capacity of nature to minister to his enjoyments. Genius is free to
announce its inventions and discoveries, and the hand is free to
accomplish whatever the head conceives not incompatible with the rights
of a fellow-being. All distinctions of birth or of rank have been
abolished. All citizens, whether native or adopted, are placed upon
terms of precise equality. All are entitled to equal rights and equal
protection. No union exists between church and state, and perfect
freedom of opinion is guaranteed to all sects and creeds.

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