15 for crape in any form, when the hand of God himself has not smitten with ills. I do not ask for sackcloth and ashes or these outward signs and circumstances of sorrow. But I ask a decent, a sober, and a blameless demeanor, which becomes people who feel that they are walking amid the shadows of great events. I honestly believe that there never has been in history a more faithful, a more heroic, a more godly army than the Army of the Potomac, not to say all the armies of the Union. (Applause.) And I know that there is no keener grief, no more acute sorrow, no deeper sense of shame visiting those men, than the knowledge of the extravagant and frightful vanity which is flourishing behind them. They look from their tents, back from the -weary march, at all our flaunting pride, and they weep in shame for us. They do not curse us, but they weep for us in shame, and exclaim, “ Cannot you be sober, in God’s name, looking on to see us die?” This is the question. I will add no more. It lies with the American women most materially to assist the credit of the country in the exigency now upon it, and which is to be a protracted exigency. And, above all, it is in their power to cheer the army by the spirit they shall exhibit, so that they, as the bugles sound from the Rapidan to Spottsyl- vania, from Spottsylvania to Gordonsville, from Gordonsville to Richmond—(applause)—from Richmond to annihilation— (continued applause)—so that when the bugles sound from march to march, from battle to battle, our brave boys may say, the nation—the nation—is behind us. (Applause.) Mb. W. E. Dodge followed, addressing the meeting at considerable length, taking the ground of Prof. Hitchcock in urging a harmonious and general adhesion to the pledge of economy. Dr. Vinton next followed, and his remarks were frequently applauded by the fair audience. It was announced that a book, with the pledge, would be ready for signature at No. 2 Great Jones Street, at three o’clock, Tuesday. The meeting was then declared at an end, but it was some time before the last of the assemblage left.
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