Year: 1863

Reported Phonographically by J. d. Pulsifer.


Mr.. Chairman-For the cordial and flatter-
ing terms in which, in behalf of my old friends
and fellow citizens, you have extended this
kind welcome to me, accept for yourself. and
these fair ladies and loyal and brave men of
the Forest City, my most hearty acknowledge
ments. accept the more readily, and ap-
preciate this welcome the more highly, because
know that its cordiality springs, not from
any thing which is personal to myself but is
the mere effusion of your generous sympathy
for those who, in whatever lands, are exerting
themselves to maintain the honor of the FLAG.
and the integrity of our Union know that
that welcome would have been as earnest, and
as cordial towards the humbest soldier in the
ranks of our victorious army. But | know
that you have extended this welcome to me.
that may bear back to them this evidence
of your kind appreciation of their labors, and
their sacrifices will carry it back to them,
and l will tell them, those who have gone there
to meet the foe, that here at home their labors
| and tbeir sacrifices are appreciated: will tell
them that they have here at home loyal
| people; will tell them that if the fortunes of
| war shall call upon them to pour out their
blood and to lay down their lives in the glori-
Gus cause in which they are enlisted, here are
thousands and tens of thousands to fill up the
decimated ranks and push on this work to
victory. tApplause.)


| Ireceive this greeting now the more joyfully.
at this auspicious period in this great contest
in which We are engaged, now when the brave
and gallant soldiers from the Northwest, coming
| from the sources of the Mississippi, have met
| and shaken hands with those no less gallant
soldiers of the Northeast, coming up the Mis-
| sissippi; have Joined hands and formed circle
embracing the rebellion; that circle which
shall be drawn tighter and tighter around the
s.ft Il
| rebel shall be subdued or expelled from the
| soil.


When, my fellow citizens, ii was last my for
| tune TO stand before you, on the spot where
| now stand, said believed that in the one
| great question of the preservation and perpe-
tuity of this government, all other political
| questions were to be merged. said then, and
| say II now, that during this contest. and so
| long as this civil war continued, !, / would know
no party, no politics, no cause but the cause of
my country. and the Union. (Applause.)
come here now In response to your gener-
Gus invitation, not to take part In any mere
| partizan or local contest, not to discuss any
mere partizan or local question. But don't
fear to discuss these. / have no reluc-
tance to say here or any where, what my opin-
| ions and my convictions of duty are, The last
| political act which II was my duty and my
pleasure to perform before left this beautiful
city to enter on my new and untried duties,
| was to cast my vote for one who was then
gloriously and gallaniiy fighting the battles of
his country. the gallant and lamented JAMESON,
whose voice was so often heard amid the din
of battle, as he cheered his gallant regiment,
and afterwards led his gallant brigade to vic
tory; whose clarion voice is now hushed in
the silence of death which he met in the cause
of his country. And he would have given up
not only that life. but hundred lives. If he
had had them to give, as cheerfully as he laid
that down in the glorious cause.


voted for him upon platform which is as
good now as II was then, as true and as loyal
as ii was on the day when it was enunciated
If you viii pardon me the slight alusion to
the past, ! will read you those eloquent and
loyal words. They are no words OF mine. but
they are words that adopt. They are words
that adopted them they are words TO which
l adhere now. l read the resolution:


/ Resoired That the best tribute we can nay to the
memory of our late distinguished standard bearer,
that deeply lamented, true patriot and statesman
Stephen A. Douglas to follow the counsels he gave
us as hs last legacy, and stand by and efend the
constitution and flag OF country, believing with
paramount 10 oil other political questions dad that
there can be bur FRO sides to this coHtrorersy Ere-
~ man must be The side Of the United States or
against IL. There ran BE- nestrais ia fhis car
There can be none buf patriots and traitors.


There can be no neutrality. There can be
none but patriots or traitors. These were
words of truth, words of patriotism They
are true now, as they were true then, and they
are as worthy as rule of action and a guide
of our conduct now, as they were when they
were thus enunciated. II, therefore, fellow
citizens, now as then, question should arise
with regard to my duty TO my country and my
government, would act upon that question
with an eye single to this principle; that the
perpetuity and the preservation of the govern
ment Is paramount to all other political
questions. l would care not by what party
name a man might choose to call HIMSELF; l
would care not to what party organization he
belonged. l would look solely TO this one test
question which was then made. and would
see what man was most earnest in the labor of
suppressing this rebellion and preserving this
glorious Union: for him and with him would
act and work until this labor of preserving the
Union was accomplished.


With this slight alluson to what is local and
partizan, dismiss this part of my subject.


Two great questions, fellow-citizens. present
themselves now to the mind of every reflect
ing American citizen. They are so al-absorb-
ing, they are so all-important, that they leave
US neither time nor thought for the considera-
tion of any other. They are simply these:


Can this wicked rebellion be suppressed?


And after this armed rebellion is put down.
if put down it shall be, can this once glorious
Union be restored?


lHest are tile questions OF the daN. these
are the issues of the hour. and all else is trivi-
al, and unimportant, and unworthy of the
thought or consideration of a man. Until
these are disposed of. there is no question of
politics, there is no question Of property, there
is no question of health or life itself to which
these two great questions are not paramount.


Can this rebellion be suppressed? What is
now its condition? Let us glance for mo-
ment over the map of our country, and look
at that portion of 1t which at the outset was
given over to the hordes of the rebellion.
First, let us glance at those border States
whose position is so important and where the
sacrifices of the Union men and of the patri-
OTIS have been SO enobling and so enormous


Maryland. upon whose soil was shed the first
blood of the sons Of New England who had
gone out to shed their blood for their country.
once dsloyal, is now placed beyond the shad-
ow of a doubt. Nay, more; from indications
it is prophecied that it will come out of this
contest not only loyal, but with settlement
of the issues involved in this contest such as
shall render ii certain there will never again
be any question as to which side it will take in
this great cause.


There is Virginia, dismembered shorn of its
fair proportions, with one-third loyal and two
thirds in a condition that, when it ceases to be
the battlefield, will cause 1t to fall into our
hands an easy prey, and be in the same eondi-
tion as to its future political state as Maryland
Missouri, which has already taken its rank
among the Free States of the Union and Ken
lucky, always loyal in the main. but now doub-
ly so since it has expelled all the friends of the
rebellion from the land and loft IL aplv n