Gentlemen, it is in such a crisis that we have assembled to- 

 day. In such times and under such circumstances, it was to 

 me as impossible, as, in my judgment, it would have been im- 

 proper, not to take at least passing notice of what at hoihe is 

 stirring society to its very depths, and abroad is agitating the 

 whole political world. Wherever men meet together, it is the 

 uppermost thought. In the marts of trade and upon the ex^ 

 change, men of business anxiously talk of it, and with sus- 

 pended breath eagerly watch for the fii'st spark" of new intelli- 

 gence that comes flashing along the electric wires. In schools 

 of science and in academic halls it mingles with studies severe 

 and polite, directs inventive thought to new and more terrible 

 instruments of carnage, dwells with delight upon those bursts 

 of eloquence which in ancient and modern times stirred the 

 souls of men to heroic achievements, and teaches poetry to 

 leave soft Dorian measures and sing the inspuing strains of 

 martial lyrics. Even to the house of God it goes with the de- 

 vout worshipper, and as he lifts his soul in praise, and with the 

 minister at the altar offers up his humble prayer, patriotism 

 mingles with devotion, and the blessing of Heaven is invoked 

 upon our national cause. 



Met together, then, as the farmers of Essex County, whose 

 fathers, leaving the plough in the fuiTow, rushed to the fii-st 

 conflict for independence, throughout the struggle were truest 

 and bravest, and when victory was won, took no humble part 

 in organizing the institutions we are now striving to maintain, 

 should we not, as their sons ivhy should we not pledge ourselves 

 anew to the Union they established, swearing eternal fidelity to 

 its friends, eternal hatred to its foes ? Born and bred amid 

 scenes and under mfluences which nurture a sturdy independ- 

 ence, drawing life and strength from the very soil and breath- 

 ing the free air of heaven, it is upon the hiishandmen, the 

 farmers, that the countiy and the cause must in their last great 

 exigency depend. It was Cincinnatus, who, in the days of the 

 old Roman Republic, was called from his work in the field to 

 lead the new levies to the deliverance of the beleagured legions, 



