of every clime. You all know too well the history of the past year. You all know too well the circumstances of the present hour. Your own gallant Corcoran, who has as few superiors in using the tongue as he has in wielding the sword, and who seems to possess the art of raising regiments, — yes, of raising brigades and legions, as well as of commanding them, he has told you the whole state of the case in terms more felicitous and more forcible than any which I can employ.

Indeed, if any Irishman desires to know this night the cause in which he is called to enlist, he will find it illustrated in full by the words and by the deeds of his own compatriots. If it is not enough to tell him that it is the cause in which the heroic Corcoran endured that long and cruel imprisonment, and came out a more unyielding defender of it than ever before; tell him, too, that it is the cause in which Meagher and Mulligan and Shields have perilled their lives, and in which our lamented Cass has just gone down to a hero's grave. And if he needs still farther information, tell him it is the cause in which the venerable and eloquent Archbishop of New York traversed a wintry ocean to confront the prejudices of the Old World, not officially, indeed, but with an authority more imposing and impressive than that of any commissioned diplomatist, and returned to render an account of his mission in a public discourse, whose trumpet tones ought to find an echo, and I trust have found an echo, in every Irish heart throughout the land.

What Irishman, or what American, desires better testimony, or worthier witnesses than these? They have each presented to you the simple facts that the American Union has been wantonly and wickedly assailed; that the best and most beneficent Constitution and laws which the world has ever witnessed have been causelessly and treacherously set at defiance; that the old flag of our fathers has been madly torn down and trampled in the dust by those who were bound by every tie of duty and of honor to defend it. They have each exhorted you to discard all party prejudices, to renounce all sectional issues, and to rally without delay to the rescue of that flag, and to the restoration of the national authority which it has so long and so proudly represented.

And if they were here with us to-night, they would tell you that the demand for your services is greater and more urgent than ever before; that the enemy are even now thundering at the gates of our capital; that their advanced battalions are already far along within the lines of Maryland, and their scouts and pickets hovering along the borders of Pennsylvania. And they would add that the moment had at last arrived, when, if we could only succeed in striking a sharp, sudden, vigorous, united blow, we might sever the very neck of the rebellion, and leave it gasping in the bed of the Potomac or the Susquehanna; but that delay, hesitation, half-way and halting measures might cost us the best and even the last hopes of a united country.

And what more can any one tell you? What other incitement could you have to rush to arms, to close up your ranks, and to march forward to the great decisive battle of the Republic?

I have sometimes heard it whispered, indeed, and even more than whispered, that we needed a new watchword and a new warcry, that the old appeals for the Union and the Constitution and the Stars and Stripes had lost their magic spell, and would no longer wake the souls of the people. Away with all such suggestions, emanating, as they so often do, from those whose wish is father to the thought! As soon would I believe that the green banner of Erin had lost its charm over those who had once been privileged to hail it as their own! Away with such suggestions! there is no place for them in Faneuil Hall. They cannot abide the visible frown even of these pictured patriots. How would they endure the living presence of a Washington or a Webster! From every one of these honest Irish and American hearts, which are beating here to-night in perfect accord to the music of the Union, I hear the cry,-Away with all such suggestions at an hour like this!

This is not the time, my friends, as I think, and as I know you think, for advancing any policy except the single, simple, straightforward policy of standing by the flag and defending the country. More especially is it not a time for attempting or agitating any policy which may aggravate or complicate still further the existing burdens and responsibilities of the Border States. Heaven knows they have load enough to carry at this moment. The

enemy is at their doors, not quite yet at ours. It is comparatively easy for us to be Union men, and to do our duty as Union men, especially those of us who have passed the age of service in the field. We are called upon, indeed, to send forth to the battle our sons, our brothers, and our dearest friends; and too often we receive them back again, maimed or wounded, bent down with disease, or it may be in the cold embraces of death. But our houses and our hearthstones, though some of them may be desolate, are still secure. No merciless marauders are prowling around our dwellings. No desperate guerillas are plundering our warehouses or threatening our lives. And Faneuil Hall is still left to us undisturbed, where we may not only consult in safety about our duties to the living, but where, as to-day, we may pay the last sad honors to such as have added lustre to the noblest names by dying in defence of the Constitution. But how has it been-how is it now with many of our loyal sister States? with Tennessee and Kentucky, and Missouri and Maryland? How, even at this hour, with Ohio and Pennsylvania? Who can think of the horrors which so many of our brethren of the Border States- men, women, and children-have suffered, and are suffering more than ever at this instant, without yearning for an opportunity to strike an effective blow in their behalf?

