MK. fanchek's address. 43 



peai'ed at a little before 9 o'clock, and was heartily cheered by 

 those in the ci'owded rooms. After receiving a personal greeting 

 from nearly every one present, he descended to the platform in front 

 of the house. He was received with great applause, and Mr. Enoch 

 L. Fancher, on behalf of the Union Republican Genei'al Committee, 

 addressed him as follows : — 



Mr. Greeley : On behalf of the Union Republican General Cojii- 

 mittee of the City of New York, and also of many others of your 

 personal and political friends, I have the honor to welcome you 

 home after your journey to a Southern State. We don't come, sir, 

 with any set form of speech or any mere form of words, but we come 

 to tender our heartfelt congratulations, and to express our gratifi- 

 cation at seeing you again among us. We feel that your visit to a 

 Southern State will have an influence beyond your own personal 

 gratification and information ; for you, sir, were not only foremost 

 in the support of the Union, in this State, when rebel ai'ms were 

 I'aised against it, but you were also the foremost champion for 

 peace and pacification in the whole country at large when those 

 rebel arms Avere laid aside. And now we are glad to listen to your 

 words of Avisdom and your counsels of peace. On behalf of the Com- 

 mittee — your personal and political friends— 3'ou are tendered this 

 compliment, which you see, in this shape — a spontaneous gathering 

 of the people of this city ; and we welcome you to our circle — the 

 society you have so long adorned — and to the fervent friendship of 

 our hearts. 



Mr. Gi'eeley was greeted with renewed applause, and responded as 

 folloAvs : — 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : It is not your fault, it was not 

 the faidt of the Republican pai'ty, that the North and South failed 

 to understand each other before they had sacrificed half a million 

 of their best and bravest, burying them in bloody and untimely 

 graves. There never was a time when the representative men of 

 the South were not welcome to express their sentiments and 

 enforce their convictions in any city or in any county of the 

 Free North — in St. Lawrence, in Chautauqua, in Onondaga, or 

 in Washington. There the eminent champions of Southern 

 institutions and Southern principles were always sui-e to find a 

 patient and respectful hearing. And I firmly believe that, if 

 our leading Northern men had been equally free to traverse the 

 South and there advocate boldly and fearlessly the doctrines 



