preface the toasts prepared for the occasion, by a few introductory
remarks. This day has been set apart by the President of the United
States for thanksgiving to Almighty God for all the blessings which he
has vouchsafed to us as a people. Among these are abundant crops, great
prosperity in all our industrial pursuits, and a vast addition, even
during the war, to our material wealth. Our finances have been conducted
with great ability and success by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.
Chase, who has also succeeded in giving us, for the first time in our
history, a uniform national currency, which, as a bond of union, and as
an addition to our wealth and resources, is nearly equal to all the
expenses of the great contest. During the present year, nearly
400,000,000 of dollars of the six per cent. stock of the United States
has been taken at home, at or above par; whilst, within the last few
months, European capitalists, unsolicited by us, are making large
investments in the securities of the Union. But, above all, we have to
thank God for those great victories in the field, which are bringing
this great contest to a successful conclusion.
This rebellion is indeed the most stupendous in history. It absorbs the
attention and affects the political institutions and material interests
of the world. The armies engaged exceed those of Napoleon. Death never
had such a carnival, and each week consumes millions of treasure. Great
is the sacrifice, but the cause is peerless and sublime. (_Cheers._) If
God has placed us in the van of the great contest for the rights and
liberties of man, if he has assigned us the post of danger and of
suffering, it is that of unfading glory and imperishable renown. (_Loud
cheers._) The question with us, which is so misunderstood here, is that
of national unity (_hear, hear_), which is the vital element of our
existence; and any settlement which does not secure this with the entire
integrity of the Union, and freedom throughout all its borders, will be
treason to our country and to mankind. (_Loud cheers._) To acknowledge
the absurd and anarchical doctrine of secession, as is demanded of us
here, to abdicate the power of self-preservation, and permit the Union
to be dissolved, is ruin, disgrace, and suicide. There is but one
alternative--we must and will fight it out to the last. (_Loud and
prolonged applause._) If need be, all who can bear arms must take the
field, and leave to those who cannot the pursuits of industry. (_Hear,
hear._) If we count not the cost of this contest in men and money, it is
because all loyal Americans believe that the value of our Union cannot
be estimated. (_Hear, hear._) If martyrs from every State, from England,
and from nearly every nation of Christendom have fallen in our defence,
never, in humble faith we trust, has any blood, since that of Calvary,
been shed in a cause so holy. (_Cheers._) Most of the rebellions which
have disturbed or overthrown governments, ave been caused by oppression
on their part. Such rebellions have been the rising of the oppressed
against the oppressor; but this rebellion was caused exclusively by
slavery. (_Cheers._) To extend, and perpetuate, and nationalize slavery,
to demand of the American Congress the direct and explicit recognition
of the right of property in man, to cover the whole vast territory of
the Union with chattel servitude, to keep open the interstate
slave-trade between the Border and the Cotton States, to give the
institution absolute mastery over the Government and people, to carry it
into every new State by fraud, and violence, and forgery, as was
exemplified in Kansas, and then, as a final result, to force it upon
every Free State of the Union--these were the objects conceived by those
who are engaged in this foul conspiracy to dissolve the American Union.
(_Cheers._) 'I have said that the American Union never will be
dissolved.' (_Loud and continued cheers._) This was the advice of the
peerless Washington, the Father of his country, in his Farewell Address,
and this was the course of the immortal Andrew Jackson, when he
suppressed the Carolina rebellion of 1833, by coercion and a force bill.
The American Union is the great citadel of self-government, intrusted to
our charge by Providence; and we must defend it against all assailants,
until our last man has fallen. This is the cause of labor and humanity,
and the toiling and disfranchised masses of the world feel that their
fate is involved in the result of our struggle. In England, especially,
this feeling on the part of the working classes has been manifested in
more than one hundred meetings, and the resolutions in favor of the
Union, passed by the operatives of Manchester, who were the great
sufferers from this contest, indicate a sublimity of feeling, and a
devotion to principle on the part of these noble martyrs, which exalt
and dignify the character of man. (_Cheers._) The working classes of
England, of France, and of Germany, who are all with us, in case of
foreign intervention, must have constituted the armies that would have
been taken to our shores to make war upon the American people. The men
who are for us would have been transported across the ocean to fight
against us in the cause of slavery, and for the degradation of labor.
