Gass. Book ADDEESS pit §1111011 %t&$nt of |p}tI;tMpIjia:, II >. THE CITIZENS OF PENNSYLVANIA, IN FAVOR OF THE RE-ELECTION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. PHILADELPHIA: KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, 607 SANSOM STREET. 1864. T>6~- ADDRESS. Fellow Citizens : — The day rapidly approaches when some one must be selected to exercise the power and influence of the Executive branch of our Government during another term. The time has been when the character of the person chosen has excited but little interest beyond the circle of active politicians, because in the midst of peace and abounding prosperity, it was not considered of much importance. Easy duties do not demand great talents or peculiar qualities, and the duties of the Executive office are not difficult in such quiet times as it has been the happiness of our country to enjoy during the larger part of its history. But now our position is very different. We are in the midst of a great civil war, which has raged for more than three years, the issue of which is still doubtful, and which may, when the day for making a choice arrives, still be calling for more sacrifices to be offered on its blood} r altar. The stake in this war is no less than our country. The object of our enemies is to destroy it — ours is to defend it, to keep its d,omain entire as we received it from our fathers, to keep its name and fame high, as of yore, on the roll of the nations of the world. This has proved to be a difficult task, calling forth all our energy and demanding enormous sacrifices of blood and treasure. Our enemies are men of our own race. They have displayed the valor, constancy and ability that are the attributes of their blood and the fruits of free institutions. It will not be easy to subdue such a people, notwithstanding our superior power and vast resources, and when their military strength is subdued, it may not be very easy to convert them 4 from enemies to friends. Yet this two-fold task lies before us. We must subdue the rebellion, conquer and disperse its armies and force it to lay down its arms, not in submission to us, but to the majesty of the law, to tbe just authority of our Government. We must also convert the Southern people into friends and contented fellow-citizens. We do not desire them as subjects, as disaffected and conquered enemies, as a Venetia or Poland, dangerous alike in peace or war, and a contradic- tion to every principle of republican government. We desire to bring them back to us to share our rights, to participate in the blessings of a restored Union, and to help us build up again, higher and more glorious than ever, the edifice of our country's greatness. These two things, therefore, are what we must do. To succeed in tbe first and not in tlie second, would be to fail, for the first is to tbe second as means to end. It must be obvious to every one capable of thinking on the subject at all, that virtues and abilities, civil and military, of no common order, are necessary to execute this scheme, and that these must be possessed, not by one only, but by many or all of those to whom the powers of the Government are entrusted. These are not times for ignorance, imbecility, folly, corruption, or even mediocrity in high places. They are, indeed, never in such places appropriately or rightfully, but now, more than at any former period, it behooves us to place great power in competent hands. Integrity, courage, talents, knowledge, are necessary to save the country in this its hour of trial and danger. And because it is a time of danger from war and its consequences, the Executive Depart- ment is especially called upon for prompt, determined, wise and prudent action. If the Government be weak there, it will 1)0 weak in everything necessary for its defence against the numerous enemies, open and covert, foreign and domestic, by which it is assailed. The army and navy, the finances, the diplomacy — these are the provinces that now demand adminis- trative ability for their successful management. They demand wisdom and prudence, liberal and national views and pur- poses, freedom from partisan passions or designs, freedom from selfish and ambitious personal objects. The President is the head of the Executive Department. He is the Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy. He appoints the members of the Cabinet. He has a general supervision and control over their action. Whatever they are, he sanctions ; whatever they do, he does and is responsible for. He is the guiding and sustaining spirit and will of Executive power, and its action will be in harmony with his character. For this reason, fellow citizens, and with a deep and solemn sense of the responsibility we assume, and of the vast conse- quences involved in your decision, we come forward to urge upon you the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. The fact that Mr. Lincoln is now the President, signally illustrates the nature of our government and the genius of our people ; the one offering free scope to all ability, the other eager and aspiring, ever striving to reach a wider sphere and higher eminence. Mr. Lincoln is of humble origin. His earliest home was a log-cabin in the West. His eyes first opened on an untamed forest, in which his father's axe had made a little clearing. As he was forest born, so he was forest bred. His strength of mind and body was developed by the labors and hardships of a settler's life ; the thoughts and sentiments of his dawning intellect were colored and impressed by the wild beauty of the rude scenes of nature around him. He inherited neither name nor fortune. Neither did he inherit education, in the ordinary sense of the word. Perhaps, how- ever, his early training was none the worse on that account, since he had the forest, its toils, and its dangers for teachers. The eaily Persians, we are told, taught their children "to draw a bow, to ride a horse, and to speak the truth," and thes children afterwards became the founders of a great empire. The axe and the rifle, to which the hands of the boy Lincoln were familiar, like the horse and the bow, educate those who use them to strength, address and courage ; and to speak the truth, to be faithful to duty in word and deed was the lesson 6 impressed on his youthful mind by his excellent parents. A lesson which has been his guide ever since. Mr. Lincoln, however, besides expertness in using the axe and the rifle, gained also the rudiments of knowledge in what was then the wilderness of Illinois, for in our Western States the school-master follows fast the footsteps of the pioneer. Thus equipped lie was prepared to enter upon the struggle of life in a new country, whose boundless resources offered a field for every sort of ability and a rich prize to bold enterprize and energy. The State was rapidly filling up with settlers, but there was work of the hand and of the brain for more than came or could come. Every man was of value. Every forci- ble man could make his mark and carve out for himself a career and a fortune. Such wa3 and is the character of our "Western countrv, and therefore has it grown and flourished as no land ever grew and flourished before. Into this rich field of promise Mr. Lincoln entered, and he sowed his share of it with seed that soon grew to an abundant harvest. The country suited him and he suited the country. He possessed industry, energy, prudence, native talent, perfect integrity, and these qualities, which tell anywhere, even in the crowded competition of cities, were speedily recognized where work was plenty and the workers few. We will not trace the early steps of Mr. Lincoln's career. They are of interest now only because they show what manner of man he was, and it is because he is now what he was then, that we wish to see him again President of the United States. Ability, industry, integ- rity, these rule in every sphere of life, however high or humble. Mr. Lincoln was soon trusted, because he was trust- worthy ; business sought him, because he could manage it ; respect and good will followed him, because his nature was noble and generous and kind and loving. He acquired a very honorable title among his neighbors. He was called " honest Abe Lincoln," a title which some may think rather familiar and inelegant, but that it was given spontaneously by the people, is a proof that it was merited. It is a republican title and indicates an order of nobility to which all good men pay willing homage. It is a title which every man who seeks high office should deserve, though many get office without deserving it. That Mr. Lincoln deserves it, no one can doubt who knows how it was bestowed. Mr. Lincoln soon aspired to higher pursuits than working on a farm or surveying land, or superintending a mill, or keeping a country store, or rafting goods down the Mississippi to sell in New Orleans for a commission. He had done all these things and did them well. Had he been an ordinary man he would have continued to do them, and would no doubt have prospered as ordinary men do, who are energetic, honest, and intelligent. But he was not an ordinary man. He felt within the impulses of an intellect, able to do more difficult and important work than farming or milling or buying and selling, and instinctively he sought that work. He felt that he could think, that he could acquire knowledge and his mind panted for knowledge, as the hart panteth after the water- brook. He felt also that he could make his thought and knowledge useful, not to himself only, but to the community in which he lived, to his State, to the nation. He ventured to claim the sphere of labor that suited him, which was therefore his right. His fellow-citizens, it seems, recognized that right, for in 1834, when he was twenty-three years of age, they elec- ted him to the Legislature by a large majority, and so well were they satisfied with him, that in 1836, 1838 and 1840, lie was re-elected. Mr. Lincoln was thus put to the sort of work that suited him — great interests, public affairs, unselfish action for the public good. We can well imagine that his sagacity, his in- dustry, his clear probity made him a most useful legislator. Doubtless also the nature of his duties made him feel more sensibly than he had done before, a deficiency in himself. He wanted knowledge : he was a law-maker, but he was ignorant of law. This defect was a bar not only to his advancement, but to his usefulness in the path he had chosen. It was not in his nature to yield to an obstacle which effort could over- come, so he determined to study law. In 1836, he was admit- 8 . ted to the bar, and in the following year removed to Spring- field. His reputation soon brought him business. Large interests were confided to his care by merchants and capitalists in other States and in* Europe, whose attention was attracted to the rich resources and growing wealth of Illinois. But the prac- tice of his profession had revealed to Mr. Lincoln, that he possessed a gift which more easily than any other, opens to a man the road to distinction, — the gift of eloquence. Mr. Lin- coln could speak in such a way that all men listened when they heard him. His earnest and impressive manner, his. terse, forcible, idiomatic language swayed the meetings of the people and made them think his thoughts, share his convictions, ami ■ glow with his enthusiasm. These assemblies afforded a more exciting arena for the display of power than the Court-House, and the great national questions which were looming up, like thunder-clouds above the political horizon, made, to one who felt that he could grasp them, the petty contests of the bar seem dull and tame. Mr. Lincoln studied law and practised law long enough to become acquainted with its general princi- ples and that is enough for a man who aspires to public station. He became excited by the political movements around him. movements which were the precursors to the war of giants which has since occurred, and he preferred discussing them to collecting money for eastern capitalists' or trying cases in County Courts. In 1844, lie traversed Illinois and Indiana, addressing almost daily, with great power and effect, assem- blies of the people to promote the election of Mr. Clay. In 1846, Mr. Lincoln was sent to Congress, and all that he said or did there displayed his logical power, his practical ability and his unostentatious devotion to the claims of justice and humanity. He was opposed to the war of conquest waged against Mexico, and has left on record in a series of resolu- tions, a witty and withering exposure of the paltry and false pretexts by which, in order to make it, the provision of the constitution investing Congress alone with the power to declare war was evaded. In 1849, Mr. Lincoln brought in a bill for the conditional abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and this bill exhibits the principles that, on this subject, have guided his conduct ever since ; principles at once conservative, moderate, just and humane. It provides for gradual emanci- pation and compensation to owners who choose to receive it, and whilst it shows respect to the Constitution and to the rights of property acquired under it, it shows also disapproval of slavery as an evil and a wrong. That Mr. Lincoln's course in Congress was satisfactory to his constituents is proved by the fact that, after his term ended, he was twice nominated as a candidate for the Senate of the United States, once in 1849 and again in 1858. He was not chosen on either occasion, the Republican party not having then gained the ascendency which it afterwards reached, and which in the West, was in great measure due to his elo- quence and reputation. From a humble origin he had risen, not by the arts of a demagogue, but by the steady and unobtru- sive influence of high character and high talents, to become a leader of the people. They trusted him. They had found him faithful over a few things and they made him ruler over many things. In every station of life, from a log-cabin of th.e wil- derness to the Capitol at Washington, he 'had worthily per- formed his duty. Pie might therefore rightfully aspire to the highest station, with full confidence