distinction. Seven of her noble sons have each filled the Presidency,
and enjoyed the highest honors of the country. Dolorous complaints come
up to us from the South, that Virginia will not head the march of
secession, and lead the other Southern States out of the Union. This, if
it should happen, would be something of a marvel, certainly, considering
how much pains Virginia took to lead these same States into the Union,
and considering, too, that she has partaken as largely of its benefits
and its government as any other State.

And ye men of the other Southern States, members of the Old Thirteen;
yes, members of the Old Thirteen; that always touches my regard and my
sympathies; North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina! What page in your
history, or in the history of any one of you, is brighter than those
which have been recorded since the Union was formed? Or through what
period has your prosperity been greater, or your peace and happiness
better secured? What names even has South Carolina, now so much
dissatisfied, what names has she of which her intelligent sons are more
proud than those which have been connected with the government of the
United States? In Revolutionary times, and in the earliest days of this
Constitution, there was no State more honored, or more deserving of
honor. Where is she now? And what a fall is there, my countrymen! But I
leave her to her own reflections, commending to her, with all my heart,
the due consideration of her own example in times now gone by.

Fellow-citizens, there are some diseases of the mind as well as of the
body, diseases of communities as well as diseases of individuals, that
must be left to their own cure; at least it is wise to leave them so
until the last critical moment shall arrive.

I hope it is not irreverent, and certainly it is not intended as
reproach, when I say, that I know no stronger expression in our language
than that which describes the restoration of the wayward son,--"he came
to himself." He had broken away from all the ties of love, family, and
friendship. He had forsaken every thing which he had once regarded in
his father's house. He had forsworn his natural sympathies, affections,
and habits, and taken his journey into a far country. He had gone away
from himself and out of himself. But misfortunes overtook him, and
famine threatened him with starvation and death. No entreaties from home
followed him to beckon him back; no admonition from others wa