way and points out to struggling nations their course, let but a single star be lost, and, if these be not utter darkness, the luster of the whole is dimmed.  Do my countrymen need any assurance that such a catastrophe is not to overtake them while I possess the power to stay it?  It is with me an earnest and vital belief that as the Union has been the source, under Providence, of our prosperity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of a continuance of the blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly bound to transmit undiminished to our children.  The field of calm and free discussion in our country is open, and will always be so, but never has been and never can be traversed for good in a spirit of sectionalism and uncharitableness.  The founders of the Republic dealt with things as they were presented to them, in a spirit of self-sacrificing patriotism, and, as time has proved, with a comprehensive wisdom which it will always be safe for us to consult.  Every measure tending to strengthen the fraternal feelings of all the members of our Union has had my heartfelt approbation.  To every theory of society or government, whether the offspring of feverish ambition or of morbid enthusiasm, calculated to dissolve the bonds of law and affection which unite us, I shall interpose a ready and stern resistance.  I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in different States of this Confederacy, is recognized by the Constitution.  I believe that it stands like any other admitted right, and that the States where it exists are entitled to efficient remedies to enforce the constitutional provisions.  I hold that the laws of 1850, commonly called the “compromise measures,” are strictly constitutional and to be unhesitatingly carried into effect.  I believe that the constituted authorities of this Republic are bound to regard the rights of the South in this respect as they would view any other legal and constitutional right, and that the laws to enforce them should be respected and obeyed, not with a reluctance encouraged by abstract opinions as to their propriety in a different state of society, but cheerfully and according to the decisions of the tribunal to which their exposition belongs.  Such have been, and are, my convictions, and upon them I shall act.  I fervently hope that the question is at rest, and that no sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions or obscure the light of our prosperity.

But let not the foundation of our hope rest upon man’s wisdom.  It will not be sufficient that sectional prejudices find no place in the public deliberations.  It will not be sufficient that the rash counsels of human passion are rejected.  It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation’s humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence.