Constitution and the Union Persuasive Speech
Mr. President, I wish to speak today, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a northern man, but as an
American, and a member of the Senate of the United States.
It is not to be denied that we live in the midst of strong agitations, and are surrounded by very
considerable dangers to our institutions and government. The imprisoned winds are let loose. The
East, the West, the North, and the stormy South, all combine to throw the whole sea into
commotion, to toss its billows to the skies, and to disclose its profoundest depths.
I have a duty to perform, and I mean to perform it with fidelity—not without a sense of surrounding
dangers, but not without hope. I have a part to act, not for my own security or safety, but for the
good of the whole, and the preservation of the whole.
I speak today for the preservation of the Union. “Hear me for my cause.” I speak today, out of a
solicitous and anxious heart, for the restoration to the country of that quiet and that harmony which
make the blessings of this Union so rich and so dear to us all.
Sir, I wish to speak today, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an
American.
We have been told that the Union can be dissolved peaceably. I hold the idea of a separation of
these States, those that are free to form one government, and those that are slaveholding to form
another, as an impossibility.
There are natural causes that would keep and tie us together, and there are social and domestic
relations which we could not break if we would, and which we should not if we could.
Instead of speaking of the possibility or utility of secession, instead of dwelling in those caverns of
darkness, instead of groping with those ideas so full of all that is horrid and horrible, let us come out
into the light of day; let us enjoy the fresh air of Liberty and Union.
Let us cherish those hopes which belong to us; let us devote ourselves to those great objects that
are fit for our consideration and our action; let our comprehension be as broad as the country for
which we act, our aspirations as high as its certain destiny; let us not be pygmies in a case that calls
for men.
