rr 973.7 In the course pursued by you in the service and support of the Government, the principles which they deem most essential and indispensable to its triumph. They share with you the conviction that there is no middle or neutral ground between loyalty and treason; that traitors against the Government forfeit all rights of protection and of property; that those'who persist in armed rebellion, or aid it less openly but not less effectively, must be put down, and kept down by the strong hand of power and by the use of all rightful means, and that, so far as may be, the sufferings of the poor and the misguided, caused by the rebellion, should be visited upon the authors of their calamities. We have seen with approbation that in applying these principles, amidst the pe* culiar difficulties and embarrassments incident to your administration in your recent command, you have had the sagacity to devise, the will to execute, and the courage to enforce the measures which they demanded, and we rejoice at the success which has vindicated the wisdom and the justice e your official course. In thus congratulating you upon these results, we believe that we express the feeling of all those who most earnestly desire the speedy restoration of the Union in its full integrity and power; and we trust, that you will be able to afford us the opportunity of interchanging with you, in the manner proposed, the patriotic sympathies and hopes which belong to this sacred cause. “We are, General, with high respect, your friends and obedient servants, Chas, King, 0. H. Marshall, L. Bradlsh, George Opdyke, Geo. W. Parsons, P. Perit, Horace Webster, Peter Cooper, Hamilton Fish, Robert Bayard, Isaac Ferris, Jolin A. King, Fred. De Peyster, Chas. H. Russell, E. D. Morgan, B. W. Bonney, Jonathan Sturges, L. B. Woodruff, John Paine, Geo. Griswold, Murray Hoffman, W. F. Havetneyer, I. N. Phelps, Wm. A. Booth, John J. Cisco, Hiram Barney, David Hoadley, John J. Phelps, Denning Duer, John E. Williams, D. Dudley Field, Morris Ketehum, E. E. Morgan, Geo. W. Blunt, R. H McCurdy, Wm. Allen Butler, Ed. Minturn, Ambrose Snow, G. S. Robbins, 8. B. Chittenden, Alex. W. Bradford, Marsh. 0. Roberts, Elliot C. Cowdin, Wm. G. Lambert, J.D. Beers, Ed. Learned, Ros. D. Hitcheock, B. H. Hulton, Morris Franklin, Pros. M. Wetmore, Geo. Folsom, E. Nye, Henry H. Elliott, J. F. Gray, M. D., H. K. Bogert, M. II. Grinnell, Russell Sturgess, H. A. Hurlbut, Amos R. Eno, Charles Butler, Geo. Stevenson, Jno. a. C. Gray, G. T. Strong, Hobart Ford, Seth B. Hunt, J, Burns, Chas. Gould, R. G. White, R. A. McCurdy, Frank E. Howe, Henry W. T. Mall, Panl Spofford, N. Sands, E. P. Janies, S. Draper, A. Bierstadt, L. B. Wyman, M. B. Field, F. S. Winston, R .F. Andrews, Jno. Slosson, C. H. Ludington, Isaac Dayton, J. A. Pullen, Hamlin Blake, J. H. Almy, Wm. C. Noyes, Joseph Rudd,- W. Parker, M. D., John Jay, J. Wadsworth, Wm. V. Brady, N. Hayden, Wm. Orton, T. G. Churchill, Wm. 0. Bryant, D. Drake Smith, Parke Godwin. Isaac Sherman, T. T. Buckley, E. C. Benedict, Shepherd Knapp, E. D. James, W H. L. Barnes, C. A. Bristed, John B. Hall, R. W. Weston, Geo. Dennison, C. R. Robert, Joseph Hoxie, T. H. Skinner, D. N. Barney, To this, Gen. Butler, at the earliest moment consistent with his official duties, made the following reply : REPLY OF GENERAL BUTLER. “Loweel, Thursday, March 26, 1863. “Gentlemen,—The necessities of my position have rendered it exceedingly inconvenient for me earlier to reply to your exquisitely courteous and too kind letter of approval of the administration of my command of the Department of the Gulf, asking me to fix a day when I could meet you as therein proposed. “ With every expression of profoundest gratitude for your invitation to partake of a public dinner with the citizens of New York, allow me to suggest that while I am waiting orders to join my brave comrades in the field, it would not be consonant with my sense of duty to accept your flattering hospitalities. “To you, gentlemen, at home bearing your share of the burdens and expenses of this unholy war, forced upon us by treason, the tendering of such an expression of approbation of the conduct of a public officer was fit and proper, as it was natural and customary, but my acceptance of it would trench upon a different feeling. I too well know the revulsion of feeling with which the soldier in. the field, occupying the trenches, pacing the sentinel’s weary path in the blazing beat, or watching from his cold bivouac the stars shut out by the drenching cloud, bears of feasting and merry-making at home by those who ought to bear his hardships with him,^and the bitterness with which he speaks of those who, thus engaged, are wearing his uniform. “ Upon the scorching sand, and under the braintrying sun of the Gulf coast, I have too much shared that feeling to add one pang, however slight, to the discomfort which my fellow-soldiers 76-69 73
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