Federal Union - it must be preserved." To preserve it the compromises
which alone enabled our fathers to form a common constitution for the
government and protection of so many States and distinct communities,
of such diversified habits, interests, and domestic institutions, must
be sacredly and religiously observed. Any attempt to disturb or destroy
these compromises, being terms of the compact of union, can lead to
none other than the most ruinous and disastrous consequences.

It is a source of deep regret that in some sections of our country
misguided persons have occasionally indulged in schemes and agitations
whose object is the destruction of domestic institutions existing in
other sections - institutions which existed at the adoption of the
Constitution and were recognized and protected by it. All must see that
if it were possible for them to be successful in attaining their object
the dissolution of the Union and the consequent destruction of our
happy form of government must speedily follow.

I am happy to believe that at every period of our existence as a nation
there has existed, and continues to exist, among the great mass of our
people a devotion to the Union of the States which will shield and
protect it against the moral treason of any who would seriously
contemplate its destruction. To secure a continuance of that devotion
the compromises of the Constitution must not only be preserved, but
sectional jealousies and heartburnings must be discountenanced, and all
should remember that they are members of the same political family,
having a common destiny. To increase the attachment of our people to
the Union, our laws should be just. Any policy which shall tend to
favor monopolies or the peculiar interests of sections or classes must
operate to the prejudice of the interest of their fellow-citizens, and
should be avoided. If the compromises of the Constitution be preserved,