meant. Firsts they were the noisy agitators who were constantly
disturbing the public peace and proclaiming that slavery is so great
an evil, that the preservation of the Union is subordinate to the
purpose of abolishing it. They who object to any protection, on the
high seas or elsewhere, being given to slave property by the
government of the United States; who would rejoice in any insult
offered to the national flag if borne by a vessel sailing from a
Southern port; and who have been for some time back circulating
petitions for a dissolution of the Union on the ground of the
incompatibility of the sections. And to these may be added the few,
the very few of Southern men who fancying that they would have
advantages out of the Union which they cannot possess within it,
however fully the compact should be observed and State Equality
maintained, desire its dissolution, and taking counsel of their
passions, decry the labors of all who seek to preserve the government
as our fathers formed it, and to develop the great purposes for which
it was ordained and established.

The other phrase which has been the subject of comment was, "and this
great country will remain united." How "united" is set forth in the
language to which this clause was a conclusion, "united to protect our
national flag whenever a foreign power, presuming on our domestic
dissention, should dare to insult it." The unanimity with which men of
all parties in the two houses of Congress rallied to support the
executive in maintaining the rights of our flag, had been the subject
of my commendation. Upon that fact the idea expressed rested. At worst
it could but have evinced too much credulity, and I trust I may die
believing that whenever the honor of our flag shall demand it, every
mountain and valley and plain, will pour forth their hardy sons, and
that shoulder to shoulder they will march against any foreign foe