Additional from the North.
We give some further extracts from our New York files of the 2d Inst.:
New York election — speech of Gov. Seymour.
The election in New York, for members of the Legislature and other State officers, was to take place yesterday.
Both parties have centered their efforts chiefly upon the election of members of the Legislature — the Democrate, anxious to get a body willing to second their Governor, and the Republicans hoping to embarrass him by an opposition Senate and
House.
Gov. Horatio Seymour made a speech on Friday last at
Syracuse, before a very large meeting.
The most noticeable fact (according to the
Democratic papers) connected with the meeting was that, of the list of
Vice Presidents read, two from each town in the county were prominent gentlemen who voted for
Lincoln for
President, and for
Wadsworth last year for Governor, but who in the approaching election intend to vote the
Democratic ticket.
We copy one or two extracts from
Gov. Seymour's speech:
‘
One year ago we were a people united in purpose — to-day we are distracted and paralyzed. --Why?
To-day the
South which was then ready to fall to pieces, is united, and apparently as strong as ever.
Why? That party most endangers the public welfare which not only refuses to use every influence that can be brought to hear, but opposes obstacles in the way of a successful completion of the contrast in which we are engaged.
That man who, not content with restoring the
Union and up holding the
Constitution, adds further objects more difficult of attainment, hinders the success of the war. I appeal to you, men of
Onondaga, men of Central New York, if they are not making success more difficult, more unattainable, if in any event they are not postponing the end, until you are brought nearer and nearer those calamities which.
He straight in our pathway — national bankruptcy and national ruin.
They say we must fight until slavery is extinguished; they say we must fight until the States shall assume new relationships to the
Federal Government — until it becomes revolutionary in its aspects and influences.
We are to unsettle what eighty years of experience had settled; we are to upturn the foundations of our Constitution.
At this very moment, when the fate of the nation and of individuals trembles in the balance,
these madmen ask us to plunge into a bottomless pit of controversy upon indefinite purposes.
Does not every man know that we must have a united North to triumph?
Can we get a united North upon a theory that proposes to centralize the power of the
General Government upon propositions that you shall not have the great right and liberty of protecting your own person?
that the
Constitution can be set aside at the will of one man, because, forsooth, he judges it to be a military necessity? ["No, no."] I never heard yet that
Abraham Lincoln was a military necessity.
[Great laughter.] If military necessities are to govern, let us at least be consistent, and ask that military men shall judge what these necessities are — men who can marshal armies in the field and fight great battles.
The very proposition disfranchises you. If you assent to it, you men of Central New York, give up your constitutional right to your own judgment.
’
Now I propose to inquire, What has taken place since I stood here one year ago?
What were the circumstances of our country then?
At that moment the people of the
United States had given, voluntarily, under the calls of our Government, six hundred thousand men to swell the ranks of your armies.
Before that time our political opponents, through their journals and speakers, had said that the Administration had failed in the conduct of the war. Therefore it was that at the last November election, when you did me the honor to place me in the Gubernatorial chair, you decided that they had failed in meeting the just expectations of the
American people.
You gave them 600,000 more, 600,000 living men — somebody's sons, somebody's brothers, somebody's husbands.
They went from the homes of our land; they constituted the wealth and power of the nation.
Where are they?
What has been done.
Is our country saved?
Is the war terminated?
To- day, when we ought to rejoice at the full completion of our heart's desire, we are met — not by assurances that peace is restored to our land, not by the fact that rebellion is put down; no, my friends, we are met by another call for 600,000 men. This moment everywhere our armies are on the defensive.
The question to day is — not "What are we doing? "but "What are the enemy doing?"The question is --not "Where do our
Generals attack?" but "Where are we threatened?" Look at the
Potomac.
Look at the
Cumberland and
Tennessee.
Notwithstanding the vast contributions of blood, and men, and treasure, to day we are called upon to furnish 600,000 more, including the number embraced under the Conscription act, and you, the people of New York, to-day are called upon to furnish 108,000 men before the 5th of January next.
Now, there are some things about which there is no difference of
opinion among candid men of all parties.
It is agreed that there is a limit in the expenditure of money when the nation must be whelmed in national bankruptcy, and that there is a limit in the prosecution of the war when the nation will go to ruin.
Every day's expenditure of life and money brings us nearer to these calamities.
We agree that the war must be brought to the speediest possible honorable conclusion.
Now, which of the two parties asking your support is the one most likely to reach this result before we reach national bankruptcy, ruin, and disgrace?
Let the past go. We will leave it to the judgment of the future to say who has been right and who has been wrong.
Let us now confront the duties of the hour boldly and patriotically.
We are to decide by our votes what shall be the future policy of the
Government, for I tell you the voice of New York will be potential in the end. If the people of this State shall decide in favor of the radical policy, which is to prolong the war for indefinite issues, we are lost forever.
On the contrary, if the people of this.
