The New York Herald Newspaper, December 20, 1859, Page 4

4 te this glorious Union wo enjoy; and that ras resolving, without any reference to the political ‘or faction (0 which any one of you may beloug, ‘without reference to the name, political or otherwise ‘which you may please to bear—the name of association. { the man, be he who he may, who ailvo- ry 18 unjust and ought to be assailed or Jegislated aga’ or who agitaies the subject of extin- ishing slavery in any of its forms as a political hoboy, Brat that man shall be denied your suffrages, and aot only denied your suffrages, but that you will select from the ranks of the opposite party, or your own, ifnecessary, the man you like least, who entertains opposite senti- ments, but through whose instrumentality you may be enabled to defeat his election, and to secure in the coun- sels of the nation men who are true to the constitution, ‘who are lovers of the Union, and who are resolved, upon no considerations ‘of imaginary benevolence for people who really do not desire their aid, to sacrifice or to jeopard in any degree the blessings wo enjoy under ‘this Union. May it be perpetual. (Great and continued cheering.) Throe cheers were given for the Stato of Virginia. SPEECH OF EX.GOVERNOR HUNT. ‘Tae Hon. Wasuxctox Hut, ex-Governor of New York, being then announced, amid groat applause rese and ‘id — in Presment anp Feuow Crrmevs—In obedience to * your summons I have come from the interior of our State, ‘and appear before you to-night to mingle my voice with yours in behalf of American Union and N air tr { foun: of “Louder,” and “Stand in the centre.”’) A pi fense of duty brings me here to unite with you in new ‘vews of fidelity to the institutions we received from Wash- ington and Adams and Jefferson and Hamilton, applause). 1 come to invoke that spirit of unity and bro. therhooa which carried our fathers through the dark and trying scenes of the Revolution, and which subsequently enabled them to porfect and establish the most perfect system of federal union and government ever devised by the wisdom df man. (Applause). Let us unite our efforts for the rescue of our country from impending dangers, and endeavor once more to inspire those sentiments ot ‘mutual confidence and good will, without which, even if union nee peeatle, it were hardly worth ea ore) fe bave reached a crisis in our wi is the sober reflection of every true patriot, and which allows no man to fold his arms in silent imaifference as an unconcerned ob- server of passing events. The time has come when every American citizen must declare whether he intends to “keep step to the music of the Union,” or lend his voice ‘to swell the dismal chorus of sectional discord and de- fiance. (Cheers.) The time has come for New York to speak ‘ana proclaim, in no ambiguous phrase, but in words ‘energy which cannot be mistaken, that whatever others may do, she stands and will forever stand by that sacred compact which makes us one country and one people; that come what may, she will be found faithful to its obli- gations, loyal to its compromises, and true to its spirit, and that she will resist to the last extremity all paricital efforts, under whatsoever guise or from whatsoever quar- ter they may proceed, to alienate the people of the two eat sections of our country, or to weaken the ties of riepdship which bind them together in one common des- tiny. (Cheers. Mr. President, you have rendered a fit- ting and eloquent tribute to th: value of tbat Union, and 1 fee! that it is unnecessary for me to dwell upon the in- spiring theme, especially in thia presence, before an audi- | ence embracing so large a share of the intelligence | and patriotism of the first commercial’ emporium of the American continent. Under the benignant sway of ‘the federal constitution, our advances in strength (‘This way, old man,”. and laughter), Prosperity and power, and in all that constitutes ‘the true greatness and felicity of nations are without a allel in the apnals of mankind. But seventy years ave passed away—a period within the memory of living | men—swee the formation of our compact of union. Com- | pare the situatioo of the infant republic with our present national condition. How wonderful the contrast! Instead of the origmal thirteen feeble and exhausted, behold thirty four powerful, prosperous States, united’ by the bonds of a common nationality. Instead of a narrow belt along the seaboard, we exhibit a broad continental republic reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. We have cwn from a population of four millions to thirty mil- fox people, ing constitutional liberty and securi- ty under the protecting @gis of the national power. (‘The Mayor don’t want to hear you—turn this way,” and laughter.) New agencies of intercourse have overleaped the most formidabic barriers, and brought the remotest parts near together. | oon mg bave increased to an extent which appears fabulous. The expavsion of our commerce nas excited The national wealth and power of | the wonder, I had almost said the envy, of the world. | Alreaay bave we taken our place among the foremost pa- tions of the earth, aud before the lapse of another centu- ry, unless the ties of union shall be dissevered, the United States of America will have become the most wonderful empire on the globe. (Applause.) Our example will animate and sustain, perhaps our power will rotect, the frienas of free government in other lands. y are all these mighty interests, these inestimal blessings, these precious hopes to be put at hazard? Shall the noblest legacy ever bestowed upon mankind be thrown away, and “counted nothing worth,”’ because the domes- tic institutions of the States are diversified and cannot be moulded into uniformity—or, in other words, because the South continue to hold the negro subordinate, the same as they held him at the formation of the Union? When di- vested of the trappings ef sophistry and the exaggera- tions of fanaticism, the practical question which our peo- ple must consider is, whether the North and South are to ‘de enemies or friends? Whatis to be the future relations between these two great sections? Is jt pesce or war? (Cries of turn this way.) Shall they continue to move onward together as brethern under a common flag, mu- tually aiding and co operating in the adminisiration of one bie | | negro who was shot for refusing to join them. NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1859.-TRIPLE SHEET. cal South and freo labor in the temporate Nortn, {ieaere) There is nO @ ch inconsistency or incom) KH: ity, as some gootlemen would have us boliove. This No more necessary Hew than to times pust, that any Strio should surrender the control of its internal affairs, or that either section ehould abandoa its own to adopt the sys tem or the opinions of the other. It is tho anquostionadle right of every State to regulate its awn domestic cuncerus without intervention from other parts ‘of the country. The recent invasion of Virginia by a band of oon- spirators, for the avowed purpose of urming tho slaves and organizing a servile insurrection, has ox cited emotions of abborrence in every miud not in- ourably distempered by sectional fanaticism. (Applause. ) Onght it to surprise us that av attempt 30 nefarious, so diabolical, should arouse feelings of inteuse indignation mong the Southera people, or that they should look with juet solicitude for an expression of the seatments of the North in regara to tbis treasonable assault upon their peace and security? (Cries of “No, tadeed,"” Three cheers were here given for ex-Goverson Hunt) Of course, they have not failed to observe that for some yoars past the discussion of negro slavery has been the leading busi ness of a large number of presses, lecturers, politiciaas and preachers in the North, and that ths slave States and slaveholders have been made the standing theme of in- vective and assault. The slavery question bas been mate to swallow up every other topio of public intorest in the minos of many benevolent but misguided persons, whose mpatbies are most powerfully and singularly excited by ‘bend cbeant evils, real or imaginary, which lie entirely beyond their control. Ina healthful state of the publio fentiment,a man went into Virginia in the garo ofa peaceful settler, while at the sametime he was pone sharpened pikes for the slaughter of persons of our own ace and lineage. In the bloody scenes at Harper's Ferry, say, and the attempt to arma servile population with housands of murderous spears to be bathed in the blood of men, women and children of our own race and lineage, woald have produced but one uni versal thrill of horror. et there are men awol us whose minds are 80 diseased by sectional raj ice that they openly expresa sympathy with joba Brown and his schemes ot murder aud insurrection. ae ee Sar ae presses in the land which, while feeble expret a disapproval of his acts, yet do not so much condemn trocity of his intentions, as the caren the chimerical character of the undertaking. '¥ appear to be far more indignant with Virginia for executing her laws, than with him for violating them, ppeerenly for that he entered a sister State in the garb. of a peaceful settler, professi friendly purposes; that for months his life was a fraud an ‘a false pretence, intended to luli his victims into a fatal security; that while indulging these false professions ho ‘was secretly preparing to imbrue his hands in the blood of the innocent, and enact barbarities at which humanity shudders, they exhibit him to the public as avictim to what they strangely call the aggressive spirit of slavery. (Sensation.) It is time to proclaim in the most emphatic manner that the Lape ‘body of our citizens have uo share in these detestable sentiments, but, on the