Speech of Mr. Edmund Randolph delivered at Musical Hall, San Francisco, August 5th, 1859. Revised from the phonographic report of the "Sacramento Union."

University Library
University of California • Berkeley

SPEECH

DELIVERED AT

MUSICAL HALL, SAN FRANCISCO,

AUGUST 5th, 1859.

REVISED FROM

The Phonographic Report of the " Sacramento Union,"

SAN FRANCISCO:
PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE DAILY NEWS.

1859.

J>

\

BANCROFT UMAWX

MR.

SPEECH OF

EDMUND RANDOLPH,

Delivered at Musical Hall, San Francisco, August 5, 1859.

The meeting was called to order at half-past 8
o'clock. Thomas J. Poulterer was called to the
Chair. After returning thanks for the honor
conferred upon him, Mr. Poulterer introduced to
the meeting the speaker of the evening, EcUuund
Randolph.

Mr. RANDOLPH said — Fellow-citizens : I have
Bought the opportunity of addressing you this
evening, riot from any desire of making a public
speech — for that I would rather avoid — but be
cause I believe that when a man is a candidate
for office, it is his duty to present himself before
the people, and do them the homage of person
ally soliciting their votes. The office, gentlemen,
to which, with your aid, I seek to be elected, is
one requiring a certain degree of prefessional at
tainments, and the usual fitness for a public trust.
In none of these things do I claim any advantage
over my competitors. With one of them, Mr.
Love, I should be content to be placed on an
equality. As to the young gentleman who is a
candidate on another ticket, I do not know so
much ; but certainly I know nothing to his pre
judice. Therefore, gentlemen, in asking your
votes, I ask them upon political grounds alone.
I desire that every man who may vote for me for
this position, may do so for the purpose of ex
pressing a political opinion ; and that if there is
any man who, when he knows my opinions,
though he may be intending to vote for the
ticket, should not agree with me politically,
I desire that he will remove my name from the
ticket. It will give mo infinitely more satisfac
tion to receive any considerable number of votes
upon the ground of my political position and polit
ical opinions, than to receive all the votes that will
be cast at this election upon any other ground.
[Applause.] Asking, then, your suffrages upon
political grounds alone, it becomes me to say to
you that I belong now, and always have be
longed, to the party of Democratic opinions. At
no time have I been associated, in any degree,
with any other party, society, or sect in politics.

[Applause.] Always, it has been my wish and
endeavor to adhere also to the Democratic organ
ization, and support the nominees of Democratic
Conventions ; and this I have done so far as my
conscience would permit. [Applause.] It is
true, however, it has oft-times been my lot in
California to vote against the nominees of the
Democratic party. I have done so, always, upon
one ground alone : and that my personal convic
tion. Upon this subject I desire to say that I am
not one of those who believe that the rights and
duties of a citizen are in any degree compromised
by association with a political party. Above all
other duties, I hold to be that of doing the best
which lies within our power to give to our country
proper rulers. [Applause.] In my theory, Con
ventions are not the masters, but the servants of
the people [applause] ; that it always becomes a
Convention, assembled for the purpose of nomi
nating candidates, to justify their work to the
people; not that it is the duty of the people
always to obey the dictates of their own agents.
[Applause.] My confidence and respect for the
intelligence of the people also teach me that
whenever any considerable portion of a party re
fuses to support the nominations of a Convention,
that then, not the recusants, but the Convention
stands rebuked. [Applause.] I say these things,
gentlemen, from a desire to deal to-night with
rny audience with the utmost frankness and can
dor. If any man finds in these views anything
to object to, his remedy is the simplest in the
world: Vote for some man other for the office of
Attorney-General of the State of California. At
the present moment the Democratic party is
greatly divided. On the one hand we see Demo
crats : on the other hand Democrats also. We
see Democrats who stand away from the party,
silent, taking no part in the contest. Again, we
see occasionally Democrats who, for a genera
tion, have been known as staunch among the
staunchest, going over and joining the Republi
cans. Of this last I may take the liberty of nam-

ing only one — an old friend who was with me in
the National Democratic Convention of 1848,
which nominated Mr. Cass for the Presidency,
and who has been a Democrat more years, per
haps, than I have lived ; and who, I believe,
will himself be a Democrat again, unless such a
step should come in conflict with some of his new
opinions. I don't know how that might be. I
allude to Mr. Thomas Grey, one known well to
the people of San Francisco — whom they have
trusted and found honest. [Applause. There
are many more of whom the same may be said.
All these things show how, at this moment, the
great Democratic party stands divided — how
there are two wings directly arrayed against
each other; as well as another portion standing
entirely indifferent, mute dumb; others, driven
away, and taking refuge in another organization.
Under such circumstances, the question for us all
to put to ourselves, the question which I put to
myself is. Where shall I go? On which side?
This is getting now to be the important question
the preeminent, political-personal inquiry, the
question which each one must now decide for him
self. Party feeling is running high, blood has
grown warm, and on whichever side you are dis
posed to go, there will be some friend on the oth
er side to meet you and say: Is it possibls that
you are going to join that set over there? I turn
my eyes in the direction indicated, artd see only
my fellow-citizens of the State of California — see
only members of the Democratic party; and when
such an appeal is made to me to refrain from
taking a position with any considerable portion
of the people of California, or any considerable
portion of the Democratic party in California,
such an appeal falls without any weight whatso
ever. I am not able to decide this question from
personal predilections, or personal antipathies.
I regard as unworthy of ourselves individually,
unworthy the great duty we are soon to perform,
the thought of deciding such a question in such
a manner. Again, some will say to us : Look
back to the past, review the turbulent and some
what turbid history of our party in this State,
and is it possible that you will join this
wing or that faction, or the other clique,
with the responsibility on their shoulders, of
this or the other sinful act or omission ? —
pointing to something in the past. For the
life of me, I am unable to discover anything
Which, in my poor judgment, lends to the one
party, or section of a party, a precedence over
the other, in a moral view. I only do not see
that all sections, all classes, all sects political,
embraced now or heretofore within the Demo
cratic organization, have been otherwise than
equally guilty. Gentlemen, I know of no Purity
Party ; I know of no set of men in a political as
sociation who can undertake for themselves to
thank God that they are not as other men are.
So far as the history of the Democratic party in
the State of California is concerned, I think that
in the regards alluded to, all wings may be said
to stand pretty much on an equality. But, gen
tlemen, I look a little nearer : I do see a Hue dis
tinct, at last, which begins to operate with me to
some extent. Two forces have always wrought

upon the great mass of the Democratic party in
this State. One is a foreign influence — rela
tively speaking. I see the indications of a
party who take their opinions from abroad ; who
think and say as they are told in the city of
Washington to think and say [great applause
and cries of " Good !"] — a party well backed up
with foreign money, so far as we are concerned
— relatively speaking; that is, with money from
the Treasury of the United States. [Applause.
"The curse of the State."] In that party I
see no ground for pretension to superiority
over their neighbors. And I desire to say
that in an equality of sin and in an
equality of virtue, give me rather the party of
the State of California, which endeavors to
make its opinions, and make its men, and take
an independent position in the councils of the
Nation. [Prolonged applause.] All these things,
in my own personal connection with this
matter, which has been exceedingly limited,
have been distinctly illustrated. The last time
that I had the honor of addressing the people of
San Francisco on a political occasion was in
1853. At that time there was one of the nomi
nations made by a conven;ion of the Democratic
party which most indubitably met with my dis
approbation, and in the exercise of my individual
right as a citizen, and iu response to the call of a
number of gentlemen, I felt constrained to oppose
it. In so doing, the bitterest opponents I met
with, in the press and before the people, were
precisely those gentlemen who one year after
wards took up every word I had said and repeat
ed them with amplifications and with a reproach
ful and bitter spirit, which I had never thrown
into the canvass. What was the reason? Why,
geiitlemen, it is as plain as anything can be. The
party which in '54 pretended to be more virtuous,
to be purer than the other portion of the Demo
cratic party, were actuated merely by a disputo
about the division of the proceeds of the common
victory in the year '53. [Laughter and applause.]
I do not undertake to give my opinion of the past
as any rule for any other man's opinion ; I do not
propose to reopen any of those things which have
gone by ; I desire that the past may sleep ; but
its present application is, that so far as any divi
sion in the Democratic party is concerned, so far
as there is any claim to superior merit, purity or
virtue, it is without any foundation ; and those
who make it never thought of it until a Sena
torial election was in question. In the year 1854,
those gentlemen who took the very same position
which I had taken in '53, afterwards became so
exceedingly proud of it that to this day they do
not seem to remember that anybody had gone
before them, and perhaps they were eventually
enabled to persuade themselves to believe that
they were the first persons who thought of any
thing of the kind. [Laughter.] Now, gentle
men, neither in the history of politicians, any
more than in the personal merits, any more than
in the relative degrees of purity and virtue of
individuals, can I find any thing to guide me
at this time in the choice of my political course
and opinions. I must look further than this. I
take up next the platforms of the two wings, so

