Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1863-07-21
SPEECH OF
EK-PRESIDENT PIERCT.
address % Ex--President Pieres, De-
Iivered BEFORE the Democratic Mass
oOnvention at Concord, N. H,
, 30 On the 4Ih Of July, 1858.


MY FRIEsDs AND FELLOW CouNrRYMLN
-Whlle I pave come to preside at this
mee'ing, at your bidding, permit me to
say that 90 command less imperative than
your wish % such an occasion would have
brought me here and trust that in view
ofsthe great aggregation of personal rela.
tions which thirty years Of manhood life
haze formed between us, you will recog.
nize in this fact warm reciprocation, on
my part. Of the respect and affection which.
in all thar tsme / have never failed to find
on yours. Applause. H
/. Wemeet oDsthe anniversary of a day
halIowed solemn memories, and saucti-
fed as that 81 the birth Of the American
Union. Tht Declaration Of independence
laid the foundation Of our political great
ness IN the two fundamental ideas Of the
absolute Independence Of the Americas
people and of the sovereignty of their res
pective States. Under that standard our
wise and heroic forefathers fought the bat
tie OF the Revolution /; under that they con-
quered. In this spirit they established the
Union, having the conservative thought
ever present to their minds, of the original
sovereignty and Independence Of the sever.
al States, oil with their diverse institutions,
interests, opinions and habits, to be main.
tanned intact and secure, by the reciprocal
sGpulatiOns aud mutual compr misses OF
the constitution. They were master build.
ers, who reared up the grand structure OF
the Union, that august temple beneath
whose dome three generations have enjoy.
ed such blessings of civil liberty as were
never before vOuchsafed by Providence to
man; that temple before whose altar you
and have not only bowed with devoui
and graceful hearts; but where, with pat.
riOtic vows and sacrifices, We have SO fire..
quently cOnsecrated ourselves to the pro-
lection and maintenance of those lofty col
umns Of the constitution by which it was
upheld No visionary enthusiasts were
they. dreaming vRinly of the impossible
uniformity Of some wild Utopia of their
own imsgina;ions. No desperate refor-
mers were :hey. madiy bent upon schemes
which, if coEsummated, could only result
in general confusion, anarchy, and chaos.
Oh, no high-hearted. but ssgacious and
practical statesmen they were, who saw
society as living fact, not as q troubled
visiub; who knew that national power con-
sists in the rec0pcilement of diversities OF
institutions; and who saw that variety and
adaptation of parts are the necessary ele-
ments of all there is sublime or beautiful in
the works of art of nature. ... ....
Majestic were the solid foundations, the
massive masonry. the columned loftiness Of
that magnificent structure of the Union
Glorious, was the career of prosperity and
peace and power upon which, from its very
birthday, the American Union entered, as
with the assured march Of the conscious
offspring of those giants Of the Revolution.
Such was the Union, as conceived and
administered by Washington and Adams,
by Jefferson, aud Madison, and jackson.
such say, was the Union, ere the evil
time bttell US; ere the madness of sectional
hatreds and animosities possessed US; ere,
in the third generation. the allcomprehen-
sire patriotism Of the Fathers bad died on,
and slxen place to the passionate emotions
OF nurf'iw and aggressive seetionalism The
eastern States covered the sea with their
ships the land with :heir farms and their
manufactures so did the middle Atlantic
States, with addition to their mineral
wealth of coal and iron; while the SOUTH
ern States, with their rich, soft climate and
cOngenial soil, raised up those great sta
Piles of cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice, corn,
which are the life o: commerce and man.
ufactures; and the vast regions Of the West
grew to be the graneries of Europe and
America; and still farther on was revealed
the land of gold anG silver on the remote
shores of the Pacific.
These were the material elements of our
national power, each State with it's differ.
ence OF interests, cooperating with the
others to constitute one harmonious whole.
And SO the various European races coex-
IstiOg here, though differing in blood. re
ligious, temper, the Pr ts.ant and the
Catholic, the Puritan and the Cavalier. vet
by their very difference of character, affurd.
ed the mental and moral elements of the
power of the Union.
Gluriously sublime above all the bistorv
rec0rds of national greatness was the suec.
tacle which the UTion exhibited to the
world, 30 long as the true spirit of the con.
stitution lived in the hearts of tie people.
and the government was the government
Of men reciprOcaly respecting one snoth-
er's rights of States, each moving, planet
like, in the orbit Of it's proper place in the
armament of the Union. Then we were
the model Republic Of the world, honored
loved, OF feared where we were not loved
respected abroad, peaceful and happy at
home. No American citizen was then sub.
ject to be driven into exile for opinions
sake or arbitrarily arrested and incsrcera.
ted in military bsstiles-even as be NAV
now be-not for acts or words of imputed
treason, but if be do but mourn in sileu,
sorrow over the desolaticn Of his country:
no embattled hosts of Amerioans were then
wasting their lives and resUurcee in sang.
uinary civil strife; 90 suicidal and patriot.
DIAL civil war then swept like q raging
tempest Of death over the stricken home.
steads and wailing cities of the Union.
Oh. that such a change should have
come over our country in q day, as it were
las IL oil men in every State Of the Union,
North aud South, East and Wet, were
suddenly smitten with homicidal madness
and "the custom of fell deeds" rendered az
familiar as if it were a part of our in born
nature; as if an avengiug angel had been
suffered by Providence to wave q sword If
flaming fire above our heads to convert &c
many millions of good men, living toeeth.
er in brotherly love, into insensible beings
savagely bent on the destruction of them
selves and Of each other, and leaving but
smonldering ruin of conhagration and Of
- wv paw VI OdA HObC0 Dl6k S6O
Union!
endeavOr sometimes to close my ears to
the sounds, and my eyes to the sights Of
woe, and to ask myself whether all this
can lbe-to inquire which is true, whether
the past happiness and prosperity of my
country are but the hattering vision of Q
happy sleep, or its present misery and des
Olation happily the delusion Ct some dis
tnrbed dream. One or the other seems
Incredible and impossible; but alas, the
stern truth cannot thus be dispelled from
our minds. ..r
Can you forget, ought / especially to be
expected to forget, those not remote DAYS
IN the history of our country, when its
greatness aud glory sled the reflection at
least of their rays upon all our lives, and
thus enabled us to read the lessons of the
Fathers, and of their constitution in the
light of their principles and their deeds p
Then war was conducted only against the
foreign enemy, aud not in the spirit and