ncisco. But separate our
common country into two nations, as designed by the present rebellion,
and every man of this great interior region is thereby cut off from
some one or more of these outlets--not, perhaps, by a physical barrier,
but by embarrassing and onerous trade regulations.

And this is true wherever a dividing or boundary line may be fixed.
Place it between the now free and slave country, or place it south of
Kentucky or north of Ohio, and still the truth remains that none south
of it can trade to any port or place north of it, and none north of it
can trade to any port or place south of it except upon terms dictated
by a government foreign to them. These outlets, east, west, and south,
are indispensable to the well-being of the people inhabiting, and to
inhabit, this vast interior region. Which of the three may be the
best, is no proper question. All are better than either; and all of
right belong to that people and to their successors forever. True to
themselves, they will not ask where a line of separation shall be, but
will vow rather that there shall be no such line. Nor are the marginal
regions less interested in these communications to and through them to
the great outside world. They, too, and each of them, must have access
to this Egypt of the West without paying toll at the crossing of any
national boundary.

Our national strife springs not from our permanent part, not from the
land we inhabit, not from our national homestead. There is no possible
severing of this but would multiply, and not mitigate, evils among us.
In all its adaptations and aptitudes it demands union and abhors
separation. In fact, it would ere long force reunion, however much of
blood and treasure the separation might have cost.

Our strife pertains to ourselves--to the passing generations of men;
and it can without convulsion be hushed forever with the passing of one
generation. . . .

I do not forget the gravity which should characterize a paper addressed
to the Congress of the nation by the Chief Magistrate of the nation.
Nor do I forget that some of you are my seniors, nor that many of you
have more experience than I in the conduct of public affairs. Yet I
trust that in view of the great responsibility resting upon me, you
will perceive no want of respect to yourselves in any undue earnestness
I may seem to display.

Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten
the war, and thus l