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great misfortune for their country, because at the end of it the air will be purified, and we shall have a sound body, instead of one subject to the symptoms of reversion.
We shall have it by sacrifices of money, work, and life, and the
Union will exist now as ever; and the
North will be victorious.
It has often been asserted that the almighty dollar was the only thing
Americans cared about; but it is evident there is something higher in existence, and it wanted only the emergency to prove it. Who had seen the gallant Seventh Regiment marching yesterday, when called by their country, along
Broadway, who does not understand that the love of liberty is predominant over every other thing, and can never be extinguished?
There was no aristocracy about
America or the Seventh Regiment.
The merchant, the laborer, all classes went to work for the same great cause.
One idea elevated them, one wish and one action — that is, the re-establishment of the
Union; and, as they do, let us not look back upon the party; let us face future danger and future victory.
If you do this, my fellow-citizens, then the future will be ours.
Mr. Struve was the
President of the
Garibaldi Committee, which sent
Mr. Reventloro to
Garibaldi to bring him money and assistance.
He said:--When we took the sword in our hands thirteen years ago, we did it on purpose of founding a republic, the ideal of which was
America.
We have arrived here, but the storms which have cast us upon this shore have not ceased yet, and again we have to fight for our ideal, which has been attacked by the enemy of freedom and civilization, by the slaveholding tyrant, the lickspittle of
European despots, who thinks he can tear down this sacred flag.
But we will carry this flag high in our hands, where those rebels never can reach it. We shall hold it more sacred, higher and more united than in
Germany.
In
Germany, disunion was our curse; but in this country we are united with all people, who have found an asylum in their glorious country, and before all with the sons of the patriotic founders of the great republic which has adopted us. The same spirit which lived in us in 1848 is still living in us; it lives in me and you, in every one of us. The question is now between secession and Union, between liberty and slavery.
Wherever we stand, if not on the side of Union and liberty, and we mean to defend it to-day as we did in the battle-fields of 1848.
Brethren, nothing can help to-day but the sword, and you are going to take that sword, to live or die freemen, as we have been all during our life.
Let us act, not speak.
The freedom which is our palladium, shall be defended by he brave sons of
Germany.
[
Mr. Struve seemed highly impressed with the object of his speech, and was repeatedly interrupted by the enthusiastic cheers of the crowd, which gave three other cheers for the gentleman when he left.]
He was a Minute Man, said
Mr. Warren, and having been called to say a few words to the Germans, he would give them his welcome and fellowship.
He asked them to stand by this country, this new country of theirs.
The cowardly acts perpetrated on
Fort Sumter made the heart of every American, cemented with German strength, shout, Shame!
shame! Shame! shame! would be said by every German in the Old World, when the news would get to them.
To-day, what sight was this?
The Almighty God looked down upon us. The spirit of
Washington seemed to animate that statue yonder, as if to say to us, to be faithful to our country.
If he (the speaker) had ten sons, they all should go and defend the country.
German citizens — no more Germans, but American citizens — urged the speaker, stand to your home that you have adopted.
There were more men there to-day than this
South Carolina had. (Applause.) Come on, come on,
Jefferson Davis; if you would, you would be hung.
Tremble, traitors, as traitors have to tremble when the freemen of the country speak.
Mr. Warren wound up with a eulogy on
Major Anderson and his brave men, and he was enthusiastically cheered by the Germans.
Mr. Ignatz Koch said:--It was the duty to go into the fight against the
South.
When the Germans left their country bleeding and covered with wounds received in the struggle for liberty, when thousands of the brave fellows were killed, they swore that liberty would be the war-cry of the future time.
When the Germans came over to this country, the
Americans did not understand them, and thought it was all the same whether a man was a German or a Dutchman; one reverend gentleman said in
Mr. Koch's presence, that
Hamburg was the capital of Dutchland!
They were understood now by the
Americans, and it was conceded that the Germans knew something else beside
lager beer, and that they knew nothing better than freedom.
In
Germany there were good prospects for a republic, and nobody had destroyed them but the Germans themselves.
This shall not be done with the second fatherland.
The
Germans had elected the present
President,
Mr. Lincoln, a man of liberal ideas, energy, and sincerity of purpose; while
Mr. Buchanan--(cries of, “No politics!” ) The orator finished his remarks by asking for “three chairs for the
Union!”
by which he probably meant “cheers,” as the
Union is not so tired yet as to want three chairs.
Speech of Samuel hull.
He alluded to the fact that yesterday (Friday) being the anniversary of the
battle of Lexington, when the first blood was spilled in the Revolution, on that day the first blood was spilled in this war. Yesterday those noble grandsons of those who were engaged in the former struggle, were the first who spilled their blood in this war.
Massachusetts was in the field, and New York would follow suit.
Throughout the Revolution New York and
Massachusetts fought side by side, and they would do the same in this war. This was a fearful crisis.
Our enemy pretended to be fearful fighters, having had six months preparation, but our men would meet them.
The speaker made allusion to the events at
Baltimore, and the report that the gallant Seventh Regiment had forced their way through the mob. (Cheers.) The news was not precise as yet, but he would say, that if the Baltimoreans had spilt one drop of blood of that gallant New York regiment, the resentment to follow would be terrible.
(Tremendous applause.) I am just informed, said the speaker, that the rebels attacked them with brickbats, that the noble regiment forced their way through, and. that three hundred of the insurgents were lying weltering in their gore.
[This information, although a mere report, caused immediately an immense excitement.]
