k
authoritatively, I hope to say nothing inconsistent with the Constitution,
the Union, the rights of all the States, of each State, and of each
section of the country, and not to disappoint the reasonable expectations
of those who have confided to me their votes. In this connection allow me
to say that you, as a portion of the great American people, need only to
maintain your composure, stand up to your sober convictions of right, to
your obligations to the Constitution, and act in accordance with those
sober convictions, and the clouds now on the horizon will be dispelled,
and we shall have a bright and glorious future; and when this generation
has passed away, tens of thousands will inhabit this country where only
thousands inhabit it now. I do not propose to address you at length; I
have no voice for it. Allow me again to thank you for this magnificent
reception, and bid you farewell.

ADDRESS AT ROCHESTER, NEW YORK,

FEBRUARY 18, 1861

I confess myself, after having seen many large audiences since leaving
home, overwhelmed with this vast number of faces at this hour of the
morning. I am not vain enough to believe that you are here from any
wish to see me as an individual, but because I am for the time being the
representative of the American people. I could not, if I would, address
you at any length. I have not the strength, even if I had the time, for a
speech at each of these many interviews that are afforded me on my way to
Washington. I appear merely to see you, and to let you see me, and to
bid you farewell. I hope it will be understood that it is from no
disinclination to oblige anybody that I do not address you at greater
length.

ADDRESS AT SYRACUSE, NEW YORK,

FEBRUARY 18, 1861.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I See you have erected a very fine and handsome
platform here for me, and I presume you expected me to speak from it. If
I should go upon it, you would imagine that I was about to deliver you
a much longer speech than I am. I wish you to understand that I mean no
discourtesy to you by thus declining. I intend discourtesy to no one.
But I wish you to understand that, though I am unwilling to go upon this
platform, you are not at liberty to draw inferences concerning any other
platform with which my name has been or is connected. I wish you long life
and prosperity individually, and pray that with the perpetuity of those
institutions under which we have all so long lived and prospered, our