RfWllmMPMM ^"'^■^s, '■.^^•" ^■5>'^~\. -.^K*" •4.'^^% "-^W*' «*^'^ ^*^<^^ .V CELEBRATION TAMMANY HALL, NINETY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF American Independence BY THE Tammany Society, OR COLUMBIAN ORDER, Monday, July 4th, 1870. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE TAMMANY SOCIETY. NEW YORK : THE NEW YORK PRINTING COMPANY, 8i, 83 & 85 CENTRE STREET. 1870. i^To 51239 ^,ti^t»' ""^ ^»^««,,^ ^ TAMMANY HALI,, NEW YORK, JUNE 15, 1870. lAR SIR : The Tammany Society or Columbian Order will, as is its yearly custom, celebrate the coming Fourth of July. You are respectfully ated to meet with them. Niiiety-four years ago, on the Fourth of July, the American people came to the resolve to be independent of all authority save their own, d l(i be thenceforward protectors of their own interests, rights, and liberties. They did this in order to secure to everj' citizen civil liberty, licli the motto of this Society proclaims to be the Glory of Man. Every event connected with the establishment of our independent gov- iniLiit indicates in the men of those days great devotion to civil liberty, and great intelligence in reference to the safeguards necessary to m.nntenance. Our forms of government, State and Federal, recognized no privileged classes ; their aim was to benefit the whole people ; d their theory, that the People is King. This noble faoric of government is not a hundred years old, and yet, within a few years, thoughtful in have been heard to express their fears that the day of its ruin was close at hand. A terriiic civil war was seized upon by the party in power— a party many of whose leaders are of a school of politics which never had faith poiHilar freedom— as a pretext for administering the government through arbitrary force, instead of calling forth, by a benign regard to the hts iif all, the cheerful general obedience to law on which the founders of the Republic relied. The rights with which the Creator has 'fested man — especially the sacred right of a man to personal freedom, so long as he violates no law— were treated with scorn by unscrupu- en whom the accidents of a great war had elevated to high place. The excuse of necessity— a plea which is resorted to only by those 10 h.ive no real excuse for their acts —was absurdly offered ft>r outrages which were proved bj' subsequent events to have been wholly unne- ssary. AH this could not have happened, even under the exigencies of a great civil war, if the power had been in the hands of men accus- ned to govern, and of men who knew how to trust the patriotism of the people. It was simple cowardice ,ind timidity, resulting from a lack faith in the people, which impelled those in power to outiages upon private rights, upon personal freedom, and upon the Constitution, tend- ; ti h'stioy the consistency and stability of our free government. The civil war ended five years ago, and yet the party in power are incapa- ' N tcignizing the necessity of resorting at once to the established principles and practices of American government, if we would preserve II rtios of the people. The entire South is without a stable civil government. State officers, fully recognized one year, are the next year liji ti_d to arbitrary control by military force. If the citizens of the Southern States, or any of them, deserved punishment for rebellion l^aiiist the General Government, that punishment should ha^ve been indicted immediately upon the close of the war ; and whatever punish- 'jjnt was wise and proper having been administered, the restoration of the old form of government all over the countrj' should have been onipt and complete. Both force and fraud are now applied to elections in the Southern States in order to return to Congress men who do not ' prt"ient the people ; so as to continue, at all hazards, the present party in their power at the seat of government. Not content with destroy- I J the freedom of elections at the South, Congress has this session enacted a law, the purpose of which is to control elections in the North by :e application of terror and fraud. This law contains the monstrous provision that the President may use the Army and the Navy to ad- inistera Congressional election law among the people, when voting for State as well as Federal officers. In no government that pretends I be free is the army allowed to overawe by its presence, the votes of the people. This is not the old form of government, so dear to all true Americans. Unless the tendency to despotic measures can be arrested, very leedily, the close of the first century of our country's existence may witness the end of free government here. I 1 here is hope of better things. Recent elections give cheering signs that the people mean to protect themselves. All questions connected nth the late civil war are properly at an end — the war has settled them. We have now one great task to perform ; to wit, to re-establish llonii'tly, in all its completeness, "the old government. Connecticut, New Jersey, California, Oregon, and New York have spoken emphati- lly Uur own State government has been fully in the hands of our party for only a few months ; yet in the late judicial election the Demo- .itK State Administration was endorsed in the first year of its power by a popular majority of nearly a hundred thousand. The contrast between the feeble inaction of the Federal Government and the practical reforms effected by the Democratic Administration 1 this State is marked. The Federal Administration has been for five years charged with the pressing duty of restoring the harmonious and 'osperous condition of public affairs to which we were accustomed before the war. It has accomplished nothing. The work of so-called jconstruction is still unfinished ; the restoration of the Union incomplete. The war taxes are undiminished. A tariff which ignores revenue, Iliich cripples our commerce, and makes many of the necessities and comforts of life oppressively dear, is left in full force for the profit of a kv greedy men. The currency is still unsound. The credit of the country is still impaired. The power and dignity of our country receives arcely so much recognition among foreign nations as it did when we were crippled and hampered by the intestine difficulties of our civil war. lUhird-rate power feels no dread, even within the American hemisphere, in dealing cruelly with our citizens. Bad faith is charged upon us rali.mdnning a contract made for the transfer to us of certain territory in the West Indies, because an opportunity has since offered to obtain (hei territory with better chances for private jobbery. The present Congress has been in session now seven months, and has consumed the jiK in fruitless talk, having passed no measures of a general nature except a law for injproper interference with the freedom of elections, i M '.giving away an enormous quantity of the public lands to railroad speculators and jobbers. In addition to these, they had partially i ' 1,1 scheme to discourage immigration into the country, and so to cut off one of the chief sources of our growth in wealth and power, by i' : it a matter of great cost and difficulty for the emigrant to become naturalized, and thus to assume, as he should do, the duties and the ■b . '( .1 citizen. 1 the other hand, the Democratic party came into full power in this State, for the first time in many years, on the first of January last, short session of the Legislature, the false and unconstitutional system of municipal government, established by our opponents in the Uy "f their power, has been swept away, and the rights of communities to local self-government have been recognized and re-established all ^er the State. The great evil of special legislation has been checked. The Registry Law, so oppressive to the rural districts, has been oohshed. The management of the canals has been reformed, so that hereafter they will be administered for their true purpose of affording the grain-growers of the Western States cheap transportation to great markets, and to our own people abundant supplies of cheap food, he stain of repudiation has been wiped away from our record, and the State of New York again pays in gold coin the debts she promised to ly in gold. In a hundred days of Democratic administration the chief evils which had grown up under the long and unwise rule of our |)ponenls in the affairs of this State were cutoff; and the people have a sense of relief At the close of the Legislative session the Demo- atic party nominated a ticket for Jud^.'S of the Court of last resort, which was admitted on all hands to be superior, in the quality of the len composing it, to any Court that has been known in the State for a quarter of a century. This ticket was elected by an overwhelming ppular vote, and the new Court of Appeals of this State is at least equal in all respects, whether for the learning, the abilty, or the integrity ■ its members, to the highest Court in the land. There is, therefore, cheering ground for hope of better things. The people will see, by the success of our efforts towards good government , this State, what the experience of ninety years in the general politics of the country has proved — that the Democratic party alone, of the I/O parties, knows how to govern. Let us, then, celebrate this year, the birthday of the United States, confident that there is at hand a restoration in all its completeness of lir good old government, under which the people and the States may again enjoy their rights. We ask you, therefore, to meet with us on this occasion in the Great Wigwam, and aid in keeping alive the patriot flame which always urns bright in the Council Chamber. Believing that you sympathize with these ideas (and many others of momentous National Importance which they imply), we cordially ^vite you to meet with us at Tammany Hall, in F'ourteenth Street, near Union Square, in the City of New York, on the 4th day of July, at f> A.M., to participate in the ceremonies of the Tammany Society. Sachem A. OAKEY HALL, [ MATTHEW T. BRENNAN, ISAAC BELL, JOSEPH DOWLING, HENRY VANDEWATER, Treas WILSON SMALL, Secretary. Sachem PETER B. SWEENY, EMANUEL B. HART, DOUGLAS TAYLOR, JOHN J. BRADLEY, SAMUEL B. GARVIN, Sachem RICHARD B. CONNOLLY, CHARLES G. CORNELL, NATHANIEL JARVIS, Jr., JAMES B. NICHOLSON. GEORGE W. ROOME, Sas-a>^ STEPHEN C. DURYEA, IViskinskie. WILLIAM M. TWEED, Grand Sachem. JAMES WATSON, Scribe of the Coimcil. ESQ. Please address your answer to WILLIAM M. TWEED, Cor. Broadway and Park Place, New York. EIGHTY-SECOND CELEBRATION TAMMANY SOCIETY, OR COLUMBIAN ORDER. dTivil pbfvty the mm^ of Pan/' CELEBRATION OF THE NINETY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN INDEl^ENDENCE. MONDAY, JULY 4th, 1870. in accordance with their unvarying; custom, tlie Brothers of the Taminany Society will meet to celebrate the National Birthday according to the manner prescribed by the Constitution of tlic Society. At half-past nine on Monday, July 4, 1870, the Sachems, Braves and Warriors will assemble for the transaction of business in the Council Chamber of the Great AV'igwam, At ten, A. M., the doors of the Great Hall will be thrown open for the admission of guests and friends of the Society, when the follcwing; Order of Exercises will be held : NATIONAI. AIRS SEVENTH REGIMENT BAND. ADDRESS OF WELCOME GRAND SACHEM TWEED. "STANDARD OF FREEDOM." Siiii^ by WM. H. DAVIS, ESQ. READING DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, BY BR0TH1:R EDMUND RANDOLPH ROBINSON. .MUSIC BAND. I'HE LONG TALK, by the Democratic Wurrior frotii the Pacific, HON. EUGENE CASSERLY. MUSIC BAND. ODE, . . BY THE HON. JOHN G. SAXE. SHORT 'H KXJK., from SACHEMS AND BRAVES, INCLUDING HON. JOHN T. HOFFMAN, HON. S. S. COX, HON. lAMES A. BAYARD, HON. RICHARD O'GORMAN. &c., &c. FINALE, STAR-SPAN(;LED BANNER. Sunz by .... WM. J. HILL, ESQ. Sachem PETER B. SWEENY, Sachem SAMUEL B. GARVIN, RICHARD B. CONNOLLY, " MATTHEW T. BRENNAN, EMANUEL B. HART, " CHARLES G. CORNELL, JOHN J. BRADLEY, " A. OAKEY HALL, ISAAC BELL, " JOSEPH DOWLINC, DOUGLAS TAYLOR, •• NATHANIEL JARVIS, JR., Sachem JAMES B. NICHOLSON, Father 0/ the Council. Grand Sachem. WILSON SMALL, Secretary ; HENRY VANDEWATER, Treasurer ; JAMES WATSON, Scribe ; GEORGE W. ROOME, Sagamore; S. C. DURYEA, IViskinskie. SPECIAL COMIVIITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS: Grand Sachem W. M. TWEED; Sachem A. OAKEY HALI, ; Sachem DOUGLAS TAYLOR; Father of the Council, JAMES B. NICHOLSON. Albert Cardozo, John M. Barbour, Manton Marble, Charles Roonie, James M. Sweeity, John M. Carnochan, Charles H. Van Brunt, Wilson G. Hunt, August Belmont, Thomas C. Fields, Walter Roche, James H. Ingersoll, Nelson J. Waterbury, John Richardson, Oswald Ottendurfer, \Vni. M. Tweed, |r., F.d. J. Shandley,' Thomas J. Creamer, Henry Alker, Richard Schell, William H. Leonard, Richard O Gorman, COMIVIITTEE OF MEMBERS William Schirme Thomas Dunlan, John Hartly, Henry Storms, John Brice, Benjamin P. Fairch William Dodge, Forbes Holland, Samuel J. Tilden, William E. Curtis, Elbirt A. Woodwat Aujj^ustus Schell, Morgan Jones, John R. Bradv, Hugh Smith, ' Michael Connolly, James L. Miller, John K. Hackett, A. S. Sallivan, Andrew J. Garvey, Thomas Com.an, De Witt Van Buren Thomas J. Burr, Willi; ins L. Monell, m II. King, Bernard Smyth, Jerome Buck, Robert C. Hutchings, Casper C. Childs, Thomas H. Landon, John Brown, Hiram Calkins, John Scott, John Jourdan, Eugene Durnin, David V. Freeman, John Garvey, John Nesbit, Charles P. Daly, Algernon S. Jarvis, A. J. Vanderjiocl, Smith Ely, Jr., Nelson Taylor, Henry W. Genet, George G. Barnard, William Hitchman, Patrick H. Keenan, Gerson N. Herman, William C. Cover, Edward Schell, William L. Ely, James F. Pierce, P. J. Joachimsen, Timothy Brennan, Peter Tnainor, Joel O. Stevens, Lawrence Clancy, Edward Sanfor^l, William C. O'Brien, Alexander Frear, Cornelius Corson, John Hayes, Terence Farley, Malcolm Campbell. Isaac Robinson, A. J. Fullerton, A. B. Rollins, J. Y. Savage, Jr. A. OAKEV HALL, Cluunuait. Tammany Society. EIGHTY-SECOND CELEBRATION. Independence Day was clear, cool, and auspi- cious. The throngs in and around Tammany Hall so early as half-past nine, reminded of those which besieged it upon occasion of the National Conven- tion. Not in many years before had so many mem- bers of the Columbian Order presented themselves on the platform with regalia. The roll of attending Sachems was full, with only the exception of Sachem Peter B. Sweeny, who is absent in Europe recruit- ing from severe mental labors in behalf of political friends during the past winter. Perhaps the unusual attendance and enthusiasm was due to the feeling that the people ought, by 6 Tammany Society. fu]] attendance, to protest against that insult to the national sentiment, which was already announced in the morning gazettes, of a Congressional ses- sion throughout the time-honored Holiday, at which Radicals were expected to persecute adopt- ed citizens and the middling classes by means-of oppressive legislation on naturalization and tax- laws. The Committee room of the Society was decorat- ed with a full suit of Indian dress and fighting equipments, that had been recently collected and presented by Sachem Oakey Hall. They were ap- propriately hung and descriptively labelled in a fine walnut case, which was the gift of Andrew J. Garvey, Esq., one of the enthusiastic Braves. After half an hour had been spent in the Com- mittee room by several hundred Brothers of Colum- bian Order — some admiring and chatting over the paraphernalia, as splendid as ever the original Pennsylvania warriors of the Tammany tribe wore, and others receiving the appropriate decorations — Grand Sachem Tweed grasped his calumet and tomahawk, and marshalled the Sachems and Braves into procession for the Grand Hall. Entering this, the spectacle presented was such as to call forth spontaneous approval. Every con- ceivable kind of patriotic decoration abounded. Celebration, 1870. 7 The national colors were blended in infinite kalei- doscopal combinations. The banner and escutcheon of every State were displayed. Old men and youngsters massed themselves together " to behold the joyous sight." The wives and daughters of time-honored members occupied the front seats; and as the long and distinguished procession filed in upon the platform, cheer upon cheer rent the welkin, only to be drowned by soul-inspiriting na- tional airs as played by the celebrated Grafulla Band. To the enthusiastic and experienced interest of Sachem Douglas Taylor, and to the practised skill and many-times approved taste of Marshal Garvey, must be awarded the full praise for the complete- ness of arrangement and decoration. Mr. William H. Davis, of New York, sang with intense effect the song of" The Standard of Free- dom," with music by J. R. Thomas. The enthu- siasm inspired by this song was electrical, burst- ing forth again and again, until the house, from floor to dome, resounded with the acclamations of applause. If the Democracy of the city, State, and Union will rally about the Standard of Free- dom as enthusiastically as did the Tammany De- mocracy of New York on the national holida}^, victofy will perch upon our banners from the S Tammany Society, Atlantic to " wliere rolls the Oregon,'' and not only at the State, but the national elections. Mr. Tweed (when the enthusiasm subsided, and keeping his hat on as is the usage for the Grand Sachem) called the vast assemblage to order, and with coolness, but delighting modesty, welcomed brothers and guests as follows: — Friends and Fellow-Citizens, and Brother Democrats : — We are pleased to-day to see that the old interest of times past has been manifested by you for the words of wisdom which may fall from the lips of our brothers to-day, to be by you conveyed to your associates. We consider this bright auspicious day as forerunner of another when the great Democratic party, through which alone this great country can be properly recon- structed, shall again resume sway, and place us in the condition of constitutional prosperity we were in before the late civil war. (Applause.) I trust that the words that will be said here to-day b}^ those who have prepared themselves for the occa- sion, will be duly pondered. We believe that the doctrines enunciated on this platform will be such as to warm the heart of every true friend of his country and every Democrat in the world. Broth- ers, as there will be much good talk by the warriors and braves, I will spare you the infliction of a speech from me, except these welcoming words tc Celebration, 1870. 9 the Wigwam, and tell you how deeply we all feel the enthusiasm you have manifested by your at- tendance here to-day. At the conclusion of the Grand Sachem's wel- come the Declaration of Independence was read by Edmund Randolph Robinson, grand-nephew of Thomas Jefferson, and a lineal descendant of the patriot Peyton Randolph, and who is a son-in-law of John Jay, the Republican Minister at Vienna. The Declaration was read with that fervor and ap- preciative emphasis which one would expect from a gentleman who had been lineally impressed with the historical incidents of the great document. The book which he used was one formerly in the possession of President Jefferson. As he would in reading pronounce sentences that suggested recent outrages of a kindred character by General Grant and Congress, the enthusiasm of the audi- ence rose to concert pitch. Democrats in 1870 are as quick to proclaim against oppression as were those of 1776. After the reading of the Declaration, Mr. Tweed said: The long talk will now be made by our dis- tino^uished brother from California, but a native of our city, a Senator from California— one of those who have battled in the United States Senate for the principles of true Democracy. I have the lO Tammany Society. pleasure, gentlemen, to introduce to you Hon Eugene Casserly. (Great applause.) senator casserly s oration. Grand Sachem and Friends of the Tammany Society, and Fellow-Democrats in Tammany Hall: Before I commence to say what I had in my mind to say, for I have no written speech, let me niake one correction for the sake of the truth of history. My friend the Grand Sacliem of the Order referred to me as a native of this city. I came here so young that I might claim to be a child of New York ; but as to being a native here, my friends, I know not how that could have been, unless, as Sir Boyle Roche said of a bird, I could " be in two places at once." (Great laughter.) We are met here to-day, in compliance with an ancient and honorable custom of the Columbian Order and of your great city of New York, to com- memorate the anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence. • Under the grave and momentous circumstances of the present we are met here also, my friends, to renew our vows to the Constitution which sanctioned and applied in the government of the United States the general principles announced in the Declaration so many years before. To-day is one of those memorial days which belong to no one country, to no one nation, to no one race — which are the com- mon property of humanity — one of those days Celebration, 1870. 11 vv'liich lift us out of ourselves and surround us with associations higher and better than those of our daily life. It is a day for retrospection of the past ; for grave consideration of the present ; for a glance into the future. I know of no place more fitted for such a commemoration than the city of New York in the State of New York. I know of no hall within the broad borders of this ofreat commonwealth more proper for this meeting than the hall of the Brothers of Tammany. (Ap- plause.) Your city and State, my friends, have in a special degree an honorable record in connection with all the great events of your country's history, from the commencement of the contest which re- sulted in independence down to the present mo- ment. I said jj/<5;/r city and State. For much the greater part of my life they were also mine; and I come here to-day at the summons of the Society to pay my tribute of affection and of gratitude, not only to the great men who laid the foundations of American liberty, but specially also to the services rendered to the country by New York, both city and State, in every juncture of our history. I shall speak with no regret but one — that what I have to say will not be more worthy of the occa- sion. Duties, arduous and unremitting, in the place to which California has advanced me, for- bade me since I first heard your call, to make any preparation beyond the collection of the necessary historical facts. I throw myself upon your in- dulgence as a child of your city, as one who has 12 Tammany Society. you in his earliest recollections. I ask you to allow for my shortcomings in the fulness of your patriotism and of your good-will. Let us begin by turning back the pages of our history, there to revive recollections that will satisfy the men of to-day, as the men of other days were satisfied, of the great part played in the junc- tures of the country by New York, in city and State, and, in its time and place, by the Order in whose Hall we are to-day. Thus shall we see, and shall give to all others to see, that, by all the memo- ries and services of the past, your city and State are doubly bound to stand, as they stood of old, firm and unmoved in the cause of the Constitution of the United States and the true Union of the United States; in the cause of the just and equal rights of the States ; in the cause of the rights of the people against privilege in every shape, against monopoly in every form ; in a word, the cause of the ancient Democracy of the country. (Ap- plause.) When on a bright auspicious morning like this we meet to celebrate the Fourth of July, little do we think what clouds hung lowering over the fortunes of the good, true, and brave men who first put their hands to the work of American freedom. Men are men always ; and then, as now, there were men who were weak, men who were time-serving, men who were over-cautious. Among the masses of the people the sentiment was gene- rally right, as it is apt to be in every great trial of the country; but it needed some bold, decisive Celebration, 1870. 