I congratulate both you and John on the step he has taken in the church. It has given all his friends, I am sure, true pleasure. It is one of the most beautiful and impressive rites in the history of fallen man. It has made many better-not one worse. Give much love to John, Charles, and the boys, and your mother, if still there. Your affectionate father, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO THE UNION STATE COMMITTEE OF DELAWARE. [At a late period in the canvass Mr. Dickinson visited Delaware, and spoke at the capital and several of the principal towns.] No. 60 WALL STREET, NEW YORK, June 5, 1863. GENTLEMEN-Your exceedingly kind note, inviting me, in behalf of the Union State Committee of Delaware, to address the citizens of that State at their capital on the 9th instant, was duly received. I have also been honored by notes from Mr. Harrington, the Adjutant-General of your State, in behalf of his excellency Governor Cannon and of himself, in terms so flattering and urgent, that I have never more desired to accept an invitation than this one, and have delayed an answer to this moment in the hope that I might so adjust my business here as to be with you upon an occasion so full of interest. But after every possible effort, I shall find it inconsistent with other imperative relations to be absent from this city at that time, and am therefore forced to the declaration that I cannot go. I have in no sense relaxed the efforts I have been making, nor abated the zeal I have manifested in the holy cause of the Union from the first overt act of the conspiracy against its integrity; but every day and every hour, as time advances, confirm and strengthen my faith. Time "nerves my heart," and, were I a soldier, would “ steel my sword" to increased perseverance and renewed activity in crushing the corrupt conspiracy and dastardly rebellion by force of arms; for that is the most effectual disposition which can be made of them. I regard this as the world's struggle between free popular government and despotism. It is so viewed by the tyrannies and aristocracies of earth, and hence, with all their pretended horror of domestic slavery, we see them sympathizing with a rebellion, proposing to rest for its perpetual foundations upon the groans of African servitude. That those who have been fattening like vampires upon the life-blood of their fellow-beings; who are bloated and intoxicated with privilege, and who live riotously upon earnings of the laborer whose children are starving for bread, should desire to see a government of freedom and equality overthrown, is not surprising. But that rational beings in the new hemisphere, and in the loyal States too, can add their sympathy and succor to a cause which "defies God and tramples on man," is a problem in its moral, social, and political relations which I know not how to solve. The Rajah of Mysore, being afflicted with a carbuncle of threatening character, in the indulgence of a heathen bloody superstition, caused an infant of tender age to be slain nightly, and bound over it, in the expectation that it would be healed. The gorged and grasping and plundering votaries of the dominion of man over his fellow-man in the Old World, by a vicious organization, slaughter hecatombs of children daily, not to cure, but to perpetuate the huge political excrescence which disfigures their political and social system; and not contented with this enormity at home, seek to transfer it to our own favored land by the dissolution of our Union, and the destruction of our government. In the great day of accounts, when the hearts of all men are laid open to view, the swarthy Pagan with his hideous divinities, his obscene orgies, disgusting mummeries, and bloody sacrifices, will be esteemed an honester man in the sight of God than he of the Old World or the New, who, born in a Christian land, baptized in the name of the Trinity, reared in the light of gospel truth, yet seeks to place the heel of despotism upon the neck of unborn generations. In a struggle so momentous I heartily reject and trample on all sickly sentimentality, all puling propositions of peace, all the frothy declamation and flimsy sophisms of canting hypocrites and ranting demagogues, small and great, over their parrot phrases "free press" and "free speech," and the buga-boo cry of abolitionism, and shall follow but one paramount idea. It is this: The government is assailed by armed rebellion; one must prevail and the other go down! So long as this conflict continues, I shall be found on the side of the government, supporting any administration which is in good faith endeavoring to suppress it, and this too, whether its efforts are exerted in resisting the approach of rebel arms, hanging spies and traitors, sinking pirate ships, confiscating the property of rebels, liberating their slaves, enforcing conscription or raising colored troops; and I would also sustain it in snuffing out rebel journals and imprisoning spouting treason-mongers whenever necessary, and when the influence they exert is worthy of notice, which I admit is not often the case. But the power is abundant and I would leave its exercise to those charged with a duty so important, delicate and responsible, hinting to them the