Can there be any doubt as to the result of such a conflict? It is now
quite certain that this rebellion will receive no foreign aid; but if
any foreign despot or usurper had thus intervened and sent his myrmidons
to our shores, the result, though it might have been prolonged, would
have been equally certain--he would have lost his crown, and destroyed
his dynasty. (_Cheers._) Our whole country would have been a camp, we
should have risen to the magnitude of the contest, and all who could
bear arms would have taken the field. We know, as Americans, that our
national unity is the essential condition of our existence. Without it
we should be disintegrated into sections, States, counties, and cities,
and ruin and anarchy would reign supreme. (_Cheers._) No, the Lakes can
never be separated from the Gulf, the Atlantic from the Pacific, the
source from the mouth of the Mississippi, nor the sons of New England
from the home of their kindred in the great West. (_Cheers._) But, above
all, the entire valley of the Mississippi was ordained by God as the
residence of a united people. Over every acre of its soil, and over
every drop of its waters, must forever float the banner of the Union
(_loud applause_), and all its waters, as they roll on together to the
Gulf, proclaim that what 'God has joined together' man shall never 'put
asunder.' (_Loud cheers._) The nation's life blood courses this vast
arterial system; and to sever it is death. No line of latitude or
longitude shall ever separate the mouth from the centre or sources of
the Mississippi. All the waters of the imperial river, from their
mountain springs and crystal fountains, shall ever flow in commingling
currents to the Gulf, uniting ever more, in one undivided whole, the
blessed homes of a free and happy people. This great valley is one vast
plain, without an intervening mountain, and can never be separated by
any line but that of blood, to be followed, surely, by military
despotism. No! separation, by any line, is death; disunion is suicide.
Slavery having made war upon the Union, the result is not doubtful.
Slavery will die. (_Cheers._) Slavery having selected a traitor's
position, will meet a traitor's doom. (_Loud cheers._) The Union will
still live. It is written by the finger of God on the scroll of destiny,
that neither principalities nor powers shall effect its overthrow, nor
shall 'the gates of hell prevail against it.' But what as to the
results? It is said that we have accomplished nothing, and this is
re-echoed every morning by the proslavery press of England. We have done
nothing! Why, we have conquered and now occupy two thirds of the entire
territory of the South, an area far larger (and overcoming a greater
resisting force) than that traversed by the armies of Cæsar or
Alexander. The whole of the Mississippi River, from its source to its
mouth, with, all its tributaries, is exclusively ours. (_Cheers._) So is
the great Chesapeake Bay. Slavery is not only abolished in the Federal
District, containing the capital of the Union, but in all our vast
territorial domain, comprising more than eight hundred millions of
acres, and nearly half the size of all Europe. The four slaveholding
States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, are all devotedly
loyal, and thoroughly sustaining the Union. And how as to Virginia? Why,
all the counties of Virginia east of the Chesapeake are ours. All that
vast portion of Eastern Virginia north of the Rappahannock is ours also;
but still more, all that great territory of Virginia, from the mountains
to the Ohio, is ours also, and, not only ours, but, by the overwhelming
voice of her people, has formed a State government. By their own votes
they have abolished slavery, and have been admitted as one of the Free
States of the American Union. (_Loud cheers._) And where is the great
giant State of the West--Missouri? She is not only ours, but, by an
overwhelming majority of the popular vote, carried into effect by her
constitutional convention, has abolished slavery, and enrolled herself
as one of the Free States of the American Union. (_Cheers._) And now as
to Maryland. The last steamers bring us the news of the recent elections
in Maryland, which have not only sustained the Union, but have sent an
overwhelming majority to Congress and to State Legislature in favor of
immediate emancipation. (_Applause._) Tennessee also is ours. From the
Mississippi to the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, from Knoxville, in
the mountains of the east, to Nashville, the capital, in the centre, and
Memphis, the commercial metropolis in the west, Tennessee is wholly
ours. So is Arkansas; so is Louisiana, including the great city of New
Orleans. So is North Alabama; so is two thirds of the State of
Mississippi; and now the Union troops hold Chattanooga, the great
impregnable fortress of Northwestern Georgia. From Chattanooga, which
may be regarded as the great geographical central pivotal point of the
rebellion, the armies of the republic will march down through the heart
of Georgia, and join our troops upon the seaboard of that State, and
thus terminate the rebellion. (_Loud cheers._) Into Georgia and the
Carolinas nearly half a million slaves have been driven by their
masters, in advance of the Union army. From Virginia, from Kentucky,
Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and North
Alabama, nearly all these slaves have been driven and huddled together
in the two Carolinas and Georgia, because, if they had been left where
they were, they would have joined the Northern armies. They preferred to
be freemen rather than slaves; they preferred to be men and women,
rather than chattels; they preferred freedom to chains and bondage; and
just so soon as that Union army advances into the Carolinas and Georgia
will the slaves rush to the standard of freedom, and fight as they have
fought, with undaunted courage, for liberty and Union. (_Loud
applause._) But how is it with the South? Why, months ago they had
called out by a levy _en masse_, all who were capable of bearing arms.
