Solemnly
impressed with these considerations, my countrymen will ever find
me ready to exercise my constitutional powers in arresting
measures which may directly or indirectly encroach upon the rights
of the States or tend to consolidate all political power in the
General Government. But of equal and, indeed, of incalculable,
importance is the union of these States, and the sacred duty of
all to contribute to its preservation by a liberal support of the
General Government in the exercise of its just powers. You have
been wisely admonished to "accustom yourselves to think and speak
of the Union as of the palladium of your political safety and
prosperity, watching for its preservation with Jealous anxiety,
discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can
in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first
dawning of any attempt to alienate any portion of our country from
the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together
the various parts." Without union our independence and liberty
would never have been achieved; without union they never can be
maintained. Divided into twenty-four, or even a smaller number, of
separate communities, we shall see our internal trade burdened
with numberless restraints and exactions; communication between
distant points and sections obstructed or cut off; our sons made
soldiers to deluge with blood the fields they now till in peace;
the mass of our people borne down and impoverished by taxes to
support armies and navies, and military leaders at the head of
their victorious legions becoming our lawgivers and judges.
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