ly injure the government in the short space
of four years.

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole
subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an
object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never
take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but
no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now
dissatisfied, still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the
sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new
administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change
either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the
right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for
precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm
reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still
competent to adjust in the best way all your present difficulties.

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is
the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.
You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I
shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds
of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every
battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone
all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our
nature.

RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, MARCH 4, 1861

Fellow Citizens: I thank you for this visit. I thank you that you call
upon me, not in any sectional spirit, but that you come, without
distinction of party, to pay your respects to the President of the
United States. I am informed that you are mostly citizens of New York.
[Cries of "all," "all."] You all appear to be very happy. May I hope
that the public expression which I have this day given to my
sentiments, may have contributed in some degree to your happiness.
[Emphatic exclamations of assent.] As far as I am concerned, the loyal
citizens of every State, and of every section, shall have no cause to
feel any other sentiment. [Cries of "good," "good."] As tow