The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-20 00:00:00

Mr, Seward on the An erican War.

Mr Seward was at Auburn when the news of the
fall of Atlanta was received, and was called upon
for an address, which occupies three columns of the
New York Times, Alluding to Atlanta he said :
The victory at Atlanta comes at the right place. The
rebellions district is in the shape of an egg. It presents an
equal resistance on its whole surface. But if you could
break the shell at either of the two ends—Richmond and
Atlanta—the whole must cruzable to pieces. While Sher-
man under Grant has been striking the big end, Meade under
Grant has been striking just as hard blows upon the lesser
end. The whole shell will now be easily crushed, for it has
grown brittle with the exhaustion of vitality within. This
glorious victory comes in good time for another reason. Just
now we are calling upon you for 300,000 more volunteers, if
you will—draughted men if we must—to end the war. You
were getting a little tired of long delays and disappointed
expectations. In Indiana a portion of the people, instigated
by rebel plotters at the Clifton-house, in Canada, were im-
porting British revolvers in bcxes, which passed the Custom
House as stationery, under pretence of arming to defend
themselves, but really to resist the draught and bring the
Government down to ruin through a subordinate and auxi-
liary civil war. True., no arms have been imported here.
Yet delegates went out from among you and sat down in
council at Chicago with those Indiana conspirators, and
agreed with them not only that importation of arms should
be defended in the election canvas, but also to demand the
cessation of the war upon the ground that success in restor-
ing the Union is unattainable. Already under the influence
of the cheering news from Atlanta all this discontent and
despondency has disappeared. We shall have no draught
because the army is being reinforced at the rate of from five
to ten thousand men per day by valuation.

Ho regretted the absence from the meeting of
many influential men :

Why are they not here to rejoice in the victories that
will thrill the hearts of the lovers of freedom throughout
the world ? Alas, that it must be confessed, it is party spirit
that holds them aloof. All of them are partisans. Some are
Republicans, who cannot rejoice :n the national victories
because this war, for the life of the nation, is not in all re-
spects conducted according to their own peculiar radical
ideas and theories. They want guarantees for swift, and
universal, and complete emancipation, or they do not want
the nation saved. Others stay because they want to be'
assured that in coming out of the revolutiozeary storm the
ship of State will be found exactly in the same condition
as when the tempest assailed it, or they do not want the
ship saved at all—as if anyb3dy could give such :guaran-
tees in the name of a people of 30,000,000. Others are De-
mocrats. They received from their fathers the axiom that
only Democrats could save the country, and they must save
it by Democratic formulas and combinations which the
progress of the age has for ever exploded. They cannot
come up to celebrate achievements which condemn their
narrow and hereditary bigotry. Others, of both the Re-
publican and Democratic parties,are willing that the nation
shall Ise saved, provided it is done by one of their chosen
and idolised chiefs, which chief they mutually denounce and
revile. They cannot honour Grant, and Sherman, and Far-
ragut, and Porter, because by such homage they fear that
Fremont and M'Clellan's fame may be eclipsed. Neverthe-
less, there are enough here of the right sort—(" Yes, that's
true")—enough of men who once were Republicans, but
taking that word in a partisan sense, are Republicans no
longer ; and men who once were Democrats, but taking that
word in its narrow application, are Democrats no longer; all
of whom are now Union men, because they found out at the
beginning of this tremendous civil war, or at some period
in its progress, that no man, no part 3 , no formula, no creed
could save the Union, but that only the people could save it,
and they could save it only by ceasing to became partisans,
and becom'ng patriots and Union men. (Cheers for the
Union.) Yes, my friends, when this war shall be ended in
the restoration of the Union, no man then living will exult
in the recollection that during its eontinuance he was either
a Radical or a Conservative, a Republican or a Democrat,
but every man will claim to have been throughout an unre-
served and unconditional Union man.

