YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 06097 0713

Smith, E. "Delafield
Prief appeals for the loyal cause.
lew-York, 1863.

> Y^LE«¥lMH¥IEI^SIIir¥»

BRIEF APPEALS

FOE THE

LOYAL CAUSE.

By Hon. E. DELAFIELD SMITH,

UNITED states district attorney at NEW YORK.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

¦NttD-Uork :
JOHN W. AMERMAN, PRINTER,
No. 47 Cedar Street.
1863.

%hj Gmttat is f ttm&lrag.

The continent is trembling with the tramp
Of countless armies. In the dreary camp
And on the wasted field, the flower of youth
And loyalty has given to God and Truth,
To Country and Mankind, the bravest, best
Of blood, the charm of home, the gem of health,
The calm pursuit of comfort and of wealth,
To save the young Republic of the West.
God guard and cheer them in their glorious strife ;
They battle for a sovereign nation's life !
Time was, when over mountain, dale and plain,
A savage sceptre ruled this broad domain.
Our lordly land by northern races won,
The tawny Indian sought the setting sun.
Then came the cohorts of Imperial France ;
Their bold battalions quailed before the lance
Of the young warrior, Washington. Then groaned the earth
With the long travail of a nation's birth.
The haughty Briton bowed and bit the sod —
A new-born nation owned the smile of God !
The years roll on, and o'er the land and seas
Our starry emblem proudly courts the breeze ;
Now streams, Quebec ! above thy frowning walls,
Now gaily floats o'er Montezuma's halls.
Time still moves onward, and a stealthy thrust
Brings down our soaring Eagle to the dust ;
His breast was proof against a foreign dart,
But Treason almost reached his throbbing heart.
Our land, like Eden, from without secure,
Nursed a cold viper in its flowery bed ;
Shall we go forth to weep and to endure,
Or rise and crush the slimy serpent's head ?
God bless the tongue, the pen, the vote, the sword,
By which our nation's sway shall be restored !
God speed free labor and the rights of men,
And plant our flag on Sumter's tower again !
With a new meaning in each sacred fold,
That flag shall make the patriot warrior bold.
And when our captains, with the sword and lance,
Shall lead our armies in their proud advance,
The poor white outcast, with enfranchised slaves,
Shall wave our standard over traitors' graves !*

* These lines were written and inserted by Mr. Delafield Smith, in an address delivered
before the Mechanics' Society, at Irving Hall, New York, January 9th, 1868.

Sites at Snion JJquar*,
AT THE WAR MEETING, CALLED BY THE COMMITTEES OP THE NEW
YOKE CHAMBEE OP COMMEECE, THE COMMON COUNCIL, THE UNION
DEFENCE COMMITTEE, AND OTHEE BODIES, IN EESPONSE TO AN
APPEAL OF THE PEESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
FOR ADDITIONAL MILITARY FORCES.
[extracted from a printed report of the proceedings, prepared under the
supervision of the secretary of the chamber of commerce.]
Mr. Smith, beiDg introduced by General Fremont,
who presided at the stand near the Spingler Institute,
was received with great enthusiasm, and spoke as fol
lows: Men of New York : — This is, in truth, a colossal demonstra
tion. The eye can hardly reach the boundaries of these com
pact thousands. It would be vain for the voice to attempt it.
The people have come in their might. They have come in
their majesty. They have " come as the winds come when for
ests are rended." They have " come as the waves come when
navies are stranded." We are here to-day, not to speak and
acclaim, but to act and incite to action. [Applause.] We
know that this monster rebellion cannot be spoken down ; it
must be fought down ! [Cheers.J
We are assembled to animate each other to renewed efforts
and nobler sacrifices, in behalf of our imperilled country.
There is hardly one of us who has not, at this hour, some en
deared relative on the bloody fields of "Virginia. The voices
of our armed and suffering brethren literally cry to us from the
ground. To-day we hear them. To-day let us heed them. [Ap
plause.] The call for fresh troops comes to us from a loved and
trusted President — from faithful and heroic generals. [Loud
cheers.] This day determines that it shall be answered. [Ee-