that whatever the people could give him, they would. The future justified this confi- dence, and we believe will justify it again. When Mr. Lincoln was last nominated for the Senate, the rival candidate was Stephen A. Douglas, a man of distinguished ability and high reputation, who, when the war broke out, atoned for previous mistakes by ranging himself on the side of his country. He thus proved that his patriotism was stronger than his party-spirit, and had he lived, there can be no doubt that his passionate energy and eminent talents would have done good service, in the contest we are now waging to save the nation. He was, however, the author of the Kansas and Nebraska bill, by which the Missouri Compromise was re- pealed and the demon of discord on the terrible subject of 10 slavery was roused from its slumber of more than thirty years. Tli is bill involved the right of the general government to pro- hibit slavery in the Territories, and its first fruits wese the Missouri raid into Kansas, the election of a Kansas legislature, amid bloodshed and violence, by Missouri votes, and the Le- compton Constitution. Upon this question, Whether the Territories should be cursed by slavery or blessed by freedom ? issue was joined at that time, between the two parties that divided the country. Events have justified the profound interest which the subject excited, for out of it grew the present war. Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, respectively represented, in Illinois, the parties to this great issue, and slavery in the Ter- ritories was the exclusive and absorbing topic before the people, in the contest which was to decide which of the two should be sent to the Senate. The rival candidates traversed the State, discussing the question before the people, addressing, without personalities or undue warmth, the same assemblies, who lis- tened with deep interest, excited, indeed, by the eloquence of the speakers and the subject of the debate, but not moved be- yond -the bounds of order and decorum. Scenes honorable to our country and its republican institutions ; honorable to these two eminent men, Avho, though earnest opponents, were yet friends ; honorable to the people who thronged to hear them, opening their minds to reason, but shutting out passion from their hearts. In this celebrated contest it was acknowledged by all that the " Little Giant " had met his match. Stimulated by the im- portance of the issue, by the nature of the topics and by the growing excitement of the people, Mr. Lincoln surpassed his former efforts. Eepublican liberty, the rights of the lowly, the wrongs of the oppressed, the universal obligation of truth and justice, the universal claims of humanity and the mighty future of this great country in jeopardy, inspired him with unwonted enthusiasm. His invincible logic was colored by a glow of elevated sentiment and his usually sober and pithy style was warmed and enriched, at times, by his inspiring 11 themes to bursts of eloquence that stirred the hearts of the multitude with kindred emotion. We cannot forbear quoting from one of his speeches, made in this campaign, the follow- ing noble and characteristic appeal for the principles of the Declaration of Independence. " These communities, (the thirteen colonies,) by their repre- sentatives in old Independence Hall, said to the world of men, ' We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are born equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with inalien- able rights ; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the universe. This was their lofty, and wise and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator, to his crea- tures. Yes, gentlemen, to all his creatures, to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on and degraded and imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the race of men then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the furthest posterity. They created a beacon to guide their children and their children's children and the countless myriads who should inherit the earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of posterity to breed tyrants and so they estab- lished these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future, some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, or none but Anglo-Saxon white men, were entitled to life, lib- erty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began, so that truth and justice and mercy and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land, so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of liberty was being built. " Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence ; if you have listened to suggestions that would 12 detract from its grandeur and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions ; if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enume- rated in our chart of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolution. Think nothing; of me, take no thought of the fate of any political man whatever, but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. " You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed those sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending to no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated, in this contest, by something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. It is nothing ; I am nothing ; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that glorious emblem of humanity — the Declaration of Ameri- can Independence." These words smack of the forest ; sturdy as its oaks, free as its winds, rooted deep in the heart of humanity, lifting high towards heaven the branches of its hope. Mr. Lincoln was not elected to the Senate. His long debate before the people, with Mr. Douglas, bore better fruit, both for him and for us. His reputation was enlarged by it. His talents, his earnest convictions, his evident devotion to high principles, were displayed on a wider theatre and drew atten- tion to his previous career. It was found then, as it has been found since, that what he had always been, was in perfect harmony with what he is. His life throughout was made of the same stuff, and, like a healthy tree, was sound to the heart. Our government had become imbecile and corrupt, through subserviency to the Slave Power. Every concession only increased the arrogant demands of the Southern leaders, who openly threatened to ruin the nation, if they could not rule it. The outrages in Kansas were succeeded by the greater outrages of the Dred Scott decision and the Lecompton Con- stitution. The limits of endurance at length were passed. 