Proceedings at the Second Anniversary Meeting of the Loyal Publication Society, February 11, 1865/Report of the Secretary
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY
of the
LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY.
Submitted to the Society Saturday Evening, 11th February.
SECOND ANNUAL MEETING.
The Loyal Publication Society has completed the second year of its existence. The creature of a painful necessity and coming into existence at a period when the affairs of the country were in a dark and threatening state, its first year was a year of labor, of trouble, and anxiety. Nor has the season through which it has just passed been without its difficulties and trials.
The season of a Presidential Election is always one of excitement and intellectual activity, and in proportion as its issues are momentous the passions of men are quickened, and their slumbering prejudices aroused into antipathy and hate.
The Society has not been wholly exempt from the influence of this universal rule. It could hardly have hoped to pass through the excited canvas without exciting strong animosities, yet it may congratulate itself that it has been able to carry on its operations with so little inconvenience, and in such quiet, peace, and security. Nor is this true alone of its position with regard to the politics of the country; it is equally true of its position with regard to the divisions of sentiment in the loyal ranks.
Much of this is due to the fidelity with which it has adhered to the policy resolved upon at the last Annual Meeting.
Governed by fixed principles, and devoting its entire energies to their wide propagation, the Society has paid little attention to special measures, and been wholly regardless of the views or claims of individual men. While it has often disappointed the eager partisan, it has never offended the just patriot, and has won golden commendation even from those whom it would not lend itself to serve.
That its work has been well and faithfully done—that it has been fairly and impartially done—its records and its publications show "Scripta manent." They remain for the inspection of the Society, and of all who are interested in its success.
What mental and physical labor have been bestowed, none but the members of your Committees can know. Few public offices have received more constant, unwearied, and intelligent attention. How gratuitous and disinterested that attention, is patent to all.
But to pass from the labor to the result. "Finis coronat opus"—the end is the reward. Many a member of your Committees, as he closed his eyes on the night of the memorable 8th of November, 1864, to the glare of a local triumph in which his heart bore no share, felt, at least, that calm serenity which the sense of duty all fulfilled always brings; that having left nothing undone to win success in the great moral battle he could calmly surrender the issues to the God of Nations, and feel that however they should be solved, he, at least, would escape the pangs of self-reproach.
This alone would well repay the effort. How much more the awakening to the glorious spectacle "which flamed in the forehead of the morning sky;" the spectacle of a nation rising from its trials and its dangers fresher and stronger than before; more perfect in its unity, more fervent in its patriotism, and invigorated by the very struggle which had threatened its integrity and its life.
In this triumph, in this regeneration, each and all find their sufficient, nay more, their abundant reward, for much of what were otherwise but hard, dry drudgery—a drudgery performed in somewhat of the spirit in which the bravest or the most gifted performs what were else a menial office for a kinsman or a friend.
So has it been with us. Our country, always nearest our hearts, now doubly dear that she is suffering and torn with strife; "Our Country!" always before our eyes in the happy legend of our Society; our country! sanctified and hallowed by the blood of friends and kinsmen! What labor could we begrudge her? what toil avoid that would make the noble mother happier or stronger.
Nor is this the only triumph in which this Society may claim a share. It has played an active and important part in the great struggle of ideas. From its birth it has never wavered in its convictions on the great question of the freedom of man; and now, just as it closes this the second year of its existence, the Liberty which stands upon the Capitol has sounded the glorious trump of universal freedom, and the continent shakes beneath the shouts of glad tidings, and the reverberating peals which ocean flings back to ocean, and granite hill to silver mountain, as State after State ratifies, amid the applause of a people, the blessings of a race, the approbation of mankind, and beneath the approving smiles of a righteous and benignant God, the just decree.
It would seem that the work for which the Society was organized was here well nigh accomplished, but this would be an unwise, nay, more, an unsafe conclusion. Great social changes are not made by decrees, be they ever so wise or just. The written law may inaugurate, but cannot effect the change. All political and social changes are gradual. Even those which seem the most sudden are the result of remote and long acting causes.
The master and the slave have changed not only their relations to each other, and their own conditions; their natures must also undergo some change, to suit their new condition.
Here again the Society finds a fitting field for labor. It may do much to reunite these discordant elements; to make that easy which now seems so hard and difficult. It may point out, in some measure, the advantages which will accrue to each by the change, and drawing from the lessons of national history and national experience what is suited to their special case, may aid in the reorganization of society on a new and mutually profitable basis.
Nor should the Society forget the eloquent appeal of the French liberals, through the pen of Gasparin, to the nobler feelings of our people, or the loving kindness with which they pointed out to us the path of duty in the future, in that memorable letter which makes one of the series of publications of the Society.
The war has not yet reached its end, though the end is now in view.
The duties which it imposes, a branch of which we have openly and solemnly assumed to ourselves, are still unfinished. To us it still remains to watch over and preserve the health of public opinion, to show forth the true needs and issues of the struggle, and to keep ever present to the view of the people, in success as in disaster, the glorious future, when from North to South, and East to West, each heart as well as each lip shall pay its homage to the national authority.
There will, therefore, be little difference of opinion as to the propriety and the necessity of continuing the Society.
The operations of the Society during the past year have been large. 33 pamphlets, containing 673 pages of printed matter, have been issued, at a cost of about $12,000.[1]
Of these, 470,000 have been distributed, besides 45,000 exchanges.
The kindly relations established with the Loyal Publication Society of New England have been agreeably maintained, and publications and opinions have been constantly interchanged, to mutual advantage.
The Army and Navy Journal, originated under the care of the Society, has proved a complete success, under the able editorship of Mr. W.C. Church, one of its active members.
The attention of the Society has been recently turned to the collection of a complete set of pamphlets connected with the war, and large contributions have been already made by the members.
Congratulating the Society on its past success, and in the confident hope that it will not abandon the labor until it objects have been fully accomplished, the foregoing report is respectfully submitted,
New York, February 10th, 1865.
- ↑ $208,920 as of 2022