isunion. There is much reason to believe that the Union men are
the majority in many, if not in every other one, of the so-called seceded
States. The contrary has not been demonstrated in any one of them. It is
ventured to affirm this even of Virginia and Tennessee; for the result of
an election held in military camps, where the bayonets are all on one side
of the question voted upon, can scarcely be considered as demonstrating
popular sentiment. At such an election, all that large class who are at
once for the Union and against coercion would be coerced to vote against
the Union.

It may be affirmed without extravagance that the free institutions we
enjoy have developed the powers and improved the condition of our whole
people beyond any example in the world. Of this we now have a striking and
an impressive illustration. So large an army as the government has now on
foot was never before known without a soldier in it but who has taken his
place there of his own free choice. But more than this, there are many
single regiments whose members, one and another, possess full practical
knowledge of all the arts, sciences, professions, and whatever else,
whether useful or elegant, is known in the world; and there is scarcely
one from which there could not be selected a President, a Cabinet, a
Congress, and perhaps a court, abundantly competent to administer the
government itself. Nor do I say this is not true also in the army of
our late friends, now adversaries in this contest; but if it is, so much
better the reason why the government which has conferred such benefits on
both them and us should not be broken up. Whoever in any section proposes
to abandon such a government would do well to consider in deference to
what principle it is that he does it; what better he is likely to get in
its stead; whether the substitute will give, or be intended to give, so
much of good to the people. There are some foreshadowings on this subject.
Our adversaries have adopted some declarations of independence in which,
unlike the good old one, penned by Jefferson, they omit the words "all
men are created equal." Why? They have adopted a temporary national
constitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good old one, signed by
Washington, they omit "We, the People," and substitute, "We, the deputies
of the sovereign and independent States." Why? Why this deliberate
pressing out of view the rights of men and the authority of the people?

This