State decide in favor of a policy which can be reached and which will bring the war to a successful conclusion, there is yet a glorious future for our land.
Where do the two parties differ?
The Republicans say, "We want to put forth all the material powers of our land to bring the war to a close."We say so, too. We are upon the brink of a cataract, without time to inquires into the past; we must put forth every material power to secure success to our cause.
But we say more than that; we say that we will add to the power of force the influences of wise statesmanship, of conciliation, of Christian charity, of patriotic purpose.--[Cheers.]
The draft has been the first great attempt to exercise this power, and it has miserably failed. --instead of strengthening the
Government, it has immeasurably weakened it. I do not fear for the States, but for the
Federal Governments.
The great
State of New York can maintain her rights when the little men who insult her are passed away and forgotten.
[Great cheering.] You remember how gloriously the
State responded to the calls for volunteers.
Our rulers, when they saw the mighty armies they had marshaled, thought it had been done by their own power, instead of by the spontaneous patriotism of the people.
They said we will pass around the hat no more when we want men ormoney, but we will pass a law and send out force, so that when we want men we will take them out of the houses of the nation by compulsion.
New York sent out of itself one hundred and twenty thousand volunteers.
Now look at the result of the draft for sixty-eight thousand men. They gave you credit under that draft for twenty-one thousand men. How is this twenty-one thousand made up?
Well, you are valued as being worth about three hundred dollars apiece, and of these twenty-one thousand men which have been rendered, twelve or thirteen thousand are three hundred dollar bills — not men of muscles and sinews ready to do service; and that act has not sent out from this State eight thousand men. I do not believe it has more than six thousand, and more than half of these are substitutes, which is another name for volunteers.
So much for the centralization policy.
You are to decide the most momentous questions ever submitted to a people; questions that come home to each man of you in all the relationships of life.
The mighty debt that is being rolled up is an encumbrance upon your property, and now equals one-fourth of the value of the whole property of the country.
So far as it is necessary to spend for proper purposes, let it be poured forth; but if it is to gratify the theories of fanatics and bigoted men, we should express our disapproval of those theories that are mortgaging our lands.
We are willing to sustain them in all constitutional purposes; we dedicate ourselves and all we have to the preservation of our country; but when they ask of us sacrifices for the purpose of trampling down the
Constitution and destroying the great principles of liberty, then we must at least have the poor privilege of raising our voices in terms of expostulation against a policy so fatal and ruinous.
We love that flag (pointing to the stars and stripes) with the whole love of our life; and every star that glitters on its blue field is sacred.
And let me conclude with the sentiment of a citizen of another State, declaring that we will preserve the
Constitution.
We will preserve the
Union; we will preserve our flag, with every star that glitters upon it, and we will see to it that there is a State for every star.
[Continued cheering.]
The meeting then adjourned, and
Gov. Seymour arriving again at the hotel, shook hands and conversed with citizens and friends until the hour for dinner.
The New York
Time contains a letter signed John P,
Gray, who was sent to the
Lunatic Asylum at
Williamsburg to Inspect it. The following is an extract from his report:
I remained, and visited the Asylum with
Gen. Foster and staff, and while there received from
Col. Robert M. West, commanding the post, and
Dr. John D. Weaver, 1st Pennsylvania artillery, physician in charge, all the sets in their possession in regard to the institution, since it has been under the case of the military forces.
May 5, 1863, the
battle of Williamsburg was fought.
Soon afterward, the accomplished Superintendent of the Asylum,
Dr. Gait, committed outside.
There were then in the institution nearly 300 patients.
Those insane people were without medical supervision or support, and
Gen. McClellan ordered
Dr. Thompson, of
Illinois, in charge, and all needful supplies were furnished.
In June,
Dr. Thompson was relieved by the appointment of
Dr. G. F. Watson by
Gov. Pierpont.
This arrangement continued until the withdrawal of the United States army from in front of
Richmond, when
Dr. Watson retired.
On the 20th of August, 1863,
Assistant Surgeon P. Wager, of the 5th Pennsylvania cavalry, was placed in charge, and from that time the Asylum has been under the care of the
Government.
There were then in the Asylum 252 patients, and 42 officers, attendants, and servants.
Since that period, 5 patients have been admitted and 61 have been discharged and died, leaving a population of 238.
The matron and some other officers and their attendant, to their praise, remained faithful to their posts, and are discharging their duties without reward further than food and clothing.
A parcel of land belonging to the institution is cultivated by the servants and some of the patients, and yields a reasonable supply of summer vegetables; fish and oysters, in their season, are also easily obtained from
York river.
For all other supplies there is no dependence other than the magnificence of the United States Government.
The army rations are furnished, consisting of fresh and salt beef, pork, flour, beans, rice, hominy, coffee, tea, sugar, potatoes, desiccated vegetables,
dried fruit, salt, vinegar, soap and candles.
