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tempted rhetorical improvements have added to the force of its simple eloquence.*

The President-elect was accompanied by his wife and their three sons; Dr. Wallace, his brother-in-law; Governor Yates, Judge David Davis, Mr. Judd, Mr. Browning; Colonel Edwin V. Sumner and Major David Hunter, of the regular army; Colonel Ward H. Lamon, of the Governor's staff, and several others. His itinerary included the cities of Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, New York, Trenton, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, occupying twelve days.

His first regular speech on the journey was made at Indianapolis, where he said on the evening of the 11th:

Fellow Citizens of the State of Indiana: I am here to thank you for this magnificent welcome, and still more for the very generous support given by your State to that political cause, which, I think, is the true and just cause of the whole country, and the whole world. Solomon says, "There is a time to keep silence;" and when men wrangle by the mouth, with no certainty that they mean the same thing while using the same words, it perhaps were as well if they would keep silence.

The words "coercion" and "invasion" are much used in these days, and often with some temper and hot blood. Let us make sure, if we can, that we do not misunderstand

There have been not less than a score of variant versions of this brief speech, with which unreasonable liberties were taken. Undoubtedly some of its phrases would have been different had he spoken less extemporaneously; but he would certainly not have omited the name of God, used twice in the verbatim report, or the following sentence: "Here the most cherished ties of earth were assumed." Yet these two omissions occur in some other Versions-including that "written down immediately after the train started," by Private Secretary Nicolay.

the meaning of those who use them. Let us get the exact definitions of these words, not from dictionaries, but from the men themselves, who certainly deprecate the things they would represent by the use of the words.

What, then, is coercion? What is invasion? Would the marching or an army into South Carolina, without the consent of her people, and with hostile intent toward them, be invasion? I certainly think it would, and it would be coercion also, if the South Carolinians were forced to submit. But if the United States should merely hold and retake its own forts and other property, and collect the duties on foreign importations, or even withhold the mails from places where they were habitually violated, would any or all of these things be invasion or coercion? Do our professed lovers of the Union, who spitefully resolve that they will resist coercion and invasion, understand that such things as these, on the part of the United States, would be coercion or invasion of a State? If so, their idea of means to preserve the object of their great affection would seem to be exceedingly thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of the homeopathist would be much too large for it to swallow. In their view, the Union, as a family relation, would seem to be no regular marriage, but rather a sort of "free-love arrangement, to be maintained on passional attraction.

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By the way, in what consists the special sacredness of a State? I speak not of the position assigned to a State in the Union by the Constitution, for that is a bond we all recognize. That position, however, a State can not carry out of the Union with it. I speak of that assumed primary right of a State to rule all which is less than itself, and to ruin all which is larger than itself. If a State and a county, in a given case, should be equal in number of inhabitants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the State better than the county? Would an exchange of name be an exchange of rights? Upon what principle, upon what rightful principle, may a State, being no more than one-fiftieth part of the nation in soil and population, break up the nation, and then coerce a proportionably large subdivision of itself in he most arbitrary way? What mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred on a district of country with its people, b merely calling it a State? Fellow-citizens, I am not assert

ing anything. I am merely asking questions for you to consider. And now allow me to bid you farewell.

These words, carefully prepared because anxiously awaited by the country-in some quarters captiously - contain nearly all that need now be recalled of his several addresses before reaching the city of New York. Everywhere, by the proper civic authorities and by the people of every party, he was received with all the honors and more than the usual demonstrations accorded to a Presidential guest. Arriving at the railway station in Cincinnati before dark, he said: "I thought in Indianapolis I had never seen so large a crowd in winter weather. I am no longer able to say that." He was in a melancholy mood when he said later in his main speech (on his birthday): "In a few short years I and every other individual man who is now living will pass away. I hope that our national difficulties will also pass away, and I hope that in the streets of Cincinnati - good old Cincinnati good old Cincinnati - for centuries to come the people will give such a reception to the constitutionally elected President of the whole United States." The next day, at Columbus - in the extreme modesty that came with his melancholy-he said of "the very great responsibility" of which he had been reminded: "I am deeply sensible of that weighty responsibility. I can not but know, what you all know, that without a name, perhaps without a reason why I should have a name, there has fallen upon me a task such as did not fall upon the Father of his Country." Then, speaking of the existing national troubles, he remarked: "It is a consoling circumstance that when we look out there is nothing that really hurts anybody.

We entertain different views upon political questions, but nobody is suffering anything. This is a most consoling circumstance, and from it I judge that all we want is time and patience, and a reliance upon that God who has never forsaken this people."

These last soothing words led some inconsiderate people in the commercial cities to the hasty conclusion that the President-elect had no proper understanding of the great crisis.

At Steubenville and at Pittsburg he improved his opportunity to "speak across the river" to Virginians in the same conciliatory spirit as he had done at Cincinnati to Kentuckians. He was also drawn out on the Tariff question at Pittsburg, speaking with moderation in favor of Protection. The Pennsylvanians were specially interested just then in the Morrill tariff bill, which directly after became a law with the approval of President Buchanan, and substantially placed the subject without the pale of party politics for a number of years. The Presidential train reached Cleveland on the 15th. The weather was of the worst, yet seemed to have no effect on the numbers or the enthusiasm of the multitude who escorted their guest in procession to the hotel. Here he spoke at length, among other things saying:

In a country like this, where every man bears on his face the marks of intelligence, where every man's clothing, if I may so speak, shows signs of comfort, and every dwelling signs of happiness and contentment, where schools and churches abound on every side, the Union can never be in danger. I would, if I could, instill some degree of patriotism and confidence into the political mind in relation to this matter. . . . I think that there is no occasion for any excitement. I think the crisis, as it is called, is altogether

an artificial one. It has no foundation in fact. It can't be argued up, and it can't be argued down. Let it alone, and it will go down of itself.

Arriving in Buffalo on Saturday evening, the 16th, the President-elect was met at the station by a large concourse of people, with ex-President Fillmore at their head, and later there was an address of welcome by the Mayor, to which there was a response, enjoining composure, adherence to "sober convictions of right," and fidelity to constitutional obligations; the clouds would then be dispelled, and there would be a bright and glorious future. He remained over the Sunday at Buffalo, and continued his journey on Monday, arriving at Albany in the evening. Two speeches were made here, one in reply to Governor Morgan and one at the hall of the Assembly. Here, too, he said: "If we have patience, if we maintain our equanimity, though some may allow themselves to run off in a burst of passion, I still have confidence that the Almighty Ruler of the Universe, through the instrumentality of this great and intelligent people, can and will bring us through this difficulty."

At Albany he was met by a delegation from the municipal authorities of New York, who escorted him to that city on the 19th. There he was received with demonstrations unequaled during all this prolonged ovation. Places of business were closed, and the streets were thronged with people as perhaps never before. Mayor Fernando Wood, on behalf of the civic authorities, made the welcoming address, in the course of which he spoke of a "dismembered government to reconstruct, and a disconnected and hostile people to

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