contrary Te- gard them with alarm and horror, as subversive of law, justice and humanity. (Appause.) Ifeel less sympathy for Jobn Brown and his associates than for the first free (Cheers. ) They indignantly reprobate every attemot to eudaager the pence and security of our Southern brethren. It is the sovercign right and prerogative of Virginia to make and administer her own laws (great applause) —the people of other States bave no lawful concern in the mat. ter. She gave John Brown a fair judicial trial (applause), and the whole country should rejoice, not only tha’ heand his confederates received the punishment so justly due to their crimes, but that his schemes of wide spead insur. rection and slaughter were s0 promptly crushed. John Brown was a citizen of our own State, and as far as he could, he dishonored her by his treasonable violation of the rights of Virginia. (Applause) It is peculiarly fit- ting, therefore, that the people of New York, of ail par- ties, should make their sentiments distinctly understood, and emphatically declare their abhorrence of his crime, and the ungovernable fanaticism in which it originated, and by which it has been too long encouraged. (Loud applause.) We have not forgotten that New York and Virginia are sister States, and have plighted their mutual faith in the bonds of confederation and union. (Cheers.) Who can ever forget that they stood side by side through. the stormy scenes of the revolution, and that Washington, the noblest son of Virginia, in the darkest hour of des- pondency, defended the soil of New York against the overwhelming force of the invader, and the more dangerous machinations of domestic treason. (Tremendous cheers.) We might also well re- member that Virginia, in a spirit of disintdrested Patriotism not surpassed on the brightest pages of history, gave to the Union that vast and imperial domain which now constitutes the prosperous free States of the North- west, and the richest nursery of the commerce and pros- perity of New York. (Applause) Cherishing these re- collections of the past, well may we blush for the decay of national spirit, when we hear the needless insults so frequently aimed’ at the Commonwealth for remaining in the social and domestic condition transmitted to her by the generations which have passed away, and for which she is in no way responsible. Survey our past history and tell me what Virginia has done to us to justify these ebullitions of resentment. Has she ever invaded our ter- | ritory with spears, or interfered with our internal con- cerns, or sought to force her institutions upon us? (No, no.) The free S ates of the North entered into the fede- ral compact with the slave States of the South with their eyes open. ‘We knew that they held a large African popu- lation in domestic servitude. Yet we chose to unite with | them in forming a common government for specific national objects. After contractiug these federal re- ‘ations and ‘ing the constitution as the charter of perpetual amity, is it a friendl: ceding, is it | consistent with honor and good to turn upon common government, or are they to be separated into dis- | tinct and hostile potitical systems, each to Jnjon means something more than the mere phraso- ology of a political compact. Applause.) It. vitally inoludes the idea of friendship and mutual kindness, to be manifested not by formal professions, but by unmis- takeable acts of kindness and respect. There can be no real or permanent union between States hostile in feelin and incessantly taught to regard each other with hatre and aversion. (Applause). We have no reason to look for such a phenomenon without a complete transformation of human nature and human passions. Whether the North and the South are to remain one country, or to be rent asunder and formed into separate confderacies, is a ques- tion in comparison with which the schemes of politicians sue its own destiny independent of the other? | and the ordinary conflicts of piarties sink into utter in- | significance. I will not attempt to portray the calami- ties of disunion, the universal bankraptcy and ruin, the acenes of anarchy and blood, the sundering of kindred ties and cherished attachments, and the direful and in- — terminable train of consequences which no human wis- dom can foresee. Who can say that in such an event | the States of the North and West would pemain united, | or that New York and New England could adjust the conditions of confederated power?—(‘No, no”’)—or even that New York and Philadelphia would consent to one common government? It would be far easier to excite jealousics between the parts than to reunite them, and political agitators would not then be wanting to sow tlle seeds of jealousy and conflict. ‘Would not these disuniied members soon relapse into the incoherent, discordant condition of the fragmentary States of South America—(That’s a fact!)—and become the sport of military ambition, to sink at last into the arms of des- potic power? (Applause.) The agitators of the slavery question ought to remember that African slavery was in- troduced m the Southern States long before the Revola- tion; that the present generation inherited it from their ancestors, and are not responsible for its existence— A Voick—And the North too. Mr. Hivyt—Yes, you may well say tho North. It was the people of Old England and New England that brought them there, and they should therefore show more charity in dealing with the relations of the Syath and the African race. They now have a colored popnlation of four mil- ions, which they must be permitted to deal with accord- ing to their views of interest and duty. (Applause.) The opinions of Washington and Jefferson are sometimes in- troduced to sanction the present system of slavery agita. tion. It is true that they both deplored the existence of slavery, and regarded it as an evil. the slave population was less than one aixth of its present number, they perceived that the system was too pervad- them and arraign them in language of condemnation and insult, on the question of negro slavery, which belongs wholly to them, and over which we have neither jurisdic- tion or control? No,sir. Tome it seems an unwise and ungeneroug interference with a subject which is none of ours. It is a violation of the comity of States, which can have no useful effect whatever. (Applause.)’ Te aggra- vates the evils which it would remody, and produces ia- creased severity a exciting feelings of irritation and insecurity ai only people who have power over the condition of the slave. Mr. President—In all the sectional collisions which have disturbed the country, in all ita difficulties and troubles, my voice has been on the side of moderation. (Cheers.) I have never sympa. thised with factious agitators in the North, nor with dieu- nionistf in the South. Always maintaining the just rights of my own section, I have been equally ready to respect the rights and the feelings of the other. When diffe- rences have arisen, from whatever cause, I have con- tended for their adjustment in a friendly spirit, on princi- ples consistent with the rights and the honor of both sec- tions. (Hi, hi, hi, and applause.) It is not my parpose now to review past controversies, or to discuss their origin or their merits. It would. serve no useful purpose. We have all expressed our opinions, and acted an honest part, according to our own sense of patriotic duty. Instead of reviving the disputes which have divided the Nortb and the South, and interrupted harmonious relations, it is much wiser to con- sider how they may be terminated and banished from ou national councils. (Applause.) So far as there was any- thing practical in the sectional contests which have con- ‘vulscd the country, they are ended alreaty, and belong | to the domain of ‘history. The crisis demands that we Bat even then, when | ing and’ formidable for their powers, and they brought | forward no definite measures for Teast of all did people of the free States to form themselves in- to antislavery combinations to sit in judgment upon their ‘sister communities, and disturb the public tranquillity by a constant outpouring of sec- tional animosity. (Applause.) On the contrary, their last and most emphatic warnings to their countrymen were intended to arouse them to the danger of sectional jealousies and dissensions. Washington signed the first fugitive slave law. (Applause.) Jeffersoa purchased Tovisiava, and both sanctioned laws admitting slave States Union, (Applause) Let us briefly consider the Icuties that were encountered in the adjustment of our federal compact, and then contemplate the wise states- manship and generous patriotism by which they were surmounted. Then, as now, the States had their poculiar institutions and prejudices, They were widely dissimilar in climate and position, in their productions, their social organization and domestic policy. There were conflicting interests and opinions which could be reconciled only by the exercise of the noble mugnanimity and true love of 01 which [shone forth so conspicuous in that brigbt era public virtue and patriotic zeal. Alter the Con- its eradication. they advise or encourage the | } in the Sout! vention of 1787 had completed its labors, under the | auspices of the Father of his Country, him, as President of the body, \ communicate the constitution to the ress of the old Confedera- tion. After adverting to the difficulties produced “by a difference among the several States as to abeir situation, extent, habits and part r inte eats,’ he holds the following language: —‘ Th atta. tion which we now present is result of a spirit oi amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which the essa yo of our political situation renderca indispensable.” (Applauge.) Yes, Mr. President, the