e
obeyed or not. I think they ought to be obeyed, for reasons which I will
proceed to give as briefly as possible.

In the first place, it is the only system of free government which we
can hope to have as a nation. When it ceases to be the rule of our
conduct, we may perhaps take our choice between complete anarchy, a
consolidated despotism, and a total dissolution of the Union; but
national liberty regulated by law will have passed beyond our reach.

It is the best frame of government the world ever saw. No other is or
can be so well adapted to the genius, habits, or wants of the American
people. Combining the strength of a great empire with unspeakable
blessings of local self-government, having a central power to defend the
general interests, and recognizing the authority of the States as the
guardians of industrial rights, it is "the sheet anchor of our safety
abroad and our peace at home." It was ordained "to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, promote the
general welfare, provide for the common defense, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity." These great
ends have been attained heretofore, and will be again by faithful
obedience to it; but they are certain to be lost if we treat with
disregard its sacred obligations.

It was to punish the gross crime of defying the Constitution and to
vindicate its supreme authority that we carried on a bloody war of four
years' duration. Shall we now acknowledge that we sacrificed a million
of lives and expended billions of treasure to enforce a Constitution
which is not worthy of respect and preservation?

Those who advocated the right of secession alleged in their own
justification that we had no regard for law and that their rights of
property, life, and liberty would not be safe under the Constitution as
administered by us. If we now verify their assertion, we prove that they
were in truth and in fact fighting for their liberty, and instead of
branding their leaders with the dishonoring name of traitors against a
righteous and legal government we elevate them in history to the rank
of self-sacrificing patriots, consecrate them to the admiration of the
world, and place them by the side of Washington, Hampden, and Sidney.
No; let us leave them to the infamy they deserve, punish them as they
should be punished, according to law, and take upon ourselves no share
of the odium which they should bear alone.