The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1864-09-16
Speech Of Jas. S. Thayer, of New York,
Delivered Before the Chicago CoDven-

delivered Before the Chicago CoDven'
ton. ~ '..-.
After speech from ex-senator Allen
of Ohio, which we lay before our readers,
the President of the Convention intro
duced Mr.. Thaysr, of New York, who had
been an intimate personal friend of the
great deceased statesman, Henry Clay:
TIE PRESIDENT: We have heard from
a distinguished friend of Andrew Jack.
son; you will now listen to the words of
one who was the fast friend of Henry
Clay during his life time; and if he had
lived till now, God knows he would have
been with US.
;. Mr.. JAMES e. THAYER, of New York :
It may be considered inappropriate by
some for member of this Convention to
rise at such an hour as this to make a
speech, but as | have said nothing since |
nave been here, | beg the Convention will
excuse me for occupying small portion
of its tine. l know that this is not
place for.words, but that it is the grand
est stage of human action of our day and
generation, and for the future of our coun-
try. 1t will be marked, in my judgment,
as a great event in history, that the Dem
ocratic party assembled in solemn council
in 1861 Three years. and half of civil
war, that has destroyed many things and
changed almost everything, leaves to-day
the Democratic party indestructible and
unchanged. Amid all the rude shocks of
the conflict, with some alteration of its
own, you can still mark tho grand curve
of its orbit, and the promise that it will
circle round to the fulfllment of its high
est, grandest destiny-the reconstruction
of the Union, and the re- establishment of
the Constitution. (Applause) And this,
while all other parties, factions and organi-
cations, after long revelry in the guilty
glory of this war, self-destructive, are
about to expire in the very chaos and ru-
in they have produced. / say, then, that
to-day the Democratic party, with its i'm
posing and august presence and aspect.
sends forth its heralds for the campaign
Of 1864, with Washington as its sacred
Mentor, aud Mcclellan as the living lead
er. (Tumultuous applause.)
Aud now, let me call the roll of the
States, and ask you, as you come from the
North and the East, what will you do p
What answer does New Hampshire, Maine
and Vermont make from beneath their
mountain homes aud old Massachusetts,
from the sweet swelling mound of Bunker
Hill; what say you? And Connecticut,
from the shallow Of your Charter Oak,
what is your response? CA voice: "The
Constitution and the Union.') The
Union, the Constitution is your answer !
New York, with her empire voice, re-
spends to them and tells you here to-day,
that on your platform and with your prin-
ciples we will reconstruct our Government,
and again restore to this land peace, pros
perity and happiness to all. (Great ap-
plause.)
And now let me say one word here,
and it is this: we want in this contest
brave men. We have platform we
have a candidate; and now will We not
come up, ye men who hold the confidence
of the Democracy of this country, over
the North, in the central States, and over
the West. We want, say, brave and
intrepid men, because no man knows what
is in the future. Yea, do you not see,
that while this convention has been in
session they are seeking to strip your
Western States of their sovereign robes of
power, aud twist it into bows string to
cast you into this Bosphorus of wild and
mad rage and enthusiasm. (Voices-
"They cannot do it.") | do not believe
they can do it, but let the men stand forth
men, who will accept the present and
all the future issues Of this contest in all
the grandeur, if need be, of accepted
death. (Applause) Men like Mrabeau
in the French revolution, who, when the
populace cried, "Grand treason of Count
Mrabeau," and their voice rose to the cry
when he marched to the tribune, and his
friends whispered of danger, said, 81 know
it, and come from it with victory, or TO
be torn in fragments" applause. y
He came, as all men will come " hen they
rise to that sublime altitude in public af-
fairs where they strike the stars, and point
with their sovereign fugers the path in
which the people will follow them. That
is what we want, and you will have
Union, and you will have peace with
Union; that is the voice of New York.
Who, in reviewing the last three years
aud half, has not often despaired of the
Union and of the Constitution and of
peace? How often have we thought that
the storm of revolution would not abate +;
that no subsiding wave would reveal the
mountain top, aud that the dove of peace
would fold at last her tired, baffied wing,
and slnk to cold, wild, ocean grave
But here, under auspices of the Demo
cratic party, announcing that they are for
the Union, they give you the promise OF
peace, under those auspices When the
windows are opened the white winged
messenger will come back, with the leaf
pIucked, the olive leaf, in her mouth =
iApplause.) Wait a little longer, and
when she goes forth ag'in she will not