it devolved upon amity must be invoked to sustain and preserve it. (Re- newed applauze.) One of the highest objects of the oom. ind the States together by the tics of mutual benefit and affection, It was intended to combine their str for ‘the common welfare and protection, and ensure ah ahe bleasings of free intercourse and commere on a firm Joundation oo friendship and concord. It was ‘wisely decided by the patriots of that day, that the negro id not stand in the way of union; and, therefore, he Shoujd not now be permitted to dds0. Then, ag now, it was Ay pa that the very diversities and differences ‘to ‘which I have adverted, increased the necessity for a na- onal compact which should ensure domestic tranquillity, ‘and unite the efforts of the States and the people for the attainment of those common objects which aire ‘the exercise of concentrated national power. “pe rience has demonstrated that the varied forms of industry and production contribute to the gencral sgtr:vgth, @nd largely augment the benefits resulting frov. commercial interchange between the diffrent sec: 0,» of the country. The notion that the States of the ‘No. and South cannot co-exist side by side as friends and @rix' ors, and act together harmoniously in one national #&) +' m, by reason of the {dissimilarity of their domestic six-' 1 10n8, and that partisan warfare between them is or justifiable until slavery shall hi holished ‘sectio Aim toe roche or ized in ig ard and mischievous fallacy, having no basis of f ud argument for its support. Costappianes) oct history refutes the and common sense it; for that there is any neces- ‘¥ anjagonisin between ‘slave labor in the trepix should exercise a spirit of patriotic conciliation. (Cheers.) Itis time that this angry warfare of sections should cease, and that the voice of discord should be rebuked and hushed forever, Tha. prosont condition of the country. calls emphatically for moderation (Applause.) In na- tional concerns, no less than the subordinate relations of men, moderation is tne highest wiadom. By rejecting its counsels and yielding to the fury of excited passions, most of the free republics, ancient and modern, after a’ brief career of prosperity, perished from the earth. The voice of history warns us that the rivalries, jealousies and con- flicte of confederated States, tave always resulted in the destruction of free government. If my yoico could ba heard throughout the land I would plead moderation both in the North and the South. I would earnestly appeal to the people of the South- ern States, in the present moment of exasperation, to avoid all extreme and unconstitutional measures, and to reject the counsels of any who wonld hurry them forward into the vortex of treason and disurion. (Loud applause.) Let them be assured that there is no occasion for this fearful and fatal alternative, They may still rely on the Justice, and fidelity, and friendship of the great body of ‘their countrymen in the free States. A vast majority of the people of the North, of all parties, are still loyal to the Union and the constitution, and so far from intending they will resist every effort to invade the institutio78 and the rights of the slaveholding States. The old feeling of na- tional brotherhood and affection will revive and assert its resistlees power, even in the breasts of thousands who have been momentarily misiod by the impulses of soc- tional feetings and excited passions. Our fellow citizens ought certainly to remember that whole communities cannot justly be held responsible for the ravings of individual fanatics, and the wild schemes sectional agitators and conspirators. (Applause.) the same time let us apperl to the men of the ‘Act a conservative and patriotic part. Will they not arise in their might and put an end to this detostaple and dangerous warfare between the two great sections of the American Union? (Cries of “Yes.”) Every patriot heart must desire the restoration of, peace and the revival of mutual confidenoe and kindness. I contend that negro slavery ought no more now than in 1787 to stand in the way of natlonal unity aud concord. (Ap- plause.) As that question was not permitted to defeat the formation of the Union, we should not allow it to mar the enjoyment of its blessings, We all know that slavery is regarded with different sentiments in the free States and the slave States. It was so from the begianing; but the constitution has wisely left cach State to regulate the sub- Ject according to its own will and pleasure. If the people of At to | will bear in mind this fundamental truth, and govern themeelves accordingly, sectional controversy and ex- citement must soon disappear. The constant discussion | and agitation of the slavery question in the free States | has become an intolerable muieance. (Tremendous ap- | strange; Pact then mace was to blend conflicting interests, and | oer plause and cheers.) A portion of the Northern press feem to consider it the only subject of human interest. spirit of amity pertected the glorious fabric; the spirit ot | 7ac¥, ill not allow us to lose sight of it for @ day. In Merature, in politics, in relizion, they insist that it is the great moral Pivot on which everything must turn. A the land, ignorant of our history, should hear ‘our discussions, would infer that for the first time we are about to decide whether glavery shall be permitted in this country or not. Of course he would be greatly surprised to learn that New York, New ‘England, and all the free States, abolished slavery many fears ago, and that no man has yet proposed to restore it. oe Jed that it ts not good for ua, aud we will not hare Mt, thhe fulfitiog our duty, and exhasting our jurisdicuon over the subject. That should be the end of the matter, 80 far at least as we are concerned, (Great cheers. For what mate parpone then is an anti-slavery ox- citement to be kopt alive in the free states? Most of the oe of the subject amit that they have no power or tion vw interfere with slavery in thy States where it exists, and many of them even repel the idea that oo in any ‘0 benefit the colored popnla- tion. nevertheless wage an interminable war of ‘words, proposing ni 4 the benefit of with, or slave, but leavidy the institution in full vigor, asa set, petual target for political adversaries. But itis drged that their real object is to prevent the extension of slavery into free Territories. That was once a pending practical quos. tion. Itissono longer. Kansas js free, as rmaiy of us maintained that it must be from causes too powerful ty be controlled by the efforts of politicians or ists, All the territory affectod by the ra of the Missouri compromise {s free and must for- ever remain #0. eee That battle is fought and Won, and the troops should be disbanded. Thore is uo terri belonging to the Union in which slavery can bo Proftadly established Every reflecting man in the ‘South as well as the North sees and admits the ac v may be told that there are glaves in Now Moxioy, ac! that the Territorial ley bas made it togal. (Care reana were here given for Seward foliowed by bissns ) it the notion that slavery can Qe plauted there as 4 pet miavent system is too chimerica: for sorious disoussioa, It ® no more probable than the introduction of ths custo culture into Maiue or Nova Scotia, What is New Mexico? Ie ts a remote and inaccessible rogtin ot mountain rauges and desert plains, vividly and agoarately dosoribed a8 “a howling wilderness’? Tt ta" said theta few uvhappy army officers have taken slaves fato that forlorn wilder- ness as domestic servants to cook their ratious This may bo s0; but itis well known that thoro ts 0 agrt- culture there upon which slave labor could subsist. No Sothern planter could be induced to migrate thore. The whole American continect cannot afford to be cvu- vulsed from year to year merely to provent a danger £0 trifling and so remote. AS a matter of fact the Territories have ceased to be the object of sectonal contest, (Applause.) Why then prolong the strife on amere abstraction after the controversy is decided? The North already holds atarge proponderance of strength. She can afford to be just and magaauimous. Texas was the last slave State admitted into the Uuion. Since that event, the whole Pacific coast has been atited to the domain of free territory; four free States have been admitted, and Kansas is forthcoming. While the public ear is wearied with incessant railings on the exten sion and the aggressions of slavery, these acwal results ebow that in fact there has been mo extension whatever. (Applause.) Mr. Preaident, the age of the Crusutes is Over, and the country is entitled to ropose. (Cries of order in the pit,” and confusion.) The time has come (if tt ts over to come) for Leper these unbappy aud needless sectional dissensions. (( ) There are great national interests, in which all the States havo & common concern, and which the federal Union wag in- tended to foster aud protect How much more vital and important are these common objects, 7 to all and neceseary for all, thaa the single pot diversity which has been too long the absorbing source of angry irritation. It should be the effurt of every sipcere patriot to recall the public mind from these mis chievous disputes to the national conceras which affect the welfare of the whole country, and to those sen- timents of mutual re; which prevailed in the better days of the lic. 0g, up—dry up.) ‘Tbe interruption of ly between the States of the North and the South, is of itself a great and incalculable evil. It witherg and blights the choicest bene- fits which the Union was intended to secure. It embitters our national councils, obstructgall useful legislation, arrests commercial intercourse, and destroys that (celing of cod- dence and security which