REPLIES OF DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS, LETTER FROM WILLIAM H. SEWARD, SECRETARY OF STATE. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, \4tk July, 1862. To James W. White, George Opdyke, and others, Esquires, Select Committee, fyc. : GENTLEMEN, Your note, inviting me to attend a meeting of loyal citizens of New- York, to be held to-morrow evening, has been received. The objects of the meeting are of vital importance. They involve nothing less than a choice between an early peace, with the deliverance of the nation from all surrounding dangers, or a protracted war, with hazards of ultimate national dissolution. Public duties forbid my leaving the Capital at this moment ; but I have given to the only male member of my family, not already in the public service, permission to enroll himself as a private in the ranks of the volunteers, which it is your purpose to send into the field. I have the honor to be, gentlemen, Your very obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. LETTER OF E. D. MORGAN, GOVERNOR OF STATE OF NEW-YORK. STATE OF NEW-YORK, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, ) ALBANY, July 14th, 1862. j GENTLEMEN : I have received your invitation to be present and address the mass meeting of the citizens of New-York, on Union Square, to-morrow afternoon, for the purpose of expressing their undiminished confidence in the justice of our cause, and to proffer to the Government their aid, to the extent of their resources. I feel that this gathering will be worthy the occasion which calls it forth, worthy the great city whose potential voice has more than once given encouragement to the Government and country in the dark hours of this struggle a meeting that will be remembered in after-time, as an index of the mighty spirit that moved the people of 1862, to declare anew that the Union " must and shall be preserved." The preliminary work of enlistment, just now, seems to demand my presence here, and I shall, therefore, be unable to meet with you to-morrow. But my interest will be in no degree abated because of my absence, for I feel that the action of New- York at this time is a matter of the deepest importance. Let the great metropolis of the country again emphatically declare its purpose to uphold the cause of the Union to the last, by giving of its men and means, if necessary, " to the extent of its resources," and it will arouse the whole country. Already meetings are appointed for the same evening as your own. This capital and other cities will have their masses in council at the same hour that you are collected together. Here, as in New-York and elsewhere, matters of mere political policy are, as they should be, forgotten, and partisan clamor hushed, in view of the country's peril. Let us, for the present at least, only remember that we are
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