blHUbLAII R a 1 Rl[U[I$ U  IH efflAI.
Mo  li ti 4r1cfute  alt1 1ar1  to 6lrdI it.
A THRILLING AND ELOQUENT SPEREH
BY
MAJOR-GENERAIL B: F.' BUTLER.
i III L A D E L P l I IA:
PRINTED FOR GRATUITOUS DISTRIBUTION.
1863.
(-...,. 1




EXTRACTS FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES.
WASHINGTON, lMonda/y, April 13.
THE PIRESIDENT AND TIHE CIIECK AT CHARLESTON,
The President regards the situation at Charleston with coufidence.  Ile happily corrected a visitor in tile use of tlle word
"repulse," in speftking of the attack of the iron-clads.  "A
check, sir-not a repulse."  The public feeling here is that
we actually are contending with Great Britain as well as the
rebels; and that British guns, of the latest improvement and
greatest power, sent to South Carolina to maintain slavery an(l
to break up the Republic, saved Charleston oni the 7th from
her merited destruction.
THE POIS,SH REEEI,I1ON —TI!E AIlABAMA ANDI BIITIfS NEUTRALTTIT
IN PARLIA3MENT-CONFEIDERATE LO)AN ANI) STEAM ERS-M 
BRI(4HT —TRITISI1 INTEREST IN END)ING TlHE WAR-T[IE ENANcIPATIONl-STS AND TIHE REAL, FEELING IN ENOL',AND1)-THE CONFE I)ERATE FLEETr —-WARK-IRELAND) —FRANCE IN MEXICO.
LoN DON, &Sat'urday, MIareh 28, 1863.
The apparent break-down of the Polish rebellion has turnedl
the public attention once more to thle war in America.  There
was an excited debate last night in the House of Commons
nabout the threats of war, breaches of -neutrality, Alabama,
capture of the Peterhoff, and several other matters of interest.
Mr. FosTrE  arraigne( the Government for its neglect.  Mr.
BRIGUT charged them  with a cold and unfriendly neutrality.
The Solicitor-General declared that they had done everything
which-tlhe law required, and that, jud(ged by Amlericanl (uthlorities anl precedents, the Federal Government had no right to
complain.  Then Mr. LAIRD, the builder of the Alabama, declared that he had been perfectly open and above-board, and
had in- no respect violated the law, and amid the cheers and
laughter of the House, declared that lie had received proposals
from an agent of the Federal Navy Department to build irlclads a-nd rains, completely arnrmed and equipped, aund offered to
place the correspondence in thle hands of Lord PALMERSTON.
He asked which w\ts the greatest violation of neutrality, to sell
ships without guns, or to send to) New York cargoes of rifled
cannon?  He stated that since the commenicenment of the war
there had been shipped firom Liverpool to the Northern ports
more than 60,000 muskets, 370,000 rifles, 52,000,000 percussion caps, and many cargoes of " hardwlare."  These were
from  Custom-house manifests which had passed through the
hands of the American Consul at Liverpool.
Wh~at more could be said?  Mr. Br,llunT declared that war
steamers, iron-clads and rams were building now for the Confederate Government. T'l'le localities of furteen of them have
been given; but the Government cannot interfere.  A whole
fleet is preparing as rapidly as possible, ostensibly for the Emperor of China.  Everybody knowvs tlley are intended to open
the Confederate ports.  Ev-erybo)dy knows that the Confeder



SPEECH OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER.
After General Butler's return from New Orleans, a very
large number of the citizens of New York, most distinguished
for their patriotism and devotion to the cause of their country,
invited him to a public dinner, to which the General made the
following reply:
REPLY OF GENERAL BUTLER.
LOWELL, Thursday, March 26, 1863.
Gentlemen,-The necessities of my position have rendered
it exceedingly inconvenient for me earlier to reply to your exquisitely courteous and too kind letter of approval of the administration of my command of the Department of the Gulf, asking me to fix a day when I could meet you as therein proposed.
With every expression of profoundest gratitude for your invitation to partake of a public dinner with the citizens of New
York, allow me to suggest that while I am waiting orders to
join my brave comrades in the field, it would not be consonant
with my sense of duty to accept your flattering hospitalities.
To you, gentlemen, at home bearing your share of the burdens and expenses of this unholy war, forced upon us by treason, the tendering of. such an expression of approbation of the
conduct of a public officer was fit and proper, as it was natural
and customary, but my acceptance of it would trench upon a
different feeling. I too well know the revulsion of feeling with
which the soldier in the field, occupying the trenches, pacing
the sentinel's weary path in the blazing heat, or watching from
his cold bivouac the stars shut out by the drenching cloud,
hears of feasting and merry-making at home by those who ought
to bear his hardships with him, and the bitterness with which he
speaks of those who, thus engaged, are wearing his uniform.
Upon the scorching sand, and under the brain-trying sun of
the Gulf coast, I have too much shared that feeling to add one
pang, however slight, to the discomfort which my fellow-soldiers
suffer doing the duties of the camp and field, by my own act,
while separated momentarily from them by the exigencies of
the public service.
You will pardon, I am sure, this apparent rudeness of refusal of your most generous proposal, but, under such circumstances, I have spoken too bitterly and too often of the parti



2
cipation by absent officers in such occasions to permit myself
to take part in one, even when offered in the patriotic spirit
which breathes through your letter, desiring to testify approval
of my services to the country.
It would, however, give me much pleasure to testify my
gratitude for your kindness by meeting you and your fellowcitizens in a less formal manner, "interchanging the patriotic
sympathies and hopes which belong to this sacred cause."
Perhaps, by so doing, we may do something in aid of that
cause. Whatever may strengthen the purpose, deepen the
resolution, and fix the determination never to yield this contest until this rebellion, in its roots and branches, in its causes,
in its effects and designs, is overthrown and utterly annihilated forever, and the power of the National Governmentwith its democratizing influences and traditional theories of
equality of rights, the equality of laws, and equality of privileges for all, as received from the fathers of the Republic-is
actively acknowledged upon every inch of the United States
territory, is an aid-nay, a necessity-to the cause of-the.country. To prepare the public mind by doubts, or fears, or
suggestions of compromises, or hopes of peace, to be satisfied
with any thing less than these demands, is treason to country,
humanity, and God-more foul, because more cowardly than
rebellion.
Let, then, every loyal man join hands with his neighbor,
sinking all differences of political opinion, which must be minor
to this paramount interest, and pledge himself to the fullest
support of the Government, with men and means to crush out
this treason, and then, and not till then, am I willing to hear
anything of political party.
Again and again returning you my grateful thanks for the
courtesy done me by your action, allow me to say that I shall
be in New York during the coming week, and shall be happy
at any time to meet you, gentlemen, and my fellow-citizens,
it such manner as they may think fitting.
Most respectfully, your obedient.servarnt,
BENJAMIN F. BUTLER,
Major-General U. S. V.
In compliance with General Butler's preferences, as expressed in the above, a public reception was arranged, and
took place at the Academy of Music, Thursday evening, April
2d. The welcome then extended to the gallant soldier was,
in all respects, one of the most enthusiastic and significant
ever extended to any honored servant of any people. Long




3
before the hour of commencement, the house was filled in every
part, our loyal women alone almost filling the balcony and
upper circles. Mrs. Butler and Mrs. Banks were present, sitting in the private boxes, and upon the stage were General
Wool, General C. M. Clay, and a large number of our wellknown citizens.
Previous to the opening of the meeting, Major-General Wool
and several officers of his staff entered upon the stage.  His
appearance was greeted with tremendous cheers.  General
WETMOLE came forward and said:
I am happy to see that this immense audience recognizes
one of our noblest heroes, Major-General Wool. [Cheers.]
The applause having subsided, General WOOL advanced to
the footlights, and said:
SPEECH OF GENERAL WOOL.
I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for the honor of this
recognition. I am not prepared to make a speech on this occasion. You will have those who can speak to you better than
I can do. But permit me to say what you already know-I
am for putting down this rebellion, nolens volens, and will
never concede to any compromise until that is accomplished.
[Tremendous cheers.]
The orchestra having concluded a beautiful introductory
overture, the Union Glee Club came forward and sang, in an
excellent manner, "The Sword of Bunker Hill." A loud and
long encore being given by the audience, the Club sang
"Columbia we love thee,
Land of the free."
The orchestra soon struck up the enlivening strains of "Hail
to the Chief," which gave sure indication that
MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER
was approaching. Soon the General made his appearance, and
was received with long and loud continued cheers, the ladies
waving their handkerchiefs, while the men strained their
throats to give the gallant hero the reception which was so
justly due him. The coup d'oeil presented on the General's
appearance was superb. Parquet, dress circle, and galleries
united in most uproarious cheers, and men seemed almost beside themselves with demonstrative zeal. Handkerchiefs and
hats were waved, and the uproar continued for several aninutes.
Silence being restored, Senator MORGAN introduced MajorGeneral BUTLER to His Honor Mayor OPDYKE, as follows:




