Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-10-31
VOLUME XXXIII

| OF lts future citizens, by the Establishment q
the institution in which l am now address
ing you. ! could then hardly expect to live
10 address you here at this time, but GOD has
been pleased to prolong my years beyond the
three-score and ten allotted to man, and to
enable me TO carry out at this time the views
then entertained with regard to the opera
tons and benefits Of this institution.
With the details OF the scheme and organ
ization Of the Institute | DO not propose TO
interfere. / am fully confident that | leave
them in the hands OF those who are devoted
earnestly, and even enthusiastically, TO de-
yising and carry ing out such plans as will,
for all coming time, work for the highest
| good and culture Of those for whom its bene-
| Gts were intended.
But am sure you will pardon me, my
| fellow-citizens, if on one point to which
| Governor SWAMI has eloquently alluded
! the spirit of harmony in which all should be
carried out-I speak few words, coming, as
| theydo from the very depths Of my heart,
and appealing to you, you, the people Of Bal
timOre, with whom rests the success or fall
ure Of this Institute.
For as years advance and what were fore
bodings for the future have become merged
in the history Of the past, the earnest desire
for unity and brotherly feelings which l
cherished and expressed ten years ago in the
terms Just referred TO by the Governor Of
Maryland has become deeper and more in
tense.
1t ismy hope and prayer that this Insti-
tute may not only have and fulfill mission
in the fields of science, of art and of knowl-
edge, but also one to the hearts of men,
teaching always lessons of peace and good
will, and especially that nowi it may, in some
humble degree, be instrumental in healing
the wounds of our beloved and common
country, and establishing again happy and
harmonious Union, the only Union that can
be preserved for coming ages, and the only
one that is north preserving. And here l
may well refer to a subject which, though Of
personal nature, still has Its bearings on
what have said.
| have been told several times that have
been accused Of want Of devotion TO the
Union, and | take this occasion to place
myself right, for / have not a word Of apollo
gy, not a word Of retraction to utter.
Fellow-citizens, the Union of the States Of
America was one Of the earliest objects of
my childhoods reverence. For the indie
pendence Of our country my father bore arms
in some Of the darkest days Of the revolution,
and from him and from his example, l
learned to love and honor that Union.
Later in life / learned more fully Its ines
Unable worth, perhaps more fully than
most have done, for born and educated in
the North then living for nearly twenty
years at the South, and thus learning IN the
best school the character and life of her peo-
pie, finally in the course Of long residence
abroad, being thrown in intimate contact
with individuals of every section Of our
glorious land, / came, as do most Americans
who live long in foreign lands, TO love our
country rs a whole, to know and take pride
in all her sons as equally countrymen-to
know no North no South, no East, no West.
And so | wish publicly to aYow that during
the terrible contest through which our ma
tion has passed my sympathies were still and
always with the Union, that my uniform
course tended to assist but never to injure,
the credit Of the Government Of the Union,
and at the close Of the war three-fourths of
all the property / possessed had been in
vested in United States Government and
State securities, and remain so at this time.
But none the less could fail to feel chart
ty for the South; to remember that political
opinion is far more matter of birth and
education than of calm and unbiased reason
anu SUbNl lilbuElAAs AAh1h gou aiAN - ~
friends. had we been born at the South, born
to the feelings, beliefs and perhaps prejudi
ces Of Southern men, might have taken the
same course which was adopted by the South,
and have cast in our lot with those who
fought, as all must admit, SO bravely for
what they believed to be their rights. Ne
yer, therefore, during the war or since, have
/ permitted the contest or any passions en-
gendered by il, to interfere with the social
relations and warm friendships which l had
formed for very large number of the peo-
pie of the South. blamed and shall always
blame, the instigators Of the strife and SOW
ers Of dissension, both at the North and at
the South. believed, and do still believe,
that bloodshcd might have been avoided by
mutual Cancellation. But after the great
struggle had actually commenced | could
see no hope for the glorious future of Ameri-
ca, save in the success Of the armies Of the
Union, and in reviewing my whole course,
there is nothing which ! sould change If
would, nor which l would change if could.
And now, after the lapse Of these eventful
years, am more deeply, more earnestly,
more painfully convinced than ever, Of our
need of mutual forbearance ard Cancellation,
Of Christian charity and forgiveness, of uni
ted effort to bind up the fresh and broken
wounds of our nation.
Toyou, therefore, citizens of Baltimoreand
Of Maryland, l make my appeal, probably
the last shall ever have to make to you.
| May not this Institute be a common ground,
ces and animosities; forgetting past separa-
/ tons and arrangements; weaving the bonds
where all may meet, burying former difieren
/ Of new attachments to the city, to the State
| and TO the nation. May not Baltimore, her
name already honored in history as the birth
place of religious liberation in America, now
crown her past fame by becoming the day
star Of political tolerance and charity, and
will not Maryland, in place Of a battle
ground for opposing parties, become the
! field where milder counsels and calm delibe-
ratious may prevail; where good men Of all
sections may meet to devise and execute the
wisest plans for repairing the ravages of war,
and for making the future of our country
alike common, prosperous and glorious, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from our
| Nortberf IN orr Soufhprn boundary