is one of the highest objects of civil society. Our divisions create well-founded alarm for the stability of our republican. institutions, and make us a by-word and reproach among the nations. It is a spectacle from which every patriotic heart must recoil with mortification and dismay. It inspires the despots of the earth with frest hopes, and everywhere chills the aspirations of the friends of constitutional liberty. I trust that good men throughout the land will unite in the work of peace and conciliation, and prociaim their unalterable purpose to reeig: all further efforts to combine soetion against section In political strife. (Great hissing and three cheers for Douglas, followed by three more ) It was not intended by the founders of our government that one por- tion of the country should rule or subjugate the other. Far different, more noble and exalted were thoir aims. They sought to frame a constitutionalsystem which should unite the people of all the States into one family of free-. men to participate harmoniously in the responsibilities of power, to share equally in it blessings, and to unite their efforts to uphold the principles o” civil and religious liberty. Such was the government which our fathers made, and may it be our happy destiny to preserve it as it came from their hands. Applause.) There are those who maintain that the Union possesses a strength superior to human vicissitude, and that its stability cannot be en- dangered by any political contingency. They are dis- posed to treat with levity and poor attempts at ridicule all expressions of apprehension and solicitude. They profess to rely on the strength of mountain chains ani navigable waters to hold the parts together. I do not under esti mate the power of material interests and commercial ties as & bond of political connection—but these alone are not suflicient. The excited passions, the determined will of States and communities, are not to be controled by geo- graphical or commercial channels of intercourse. \ Popu- lar feeling when deeply aroused disdains the barriers of physical nature. (Applause.) Neither rivers, nor seas, nor mountain ranges, nor laws of trade, or financial inte- reats affecting the public prosperity, have proved suffi- cien! to save republics from dismemberment and destruc- tlon, The voluntary affection and loyalty of the people is the only sure basis fora free government Cheers.) A love of the Union must be cherished in the hearts of the whole American people. We must continue to re- gard it as the greatest political blessmg ever conferred upon mankind. (Loud applause.) Lot us this night send forth a declaration which sball assure our bretliren in the South that the pepe of the Northare ready to put away strife, and lay freeh offerings upon the altar of our com- mon country. Isee and feel that the heart of this me- tropolis glows with loticfervor. Its generous pulsa- tions will be felt to the remost extremittes of our vast con- tinental republic. Be it proclaimed and understood from. this time forth, that New York will never falter in her loyalty tothe Union and the constitution; that she still cherishes a proud recollection of the united efforts and common sacrifices by which our national independence was seoured, and that she willnever cease to foster those sentiments of ational brotherhood and affection which animated tho fathers offour country, and which bind us together by the most sacred and indlssoluble ties. (Great applause.) In the progress of human events it has been reserved to the people of this country to decide by their conduct and example whether societies of men are capa. b’e or not of maintaining a system of free repre- Sentative government, and whether States differing in climate and institutions can be permanently unitedunder @ common confederation. A more sacred charge was never commited to apy nation. I trust the warnings of history are not to be lost upon the freemen of America. Once more I would invoke them all, in the North and the South, the East and the West, to be faithful tothe mighty interests entrusted to their hands. May they cultivate that broad and generous patriotism which embraces the whole country in its affections. May they ever look with patriotic disdain on the poor partizan arta which, for selfish ends, would undermine the glorious fabric of our united nationality, but with clear heads and honest ever resist the ruthless and sacrilegious efforts to'rend asunder those grand communities which the great Architect of nations has so graciously joined together. (The latter part of this speech was delivered with mnch difficulty, in consequence of frequent interrup- tions. The speaker, however, concluded amid loud and prolonged applause.) 3 SPEECH OF JAMES S. THAYER. James 8. Tuaver, Eaq., was then called upon,and thus addressed the meeting:— I regret very much, fellow citizens, that the distin- guished gentleman who, in the order of the proceedings of this meeting, was to address you next after Governor Hunt, is detained by severe indisposition, and is not able to appear here to-night. A Voice—Who is he? Mr. Tuayen—-Governor Seymour. I met him this morning; he was then suffering so much from Severe ill- that he was afraid he would not be able to attend to-night. But you who know him—and all here I presume do know him—know and feel that his heart is with you in these proceedings, and that he with you inevery step. ‘Know thyself” is a maxim as instructive to States as to individuals. The principles that enlighten end make frec, the causes of growth, and the sources of prosperity to a State, wherever they are allowed to have play, are palpable, and similar under all’ forms of government. But the causes that weaken and undermine are secret and insidious—the accidents that end dynasties and produce revolutions are frequently slight an incon siderable, and the events that overturn governments and dissolve confederacies break in upon a fancied security that startles and bewilders, and leaves no time for wise counsel and patriotic effort to avert the crisis. (Applause.) No people wore ever more liable to fold their hands in the face of impending danger, or to lie down on the brink of a dissolution of the government thin we are. When men are busy and prosperous, fol- lowing their ordinary occupations without intorraption, and the ample protection of State and municipal law shield them in the enjoyment ot every right and privi- lego, they forget the larger and higher duties and respon- sibilities they owe to the confederacy. Their homes un- molested, their hearth stones secure, and they kneel in faithful devotion to their household gods, But their foot- steps are seldom seen in the wide and open temple of a naton’s worship—(applause)—where are enshrined the sacred memorials and emblems of our nationality. They bear no offerings to that all protecting genius of our Union and liberty, which exalts us from the sovereignty of petty States, without a name, where men have only their rights and well being, to the rogal character and power of an empire that commands the respect and admi- ration of the world, whose citizens are proud of the he tage of a greatand common country, and affluent in tl hopes of a common destiny and ‘glory. (Applause Let those who choose revile Union maoetings and Union movementa, whether the alarm be false or roale if there is but the sign or appearance of danger—I shall rally with those who gather close around the national flag. (Continued applause.) And who would not rather be there, renewing his vows of fidelity to the constitution and the Union, than with the mocking band who begin with impugning the motives and deriding the actions of all who would uphold the government, and will end in joining those who would overthrow it? (Applauge.) I think thie mecting to-night, unparalleled as an imposing, popular demonstration in the city of New York, deserves at least the respect of all fair-minded men. Applause.) And I trust that in its spirit and expression it’ will come fairly up to the requirements of the occasion, and meet the expectation of the country to the fullest extent. If propriety requires that names and parties sheuld not be mentioned, truth and candor demand that things should be called by their right names (applause), and that prin- ciples should be dealt with according to their nature, tendency and effecte. (Applause.) To come, then, square: ly up to the isaue—to grapple with it fearlessly and with- out parley—what is the present agpect and position of the slavery question between the North and the South? I think ‘it is comprehended in this, that whenever the anti-slavery sentiment is introduced into politics, and made sole basis of party organization and action, it becomes aboiitionism. (Prolonged applause. ‘Waving of bats), It may not be altogether such in the outset, but that is ite tendency, and must of necessity be its ultimate result. (Applause) In 1844, out of 430,000 ‘Ay ‘votes in the State of ‘New York, there were only 16,000 on abolition votes, pare and simple. That small clond, no bigger than a man’s hand, has in fifteen years ov spread the whole Northern sky. its dark and angry folds curtadn the farthest horizon of tho East and Weat, the roll of its loud thunder shakes the whole heayeng from side to side, and eyes that never before quailed in storm er tem- Petts now turn in dismay from blinding [roa its lightning. (Soneation.) Dut this shall not always last; “no,” no”); light ix already breaking through the larkness of night, )casenmpe |, and, before another twelve month has passed, the sun of our liberty will purple with a soft and tranquil glow the Kastorn and Northorn hills, {('g00d,” \+good,”"an 1 applause), aud holding oa his course through a serene and unciouddd pathway, will usher in