I have not allowed myself sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might
lie hidden in the dark recesses behind. I have not coolly weighted the
chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds that unite us together shall
be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice
of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of
the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs
of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering,
not how the Union may be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the
condition of the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed.

While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread
out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate
the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise!
God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind! When my
eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I
not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once
glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land
rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let
their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of
the republic, now known and clamored throughout the earth, still full high
advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a
stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its
motto, no such miserable interrogatory as "What is all this worth?" nor
those other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty first and Union
afterwards," but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light,
blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the
land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment dear
to every true American heart,--Liberty AND Union, Now And For Ever, One
And Inseparable.
D. Webster.