can be done incidentally to the prosecution of the war, and Conservatives to see that the work stands when it is once well done; Radicals for making thorough work of rebellion in all its shades and variations, in all its elements at home and abroad, and Conservatives for preserving the fruits of such efforts when the good shall be accomplished; in short, Radicals to dig up, cut out, and exterminate every evil which threatens our existence, and Conservatives to guard against their return to vex us hereafter.

Great Britain and France have been anxious for the success of rebellion from the beginning. Of France we had little to expect, and from it little to care for. Its despot has no landmarks but his own ambition, and must have some foreign conflict to amuse his nation to keep his own head securely upon his shoulders. He will be friendly when it suits his own selfish purposes, and hostile when it will advance his interests; and these considerations will govern and dictate his policy, and we should keep an eye on him accordingly and be prepared for his smiles or his frowns, as the caprices of fortune bring him lights or shadows. But Great Britain stands to us in a very different relation. Of the same great family; with a common language and religion; with interchanging commercial interests, interwoven with every fibre in the framework of both nations; engaged in the same benign mission of humanity, of advancing peace on earth and good-will toward men; we believed, and were authorized to believe, that when this Union was threatened with destruction by conspiracy and rebellion, and the peace of the world menaced and disturbed, if we did not command her sympathy she would at least refrain from extending assistance and recognition to the cowardly revolt. But the rebellion was inaugurated, and she forthwith issued a hypocritical proclamation of perfect neutrality between both governments! A government of more than 30,000,000 of people, one of the acknowledged great powers of the earth, illuminating one of the proudest pages in the world's history, and full of glowing traditions, was degraded to the same level with the thievish mob of a day! Both governments were declared to be belligerent equals in the friendly and impartial eye of innocent neutral Great Britain, and to be treated with equal consideration and respect. She knew that the rebellion was no more entitled to be regarded as a government than

a bread riot in the city of London; that it was no more a government than the provisional government of John Brown, or than the Forty Thieves in the renowned juvenile history of Cassim and Alibaba. She knew the conspiracy was plotted in perjury; that the arms and munitions it employed were the fruits of theft; that its every movement was felonious; and yet it was, in her friendly neutral eye, a government—a belligerent equal! Suppose the tables had been turned: that a section of the English people upon the "fast anchored island" had risen against the British government; that those entrusted with the finances, the arms, munitions, forts, and navy-yards of the district had stolen the property and employed it against the authority of the nation, and called itself a provisional government, and the President of the United States had hastened to issue a proclamation of perfect neutrality between both governments!-the British government and the conspirators preparing for Botany Bay-how would Palmerston have fumed and Russell spouted, and Gladstone exclaimed, and Disraeli spluttered! and last and least how Gregory and Lindsay, who were imported here for a season for the benefit of rebellion, would have bellowed like the Devonshires and Durbams who cross the water for a better purpose. We may as well give this domineering government and her insolent aristocracy to understand that the fires of '76 and 1812 are yet burning as bright as ever; and that after wringing the neck of rebellion, and bruising the Copperhead of its aids and abettors at home, we have more spirit to resist her insolence and interference than ever; a much larger army and navy to spare for her especial accommodation than we heretofore found necessary for her chastisement; that we court peace, but can be provoked to war, and that she will rue the day when she again rouses the people of the United States to meet her in arms.

This war against the rebellion should be brief and effectual. We have all the elements for success, and should hurl them upon it in a single blow. We want no generals who would conquer peace first and rebellion afterward, but those who in conquering rebellion would conquer peace. We want a united people to encourage and stay up the hand of the administration, and cheer it onward. Our fair country women already, in the spirit of Jephtha's daughter, are ready to offer their lives for

their bleeding country, and man, stern man, should meet the emergency without faltering. The failure of expeditions, temporary repulses and partial reverses are among the casualties of war. Vicksburg is on its winding way, Richmond is trembling under the menace of the gallant Hooker, and Charleston, though not taken, is doomed. As was to have been expected in the late assault, they got the "devil," an old and intimate acquaintance, into their hands; but as they are to be in his hands hereafter forever, he can well afford to remain with them, disreputable as is the association, for a brief season. Let all be of good cheer, close up the ranks, and press on the column, and our dear land will be rescued from the machinations of conspirators in council and rebellion in arms.