SPEECH OF SENATOR MORGAN.
Mr. MAYOR, —It affords me the greatest pleasure to introduce to you the most efficient officer in the United States service, Major-General Benjamin F. Butler.  [Loud and continued cheers.]
General BUTLER advanced towards the Mayor, who cordially
took his hand, and then addressed him as follows:
SPEECH OF THE MAYOR.
GENERAL BUTLER, —The gentlemen upon whose invitation
you are here, have charged me with the agreeable duty of bidding you welcome to our city, and expressing to you the warmhearted greeting, not merely of those present, but of every
loyal heart in this loyal metropolis. Our citizens have long
desired the privilege of testifying to you personally their great
respect for your character, and their high appreciation of your
public services. In their name I thank you for having now
accorded them this privilege. They have watched your public
career during the present war with a constantly increasing interest and admiration.  They saw you among the first to
abandon an honorable and lucrative profession, and voluntarily
take up arms in defence of a government you loved, although
it was administered by those whose election you had earnestly
opposed. They felt that no stronger evidence could be adiduced of an exalted patriotism.
Your first theatre of military service was in Maryland, a
State then trembling in the balance between loyalty and treason, and jn whose metropolis soldiers of the Union had been
assassinated on their way to the protection of the capital. At
that critical period you were fortunately placed in command,
first at Annapolis and afterward at Baltimore; and it is, perhaps, not too much to say that it was owing to your judicious
management, in which you wisely blended moderation with
firmness, that Maryland escaped the criminal folly of secession.
At all events, you promptly subdued the outbreaks of treason
in that State, and thus rendered it safe for our troops to pass
through the city of Baltimore without molestation.
You were next placed in command at Fortress Monroe,
where you made the sagacious discovery that slaves were contraband of war. In view of the tenderness with which our
Government and its military commanders had, up to that time,
treated.the institution of slavery, this discovery must be regarded as one of the most valuable of the war, and therefore
one which entitles you to the public gratitude. It quietly but




most effectively divested the "divine institution" of all its
sanctity in the presence of war.
From Fortress Monroe you were transferred to a wider field
of usefulness, by being placed in command of the Department
of the Gulf. Your friends knew that in a position so environed
with difficulties as this, no ordinary commander could hope to
acquit himself with credit. You soon found yourself, with a
handful of men, remote from your base of supplies and from
succor, in the metropolis of the Confederacy, where the population, with few exceptions, was intensely hostile to the National Government; and the moment they discovered -the
fidelity and ability with which you upheld the interests of the
Government, all their intensity of hatred was transferred to
you personally. They grossly misrepresented your acts; they
wilfully misinterpreted your language; they heaped on you
the vilest epithets, and in every conceivable way labored to
cover your name with infamy.
The rebel government and the rebel press throughout the
Confederacy took up the theme andd repeated- thesb slanders,
with every variation that ingenuity could suggest. The- rebel
chief, in his annual message, even went so far as to.brand you
as an outlaw, and to decree your execution in case you should
fall into the hands of his military forces. They also conferred
on you, I believe, the exclusive honor of offeringg a large re*ard
for your head. Nor were the malignant slanders I have referred to uttered only by the rebels. Their sympathizers at
the North and throughout Europe joined in the refrain, and
re-echoed their bitter denunciations.
Abuse from the bad, like praise from the good, affords presumptive evidence of merit. Hence, if our Government or its
true friends had been ignorant of your policy, they nright
have safely inferred. from this clamor of its bitter enemies,
that that policy was just and wise.  But, sir, the loyal people
of the North were not ignorant of your acts or your policy.
They saw that your capacious and.fertile mind; your resolute
ivill, your dauntless courage, apd your' earnest patriotism,
rendered you master of the situation, and fitted you, above all
other men, for the difficult position in which you were placed.
They saw that you fully comprehended your daty as a military
eommander, as a legislator, as a judge, as an executive.officer,
and as a tamer of rebel madmen and mad women —for your
sphere of duty embraced all these; and they saw that your
firm will stood ever ready to execute what your judgment dictated and your conscience approved.
In'thus acting, you strengthened the cause of your Govern



ment, which is the cause of justice and right. But you at the
same time weakened the cause of its enemies, which is the
cause of oppression and wrong. For this they hate and revile you; for that we esteem and praise you.
But, sir, you shocked the sensibilities of Secessia, and all
its partisans in the outer world, by that terrible decree celled
Order No. 28. That order, as I understand it, was simply
intended to extend a salutary police arrangement, which had
long existed in New Orleans, so as to bring within its jurisdiction ani, restraint the improper conduct of those aristocratic
dames who gloried in heaping insults on the soldiers of the
Union. It had the desired effect. It improved their manners
and their modesty; for which, sir, I doubt not, they will in
due time return you thanks instead of execrations, as now.
The presence of our wives and daughters here to-night proves
that the ladies of New York regard that far-famed Order, both
in.its intention and effects, as proper and salutary.
You gave lessons equally useful to the sterner sex. You
taught them to respect the authority of the United States, and
to fear its power. You treated as enemies of your country all
who avowed themselves as such, and, in strict accordance with
the usages of war and the laws oflthe United States, you confiscated their property and appropriated it to the support of
their own pbor, and in providing for the wiants of your army.
By these and kindred measures you purified the moral,
social, and political atmosphere of a city, in which each had
been rendered most noxious by the unbridled reign of treason
and the vices engendered by slavery. By your wise sanitary
regulations you also kept the material atmosphere pure, and
thus excluded pestilence. As a former resident of New Orleans, I know that to have accomplished this in a city so unhealthy, and where all previous efforts in that direction had
failed, must be regarded as one of your noblest achievements.
I have little doubt, that among its beneficial results was the
preservation of the lives of at least one half of your command.
Your troops.were all unacclimated. The yellow fever prevailed at nearly all the neighboring ports on the Gulf, and in
the West Indies, and, but for your vigorous quarantine and
strict sanitary regulationsw.ithin the city, would have become
epidemic in New Orleains. In that event, your whole army
would have been attacked by it-for none of the unacclimated
escape —and it is known that at least fifty per cent. of the
cases prove fatal.
By means like these you husbanded your small commantl
and slender means in such a masterly manner that during




7
eight months' service you did not call upon the Government for
a dollar, except for the pay of your soldiers; and you turned
over to your successor two thousand more troops than you had
received from your Government, with military lines embracing
two-thirds of the population, and nearly that proportion of the
territory of the State of Louisiana.
The brief sketch I have thus given of your achievements in
the Department of the Gulf might be indefinitely extended.
But I have said enough to show that you have made a record
of which any commander, however distinguished, might justly
feel proud, and which the present and future generations will
not fail to appreciate.
We, sir, glory in the fact that our country and our institutions can, in an emergency, produce from private life readymade military commanders, statesmen, and jurists of the highest
type, and all combined in a single individual. In your late
command you have been called upon to exercise the functions
appertaining to each of these, and it must be conceded that
you acquitted yourself admirably in all. As a commander,
you did not prosecute war in the spirit of peace, but with the
iron-handed rigor which its necessities demand, and its usages
justify, and which is an indispensable element of success. As
a jurist and lawyer you proved yourself a perfect master of
every code that could be applied to the novel legal questions
presented for your decision. In truth, your legal acumen was
quite an overmatch for that of the leading rebels and their sympathetic consular allies. But, sir, it is for the statesmanlike
qualities evinced by you in this contest that your friends are disposed to award you the highest praise. You seem to them to
comprehend most perfectly all the principles involved in the
present contest, as well as the best means of bringing it to a
successful issue. Your pioneer mind, like Daniel Boone,
among the border men of the west, seems to keep in advance
of all others.' You are familiar with the causes that produced
the'war; you have shared in its progress, and have had leisure
since your return from active service to take a dispassionate
survey of its present status and its probable future.  We shall
feel greatly obliged if you will give us your views on such of
these topics as may be agreeable to you, feeling well assured
that whatever you may say will be marked by your accustomed
originality of thought and breadth of knowledge, and must
therefore prove both interesting and instructive.
Without detaining you longer, General, permit me to renew
*my assurance of welcome, and then present you to an assemblage worthy of such a guest.




