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556      DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.      November, 1861

AN ELOQUENT SPEECH FROM GOV. ANDREW, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

The 20th Regiment of Massachusetts, on their way to Washington, were hospitably entertained in New York at the Park Barracks, three weeks ago, by the 'Sons of Massachusetts.'  Gov. Andrew, who happened to be in that city at the time, addressed the assemblage as follows:

MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN:——This occasion, in no sense and by no right, is mine.——No part of its honors pertain to me.  Here present, in the city of New York, called by engagements that pertain to my duty, I had the happiness of finding myself in a position to be enabled to unite with you in doing honor to the 20th Regiment of Massachusetts volunteers.  (Applause.)  To my old friend, Col. Lee, (three cheers for Col. Lee,) who, with generous devotion and patriotic alacrity, without a moment's delay or hesitation, drew his sword, at my invitation, too lead a regiment of Massachusetts soldier citizens, and to his accomplished officers and brave men, be all these honors due.  Upon the heads of such as they, Providence will pour its benignest benedictions, and upon their memories the most fragrant gratitude of our posterity shall rest.  (Loud applause.)  Whatever fortunes may befall them in the field, whether they shall return with their shields or borne upon them, forever and forever be those brave men remembered as among the earliest, among the best, among the truest, firmest and most patriotic, who have drawn or will hereafter draw the sword for American liberty and constitutional law.  (Applause.)

And now, sirs, I cannot at this moment forget that our sister New England State of Connecticut is at this very hour resigning to the dust all that was mortal of one New England man whose name and memory shall be as immortal as the stars——Lyon, (loud applause,) the great, the heroic, the accomplished soldier, the true-hearted and unflinching patriot, who at the head of his column fell, beyond the distant waters of the Mississippi; New England, Connecticut, reclaimed his ashes and mingles them with her dust.  But his spirit, hovering over this busy, this distracted but yet hopeful scene of care, and toil, and aspiration, is with us now and always—— To him, and to such as he, all that grateful hearts can pay, of solemn and yet joyful memory, belongs.  He sleeps well in his soldier's grave.  Others, too, have accompanied him to the silent land, marching through the Jordan of death beneath the American flag for American rights.  (Applause)  And they know how happy, how sweet it is to die for such a cause.  (Cheers.)  To such as he and his, what can we say, what better than in the words of the great poet of British liberty:——

Flung to the heedless winds, or on the waters cast,
Their ashes shall be watched, and gathered at the last;
And from their scattered dust, around us and abroad,
Shall spring a precious seed of witnesses for God.

For, sirs, this is not a war for ourselves alone, for country alone; it is a war for humanity, and for God.  To us was entrusted this art of political salvation——Democratic Republican Liberty, conserved under constitutional forms.  By our fathers to us it was transmitted.  Into our present charge has it been placed, to be saved and transmitted to our posterity.  Democratic Republican Liberty is the political gospel of our time.  (Cheers.)  To us, the United States of America, the people of this Constitutional Federal Union, was committed this precious charge.  Not for us alone, but for all humanity, that beneath the shadow of our tree of liberty the children's children may come, not only of the remotest generations of our own posterity, but of the wayworn wanderers of all lands and climes.  (Cheers)—— And as the infinite Father of all men and all spirits carries in the bosom of his embracing love nations and peoples, looking down thro' the vista of eternal years, and prophesying and preparing good for us all, so did He commit to us, as the priests of this political gospel, its preservation and transmission, not only for ourselves, but for all nations and peoples of the earth.

This, then, is a war for humanity.  Challenged by rebellion, insulted by traitors, stabbed by the political assassins of liberty, the men of Massachusetts——whom you have so generously commended——marching shoulder to shoulder with the men of New York and of all other loyal States, have waked up to the trumpet-call of their country's woe, and their country's hope, to re-establish upon immutable foundations the rights thus challenged, and to confirm the national life, thus assailed by men whom History will only remember to call them accursed.  This war, sirs, is in no just sense a sectional one.  It is a war of ideas, I grant you; but ideas are universal, and not sectional.  (Applause.)  It is even American only in the sense that our liberty is American, embracing within the ample folds of its care, of its promises and its hope, all those who, residing with us, and denizened among us, are faithful to our cause.

Nor could I fail to call to your recollection, that in the recent brilliant exploit of our naval and our military arms off the coast of North Carolina, a citizen of New York, the venerable and gallant Commodore Stringham, (cheers,) united his well-earned laurels with those that garlanded the younger brow of a Massachusetts General——Butler.  (Cheers for Benj. F. Butler.)  When would it be possible for me to forget that among the heroes of that day, there was none more deserving of their country's honor, or of proud mention on the brightest page of her history, than the Colonel and men of the New York 20th Regiment of volunteers, under the command of an adopted citizen, from the German Fatherland, Col. Max Weber?  (Three cheers for Max Weber.)  I cannot describe the emotion which all of you must have felt, and in sympathy with which all true hearts must have beat, as they read the record of the exploits of that gallant German regiment from New York, who, upon the edge of the darkness of night, amid the rolling surf upon that to them untried shore, launched their frail and tossing boats, and trusted themselves to the guidance of God, beneath the stars and the sky, cut off during all that long night of exposure and peril from all human sympathy and aid.  (Enthusiastic applause.)