called, of the Democratic party; both of them
this year are unusually short. Read them, each
one of you, for yourselves. I have read them,
and from beginning to end, they are almost pre
cisely the same, save one point of difference, and
that distinction consists in the fact that tho
Federal patronage party are pledged to support
the Administration of James Buchanan. Now,
I am one who, from, the bottom of my
soul, OPPOSE the Administration of James
Buchanan. [ Great applause. ] At last I have
reached firm ground, at last I see something
by which I am able to determine my choice as
to what party I shall act with in this election.
[Applause.] But, gentlemen, friendly objections
do not cease, even yet. There are many whom I
meet with in my daily walks — men whom I re
spect highly — who disavow all connection or
sympathy with the acts of this Administra
tion, who say: Admit all these charges to be
true: suppose everything which you have to al
lege against the Administration of James Bu
chanan is true, is it not better to bear with his
rule two years longer, and see if we will not get
a better choice the next time? Gentlemen, I
know of nothing which iurnisb.es a parallel to
this proposition, except it be the discussion I
lately read in the newspapers, which is said to
have taken place in a balloon. The balloon was
being driven rapidly through the heavens by a
hurricane, and losing fast its power of remain
ing in the air. descended towards the eartli and
was near to being dashed into the waters of Lake
Ontario, then lushed into fury by the storm. Then
a discussion arose among the parties occupying
seats in the car attached, whether they should
let the baloon come down there, take their
chances of being fished up by a schooner, or'
make for the land. One thought it better to re
main in Jthe lake and run the risk of a billowy
grave,while another believed it preferable to make
for the laud and take the chances of being
dashed against the rocks or transfixed by the
bough of a tree — with a probability, however, of
a safe return. I am of that latter opinion. Let
us not remain any longer with this Administra
tion ; let us make for the land now, and not wait
to be fistied out by a Charleston Convention.
[Great applause and laughter.] Gentlemen, it is
impossible to begin to discuss the history of the
present Administration at any other point than
the Kansas question. And also, gentlemen, it is
impossible to say any thing in regard to thisgreat
question which has not been said before, and
said a great doal better than it is in my power to
say it. However, being born in the South, hav
ing been educated in the South, being, I suppose,
as completely a Southern man now as a man can
and of right ought to be, who is thoroughly a
California n, I prefer, in expressing my opinion,
to adopt the language of a Southern statesman.
In the words of Hammond : I think the recom
mendation of the President of the United States
to adopt the Constitution for the Territory of
Kansas which was proposed atLecompton ought
to have been kicked out of the Congress of the
United States [App4au.se.] The only thing in
this connection which excites my wonder is,

that the man who, within less than a year after
he hud voted for the bill alluded to, expressed
such an opinion, had not at the proper time
done what was in his power to accomplish
the desired object. My objection to this pro
ceeding with reference to the Territory of Kan
sas is the simplest that can be proposed to mor
tal man. It is simply because I do not believe
that the people of Kansas ever made the Consti
tution ; and if the people of Kansas never made
the Constitution, in the name of God, by what
kind of reasoning, by what process of justifica
tion, can a man bring himself to the point to say
that the people of Kansas should be governed by
such a Constitution ? [Applause.] Away with
logic, away with fine distinctions, no quibbling,
no special pleading of a lawyer, but did the
people of Kansas frame the Constitution ? Is it
their own work or not? Never were these men
bold enough to say that the people of Kansas
approved of that Constitution. Therefore, when
the President of the United States did bring all
his power to bear, all his influence, in every
shape and form, to impose it upon the people
in Kanzas, HE DID ATTEMPT THE MOST MON
STROUS OUTRAGE EVER HEARD OF IN A FREE
COUNTRY. [Great applause.] The oldest man to
day in California, who had not seen the proceed
ings of the President, the Administration and
its supporters upon that matter, could never have
been made to believe upon any man's assertion,
or by any kind or specimen of argument, that
such a thing was possible in these free United
States of North America. [Great applause.]
Gentlemen, this proceeding has more than one
side to it. That of which we hear most is that
of which T have just been speaking. The out
rageous endeavor to force upon a people an or
ganic law which they never created was, in
effect, but an insult, because no rational man
ever did believe that that Constitution could by
any process be made to work in Kansas. It was
a gross indignity to that people. It was, for a
time, a denial of the rights, which, at the same
moment, it was confessed they should have en
joyed. All the proceedings went upon the ad
mission that Kansas ought to have a Constitu
tion, and the attempt to force upon the people of
that Territory a Constitution not of their own
making, was simply a denial of this cardinal
right of freemen. But gentlemen, mark you,
how this thing branded this Administration ;
how, in making this futile, this vain, this point
less attempt against a free people, who could
never be brought to subjection, wounding all
the sensibilities of all right feeling men from one
end of the Union to the other, mark you. how
the President of the United States did continue
to make his damnation still deeper and blacken
himself still more. Look at the PERSONAL
TREACHERY of this man James Buchanan, Presi
dent of these United States. Does any man
deny that the President wrote a letter instruct
ing Robert J. Walker to go to Kansas and en
deavor to procure a submission of the Constitu
tion to the people of Kansas ? President Bu
chanan, by the most urgent solicitation, induced
Mr. Walker to go to Kansas on this mission,

6

with instructions precisely as I hare declared
them. I think that, never before, in the course
of our political history, was there an instance
where a man was urged into the perform
ance of a great public duty, and when he had
completed his required work, or done all that
lay in his power to bring about the exact fulfil
ment of his commission, was turned upon by
the President, his former professed friend, de
livered over to his enemies, abandoned, reviled
and sacrificed by the President who sought him
out for the service he faithfully followed accord
ing to the terms of the appointment. Can Du
plicity go farther than that? Can we find any
thing in Double-dealing, in Treachery, in False
hood, which.will come quite up to such a stand
ard as that, when a man, holding the pre-eminent
position of President of the United States, by
personal, vehement solicitation prevails upon a
gentleman of high standing to take a position,
which required great firmness indeed, but
the instructions in regard to which were plain
and complete, and then turns upon him, denies
him, derides him, and delivers him over to the
persecutors. [Sensation.] Gentlemen, it goes a
little farther : There was a vast deal of vaporing
and bullying about this matter, as well as dupli
city. It was pretended that the President never
would take another course. It was announced,
up to the last moment, that this Constitution, after
having been framed and passed upon by a
so-called Convention at Lecompton, never
should be submitted directly to a vote of the
people. Yet, gentlemen, notwithstanding all that,
it was submitted virtually ; an entire submission
being avoided only by the most palpable shuffle.
It was in this way: Though the Constitution en
tire never was submitted,certain propositions were
submitted ; and just according as the vote ou
those propositions stood were the people consid
ered to have voted on the whole Constitution.
By that sort of an ingenious quibble did the
President manage to keep up a reputation for
firmness — in never submitting the Constitution to
the people of Kansas, at the same time allowing
the people of the Territory to vote upon it at last.
It is like betting at faro, where all that pas
ses, visibly, is certain white and red chips, but
money is the real thing won or lost. A person
may go to the /arc table and pretend that he has
not been guilty of gambling, as well as Mr. Bu
chanan can pretend that he has vindicated his
firmness, and has not been driven to submit the
Lecompton Constitution to a vote of the people,
after protesting so strongly that he never would
do so In submitting the propositions comes
another circumstance, which I do not know how
to qualify without venturing upon the use of lan
guage improper to use before such an intelligent
audience. But what shall I say ? When, at last,
the Constitution is sent to the people for an in-
dorsingor rejecting vote, they are told that if they
vote in a certain way they shall come in as a
State, at once: but if they do not vote in
that way they shall not come in now, nor until
they shall have obtained a much larger popula
tion than they now possess. Can anything be
plainer than this; that if the people of Kansas

