r into one vast,
free, yet orderly community, where each individual shall enjoy all the
liberty to which he is entitled by his moral character, and possess all
possible facilities for the full and healthy development of his entire
nature. Here, under the combined influence of true religion,
intelligence, and freedom--and these must go hand in hand--the millions
composing this great nation must become ever more and more united,
prosperous, and happy.

* * * * *

This then, is the first reason why the Union is priceless--because in
this Union, Providence appears to have reached an end, a goal, to which
it has long been in the effort to conduct the human race, viz., the
bringing a larger and more rapidly increasing population into a more
free, united, and happy life, one more in accordance with human wants,
and with the measureless divine benevolence, than has ever yet been
brought about in the annals of mankind.

* * * * *

We proceed now to consider the second reason why the Union is priceless.

This reason lies in the _method_ of the organization of this Government.

What is this plan or method?

We reply that the immense value of the Union rests also upon the
incontrovertible fact (perhaps not widely suspected, but evident enough
when looked for) that the system of government of these United States,
the mode in which the smaller and larger communities are combined into
the great whole, together with the working of all in concert, _comes the
nearest of any other political structure to the Creator's method of
combining parts into wholes throughout the universe_.

Wherever we behold a specimen of the divine creative skill, whether in
the mineral, vegetable, animal, or human kingdoms; whether it be a
crystal, a tree, a bird, or beast, a man, or a solar system, in all
these we observe one universal method of grouping, common to all
conditions. This method is that of grouping parts around centres, and
several of such groups around larger centres, upward and onward
indefinitely; while in living beings, according to their complexity,
each individual part, and each individual group of parts with its
centre, _is left free to move within its own sphere, yet at the same
time is harmonized with the movements of its neighbors through the
medium of the common centre_.

Every such work of the Creator is an _E pluribus unum_, a one out of
many--a unit composed of