Respecting the coming Presidential election he

said—

'Why should party spirit, especially at this juncture,
divide the American people? And why should 1, a mem-
ber of the Executive Administration, allude to it on such
an occasion as this ? The answer is at hand. The Con-
stitution of our country commands that Administration to
surrender its powers to the people, and the people to desig-
nate agents to assume and exercise them for four years. You
receiye the Executive Government in a condition very dif-
ferent and highly improved. You found it practically ex-
pelled from the whole country south of the Delaware, the
Ohio, and the Missouri, with the most of the army and
navy betrayed or fallen into the hands of the insurgents,
and anew and treasonable Cent ederacy,with the indirect but
eff_ctive cu-operattou of tottigu rowers, totablithing Itself
on the Gulf of Mexico. We cheerfully give the Government
back to you with large and conquering armies, and a tri-
umphant navy, with the hateful Confederacy falling into
pieces, and the rebellious States one after another returning
to their allegiance. Regarding myself now therefore not as
a Secretary, but simply as one of the people, I, like you, am
called by my vote to determine into whose hands the precious
trust shall now be confided. We might wish to avoid, or at
least to postpone, that duty until the present fearful crisis
is past. But it cannot and ought not to be avoided or ad-
journed. It is a constitutional trial, and the nation must
go through it deliberately and bravely. I shall therefore
cheerfully submit for your consideration the course which 1
have concluded to a :opt, and the reasons for it. First, I
be; you to remember that the present is not a common or
customary Presidential election. It occurs in the midst of
civil war, arising out of a disputed succession to the execu-
tive power. Disputed successions are the most frequent
causes of civil war, not only in republics, but even in monar-
chlee. A dispute about the succession of the President pe-
riodically begets an abortive or real revolution in each o f
the Spanish •American republics. So the disputed succes-
sion of the Spanish throne begot that memorable 30 years'
war which convulsed all Europe. A dispute whether Juarez
was the lawful President brought on the present civil war,
with the consequence of the French intervention in Mexico.
A dispute whether the present King of Denmark, who suc-
ceeded to the throne last winter, is lawful heir to the duchies
of Schleswig and Holstein brought about the civil war in
that country, which through German intervention has just
now ended with the dismemberment of the Danish king-
dom. It is remarkable also that civil wars produced by dis-
puted succession invariably begin with resistance by some
one or more of the states or provinces which constitute the
kingdom, empire, or republic which is disturbed. It was so

in the United States of Mexico. It was so in the United
States of Columbia, and the case was the same in the United
States cf Venezuela. Now it is certain that in 1860 we
elected Abraham Lincoln lawfully and constitutionally to
be President of the whole United States of America. Seven
of the States immediately thereon rushed into disunion, and
summoning eight more to their alliance they set up a revo•
lutionary Government ; they levied war against us to effect
a separation and establish a distinct sovereignty and inde-
pendence. We accepted the war in defence of the Union.
The war, he maintained, was at its crisis :
It is clear therefore that we are fightirtg to make Abraham

Lincoln Presieltnt of the whole United States, under the
election of 1860, to continue until March 4, 1865. In voting
for a President of the United States, can we wisely or safely
vote cut the identical person whom, with force and arms, we
are fighting into the presidency. (No) You justly say no.
It would be nothing less than to give up the very object of
the war at the ballot box. The moral strength which makes
our position impregnable would pass from UP, and when that
moral strength has passed away material forces are no longer
effective or even available, By such a proceeding we shall
have agreed with the enemy and have given him the vic-
tory. But in that victory the Constitution and the Union
will have perished, because, when it shall have once bon
proved that a minority can, by force or circumvention, defeat
the full accession of a constitutionally chosen President, no
President thereafter, though elected by ever so largo a ma-
jority, can hope to exercise the executive powers unopposed
throughout the whole country. One of two things must fol-
low that fatal error. Either a contest between your newly
elected compromise President and the same usurper, in
which the usurper must prevail, or also a combination be-
tween them through which the usurper or his successor,
subverting your Constitution and substituting his own, will
become President, King, or Emperor of the United States,
w:thout foreign aid if he can, with foreign intervention
it
necessary. (That's so.) To be sure it is so ; nothing is
more certain than that either the 'United States and their
constitutional President, or the so-called Confederate States
and their usurping President, must rule within the limits
of this Republic. I, therefore, regard the pending presi •
dential election as inv dying the question whether hereafter
we shall have Constitution and a country left us. How shall
we vote, then, to save our country from this fearful danger ?
(Vote Lincoln in again.) You have hit it exactly, my
friend. We must vote Lincoln in again,
and fight him in at
the same time. If we do this the rebellion will perish and
leave no root. If we do otherwise, we have only the alter-
natives of acquiescence in a perpetual usurpation, :or of
entering on an endless succession of civil and social wars.
Upon these grounds, entirely irrespective of platform and
candidate, I consider the recommendations of the Conven •
tion at Chicago as tending to subvert the Republic. (It's
so, that's a fact.) It will seem a hard thing when I imply
that a party like the Democratic party can either mediate
or blindly adopt measures to overthrow the Republic. All
experience shows that it is by the malice or madness of great
parties that free States have been brought down to destruc-
tion. You often hear alarms that a party in power is subvert-
ing the State, and it sometimes happens so. But nine times
out of ten it is a party ont of power that in its impatience
or ambition overthrows a Republic. . . They say I am
c o
e heroic in
when our l ohyea l
sees cana
that will
the
always too sanguine of the success of national candidates and
of the national arms. But it seems to me that the veriest
croaker
last
takeas
tnhe
hope
ecourage and
rebellionb e-
m
hangs upon the ratification of this abominable and deteit-