had a right to make a Constitution of one sort,
they had the same right to make a Constitution
of another sort ; that if this Administration put
in a condition which was to operate only in
a particular case — was to have no effect
unless the people rejected the Lecompton
Constitution, such action was arbitrary and
tyrannical in the last degree. [Applause.]
I do not assume to say to you one single
word on this question which you have not al
ready heard, and heard a thousand times, perhaps.
But, gentlemen, such is the case. It is not my
fault if it is so plain. These are the indisputable
facts. How then shall a man justify this Ad
ministration even for a moment? But, gentle
men, what I felt most regret for in this matter ia
what, perhaps, is not heard so much of. It is
that the South, that portion of the Confederacy
from which I come, which had always been
proud of the purity of its escutcheon without a
stain, without a reproach — should have been led
into supporting the President of the United States
upon so grave a matter as this. I regret that the
South should have been induced to lend her
self to the President in covering his crime in this
affair ; that, at last, for acting under the influ
ence of this Administration, a man may point his
finger at the South and say : One thing you have
done which you cannot justify by the standard of
your own morality. [Great applause.] There
was the real injury ? Kansas had suffered little.
I presume that in a short time Kansas will be a
State, and few people within her borders may con
tinue to cherish a remembrance of these facts. But
many a day, many a year, will elapse before it ia
forgotten that the people, the representatives of
the people of the South, under the Administration
of James Buchanan, aided the President in at
tempting this disgraceful imposition upon that
young community. [Applause.] What was it
that induced the South to indorse this thing?
For the mere name, shadow and pretence of in
troducing slavery where slavery would never go,
so that all this reproach has fallen upon our
people, all for naught, for no one who under
stands the opinions of the people of Kansas,
who knows the nature of the country in dif-
erent latitudes — under no circumstances will
such a man presume to say that ever Kansas
could be a slave State. Never. Therefore, for a
mere name, the bare idea of making a slave State
on paper, the South was misled to lend their aid
in this matter. But, gentlemen, this is not the
point of beginning in this matter. In the reso
lutions adopted at Cincinnati, in the year eighteen
hundred and fifty-six, there are resolutions which
do most vitally concern all the people and States
of the South, resolutions which pledged this
Administration to maintain the ascendancy of the
Government of the United States in the Gulf of
Mexico, and maintain a predominant influence
oa all the Isthmian routes. These were of real
interest to the South, and all of these were for
gotten in this melancholy rage and madness
to carry through an impossible and utterly
worthless fraud. [Applause.] So deeply
involved, so steadfastly engaged were the Presi
dent and all his Cabinet and advisers in perpe-

i

trating the Kansas outrage, that all these things
were totally forgotten. At that very period,
when the Executive attention was riveted on this
scheme, the English navy rode haughtier than
ever before in the Gulf of Mexico.

At that very time one Isthmian route was
entirely closed, and another in imminent danger
of being closed. In every country, from our
southern line to the equator, the name of the
United States had become a by-word and a
reproach, and the influence of our Govern
ment was utterly lost. There was the real
injury which was done during that session of
Congress. Because, as matters stood, with
the alliance between France and England,
the united diplomatic forces of France and
England brought to bear to support this
order of affairs, there was great cause to fear
that these two European Powers would gain a
sure and permanent foothold in the States to our
south. Perhaps, from this danger,the Government
of the U. States escaped by the entanglements
which soon took place on the Continent of Eu
rope. In the distracted condition of Mexico and
the States below her, and with the great activity
prevailing in the diplomacy of the powers to whom
I have referred, and with the navies of these two
great powers acting in concert, nothing was more
possible.nothing more reasonable, than the obtain
ing of a firm and lasting foothold by European Na
tions immediately upon our southern boundaries.
Perhaps, I say, we owe to the present war in Eu
rope a safety from such impending events. Not un
to us, not unto our own Government's foresight,do
we owe anjr improvement in the complexion of our
affairs with our Southern neighbors. Gentlemen,
when I commence speaking of our foreign rela
tions the first thing which occurs to my mind is
the language of the resolution adopted by the Ad
ministration Convention which recently met in
this State, lauding this Administration for procur-
ingthe abandonment of the right of search byGreat
Britain. Have you paid any attention to that ?
Do you know with how many qualifications this
abandonment is madB? I will tell you some of
them. In the first place, while they have " aban
doned the right of search," they claim the right
to search when they have cause of suspicion
[laughter] ; and in that way, or under that ex
ception, they have, since this boasted " abandon
ment," overhauled one vessel, invaded, searched
and actually burnt her, on the coast of Africa.
Another exception to this "abandonment " is,
that if the British Government has a Minister in
a foreign country, and if any vessels bound to
that country are supposed to be likely to
carry ammunition or means of disturbance to
the inhabitants of that country, then again, in
that case, she reserves the right to search. This
is a declaration of the British Government to Mr.
Dallas, in an official communication. Again, if
vessels happen to be lying in the port of Grey-
town, the British Government claim the
right of search, by virtue of a piotecto-
rate. But our Government pretended not
to recognize that protectorate and yet this
exception seems to have been agreed to by
this Administration — certainly we have heard

no word of complaint on that subject from an
Administration source. I do not think much
of any " abandonment of the right of search"
with all these reservations and conditions.
I think that it is very much like a Chinese vic
tory. I know of nothing unless it is that which
at all resembles it. "When the British took pos
session of Canton the Chinese were compelled to
buy off their enemies by the payment of a great
many millions of pounds sterling. They paid
the money and the British went away. Then
the Chinese boasted loudly, and had a great time
about it. They boasted as much as our Admin
istration does about the right of search having
been abandoned. They said : These poor for
eigners were exhausted in means and we treated
them kindly, and we gave them money to live
upon when they got home ; and all the Chinese,
upon that, cry out at the victory which has been
obtained over the British. [Great laughter and
applause.]

One other great triumph of this Administration
is the celebrated I'araguay Expedition. [Laugh
ter.] This famous expedition set out with great
pomp, with many ships of war, carrying great
guns and many hundreds of armed men, for the
purpose of " demanding satisfaction" from a Gov
ernment somewhere in the very heart of South
America. This expedition was fitted out and
carried through at a cost of five or six millions
of dollars. I suppose that there is no man who
is able exactly to say how much it did cost.
Now, I will tell you how much it gained. I
think that $10,000 was secured as a compensa
tion to the family of an American seaman who
had lost his life from some act of the Govern-

m<A VOICE
American man-of-war.

