and discharging with fidelity the varied relations of good citizens; aiding, assisting, and inspiring the gov ernment in its arduous work; cheering, sustaining, and encourag ing those who are baring their bosoms to the shafts of battle, and, by every faculty and every effort, contributing of their influence and of the means wherewith they have been blessed to rescue this land of the free from the grasp of the vandal destroyer. Some, alas! who were there have indeed fallen, but not upon the field of glory; have fallen beneath the hope of rescue and resurrection; have fallen from the vindication of their country's integrity to the deepest depths of political degradation; have fallen from where they should have stood as the defenders of their country's cause, in this her hour of peril, to act as sappers and miners for her destruction, and to further the guilty schemes of the rebellion. They went for a reward, and they will reap it; but, like the apples of Sodom, it will turn to ashes when tasted. They are joined to their idols; let them alone. Their retribution will come before they are prepared to meet it, and will be so terrible as to leave them objects of pity and compassion.

The infamy of the rebellion has been so often portrayed-the dark and perjured conspiracy by which it was inaugurated has been so successfully unmasked-the conspirators and thieves and assassins who serve as its leaders have been so frequently exhibited to the indignant gaze of a betrayed people, that a repetition of their atrocious vilainies were profitless. But they will

be brought to judgment. They stand forsworn before God, and murderers in the sight of man; their souls black with perjury; their hands red with gore; their hearts foul with treason; their faces spotted with leprosy and corruption; men will hereafter hate them as they would a venomous beast; women will cry against them and curse them, and children will tremble and shrink away with instinctive terror when their names are mentioned. And when vengeance, ever upon their bloody track, shall overtake them, those late wholesale murderers of men, like their less guilty exemplar, will cry out in the true spirit of the detected felon, that their punishment is greater than they can bear.

The rebellion in the revolting States contains fewer elements of mischief and danger to-day than are found in the spirit by which it is cherished here in our midst. We can reach the heart of rebellion abroad when we can crush out the encouragement which sustains it at home. While the masses of all parties in the loyal States are true to the interests of the country, for a vigorous prosecution of the war, and the overthrow of the rebellion, by any of the usual means of warfare, regardless of cost, so far as politicians and parties are concerned there is a combination in many of the loyal States which gives aid and assistance, and countenance and encouragement to rebellion; which seeks peace at any inglorious sacrifice, and condemns the government and justifies the rebellion. This great fact is as palpable as it is humiliating, and is quite too stubborn to ignore, or to be yielded to notions of popularity, or passed over from motives of good-nature or politeness. It is doing injustice to the loyal masses not to expose it. It constitutes the heart and hope and life-blood of the rebellion, and must be met and conquered and disposed of here, before the war can be prosecuted with advantage or a fair prospect of success abroad. It is treason in disguise; sometimes wearing a full mask, and at others "showing half its face;" but in whatever name, or under whatever guise it may appear, it is the same detestable miscreant traitor. It comes generally in the name of democracy, with about the same complacency and no more propriety than Satan came in the guise of an angel of light; and claims to bear the democratic standard, as the hypocrite "stole the livery of the court of Heaven to serve the devil in." It counterfeits the