able compact by the American people. . . And what a
time is this to proclaim such a poliey,c,onceivad in treachery,
and brought forth with shameless effrontery. A cessation
of hostilities on the heels of decisive naval and land battles
at the very moment that the rebellion, without a single fort
in its possession on the coast, or on either of the great rivers
or lakes, is crumbling to the earth, and at the same time a
dozen new ships of war are going to complete the invest-
ment by sea, and 300,000 Volunteers are rushing to the
lines to complete the work of restoration and pacification.
Ho defended the President against the accusations
brought against him by the Democrats respecting
slavery :
The chief complaint against the President is that ho will
not accept peace on the basis of the integrity of the Union,
without having also the abandonment of slavery. When
and where have the insurgents offered him peace on the
basis of the integrity of the Union ? Nobody has offered it.
The rebels never will offer it. They are determined and
pledged to rule this Republic or ruin it. I told you here a
year ago that, practically, slavery was no longer in question,
that it was perishing under the operation of the war. That
assertion has been confirmed. The Union men in all the
Slave States that we have delivered are even more anxious
than we are to abolish slavery. Witness Western Virginia,
Maryland, Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
Jefferson Davis tells you in effect the same thing. He says
that it is not slavery, :eat independence and sovereignty for
which he is contending. There is good reason for this. A
hundred dollars in gold is only a year's purchase of the
labour of the working man in every part of the United
States. At less than half that price you could buy all the
slaves in the country. Nevertheless our opponents want a
distinct exposition of the President's views on the ultimate
solution of the slavery question, Why do they want it ?
For the same reason that the Pharisees and Sadducees
wanted an authoritative resolution of the questions of
casuistry which arose in their day. One of these sects be-
lieved in a kingdom to come, and the other denied the re-
surrection of the dead. Nevertheless they walked together
in loving accord in search of instruction concerning the
spirit world. " Master," said they," there was a man of our
nation Rho married a wife and died, leaving six brothers.
Those brothers successively married the widowed woman,
and afterwards died. And last of all the woman also died.
In the resurrection which of the seven shall have this
woman to wife." Now, what was it to them whether one
or all should have the woman to wife in heaven ? It could
be nothing to the Sadducees in any case. What was it to
any human being on this side of the grave ? What was it
to any human being in heaven except the woman and her
seven husbands ? Absolutely nothing. Yet they would have
an answer. And they received one. The answer was, that
while in this mortal state men and women shall never cease
to marry and to die, there will be in the resurrection neither
death nor marrying nor giving in marriage. Although al-
together unauthorised to speak for the President upon hy-
pothetical questions, I think I can give an answer upon the
subject of slavery at the present day—an answer which will
be explicit, and I hope not altogether unsatisfactory. While
the rebels continue to wage war against the Government of
the United States, the military measures affecting slavery
which had been adopted from necessity to bring the war
to a speedy and successful end, will be continued, except
so far as practical experience shall show that they can be
modified advantageously with a view to the same end.
When the insurgents shall have disbanded their armies and
laid down their arms the war will instantly cease, and all
the war measures then existing, including those which
affect slavery. will cease also, and all the moral, economical
and political questions, as well questions affecting slavery
as others which shall then be existing between individuals
and States and the Federal Government, whether they
arose before the civil war began, or whether they grew out
of it, will, by force of the Constitution, pass over to the arbi-
trament of courts of law and to the councils of legislation,"
Mr Seward concludes as follows :

