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NEW YORK CITY. 



The great city of New York, the centre of 

 all the financial and commercial operations of 

 the country ; the point to which produce tends 

 for sale directly, or if exported from other 

 ports, to which the bills drawn against it come 

 for negotiation ; the great reservoir to which 

 capital from every point comes for employ- 

 ment, and to which all securities, public and 

 private, tend for negotiation ; the fountain of 

 capital which pours its vivifying stream into 

 every and the remotest sections, animating in- 

 dustry, facilitating production, and cheapening 

 transportation ; which counts in every town and 

 hamlet its debtors, and which is the agent, so to 

 speak, of the national commerce in its foreign 

 transactions, was preeminently conservative in 

 its views, and patriotic in its sentiments. This 

 great national heart throbbed with the utmost 

 solicitude for the general welfare. It marked 

 with earnest solicitude the gathering clouds 

 which lowered over the political future ; ear- 

 nestly and actively urged compromise by every 

 honorable means, which should allay surging 

 passions,, and restore the bonds of union while 

 yet union was possible. "When, however, the 

 smoke of war enveloped the National flag, and 

 the seat of Government resounded with the 

 clang of arms, New York, holding the purse- 

 strings, without which no great movement can 

 be undertaken, came forward promptly to save 

 the Government, from a fall. 



The idea that the gathering difficulties were 

 only a political threat, was by many circulat- 

 ed. On the 22d December a meeting in the 

 city was addressed by Mr. Seward, Secretary 

 of State, in which he remarked : 



I need not say to you that I do not think it (seces- 

 sion of South Carolina) is likely to be followed by many 

 other States on this continent, or to be persevered in 

 long, because it is manifestly very much inferior to 

 the system that already exists. The State of South 

 Carolina desires to go out. Just at this moment I am 

 going back to Washington for the purpose of admit- 

 ting the State of Kansas in ; and I venture to say that 

 for every State on this continent that will go out of 

 the Union, there stand already waiting at least two 

 States that will be glad to come in, and take their place. 



Let South Carolina, let Alabama, let Louisiana let 

 any other State go out, and while they are rushing out 

 you will see Canada a"nd all the Mexican States rushing 

 in to fill up the vacuum. It is the wisdom discovered 

 by our fathers which is all concentrated in these three 

 words of such pregnant meaning E Pturibus Uhrnn. 



They do not humbug me with their secession ; 

 and I do not think they will humbug you. And 

 I do not believe that, if they do not humbug you and 

 me, they will much longer succeed in humbugging 

 themselves. Now, fellow-citizens, this is the ultimate 

 result of all this business. These States are always to 

 be together always shall. Talk of striking down a 

 star from that constellation. It is a thing which can- 

 not be done. I do not see any less stars to-day than 

 I did a week ago, and I expect to see more all the 

 while. The question then is, what in these times 

 when people are laboring under the delusion that they 

 are going out of the Union, and going to set up for 

 themselves ought we to do in order to hold them in. 

 I do not know any better rule than the rule which 

 every good father of a family observes. It is this : If 

 a man wishes not to keep his family together, it is the 

 easiest thing in the world to place them apart. 



If we keep entirely cool, and entirely calm, and en- 



tirely kind, a debate will ensue which will be kindly in 

 itself, and it will prove very soon either that we"aro 

 wrong and we shall concede to our offended brethren 

 or else that we are right, and they will acquiesce, 

 and come back into fraternal relations with us. 



I believe that secession was stronger on the night 

 of the Oth of November last, when a President and 

 Vice-president, who were unacceptable to the Slave 

 States were elected, than it is now. That is now some 

 fifty days since, and I believe that every day's sun 

 which set since that time, has set on mollified passions 

 and prejudices, and that if you will only give it time, 

 sixty days' more suns will give you a much brighter 

 and more cheerful atmosphere. 



During the session of Congress which closed 

 March 4, while State after State of the South was 

 withdrawing its members from Congress and se- 

 ceding from the Government, citizens of New 

 York were exerting themselves to procure, 

 through the aid of the Border States still repre- 

 sented, some plan of compromise which might 

 be at least satisfactory to those States, thereby 

 retaining them in the Union, and through their 

 affinity with the extreme South ultimately bring- 

 ing all again together in harmony and renewed 

 national prosperity. The New York capitalists 

 and merchants were particularly active. Mon- 

 ster petitions for the several plans of com- 

 promise proposed in Congress were opened, 

 and circulated among all classes. These were 

 forwarded in great numbers to Washington, but 

 without any effect on Congress. New York 

 then foresaw and calmly awaited the coming 

 storm, the burden of which was to fall upon 

 her shoulders. 



The States of the South continued to secede. 

 The property of the Federal Government was 

 seized, armies were mustering at the South ; a 

 new Government forming, and every sign of 

 approaching dissolution was manifest. Mr. 

 Stanton, of Ohio, offered in the House a bill, 

 granting the necessary powers for the Execu- 

 tive to use force in maintaining the authority of 

 the Government; even this was not passed, and 

 the Congress finally came to an end. The new 

 President was inaugurated. No one could 

 understand if coercion was to be .used or not. 

 But on the 1st of April, while the Government 

 was making appeals to New York for money, 

 an expedition was there fitted out to supply 

 Fort Sumter peaceably or by force. The re- 

 sponse to that expedition was the thunder of 

 those guns which roused the North, and 

 made plain the future. The reverberation had 

 not died away, when the voice of the President 

 in his proclamation was heard calling for 75,000 

 men to be sent " to recover and re-possess 

 the property." The appeal went home to the 

 heart of the people, and that New York which 

 had so long striven against this policy, now 

 threw itself upon the altar of the country, and 

 offered up its vast wealth to sustain the Gov- 

 ernment. 



The proclamation of the President and the 

 news of the fall of Fort Sumter reached the city 

 on the 15th of April, causing an intense excite- 

 ment. All shades of opinion seemed to vanish 

 before the one great fact that the country was 



