Are we not then called upon by the highest duties to our country, to its
free institutions, to posterity, and to the world, to rise above all
local prejudices and personal partialities, to discard all collateral
questions, to disregard every subordinate point, and in a genuine spirit
of compromise and concession, uniting heart and hand to preserve for
ourselves the blessings of a free government, wisely, honestly, and
faithfully administered, and as we received them from our fathers, to
transmit them to our children? Should we not justly subject ourselves to
eternal reproach, if we permitted our differences about mere men to
bring defeat and disaster upon our cause? Our principles are
imperishable, but men have but a fleeting existence, and are themselves
liable to change and corruption during its brief continuance.