Ex-president Pierce On The Crisis

Conoom, N. Ii , April 21, 1861. President Pieroe made tlio following sp3Coh, from tlio balcony uf' tlic Ivigle Hotel, to a mass meeting last night : ''ki.i,ow-Citi7.kn.s and Nkuuiuoks : If I had i een appriscd of your meeting last liight seasonably, I should have been present. But the notice did not reaeli me lili tilia mornióg. I wisli to say, iu ad vanoe, tliat sílice my arnval here the resolutioDS whiohyou luive passed have been read to me, and have my cordial approval. Yon cjill for me, n.y friends, as lovers of uur country and of tlie blossed Uuion which our forefathers transniitted to us on an occasion more grave, more inonicntous, and more deeply fraught with jiainful emotioiis thau any onder whicli I have ever addresed you. Hut I rejoioe th.tt tliat flag (pointlDg to the flag of' the United States) floats theru. [Cheers ] Lt ve ior the ttag of our couutry is a .son timent common to us all ; at least to my heart it is do new emotion. M v fatlier followed it frem thebattle of Bunker llill uninterruptedly till the enemy cvacuatcd New York in 1783. My brothers were with the gallant men who upheld it in the war of 181 2. Can I, can you fail to remember how proudly it fioated at a more reeent date, from Palo Alto to Buena Vista, on one line of operation, from the eastle of Sao Juan ü'U'loa to the city of Mexico ou auother. Never can we forget that the gallant men of the North and of the South moved togetlier like a band of brothers, and mingled their blood on inany a ticld in the common cause. Can I, if I would, feel other than tlie proudest badniss when I see that tiloso who so often stood shoulder to shoulder in the face of foreigu foes, are now iu immineut danger of standing face to face as tlie foes of ea.-h other. JJut they sliould have thought of this as well as me. At all eveuts, there :.sno time now to 0Ou8U.lt our feelings. The qnestioo has resolved itselí' intö oue of patriotism and steru duty. Wc eannot fail to see what the nature of t:ie contest is to be, and, to sume limited exteiit, t)ie fearfulucss of the progresa ai. d cousc([ueuces. Wc must not, howevc-r, turn our faces from thein, beeause the true way to meet danger is to see it clearly, and to cncouiiter it on the advanco. [Applause ] I, for onc, will never cease to hope, as long as the fratricida] strife is uot more fully developed than at the present time, that some event, somc power, niay yet intervene to save us from the worst calamity that over depended over a nation. The opinions of niauy of the vast crowd before me, with regand to the cause which has produeed the present condition of public affairs, are knowu to me, and mine are well known to you. I do not bel ove aggression by arms is a suitable or possible remedy for the existing cvils. Still, neither of these matters ought tobo cons:dered now. They may be well waved- nuy, they must be - until we have scen each other thiough our present trials and future dangers. Should the hope which I havo expressed not be realized, which may a beneficent Providence forbid, and a war of aggression is to be waged against the capital and the North, then there is no way for us, as citizens of the oíd thirtcen States but to stand together and uphold the flag to the last, with all the rights whieh pertain toit, and with the fidelity and endurancc of brave men, I would counsel you to stand togetlier with onc mind and one heart - calm, iaithful, and deterniined. ]Jut to give no countenanco to passion and violunco, which are really unjust, and often in po riods llke these the harbingers of strife, Jie just to j'ourselvcs, jusi to others, truo to your country, and may God, who has so signally blessed our fathers gonerally, interpose in this hour of clouds and dark uess, and save b th oxtremities of the country, and cause the old flag to be upke'd by all hand.s aud all hcjrts. Born in the State of New HampsliTO, I intend hjre shall repose my boíles. L would not live in a State the rights and honor of which [ was not prepared to defend at all hayads and to the last extremitv. -