13 movement to direct and fix opinion, and to cast the die beyond recall. I speak now of that time of trial during the few months of 1776 that preceded the Declaration. New York was not then, as she is to-day, the greatest of the States. She was merely the fourth or fifth in rank ; but her posi- tion — her geographical position — made her the most important. She faced the Atlantic, and she rested upon Canada. She had it in her power to make a territorial union impossible. There might have been a union in law ; but, so long as New York held out. New England would have been separated from the rest of the Union by a foreign territory. Consequently her movements had an influence far beyond that which otherwise would have belonged to them, considering her only in her rank among the States. Observe, also, that her geographical position, while it gave her the utmost political consequence, made her the most exposed of the States, both on her seaboard and her Canada frontier. In March, 1776, the British evacuated Boston, and, of necessity, they were obliged to supply its place by some other great sea- port. That other was New York. They had fallen back upon Halifax, as it was understood, with the intention there to receive re-enforcements and to make a descent upon New York, then daily expected. The State was devoted to commerce, and she under- stood perfectly well that independence — American independence — for her meant blockade of her only port and the destruction of all her commerce ; meant 14 Tammany Society. the overthrow, for an indefinite time, of her ma- terial interests.- Behind her, in the country be- yond the Canada line, held by the British foe, were the hostile Indians ready to be let loose upon her territory, which she could not defend. She might well have paused in the face of these startling dangers. The reports of the movements of the British naval forces from Halifax kept the country in constant alarm. As often as it was announced that they were about to appear off a particular harbor, the scanty army of Washington, half armed, half clad, was hurried to the defence of the place. In this city soldiers were con- stantly moving in and out. The whole aspect of the community was one of grave and ceaseless anxiety. In a newspaper of the time a refined and accomplished woman writes a letter, in which, speaking of herself and of the ladies of the officers of the army — General Washington's wife among the rest — she says: " We don't dare stir out. We live shut up like nuns in a nunnery." Meanwhile the city was filled with the most alarming rumors. There was, as you well know, a very strong element of loyalists, as they were then called, in this city, and it was generally believed that a plot had been laid by them to seize the person of General Wash- ington himself at his quarters among the green fields at Richmond Hill — in the heart of the city when I was a boy, but then a remote and isolated district Every good citizen was doing his best for the cause. One day Nathaniel Greene, of Celebration, 1870. 13 Rhode Island — thought by many to be hardly second even to Washington — saw, where is now your City Hall Park, a young man, not twenty years of age, drilling a company of artillery raised mainly or wholly by himself Struck by the con- trast between the slight and youthful figure and the skill he showed in the drilling of his company, General Greene stopped and spoke to him. That company was the one provincial artillery company of General Washington's army, and its young cap- tain was Alexander Hamilton. (Applause.) Alex- ander Hamilton was one of those sons of another soil whom this city then, as she has so often done since, took to her breast and loved and tenderly raised as though he had been the dearest son of her own. (Applause.) It was in the midst of such dangers as I have described, and at the last, with a powerful British fleet and a great army, computed by none at less tlian thirty thousand men, almost at hand, that New York had to make her choice. She made it boldly and she made it well. As she was, from within and without, the most exposed of the States, having most to lose from war, it is a proud thing for New York to be able to say — it is a proud thing for any one who loves her to be able to remember that, beset by all these dangers though she was, she was still the first of the great central colonies to take an affirmative stand for American independence. (Applause.j ^It is true that in May, 1776, Virginia, to her inmiortal honor, first of all the colonies, instructed her delegates in Congress 1 6 Tammany Society. for independence ; but it is also true that on June 1 1 of the same year New York was the first of the great central colonies to follow the example through her government, and thus virtually to ^decide the great question of independenceTjy/ By Ithis course of hers, and her unanimity in it, an impetus was given to the American cause which could not be checked. Neither then nor at any other time in the Revolutionary period was New York wanting in patriotic devotion. All the testi- mony of the day agrees as to her, — that there never was a moment in the darkest of hours when the people of New York were not ready to sacri- fice their city, provided the cause of American freedom and independence demanded so great a sacrifice. (Applause.) What was true then, his- tory shows, has always been true since. New York is as ready to-day as she ever was, if needs be, to sacrifice herself for the same great cause. (Prolonged applause.) Nowhere was the Declara- tion received with more enthusiasm, more tumultu- ous joy than in this city. It was agreed to on the 4th of July, and on the 9th of July, of a still sum- mer evening, it was read by the order of Washing- ton to his little army stationed near the site of the present Chambers street, then in the fields. It was read at the head of each brigade, and New York, then as now, spontaneous, impulsive, enthu- siastic, was beside herself with patriotic excite- ment. Her multitudes listened to the declaration, and then in a body adjourned to the Bowling Celebration, 1870. 17 Green, where there was a statue, as you well know — a statue of one whom they Httle loved, as little as he loved them ; a statue of him whom you have heard spoken of in the Declaration just read as " a tyrant" — George III. of England. (Hisses.) They made of that statue a votive offering to their new-born independence. A hundred hands were ready with axe and sledge to strike it down. Down it went, amid wavinof torches and the shouts of the assembled thousands — (ap- plause) — the head was cut off — (applause) — and head and body were run into bullets to be used in the war of independence. (Applause.) I think I never heard, I think you never heard, my friends, ^of a better use being made of the coun- terfeit presentment of " a tyrant." (Applause.) The dignity of Washington was a litde offended officially because some of his soldiers took part in these proceedings, and by an order of the day he reprimanded them. But I suspect that he was not so very much displeased, and that at breakfast the next morning, at Richmond Hill, when he talked it over with Mrs. Washington, it was with a stately smile upon his august features. In such fashion did your city first celebrate the Declaration of Independence. The next great stage in the progress of Ameri- can freedom and institutions was the Confederation for the unity of the colonies against the common enemy. As you are aware, it encountered much opposition on a variety of grounds. The most 3 I 8 Tammany Society. serious were those arising out of the pubhc lands. New York and Virginia, in particular, claimed, by royal charters, vast tracts of land extending from the Atlantic to what was vaguely termed in the deeds the " South Sea." That was the grand name then o-iven to the boundless waters of the Pacific, for the most part still shrouded in all the romance of mystery. The title to these lands was as good as any title could be to lands at that time. But the States which were not so entitled to land, especially the smaller States, like Delq,ware and Rhode Island, were vehemently opposed to any federation or union except upon the condition that the large States should give up their lands for the general benefit. They argued that if the war for ijidependence should be successful, then these lands, won from Great Bri tain by the efforts and sacrifices of all, should be the common property of all. Against this demand Vir- ginia remonstrated in terms equally emphatic and final. The difficulty seemed to be growing irre- concilable. Then it was that New York spoke, February 19, 1780. Her lands were not equal in extent or value to those of Virginia, but they were all that she had ; and the\- were by no means in- considerable. They were a vital hindrance in the way of the Union of the States, and unless they were given up the Union might never be accom- plished. In this overwhelming crisis did New York hold back ? Did she hesitate to give up her lands to the Union, for the benefit of all the States which Celebration. 1870. 19 should become members of the Union? No, fel- low-citizens ; not at all, not at all ! Cheerfully, nobly, at once, through her Legislature, she sur- rendered all her public lands to the Union of the States for the sake of the Union. Her example was electric. Maryland, which had been among the foremost in demanding the surrender of the public lands, gracefully gave up the question in less than a year, declaring herself willing to rely on the justice of the other States for her rights in the Western territory. In advance of the cession by New York, New Jersey and Delaware had al- ready taken the same course. Virginia reconsid- ered her remonstrance, and in the same month which first saw the States united, declared a ces- sion of her lands to the Confederation. Who can estimate what is due to the magnanimity and wis- dom of New York in that turning-point of our Revolutionary history ? She might have entrenched herself behind her parchments, behind the broad seal of the king of England ; she could have stood upon her rights. She did not. She came out from among her muni- ments ; she laid her parchments, her royal charters, on the altar of the country ; and as they disappeared in the sacred flame, with them disappeared the last obstacle in the way of the union of the States. (Applause.) How much all this was, is not easy to conceive, even thouorh we consider what vast results hung upon her course, and how great was the Republic that sprung from the Confederation then 7.0 Tarn 112 any Society. tonned. But this was not all. In ceding her vacant lands, New York laid the foundation of the future land system of the United States, which, rightly administered, has shown itself fruitful of blessings to the country and to mankind. So the Confederation was formed ; but even so, not all had been accomplished that was demanded for the great evolution of American ideas in gov- ernment and civilization, in the new-born order of the ages. I need not recall to you the inherent weakness of the Confederation. It bore within itself of necessity the seeds of its own dissolution. It soon became apparent that a different organiza- tion of the Union was essential. The real difficulty was how this should be brought al^out. There were two parties in the country ; one party — the largest and the best in judgment — preferred that the exist- ing government of the Confederation should, to some extent, control the change to be made, — rather, I should say, should direct it. For undoubtedly there were serious fears entertained lest that a Convention called at large, and subject to no direction or supervision, might change the entire form of the government ; and there was another party — less in numbers, it is true, but possessing con- siderable ability, and great influence — which was un- derstood to favor such a course. Almost by accident, as such things hav^e been in the course of events, a solution was found. In the autumn of 1786 a Convention was in session in Annapolis, in pur- suance of a resolution of the State of Virginia, Celebration, 1870. 2 1 "to consider the subject of commercial regulations bv Congress." Tliat body, upon a report made by one of the New York delegates, Mr. Hamilton, adopted a recommendation for a general Conven- tion, for a purpose stated in these words : " To de- vise such further provisions as might be necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Gov- ernment adequate to the exigencies of the Union." It is true the idea of such a Convention was not new. In 1782 the Legislature of New York had recommended a Convention to form a Federal Constitution. The same thing was done in 1785 by Massachusetts. Still, in the winter of 1 786-1 787, the plan of a Constitutional Convention, whether as proposed at Annapolis or otherwise, met with vehement opposition in Congress upon various grounds, but principally upon the ground that Congress was unwilling to surrender its power, not only to direct the formation of the Convention, but also to ratify any Constitution the Convention should frame. Once more New York decided the policy of the country ; though to do this she had first to change the views of Congress. On February 17, 1787, the New York Legislature adopted a resolution in- structing her members in Congress to move for an act recommending the States to elect delegates to a Convention to revise the Articles or Constitution of the Confederation. Four days afterwards this im- portant expression of New York was laid before Congress. As you perceive, it left open the question of the power to ratify the Constitution when made. 22 Tammany Society. For that reason, and also because of the known anti-centrahzing tendencies of New York, the Con- gress, though it yielded the substance and called the Convention, did not choose to adopt the precise form of the New York recommendation. A reso- lution for a Convention, subsequently offered by the Massachusetts delegation, was adopted instead. In that the New York resolution was followed, ex- cept that the States and Congress were to have the power of ratifying any Constitution which might be formed. As events proved, the New York plan was the best, and was the most in accord with the genius of the people, and with the course after- wards pursued in ratifying the Constitution. The Convention once met, it was soon found that to attempt to amend the old Constitution was futile, and that a new Constitution must be made. It was made and transmitted to Congress, which did not seek to ratify it, but left it to be ratified by Con- ventions called by the States, according to the spirit of the New York plan. This was the third stage of progress of the States from the condition of British colonies to the for- mation of a more perfect Union, the same Union we now have, or ought to have — (applause) — un- der the C()nslitutit)n as it was adopted in 1789, and as it has remained practically unaltered and religiously observed, until within the past ten years. In all those three great stages of progress you see how potent always was the voice of New York, and how perfect was her devotion to the cause of the country. (Applause.) Celebration, 1870. 23 I pass rapid]}' over the intervening events, to re-« min3 vou of the Prtsidential election of 1801. T hen , lor the first time, the two opposing ideas in"'^ the politics of^the country, the Federal and Demo-^ cratic ideas, pitted their forces against each otherr \ The administration of John Adams had become""" \ justly odious by its alien and sedition laws, and ' (TFhers of the like character — though not a whit woi'se thnn nian\' im|;<)sed on us bv Congress dur- ing the last ten years, and remaining yet a blot on your statute books. Such laws, then or now, are but manifestations of the evil spirit of the party which enacts them. ^'^^ X^QUg h more than half a century of time divides the Federalism of iSoi from IBefnTsnamed '' Re- J publi can ism " of lo-day, the evil spirit animating them i> one and the same. It is the spirit of consolidation of political powers, whether granted toTKe United States or reserved to the several States, with th e lea st possible regard for the Constitution, in one great central government at Washington. " This, more than any other, is the characteristic of every party which, under whatever name, for s eventy~vears has arr ayed itself against the Demo- cratic party of the country. At the date of the i>reat contest of 1801, such a {government had long been in the aspirations, public or private, of too many of the leaders of Federalism, who, as if ^ ^ hungering after the flesh-pots of Egypt, regarded the British government as the perfection of human wisdom, and desired nothing so much as to see the 24 Tammany Society. 'government of the I'niled States brought in prac- tice as near to it as possible. Such, however, was not the American idea of government, or of the distribution of powers as between the States and the Union, as understood by the mass of the Amer- ican people and most of the men who founded the government. Federalism assailed this idea, and with a continued ascendency, under such leaders, for a few more presidential terms succeeding that of John Adams, might have subverted it. To hold Federalism in check, the Democratic party came into existence, at first under the name of Republi- can, to mark sharply its antagonism to the monarchi- cal tendencies of the opposite partyj^^i^Its success over Fed eralism in i8oi__was felt to be vital by alP* who preferred American to British pohticarinsti- tutijons. ur \v ho were opposed to the centralizing ' theory, and believed it incompatil^le wiih tlie de- [ velopment or r\en the maintenance of American * \ constitutional government. It was the one great po- litical contest of our history. Great as the contest was, it was the proudlotof your Siali',a,s theacknow- ledged battle-field of the Union, loliax-e it turn upon her vote, and turn in triumpli. ( A]j])lau>e.) Faith- ful and true, when the danger was sorest, her help was the surest. New York overthrew the Feder- alism of the country in that decisive conflict.S<^ V,^ (Loud Applause.) '^■•'''^"""""^"^ \ So desperate was the struggle that the vote of the State depended upon the election in this city, and that was decided by the talents and virtues of Celebration, 1870. 25 men who sat in the councils of the Tammany So- ciety. (Applause.) There were giants in those days, and they sat in Tammany Hall, though it was known derisively among the enemies of the people as "the pig-pen." //I hus we are able to say that it was the voice ol' /New Vork which decidecT The result of the Pfe^ Hential electio n in 180 1 (aij|)lausf) — and that "re-" suit, we know, dete rmined the administration of the government of the countrw with perhaps two in- termissions of tonr years each, for substantially" ( sixty years of a progress and growth never be- Vbre known in history. (Great applause. Tr' 'Eleven \car.s from the contest of iSoi bring us to the War of 181 2 — to another time of trial for the country and for the manhood of the people — anoth- er grave crisis, when the weight of New York was again greatly felt. The war opened darkly enough for the United States. The fleets of our hereditary foes rode the sea triumphant, they blockaded our ports, they harassed our coast everywhere. Our commerce was practically annihilated. There was a wonderful and most unnatural division at home. Rich and powerful States, which I shall not more particularly refer to, for they are in the mind of every man who hears me — I prefer not to say a word to mar the hallowed recollections of the day — leading- States in the Union then, were not faithful to the country or to themselves. In a dangerous foreign war they found, for the first time in our history, a practical opportunity for advancing a vicious 4 26 Tammany Society. doctrine of State rights, which led directly to the right of secession. But it was not in the State of New York that such a doctrine had its birth or found encouragement. (Applause.) Her patriotic Governor, Daniel D. Tompkins, strong in the love and confidence of all her people, hastened to this city for the means essential to the crisis the means required to call out and arm the militia, and make at once all other preparations for the defence of the State, threatened by the power of Great Britain, both on the Canadian frontier and upon the Atlan- tic. His call met a unanimous and generous re- sponse. (Applause.) He found the best spirit everywhere. Every man was ready to do what he could. The blood of New York was up. The banks and the capitalists placed their disposable funds in his hands ; the credit of the city was strained to the utmost in the good cause. Once again, in a grave emergency. New York came to the front. Then and afterwards during the war, she contributed largely by her support and the moral force of her example, to save the contest from re- sulting in disaster, if not in ignominy, and to make its ending as glorious as its opening had been gloomy for our young republic. (Applause.) Allow me still another glance into the past, that I may not fail to complete the record of your city and State in the great junctures of our his- tory. Coming down from the war of 1812, for nearly fifty years of domestic peace and wonder- ful progress, nearly all of them under the prin- Celebration, 1870. 