When it became known that Mr. Davis had arrived at the Hall, he was
loudly called for. Hon. Joseph Howard, chairman of the meeting, then
introduced Mr. Davis, who, on coming forward, was greeted with cheer
upon cheer from the vast audience. As soon as the prolonged and
enthusiastic applause with which he was welcomed had subsided, Mr.
Davis, addressing the audience as fellow citizens and Democratic
brethren, said that the invitation with which he had been favored to
address them, evinced a purpose to confer together for the common
good--for the maintenance of the constitution, the bond of union. He
would not be expected to discuss local questions; he would not in this
imitate the mischievous agitators who inflame the Northern mind
against the Southern States. He came among them, an invalid, advised
by his physician to resort to this clime for the restoration of his
health; as an American citizen, he had not expected that his right to
come here would be questioned; as a stranger, or if not entirely so,
known mainly by the detraction which the ardent advocacy of the rights
of the South had brought upon him, he had supposed that neither his
coming nor his going would attract attention. But his anticipations
had proved erroneous. The polite, the manly, elevated men, lifted
above the barbarism which makes stranger and enemy convertible terms,
had chosen, without political distinction, to welcome his coming, and
by constant acts of generous hospitality to make his sojourn as
pleasant as his physical condition would permit.

On the other hand, men who make a trade of politics, and whose capital
consists in the denunciation of the institutions of other States, had
erroneously judged him by themselves, and had regarded his coming as a
political mission; wherefore it was, he was led to suppose, that the
scavengers of that party had been employed in the publication of