The sun is setting. So surely it shall rise again, so
surely do I think that the great events we have now cele-
brated prelude the end of our national troubles, and the
restoration of the national authority with peace, prosperity,
and freedom throughout the whole land, from the lakes to
the gulf, and from ocean to ocean.

The Great Fire in the City,

DESTRUCTION OF HABERDASHERS' HALL,

One of the most extensive conflagrations with which the
city of London has been visited for very many years took
place yesterday morning, in Gresham-street West. It (lc -
cursed in a block of buildings of an oblong form, having
a principal flout in Gresham-street West, on its northern
side, and extending from the corner of Wood-street to the
thoroughfare known as S aining• lane, and embracing
within its area the newly-built and extensive warehouses in
the occupation of Messrs Thomas Tapling and Co., carpet
manufacturers ; Messrs W. F. Harris and Co., importers of
Utrecht velvet; Messrs Richard Hellaby and Co., ware-
housemen; Messrs Edmonds, Son and Co., wholesale but-
ton manufacturers, and other firms ; also the ancient house
belonging to the guild of Haberdashers, which, with the
other buildings, and the thousands of pounds worth of stock
they contained, now present but a mass of ruins, though the
newly-built walls in Gresham-street and some of the party
walls remain standing. The large establishment of Mr
Hugh Jones, in Wood-street, has also severely suffered, but
0 what extent at present it is impossible accurately to tell.
The site of the Haberdashers' Hall was bequeathed to the
company in the year 1473 (17th Edward IV.), and the one
which formerly stood upon the enclosure which forms the
area of the present fire is described as being very spacious,
for in it met the Parliament Commissioners during the in-
terregnum. The present building (or at least as much of it
as remains) was built by Sir Christopher Wren upon a por-
tion of the site of the original building, which was destroyed
by the great fire of London. The building was of brick, a
heavy pile, having no particular pretensions to exterior or-
nament, but richly fashioned and decorated in the interior.
But a short time since, when the premises of Messrs. Tap-
ling and Co. were erected, a handsome gateway and pas-
sage leading to the Court-room and back buildings was
erected in Gresham-street, to harmonise with the new struc-
tures, and handsome iron gates fixed in the new doorway,
and the old wall was repaired, but not rebuilt. Of these
the major part are destroyed. In the hall of the master and
wardens, we understand, there were several admirable
paintings by Early masters, one especially rare and fine,
called The Wise Men's Offering ;" also a small status of,
Henry VIII., several portraits of benefactors to the charities
of the company, including one of Robert Asks, who left the
guild the munificent sum of £30,000 to build and endow
almshouses in Hoxton, considered to be the finest and most
comfortably provided of any similar institutions in the me-
tropolis. In the chests within the building were the archives
of the company—at least those saved at the time of the
great fire in 1666, including those up to the reign of Charles
1,, and also a small vellum book of ordinances, in which
there is a good illuminatirn of St. Katharine, the Patron
saint of the haberdashers. In this hall also there was a fine
portrait of Eli. George Whitmore, Lord Mayor of London in
1631, who entertained Charles the First and his Queen in
his noble mansion of Baumas (or Balmas) in the Kingsland-
road, lloxton.

Th walls of the drawing-rooms, the grand reception halls,
and retiring rooms were fitted up rsost elaborately in gold
and ornamental oak panels, whilst the panels of the great
hall and the drawing-room and reception rooms were covered
with full length portraits of the Lord Mayors of many years
past. Several of these were saved owing to the assistance
of the Royal Society's escapes,