MR. RANDOLPH — On board of an American
vessel-of-war, by a shot fired from a Paraguay
an fort; $10,000 was the sum gained; five,
six or seven millions was expended. Then the
President of Paraguay agrees with the President
of the United States that all other demands shall
be left out to referees, and for whatever sum the
referees report the President of Paraguay will
give his note. [Great laughter.] That is all
that has actually been gained by this Paraguay
Expedition, save and except always a famous
letter written hy one James B. Bowlin, who was
sent out as Peace Commissioner, instructed by
James Buchanan, who hates war, in the name of
God to stop anything like fighting. [Laughter.]
This letter explains to you how it was that this
Administration was enabled to procure so distin
guished a success in regulating these affairs in
South America. It was the simplest way in the
world. As soon as the fleet arrived in the har
bor of Montevideo, the American Commissioner
goes ashore to reconnoiter, and. as he writes to
the President, he was rather coldly received.
He didn't like that; he was afraid that there was
some war in it. [Cheers and laughter.] Therefore
he picks out the most important man in that
place and tells him to use all his influence to pre
vent any fighting, for it is not his intention, with
all his fleet/to do anything like shooting. [Laugh-

8

ter.] Then these suspicious people became more
agreeable, aud of this fact the President of the
United States is duly informed by the Commis
sioner for the United States. Commissioner Bow-
lin then proceeds a little further up the river and
he comes to another country — it don't matter
about the name of it. There Mr. Bowlin is met
by General Urquiza, and he is treated in tha
same manner in which he is treated below. Bow-
lin takes the General one side and assures him
that nothing like fighting is intended. [Laugh
ter.] Mr. Bowlin says that Urquiza i> delighted
and most delightful is the manner in which Mr.
Bowlin describes the delight. He don't express
himself in an ordinary way. He says that after
giving them these assurances:

"I assured him that, whilst I was compelled
to decline his mediation as the bearer of the olive
branch, aud knowing the views of the Adminis
tration, and its anxiety for an amicable but hon
orable adjustment of the unhappy difficulties, I
should feel grateful to him for any kind offices
ho might employ in carrying out these peaceful
views. As I closed these remarks, the General,
with a kind of electric spontaniety "

Electric spontaniety ! [Great laughter.] What
in the world that meant I don't know. Mr.
Bowlin proceeds up the river. Gen. Urquiza
mounts his horse and travels overland, and
makes great haste in ordef to get to the Cap
ital of Paraguay, where Lopez resides, before
the Commissioner arrived. When he gets there
he tells Lopez and his Ministers all the choice
things that Mr. Bowlin has said, amplifying and
rendering them even more impressive, so that
when Lopez meets Bowlin he at once greets him
with open arms. This is fully recorded in the
famous letter to which I have alluded. Accord
ing to the best authority, there is an equal
amount of delight manifested on this occasion,
though we hear nothing of "electric spontaniety."
[Laughter.]

One item which strangely characterizes
this Administration is the selection of the
man sent as Minister to Paraguay. According
to his own showing, he is, doubtless, quite a
respectable old gentleman, who would have done
very well to have remained at home and drove a
hay cart [laughter] ; but why in the world he
was sent upon a foreign embassy this Adminis
tration alone can determine. He writes in the most
natural way about the markets of the capital; how
the women dressed.that they dressed in calico and
•went barefoot [laughter] ; what was their com
plexion, and how they smiled and showed their
teeth. He says that the country nrmch resembles
Missouri — the only place he could think of, I
presume, [i Treat laughter, and shouting " Pike!"]
It is very like Missouri, he exclaims. He says
it stands on two great rivers — a fact of which
the President might have been apprised, if he
had ever looked at the map. [Laughter.] The
Paraguay expedition has come home again, and
now we turn to subjects which touch us a little
more nearly. We find how one-half of our peo
ple were insulted by a threat of tyranny,
thrown into their teeth, and for no possible
practicable object; how the other half was

disgraced, and how this great Administra
tion, engaged in shameful acts, forget the inter
ests of the country lying at our doors. Now, we
come to the railroad. Gentlemen, was not James
Buchanan honored with the vote of California in
a very great degree on account of his promise as
to that railroad ? ["Yes!" "Yes!"] That prom
ise reached here just in time to operate in the
election, and not in time to get back home — to
such parts of the country as were opposed to a
railroad. And then, it appears to me, all the bu
siness of James Buchanan in regard to a Pacific
Railroad was entirely completed. What else,
what else, WHAT ELSE has there been done? Take
this Administration according toils own mode of
conducting business. Has there ever been a
Postmaster discharged in behalf of a railroad?
[Laughter.] Has anybody been threatened with
expulsion from the Democratic party on account
of this road ? And when the President is at
work, we are apprised of it by some such sign
as that. We hear the most cold, merely verbal
recommendations in those formal papers known
as "Annual Messages" that there ought to be a
railroad — a fact of which we are pretty thor
oughly aware. But where, 0 where, can any
man show me the influence of .this Adminis
tration manifested for the accomplishment of
this work ? Nowhere. There is no belief
but this: It is considered by every reflect
ing man that if there is even one thing under the
sun to which President Buchanan is more in
different than to another, it is a railroad to Cali
fornia. We cannot look into his breast and see
the promptings of his heart, but we judge him
merely according to what we see in his acts,
Why, then, I say, is it that our great people are
to be trifled with in this way ? Is the most sub
lime office in the world to be won by a false
hood ? Here, again, I see one more falsehood,
another act of duplicity, and one which should
sink deep into the minds and hearts of every
man in the State of California. [Great ap
plause.] Would it be necessary for me to go
further to justify what I said in the beginning —
that from the heart and upon my conscience, I
do cordially oppose and detest the Administra
tion. [Applause and cries of "No 1" ''Enough!*]
So many wrongs, so many outrages, such great
falsehoods — surely this is enough to make any
man stop and refuse, even if there were but five
minutes left of the Presidential reign, to give
one syllable more to applaud such a man. [Ap
plause.] Gentlemen, there is another subject to
which I will call your attention, because, like
those which I have mentioned, it is to be
found in the resolutions of the Cincinnati Con
vention. I wish to show one more instance in
which the President of the United States, in
great affairs, has broken his pledge and plighted
word.

There is a resolution among those adopted at the
Cincinnati Convention which pledges Jas.Buchan- j
an to a sympathy with the struggles of a certain
number of our fellow-citizens who were in Central
America. I do not ask you now to concur or
agree with that portion of our fellow-citizens who
were engaged in that struggle. I do not care to

detain you by relating what I personally know
upon that subject. Suffice it to say, that in the
month of June, 1856, James Buchanan, in solemn
form and under his own sign manual, pledged
himself to the deepest sympathy with the strug
gle of these persons. In his first Annual Mes
sage thereafter he did denounce the very same
men, engaged in the very same acts, and referring
to the very same events throughout, as no better
than robbers, pirates and murderers. [Sensation.]
Now I ask you, not what you think of these
forays — as some of you, perhaps, would call
them — in a foreign country, but what you think
of your President for having given such a pledge
and then improved the first opportunity to unsay
it again? Does any man doubt this? He will
find it all in print. He will find it by the resolu
tions and the votes adopted at the Cincinnati Con-
vention,and the President's letter of acceptance of
his nomination. He will find in the first Annual
Message of the President how those whom James
Buchanan called his friends, and to whom he
pledged all his sympathy, were denounced for all
the crimes in the calendar when speaking of the
very same acts for which he had before professed
sympathy. Bear in mind still, gentlemen, that I
ask no man's opinions with reference to those
matters occurring in that part of the world out
side of the United States : but take the case as
it stands upon the records, and how does it affect
the President? In the month of June, '56, the
President of the U. States pledged his sj^mpathy
with those persons, and in the month of December
in the following year after his election,and after re
ceiving the votes of all their friends, he denounces
these men for the very same acts for which he had
declared his sympathy. FALSEHOOD is no light
matter in the humblest individual. In the Deca
logue few crimes are greater than LYING. I
apply no epithets in speaking of such matters.
The facts rehearse their own character and that
of their authors. I ask you how you would have
regarded the transaction if you had been served
in this way by an individual of your acquaint
ance? If in the month of June, 1856, your
neighbor had made you a promise for a consider
able sum, and after he had obtained what he had
desired, had refused to prform his promise
and had seized the first opportunity to de
nounce you as the greatest villain unhung? —
Gentlemen, this story is a long one, and I shall
endeavor, if I do not exhaust your patience, to
go through with it. I do not want to dwell long
on any particular part. ["G-o on !"] Now, I will
call your attention to the condition of the whole
continent of North America south of our south
ern boundary. Through twenty degrees of
latitude on this continent, under every govern
ment, in every State, almost in every city, you
will find that Americans have been murdered,
robbed, or imprisoned. [Sensation.]

