Year: 1861

would nave Ilved and hoped and suffered for
no great useful purpose. Having bound the
States, by the Constitution, in everlasting
Union-his great work fully accomplished
George Washington retires to the quiet shades
OF his home, citizen of the great Republic his
hand had reared. But for the establishment
of the Union, George Washingtons life would
have remained not unlike the monument which
his country has begun to his memory at the
National Capital, leaning up against the sky,
grand. massive and sublime, but imperfect, in
wanting its crowniDg ornament and
glory. When we who have lived so happily
IN the Union, under the Constitution receiving
from both so much liberty, such countless
blessings, recognize in their formation and es-
tablishment, the hand of George Washington,
how reverensly we worship his great name !;
how gratefully we acknowledge his immortal
title" Father of his Country" Tell me
not that the great hand which framed the
Constitution planted in it the germ of its de-
struction Tell me not that the great minds,
the patriot hearts, from whose hands the Con-
stitution and the Union sprung into glorious
life, instilled with them subtle poison, to de-
stroy their existence! that those who moulded
the States into one grand unity, craftily stipu-
lated for the overthrow OF their own work :
that in forming the Union, they provided for
disulion that in declaring the Constitution
the Supreme Law of the Land, they intended
that its supremacy should exist at the suffer-
ance of faction tell me not that those who
laid the foundation of our Government design
ed it to be fabric of sand, to be blown to the
winds by the idlest breath of rebellion, to be
shaken to its fall by every manner of disaffec-
ton tell me not that the Constitution arms
every State to stab the life, and cleave the
heart of the Common Government! that what
the people of the whole country have done,
the people of part may, at any hazard to the
common veal, undo and destroy that the
Constitution places the prosperity, the happi-
ness, the very existence of the community of
States in the power of each truculent member
Insult not the memory of the immortal dead,
by prating about lagful, constitutional secession,
Constitutional secession! that which is destruc-
tive of the first, the great purpose for which
the Constitution was formed is said to be in
accordance with its letter and spirit! No,
fellow citizens, this latter-dav doctrine of law
fu secession is but shallow and desperate
pretext for treason. The architects of the
Constitution intended it to be bond of Union
which should endure forever. | regard seces-
sion as revolution, as rebellion against the Su-
preme Law of the land, as an attempt to de-
stroy the freeest, the most benefcent, the most
estlmable Government ever established by man.
| regard him who attempts, aids or abets it,
noac, an enemy to his country, as foe to hu-
man civilization, as an assassin of human hope
| regard him who raises his parricdal hand
against the sanctity of the Constitution, the
integrity of the Union, with the same horror
and detestation in which hold him who desc
crates the altar of the benign God


When 1 reflect on the ruin which pestilent
agitators would bring upon our country and
the inability of human laws to punish them as
they deserve, thank God that he has prov-
ded final judgment and final retribution.


Even if we could reconcile ourselves to a
division Of our national domain under separate
governments and alien flags, such a scheme
appears to me the most unnatural, the most
impracticable idea, ever devised by the widest


imagination. OF the prolific source of feuds


nterminabe which an attempted division of
the national property would furnish, do not
speak. But where is the line to be drawn?-
Where is the fatal knife which is to cleave our
country in twain to be applied? How can
two republics co-exist within the borders of
what is now our common country? Nature
pronounces it impossible. She sternly whispers
it cannot be. The strength of America lies,
to-day, in the valley of the Mississippi this
free navigation is the life-blood of the great
States on its borders and its branches. Can
they, will they, tolerate the holding of its
mouth, the outlet Of their commerce, by for
eign power? Fellow-citizens, it were as well
to talk of cutting that river in two and divi-
ding ii between the \ orth and the South, as
of creating two republics on American SOIL
The great interests of every section of our
country are so identical, so interviewer, with
so much emphasis does nature command and
compel Union, that can but regard disunion
as wild and impossible project, as a sickly
phantom of diseased ambition. Our every
hope of national greatness, depends upon the
preservation of cur Union. If the event of
this dreful struggle should be that the Union
goes down and the Constitution goes down.
amidst the lurid flames of anarchy and civil
war, the great car of civilization and human
progress will be rolled back thousand years
the shadows of the dark ages will be flung
again over the world. The death kne of the
great Republic will be the dirge of liberty and
as it peals over the world, minglng with its
mournful echoes, proclaiming that the greatest,
the last hope of free government had failed,
will be heard the wailings of nations despair
ing Columbia will be hurled from her niche
in the hall of nations. Her proud career along
the highway of empire will be stopped forever
in its course. The pride of American citizen
ship will be gone the panopy of his coun-
try's power, which has always protected the
American everywhere, will be snatched away
pride and love of his country, will be strangers
to his heart the music of his nations anthem,
which his fathers loved, will fall on his ear,
like funeral dirge; no more will his home
sick heart be cheered by bis countrys pennant
on the stormy ocean no more, at his cOuntrys
call and in her cause will he see her sons
gather round her colors in the blazing lines
of stricken battle; no more will he bear the
old flag aloft in the charge, nor plant his coun-
trys standard on the conquered ramparts of
her foes Has the fut ure such fate in store
for America? Is destiny now busy with the


last sad closing pages of our history?


| believe that while our government is free. yet
it is strong. That it is clothed with power adequate
to its preservation and perpetuaton. ] hope that
power will be used with moderation, and yet with
frmness. ] nope this wild tempest now lashng the
waters of the Southern Gulf, will soon be spent;
that the people, rising in their majesty and might,
will rescue their Union, their Constitution from the
hands of mad fanatcism and unholy ambition; and
that the sunlight of Union breaking through the
clouds darkening now the Southern sky, may cheer
again the hearts of the Southern people, and bless
and brighten forever more theSouthern land.


l hope my country is not yet to die; that the
dawning of her greatness is but come. ] would
+ain he hQr INIT fla cf fin.