, as they insist it exists in ours. If they have discarded it,
they thereby admit that, on principle, it ought not to be in ours. If
they have retained it, by their own construction of ours, they show that
to be consistent they must secede from one another whenever they shall
find it the easiest way of settling their debts, or effecting any other
or selfish or unjust object. The principle itself is one of
disintegration, and upon which no government can stand.

If all the States save one should assert the power to drive that one out
of the Union, it is presumed the whole class of seceder politicians
would at once deny the power, and denounce the act as the greatest
outrage upon State rights. But suppose that precisely the same act,
instead of being called "driving the one out," should be called "the
seceding of the others from that one," it would be exactly what the
seceders claim to do; unless, indeed, they make the point that the one,
because it is a minority, may rightfully do what the others, because
they are a majority, may not rightfully do....

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, and 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 that this is
not true also in the army of our late friends, now adversaries in this
contest; but if it is, so much the better 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 adversari