8
The Mayor, at the conclusion of the address, again took the
General cordially by the hand, and presented him to the
assembly as one of the best specimens of the volunteer army
of the United States. [Prolonged cheers.]
General Butler acknowledged the courteous reception, and
spoke as follows:
SPEECH OF GENERAL BUTLER.
Mr. MAYOR,-With the profoundest gratitude for the too
flattering commendation of my administration of the various
trusts committed to me by the Government, which, in behalf
of your associates, you have been pleased to tender, I ask you
to receive my most heartfelt thanks. To the citizens of New
York here assembled, graced by the fairest and loveliest, in
kind appreciation of my services supposed to have been rendered to the country, I tender the deepest acknowledgments.
[Applause.]  I accept it all, not for myself, but for my brave
comrades of the Army of the Gulf. [Renewed applause.] I
receive it as an earnest of your devotion to the country-an
evidence of your loyalty to the Constitution under which you
live, and under which you hope to die.
In order that the acts of the Army of the Gulf may be
understood, perhaps it would be well, at -a little length, with
your permission, that some detail should be given of the thesis
upon which we fulfilled our duties. The first question, then,
to be ascertained is, What is this contest in which the country
is engaged? At the risk of being a little tedious; at the risk
even of calling your attention to what might seem otherwise
too elementary, I propose to run down through the history of
the contest, to see what it is that agitates the whole country at
this day and this hour.
HOW THE REBELLION HAS GROWN FROM A RIOT
TO A REVOLUTION.
That we are in the midst of civil commotion, all know. But
what is that commotion? Is it a riot? Is it an insurrection?
Is it a rebellion?  Or is it a revolution?  And pray, sir,
although it may seem still more elementary, what is a riot?
A riot, if I understand it, is simply an outburst of the passions
of a number of men for the moment, in breach of the law, by
force of numbers, to be put down and subdued by the,civil
authorities; if it goes further, to be dealt with by the military
authorities. But you say, sir, " Why treat us to a definition
of a riot upon this occasion? Why, of all things, should you




9
undertake to instruct a New York audience in what a riot is?"
[Laughter.] To that I answer, because the Administration of
Mr. Buchanan dealt withbhis great change of affairs as if it
were a riot; because his Government officer gave the opinion
that in Charleston it was but a riot; and that, as there was no
civil authority there to call out the military, therefore, Sumter
must be given over to the rioters; and that was the beginning
of this struggle. Let us see how it grew up. I deal not now
in causes, but with effects-facts.
INSURRECTION.
Directly after the guns of the rebels had turned upon
Sumter, the several States of the South, in Convention assembled, inaugurated a series of movements which took out
from the Union divers States; and as each was attempted to
be taken out, the riots, if such existed, were no longer found
in them, but they became insurrectionary; and the Administration, upon the 15th of April, 1861, dealt with this state of
affairs as an insurrection, and called out the militia of the
United States to suppress an insurrection.  I was called at
that time into the service to administer the laws in putting
down an insurrection. I found a riot at Baltimore. The
rioters had burned bridges; but the riot had hardly risen to
the dignity of an insurrection, because the State had not moved
as an organized community. A few. men were ri6ting at
Baltimore; and as I'marched into the State at the head of
United States troops, the question came up, What have I
before me? You will remember that I offered then to put
down all kinds of insurrections so long as the State of Maryland remained loyal to the United States.  Transferred from
thence to a wider sphere at Fortress Monroe, I found that the
State of Virginia, through its organization, had taken itself
out of the Union, and was endeavoring to erect for itself an
independent government; and I dealt with that State as being
in rebellion, and thought the property of the rebels, of whatever name or nature, should be deemed rebellious property,
and contraband of war, subject to the laws of war. [Great
applause.]
CHARGE OF POLITICAL INCONSISTENCY REFUTED.
I have been thus careful in stating these various steps, because, although through your kindness replying to eulogy, I
am here answering every charge of inconsistency and wrong of
intention for my acts done before the country. Wrong in
judgment I may have been; but, I insist, wrong in intention




10
or inconsistent with my former opinions, never. Upon the
same theory by which I felt myself bound to put down insurrection in Maryland, while it remained loyal, whether that insurrection was the work of blacks or whites, by the same loyalty to the Constitution and laws, I felt bound to confiscate
slave property in the rebellious State of Virginia. [Applause.]
Pardon me, sir, if right here I say that I am a little sensitive
upon this topic. I am  an old-fashioned Andrew Jackson
Democrat of twenty years' standing. [Applause. A voice:
" The second hero of New Orleans." Renewed applause culminating in three cheers.] And so far as I know, I have
never swerved, so help me God, from one of his teachings.
[Great applause.] Up to the time that disunion took place, I
went as.far as the farthest in sustaining the constitutional
rights of the States. However bitter or distasteful to me were
the obligations my fathers had made for me in the compromise
of the Constitution, it was not for me to pick out the sweet
from the bitter; and, fellow-democrats, I took them all [loud
cheers] because they were constitutional obligations [applause];
and sustaining them all, I stood by the South and by Southern
rights under the Constitution until I advanced and looked into
the very pit of disunion, into which they plunged, and then,
not liking the prospect, I quietly withdrew. [Immense applause and laughter.] And from that hour we went apart, how
far apart you can judge when I tell you, that on the 28th
December. 1860, I shdok hands on terms of personal friendship with Jefferson Davis, and on the 28th December, 1862, I
had the pleasure of reading his proclamation that I was to be
hanged at sight. [Great applause and laughter.]
THE  SOUTH  FORFEITS  ITS  CONSTITUTIONAL
RIGHTS BY  REBELLION.
And now, my friends, if you will allow me to pause for a
moment in this line of thought, as we come up to the point of
time, when these men laid down their constitutional obligations,
let me ask, What then were my rights, and what were theirs?
At that hour they repudiated the Constitution of the United
States, by vote in solemn convention; and not only that, but
they took arms in their hands, and undertook by force to rend
from the government what seemed to them the fairest portion
of the heritage which my fathers had given to you and me as
a rich.- legacy for our children. When they did that, they
abrogated, abnegated, and forfeited every constitutional right,
and released me from every constitutional obligation, so far as
they were concerned. [Loud cheers.]




SLAVERY WAS NO LONGER UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
Therefore when I was thus called upon to say what should
be my action thereafter with regard to slavery, I was left to
the natural instincts of my heart, as prompted by a Christian
education in New England, and I dealt with it accordingly.
[Immense applause.*:] The same sense of duty to my constitutional obligations, and to the rights of the several States that
required me, so long as those States remained under the Constitution, to protect the system of slavery,-that same sense of
duty after they had gone out from under the Constitution,
caused me to follow the dictates of my own untrammeled conscience. So you see —and I speak now to my old Democratic
friends-that, however misjudging I may have been, we went
along together, step by step, up to that point, the point of disunion; and I claim that we ought still to go in the same manner. We acknowledged the right of.those men to hold slaves,
because it was guaranteed to them by the compromise of our
fathers in the Constitution; but if their State rights were to be
respected, because of our allegiance to the Constitution and our
respect for State rights, when that sacred obligation was taken
away by their own traitorous acts, and we', as well as the
nogroes, were disenthralled, why should not we follow the dictates of God's law and humanity? [Tremendous applause,
and cries of " Bravo, Bravo."]
LOUISIANA HAD SECEDED AND REVOLUTIONIZED.
By the exigencies of the public service removed once more
to another sphere of action, at New Orleans, I found this problem coming up in another form, and that led me to examine
and see how far had progressed this civil commotion, now
carried on by force of arms, I believe under our complex system
of States, each having an independent government, with the
United States covering all; that there can be treason to a State,
and not to the United States; revolution in a State, and not as
regards the United States; loyalty to a State, and disloyalty
to the Union; and loyalty to the Union, and disloyalty to the
organized government of a State. As an illustration, take
the troubles which lately arose in the State of Rhode Island,
where there was an attempt to rebel against the State Government and to change the form of that government, but no rebellion against the United States. All of you are familiar
with the movements of Mr, Dorr; in that matter there was no




12
intent of disloyalty against the United States, but a great deal
against the State Government.
I therefore in Louisiana found a State Government that had
entirely changed its form, and had revolutionized itself so far
as it could; had created courts and imposed taxes, and put in
motion all kinds of governmental machinery; so far as her
State Government was concerned, Louisiana was no longer in
and of itself one of the United States of America. It had, so
far as depended on its own action, changed its State Government, and by solemn act forever seceded from the United
States of America and attempted to join a new National Government hostile to us, as one of the so-called Confederate
States. I found, I respectfully submit, a revolutionized State!
Thete had been a revolution, by force; beyond a riot, which is
an infraction of the law; beyond an insurrection, which is an
abnegation of the law; beyond a rebellion, which is an attempt
to override the law by force of numbers: a new State Government fornied, that was being supported by force of arms.
THEY  ARE ALIEN  ENEMIES.
Now, I asked myself, upon what thesis shall I deal with these
people? Organized into a community tunder forms of law, they
had seized a portion of the territory of the United States, and
were holding it by force of arms; and I respectfully submit I
had to deal'with them as alien enemies. [Great applause.]
They had forever passed the boundary of " wayward, sisters,"
or ", erring brothers," unless indeed they erred toward us as
Cain did against his brother Abel. They had passed beyond
brotherhood, by treason added to murder. Aye, and Louisiana
had done this in the strongest possible way, for she had seized
on territory which, the Government of the United States had
bought and paid for, and to which her people could advance no
shadow of claim, save as citizens of the United States. Therefore I dealt with them as alien enemies. [Great applause.]
THE RIGHTS OF ALIEN ENEMIES CAPTURED IN
WAR.
And what rights have alien enemies captured, in war?
They have the right, so long as they behave themselves and are
non-combatants, to be free from personal violence; they have
no other rights; and therefore, it was my duty to see to it, (and
I believe the record will show, I did see to it,) [great applause
and loud cheers,] that order was preserved, and that every man
who behaved well, and did not aid the Confederate States,




