Year: 1863

we may place ourselves Wnere Lney VIII
feel us to be, as we know we are, their
equals, not their interiors. 1t is to cor
rect this idea that the Northern man,
with red blood, blue eyes, light hair, and
all that God gives to this image of him
SELF is not equal to the slave-driyers with
their thin lips and pallid brows--it is to
correct this idea, say, that we are en-
gagged in this momentous struggle. That
is the question before us; and he who
does not side with us on that question
says that he desires to kiss the feet of
those masters. Invent to Louisiana de-
string to do everything to restore it as it
was; to see if by any possibility | might
bring the principles, the laws and the in
stitutions which govern that State into
harmony with the Union; but found
there no disposition to have that done.
| found that the. aristocracy looked upon
us as their enemies; and found that the
working and middling classes looked up
on us as friends. Within the first month
$4,000 of those who. compose the bone
and sinew of New Orleans had taken the
oath of allegiance, not by lip service
only, but from their hearts; and from
that day l found no man owning slaves
who would take the oath of allegiance,
except for the purpose of saving his prop
some exceptions. found the working
men true to the Union. l dealt kindly
with the working men, and dealt harsh
ly with the Shareholders. Loud APP
plause.J recognized my friends and
my enemies, and / made as wide a DIFF
ference between the one and the other as
between Dives and Lazarus. Ap-
plause.


understand that you have sent forth
your sons and brothers, not for the pur-
pose of making peace, but war, wher-
ever they found enemies. / believe that
you sent your sons and brothers for the
purpose of insisting that the flag of the
United States should wave everywhere in
sympathy with the powers of the United
States; and upon that thesis | have act
ed. encouraged the laboring men. A
thousand were employed every day by
the United States; thirty-four thousand
were fed every day by the United States,
and over seventeen thousand of these
D
to represent them, but who did not re-
present them truly, because the Consuls
represent commerce and property, not
men. Thirty-four thousand, as l have
said, were fed every day, and precisely
the same action was taken toward men
who needed this assistance as would be
taken here. But those men had no
voice in the newspapers abroad or at
home, and the consequence was, their
thanks and their applause were never
heard, while the complaints of the prop
erty men, who felt that when they were
struck, slavery was struck, flowed all
over EuGepe and the North; and every
Misrepresentation that the malice of enc
mics and traitors could devise, was re-
sorted to in order to embarrass, and if
possible, defeat my plans. But there is
one thing 1 have right 20 say-and I
thank you, sir, for adverting to it-and
that is, that from the first week when
our soldiers entered New Orleans until |
left there, it was as safe, as quiet, and as
convenient to attend to ones business,
by day or by night, as ever it was in the
best governed cities of the North-even
our own. Loud applause


Now, my friends, have detained you
upon these topics quite too long
| have only come here to meet you and
hear from you those kind manifestations
which you have been pleased to bestow
upon me, and to return to you the heart
felt gratitude which l feel. assure you
that to your efforts, to the efforts of Mas
sachusetts, and to the ideas Of Massa-
chusetts and New England, the country
is indebted for that measure of safety
which has been secured; and for those
great efforts which are now being put
forth. Be not deceived Be not weary!
Remember this: that while we feel this
war is hard for US, it is the effort of des-
peration for them. have seen the con-
script laws of the South taking the boy of
sixteen and the old man of sixty-the
schoolmaster not excepted-and force
them into the ranks. While it costs us
effort, it costs them desperation. While
it costs us labor, it costs them life-blood.
l wish that they might be won back
without this; but so they have not cho-
sen. As long as life lasts, as long as any
power remains, we must stand by the
Union, one and undivisible. Applause ]
Every traitor, every man, every stream,
every lake, every river, every mountain
that ever belonged to the flag of the Uni
flag of the United States, cost what it
will, cost what it may. Enthusiastic
applause


If, as you Aatteringly observed, shall
go back to another field of duty, l shall
90 back with the determination never to
give up, never to compromise, renewed
applause never to have anything but
that flag of ours as the symbol of our ma
tionality. Whoever differs from that,
let him go south of Mason and Dixons
line-he has no business here. APP
plause.7 We may have no means of
dealing with him here, but there are
plenty at the South who will receive him
with open arms, for the reason that he is
their friend, not the friend of the coun-
try. Who proposes to give up the tomb
of Washington? Who Yorktown? Who
the honors won by Jackson at New Or
leans? Who proposes to have anything
less than that which belongs to us? Who
proposes to give up our fair claim to
Mexico, if it comes to that? No one
proposes to give up the rights of this
Union. But let me epeat-because l
hear that there are some who falter-