Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 1.
Frank Moore, Ed.

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[94] this day to stand on, and God grant that it may be made an enduring platform, where we can all stand together! (Hear and cheers.) I am about to return to the State of Ohio, or the State they call Buckeye. (Loud laughter.) I have not time to say much more to you now. (Loud cries of “Go on, we are not tired of you yet.” ) Talk is not the matter in these times, it is action. (Applause.) Then I call upon you, the men of New York, to act as you have ever done; I implore you to act as men; do your duty to your country and to yourselves. If eloquence were needed, that eloquence is to be found in your numbers, in the mighty array which I now see before me. (Loud cheers.) The fire that at present burns in your patriotic hearts tells me that you will never permit the Constitution of the United States to be frittered away. (Loud cheers, and cries of “No, never.” ) I am going home to assist in supporting the glorious flag of our Union, that banner which was never yet tarnished; and, if possible, to re-unite the United States of America. ( “Hear,” and cheers.) In conclusion, I would say, let us be determined to be a nation of freemen; and if it be that we cannot again be a united people, I hope that we shall ever hold firmly and sacredly the principles of our glorious constitution as framed and cemented by those who were the framers of this great and mighty Union. The speaker concluded amid rounds of applause.

The Chairman here came forward and said he had received a telegraphic despatch from Governor Morgan, which he would read to the meeting.

Mr. Charles H. Russell also presented himself to the meeting, and stated that he had received a telegraphic message from Governor Morgan calling upon them to supply four additional regiments, and two also of volunteers.

The Chairman read another telegraphic despatch, which stated that the Seventh regiment had reached Philadelphia in safety; that they were on their way to Annapolis, and would proceed from thence at once to Washington, not touching at all at Baltimore. This intelligence was received with deafening plaudits.

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Mr. Chittenden's speech.

fellow-citizens and fellow-countrymen — My name was not on the programme of this great meeting as a speaker, and consequently I have no right here. But in what I do say to you I will not occupy your. time more than two or three minutes. (Hear, hear.) I have been, for the last seventeen years, an humble merchant in your city among the great merchants of New York; and whatever I have achieved during those seventeen years, I am willing to devote to the great cause which has brought us all together here this day. (Tremendous cheering.) I look upon this epoch in the history of this great country as one of the most important which has ever occurred on the; face of the earth. I ask was there ever such a meeting as this assembled before in defence of the Union flag? What are all the great men of New York here for?--one hundred thousand men? Of what use is all the money in the banks? Why, these are, comparatively speaking, nothing when contrasted with.the distress which has happened to the United States of America. (Hear, hear.) The Union, however, we must defend; and although future generations may have to refer to the history of this day, it will be with pride and gratification that they will learn that we met to defend the flag of our Union. (Loud cheers.) The merchants of New York were enterprising men, and the merchants of New York when they spoke out it was not without reason. They have the sinews of war, and they have prepared to willingly distribute it. (Applause.) The steamer Baltic will as fast as possible convey many brave men to the scene of action — to the battle-field; and their helpless women and children will be left behind. These noble and gallant men leave all behind them for the good of their country. But they leave us, knowing that their wives and children will be taken care of (Loud cheers.) These are the sentiments of the New York people; and I am proud and glad to say that, according to the resolution which you have just a little while ago heard read, the people of New York will adopt them. (Renewed and long continued applause.)

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Mr. Caleb Lyon's speech.

fellow-citizens :--This surging sea of upturned faces, these stalwart arms, and honest and patriotic hearts, betoken the greatness of this occasion endorsed, as it is, by the merchant princes upon my right and upon my left, representing the commerce, the wealth and the intelligence of the Empire City of the Empire State. (Applause.)

Endurance has ceased to be a virtue. We come here for the sacred purpose of laying all that our hearts hold dear upon the altar of our country; to vindicate her constitution, to uphold her laws, and to support her legitimately constituted authorities, with our influence, with our property, and, if need be, with our lives.

Years ago, there went forth Peter the Hermit who, with undaunted zeal, advocated the conquest of the holy sepulchre from the hands of the usurping infidel; but his thrilling eloquence of the wrongs, indignities, and insults never fell upon the ear of such an ocean audience as this. He labored for a dead idea; we contend for a living truth — for that Washington who led to victory our armies, who consolidated our Government, who supported our constitution, who gave vitality to our laws, whose Mt. Vernon sepulchre is desecrated, and in the hands of the insurrectionists, and the capital he founded is now threatened by impious assault!

It now devolves upon us, fellow-citizens, to rally and stop these parricidal hands, and take part in the great crusade by which that sepulchre, the capital, and the country can alone be saved. Are you ready? (Cries of, “We are!” )

Men of New York! your great awakening tells the South of no single soul's sympathy for secession; it will tell her that the North is a perfect unit upon the doctrine that our Government is not a confederacy, but a union, for good or ill, for weal or woe, present and future, perpetual, indivisible, and eternal. (Cheers.) From the balls that struck Fort Sumter, like the dragon's teeth that were sown in classic days upon the shores of the Euxine, from which sprang armed warriors, are our volunteers rising in serried thousands from the snow-clad shores of the St. Lawrence to the fertile valleys of the Susquehannab, from the forests of Chatauque to the Highlands of the Hudson, begirt with the panoply of right. I say, let our brethren of the South pause, ere the crevassed Mississippi River turns the States of Mississippi and Louisiana into dismal swamps, and New Orleans to a wilderness of waters. Let them pause ere northern chivalry devastates the shores of South Carolina, and makes the