You take me by surprise, absolutely. I am here to-night in the
performance of an agreeable service outside of politics, and have not
anticipated any such contingency as this with which you honor me, nor
any such welcome.
I thank you, Gentlemen, for the kind and good words which have fallen
from your Captain. They are a reward for the little I have been able to
do in the past, and will be an encouragement in the future.
I join with you in gladness at the victory we celebrate to-day,--not
of the cartridge-box, but of the ballot-box. No victories of the
cartridge-box have involved higher principles or more important results
than that just won by the ballot-box. A poet, whose home is in Concord,
has said that the shot fired here was heard round the world. I doubt
not that our victory just achieved will awaken reverberations also to
be heard round the world. All men struggling for rights, vindicating
liberal ideas, seeking human improvement, maintaining republican
government, will be encouraged, when they hear of yesterday. It will be
good news to Garibaldi in Italy, good news to the French now subjected
to imperial power, good news to English Reformers,--and so also will
it be good news to all among us who love Liberty, for it proclaims
that at last Liberty has prevailed. Every four years we choose a new
President; but it rarely happens that we choose a new government, as
was done yesterday. A new order of things is inaugurated, with new
auspices, lifting the Republic once more to that platform of principles
on which it was originally placed by the Fathers. What victory of the
cartridge-box ever did so much?
Looking at the vote in its practical significance, several things may
be considered as established and proclaimed by the American people, so
that hereafter they shall not be drawn in question.
Of these I place foremost the irrevocable decree, according to the very
words of Madison, that it is “wrong to admit in the Constitution the
idea that there can be property in men,”[38]--that, therefore, Slavery,
if it exists anywhere, is sectional, and must derive such life as it
has from local law, and not from the Constitution,--in opposition
to the pretension so often put forward in its name, that Slavery is
national and Freedom sectional.
Then again the American people have declared, that all outlying
Territories, so immense in extent, and destined to the support of
unknown millions, shall be consecrated to Freedom, so that the vast
outstretched soil shall never know the footprint of a slave: all of
which is the natural conclusion and corollary from the first decree.
And yet again it is declared, that in the administration of the
National Government the original policy of the Fathers shall be
adopted, in opposition to the policy of Slavery, which for the last
twelve years has been so tyrannical, and for the last forty years has
made its barbaric impress on the country.
And still further, the decree goes forth that the Slave-Trade shall be
suppressed in reality as in name, that the statutes against it shall be
vigorously enforced, and the power of the Government directed in good
faith against it, all efforts to the contrary notwithstanding.
These things were yesterday proclaimed by the American people solemnly,
and in a way from which there is no appeal. It was done by a vote
destined to be ever memorable and a landmark of history.
Having obtained this great victory, let us study to use it with
moderation, with prudence, with wisdom. Through no failure on our part
must its proper fruits be lost. Happily, Abraham Lincoln [_prolonged
cheers_] has those elements of character needed to carry us through
the crisis. He is calm, prudent, wise, and also brave. And permit me
to say, that there are moments in government when bravery is not less
important than prudence. He will not see our cause sacrificed through
menaces of disunion from the South, even if echoed in Massachusetts;
and in this firmness he will be sustained by the American people,
insisting upon all that is promised and secured by the Constitution,
and to all menaces, from whatever quarter, answering back, that the
Union shall be preserved and made more precious by consecration to
Human Rights. [_Three cheers for the Union._]