13 Evidently .the time had come when the question, whether American liberty should yield to African Slavery, must he decided. That this question would arise was foreseen, from an early period by the leading minds of the country. They, and those of a later date, trembled at the conviction that, sooner or later, as slavery waxed in power, it would either rend the Union asunder or perish in the attempt. At the time when Mr. Lincoln was defeated as a candidate for the Senate, the* movements of parties, the tides of opinion, the growing passions of sections, showed that the day for this trial of strength between North and South — between civilization and barbarism — had arrived. Instinctively all men felt wl : some saw clearly and certainly, that a crisis was approaching when patriotism, sincerity, ability and honesty, instead of partizan serfishness, obsequious falsehood, ignorant folly and brazen-faced corruption, must be invested with power, or our country, with all the hopes of its vast future, of liberty and of humanity, would be lost. Great emergencies call for great men ; and fortunate, indeed, is a nation if, in its hour of need, the great man comes when he is called, and can .be accepted. He always exists, bul often he is known only to a few, and cannot be recognized by the multitude in the simple attire of circumstances and man- ners, which really great men wear. In quiet times, great offices are filled by little men, and had been in our country so long, that, forgetful of the perennial and exhaustless powers of nature, we had begun to think that the breed of great men had run out. Few persons, here at least, cast of the moun- tains, would have expected to find our destined man, in plain, simple, unostentatious Abraham Lincoln, who was born in a log cabin, who had split rails on a forest farm, and had rafted lumber down the Mississippi. His name was unknown to m< ; of us. What he had said or done in Congress had not attracted the notice of the nation, and faint echoes only of his contro- versy with Mr. Douglas had crossed the Alleghanies. Fortunately, the Convention appointed to find out a captain fit to command in the approaching storm, met at Chicago. 14 Mr. Lincoln was known in the West ; he was appreciated and honored. ILis talents, his purity, his energy and firmness, had been displayed before the people, and the tones of his eloquent speeches, in his campaign of 1858, yet 'lingered in their memories and their hearts. The topic of those speeches was the extension of Slavery, and he argued it well. The kindred question now to be settled was — Shall Slavery rule America ? — and the people of the West believed that Abraham Lincoln understood that question and could decide it, whether by word or deed, better than any other man. Fortunately, so thought the Convention of the Republican Party that met at Chicago in May, I860, and they nominated him as the candidate of that party for the Presidency, unexpectedly to him, without his solicitation, almost, indeed, without his knowledge. How the nomination was received — how, as his character became known in the East, it inspired universal confidence ; with what enthusiasm he was elected as the chosen leader of the North, when the clash of arms could almost be heard in the immediate future which has proved so full of great events, need not now be told. The rival of Mr. Douglas, victorious in argument, though defeated in votes, had reached a higher place than either aspired to, when they discussed the question of Slavery in the Territories before the people of Illinois. The scene was changed, the audience was larger, the subject had grown to vast proportions, new actors were entering upon the stage. Not Slavery in the Territories, but Slavery in America, had become the theme of the nation, and it was to be settled, not by peaceful argument, but by the shock of armies. Innumer- able battle-fields red with brothers' blood, desolated farms, burning towns, mourning fire-sides, thousands of hasty and unknown graves in woods and desert wildernesses, were to attest what pith and substance and marrow there was in that Illinois debate — what unforeseen consequences its logic in- volved, how fierce and formidable was the Slave Tower, so dreaded by our fathers. When Mr. Lincoln entered the White House, Mr. Douglas was in the Senate. Had the latter lived, his antagonist in the Illinois debate would have found in the 15 North fewer friends and supporters of the Slave Power, to vilify his character, to misrepresent his motives and to cripple his efforts to save the country, in the great war that has ensued. The period that intervened between the election and the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln was fraught with deep anxiety. The South was arming. State after State was seceding amid a whirlwind of popular passion. An imbecile and corrupt administration was shivering in the blast, panic-stricken at the storm invoked by its own crimes and folly. Weakness and wickedness and partizanship were in power, when a crisis came that demanded patriotism, purity and force. The nation was found without a government at the moment when, almost for the first time in its history, a real government was needed. The time for attacking the nation was skilfully chosen by its enemies. The men who wielded its authority, were the humble, subservient tools of the Slave Power, put in office by that power, because of their subserviency. Evidently a great clanger menaced every interest and every hope, and there was no man on whose wisdom and courage the people could rely to meet it. During those terrible months from November, I860, to March, 1881, all eyes were turned towards Mr. Lincoln, not indeed with confidence, because he was unknown and untried, but with anxiety and fear, because he was the man chosen to cope with the threatening future, and if he could not, then indeed all would be lost. It is needless to recall to your recollection the incidents of his journey from Springfield to Washington. Never were the looks and words of any man watched with such eager curiosity, because every word and every look was an indication of his character, and therefore of our fate. At every hamlet, town and city, the loyal people crowded around him with welcome, con- gratulation and good wishes, and took courage from his coun- tenance and bearing, from the sentiments and opinions he expressed. The qualities that had inspired confidence in Illi- nois, produced the same effect wherever he appeared. Simple, sincere, conscientious, kind-hearted, firm and sagacious, Abra- 16 ham Lincoln was soon revealed wherever he could be seen and heard, and beneath the pleasantry and good-humor of the many replies he made to the greetings that awaited him, steadfast principle and stern determination could be seen, like mountain rocks under their drapery of festooning vines and woodland flowers. Before reaching Washington it was necessary to pass through a slave State, where a reception awaited him very different from the welcome he had before experienced. To escape plotted violence Mr. Lincoln was obliged secretly to enter the Federal Capital, and the ceremonies of his inaugura- tion were guarded by loaded cannon and ranks of armed men. More than anything he had yet said or done, his inaugural speech told the nation what sort of a man had been appointed to front the coming peril. With the exception of Washing- ton's Farewell Address, no State paper in our history deserves a higher rank. Calm in the midst of excitement, without pas- sion or invective, it discusses in