They have exhausted their entire military resources; they have raised
their last army. And how as to money? Why, they are in a state of
absolute bankruptcy. Their money, all that they have, that which they
call money, according to their own estimation as fixed and taken by
themselves, one dollar of gold purchases twelve dollars of confederate
paper. The price of flour is now one hundred dollars a barrel, and other
articles in like proportion. No revenue is collected, or can be. The
army and the Government are supported exclusively by force, by seizing
the crops of the farms and planters, and using them for the benefit of
the so-called confederate government. Starvation is staring them in the
face. The collapse is imminent; and, so far as we may venture to predict
any future event, nothing can be more certain than that before the end
of the coming year, the rebellion will be brought entirely to a close.
(_Hear, hear._) We must recollect, also, that there is not a single
State of the South in which a large majority of the population
(including the blacks) is not now, and always has been, devoted to the
Union. Why, in the State of South Carolina alone, the blacks, who are
devoted to the Union, exceed the whites more than one hundred thousand
in number. The recent elections have all gone for the Union by
overwhelming majorities, and volunteering for the army progresses with
renewed vigor. For all these blessings the President of the United
States has asked us to render thanks to Almighty God. Our cause is that
of humanity, of civilization, of Christianity. We write upon our
banners, from the inspired words of Holy Writ: 'God has made of one
blood all the nations of the earth.' We acknowledge all as brothers, and
invite them to partake with us alike in the grand inheritance of
freedom; and we repeat the divine sentiment from the Sermon on the
Mount: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' (_Loud
cheers._)
Nor let it be supposed that we, as Americans, are entirely selfish in
this matter. We believe that this Union is the most sacred trust ever
confided by God to man. We believe that this American Union is the best,
the brightest, the last experiment of self-government; and as it shall
be maintained and perpetuated, or broken and dissolved, the light of
liberty shall beam upon the hopes of mankind, or be forever extinguished
amid the scoffs of exulting tyrants, and the groans of a world in
bondage. (_Loud applause._) Thanking you, ladies and gentlemen, for the
kind indulgence with which you have been pleased to receive these
remarks, I will now proceed to the toasts which have been prepared for
the occasion. Ladies and gentlemen, the first toast will be, 'The
President of the United States,' under whose proclamation we are this
day convened. Before asking you to respond to that toast, I would say
that we are honored by the presence this evening of his excellency, the
American Minister, Mr. Adams. (_Prolonged applause._) This is a name for
a century, and during three generations most honorably and conspicuously
connected with the cause of our country and of human liberty. The
grandfather and father of our American minister were each elevated to
the presidency of the United States by the votes of the American people.
The first, the illustrious John Adams, moved in 1776 the Declaration of
American Independence, and supported that motion by an immortal and most
eloquent address. He was the successor of the peerless Washington as the
President of the United States. The second, John Quincy Adams, eminent
for courage, for integrity, for opposition to slavery, for devotion to
the cause of liberty, for learning, science, eloquence, diplomacy, and
statesmanship, was the successor of President Monroe. His son, our
honored guest, inheriting all these great qualities and noble principles
of an illustrious ancestry, is requested to respond to the first toast,
'The President of the United States.' (_The toast was drunk amid the
most enthusiastic applause._)
Order of Exercises.
