rebellion; and that the succeeding fourth of July will find us celebrating such a jubilee as has not been seen since that day was first hailed as the birthday of American independence. I do not forget the danger of indulging in these ninety-days, or even twelve-month, prophecies. I do not forget how many memorable warnings we have had of their fallacy. I can only say, that in that hope, in that trust, in that firm and unswerving confidence, I shall give my vote to the candidate of the Democratic party; and whether that vote shall prove to have been cast with the many or with the few, with majorities or with minorities, I shall feel that I have followed the dictates of my own best judgment, of my own conscientious convictions of duty, and of my own. unalterable attachment and devotion to the Constitution and the Union of my country.

I will not undertake to calculate the chances of success. The results of the late elections seem to decide nothing, except that the great battle is still to be fought, and that a victory is still within our reach. But whatever may be the results of the election, let us resolve never to despair of the republic. We are on the eve of one of the most memorable anniversaries in our history as a nation. Eighty-three years ago to-morrow, on the 19th of October, 1781, the soil of Virginia was the scene of a far different spectacle from that which it unhappily witnesses at this hour. The soldiers of the North and of the South, instead of confronting each other in deadly strife, were then standing triumphantly side by side, under the glorious lead of Washington, to receive the final surrender of the forces which had been so long arrayed against our national independence. Would to Heaven that the precious memories of that event might be once more revived in every American heart! Would to Heaven that even now the associations of that day might overpower and disarm the unnatural hostility of our adversaries, and that the soldiers of the North and South might be seen, like the soldiers in the old Roman story, rushing into each other's embrace under the old flag of our fathers! But even if such a result is to be longer, and still longer, and still longer postponed, let us never despair that such a day of final surrender will come; a day when rebellion will be everywhere suppressed and extin

guished; a day when a policy of Christian statesmanship, breathing something better than threatenings and slaughter, and based upon a juster idea than that the whole Southern people are barbarians and outlaws, shall accomplish its legitimate work of restoring Union and peace to our afflicted land; a day when, by the blessing of God, that glorious vision of Daniel Webster may again be verified for us and for our children, from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico, and from ocean to ocean: "One country, one Constitution, one destiny." And when that day shall come, I can desire for myself no other distinction than to be thought not unworthy of some humble share in that inscription which was engraved on the old tomb of my ancestors two centuries and a half ago, before New London, before even Boston, had a name or a local habitation on the American continent," Beati Sunt Pacifici,"-Blessed are the Peacemakers. I can desire for myself no other distinction than to be remembered among those who, in the words of our noble candidate, "would hail with unbounded joy the permanent restoration of Peace, on the basis of the Union under the Constitution, without the effusion of another drop of blood."

THE POLICY OF THE OPPOSITION.

A SPEECH MADE AT THE MUSIC HALL IN BOSTON, NOVEMBER 2, 1864.

I CANNOT but regard it as a special compliment, fellow-citizens, to have been called on to preside over this meeting, and I desire to return my most grateful acknowledgments to all to whom I am indebted for so agreeable a distinction. The worthy President of the Association, under whose auspices the meeting has been convened, might well have occupied the chair himself on this occasion. He has chosen, however, the humbler position of a seat at my side; and I need not assure you how glad I am to be supported by one whose courage and whose patriotism have been tested on so many hard-fought fields. This is not the first time, as we all know, that he has occupied a lower place than he deserved. Most heartily do I wish that he had always owed his failure to obtain his deserts, as he certainly does to-night, to his own modesty, and not to the persevering neglect and injustice of others. He may well be content, however, with the consciousness of having done his duty; with the abundant testimonials of those who were eye-witnesses of his career; and with the assurance that he enjoys the respect and regard of so many of his fellowcitizens without distinction of party at home.

And now, my friends, you will not expect from me, on taking the chair to-night, any very extended or elaborate address. I am here only to introduce others, only as a medium for drawing out manifestations from some of the brilliant spirits around me. Α few opening remarks are all that I have promised, and all that will be in my power. Indeed, I have hitherto resolutely declined attending any meetings in my own city or Commonwealth during

the present campaign, - believing that whatever efforts it might be in my power to make, could be turned to better account in other directions. Two considerations, however, have induced me to deviate from this decision this evening; and both of them have been drawn from what I have found on the printed programme which was sent to me a few days since, and which I hold in my hand at this moment. It seems from this paper, that the National McClellan Legion, of which the Massachusetts Divisions are here assembled, have adopted for their motto a passage from the farewell remarks addressed to the Army of the Potomac by the gallant leader whose promotion to the Presidency they have so deeply at heart. Of that motto the most striking and significant phrase is the one in which our noble candidate declares to the fellow-officers and fellow-soldiers from whom he was so suddenly and so rashly compelled to part,-"We shall be comrades still, in supporting the Constitution of our country." Comrades in supporting the Constitution of our country! What prouder or more glorious companionship could any one desire than that? Some of our opponents seem to imagine that they can frighten us from our position, by modestly assuming that they have all the virtues, and all the talents, and all the accomplishments, and all the patriotism, and all the piety, on their side, and by holding up in derision the names of men on our side who, justly or unjustly, have been rendered obnoxious or odious, here or elsewhere. It would be easy to suggest to them, that they could find men equally obnoxious and equally odious in their own ranks, if they would only take the trouble to look for them. And they need not search for them with a candle or a microscope either. But it is enough for ourselves at this hour, that we are comrades in supporting the Constitution of our country. That is a fellowship which we prize above all others; and no consideration of who may be with us, or who may be against us, can induce us to renounce it. This is the one great idea, not of this McClellan Legion only, but of the whole McClellan party throughout the land. This is the one all-important and only important principle on which we are all arrayed against the existing Administration. No true friend of the old Constitution of our Fathers- no one who loves and reverences that sacred instrument which was signed by

Washington, which was expounded and advocated by Hamilton and Madison and Jay, and which was so grandly defended by Webster can fail to have marked with the deepest concern and apprehension, how it has been treated by "the Powers that be," and how it is habitually spoken of by not a few of the leading supporters of the existing Administration. Who has forgotten

the bold and unrebuked declaration of the official leader of the Republican party, on the floor of Congress, that "the Union never shall, with his consent, be restored under the Constitution as it is"? Who has forgotten the hardly less bold assertion at Faneuil Hall only a few days ago, that "the necessities of internal war have thrown the nation back upon the first law of nature, and that the present situation is one for which written constitutions make no provision"? Where, where, my friends, are such doctrines as these about to lead us? Where have they led us already? Who does not perceive that when the President and his party renounce the Constitution, they renounce the only authority upon which we have any government at all, the only authority on which they themselves have any more claim to rule this nation than you or I have?

I do not forget that exceptional cases will occur in times of great political convulsion which demand exceptional treatment; and I have been disposed, and am still disposed, to make every reasonable allowance for the Administration on this score. Martial law, we all admit, must sometimes be declared, and must sometimes be rigidly executed. But when martial law is deliberately and permanently substituted for almost every other kind of law; when it is promulgated and enforced in places and under circumstances where it has no relation whatever to military affairs; when this extreme medicine of government is adopted and administered as its daily bread; when we see persons arrested and imprisoned, and even sent out of the country without examination or trial at the demand of foreign Powers; when we see newspapers silenced and suppressed at the tinkling of an Executive bell, a thousand miles away from the scene of hostilities; when we find test oaths prescribed by military authorities, like those in Tennessee, striking at the very root of all freedom of elections, and virtually forbidding any votes except for the very party which prescribes