REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE,

JUNE 9, 1864.

GENTLEMEN--I can only say in response to the remarks of your chairman,
that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which has been accorded
to me, both by the convention and by the National League. I am not
insensible at all to the personal compliment there is in this, yet I do
not allow myself to believe that any but a small portion of it is to
be appropriated as a personal compliment to me. The convention and the
nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a higher view of the interests
of the country, for the present and the great future, and the part I am
entitled to appropriate as a compliment is only that part which I may lay
hold of as being the opinion of the convention and of the League, that I
am not entirely unworthy to be intrusted with the place I have occupied
for the last three years. I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to
conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded in this
connection of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion
once that "it was not best to swap horses when crossing a stream."

REPLY TO A DELEGATION FROM OHIO,

JUNE 9, 1864.

GENTLEMEN:--I am very much obliged to you for this compliment. I have just
been saying, and will repeat it, that the hardest of all speeches I have
to answer is a serenade. I never know what to say on these occasions. I
suppose that you have done me this kindness in connection with the action
of the Baltimore convention, which has recently taken place, and with
which, of course, I am very well satisfied. What we want still more than
Baltimore conventions, or Presidential elections, is success under General
Grant. I propose that you constantly bear in mind that the support you
owe to the brave officers and soldiers in the field is of the very first
importance, and we should therefore bend all our energies to that point.
Now without detaining you any longer, I propose that you help me to close
up what I am now saying with three rousing cheers for General Grant and
the officers and soldiers under his command.

ADDRESS TO THE ENVOY FROM THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS,

JUNE 11, 1864.

SIR:--In every light in which the State of the Hawaiian Islands can be
contemplated, it is an object of profound interest for the United States.
Virtually it was once a colony. It is now a near and intimate neighbor.
It is a haven of shelter and refreshment for