upon the constitutional ground of my fathers. There I will stand, and animate my countrymen to stand with me, and when once we shall have peace restored-when we shall have put down rebellion, when we shall have encouraged fidelity, and prosperity shall again greet us, then let us ascertain if any part of any State is oppressed, if any individual is wronged, if any are deprived of their rights, and see that equal and exact justice is extended to all. This is a great crisis, not only in our affairs but in the affairs of human liberty. The Angel of Freedom, after coursing over the wide expanse of waters in the Old World, found no rest for the sole of her foot until she hovered here. Here is her resting-place. God of my fathers, oh, protect her! Let us go forward to this great work of preservation, not as members of political parties, but as American citizens, bound to carry out the work our fathers begun, by the exercise of every energy, moral and material. Here is our glorious Ship of State, with its ensign streaming, its Stars and Stripes beaming of hope, carrying gladness wherever seen by the true-hearted, and we hail it as the noblest emblem of earth. Heaven bless that noble ship. SPEECH DELIVERED AT A UNION MASS MEETING, HELD AT CORTLAND, NEW YORK, September 3, 1861. WE come here, fellow-citizens, not as democrats, not as republicans, not as abolitionists, not as "native Americans;" we come here as the people. Seeing that the enemy is at the gates of our common citadel, seeing that armed rebellion is threatening us with destruction as a nation, we come together to stay up the hands of the government and cling to the pillars of the constitution, swearing, in our faith, if these institutions fall we fall with them. The question is not "who is at the head of this administration ?" and I shall not inquire whether his name be Abraham Lincoln or Andrew Jackson. He is the people's representative in the government, and, for those who like him and confide in him, it is their duty to do all they can to sustain him, and for those who do not, it is their duty to do much more. Those who believe that he and his administration are adequate to the great occasion, can rejoice in the pride of their strength; those who believe they are not should come forward, call upon their Hercules, and put their shoulders to the wheel. I shall not adopt your political principles, if you are a party opponent, as many of you are, and I do not ask you to adopt mine; but I ask you to go with me in a great and common duty, which concerns us all alike, to shield the government, first from rebellion and destruction, and then, if there is a question between us as to who shall govern it afterwards, we will discuss that on another day. I go for the preservation of this government; I would cleave him down, as Samuel did Agag, who undertakes to destroy it; and it is of little consequence to me whether its enemy is in arms, or whether he is aiding the armed; whether he is a rébel or an aid to rebellion; whether he points the fatal weapon at the bosom of his fellow-man, or aids and encourages another to do so; whether he applies the torch to the capitol of our country, and attempts to burn it to ashes and destroy its archives, or is an apologist, and connives at and encourages it under the tongue of peace. I have earned what little reputation I enjoy before the public by standing by the constitution, and I intend to stand by it as long as there is one single shred of it left, and whether it is assailed by opinion or by arms, by North or by South, by one class or another, I care not. He is the foe to the government who assails it, and my foe, and I dare him to a trial of the strength of the constitution and the Union before the people. The very existence of the institutions under which we live is threatened, and there are but two sides to the question. One is in their favor and the other is against them. There can be no doubt of the result of this matter if properly prosecuted; and we are embarrassed more to day by attempts to connive at the rebellion, within our own borders, than we are at the rebellion itself. For there is strength enough and power enough of men and money and material and determination to crush this rebellion to the very earth, where it deserves to be, and must be, crushed. There is no other way to deal with it. The administration has unquestionably put forth its best efforts. I am not the chosen defender of the administration. I am its political opponent, when I act politically; but in emergencies like this I intend to rise above political considerations entirely. I change no political opinions. I say political opinions have nothing to do with the question that is pressing upon us, one way or the other. It is not who shall be tenant at the capital. It is not who, as the chosen agent of the people, shall govern this great nation. It is, "shall it be preserved for any party to govern?" Now none shall escape from this issue. There are no slippery and filthy stepstones by which political officeseekers can crawl away from it, either up or down. It is a question of existence, our existence as a country and a nation; and he who is not for maintaining that existence is for destroying it. The administration came in with a thousand embarrassments around it; corruption and treason in every department to the very lips; military officers betraying their command; naval officers stealing their ships; officers in the mint and in the custom-houses, and in every department. stealing its property or turning it over to the enemy; and a new administration, with a new cabinet, coming in as a party administra tion, having only the confidence of a part of the people, had all kinds of embarrassments upon its hands. So far as they have done what is commendable, I commend them for it. If they have not done all I would myself have done under like circumstances, if they have been remiss in any degree, it is the prov ince of the people to call them to an account, and ask them to administer the government so as to put down the rebellion at the earliest moment. The sin that most easily besets the American people is politics. Everything is desecrated by politics in this country. Like the fregs, and lice, and locusts of Egypt, it comes up into the bed, the oven, and the kneading-trough. We eat, and drink and sleep on politics; and if I should find a traitor to heaven and earth, and wish for a name to curse the knave, I would call him a mean, managing, grog-shop politician. Even in the matter of this great crisis, there is an attempt going forward to raise a political party upon it. "Why don't you rally to sustain this government?" you ask. "Why, those abolitionists kindled this fire." "Well, what difference does that make? Does it burn any more than if democrats had kindled it." The question is, how can we arrest the flame, not who kindled it? Your church is on fire, and you are summoned to save it. It is burning rapidly and threatening the destruction of the dwelling beside it, so that "The blackness of ashes shall mark where it stood, But the Baptists say that the Methodists set the fire, and the Presbyterians say the Baptists set it, and the Methodists say that both the others set it, or might have prevented it, and no one will endeavor to extinguish the flames! What a spectacle for a Christian people! We hear the cry of "fire," and the engines rattling, and the cry of alarm rises from all, but the great majority hang back and say, "I didn't set it on fire. I told them that building would get on fire if they didn't look to it, and I shan't help put it out." But I hold it is of no consequence how the fire came; the edifice is burning. It is not Mr. Lincoln's house, but belongs to the American people-not only to the present generation, but to generations to come throughout the long pathway of future time. But there is an attempt going on now in the honored name of democracy, to make political capital out of this question of the nation's life or death, in order that scurvy politicians may ride into office upon it, or have an organization that they can manage. It is not the work of the democratic party. I repudiate it for the democracy up and down, and in every other sense; but it is the effort of a set of selfish and self-constituted meddlers-the Mrs. Cunninghams of the democratic party, who are in labor with their bogus baby, that they may claim the democratic inheritance. They seek to inaugurate a party on the assumption that the President of the United States is not conducting this war according to the constitution. They have laid out a constitutional chart, upon which they ask him to travel, turning his toes to the true constitutional angle, and taking every step according to the constitution. I expect those administering the government to go according to the constitution; but have my own views of what is the constitution and what the rebellion, and of what is the duty of the administration in putting down the rebellion; and I have an idea what I would do in putting it down, if I had charge of it. The constitution is a great landmark, and not a bill of particulars. Every power given by the constitution directing a thing to be done, always implies the power to do it. If the constitution erects a government, it presupposes its maintenance by all the usual and ordinary means within the reach of that government; and in times of war, and of rebellion, there is a power arising from the very necessity of the case that controls the whole question; and when you hear the small-beer politician prating upon the idea of unconstitutionality, ask him, in the first place, whether he thinks it exactly constitutional for men to go into the United States Senate, into the House of Representatives, and into the army and navy, and, after taking a solemn oath, in the presence of Almighty God, that they will "support the constitution of the United States," and, while that oath is yet warm on their lips, to engage in raising a rebellion against that constitution? And when he has answered that, tell him that if there is perjury in hell, it is that kind of |