27 ciples of government established by the contest of 1 80 1, we are brought to the last and greatest trial of all. We are brought to 1861, the fated year when first the country passed into the fiery ordeal of one of those terrible conflicts in which victory is most like defeat, and the cypress, not the laurel, wreathes the conqueror's sword, stained with fraternal blood — our great civil war — (applause) — when the American people turned their hands against themselves, till the land was filled with new-made graves, and fully a third of the nation was left desolate, broken, overthrown ! Your city of New York, which had always been for the Constitution and the Union — for the Union created and sanctioned by the Constitution, for the just and equal rights of all the States in the Union; New York, which had never helped to breed the evil spirit that produced the war, which had done nothing to bring on the war, but had done everything to the last moment, by word and deed, by her temper and policy, by her whole broad, patriotic, generous example, to maintain peace, and restore concord ; New York found herself in the first months of 1861 confronted by a crisis new, strange, and fearful, which she had to meet, and felt she could meet in but one way. See what a moral power she showed then, and how decisive it was ! There were other orreat cities of wealth, in- fluence, and intelligence — one of them of unusual pretensions. They were zealous, too, in the cause. They met, they resolved, fervid speeches were made, 2^ Tajnmajiy Society. and what came of it ? The country, as if awed by the consciousness of a coming calamity, stood aghast at the phenomenon of civil war. At last New York came forward ; she had her mighty meeting, in which she poured out her heart, and there, within a stone's throw of the place where I am now speaking, the Rubicon was passed. Take this historical record, poorly as I have given it to you to-day, take it as a whole, and who will deny that the city and the State, which have borne a part so decisive in every one of the critical periods of the country, are well entitled both and each to be heard on a day like this on the grave issues that concern us all ? If there are those within your city or elsewhere who deem it their duty forever to revile her as their best tribute to the country of which she is the great metropolis, and of whose energies and power she is the grand- est expression before the world, I am not here to challenge them or make defence for her. She re- quires no defence. She can rest on her record. (Applause.) History speaks for her. (Applause.) She does not need to sound her own praises any more than does Niagara or the Pacific Ocean. (Applause.) What I say is that with such a history for so many years, it is most fitting that in such a city of such a State, and in this Council Chamber, we should be here to-day to pay honor to the past, to consider the present, and prepare for the future. Is there not much in the condition of the country, Celebration, 1870. 29 in the character of the government to which it has been subjected for so many years past, in the charac- ter of the poHcy so long enforced, -and of that which is foreshadowed by the party that has swayed the government -ever since the war began, to make us all pause, — to furnish food for anxious reflection ? I shall not recall the divisions of the warjx^l would they might be buried deeper than plummet ever sounded, out of the sight and memory of man. (Ap- plause.) I shall rejoice to see the day when all that will be remembered of that terrible struggle on either side, will be the good deeds done by brother to brother, though arrayed in hostile ranks ; the devotion, the valor, the manhood put forth by each side in that giant strife of four long years ; and as to which I seek not now to know what side possessed them in largest measure. (Applause.) Let what may be remembered in honor, love, affec- tion be remembered, but all else be sunk in the ^darkest pools of oblivioryK(^pplause.) Passing by' the period of the war, and coming to the date of peace, now more than five years ago, let me ask was there ever a party that had so many opportuni- ties for good as the Republican party then had } The South was prostrated utterly ; she had fought it out to her last man and her last gun. Broken, bleeding at every pore, helpless as a babe new-born, she was an object to excite the sympathies, to stir the generous impulses of the sternest foe. The one thing in the world she wanted was peace. The one thing she did not want was strife. The 30 Tammany Society. obvious duty of the Republican party, having the whole power, was to bind up the wounds of the South, to rebuild her shattered interests, to restore her to peace, to the Union and the country. In doing this paramount duty the Republicans would also have gained an important party advantage ; for they must have built up for themselves a strong party in the South. The dispositions of the peo- ple there were not in the way ; for that they were excellent after the war is the testimony of a great array of all the best witnesses, General Grant at their head. Had there been one statesman to lead the Republican party — I will not say statesman — one man of American ideas, of Christian heart, he might have founded a party in the South which must in time have had a permanent influence in the politics of the country. They did nothing of all this, — nothing for the South, nothing for the country, nothing that will stand for even their own party interests. To the brains of the South, to its real permanent majority, which no brute force of bayonets, no electioneering contrivances, no acts of Congress can very long keep down, thev said : " Let there be no orood-will, but hatred, between us now and hereafter." Throughout they listened to their narrow fears ; they took counsel of their blind resentments. They ceased not to cry out for vengeance. As if with studied purpose they found out the tenderest points of a people smarting under their utter over- throw, and there they outraged them again and Celebration, 1870. 31 again. They attempted even to make them the wretched instruments of their own dishonoi when they demanded of them, as a condition of their res- toration into the Union, that they should put a brand of disabiHty upon their own chosen leaders in the cabinet and in the field. What did they require } They required them to vote for an amendment to the Constitution inflicting upon their Lees, their Johnstons, their Stephenses, such political disabilities as the law is wont to impose only upon the guiltiest inmate of a State Prison. Why, suppose it had been our lot, instead of theirs, to fail in the mighty conflict — as in the ways of Providence it might have been, for great soldiers know that war is fortune, and we all know that it is not always the best cause that has the best success, and that more great wars have resulted for the wrong side than for the right one. I say, if we had been overthrown, and they had said to us as the condition of our resuming our rights in the Union : " You, men of the North, you have first to single out your own chosen leaders in the war, the men of your love and trust, and by your own votes you shall declare them infamous with the infamy of the felon." What would we have said } Every man of us, everywhere, would have flung back their de- mand in their faces. We would have said to them : "What, take our Sherman, our Farragut, our McClel- lan — (loud and long-continued cheering, again and again renewed) — take them and with our own hands put upon their brow the brand of your dis- 32 Tamma^iy Society. honor ! — never, never, never." (Great cheers and applause.) We would have said : " Whatever they were to you, they were only too faithful to us, and we will not be the instruments of your ven- geance against them." (Applause.) That is what we should have said to them, though their con- quering s\\(jrd was at our throats. Promptly, as one man, the South rejected their amendment, and we honor the South for it. (Applause.) On such terms, which of us would have wanted her in the Union ? A people capable of so dishonoring themselves b}^ their own act would have shown themselves unworthy to be a part of the Amer- ican Republic, (Loud applause.) Yet this most righteous act of the South — her refusal to be a party to her own shame — was at once seized upon as a proof of her continued " disloyalty," and as a justification for a long series of wrongs and indig- nities, and chief among them the so-called recon- struction system. What a complete idea of the evil spirit in which our opponents undertook to deal with the South do we gain from this single fact! It is more eloquent than a thousand speeches. (Applause.) Possessed with such a spirit, is it won- derful that our opponents have shown themselves 80 incapable of understanding how little had been accomplished when the war ended in 1865, and how very much was still to be done.^ True, we defeated their armies, overran their territory, over- threw their confederacy. All that, we owe our armies and navies. Is all that, much for a great Celebration, 1870. 33 and enlightened people to accomplish after four years of war at such an expense of blood and treasure as in the same time the world never before saw? Any barbarian from the plains of Asia, any Genghis Khan or Tamerlane could have done as much with men and cannon enough. (Laughter and applause.) But our Republican friends will remind us that they have been able by military power to reconstruct the States of the South, and to main- tain reconstruction. That is to say, they have been able by bayonets to impose upon an exhausted, dispirited people any government they chose. Again I ask, is that much to boast of for a great party ruling a great Republic } A war which results in nothing but that, is a war that has but a barbarian result. Such a result is no more and no better than is achieved under the semi-bar- barous rule of any military chief How little is it all ? How short a way does it go towards the restoration of the authority of the Consti- tution and the Union in the hearts, in the free- will of the people of the South. That was the grand object — let me say it — the only object of the war. (Applause.) Has the party in power ever since the war closed, accomplished that object.'' Has it made any considerable progress in that di- rection } Why, the continual declaration of its most representative men is that the people of the South, in a majority of the States that were in se- cession, are far more disloyal than they were the day of the surrender at Appomattox, or in the 34 Tammany Society. year that followed the surrender. If they are, in the name of Heaven whose fault is it ? (Great applause.) On the close of such a struggle as the ■ South made, she accepted the situation as fully as could be expected ; indeed more fully than had been expected. Her organized resistance had ceased ; in her utter exhaustion she had no in- clination to continue the contest in any form. The dispositions of her people were excellent. Why have they changed so much for the worse } There must be a cause. The American, North or South, is instinctively a man of order, of peace, of relations with society, and of obedience to law and government (Applause.) Why is it that the dis- positions of the men of the South, which were so laudable at the close of the war and for a consider- able time afterwards, are now so bad } There is but one explanation, my friends. It is the flagrant mis- government of them by our opponents. The perse- cution which makes the wise man mad has done its work in the South. When our opponents accuse the South of being disaffected, they condemn themselves. For five years since the war closed they have had the South in their own hands, to do with her as they would, without let or hindrance. Having had all the power to make her peaceful and well-affected, or at least orderly, if they have not done so the whole fault is theirs. The entire responsibility is with them for their utter failure in the South. But this is not all. Not only have our oppo- nents failed to give the South good government, Celebration, 1870. 35 but they have not given her any stable government. The government of one day is thrown down the next; reconstruction has continually to be recon- structed. Since the war Georgia has had three or four governments, civil and military, or partly civil and partly military, by turns. In the first month of this session of Congress she was taken in hand by our opponents. She had then had for nearly a year and a half a reconstructed State govern- ment in complete operation, and fully recognized at Washington. Her members had their seats in the House of Representatives until the close of the last Congress. Yet in December last, by act of Congress, she was thrown back for a little more reconstruction under the military power of the United States. To-day the question which troubles the majority in Congress is, whether Georgia is to remain in- definitely under a sort of joint military and civil oc- cupation, or to be allowed to have a State govern- ment of some sort or other in the Union, with re- presentatives in Congress. Look next at the case of Tennessee. Tennessee was never fully out of the Union ; and yet Tennes- see, because she chose a while ago, by an over- whelming vote, to hurl from power her oppressors at home, who had outraged and wronged her be- yond endurance, has been in danger, every day of this session of Congress, of being put under the heel of the military power for the purpose of re- construction after such fashion as may best suit 36 Tammany Society. the party exigency. How can it be said that there is a stable government in any portion of the country where such things are possible ? Another instance occurs to me in the case of Virginia. A few weeks ago a member from that State, in the House of Representatives, rose in his place and proposed what was virtually an inquiry by the Committee on Reconstruction, whether Vir- giniashould not once more be reconstructed. Vir- ginia was then, and had been, as peaceful as any State in the Union ; and the ground assigned was most preposterous. Yet see the sense of utter insecurity produced in men's minds by the vio- lent revolutionary policy at Washington. At once a general panic, as if at the invasion of a hostile army, struck the State of Virginia. Upon the best authority I was informed that of the many im- portant business movements projected or in pro- gress in that State, nearly every one stood still as if paralyzed for the time. It is true nothing fur- ther came of this assault upon Virginia. It was too much for even the Reconstruction Committee of the House of Representatives. But you can judge for yourselves what must be the condition of things in the South when a single wanton reso- lution, introduced by a mischievous man, can fill a State like Virginia with consternation. It is not the South alone that is in danger from the unconstitutional policy of our opponents. I desire 3'-ou to understand, and the country should know in season, that they claim that under certain Celebration, 1870. 37 circumstances, of which Congress is to be the judge, it may exercise the same authority to deal with the States of the North as it has exerted over the States of the South. Let me explain. It is under pretext of the provision in the Constitution bindingthe Uni- ted States to guarantee a RepubHcan form of gov- ernment to the several States. Undersome unheard of construction of their own, our opponents claim to have found in that clause what they call " a great fund of power" in Congress. Their most leading men there have over and over, during the present session, declared the insufferable pretension that Congress may look into the Constitution and laws of any State, or into the administration of them in any State, and if it finds there any element which in its opinion is not according to "a Repub- lican form of government," it has the power to recon- struct that State according to its ideas of Repub- lican government. You will judge of the enor- mity of this doctrine by an illustration. I give it to you, because it places the claim of our opponents on their strongest ground. The ar- gument is first, that the general intelligence of the people is the only permanent basis of republican government ; second, that to produce this general intelligence a system of free com- mon schools, which will secure the education of all, is essential ; and hence that a State which by its constitution and laws fails to support pre- cisely such a system of free connnon schools as shall in the judgment of Congress suffice to effect 38 Tammany Society. that result, has not " a republican form of govern- ment," and may be reconstructed by Congress at its own will and pleasure. vSo you see, good peo- ple, if here in your State of New York you have not a free common school system, or if you have, but in some respect that Congress may pretend to think material it falls short of its standard of efficiency, the powers that be at Washington may occupy your State with the army and navy of the United States, may depose your government, place your State under a military chief, thrust her out of the Union, and hold her there until she is reconstructed to suit the purposes of the dominant party. (Loud cries of " Let them come ! " " Let them come ! " " God help them if they do ! ") The .doctrine of this claim, I admit, is as monstrous as it is insufferable ; for it puts all State constitutions and governments at the mercy of Congress, and virtually reduces the States into mere provinces of Congress. But I sincerely hope the results of the elections this fall will be such as to take away the stomachs even of our most Radical friends, for a long time to come, for any practical proceedings of the sort. (Loud cheers and applause.) Can the strongest partisan give one reason for the lon- ger existence of a party which can think of no other means of continuing its hold upon the gov- ernment than those foreshadowed by a claim of power which is simply naked palpable revolution } In all this we see the natural result of the por- tentous two-thirds majority in each House, — itself, Celebration, 1870. 39 as is well known, the product of a series of enormi- ties perpetrated for that purpose, and not surpassed by the worst excesses in the history of political par- ties. The best and most reflectino^ men amono- our opponents — and there are many such; would there were more ! — look with dismay upon this ter- rible majority in both Houses, — a majority which, upon all questions where the passions of the war can be invoked, and upon all others which can be wrested into party questions, has shown itself as hard, as remorseless, as insensible to reason or to mercy as a machine. What can be more unsafe than such a majority for any party in a great Le- gislature } For the best of parties it is a constant temptation to arbitrary or vicious proceedings; with the present party in power its workings have been all pernicious. Its constant tendency is to send the real judgment of the party to the rear, or to drive it out, and to place mere violence in the lead, supported on each side by the human- itarian theorists of the country, and by that large class who are wont to " rush in where angels fear to tread." (Applause.)/^uring Napoleon's campaigns in Egypt, it used to be said that the order for ac- tion was, " Asses and savans to the centre." We have changed all that. The order nowadays is, " Asses and savans to the front."^^^C-(Great laughter.) Save me from your would-be philosophers and hu- manitarian theorists in politics. They have less wisdom and less humanity, and in our experience in this country they are chargeable with more enormi- 40 Ta7iimany Society. ties in government — more of those blunders that are worse than crimes — than any other class of persons that have to do with public affairs. Applause.) But while we expose and denounce the evil courses and tendencies of our opponents — during their long- period of power in Congress practically unre- strained — we must not forget the actual destruction with which they menace to-day the oldest and best recognized rights of the States and liberties of the people. Under pretence of enforcing the Four- teenth and Fifteenth Amendments, they have passed recently in Congress — and it has become a law — a long elaborate statute, stuffed full of new crimes and offences ; of new pains and penalties ; of provi- sions for controlling registration and elections in the States, and employing the army and navy at elec- tions ; of hundreds and tens of hundreds of new officers, each with power to call out the army and navy ; and a host of other monstrosities which I cannot now recall. The sum of the whole is to give to the Radical party the power to control elections in the States by the army and navy of the United States. It is a bill under which, at any election at which members of Congress are chosen, that party is aliowtd to set at naught all State laws for registration of votes, or for the regulation of the polls ; allowed to surround the polls with Fed- eral soldiers, against all laws, usages, and tradi- tions of the American people ; allowed on the affi- davit of any irresponsible person, whose vote is re- Celebration, 1870. 41 jected for want of registration, and who may claim it should have been received, to take the officers of election from their seats and cast them one and all into jail ; and thus and otherwise to carry or break up the election at any or all of the polls in a city or State. It is a bill which gives the Presi- dent the control of the Federal District Judges, so as to order them to and fro at his will, anywhere in their districts. More than that, in this most extra- ordinary statute our Radical friends provide for the appointment of an unlimited number of court com- missioners all over the country, each of whom may appoint an unlimited number of bailiffs for each election. What powers do you suppose all this army of bailiffs is to have } They have power not only to execute all warrants issued by these com- missioners, anywhere in the State where they are issued, but I assure you that each one of these hundreds of bailiffs — chosen mostly from the idlers and hangers-on of the marshal's and clerk's offices, beside themselves with partisan feeling, in the midst of the excitement of a contested election, — has the power to call on the army and navy of the United States to aid him at his discretion in the execution of his warrants ! One alleged object of this bill is to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment. That amendment, you will remember, provides that " the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of ser- 6 \ 42 Tammany Society. vitude ! " Whatever else may be contested as to this amendment, one thing is beyond contest or question, — that by its express terms it operates only upon the States as such, as great political bodies. Concede, if you will, that it extends also to officers of States, acting under State authority. But the new act goes ever so much further. Its theory is, and its provisions are, — that if at the polls in your city, for instance, any quarrelsome fellow, inflamed with drink, should drive off a black voter, and make him lose his vote, that would be a case in which the right of a citizen to vote is ''denied or abridged by the State on account of color." It would be a case for calling out the army and navy of the United States against the State of New York. Can the force of nonsense further go } Why, my friends, we all know that when your great State acts, it is as a State through her government. A State can act in no other way. But we deny, and every man of sense enough to make a promis- sory note denies, tli^t any disorderly person at the polls is the State/ Orrce a great king of France, in the fulness of his pride of place, exclaimed : " The! State — I am the State ! " But here we see that our\ Radical friends have reached the other extreme of absurdity that enables any drunken ruffian on elec- tion-day at your polls to make himself the State of New York ! "^Laughter and applause.) In the same view — of placing the practical con- trol of the elections in the hands of the Radical party — a concerted effort has been made in both Celebration^ 1870. 