SPEECH AT THE MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF THE CONSTITUTION AND UNION, HELD IN PHILADELPHIA, NOVEMBER 21, 1850. SPEECH AT THE MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF THE CONSTITUTION AND UNION, HELD IN PHILADELPHIA, NOVEMBER 21, 1850. Ir is with some reluctance, Mr. Chairman and fellow-citizens, that I rise before you. I have been little accustomed of late to address meetings of this size; and you have already been addressed by those more competent to the task, and will be addressed by others. I declined being one of the regular speakers, although honored by a request from the committee to that effect, desiring to come here as a listener only; but I cannot refuse myself to your call. With you entirely in feeling, I will not withhold the contribution of my voice. To the resolutions I need not speak specially, for already they have been well explained. We are assembled tonight not so much to convince each other of the excellence of our cause,-for of that I assume all here are satisfied, as to strengthen each others' convictions, to animate each other in feeling; so that when we separate, each may labor in his own way with but the more zeal in support of the cause. This I understand to be the great object which has brought us together. Our cause is national, the cause of both parties, of all parties, the paramount cause of the CONSTITUTION and the UNION. I rejoice at such a meeting as this in this great city. I rejoice that we are adding our example to others elsewhere set of similar meetings. I call this a great city; and so it is, if we only count numbers; but we may claim something more. Events of which it has been the theatre in American history make it memorable in the eyes of the Union. Some of them are well alluded to in one of the resolutions. Yes, fellow-citizens, in '76 we were the first city of confederated America in population, trade, and finance; but we have still more pride in saying that here assembled, from the thirteen old Colonies, that noble band from whose unconquerable spirit of freedom the great charter of Independence issued. Here it was declared. From this city it was first proclaimed to the nations of the earth. It fixed their attention by its boldness, and could have been ventured upon, in face of the vast power in arms against us, by none but a race trained to freedom, and knowing how to assert and secure it. But that deed, transcendent as it was, might have been of no value, might have turned out worse than useless, but for the Federal Constitution which followed. It is known to us all that from the close of the bloody struggle of seven years to the adoption of that constitution, we had fallen to the lowest point of depression. Internal prosperity, we had none; respect from abroad, we had none. Portentous clouds hung over the future; the hearts of our people were beginning to sink; disappointments came over all, the more bitter from hope having been so high; and for a while it seemed as if no blessings, but the reverse, were to flow from our triumph in arms over Britain. The government which held us together whilst fighting, utterly failed afterwards. The war over, that government proved no better than a rope of sand, to which it was often likened. Then assembled, also in this city, from the thirteen States that had won the great battle, another band of patriots and sages, with Washington at their head. From their wisdom, experience, and longtried devotion to their country, the Federal Constitution came into being. In that consecrated building close by us, in the shady walks of the ancient elms that surrounded it, were carried on from day to day, from month to month, the anxious consultations and discussions, which ended in establishing the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. As a political fabric entire and complete, combining the federative with the national principle, complex in its parts, yet harmonious in their operation, it would hardly be |