ld, on Friday, the first day of September.]

Although it is not my purpose, during the present recess of Congress,
frequently to address public assemblies on political subjects, I have
felt it my duty to comply with your request, as neighbors and townsmen,
and to meet you to-day; and I am not unwilling to avail myself of this
occasion to signify to the people of the United States my opinions upon
the present state of our public affairs. I shall perform that duty,
certainly with great frankness, I hope with candor. It is not my
intention to-day to endeavor to carry any point, to act as any man's
advocate, to put up or put down anybody. I wish, and I propose, to
address you in the language and in the spirit of conference and
consultation. In the present extraordinary crisis of our public
concerns, I desire to hold no man's conscience but my own. My own
opinions I shall communicate, freely and fearlessly, with equal
disregard to consequences, whether they respect myself or respect
others.

We are on the eve of a highly important Presidential election. In two or
three months the people of this country will be called upon to elect an
executive chief magistrate of the United States; and all see, and all
feel, that great interests of the country are to be affected, for good
or evil, by the results of that election. Of the interesting subjects
over which the person who shall be elected must necessarily exercise
more or less control, there are especially three, vitally connected, in
my judgment, with the honor and happiness of the country. In the first
place, the honor and happiness of the country imperatively require that
there shall be a chief magistrate elected who shall not plunge us into
further wars of ambition and conquest. In the second place, in my
judgment, the interests of the country and the feeling of a vast
majority of the people require that a President of these United States
should be elected, who will neither use official influence to promote,
nor feel any desire in his heart to promote, the further extension of
slavery in this community, or its further influence in the public
councils. In the third place, if I have any just estimate, if an
experience not now a short one in public affairs has enabled me to know
any thing of what the public interest demands, the state of the country
requires an essential reform in the system of revenue and finance such
as shall restore the prosperity, by prompting the industry a