And now, fellow-citizens, if this vision were a reality; if Washington actually were now amongst us, and if he could draw around him the shades of the great public men of his own day, patriots and warriors, orators and statesmen, and were to address us in their presence, would he not say to us:  “Ye men of this generation, I rejoice and thank God for being able to see that our labors and toils and sacrifices were not in vain.  You are prosperous, you are happy, you are grateful; the fire of liberty burns brightly and steadily in your hearts, while DUTY and the LAW restrain it from bursting forth in wild and destructive conflagration.  Cherish liberty, as you love it; cherish its securities, as you wish to preserve it.  Maintain the Constitution which we labored so painfully to establish, and which has been to you such a source of inestimable blessings.  Preserve the union of the States, cemented as it was by our prayers, our tears, and our blood.  Be true to God, to your country, and to your duty.  So shall the whole Eastern world follow the morning sun to contemplate you as a nation; so shall all generations honor you, as they honor us; and so shall that Almighty Power which so graciously protected us, and which now protects you, shower its everlasting blessings upon you and your posterity.”

Great Father of your Country! we heed your words; we feel their force as if you now uttered them with lips of flesh and blood.  Your example teaches us, your affectionate addresses teach us, your public life teaches us, your sense of the value of the blessings of the Union.  Those blessings our fathers have tasted, and we have tasted, and still taste.  Nor do we intend that those who come after us shall be denied the same high fruition.  Our honor as well as our happiness is concerned.  We cannot, we dare not, we will not, betray our sacred trust.  We will not filch from posterity the treasure placed in our hands to be transmitted to other generations.  The bow that gilds the clouds in the heavens, the pillars that uphold the firmament, may disappear and fall away in the hour appointed by the will of God; but until that day comes, or so long as our lives may last, no ruthless hand shall undermine that bright arch of Union and Liberty which spans the continent from Washington to California.

Fellow-citizens, we must sometimes be tolerant to folly, and patient at the sight of the extreme waywardness of men; but I confess that, when I reflect on the renown of our past history, on our present prosperity and greatness, and on what the future hath yet to unfold, and when I see that there are men who can find in all this nothing good, nothing valuable, nothing truly glorious, I feel that all their reason has fled away from them, and left the entire control over their judgment and their actions to insanity and fanaticism; and more than all, fellow-citizens, if the purposes of fanatics and disunionists should be accomplished, the patriotic and intelligent of our generation would seek to hide themselves from the scorn of the world, and go about to find dishonorable graves.