The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-02-12
Ul1e 9ailp 9uurmal.
speech of Ex-Prestdent tyler.

Peace Congress having reported IN favor oi
Ex- President Tyler for President, on taking
his seat that gentleman spoke as follows:
GENTLEMEN: fear you have committed
great error in appointing me to the hon.
orable position you have assigned me. A
long separation from all deliberative bodies
has rendered the rules of their proceedings
unfamiliar to me, while | should find in my
own state of health, variable and tickle as it
is, sufficient reason to decline the honor of
being your presiding officer but, in times
like these, one has but little opinion left
him-personal considerations should weigh
but lightly in the balance. The country is
in danger-it is enough-one must take the
place assigned him in the great work of re-
conciliation and adjustment. The voice of
Virginia has invited her co-States to meet
her in council. In the institution of this
| Government that same voice was heard and
complied with, and the results of seventy
odd years have fully attested the wisdom of
the decisions then adopted. Is the urgency
OF her call now less great than it was then ?
Our godlike fathers created-we have to
preserve. They built up, through their
wisdom and patriotism, monuments which
have eternalized their names. You have
before you, gentlemen, task equally grand,
equally sublime, quite as full of glory and
immortality. Yon have to snatch from ruin
a great and glorious Confederation, to pre-
serve the Government, and to renew and in
vigorate the Constitution. If you reach the
height of this great occasion, your chill
drens children will rise up and call you
blessed. / confess myself ambitious of shar-
ing in the glory of accomplishing this grand
and magnificent result. TO have our nam es
enrolled in the Capitol, to be repeated by
future generations with grateful applause,
this is an honor higher than the mountains,
more enduring than monumental :,Iabaster.
Yes, Virginia's voice, as in the oIden time,
has been heard. Her sister States meet her
this day at the council board. Vermont is
here, bringing with her the memories of
the past reviF ing in the memories of
all, her Ethan Allen, and his demand for
the surrender of Ticonderoga in the name of
the Great Jehovah and the American Con-
gress. New Hampshire is here-her fame
illustrated by memorable annals, and still
more lately, as the birthplace of him who
won for himself the name of Defender of the
Constitu ton, and who wrote that letter to
John Taylor, which has been enshrined in
the hearts of his countrymen. Massachu-
setts is not here-(some member said she is
coming)-I hope so, said Mr.. Tyler, and
that she will bring with her her daughter
Maine. did not believe it could well be
that the voice which, in other times, was so
familiar to her ears, has been addressed to
her in vain. Connecticut is here, and she
comes, L doubt not in the spirit of Roger
Sherman, whose name with our very chill
dren has become household word, and who
was in life the embodiment of that practical
sense which BELTS the great lawgiversand
L,
land, the LAND of Roger W illiams is here, one
of the two last States in her jealousy of the
public liberty to give in her adhesion to the
Constitution, and among the earliest to has
ten to it's rescue. The great Empire State of
New York-represented thus far but by one
delegates day a fuller force to join in
the great work of healing the discontents of
the times, and restoring the reign of frater-
nal feeling. New Jersey is also here, with
the memories of the past covering her all
over. Trenton and Princeton live immortal
in story-the plains of the last encrimsoned
with the hearts blood of Virginia's sons
Among her delegation | rejoice to recognize
a gallant son OF the signer of the immortal
Declaration which announced to the world
that thirteen Provinces had become thir-
teen independent and sovereign States.-
And here, too, is Delaware, the land of the
BAyards and the Rodneys whose soil at
Brandywine was moistened by the blood of
Virginia's youthful Monroe. Here is Mary
land, whose massive columns wheeled into
line with those of Virginia in the contest for
glory, and whose State House at Annapolis
was the theater of spectacle of a successful
commander, who, after liberating his coun-
try, gladly ungirthed his sword and laid it
down upon the altar of that country. Then
INIT
lere, bringing with her the deathless names
of Franklin and Morris, and, I trust, ready
to renew, from the belfry of independence
Hall the chimes of the old bell which an
nounced Freedom and independence in
former days. All hail to North Carolina!
with her Mecklenburgh declaration in her
hand, standing erect on the ground of her
own probity and frmness in the cause of
public liberty, and represented in her at
tributes by her Macon, and in this assem-
bly, by her distinguished son, at no great
distance from me. Four daughters of Vir-
ginia also cluster around the council board,
on the invitation of their ancient mother,
the eldest Kentucky, whose sons, under
that intrepid warrior--AnthOny Wayne,
gave freedom of settlement to the territory
of her sister, Ohio, and extending his hand
daily ard hourly across La Belle Riviere to
/
! blood of the NOBLE States of Indiana and
/ Illinois and Ohio, who have grown up into
powerful States, already grand, potent, and
almost imperial. Tennessee is not here but
is coming-prevented from being here only
/ by the floods which have swollen her rivers
/ When she arrives she will wear the badges
on her warrior crest Of victories won, in
company with the Great West on many an
ensanguined plain, and standards torn from
the hands of the conquerors at Waterloo.
Missouri and Iowa and Michigan, Wisconsin
and Minnesota still linger behind, but it may
be hoped that their hearts are with US in
the great work we have to do The
eyes of the whole country are turned
to this ball and to this assembly in expecta-
: tion and hope, trust, gentlemen, that you
may prove yourselves worthy of the great
occasion. Our ancestors probably committed
& blunder in not having fixed upon every
/ fifth decade for call of general Conven-
4 tion to amend and reform the Constitution