Mr. Mayor and fellow-citizens, Irish and American, let me not conclude without a few solemn and earnest words from my deepest convictions of duty. We know not how much longer this terrible struggle is to last, and we cannot foresee its future incidents. If we have much to hope, we are certainly not without much to fear. Our first duty is never to despair of the Republic. But, next to that, as things are at this moment, I know of no higher obligation resting upon us all than to do what we can, and to do all that we can, and to do it as speedily as we can, for the relief and rescue of our afflicted brethren of the Border States. And I know of no higher obligation or interest than to forbear from pressing upon the President, or upon anybody else, any policy, military or civil, which could weaken their hands, or in crease the fearful odds against which they are contending.

The great Central and Western States, - Pennsylvania and Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, Missouri and Maryland, Tennessee

and glorious old Kentucky, -destined, I fear, to be again, as of yore, "the dark and bloody ground," these great Central and Western States have at this moment, under God, the destinies of this republic in their hands. They are the very pivot States of the Union cause. Upon them hangs and hinges at this hour the whole great struggle. New York, with her pre-eminent commercial wealth and power, and her close proximity to many of them, may well assert a leading influence in their movements and counsels. But oh! let us in New England be content to devote ourselves to the single end of sending aid and re-enforcements to our brethren in the field. And even if any of us have ever so sincerely or ever so ardently at heart any peculiar policy of our own, let us sacrifice the poor satisfaction of an untimely utterance and advocacy of it at the risk of throwing discord into our own ranks for the sake of that Union which ought to be the supreme object of all our efforts. Let us sustain the President in holding up the flag of the Union, pure and simple. Let us rally around the gallant Halleck and the noble McClellan in fighting the simple battle of the Constitution. Let us keep in mind their repeated injunctions, that "this is not a war of rapine, revenge, or subjugation," and that it "should be conducted on the highest principles known to Christian civilization." Let us breathe no challenges or defiances towards foreign nations, nor indulge in any boastful and savage threats about extinguishing sister States or exterminating their inhabitants. And let us look up, humbly and devoutly, to Him who presideth over all States and sitteth above all stars, to enlighten the minds of our rulers, to strengthen the hands of our defenders, and to spare our beloved country from confusion and chaos.

THE CHURCH AS AFFECTED BY THE

WAR.

REMARKS AT THE TRIENNIAL CONVENTION OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE UNITED STATES, WITH A REPORT AND RESOLUTIONS, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 9, 1862.

I CHEERFULLY comply, Mr. President, with the call which the Reverend Chairman of the Committee has just made upon me, by reading to the House a Report with which I am, perhaps, more familiar than he himself is. It is true that I held the pen of the Committee in putting into final shape the Resolutions on which they have agreed. I wish that the pen had been more adequate to the occasion. I feel bound, however, in justice to others as well as to myself, to say, that neither the Report nor the Resolutions are precisely what I originally proposed; and that while I shrink from no responsibility in regard to them, and am ready to defend them to the best of my ability, I am quite unwilling to monopolize any credit, or any criticism or censure, which may attach to them.

The results at which the Committee have arrived, have been reached, as all other results must be reached, in Committees or in the House, and everywhere else in this world, by many comparisons of opinion, and by many mutual concessions of individual preferences, both as to matters of phraseology and as to matters of substance; and I heartily hope, for the sake of that peace and unity in the Church, which would be one of the best omens of future peace and harmony for our beloved country, that there will be as much disposition for mutual conciliation and concession in the Convention as there has been in the Committee.

It may not be uninteresting for me to add that the final unanimity of the Committee was attained yesterday, immediately after