newed cheers.] Let each act as though specially commissioned
to obtain recruits for a sacred service. [Applause.]
Feemont is here. You have heard his voice. lie has told
us to uphold our government and sustain our generals in the
field. Whatever officer may go to battle with the President's
commission, will be made strong by a loyal people's prayers
and confidence. [Loud cheering.]
The Army and Navy, the President, the Cabinet and the Con
gress, have done all that can now be effected by them.
The issue to-day is with the people. Do you ask activity on
the part of the President ? Recall his personal labor and su
pervision in the council and the field. Do you seek a poli
cy? Look to his solemn conference with the loyalists of the
border States. [Cheers.] Do you demand legislation ? Wit
ness the matured laws that Congress has spread upon the statute-
book. A jurist, from the bench of our highest tribunal, once
declared a maxim which shocked the country and the world.
It is ours, with our representatives, to respond : A rebel
"HAS NO ETGHTS WHICH A WHITE MAN IS BOUND TO EESPECT !"
[Loud and long continued cheering, with waving of hats and
handkerchiefs.] A traitor cannot own a loyalist of any race. Nor can " ser
vice be due" to national conspirators, except at the call of
public justice. [Laughter and applause.]
The limits of civilized warfare must and will be observed ;
but those limits are broad as the boundaries of the ocean, and
they lie far beyond the lives and the treasure of traitors in
arms. [Cheers.] In this mortal combat between the enemies
and the friends of republican liberty, wherein treason scruples
at nothing, patriots must neglect no means that God and na
ture have placed in their hands. [Loud cheers.]
These institutions were reared on the ruins of British pride.
Their foundations must be reconstructed on the crumbled pre
tensions of southern oligarchs. [Eenewed cheers.] We must,
and we will, repel force by force. They who press an iron
heel upon the heart of our noble nation, must perish by the
sword of her avenging sons. _ God grant the time may be near
when every rebel leader may say his prayers, and bite the dust,

or- hang as high as Haman. If we are wise, and true, and
• brave, the American Union, like the sun in the heavens, shall
be clouded but for a night. Still shall it move onward, and
every obstacle in its pathway be withered and crushed. [Re
newed and continued cheering.]
Yictory, indeed, cannot be won, except by arms. Our in
stitutions were the gift of the wounded and dead of the armies
of Washington. Shakspeare said, and we re-utter in a higher
sense, " Things bought with blood must be by blood maintained."
Look to our armies, and rally the people to swell their wasted
ranks. Go, you who can. And spare neither men nor money
to enable others to march to battle. [Cheers.]
Let loyal men permit no question to distract or divide them.
Care not what a man's theories may be, so that his heart feels
and his hand works for the Union. Every citizen, North or
South, who prays for the success of our arms, and who labors
for the vindication of our Constitution, whatever may be his
politics or opinions, is a patriot. [Cheers.] They who con
demn any class of our fellow-citizens, because of differences on
collateral issues — those who declare that a loyal abolitionist is
on a level with an armed secessionist — are wrong in head, or
at heart unsound. [Applause.]
Let assertions like this be at an end. Let all loyal men, and
all loyal journals, abandon arguments which bear the dull and
counterfeit ring of traitor philosophy. [Loud applause.]
For the rest — for those who not alone seem, but are, disloyal
— let the people arise in their might, and silence them all,
whether they speak in the street to the few, or seek, through
the public press, to poison the many. Law, in many things, can
not go so far, nor accomplish so much, as determined public
opinion. [Cheers.] While men like Andeew Johnson, of Ten
nessee, with herculean strength, strike, in their districts, at the
hydra of rebellion, shall not we, in New York, war upon the
spirit of secession in every form ? [Applause, and cries of
"We will."] The old flag must be the paramount object of all.

8
It will be loved by the faithful. By the false, it must be
feared. [Yociferous cheering.]
They talk of a distinction between fidelity to the government
and devotion to the administration. In the day of national dan
ger or disaster, the two sentiments are inseparable. Distrust
him who professes the one only to disclaim the other. [Ap
plause.] When the tempest howls, no prayer breathed for the
ship forgets the pilot at her helm. [Applause and cheers.]
Loyalty knows no conditions. Stand by the government !
Scrutinize its action ; but do it like earnest patriots — not like
covert traitors. Stand by the administration! In times
like these, party spirit should be lulled. That spirit was
hushed in the era of the Revolution — in the days of Madison
and Monroe — and when the hero of New Orleans crushed the
rising form of Nullification. . Our fathers stood by Jackson, as
their sires sustained Washington. It is our privilege to uphold
the arm of a President, great and pure, who will share their
glory on the page of history. [Loud cheering.]
I must trespass no longer. [Cries of " go on, go on."] No,
fellow-citizens ; I' will bid you farewell. Onr illustrious Secre
tary of State has this day given to the army the only son not
already in the public service. Let us emulate his spirit of
sacrifice, and think nothing too dear to offer on the altar of our
country. Mr. Smith spoke with a clear, loud voice, and retired
in the midst of most enthusiastic cheerinar.