13
should not be molested in his person. I held, by the laws of
war, that everything else they had was at the mercy of the conqueror. [Cheers.]
THEY HAVE CLAIMS, TO MERCY AND CLEMENCY,
BUT NO RIGHHTS.
Permit me to state the method in which their rights were defined by one gentleman'of my staff. Hie very~ coolly paraphrased the Dred Scott decision, and said they had no
rights which a negro was bound to respect. [Loud and prolonged laughter and cheers.] But, dealing with thein in this
way, I took care to protect all men in personal safety.
INDIVIDUALS MUST TAKE THE FATE OF COMMUNITIES.
Now I hdar a friend behind me say: " But how does your
theory affect loyal men?" The difficulty in answering that
proposition, is this: in governmental action the Government,
in making peace and carrying on war, cannot deal with individuals, but with organized communities, whether organized
wrongly or rightly [cheers]: and all I could do, so far as my
judgment taught me, for the individual, loyal citizen, was to
see to it that no exaction should be made of him, and no property taken away from him, that was not absolutely necessary
for the success of military operations. I know nothing else
that I could do. I could not alter the carrying on of the war,
because loyal citizens were, unfortunately, like Dog Tray,
found in bad company [laughter]; to their persons, and to their
property, even, all possible protection I caused to be afforded.
But let me repeat-for it is quite necessary to keep this in
mind, and I am afraid that for want of so doing, some of my
old Democratic friends have got lost, in going with one portion
of the country rather than the other, in their thoughts and feelings —let me repeat that, in making war or making peace,
carrying on governmental operations of any sort, governments
and their representatives, so far as I am instructed, can deal
only with organized communities, and men must fall or rise
with the communities in which they are situated. You in New
York must follow the Government as expressed by the will of
the majority of your State, until you can revolutionize that
Government and change it; and those loyal at the South must,
until this contest comes into process of settlement, also follow
the action of the organized majorities in which their lot has
been cast, and no man, no set of men, can see the possible solu



14
tion of this or any other governmental problem, as affecting
States, except upon this basis.
THE CONTEST HAS COME TO BE BETWEEN THE
UNITED STATES AND HER ENEMIES.
Now, then, to pass from  the particular to the general, to
leave the detail in Louisiana, of which I have run down the
account, rather as illustrating my meaning than otherwise, I
come back to the question: What is now the nature of the
contest with all the States that are banded together in the socalled Confederate States?  Into what form has it; come?  It
started in insurrection; it grew up a rebellion; it has become
a revolution, and carries with it all the rights and incidents of
a revolution.
THE GOVERNMENT IIAS SO TREATED IT.
Our Government has dealt with it upon that ground. When
the Government blockaded Southern ports, they dealt with it
as a revolution; when they sent out cartels of exchange of
prisoners, they dealt with these people no longer as simple insurrectionists and traitors, but as organized revolutionists, who
had set up a government for themselves upon the territory of
the United States.
THE RIGHT OF REVOLUTION NOT ACKNOWLEDGED..
Sir, let no man say to me, "Why, then you acknowledge the
revolution in these men!"  I beg your pardon, sir, I only acknowledge the fact of revolution-that which has actually happened. I look these things in the face, and I do not dodge
them because they are unpleasant; I find this a revolution, and
these men are no longer, I repeat, our erring brethren, but
they are our alien enemies, foreigners [cheers], carrying on
war against us, attempting to make alliances against us, attempting surreptitiously to get into the family of nations. I
agree that it is not a successful revolution, and a revolution
never to be successful [loud cheers],-pardon me, I was speaking theoretically, as a matter of law,-never to be successful
until acknowledged by the parent State. Now, then, I am
willing to unite with you in your cheers, when you say, a revolution, the rightfulness or success of which we, the parent
State, never will acknowledge. LCheers.]
THE LOGICAL DEDUCTIONS FROM THIS TRUTH.
Why, sir, have I been so careful in bringing down with
great particularity these distinctions? Because, in my judg



ment, there are certain logical consequences following from
them as necessarily as various corollaries from a problem in
Euclid. If we are at war, as I think, with a foreign country,
to all intents and purposes, how can a man here stand up and
say he is on the side of that foreign country and not be an
enemy to his country?  [Cheers.]'
A: LOYAL MAN MUST BE FOR HIS COUNTRY.
A man must be either for his country or against his country,
[Cheers.] He cannot, upon this theory, be throwing impediments all the time in the way of the progress of his Government, under pretence that he is helping some other portion of
his country. If any loyal man'thinks that he must do something to bring back his erring brethren, if he likes that form
of phrase, at the South, let him take his musket and go down
and try it in that way. [Cheers.] If he is still of a different
opinion, and thinks that is not the best way to bring them
back, but he can do it by persuasion and talk, let him go down
with me to Louisiana, and I will set him over to Mississippi,
and if the rebels do not feel for his heart-strings, but not in
love, I will bring him back. [Cheers, loud and prolonged.
" Send Wood down first!"] Let us say to him: "' Choose ye
this day whom ye will serve. If the Lord thy God be God,
serve him; if Baal be God, serve ye him." [Cheers.] But no
man can serve two matters, God and Mammon. [" That's
So.'"]
WE ARE NOT BOUND TO THENM BY POLITICAL OR
PARTY TIES.
There are logical consequences to flow from the view which
I have ventured to take of this subject, and one is with regard
to our relations from past political action. If they are now
alien enemies, I am bound to them by no ties of party fealty
or political affinity. They have passed out of that, and I
think we ought to go back only to examine and see if all ties
of party allegiance and party fealty as regards them are not
broken, and satisfy ourselves that it is your duty and mine to,look simply to our country and to its service, and leave them
to look to the country they are attempting to erect, and to its
service; and then let us try the conclusion with them as we
are doing by arms and the stern arbitrament of war. Mark,
by this I give up no territory of the United States. Every
foot that was ever circumscribed on the map by the lines
around the United States belongs to us. [Applause.]  None




16
the less because bad men have attempted to organize worse
government upon various portions of it. It is to be drawn in
under our laws and our Government as soon as the power of
the United States can be exerted for that purpose, and, therefore, my friends, you see the next one of the set of logical
consequences that prove our theory; that we have no occasion
to carry on the fight for the Constitution as it is.
NOBODY OPPOSES THE CONSTITUTION; NO MAN
NEED FIGHT FOR IT.
Who is interfering with the Constitution as it is? Who
makes any attacks upon the Constitution? We are fighting
with those who have gone out and repudiated the Constitution,
and made another Constitution for themselves. [Cheers.]
And, now, my friends, I do not know but I shall speak some
heresy, but as a Democrat, as an Andrew Jackson Democrat, I
am not for the Union as it was. [Great cheering.  "Good!"
"Good!"]  I say, as a Democrat, and an Andrew Jackson
Democrat, I am not for the Union to be again as it was. Understand me; I was for Union, because I saw, or thought I
saw, the troubles in the future which have burst upon us; but
having undergone those troubles, having spent all this blood
and this treasure, I do not mean to go back again and be
cheek by jowl with South Carolina as I was before, if I can
help it. [Cheers.  "You're right."]
NO PORTION OF THE UNION TO BE GIVEN UP.
Mark me, now, let no man misunderstand me, and I repeat,
lest I may be misunderstood-there are none so slow to understand as those who do not want to-mark me, I say I do not
mean to give up a single inch of the soil of South Carolina.
If I had been in public life at that time, and had had the
position, the will, and the ability, I would have dealt with
South Carolina as Jackson did, and kept her in the Union at
all hazards; but now she has gone out, and I will take care
that when she comes in again, she comes in better behaved
[cheers], that she shall no longer be the firebrand of the Union
-aye, and that she shall enjoy what her people never yet
have enjoyed-the blessings of a Republican form of Government. [Applause.]
NO RECONSTRUCTION WITH SOUTH CAROLINA.
Therefore, in that view, I am not for the reconstruction of
the Union as it was. I have spent treasure and blood enough
upon it, in conjunction with my fellow-citizens, to make it a