a day a8 bright as when the morning stars of our Union firet sang together, and rose in that galaxy that is now ra- diant with 80 many added glories. (Applause and cheers. ) ‘The anti-slavery sontiment as moral conviction ani ofAnion in the minds and consciences of men, no matter how strong, is a passive sentiment, and remains such until introduced into ‘politics. It then becomes an active agency—and, if it alone constitutes a party, if hore ie nothiog of the party bat what is it baged on this, then wo mmunt see What is its antagonism, whatis directed against; for ew rty isan active aod opposing force, formed for postive and we actin Now, will you toll ao what there is for & party, based solely ou onli slavery oppose, to ight against? Not, certainly, the extession of slavery in territories—that contest is ¢nded. (Applause) Not the revival of the slave trade, for this flads too fow advocates to make an ssuse, (Applaus’.) Then cer- tatuly tt must cppose slavery ar tt exists, or its office is at an end—“Othello’s Ocoupation’s gone’? Applause.) ‘Vhere will of course be many classes under this generic bead—as many different shades of abolitionists as there are of color in the African race--varying from the real jet of Mrs. Stowe’s “Uncle Tom,” to the Octordon of Bourcicault Capplause.) Some, only a few I hope, if they do not engage in, would countevance an insurrection, would furnish arms, if they did not use them. Many will intensify and ivflawe the bitter hatred to slavery and slaveholders, till the very weight of animosity and aversion engendered will make the Union unbearable. A large class openly proclaim that the Fugitive Slave law should not be exe- cuted, and that the deowion of the Supreme Court ia the Dred Scott case is a niin. The largest number etrenu- ously insist that they weuld not in any way encroach up- on the constitutional rights of the South—uo, uo, not that. ‘Their method is one of moral suasion. Circulate the docu- ments, Give them that mild ministration of bullying and beating of ‘‘Helper’s Compendium.” (Laughter and ap- pauses They would convince the South that they are morally and ecopomically wrong, and by a mild ad¢minis- tration of such effective and heating doctrines as are cou- tained in the Helper Compendium (laaghter), the evil will be speedily eradicated. are the varied and delicate threads which are to su) ir the spindle that is weaving the “bond of cable strength” that will drag us to the brink—if not into the pit itself—of disunioa. Applnans. The growth of political anti-slavery. in the it ten years has been and formidable. The breaking up and division parties have furnished amole ma- terial for ene and strengthening it. Able and adroit leaders, wi unceasing toll and marvellous skill, bave wrought of these materials a structure large and imposing, but frail aud unsubstantial—(ap- plause)—a seruoware Tekanited by many and tan wil ‘0c- cupants, who sought it on! a temporary e, a special purpose, already accomplished—-(applause)—old conservative pe apr erg mead instance, who will soon leave it when they find the company they are in— (applause)—men who have no notion of making thoir per- manent home in a house that opeus omy to the North— jC ie) ee is founded on the shifting saads of sec- tional strife and animosity. (Applause, ‘That the anti- slavery sentiment, when mado the sore basis of party or- ganization, becomes what I have stated is evident, not only as a logical deduction from what that sentiment is, ‘and necessarily becomes, when sub; to the uses of a party that ses no other principle of action, but from the Syowed sentiments of anti-slavery leaders. The doc- trine of an ‘irrepressible conflict’’ is now the received and accepted one. (Applause) Let us look a little at this doctrine, its nature and meaning. The distioguishod author of it foreshadowed it fifteen years min Ina letter written, [ think, to a committee in Philatelphia, who had invited him to be D agro ‘on some public occasion, in the year 1845, he said, “the distinctions in parties are being measurably lost sight o’,and must in the end be wholly so, and merged in the inevitable conflict between slavery and the democratic principle.” (Applause.) Iquote from recol- lection, and may not be precisely accurate in the language, but that is the senument. So the doctrine is not new; it has been long aimed at and waited for. Fifteen yearsago it was ‘‘inevitable’’—that is, gure to come. We now sve the beginning of it. Events have favored its advent: old issues have died out, parties bave been broken up, the wey has been cleared for it, and the ‘irrepressible ‘con- flict is upon us. (Applause) In 1845 the abolitionists only asked that what was ‘‘inevitable’’ should take place; it bas taken place, and they are content—satisfled, as all abolitionists Should be, and as none but abolitionists can be. (Applause.) If this sentiment is not the extreme doctrine of rank abolitionism I do not know where to find it. And yet this doctrine is widely endorsed; it is in- scribed on banners, and is rung out loudly and approv- tngly by the prominent men aud leaders of a great party. There are some who attempt to soften the phrase, to dilute the doctrine, by assigning it a place tm the dull cold cate- gory of “abstractions,” ‘general philosophical truths,” and gravely ask if there bas not been for three thou- sand years a conflict between free and slave labor, and must not always be; as if all arguments drawn from history or analogy do not proceed on the fact. or assumption, that where there is such a conflict, free and slave labor exist in the same community, side by side, under the same institutions, and governed by the same laws, assuming forms of competing labor and rival industry. (Applause. “Good, good."’) I do not know whether it is or not, but it is true; there is no escape from it. is is the essence of the whole tbing. And: there can be no conflict in this country, un- less it be from overt and aggressive action on the part of free labor—(applause)—for the reason, first, that slave labor exists in a distinct and separate community; is created, regulated and controlled by the laws of ‘the States in which it exists; is recognized and protected from interference and molestation by the constitution of the United States—(applause)—and we of the North have no right to meddle with it, peaceably or forcibly, directly or indirectly, politically or socially, in ap; ‘or manner. (Appiauge.) It is hardly neeessary us, follow citi- zens, to say that we do not believe that any considerable portion of the North, of any party or class, approve of the attempt of John Brow! his confederates to excite an insurrection of slaves in Virginia. Mores ) That there sbould be any, is a disgrace to a Christian age and country. But whilo those who approve the act are only a handful, revilors ra all human laws and blasphemers Len re are = Lente while they condemned the act, sympathise in some degree with the man, and attempt to invest with something of heroic features crimes the most cold blooded rg Oe which, if they had been fully consum- ve opened up scenes of fire, blood and human woe. (Applause.) It has been said, and it is true, that this meeting and all similar demonstrations are a delusion and asnare, unless they are followed by some corres- ponding healthful action. (Applause. T wish you to come pretty equally UP, to this question, and if you will unite with me, we at least hold the balance in the politics of this country. Applause.) We should not reat with a simple declaration of our sentiments. Let us act as well as speak. Lpccon ore ir Let us unite, organize, and by aunited and consol movement, assume a position that shall hold the balance of jpehes in the politics ‘of the country. (Groat applause.) us place in the councils of the nation statesmen—real statesmen—not menof one idea, but men of enlarged views. Applause.) Men whose comprehension will take in the whole country. ‘Applause.) Who, measuring its great wants and high \estiny,, will come up to the standard of thestateamanship of other and better days. When we find tue popular voice approving, and sixty-eight liberal minded, national re- presentatives in Congress with the Helper compen- dium in their pockets, as a text book, is it not time to reform our politics? (Applause.) Let the meeting to- night be the first movement in thatdirection. (Applause.) Let the popular mind be educated, brought up to a care- ful and fall appreciation of the high responsibilities and duties of a citizer Let the historical element of our government be unfolded—brought plainly into view and impressed upon the understanding of the people—impart to them the knowledge that shall discern relations purely political, separating them from the encroachments of personal conscience, and assigning to the Stato a legittmas and undivided authority, that the individual has no right to question, unless he abandons his citizenship and re- hounces the government whose protection he heh (Applause.) With an elevated and well directed popular opinion our politics may be reformed, and mon plased in the couucilé of the country who will bring to the upholding and preservation of our free institutions the same calm wisdom and temperate thought and purpose that presided over their founda. tion and early administration. (Applause.) The people should be educated to think. To read is nothing; <o take the opinions of other pergons—as men are very apt to do ; for it is #0 much easier to imbibe them second hand than it is to think and work out opinions and correct views upon political subjects for themselves. If, then, we can 80 reform the politics of the country—if we can bring mon up to the standard of statesmanship of othor and better daye—if we can bring to the upholding and preservation