43 Houses of Congress so to alter the laws of natural- ization as to accomplish that object. The character of the bills originally pressed in both Houses was the same, — the same in the offensive, and indeed tyrannical, provisions with which they were filled. The result of each is the oppression and insult of every man seeking to be naturalized. His ap- plication is a law-suit in which any number of at- torneys may appear against him ; and which, if contested, must last a considerable time, and may consume days and even weeks, at an expense to the applicant of not less than twenty dollars in the simplest case of contest, up to hundreds of dollars. This is not all or the worst. The sting of the system is that the applicant is put upon his trial, — is treated like a criminal at every step, from the first to the last. In some respects he is worse treated: for he is pronounced guilty and called upon to prove his innocence, in the absence of any proof against him. Nothing worse is found in the old notorious alien and sedition laws. From their day since, nothing so bad has ever been attempted by any party in the country. One of these bills is still in the Senate, where they have just amended it by admitting the Chinese to naturalization! Whether the Chinese feature or the other odious provisions will be retained is not yet known. If they are struck out there, it will be as it was in the House of Representatives — not by any sound sentiment of the majority, but by the votes of all the Democrats, united with the votes of Senators from Western 44 Tammany Society. States, who do not venture to vote otherwise, in the face of the deep interest their States have in promo- ting European immigration, and, by consequence, naturalization ; and in the face also of the large element of adopted citizens in the Radical party of those States. I have already spoken too long — very much longer than I intended when I rose. ("Go on! go on!") But I cannot close without some brief words upon a question which, though it is almost old in my own State, has but recently been thought of the first importance in the States east of the Rocky Mountains. A few months ago it was but a little cloud in the New England sky, no bigger than a man's hand. To-day it spreads its frowning shadow all over your horizon. I refer, of course, to the Chinese question — a question with two mighty and portentous aspects : one, the expulsion of the labor of the country by the introduction of the degraded cheap labor of Asia; the other, the poisoning of our civilization by the civilization of Asia. The first of these aspects is the most pressing In the few moments left tome, I shall speak only of that. On this whole subject of labor, the corner-stone of my creed is laid deep. I hold that no society is well or safely organized, whatever its apparent strength, which does not rest on a sound organiza- tion of labor; and that cannot be when the work- ing-man is by any contrivance defrauded of his wages — that is, of his just share of the profits of Celebration, 1870. 45 his own labor, — and thus degraded in the State ; whether this contrivance be by the competition of the cheap, debased labor of Asia, or by any other mode. I know what fine things are said of the importance of capital to labor, and that there is no necessary antagonism between them. I admit that capital has its importance, though it grows less and less as compared with the fast growing importance of labor. I wish capital would oftener think of this. It would not then persist in futile efforts to hold on to advantages in the distribution of profits, as between itself and labor, which were never just, and which belong to times and ideas long obsolete in this land of equal rights. I agree, also, that there is no neces- sary antagonism between capital and labor. I say, more, that whoever wantonly creates such an an^ tagonism does a great wrong to society. ^ But I mean further to say this, and T say it rj'j^b'berately, on a subject of which I have thought muc h, that I know of no right in the State which comes before t he righ t. of the working-man to. make a living for himself and his family in decency and comfort, lause.) When the capital of the country seeks to defeat this great right, and to divorce itself from" the labor of the countr)^ it places itself, by its own" act, out of the pale of sympathy or even of respect. '^v On one ground and another," the attempt is made to defend the Chinese evil. Not one of those grounds is anything but insignificant That which is oftenest heard, " cheap labor," is the fals- 46 Tammany Society. est of all. Cheap labor always, and most espe- cially in the mouths of the advocates of the Chinese evil, means degraded labor — means a working-class debased down to the Asiatic level. What man dares declare himself for that? If this country of ours abounds to-day in all elements of wealth, power, and progress beyond any example in his- tory, why is it? It is for this reason, more than any other or all others, — that nowhere in the world has labor been so well rewarded as in the United States, Nowhere has labor been at less dis- advantage in its relations with capital — nowhere has it been so nearly on equal ground with capital. One good purpose this " cheap labor " cry serves, if no other. It discloses the main-springof the Chinese movement. It shows that the purpose of it is — a sordid, unchristian, wicked purpose — to enable the capital of the country to add to its already swollen gains, at the expense of the ruin of the working- man.vyi^Vill these people never say " enough " ? Thev have Built up for themselves a tariff and an internal revenue system — a currency and banking- system — a system of corporate monopolies of every class rolling in wealth — all compacted together into one vast body of oppression which is everv "Tday making the rich richer and the poor poorer, and is dripping in all its parts with the sweat and blood of the working-people of the country. , Never in the world's history — never, certainly, in the history of the United States, have the profits of capital been so enormous as for the past se\'en Celebration, 1870. 47 or ei ^ trht vears/^^^Q ^Jotwithstanding all this — in the face of the outcry of labor - in the face of Chris- tianity — in the face of civilization, they seek to pour upon this land a horde of vicious, debased Asia- tics, to snatch the bread from the mouths of the work- ing-men of the country, to degrade them as a class, to consign them to the poor-house, and their fami- lies, it may be, to lives of vice and shame. (Ap- plause.) My friends, it shall never be. (Great applause.) This is no question to be treated as issues be- tween parties usually are. It is very far be- yond that. It is the touchstone of the right of any party to live. Any party which, by its course and general principles of action, now and heretofore, shows itself unfit to be trusted on this question, ought to go down. It will go down, no matter what may be to-day its power in the land, (Loud applause.) This question reaches down to the foundations of society. It goes to the exis- tence of your government. With our popular in- stitutions and now universal suffrage, we can have no free government without an intelligent, indepen- dent, free working-people. Will the Chinaman fur- nish the elements for such a people — any the least material out of which to maintain or bufld up States } ( •' No ! never ! " Applause.) I understand the com- plaint made of many of you, by the advocates of the Chinese evil, is that you are too free and indepen- dent ; that, on subjects which interest you, you are apt to have a mind of your own, which you will 4^ Tammany Society. not give up to those who seem to imagine that they are set over you as your natural guides and instruc- tors. (Loud cheers and applause.)\^It is innospi- r it of flattery that I declare I Iook To the w ork- ing-men of the country for the redemption oi' its" l iberties. I d o notjook to your bankers and your capitaHsts — to the men that are afease in their \ possessions. There arc, I know, good men among them ; but I fear too many of them are ready to sub- I *mit to any sort of despotism, to-morrow, that will add I five j^er cent, per annum to their interest. I look to I you men that depend upon your daily labor for I your daily bread ; I look to you, to whom we owe I k-tlaat--»te^came out oi our great war victorious and V r)(^l- Azanqiii'shcrl (Applause.) In this great contest against the Chinese evil, it is not for yourselves alone that you act. You are standing forward, also, in defence of the principles of American government and civilization prin- ciples we devoutly believe the truest, the grand- est the world has yet seen, for which no earthly sacrifice is too great. (Loud applause.) I trust there is no difficulty in understanding my position on this question. I want you all to understand it. I belong to a great political party, and I suppose I may be thought to be somewhat concerned in politics. But I beg of you, do not leave this ques- tion all to the politicians. You have got to fight it out yourselves — (applause) — and that without delay, with your whole strength and your whole mind. Celebration, 1870. 49 As I have said, I put this issue above all mere partisan interests. If I adhere to one political party in the country, on the great questions of the day, it is because I knpw it to be faithful and true on those questions, and especially on this, the greatest of them all. It could not be otherwise without being false to its traditions, its policy, its distinctive political principles, its fundamental ideas of government since the first hour of its existence. Happily for us all, there is still one great party left, which is free from the thraldom of the banded money-power of the Union-^free, ready, willing, and able to stand by the country and its labor in the contest which is already upon them. (Great applause.) Be sure it will be no light contest. As yet you have on this side of the continent but the first rip- ples of the tidal wave. In my own State of Cali- fornia we have met the Chinese evil face to face. With our own eyes we have seen it backed up by a most pernicious treaty ; by a greed as stupid as it is sordid for " cheap labor ;" by a vicious public sentiment in the ruling party of the Union — grow greater and stronger day by day. At length, and not an hour too soon, our people are aroused. On the Chinese evil there is substantially but one party in California. If there is any party there for it, it merely serves to quicken the party which is against it. It will be well for the rest of the country when it stands, as California stands, against the Chinese evil in all its aspects — the labor aspect and every 7 50 Tammany Society. other. The sooner the better, believe me. (Great applause.) If we have a great contest before us, have we not also a great cause, a good cause, a cause which can never be crushed, and cannot remain much longer overthrown ? For success we need only wisdom, and union in action among those who are united in opinion. If to-morrow all the voters who are opposed to the misrule at Washington could be united in one party, from that moment Radicalism would be doomed. Now, beyond all doubt, there are a few clear issues upon which they are agreed and ready to act tofjether. Shall we not allow them to unite and to act with us? 1 )u we not all know that on the great issues of an econom ical administration of thegove rnment ; o f a sound currency; of a reduc- tion of taxes; of a reformed tariff; of the public lands preserved for the people; and above all, of the defence of the labor of the country: against\ Asiatic degradation, — we can all act together as one, man P^^'Let us so act, and success is ours ; and while these issues are all with us, let us not forget that " the Democratic party is pledged also to the invio- " labilitv of the Constitution, the intes^ritv of the Union — (applause) — and the preservation of all the j-ights of the States unimpaired. (Applause.!/;^ Can such a cause long fail of success ? I wish no greater happiness in my own time than to see the hour of its triumph. I cannot think of any wish Celebi^ation. 1870. 51 more worthy of the great glory of this memorable day. (Great applause.) When the applause following Senator Casser- ly's speech had subsided, District Attorney Garvin, who took the chair during the unavoidable absence of the Grand Sachem, introduced the Poet of the occasion, the Hon. John G. Saxe, who eloquently, clearly, and effectively rendered his poem of •'OLD TAMMANY." 'Tis the voice of the croaker — ^I hear him complain : " Those Tammany boys, they are at it again ! Why keep such a feast in a partisan way ? ' Independence^^ I'm sure, is a National Day ! " So it is ! God be praised ! and that is just why We Democrats honor the Fourth of July ! Were it anything other, or smaller, I own. We'd all be contented to let it alone ; Or leave it to men — to a party, I'll say. Accustomed to think in a narrower way ; A party peculiarly fitted to shine (With a blue sort of light) in a different line ; Whose leaders, for instance (I won't call them knaves), Being partial to soldiers — when cold in their graves — Appointed a day fbe it tenderly said) For crowning with flowers the patriot dead ; " Flowers, flowers for the heroes ! " the demagogues cry, While wiping a tear that is " all xviyour eye " — " One Day for the soldier to memory dear ! " Whom, living, they robbed every day in the year ! And still at the Capitol mark how they treat The soldier too noble to cringe at the feet Of the Dons who determine a General's merit 52 Tammany Society. By the gauo^e — nothing else- — of his partisan spirit. Mere fealty to party they reckon much higher Than service to country, and so they inquire If he's fluent of speech in the Radical cant ? And '• What has he done, now, for General Grant ? " " Don't tell us," they cry, '' of his honors and scars ; But what is the brand of his 7'ote — and cigars f'' "A hit at the magistrate ! " some one exclaims ; Well, /shan't abuse him by calling him names ; I honor his office ; and let us reflect The head of the nation demands some respect. I do not forget he's our President, placed In the chair that a Jackson and Jefferson graced. Let us recollect that — till he's laid on the shelf — However he seems to forget it himself. And as to abuse, with the worst I could say By giving my genius the liveliest play, I never could hope to accomplish the end Half so well as T heard a Republican friend, Who having, unwisely, forgot to subscribe. Or being, unluckily, not of the tribe Presidental or '■' DenV ?\, as certainly failed Of the office he sought for, and therefore assailed The man in such language as passes belief That one could employ in denouncing his chief. He said — as I heard it, so you will receive it — Pray do not imagine I think you'll believe it- He said, in such bittor extravagant speech. As simple hyperbole never could reach ; Pronounced in a manner less civil than hearty — " The fellow disgraced the Republican party ! " Apropos of the party of which I've made mention, Suppose I should give it some further attention ; It has very few friends, and while I am '• in," T own the temptation to "hit it agin T^ c Celebration^ 1870. 53 A party which bases, with singular ease. Immoral proceedings on "moral idees ;' Denounces small rogues who are caught in the fact. But favors the big ones, or holds them intact ; Like the land-stealing rascals and similar jobbers. Meek-faced, parliamentary, " Radical " robbers. Who hasten to place on the visible hand That deals in cadetships an infamous brand ; While their own, at the moment, grown bolder and bolder, Are plunged in the Treasury up to the shoulder, Success to Old Tammany, long may she stand The bulwark of Freedoni — the pride of the Land !j What parties and factions, of transient renown. In her Century's life have come up ?i\\A i^one down. While she, looking on, in her vigilant way, Poked her fun at the farce, or her hand in the fray ; And still, to her honor, whatever the fight. Had a word and a blow in defence of the right. She hailed the first triumph of Liberty's cause. And the motto to-day is "The Union and Laws ; " She stood by the Flag when old England once more. Unschooled by disaster, invaded our shore. And got the old lesson repeated so plain She scarcely will need to be taught it again ! And when it befell that the tottering State, For the wind of dissension that Faction and Hate Through the length of the Land had been sowing afar, Was reaping the whirlwind of treason and war. Still true to the Union see Tammany stand With "the old starry banner" still firm in her hand, While foes at the South would the Union divide. And fools at the North were for " letting it slide ! " Success to Old Tammany ! therefore, I say (How sweetly she smiles on this festival day) ; 54 Tammany Society. In health, strength, and beauty, long, long may she stand, The Bulwark of Freedom — the Pride of the Land. The Hon. S. S. Cox was a working member of the Democratic party, and as one of the most elo- quent speakers for that party in Congress, was ex- pected to appear, and of course he did appear, and spoke with his usual vivacity, wit, and enthu- siasm. He was introduced by Sachem Garvin. His speech was frequently interrupted by laughter and applause, but it appears, as the speeches of that honorable gentleman always do, sparkling and happy in the pages of Tammany record. HON. S. S. cox's SPEECH. Mr. Cox said : Within the shadow of Tammany, and at its old altar, we meet to dedicate ourselves anew to the republic. There are hallowed associations here which give significance to the motto: " Pulchrum est bene facere republican; etiambene dicerehaudab- surdum est." Already our people are anticipating the celebration of the hundredth year of our re- public. The very fact of the continuance of our nation, amidst the wonderful changes of the cen- tury, is a eulogy upon those who have said and done well for its existence. It has withstood the shock of time and the storms of civil conflict, for its foundations were well laid. I rejoice with those who rejoice over this triumph of the republic. Celebration, 1870. 55 (Applause.) Nor will I chant jeremiads of boding about our future. Fresh from the national arena, with my mind amazed and depressed at the immi- nency of our perils and the encroachments of power, I will still believe in the republic. The ex- cesses of power have at last aroused the people. From the Golden Gate — whose silver-tongued orator has spoken to us to-day — to this metropolis of the continent, come notes of awakening and glad tidings of political salvation. Our tarnished credit, fame, and dignity will be rescued from the spoiler and the oppressor. New York leads the van in the conflict, for she leads the battalions of the Democracy. (Applause.) But this struggle for our rescue is not a mere holiday muster. It is no light skirmish to meet and overwhelm a party which by its mercenaries collects and spends four hundred millions a year. We must omit no vigi- lance or skill — for we must remember that to this long purse of the enemy is added the fear of his exposure for ten years of rapacity and misrule. We must watch each movement of the Radical janizaries. They have seized the powers of the State, and by arbitrary methods have turned the very engines of our freedom aggressively upon the States and the people. Montesquieu says, that " as in democracies the people seem to act most as they please, this sort of government has been deemed most free ; and the power of the people has been confounded with their freedom." By which he means that we may have the temple of 56 Tammany Society. freedom while the spirit is absent from the shrine; or, if present, in the form of a deformed and de- grading image. It is true with us that, while the greater sovereignty has engrossed all lesser sove- reignties, the shell of a republic still exists. The beautiful Evangel of Liberty taught by the Father of Democracy, Thomas Jefferson, in the Declara- tion of Independence, has been so tortured in its text and misapplied in the commentary that it reads, under Radical light, more like the mum- meries of some unearthly craft, than the pure, simple, well-ordered system of restraint and mode- ration embodied in the local governments and Federal Constitution of the United States! Usurpation and violence, unfraternity and pro- scription, have mutilated our system. The present administration, in its treatment of the South, has not exhibited a single element of charity or brotherhood The only code of amnesty — five years after the end of civil strife — proposed by a Radical leader — has in it so many exceptions that they outweigh the modicum of grace in the first section of his bill of hate. Not only are States held in terror and in thrall by the majority of an omnipotent Congress, but that body is now engaged in showing how, in individual liberty, it can set aside the Bill of Rights in the Federal Constitution. A Radical Congressman is thrashed at Richmond. (Laughter.) The gentle- man who thrashed him is an Irishman. It was not a breach of privilege ; nor was it for words Celebrationis 1870. 