%mlj at Stataon Squaw,
AT THE MEETING, HELD APEIL 20, 1863, UNDEE THE AUSPICES OF
THE UNION LEAGUES, TO PLEDGE OUE AEMIES IN THE FIELD
THE MOEAL SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE AT HOME.
[EXTRACTED FROM THE RECORD OF THE ADDRESSES, PUBLISHED ET THE COMMITTEE OF
ARRANGEMENTS.]
Mr. William E. Dodge, the Chairman at the ladies'
stand, came forward, and said : " Fellow-citizens, I have
the honor to introduce the only prosecuting officer who
ever had the courage to undertake, and the ability to
accomplish, the execution on the gallows of a slave-
trader. I present to you the Hon. E. Delafield Smith,
United States District Attorney." Mr. Smith was wel
comed with cheering, which lasted for some time after
he appeared in front of the platform. He then pro
ceeded to speak as follows :
Citizens of New York : — When Athenians met, as ancient
annals tell, to deliberate upon the welfare of their country, a
prayer ascended to the gods — -an invocation for a blessing.
Heaven's sun smiles not upon us to-day ; but we have a bene
diction through the medium of this delegation of Heaven's
nearest representatives. [Applause.] The lady of the South
hugs the rattlesnake emblem, because it is the symbol of her
negro dowry. The daughter of the North reads in her flag
the record of a nation's glory. [Renewed applause.]
I shall acknowledge the generous introduction of your
president, and the cordial greeting of this assemblage, by an
address remarkable only for its brevity. Why should we not
be brief? There is but one question before the American
people. That question, indeed, is of mighty magnitude, and
upon its solution hangs the fate of the " great republic." But

10
it is easily answered. Have Americans of 1861 the constancy
and courage to crush domestic traitors, as their fathers, in 1776,
subdued British foes ? To what purpose was the blood of the
Revolution shed, if the soil that absorbed it produces a race too
cowardly or too factious to fight and unite for the welfare, the
integrity, the existence of a nation like this? [Renewed
cheering.] I sat in the gallery of the Senate a few weeks before Breck-
ineidge crawled from the national capital to a rebel camp. The
Union and the Constitution were covered all over with the
slime of his praise. Many in the North are allied to him in
secret sympathy, and the lurking demon that haunted his
heart prompts them to the substance of the same outward ut
terances. Away with all disguises ! [Cheers.] Are we for
our country ? Then we are patriots ! Are we for her destroy
ers ? Then their guilt is ours ! Without a common flag,
where is the Union ? Without a country, where is the
Constitution ? [Loud and prolonged cheering.]
In the years of by-gone parties, Whig generals, in a Demo
cratic war, led American armies to the city of Mexico. To
night, we behold Democratic leaders rallying the people around
a government from which they may differ as to administra
tion, but with which they are one in a determination to pre
serve and perpetuate it. Democrats ! you have never faltered
in protecting your country from foreign bayonets. Will you
not shield her from more deadly daggers, aimed at her breast
by her own pampered and treacherous children ? [Applause.]
" One country, one constitution, one destiny !" Such is the
spirit of exhortation that comes from Mount Yernon, from
Monticello, from Qnincy, from the Hermitage, from the shades
of Ashland^nd from the sea-washed meadows of Marshfield.
" One country, one constitution, one destiny !" Let this les
son, breathed from the tomb of a patriot, and mingling with the
traditions of the past, prevail over dishonoring suggestions from
degenerate sons of the present, as the hiss of the serpent that
may creep over the grave of Webster is lost in the ocean mur
murs by which his solemn requiem is forever sung ! [Loud
cheering.]

11
Democrats ! the party of Jackson has foundered too long in
shallow Southern harbors. It has been lured by false lights
and steered by drunken helmsmen. The time has come to re-
ship the old crew, and sail in the track of the Northern star.
[Cheers.] Who are they who distract and divide the people ? Let
their discord be hushed in the loud music of according voices,
swelling the anthem of Freedom and Nationality ! [Continued
cheering.] I close as I began. There is but one vital question — but one
living issue. They that are true upon that, are right in every
thing. Those who inflate minor matters into moment now, are
themselves deluded, or aim to make others the victims of de
ception. He who loves slavery or party, and he who hates
SLAVERY OR PAETY, MORE THAN HE LOVES HIS COUNTRY, MAY CALL
HIMSELF A DEMOCRAT OR A PHTLANTHROPIST, BUT HE CANNOT BE A
patriot ! [Loud and continued cheering.]