17
little better. [Cheers.]  I think we can have a better Union
the next time. It was good enough if it had been left alone.
The old house was good enough for me, but as they have pulled.down all the L part, I propose, when we build it up, to build
it up with all the modern improvements. [Prolonged laughter
and applause.]
THE RIGHT TO CONFISCATE PROPERTY OF
REBELS.
Another of the logical sequences, it seems to me, that follow
in inexorable and not-to-be-shunned sequence upon this proposition, that we are dealing with alien enemies, is with regard
to our duties as to the confiscation of rebel property, and that
question would seem to me to be easy of settlement under the
Constitution, and without any discussion, if my first proposition is right. Ias it not been held from the beginning of
the world down to this day, from the time the Israelites took
possession of the land of Canaan, which they got fom alien
enemies-and is it not the well-settled law of war to-day that
the whole property of alien enemies belonged to the conqueror,
and that it is at his mercy and his clemency what should be
done with it?
IS REBEL PROPERTY TO BE DIVIDED AMONG
UNION SOLDIERS?
For one, I would take it and- give the loyal man who was
loyal in the heart of the South, enough to make him as well as
he was before, and I would take the balance of it and distribute it among the voluinteer soldiers who have gone-[the remainder of the sentence was drowned in a tremendous burst of
applause.] And so far as I know them, if we should settle
South Carolina with them, in the course of a few vears I would
be quite willing to receive her back into the Union. [Renewed
applause.]
FREEDOM OF THE SLAVE CONSTITUTIONAL
UNDER THE LAWS OF WAR.
This theory shows how to deal with another proposition:
What shall be done with the slaves?  Ilere again the laws of
war have long settled, with clearness and exactness, that it is
for the conqueror, for the government which has maintained
or extended its jurisdiction over the conquered territory, to
deal with sIaves as it pleases, to free them or not as it chooses.
It is not for the conquered to make terms, or to send their
2




18
friends into the conquering country to make terms for them.
[Applause.] Another corollary follows from the proposition
that we are fighting with alien enemies, which relieves us from
another difficulty which seems to trouble some of my old Democratic friends, and that is in relation to the question of arming
the negro slaves.
IT IS CONSTITUTIONAL TO ARM THE NEGROES.
If the seceded States are alien enemies, is there any objection that you know of, and if so, state it, to our arming one
portion of the foreign country against the other while they are
fighting us?  [Applause, and cries of "No!"  "No!"] Suppose that we were at war with England. Who would get up
here in New York and say that we must not arm the Irish,
lest they should hurt some of the English? [Applause.] And
yet at one time, not very far gone, all those Englishmen were
our grandfathers' brothers. Either they or we erred; but we,
are now separate nations. There can be no objection, for
another reason, because there is no law of war or of nations,no rule of governmental action that I.know of,-which prevents a country from arming any portion of its citizens; and
if the slaves do not take part in the rebellion, they become
simply our citizens residing in our territory which is at present
usurped by our enemies, to be used in its defence as other
citizens are. [Applause.] At this waning hour, I do not
propose to discuss, but merely hint at these various subjects.
[Cries of "Go on!"]
THE NEGROES WILL FIGHT.
There is one question I am frequently asked, and most frequently by my old Democratic friends: " Gen. Butler, what
is your experience?  Will the negroes fight?"  To that I
answer, I have no personal experience, because I left the Department of the Gulf before they were fairly brought into
action. But they did fight under Jackson, at Chalmette.
More than that. Let Napoleon III. answer, who has hired
them to do what the veterans of the Crimea cannot do-to
whip the Mexicans. Let the veterans of Napoleon I., under
Le Clerc, who were whipped by them out of San Domingo,
say whether they will fight or not. What has been the demoralizing effect upon them as a race by their contact with
white men, I know riot; but I cannot forget that their fathers
would not have been slaves, but that they were captives in
war, in their own country, in hand to hand fights among the




19
several chiefs. They would fight at some time; and if you
want to know any more than that, I can only advise you to
try them. [Great applause.]
WE HAVE GREATER CLAIMS ON NEUTRAL NATIONS BY TREATING THIS AS A REVOLUTION.
Passing to another logical deduction from the principle that
we are carrying on war against alien enemies, (for I pray you
to remember that I am only carrying out the same idea upon
which the Government acted when it instituted the blockade,)
I meet the question whether we thereby give foreign nations
any greater rights than if we considered them as a rebellious
portion of our country. We have heretofore seemed to consider, that if we acknowledged that this was a revolution, and
the rebels were alien enemies in this fight, that.therefore we
should give to foreign nations greater apparent right to interfere in our affairs than they would have if the insurgents were
considered and held by us as rebels, only in a rebellious portion of our country. The first answer to that is this: that, so
far as the rebels are concerned, they are estopped to deny that
they are exactly what they claim themselves to be, alien
enemies; and, so far as foreign nations are concerned, the
rebels are alien to us, yet they are upon our territory, and
until we acknowledge them, there is no better settled rule of
the law of nations than that the recognition of them as an independent nation is an act of war. They have no more right
to recognize them because we say to them, " We will deal with
you as belligerent alien enemies," than they would have to
treat with them if we hold them simply as rebels; and no
country is more sternly and strongly bound by that view than
is England, because she claimed the recognition by France of
our independence to be an act of war, and declared war accordingly. [Applause.] Therefore, I do not see why we lose
any rights. We do not admit that this is a rightful rebellion
-we do not'recognize it as such-we do not act toward it except in the best way we can to put it down and to re-revolutionize the country. What is the duty, then, of neutrals, if
these are alien enemies? We thus find them a people with
whom no neutral nation has any treaty of amity or alliance;
they are strangers to every neutral nation. For example, let
us take the English. The English nation have no treaty with
the rebels-have no relations with the rebels-open relations
I mean, [laughter,] none that are recognized by the laws of
nations.  They have a treaty of amity, friendship and commerce with us, and now, What is their duty in the contest




20
between us and our enemies, to whom they are strangers?
They claim it to be neutrality, only such neutrality as they
should maintain between two friendly nations of whom they
have had treaties of amity. Let me illustrate: I have two
friends that have got into a quarrel-into a fight, if you
please; I am on equally good terms with both, and I do not
choose to take a part with either. I treat them as belligerents,
and hold myself neutral. That is the position of a nation
where two equally friendly nations are fighting. But again,
I have a friend who is fighting with a stranger with whom I
have nothing to do, of whom I know nothing that is good, of
whom I have seen nothing except that he would fight-what
is my duty, to my friends, in that case? To stand perfectly
neutral? It is not the part of a friend so to do, as between
men, and it is not the part of a friendly nation, as between
nations. And yet, from some strange misconception, our
English friends profess to do no more than to stand perfectly
neutral, while they have treaties of amity and commerce with
us, and no treaty which they acknowledge with the South.
[Applause.]
TIlE DUTY OF FOREIGN NATIONS TOWARD THE
UNITED STATES IN THIS CONTEST.
And, therefore, I say, there is a much highdr duty on the
part of foreign nations toward us when we are in contest with
a nation with which they have no treaty of amity than there
possibly can be toward them. To illustrate how this fact bears
upon this question: the English say, " Oh! we are going to
be neutral; we will not sell you any arms, because, to be neutral
strictly, we should have to sell the same to the Confederates."
To that I answer: You have treaties of amity and commerce
with us, by which you agree to trade with us. You have no
treaty'of amity or commerce with them by which you agree to
trade with them. Why not, then, trade with us? Why not give
us that rightful preference, except for reasons df hostility to
us, that I will state hereafter? I have been thus particular
upon this, because in stating my proposition to gentlemen in
whose judgment I have great confidence, they have said to me,
" I agree to your theory, Mr. Butler, but I am afraid you will
involve us with other nations by the view that you take of that
matter."  But I insist, and I can only state the propositionyour own minds will carry it out familiarly- for want of time,
I insist that there is a higher and closer duty to us-treating
the rebels as a strange nation, not yet admitted into the family
of nations-that there is a higher duty from our old friend



21
ship, on her part, from our old relations toward Great Britain,
than there is to this rebellious, pushing, attempting-to-getinto-place member of the family of nations.
HOW THE COUNTRY MAY BE RE-UNITED.
There is still another logical sequence which, in my judgment, follows from this view of the case. The great question
put to me by my friends, and the great question which is now
agitating this country, is, How are we to get these men back?
How are we to get this territory back? How are we to reconstruct this nation? I think it is much bletter answered upon
this hypothesis than any other: There are but two ways in
which this contest can be ended; one is, by re-revolutionizing
a portion of this seceding territory, and have the people ask
to be admitted into the Union; another is, to bring it all back,
so that if they do not come back in the first way, they shall
come back bound to our triumphal car of victory. [Applause.]
Now, when any portion of the South becomes loyal to the
North and to the Union, or, to express it with more care,
when any portion of the inhabitants of the South wish to become again a part of the nation, and will throw off the government of Jefferson Davis, erect themselves into a State, and
come and ask us to take them back with such a State Constitution as they ought to be admitted under, there is no difficulty
in its being done. There is rio witchery about this. This precise thing has been done in the case of Western Virginia. She
went out-stayed out for a while. By the aid of our armies,
and by the efforts of her citizens, she re-revolutionized; threw
off the government of the rest of the State of Virginia; threw
off the Confederate yoke; erected herself into a State, with a
constitution such as I believe is quite satisfactory to all of us,
especially the amendment. [Applause.] She has asked to
come back, and has been received back, and is the first entering wedge of that series of States which will come back that
way. But suppose they will not come back?  We are bound
to subjugate them. What, then, do they become? Territories
of the United States-[great applause]-acquired by force of
arms-[renewed applause]-precisely as we acquired California, precisely as we acquired Nevada, precisely as we acquired-not exactly, though-as we acquired Texas-[laughter]; and then is there any difficulty in treating with these
men? Was there any difficulty in dealing with the State of
California, when our men went there and settled in sufficient
numbers so as to give that State the benefits of the blessings
of a republican form of government? Was there any diffi