clear and nervous language the momentous questions of the hour. Whilst by invincible argument it exposes the sophistry of treason, in words, not of command or menace, but of kind and affectionate entreaty, it endeavors to call back traitors to reason and to duty. Its spirit is thoroughly national ; there is not a sentiment in it that indicates the partizan. It is wholly impersonal ; Abraham Lincoln does not appear ; the executive power of the nation seeking to save the nation alone speaks. Elevated wisdom, the enlarged views of a statesman, devotion to the whole coun- try and to the constitution, patriotism embracing all sections and all parties, the graciousness of a loving heart, clear per-^ ception of 'duty and invincible determination to perform it, are the characteristics of this remarkable document. It struck the key note of the grand national symphony that was to fol- low, and which is now playing in thunder tones throughout the land, to close, we hope and believe, in an exulting finale of victory and triumph ; a victory, not of arms only but of reason ; and a triumph, not of conquerors but of patriots, north and south, rejoicing over a restored country and a permanent peace, so that the list words of Mr. Lincoln's speech may 17 prove prophetic, winch declare, that " The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." All that has happened was prefigured in that speech. War was in it should war be necessary ; right, reason and constitutional law, liberty and justice, patriotism and duty were in it. Read it, fellow-citizens, read it, again and again. It sent a thrill of hope and joy through all loyal hearts when it was spoken ; it will be read by your children and your children's children ; it will shine in our history both as a warning and a guiding star. On the 4th of March, 1861, Mr. Lincoln undertook the arduous task which events and the choice of his countrymen had set before him. He was to run wilder rapids than those of the Mississippi, and had entrusted to him a more precious cargo than raftsman ever carried. He is yet in the middle of the stream, and the angry waters are foaming around him. But he has passed the worst place, and shows an eye so steady and a hand so quick and strong, that we have good hope, if he remains at the helm, the haven will be reached ere long. No man ever entered office in our history whose duties were so difficult, whose responsibilities were so great, or whose path was so beset by danger and embarrassment. War had sud- denly broke out in a country which so long had been lapped in the blessings of peace, plenty and security, that it was wholly unprepared for war. There was neither army nor navy at all adequate to the emergency. The treasury and the arsenals had been robbed, the public ships sent to distant regions, by the conspirators in office before him, in order to strip the nation of its means of defence at the moment of the premeditated attack. Traitors and spies filled Washington, and lurked in every department of the Government. The city was surrounded by hostile territory. The Border States were restless, excited, unfriendly, and hesitating on the brink of secession. It soon appeared that the two leading nations 18 of Europe, under cover of technical neutrality, encouraged tlie rebellion by their sympathy, and were watching the current of events, to give it active aid should a favorable opportunity offer. More dangerous than all, a Northern faction, preferring old party ties to their country, took sides with its enemies, justified their treason, advocated their cause, and stimulated their efforts and their hopes by presenting to them the spec- tacle of divided councils, and by placing every obstacle that ingenuity could devise, in the difficult path of the Government. The South was in arms, the Border States were arming, and Northern democrats, because the rebels were democrats, could find no more worthy employment than to fan the flames of passion that threatened destruction to the nation and its hopes. It would far exceed the proper limits of this address to relate by what efforts Mr. Lincoln, assisted by the military and civil ability which he summoned to his aid, and sustained by the loyal masses of the North, has partially overcome the formidable perils and difficulties by which he was surrounded. They are still numerous, but enough has been done to inspire hope of ultimate success. Fleets and armies, rivalling in strength, and surpassing in many points of excellence, those of the most warlike nations of Europe, have been suddenly called into being. Military genius has been evoked, recog- nized, encouraged, tested and rewarded. A masterly system of finance has created in war a better currency than we ever enjoyed in peace, and so arranged the heavy debt made neces- sary by the war, that it has become a favorite investment for all classes of the people, strengthening thus the ties that bind them to the Union, and is likely to prove a benefit instead of a burthen. European intervention has been averted by skil- ful and prudent diplomacy, aided by military success. The wavering loyalty of the Border States has been confirmed and noAv stands secure on the stable basis of voluntary emancipa- tion begun and soon to be accomplished. Every hope on which the South relied has been defeated. Steadily, if slowly, the rebellion has receded before the loyal 19 armies of the North, and now it is fighting, as we believe, its last battles in Georgia and Virginia. The three years of the war have been crowded with toil, achievement and sacrifice, yet they have been, to the North, years of prosperity and pro- gress. The enterprise of business has not flagged, the activity of labor has not paused. If the waste of war has been great, production has kept pace with it, whilst the ranks of industry, thinned to supply our armies, have been filled up by emigrants crowding to our country, preferring it, though torn by civil strife, to their fatherland. Nothing in the past has so sig- nally displayed our boundless resources and the intelligent energy of our people as this combined triumph of the arts of peace and the arts of war, in the midst of such a contest. Now, we ask, to what is this triumph due ? Is it not to the ability with which the Government has been administered ? As we have already said, Executive power is necessarily prominent and active in periods of civil strife and public danger, and what else but the thoughtful mind and strong will which have wielded that power for the last three years, has developed the resources of the nation and directed the energies of the people ? Less conspicuous, but as important, has been the direct influence of Mr. Lincoln's peculiar character on the course of events. The prudence that sought attainable objects only and by adequate means ; the tact that felt the pulse of popular sentiment and saw the tendencies of opinion, so as to move neither too fast nor too slow, and apparently to follow, yet really to lead ; the firmness that- could resist pres- sure, whether from friends or foes ; the moderation that could yield to either when