I make no rash assertions, because in the very
messages of the President himself you will find
this thing admitted. What I have to say, gen
tlemen, is that not one effort has been made to
avenge or to secure redress for any of this mul
titude of wrongs. Every drop of American blood
there spilled— every American who was bound

down there in chains is still, to this moment un
avenged. Is that a Government? Call you that
an Administration which will quietly and delibe
rately sit by, admitting that it is not safe for a
citizen of pur Government to put his foot be
yond his own door, not into the very next coun
try ; virtually declaring that, whatever may hap
pen to him there of evil, no one advance shall
be made 'for prevention or redress? Call you
that a Government ? Gentlemen, worse and
worse. The President of the United States
has, in the most formal manner, abdicated one-
half the powers of the government. By the
Constitution of the United States, he is given
command in chief of the army and navy. " Com
mander-in-chief of the Army and Navy" is no
idle phrase. The meaning of it is that no Ameri
can shall suffer wrong, no American shall be
murdered, robbed or imprisoned where the army
or navy can reach but what he shall be delivered
or avenged. [Great applause.] Mark you the
distinction — that is not war. War is one thing,
and that is another. In time of war the whole
force of one country ia directed against all the
other country, everywhere, and under all cir
cumstances. But I speak of applying the force
of the government directly to the case in point.
If, in a certain point, an American is imprisoned,
discovered to be in irons, in a manner contrary
to the habits and usages of civilized countries, it
is the duty of the Commander-in-chief of the Ar
my and Navy, by the strong hand, to take him.
out. War is quite a different thing, for in war
you have to employ the army and navy every
where else, at every other point, even where no
such persons have been imprisoned. I say that
the President abdicated this great and most
important power when he went to Congress
to give him the right to use that power
over w'hich he already had control. Congress
could not add to his constitutional power, arid
ought not so to do; but he found, in this step, an
escape from his plain duty under the letter of the
Constitution itself. This escape he found by the ab
dication of one-half the powers of the government.
Gentlemen, worse than that ; for not only have
these wrongs been unavenged in any single in
stance, not only has there been a formal surren
der of the power to avenge them, but actually,
in a great majority of cases, the President has
never so much as raised a complaint concerning
these atrocities. Let 'me call your attention,
now, gentlemen, to an event, which, more than
any other which has happened since the settle
ment of the Pacific coast, is calculated to stir the
blood and shock the sensibilities of every man,
of every American citizen — above all, of every
Californian.

It is not very long since, from the midst of us,
there went forth a band of as noble young men
as ever departed for any object in the course of
history. We do not precisely know what these
men went out for. Perhaps I myself know as
much, personally, of them and their mission as
any other man. From all that can be learned I
suppose that it is pretty well determined that
these young men were invited into a neighbor
ing State of Mexico by a revolutionary party, to

10

give aid in the establishment of the policy of that
party, to wit : To take part in some of the pro-
nunciamientos and revolutions which constitute
the ordinary politics of that country. Upon that
invitation, reduced to writing on paper, this
party was induced to enter the State of Mexico,
with Henry A. Crabb at their head. Do you not
remember them ? Has any man here forgotten
Henry A. Crabb ? [Applause and hisses.] Have
you forgotten any of those who went wilh him?
Out of the very flower of the Whig party of this
State went these men. They were mainly from
the Whig party. Trusted they were, everywhere,
in all kinds of difficult positions. And amongst
the noblest, bravest and most trustworthy of all
public or private men was Henry A. Crabb, a
man who would have done honor to any posi
tion ; a man whom any people might have de
lighted to honor ; a man in whose keeping the
powers of this Government would have been
safely lodged, and its honor guarded as a great
treasure; a man who was fit and capable to oc
cupy a seat in the council chambers of the nation
as a peer of the best; who would have adorned
by his genius any Senate at any period of our
history ; that man, I say, was tempted from our
midst and slaughtered, slnughtered, SLAUGHTERED,
most inhumanly. And the blood of bis compan
ions was spilt with his, and with the same terri
ble ignominy. All this was done, and where do
we hear one word even of remonstrance from
this President? Where is the inquiry, addressed
in any form, to the Government of Mexico, State
or Central ? Where is there any movement
about it in our Government, Executive or Legis
lative? Total, total indifference I What shall
we say of such a President as this ? 0, is the
blood of our flesh and blood, the very noblest of
our blood, to be shed thus unnoted, unavenged?
Are those we most loved, most prized amongst
all our brethren, whom we had most delighted
to place in places of distinction, before the public
gaze, are they to disappear, are they to be butch
ered by savages, and not one word of inquiry to
come from our Government ? [Sensation.] Is
that a Government ? Are we a people ? What
are we. that you appeal to us and ask us to sup
port a man with all these sins of omission and
commission upon his head ? Now here, upon
this subject, gentlemen, do I desire to render
public thanks to one public man, who at least
has raised his voice in condemnation of the Pres
ident for entirely overlooking this fact. Gentle
men, that man is David C. Broderick. [Tremen
dous applause and cheering, lasting nearly two
minutes.] Mr. Crabb, bear in mind, never was
a personal or political friend of Mr. Broderick.
On the contrary, he stood in his way and baulked
his ambition. I myself have never, in any man
ner, lent a hand to Mr. Broderick to rise one step
in the ladder of his ambition. I can claim noth
ing on that score. I speak not from any par
tiality, but I say, let any man say what he will
against Mr. Broderick, let him bring what charges
he can against Mr. Broderick, aye, and prove
them, too, he was the first man who raised his
•voice in favor of avenging the foul murder of a
man for whom my grief flows deepest and

