| 159 in boasting, and bidding defiance to the mob; but he may be measurebly [measurably] excused when we consider how much persecution
of liberty and educated in the school of freedom, all our prejudices and prepossessions are deeply rooted in favor of this superlative excellence of government from which all our privileges and enjoyments have flown. We are wedded to it by the greatest ties,-bound to it by cords as strong as death,-to preserve which should be our thought and our aim, in all our pursuits, to maintain its constitution inviolable, its institutions uncorrupted, its laws unviolated, and its order unchanged.
There is one thing, in the midst of our political differences, which ought to create feelings of joy and gratitude in every heart, and in the bosom of every well-wisher of mankind, that all parties in politics express the strongest desire to preserve both the Union and the Constitution unimpaired and unbroken, and only differ about the means to accomplish this object-so desirable, as expressed by all parties. And while this, indeed, is the object of parties in this republic, there is nothing to fear: the prospects for the future will be as flattering as the past, in celebrating this the anniversary of our independence: all party distinctions should be forgotten-all religious differences should be laid aside. We are members of our common republic, equally dependent on a faithful execution of its laws for our protection in the enjoyment of our civil, political, and religious privileges; all have a common interest in the preservation of the Union, and in the defense and support of the Constitution. Northern, southern, and western interests ought to be forgotten, or lost, for the time being, in the more noble desire to preserve the Union;-we cannot, by rending it to pieces. In the former there is hope; in the latter, there is fear;-in one, peace; in the other, war. In times of peace it ought to be our aim and our object to strengthen the bonds of the Union, by cultivating peace and good will among ourselves; and in times of war, to meet our foes sword in hand, and defend our rights at the expense of life. For what is life when freedom has fled? It is a name-a bubble: "better far sleep with the dead, than be oppressed among the living." All attempts on the part of religious aspirants to unite church and state ought to be repelled with indignation, and every religious society supported in its rights, and in the exercise of its conscientious devotions-the Mohammedan, the pagan, and the idolater not excepted-and be partakers equally in the benefits of the government; for if the Union is preserved, it will be endearing the people to it; and this can only be done by securing to all their most sacred rights. The least deviation from the strictest rule of right, on the part of any portion of the people, or their public servants, will create dissatisfaction; that dissatisfaction will end in strife,-strife, in war,-war, in the dissolution of the Union. It is on the virtue of the people that depends the existence of the government, and not in the wisdom of legislators. Wherefore serveth laws (it matters not how righteous in themselves) when the people, in violation of them, tear those rights from one another, which they (the laws) were designed to protect? If we preserve the nation from ruin and the people from war it will be by securing to others what we claim ourselves, and being as zealous to defend another's rights as to secure our own. If, on this day, our fathers pledged their fortunes, their lives, and their sacred honors to one another, and to the claims which they represented, to be free, or to lose all earthly inheritance (not life and honor excepted), so ought we to follow their example, and pledge our fortunes, our lives, and our sacred honors, as their children and their successors, in maintaining inviolable what they obtained by their treasure and their blood. With
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