admonition, however, not to help dwarfed and obscure demagogues into a notoriety which they court, but cannot attain unaided. The great question now is, the existence of the government, the protection of the Union against conspiracy, rebellion, and treason, at any cost of blood or treasure, and by any and every means known to or justifie 1 by the rules of war, or practised by Christian civilization. This is the grand and absorbing issue, and let us not be diverted or driven from it by armed conspirators on rebellious territory, or their unarmed and less manly abettors, apologists, and sympathizers in the loyal States, who keep one foot in rebellion and the other out, ready to jump on to success on either side; nor listen to the copperhead, "charm he never so wisely; " bat pursue the good work until it is fully, completely, and successfully accomplished. When this conspiracy is crushed and the government vindicated, I care not how widely this new-fledged, pin-feathered philanthropy, yearning over treason and murder and traitors, expands itself. When rebellion lays down its arms, we shall have a real, an honorable, and enduring peace. But until the supremacy of the constitution and the laws is fully acknowl edged, all the hosannas sung to peace by the sweet singers of sympathy with rebellion will prove illusory, even though in the amended if not improved language of the poet, "The steer and lion at one crib shall meet, We can crush the rebellion in spite of rebel arms, British sympathy and material aid, or the machinations of tad-pole politicians at home. But all that gives hope to rebellion, as these aids and comforts do, encourages it to postpone its day of yielding to the authority of government, and to stagger on a little further, to see what may come to its assistance; it protracts the war, and swells the sacrifice of life, already fearfully alarming. It would hasten peace, if treason-apologizing journals could cease their advocacy of the rebel cause for the present, and indemnify themselves for their abstinence after the war is over, by depreciating the government, by eulogies upon rebellion and slavery, to their hearts' content; if gasconading orators could teem with eloquent invective a few months longer, when their delivery would be harmless, when they could howl like the dervishes of Syria against the government of their fathers, and indulge all the "freedom of speech" enjoyed and practised by their "illustrious predecessors " in the days of Balaam the prophet. The duty of all loyal men is plain and practical. Their success, with integrity of purpose and perseverance, is certain. Let the preservation of the Union and the constitution be the pillar and the cloud to mark the pathway until rebellion is dead and buried at the cross-roads, with its face downwards, as the ancients disposed of felons, and all other considerations be made entirely secondary and left to take their chances, and the sun of peace will speedily shine over us with healing in his wings. Be pleased to remember me kindly to the gentlemen who have so generously desired my attendance and expressed their wishes in terms so complimentary, and believe me to be Sincerely yours D. S. DICKINSON. MR. BELL TO MR. DICKINSON. 125 FIFTH AVENUE, June 8, 1863. MY DEAR SIR-I read your Chenango County Address with as much of surprise as of pleasure and of interest-surprise, that I should find you the author of such a production, so variant from what the world has been taught to regard you or to expect from you. Since our interesting (at least to me) ride on the Hudson River cars to Albany, I could the more readily understand and believe your interest in it. As a purely literary and elegant composition, and I may say, I trust, without your thinking that I speak merely for compliment, that I read it with delight, and that it deserves, as it one day will receive, a much wider circulation than among your immediate personal friends. As you said, I had (I have no doubt in common with most of those who did not intimately know you) been taught to regard you purely as a politician and statesman, and had no idea of your culture of belles-lettres or the arts, much less of the sentiments and the affections. But life is too short, after all, to give away, for all that power or fame can give, the nobler, if they are the softer and better, qualities that cling to and cluster around the heart, and I love you only the more, my dear Mr. Dickinson, for what you were kind enough to tell me of your past, and what might be called by some a weakness, but which I prize highest as the noblest and best of your qualities. I feel very happy that I have met you. You have won me, and had long ago before I saw you, by the noble stand you took for the Union at the outset of the present struggle. I shall not fail to stand by you and support you in my weak way in the great work that is approaching, and I hope always to call you my friend. Yours ever faithfully, CLARK BELL. MR. BIDWELL TO MR. DICKINSON. NEW YORK, July 3, 1863. MY DEAR SIR-Please to accept my thanks for the photograph which, in compliance with my request, you have had the kindness to send to me. Already it adorns my book, where it will remain and be carefully preserved by my family, as I am |