halls of legislation, we should never have had this terrible civil war. It can hardly be denied that the tongue, that unruly mem ber, that world of iniquity, as it is called in Holy Writ, "which setteth on fire the course of nature and is set on fire," — we all remember how was one of the prime movers of all the mischief that has befallen our country. Criminations and recriminations, mutual accusations and insults, reciprocal vituperations and denunciations, exciting bad blood, fomenting sanguinary animosities, and imbittering all the streams and currents of social affection and social intercourse, these were among the immediate incitements to that original and atrocious revolt which has been followed by so deadly a struggle. Let us beware of dealing in such intemperance of dispute among ourselves. Let us recognize frankly the differences which naturally spring up in a great crisis like the present. Let us impute bad motives to no one. Let us not return railing for railing. Let us concede to others the same honesty of purpose and earnestness of patriotism which we claim for ourselves; and let us do all that we can to prepare the way for a peaceful and patriotic submission on all sides to whatever may be the result of the great struggle in which we are engaged. The country will need the united services, the cordial 'co-operation, of all its sons, whoever may be President. Too much, too much of the old magnetic sympathy which once bound together the people of the land has already been destroyed by the storm of civil war. The electric chord has been snapped and shattered on all sides, and its supporters prostrated in the dust. Let us strive to restore a better understanding even among those who differ so widely from each other. Let us lift up again those prostrate supports, and do all in our power to repair those shattered chords. And let us hope that the day is not far distant, when, by the blessing of God, something of the old spirit of conciliation and kindness may be revived throughout our whole country; when we may have, in the high places of the Nation, conductors, instead of non-conductors as now, for the glorious electric spark of Union and Nationality; and when a policy shall be adopted and pursued which shall attract, instead of repelling, even our deluded brethren of the Southern States. This, my friends, is the policy which our noble candidate, General McClel lan, has uniformly inculcated by precept and by example. This is the spirit in which so many of the officers and soldiers who have served under him as a General, have associated and organized themselves for his support as President. And this is the spirit in which they have assembled here this evening, and we with them, to encourage and animate each other in the cause in which they are engaged, and to listen to the story of his career from the eloquent lips of one whose pen has already furnished its most faithful and brilliant illustration. Knowing well, as we all do, that this is no mere question about candidates or men,— that principles are at stake far above all consideration of parties or of persons, and which touch the very life of the nation, you do not yet forget how much even the best and noblest principles may be indebted, for their successful vindication, to the purity of life, the dignity of character, the careful training and varied experience, the magnanimity and self-reliance, the high-toned and chivalrous bearing, of the men who may be selected to defend them. We all know how much the personal character and qualities of George Washington did for the first establishment of our Constitution and our Union. We compare no one with him, living or dead. But it may be that the virtues and valor, the prudence and patriotism, of another George, who has already identified himself with the rescue of the Capital by achieving the victory of Antietam on the very birthday of the Constitution, may supply the one thing needful for that glorious restoration of Union and Peace, which is the first, best wish of every patriot heart. God grant that it may be so! Meantime, my friends, let us listen without further delay to the story of his career from one who has studied it so faithfully, and whom I am happy in being able to present to you not only as the associate of my earlier years, my classmate at school and college, but as an esteemed and valued friend from that day to this. I present to you the Hon. George S. Hillard. A HOME FOR THE SAILORS. A SPEECH MADE ON THE OPENING OF THE SAILORS' FAIR, AT THE BOSTON THEATRE, NOVEMBER 9, 1864. IT happens, ladies and gentlemen, that in the distribution of parts for carrying out the great enterprise in behalf of which we are assembled, a place was assigned me, by the managers, on the committee for the picture gallery; and whatever humble aid my worthy colleagues on that committee have allowed me to render, has been rendered in that connection. I hope, therefore, that I may be pardoned for saying, at the outset of the very few remarks which I propose to make this evening, and in justice to my associates who have taken the laboring oar in the work, that a really beautiful collection of paintings has been arranged at the Athenæum, and that we trust that no one who takes an interest in the object of this occasion will forget to pay a visit to the gallery before the Fair is closed. But