Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

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MEMOIRS OF JOHN ADAMS DIX.

zens of New York an opportunity to express their high estimation of him as a man and a patriot, in his noble stand in
maintaining the dignity of the American flag and in the discharge of the duties of his office." The day fixed was the
14th of March. A detachment of Police escorted him to the
City Hall, where he was met by the Hon. Fernando Wood,
and conducted to the Governor's Room. His reply to the
brief address of welcome was as follows:
"MR. MAYOR,-I thank you for the kind expressions with
which you have been pleased to receive me, and for the greater kindness which, as the chief magistrate of this city, you
have done me by consenting to be present on this occasion.
My thanks are especially due to the Common Council for the
great honor they have conferred on me by tendering to me for
the reception of my friends a place usually appropriated to
those who have far greater claims than myself to such a distinction. They have thought proper to place this mark of
their approbation on the ground of my recent services in the
Treasury Department. But, in truth, Mr. Mayor, I feel that
in this service I have done no more than any other sincere
friend of the Union would have done. If the public credit
is in danger of being dishonored, who would not strive by all
the means in his power to protect it? If the public authority is set at defiance, what citizen with an honest heart in his
bosom would not labor zealously and fearlessly to defend and
uphold it? These duties are no more than the common obligations of loyalty to the government and to the Union, of
which the government is the representative. They became
mine in a peculiar sense when I was called to a position in
which they devolved on me as attributes of official service.
Whatever dishonor there might have been in disregarding or
violating them, the merit of fidelity to them is only that of
doing what it would have been discreditable not to have
done. Sir, I have no claim beyond this to the approbation
of my fellow-citizens. But I am not the less thankful for