sion upon me, for my confidence was
unbounded that emancipation was inevitable and I was willing to wait
for an improved public opinion.

I quote a portion of my remarks at Cambridge, which gave rise to
criticism in some quarters, and provoked hostility among those whose
sympathies were with the South:

"The settlers at Jamestown and Plymouth did not merely found towns or
counties or colonies, or States even; they also founded a great nation,
and upon the idea of its unity.

"Their colonial charters extended from sea to sea. Their origin, their
language, their laws, their civilization, their ideas, and now their
history, constitute us one nation. In the geological structure of this
continent, Nature seems to have prepared it for the occupation of a
single people. I cannot doubt, then, that continental unity is the
great, the supreme law of our public life.

"A division such as is sought and demanded by those who carry on this
war would do violence to our traditions, to our history, to those ideas
that our people South and North have entertained for more than two
centuries, and to the laws of Nature herself. An agreement such as is
desired by the discontented would only intensify our alienations,
embitter the strife, and protract the war upon subordinate and
insignificant issues. Separation does not settle one difficulty at
present existing in the country; while it furnishes occasion, and
necessity even, for other controversies and wars, as long as the line
of division remains.

"Nor can we doubt, that when, by division, you abandon the Union,
acknowledge the Constitution to be a failure, the contest would be
carried on regardless of State sovereignty, and finally end in the
subjugation of all to one idea, and one system in government. Whatever
may stand or fall, whatever may survive or perish, the region between
the Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains, between the great lakes and the
Gulf of Mexico, is destined to be and to continue under one form of
government. . . ."

I advanced a step further in December, as will be seen from the
extracts from my speech on Emancipation:

"I say, then, it is a necessity that this war be closed speedily. By
blockade it cannot be; by battle it may be; but we risk the result upon
the uncertainty whether the great general of this continent is with
them or with us. I come, then, to emancipation. Not first,--although
I shall not hesitate to say, before I close, that as a matt