and to Him who rules the destinies of nations, for the faithful discharge of their duty. As individuals we occupy but a point of space upon the broad current of time. In a few years, we, who as a people are the repository of power and sway the destinies of government, shall all lie in the dust; but our descendants, through the long track of future time, will be here, inspired with the same instincts of liberty, and animated by the same hope as ourselves. The free principles which were purchased so dearly and bequeathed to us baptized in blood, are not ours to destroy to jeopard by mad experiments-or to waste in sickly sentimentality; but, to improve and enjoy in our day and generation like rational responsible beings, and to leave in unimpaired vigor to our children. We have little to fear from violence. Our institutions would stand the combined assault of a world in arms unshaken. But to preserve them in their purity and strength, we should cherish, by every means and faculty which God has given us, that fraternal spirit between the several members of the Confederacy, which moved them to unite as a people in severing the chains which linked them to despotism. The sons of our sister States poured out their blood, together with those of our own, and their bones whitened the same battle-fields. They were with us in woe; let us not cast them off in weal. In discussing the relations of the American colonies during the Revolution, a British peer declared with eloquent significance that, robbed of so precious a jewel as America, the King might still wear his crown, but that it would not be worth his wearing; and although the American Union might endure all the assaults which the enemies of free principles and gibbering fanatics combined could bring against it, unless it can be maintained in that confiding spirit becoming the sons of revolutionary sires-in the same generous feeling which framed it, it will exist only in name and stand a delusive mockery-the lifeless and mouldering remains of a conventional Union, after the spirit which gave it interest and animation has departed. No creation of earth can be perfect in its construction or perpetual in duration. Destruction and decay are written upon all terrestial things. The destroying spirit which frowns in the storm strikes the fatal blow in sunshine, and those who survive the rudest shocks unscathed, fall in a moment of apparent security and repose. The forest oak which has withstood unshaken the blasts of an hundred winters, and which even the fury of the thunder-gust has not smitten. down, falls a prostrate ruin when not a leaf is rustled by the breeze, under the insiduous influences of the worm that is gnawing at its heart; and the tree of liberty, towering proudly to heaven, shooting deep its roots and spreading wide its branches in defiance of hostile elements, will wither and die when cankered with internal disease. In the benign effort to brighten the chain of Union, and renew offices of friendship between brethren of the same national household, how replete with interest is the position of the Central City of the first State in the Confederacy-a city which in the full development of vigorous maturity leaped into existence like the goddess from the brain of Jove, and yet rejoices in all the elasticity of childhood, and buoyancy and hope of youth. In her commanding attitude she is as a city on a hill, which cannot be hid. By the influence of her local advantages, interchanging sentiments daily with every section of our country; by the spirit of enterprise which characterizes her vast business relations, and the high social position for which her people are proverbial, she must do much to gladden the hearts or embitter the feelings of her brethren throughout the Union. In looking over the wide area of freedom, and contrasting its condition with what it would be, torn and distracted by intestine broils and disjointed by sectional hate, she will not "forsake this fair and fertile plain to batten on that moor." Her incomparable growth partakes of all that can elevate and adorn a people, and her exalted grandeur tells us that she was a legitimate offspring of Freedom-the fruit of a holy political Union, and filial duty and affection will alike inspire her to the discharge of the kind offices which so interesting a relation imposes. She has experienced in her own proud and glowing history the blessings which flow from our free and happy system, and will lend her voice and aim to preserve from desecration the ark of our political covenant. By improvements in physical science, we are placed, as it were, at the doors of our brethren in remote sections of the Union. We converse with them at pleasure, and words are conveyed and returned with the velocity of light. We desire their society, and fly by the mysterious power of steam, at a rate that annihilates space. The facility for the exchange of friendly offices, for the mutual assurances of friendly sen timents, between different sections, if suitably improved, will serve to form and preserve enduring friendships and to mitigate unfounded prejudices; to teach us that we are all children of a common father and alike interested in preserving