nd by no party ties, I appear before you neither as a partisan nor a
politician, but as an American citizen, to state freely my views upon
the great political question that agitates our country and threatens its
national existence, and to give you the reasons which constrain me to
sustain Stephen A. Douglas and the National Democratic party, which he
leads, in the presidential election near at hand, and I trust I will
have your patient and candid attention.

The Federal government, under the existing Constitution of the United
States, went into operation on the 4th of March, 1789, under the
administration of George Washington as first President. It is
seventy-one years since that event. During that period the number of the
States has increased from thirteen to thirty-three, and another will
soon be added to the number when Kansas, now waiting at the door of the
Union with a republican and a free Constitution, shall come in "on an
equal footing with the original States in all respects whatsoever."

When the Constitution was adopted, the area of the United States was
820,680 square miles. At the present time that area has been increased
to 2,963,666 square miles, or, I may say 3,000,000 of square miles--a
territory ten times as large as that of France and Great Britain
combined, and equal in extent to the empire of the Romans, or of
Alexander.

At equal pace with the expansion of our territory has moved on and
spread out the tide of human life, bearing on its bosom the religious
faith of the christian, and the laws and institutions of the Celtic and
German races purified by christianity and the love of freedom.

At the first census in 1790, the population of the United States
amounted to within a fraction of 4,000,000 of people. In 1860 it will
reach, if not exceed 30,000,000, and it is no vain boast to say, that in
no other nation of equal population, is there so much of individual
freedom, or so large an aggregate of rational, substantial, human
happiness.

Such are the fruits of over seventy years trial and experience of the
Federal Union and Constitution, and the heart of every true American
patriot swells with a just and noble pride as he contemplates them, and
more than this, it swells with an earnest longing--an ardent
desire--that prompts him as he looks into the future, to breathe to the
Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, the prayer--"God save the Union and the
Constitution!"

No American heart that honors G