to give our enemies such a triumph as to fulfil their prophecy
and convince the world that self-government is impracticable--a mere
chimera--and that man is fit only to be a slave to his fellow man? Are
we willing to teach the nations of the earth to despair, and resign
themselves at once to the power that crushes them? Shall we forfeit
all the bright honors that we have hitherto won by our example, and
now admit by our conduct, that, although free government may subsist
for a while, under the pressure of extrinsic and momentary causes,
yet that it cannot bear a long season of peace and prosperity; but
that as soon as thus left to itself, it speedily hastens to faction,
demoralization, anarchy and ruin? Are we prepared to make this
practical admission by our conduct, and extinguish, ourselves, the
sacred light of liberty which has been entrusted to our keeping? Or,
shall we not rather show ourselves worthy of this high trust, maintain
the advanced post which we have hitherto occupied with so much honor,
prove, by our example, that a free government is the best pledge for
peace and order and human happiness, and thus continue to light the
other nations of the earth on their way to liberty? Who can hesitate
between these two alternatives? Who that looks upon that monument that
decks the Park, and observes the statue by which it is surmounted,
or on this that graces our square, and recalls the occasion on
which it was erected, is willing to admit that men are incapable of
self-government, and unworthy of the blessing of liberty? No man, I
am sure, who has an American heart in his bosom.

Away, then, with all faction, strife and uncharitableness from our
land. We are brothers. Let no angry feelings enter our political
dwellings. If we differ about measures or about men, (as, from the
constitution of our nature, differ we must,) let us remember that we
are all but fallible men, and extend to others that charity of which
the best of us cannot but feel that we stand in need. We owe this good
temper and indulgence to each other as members of the same family, as
all interested, and deeply interested, in the preservation of the
Union and of our political institutions: and we owe it to the world as
the _van-couriers_ of free government on earth, and the guardians of
the first altar that has been erected to Liberty in modern times. In
the casual differences of opinion that must, from time to time, be
expected to arise among us, it