57 spoken in debate; nor had it any connection with Congressional duty or quorum ; but the Irishman, having asked the man to drink and having met with a rebuff, struck the Radical, whereat Congress is indignant and arrests the assailant. (Laughter.) In a case which Judge Dowling would dispose of in ten minutes, the precious time of the American Con- gress is taken up for a week or more ; and a cit- izen is immured in a crypt of the Capitol because of this simple assault. Not only is the right of trial by the jury of the vicinage violated, and the right of habeas corpus disregarded, but the princi- ple is sought to be established that a Congressman, if a Radical, is a privileged person, a sort of " holier than thou " person, to be shielded from assault by the Federal power. The attack against the right of one is thus made an attack upon the liberty of all. (Applause.) In the least, as in the greatest affairs of govern- ment, the Radical party follow in peace the lessons of tyranny it practised in war. Not satisfied with voting into Congress men never elected, but rejected by thousands of majority, that party would restrict suffrage by laws which, like those of King George's time, impede naturalization. To make this more galling, they connect it with the army and navy, so as to effect elections by force in certain cities which, like New York, have not been educated up to the Radical standard ! Even in such matters as sala- ries this administration seems to delight in placing (he military above the civil power. This is seen in > <^ Well might such a miracle follow an oath so full of gentleness and justice. Let us renew at this altar of St. Tammany — on this natal day of freedom — an oath to omit no ex- ertion by deed or word until the elemental spirit and beautiful form of our constitutional freedom is restored to the republic in that simple splendor and unassuming pomp which it wore when our Colum- bian Order was born ! (Applause.) NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT. Douglas Taylor came forward and said : On behalf of the Committee of Arrangements, I have to state to you that we have received a num- ber of letters from very eminent gentlemen. We have received letters from Senator Thurman, from Congressmen Eldridge and Wood; from Governor English, of Connecticut; from Judge Woodward, of Pennsylvania ; from General George B. McClel- lan — (immense round of applause) — and last, but by no means least, from John T. Hoffman, Gover- nor of this State, and, by the help of God and the Democratic party, the next President of these Uni- ted States. (Tremendous cheering.) The present 64 Tammany Society. Governor, and our next President, says that noth- ing but ilhiess would have prevented his being here. He is at present in Newport, and his letter will appear in the papers with others to-morrow. Letters were received from Governor Hoffman, Senators Bayard, Stockton, and Sherman, and from Hon. Edwin Croswell, Hon. W. Beach Lawrence, of Rhode Island, Hon. Richard Vaux, Major-Gen- eral John G. Peck, Hon. Israel T. Hatch, Judge Hand, Hon. Leon Abbott, General M. T. McMa- hon, Hon. Darius A. Ogden, Hon. A. B. Conger, Hon. Charles W. Carrigan, of Pennsylvania, Hon. William G. Fargo, Hon. John J. Taylor, D. C. Cal- vin, Esq., John R. Conway, Esq., Hon. John V. L. Pruyn, Hon. Henry D. Barto, Hon. Arphaxad J_^oomis, Lieut-Governor Richard T. Jacobs, of Kentucky, Hon. William H. Ludlow, Hon. Theo- dore Miller, Hon. William F. Russell, and Colonel J. D. Van Buren. The letters received and read will be found in the back part of the book. Sachem Garvin then introduced the Hon. James Brooks, the champion in Congress of the abstract principles of New York Democracy, who has the reputation of possessing more political learning than any other member of Congress, and being Celebration, 1870. 65 able to put his learning into the tersest and most journalistic English. His speech was heartily re- ceived with earnest applause. REMARKS OF MR. BROOKS. The Hon. James Brooks then having been seen on the platform, there were loud cries for him, to which he responded as follows (the welcome hav- ing been a very hearty one) : — You cannot well understand, fellow-citizens, the gratitude your members of Congress feel for a wel- come like this, so novel, so unaccustomed to us, who have been living for months in a hostile as- sembly, where, in consequence of tyrannical rules of order, and an indisposition to hear our free cri- ticisms upon public affairs, we are always unwel- come, and almost always frowned upon when we attempt to speak. Such receptions, then, as these, are as precious to us as they are novel ; and there- fore with pleasure I now respond to your call, though I have nothing prepared to say, and what- ever I may say must be the inspiration of the mo- ment. (Applause.) The Declaration of Independence here, which has just been read by the gentleman in whose veins runs the blood of its illustrious author, sug- gests themes to me, and when I heard him reading the declaration of his great ancestor I felt that Jef- ferson himself was here rebuking, July 4th, 1870 9 66 Tammany Society. tyranny, as on July 4th, 1776. (Applause.) The history of the present administration, as Mr. Jeffer- son declared of the then history of Great Britain, " is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States." Mr. Brooks then took up the copy of the De- claration from which Mr. Robertson had been reading, and analyzed parts of the Declaration, as follows : — "We hold these truths to be self-evident (said Mr. Jefferson), that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; and that to secure these rights Governments are instituted among men, deriving their JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED." But these self-evident truths have all, or nearly all, been violated by the present administration of the Government. Under the pretence of making the Af- rican equal with the Caucasian white man, thousands and tens of thousands of white men, in eleven States of our Union, have been put under the absolute despotism of ignorant negroes, once their slaves. and this despotism has been enforced by armies of the United States stationed in these States, in utter violation not only of every principle of the Constitution of the United States, and of the De- claration of Independence, but of Magna Charla, and the right of trial by jury, or " the consent " of the governed people. The further pretence for this has been, as in Great Britain, 1776, that these Celebration, 1870. 67 States were insubordinate, and could not be trusted with self-government , though the fact is, the violence and despotism have been continued years after the civil war was over, and when there was no more dis- turbance in these States than in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Kansas, or Nebraska. " The consent of the governed" has not only been utterly ignored in these States, but military satraps sent from Washington have governed them, with- out the least regard to the wishes or the interests of the governed, — while Rump Legislatures have been created in the States in which strangers from other States have had control, whose sole object seems to have been to plunder and to rob the people, — as in Florida, where carpet-bag strangers have stolen, not a Railroad alone, but a whole State, and the franchises of that State, — or as in Loui- siana, North Carolina, or Georgia, where thou- sands and tens of thousands of dollars have been taken by the robbers, to the impoverishment of all the people, and without distinction of race, color, or sex, even ! (Loud applause.) Life in these States, as well as property, has been in the keeping of provost marshals and courts martial, — and all this, too, in times of the profoundest peace. The trial by jury has been exchanged for trial by the spur and sword. No equality has been allowed to the pro- scribed white man — not even equality with the negro. It has been a Government of Africans over Americans, as hard, as harsh, as cruel, when en- forced by the military, as the Government of King 68 Tammany Society. George over the Colonies, which produced the Rebellion of 1776, and which then called forth the truths recorded in the Declaration of Indepen- dence. (Prolonged applause.) The Declaration of Independence further says: " He (King George) has refused to pass laws for the accommoda- tion of large districts of people unless the people would relinquish the right of representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only." The administration in Congress, and in the Ex- ecutive Departments, has disfranchised and utterly ignored, in its Test Oaths, and its iron-clad oaths, and reconstruction acts, the right of some millions of people to representation, — the right, as Mr. Jef- ferson says, inestimable to them, and formidable unto the tyrants only of the administration. Even in States like Missouri, where no pretence of distur- bance exists, at least seventy-five thousand white men are disfranchised by Test and other oaths ; and in West Virginia a great number, — while from Virgi- nia to the Rio Grande of Texas, the most intelli- gent and best qualified portion of the people have no representation in the Federal or State Legisla- tures. " He has dissolved representative bodies repeatedly for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasion of the rights of the people. " He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected, . . . the States remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and con- vulsions within." The Virginia Legislature was reconstructed two or three times, and the State was broken up and di- Celebration, 1870. 69 vided by an arbitrary power in Washington, while all the Southern Legislatures elected by the consent of the governors have been broken up, more or less, several times, with constitutions imposed upon them from the Washington despotisms, civil or mili- tary. Though Georgia has been forcibly recon- structed so often, it is claimed now that the Rump reconstructed Legislature there can hold on, and hold over, and at pleasure, in defiance of the people, even reconstruct itself Or, in fewer words, eleven States of the Union, some of them, like Virginia and Georo^ia, the constructors of the Union and the Constitution, have been deprived now, for years after peace, of all " the inalienable rights " of self- government, and of equality in that Union their fathers ordained for them in 1787, and Mr. Jeffer- son maintained for them in 1776. " He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies with- out the consent of our Legislatures." " He has affected to render the military independent of and supe- rior to the civil service." " In quartering large bodies of armed troops among us." " In protecting them by a mock trial from punishment for any mur- ders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States." From thirty to forty thousand of our standing- army have been kept in the South since the peace, mainly to pack Legislatures and to enforce white inferiority and negro superiority there in the gov- ernment of these States, and these soldiers have paid little or no attention to the civil law. What- ever crimes these soldiers may have committed, or wrongs they may have done, have been tried only in JO Tammany Society. mock military courts by young lieutenants, often fresh from the school, and almost utterly ignorant of the civil law. These officers have often not only elected themselves to State Legislatures, but to Congress ; one even to the Senate of the United States as if from Mississippi, Gen. Ames, of Maine; while another lieutenant of the army, under pay, has been in Washington contesting a Texas elec- tion case of a M. C. ! The expense of this un- necessary military government has been millions upon millions to the people, and the support of it in part has made up the four hundred millions of annual taxation. " He has created a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance." These swarms of Federal tax officers are now for the first time in every Congressional District of the United States, and their business has been espionage into all men's business and all men's private affairs, in order not only to increase the taxes, but to exercise power over men by imperti- nent inquiries into their private affairs. " Imposing taxes on us without our consent." " Depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury." '' Taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and attacking fundamentally i\\Q fo7-/ns of our Government." " Suspending our own Legislatures and declaring themselves in- vested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever." These charges against King George are all maintainable against Congress and the existing ad- ministration. Eleven States of the Union have Celebration, 1870. 71 really no representation in Congress except what has been forced by the military ; and millions of taxes have been imposed upon the people there without their consent. The Democrats elected some twenty odd members of Congress more than the House of Representatives has given them. The right of trial by jury exists nowhere when mili- tary law is supreme. Our State Constitutions and Charters have been violated in the fundamental changes our forms of government have been made to undergo by Congress and the Executive ; and now Congress declares itself supreme over the States in degrading the State Courts, and in assum- ing the right to give away property or public franchises to individuals or monopolies, indepen- dent of the States. Congress has undertaken, too, to regulate State elections, and even State highways. The State charters, more or less, have all been broken down, and what was a Federal has now be- come a consolidated government. There is no safety now for the rights of States, or private or chartered rights within the States. Congress undertakes even to incorporate insurance, telegraph, and land com- panies, and to run railroads within the States. Thus, this is no longer a government of " free and independent States," as Mr. Jefferson declared \\. was, in 1 776, but a concentrated, consolidated despotism, the head of which is in Washington. (Applause.) Mr. Jefferson, too, seemed to have a second sight of this administration when he thus described the government of King George in 1776 : — 72 Tammany Society. " He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States, — ■ for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of for- eigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither," &c. Mr. Noah Davis, of Monroe Co., N. Y. (now ap- pointed U. S. District Attorney in New York City therefor), and Mr. ConkHng, U. S. Senator from this State, have, in the bills they have both pre- sented, fully realized Mr. Jefferson's denunciation of King George, who in like manner endeavored to prevent the population of these States by obstruct- ing the laws of naturalization. These acts, as pro- posed, were worse than the Alien and Sedition Acts of the John Adams Administration ; and if such men are kept in power we shall soon have them, not as acts introduced, but as the laivs of the land. (Applause.) Now, fellow-citizens, while a descendant of Jef- ferson was rereading these " self-evident truths " of the Declaration of Independence, and reholding them up for the admiration of the people, they struck me as an impeachment of, or indictment of, the existing Administration of the Government by Mr Jefferson himself — now, July 4, 1870, as on July 4, 1776. And are they not.? (Cries of "Yes," " Yes," and loud applause.) Do you not hear Mr. Jefferson speaking these great truths now as in 1776, and do you not feel that there is as great a necessity now for proclaiming them as in 1776.'* (Cries of " Yes," " Yes.") Hence, in his name, I now impeach and indict the Administration of the Celebration, 1870. 73 existing Government, as Mr. Jefferson indicted the Government of King George in 1776. And here, in Tammany Hall, in behalf of the Democracy of the country, may I not reproclaim the Declaration of Independence of 1776, as the Democratic Plat- form for 1870? (Long and loud applause, and cries of " Yes," " Yes.") We therefore, then, as a Representative Democracy of the United States, " do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these United States, solemnly publish and declare that these United States are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." (Prolonged applause.) Fellow-citizens, this great document (taking up the Declaration) is, in its hatred of tyrants and ty- ranny, and in its adoration of self-evident (Democra- tic) truth, so full of inspiration, and of denuncia- tion of the men and measures dominant now, that but to read it, much more to reread it, is disloyalty perhaps ; but I did not mean to be disloyal to-day. (Laughter.) I hope, however, no loyal man's feelings will be hurt, if any "loyal men "are here. (Continued laughter.) These " truths," however, have tempted me into an extended series of im- promptu remarks never contemplated when I came here ; but they seemed so apposite for the times that I could not help expanding upon them. ("All right," " Go on.") No. I will go on only to say, that if these self-evident truths are not often re- proclaimed, and better adhered to than they have been for some years past, there will soon be an 74 Tammany Society, end of this Republic, as of all other Republics gone before, and now wrecks in the tomb of time. What we most want now is the restoration of the Civil Government and the abolition of Military Governments. The forty or fifty thousand sol- diers we now have are no longer the officers or soldiers of Bunker Hill, or Yorktown, or Niagara, or New Orleans, or Chapultepec, or the garita of Mexico, or the brave volunteers of the civil war — but policemen only, constables. Jack Ketches, used. South, to dragoon white people into slavery, or North, on the Canada frontier, to catch and keep a stray Fenian. (Laughter.) What we most need in Washington is statesmen, not soldiers, — Jeffer- sons, Madisons, Jacksons, — not these policemen and constables, who, if once even good soldiers in war, are nothing but bumbailiffs and jailers in peace. (General laughter.) Mr. Brooks sat down amid loud and prolonged applause. Sachem Garvin neatly introduced Mr. William J. Hill, who rendered the song of " The Star- Spangled Banner," as an offset to " The Standard of Freedom." It is impossible to say whether the Standard or the Banner was hailed with the greatest enthu- siasm and delio^ht. The audience and the mem- bers of the Society joined in the chorus of the latter song. Celebration, 1870. 75 At the conclusion of the exercises in the main hall, the more immediate guests of the Society and members of the press were served with a collation in one of the private committee-rooms, while the Society generally participated in the usual salt and hominy, with weak fire-water, in the General Com- mittee-room. At the latter the genial Father of the Council, James B. Nicholson, Esq., presided, and perfected the general joy of the whole table, as his friend Lady Macbeth says. Up-stairs Sachem Douglas Taylor presided, in the absence of the Grand Sachem, or of Mayor Hall, who was Chair- man of the Committee of Arrangements, and who were necessarily called away to attend the organiza- tion under statute of the Board of Supervisors. 76 Tammany Society. LETTERS. Letters from the following gentlemen were then read ; — FROM GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Orange, N. J., ynly i, 1870. Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem : Dear Sir : I have the pleasure to acknowledge the re- ceipt of the invitation with which you have honored me, to meet with the Tammany Society for the purpose of celebrating the coming Fourth of July. I regret that I must be absent from the city on that day, and that I will consequently be unable to avail my- self of your very kind invitation. Will you allow me to take advantage of this opportu- nity to renew the expression of my ardent wishes for, and firm belief in, the success of the Democratic party. I am confident that the counsels of its leaders will be so wise, disinterested, and patriotic as to insure in the great ma- jority of the States of the Union triumphs equally deci- sive with those recently attained in the Empire State. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, George B. McClellan. Celebration^ 1870. ']'j FROM JUDGE liOSWORTH. New York, ynly i, 1870. Hon. William M. Tvvekd, Grand Sachem : Dear Sir : I desire to tender my thanks to the Tam- many Society for their cordial invitation to participate with them in the ceremonies of the Society, at Tammany I lall, on the fourth of the present month. I have arranged for ahsence from the State on that day. If it shall be as warm that day as it has been for sev- eral days past, no one can well boast, however patriotic he may be. with beinf( fired with a higher degree of pa- triotism than others. For any one animated with patri- otic impulses (and who would not be on that day and such an occasion .'*) would necessarily be warm with pa- triotic emotions. Whether the day be cool or hot, there will exist abundant causes of congratulation and gratitude. With a prospective surplus of the means of subsist- ence, with the avenues to competence, wealth, and dis- tinction open to all, and a country healthy and furnish- ing occupations to all who are willing to improve the opportunity presented, nothing would seem wanting to secure good government, social order, and personal secu- rity, beyond the conviction of every individual that uni- versal individual self-government and control would result in public prosperity and general security. A full appreciation of our blessings and privileges will make us ever hold in grateful remembrance the perils, sacrifices, and heroism which have made the Fourth of July immortal Trusting and believing that the ceremonies of the Tammany Society on that day will tend to strengthen the affection and veneration with which we cherish it, and that all who participate in them may be as happy as the 78 Tam^nany Society. joyous memory of nearly a century of progress and pros- perity should make them, I can only regret my inability to be present. Yours very respectfully and truly, J. S. BOSWORTH. FROM HON. J. S. SMITH. WASHiNGTONf, June 29. 1870. Dear Sir : I am in receipt of an invitation to attend the celebration of the next Fourth of July with the Tam- many Society, at Tammany Hall. I sincerely regret that my public duties will not admit of my absence from Washington at that time, as it would afford me great pleasure to join in the ceremonies appro- priate to that day with a Society so long and so honor- ably connected with the party of the Constitution and the friends of good government. Hoping that the day may be propitious, and the occasion one of unusual interest and enjoyment, I am, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, J. S. Smith. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed. FROM HON. M. H. THROOP. No. 22 Pine Street, New York, July i. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c. Dear Sir : I thank you, and through you the Sachems of the Tammany Society, tor the" invitation to meet with the Society at its celebration of the approaching Fourth of July. I regret very much that arrangements, long since made, require me to leave the city to-day, for an absence of several weeks. Celebration, 1870. 