armony and fraternal kindness. I believe from the bottom of my soul,
that the measure is the reunion of this Union. I believe it is the dove
of peace, which, taking its aerial flight from the dome of the Capitol,
carries the glad tidings of assured peace and restored harmony to all
the remotest extremities of this distracted land. I believe that it will
be attended with all these beneficent effects. And now let us discard
all resentment, all passions, all petty jealousies, all personal
desires, all love of place, all hankerings after the gilded crumbs which
fall from the table of power. Let us forget popular fears, from
whatever quarter they may spring. Let us go to the limpid fountain of
unadulterated patriotism, and, performing a solemn lustration, return
divested of all selfish, sinister, and sordid impurities, and think
alone of our God, our country, our consciences, and our glorious
Union--that Union without which we shall be torn into hostile fragments,
and sooner or later become the victims of military despotism, or foreign
domination.

Mr. President, what is an individual man? An atom, almost invisible
without a magnifying glass--a mere speck upon the surface of the
immense universe; not a second in time, compared to immeasurable,
never-beginning, and never-ending eternity; a drop of water in the great
deep, which evaporates and is borne off by the winds; a grain of sand,
which is soon gathered to the dust from which it sprung. Shall a being
so small, so petty, so fleeting, so evanescent, oppose itself to the
onward march of a great nation, which is to subsist for ages and ages to
come; oppose itself to that long line of posterity which, issuing from
our loins, will endure during the existence of the world? Forbid it,
God. Let us look to our country and our cause, elevate ourselves to the
dignity of pure and disinterested patriots, and save our country from
all impending dangers. What if, in the march of this nation to greatness
and power, we should be buried beneath the wheels that propel it onward!
What are we--what is any man--worth who is not ready and willing to
sacrifice himself for the benefit of his country when it is necessary? *
* *

If this Union shall become separated, new unions, new confederacies will
arise. And with respect to this, if there be any--I hope there is no one
in the Senate--before whose imagination is flitting the idea of a great
Southern Confederacy to take possession of the Balize