of these free institutions that calm wisdqm, that deter- mined thought and purpose that presided over its foun- dation and early administration—then, indeed, will our peaceful and happy country fulfil her glorious destiny— (applause)—in ever enduring cycles of abundant joy and prosperity. Then the constitution, in this day of secure epjoymeut and repose, folded in as close and cherished an embrace as when our fathers, in the hour of thoir great- est need and most imminent peril, cradled it into life and being—fear no enemy—but live In the affections of the general heart, And in the wisdom of the best. (Applause. )" And every arrow from that full quivor of anti-slavery wrath, whether winged from the press, the pulpit, or tho forum, fall blunted on the impenetrable {shield of a na- tion’s love and reverence. (Great applause.) SPEECH OF HON. JOHN A. DIX. The Hon. Jony A. Dix wi the next speaker. He said:— Frizow Crrizna :—At this late hour of the evening I fear the words I may say to you may fall cold upon the car; but I will throw myself upon your indulgence. I consider the occasion which has called us together as the very gravest in our history as a netion. It mvolves the momentous problem of the continued existence of the States of this \Union in the bonds of harmony, in which they were united by the wisdom of our forefathers after years of bloody conflict with one of the most poworfal nations of the earth. The triumphant issue of the wars of the Revolution did not put an end to the embarrass. ments which obstructed the formation of a stablo govern- ment. They continued after the cessation of hostilities during nearly nine years of doubt and uncertainty, and almost of despair, on the part of some of the most sober minded men of that day. The foundations of the govern- ment under which we live were laid in peril from within and without; and it required on the part of the men who framed the federal conatitution, a fund of mm and sagacity ate ooien, Hh previous examp! rescue the confederacy from t danger of disorganization with which it was threatened. Under the government they at last succeed in eetablishing, we have lived in har- mony and fraternal friendship for seventy years. From a feeble confederation of independent States held to- gether by the loosest pofRical bonds, we have become a powerful and united people. We need not fear to mea. sure our physical strength with any of the great empire of the castern hemisphere. (Applause.) Our prosperity and our progress have no parallel in the history of the Freedom from all unnecessary personal restraint, the right of every individual to the unrestricted use of hig property and his intellectual resources in all the depart. ments of industry have developed the genius of the coua- trymen in a thousand forms of physical and social im- provement, giving energy to our own advances, waking up the drowsy faculties of the Old World, and contribut- ing to liberato them from the shackles’ in which they have been held for centuries by various systems of policy and government. Above all, our poople are prosperous in thelr vocations of business, happy in thelr dvcial rola tions, and respected in every quarter of the globe for their boldness, their enterprise and their inde lo perseve- rance. Are not these great resulte to ha en achieved in lees than tnree quarters of acontury? In this short period (for it is short in the life of a nation) we have spread ourselves, ’with our improvements in govern. ment, in industry and art, over the American con-~ Unent. | The sume sun which the fathers in the old States see in the morning rising out of the turbulent Atlantic, the children on the opposite shores of California aud Oro: bee at bight going down into the placid bosom of tho ific. Fellow citizens, it was four hundred and ef they. six years aftor the foundation of the Roman Repubits be. fore it succeeded in extending its dominion by force of (uA Over All Italy, In geyenty yoars we have by tho unoftending arts of peace covered end subdued « conti. pent. In the rive and progress of empires there is noth- ing to compare with ours, Tae question which now pT6eses OD UB (8 Question the settlement of whica cannot De safely postponed) je whethar we will, by @ faithful qi our coustitational obligetiog ae, by @ woru- pulous performance of all the duties of good Deighbor- hood—duties which have their foundation fo natural law, and which are prece tent both in the order of tine and in moral force to all social crennntinn—<premneee what of honor, perity and power we have gained, or whether wo'vall permit all to be swopt away by tho lide of fanaticism, and the Union, the source evory- thing valuable we possess, to be resolved into ite con- Btituent elements. ‘This is the question presented to us. It is a question which cannot be evaded. It ought not to be evaded. It should be met mrofuliy, aud dis- posed of as patriousm aud justice dictate.” Fellow citi zens, a combination having for its object to disturb the quietude of the Southern States, and to liberate tacir slaves held in bondage under their own lawsa and recog- nized as thus lawtwMy held by the constitution of tho Inited States under which @e live, has recently been dis- closed—not disclosed by accident—not by the infidolity to each other of avy of the prrties implicated in it, but b) the fuilure of the initiatory enterpriso undertakes wit! force of arms aud sealed with blood; an enterprise hav- ing for its object to excite insurrection ina section of the Unien, and to break up its social organization with fro and sword. Great rts have been made to underrate the importance of this movement, to obscure the public judgment by measuring it by its results, and by deciding tas an enterprise too insignificant for sober comment or for serious consultation umong ourselves. Logurrec- tionary movements, conspiracies against the public order, either general or local, armed comoinations agaist the icy of the law, treason in peace or in war, are tobe god by ir purposes and not by their issues. ‘Schemes ‘the best concocted, which, if succesful, might have led to consequences the most momentous, often fail in the execution. The treason of Arnold, if it had’ not been de- tected, would have delivered the stronghold of the revo- lution into the hands of the public euemy and proved most disastrous to the cause of American independence. ‘The world has judged tho criminal attempt by its inten- tion, and not measured its enormity by its discomiture. Those who sympathize with the authors of the Harper’s Ferry treason would have the country regard it as the in- ane ofa eryetlbe ge} on his owa impulse and withcut preconcert, except with a few followers as insane as himself. Tho facts prove the very reverse of all this. They show a deliberate ge running through a series of years, to invade tho Southern States by force for the purpose of liberating slaves, aud so stir up) a servile insurrection against their masters. Arms and ammunition have been accumulated, money contri- buted, and a military organization’ formed, or at least ‘attempted to be formed, to carry out the ob- Ject of the conspiracy. Finally a suoceseful attack was made on one of the public arsenals, and the authority of the general government set at ‘defiance; and it was not until after the shedding of blood and the sacrifice of life on both sides that the conspirators were dislodged and either killed or captured, Here are all the clements ot a conspiracy of the most treasonable churacter; and if the movement had been responded to as was anticipated by the leader of the enterprise, no man can doubt that the district of country against which it was directed would have been a scene of devastation and bloodshed, and that it would have been in its consequences most disastrous to the peace of the country. The movement is to be judged, then, like all other treasonable enterprises—not by its failure, but by its design and its possible consequences. Tn this point of view it would be most important to ascer- tain to what extent the purposes of those concerned in it were known, and how far they had the concurrence of prominent men in the non slavcholding States. I accuse no one of complicity in the transaction. Every man is entitled to the presumption innocence until his guilt is proved. But it is mot mecessary, im order to conyict an individual of moral compli- city in this treagonable enterprise, that he should have been previously apprised of the particular ‘act in which the general purpose was to manifest itself. It is not neceseary that he should have known and encouraged the intention of Brown and his followers to attack Har- per’s Ferry and seize the national armory by force. In that case he would have been an before the fact to a criminal act, and might have been held to the same responsibility as the principals. But there is a moral res: ponsibility, which, though it may not be amenable to punisbment by humaw law, is in every just sense as as that of him, who is guilty of the overt act of treason. (Applause.) Knowledge of the treasonable design in its eneral purpose without disclosing or discountenancing it; joctrines publicly proclaimed, the direct tendency of which is to inflame the passions and to incite to acts sub- versive of the supremocy of law, injurious to the interests and distructive of the tranquility of the Union, though they may not fall within the pale ofthe criminal jurispru- dence of the country, are amenable to the tribunal of public opinion, and should find there the highest punish- ment it can aviard— (Applause) —the condemnation of a community looking to the preservation of the — or- der as the only security against anarchy and despotism. No man thus marked can ever high up in the scale of political preferment. (Applause.) Ho