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![handle is hein.slavery/adeevtfanh0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
NEW ENGLAND LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY.
OFFICE, NO. 8 STUDIO ]BUILDING, BOSTON.
ADDRE
SS
BY
HON. EDWARD EVERETT,
Delivered in Faneui! Hall, October 19, 1864.
THE DIUTY OF SUIPPORTING THE GOVERNMENT IN THE PRESENT CRISIS
OF AFFAIRS.
FELLOW-CITIZENS,- have never, ad-
dressed you under a deeper sense, of respon-
sibility than at the present time! The coun-
try is rent by civil war: 'but the political
contest 'in which we are engaged at honme is
fraught with greater danger ; or rather, in my
judgment, it depends very much upon the
result of this political contest whether the
civil war shall be brought to a successful and
honorable close, or whether all the treasure
which has been expended, and all the pre-
ci6us blood which has been shed, shall have
-beenworse than wasted. In a letter, which
i.1 had occasion to address to a convention in
.Ilinds a twelvemonth and more ago, I re-
markd that the elections, then about to be
'held would throw light on the question, how
far it is possible for a free Government, con-
stilnted in its legislative and executive
-br-nches by popular choice, expressed in fre-
gquently recurrinrg elections, to prosecute for
any considerable length of time a war which
entails heavy burdens on the community. If
such a Government is habitually torn by par-
ties which paralyze the administrative powers
of the State, and in time of war embarrass its
,movements, and thus encourage the enemy,
one of two results will follow, - it will even-
tually sink in the struggle with the nearest
compact despotism ; or the people, tired and
wasted by faction, will resign themselves to a
despotic central government. The result of
the impending election will go far to decide
the question, whether, in consequence of'our
Qarty dissentions, it is necessary -for twenty-
two millions of freemen to succumb in a
struggle with less than'half that amount of a
mixed free and slave population, waging an
unrovoked and treasonable war ; whether
it is possible for any administration to bear
up under the mountain load of a giganti6
contest, while every person belonging to it,
and every prominent individual actively sup-
porting it, throughout the length and breadth
of the land, is the object of the fiercest de-
traction, and the common enemy is daily en-
couraged by the assurances of a hundred
vigorous presses, and a thousand eloquent
platforms,' that they have to do with a
feeble, incompetent, corrupt antagonist. The
political contest now waging at the North is,
in my opinion, a greater evil than the loss of
many pitched battles. Were we moving with
one heart and one mind, it would be worth
fleets and armies to the cause. If we are de-
feated in this mighty struggle, my friends, we
shall have been defeated by ourselves. ' Gen-
eral Grant observes in a letter of the 16th
of August, that all we want now, to insure
an early restoration of the Union. is a deter-
mined unity of sentiment at the North.
The unanimity displayed by the loyal
States, when the treason, meditated for a gen-
eration, was consummated at Sumter, seemed
to promise such a unity of sentiment while
the war should last. It was, however, per-
haps asking too much of poor human -nature
to expect that the party arrived at power,
should, on achieving its first national success,
renounce the fruits of victory;' oi that the
defeated party, claiming, almost from tinieim-
memorial, a monopoly of office; should foregcb
the chance of recovering its ascendency, af-
forded by the burdens and the miscarriages
of the war; and, if you please, by the'errors
of the administration in conducting it. Eight-
eenmonths ago, I thougbt-,Ith6ped-mthat-
this presidential cl-tion might possibly be](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/adeevtfanh0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)