These are some of the blessings secured to our happy land by our
Federal Union. To perpetuate them it is our sacred duty to
preserve it. Who shall assign limits to the achievements of free
minds and free hands under the protection of this glorious Union?
No treason to mankind since the organization of society would be
equal in atrocity to that of him who would lift his hand to
destroy it. He would overthrow the noblest structure of human
wisdom, which protects himself and his fellow-man. He would stop
the progress of free government and involve his country either in
anarchy or despotism. He would extinguish the fire of liberty,
which warms and animates the hearts of happy millions and invites
all the nations of the earth to imitate our example. If he say
that error and wrong are committed in the administration of the
Government, let him remember that nothing human can be perfect,
and that under no other system of government revealed by Heaven or
devised by man has reason been allowed so free and broad a scope
to combat error. Has the sword of despots proved to be a safer or
surer instrument of reform in government than enlightened reason?
Does he expect to find among the ruins of this Union a happier
abode for our swarming millions than they now have under it? Every
lover of his country must shudder at the thought of the
possibility of its dissolution, and will be ready to adopt the
patriotic sentiment, "Our Federal Union--it must be preserved.
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