Fuel, clothing, bedding, furniture, are also supplied.
The United States Sanitary Commission, with its universal charity, has furnished from its stores such needed comforts as have been beyond the reach of the
Government, and a number of philanthropic persons from the
North have contributed both moral and material aid.
The actual result of the late draft at the North.
According to
General Fry's report to the U. S.
Secretary of War, dated the 19th instant, the conscription brings only one of the conscripted men into the army for every nineteen drawn.
The New York
World gives a synopses of the statements in his report:
For every 100 men wanted 150 were drawn, in order to make sure of the hundred.
General Fry says that "of those drawn 80 per cent, have reported; that is, 120 have reported for every 150 drawn.
Of those reporting, he says that ‘30 per cent are exempted for physical disability and 30 per cent. under the second section of the act; leaving 40 percent. who have been held to service.
Forty per cent of 120 is 48; and of these"’ he says ‘"one-half have paid commutation — so that the 150 men drawn are reduced to 24.
Of this small remainder
General Fry-states that about one-third have gone in person and two-thirds have furnished substitutes.
The substitutes are of course volunteers; they go into the army not by compulsion, but of their own accord, induced by the bounties they receive; so that the net result of drafting 150,000 men is to bring 8,000 conscripts, and no more, into the army.
Could there be a more staking proof of the inaptitude, bad judgment, and want of foresight which direct the proceedings of the Administration.' If they had really understood the machine they were putting in operation, instead of adding fifty per cent. to cover deficiencies they would have added 1,800 per cent. The draft bringing only one conscript in nineteen into the army, the
President, to get 300,000 conscripts ought to have ordered 5,700,000 men to be drawn."’
A correspondent of the Philadelphia
Inquirer gives an account of the funeral of
Dr. D. M. Wright, who was legally murdered at
Norfolk, Va. on the 24th.
He says:
‘
The funeral took place from Christ Church, where the body had been deposited.
At 4 o'clock the
Church was opened for services.
In a short time it was filled by the friends of the deceased, and many other who undoubtedly came merely out of the prompting of curiosity.
’
The coffin, which was profusely decorated with white flowers and evergreens, was placed in the middle aisle immediately in front of the chancel.
The upper part of the coffin lid was removed and the face of the deceased exposed to view.
Hundreds of men and women viewed the inanimate form, and many of them as they moved away shed tears.
At half-past 4 the clergy and the family of the deceased entered the church.
The choir chanted a requiem, and the 15th chapter of
Paul's epistle to Timothy was read by
the Rev. Mr. Okeson.
The Rev. Dr. Rodman, the pastor of the church, assisted by
the Rev. Mr. Parkman, performed the solemn rites according to the
Episcopal form of service.
At 5 o'clock the coffin was placed in the hears, and the procession then moved forward to the burying-ground.
The interment was made at Elmwood Cemetery.
Some Stories of Lincoln — the change in Baltimore.
At a Republican meeting in New York Saturday night
Gov. Yates, of
Illinois, gave Abraham the I, the following handsome puff.
"As I said at the Chicago Convention, I say now, I believe he is the instrument in the hands of God to lead this chosen people to the banks of deliverance on the other side.
When I sent my flaming dispatches to
Mr. Lincoln, "Bring on your confiscation and emancipation proclamations," Old Abe telegraphed back to me, "
Dick, hold still and see the salvation of God." [Prolonged cheers and applause.] Fellow-citizens, you have heard it said
Mr. Lincoln was an honest man. He is; and God Almighty never made a purer, a more honest man than
Abraham Lincoln.
[Applause.] But that does not begin to be half of it; for I say, after an acquaintance of twenty-five years, and a close study of his character, that in all the elements of clearness, pure, lofty, and prudent statesmanship,
Abraham Lincoln has not an equal upon the continent of
North America.
[Applause.]
A grand Yankee mass meeting was held in
Bellmore Friday, at which
Secretary Chase and others spoke.
Hon. S. S. Galloway, of
Ohio, said:
‘
That the
President told him he would send a letter to the meeting; but on calling for it, per agreement, the
President said he could not find the time to write one that would do justice to his feelings. "Two years ago," he said, he "passed through
Baltimore clandestinely, and now they invite me to their meetings.
How can I express my feelings?
Tell them I am with them in heart and in sympathy in the great cause of unconditional emancipation. " [Applause.]
’
Miscellaneous.
Four persons —
McKee, Crocert,
Oliver, and
Gomez--two of them commission merchants, have been arrested in New York for furnishing fuses to the
Confederates.
Gen. Don Carios Buell is to be
Gen. Grant's new chief of staff.
Oliver Wendell Holmes was nominated by the Republicans of
Boston for the Legislature, but he declined to run.
Two Herald correspondents,
Hart and
Hendricks, were captured on the 31st, near
Meade's headquarters, by
Mosby's guerillas.
