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[563] by the government, which, in behalf of your associates, you have been pleased to tender me, I ask you to receive my most heartfelt thanks. To the citizens of New York here assembled in kind appreciation of my services supposed to have been rendered to the country, I tender the deepest acknowledgments. [Applause.] I accept it all; not for myself but for my brave comrades of the Army of the Gulf. [Renewed applause.]

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Upon the same theory upon which I felt myself bound to put down insurrection in Maryland, while it remained loyal, whether that insurrection consisted of blacks or whites, by the same loyalty to the Constitution and laws, I felt bound to confiscate slave property in the rebellious State of Virginia. [Applause.] Pardon me, sir, if right here I say that I am a little sensitive upon this subject. I am an old-fashioned Andrew Jackson Democrat of twenty years standing. [Applause. A voice: “The second hero of New Orleans.” Renewed applause culminating in three cheers.] And, so far as I know, I have never swerved, so help me God, from one of his teachings. [Applause.] . . .

And now, my friends, if you will allow me to pass on for a moment in this line of thought, as we come up to the point of time when those men laid down their constitutional obligations. What were my rights, and what were theirs? At that hour they repudiated the Constitution of the United States, by solemn vote in solemn convention; and not only that, but they took arms in their hands, and undertook by force to rend from the government what seemed to them the fairest portion of the heritage which my fathers had given to me as a rich legacy to my children. When they did that, they abrogated, abnegated, and forfeited every constitutional right, and released me from every constitutional obligation. [Loud cheers.] And when I was thus called upon to say what should be my action with regard to slavery, I was left to the natural instincts of my heart, as prompted by a Christian education in New England, and I dealt with it accordingly, as I was no longer bound. [Immense applause.]

reconstruction.

I am not for the Union as it was. [Great cheering. “Good! Good!” ] I have the honor to say as a Democrat, and an Andrew Jackson Democrat, I am not for the Union to be again as it was. Understand me, I was for the Union as it was, because I saw, or thought I saw, the troubles in the future which have burst upon us; but having undergone those troubles, having spent all this blood and this treasure, I do not mean to go back again and be cheek by jowl, as I was before, with

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