expedient, if concession compromised no principle ; the steadfast adherence to conviction when once attained ; the patience that could wait for slow but sure results; the large, sound common sense that sees things they really are and the laws that rule them ; the catholic nationality that knows neither fear, favor nor affection for any party or any man ; the profound sense of duty and responsi- bility to the present and to the future, to the South as well as to the North; integrity that inspires confidence; good temper 20 that disarms animosity ; a loving nature and genuine heart- goodness that win affection ; these are the qualities that have achieved the greatest victories of this war. They have been spiritual and moral victories over the wild excesses of fanati- cism, the rooted hatred of caste, the venomous resentment of party spirit and the reckless violence of popular passion. The virtues and talents we have described conquer wherever they appear, because men pay them willing and spontaneous homage. They have gained for Mr. Lincoln the confidence of the people as no man in America, save Washington, ever gained it before. Who, then, is so fit to lead us into the uncertain future, to cope with its difficulties, to solve its problems, to front its dangers, as the man who has thus been tried and not found wanting ? Who has such experience of the past, who knows the currents of opinion, the characters of leading men, the strength or the weakness of our cause, so well as he who has studied them from the first, and with larger means of know- ledge than any one else can command ? What new man can enter his place 'with the information he possesses ? What inexperienced hand can finish the work he has so successfully begun ? And who else is so trusted by the people ? Bold and rash and ignorant indeed would he be who should venture on such a task. Weak and foolish and unfit to use the ballot-box would a people be who should prefer the untried to the proven ; who, before the storm is over, should discharge the pilot that knows the ship and had carried her safely through the worst of it? The war is not yet over. ISo one can say when we shall again enjoy the blessings of peace. But Ave cannot fight forever, and with such generals and such armies as are now in the field for the Union, we may not unreasonably expect, that the larger portion of the next Presidential term, perhaps the whole of it, will be occupied by the work of restoring what is worth restoring of the past and of providing new securities for the future. We have already said that a U\o- 21 fold duty lies before us. We must conquer the rebellion ; we must also convert the Southern people into friends and fellow- citizens, co-workers with us in our mission to build up and perpetuate a great Empire of Republican liberty in this Western world, co-partners with us in all its prosperity, power and glory. This latter may prove the more arduous task of the two. Such a war as this does not pass away when its last cannon is fired, nor are its consequences, evil and good, eva- nescent as the smoke of its battles. When the physical con- test is over, the antagonism of opinion and feeling remains, stimulated by the mortification of defeat, by ruined estates and by mourning hom§s. A deeply-rooted social system, in- terwoven with law and custom, supporting and supported by all the interests and all the habits of a vast and wealthy region, is to be destroyed by this war, and a brave and proud, not to say reckless and arrogant people, now fighting for that system, are to be at once compelled and persuaded to consent to its destruction and to be reconciled to its loss. We must do both, or our hope of regaining the old American security, liberty, peace and plenty — of renovating our great Republic — can never be realized. These two things are not easy to do. They will test the ability of our Government. They will test also the patriotism, the good sense, the moral sentiment of the Northern people. It is not a work for ignorance and weakness, for partizans or fanatics, for the revengeful, the ambitious or the corrupt. What intricate constitutional questions must be solved; what conflicting interests reconciled; what fierce passions stilled ; what seditious violence quelled ; what rash projects resisted ; what raging factions restrained ; what hot enthusiasm moderated ; what wounded sensibilities soothed ! Fellow-citizens, the work before us is difficult, but it is pos- sible, because it ought to be done, because it is our duty to do it, because it is right, and whatever is right accords with the laws of God's government, and therefore is possible. And how is it to be accomplished? By the two great moral forces that rule the world, — by justice and love ; — by the justice that satis- fies all, by the love that blesses and therefore wins all. 22 This is not an occasion to discuss the various plans of recon- struction proposed when peace shall enable us to attempt that work. We can only say, that so far as they fail in obedi- ence to the divine laws of justice and of love, Christian love to men as brothers, to Southern men as countrymen, so far are they mistaken. But we must remember that justice is stern and inflexible, and carries the sword as well as the scales. War is justice in a righteous cause and so are the consequences of Avar, security against its renewal, security for the full attain- ment of its objects. Punishment is justice. The world is defrauded when a great crime fails to meet merited retribution — and treason is the highest crime. To abolish slavery is justice, when it can be done without inflicting injuries greater than its own. Slavery is a crime. As Mr. Lincoln said recently, "if it be not wrong, then nothing is wrong." Because it is wrong, it is an evil, as the condition of the South and of all other places where it has existed may testify. The recognition of slavery was the fatal error of our Constitution, as the dis- cord it has caused from the beginning and the present war prove. Slavery caused the war. If permitted to remain it will cause war perpetually. It is a contradiction to our free institutions, a blot and blemish on our name and fame, a curse to the fair regions where it exists, a bar to their progress in civilization, a depraving and poisonous influence on the char- acter of their people. When this war commenced, it was thought possible and desirable by many, to quell the rebellion and yet preserve slavery, so deeply rooted was this barbarous institution in our laws and our habits of thought, so insidiously had it twined its interlacing branches around all our interests. But, "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will." Ere long the war taught us that it meant nothing less than the destruction of slavery ; that we must destroy it, or it would destroy us ; that it was inconsistent with liberty, peace or security ; that no government can endure which is founded on 23 falsehood and crime ; that no people can permanently prosper who maintain a falsehood and foster crime. Slavery is false, because it declares that men can be property. It is