any question should endanger the institutions of the States or
interfere with their right to manage matters strictly domestic
according to the will of their own people.

In expressing briefly my views upon an important subject rich has
recently agitated the nation to almost a fearful degree, I am moved by
no other impulse than a most earnest desire for the perpetuation of
that Union which has made us what we are, showering upon us blessings
and conferring a power and influence which our fathers could hardly
have anticipated, even with their most sanguine hopes directed to a
far-off future. The sentiments I now announce were not unknown before
the expression of the voice which called me here. My own position upon
this subject was clear and unequivocal, upon the record of my words and
my acts, and it is only recurred to at this time because silence might
perhaps be misconstrued. With the Union my best and dearest earthly
hopes are entwined. Without it what are we individually or
collectively? What becomes of the noblest field ever opened for the
advancement of our race in religion, in government, in the arts, and in
all that dignifies and adorns mankind? From that radiant constellation
which both illumines our own way and points out to struggling nations
their course, let but a single star be lost, and, if these be not utter
darkness, the luster of the whole is dimmed. Do my countrymen need any
assurance that such a catastrophe is not to overtake them while I
possess the power to stay it? It is with me an earnest and vital belief
that as the Union has been the source, under Providence, of our
prosperity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of a continuance of
the blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly bound to
transmit undiminished to our children. The field of calm and free
discussion in our country is open, and will always be so, but never has
been and never can be traversed for good in a spirit of sectionalism