22
culty in obtaining her, beyond our transactions with Mexico?
None whatever. Will there be any difficulty in taking to ourselves the new State of Nevada when she is ready to come and
ripe to come?  Was there any difficulty in taking into the
Union any portion of the Louisiana purchase, when we bought
it first? Will there be any difficulty, when her people get
ready to come back to the United States, of our taking her
back again, more than, perhaps, to carry out the parallel a
little further, to pay a large sum of money besides, as we did
in the case of California after we conquered it from Mexico?
These States having gone out without cause, without right,
without grievance, and having formed themselves into new
States, and taken upon themselves new alliances, I am not for
having them come back without readmission. I feel, perhaps,
if the ladies will pardon the illustration, like a husband whose
wife has run away with another man, and has divorced herself
from him; he will not take her to his arms until they have
come before the priest and been remarried. [Laughter.] I
have, I say, the same feeling in the case of these people that
have gone out; when they repent, and ask, to come back, I
am ready to receive them; and 1 am not ready until then.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE ARMY OF TH.E
GULF VINDICATED.
And now, having gone by far too discursively over many of
these points which I desired to bring to your attention, let us
return to what has been done, in the Department of the Gulf,
to which you have so flatteringly alluded, and to which I will
answer. While I am very much gratified at the kind expression of your regard, whether that expression is justified can be
told in a single word. When I left the Department of the
Gulf, I sat down and deliberately put in the form of an address, to the people of that Department, the exact acts I had
done while in their Department; I said to them, c" I have done
these things," I have now waited more than three months, and
I have yet to hear a denial from that Department that these
things were done. [Applause.]
GEN. BUTLER'S ANSWER TO ALL CALUMNIES.
And to that, sir, I can point alone as a justification of your
too flattering eulogy, and to that I point forever as my answer
to every slander and every calumny. The ladies of New Orleans knew whether they were safe; has any one of them ever
said she was not? The men of New Orleans knew whether
life and property were safe; has any man ever said they were




not? The poor of New Orleans knew whether the money which
was taken from the rich rebels, was applied to the alleviation
of their wants; has any man denied that it was? To that record I point-and it will be the only answer that I shall ever
make; and I only do it now because I desire that you shall
have neither doubt nor feeling upon this subject-it is the only
answer I can ever make to the thousand calumnies that have
been poured upon me and mine, and upon the officers who
worked with me for the good of our country. [Applause.]
THE PROSPECT OF A SUCCESSFUL TERMINATION
OF THE WAR.
I desire now to say a single word upon the question, what
are the prospects of this war? My simple opinion would be
no better than that of another man; but.let me show you the
reason for the faith that is in me that this war is progressing
steadily to a successful termination.  Compare the state of the
country on January 1, 1863, with the state of the country on
January 1, 1862, and tell me whether there has not been progress. At that time the Union armies held no considerable
portion of Missouri, of Kentucky, or of Tennessee; none of
Virginia except Fortress Monroe and Arlington Heights; none
of North Carolina save Hatteras, and none of South Carolina
save Port Royal. All the rest was ground of struggle at least,
and all the rest furnishing supplies to the rebels. Now they
hold none of Missouri, none of Kentucky, none of Tennessee,
for any valuable purpose of supplies, because the Western portion is in our hands, and the Eastern portion has been so run
over by the contending armies that the supplies are gone.
They hold no portion of Virginia valuable for supplies, for that
is eaten out by their armies. We hold one-third of Virginia,
and half of North Carolina. We hold our own in South Carolina; and I hope that, before the 11th of this month, we shall
hold a little more. [Applause.] We hold two-thirds of Louisiana, in wealth and population. We hold all Arkansas and
all Texas, so far as supplies are concerned, so long as Farragut
is between Port Hudson and Vicksburg. [Applause.] And
I believe the colored troops held Florida, at the last accounts.
Now, then, let us see to what the rebellion is reduced. It is
reduced to the remainder of Virginia, part of North and South
Carolina, all of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and a small
portion of Louisiana and Tennessee; Texas and Arkansas, as
I said before, being cut off. Why I draw strong hopes from
this is, that their supplies all come either from Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, or Texas, and these are now com



24
pletely beyond their reach. To this fact I look largely for the
suppression of this. rebellion, and the overthrow of this revolution.
OUR RESOURCES COMPARED WITH THOSE OF
THE REBELS.
They have got to the end of their conscription; we have not
begun ours. They have got to the end of their national credit;
we have not put ours in any market in the world. [Applause.]
And why should any man be desponding? Why should any man
say that this great work has gone on too slowly? Why should
men feel impatient? The war of the Revolution was seven
years. Why should men be so anxious that nations should
march faster than they are prepared to march —faster than the
tread of nations has ever been in the providence of God? Nations in war have ever moved slowly. We are too impatientwe never learn anything, it aould seem to me, from reading
history-I speak of myself as well as you-I have shared in
that impatience myself. I have shared in your various matters
of disappointment.
THE NAVY VINDICATED FOR NOT CATCHING THE
ALABAMA.
I was saying but the other day, to a friend of mine, " It
seems strange to me that our navy cannot catch that steamer
Alabama; there must be something wrong in the Navy Department, I am afraid," and I got quite impatient.  I had'hardly got over the wound inflicted by the capture of the Jacob
Bell,- when came the Golden Eagle, and the Lady Jane,
and as one was from Boston, it touched me keenly. [Applause.]
lIe replied: "Don't be impatient, remember that Paul Jones,
with a sailing ship on the coast of England, put the whole
British navy at defiance for many months, and wandered up
and down that coast, and worked his will upon it, [applause,]
and England had no naval power to contend with, and had not
2,500 miles of sea coast to blockade as we have. I remember
that in the French war, Lord Cochrane, with one vessel, and
that was by no means a steamship, held the whole French coast
in terror against the French navy. And so it has been done
by other nations. Let us have a little patience, and possess
our souls with a little patriotism, and less politics, and we shall
have no difficulty. [Applause, and "Good."]




25
THE OUTRAGES OF ENGLAND TOWARDS THE
UNITED STATES.
But there is one circumstance of this war, I am bound
to say in all frankness to you, that I do not like the appearance of, and that is, because we cannot exactly reach it. I refer to the war made upon our commerce, which is not the fault
of the navy, nor of any department of the Government, but is
the fault of our allies. [Applause.] Pardon me a moment,
for I am speaking now in the commercial city of New York,
where I think it is of interest to you, and of a matter to which
I have given some reflection-pardon me a moment, while we
examine and see what England has done. She agreed to be neutral-I have tried to demonstrate to you that she ought to have
been a little more than neutral-but has she been even that?
["No, no, no."]  Let us see the evidences of that "no."  In
the first place, there has been nothing of the Union cause: that
her oratOrs and her statesmen have not maligned-there has
been nothing of sympathy or encouragement which she has not
afforded our enemies-there has been nothing which she could
do under the cover of neutrality which she has not done to aid
them. ["That is true."]  Nassau has been a naval arsenal
for pirate rebel boats to refit in. Kingston has been their coal
depot, and Barbadoes has been the dancing-hall to fete pirate
chieftains in. [Applause.]
THE SYMPATHY OF TUIE AMERICAN PEOPLE
WITHE  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE'-THE  HABITS
OF HER ARISTOCRACY.
What cause, my friends-what cause, my countrymen, has
England so to deal with us? What is the reason she does so
deal with ua?  Is it because we have never shown sympathy
toward her or love to her people? And mark me here, that I
make a distinction between the English people as a mass and
the English Government. [Applause.] I think the heart of
her people beats responsive to ours-[Applause]-but I know
her Government and aristocracy hate us with a hate which
passeth all understanding. [Applause.] I say, let us see if
we have given any cause for this.' I know, I think, what the
cause is; but let us see what we have done.
OUR CHARITIES TO THE STARVING POO: OF
ENGLAND AND IRELAND.
You remember that when the famine overtook the Irish in
1847, the Macedonian frigate carried out the bread from this