I close by a poem appropriate to the occasion, written by Alfred B. Street, of Albany. It will be warbled in song when the rebellion is forgotten. He whose heartstrings do not vibrate responsive to its sentiments is "fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils : "

"Our Union, the gift of our fathers,

In wrath wars the tempest above!
The darker and nearer our danger,
The warmer and closer our love.
Though bleeding, it never shall perish;
It bends, but not sinks to the blast;
Foes rush on in fury to rend it,

But we will be true to the last.

Our Union, ordained of Jehovah,
Man sets not the fiat aside!
As well cleave the welkin asunder
As the one mighty system divide.
The grand Mississippi sounds ever,
From pine down to palm, the decree;
The spindle, the corn, and the cotton,
One pæan shout, Union, to thee!

Our Union, the lightning of battle

First kindled the flame of its shrine !
The blood and the tears of our people,
Have made it forever divine.

In battle we then will defend it!

Will fight till the triumph is won!
Till the States form the realm of the Union

As the sky forms the realm of the sun."

SPEECH

DELIVERED AT A GREAT WAR MEETING, HELD IN THE CAPITOL PARK, AT ALBANY, N. Y., May 20, 1863.

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS-That a rebellion is upon us which threatens the very existence of this Union, is denied by none; that it is one of such formidable proportions as cannot be handled by political parties, should, I think, be admitted by all; that this war was commenced in a corrupt and perjured conspiracy-a murderous, thieving rebellion, will not be denied; that it is intended to overthrow this government, no rational man can doubt; and it becomes us, as a people, as a whole and united people, without regard to distinctions of caste or party, to come forward, if the government is worth preserving, and preserve it. This rebellion is as wicked and alarming as its origin was causeless, and no one but a traitor to our government can be found its defender or apologist; and it will be enough to look after politics, to pack conventions and make nominations for office, when we find we have a country to govern. For myself, I go with those in this great crisis who sustain the government. I started out in the direction of putting down and overthrowing this rebellion, and shall govern my movements with the view of accomplishing the desired result. If I wished to go to New York, I would take the route and conveyance that would carry me there, and not one that would take me to Canada. I do not ask who my associates are, or whence they come. What they were yesterday is very little concern to me. I would prefer to go with my old personal and political friends, if they go in my direction, and such of them as go for putting down this rebellion will have my company; those who do not go for this, will not, as I go with those who strike the surest and strongest blows to put down the rebellion with the whole power of the government, and enforce unconditional

submission at the earliest moment. My convictions on these questions are these (not that I love party less, but that I love country more): if Democrats will not go with me, I will go with Republicans; if Republicans won't go with me, I will go with Abolitionists, and if Abolitionists nor white men of any class won't go with me, then I will go with black men; and if that is treason to party or country, make the most of it, and those who cavil can put it in their pipes and smoke it. I hold this great government and its blessed institutions at far higher price than all political parties; and, so help me God, I will never slumber nor sleep until I see the last rebel leader subdued and punished, and the masses in rebellion return to their allegiance and duty.

In efforts to maintain this government of our fathers in its integrity, to perpetuate the blessings of freedom to coming generations, and to preserve humanity's only hope, the Union, we have expended hundreds of millions of treasure and offered up hundreds of thousands of our sons on the bloody field of battle; and yet the contest rages in all its fierceness, and rebellion is still striving to fasten its fangs in the throat of the nation. Government must resist or yield the control. The question is one of easy and simple solution. The rebel leaders have repelled, with ineffable scorn, every suggestion of arrangement short of a divided Union; and whoever joins in the cry of stopping the war and restoring the Union before the rebel arms are laid down, is either a traitor or a fool, and should be judged accordingly. It cannot be restored in any other way than by force of arms. It is our duty now to rally around the old flag and our armies in the field who have so bravely sustained it. The question has been and is, whether the government shall exist, and not how it shall be administered. It is above and beyond political parties in their influences for good. It concerns all the people and all parties alike who desire to preserve the government and maintain free institutions; and the attempt to raise the cry of partisan strife is no more nor less than to give life and aid to the rebellion and embarrass the administration in the prosecution of the war.

Some, who "have been everything by turns and nothing long," cry out as loudly in the honored name of Democracy as though they had been commissioned to administer its dispensa