that there is not a county, or a city, or a hamlet in the State of New York, that is ready to go out of the Union, but only some small bodies of fanatics.  There is no man so insane in the State, not fit for a lunatic asylum, as to wish it.  But that is not the point.  We all know that every man and every neighborhood, and all corporations, in the State of New York, except those I have mentioned, are attached to the Union, and have no idea of withdrawing from it.  But that is not, I repeat, the point.  The question, fellow-citizens, (and I put it to you now as the real question,) the question is, Whether you and the rest of the people of the great State of New York, and of all the States, will so adhere to the Constitution, will so enact and maintain laws to preserve that instrument, that you will not only remain in the Union yourselves, but permit your brethren to remain in it, and help to perpetuate it?  That is the question.  Will you concur in measures necessary to maintain the Union, or will you oppose such measures?  That is the whole point of the case.

There are thirty or forty members of Congress from New York; you have your proportion in the United States Senate.  We have many members of Congress from New England.  Will they maintain the laws that are passed for the administration of the Constitution, and respect the rights of the South, so that the Union may be held together; and not only so that we may not go out of it ourselves, which we are not inclined to do, but so that, by maintaining the rights of others, they may also remain in the Union?  Now, Gentlemen, permit me to say, that I speak of no concessions.  If the South wish any concession from me, they will not get it; not a hair’s breadth of it.  If they come to my house for it, they will not find it, and the door will be shut; I concede nothing.  But I say that I will maintain for them, as I will maintain for you, to the utmost of my power, and in the face of all danger, their rights under the Constitution, and your rights under the Constitution.  And I shall never be found to falter in one or the other.  It is obvious to every one, and we all know it, that the origin of the great disturbance which agitates the country is the existence of slavery in some of the States; but we must meet the subject; we must consider it; we must deal with it earnestly, honestly, and justly.  From the mouth of the St. John’s to the confines of Florida, there existed, in 1775, thirteen colonies of English origin, planted at different times, and coming from different parts of England, bringing with them various habits, and establishing, each for itself, institutions entirely different from the institutions which they left, and in many cases from each other.  But they were all of English origin.  The English language was theirs, Shakepeare and Milton were theirs, the common law of England was theirs, and the Christian religion was theirs; and these things held them together by the force of a common character.  The aggressions of the parent state compelled them to assert their independence.  They declared independence, and that immortal act, pronounced on the 4th of July, 1776, made them independent.