26
country to feed the poor that England.was starving. [Applause.]
When afterward the heir to her throne arrived here, aye, in
this very house, our people assembled to do him welcome in
such numbers that the very floor would not uphold them,
[laughter], and to testify our appreciation of the high qualities
of his mother and sovereign, and our love of the English people-we gave him such a reception as Northern gentlemen give
to their friends; and his present admirers at Richmond gave
him such a reception as Southern gentlemen give to their
friends. [Laughter and applause.] What further has been
done by us? No, I have no right to claim any portion of it.
What has been done by the merchants of New York?  The
George Griswold goes out to feed the starving poor of Lancashire, to which yourselves all contributed, and it was only God's
blessing on that charity that prevented that vessel being overhauled and burned by the pirate Alabama, fitted out from an
English port. [Applause.]
THE ENGLISH REBEL PIRATE FLEET.
And to-day, at Birkenhead, the ASumter is being fitted outat Barbadoes the captain of the:Florida is being feted-and
somewhere the "290," the cabalistic number of the British
merchants who contributed to her construction, is preying upon
our commerce, while we hear that at Glasgow a steamer is being
built for the Emperor of China-[laughter] —and at Liverpool
another is about to be launchel for the Emperor of China.
Pardon me, I don't believe the Emperor of China will buy
many ships of Great -Britain, until they bring back the silk
gowns they stole out of his palace at Pekin. [Laugflter and
great applause.] And even now, I say that our commerce is
being preyed upon, by ships in the hands of the rebels, built
by English builders. [Cries of " That's so."] Aud I ask the
merchants of the city of New York whether it has not already
reached the point where our commerce, to be safe, has to be
carried in British bottoms. [Great applause.]
ENGLISH TREACHERY AND DUPLICITY.
Now, I learn from the late correspondence of Earl Russell,
with the rebel commissioner' Mason, that the British have put
two articles of the treaty of Paris in compact with the rebelsfirst, that enemies' goods shall be covered by neutral flags, and
there shall be free trade at the ports, and open trade with neutrals.  Why didn't Great Britain put the other part of the
treaty in compact; namely, that there should be no more privateering! if she was honest and earnest, and did not mean our




27
commerce should be crippled by rebel piracy? Again, when
we took from her deck our two senators and rebel embassadors,
Slidell and Mason, and took them, in my judgment, according
to the laws of nations, what did she do but threaten us with
war? I agree that it was wisely done, perhaps, not to provoke
war at that time-we were not quite in a condition for it-but
I thank God, and that always, that we are fast getting in a
condition to remember that threat always and every day!
[Tremendous applause, and waving of handkerchiefs, and cries
of " Good!"] Why is it all this has been done? (BECAUSE
WE ALONE CAN BE THE COMMERCIAL RIVALS OF GREAT BRITAIN! and because the South has no commercial marine.
OUR COMMERCE TO BE RUINED.
There has been, in my judgment, a deliberate attempt on the
part of Great Britain, under the plea of neutrality, to allow
our commerce to be ruined, for her own benefit, if human actions indicate human thoughts. [Cries of " That is so."]  It
is idle to tell me Great Britain does not know these vessels
are fitted out in her ports. It is idle and insulting to tell me
that she put the Alabama under $20,000 bonds, not to go into
the service of the Confederate States. The Jacob Bell alone
would pay the amount of the bond over and over again.
WE PRESERVED OUR NEUTRALITY IN THE WAR
WITH RUSSIA.
We did not so deal with her when she was at war with
Russia.,On the suggestion of the British Minister, our Government stopped, with the rapidity of lightning, the sailing of a
steamer supposed to be for Russia, until the minister himself
was convinced of her good faith, and willing to let her go. We
must take some means to put a stop to these piracies, and to
the fitting out of pirate vessels in English ports. They are
always telling us about the inefficiency of a republican government, but as they are acting now, we could stop two pirates to
her one. [Applause.] We must, in some way, put a stop to
the construction and fitting out of these pirate vessels in English ports to prey upon our commerce, or else consent to keep
our ships idle at home. We must stop them —we must act
upon the people of England, if we cannot secure a stoppage in
any other way. [Applause.]
THE IMMENSE LOSS TO OUR COMMERCE.
I have seen it stated that the loss to our commerce already
amounts to $9,000,000-enough to have paid the expense of




28
keeping a large number of vessels at home, and out of the way
of these cruisers.
OUR REMEDY.
What shall we do in the matter? Why, when our Government takes a step toward putting a stop to it, (and I believe it
is taking that step now, but it is not in my province to speak
of it,) we must aid it in so doing. [Great applause.] We
the people are the Government in this matter, and when our
Government gets ready to take a step, we must get ready to
sustain it. [Applause.]
FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF ENGLAND.
England told us what to do when we took Mason and Slidell,
and she thought there was a likelihood to be a war. She
stopped exportation of those articles which she thought we
wanted, and which she had allowed to be exported before. Let
us do the same thing. [Applause.]
PROCLAIM  NON-INTERCOURSE-STOP SUPPLIES
OF FOOD.
Let us proclaim non-intercourse, so that no ounce of food
shall ever by any accident get into an Englishman's mouth,
until these piracies cease. [Laughter and applause.]
[A voice: " Say that again 1"]
GEN. BUTLER: I never say anything, my friends, that I am
afraid to say again. [Applause.] I repeat-let us proclaim
non-intercourse, so that no ounce of American food shall by
any accident get into an Englishman's mouth, until these piracies are stopped. [Applause.] That we have a right to do;
and when we ever do do it, my word for it, the English Government will find out where these vessels are going to, and they
will write to the Emperor of China upon the subject.  [Applause.] But I hear some objector say, " If you proclaim nonintercourse, England may go to war." Now, I am not to be
frightened twice running. [Laughter.] I got frightened a
little better than a year ago, but I have gotten over it. [Great
laughter.] Further, this is a necessity; for we must keep
our ships at home in some form to save them from these piracies, when a dozen of these privateers get loose upon the seas.
It will become a war measure which any nation, under any law,
under any construction, would warrant our right to enforce.




29
ALL OTE-IER NATIONS BUT ENGLAND BEHAVING
WELL.
And this course should be adopted toward the English
nation alone, for I have never heard of any blockade runners
under the French flag, nor under the Russian flag, nor under
the Austrian flag-nor under the Greek flag. No! not even
the Turks will do it. [Applause.] Therefore, I have ventured
to suggest the adoption of this course, for your consideration
as a possible, aye, not only possible, but, unless this state of
things has a remedy, a probable event: for we must see to it
that we protect ourselves and take a manly place among the
nations of the earth. [Applause.] But I hear some friend of
mine say, "I am afraid your scheme would bring down our
provisions; and if we do not export them to England we shall
find our western markets still more depressed."  Allow me,
with great deference to your judgment, gentlemen, to suggest
a remedy for that at the same time.
EXPORTATION OF GOLD PROHIBITED. THE WEST'To REAP TIlE ADVANTAGE.
I would suggest that the exportation of gold be prohibited,
and then there would be nothing to forward to meet the bills
of exchange and pay for the goods we have bought, except
our provisionls. And, taking a hint from one of your best and
most successful merchants, we could pay for our silks and
satins in butter, and lari, and corn, and beef, and pork, and
bring up the prices in the West, so that they could afford to
pay the increased tariff in bringing them forward, now rendered
necessary, I suppose, upon your railroads. [Applause.] And
if our fair sisters and daughters will dress in silks, and satins,
and laces, they will not feel any more troubled that a portion
of the price goes to the Western farmer to enhance his gains,
instead of going into the coffers of a Jew banker in Wall
Street. [Applause.]
OUR LEADING POLITICIANS TAMPERING WITHI
ENGLAND FOR A DISRUPTION  OF TIlE UNION.
You will observe, my friends, that in the list of grievances
with which I charge England, I have not chiargeX( her with
tampering with our leading politicians. [Laughter.]  So far
as any evidence I have, 1 don't know that she is guilty, but
what shall we say of our leading politicians that have tampered
with her? [Lauguter.] I have read of it, in the letters of




30
Lord Lyons, with much surprise-with more surprise than has
been excited in me by any other fact of this war. I had,
somehow, got an inkling of the various things that came up in
previous instances, so I was not very much surprised at them;
but when I read a statement, deliberately put forward, that
here, in New York-leading politicians had consulted with the
I1ritish minister as to how these United States could be separated and broken up, every drop of blood in my veins boiled,
and I would have liked to have met that leading politician.
ITremendous applause.] I do not know that Lord Lyons is to
blame. I suppose, sir, if a man comes to one of your clerks
and offers to go into partnership with him to rob your neighbor's bank, and he reports him to you, you do not blame the
clerk; but what do you do with the man who makes the offer?
[Laughter.]
[A voice: "H ang him!"]
HOW WASHINGTON MET SUCH TRAITORS.
I think we had better take a lesson from the action of
Washington's administration —when the French minister, M.
Genet, undertook even to address the people of the United
States by letter,.complaint was made to his government, and
he was recalled, and a law was passed preventing, for all future
time, any interference by foreign diplomatists with the people
of the United States.
THE PROPOSITION OF THE DEMOCRATIC POLITICIANS, THAT  THE  BRITISH  SHOULD  AID  IN
THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR GOVERNMENT.
I want to be understood,. I have no evidence of any interference on the part of Lord Lyons, but he says in his letter to
Earl Russell that, both before and after a certain event, leading politicians came to him and desired that he would do what
-(I am giving the substance and not words) —desired that he
would request his Government not to interfere between the
North and the South. Why not? Because it would aid the
country not to interfere? No! Because, if England did interfere, the country would spurn the interference, and be
stronger than ever to crush the rebellion. Mark again the insidious way in which the point was put. They knew how we
felt because of the action of England-they knew that the
heart of this people beat true to the Constitution, and that it
could not brook any interference on the part of England.
What, then, did these politicians do? They asked the British
Minister to use the influence of British diplomacy to induce