a common Union. The trials through which our institutions have passed have served to illustrate the sovereign rights of States; to purify the atmosphere, and to teach the necessity as well as value of fraternal regard. The great mass of the people of the United States have spoken upon the subject of the American Union, in a voice not to be mistaken or disregarded with impunity, and they will now go on their mission of freedom and good-will to man rejoicing, and few indeed will seek to stir up sectional strife or fan the embers of social discord. Some there are and must be in a land of freedom, who, drinking lightly at its fountain, its shallow draughts intoxicate; they view society through a reversed medium, and judge it by the standard of their own perverted intellect. They can see nothing good or glorious in our system, and would hurl it down to anarchy and chaos, because they can discover a single speck of darkness upon the sun's disc. They are objects of deep commiseration and pity, and their necessities demand the interposition of a more elevated philanthropy than their own. True conventional freedom, under a government of Constitutional Law, is unsuited to their natures. Designed for some other sphere, but transferred to a land of rational liberty by some mysterious dispensation of Providence, like the sea-shell, which murmurs ever of the ocean and the storm, these political Cassandras are filled with evil auguries, and unite their voices with the croaking despotisms of earth, in denunciation of the land which feeds, shelters, and protects them. Blind like Samson, they regard all the friends of constitutional liberty and law as Philistines, and would feign pull down the pillars of the temple of liberty, that all might perish together. But a generous and patriotic people will cherish, uphold, and protect it from their puny parricidal hands, and will protect too these same graceless and degenerate children from their own worst enemies-THEMSELVES. In the commencement of our history as a people, we saw a frail bark launched upon a tossed and troubled ocean, to cruise in the cause of freedom as an untried experiment. How many perils has that devoted vessel escaped between the Scylla and Charybdis which threatened her pathway! How many vicissitudes has she endured! How many battles of blood has her patriotic crew sustained against the navies of the world! How many prayers have been offered up for her safety and deliverance! What precious interests were confided to her keeping; what priceless treasures committed to her care! And Oh! to see her now, when she has out-ridden every storm, and vanquished every foe, with her sails full set, her ensigns streaming, and her joyous crew all buoyant with hope, deep-freighted with the destinies of mankind, and riding lightly before a prosperous breeze who will not bid her God-speed upon her errand of mercy? Who will not hail her with gladness and thanksgiving, and, in the language of poetic invocation, exclaim : "Sail forth into the sea, O ship! Through wind and waves right onward steer, Are not the signs of doubt or fear. SPEECH DELIVERED AT A DEMOCRATIC RATIFICATION MEETING, HELD AT ROCHESTER, N. Y., OCTOBER 6, 1853. [It will be sufficient explanation of this speech to state, that, at the Democratic State Convention held recently before its delivery, the "Free Soilers" and the Democrats proper, after a union of some form and fashion since 1849, again divided, held separate conventions, and made nominations independently of each other. A contest in regard to this convention first took place throughout the State over the election of delegates. The organization of the convention, on its assembling, was then sharply contested, and carried, as was claimed, by the Democrats (the "Softs" acting with the "Free Soilers "), when an opposing organization in the same hall was attempted, and the convention was finally broken up by the violent conduct of a band of rowdies, roughs, bullies, or "short boys," from New York city, alleged to have been brought for the purpose by procurement of some of the "Free Soil" leaders. In the party nomenclature of the day, the "Free Soilers" were those who went off from the Democratic party in 1847-8. Their distinctive creed was the Wilmot Proviso, and they styled themselves "Free" or "Radical Democrats." The "Softs" or "Soft-shelled Democrats" were those who, after the secession, were anxious to bring about a re-union, particularly upon candidates. The "Hards," "Hardshelled Democrats," "Adamantines," or, as they called themselves, "National Democrats," regarded the "Free Soilers as deserters, and opposed any union with them except upon the basis of the creed of the party as adopted in its national conventions.] MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW DEMOCRATS: To the enlightened, progressive policy of the Democratic party is the country indebted for its present eminent position among the nations of the earth, and for its domestic happiness and repose. This policy, under the teachings and guidance of a Jefferson and a Jackson, extended our boundaries by the acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, California, and other territories; opened |