gentlemen laugh. I thought they, too, had fears of war. I thought
their threats and prophecies were sincere. God grant that I may not
hereafter have to say, "I had a dream that was not all a dream."

Sir, I have but little more to trouble you with. In what I have said I
trust there has been no expression that will be taken in ill part. I
have spoken what I sincerely felt. If there has been an unkind word in
my remarks I did not intend it, and am sorry for having uttered it.

For my own State and for the North I have only to say that they are
devoted to the Union. We have been reminded of HAMILTON'S opinion,
that the States are stronger than the Union, and that when the
collision comes the Union must fall. This is a mistake. In the North
the love for the Union is the strongest of political affections. New
York will stand by the flag of the country while there is a star left
in its folds. If the Union should be reduced to thirteen States--if it
should be reduced to three States--if all should fall away but
herself, she will stand alone to bear and uphold that honored flag,
and recover the Union of which it is the pledge and symbol. God grant
that time may never come, but that New York may stand side by side
with Kentucky and Virginia to the end. That we may all stand by the
Union, negotiate for it, fight for it, if the necessity comes, is my
wish, my hope, my prayer. The Constitution made for us by WASHINGTON,
FRANKLIN, MADISON, and HAMILTON, and the wise and patriotic men who
labored with them, is good enough for us. We stand for the country,
for the Union, for the Constitution.

I found yesterday upon my table a pamphlet bearing the title of "The
Governing Race." It contains a sublime passage from LONGFELLOW'S poem
of "The Ship," which, as it closes the pamphlet, shall also close my
observations:

"Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O UNION, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'Tis of the wave and not the rock;
'Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spit