SPEECHES AT NEW ORLEANS AND COLUMBUS. 



47 



ful to you as you were to me. I was just as much obliged by your 

 cooperation as you were by mine ; and there the matter ends. But 

 for the future, I can say, gentlemen, fully and heartily, that I need 

 no office, I desire no office, and, though 1 never shall decline any 

 nomination that has not been offered me [laughter], I certainly 

 shall seek no office whatever. I am with you and of you ; willing 

 to do my part ; willing to bear my share of our responsibilities ; 

 but I have work enough, reasonable pay for it, sufficient consider- 

 ation, with too much notoriety ; and the more quiet and peaceful 

 my remaining days may be, the better I shall be satisfied. 



Now, then, I went to Texas to deliver an Agricultural Address at 

 Houston, and I delivered it. That was my work, and it was done. 

 But, on my way down, a Club of Union soldiers now living in New 

 Oi'leans pressed me to make a speech to them in their club-room, 

 and I did so. I attempted in that speech to vindicate the right of 

 this nation, this republic, to that vast Loiiisiana territory purchased 

 by her money, and defended by the blood of her sons ; organized into 

 States by her Congress, and so made an integi-al portion of this 

 American Union. I argued that the southern part of the Missis- 

 sip{)i Valley could not possibly wish to be separated from the 

 northern part by two menacing lines of frowning fortresses and 

 hostile custom-houses. I urged — as I always have believed — that 

 never did the people living on the lower Mississippi, in their sober 

 senses, seek to be divorced and alienated from the people of the 

 upper Mississippi ; and I affirmed the right of the American peo- 

 ple to navigate that great river, from the Rocky Mountains to the 

 Gulf, unembarrassed and unimpeded by any boom across its channel 

 or by any gimboats stationed on it to cause vessels to heave-to for 

 custom-house scrutiny and examination. So I talked, because I so 

 believed. 



Then, again, visiting the little city of Cokimbus, Texas — the 

 only place I did visit on the western side of the Colorado river — 

 I was, about this time of night, while sitting in my hotel, Avaited 

 upon by a Gei-man deputation, who asked me to come over to their 

 club- room and talk to them a little while, they being all loyal Union 

 men. Well, I went over. They had a hastily assembled crowd, 

 and I spoke for half an hour, perhaps, in vindication and explana- 

 tion of the late great struggles for unity in this country and for 

 unity in Germany ; for the defense and protection of these two 

 great nations in their rights of territory and of nationality. I 