a crime, because it degrades men to the condition of property, because it shuts out from their souls the light of knowledge and the means of improvement, because it permits and justifies cruelty and oppression. Long enough had an indignant world beheld, in the great Republic, men and women bred for sale and sold in the market-place like beasts of the field. Long enough had our christian civilization been shocked and outraged by this heathenish outgrowth of African barbarism in our midst. Long enough had the slave power, bloated with the gold of com- pelled and unpaid labor and drunk with the pampered pride of habitual tyranny, domineered over our elections, corrupted and controlled our government and bullied the free people of the North with tin-eats of revolution and disunion. At length the day of retribution has come. The first shot fired in this war sounded the knell of slavery. For every reason of princi- ple or of policy, of morality, of religion or of prudence, it is just to destroy it. Indeed it has already received its death blow. The war has multiplied its enemies a thousand fold, and though, should it not now be formally and irrevocably abolished, the Democratic party and the South will seek to restore its former vitality and power, they will fail. The attempt would renew sectional strife, revive all the old issues and cause another war, and still another, until at length the evil thing be rooted out forever. ' An institution like slavery can never harmonize with the opinion of an enlightened and advancing age and nation. It will necessarily be attacked and eventually destroyed by that opinion. It will be destroyed also by the crimes and folly engendered by itself, by the haughty spirit that goeth before a fall. This scandal of our country, this black and contrasting stain on the fair mantle of our law, might have continued for an indefinite period to be our plague and disgrace, but for the madness of the South. The Union and the Constitution were the only defences of slavery against the verdict of the world's civilization, and the Southern people have attempted to destroy 24 the Union and the Constitution. We propose to restore both, but no longer as the bulwarks of slavery. The Southern peo- ple refused to be warned or entreated and spurned alike the obligations of duty and the dictates of prudence. They have perhaps since discovered the truth of the proverb, that " He who will not be ruled by the rudder, must be ruled by the rock." Now what is the character of the various measures proposed by the Administration ? Are they not measures of security and of merited punishment, so that this unprovoked and there- fore wicked rebellion shall not pass away without leaving a warning to the future ; so that this calamitous war which it has inflicted upon the country shall not have been made in vain. If so, these measures are just — just in their spirit and intention — and it is of these, not of their details, that we wish to speak. They were dictated not by the exultation of expected victory — not by vengeance or passion — but by a prudent regard to the interest of the future. Can we safely permit the Leaders of the rebellion again to become the leaders of Southern politics — again to sit in Congress and ful- mine, as of yore, their audacious treason over the land ? Can we, without danger, leave them in the possession of wealth and the influence of social position, latent, but powerful enemies, ever ready to plot another conspiracy, to intrigue with disaffected allies in the • North, or with jealous and unfriendly foreign powers, or to join an enemy in case of foreign war ? Can we, prudently, permit them, as soon as their hands have dropped the bayonet, to seize upon the ballot- box, without some pledge that they will use it as American citizens, and not as domestic enemies ? Are not loyalty, fidelity, allegiance to the Government, necessarily a condition precedent to the right of suffrage, implied in its very nature ? Is not the idea of giving to the enemies of the Government a legal right to destroy it by votes, whilst we resist their efforts to destroy it by violence, a glaring absurdity, inconsistent with the existence of a government ? 25 But are all these measures constitutional ? This is a ques- tion often asked by those who think the rebellion constitutional, ■who have sympathized with it from the beginning and are never weary of extolling its leaders and denouncing ours, of exulting over its victories and our defeats, of predicting its success and our discomfiture, and who have given it all the " aid and comfort" in their power, short of overt acts of physical force and have indeed in some cases not stopped short of these. This is not the place to discuss such questions. They will be settled by time and events, by the Courts and the Legisla- ture and the people. The war has taught us some valuable lessons of constitutional law which plain men who are not lawyers, can understand. It has taught us that the govern- ment must have power to save the nation ; that whatever is necessary to that end is constitutional ; that the people are the nation, and that the constitution exists for the people ; that the constitution belongs to us, the people of 1864, and that we have a right to modify it to suit our needs according to our will ; that this government is a nation, and that the national power, representing the American people, is supreme over national interests ; that the Union cannot be legally destroyed by a State, or by violence ; that the whole country, in its length and breadth, every acre of it, is the national domain, over which the national government has sovereign power, whenever and wherever State power has never existed, or has ceased to exist, in fact or in law ; and moreover, the ordeal through which we are passing has shown that these truths are all in the constitution, which, fairly and liberally expounded according to its spirit and purpose, by statesmen rather than by demagogues — by patriots, and not by parti- zans — does invest the government with all the power necessary to preserve itself and the nation. These principles sanction and support the measures before alluded to, planned by the government to restore the Union. We have been charged by our enemies, South and North, with a determination to " conquer aud subjugate the Southern people." We do propose to conquer their armies, if we can ; 26 to punish their leading men — guilty, as they have been, of plotting and maintaining a most wicked rebellion ; to establish temporary national authority in the place of suspended State authority, until the latter may be restored without risking all that the war is waged to save. Armed rebels have no State- rights — no rights under the Constitution, which they defy ; no rights whatever, indeed, save those of belligerents, accord- ing to the law of nations. We expect to subjugate the Southern people by benefits. When the sword is once sheathed, we shall offer them the right hand of friendship, of fellowship and equality, if they will accept it as loyal citizens of the United States. We shall offer