other nations to interfere, but to take care that Great
Britain should keep out of sight, lest we should see the
cat under the meal. [Laughter.] This is precisely the proposition that they made. You observe, that in speaking of
these men, I have, up to this moment; used the word politicians: What kind of politicians? [A voice: " Copperheads."
Hisses and groans.] They cannot be Democratic politicians.
[" Of course they cannot."]  Lord Lyons calls them  conservative politicians. How I should like to hear Andrew
Jackson say a few words upon such politicians who call themselves Democrats!" [" He would hang them."] No, I don't
think he would have an opportunity to do so; he never would
be able to catch them. [Laughter.] I have felt it my duty
here in the city of New York, because of the interest I have
in public affairs, to call attention to this most extraordinary
fact-that there are men in the community so lost to patriotism, so bound up in the traditions of party, so selfish, as to be
willing to tamper with Great Britain in order to bring about
the separation of this country. It is the most alarming fact
that I have yet seen. I had rather see a hundred thousand
men set in the field on the rebel side-aye, I had rather see
Great Britain armed against us openly, as she is covertlythan to be forced to believe that there are amongst us such
men as these, lineal descendants of Judas Iscariot, intermarried with the race of Benedict Arnold.  [" Wood,"
" Brooks. "]
BECAUSE OF THE TREACHERY OF POLITICIANS,
THE PEOPLE MUST STAND BY THE GOVERNMENT.
It has shown me a great danger with which we are threatened, and I call upon all true men to sustain the Government
to be loyal to the Government. [Loud cheers.] As you, sir,
were pleased to say, the present Government was not the Government of my choice-I did not vote for it, or for any part of
it; but it is the Government of my country, it is the only
organ by which I can exert the force of the country to protect
its integrity; and as long as I believe that Government to be
honestly administered, I will throw a mantle over any mistakes
that I may thinik it has made, and support it heartily, with
hand and purse, so help me God! [Prolonged cheering.]
WHAT IS LOYALTY TO THE GOVERNMENT.
I have no loyalty to any man or men; my loyalty is to the
Government; and it makes no difference to me who the people




82
have chosen to administer the Government, so long as the choice
has been constitutionally made, and the persons so chosen hold
their places and powers.  I am a traitor and a false man if I
falter in my support.  [Applause.]  This is what I understand
to be loyalty to a Government; and I was sorry to learn, as I
did the other day, that there was a man in New York who professed not to know the meaning of the word loyalty. [Hisses,
groans,. and cries of "Wood." I desire to say here that it is
the duty of every man to be loyal to the Government, to sustain it, to pardon its errors, and help it to rectify them, and
to do all he can to aid it in carrying the country oil in the
course of glory and grandeur in which it was started by our
fathers.
NO FRIEND OF THE COUNTRY CAN OPPOSE IT
IN  TIME OF WAR.
And let me say to you, my friends-to you, young men, that
no man who opposed his country in time of war ever prospered. ["That's sio."] The Tory of the Revolution, the'Hartford Conventionist of 1812, the immortal seven who voted
against the supplies for the Mexican War-all history is against
these men. Let no politician of our day put himself in the way
of the march of this country to glory and greatness, for whoever does so will surely be crushed. The course of our nation
is onward, and let him who opposes it beware.
"The mower mowe on —though the adder may writhe,
Or the copperhead coil round the blade of his scythe."
[Loud applause.] It only remains, sir, for me to repeat the
expression of my gratitude to you and the citizens of New York
here assembled, for the kindness with which you and they have
received me arld listened to me, for which, please, again accept
my.thanks. [Prolonged cheering.]




ate loan was raised to purchase their outfit.  This was the
reason why eighteen millions —nearly $100,000,000 —was subscribed, when only $15,000,000 was wanted.  This was the
reason why the stock went up to par and to five per cent. premium, though taken at eighty and put on the market at ninety.
The simple truth of the matter is that with the active sympathy of the'upper classes, and the "neutrality " of the Government, a strong party of English capitalists, cotton speculators, ship builders and merchants have taken up the cause of
the South in earnest, and mean to put it through.  Thev have
embarked their millions, and do not mean to lose them.  The
Government cannot interfere to prevent it, and has no disposition to do so. As Lord PALMERSTON said last night, if they
attempted to amend the law, they might make it worse.  The
Government will be neutral.  It may even pass over the seizure
of the Peterhoff by Captain WILKES.  They will let the North
buy all the "hardware " in Birmingham, but they neither can
nor will prevent the departure of a single one of the fourteen
steamers which Mr. BRIGHT says are fitting out for the Confederate Government.  England, as a Government, is not at
war with you, but English capitalists and manufacturers are,
and I do not see how it is to be helped.
The interest, you must grant, is a very strong one.  Look
at the millions. of capital rusting away in Lancashire; look at
the great cotton manufacturing interest, Which has encircled
the world; at the closed cotton ports, the cdragging war which
shows no sign of a termination, the starving populations already
beginning to break out into riot and disorder.
You talk of war.  They ask nothing better.  The more you
threaten, the less likely the Government will be to interfere
with their projects.  A war, they think, would soon settle the
matter.  You will take Canada.  Well, it was but the other
day that Mr. GLADSTONE Was for getting rid of that troublesome
province, on any terms.  You will send out privateers.  If you
do, your ports will be blockaded, and all others closed against
them, so that privateering will not be profitable. - Ships will
go armed with Armstrong guns, or be guarded by man-of-war
steamers.  That is the way Englishmen feel.  They are growing so irritated and disgusted with the war that they are ready
for anything that will put an end to it.  The efforts of the
Emancipationists have not changed the feelings of the upper
classes at all.  If abolition was ever a favorite idea of the aristocracy, it is so no longer.  It is consigned to the oblivion of
the lower millions.  The Times openly defends slavery.  The
other higher-class papers apologize for it.  Mr. BRIGHT isstill
the brave and eloquent champion of the North, but he finds
very little sympathy in or out of Parliament, except among
the working inen, who are in earnest in the cause of free labor
-all the more earnest because they are oppressed and degraded as freemen are nowhere else in the world.  Mir. BRIGHT
maide a most eloquent speech in favor of the National Government, a few nights ago, to a Trades' Union meeting, at St.
[S&e fbourth page of cover.




James' Hall. -It was well meant, but very useless. The Times
is not far from right when it asserts that the whole public of
England -meaning the voting and income tax-paying public
-all but a few disappointed Republicans, hope for the success
of the South.'
Lord ITartingdon, in an election speech this week, stated the
whole case.  Hemhad just come from America, where he had
traveled in both sections, and he was out and out Southern, and
(leclare(l that no union could be restored, nor could the South
be conquered.  This opinion was never so firm  as at this momllent. Is it strange that a strong effort should be made to hasten
a result in which faith is so general?.If the statements' publicly made, and apparently based on
good authority, are to be believed, the Confederates, within a
mnonth, will have at sea one of the most formidable fleets that
ever steamed out upon the Atlantic: The steamers now preparing will be as fleet, as strong and as powerful as British mnachinists can make them.  You have not begun to fortify the
Northern ports a; day too soon.  I cannot tell whenthe blow
will fall.  I only know that the Confederates here are in a radiant jubilation.  They care nothing about Vicksburg or
Charleston. They expect to go home in" ninety days." Thev
care nothing for the new Union movement in the North. They
care notfor recognition.  The Money market has recognized
tlhem —that is enough.  If cotton is not king, it is at least a
lhard subject, and has given them  a loan of $15,000,000 with
the offer of six times as much.  That is glory enough.
You may hear more of the Peterhoff, but it is impossible to
say what Earl RUSSELL will do.  But British merchants will
do as they like in spite of.him.  If you want war, I judge
that it can be had, antl then you can:turn the 400,000 rifles
sent from Liverpool in this direction.  War really exists at this
moment, under the forms of peaceftil intercourse.  Would it
be any better or worse if it were avowed and open?
The matter of Federal recruiting in Ireland has come up in
the House once or twice; but as there will be no meeting until
after the Easter holidays, Earl RUSSELL will see to it.  Mr.
BRIGHT told them last night that every Irishman abroad was
an enemy to England.   He might have put in four out of every
five at home, and whether in England or Ireland. _Put, though
this is perfectly true, the Irish' fill up the'lanks of the army,
and fight-bravely for whatever' flag waves over them.  They
are loyal and disloyal-both after their own fashion.  Theyfight for the North and for the South, and woinld fight' for En g'rland and against her.  Ireland neutralizes herself everywhere,
and spends her strength for naught.  What E.ngland has got
is money, and that will command everything else.'
France hopes to make a triumphal entry into Mexico, April
1, establish a government, take possession of a dozein silver
mines to pay expenses, and be ready for further operationi's.