SPEECH AT LOYAL LEAGUE CONVENTION

IN

UTICA, MAY 26TH, 1863.

This strikes me as a very mottled assemblage, politically considered, and in a certain point of view, morally considered also. Here we are, Democrats and Republicans, temperance men and anti-temperance men, some one thing and some another, and there are soldiers among us. I see soldiers [applause] who have returned from the battle-field wet with the sweat of war, and some of them with its blood. They have returned to receive our benedictions and to be the witnesses of our enduring and deep gratitude for their heroic defense of our bleeding country. [Applause.] Now, what is the object that has had the power to collect this heterogeneous assemblage? I answer, it is a common cause. This is the mighty loadstone that has been able to draw us together, in spite of our mutual differences, in spite of our different views and different character. There are persons so bigoted and so impracticable as not to consent to come into a common cause. I know Democrats who, not even to save their beloved country— I can not say, however, how beloved to them-[laughter]-there are Democrats, I say, who not even to save this dear country, will consent to vote any other than a Democratic ticket; and I know Republicans who will not consent to vote any other but a Republican ticket; and I know Abolitionists, and I am ashamed of them, [laughter,] and even temperance men, who will not consent to work with any other than their own sort of people. But we, thank God for it, are not such. We, though differing from each other at many points, can, nevertheless, when the nation calls for it, consent to work together. Now, I ask, what is this common cause which has drawn us together? Just here give me your special attention. I ask again, what is this common cause? it to save the Constitution? Oh! it is inexpressibly more than that. There are many good, patriotic men, who don't wish the Constitution saved as it is; they wish to have it altered. I, for one, would not have one word of it altered; I have pleaded for it with lips and pen, more than any Democrat, living or dead. I would not have one word in it altered. [Applause.] Well, if this common cause is not to save the Constitution, is it to save

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the Union? Oh! no, unspeakably more than that. There are good men, and wise men, who do not like all the terms of our Union; I like them all. [Applause.] I have never taken in my life, with lips or pen, the slightest exception to any of them; and probably never shall. Well, is it, then, the saving of the country that is this common cause? It is not even that, for there are many good men who do not like the present boundaries of our country. They wish it to be made smaller. For my own part, every rood of it is dear to my heart. [Applause.] I would not have one star pass from the National flag. [Applause.] Not even poor South-Carolina. [Applause and laughter.] I love even South-Carolina. I love her for the memory of her noble men who stood by the side of our Revolutionary fathers. I love her for another reason; I love her for what she will become again when she shall have come out of her present degeneracy and madness. Well, now, if this common cause which has drawn us together is not the saving of the Constitution, nor the saving of the Union, nor the saving of the country, pray what, then, is it? My answer will be-and it will leap up from all your hearts to your lips-it is the putting down of this accursed and causeless Rebellion. [Applause.] That is the common cause that has drawn us together. And now, mark you, we all stand together at this point, where all good, and just, and patriotic men can and do stand with us. [Applause.] And then one thing more: that is the very point where unpatriotic and selfish men refuse to stand with us. The very point. And yet, some of these unpatriotic and self-seeking men, and traitors among them, are very eager to assure us of their intense regard for the Union and Constitution and country. But when we turn upon them with the question, "Are you for putting down the Rebellion ?" they are found wanting. That is just the only test to apply to them, and under its application they fail. I recollect that more than thirty years ago, when Great Britain was agitated by the proposition to abolish British slavery, some Quakers supplied themselves with an image of a kneeling slave, and the appealing question running out of its mouth: "Am I not a man and a brother?" When the candidates for seats in Parliament would come round to these Quakers and solicit their votes, and tell them of the many fine things they would do if elected things peculiarly acceptable to Quakers-these cunning Quakers would thrust in the face of these candidates this appealing image, and ask of them: "Can you go that? If you can't go that, we can't go you." Just so do we deal with these men, when they prate about their love for the Constitution, the Union, and the country. I ask them, and you ask them, can you go for putting down the Rebellion? If you can't go that, we can't go you. Oh! why should we go these vile hypocrites-for such they are-who talk about being for the Constitution, and the Union, and the country, and yet go not for putting down the Rebellion, the putting down of which can alone save these blessings to us, and the triumph of which will rob us of