%wshi'wxs

PRESENTED, AT THE REQUEST OF THE COMMITTEE OF AEEANGE-
MENTS, AT A UNION MEETING, HELD AT COOPEE INSTITUTE,
NEW YOEK, OCTOBER 29, 1863, ON THE EVE OF THE NEW YORK
STATE ELECTION.
[COPIED EROM REPORTS OF THE MEETING, PUBLISHED IN THE DAILY PRESS.]
Resolved, That political parties can have no legitimate existence,
when the questions to which they owed their vitality have faded from
the public mind. Organizations, the healthful growth of a state of
peace, may well prove out of place and pernicious in a period of insur
rection. Opinions, born of a dead past, often admit of no application
to Uving issues of the present. The partisan divisions which were
visible when this defensive war broke out, have been obliterated by
the wave of popular feeling which has swept over the land, receiving
its first but not its last impulse upon the desecration of the American
flag at the fall of Sumter.
Resolved, That both the Whig and Democratic parties having ful
filled their respective missions, and having been long ago consigned
to the tomb of the Capulets, the continued attempt of the allies and
dupes of treason to galvanize their remains and to make them stalk at
the head of their motley ranks, is an insult to the intelligence of the
American people. And the outrage is the more flagrant when the
image of Henry Clay is made in effect to carry the flag of Disunion,
and the shade of Andrew Jackson is invoked to bear the banner of
Secession. Resolved, That the Unionists of New York, coming and combining
from all organizations, look with contempt upon the efforts of men
who have never acted with the Democratic party, to use its name and
traditions against the government of their country it its mortal strug
gle with rebellion. And we hail with satisfaction the indications
everywhere prevailing, that the Democratic masses, warned of new
lights, are following in great numbers the signals of old and tried
leaders, and are practically demonstrating their devotion to the cause
of patriotism and principle.

14
Resolved, That human ingenuity may be taxed in vain to discover
a distinction, in moral guilt or in baleful influence, between men who
adhere to a foreign despot and those who encourage a domestic con
spirator. A tyrant, in 1776, attempted to smother a country in its
infancy. A traitor, in 1861, seeks to assassinate a nation in its man
hood. Americans who then avowedly or secretly gave aid and com
fort to George the Third, were not one whit more culpable than those
who now, either openly or covertly, sustain the falling fortunes of Jef
ferson Davis. Native Tories and Hartford Conventionists, Nullifica-
tionists and Copperheads, will be consigned, in our country's glorious
future, to one common grave of infamy and execration.
Resolved, That the existing conflict waged by the national authority
to defend the Constitution, perpetuate the Union, and preserve the
nation's life, is equally sacred with the war of the Revolution, to
which the nation owes its origin. That in a cause so momentous, it
is our duty to use every weapon known to the righteous usages of
nations. That, to this end, we heartily approve the several acts of
Congress for enrolling the national forces ; providing bounties for vol
unteers ; wresting the habeas corpus from the uses of treason; indem
nifying public officers from the malignity of arrested traitors ; retaliat
ing for outrages upon Southern Unionists and weakening the enemy
by confiscating the property of rebels ; opening the lands of the South
to free white labor ; arming friendly troops, of every color, creed and
clime ; and the President's immortal proclamation for the perpetual
emancipation of the slave.
Resolved, That again and again we return our grateful acknowledg
ments to the soldiers and sailors who, upon the land and sea, have
bravely borne our flag through the storms of battle. We tender them
our congratulations upon the moral sympathy and support with which
the ballot-box has responded to the tidings of their triumphs. While
Vicksburg has answered to Gettysburg, and while Port Hudson, Little
Rock, and East Tennessee, have united in a national anthem, Connec
ticut has called to California, California to Maine, Maine to Iowa, Iowa
to Vermont, Vermont to Indiana, until at length the voices of all have
been drowned in the popular artillery which has thundered from the
mines of Pennsylvania and from the gardens of Ohio.
Resolved, That the action of our opponents in every State wherein
they have possessed either legislative or executive control, in with-