79 I doubt not that the meeting will be an occasion of un- alloyed gratification to all who shall participate in it. , The stirring and patriotic terms of your letter of invitation indicate that Tammany is fully awake to the signs of the times, which point unerringly to the conclusion that the political darkness has passed, and the daylight of true principles is at last spreading over the whole country. We who have suffered not only defeat, but obloquy, on ac- count of our devotion to the Constitution and the princi- ples handed down to us by our forefathers, are evidently to be vindicated at last ; and to witness the emphatic re- pudiation by the people of a party which has proved it- self wholly inadequate to the preservation of the Union, without destroying all that renders it valuable. The near approach of this consummation of our long-deferred hopes cannot fail to add greatly to your enjoyment on the ap- proaching occasion, and increases my regret at my in- ability to be present. Very truly yours, Montgomery H. Throop. The Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, corner Broadway and Park Place. from thomas sheppard, esq. District Attorney'sOffice, \ Philadelphia, Jtme 30, 1870. \ William M. Tweed, Esq. : Dear Sir : Please accept my thanks for the honor of your kind invitation to join with the Tammany Society in celebrating the approaching national anniversary. It would afford me great pleasure to be with you, but official duties will not admit of my leaving the city. Sincerely hoping that your meeting may be successful, and may ex- ert a beneficial influence, I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Thomas Sheppard. 8o Tammany Society. FROM SENATOR THURMAN, OF OHIO. United States Senate Chamber, ) Washington. Jjily 2^ 1870. \ Hon. A. Oakey Hall, New York : My dear Sir : It would give me great pleasure to attend the Tammany Society celebration of the anniver- .sary of American Independence, were it in my power to do so ; but my public duties require me to be here, and I must therefore forego that pleasure. With grateful thanks to the Society for their polite invitation, and kind regards to yourself personally, I am, dear sir, yours very truly, A. G. Thurman. FROM HON. GEORGE W. MILLER. Albany, July i. 1870. Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c : Your brief but very comprehensive and statesmanlike invitation to join you in celebrating the ninety-fourth an- niversary of our national independence was duly received. Having last year enjoyed your hospitality, I know that it is huge, and I regret that I cannot be with you again. To celebrate the Fourth of July is good, if not fashion- able. Your persistent continuance of these celebrations doubtless seems affected and foolish to some of our latter- day statesmen, but the Goddess of* Liberty smiles, and future generations will ascribe all honor to the grand old Columbian Order for fostering national reverence for that day which marks the greatest epoch of many centuries. I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant, George W. Miller. Celebration, 1870. 81 GOVERNOR Hoffman's letter. Albany, June 30, 1870. Dear Sir : I am very sorry it will not be in my power to attend the celebration of the Fourth of July in Tam- many Hall. Other engagements, entered into perhaps with too little regard for my duty to the Council of Sachems and to the Great Wigwam, will call me elsewhere. Your celebration ought to be, and I have no doubt will be, one full of interest and spirit. Old Tammany has always, through prosperity and adversity, in war and in peace, without ever faltering once, been faithful and true to every principle of constitutional government, and on every Fourth day of July has proclaimed, by a great demonstration, its devotion to the doctrines of liberty and law which it preaches and practises every day in the year. There have been times when the people appeared to have lost their attachment to the great doctrines which underlie our republican form of government. They have, within a few years, seen these principles trampled upon by men in every department of the government. But these truths and doctrines are reasserting themselves with all their former power, and commanding anew the confidence, appreciation, and support of the country. The party in power at Washington, to whom the coun- try intrusted so much, have proved so faithless that a feeling of indignation is swelling the popular heart, work- ing out and soon to accomplish a great political revolution. Your invitation states so clearly and pointedly the shortcomings and the misdeeds of those now in power at Washington, that I need not recite them ; while it would scarcely become me, to whom the favor of the people has assigned so prominent a place, to dwell upon the improv- ed condition of the public affairs of our own State. I 82 Tammany Society. may, however, with propriety express my confidence that the action of the late Democratic Legislature, in short- ening the session, and diminishing the size of the statute- book, is an earnest of greater progress in the same di- rection. Encouraged as we are by every sign of the times, let us look forward to an early restoration under Democratic rule of the " good old times of the Republic," when Con- stitutional law and Constitutional liberty shall be re-es- tablished ; when brotherly love shall be restored among all sections of the country ; when government expenditures shall be reduced and taxes lessened ; when sound financial practices shall take the place of unsound financial theo- ries ; when credit shall be restored, and the interest on the national debt be reduced ; when gold and silver shall be substituted for depreciated paper ; when an oppressive tariff, which, under the false pretence of protection to American industry, favors and enriches a few at the ex- pense of the people, shall be superseded by one which aims at revenue, and not at robbery and extortion ; and when American citizens shall feel again that, wherever they go, the flag of a powerful country floats over them, protecting them everywhere from wrong and injustice. Again expressing my regret that I cannot be present in person, and assuring you that I will be with you in spirit, I trust that your commemoration of America's great day may be as successful this time as it has always been. I am yours, very truly, John T. Hoffman. Honorable Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem. Celebration, 1870. 83 LETTER FROM REPRESENTATIVE KERR, OF INDIANA. Washington, D. C. July 2, 1870. Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem of Tammany Society : My DEAR Sir : I am in receipt of the invitation of your Society to participate in its ceremonies on the Fourth of July. My attendance there, I am sure, would afford me both gratification and instruction. For your venerable and patriotic Order I entertain very great respect. Its history, through many of its members, is most honorably connected with the history of our country. Its consistent devotion to the true principles of Democracy, and its free- dom from political vacillation and intolerance, distinguish it above all similar organizations. In its spirit of general nationality and constant opposition to all sectionalism it is worthy of imitation. I hope its influence for good, and its usefulness to our country, may continue to in- crease. I am not able to attend its celebration of the Fourth. Business connected with official duties forbids it. Yet I am persuaded that no American citizen should permit any ordinary circumstance to detain him from the appro- priate observance of that day. This duty appears to be now more imperative than ever. Of late years our rulers have made such wide departures from the teachings of the fathers, and have overstepped in so many vital respects the boundaries to federal power fixed in the Constitution, and have done so much to mislead the popular mind and corrupt the administration of government, that the safety of the future demands extraordinary efforts on the part of good citizens to stop the excesses of power and reform abuses. The evil passions aroused by civil strife, and so successfully appealed to heretofore by bad men, are for- tunately yielding to the better impulses and sober judg- 84 Tammany Society. ment of the people, and we are fairly entered upon a new career of national life and development. This auspicious period should be improved by every friend of free institu- tions. Leaders and people alike should agitate for reform, not for reaction or revolution, but for peaceful and tho- rough reform. This agitation should be in great part elementary, so as to revive true and clear ideas concerning our institutions and their fundamental principles, and the practical principles of finance and taxation, and of civil administration. Times of revolution are always unfavor- able to the growth of such ideas. When such ideas again control our country the Democratic party will be in power. It was by fidelity to them that that great party won its suc- cess and glory in the past. Its repossession of political power needs not to be long deferred, if it will but act wisely. Its appeal should be to the sober reason, the gen erous impulses, and the patriotism of the people. No party in this country has anything to gain by unkindness, intolerance, or proscription, but the contrary. By appeal- ing to such agencies bad men may for a time prolong their hold upon power ; but their ultimate overthrow will only be the more complete. No party can indefinitely re- tain power in this country that does not deserve it. In this category is the party now dominating over our coun- try. The political instincts and moral intelligence of the people are sure, sooner or later, to detect its inherent vices. The ruling party for the future must be a party for reform, true and honest, and not controlled by mere time-serving and self-seeking politicians, without states- manship, fixed principles, or sound policy. It is fortunate for the country that the great State of New York is in a position to contribute so much, by ex- ample and otherwise, to general reform, and it is to be hoped that her opportunities will be improved to the utmost degree. It is also auspicious for the country and Celebraiio7t, 1870. 85 New York that her present chief magistrate illustrates such a high order of statesmanship, of moral courage and personal purity. Hoping that your celebration of the Fourth may be pleasant to yourselves and promotive of the general wel- fare, and thanking you for your courtesy towards me, I am, with great respect, your friend, M. C. Kerr. FROM SENATOR THOMAS F. BAYARD, OF DELAWARE. Washington, July 2, 1870. Hon. A. Oakey Hall, Chairman of Tammany Com- mittee : Dear Sir : I beg to thank you for your invitation to join in the celebration by your venerable Society of the anniversary of the independence of the thirteen Ameri- can colonies from British rule, but the refusal of the Senate to adjourn compels my presence here. The men of that day were urged to their action by mis- government, but there was no misrule or alleged wrong by the King of Great Britain, which has not been count- lessly repeated and intensified by the Radical party who have ruled the United States since 1861, regardless of the constitutional rights of the minority, and of all writ- ten and unwritten law. If the spirit which animated the men of 1776 will but possess us, their descendants, in the approaching canvass, constitutional liberty will be once more a burning and a living reality — not the poor shadow of a name, to which Radical rule has reduced it. To-day an American citizen looks wearily out from between the iron bars of a subterranean dungeon upon the foundation stones of the Capitol of the United States. 86 Tammany Society. He is there imprisoned by an American House of Re- presentatives for an alleged breach of the peace, com- mitted in the streets of Richmond, in Virginia, on a person who happens to be a member of the present Con- gress. He has been dragged two hundred miles from his home and family, and, without writ, bail-piece, or trial, immured for a pretended breach of the privileges of the House of Representatives. What was a halfpenny tax on tea, or stamps on paper, to such a monstrous assump- tion of power to arrest, transport, and imprison an American citizen, regardless of the writ of habeas corpus^ without public hearing or trial ? In the darkest chapters of the Venetian history alone can its parallel be found. When the freemen of New York meet on July 4, 1870, to rejoice in their liberty, let not poor Patrick Woods be forgotten ; let his case be theirs, and let them speak as the men would have spoken whose action of ninety-four years ago they now meet to commemorate and glorify. Our fathers declared among their justifications for revolt against the King of Great Britain, his crime of " trans- porting us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended offences" and so to-day in the national Capitol, in the very citadel of our Government, there languishes an American citizen, transported " for a pretended offence" by violence from the State whose laws alone were trans- gressed by one of her own citizens, and to whose laws alone he was accountable for his act. If this case be not a fitting cause for popular indignation, I know not any theme that can arouse that spirit of 1776 which our people affect to admire and profess to imitate. Respectfully, your fellow-citizen, T. F. Bayard. Celebration, 1870. 87 THE HON. AMASA J. PARKER, OF NEW YORK. Albany, July 2, 1870. Gentlemen : The heart of the nation, so long oppress- ed by a continuance of misrule and of usurped military power, beats in prompt response to the patriotic senti- ments expressed in your letter of invitation, and rejoices at the prospect of deliverance. The people long for a restoration of constitutional government, and for relief from needless and oppressive taxation. It is gratifying to know that our own great State is leading the way in the march towards such a change, and to believe that the time is near at hand when the true principles of Democracy shall again prevail in the nation. When that time shall come, and we shall look back upon the dark days of the republic in its cruel reign of terror, depend upon it there will be an almost universal feeling of gratitude felt towards your own city, which stood unmoved when all around it yielded to the storm. And especially will the people be grateful to your own ancient Society, whose bright council-fires have never ceased to be a beacon light to those in the surrounding darkness. Accept my thanks for your invitation, which I regret I am unable to accept, and believe me, Very truly yours, &c., &c. Amasa J. Parker. Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, and other Sachems, &c.. &c. the hon. s. j. randall, of pennsylvania. Washington, D. C, 7«/k 2. 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c. Dear Sir : I am in receipt of the invitation of the Tammany Society to be present on the 4th instant and 88 Tammany Society. join in their celebration of the anniversary of American independence. You will please convey to the members my appreciation of their politeness. I much regret that public duties will prevent my acceptance. I am, sir, yours very respectfully, Sam. J. Randall. THE HON. JOHN D. STILES, OF PENNSYLVANIA, Washington, D. C, June 27, 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem Tammany Society : Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of an invitation to attend the celebration of your Society on the Fourth of July. Congress having passed a resolution to adjourn on the 15th proximo, the minority should re- main at their posts to the last hour. All kinds of ini- quitous legislation will be attempted the last hours of the session, and I am compelled, therefore, from a sense of duty to decline your kind invitation. I beg to add that I fully concur in all that is contained in your admirable letter. The Radical party have failed to restore the Union — failed to restore confidence ; and there will be no substan- tial peace in this Union until the Democratic party shall again assume control of affairs. It would seem to us that the present Congress has done enough to insure to us a triumphant victory. The weakness of the administra- tion, the corruption in all the departments of the govern- ment, ought to be sufficient to damn forever Radicalism and Radical rule. Wisdom in our councils, prudence in our nominations, judgment in our platforms, care in the presentation of the issues of the hour, will surely bring Celebration^ 1870. 89 victory to our efforts to restore peace to a distracted, tax- ridden, and suffering people. I submit the followinc^ : The Democracy of New York — Always true. Hastily, your obedient servant, John D. Stiles. THE HON. VV. E. NIBLACK, OF INDIANA. Washington City, D. C, July i, 1870. My dear Sir : I have had the honor of receiving an invitation to meet with the Tammany Society on the 4th inst., and unite with them in celebrating the ninety- fourth anniversary of American independence. I feel highly honored by this invitation, and would take great pleasure in accepting it if I were able to do so. I regret, however, to have to say that a previous engagement for that day will prevent me from accepting the invitation with which you have thus honored me. Trusting that the proposed celebration will be in every respect an interest- ing and successful one, I remain most respectfully yours, W. E. NiBLACK. William M. Tweed, Esq., (irand Sachem. THE HON. JOSEPH WARREN, OF BUFFALO. Daily Courier Office, June 28, 1870. My DEAR Sir : I regret that other engagements will prevent the acceptance of the invitation of "The Tam- many Society " to participate in the celebration of the coming Fourth of July. The circular letter with which Tammany prefaces her invitation should be read by every Democrat in the land. It not only points out clearly the perils which the country has escaped, but gives encour- agement for the future The experience of the arbitrary exercise of power has wedded the American people more 13 90 Tammany Society. firmly than ever before to constitutional government. The principles of which Tammany has been for so many years the advocate and defender will soon receive the re- indorsement of the country. Sincerely yours, Joseph Warren. To Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, New York Citv. FROM EDWIN CROSWELL. 348 Lexington Ave., Jime 30, 1870. To the Tammany Society : Gentlemen : Ill-health will deprive me of the pleasure of a personal participation in the festivities and patriotic proceedings of your anniversary commemoration on the 4th. But it cannot prevent my enjoyment, in a mutual spirit, of the feelings and hopes which hallow the day and the occasion. Nor can it diminish my admiration of the high position in which the Tammany Society stands before the country as the exponent of the principles of civil liberty — as the defender of the Constitution — as a shield against legislative corruption and cupidity, whether at Washington or Albany — as the opponent of monopoly and the class selfishness of designing men — as a protec tion against excessive and oppressive taxation — as study- ing and urging economy in the public expenditure — as looking with a single eye to the public welfare, regardless of interested rings and combinations — and as ever mani- festing a loyal and earnest defence of the country, the Union, and the sacred rights of the people and the States. Pursuing its onward career in this spirit, and with such aims, it will confer honor, dignity, and success alike upon the organization and upon the patriot cause to which its energies are devoted, and will be a resistless power in effecting the great consummation to which you propheti- Celebrationis 1870. 91 cally allude, " a restoration, in all its completeness, of our S^ood old Government, under ivhich the people and the States may again enjoy their rights^ Very respectfully, your fellow-citizen, Edwin Croswell. FROM W. B. LAWRENCE. OcHEK Point, Newport, R. I. 7?/;/ 6' 30, 1870. Dear Sir : I feel greatly honored by the invitation to participate in the celebration by the Tammany So- ciety of the approaching anniversary of American In- dependence. Though unavoidably prevented from taking part personally in the proposed ceremonies, I should re- gret to have it inferred from my absence that I am insen- sible to the importance of the present political crisis. The system of local governments, for all internal mat- ters, is coeval with the very colonization of the country. It existed while we were dependencies of England, and scarcely any changes were necessary to adapt, at the Revolution, the then existing institutions to the new con- ditions of things. Our revolutionary fathers, in adopting the present Federal Constitution, supposed that they had established a system which, confining the general gov- ernment mainly to the administration of our foreign rela- tions, left each individual State in the full enjoyment of its independence for local legislation and internal police. Though owing to acts, consummated by the usurpation of successive Congresses, claiming to legislate for the whole Union, though only composed of sectional represen- tatives, it may be too late to restore our institutions to the condition in which they were before the civil war, it is consoling to believe that much may yet be done to pre- vent the total extinction of State autonomy and the per- manent establishment of a centralized despotism. 92 Tammany Society. The attempts at secession, unjustifiable as they were, afforded no excuse for any interference with local insti- tutions, nor could their failure give to Congress any power over the State not defined in the Federal Constitution. The contest, indeed, was not between individual States and the general government, but a civil war in which the Federal and Confederate Governments were the re- spective parties. The State functionaries were com- pelled not only by a force which they could not resist, to obey the de facto government as long as it continued in power ; but, in common with all the other inhabitants of the seceding States, by the clearly recognized principles of the English common law, as well as of the law of na- tions, it was their duty so to do. The usurpation of the Federal Congress in remodelling, through the instrumentality of military satraps and con- ventions (the constituency of which it prescribed, ex- cluding the intelligence of the country, the local organic laws, operated a total change in the relations between the States and Federal Government, as was before under- stood ; while the case to which your note alludes, re- manding to military government a State whose autonomy antedates the independence of the United States, and whose officers, chosen under the congressional system, had already been recognized by the Federal Executive, would imply that the last shadow of State independence had passed away. What is to-day the fate of Georgia may to-morrow be that of Rhode Island, and even your great Empire State has no longer any guarantee for the maintenance of its special institutions. The recent amendments of the Federal Constitution, if the acts so termed, obtained from the remodelled States under coercion and as a condition precedent to their recognition, and which by declaring that Congress shall have unlimited authority to enforce their provisions, by Celebration^ 1870. 