them all? And now we have before us but one duty; our one work is the work of putting down the rebellion. You have got to come to this point. I don't allow myself to be a co-worker with any one on earth who does not come to this point. The putting down of this Rebellion must be done, come what will to Constitu tion and Union, and even country. [Applause.] Can you go that? [Applause and cries of "Yes, yes."] For I hold that our duty to Justice, and putting down this Rebellion, is infinitely more commanding and absolute than any duty we owe to the Constitution or the Union, or even the boundaries of our country. I claim that we are to go for putting down the Rebellion unconditionally. Can you go that? You are not to say, we will consent to put down the Rebellion on condition of the saving of the Constitution, the saving of the Union, or the saving of the country. You are to say, we go for putting down the Rebellion unconditionally; and that is just where these traitorous enemies will not go along with us. [Applause.] What!-some one questions me-would you go for putting down this Rebellion with all the possible risks that the Union, the Constitution, and the country might go down with it? I answer, I would. I answer, I make no calculation at all at that point. My only duty has been, from the first, the putting down of this Rebellion. And here, some old Abolitionists, perhaps, would ask me: Do you go for putting down this Rebellion at all possible hazards, that Slavery may survive and be stronger than ever? I do. I run that risk. [Applause.] I have no conditions to make in behalf of any of my hobbies, and have not had since the day the news reached me at Peterboro of the bombardment of Sumter. [Applause.] And now let me here say, that in my philosophy, the putting down of crime can not bring any harm to any good-can not bring any help to any evil. Hence the putting down of this rebellion, which is the crime of crimes, can not bring any possible harm to any good, in the Constitution, in the Union, or in the country, or in Freedom-none whatever. I call it the crime of crimes. Earth has never known a greater crime than this attempt to destroy a nation which had never done any thing to provoke that attempta nation which had always been not only just, but exceedingly partial, to those guilty of this piratical and murderous attempt. [Applause.] And now let me here say, that to make ourselves most effective in this work, we ought to cultivate earnestness. Oh! what an immense advantage the South has had over us in that respect! If all our early Generals-I beg your pardon, Mr. President, I didn't include yourself-[laughter]-you are too nearly kindred to me that I should do that-I say if our early Generals had had but a tithe of the earnestness that characterizes the South and Southern Generals, we should not have needed to be meeting here; the Rebellion would long ago have been ended. And there is one thing more we need to cultivate, and that is resentment. Can you go that? ["Yes, sir," and applause.] I know there is a sentimental, namby-pamby religion,

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which takes fright at the idea of cultivating resentment. need more resentment to fight the rebels as we ought to fight them. That has been our want all the way through. I recall a conversation with that great and good man, Theodore Parker, which I had a few years before his death--a conversation on the elements in human character. He claimed great credit for our power of hearty hating. That's like him; and were he now alive, you might be sure of having at leas tone hearty hater of the Rebellion. He would exclaim with the Psalmist: "Do not I hate them, O Lord! that hate thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred." Perhaps some one would remind me of the prayer: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." Now, I hold that this resentment is entirely compatible with the highest civilization and purest Christianity, and entirely consistent with forgiveness; but, moreover, these rascals do know what they do. [Great laughter and applause.] Our Saviour had none such in his eye when he prayed. [Applause.] They know what they do, and they do it with a hatred and with a will that puts to shame our indecision and gentleness. I say we must go unconditionally for putting down the Rebellion. And let me add, our loyalty is to be unconditional. We have tried our Government and we can trust it. [Applause.] I do not say that we are bound to agree with it in all its views of tariffs and other things; I do not say that we are bound to approve all its war measures even. It is entitled to our loyalty, because it has abundantly proved itself to be honestly and earnestly intent on putting down the Rebellion. I observed this forenoon a skittishness on one point--at the point of politics. A word on that. I have observed, I meant to say, that some persons are afraid that this grand Loyal League, into which I would have all right men of the North, South, East, and West enter, will become a party machine. Now, I would have this grand Loyal League a mighty power in politics. That's my view of it. [Applause.] I would have it work day and night to keep out of political office every man who is not unconditionally against the Rebellion. I do not say to keep out of office Democrats or Republicans, but every man who does not stand by the Government-who is not unconditionally for the Government. I have never in my life voted a Republican ticket; for I am, as I think, a Democrat of Democrats. Not a sham, spurious Democrat; but a man going for the equal rights of all men. [Applause.] If any man here can say, "I am a Democrat," I answer in Paul's words: “I, more." Our great work is before us. It is not to save the Union, or the Constitution, or the country; that is all prating. I do not want to hear a man speak about his love for his country, but rather about his hatred of the rebels. I will infer his love for his country from his hatred of the rebels. Put down the rebellion, and the Union, and the Constitution, and the country will take care of themselves. If a murderer should be discovered in Utica, the concern is to be, not for the safety of Utica, but to arrest and punish the murderer. Arrest and punish him, and Utica will take

care of herself. Nor do I want you to talk about what shall be done after the Rebellion is put down. The Rebellion is not put down yet, and we never shall put it down if we allow ourselves to be diverted from the actual and urgent duties of the present to speculations in regard to the future. The only problem, Mr. President, that we can solve to-day, is putting down the Rebellion. I would postpone every other thought to that solution. Let me add, "sufficient to the day is the evil thereof." We must grudge nothing; we must grudge no help, no precious treasure, no precious lives. Neither treasure nor life would be worth any thing to us, or any right-minded man, if this Rebellion were triumphant. If we should fail, we shall need no property to live on, for then we shall be sinking under loads of infamy and anguish of heart, and shall desire to live no longer. [Applause.]