on. To perpetuate them it is our sacred duty to preserve it. Who
shall assign limits to the achievements of free minds and free hands
under the protection of this glorious Union? No treason to mankind since
the organization of society would be equal in atrocity to that of him
who would lift his hand to destroy it. He would overthrow the noblest
structure of human wisdom, which protects himself and his fellow-man. He
would stop the progress of free government and involve his country
either in anarchy or despotism. He would extinguish the fire of liberty,
which warms and animates the hearts of happy millions and invites all
the nations of the earth to imitate our example. If he say that error
and wrong are committed in the administration of the Government, let him
remember that nothing human can be perfect, and that under no other
system of government revealed by Heaven or devised by man has reason
been allowed so free and broad a scope to combat error. Has the sword of
despots proved to be a safer or surer instrument of reform in government
than enlightened reason? Does he expect to find among the ruins of this
Union a happier abode for our swarming millions than they now have under
it? Every lover of his country must shudder at the thought of the
possibility of its dissolution, and will be ready to adopt the patriotic
sentiment, "Our Federal Union--it must be preserved." To preserve it the
compromises which alone enabled our fathers to form a common
constitution for the government and protection of so many States and
distinct communities, of such diversified habits, interests, and
domestic institutions, must be sacredly and religiously observed. Any
attempt to disturb or destroy these compromises, being terms of the
compact of union, can lead to none other than the most ruinous and
disastrous consequences.

It is a source of deep regret that in some sections of our country
misguided persons have occasionally indulged in schemes and agitations
whose object is the destruction of domestic institutions existing in
other sections--institutions which existed at the adoption of the
Constitution and were recognized and protected by it. All must see that
if it were possible for them to be successful in attaining their object
the dissolution of the Union and the consequent destruction of our happy
form of government must speedily follow.

I am happy to believe that at every period of our existence as a nation
there has existed,