for whom my sorrow is most acute. [Great
applause.] Are we not men ? Is this
thing of civil society and government but a
game ? Are there no human feelings, no great
interests at stake in this matter? And of these
all, what so precious as the blood of our people?
[Sensation.] Shall we, then, ibr any conceivable
argument of party convenience or expediency,
give our countenance to a man who holding tho
reins of power, yet has betrayed us by leaving u3
under these grievous wrongs without a remedy —
without the. consolation of a notice. But, geutle-
men,let us go on. Let us try and see the end of this
dark, dark story. About tho time that this party
was slaughtered on Mexican soil, four American
citizens, whose names I will give you, were
murdered by the same band upon American soil.
This occurred at a place called Sonoita, just across
the boundary line — just on the American side.
After these fiends had butchered our friends at
this dreadful place, Cavorca, they crossed over
to the other side of the line, and, in the night
time, took out these men, who were lying ill in
their beds, and, placing them against a bank,
shot them. It was a devilish deed. Have you
ever read that this foul murder of Harrison, Long,
Bunker and Parker, upon American soil, was
ever avenged, or that even an attempt at redresa
was ever made ? Remember, gentlemen, if you
please, the names : Harrison, Bunker, Parker,
Long. And the witness who saw them shot is
now in town to testify to the facts. He was
employed there as clerk in the store of Dunbar.
He was marched out of the house from which
these men were taken to be shot, and carried
into Mexican territory, and there detained for
ten months, with no assigned cause for his impris
onment. He had never heard even of this expe
dition in which Mr. Crabb and his companions fell,
until a short time before they passed through
Sonoita. These desperadoes kept him until they
got tired of him, and then they sent him away.
And that man is here; that man is ready to
swear to these facts. The line had been run by
the American Commission and recognized by
both Governments. Ths fact has been indispru-
tably established that these men were murdered
upon American soil ; and it is also true that no
complaint has been uttered concerning it by our
Government, much less any satisfaction ever de
manded therefor. Gentlemen, I, as every other
Californian, believe that one good thing has been
procured, so far as we are concerced, since this
Administration has gone into power and that is
the OVERLAND MAILS. Doubtless that good
thing has been done. Let us not deny that.
Arid in the last Annual Message of the
President you hear him recommending that
portions of the army of the United States be
stationed along at different points, for the pur
pose, as he declares, of affording protection to
the horses and mules and entire stock of the
Stage Company. According to his recommenda-
tion.some of these soldiers might be stationed right
on the very spot where these Americans were
murdered. Within, at least, a few miles of the
place where Harrison, Bunker, Parker and Long
were murdered,on American soil,our troops would

11

be placed, not to avenge their horrid deaths, but
to protect mules and stage horses. [Sensation
and laughter.] Gentlemen, as we come north,
we find our way to the Mountain Meadows.
Here, on a certain day, in the foil of the year
'57, were murdered one hundred and twenty or
one hundred and thirty men, women and chil
dren — American citizens. Have you ever heard
any inquiry into that affair ? What has the Pres't
done to ferret out and convict, much less to pun
ish, those who committed that enormous crime?
He sent an officer into that country — a Judge —
who is accused of straining, and who perhaps did
strain his powers to obtain information and a
conviction ; and I hope to God he did strain a
point, as I think any good man would have done,
if he thought it necessary, in such a case.
[Great applause.] He undertook to inquire into
this business. He met with complete proof of
the fact that as many as eighty of the Mormons
in that valley, disguised as Indians, were engaged
in the murder of this immigrant trairt, doubtless
for the purpose of avenging the killing of a lech
erous old wretch by the name of Parley Pratt,
who was killed by a citizen of Arkansas. As
many as eighty Mormons were engaged in this
massacre, according to the record furnished by
Judge Cradlebaugh. Of course there was great
resistance and opposition made by this people to
the prosecution of any of these inquiries, and
when the matter is heard of at Washington, the
President just does not remove Judge Cradlebaugh.
The President caused a letter to be written to
him, informing him that he had violated, tran
scended his powers in the premises, but not sug
gesting anything to enable him to carry out the
great and noble idea of bringing the guilty in this
fearful crime to punishment. Who is this man ?
What imbecility, what carelessness, what want
of common humanity towards the people of the
United States does this conduct indicate!
Now, two years nearly have passed away.
There, at Mountain Meadows lie bleaching the
skulls, the arms, the ribs, the thighs, the skele
tons of our people. 0, horrid sight I Sixteen
or seventeen of the youngest children, spared
from that band, are gathered together, but even
their names are lost. It is not known even of
whom they were born. They are now thrown
upon the charge of the Government itself; that
is, if we had a Government. Yet all this ter
rible enormity is passed entirely by, and we
hear of nothing, nothing, except some com
mon, low, vile, paltry, partisan squabble in
the newspapers. Perhaps a Postmaster is turned
out of office, or'another man is appointed to the
office of Collector, and all because the old incum
bents dared, on the impulse of the momeut, and
in the righteous indignation of their souls, to ex
press a just criticism upon some act of this Ad
ministration, or because the successors are the
friends of this or that man, and are believed to
posssess a larger influence which they can com
mand for the subserviency of the President.
Call you that a PRESIDENT ? Is that a GOVERN
MENT ? My God 1 my God 1 • And is it possible
there is any sane man living who dares to insult
an intelligent and free people by asking them to |

sustain for an instant such a man as this ?
[Sensation.] I say it requires not many more
such Administrations — such Presidents — to bring
about the dismemberment of this great Confede
racy, this mighty Union, much surer than the
fury of partisan heat. Let the government of
the people of these United States become thor
oughly imbecile and worthless, even as this Ad
ministration is rendering it, and it will fall to
pieces of itself, without the necessity of applying
force in any quarter. [Applause.] Doubtless,
more on this account than on any other —
more on account of the imbecility, the in
dolence and base inhumanity of the Adminis
tration than on any other account, do we meet
well-informed men, in the private walks of life,
xvho think that this Government is A failure.
And it is a logical conclusion; for if this is our
Government, in the name of God let it fall and
be wiped from the face of the earth. [Great ap
plause.] What we want the most of a Govern
ment is PROTECTION TO LIFE. It must secure, first
and always, the safety of persons, guarantee in
dividual liberty to every American citizen, and
when that fails all else is worthless. [Prolonged
applause.]

Gentlemen, as we approach to the end of the list
of the prominent acts of this Administration we are
again called to consider another of its "triumphs."
[Laughter.] We are told in the resolutions
passed by the late Administration Convention of
this State, that this Administration of Jarngs Bu
chanan deserves great gratitude for having sup
pressed the Utah rebellion. " Suppressed 1" In
the name of mercy! when and how? An army,
costing in its outfit and continued supplies as
many or more millions than the Paraguay Expe
dition, was marched out in the wilderness, and
a Commissioner corresponding in character with
Mr. Bowlin was dispatched in advance to ask
and receive only an apology from Brigham
Young. President Brigham said he would sin
no more, and President Buchanan agreed to say
nothing further of the past.

Is that "SUPPKESSION ? " According to the President's
own statement, Brigham Young had committed treason.
Now I ask vou what right had this President to pardon
treason ? Upon what sort of apology can he chooso to
overlook treason for the sake of peace ? Upon the same
authority h« may pardon all other criminals for their
past iniquities, for th* sake of relieving the police of the
trouble of catching them and the courts of the trouble of
sentencing aud hanging them. [Lauehter and applause.]
Surely this is a mighty "triumph;" over $4,000,000 ex
pended; 8000 troops marched to Salt Lake with great pa
rade; a United States Commissioner dispatched to anti
cipate all fighting; Brigham Young is treated with the
utmost consideration, though acknowledged guilty of
the crime of treason; his simple cry for pardon is ac
cepted as full satisfaction for his iniquities, and now, sav
ed from many cares of state, rejoicinc in all his poly
gamous glory, he is as happy and as influential as ever.
[Great laughter and applause.] Now, gentlemen, will
any man, when he finds that this Government avenges
no wrongs or gives no protection, whether murders are
committed on citizens in foreign lands or within our own
bounds, whether by the individual victim or by the score,
and all these things are passed over with the most care
less indifference, I ask if any man can reasonably say
that he was astonished that the President and the Ad
ministration showed so little concern at the danger of
naturalized citizens being pressed into service by Euro
pean cations? It would have been a miracle had it been
otherwise. No such thing as a direct, bold manly course
on this subject could have been expected from this Pres-