93 what they deem appropriate legislation, would seem to render useless all State organizations ; but though it may not be competent to disregard the Fifteenth Amendment, it will be in the power of a Democratic Congress to render it comparatively harmless, by the abrogation of the laws which you so justly stigmatized, passed to carry it into effect. As the Congress of the Union legislates for the North as well as the South, we all have an interest in the char- acter of the constituency which elects the Representa- tives, and the State legislatures by whom the Senators are chosen. Recognizing universal negro suffrage as an accomplished fact, it is certainly of interest to the country at large that the scope of selection should be as extended as possible, and that the newly enfranchised electors should not be driven by the proscription of the educated classes, of whose character and intelligence they have had a life-long experience, to choose as their Represen- tatives northern adventurers who have no other object in their political aspirations than to turn their Congressional patronage to the greatest pecuniary results. To subject to disabilities, after the extinction of the Confederacy, those who took part in the civil war, is a palpable violation of the laws of nations, while as applied to the prom- inent men of the South it is a policy injurious to the general interests of the whole country. In nothing does the conduct of the present dominant faction more resemble that of the old Federal party in the time of the elder Adams, than in the proscription of for- eign-born citizens. One of the first acts of the Congress which came in with Mr. Jefferson, was the repeal of a law which imposed such a probationary term as to render naturalization in most cases impracticable. The move- ments of the present session, having an immediate bear- ing on the New York elections, were the more offensive 94 Tammany Society. to European emigrants, who are doing so much to obviate the effects of our internecine contest, as being introduced contemporaneously with laws to secure the fullest negro vote. And in this connection I may perhaps be excused in bringing to the notice of their brother Democrats else- where the anomalous position of the naturalized citizens of my own State. To the peculiar provision in the Con- stitution of Rhode Island, which demands a freehold qualification from naturalized citizens not required from others, are we to ascribe the ascendency here of the so- called Republican party. A distinction other than that made in the Federal Constitution, in reference to the Presidency, and the probationary term in the case of Senators and Representatives, has ever been held by our best lawyers as opposed to the letter as well as to the spirit of the article which confides to Congress the power to pass naturalization laws. Hitherto, however, there have been practical difficulties which have prevented the assertion of the naturalized citizen's rights. The appli- cation in Rhode Island of the principle of equality in the elective suffrage of all citizens, which it was the pro- posed object of the Fifteenth Amendment and of the re- cent act of Congress to establish, would effect a total revolution in the political character of the State, and se- cure for the Democratic party hereafter the entire Con- gressional representation. In order, however, to main- tain Radical ascendency, the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate, forestalling the decision of the Courts, have presented a report which denies to the na- turalized citizens of this State the benefit of the constitu- tional amendment, which they avow to have been adopted for the exclusive advantage of the negro. There are other issues of high national concern involv- ed in the approaching elections, to which I cannot refrain from referring. There is no excuse for continuing, in Celebration^ 1870. 95 time of profound peace, the exceptional taxes imposed in war. A judicious application of the surplus revenue would long since, by the confidence which the resumption of specie payments would have inspired abroad, have en- abled us to reduce by one-third the interest on the public debt, and proportionally to dispense with those excise du- ties, always offensive to the producing classes ; while the abrogation of the protective system, repudiated alike by England and by the enlightened policy of the Emperor of the French, would relieve the consumers, who embrace the entire population, from paying for the necessaries of life three times their cost in every other country of the civilized world. Our foreign relations, including the various questions to which our exceptional position in reference to Cuba has given rise, present many subjects of legitimate criticism in connection with the administration of our national affairs. The limits of this note do not, however, admit of their discussion. I am, dear sir, with great respect. Your obedient servant, W. B. Lawrence. Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c., &c. Washington, Jttly 2, 1870. To the Hon. A. Oakey Hall: The Senate of the United States having refused to ad- journ over, I find myself unable to be with you at Tam- many on the Fourth, and obliged to forego the grateful duty of joining with the braves in the thankful remem- brance of the anniversary of our National Independence. But whatever business engages the attention of the Sen- ate on that day, I shall nevertheless recall with pleasure the last anniversary I spent at Tammany. I congratulate g6 Tammany Society. you sincerely on the bright prospect which is now open- ing before us. The lessons which have been taught by your Society, and the truths which have been dissemi- nated therefrom, have not fallen on barren soil, but have grown steadily, though slowly, until they are now almost ready for the harvest. Again I congratulate you that Sachem Casserly is with you to bear a greeting and God- speed from our little band in the Senate. I am very sincerely, Your obedient servant, John P. Stockton. Phila., June 28, 1870. Dear Sir : Engagements here will prevent my uniting with Tammany Society, as you have kindly invited me, in celebrating " the coming Fourth of July." Devoted to the great principles of constitutional gov- ernment as your Society ever has been, and is now, I beg, in testimony of my faith in the same principles, to ask you to accept the following sentiment : — The living, the eternal principles of Democratic Constitutional Govern- ment can never produce "dead issues. '''' Faithfully yours, Richard Vaux. To the Honorable William M. Tweed, &c., &c., New York. Syracuse, July i, 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem Tammany Society, New York : Dear Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge your invitation to participate with your most patriotic Society on the coming 4th of July. Permit me to thank you for Celebration, 1870. 97 this remembrance, while I with great reluctance decline the promise of so much pleasure and profit. Ninety-four years ago the Fourth of July, our fore- fathers solemnly dissolved all political connection with the Parliament of Great Britain, and declared the colonies to be free and independent States, for the object of secur- ing the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for themselves and their posterity. After a bloody contest of eight years, in which savage tribes and mercenaries from Europe were arrayed against the weak confederation, which was conducted without money and without credit, marked by hardship, privation, and want, the treason of Arnold, the dark days at Valley Forge, and checkered by many defeats and disasters, our independence was reluctantly acknowledged. Four years were consumed in devising the plan of pre- serving and transmitting the priceless legacy of liberty. A gigantic intellectual war raged over the whole country without cessation until the ratification of the work of the convention by the thirteenth State. In view of the ex- hausted and complicated state of the colonies at the ter- mination of the war, in view of the conflict of interests and religions, and finally, in view of the ambitious jealou- sies and risks of foreign intrigue, I believe the Constitu- tion was the best that could have been drafted under the circumstances. The Constitution nowhere recognizes secession, as held by Mr. Greeley and others in i860. " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- terity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." From this preamble the/^r feet union is defined as the United States by the people 13 98 Tammany Society. of the United States. No divided or imperfect union is possible. The Constitution says — " The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of government." It will clearly be the duty of the Judiciary to review and pass on the so-called Congres- sional Military Reconstruction Acts, when the obstruc- tions are removed, and of the people to accept such decisions cheerfully and in good faith. The framers had the benefits of all the charters from Henry I., Magna Charta, etc., and embodied all that seemed best in the fundamental law. Its crowning glories are the system of local self-govern- ment, equality before the law for the whole people, trial by jury, and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. i860. Seventy-one years after the opening of the first Con- gress, more than three millions of square miles had been added to the domain, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Our exports had reached 1^400,000,000, while the imports amounted to $360,000,000. The places of wor- ship numbered 50,000 ; colleges, academies, and private schools 6,350, while common schools reached as high as 81,000. Taxes hardly known, out of debt, and the country teeming with wealth. Under this Constitution, with all the advantages and ills of slavery, the United States had attained the head of the nations in general intelligence and religious culture, variety of productions, systems of com- municating, commercial marine, military and naval power. Five years of rebellion ensue, unparalleled for valor, courage, patience, loss of life, suffering, privation, waste, ruin, destruction, etc., on both parts. On one side the wreck was general, and attended with the loss of the bulk of property, in addition to the slaves. Celebration, 1870. 99 Ere the last shot had fallen, the patriot Lincoln, who loved the Union, and who said the sin of slavery belonged to all the people equally, presented his plan of recon- struction in the spirit of that solemn pledge made by Congress in 1861. While the honor of the United States demanded this plan, it was a noble inspiration of philan- thropy, worthy of a powerful nation in its dealings with an exhausted and crushed minority of the same flesh and blood. In consequence of the unwise abandonment of this policy, which all parties accepted, the intervening period has been one of unrest, distrust, and apprehension in all sections ; at the South it is safe to say that the punish- ment upon the survivors, women and children, has been nearly as great as during the Rebellion. Constitution in 1870. The Constitution in certain quarters is a byword of reproach, is hissed at and spit upon. Again it is styled a league with the devil and a covenant with hell. Some declare it the work of old fogies ignorant of the needs of the people. It is being gradually excluded from schools by the classes who are remodelling school literature, to the end of supplanting the patriotic truths of Washing- ton, Adams, Henry, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Web- ster, Clay, etc., by inferior matter. At last the reaction has begun in earnest New York, Connecticut. New Jersey, California, Oregon, etc., have spoken in thunder tones. It is hoped that, one by one, their sister States will wheel into the army of the Con- stitution. The Tammany Society has ever been on the side of law and order, and her devotion to the Constitution is proverbial I am very respectfully, your obedient servant, John J. Peck. lOo Tammany Society. Buffalo, July 2, 1870. Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem Tammany- Society : Sir : I have received your invitation to the Tammany celebration of the 4th July. I fully sympathize with the principles and purposes of your organization as announced by you in your letter. I will not withhold the expression of my gratification to find among them the unequivocal announcement that in State politics the canals here- after should be administered for their true purpose of affording to the grain-growers of the Western States cheap transportation to great markets, and to our own people abundant supplies of cheap food. This noble sentiment is in accordance with the dictates of purest philanthropy, and the soundest principles in political economy. In the preamble to the act of the Legislature inaugurating the construction of the Erie Canal, similar patriotic sentiments were expressed, and that the object in construction of that great work was to promote indus- try, consolidate the Union, and that it was the incum- bent duty of the people of this State to avail themselves of the means which the Almighty has placed in their hands for the production of such signal and extensive blessings to the human race. It is well known in canal history that the founders of our canal system intended to make a free canal, but failing to secure national aid they were obliged to impose tolls for cost of construction ; and it is also well understood in railway circles that the Erie Canal, during the season of navigation, regulates the rate of the freight tariffs over all the carrying systems in the North, so that our people residing in any part of the State are equally benefited by cheap transportation over our canals. The Legislature of our State, at its recent session, guided by the wisdom and patriotism of the early statesmen of the Commonwealth, passed unanimously the Celebration, 1870. lOi so-called " Funding Bill," which is mandatory upon the Canal Board so to adjust tolls that the canals, in the lan- guage of Governor Seymour, " shall be managed here- after in the interest of commerce and industry, and not as instruments of taxation." Our canals have been paralyzed by the obsolete restric- tions of the constitution of '46. The people, after a hard- fought battle with the "Old Mortality" politicians of our State, secured a temporary removal of them until the en- largement of 1854 was attained ; but the lelease was only temporary; every progressive movement to improve our canals and their trade since has been impeded by a grip upon them as tight as the "Old Man of the Sea" ever placed upon poor Sindbad of " The Arabian Nights." The Funding Bill clears all those constitutional obstruc- tions from the pathway of our inland commerce. Those of our canal friends who have trembled for the fate of our free canal measure in the November election, will rejoice when they see the powerful Tammany organization united with the unanimous expression of our Legislature in its support. Canal men throughout the State will also remember with gratitude your support of this measure in 1869, upon its first introduction in the Senate, and that under the leadership of Speaker Hitchman, in a most powerful speech, it received a majority of the votes of the As- sembly, and that in 1870 it received the warm support of all the Tammany members of the Legislature in its una- nimous passage. The concurrence of all parties in sup- port of this comprehensive policy, which will enfranchise our canals, and save and increase their benefits to the people through all time, leaves no room for doubt as to its adoption and constitutional ratification in November. I remain your obedient servant, Israel T. Hatch. I02 Tammany Society. Elizabethtown. N. Y., July 2, 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed and others, Sachems and Brothers of Tammany : Gentlemen : I have received your invitation to partici- pate in the ceremonies of your Society in the celebration of the Fourth of July. It would give me great pleasure to do so, did not other engagements imperatively prevent. The present position of the Empire State has a power- ful effect, politically, upon the whole country. And when we consider the great influence the action of Old Tam- many has upon the politics of our State, we can well ap- preciate the importance of that action upon the nation at large. And it follows, that an immense responsibility rests upon your Society. Your invitation eloquently states the sad condition of the country in all that pertains to the Federal Government, and its conduct for the last few years, and the evils resulting from a disregard of the Constitution — that fraternal bond of free States. That instrument not only permits, but requires, that insurrec- tions should be suppressed and the laws enforced ; but it gives no authority to reduce States to provinces, and subject them to military rule in time of profound peace, and when the laws are everywhere acknowledged as su- preme. The life of this nation will be short and its history melancholy indeed, if our general government is to be administered upon principles of force, exercised in the assumption of power unknown to the Constitution of the land. There must be a brotherhood of States, based upon some plain, certain, and acknowledged national compact, or there will be no Confederacy of Free States — no real Union. I have confidence in the Sachems and Brothers of Tammany — that, as true friends of this Union, they will Celebration^ 1870. 103 do all in their power to place the management of our national affairs again upon a constitutional foundation. Then, indeed, will the Fourth of July be a day of uni- versal rejoicing, with nothing to dim its glory. Very respectfully, gentlemen, Your obedient servant, A. C. Hand. New York, June 27, 1870. Hon, Wm. M. Tweed : Dear Sir : I cordially accept the invitation of the Tammany Society to meet with its members on the Fourth of July. The genius of your Order has restored good govern- ment in the State of New York, and I hope that the aid and influence of your Society will enable the Democratic party to achieve a like victory in national politics, and give the Republicans a burial without a resurrection. With great personal respect, I remain very truly yours, Leon Abbett. 218 Broadway, New York, June 28, 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem : Dear Sir : Having promised to deliver an address at Poughkeepsie on the approaching Fourth of July, I shall be deprived of the pleasure of accepting the invita- tion to take part on that day in the celebration which Tammany is to hold in accordance with her ancient cus- tom. Nothing but an engagement of a positive character could cause me to forego the pleasure of being present with you on that occasion. I04 Tammany Society. Please accept my thanks for the invitation, and warm- est wishes for the prosperity of the ancient Order over which you preside. I trust that Tammany, the maker of Presidents in the better days of the Republic, in resum- ing, as she is about to do, her ancient office, will restore the hoped-for era, not merely of good feeling, but of good government, and thus reopen to the nation the great career of material prosperity from which our steps have been so long diverted. I am very respectfully. Your obedient servant, M. T. McMahon. Penn Yan. June 30, 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed : My dear Sir : Other engagements will prevent my being present to join with your ancient Order in celebrat- ing the coming Fourth. The times, in my judgment, are auspicious for the Democracy, and, as a consequence, for the country. We are slowly but surely swinging back to the old landmarks, and when fully restored to constitutional rights the coun- try will once more move on to her great and manifest destiny. I regret that I cannot unite with you in person on the Fourth, but my heart will be with your patriotic Society as they unite in honoring Independence Day. Yours truly, D. A. Ogden. Waldberg, July i, 1870. Hon William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c. : Dear Sir : I regret that it is not in my power to accept the kind invitation of your Order for the 4th inst., and Celebration^ 1870. 105 take part in the high festival you hold for Liberty and the Republic. It is a consolation, however, to think that so many patriotic citizens will then grace your Hall that some can well be spared and excused in advance. The Tammany Society have a proud record in the past. It has been the bulwark at the North of the liberty of person and rights of citizenship. It has been true to our glorious Constitution, the aegis and bond of free and independent sovereignties. It has ever strenuously advocated equal rights for States and communities, and been true to the interests of the industrial masses. In times of late peril it nobly struggled for the Union, to save from impending wreck government and its future, though in its counsels at the time it had no part. When the desolation had passed over our land and was spent, it urged the speediest return of those who had received amnesty to their appropriate functions in their State gov- ernments, and through them to their ancient allegiance to that of the Union. All that it could it has cheerfully given of aid and counsel in the rehabilitation of the old Democratic Government. But in common with the friends of free institutions throughout the world, it has been doomed to sorrow in witnessing the sacrifice of true and lasting peace as a sentiment and incentive to harmonious action throughout our borders, to the petty triumphs of scheming doctri- naires and political schismatics. A race, it is true, has been liberated from bonds ; but almost in the same breath ad- vanced to magistracy and the highest role of sovereignty. While any sort of vacillating and ever-to-be-amended legis- lation has been adopted to forge fetters for our own flesh and blood, incessant jubilees have been sounded to herald the advancing steps of an ignorant race, and stifle wonder as it gapes at the rashness of the experiment ; until at last, after years exhausted by a Senate in debauched prowess, 14 io6 Tammany Society. to render null the plighted faith of the Government pro- fessed by one executive and proclaimed by his successor, it boasts a Revels, the fitting finale of its orgies in re- construction. We agree that it is commendable to apportion justice to all, of whatever degree or ability, to do well for themselves or for others. But it is as gross a form of injustice to raise by force of law a class or race above the level they can maintain, as it is to commend the chalice of happiness to the lip and then snatch it from the draught. The direst issue of disappointment is despair. Liberty, my dear sir, lies in the equilibrium between the power exercised by the ruler, be he magistrate or repre- sentative, and the right of the citizen as subject (inherent in him) reserved and equably to be maintained by him. Every disturbance of this equipoise is simply licentious, engendering calamity greater or less, as the breach is more or less marked. And it matters not whether it be an adding to or taking away by men charged with the law-making power, of rights of sovereignty ; rights by prescription, pledge, charter, or contract ; rights of per- son, property, or labor. Any such wrong-doing, even by indirection, by the avoidance or destruction of existing unforfeited rights, is in despite of the spirit of Liberty, and therefore the gravest offence against the peace and well-being of society. Yet by assumption of right, and under cover of law, we have witnessed by constraint the perpetration of many such acts of political violence. We have seen the consent of States, untimely forced by partisan contrivance and amendments to our organic law, declared against the most plain and unmistakable refusal of our citizen-sovereigns, — rights of the masses in public lands for homesteads bartered off to land monopolists, filching at the same time from the public coffers, — rights Celebration, 1870. 