I have not accustomed myself to hang over the
precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom
the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe
counsellor in the affairs of this government, whose thoughts should be
mainly bent on considering, not how the Union should be best preserved,
but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be
broken up and destroyed.
While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects
spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to
penetrate the veil. God grant that, in my day at least, that curtain may
not rise! God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies
behind! When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the
Sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored
fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant,
belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in
fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather
behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored
throughout the Earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies
streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor
a single star obscured; bearing for its motto, no such miserable
interrogatory as, "What is all this worth?" nor those other words of
delusion and folly, "Liberty first, and Union afterwards;" but
everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on
all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and
in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to
every true American heart,--Liberty and Union, now and for ever, one and
inseparable!
IV.
Pages:
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305