may attain a local notoriety and distinction; but when meagured-by the national standard, he will be found even by his own political associates to fall far short of tho ‘moral and lene ao) Does sytem the highest preeminence, lapse.) Does any thinking man sup- pose that the Union can be preserved if aggressions like this, contrived and set on foot in one section of the Union against the security and of another, are continued? It is impossible. One of the Weclared ol of the forma- ‘tion of the constitution, as is stated in the resolution, was “to insure domestic tran ot ‘any one believe that the common government established under this con- stitution can be upheld when it bad ceased to secure rid one of hog ner objects for which it had been instituted? bakes are a Baal ese Stal ered to nee respects ts of sove and property, to ab- stain from all that is calculated to disturb its peace or fo- ment discord among its inhabitants; in a word, to do no act thyt shall be prejudicial to its welfare. If there be any higher law for the public government of men than that whicn is contained in written constitutions which they have ramed for themselves, it is the Christian rule of doing to others as we would have others to dotous. Every com- mupity is amendable for the conduct of its citizens, and if it refuges to punish acts of aggression committed by them, against the ci of another, it becomes an accomplice andmay be held responsible for the inju dependent nations such acts of unred: would constitute justifiable canse of war. It is not neces- gary to go to the books for authority for these obligations. They are the dictates of common reason—they are written. in the hearts and conaciences of men; and they rise abovo all the conventional arrangements of human society. If these are the imperative duties of independent States, should they not be deemed equally sacred by States living nnder a common governmont, and holding their liberties, their proper and their domestic peace by the same tenure? How have we fulfilled these obligations’ Nay, how have we discharged the common offices of good neighborhood? Fellow citizens, the constitution of the United States recognizes tho existence of slavery; and tye resolutions which haye been read to you present with Great conciseness the practical interpretations, the pro- visions containing the recognition here received. The constitution provides the representation in Congress of ersons not free. It provides for the delivery of persons eld to service or labor and escaping therefrom, to the party to whom such labor or service is due. This was one of the fundamental compromises of the constitu. tion, and it was finally adopted in the federal convention over which George Washington presided without a dissent- ing voice. The surrender of a slave, who has escaped from his master, is as much a duty as ‘it is to yield obe- dience to any of the provisions, which the constitution has made for the general welfare and security. And yet it is not only evaded but boldly violated and set at deflance by large numbers of the citizens of the non-slavehoiding States. Slaves are not only agsisted when fleeing from servitude, but they are enticed away from their masters by emisearies sent among them to seduce them from their allegiance. 1 do not stop to inquire into slavery, its com- patibility with natural law, or its influence on’ the social condi community.’ ‘These are questions altogether foreicn ssue {n hand. It ig enough that slavery existed among us here as well as the South when the con- stitution was framed; that it recognized and made the basis of certain political duties, which we can no moro evade or violate than we can throw of our allegiance to the government itself while claiming or enjoying {ts protection. We must take the constitution as a whole, or reject itasa whole. We must remain in the Union, and full all the duties incident to it, or go out of it. There is no middle course for honest men. Between these alternatives there can be no hesiat- tion in your choice. [ am sure I speak the feclings of every individual hero when I say wo are for the Union, and for a scrupulous fulfillment of all the duties and obli- pane it imprses on us. We are in favor of surronderiag fugitive slaves, as enjoined by the constitution. Fellow citizens, we should go farther, and punish with the eevere- est penalties all aitempts to seduce slaves from their obedi- ence, to disturb the peace or interfere with the domestic arrangements and institutions of our sister States. This is net only an obligation, founded on those intuitive pria- ciples of natural justice, which should find a response in every heart, but the surrender of fugitives is a conven- tional duty, agreed on by our fathers, as one of the con- ditions on which the government they framed was ac- cepted by the thirteen original States, and put in opora- tion for the common benefit. It is a duty we cannot refuse to perform without repudiating the fundamental compact and commiting an act of infidelity to the government and people of the United States. I have thus far, fellow citizens, looked at this queation from our own point of view. Let us chango positions with our Southern brethren and see it frem the point at which they stand. They ore living in peace with their slaves, the latter contented, as a general rule, with their condi- tion. No better proof of the fact can be addaced than the failure of the Harper’s Ferry outr: te seduce a single one from his allegiance. 'y find emmiesaries of tho ‘North coming among them to sow the seeds of dissontion in their families, to excite their sclaves to insurrection, to break up their homes, destroy the value of their property, and put their lives in peril. Is there any man within reach of my voice, who can find fault with them for any Measure of resentment, with which these aggrossions are repelled? [No, no, no.} ~ Would we ourselves submit to them peaceable if our places were reversed? (No, no.] No, fellow citizens—these are wrongs not to be patently endured, wrongs under the sting of which even the horrors of disunion may bo fearlessly encountered as an alterna- tive, with which, if all else be lost, honor aud self-respect may be preserved. I desire to put this question on the Single ground of duty to our fellow citizens in other States, and to the common cnmpact by which our reciprecal rela- tions are govered and defined. [should be very sorry on a question of duty to think it n to appeal to any considerations of a lower character. But it is right that we should look to the interest we have in the of the Union im order to understand with these assanita on the slaveholding States us. I do not believe there is to be found im any othor section of the country an equal number of people who would be more disastrously affected by @ se} of the States than the million of intabitants who livo in and around this city. It is the great emporium of the Union, the centre of its commercial and financial transactions, the focal point from which the chief currents of business radiate for tho distribution of the necessaries of life, aud to whibh they reflow with the surpluses of our productive labor. Every year makes it moro manifest that the time is not far distant when the clty of New York will become the financis! centre, not of this continent alone, but of tho commorcial word, The great mart of a continent midway between Europe and Asia, it must ero ‘draw to itself the exchanges of both, and become ton, the common medium for the adjustment of commercial accomplish this result balances. Nothing giry if oe " P lew York and but a communication, which sl an Prencisco within ten days of @gch other, and this vsa- not be long postvoned It is oaly ax’ the odmmerotal nud Onancial centre of a united empire on this coutneat that New York can maintain hor pre-omimen'oe. A blow aicuok at the Unton through the vitals of agothor State, isa blow strcic at her prospority, I had almgst said at’ her very existence. (Applanse ) Lot us bear zhego things in man a8 incentives to the performanee of a duty, not tostrengthen obligations, which the constigaion mikes imperative ana which with homest men cam derive ne ad- ditional efficacy for eunsidcrations of self tuterest~-but te enforce upon us the covviction that the cause of the South in this iseue is our cause, that infidelity to them is met ouly infigelity to the constitution and to all the dietages of bonor and good faith, but infidelity to ourselves and te the noble city which Icoks to us for the vindication of her national character and for the assertion of her loyalty to the Union. (Appliause.) 1 wish, fellow citizens, that those who are accustomed’ to talk lighuy of disunion, would tell us. ‘the problema, ®& separation of the States with it, are to be solved in ’ Eastern and Westera line between the wo Would dissolution stop there, or should we have also am. Fastern and Western empire, with a Northern and Seuth- ern lino between them? ww would the common proper- ty and the common indebtedness of the political aasovia- tion be divided between the solving partnera?. Look af the condition of your credit in the stock of the Old World. Your government securities beara wr rice on the exchanges and bourses of most of the ropean. than their own. Who will become the sponsors for their redemption, or should they be ghame- lessly discredited, and hdWguominy of repudiation be superadded to the sckesing: catalogue of evils whieh would foliow in the train of aisunion? (Applause.) How Magseh, the ates remain at poace with each other? Not, in all probability, for a single year, ‘The very act of ation, founded as it will be ona sense of injustice and injury, would be a virtual declaration inextinguishable hostility and hatred. It would bethe. nal of collision und conflict, which would have no end one of the parties should be subjected to the other, and with the proud spirit of our countrymen this issue would never be reached till the flelds whi: the common toil and Marion and ant lorious by their valor, had been stained again and agen fraternal blood, But, fellow-citizens, I turn away (rom all these loathsome of disunion. Like the se tics of mortality, (Pen be but the of disease and death. Alt the rspread with H trage at Harper's Fe: d all suite ot koma outrage "a Ferry and all expression with its authors. (Great applause.) They regard tase ‘blow struck at the constitution and the Union. (Renewed applause ) We are here so to declare it, and te it as digorganizing, incendiary and nefarious. (Applause ) Some of the evils it has caused—the bloodshed and do- meetic disturbance—have been expiated, 80 far as such evils can be, by the punishment of its authors. that which remains—the ewee and distrust—the ce remedy is in our own hands. Tet us pledge our- selves to a faithful discharge of the obligatious the constitution im upon us. Let us mee with scrupulous fidelity tho engagemenis entered iate With our sister States—ongagements sanctioned by Washington and Franklin, and Madison and Adams, aad their illustrious penanene —ceneenients we have oar- ‘selves assumed by accepting the Constitution, and which we tacitly ergata od every day and every hour of our lives by living under its protection. In a word, let us de all that justice aod good faith and honor demand. Them may we Lope, with the confidence a consciousness of ree- titude imparts, that the dark clouds which hover over ua ‘will be Lege and, with the favor of that Divine Pre- vidence which has carried usin safety through all the daa- gers of the past, that the sunlight of union and hari will revistt us, to be obscured no more. (Applause Fellow citizens, on the 14th of June, 1777, less than ayoar after the Declaration of Independence, the flagabove us was adopted by the Federal Congress as the bauner uader which the armies of the Revolution were to be marshalled. to conflict. (Applause,) They resolved ‘that the of the United be thirteen stripes, alternate red am white; that the union be thirtecn stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” Theee-quarters of a century and more have gone by, and the constolla- tion is no longer new; butythe thirteen stars are all there, undiminished and undimmed, and with them twoaty more of equal magnitude. orien.) the eighty-two years that banner has floated over us, no aot of national dishonor or injustice has stained it. (Ap- planse.) It has never gone to the baitle fleld except for the redress of wrong. (Renewed applause.) No armies have been enrolled under it to carry on wars of ambition, cupidity or aggression. It has never beon trailed in the dust by forcign enemies, or torn down by fratricidal bands among ourselves. (Immense eheering.) Shall tt ‘be soiled and disbonored now by fanaticism and by foul conspiracies Med the peace and the integrity of the Union? “No, No.” Swear it. Voices—We do. “Loug it wave.” Shall the constellation of 1777 be exploded by domestic conflict, to be seen no more among the nations, like lost Po sae of ve faded out of the firmamet No, fellow citizens, no matter whether that banner, dear to every heart, be assailed by enemies from without or traitors within, lot us uphold and defend it as the representative of the om- bodied sovereignty of the thirty-two States, and the sign of their common allegiance, and, with the blessing of God, it sball contingze, through centuries to come, tu be borne aloft, with every star still blazoned on its azure fleld—the triumphant emblem of Union and fraternity, and waving ot eee ‘and power. (Great cheering ats. SPEECH OF PROFESSOR MITCHELL. Professor O. M. Mrrcnxix, of Cincinnati, being leudig called for, came forward and was received with hearty cheers. I present myself before you unannounced, but my name is Mitchell. (Applause.) I know. Iam astranger to you. Iunderstand my position here to-night perfeotiy: well. If you want to know where I was born, I will tell you: it was in Old Kent re. three, lause, cheers fer ‘Old Kentucky.”) ant Pai ‘alt you one that fact if you wish to know it, and were from Virginia. Og on-wrag and for Mitchell.) I would much prefer, fellow citizens, to have your it attention for a very few moments, while I attempt to say a few words to you, than to hear ox- citing cheers—which are all very well, only they will not allow me to speak. (Laughter and applause, and cries of ‘Go vest I want to fet through. I have never arisen before—although have lived nearly half a contury—I have never before arisen im ® popular assombiage of this character; I have never opened my mouth in a political assemblage before, if this tonight can be called one. I have told you I was a som of Old Kentucky; there I was born. But I tell you, also, that Iam a gon of this Union and of this country. (Ap- plauze.) 1am the only true re; tative of this country re to night, becanse I was educated by this nation, and all Lhave got, under God, Ihave got from this glorieus nation; and I'have come here to-night to lift my humble voice in behalf of my own motlicr. i do not want to have her strangied; Ido not desire to sce her down in the dustand destroyed. And for that purpose I am here te- night to do what I can in order to rescue her from thoze from whom she is to suffer violence. (A Voror— Who is going to do it?” Cries of ‘‘Put him out,’! and hisses and applause.) Give me a chance and I willtell you. I have come here without any set speech to-night. 1 was called upon late on Saturday and asked if1 would speak. Om Monday morning I announced that I would. Iam hero, f know, at the close of the hours devoted to this matter, but I will not detain you long with what I doaire to say. (Cries of “Goon,” “go on.) I will attempt briefly to show you how we may by bility ward off the dan. gers with which we are ‘eatened at this moment. { never voted yet with any party whatever. I never voted for a whig because he was a whig; nor for a republican beca.se he was a republican; nor for a democrat because he wes a democrat; nor fer an American he was an American. But I have voted from the beginning to the end for the best.men—for the men with the best princi- ples. (Applause) Iknow that! have got ambition; I understand that perfectly well, and do not deny it. But I tell you that A ooge political organizations have been of such a character it has been utterly impossible for me to occupy any place anywhere. (‘‘That’sso.’’) could not do it. Ido not to night bring ay! chat against partieular political fel cocoa re ut tell you, and Tek les beerderml and soberly genteel le you ere who come from every ‘count to listen to it; that such is the charembagot your tioat organizations that I defy any mah to break away trammels by which he is eurrounded, and come out per- ly equare and independent and vote for any persom who is not a party candidate. Ho is compelled by storm neceagity either to lose his influence or submit to the or- ganizations by which he is surrounded and by which he is controlled. You know this to bo true, every one ef you. Now there are hundreds, and thousands, and tens of thousands who never goto the polls. What is the rea- son of that? Simply because those who are determinod to win the highest places in the gift of this government are determined to win them, they care not how. Power the will have; bonestiy, perhaps, if they can, but they wil have power at any rate. Now I tell you—and you know it ly well—that an honest man cannot come ia competition with those men with any hope of succoas. And why is it in our county that we find so many men staying away from. the Leder! meetings, the political assemblages and the polis? It is because there is ne lace there for them ‘now. Look over the length and readth of this land; see the gl that crowss us every- where, Look at our power to-day; at our advances arta, science, civilization and ; they have never been equalled. Look at this tremendous empire, strotoh- shores of the far away to the Pacific—a magnificent arch of ‘States; a glorious empire, such as the world never saw ‘before. The diflerence between this country and the Old World is tre- mendous; tere is no comparison between the two. Ge io the workshops there, and stand orer the men there employed and ask them why thoy do this or that thing, and they will say—Because our fathers before us s0.”? But go into the workshops of Americans and stand by the artisans thero, as they arc fashioning those mighty of art and mechanism which lead this country for- ward with gigantic strides, and ask them why they do that, and they will say—Why, I make three per oon Thave tried that thing, I understand it, I know perfectly.” That is the difference between the Old World andthe New. (Applause.) We havea pow- er here; the air is full of power—the very air we breath; it is like oxhiliarating gas, i is Hke nitrous oxide, and gives to every man who breathes it energy, stre! vi- , and now I say let us keep it. (Ap- aan Geet ha es to abridge our jot a bit a fellow citizens, T call uj lom, in the name of hn- -4 E willing to forego anything that would result in good gone be the sake oe the good of the county. They are’ dotormined to reach power. They care for nothing but power. That {s the great object every- where, You cannot gave this country by ee agtet tions now existing; it is an impossible thing. What have all these speakers told you to-nignt? They have told Frage mrp the spirit rife or col: a been growing, expanding, increasing, unt dark, dismal and tysterious ‘cloud, it covers, the whole and everywhere, the mutterings of ita thunders and = Hagheg of its ightnings arg terrifying us throughout