107 of all our industrial classes to fair earnings attached by levy of taxes extorted to swell the prodigal expenditures of plundering representatives and officials, — rights to con- stitutionally stamped coin frittered down to pictured paper, which its authors repudiate, while they force it upon every trade, — rights of commerce in a community who own vast seaboards on two mighty oceans transferred to foreigners under pretence, perchance, of keeping trim and ware of collisions and war with those who have stolen our craft, or, as some fancy wolfs milk to be good for sheep, of fostering home industries. So have we seen the paying of tribute by free and sturdy artisans to the pampered pets of this latest school of humanitarians, whose paper mills yields over two hundred and fifty per cent, of fat annual profits — whose iron and salt cost two cents of commercial for one of actual worth. So have we felt the stringency of public markets by vio- lent contractions, as Boutwell bears gold, buys bonds not due, and brags of reduction of debt, while for every mil- lion thus converted the sovereigns of the land lose in fluctuating markets and depressed values full a hundred of such millions. And worst shame of all for a Republic, we note repre- sentatives of the people in high station, placemen of all grades with moderate and stinted salary becoming rich, gorged with presents, land script, stock shares, or the pro- fits of investments made for them by very high-minded and unselfish admirers. All these things, ay, more, we behold on every side ; and amidst shouts of derision for the Constitution and its sanctions, and the time honored policy of these United States, we are welcomed to measure the strides of Con- gress towards centralization and consolidation of all gov- ernmental power, and admire its apings of the omnipo- tence of a British Parliament. 'lOS Tammany Society. That such things can last, no one is bold enough to predict. When stealings are wholesale, thieves peach. Largesses belong to despotisms. They are not to the manor born in a republic. And it is a source of hope for a future not far distant, that the citizens of many States have aroused themselves from lethargy, and are directing their energies to affairs nearer their present power of control. In our own State the canals are free at last from break- making contractors, and promise cheapened transportation and cheaper food. The metropolis, soon to be the centre of the carrying trade of the world, watches the promise and will demand its fulfilment. The slavery of registra- tion taints not, at least in the rural districts, the liberty of the voter. The right of self-government in localities is no longer withheld by law. Justice in its highest form is to be dispensed by men trained under the old masters of jurisprudence. With such renovation in the smaller sphere, what may not be hoped throughout the grand constellation of mighty and united sovereignties } There remains that the people should be nerved for the struggle by the example and encouragement of their leaders in the discharge of every public duty. They should, as of old, exercise the fullest right, enjoy the read- iest facility in the choice of true men, and challenge the closest scrutiny of public aiTairs, even the minutest, and wrest the control of their conventions from wire-pulling officials. By such means alone intelligence is quickened, public virtue secured, and the old quiet and repose of our politi- cal system restored. And, as under the auspices of your Society much has already been accomplished, it is not the tone of adulation to add, that in due time it will address itself to what remains to be done, and fulfil the earnest Celebration, 1870. 109 expectation of those who look for the coming of the old Democratic regime. Your obedient servant, A. B. Conger. Germantown, Philada Co., Jidy i, 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed: Dear Sir : A previous engagement will deprive me of the pleasure of participating with your renowned, influ- ential, and ancient Tammany Society in commemorating on the 4th of July that " civil liberty " which is, and ever ought to be, " the glory of man." No day and no time could be more fitting to recall the people of the country to the perils which threaten their liberties. Instead of being "jealous of their liberties," and sleepless sentinels over most sacred trusts, they have slumbered and allowed their liberties to become an easy prey to the lusts of a rapacious crew of political bucca- neers, and beneath the skull and cross-bones of a pirati- cal majority in the Congress of the United States, "vir- tue, liberty, and independence" lie prostrate, bleeding, dying. May " old Tammany," on our coming natal day, prove herself the Gabriel of a glorious political resurrec- tion ! I am very truly yours, Chas. W. Carrigan. Buffalo, June 30, 1870. Gentlemen : It would afford me very great pleasure to participate with the Sachems of Tammany in the cele- bration of the approaching anniversary of American In- dependence. It will, however, be impracticable for me to visit New York on that day. I lo Tammany Society. Your letter of invitation recites abundant reasons for congratulation on the recurrence of this National festi- val. The clouds which of late have darkened the hori- zon are passing away. Having demonstrated the physi- cal power requisite to suppress insurrection and rebellion, the American people are day by day proving that they have the moral power and the patriotic will to restore a government republican in form and in spirit. New York has already taken her place in the front rank of States which may be relied upon for the preservation of the liberties of the people and the sacred guarantees of the Constitution. So soon as the oppressive burden of Federal taxation shall be lightened, and the protective tariff' give way to some system of revenue reform which shall encourage rather than cripple manufacturing enterprise, the country will rapidly regain its prosperity and enter upon a new career of material development. Confident that your time-honored celebration will hasten this new era, I remain. Respectfully yours, Wm. G. Fargo. To Wm. M. Tweed, ] A. Oakey Hall, ! Sachems, Peter B. Sweeny, { Committee, &c. Richard B. Connolly, J OwEGO, June 29, 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed : My dear Sir : I am honored with an invitation to par- ticipate in the ceremonies of the Tammany Society in celebration of the next Fourth of July. It would give me great pleasure to do so, but circumstances prevent. Whatever has a tendency to restore civil libery to our Celebration, 1870. Ill 7vhole country, to give again to it all, not merely self-gov- ernment, but self-government regulated and guarded by those wise constitutional checks and balances which the men of '76 saw clearly were necessary to protect the people in their rights, and to prevent the overthrow of self-gov- ernment itself, has my hearty sympathy. Believing this will be the object and the tendency of your celebration, though absent, I shall be with you in spirit and sentiment. Very truly and respectfully, John J. Taylor. 251 Broadway, New York, 28M June, 1870. Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, and others Sachems : Gentlemen : I am honored by the receipt of your in- vitation to be present and participate in the ceremonies of the Tammany Society on the approaching anniver- sary of our " National Birthday." And I have perused with especial interest your able and patriotic manifesto, accompanying the same. There is no body of men so well entitled to proclaim the noble sentiment which you have adopted as your motto, " Civil Liberty the Glory of Man," as the Tam- many Society. To you justly belongs the great honor of keeping the Democratic party steadfast, and its position impregnable, during our late civil strife. By your wise and prudent counsel and example the duty of a patriotic people to fight for the preservation and unity of our government against enemies from with- out was reconciled with the equally imperative duty to strive for the maintenance of the Constitution and the supremacy of the civil authority against the intrigues of enemies within, though they were high in authority. 112 Tammany Society. You thus struck an answering chord in every Demo- cratic heart, preserved our National Union, and rescued from the hands of its despoilers a germ of State author- ity which, under the wise nurture of Democratic states- manship, will yet grow into a hardy and comely tree of constitutional liberty. Whatever of national glory or of civil freedom we may enjoy in this Republic in the future, may justly be ascribed to the sentiment and purpose which animated your honored Society in the most critical hour of our national life. And it seems to me that a fuller exposition and better under- standing of your position and conduct are due to your organization, and would shed lustre upon the patriotism and the fortitude of the Democratic party. You have rightly judged that I sympathize with the ideas set forth in your letter ; and I shall feel honored to meet with men of like sympathy to commemorate our de- liverance from colonial bondage, from national disruption, from Radical domination in the Empire State, and from jnwiicipal servitude ; and also to take counsel as to the best mode of ridding our country of Radical misrule and Executive imbecility at Washington. I am, most respectfully and truly, D. C. Calvin. New York, 2()ih June, 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Present : Dear Sir : I have the pleasure to acknowledge re- ceipt of the address of the " Tammany Society," over which you have the honor to preside, and an invitation to participate in the annual ceremonies in commemoration of the Ninety-fourth year of our National Independence. Were I not compelled by prior engagements to be ab- sent from your city, I should esteem it no less a pleasure Celebration, 1870. 113 than my duty as an American citizen to be present upon so important an occasion. The principles enunciated as those of the Association are cordially responded to by Union men in every section of our country, and have been since the foundation of our national government, and still continue to be, those of the great Democratic party whose wise legislation and strict adherence to constitutional law have not alone con- tributed, but been the source of our growth and prosperity as a nation. As a citizen of the South I am encouraged by the re- cent elections in Connecticut, New Jersey, California, Oregon, and New York to believe that the people, through- out the entire Union, intend to protect themselves from further encroachments upon their rights by the present Radical party. Fully sympathizing with you in your efforts " towards good government in this State," and with the hope that the people will find " what the experience of ninety years in the general politics of the country has proved, that the Democratic party alone of the two parties knows how to govern ; " and with many regrets for my inability to join you and other gentlemen connected with the Society, I subscribe myself, with great respect. Your obedient servant, John R. Conway. Albany, July 2, 1870. Dear Sir : I respect the patriotic feeling which leads the members of the Tammany Society to celebrate year by year with so much enthusiasm the anniversary of our national independence, and to recall attention to the his- tory of our Revolutionary struggle, and to the great prin- ciples of civil liberty recognized in the Constitution, re- 15 114 Tammany Society. cently so unwarrantably violated by our Government. Time and events have already shown how unwise and unnecessary those violations were, and the lesson they teach will, I trust, have a permanent influence on our future history. I am obliged by the invitation to join in your celebra- tion, and regret that I cannot be with you. Yours very respectfully, John V. L. Pruyn. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, New York. Trumansbukgh, N. Y., June 29, 1870. Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem Tammany Society, New York City : My dear Sir : Accept of my cordial thanks for your invitation to meet with the Tammany Society at the coming celebration of the Fourth of July. Unavoid- able business engagements will prevent my being present with you on that occasion. You will meet under and with cheering prospects of better things in the near future — the future must be bet- ter, it cannot zvell be worse. Again thanking you, I am, very respectfully, Henry D. Barto. Little Falls, N. Y.. June 29, 1870, Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem, &c. : I have received the invitation to unite with the Tam- many Society in celebrating the coming Fourth of July. It will be inconvenient for me to attend. That great act, the Declaration of Independence, is most worthy of commemoration by all lovers of free in- Celebration, 1870. 115 stitutions, and I know of no association that better repre- sents the spirit and principles which impelled our fathers to that Declaration, and sustained them in maintaining it, than Tammany Society. The times in which we live call for the full exercise of all its energies to sustain our institutions in their purity. In reviewing the course of our Government for nearly ten years past, one is almost ready to believe that our people have lost a proper appre- ciation of the privileges they have inherited. The ma- jority in the governing States have acquiesced in and sus- tained by their votes the centralizing influences, in spite of Constitution and precedent, for personal and party purposes which have been boldly assumed by the Gov- ernment under the color of loyal patriotism ; but the time has come, that unless our people arouse from their false security and arrest this progress, the result of des- potism will be upon us before these partisan loyalists see where they are drifting. In the earnest hope that the in- fluences of Tammany may be ever active and efficient in preserving the well-balanced institutions which our fa- thers ordained to secure our liberties, I still remain hopeful of our future destinies. With thanks for the honor of the invitation, I am very respectfully yours, &c., Arphaxad Loomis, Clifton. Jiine 30, 1870. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem : Dear Sir : I thank you and your time-honored and patriotic Society for inviting me to participate in the cele- bration of the coming Fourth of July. I sincerely re- gret that I cannot be present on so interesting an occa- sion, as I deeply sympathize in your elTort to "keep the patriot fire burning brightly in your Council Chamber," 1 1 6 Tammany Society. and hope that you may be so successful that soon that " patriot fire "' may illuminate the nation, so as to restore the good old government of our fathers, and preserv^e the civil liberty handed down to us by the illustrious men of the Revolution. In the dark days in 1864, when I was almost alone in this State trying to uphold the Demo- cratic banner, and the great principles of civil liberty, I turned with hope and appealed to your patriot Society to aid us. Nor did I appeal in vain, as you sent me cheering words to encourage us in the hour of our despair. I now again appeal to you to aid me to uphold that old Democratic banner emblazoned with the great truths of " equal rights to all, exclusive privileges to none." Civil and religious liberty must be preserved. In 1870, as in 1864, almost alone in upholding that banner against the hordes of Radicalism on one hand, and a sectional organ- ization on the other, who have seized the time honored name of Democracy as a shield to their nefarious designs. I again confidently appeal to your patriotic Society, where the true principles of Democracy are ever kept burning, to aid me in the unequal struggle. With no press and no organization the struggle seems hopeless ; but I believe that when the smoke of battle shall roll oft", that grand old banner of Democracy will float triumphant in defiance of false principles. In furtherance of this design I would humbly suggest that your Society, in its coming meeting, should give dis- tinct utterance to the true principles of Democracy, or, better still, inaugurate the movement for the call of a National Democratic Convention, which shall authorita- tively place what is Democratic principle, and what shall be fought for by the party in all the States. Let us all know that Democracy is progressive as well as national. That it keeps step with the advancement of the nation, and that it is not shackled bv the dead past. Let us no Celebration, 1870. I17 longer be reproached by our enemy that Democracy in one State is not Democracy in another. Let the Hving, vital principles of Democracy be triumphant everywhere in our broad land, from Maine to Georgia, from the At- lantic to the Pacific. In such a platform of principles the hints thrown out in your card of invitation would be eminently proper, to wit : " All questions connected with the late civil war are properly at an end the war has settled them. "The sacred right of a man to personal freedom as long as he violates no law. " Faith in popular freedom. " Necessity the plea and weakness of tyrants, not of constitutional rulers. " If it was wise and proper to punish citizens of the South, it should have been done at once at the close of the war, and that punishment having been administered, the restoration of the old form of government, all over the country, should have been prompt and complete." To which I would suggest : " The freedom of elections must be preserved. " The military must be subordinate to the civil au- thorities. " The national faith must be preserved — no repudiation. " A free invitation to the oppressed of all nations to become citizens of our great country ; but they must come free and unshackled, not used by capital to the detriment of American laborers. '•A tariff for revenue, with protection as an incident. " The army must not be permitted to overawe by its presence the votes of the people. " The rights of communities to local self-government must be recognized. " General amnesty," and, to use your own words, " To re-establish, in all its completeness, the old Government." 1 1 8 Tammany Society. A sound currency and many other things might be added, but it is not necessary. What we want most is an authoritative and definite ut- terance of what Democratic principle is, and what should be the law of the Demoracy in every State I agree with you, " There is, therefore, cheering ground for hope of better things."' I have never despaired of the future of the American Republic. I believe the people will ultimately burst like gossamer thread the Lilliputian shackles bound round their limbs by those who have no confidence in popular government. When they do awaken they will arise with a shout that will almost startle the dead, and they will break down and crush all under foot who will stand in the way of a complete restoration of the old Government. Let us in- voke the blessing of Him " who holds the destiny of na- tions in the hollow of His hand,"" that He may grant that when your Society shall celebrate the looth year of the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, or even sooner, that the government of the people shall be a de- cided success and that a cluster of free and equal States may cover our broad realm, and that the Constitution may be the paramount law of the land. Very respectfully, RicH.^RD T. Jacob. No. I02 Broadway, New York, July i, 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem : Dear Sir : Accept my thanks for your kind invitation to unite with the Tammany Society in their approaching celebration. Sympathizing fully with its objects, I regret that absence from the city on the 4th instant will debar me from the pleasure of being with you. Yours truly, Wm. H. Ludlow. Celebration, 1870. 1 19 Hudson, July 2, 1870. Hon. William M. Tweed, Grand Sachem : Dear Sir : The invitation to meet with the Tammany- Society, to celebrate the approaching anniversary of our National Independence, was duly received. Sympathizing with the great principles of human free- dom which it has been the great aim and object of your Order to propagate and maintain, it would give me great satisfaction to be present upon this interesting occasion. I regret, however, that official engagements elsewhere will deprive me of this pleasure. With great respect, I am yours, etc., Theodore Miller. Saugerties. N. Y., Jjine 28, 1870. Hon. Wm. M. Tweed, Grand Sachem Tammany Society, etc. Dear Sir : I am in receipt of your kind invitation on behalf of your time-honored Society to attend your custom- ary meeting at the " Great Wigwam," on the 4th of July, to commemorate our once great national holiday. I most sincerely thank you for the invitation, and assure you I would be most happy to meet the Sachems and in- vited guests on that occasion, but previous engagements will prevent my attendance. You will please make my regrets to your associates, and believe me, I am most respectfully. Your obedient servant, Wm. F. Russell. 1 20 Tamma?iy Society. Albany, June 29, 1870. Sir : I am honored by the invitation to be present with the Tammany Society at their celebration of the Fourth of July. I wish it were in my power to accept the same ; but it will be impossible for me to be in New York on that day. With thanks for your kindness, I am very respectfully, Your obedient servant, Jno. D. Van Buken. Hon. William M. 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