Year: 1863

another respecting indemnifying for aoffenses


which officials might commit against the


rights and liberties of the Americans people.
i They also passed the Conscription Act, If 1


may be allowed to call it such. daughter


ana applause. At that timein conversation


with political friends, and opponents too-for


have had no secrets since entered upon the
discharge of my .duties-I have had no views
in regard to public affairs which I have not


willingly expressed freely to ALL have had
ne correspondence which / have not submitted
most cheerfully to the, examination of the


post-ofice authorities-I then expressed the
j opinion that when this measure of conscrip-
i tion was put into operation, an act which ig-
nores the power of the States and trenches
upon constitutional rights, in my Judgment,
which is inconsistent with the genius of the


American people, then ventured the opin-


ion which I now express to yeu, that the ulti-
mate result of that experiment. would be not
| the destruction of the rights. of the States,


not an undue Increase of the power of the


General Government, but that when they put
1 it in operation they would find themselves
weakened and baf1ed, simply because they had
undertaken to do that which was inconsistent
with the nature of cur government. What is
| the result One year ago-I think it was


within few days of that time that you and |


and others met In this room-the people had
voluntarily given half million of men to the
national army they poured forth their, treas


ure without stint all over our land, in every


school district and township, and countrymen
/ went forth to swell the national forces. Why?
Because they were forcibly compelled2 No.
but because they were sent by the popular


will expressing itself in every minor locality


throughout the land At that moment our


government was armed with military power
| unequalled in the history of the world. For


getting the source of that power, and that


with all that military strength their surest re.
| lance must beson the popular will, they en-
| tered upon line of policy which we deemed
inconsistent with public rights and opposed to
public sentiment. We took issue with them
when we vent out before the people, and COM


bated them in the very hour of their strength,


when they had the largest military army to be


found on the face of the globe, and we beat


them. Then In. those acts which we deemed


inconsistent with the rights of the States and


the rights of persons, and which they sup


posed were acts calculated to strengthen their


power and diminish the power of localities


they found their own defeat and discontinue
They passed the Conscript Act They set
aside that system which had heretofore pre-
vailed, of filling our armies by the voluntary
enlistment of men from different States and
different sections of States, and undertook to-
say they would fill their armies by coercion.-i
" hat is the result TO- day !? This State, that
voluntarily one year ago gave 120 900 men to-
fill the armies of the Union-the State of
New York which, beyond any other spot in
the Union, was distinguished for its contribu
tions of men and money-what do we see in
that State to-day !? Men goirg cheerfully and
voluntarily forth 70 sustain the flag that floats /
around us here? No, but that very govern
ment whose request was enough to summon
hosts to the field, fnds itself compelled to put
forth its utmost power to drag few unwilling
men from their homes. Is this strength or is
it weakness Is it success or failure7 Let
us go aslittlc further. We are told that it was
impossible any longer to fill our armies by the
system of volunteering,s and yet during the
very time that that system has been destroyed |
by the operation of the Conscr:ption law, the
State of New York, since the first of January
last, according to the reports of the paymaster-
general, has raised more than $4,000 men
more tEan will ever be taken out of the-State 1
by that very Consumption law. I do not say
but number of men may be carried into the
army by the system of substitution, but that
is volunteering, and I venture to say that out
of the whole draft made upon this great State,
under the existing Gonseription law, there will
never be even six thousand who will go be-
cause they were drafted.


As Isaid before, I am full of hope for the
future, because believe that any attempt that
may be made by the General Government to
pass beyond its legitimate bounds, so far from
endapgering the rights of the States, simply
endanger the power and the dignity of the
Government itself, and they will be taught by
experience what our fathers attempted to teach
them by admonition, that the strength, ,eperpe-
tuity and glory of the government must be
based upon the hearts of the people, and can
not be upheld by physical force. Believing.
then, as do, that unconstitutional legislation
would be found not to strengthen, but to wea-
ken the government, and that the doctrine of
Capitalization will be found hereafter to be i'm


possible, and the men who favor it will be
forced back by experience to the teachings of
our fathers, I am confident that our glorious
Union and the rights of the States are TO be
preserved, for feel confident that our polite
al opponents will find themselves driven back
upon this subject, as upon many others, to our
position, from the force of necessity. be-
lieve as I do in my own existence that, before
two months have passed away, their own expe
rience in government, and the utter failure of
the theory that to mako government strong
you must vest it with power which it cannot
wisely and safely exercise, will be renounced
by all parties of men, and out of this sad war
we shall have the satisfaction of plucking some
great and vital truths that will give new
strength and vigor to our government, when
all classes of men have been taught by the
lessons of sad experience that there is but one
way to maintain the power and glory of our
government, and that is an adherence to con-
stitutional law that there is but one way to
preserve the union of these States, which is by
upholding the rights of all the Stetes, and Civ
ing them those privileges our fathers designed
they should have, that there is but one way
to secure the durability and perpetuity of the
government, and that is by adhering to.the
system which makes the rights of every man,
and preserves as sacred the rights of every
household. (Great applause.)


Let me say one. or two words more in regard
to the Conscription act Many charges have
been made against nae whiichil have never no
ticed, but perhaps owe it to you, who have
sustained me SO far, and have passed by SO