83 Mr. HOXIE then resumed, as follows : The reverend gentlemen who preceded me took for his text those undying words of the lamented Webster, written, I am sure, in letters that are never to be erased from the heart of every true American. In the very brief remarks I have to make to you my text shall be my country. I did not expect, my fellowcitizens, ever to be called upon to address an assemblage such as this and upon such an occasion as this. Who of us ever imagined, when last we met at, this place, that at this time we should be called on, as we are, by that noble patriot at the head of the Government for 300,000 freemen more to crush out this accursed rebellion ; but so it is, and we have met here to-day to respond with all our hearts to that patriotic call of our Chief Magistrate. [Applause.] And all we have upon earth are ready to be sacrificed upon the altar of -our country. [Cries of" Good," " good."] This Union must be preserved, and it shall be preserved. [Great cheering.] And it is not worth while for us now, my fellowcitizens, to undertake to criticise the conduct of those who may have commanded our armies in the field, and of those who have directed the legislation in the Congress of the United States, or of the chosen councillors of the President of the United States the heads of the various departments. It is in vain for us to say that this man has done wrong ; that this man should be removed or that man appointed. No, my fellow-citizens, we come here not to ask any such contemptible question as this. We have come here to ask this question : What can we do, what shall we do, in this exigency of the country, to preserve the integrity of the Union and the Constitution of the United States ? [Great applause.] That is the question we are called upon to answer. If some of our generals have made a mistake, what of it ? Let him, and let him only, throw stones at them who never made a mistake himself. [Cries of " Good," " good."] No, gentlemen, we all confide in the patriotism, the integrity, the honesty of that glorious statesman at the head of the Government [great applause] confide in those whom he has chosen to enable him to carry on the Government. Don't say, as I have heard a gentleman say within the last forty-eight hours, that these 300,000 men will never be raised until Stanton is removed. Voices, " They will."] We do not come here to respond to any such sentiments as that. We come here to tender all we have to the President of the United States and to those associated with him in administering the affairs of this Government. Never before in my life a somewhat advanced one have I felt the weight of the responsibility that should attach to every good citizen as I feel it to-day. But I am not alone in this, as these thousands and tens of thousands before me bear willing witness. The time for talking, as was well said by my predecessor, has passed ; the time for decisive action has arrived. Now, what can we what shall we do what ought we to do to save our bleeding country ? [Voices, "Fight."] Our glorious flag was stained with the blood of my father, and oh how unworthy I should be of every throb of blood that courses in my veins, if I were not willing to sacrifice everything I have upon the earth sooner than to see it trail in the dust. [Great cheering.] Hear you not, my friends, wafted upon every Southern breeze, the groans of the wounded and the dyin from the field of battle of our brothers, our sons and our friends ? Shall they cry to you in vain ? [Loud cries of " No, no."] Hear you not the wails of the widow and the orphan, demanding of you and me that if we cannot restore to them their loved and their lost ones, that we shall swear this day to avenge their fate. We have come here to pledge ourselves before God and our country that so long as we have an arm to raise or a voice to speak they shall both be used in defence of this glorious Union. [Great applause.] What would you think, fellow-citizens if when a fire was devouring your residence, the fireman of an engine companv, instead of putting on the hose to the engine and playing away upon the fire "should sit down and begin to criticise the conduct of those who constructed the'buildino- or those who perhaps set it on fire, and while they were settling the question ofwho was to blame the building should be utterly given to the flames
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