PEACE CONFERENCE. 



563 



low*. James Harlan, James W. Grimes, Samuel H. 

 Curtis, William Vandever. 



Kansas. Thomas Ewing, jr., J. C. Stone, H. J. 

 Adams, M. F. Conway. 



The Convention was organized by the unan- 

 imous election of John Tyler, of Virginia, as 

 Chairman, and S. C. Wright, of Ohio, as Secre- 

 tary. On taking the chair, Mr. Tyler thus elo- 

 quently addressed the members : 



" GENTLEMEX : I fear you have committed a 

 great error in appointing me to the honorable 

 position you have assigned me. A long sepa- 

 ration from all deliberative bodies has rendered 

 the rules of their proceedings unfamiliar to me, 

 while I should find in my own state of health, 

 variable and fickle as it is, sufficient reason to 

 decline the honor of being your presiding 

 officer. But in times like these one has but 

 little option left him. Personal considerations 

 should weigh but lightly in the balance. The 

 country is in danger ; it is enough ; one must 

 take the place assigned him in the great work 

 of reconciliation and adjustment 



"The voice of Virginia has invited her co- 

 States to meet her in council. In the initiation 

 of this Government that same voice was heard 

 and complied with, and the results of seventy 

 odd years have fully attested the wisdom of 

 the decisions then adopted. Is the urgency of 

 her call now less great than it was then? Our 

 godlike fathers created ; we have to preserve. 

 They built up through their wisdom and patri- 

 otism monuments which have eternized their 

 names. You have before you, gentlemen, a 

 task equally grand, equally sublime, quite as 

 full of glory and immortality. You have to 

 snatch from ruin a great and glorious Confed- 

 eration, to preserve the Government, and to 

 renew and invigorate the Constitution. If you 

 reach the height of this great occasion your 

 children's children will rise up and call you 

 blessed. I confess myself to be ambitious of 

 sharing in the glory of accomplishing this grand 

 and magnificent result. To have our names 

 enrolled in the Capitol, to be repeated by fu- 

 ture generations with grateful applause, this is 

 an honor higher than the mountains, more en- 

 during than the monumental alabaster. 



" Yes, Virginia's voice, as in the olden time, 

 has been heard. Her sister States meet her 

 this day at the council board. Vermont is here, 

 bringing with her the memories of the past, 

 and reviving in the memories of all her Ethan 

 Allen and his demand for the surrender of Ti- 

 conderoga in the name of the Great Jehovah 

 and the American Congress. New Hampshire 

 is here, her fame illustrated by memorable an- 

 nals, and still more lately as the birthplace of 

 him who won for himself the name of Defender 

 of the Constitution, and who wrote that letter 

 to John Taylor which has been enshrined in 

 the hearts of his countrymen. Massachusetts 

 is not here." [Some member said she is coming.] 

 " I hope so," said Mr. Tyler, " and that she will 

 bring with her her daughter Maine. I did not 

 believe it could well be that the voice which 



in other times was so familiar to her ears had 

 been addressed to her in vain. Connecticut 

 is here, and she comes, I doubt not, in the 

 spirit of Roger Sherman, whose name with our 

 very children has become a household word, 

 and who was in life the embodiment of that 

 sound practical sense which befits the great 

 lawgiver and constructor of governments. 

 Rhode Island, the land of Roger Williams, is 

 here, one of the two last States, in her jealousy 

 of the public liberty, to give in her adhesion 

 to the Constitution and among the earliest to 

 hasten to its rescue. The great Empire State 

 of New York, represented thus far but by one 

 delegate, is expected daily in fuller force to join 

 in the great work of healing the discontents of 

 the times and restoring the reign of fraternal 

 feeling. New Jersey is also here, with the 

 memories of the past covering her all over. 

 Trenton and Princeton live immortal in 

 story, the plains of the last encrimsoned with 

 the heart's blood of Virginia's sons. Among 

 her delegation I rejoice to recognize a gallant 

 son of a signer of the immortal Declaration, 

 which announced to the world that thirteen 

 provinces had become thirteen independent and 

 sovereign States. And here too is Delaware, 

 the land of the Bayards and the Rodneys, whose 

 soil at Brandy wine was moistened by the blood 

 of Virginia's youthful Monroe. Here is Mary- 

 land, whose massive columns wheeled into line 

 with those of Virginia in the contest for glory, 

 and whose State-House at Annapolis was the 

 theatre of a spectacle of a successful commander, 

 who, after liberating his country, gladly un- 

 girded his sword and laid it down upon the 

 altar of that country. Then comes Pennsylva- 

 nia, rich in revolutionary lore, bringing with 

 her the deathless names of Franklin and Morris, 

 and I trust ready to renew from the belfry of 

 Independence Hall the chimes of the old bell, 

 which announced freedom and independence in 

 former days. All Hail to North Carolina, with 

 her Mecklenburg Declaration in her hand, stand- 

 ing erect on the ground of her own probity and 

 firmness in the cause of the public liberty, and 

 represented in her attributes by her Macon, and 

 in this assembly by her distinguished sons at 

 no great distance from me. Four daughters of 

 Virginia, also, cluster around the council board 

 on the invitation of their ancient mother the 

 eldest, Kentucky, whose sons, under that in- 

 trepid warrior, Anthony Wayne, gave freedom 

 of settlement to the territory of her sister Ohio. 

 She extends her hand daily and hourly across 

 la belle riviere, to grasp the hand of some one 

 of kindred blood of the noble States of Indiana, 

 and Illinois, and Ohio, who have grown up into 

 powerful States, already grand, potent, and al- 

 most imperial. Tennessee is not here, but is 

 coming prevented from being here only by 

 the floods which have swollen her rivers. 

 When she arrives she will wear the badges on 

 her warrior crest of victories won, in company 

 with the great West, on many an ensanguined 

 plain, and standards torn fromthe hands of the 



