hdrawing from it. But that is not, I
repeat, the point. The question, fellow-citizens, (and I put it to you
now as the real question,) the question is, Whether you and the rest of
the people of the great State of New York, and of all the States, will
so adhere to the Constitution, will so enact and maintain laws to
preserve that instrument, that you will not only remain in the Union
yourselves, but permit your brethren to remain in it, and help to
perpetuate it? That is the question. Will you concur in measures
necessary to maintain the Union, or will you oppose such measures? That
is the whole point of the case.

There are thirty or forty members of Congress from New York; you have
your proportion in the United States Senate. We have many members of
Congress from New England. Will they maintain the laws that are passed
for the administration of the Constitution, and respect the rights of
the South, so that the Union may be held together; and not only so that
we may not go out of it ourselves, which we are not inclined to do, but
so that, by maintaining the rights of others, they may also remain in
the Union? Now, Gentlemen, permit me to say, that I speak of no
concessions. If the South wish any concession from me, they will not get
it; not a hair's breadth of it. If they come to my house for it, they
will not find it, and the door will be shut; I concede nothing. But I
say that I will maintain for them, as I will maintain for you, to the
utmost of my power, and in the face of all danger, their rights under
the Constitution, and your rights under the Constitution. And I shall
never be found to falter in one or the other. It is obvious to every
one, and we all know it, that the origin of the great disturbance which
agitates the country is the existence of slavery in some of the States;
but we must meet the subject; we must consider it; we must deal with it
earnestly, honestly, and justly. From the mouth of the St. John's to the
confines of Florida, there existed, in 1775, thirteen colonies of
English origin, planted at different times, and coming from different
parts of England, bringing with them various habits, and establishing,
each for itself, institutions entirely different from the institutions
which they left, and in many cases from each other. But they were all of
English origin. The English language was theirs, Shakepeare and Milton
were theirs, the common law of England was theirs, and the Christian
religion wa