The Contrast. "We'll force the tax, and rule your trade," And then Old Faneuil Hall rang out, Another "Old Dominion" now Of those who bear heroic names. And, straightway, Faneuil Hall sends out We kiss your feet, and serve you still." Boston, December, 1859. I. Speech by Hon. EDWARD EVERETT.* R. CHAIRMAN AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: MR. In rising to address you, on this important occasion, indulge me in a few words of personal explanation. I did not suppose that any thing could occur which would make me think it my duty to appear again on this platform, on any occasion of a political character; and had this meeting been of a party nature, or designed to promote any party purposes, I should not have been here. When compelled, by the prostration of my health five years ago, to resign the distinguished place which I then filled in the public service, it was with no expectation, no wish, and no intention of ever again mingling in the scenes of public life. I have accordingly, with the partial restoration of my health, abstained from all participation in political action of any kind; partly because I have found a more congenial, and, as I venture to think, a more useful occupation in seeking to rally the affections of my countrymen, North and South, to that great name and precious memory which is left almost alone of all the numerous kindly associations, which once bound the different sections of the country together; and also because, between the extremes of opinion that have long distracted and now threaten to convulse the country, I find no middle ground of practical usefulness, on which a friend of moderate counsel can stand. I think I do a little good, I try to,-in my waning years, in augmenting * Delivered at the Union Meeting in Faneuil Hall, December 8, 1859. the funds of the charitable institutions, commemorating from time to time the honored dead and the great events of past days, and chiefly in my humble efforts to rescue from desecration and the vicissitudes of private property, the home and the grave of Washington. These, sir, seem to me to be innocent and appropriate occupations for the decline of life. I am more than contented with the favor with which these my humble labors are regarded by the great majority of my countrymen; and knowing by experience how unsatisfying in the enjoyment are the brightest prizes of political ambition, I gladly resign the pursuit of them to younger men. Sir, the North and the South, including the Northwest and the Southwest, have become fiercely, bitterly arrayed against each other. There is no place left in public life for those who love them both. The war of words of the press, of the platform, of the State Legislatures, and, must I add, the pulpit? — has been pushed to a point of exasperation, which, on the slightest untoward accident, may rush to the bloody arbitrament of the sword. The great ancient master of political science (Aristotle) tells us, that though revolutions do not take place for small causes, they do from small causes. He means, sir, that when the minds of the community have become hopelessly embittered and exasperated by long-continued irritation, the slightest occurrence will bring on a convulsion. In fact, it seems to me, that we have reached a state of things, which requires all good men and good patriots to forego for a time mere party projects and calculations, and to abandon all ordinary political issues; which calls, in a word, upon all who love the country and cherish the Union, and desire the continuance of those blessings which we have till lately enjoyed under the Constitution transmitted to us by our Fathers, — and which I regard as the noblest work of political wisdom ever achieved, and to meet as one man and take counsel for its preservation. It is this feeling that has brought me here to-day. It will probably be said, sir, that those who entertain views like these exaggerate the gravity of the crisis. I wish I could think so. But I fear it is not we who exaggerate, but those who differ from us, that greatly-and soon, I fear, it it will be fatally underrate the ominous signs of the times. I fear, sir, that they are greatly misled by the one-sided views presented by the party press, and those who rely upon the party press exclusively for their impressions, and that they are dangerously ignorant of the state of opinion and feeling in the other great section of the country. I greatly fear that the mass of the community in this quarter, long accustomed to treat all alarm for the stability of the Union as groundless, and all professed anxiety for its preservation as insincere, or, if sincere, the result of nervous timidity, have unfitted themselves to measure the extent and the urgency of the existing danger. It is my own deliberate conviction, formed from some opportunities of personal observation, and from friendly correspondence with other parts of the country, (though I carry on none of a political nature.) that we are on the very verge of a convulsion, which will shake the Union to its foundation; and that a few more steps forward, in the direction in which affairs have moved for a few years past, will bring us to the catastrophe. I have heard it urged on former occasions of public alarm, that it must be groundless, because business goes on as usual, -and the theatres are open, and stocks keep up. Sir, these appearances may all be delusive. The great social machine moves with a momentum that cannot be suddenly stopped. The ordinary operations of business went on in France, in the revolution of 1789, till the annihilation of the circulating medium put a stop to every thing that required its use. The theatres and all the other places of public amusement were crowded to madness in the reign of terror. The French stocks never stood better than they did in Paris on the 21st of February, 1848. On the 24th of that month, Louis |