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SPEECH IN FANEUIL HALL

PREVIOUS TO

THE ELECTION IN 1848.

SPEECH IN FANEUIL HALL.*

ONCE again, friends and fellow-citizens, once again, and quite unexpectedly, I find myself in Faneuil Hall. And I feel all the recollections of the past gathering upon me. I hear a thousand voices, silent elsewhere, but always speaking here, admonishing me, and admonishing you, who do me the honor to be here, to perform the whole duty which we owe to our country. I come here to-day, in obedience to an authority which I must always respect, the wishes of the people of Suffolk and the Whigs of the Commonwealth, to express to them my opinions upon the present state of the internal affairs of the country, the concerns of business and the occupations of men, and their prospects for the future; and I proceed, without preface, to the performance of that duty.

An election of President and Vice-President of the United States is now pending, and a choice of members for the new Congress is already in progress. It is in vain to disguise, that the result of these elections must produce a decided effect, for good or for evil, upon the interests of men and their pursuits, at the present moment, and upon the prospects which lie beyond the present. There are, in fact, Gentlemen, but two candidates for the Presidency, General Taylor, the Whig candidate, and General Cass, the Democratic candidate. As to the support of another gentleman, which some of our friends, I am sorry to say, have embraced and still pursue, I regard it, in a military sense of the phrase, as a mere diversion; and if the subject were not solemn, and the occasion solemn, I should say it was very much of a diversion, also, in the ordinary acceptation of that term.

* A Speech delivered in Faneuil Hall, on the 24th of October, at a general meeting of the Whigs of Boston and the vicinity, previous to the Presidential Election.

There are, fellow-citizens, two candidates, and no more; and the election of one or the other, accompanied with a correspondent election in point of political character of members of Congress, will produce one or the other, respectively, of two results; and those results regard the present state of the business of the country, as it is affected by two acts of recent legislation. If General Taylor be elected President, and if there be, to sustain his measures, a Whig Congress, there are two existing laws of the country which will be essentially modified, or altogether repealed. I mean those commonly called the sub-treasury law and the tariff of 1846. If, on the other hand, General Cass be chosen, and a Congress elected, at the same time, to sustain his views of the public interests, both of these existing laws will be continued in force.

Gentlemen, I saw this morning a speech delivered lately in Washington by the present Secretary of State, Mr. Buchanan, a gentleman who is among the first, if not the very first, of his party, in point of character and standing in the country. Differing from most of the sentiments in this speech, I still do its author the credit and justice to say, that it is a manly speech. He says, having first paid a just, and no more than a just, tribute of respect to the military character, good sense and strong understanding, and the upright and pure motives of General Taylor, he says of him, nevertheless, that he is a Whig, and that being himself a Whig, if elected President by the Whigs, and surrounded, as he will be, by a Whig Cabinet, he must, from the necessity of his position, carry into effect Whig principles and Whig measures; and that he would be faithless to his friends and his party if he did not do that. I agree to all this, Gentlemen, and I believe that he would be prompted to Whig principles and Whig measures, not more by the necessities of his position, than from what I believe to be his deep conviction of the policy, propriety, justice, and soundness of those principles.

Well, Gentlemen, as Mr. Buchanan has stated one side of the case fairly, allow me to state the other. And I may say, upon the other hand, if General Cass be elected President, and a corresponding Congress be at the same time elected, he will carry out the Democratic platform of Baltimore, he will exert the influence of his office in favor of the sub-treasury and the tariff of

1846. He will follow the bright example of him whom he so much commends, Mr. Polk, and whatever, in the same career of legislation, Mr. Polk has left undone, General Cass will be on hand to do. So that it brings us exactly, as practical men, as men who are not carried away by theories, as men who do not attach all degree and all manner of importance to one single idea, as men who regard the various interests of the country, now and hereafter, to this position, to give our suffrages and our support heartily and cordially to General Taylor, or to consent to the election of General Cass.

Ought these measures, to which I have thus referred, to be further prolonged or continued, or ought they now to be repudiated, to be set aside, and to give place to other and wiser measures of government? That is the question pending. And to begin with what is called the sub-treasury system. Ought that to be continued? Is it useful? Do the business men of the community find a benefit in it? Do the laboring classes find it to protect their interests? In short, does government find it convenient for its own purposes?

But before we consider what the results of the pending election may be, it may be well to understand what is the present state of the country, in regard to the business and occupations of men.

On that point, Gentlemen, I might, with great propriety, ask for information from you. And what I have to say upon it, I say with deference to your knowledge and experience. What, then, is the present state of things? I suppose I may answer, that there is a very unusual scarcity of money, or high price of money, in the community at the present moment; that it has lasted a very unusual length of time; that it has now continued for more than twelve months, without any apparent abatement. I suppose I may say, that there is a great depression of industry and stagnation of business, and discouragement to the occupations of men. I suppose I may say, with truth, that there is a diminished demand for manufacturing labor, and a great and increasing diminution in its reward. Is this a true, though brief, presentation of the actual state of things?

There are before me hundreds of men who, with some capital, like all other men of business, have occasion also, at times, for loans and discounts. Do they find, and do they admit, and do

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