loud its reputation
for stability--but its tranquillity will be restored, its prosperity
will return, and the stain upon its national character will be
transferred and remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who caused
the disorder.

Fellow-citizens of the United States! The threat of unhallowed
disunion--the names of those, once respected, by whom it is uttered--the
array of military force to support it--denote the approach of a crisis
in our affairs on which the continuance of our unexampled prosperity,
our political existence, and perhaps that of all free governments, may
depend. The conjecture demanded a free, a full, and explicit
enunciation, not only of my intentions, but of my principles of action;
and as the claim was asserted of a right by a State to annul the laws of
the Union, and even to secede from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of
my opinions in relation to the origin and form of our government, and
the construction I give to the instrument by which it was created,
seemed to be proper. Having the fullest confidence in the justness of
the legal and constitutional opinion of my duties which has been
expressed, I rely with equal confidence on your undivided support in my
determination to execute the laws--to preserve the Union by all
constitutional means--to arrest, if possible, by moderate but firm
measures, the necessity of a recourse to force; and, if it be the will
of Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the
shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not
called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States.

Fellow-citizens! The momentous case is before you. On your undivided
support of your government depends the decision of the great question it
involves, whether your sacred Union will be preserved, and the blessing
it secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt
that the unanimity with which that decision will be expressed, will be
such as to inspire new confidence in republican institutions, and that
the prudence, the wisdom, and the courage which it will bring to their
defense, will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children.

May the Great Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with
which He has favored ours may not, by the madness of party, or personal
ambition, be disregarded and lost, and may His wise providence bring
those who have produced this crisis to see the folly, before t