The daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1863-1864, 1864-11-04
Speech of Hon. Reverdy john
son Mt the New York Mer-
chants Meeting Oct. 81.

In the present condition OF our country
it Is our honor to be called upon to address
the business men of New York. As no
class is more intelligent or more fitted by
daily experience to comprehend the neces'
slties Of the nation, so Is mono more patri>
otto, or more devoted to its true interest
and honor. Applause When che rebel
band fred the first gun at the fortress
over which Hoated our national banner, the
business uen of your proud city at once as
sembled and pledged themselves to the gov
eminent that whatever might be the cost,
is blood or treasure, the outrage should be
-tshsd, and the flag, the symbol Of the
min. 4 with which so many glorious
Union, ali. ISOLATED, should be vim
memories were a. - wears preceding
dicated, until, as in tn ~ wave un'
our becoming nation, it shou'. land,
challenged over every portion OF the =,
and be the tie binding US in that unity 50
vital TO our existence as peaceful, pros
per Jus and powerful people. This pledge
has been more than redeemed. During the
entire Presidency Of Mr., Lincoln you hav"
contributed in men and money more than
Napoleon possessed when he overran Eu>
rome and made monarchies his subjects
But with what results have your noble ef'
forts been attended Four years are now
nearly at an end, and the Union as far, in
deed further, from restoration than when
the struggle began-aDd | AM sorry to say
TO YOU the news was received here to-day
that the last movement OF the Army OF tue
Potomac has proved glorious failure, they
having retired to their former station gain
inc mott ,jng, aud with loss of fifteen huns
tsred men. You have an appalling amount
OF debt, nCt less, if now )iquidated, toan
live thousand millions OF dollars, and in
,ereas;ng at the rate Of two millions DAY,
in excess of the most sanguine estimate OF
the daily receipts into the Treasury from
every source. ("That's soy And every
original friend of the Union land they
numbered hundreds Of thousands, and were
to be found in each of the Southern States }.
because Of the policy OF Mr.. Lincoln, ate
now bound together as one man to prevent
such q Reunion as he and bis ultra'p
tisians, those who shape his policy, alone
offer them.
In the beginning of this dreadful war,
with Observation-Disclosures and folly unex-
ampled in any government which civilized
man has ever lived under, Mr. Lincoln STA
ted that no man was hurt, and his Secreta
~ of State, from sixty days to sixty days,
with hallucination that almost amounts
to insanity, has predicted its early and sue
cessful prosecution And vet it goes on !;
and treasure, and blood-dearer to US than
all treasure-is at this moment being OK
ploded with no apparent tendency to &C
complish the object of the war--the only
object for which, under the Constitution, it
can be waged-ths restoration Of the Union
in its original integrity. (Great applause
To what is this failure to be sscribed Our
soldiers have outnumbered two to one
those of the rebels Our navy, almost as
powerful as that Of any nation in the world,
aud our officers, in both services, as skill
ful, gallant and loyal as they we're at New
Orleans, when we conquered the veterans
Of Wellington in the war of 1872, and
proved to England that if her " march was
on the ocean wave, her home was on the
deep" so was ours, and so it should remain
forever. Cheers .-...t
To what cause, then, is the failure to be
referred2 No man who knows what the
feelings of the Southern people were when
the war began, and who will reflect calmly,
aud without prejudice, will hesitate to as
cribe it to the policy which Mr.. Lincoln
aud his party have for the last two years
s1opted-con6scstion acts and emsucipa
zion proelama,ions, and the outrages per
petrated by some military men, unrebuked,
which have done us, and are doing US now,
great harm in the estimation of the civi .
lied world. Ii Mr.. Lincoln is reelected,