what gallery of pictures can be compared with the living, breathing panorama before us? What Interiors or Bazaars by old masters or by new,-what portraits by Copley, or Stuart, or Allston, what fancy heads or fairy groups by any artist who could be named among the living or among the dead, can equal or approach the heads, the groups, the gorgeous Interior, the more than Oriental Bazaar, which our eyes are permitted to gaze at and feast upon at this moment? This is indeed, my friends, a glorious show, and one which, as I need hardly say, derives peculiar brilliancy and beauty from the circumstances under which it is witnessed. It would be difficult, I think, not merely within the compass of real life, but even in the whole wide range of that dramatic art to which this edifice : is specially dedicated, to find a more striking or a more welcome contrast, than that between the scenes which have been presented in our own city, and in so many other cities and towns throughout our land, night after night for many weeks past, and the scene which is exhibited here before us and around us at this moment. Every voice of contention hushed. Every note of discord silenced. A not unnatural exultation beaming from a thousand faces around me; a spirit of cheerful acquiescence in the will of the people, not less manifest, I trust, upon the countenances of all the others; nothing anywhere but the best wishes for our beloved country, and for those who have been called to rule over it. Meantime, all hearts animated by a common purpose; all thoughts intent on a common design; music, eloquence, patriotism, heroism, beauty, all gathered and grouped beneath a common canopy and in a common cause, and that the cause of as noble a charity as man or woman has ever advocated or conceived. Well may we recall those words of rapture which have so often been hailed from the lips of some favorite actor on this board: "If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till they have wakened death!" For myself, certainly, I cannot but feel that a most grateful acknowledgment is due from us all to those who have arranged this refreshing and exquisite afterpiece to the exciting and exhausting Drama through which we have just passed; and who have thus afforded us an opportunity of showing, that in the cause of humanity, in the cause of justice, let me rather say, to the gallant Tars who have upheld the flag of our Country so nobly on the seas, there are no dissensions, no divisions, no differences, nothing but sympathy, concurrence, co-operation, earnest, cordial, unanimous. A Home for the Sailors and Marines disabled in the naval service of our country! A Home for poor Jack, that he, too, may at last have a place to lay his head, where he may enjoy the reminiscences of the past and prepare for the responsibilities of the future, where he may spin his long yarns to his heart's content, and learn something of the meaning as well as of the melody of "Home, Sweet Home." Why, it might almost be called a home for the homeless, for we all know that the sailor is the most homeless of all beings on earth. We all know that when he is in active service his only home is a bunk in the forecastle or a hammock between decks. How eminently fit and just, how richly deserved, how full of interest in every moral and religious, as well as in every patriotic view, that when maimed or crippled in the wars, or weary and worn out in battling with the elements, he should be provided with a real home, where he may be kindly cared for by those in whose service and in whose defence he has exhausted his energies and perilled his life! How fit, how just it is that we should not rely wholly, or leave him to rely wholly, upon that "sweet little cherub that sits up aloft," to provide a good berth for poor Jack! You have all heard, my friends, of the great Sailors' Hospital at Greenwich, in old England. Some of you have doubtless visited it. It stands on the site of a favorite palace of some of the old crowned heads of Great Britain, where at least one of the Henrys had his "manor of pleasaunce," and at least one of the Jameses his "gardens of delight," where Cromwell resided for a time in soberer state, and where Charles II., when the great rebellion of that age was ended, commenced the erection of a sumptuous edifice for his revels. It is pleasant to recall the fact, in this presence and in connection with this occasion, that it was a woman who first suggested that this palace of Greenwich should be turned into a home for the disabled mariners of England. A glorious woman she was, as Macaulay has described her to us, Mary, the wife of William of Orange, of graceful manners, of majestic presence, of spotless purity, of earnest piety; and who, by the way, we are told by the lamented historian, had an ingenious way of putting down the censoriousness and scandal which she despised, by asking any one who dared to whisper any thing malicious in her presence, whether he had ever read her favorite sermon," Dr. Tillotson's Sermon on Evil Speaking." It was immediately after the famous victory of the English and Dutch fleets at La Hogue, in 1692, when an invasion in the interests of her own father had just been triumphantly repelled, that Mary proposed that the palace at Greenwich, which had been commenced by the merry Monarch, should be completed as a |