o any other
people. Is there one in this consecrated temple of the Almighty who
would not join in the offering? I know it is unusual to dwell long
upon such considerations at a time like this, but surely, if there
ever were a call for a nation's gratitude to God, and ever a proper
occasion for expressing it, we are the people in whose hearts that
emotion should be deep and permanent, and this is a time to give it
utterance."...

"We must do all in our power to promote liberal feelings among the
several communities and sections of our federal republic, so as to
preserve inviolate the Union of the States. Were this Union now in
danger, it would call forth a more authoritative voice than mine; yet
it may be in danger before the close of another half century. I will
only speak my own conviction, that the States cannot be separated
without the destruction of the country. They lie together on the bosom
of this vast continent, a protection and an ornament, each to the
other, and all to each, like the gems on the breast-plate of the
Jewish Hierarch, indicative of the union of the Tribes, mutually
lending and receiving lustre."...

"We must root out from among ourselves the institution of domestic
slavery, or, before the close of another half century, we may have to
abide the consequences of a servile war. In effecting this
all-important object, we must indeed proceed gradually, temperately,
in the observance of all good faith and good feeling toward the people
of that portion of our Union on which the curse was entailed by the
colonial policy of the mother country.

"It is a work which demands the full concurrence of all the States,
and, sooner or later, it must be accomplished. Common sense will not
cease to upbraid us with inconsistency, humanity will not be
satisfied, nor Heaven fully propitiated, while we hold up boastfully
in one hand this declaration, affirming that "all men are created
equal," and grasp with the other the manacles and the scourge.

"Whatever may have been inferred by reason from a difference of
physical attributes, and whatever may have been forced by criticism
out of the word of God, the traffic in human flesh is _contraband_ by
the law of Nature written in our hearts, and _forbidden_ by the whole
tenor and spirit of the religion revealed in the Gospel.

"Even in the darker and imperfect dispensation of the ancient Jews,
every fiftieth year, at least, brought freedom to _all_ the
inhabitants of t