US Presidency
1853

We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis. Wise counsels, like those which gave us the Constitution, prevailed to uphold it. Letthe period be remembered as an admonition, and not as an encouragement, in any section of the Union, to make experiments where experiments arefraught with such fearful hazard. Let it be impressed upon all hearts that, beautiful as our fabric is, no earthly power or wisdom could ever reuniteits broken fragments. Standing, as I do, almost within view of the greenslopes of Monticello, and, as it were, within reach of the tomb of Washington, with all the cherished memories of the past gathering around me like somany eloquent voices of exhortation from heaven, I can express no betterhope for my country than that the kind Providence which smiled upon ourfathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited