But, Gentlemen, I must not allow myself to pursue this topic.  It is a sentiment so commonly repeated by me upon all public occasions, and upon all private occasions, and everywhere, that I forbear to dwell upon it now.  It is the union of these States, it is the system of government under which we live, beneath the Constitution of the United States, happily framed, wisely adopted, successfully administered for fifty years,—­it is mainly this, I say, that gives us power at home and credit abroad.  And, for one, I never stop to consider the power or wealth or greatness of a State.  I tell you, Mr. Chairman, I care nothing for your Empire State as such.  Delaware and Rhode Island are as high in my regard as New York.  In population, in power, in the government over us, you have a greater share.  You would have the same share if you were divided into forty States.  It is not, therefore, as a State sovereignty, it is only because New York is a vast portion of the whole American people, that I regard this State, as I always shall regard her, as respectable and honorable.  But among State sovereignties there is no preference; there is nothing high and nothing low; every State is independent and every State is equal.  If we depart from this great principle, then are we no longer one people; but we are thrown back again upon the Confederation, and upon that state of things in which the inequality of the States produced all the evils which befell us in times past, and a thousand ill-adjusted and jarring interests.

Mr. President, I wish, then, without pursuing these thoughts, without especially attempting to produce any fervid impression by dwelling upon them, to take this occasion to answer my friend who has proposed the sentiment, and to respond to it by saying, that whoever would serve his country in this our day, with whatever degree of talent, great or small, it may have pleased the Almighty Power to give him, he cannot serve it, he will not serve it, unless he be able, at least, to extend his political designs, purposes, and objects, till they shall comprehend the whole country of which he is a servant.

Sir, I must say a word in connection with that event which we have assembled to commemorate.  It has seemed fit to the dwellers in New York, New-Englanders by birth or descent, to form this society.  They have formed it for the relief of the poor and distressed, and for the purpose of commemorating annually the great event of the settlement of the country from which they spring.  It would be great presumption in me to go back to the scene of that settlement, or to attempt to exhibit it in any colors, after the exhibition made to-day; yet it is an event that in all time since, and in all time to come, and more in times to come than in times past, must stand out in great and striking characteristics to the admiration of the world.  The sun’s return to his winter solstice, in 1620, is the epoch from which he dates his first acquaintance with the small people, now