ident After all the vacillation and cowardice hereto- i evasion's sake. Such a course might have boon pursued
fore exhibited by this Administration, what else could I from motives of prudence and to e/ade an assertion of a
have been expected? Fellow-citizens, according: to the plain duly. The best of men may err, and in those times,
telegraphic dispatch, it would seem that the Adminis- ; perhaps, when such a tiling was of most unlikely occur-
tration had got frightened at lh« stand it had taken and , renee, it was deemed by noun- of our cautious rulers that
was inclined to take the back track. [Laughter,] lint it was better to allow a rare and isolated instance to pass
telegraphic dispatches are not always reliable; better i by. But now the case has assumed altogether Different
wait and see all that is at the foundation of the rumor be- ! proportions. Peace, in a great measure, has departed,
fore we place any confidence in it There is something in j or is on the eve of departing from the whole civili/ed
favor of the report at the outset; however, as it is said ; world. We find the flames of war lighting up the val-
that the naturalized citizen, in behalf of whom the, pow- i leys, and threatening battles nd carnage unknown since
er of the Government is to be exercised, originally came j the year 1815. All Europe is armed. Every nation is

from and was arrested in Hanover. Now, Hanover is
the very smallest kind of a country [laughter], and if
there is any country in the world with which this Ad
ministration would be inclined to hazard an experiment,
little Hanover would suit the best. Gentlemen, next to
God Almighty, upon tlfis earth, the chief visible power
is that of the organized People, State or Nation. Next
to the duty we owe to God is the duty we owe to our
State ; a corelattve duty the State owes to the oifi7.ru —
protection iu all his rights. W- hold in the United States
that citizens may be made in two ways; they may be
born citizens, or made citizens by a process established
and regulated by our laws. Under this process those that
are naturalized are but citizens. There is nothing in our
laws, nor in the laws of an y country, which discrimin
ates and says that the word "citizen" means one thing
in reference to one person, and another thing in reference
to another person.
Now I say that, as the highest duty which a man can

owe, next to his duty to God, is his duty to his country ;
so the hishest duty which the country can owe comes
back again to the citizen, who lives and labors in her ser
vice. "Naturalization'" is a more euphonious wor
than " Nativeizing." The foreigner who is naturalized
under our law is made natura', made native, and in all
things comes upon the same footing with a born citizen

in want of soldiers. Now it is time that this thing,
which has been allowed to sleep unnoticed, ruinuiu
undisturbed, as of not sufficient importance to be no
ticed in times past, requires to be met in the face and
our duties in regard to it boldly and explicitly an
nounced and performed; the issue is whether we will
consent tamely to have our naturalized citizens
driven about, or hedged up. or shut within our own
boundaries, or whether they shall all have per
fect liberty to go wherever civilized man mny ven
ture upon the face of the earth. [Great applause.]
I am not astonished, I confess, at the telegraphic dis
patch to the effect that the Administration is coining
around to this doctrine. You would naturally have con
sidered that two strongly written letters would have
done something towards committing an Administration
of ordinary ability and firmness to a particular line of
policy, but we have all arrived at the conviction that in
matters where prevarication and double dealing is possi

ble, this Administration is a splendid exception.

We must, consider that this latest intelligence amounts
simply to a declaration that the Administration have

'"Naturalization'''' is a more euphonious word j yielded to the present pressure, and that it promises no

real consistent action worthy of the name. It is another
of those Chinese dodges, intended to operate at home
very powerfully, while there is no serious purpose of in-

_ asked a friend this morning, whose business it is to ad- | sisting upon it abroad. Gentlemen, what are we to do
minister this process of naturalization, to give me the practically about this matter? I do not know of any-
oath that the naturalized citizen had to swear. 1 have thing better than the course prescribed for the President
here atopy of the oath, and I will read it, though I by the Congress of the United States during the war of
doubt not but than nearly every man who is listening to , 1812. At that time a portion of our troops crossed over
me now lias read it. The applicant is brought forward ; j into the British territory of Canada, met with a disaster,
he proves that he has been five years in the United ' and General Winfield Scott with some hundred others
States, and one year in the State of California — a man of ! were taken prisoners. Among the number of captives

good moral character, and attached to the principles of
the Constitution All this is sworn to. by accompany
ing witnesses, before a Court of Justice. That being

was a certain number of Irish-American citizens, sol
diers in the ranks. They were taken with arms in their
hands fighting against the sovereign in whose kingdom

oath : " You do solemnly swear that yon will support
the Constitution of the United States; that you do en
tirely renounce and abjure all allegiance, and fidelity to
every foreign Prince, Potentiate, State and Sovereignty
whatever, and particularly to - of whom you have
heretofore been a subjeet. So help you God." Does this
mean anything or nothing — that he adjures all allegiance
and fidelity to any foreign prince, etc.? When he swore

done, these United States require of him to take this j they were born — taken upon his own soil. Straightway

the British officers parceled off the sons of Erin, put
them on board of a ship for the purpose of sending them
to be tried and doubtless executed for treason. General
Scott told the British officer, in whoso hands he was at
that momenta prisoner, that the thing thev contempla
ted could not be done with impunity, that the Govern
ment of the United States would retaliate, and that for
every life of one of those rebellious Irishmen, taken in

allegiance'to the United States of America, did he the act of "treason" against the English Govermnent,one
straightway become bound in allegiance to the United j would be required from among the number of British
States of America? That is all that is in the question, j prisoners in the bands of the Americans. [Great ap-
Can we undertake to place a man in a position like that, | plause and hisses.] ^General Scott subsequently repro-
to require of him the best service of his brain and his
muscle, and the sacrifice of his life at all times, every
where and upon all emergencies, even to serve, as is re
quired of us, who were born upon this soil, yet say :
'•But if you should happen to get within the reach of
the only power or person on the face of the earth by
whom th re is the least probability of your being mo

sented the matter at Washington, and a law was passed
on that subject, which I willread to you :

lested, then, in tha' case, it all meann nothing, and the

" An Act Vesting in the President of the United States

tlie J'mcer of Retaliation :

" SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House
of Representatives of the United States of America, in
Congres? assembled, That in all and every case wherein,

arresting Government may do as it pleases with you." ! during the present war between the United States of
If we would not be a nation of dastards, we are bound America and the United Kingdom of ,Great Britain and
to protect this man, just as if he was born amongst us. Ireland, any violations of tli« laws and usages of war

Gentlemen, we borrow this process of naturalization, ns
we borrow nearly everythinir else, out of the English

among civilized nations shall be or have bwen 'lone and
perpetrated by those acting under authority of the Bri-

law. We find in the English law books, as old as two tisb Government, on any of the citizens of the United
hundred years, that naturalization cannot be upon con- ; States, or persons in the land or naval service of the
ditions, nor cannot be qualified in a degree, but th-it it i United States, the President of the United States is here
in ust be complete, absolute and perfect. By referring by authorised to cause full and am pie retaliation to be
to these law books you will find in the appropriate | made, according to the laws and usages of war among
phrases, in the language of that time, a clear and dis- : civilized nations, for all and every such violation as
tinct announcement of this proposition. But it will be aforesaid.

said that on certain times and occasions, some of the best ! llS c.2. And belt further enacted, That in all cases
of our Secretaries of State and President-* have suffered ] where any outrage, or act of cruelty or barbarity shall
citizens of the United States to be pressed into military j be or has been practiced by any Indian or Indians in
•ervice in European countries. It matters not what was alliance with the British Government, or in connec-
uone contrary to law and for expediency sake it the I tion with those acting under the authority of the said
early days of our Republic. If such omissions occurred, Government, on citizens of the United states, or those
they were permitted against avowed principles and for . under its protection, the President of the United States

13

is hereby authorized to cause full and ample retalia
tion to be done and executed on such British subjects,
soldiers, seamen, or marines, or Indians, in alliance
or connection with Great Britain, being prisoners of
war, as if the same outrage, or act of cruelty or barbarity
had been done under the authority of the British Gov
ernment.
"Approved March 3, 1813 "