_I.--Reading of Thanksgiving Proclamation, R. Hunting._
_II.--Prayer._
_III.--Hymn_ (prepared for the occasion).
TUNE--_Auld Lang Syne_.
We meet, the Sons of Freedom's Sires
Unchanged, where'er we roam,
While gather round their household fires
The happy bands of home;
And while across the far blue wave
Their prayers go up to God,
We pledge the faith our fathers gave,--
The land by Freemen trod!
The heroes of our Native Land
Their sacred trust still hold,
The freedom from a mighty band
Wrenched by the men of old.
That lesson to the broad earth given
We pledge beyond the sea,--
The land from dark oppression riven,
A blessing on the free!
_IV.--Dinner._
_V.--Prayer._
_VI.--Address of Hon. Robert J. Walker, introducing Toasts._
1. The President of the United States.
Responded to by His Excellency Mr. Adams.
2. Her Majesty the Queen.
The Company.
3. The Day. Devoted to thanking God for our victories in the cause
of LIBERTY and UNION.
Responded to by George Thompson, Esq.
4. The Union. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to
the Gulf, from the Source to the Mouth of the Mississippi, forever
one and inseparable.
Responded to by Z. K. Pangborn.
5. The Emancipation Proclamation--Slavery's Epitaph, written by the
finger of God on the heart of the American President.
Responded to by Hon. Freeman H. Morse.
6. The Army and Navy--Immortal champions of freedom, who bleed that
our country may live.
Responded to by Capt. Mayne Reid.
7. WASHINGTON. The Man without a Peer. We follow his
farewell advice--NEVER TO SURRENDER THE UNION.
Responded to by Capt. J. C. Hoadley.
8. The Press. The Tyrant's foe, the People's friend--where it is
free, despotism must perish.
Responded to by Mr. Snow.
9. The Ladies. Our Sweethearts, Wives, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters,
Friends. Their holy influence will break all chains but those which
bind our hearts to them.
The Company.
_Benediction._
LITERARY NOTICES.
RUMOR. By the Author of 'Charles Anchester,'
'Counterparts,' etc. Boston: Published by T. O. H. P. Burnham, No.
143 Washington street. New York: H. Dexter Hamilton & Co., 113
Nassau street; O. S. Felt, 36 Walker street.
'Rumor' is a book of genius, but genius of a peculiar character. Gleams
of intuition into the most secret recesses of the heart, analyses of
hidden feelings, flash brilliantly upon us from every leaf, and yet a
vague mysticism broods over all. No steady light illumes the pages;
scenes and characters float before as if shrouded in mist, or dimmed by
distance. The shadowy forms, held only by the heart, shimmer and float
before us, draped in starry veils and seen through hues of opal. We are
in Dreamland, or in the fair clime of the Ideal. 'Porphyro' we know to
be Louis Napoleon, but who are 'Rodomant and Diamid?' Adelaida and
deafness would point to Beethoven, but other circumstances forbid the
identification. Nor do we think Rodomant a fair type of a musical
genius; arrogant, overbearing, and positively ill-mannered as he
invariably is. He may be true to German nature, as he is pictured as a
German, but he is no study of the graceful Italian or elegant and suave
Sclavic Artist. We think the authoress unjust and cruel in her sketch of
that ethereal child of genius and suffering, Chopin. Did she study
exclusively in the German schools of musical art? If Beethoven is grand
and majestic, Chopin is sublime; if Beethoven is pathetic, Chopin is
pathos itself; if the one is broad and comprehensive, the other is high
and deep; the one appealing to the soul through a noble intellect, the
other reaching it through every nerve and fibre of our basic being.
Rubens is a great artist, but does that gainsay Raphael? Are not
Beethoven and Chopin twin stars of undying glory in the musical
firmament, and can we not offer _true_ homage to _both_, as they blaze
so high above us? Shall the royal purple so daze our eyes, that we
cannot see the depths of heavenly blue?
Meantime we advise the admirers of 'Charles Anchester' to read 'Rumor;'
it is a book of wider knowledge and deeper intuitions.