If Massachusetts deserves to be remembered to day, so, too, do the countrymen of Col. Weber, two companies of whom compose a portion of the gallant command of Col. Lee, now marching as volunteers from Massachusetts.  (Applause.)   Neither sectional in any sense, nor national in any narrow sense of exclusiveness, but universal as American statesmanship, broad, comprehensive as the idea of liberty, which is bounded by no land, native of no clime, the inheritance of no particular people, no nation, clime, country, kindred or color under Heaven, (tremendous applause,) this cause is the cause of constitutional liberty and the rights of universal humanity.  I am no prophet, and no prophet's son.  I dare not attempt to cast a horoscope of the future, but I believe in the guiding providence of Almighty God.  I know, if aught resting in human belief or even human consciousness can be spoken of as knowledge, that He who guided Columbus over the seas; He who led our fathers to the New England shore; He who preserved them from the dangers of the seas, and the dangers of savage tribes; He who planted the seed of the great tree of liberty on the inhospitable shore of Plymouth, and has watered it, and blessed it, and has led us up till now through the storms of battle, thro' all the trials that beset a nation's childhood and youth, will never desert the faithful, the true, in the graver and severer, but no less needful, trials of manhood.  (Cheers.)  And whatever other may think, or dream, or fear, over this poor vision of mine, neither by day nor by night, since the first triumphant shout rang from one sea to the other, after the 17th of April, 1861, is there cast a shadow of a cloud.

The American people, inspired by confidence in their cause and doctrine, trusting in God, have taken up the arms which had so long lain unused by their sides, and almost unbidden have gone out to battle.  From the hillsides, the valleys, the workshops, from the railroads, from the seaside, from the fishing smacks of our own dear old Commonwealth they have come, from every calling, from every sect, whether of religion or politics, whether of belief or unbelief, they all have come, under the movement of a new inspiration (applause)——and whatever misfortune, if misfortune should come, may befall our flag or our arms, either at Washington, or Baltimore, or Philadelphia, or New York, the men of New England will rally behind our Berkshire Hills, and make the Switzerland of Massachusetts the rampart of our liberties.——(Enthusiastic and repeated cheers.)  But neither in New York, nor Philadelphia, nor Washington, will our arms suffer defeat.  We went down to Bull Run, as I had the honor to remark in conversation this morning to some gentlemen around me, an aggregation of town meetings.  (Laughter.)  Wheresoever we march again, we march——an army, (cheers——'that's so!) disciplined, drilled, thoroughly equipped and ably commanded, the men knowing who their commanders are.  (Cheers.)

And we will not be content much longer with defending Washington under the walls of the Capitol, nor on the banks of the Potomac (cheers;) but Washington shall be defended at Charleston, South Carolina; at Savannah, Georgia; at the city of New Orleans, and all the way up the Mississippi.  The Union men of the South shall be liberated by the arms of the men of the North and the West, and all men, capable of bearing arms, capable of allegiance, will yet be summoned, unless the blight and blast shall smite the head of every statesman and general in America——shall be summoned to the standard wherever that flag advances.  (Applause.)  It is not my opinion that our generals, when any man comes to the standard and desires to defend the flag, will find it important to light a candle, and see what his complexion is, or to consult the family Bible to ascertain whether his grandfather came from the banks of the Thames or the banks of the Senegal.  (Enthusiastic applause.)  And if they who have attempted to overthrow the National Constitution, which was their agis as well as ours, to destroy their American liberty as well as ours, to overthrow the hopes of their posterity as well as ours, to destroy civil society, social life, in their own midst, shall find that their peculiar patriarchal institution, staggering, shall fall beneath their own parricidal blows, (cheers,) whether they count it a misfortune or not, it will be their own chickens coming home to their own roost——their own fault.

If it shall follow, in the good providence of God, that other men beside those of my own peculiar complexion and blood shall taste the sweets of liberty, then God be praised!——(Three cheers for Gov. Andrew.)  I am glad that this is not heresy in the commercial metropolis.  (Repeated cheers.)  I suppose that, although we ought not, if peace had been preserved, either to invade, or counsel, or promote the invasion of any constitutional right reserved to any State; yet, when a State and people trample the Constitution itself beneath their feet, endeavoring to crush us and our children with it, we may at least have the power and the privilege of praying for the happiness of them all, bond as well as free.

I look, Mr. Chairman, with the assurance of confident faith for an early restoration of entire peace.  I have no idea, not the slightest, that the next 4th of July will find this people in arms.  But if it must be that we shall continue to pour our money and our blood, to spend our lives in waging by any form of contest this unhappy war, let it come, let it abide, let it stay with us, let the sword be the constant emblem glittering before our eyes, let the flag advance, and armed men