1 Now, General Scott was charged with the execu
tion of this law; it was his duty to see that this
retaliation was duly executed. He parceled off just ex
actly the same number of British prisoners in his hands
as they had >iatumlized Irish-Americans, and then he
sent a communication to the British authorities, that for
•very Irish-American citizen who suffered, one of these
British prisoners should be hung also. [Great applause
and a few hisses.] I say, that's the way. It' we are
not a nation of dastards— if we are not a grand conglom
erate of cowards, then, I say, whether war or peace, we
have here a rule— a natural rule— to apply to such a case.
[Applause.] I will not stop to argue upon sentences out
of books — quoting a passage here and there to make an
argument, as though I was before a Court. I will leave
it to your judgment and natural sense of justice and mat-
hood whether you are not ready to stand up and insist
upon the rights of naturalized citizens, as well as the
rights of citizens born upon our soil. [Applause.] "Will
it bring war ? Let war come. [Prolonged applause.]
Who will be the first man to say, I will shrink irom this
danger rather than undertake to redress or prevent such
a wrong as this ? You could not find any respectable
citizen of that temper. Go through the populous portions
of the State, and put the question : Ara you willing now,
from fear of balls, or from fear of all the dangers of war,
are you willing to submit that A or B should be deprived
of liberty and shoved into the ranks of a foreign army ?
You cannot find the man base enough to answer that
question affirmatively. Thtre is no man among us so
lost to shame as to submit to the degrading concession
which this nerveless, boneless, bloodless Administration
has made. Let us then make short work of it. Let us
have a law of retaliation in their very face. Let it be
made known to the proper authorities in France, Eng
land, Germany, and Austria, that for any one of our
adopted citizens, born on their soil, who may be forced
into the ranks of their armies, we will select one of the
best of their unnaturalized subjects in this country, and
set him to cracking stones or making bricks in the Peni
tentiary. [Great applause and great laugnter, and cries
of "Good ! "That's tho practice !"] Under these circum
stances you may be sure that there will be very short
work made of diplomacy. Not one of these countries
•which 1 have named is going to run the risk of beginning
a quarrel with us.

I do not pretend to say that the power of your coun
try is superior to that of any other; but what advan
tage compared with the disadvantage, would it be for
England or any of the Nations on the Continent to in
augurate a series of reprisals such as I have anticipated,
even if it did not lead to direct war ? They would not
do it. To silence their whole wrath it only requires, on
our part, a firm hand and a proper government.

And now, gentlemen, in all these things of which I
have spoken to you to-night, California, more than any
other part of the United States, is deeply interested. We
delight here to dwell upon the favors which nature has
bestowed upon our country. We delight to speak of her
climate, her soil, her minerals, her wealth of Beauty — to
say that California is a jewel set in the ring of the
temperate zone. But, gentlemen, there are other things
which should receive attentive consideration from our
hands. From California went thote men whose blood
was murderously shed on the Plains of Cavorca, sinking
unavenged in the soil of Mexico. Mostly from Califor
nia went these men who were imprisoned through twen
ty degrees of latitude. Our people from one cause and
another are exceedingly prone to roam, and venturing
abroad, they have met with wrongs and indignities
of the nature described. It was to California that
these immigrants were coming whose bones now
lie bleaching at Mountain Meadows. If, then, there
is any part of the United States which can endure
an Administration of this kind, which can stand
by and approve its conduct, it is not California. —
[Great applause.] What may be a light blow to other
communities comes home to our very hearts. It may be
a matter of indifference to others, comparatively speak
ing, that tie President of the United States should abdi

cate all the great powers of the Government essential
for the protection of Americnn citizens, but it is no
trifle to us, because we are in a position more insu
lated that an island, more distant, more difficult of ap
proach. And if we are to belong to the American Con
federacy, it is only by getting and keeping the powers
of the government into hands which have the nerve,
courage and intelligence to use them all on every proper
occasion. [Applause.] If we have no government; if the
"Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy" means
nothing, it is an invitation to any one that wants us to
come and take us. You will remember that the whole
population of the State of California is not more than
that of a third or fourth rate European city. In these
days they raise urmies by the millions, they have great
ships-of-war by the hundreds, and it any one is tempted
by the weak, vacillating, timid course of our Govern
ment to make an attack upon us, here is the precious
point to strike. The only hope for us is in not giving
undue power to the Federal Government, but in placing
the powers which are now legitimately connected with
it in the hands of men who will use them bravely and
discreetly ; use them to keep danger from our doors ;
use them, if we are attacked, to drive our assailants home
again. [Great applause.]

Gentlemen, what good will rcome from all this party
strife which we witness among the States on the Eas
tern board ? We have no slaves, and never shall have
any. No man thinks of introducing slaves anywhere
into the State of California. The neighboring State of
Oregon won't eren let free negroes come within her
borders. [Laughter, j We are entirely cut off. We
have our own great interests upon the Pacific coast.
First of all is HARMONY through the great body of this
Union, and therefore I say that in California we do
not want laws passed for slavery or against slavery, or
any kind of slave laws. All we want is never to bear
j of slaves. Slavery is a matter of no concern to us.
Let us use the little influence we have in keeping
other people steady and sober, so as to allow the Union
to flourish and grow strong, in order that w« may
enjoy its protection. To whatever quarter we run a
line of extension, and make new States of free white
American populations, we strengthen California.
Is there any man amongst us — is there any
one man who objects to the introduction of five or six
slave states, or five or six states which are free states, or
both tog jther? All the neighbors that we can get, all
the states which can be brought together on the Pacific
Coast, will have a common interest, and tend to the pro
tection of ourselves, out-lying this day, on this distant
border. Let us not be drawn into other peoples' quar
rels ; let us not begin taking our opinions from dictation
from any source in the east; let us not be bribed by
Federal money; let us not be deceived by arguments
which have no application to us; let us use what influ
ence we have to keep peace among our fellow-country
men ; to prevent State from coming into collision with
State, and if possible, to have that past cordiality again
restored, which alone can keep California permanently
under our flag. (Great and prolonged applause).

Gentlemen, in one more light is it our pleasure to
contemplate California. I spoke of her as a jewel, as an
island. I now speak of her as a promontojy of civiliza
rward amid the heathen and

tion, thrust forward

uncivilized

wastes of this Pacific world. Around us are perishing
races and crumbling governments. Our policy, our
laws, should impress, remodel, and control this mighty
mass. Our horizon is studded with the eager eyes of
dusky millions, who look to us for their fate, whether for
good" or for evil ; whether by a peaceful influence ;
whether by conquest and to their destruction. How our
part is to be performed, is among the great questions of
futurity, but its issues are in our hands", if we are true to
ourselves. (Applause). Just as the thirteen colonies
lay along the Eastern board, with the waters of the At-
1 lantic on the one side, and the wilderness on the other;
so lie we along this western slope, with a greater ocean
on the one hand, and an equal wilderness on the other.
As they were then, so now are we ; not the rivals of
great commonwealths, who in ages have grown to wealth
and power, but yet, in the struggling and constructive
era, to be built up. We need more enterprise, more ef
fective force, more fruitful labor ; and all this to be
shielded with the strong hand of a wise and sympathis
ing Government.

Gentlemen, I have but one more remark to make,
and that is : In the light which I have viewed these
questions I have spoken to you more as American

14

citizens than as politicians, and therefore I say to Dein-
ocratd, to Republicans, to Whigs if there be any. to
Know Nothings, or whatever may l>e the prevailing
party amongst our fellow-citizen* of whatever under-
standing they may be, whet her in the ranks of a great
party, whether in a secret society, so cast your votea
now, according to your consciences, that, whatever elso
may follow, you will not bring to view again such a
President and such an Administration.

At the close of Mr. Randolph's remarks he was greetei
with tumultuous applause and cheering.

Loud cries were ma'le for Mr. Broderick.

Mr. POULTERKB announced that it had been expected
that Mr. Broderick would address the meeting, but he
found it impossible to be present

Tne meeting broke up at 11 o'clock.