GENERAL BUTLER IN NEW ORLEANS. History of the
Administration of the Department of the Gulf, in the year 1862;
with an account of the Capture of New Orleans, and a sketch of the
previous career of the General, civil and military. By JAMES
PARTON, Author of the 'Life and Times of Aaron Burr,' 'Life of
Andrew Jackson,' etc., etc. New York: Mason Brothers, 5 and 7
Mercer street. Boston: Mason & Hamlin. Philadelphia: J. B.
Lippincott & Co. London: D. Appleton &. Co., 16 Little Britain,
1864.
Nothing is more difficult than, amid the whirl of passing events, to
form just estimates of living men. Either our knowledge of the facts may
be incomplete, or, if the external facts be known, we may be ignorant of
the character and motives of the individual. No public man has made
warmer friends or more bitter enemies than General Butler. History will
probably, in the future, pronounce a just and impartial decision in the
case. Meantime all that the public can learn regarding his political and
military career will be eagerly examined.
TALES OF A WAY-SIDE INN. By HENRY WADSWORTH
LONGFELLOW. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. For sale by D. Appleton
& Co., New York.
The mere announcement of a new book by H. W. Longfellow, is sufficient
to secure for it the attention of all who read or love poetry. Long
before the critic can pronounce upon its merits, it will be found in the
hands of thousands. Longfellow is perhaps the most popular among
American poets. His rhythm is always varied and musical, his diction in
good taste, his treatment ever adapted to the subject he has in hand. If
he seldom strikes the deepest chords of being, his touch is always
true, tender, and sympathetic. 'The Birds of Killingworth' is full of
beauty. If the 'Tale of a Poet,' it is also a song of the sage. The
'Children's Hour' is charming in its home love and naive grace.
'Weariness' is simple as a child's song, but full of natural and true
pathos. Let it pleasure our poet that in this sweet, sad chant of his,
he has the warm sympathies of his fellow men. Let him not weary thinking
of the task yet before the 'little feet,' but rather rejoice in the
sunshine he has himself been able to throw o'er the path in which the
'little feet' must walk.
THE THOUGHTS OF THE EMPEROR M. AURELIUS ANTONINUS.
Translated by GEORGE LONG. Boston; Ticknor & Fields. For
sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.
Antoninus was born at Rome, A. D. 121, embraced the Stoic
philosophy from conviction, and, though an emperor, lived in accordance
with its stern spirit. This little book has been the companion of many
of our greatest men. That it still lives, and is still read by all who
delight in bold and vigorous thought, is sufficient proof of its
excellence. It has been rendered into English, French, Italian, and
Spanish. It was translated by Cardinal Francis Barberini, nephew of Pope
Urban VIII. as he said, 'in order to diffuse among the faithful the
fertilizing and vivifying seeds he found within it.' He dedicated this
translation to his own soul, to make it, as he says, 'redder than purple
at the sight of the virtues of this Gentile.' The strong pages act like
a tonic upon the spirit, and give the reader courage to endure.
REVERIES OF A BACHELOR; or, A Book of the Heart. By
IK. MARVEL. A new edition. New York: Charles Scribner, 124
Grand street.
DREAM LIFE: A Fable of the Seasons. By IK. MARVEL.
A new edition. Charles Scribner, 124 Grand street, New York.
The old type of these books has from constant use grown so worn and
battered as to be unfit for further use, and it has been found necessary
from the constant demand, to issue entirely new editions. And beautiful
editions indeed we have before us. Print and paper alike excellent, and
pleasant binding in vivid green and lustrous gold. It were surely
useless to commend Ik. Marvel now to our readers, since no one ever
attained to more rapid popularity. His sketches are always graceful and
genial, his style of singular elegance. He wins his way to our heart and
awakens our interest we scarcely know how, for he is marvellously
unpretending and simple in his delineations of life. Our author says in
his Preface to the new edition of the 'Reveries of a Bachelor:' 'The
houses where I was accustomed to linger, show other faces at the
windows; bright and cheery faces, it is true; but they are looking over
at a young fellow upon the other side of the way.'
We would whisper to him: 'Nay, not so. Humanity is ever grateful to its
true and earnest friends, and have borne thee over in triumph to the
fair clime of the Ideal, where undying affections await thee; and
ever-yearning loves shall keep thee ever young. Spring flowers are
forever blooming in our hearts as thou breathest upon them, and age is
but a name for thy immortal youth, O friend of dreamy hours and tender
reveries.'