them such State-rights as we ourselves enjoy, which do not include the right of secession, and as soon as they are again States on these conditions, a seat by our side, as before, in the councils of the Nation. We shall ask them, we do now invite them to become again States and citizens on the sole condition of renouncing slavery and the fatal doctrines and practices that have grown Out of it. Why should they refuse ? Slavery, as it before existed, is virtually dead, and can never be permanently revived, as they themselves admit. Only to protect it, did they attempt to withdraw from the Union. Now that slavery is or soon will be destroyed, the only cause of discord between North and South is removed. There Avill be nothing left to fight about, if, when their armies are beaten and dispersed and their ports and strong places in our possession, the Southern people arc able to fight. \\ ill they maintain a mere guerrilla warfare, still more to waste their substance and devastate their section ? W hy should they ? Their dream of independence can never be realized, and if it could, their position would be weak and contemptible, compared with that which they might enjoy in the Union. It is not reasonable to* predicate of a people so intelligent, that they will continue to prosecute a hopeless and destructive war for an object, which, if attained, would prove, not a benefit, but an injury — not increase, but loss, of power, importance and security. 27 Civilized nations do not keep up useless war until the sources of civilization are destroyed. The interests of property, the manifold enjoyments and hopes that belong to cultivated and refined life, interfere to prevent a return to barbarism, by putting an end to a hopeless contest. Men easily submit to the inevitable, even when it decrees loss and misfortune; much more easily when it promises beriefits. The inevitable to the South means ports re-opened, commerce revived, cotton on its way to market, plantations and farms restored to the plow, the desolation of war repaired, homes replenished with comfort and refinement, the smiling and happy faces of women and children once more at the board and the fire-side. It means the blessings of an honorable peace, of a more perfect Union than the old, of a free government. We offer all these to the South with one hand, even although, for a time, we must carry a sword in the other. When the sword has done its work — and we pray earnestly that there may not be much left for it to- do — the Southern people are made of different stuff from the rest of mankind if they do not accept our offer. Thus do we hope, by obedience to the Divine laws of justice and of love, to execute the arduous task before us, to have again a Country and a Government. No man on earth so completely represents and embodies our thoughts, our aspira- tions and our will as Abraham Lincoln. We know that lit- is just, we know that he can be inflexible, we know that his nature is noble and generous, that he has a kind heart and warm affections, that he loves his whole country, and that the most earnest desire of his soul is to see the American people once more a united people, a band of brothers, sharing in har- mony the rich inheritance left to them by their ancestors — the richest in the world — working together to adorn it by all useful and all elegant arts, to fill it from end to end with the trophies of science and the harvests of industry, with abund- ance and beauty and joy, and to make it forever the home of the free and the asylum of the oppressed. 28 Such, fellow-citizens, are the purposes and hopes of the Union party, and such its candidate. He "was unanimously nominated by a National Convention of that party, who at the same time adopted a platform of the principles upon which they are willing to go before the country in the great issue to be decided next November. That platform is so plain and clear that no one can misunderstand it. It means the restor- ation of Peace and Union by victory over armed rebellion. It means the preservation of Peace and Union by the destruction of slavery, by the punishment of treason, and by just and generous treatment of our countrymen in the South, the moment they cease to be our enemies and become our fellow- citizens. Our platform is positive and real. Unlike that of our opponents, it has in it no equivocation or ambiguity, and was not meant to mislead or betray. It is like our candidate : open, fearless, straightforward and sincere, and he can stand on it firmly and avow all its doctrines, without hesitation, mis- giving, or mental reservation. What the meaning is of the Democratic platform, it does not say. It means peace, or war, or Union, or disunion, according to the construction that any Democrat may choose to put upon it, and it was thus art- fully contrived to sweep parti zans of every variety of opinion within its net. Neither does its nominee seem to know whether he stands on it or not. What he means and intends, he either cannot or will not say. One thing, however, is clear enough : he and his platform and his supporters mean concession to armed traitors, for the sake of restoring the party alliance between Northern Democrats and the Slave Power, which existed before the war. That alliance has, in truth, never been broken. The enormities which sprung out of it caused the war; it exists now, tacitly and virtually, notwithstanding the war, and the hope and purpose of the conclave who met recently at Chicago,' is to maintain and strengthen that alli- ance, by yielding to our defeated enemies the fruits of victory. Such are the principles and such the candidates of the parties that now divide the country. Men of Pennsylvania ! choose ye between the two. 29 Morton McMichael, N. B. Browne, Horace Binney, Jr., Charles Gibbons, John W. Forney, Edw. C. Knight, John B. Kenney, Charles Gilpin, Henry C. Carey, Ellerslie Wallace, M. D., George Whitney, Daniel Dougherty, Edward Shippen, Benj'n. H. Brewster, J. I. Clark Hare, Algernon S. Roberts, George H. Boker, John H. Towne, Joseph Harrison, Jr., Cadwalader Biddle, James H. Orne, Thomas Birch, J. L. Claghorn, Frederick Fraley, James W. Paul, Gibson Peacock, Daniel Smith, Jr., Edwin Greble, Andrew Wheeler, J. C. Knox, William S. Pierce, J. GlLLINGHAM FELL, William D. Lewis, Lindley Smyth, Wayne McVeagii, William H. Ashhurst, John Rice, George Bullock, Samuel J. Reeves, William Struthers, F. A. Comly, Craig D. Ritchie, Samuel H. Perkins, Saunders Lewis, Edward S. Mawson, Ward B. Haseltine, Stephen Colwell, William Sellers, Augustus Heaton, J. G. McQuade, S. H. HORSTMANN, Henry D. Moore, E. R. Cope, Fairman Rogers, Hanson Robinson, Abraham Barker, G. Dawson Coleman, E. W. Clark, George J. Gross, Wm. M. Tilghman, R. P. King, Ferdinand J. Dreer, 30 E. Spencer Miller, jos. b. townsend, Geo. Plumek Smith, John P. Verree, Henry C. Lea, George Trott, James C. Hand, Committee of Seventy-six appointed by the Union League of Philadelphia. A. D. Jessup, William H. Kern, A. G. Cattell, Thomas S. Ellis, George Erety, # Archibald Getty, E. W. Bailey. s S '12 M i ^jr uuiMuncss 012 028 212 8 fe