Hear, now, what the states did. The prize of commercial greatness and glory was equally sought by the thirteen states. Seven seconded the wise-I had almost said, and will say-the pious policy of the federal government, and abolished slavery from all their borders. Not all at once-not by violence-not by confiscation; but they took such measures in the year 1800 or thereabouts, that whereas, in the year 1800 every twenty-eighth person was a slave, in 1828 not one slave was found upon the soil of the state of New York. Six others of the states followed in the same policy. But six more, -the more southern states-declined to pursue that policy, but they still determined to compete for the great national commercial prize. The state of New York had, in its early days, enlightened statesmen-men who had not learned the demoralizing doctrine of the times, that virtue and freedom enfeebled the state, and that slavery is the necessary element of national greatness. Among the great men and great statesmen and patriots of that early period were Christopher Colles, Hamilton, Jay, the Clintons, Tompkins and Rufus King; and coming later, but not unworthy of the noble association, John W. Francis, of the city of New York. The thoughts of these enlightened men, then called speculation and imagination, filled the age in which they lived, and they projected, and there have since been completed all the great thoroughfares of commerce, from New York bay to the St. Lawrence and the lakes. And other states have continued the work until these same channels of intercourse and commerce between the city of New York and other portions of the continent now reach the very borders of our civilization in the west. One thing more was necessary, and that was education-education for a free people. The foundation of a system of education. equally fair, just and impartial, among all the classes of the citizens. was laid in the state at an early day, and after much attention was finally introduced and established permanently in the city of New York. Here, fellow citizens, I have told you in these very few words the whole foundation of all the prosperity of the state of New York, which now, after a period of only sixty years, counts a population of four millions, and a commerce surpassing all the other states, as well as the foundation of the prosperity of the United States, which now, instead of four millions, counts thirty millions-and which have established in the city of New York, as the one port which alone was adequately adapted to the commerce inland, sur

passing that of any other capital, and a foreign commerce second only to one in the world. Surely if, instead of being now before the citizens of this metropolis of this great state of the United States, I had told this story to a stranger in a foreign land, he would have said: "You have told me of that Atlantis-that happy republic which the ancient philosophers conceived, and the ancient poets sung, and which the hard experience of mankind has hitherto proved to be an impossibility and a fabrication."

And now for the future of New York. I, myself, when I was even older than some beardless hearers before me, sought recreation and rest out of the city of New York by hanging around the open tomb of the Potter's field, and what is now Washington square. I think a very able and ingenious writer in a morning newspaper yesterday called my attention to the fact that, to a certainty established by demonstration, within a period of one hundred and fifty years the population of the United States will be three hundred millions that it would surpass China. I doubt not his figures are accurate. What, then, is it to be fifty years hence?-for it is a gradual progression. What a hundred years hence-only a hundred yearsis to be the magnitude and the population of the city of New York? Take into view only one agency-two agencies-the combination of the great state of New York and of the United States in increasing their own greatness, and the greatness and glory and magnificence of New York city follow as its legitimate result. This commerce is to be soon not merely a national commerce, but the commerce of the continent of America. I need not tell you that the port which enjoys the commerce of the continent of America, commands at once the commerce of the globe. You have now seen what it is, and you have seen what has produced it. What remains is to consider what is needful to secure that future for the city, as well as for the country for which you as well as myself are necessarily and naturally and justly so ambitious. What can it be, my dear friends? What can it be that is needful to be done but to leave things to go on just exactly as they have gone on hitherto; to leave slavery to be gradually, peaceably circumscribed and limited hereafter, as it has been hitherto, and to leave the increase of our own white population, and the increase by foreign immigration to go on just exactly as they are already going on, and to leave the canals and railroads in full operation as they are, and to leave your systems of education and toleration to

stand on the basis on which they now rest. There, if you please, is what I understand by republicanism. I do not know what complexion it wears to your glasses, but I do know that men may call it black, or green, or red, but to me it is pure, unadulterated republicanism and Americanism.