15
holding the sacred right of suffrage from our brave defenders in the
held, exhibits a fear of the masses in singular contrast with the unter-
nfied confidence of the democracy of other days. Under whatever
pretext or subterfuge that right may be denied, we challenge the most
acute champion of this injustice to produce a substantial reason for its
inflietion, except that the soldier's ballot, like his blood, is consecrated
to the cause of his country.
Resolved, That the defeat of Woodward, a wary conservative, the
rebuke of Tuttle, a dissatisfied General, and the annihilation of Val-
landigham, a martyr to treason, alike demonstrate that no device can
hide from the people the evil influence of Opposition victories, no
matter under what auspices those victories may be achieved. No
party can be entitled to the confidence of a country when its successes
are promoted by the defeat, and its discomfitures by the triumph of
the National arms. As Macbeth was prompted to treason and mur
der by the black prophecies of the heath, so the South was instigated
to rebellion and usurpation by the darker promises of Northern dem
ocrats. And later: Rebellion, staggered by telling blows, revived
upon the hope of Opposition gains ; and now, New York, having
intrusted her executive power to the Opposition, has taught her own
people, as well as her sister States, how much of encouragement can
thus be imparted to the Rebel Government, and how little to our
own. ¦Resolved, That in common with the electors of other States, the
people of New York distrust the loyalty of those who extol the deeds
of rebel chieftains, but hear in silence the achievements of Union
heroes ; and who, while mourning over the detention of traitors in
forts of the North, have no word of sympathy for suffering patriots in
prisons of the South.
Resolved, That while the honest exercise of the right of criticism
upon the acts of public men is approved and defended, we condemn the
abuse of that right, as practiced by those who systematically misrepre
sent, and indiscriminately denounce, the motives and measures of the
constitutional directors of our National Government. That, over
whelmed as they have been by difficulties and responsibilities of a
magnitude unknown to their predecessors, no candid patriot will with
hold the expression of surprise, not that errors have been so many, but
rather that they have been so few. That our sure and steady ad-

16

VANCEMENT UPON THE LAND AND THE WATERS, BEING THE RESULT OF
PLANS PROPOSED AND CO-OPERATED IN BY BOTH MILITARY AND CIVIL
AUTHORITIES, IS THE RIGHTFUL GLORY OF BOTH THESE BRANCHES OF OUR
COUNTRY'S SERVICE. TlIE MASTERLY DIPLOMACY OF THIS ADMINISTRA
TION J THE TOWERING 'ABILITY AND THE SUCCESS OF ITS FINANCIAL
HEAD ; THE STATESMANSHIP AND ' PATRIOTISM OF ITS CHIEF, ARE RECOG
NISED WITH PRIDE BY THE LOYAL PEOPLE OF THE NATION. They who "
denounced Washington throughout the doubtful period of the Revo
lution ; Madison in the war of 1812; Jackson in his conflict with
Nullification, and Lincoln in his struggles with the Great Rebellion,
will be charged by posterity with common motives, and history will
do justice to assailants and assailed.
Resolved, That unable to directly write these doctrines upon our bal
lots, the Unionists of New York, without regard to past political divis
ions, will vote for the men by whom these principles are represented.
Resolved, That in the alliance recently concluded in this city, between
hostile factions of the Opposition, the people have witnessed the most
dangerous encroachment upon their liberties and their safety. Politi
cal conventions, throwing off all pretense to representative fidelity,
have resigned their powers to sub-committees, and they, in turn, de
spising alike the interests of the community and the wishes of the honest
adherents of their party, have bargained away both county and judicial
stations. Crying out against alleged arbitrary measures to maintain the
government of their country, they, at the same time, attempt to subject
the people of this city, even those of their own faith, to the most
shameless tyranny. The glare of the incendiary's torch was
HARDLY EXTINGUISHED— THE CRY OF THE HELPLESS ORPHAN, AND OF
THE MURDERED INNOCENT WAS SCARCELY HUSHED  THE YELL OF AN
INFURIATED MOB, INFLAMED BY SKULKING LEADERS, WAS BUT JUST OVER
COME, WHEN THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY OF OUR CITY, THE
ULTIMATE PROTECTION OF LIFE AND PROPERTY, WAS DIRECTLY ASSAILED.
Precedent may be searched in vain for the overthrow, in this city, of
upright judges, by their own party, to compass personal interests or
political schemes. The discarded candidates, although not of our
political faith, we shall sustain. But the lesson will not be complete
unless all the expected fruits of this combination shall be turned to
ashes on the lips of its inventors.
These resolutions were received with loud demonstra
tions of approval, and were unanimously adopted.