difficulties of our country. Relying
on this, I again thank you for this generous reception.

ADDRESS AT TROY, NEW YORK,

FEBRUARY 19, 1861

MR. MAYOR AND CITIZENS OF TROY:--I thank you very kindly for this great
reception. Since I left my home it has not been my fortune to meet
an assemblage more numerous and more orderly than this. I am the more
gratified at this mark of your regard since you assure me it is tendered,
not to the individual but to the high office you have called me to fill.
I have neither strength nor time to make any extended remarks on this
occasion, and I can only repeat to you my sincere thanks for the kind
reception you have thought proper to extend to me.

ADDRESS AT POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK,

FEBRUARY 19, 1861

FELLOW-CITIZENS:--It is altogether impossible I should make myself heard
by any considerable portion of this vast assemblage; but, although I
appear before you mainly for the purpose of seeing you, and to let you
see rather than hear me, I cannot refrain from saying that I am highly
gratified--as much here, indeed, under the circumstances, as I have been
anywhere on my route--to witness this noble demonstration--made, not
in honor of an individual, but of the man who at this time humbly, but
earnestly, represents the majesty of the nation.

This reception, like all the others that have been tendered to me,
doubtless emanates from all the political parties, and not from one alone.
As such I accept it the more gratefully, since it indicates an earnest
desire on the part of the whole people, with out regard to political
differences, to save--not the country, because the country will save
itself but to save the institutions of the country, those institutions
under which, in the last three quarters of a century, we have grown to
a great, and intelligent, and a happy people--the greatest, the
most intelligent, and the happiest people in the world. These noble
manifestations indicate, with unerring certainty, that the whole people
are willing to make common cause for this object; that if, as it ever must
be, some have been successful in the recent election and some have been
beaten, if some are satisfied and some are dissatisfied, the defeated
party are not in favor of sinking the ship, but are desirous of running it
through the tempest in safety, and willing, if they think the people have
committed an error in their verdict now, to wait in the hope of reversing
it and setting