That is the whole question in this political canvass. There is no more. If you elect that eminent, and able, and honest and reliable man, Abraham Lincoln, to the presidency, and if, as I am sure you will during the course of the next four years, you constitute the United States senate with a majority like him, and at the present election establish the house of representatives on the same basis, you have then done just exactly this: you have elected men who will leave slavery in the United States just exactly where it is now, and who will do more than that-who will leave freedom in the United States, and every foot and every acre of the public domain, which is the basis of future states, just exactly as it is now. There are laws of congress; there are edicts of presidents and governors; there are judgments or pretended judgments of the supreme court, which have a tendency if they should stand, and if they should be continued and renewed by future presidents, and future congresses, and future judges of the supreme court, to change all this thing, to put slavery over into the free states again, and to send slavery into, and freedom out of the territories of the national domain. All that we propose to do, all that you will do, and, God be thanked, all that it is needful to do, is to take care that no more such laws, no more such edicts, no more such judgments or pretended judgments shall be rendered. Why, then, since it is so simple, shall you not go on in the same way which was begun by your fathers, and which has been prosecuted so long and with so much success? They tell us that we are to encounter opposition. Why, bless my soul, did anybody ever expect to reach a fortune, or fame, or happiness on earth, or a crown in Heaven, without encountering resistance and opposition? What are we made men for but to encounter and overcome opposition arrayed against us in the line of our duty. But whence comes this opposition? What is it? I have already alluded to the fact that fifty years ago, when the seven northern states abolished slavery the six southern ones did not see their interest in the same way, and they declined to second or adopt the policy of the day and of the age, and having retained slavery, and the world found out

just about the same time the usefulness of cotton as a fabric or material for human clothing, and an invention was made which rendered its manufacture easy.

Then the slave states, retaining their slave labor, proceeded to build up a great interest on the growth of cotton, and when they had grown cotton, and made it a great material interest in the country, they then fell down before it, and did homage to it. I do not say they paid worship to it; but they anointed it king, and they pronounced allegiance to cotton to be a political duty. Did anybody interfere with that homage? Did anybody complain of it? Never. They were men at liberty, like ourselves, to raise a commercial and political king—a social king-within the republic. But they set up the throne in our midst, and said that we must bend and bow to cotton. But from that requirement we have modestly but firmly-not always very firmly, neither-but with tolerable persistence, declined to comply. Now they find that this system does not build up great states like New York, but on the other hand that the six states which pursued their system have remained stationary, or relatively so. The greatest and finest site for commerce on this continent is New Orleans, and in early life I made a pilgrimage there to see whether it was not true that New Orleans was to supersede and supplant New York, the capital of my native state, as the seat of commerce on this continent. I found that whereas there were some ten times the population in New York that there was in New Orleans, that it was increasing in a ratio of such magnitude that when New Orleans would have a quarter of a million New York would have a million and a half. Shall I tell you the reason? I found it in the fact that when I went out in the night in the city of New York, I saw the cobbler's light twinkling in his window in the gray of the morning or late at night. I saw everything made, as well as sold, in New York; but when I came to the city of New Orleans I found there that everything was sold and nothing was made. After trying in vain to find any article of human raiment that was made in New Orleans, I did see upon a sign opposite the St. Charles hotel this inscription: "Wagons, carts and wheelbarrows made and sold here." I said, I have found one thing that is made in New Orleans! coarse wagons, carts and rough and rude wheelbarrows, but on crossing to inspect the matter a little more minutely, before entering it in my notes, I found that I had VOL. IV.

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overlooked some words printed in smaller letters, "at New Haven," and that the sign was rightly to be read: "Wagons, carts and wheelbarrows made at New Haven and sold here." Fellow citizens, this is not a reproach. It is not spoken reproachfully, it would ill become me to so speak it. But it is their system. They employ slaves, and in New York-I was going to say that we employ, but I think I will reverse it and say that freemen employ their masters, the manufacturers. This is but an illustration. The principle is the same in every department of industry and manufacture.

Now the slave states not only build no great cities, but they build no great states, compared with these states-these free states. There is one other distinction, and that is, the free states multiply and replenish the continent with free states, but the slave states fail to multiply and replenish the continent with slave states. And they say that the reason is not in the nature of slavery and freedom, relatively, themselves, but in the injustice of not allowing them to establish slave territory; and they are going to say next, as they logically must, that they should reöpen the African slave trade, and so furnish the supplies for slavery. The opposition is founded upon these facts: is it reasonable to concede to it? We cannot concede to it unless we are willing to wreck the prosperity, and growth, and greatness of our city, of our state and of our country. That would seem an end of the argument, but they then resort to terror and to menace. They tell us that they will withdraw their trade from the city of New York, unless she will vote-unless her citizens will vote -as they require them to vote-as their supposed interest dictates. Is it best to yield to that? Why, New York is not a province of Virginia or of Carolina, any more than it is a province of New Jersey or Connecticut. New York is the metropolis of the country. New York must be the metropolis of the continent. Her commerce, like her principles, must be elevated, equal, just, impartial toward every state. Toward freedom, at least, if it must be tolerant of slavery. But they proceed to tell us that if we do not concede to their demands they will secede and dissolve the Union. Will they? Shall we then surrender? That involves the question whether they will secede and dissolve the Union if we do not. What then is it we propose to do which they require us not to do? Why, it is simply to vote for the man we prefer over the three men, or the no man which they prefer. Is there any offense in that? That is just