On the day upon which the ceremony of laying the corner-stone of President Grant's tomb, at Riverside Park, in New York, was performed by President Harrison (April 27, 1892), the morning papers printed the following item: “A special meeting of Tammany Sachems was held at the Wigwam yesterday afternoon. General Horace Porter and General Daniel Butterfield appeared in Lehalf of the Grant Monument Association. Both spoke of the readiness which the Tammany Society had always shown in taking part in public enterprises, and asked their co-operation in erecting the monument. The Sachems, on motion of Mr. Croker, appropriated $5,000 for the Monument Fund.” "WASHINGTON, July, 1866. "To Hon. John T. Hoffman, Grand Sachem, Tammany Society or Columbian Order." "Gentlemen of the Committee of Tammany Society or Columbian Order: "I have received your invitation to participate in your celebration of the National Anniversary. "To the honor of your Society it has in all times and under all circumstances, in war and peace, been faithful to the union of the States and the rights of the States. At no period since its organization have its teachings and services been more required than at the present time, when the victorious arms of the Republic, having suppressed the false theory that the Union can be divided by secession or the voluntary withdrawal of a State from its Federal relations and obligations, we are now compelled to encounter the opposite extreme of compulsory exclusion, by which the centralists deny to eleven States representation in Congress, which is guaranteed them by the Constitution. The doctrine of compulsory exclusion is scarcely less offensive than that of voluntary secession. Each is fatal to the perpetuity of the Union. I respond most sincerely to the correct and patriotic views expressed in your invitation. I respectfully submit the following sentiment: ""The union of the States only to be maintained by a faithful observance of the rights of the States.' "GIDEON WELLS. (Secretary of Navy under Lincoln.) We might fill this volume with letters of similar tenor, if that would add effect to the sentiments so well expressed by these eminent Republicans, but must content ourselves with giving a partial list of the names of distinguished men of both parties and non-partisans who sympathized with the views of Tammany in the matter of prompt reconstruction of the Southern States. Many of these letters were read. Among the names our readers will recognize some of the most influential and respected statesmen of the period: President Andrew Johnson, Gideon Wells, Secretary of Navy, Maj.-Gen. W. S. Hancock, Hon. Meyer Strouse, J. K. Hackett, Recorder City of N. Y., W. F. Allen, Esq., Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, Maj.-Gen. D. N. Couch, Maj.-Gen. H. E. Davies, Hon. J. P. Stockton, Hon. James Brooks, Hon. James De Peyster Ogden, Hon. D. R. Floyde Jones, Hon. R. W. Peckham, Hon. Edwin Crosswell, W. B. Lawrence, Esq., H. A. Nelson, Esq., Toward the close of the exercises the following resolution was presented by Recorder Hackett: "The Grand Sachem of the United States [Andrew Johnson], may he soon have at his belt all the radical scalps-leaving them their brains; and before another Fourth of July may he assemble the whole nation around the Council Fire of Old Tammany and smoke with them the Pipe of Peace." This was passed amid much laughter and hearty cheers. It was then announced that the Council of the Wigwam was closed for 1866. CHAPTER XXXII. H HORATIO SEY MOUR. ORATIO SEYMOUR, usually called "the War Governor," was so closely affiliated with Tammany in sentiment and feeling, and was also the nominee of the Society for President in 1868, that we feel justified in making special notice of him here, though his home was in the interior of the State. Horatio Seymour was a representative Democrat, allowing no side issues or temporary policies to divert him from the solid principles of Jeffersonian Democracy, which he had adopted early in life. His first entrance into official duties was in 1835, when he became Military Secretary to that staunch Democrat, William L. Marcy, which office he retained for six years, or until he was elected to the Assembly in 1841. The following year he was elected Mayor of Utica. His suburban estate at Deerfield being near that enterprising city, he was soon again returned to the Assembly, and thereafter was kept almost constantly in some representative or official position. But our interest in him centres mainly in the war period, and we omit the details of intervening years. Standing on exact constitutional grounds, he was keenly alive to the necessity of maintaining the Union at any cost. Particularly did he condemn the action of those who made the election of Mr. Lincoln an excuse for disloyalty. At a Democratic ratification meeting held in Utica, on October 28, 1861, Mr. Seymour, after expressing his very natural regret at the failure of his own party to elect their candidate, said: "Mr. Lincoln was chosen in a constitutional manner, and we wish, as a defeated organization, to show our loyalty by giving him a just and generous support." We next find him as an active member of the committee appointed by Governor Edwin D. Morgan to raise troops in Oneida County; and he not only freely gave of his valuable services to this patriotic object, but aided with substantial funds also. In September, 1862, the Democratic convention again nominated him for Governor. (He had been Governor in 1852.) After a canvass, in which he asserted the right to criticise what appeared to him a wrong policy in the administration of the government, while earnestly sustaining the national authority, he was elected by a handsome majority over his able and popular opponent, General James S. Wadsworth. There were not wanting extremists at this time to charge Governor Seymour with disloyalty. His attitude appeared to be wilfully misunderstood. It was certainly misrepresented. Some of these rumors reached the ears of President Lincoln, who addressed a letter to the Governor, on the 23d of March, 1863, gently suggesting that a personal pledge of loyalty from the Governor of New York would relieve him from some embarrassment. Taking this communication in the right spirit from the much tried and perplexed President, Mr. Seymour responded by sending his own |