45 In this great metropolis of the Union, in this Square, consecrated to the Union, by the great pledges recorded here a year ago in April, it is especially meet that, at this critical juncture, men of all parties should assemble once more and unite in a fresh resolve to support the Constitution and the Union ; to sustain the Chief Executive of the nation ; to give a new impulse to the popular mind ; to manifest by word and by deed an unalterable determination to sustain the great cause for which such sacrifices have been made for which so much blood has been shed. For more than a year one great burden has rested upon every loyal heart. Your most anxious thoughts for yourselves and for your children have centered upon our country, convulsed by civil war, and still doomed to suffer. Your brightest hopes, your most glorious anticipations have all been directed to the re-establishment of this great Republic, in its full and magnificent proportions. For this, brave men have fought, and good men have prayed. Through all discouragements, and through all reverses, this has been the undeviating purpose, the unfaltering trust of good and true men. To see the people of the United States, from North to South and East to West, bound together once more by a common interest and a common love in our vast brotherhood, has been the paramount desire, the ardent prayer of every true patriot. Touch your throbbing hearts, and tell me if this be not so ; if, through all the anxious and eventful scenes of our great national struggle, superior to every fear, one hope has not predominated all other hopes the ever ardent aspiration that our country may survive its fiery trial may soon issue forth triumphantly, "both purified and glorified!" That this last experiment of man to found and sustain a Republican government, whose standard is the symbol of civil and religious freedom, may become an unquestioned success ; and that these United States, increasing in number and growing in grandeur, may continue to be the asylum of the oppressed, the admiration of all lovers of liberty, the fear of all the foes of freedom throughout the world. During the great crisis which has so tasked the energies of the whole country, the city of New- York has poured forth in unmeasured flow her money and her men, answering every requisition with an unstinted hand. True to the inspirations of her extended commerce, her contributions to the finances of the country have been generous and bountiful. The merchants of this city know too well the value of free and uninterrupted intercourse with every section of the Union, of open ports and navigable rivers, to be indifferent to the issues of this great controversy, did not a more worthy patriotism prompt to the largest sacrifices for the attainment of the noblest ends. Your presence here to-day, in answer to the call, so hastily promulgated, shows that you are alive to the importance of the crisis ; that nothing will be wanting on your part which may be asked of loyal and intelligent men that is conducive to an honorable adjustment of our National difficulties ; that you appreciate the magnitude of the effort still to be made ; and that you are prepared for every sacrifice that duty enjoins, that patriotism dictates. The Committee of Arrangements have caused an Address to be pre-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=